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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30230 ***
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+[Illustration: CLARA BARTON
+
+From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager]
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK
+
+BY
+
+CLARA BARTON
+
+FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+MCMIV
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+_Published, June, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner--the distributer and
+organizer--of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.
+
+Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered--not as charity--but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.
+
+The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.
+
+It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.
+
+To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.
+
+CLARA BARTON.
+
+GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND,
+_May 15, 1904._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+                                                            PAGE
+EARLY HISTORY. 1880-1884                                       1
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MOUNT VERNON CYCLONE. 1885-1888      30
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA. 1887                                 38
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 1889                                     54
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. 1891                                      70
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF. 1893                                   77
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF. 1896                                         94
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA. 1898                                                   115
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON. 1900                                              164
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+1880-1884
+
+     "I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+     nothing that I have not lived."
+
+
+It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."
+
+There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:
+
+"Not that--not that, tell me something it _does_--it and you, I can
+understand it better then."
+
+A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must
+have.
+
+In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.
+
+For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.
+
+I will commence even back of itself.
+
+Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."
+
+To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
+I went.
+
+Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.
+
+This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.
+
+The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never
+written.
+
+Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.
+
+All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the _Evening Star_, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.
+
+No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.
+
+Thus the spring of 1882 found us--a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the
+Government.
+
+Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was
+commenced.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.
+
+The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.
+
+A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester--who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president--of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the four States--Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi--and planted for the crops of the coming season.
+
+Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds--something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester--always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.
+
+A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.
+
+This was the commencement of 1883. In May, at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston--remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler
+as Governor.
+
+In the short and interrupted existence of our association--scarce two
+years--our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:
+
+_First._ To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.
+
+_Second._ Not to pay salaries to officers--paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor--and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.
+
+_Third._ To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster--this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.
+
+_Fourth._ To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.
+
+_Fifth._ That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field--make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted
+community.
+
+To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.
+
+Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.
+
+It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.
+
+I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.
+
+I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the
+rise.
+
+Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed--but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress--even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.
+
+Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current--catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore--with every coal-pit
+filled with water, and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.
+
+There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way--the Government
+boats had come with rations of food--we too must take to the water.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal--our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck--and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American
+waters.
+
+I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side--from village to
+village--where the homeless, shivering people were gathered--called for
+the most responsible person--a clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.
+
+Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.
+
+The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.
+
+We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.
+
+We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.
+
+Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.
+
+I am thus particular to mention this from the loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.
+
+From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been--and was not.
+
+Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.
+
+Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house--floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their
+eyes.
+
+At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:
+
+"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."
+
+When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
+used it.
+
+We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:
+
+
+WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.
+
+DEAR MISS BARTON:
+
+We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."
+
+
+JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
+FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
+MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
+REED WHITE, eleven years old.
+BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
+LOYD BARTON, seven years old.
+
+
+These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little
+Six."
+
+The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.
+
+As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board--a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow--Mrs. Plew--whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand--"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.
+
+They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a _clean_ hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.
+
+"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.
+
+"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."
+
+There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.
+
+Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.
+
+"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.
+
+No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."
+
+We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.
+
+Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.
+
+"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"
+
+We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help--all were well.
+
+Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and
+Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.
+
+On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his
+reply:
+
+"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."
+
+"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."
+
+"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"
+
+"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.
+
+"Has any one complained?" he asked.
+
+"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."
+
+"Then to whom would you report?"
+
+"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall
+designate."
+
+"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness--you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt--and shall appoint you."
+
+This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.
+
+The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE
+
+
+Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
+
+Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns--the
+second was a drought with no returns--the third the same. Hunger for
+themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back--the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos--the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the
+plains.
+
+These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the _press_,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.
+
+We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.
+
+In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters--traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."
+
+The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.
+
+I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.
+
+The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.
+
+In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."
+
+President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.
+
+Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.
+
+In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three
+delegates.
+
+It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.
+
+Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated--and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had
+happened.
+
+No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.
+
+It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?
+
+In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.
+
+In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.
+
+Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.
+
+At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:
+
+
+"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.
+
+"AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
+
+"Clara Barton, President."
+
+
+This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.
+
+As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA
+
+
+During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.
+
+An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay
+them.
+
+This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that
+work.
+
+The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"--a tall Norwegian--Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.
+
+Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.
+
+When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.
+
+During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.
+
+That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.
+
+"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"
+
+"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."
+
+"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"
+
+"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.
+
+One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.
+
+On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.
+
+But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved
+his people.
+
+Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band--Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward
+Holyland.
+
+I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+_Howard_ stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "_Old Guard_."
+
+Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."
+
+It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of
+prayer.
+
+Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"
+
+"Twenty-nine, madam."
+
+"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"
+
+"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."
+
+"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."
+
+"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."
+
+"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."
+
+Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.
+
+"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."
+
+By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."
+
+There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"
+
+"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow
+fever."
+
+We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical
+fraternity.
+
+"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.
+
+The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.
+
+The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.
+
+Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.
+
+To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."
+
+The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days--their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
+
+
+On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.
+
+Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.
+
+It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.
+
+For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.
+
+I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day--the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain--all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from
+neglect.
+
+Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.
+
+Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the
+streets.
+
+But I am not here to describe Johnstown--the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it--but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.
+
+From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point--the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields--and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.
+
+Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.
+
+We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.
+
+Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.
+
+A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.
+
+This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.
+
+The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.
+
+When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.
+
+To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.
+
+It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
+of food.
+
+This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.
+
+The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.
+
+On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.
+
+I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.
+
+The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead--"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following
+six months.
+
+This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.
+
+I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had
+left in May.
+
+In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies--new and old--for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.
+
+The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.
+
+Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.
+
+It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.
+
+The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels--still it will not satisfy all.
+
+In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:
+
+"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."
+
+Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+phoenix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE
+
+
+As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia--embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.
+
+Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.
+
+The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian _Chargé d'Affaires_ at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.
+
+Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.
+
+Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.
+
+But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.
+
+Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.
+
+That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.
+
+When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.
+
+The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:
+
+"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"
+
+A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:
+
+"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans--Christ
+is risen.
+
+"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest--Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."
+
+In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.
+
+The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:
+
+"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of
+art.
+
+"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this
+department."
+
+In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn--$12,500--besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.
+
+We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF
+
+
+This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.
+
+On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has
+this passage:
+
+"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months, and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."
+
+At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.
+
+The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.
+
+Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.
+
+We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.
+
+On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:
+
+"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."
+
+Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."
+
+One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.
+
+Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.
+
+The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.
+
+As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."
+
+A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.
+
+We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.
+
+Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small
+new State.
+
+If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.
+
+Dr. Egan's report has this passage:
+
+"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."
+
+The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.
+
+The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.
+
+In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified"
+homes.
+
+A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as
+impracticable.
+
+"No use, Mistah--no use--'cause de pig eat it all up."
+
+It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.
+
+To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.
+
+The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.
+
+The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.
+
+Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed--every "eye" of the potato making a sprout--these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.
+
+I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket--in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.
+
+If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.
+
+The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the
+storm.
+
+This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a
+shelter.
+
+A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."
+
+The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs--the gift of seventy-one families--being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.
+
+Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.
+
+Nothing better illustrates the native good heart of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into
+town.
+
+His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"--and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another--if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"--and it would
+help him so much.
+
+The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter" as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.
+
+If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before--often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"--this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.
+
+The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established--one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"--good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."
+
+Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.
+
+I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.
+
+The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.
+
+It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.
+
+A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.
+
+A half dozen years later, when our negro protégés of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.
+
+"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.
+
+Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black--such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.
+
+In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.
+
+They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:
+
+"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done
+for us."
+
+I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF
+
+1896
+
+
+Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year--at a day's notice--the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.
+
+Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.
+
+England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open
+the way.
+
+A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.
+
+Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.
+
+As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.
+
+These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds--one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds--we did not do it for ourselves.
+
+Second, there must be perfect unanimity between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
+
+Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.
+
+The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.
+
+A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.
+
+The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government--a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.
+
+Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious
+significance.
+
+The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."
+
+I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great. If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons--humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return--such as I give I shall expect to receive."
+
+Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."
+
+I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.
