The American Plague - Molly Caldwell Crosby [67]
Off of the lab was a room for Reed’s lab assistant John Neate, which contained shelves with rows of test tubes, jars of black vomit and an incubator. And across from it, another small room held two caged monkeys, supplies and guinea pigs.
On a wooden table in the center of the board’s lab, Lazear kept his own pet mosquitoes in jars with sweetened water and bits of banana. He collected his “birds” from different areas: Havana, Pinar del Rio, the Post Hospital. But all had fed from the blood of yellow fever patients. And, for each mosquito, Lazear scribbled an entry into his red notebook, his handwriting becoming quicker, sloppier and abbreviated as he went.
It also took a little time for Reed to adjust to life in Cuba. Within days of arriving, he was already sunburned, and his northeastern clothes were too warm. Reed traveled into Havana to buy two linen crash suits and a cork helmet. It was hot, but not as hot as a Washington summer, he wrote to Emilie. That first week, Reed awoke at 5:30 or 6:00 every morning, sitting at the desk in his pajamas to write a letter to his wife. He always addressed the envelope the night before so he could drop the letter in the mail as soon as he heard the mail wagon. After a shower-bath and breakfast, Reed headed into the lab to work. It wasn’t long before he started sleeping later in the mornings and writing later in the day or napping after lunch. Camp Columbia was also growing quieter; nearly half of the garrison had been shipped out to China.
Things were so slow at the camp that Reed began to talk of returning to the U.S. in a few weeks to finish his typhoid report. His presence was not really needed in Cuba at the moment as badly as it was in Washington, where the typhoid report was in its final stages.
Reed was also a little homesick, writing every day about the gardens at his summer home Keewaydin in Pennsylvania, where the strawberries, blackberries and grapes were on the vine. The rhododendrons were in bloom. He missed his favorite foods and mint juleps, instructing Emilie not to let the patch of mint die during the summer heat because he would be very thirsty upon his return. But, Reed had also grown to love Cuba. Red hibiscus bloomed wildly throughout the countryside there, and the umbrella-shaped royal poinciana trees, he wrote, appeared as a “flaming mass of scarlet.”
It was the wet season, and rain fell every afternoon, sometimes twice a day, dimming the light in the lab. Steam rose from the railroad tracks in Camp Columbia as the first drops hit the hot metal. And as the storms passed, heading out to sea, lightning would play across the surface of the water, igniting the ceiling of blue-gray cloud cover.
When it wasn’t raining, the soldiers at the camp played baseball or went horseback riding. The men worked together all day, only breaking to go to the mess hall. Most men at the camp, twenty years younger than Reed, ate hearty amounts of the meat shipped from the U.S. and local fruits and vegetables. Reed, on the other hand, was more careful with his diet, often joking, “Boys, have mercy on your poor kidneys, they can’t be replaced.” Reed had adopted the latest trend in Victorian America: healthy eating habits. Large, meat-heavy breakfasts that could include steak, bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, porridge and doughnuts were evolving into lighter, healthier meals. Fruits and vegetables replaced primarily potato side dishes. Fresh fish, especially red snapper, were plentiful in Cuba, prepared by the camp’s Chinese cook. But Reed was also careful of his diet because he seemed to suffer from stomach ailments—though no one paid much attention to it at the time.
For the most part, the men at Camp Columbia enjoyed Reed’s company and he theirs. Practical jokes were common, as were games and sports. The overwhelming opinion of Reed was that he behaved exactly as a major should behave: He was approachable, had a good sense of humor and a genuine concern for the men, but felt a duty to maintain the respect afforded the position. But, as an officer, Reed also