LEONARD WOOD 559 ed abdomens that bespoke starvation crawled about the horses ' feet begging for crusts, and many died as they begged. The death rate was over two hundred a day. Some houses were found with as many as ten decaying corpses — a result of the epidemic. Garbage and offal clogged the streets. Dur- ing the four centuries of Santiago's existence no systematic cleaning had ever been done, and the accumulation of ages was slowly choking out its life. The most urgent need, as General Wood saw it, was for the relief of starvation; the next, cleaning up the city; and the next, giving it a government. These duties required a man of exceptional resources — an expert in sanitation, a phys- ician, a soldier, and a law-giver. By incidental education General Wood was the first; by practice, training, and nat- ural inclination he was doctor, soldier, and governor. Food was extremely scarce. What could be obtained was carefully portioned out to a network of relief stations. With- in forty-eight hours the backbone of the famine had been broken. Then a plan for the supply of food under ironclad rules was published. Meat was selling for ninety cents a pound. Even at that price there was very little to be had. The war had cut off for a time the regular sources of supply, and all the meat that could be had passed through the hands of butchers who wished to recuperate their shattered fortunes. Equally pro- digious prices kept bread and vegetables beyond the reach of the people. Summoning a conclave of butchers, bakers, and vegetable venders. Wood learned the original cost of the food- stuffs, set a much lower figure, and commanded the city alder- men to see that no more was charged at the risk of their own positions. In a jiffy prices for edibles were back in the old notch, and the regular channels of import gradually began to open and bring affairs back to normal. In the work of sanitation General Wood received no help or sympathy from the native Cubans or Spaniards. With American mules and American men he set to work to remove all dead bodies, soak them with kerosene, and bum them on the outskirts of the city. As many as eighty-seven corpses