+
+I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.
+
+The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.
+
+While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics--typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox--that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.
+
+This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+_teskeres_, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.
+
+With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria. The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America--Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood--were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the--to them--unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.
+
+While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.
+
+During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.
+
+Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
+anxious people.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.
+
+The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
+
+The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all--that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.
+
+It was a new experience that these strangers _dared_ to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.
+
+When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and _débris_ of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.
+
+At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.
+
+They have told me since their return that the pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.
+
+Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal--ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep--had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.
+
+When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.
+
+As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.
+
+Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
+difference.
+
+At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
+destroyed.
+
+The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer--five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.
+
+It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.
+
+They knew we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.
+
+That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to _make_ us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.
+
+Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.
+
+Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor--physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.
+
+And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
+music.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA
+
+1898
+
+
+On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.
+
+These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.
+
+Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
+result.
+
+The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.
+
+The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.
+
+Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea--our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters--and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.
+
+Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.
+
+Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?
+
+At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?
+
+Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.
+
+We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.
+
+Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
+
+Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.
+
+Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.
+
+By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone--of all the Red Cross nations--had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_
+of the world, as well as the armies.
+
+Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."
+
+Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
+not what.
+
+The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.
+
+The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.
+
+On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.
+
+Three days later the following letter was received:
+
+
+"To MISS CLARA BARTON, President,
+
+"American National Red Cross:
+
+"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.
+
+"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding
+Hospital."
+
+
+To this the following reply was immediately returned:
+
+
+"Steamship State of Texas,
+
+"SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
+
+"DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.
+
+"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means--not legitimately
+fitted for the work--still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.
+
+"Cordially yours,
+
+"CLARA BARTON,
+
+"President, American National Red Cross."
+
+
+Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban
+hospitals.
+
+A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers'
+hospital.
+
+On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:
+
+
+"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for
+transportation.
+
+"SHAFTER."
+
+
+The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.
+
+I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.
+
+Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies--meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing--entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.
+
+An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps--General Shafter's headquarters.
+
+The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket
+under them.
+
+Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.
+
+A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made--the bits of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it--appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.
+
+After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.
+
+The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.
+
+It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.
+
+When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out--putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain--I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty
+years.
+
+The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled--bucket after bucket went
+out--until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,
+and wet--scarcely a groan, no word of complaint--no man said he was not
+well treated.
+
+The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold--for naked men bitter
+cold--before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.
+
+Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there--that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up--where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.
+
+They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.
+
+More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.
+
+The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us--magnificent in its dimensions--shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.
+
+Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.
+
+It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:
+
+"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"
+
+"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.
+
+"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."
+
+"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he
+said.
+
+"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."
+
+"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"
+
+The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice, tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army
+rations.
+
+"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."
+
+"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.
+
+Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.
+
+The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.
+
+At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:
+
+
+"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.
+
+"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.
+
+"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
+men.
+
+"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made--neither cots nor food--practically no hospital supplies.
+
+"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded--some 1,500 killed and wounded.
+
+"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.
+
+"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint--only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.
+
+"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible--to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.
+
+"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.
+
+"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.
+
+"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.
+
+"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.
+
+"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.
+
+"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.
+
+"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men. Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.
+
+"Their wounds were very similar--in the head--and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.
+
+"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.
+
+"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.
+
+"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
+vacant cot?'
+
+"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.
+
+"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.
+
+"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
+Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'
+
+"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.
+
+"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'
+
+"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'
+
+"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.
+
+"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.
+
+"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his
+pain.
+
+"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head--the misery is awful.'
+
+"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.
+
+"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture--a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.
+
+"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night--a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked
+God."
+
+
+Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North--a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night--with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again--recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military
+Academy.
+
+Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.
+
+I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.
+
+Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot--the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill--had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know--but something
+told me.
+
+The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered--and the people as
+well--would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that
+city.
+
+I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of prisoners--officers at that--in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane
+principles.
+
+By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.
+
+I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp--sending to El
+Caney what was most needed there--and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.
+
+But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned--all buildings gone or smoking--and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.
+
+All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.
+
+The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:
+
+
+"State of Texas,
+
+"_July 16, 1898_.
+
+"ADMIRAL SAMPSON, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.
+
+"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.
+
+"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who _need_ and _own_ it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.
+
+"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.
+
+"Respectfuly and cordially,
+
+"CLARA BARTON."
+
+
+These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?
+
+On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.
+
+Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me--are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?
+
+As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.
+
+Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.
+
+Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."
+
+The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that _naïveté_ and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."
+
+How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?
+
+A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.
+
+The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.
+
+A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red
+Cross.
+
+The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.
+
+Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.
+
+These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender--alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all--toiled day and night.
+
+The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, _Cuba
+Libre_.
+
+Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves--by a general adoption
+in their own homes--and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.
+
+Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.
+
+Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.
+
+Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?
+
+"In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.
+
+"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."--FROM PRESIDENT
+MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON
+
+1900
+
+
+This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word--Galveston.
+
+Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.
+
+In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to
+gather.
+
+In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross, if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert
+Adamson.
+
+The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.
+
+Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall--the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.
+
+Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.
+
+The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.
+
+On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.
+
+It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.
+
+Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.
+
+A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:
+
+A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major--with his Grand Army
+button--overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."
+
+It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.
+
+Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.
+
+Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.
+
+No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:
+
+
+"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom--the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing--many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;--mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost--a dazed and tearless throng, such as Danté
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.
+
+"Of Texas City--a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses--nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest--and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together--compared to which, for softness, the _penitente's_ slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'--and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers
+require?
+
+"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question--stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon--for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.
+
+"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth--simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day, people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.
+
+"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief--as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the _débris_ for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'
+
+"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds--must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.
+
+"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously--fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses--which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets--had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of _débris_,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.
+
+"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses, rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.
+
+"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.
+
+"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it--to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'
+
+"'What is in there now?' I asked.
+
+"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em--jest bones, you
+know--down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'
+
+"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.
+
+"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'
+
+"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.
+
+"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair--with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly
+scalped.'
+
+"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call--how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task--and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.
+
+"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so as to make them
+immediately available--to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another--was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+A. M. till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes--some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.
+
+"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods--streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by--but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of--wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments--the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law--presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens--forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!
+
+"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened--and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!
+
+"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years--hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars--not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity--plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.
+
+"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord--but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields--that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.
+
+"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose--all that
+a girl would need--even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.
+
+"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.
+
+"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore, in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants--and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer--here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.
+
+"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:--for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.
+
+"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat--Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone--but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.
+
+"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks--the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain. Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.
+
+"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States--a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand--and left
+in it a bank-note--I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.
+
+"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."
+
+
+My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day, taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.
+
+Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.
+
+Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.
+
+From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.
+
+Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.
+
+Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
+their hands.
+
+It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.
+
+That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.
+
+Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.
+
+I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the
+Galveston seashore?
+
+At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.
+
+All were burned.
+
+The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the _débris_ and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused--what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.
+
+The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.
+
+This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.
+
+I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That grand committee of Galveston
+relief--than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met--are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.
+
+I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years--initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.
+
+To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.
+
+To you--the people of America--this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever
+so need you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30230 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Story of the Red Cross
+       Glimpses of Field Work
+
+Author: Clara Barton
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2009 [EBook #30230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+[Illustration: CLARA BARTON
+
+From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager]
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK
+
+BY
+
+CLARA BARTON
+
+FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+MCMIV
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+_Published, June, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner--the distributer and
+organizer--of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.
+
+Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered--not as charity--but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.
+
+The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.
+
+It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.
+
+To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.
+
+CLARA BARTON.
+
+GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND,
+_May 15, 1904._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+                                                            PAGE
+EARLY HISTORY. 1880-1884                                       1
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MOUNT VERNON CYCLONE. 1885-1888      30
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA. 1887                                 38
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 1889                                     54
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. 1891                                      70
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF. 1893                                   77
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF. 1896                                         94
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA. 1898                                                   115
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON. 1900                                              164
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+1880-1884
+
+     "I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+     nothing that I have not lived."
+
+
+It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."
+
+There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:
+
+"Not that--not that, tell me something it _does_--it and you, I can
+understand it better then."
+
+A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must
+have.
+
+In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.
+
+For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.
+
+I will commence even back of itself.
+
+Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."
+
+To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
+I went.
+
+Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.
+
+This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.
+
+The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never
+written.
+
+Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.
+
+All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the _Evening Star_, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.
+
+No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.
+
+Thus the spring of 1882 found us--a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the
+Government.
+
+Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was
+commenced.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.
+
+The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.
+
+A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester--who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president--of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the four States--Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi--and planted for the crops of the coming season.
+
+Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds--something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester--always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.
+
+A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.
+
+This was the commencement of 1883. In May, at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston--remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler
+as Governor.
+
+In the short and interrupted existence of our association--scarce two
+years--our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:
+
+_First._ To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.
+
+_Second._ Not to pay salaries to officers--paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor--and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.
+
+_Third._ To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster--this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.
+
+_Fourth._ To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.
+
+_Fifth._ That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field--make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted
+community.
+
+To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.
+
+Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.
+
+It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.
+
+I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.
+
+I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the
+rise.
+
+Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed--but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress--even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.
+
+Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current--catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore--with every coal-pit
+filled with water, and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.
+
+There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way--the Government
+boats had come with rations of food--we too must take to the water.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal--our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck--and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American
+waters.
+
+I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side--from village to
+village--where the homeless, shivering people were gathered--called for
+the most responsible person--a clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.
+
+Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.
+
+The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.
+
+We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.
+
+We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.
+
+Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.
+
+I am thus particular to mention this from the loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.
+
+From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been--and was not.
+
+Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.
+
+Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house--floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their
+eyes.
+
+At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:
+
+"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."
+
+When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
+used it.
+
+We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:
+
+
+WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.
+
+DEAR MISS BARTON:
+
+We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."
+
+
+JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
+FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
+MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
+REED WHITE, eleven years old.
+BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
+LOYD BARTON, seven years old.
+
+
+These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little
+Six."
+
+The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.
+
+As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board--a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow--Mrs. Plew--whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand--"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.
+
+They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a _clean_ hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.
+
+"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.
+
+"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."
+
+There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.
+
+Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.
+
+"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.
+
+No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."
+
+We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.
+
+Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.
+
+"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"
+
+We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help--all were well.
+
+Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and
+Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.
+
+On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his
+reply:
+
+"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."
+
+"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."
+
+"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"
+
+"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.
+
+"Has any one complained?" he asked.
+
+"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."
+
+"Then to whom would you report?"
+
+"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall
+designate."
+
+"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness--you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt--and shall appoint you."
+
+This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.
+
+The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE
+
+
+Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
+
+Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns--the
+second was a drought with no returns--the third the same. Hunger for
+themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back--the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos--the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the
+plains.
+
+These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the _press_,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.
+
+We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.
+
+In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters--traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."
+
+The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.
+
+I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.
+
+The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.
+
+In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."
+
+President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.
+
+Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.
+
+In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three
+delegates.
+
+It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.
+
+Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated--and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had
+happened.
+
+No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.
+
+It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?
+
+In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.
+
+In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.
+
+Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.
+
+At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:
+
+
+"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.
+
+"AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
+
+"Clara Barton, President."
+
+
+This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.
+
+As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA
+
+
+During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.
+
+An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay
+them.
+
+This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that
+work.
+
+The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"--a tall Norwegian--Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.
+
+Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.
+
+When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.
+
+During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.
+
+That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.
+
+"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"
+
+"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."
+
+"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"
+
+"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.
+
+One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.
+
+On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.
+
+But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved
+his people.
+
+Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band--Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward
+Holyland.
+
+I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+_Howard_ stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "_Old Guard_."
+
+Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."
+
+It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of
+prayer.
+
+Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"
+
+"Twenty-nine, madam."
+
+"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"
+
+"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."
+
+"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."
+
+"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."
+
+"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."
+
+Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.
+
+"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."
+
+By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."
+
+There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"
+
+"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow
+fever."
+
+We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical
+fraternity.
+
+"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.
+
+The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.
+
+The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.
+
+Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.
+
+To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."
+
+The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days--their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
+
+
+On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.
+
+Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.
+
+It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.
+
+For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.
+
+I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day--the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain--all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from
+neglect.
+
+Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.
+
+Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the
+streets.
+
+But I am not here to describe Johnstown--the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it--but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.
+
+From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point--the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields--and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.
+
+Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.
+
+We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.
+
+Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.
+
+A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.
+
+This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.
+
+The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.
+
+When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.
+
+To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.
+
+It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
+of food.
+
+This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.
+
+The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.
+
+On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.
+
+I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.
+
+The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead--"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following
+six months.
+
+This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.
+
+I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had
+left in May.
+
+In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies--new and old--for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.
+
+The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.
+
+Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.
+
+It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.
+
+The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels--still it will not satisfy all.
+
+In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:
+
+"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."
+
+Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+phoenix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE
+
+
+As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia--embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.
+
+Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.
+
+The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian _Chargé d'Affaires_ at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.
+
+Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.
+
+Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.
+
+But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.
+
+Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.
+
+That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.
+
+When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.
+
+The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:
+
+"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"
+
+A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:
+
+"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans--Christ
+is risen.
+
+"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest--Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."
+
+In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.
+
+The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:
+
+"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of
+art.
+
+"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this
+department."
+
+In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn--$12,500--besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.
+
+We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF
+
+
+This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.
+
+On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has
+this passage:
+
+"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months, and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."
+
+At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.
+
+The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.
+
+Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.
+
+We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.
+
+On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:
+
+"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."
+
+Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."
+
+One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.
+
+Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.
+
+The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.
+
+As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."
+
+A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.
+
+We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.
+
+Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small
+new State.
+
+If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.
+
+Dr. Egan's report has this passage:
+
+"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."
+
+The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.
+
+The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.
+
+In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified"
+homes.
+
+A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as
+impracticable.
+
+"No use, Mistah--no use--'cause de pig eat it all up."
+
+It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.
+
+To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.
+
+The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.
+
+The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.
+
+Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed--every "eye" of the potato making a sprout--these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.
+
+I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket--in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.
+
+If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.
+
+The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the
+storm.
+
+This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a
+shelter.
+
+A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."
+
+The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs--the gift of seventy-one families--being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.
+
+Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.
+
+Nothing better illustrates the native good heart of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into
+town.
+
+His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"--and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another--if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"--and it would
+help him so much.
+
+The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter" as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.
+
+If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before--often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"--this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.
+
+The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established--one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"--good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."
+
+Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.
+
+I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.
+
+The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.
+
+It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.
+
+A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.
+
+A half dozen years later, when our negro protégés of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.
+
+"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.
+
+Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black--such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.
+
+In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.
+
+They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:
+
+"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done
+for us."
+
+I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF
+
+1896
+
+
+Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year--at a day's notice--the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.
+
+Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.
+
+England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open
+the way.
+
+A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.
+
+Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.
+
+As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.
+
+These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds--one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds--we did not do it for ourselves.
+
+Second, there must be perfect unanimity between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
+
+Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.
+
+The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.
+
+A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.
+
+The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government--a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.
+
+Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious
+significance.
+
+The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."
+
+I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great. If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons--humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return--such as I give I shall expect to receive."
+
+Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."
+
+I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.
+
+I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.
+
+The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.
+
+While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics--typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox--that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.
+
+This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+_teskeres_, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.
+
+With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria. The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America--Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood--were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the--to them--unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.
+
+While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.
+
+During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.
+
+Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
+anxious people.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.
+
+The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
+
+The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all--that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.
+
+It was a new experience that these strangers _dared_ to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.
+
+When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and _débris_ of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.
+
+At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.
+
+They have told me since their return that the pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.
+
+Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal--ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep--had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.
+
+When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.
+
+As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.
+
+Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
+difference.
+
+At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
+destroyed.
+
+The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer--five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.
+
+It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.
+
+They knew we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.
+
+That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to _make_ us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.
+
+Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.
+
+Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor--physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.
+
+And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
+music.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA
+
+1898
+
+
+On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.
+
+These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.
+
+Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
+result.
+
+The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.
+
+The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.
+
+Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea--our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters--and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.
+
+Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.
+
+Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?
+
+At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?
+
+Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.
+
+We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.
+
+Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
+
+Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.
+
+Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.
+
+By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone--of all the Red Cross nations--had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_
+of the world, as well as the armies.
+
+Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."
+
+Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
+not what.
+
+The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.
+
+The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.
+
+On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.
+
+Three days later the following letter was received:
+
+
+"To MISS CLARA BARTON, President,
+
+"American National Red Cross:
+
+"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.
+
+"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding
+Hospital."
+
+
+To this the following reply was immediately returned:
+
+
+"Steamship State of Texas,
+
+"SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
+
+"DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.
+
+"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means--not legitimately
+fitted for the work--still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.
+
+"Cordially yours,
+
+"CLARA BARTON,
+
+"President, American National Red Cross."
+
+
+Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban
+hospitals.
+
+A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers'
+hospital.
+
+On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:
+
+
+"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for
+transportation.
+
+"SHAFTER."
+
+
+The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.
+
+I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.
+
+Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies--meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing--entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.
+
+An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps--General Shafter's headquarters.
+
+The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket
+under them.
+
+Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.
+
+A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made--the bits of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it--appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.
+
+After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.
+
+The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.
+
+It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.
+
+When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out--putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain--I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty
+years.
+
+The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled--bucket after bucket went
+out--until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,
+and wet--scarcely a groan, no word of complaint--no man said he was not
+well treated.
+
+The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold--for naked men bitter
+cold--before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.
+
+Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there--that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up--where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.
+
+They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.
+
+More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.
+
+The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us--magnificent in its dimensions--shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.
+
+Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.
+
+It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:
+
+"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"
+
+"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.
+
+"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."
+
+"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he
+said.
+
+"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."
+
+"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"
+
+The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice, tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army
+rations.
+
+"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."
+
+"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.
+
+Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.
+
+The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.
+
+At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:
+
+
+"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.
+
+"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.
+
+"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
+men.
+
+"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made--neither cots nor food--practically no hospital supplies.
+
+"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded--some 1,500 killed and wounded.
+
+"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.
+
+"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint--only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.
+
+"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible--to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.
+
+"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.
+
+"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.
+
+"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.
+
+"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.
+
+"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.
+
+"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.
+
+"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men. Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.
+
+"Their wounds were very similar--in the head--and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.
+
+"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.
+
+"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.
+
+"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
+vacant cot?'
+
+"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.
+
+"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.
+
+"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
+Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'
+
+"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.
+
+"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'
+
+"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'
+
+"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.
+
+"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.
+
+"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his
+pain.
+
+"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head--the misery is awful.'
+
+"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.
+
+"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture--a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.
+
+"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night--a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked
+God."
+
+
+Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North--a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night--with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again--recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military
+Academy.
+
+Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.
+
+I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.
+
+Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot--the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill--had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know--but something
+told me.
+
+The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered--and the people as
+well--would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that
+city.
+
+I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of prisoners--officers at that--in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane
+principles.
+
+By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.
+
+I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp--sending to El
+Caney what was most needed there--and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.
+
+But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned--all buildings gone or smoking--and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.
+
+All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.
+
+The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:
+
+
+"State of Texas,
+
+"_July 16, 1898_.
+
+"ADMIRAL SAMPSON, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.
+
+"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.
+
+"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who _need_ and _own_ it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.
+
+"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.
+
+"Respectfuly and cordially,
+
+"CLARA BARTON."
+
+
+These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?
+
+On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.
+
+Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me--are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?
+
+As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.
+
+Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.
+
+Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."
+
+The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that _naïveté_ and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."
+
+How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?
+
+A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.
+
+The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.
+
+A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red
+Cross.
+
+The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.
+
+Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.
+
+These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender--alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all--toiled day and night.
+
+The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, _Cuba
+Libre_.
+
+Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves--by a general adoption
+in their own homes--and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.
+
+Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.
+
+Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.
+
+Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?
+
+"In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.
+
+"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."--FROM PRESIDENT
+MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON
+
+1900
+
+
+This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word--Galveston.
+
+Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.
+
+In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to
+gather.
+
+In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross, if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert
+Adamson.
+
+The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.
+
+Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall--the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.
+
+Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.
+
+The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.
+
+On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.
+
+It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.
+
+Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.
+
+A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:
+
+A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major--with his Grand Army
+button--overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."
+
+It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.
+
+Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.
+
+Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.
+
+No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:
+
+
+"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom--the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing--many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;--mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost--a dazed and tearless throng, such as Danté
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.
+
+"Of Texas City--a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses--nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest--and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together--compared to which, for softness, the _penitente's_ slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'--and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers
+require?
+
+"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question--stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon--for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.
+
+"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth--simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day, people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.
+
+"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief--as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the _débris_ for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'
+
+"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds--must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.
+
+"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously--fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses--which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets--had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of _débris_,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.
+
+"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses, rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.
+
+"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.
+
+"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it--to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'
+
+"'What is in there now?' I asked.
+
+"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em--jest bones, you
+know--down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'
+
+"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.
+
+"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'
+
+"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.
+
+"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair--with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly
+scalped.'
+
+"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call--how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task--and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.
+
+"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so as to make them
+immediately available--to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another--was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+A. M. till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes--some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.
+
+"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods--streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by--but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of--wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments--the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law--presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens--forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!
+
+"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened--and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!
+
+"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years--hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars--not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity--plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.
+
+"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord--but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields--that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.
+
+"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose--all that
+a girl would need--even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.
+
+"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.
+
+"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore, in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants--and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer--here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.
+
+"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:--for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.
+
+"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat--Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone--but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.
+
+"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks--the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain. Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.
+
+"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States--a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand--and left
+in it a bank-note--I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.
+
+"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."
+
+
+My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day, taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.
+
+Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.
+
+Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.
+
+From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.
+
+Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.
+
+Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
+their hands.
+
+It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.
+
+That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.
+
+Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.
+
+I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the
+Galveston seashore?
+
+At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.
+
+All were burned.
+
+The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the _débris_ and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused--what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.
+
+The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.
+
+This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.
+
+I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That grand committee of Galveston
+relief--than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met--are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.
+
+I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years--initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.
+
+To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.
+
+To you--the people of America--this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever
+so need you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
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diff --git a/30230-8.zip b/30230-8.zip
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Story Of The Red Cross, by Clara Barton.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
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+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    hr.smler { width: 8%; }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+                text-indent: 0px;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smaller  {font-size: smaller;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .right            {text-align: right;}
+    .tbrk	  {margin-bottom: 2em;}
+
+    /* index */
+
+    div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; }
+
+    div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; }
+
+    div.index ul { list-style: none;  margin: 0; }
+
+    div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; }
+
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30230 ***</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE<br />RED CROSS</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/i001.jpg" width='449' height='641' alt=" CLARA BARTON From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager" /></div>
+
+
+<h4>CLARA BARTON<br /><br />From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902,<br />showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the<br />Czar and the Empress Dowager</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE<br />RED CROSS</h1>
+
+<h3>GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK</h3>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>CLARA BARTON</h2>
+
+<h4>FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS<br />AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/i003.jpg" width='100' height='118' alt="Logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK<br />D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br />MCMIV</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904, by</span><br />D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>Published, June, 1904</i></h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p>Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner&mdash;the distributer and
+organizer&mdash;of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.</p>
+
+<p>Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered&mdash;not as charity&mdash;but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.</p>
+
+<p>It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.</p>
+
+<p>To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Clara Barton.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Glen Echo, Maryland,</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>May 15, 1904.</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#I">I</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Early History.</span> 1880-1884</li>
+<li><a href="#II">II</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Texas Famine and the Mount Vernon Cyclone.</span> 1885-1888</li>
+<li><a href="#III">III</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Yellow Fever in Florida.</span> 1887</li>
+<li><a href="#IV">IV</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Johnstown Flood.</span> 1889</li>
+<li><a href="#V">V</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Russian Famine.</span> 1891</li>
+<li><a href="#VI">VI</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Sea Island Relief.</span> 1893</li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#VII">VII</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Armenian Relief.</span> 1896</li>
+<li><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Cuba.</span> 1898</li>
+<li><a href="#IX">IX</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Galveston.</span> 1900</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE RED<br />CROSS</h1>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h3>EARLY HISTORY</h3>
+
+<h3>1880-1884</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+nothing that I have not lived."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p><p>"Not that&mdash;not that, tell me something it <i>does</i>&mdash;it and you, I can
+understand it better then."</p>
+
+<p>A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must have.</p>
+
+<p>In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I will commence even back of itself.</p>
+
+<p>Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."</p>
+
+<p>To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and I went.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.</p>
+
+<p>This time I brought the idea of the treaty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet&mdash;James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln&mdash;a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.</p>
+
+<p>The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never written.</p>
+
+<p>Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.</p>
+
+<p>All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the <i>Evening Star</i>, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.</p>
+
+<p>No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the spring of 1882 found us&mdash;a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the Government.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.</p>
+
+<p>The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester&mdash;who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president&mdash;of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> four States&mdash;Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi&mdash;and planted for the crops of the coming season.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds&mdash;something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester&mdash;always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.</p>
+
+<p>A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.</p>
+
+<p>This was the commencement of 1883. In May,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston&mdash;remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler as Governor.</p>
+
+<p>In the short and interrupted existence of our association&mdash;scarce two
+years&mdash;our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p><i>First.</i> To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second.</i> Not to pay salaries to officers&mdash;paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor&mdash;and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third.</i> To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster&mdash;this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fourth.</i> To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fifth.</i> That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field&mdash;make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted community.</p>
+
+<p>To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.</p>
+
+<p>It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.</p>
+
+<p>I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the rise.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed&mdash;but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress&mdash;even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current&mdash;catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore&mdash;with every coal-pit
+filled with water,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.</p>
+
+<p>There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way&mdash;the Government
+boats had come with rations of food&mdash;we too must take to the water.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal&mdash;our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck&mdash;and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American waters.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side&mdash;from village to
+village&mdash;where the homeless, shivering people were gathered&mdash;called for
+the most responsible person&mdash;a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.</p>
+
+<p>Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> and rescue the perishing stock&mdash;as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.</p>
+
+<p>We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading&mdash;clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay&mdash;besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal&mdash;we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.</p>
+
+<p>We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material&mdash;had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.</p>
+
+<p>Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.</p>
+
+<p>I am thus particular to mention this from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.</p>
+
+<p>From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been&mdash;and was not.</p>
+
+<p>Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.</p>
+
+<p>Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house&mdash;floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:</p>
+
+<p>"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair&mdash;the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters&mdash;hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."</p>
+
+<p>When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return&mdash;four months on the rivers&mdash;traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars&mdash;gathered as we used it.</p>
+
+<p>We left at one point on the Ohio River a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"&mdash;probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Waterford, Pa.</span>, <i>March</i> 24, 1884.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Barton</span>:</p>
+
+<p>We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Joe Farrar</span>, twelve years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Florence Howe</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Mary Barton</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Reed White</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Bertie Ainsworth</span>, ten years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Loyd Barton</span>, seven years old.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little Six."</p>
+
+<p>The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board&mdash;a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow&mdash;Mrs. Plew&mdash;whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand&mdash;"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.</p>
+
+<p>They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a <i>clean</i> hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.</p>
+
+<p>"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."</p>
+
+<p>There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.</p>
+
+<p>No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was <i>her</i> turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say&mdash;"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."</p>
+
+<p>We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left her, we asked if she would name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"</p>
+
+<p>We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria&mdash;run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help&mdash;all were well.</p>
+
+<p>Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies&mdash;St. Louis and
+Chicago&mdash;we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>"Has any one complained?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Then to whom would you report?"</p>
+
+<p>"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall designate."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness&mdash;you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt&mdash;and shall appoint you."</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.</p>
+
+<p>The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE</h3>
+
+<p>Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.</p>
+
+<p>Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns&mdash;the
+second was a drought with no returns&mdash;the third the same. Hunger for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back&mdash;the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos&mdash;the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the plains.</p>
+
+<p>These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the <i>press</i>,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.</p>
+
+<p>In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters&mdash;traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."</p>
+
+<p>The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."</p>
+
+<p>President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.</p>
+
+<p>Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three delegates.</p>
+
+<p>It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.</p>
+
+<p>Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated&mdash;and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had happened.</p>
+
+<p>No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.</p>
+
+<p>It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.</p>
+
+<p>In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.</p>
+
+<p>At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">American National Red Cross</span>,<br />
+"Clara Barton, President."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA</h3>
+
+<p>During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.</p>
+
+<p>An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay them.</p>
+
+<p>This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"&mdash;a tall Norwegian&mdash;Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.</p>
+
+<p>Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.</p>
+
+<p>When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."</p>
+
+<p>"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.</p>
+
+<p>One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.</p>
+
+<p>On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.</p>
+
+<p>But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved his people.</p>
+
+<p>Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band&mdash;Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward Holyland.</p>
+
+<p>I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+<i>Howard</i> stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "<i>Old Guard</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."</p>
+
+<p>It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-nine, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."</p>
+
+<p>"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."</p>
+
+<p>"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."</p>
+
+<p>Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."</p>
+
+<p>By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."</p>
+
+<p>There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow fever."</p>
+
+<p>We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical fraternity.</p>
+
+<p>"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.</p>
+
+<p>The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.</p>
+
+<p>The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.</p>
+
+<p>Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.</p>
+
+<p>To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."</p>
+
+<p>The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days&mdash;their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD</h3>
+
+<p>On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.</p>
+
+<p>For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day&mdash;the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain&mdash;all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from neglect.</p>
+
+<p>Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.</p>
+
+<p>Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the streets.</p>
+
+<p>But I am not here to describe Johnstown&mdash;the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it&mdash;but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.</p>
+
+<p>From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point&mdash;the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields&mdash;and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.</p>
+
+<p>Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.</p>
+
+<p>We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.</p>
+
+<p>Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.</p>
+
+<p>A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.</p>
+
+<p>This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.</p>
+
+<p>The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.</p>
+
+<p>When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.</p>
+
+<p>To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.</p>
+
+<p>It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal of food.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.</p>
+
+<p>The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.</p>
+
+<p>I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.</p>
+
+<p>The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead&mdash;"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following six months.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><p>This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.</p>
+
+<p>I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had left in May.</p>
+
+<p>In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies&mdash;new and old&mdash;for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.</p>
+
+<p>The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.</p>
+
+<p>Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.</p>
+
+<p>The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels&mdash;still it will not satisfy all.</p>
+
+<p>In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:</p>
+
+<p>"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."</p>
+
+<p>Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+ph[oe]nix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RUSSIAN FAMINE</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia&mdash;embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.</p>
+
+<p>The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian <i>Charg&eacute; d'Affaires</i> at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.</p>
+
+<p>Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.</p>
+
+<p>But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.</p>
+
+<p>Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.</p>
+
+<p>That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.</p>
+
+<p>The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:</p>
+
+<p>"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"</p>
+
+<p>A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:</p>
+
+<p>"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans&mdash;Christ is risen.</p>
+
+<p>"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest&mdash;Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."</p>
+
+<p>In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:</p>
+
+<p>"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of art.</p>
+
+<p>"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this department."</p>
+
+<p>In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn&mdash;$12,500&mdash;besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.</p>
+
+<p>We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF</h3>
+
+<p>This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has this passage:</p>
+
+<p>"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."</p>
+
+<p>At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.</p>
+
+<p>The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.</p>
+
+<p>Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."</p>
+
+<p>Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach&mdash;'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."</p>
+
+<p>One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them&mdash;bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.</p>
+
+<p>The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.</p>
+
+<p>As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."</p>
+
+<p>A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.</p>
+
+<p>We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.</p>
+
+<p>Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small new State.</p>
+
+<p>If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Egan's report has this passage:</p>
+
+<p>"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."</p>
+
+<p>The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.</p>
+
+<p>The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.</p>
+
+<p>In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified" homes.</p>
+
+<p>A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>"No use, Mistah&mdash;no use&mdash;'cause de pig eat it all up."</p>
+
+<p>It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.</p>
+
+<p>To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.</p>
+
+<p>Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed&mdash;every "eye" of the potato making a sprout&mdash;these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.</p>
+
+<p>I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket&mdash;in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.</p>
+
+<p>If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.</p>
+
+<p>The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the storm.</p>
+
+<p>This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a shelter.</p>
+
+<p>A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."</p>
+
+<p>The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs&mdash;the gift of seventy-one families&mdash;being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.</p>
+
+<p>Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing better illustrates the native good heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into town.</p>
+
+<p>His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"&mdash;and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another&mdash;if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"&mdash;and it would
+help him so much.</p>
+
+<p>The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before&mdash;often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"&mdash;this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established&mdash;one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"&mdash;good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.</p>
+
+<p>The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.</p>
+
+<p>It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.</p>
+
+<p>A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.</p>
+
+<p>A half dozen years later, when our negro prot&eacute;g&eacute;s of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black&mdash;such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.</p>
+
+<p>In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.</p>
+
+<p>They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done for us."</p>
+
+<p>I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>ARMENIAN RELIEF</h3>
+
+<h3>1896</h3>
+
+<p>Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year&mdash;at a day's notice&mdash;the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.</p>
+
+<p>England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open the way.</p>
+
+<p>A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.</p>
+
+<p>Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.</p>
+
+<p>These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds&mdash;one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds&mdash;we did not do it for ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Second, there must be perfect unanimity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.</p>
+
+<p>Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.</p>
+
+<p>The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government&mdash;a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious significance.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."</p>
+
+<p>I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons&mdash;humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return&mdash;such as I give I shall expect to receive."</p>
+
+<p>Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."</p>
+
+<p>I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.</p>
+
+<p>I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.</p>
+
+<p>The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.</p>
+
+<p>While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics&mdash;typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox&mdash;that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+<i>teskeres</i>, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.</p>
+
+<p>With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America&mdash;Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood&mdash;were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the&mdash;to them&mdash;unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.</p>
+
+<p>While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.</p>
+
+<p>During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the anxious people.</p>
+
+<p>On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.</p>
+
+<p>The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."</p>
+
+<p>The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all&mdash;that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was a new experience that these strangers <i>dared</i> to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and <i>d&eacute;bris</i> of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.</p>
+
+<p>They have told me since their return that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.</p>
+
+<p>Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal&mdash;ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep&mdash;had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.</p>
+
+<p>As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the difference.</p>
+
+<p>At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer&mdash;five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.</p>
+
+<p>It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.</p>
+
+<p>They knew we had taken our lives in our hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.</p>
+
+<p>That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to <i>make</i> us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.</p>
+
+<p>Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.</p>
+
+<p>Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor&mdash;physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.</p>
+
+<p>And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices&mdash;"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"&mdash;that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of music.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CUBA</h3>
+
+<h3>1898</h3>
+
+<p>On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.</p>
+
+<p>These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.</p>
+
+<p>Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the result.</p>
+
+<p>The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.</p>
+
+<p>The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea&mdash;our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters&mdash;and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?</p>
+
+<p>At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?</p>
+
+<p>Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.</p>
+
+<p>We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.</p>
+
+<p>Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.</p>
+
+<p>Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.</p>
+
+<p>By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone&mdash;of all the Red Cross nations&mdash;had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the <i>navies</i>
+of the world, as well as the armies.</p>
+
+<p>Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+<i>ready</i>. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."</p>
+
+<p>Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we&mdash;poor fellow&mdash;and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for&mdash;he knows not what.</p>
+
+<p>The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital&mdash;indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a <i>later</i> line which could not be crossed.</p>
+
+<p>The Cubans who had just come into camp <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building&mdash;Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital&mdash;and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Three days later the following letter was received:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"To <span class="smcap">Miss Clara Barton</span>, President,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "American National Red Cross:</p>
+
+<p>"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Your obedient servant, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Louis A. Le Garde</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>To this the following reply was immediately returned:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Steamship State of Texas,</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Siboney, Santiago de Cuba</span>, <i>June 30, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dr. Louis A. Le Garde</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.</p>
+
+<p>"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means&mdash;not legitimately
+fitted for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>work&mdash;still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Cordially yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Clara Barton</span>, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"President, American National Red Cross."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers' hospital.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for transportation.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Shafter.</span>"</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.</p>
+
+<p>Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies&mdash;meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing&mdash;entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.</p>
+
+<p>An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps&mdash;General Shafter's headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket under them.</p>
+
+<p>Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.</p>
+
+<p>A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made&mdash;the bits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it&mdash;appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.</p>
+
+<p>After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.</p>
+
+<p>The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.</p>
+
+<p>When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out&mdash;putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain&mdash;I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled&mdash;bucket after bucket went
+out&mdash;until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+and wet&mdash;scarcely a groan, no word of complaint&mdash;no man said he was not
+well treated.</p>
+
+<p>The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold&mdash;for naked men bitter
+cold&mdash;before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there&mdash;that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up&mdash;where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.</p>
+
+<p>They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.</p>
+
+<p>The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us&mdash;magnificent in its dimensions&mdash;shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.</p>
+
+<p>"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"</p>
+
+<p>The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army rations.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."</p>
+
+<p>"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.</p>
+
+<p>The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our <i>menage</i> quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.</p>
+
+<p>At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Siboney</span>, <i>July 8, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life&mdash;the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>"And it all came at once&mdash;a quick blow&mdash;with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing&mdash;no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick men.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made&mdash;neither cots nor food&mdash;practically no hospital supplies.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded&mdash;some 1,500 killed and wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.</p>
+
+<p>"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint&mdash;only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible&mdash;to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.</p>
+
+<p>"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.</p>
+
+<p>"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.</p>
+
+<p>"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.</p>
+
+<p>"Their wounds were very similar&mdash;in the head&mdash;and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.</p>
+
+<p>"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.</p>
+
+<p>"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these&mdash;a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a vacant cot?'</p>
+
+<p>"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.</p>
+
+<p>"And so it went on through the long night&mdash;the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.</p>
+
+<p>"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch&mdash;Captain
+Mills and Private Clark&mdash;one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'</p>
+
+<p>"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p><p>"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'</p>
+
+<p>"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.</p>
+
+<p>"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his pain.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head&mdash;the misery is awful.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><p>"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.</p>
+
+<p>"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture&mdash;a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.</p>
+
+<p>"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night&mdash;a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked God."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North&mdash;a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night&mdash;with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again&mdash;recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military Academy.</p>
+
+<p>Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.</p>
+
+<p>I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.</p>
+
+<p>Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot&mdash;the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill&mdash;had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know&mdash;but something told me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><p>The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered&mdash;and the people as
+well&mdash;would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that city.</p>
+
+<p>I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> prisoners&mdash;officers at that&mdash;in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane principles.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp&mdash;sending to El
+Caney<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> what was most needed there&mdash;and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.</p>
+
+<p>But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned&mdash;all buildings gone or smoking&mdash;and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.</p>
+
+<p>All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.</p>
+
+<p>The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"State of Texas,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<i>July 16, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Admiral Sampson</span>, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.</p>
+
+<p>"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.</p>
+
+<p>"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who <i>need</i> and <i>own</i> it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.</p>
+
+<p>"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Respectfuly and cordially,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Clara Barton</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?</p>
+
+<p>On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me&mdash;are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?</p>
+
+<p>As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."</p>
+
+<p>The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."</p>
+
+<p>How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?</p>
+
+<p>A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.</p>
+
+<p>Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p><p>These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender&mdash;alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all&mdash;toiled day and night.</p>
+
+<p>The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, <i>Cuba Libre</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves&mdash;by a general adoption
+in their own homes&mdash;and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.</p>
+
+<p>Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.</p>
+
+<p>Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"In this connection it is a pleasure for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.</p>
+
+<p>"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."&mdash;<span class="smcap">From President
+McKinley's message to Congress, December</span> 6, 1898.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>GALVESTON</h3>
+
+<h3>1900</h3>
+
+<p>This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word&mdash;Galveston.</p>
+
+<p>Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.</p>
+
+<p>In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to gather.</p>
+
+<p>In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert Adamson.</p>
+
+<p>The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.</p>
+
+<p>Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall&mdash;the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.</p>
+
+<p>The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.</p>
+
+<p>A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:</p>
+
+<p>A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major&mdash;with his Grand Army
+button&mdash;overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."</p>
+
+<p>It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.</p>
+
+<p>Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.</p>
+
+<p>No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:</p>
+
+<p>"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom&mdash;the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing&mdash;many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;&mdash;mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost&mdash;a dazed and tearless throng, such as Dant&eacute;
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>"Of Texas City&mdash;a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses&mdash;nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest&mdash;and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together&mdash;compared to which, for softness, the <i>penitente's</i> slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'&mdash;and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers require?</p>
+
+<p>"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question&mdash;stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon&mdash;for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.</p>
+
+<p>"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth&mdash;simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.</p>
+
+<p>"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief&mdash;as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'</p>
+
+<p>"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds&mdash;must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously&mdash;fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses&mdash;which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets&mdash;had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of <i>d&eacute;bris</i>,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it&mdash;to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What is in there now?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em&mdash;jest bones, you
+know&mdash;down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'</p>
+
+<p>"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair&mdash;with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly scalped.'</p>
+
+<p>"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call&mdash;how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task&mdash;and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.</p>
+
+<p>"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> as to make them
+immediately available&mdash;to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another&mdash;was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+<span class="smaller">A. M.</span> till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes&mdash;some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods&mdash;streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by&mdash;but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of&mdash;wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments&mdash;the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law&mdash;presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens&mdash;forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!</p>
+
+<p>"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened&mdash;and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!</p>
+
+<p>"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years&mdash;hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars&mdash;not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity&mdash;plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord&mdash;but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields&mdash;that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.</p>
+
+<p>"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose&mdash;all that
+a girl would need&mdash;even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.</p>
+
+<p>"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> knickerbockers contained a note&mdash;generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries&mdash;coffee, sugar, and tobacco&mdash;to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.</p>
+
+<p>"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes&mdash;except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants&mdash;and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer&mdash;here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.</p>
+
+<p>"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:&mdash;for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat&mdash;Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone&mdash;but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.</p>
+
+<p>"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks&mdash;the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States&mdash;a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand&mdash;and left
+in it a bank-note&mdash;I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."</p>
+
+<p>My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.</p>
+
+<p>Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.</p>
+
+<p>From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away&mdash;sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung their hands.</p>
+
+<p>It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.</p>
+
+<p>That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.</p>
+
+<p>Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.</p>
+
+<p>I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the Galveston seashore?</p>
+
+<p>At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.</p>
+
+<p>All were burned.</p>
+
+<p>The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused&mdash;what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.</p>
+
+<p>The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.</p>
+
+<p>This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.</p>
+
+<p>I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> grand committee of Galveston
+relief&mdash;than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met&mdash;are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.</p>
+
+<p>I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years&mdash;initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.</p>
+
+<p>To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.</p>
+
+<p>To you&mdash;the people of America&mdash;this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever so need you.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30230 ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Story of the Red Cross
+       Glimpses of Field Work
+
+Author: Clara Barton
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2009 [EBook #30230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+[Illustration: CLARA BARTON
+
+From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager]
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK
+
+BY
+
+CLARA BARTON
+
+FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+MCMIV
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+_Published, June, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner--the distributer and
+organizer--of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.
+
+Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered--not as charity--but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.
+
+The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.
+
+It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.
+
+To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.
+
+CLARA BARTON.
+
+GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND,
+_May 15, 1904._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+                                                            PAGE
+EARLY HISTORY. 1880-1884                                       1
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MOUNT VERNON CYCLONE. 1885-1888      30
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA. 1887                                 38
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 1889                                     54
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. 1891                                      70
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF. 1893                                   77
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF. 1896                                         94
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA. 1898                                                   115
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON. 1900                                              164
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+1880-1884
+
+     "I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+     nothing that I have not lived."
+
+
+It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."
+
+There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:
+
+"Not that--not that, tell me something it _does_--it and you, I can
+understand it better then."
+
+A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must
+have.
+
+In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.
+
+For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.
+
+I will commence even back of itself.
+
+Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."
+
+To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
+I went.
+
+Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.
+
+This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.
+
+The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never
+written.
+
+Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.
+
+All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the _Evening Star_, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.
+
+No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.
+
+Thus the spring of 1882 found us--a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the
+Government.
+
+Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was
+commenced.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.
+
+The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.
+
+A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester--who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president--of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the four States--Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi--and planted for the crops of the coming season.
+
+Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds--something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester--always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.
+
+A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.
+
+This was the commencement of 1883. In May, at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston--remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler
+as Governor.
+
+In the short and interrupted existence of our association--scarce two
+years--our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:
+
+_First._ To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.
+
+_Second._ Not to pay salaries to officers--paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor--and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.
+
+_Third._ To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster--this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.
+
+_Fourth._ To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.
+
+_Fifth._ That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field--make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted
+community.
+
+To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.
+
+Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.
+
+It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.
+
+I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.
+
+I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the
+rise.
+
+Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed--but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress--even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.
+
+Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current--catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore--with every coal-pit
+filled with water, and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.
+
+There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way--the Government
+boats had come with rations of food--we too must take to the water.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal--our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck--and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American
+waters.
+
+I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side--from village to
+village--where the homeless, shivering people were gathered--called for
+the most responsible person--a clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.
+
+Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.
+
+The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.
+
+We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.
+
+We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.
+
+Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.
+
+I am thus particular to mention this from the loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.
+
+From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been--and was not.
+
+Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.
+
+Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house--floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their
+eyes.
+
+At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:
+
+"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."
+
+When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
+used it.
+
+We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:
+
+
+WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.
+
+DEAR MISS BARTON:
+
+We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."
+
+
+JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
+FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
+MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
+REED WHITE, eleven years old.
+BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
+LOYD BARTON, seven years old.
+
+
+These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little
+Six."
+
+The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.
+
+As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board--a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow--Mrs. Plew--whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand--"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.
+
+They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a _clean_ hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.
+
+"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.
+
+"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."
+
+There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.
+
+Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.
+
+"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.
+
+No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."
+
+We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.
+
+Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.
+
+"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"
+
+We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help--all were well.
+
+Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and
+Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.
+
+On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his
+reply:
+
+"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."
+
+"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."
+
+"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"
+
+"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.
+
+"Has any one complained?" he asked.
+
+"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."
+
+"Then to whom would you report?"
+
+"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall
+designate."
+
+"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness--you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt--and shall appoint you."
+
+This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.
+
+The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE
+
+
+Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
+
+Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns--the
+second was a drought with no returns--the third the same. Hunger for
+themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back--the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos--the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the
+plains.
+
+These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the _press_,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.
+
+We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.
+
+In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters--traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."
+
+The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.
+
+I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.
+
+The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.
+
+In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."
+
+President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.
+
+Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.
+
+In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three
+delegates.
+
+It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.
+
+Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated--and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had
+happened.
+
+No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.
+
+It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?
+
+In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.
+
+In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.
+
+Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.
+
+At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:
+
+
+"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.
+
+"AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
+
+"Clara Barton, President."
+
+
+This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.
+
+As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA
+
+
+During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.
+
+An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay
+them.
+
+This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that
+work.
+
+The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"--a tall Norwegian--Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.
+
+Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.
+
+When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.
+
+During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.
+
+That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.
+
+"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"
+
+"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."
+
+"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"
+
+"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.
+
+One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.
+
+On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.
+
+But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved
+his people.
+
+Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band--Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward
+Holyland.
+
+I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+_Howard_ stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "_Old Guard_."
+
+Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."
+
+It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of
+prayer.
+
+Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"
+
+"Twenty-nine, madam."
+
+"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"
+
+"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."
+
+"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."
+
+"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."
+
+"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."
+
+Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.
+
+"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."
+
+By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."
+
+There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"
+
+"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow
+fever."
+
+We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical
+fraternity.
+
+"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.
+
+The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.
+
+The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.
+
+Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.
+
+To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."
+
+The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days--their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
+
+
+On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.
+
+Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.
+
+It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.
+
+For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.
+
+I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day--the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain--all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from
+neglect.
+
+Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.
+
+Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the
+streets.
+
+But I am not here to describe Johnstown--the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it--but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.
+
+From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point--the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields--and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.
+
+Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.
+
+We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.
+
+Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.
+
+A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.
+
+This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.
+
+The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.
+
+When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.
+
+To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.
+
+It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
+of food.
+
+This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.
+
+The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.
+
+On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.
+
+I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.
+
+The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead--"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following
+six months.
+
+This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.
+
+I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had
+left in May.
+
+In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies--new and old--for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.
+
+The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.
+
+Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.
+
+It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.
+
+The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels--still it will not satisfy all.
+
+In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:
+
+"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."
+
+Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+phoenix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE
+
+
+As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia--embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.
+
+Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.
+
+The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian _Charge d'Affaires_ at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.
+
+Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.
+
+Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.
+
+But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.
+
+Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.
+
+That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.
+
+When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.
+
+The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:
+
+"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"
+
+A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:
+
+"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans--Christ
+is risen.
+
+"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest--Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."
+
+In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.
+
+The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:
+
+"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of
+art.
+
+"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this
+department."
+
+In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn--$12,500--besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.
+
+We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF
+
+
+This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.
+
+On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has
+this passage:
+
+"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months, and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."
+
+At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.
+
+The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.
+
+Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.
+
+We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.
+
+On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:
+
+"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."
+
+Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."
+
+One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.
+
+Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.
+
+The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.
+
+As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."
+
+A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.
+
+We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.
+
+Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small
+new State.
+
+If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.
+
+Dr. Egan's report has this passage:
+
+"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."
+
+The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.
+
+The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.
+
+In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified"
+homes.
+
+A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as
+impracticable.
+
+"No use, Mistah--no use--'cause de pig eat it all up."
+
+It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.
+
+To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.
+
+The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.
+
+The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.
+
+Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed--every "eye" of the potato making a sprout--these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.
+
+I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket--in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.
+
+If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.
+
+The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the
+storm.
+
+This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a
+shelter.
+
+A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."
+
+The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs--the gift of seventy-one families--being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.
+
+Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.
+
+Nothing better illustrates the native good heart of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into
+town.
+
+His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"--and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another--if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"--and it would
+help him so much.
+
+The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter" as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.
+
+If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before--often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"--this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.
+
+The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established--one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"--good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."
+
+Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.
+
+I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.
+
+The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.
+
+It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.
+
+A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.
+
+A half dozen years later, when our negro proteges of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.
+
+"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.
+
+Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black--such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.
+
+In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.
+
+They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:
+
+"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done
+for us."
+
+I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF
+
+1896
+
+
+Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year--at a day's notice--the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.
+
+Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.
+
+England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open
+the way.
+
+A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.
+
+Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.
+
+As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.
+
+These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds--one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds--we did not do it for ourselves.
+
+Second, there must be perfect unanimity between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
+
+Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.
+
+The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.
+
+A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.
+
+The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government--a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.
+
+Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious
+significance.
+
+The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."
+
+I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great. If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons--humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return--such as I give I shall expect to receive."
+
+Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."
+
+I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.
+
+I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.
+
+The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.
+
+While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics--typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox--that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.
+
+This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+_teskeres_, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.
+
+With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria. The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America--Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood--were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the--to them--unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.
+
+While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.
+
+During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.
+
+Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
+anxious people.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.
+
+The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
+
+The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all--that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.
+
+It was a new experience that these strangers _dared_ to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.
+
+When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and _debris_ of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.
+
+At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.
+
+They have told me since their return that the pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.
+
+Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal--ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep--had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.
+
+When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.
+
+As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.
+
+Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
+difference.
+
+At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
+destroyed.
+
+The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer--five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.
+
+It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.
+
+They knew we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.
+
+That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to _make_ us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.
+
+Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.
+
+Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor--physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.
+
+And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
+music.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA
+
+1898
+
+
+On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.
+
+These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.
+
+Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
+result.
+
+The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.
+
+The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.
+
+Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea--our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters--and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.
+
+Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.
+
+Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?
+
+At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?
+
+Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.
+
+We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.
+
+Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
+
+Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.
+
+Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.
+
+By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone--of all the Red Cross nations--had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_
+of the world, as well as the armies.
+
+Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."
+
+Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
+not what.
+
+The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.
+
+The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.
+
+On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.
+
+Three days later the following letter was received:
+
+
+"To MISS CLARA BARTON, President,
+
+"American National Red Cross:
+
+"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.
+
+"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding
+Hospital."
+
+
+To this the following reply was immediately returned:
+
+
+"Steamship State of Texas,
+
+"SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
+
+"DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.
+
+"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means--not legitimately
+fitted for the work--still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.
+
+"Cordially yours,
+
+"CLARA BARTON,
+
+"President, American National Red Cross."
+
+
+Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban
+hospitals.
+
+A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers'
+hospital.
+
+On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:
+
+
+"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for
+transportation.
+
+"SHAFTER."
+
+
+The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.
+
+I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.
+
+Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies--meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing--entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.
+
+An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps--General Shafter's headquarters.
+
+The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket
+under them.
+
+Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.
+
+A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made--the bits of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it--appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.
+
+After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.
+
+The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.
+
+It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.
+
+When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out--putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain--I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty
+years.
+
+The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled--bucket after bucket went
+out--until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,
+and wet--scarcely a groan, no word of complaint--no man said he was not
+well treated.
+
+The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold--for naked men bitter
+cold--before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.
+
+Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there--that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up--where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.
+
+They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.
+
+More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.
+
+The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us--magnificent in its dimensions--shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.
+
+Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.
+
+It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:
+
+"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"
+
+"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.
+
+"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."
+
+"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he
+said.
+
+"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."
+
+"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"
+
+The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice, tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army
+rations.
+
+"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."
+
+"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.
+
+Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.
+
+The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.
+
+At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:
+
+
+"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.
+
+"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.
+
+"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
+men.
+
+"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made--neither cots nor food--practically no hospital supplies.
+
+"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded--some 1,500 killed and wounded.
+
+"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.
+
+"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint--only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.
+
+"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible--to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.
+
+"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.
+
+"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.
+
+"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.
+
+"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.
+
+"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.
+
+"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.
+
+"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men. Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.
+
+"Their wounds were very similar--in the head--and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.
+
+"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.
+
+"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.
+
+"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
+vacant cot?'
+
+"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.
+
+"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.
+
+"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
+Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'
+
+"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.
+
+"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'
+
+"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'
+
+"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.
+
+"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.
+
+"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his
+pain.
+
+"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head--the misery is awful.'
+
+"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.
+
+"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture--a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.
+
+"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night--a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked
+God."
+
+
+Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North--a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night--with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again--recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military
+Academy.
+
+Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.
+
+I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.
+
+Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot--the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill--had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know--but something
+told me.
+
+The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered--and the people as
+well--would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that
+city.
+
+I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of prisoners--officers at that--in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane
+principles.
+
+By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.
+
+I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp--sending to El
+Caney what was most needed there--and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.
+
+But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned--all buildings gone or smoking--and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.
+
+All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.
+
+The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:
+
+
+"State of Texas,
+
+"_July 16, 1898_.
+
+"ADMIRAL SAMPSON, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.
+
+"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.
+
+"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who _need_ and _own_ it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.
+
+"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.
+
+"Respectfuly and cordially,
+
+"CLARA BARTON."
+
+
+These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?
+
+On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.
+
+Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me--are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?
+
+As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.
+
+Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.
+
+Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."
+
+The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that _naivete_ and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."
+
+How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?
+
+A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.
+
+The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.
+
+A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red
+Cross.
+
+The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.
+
+Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.
+
+These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender--alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all--toiled day and night.
+
+The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, _Cuba
+Libre_.
+
+Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves--by a general adoption
+in their own homes--and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.
+
+Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.
+
+Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.
+
+Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?
+
+"In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.
+
+"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."--FROM PRESIDENT
+MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON
+
+1900
+
+
+This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word--Galveston.
+
+Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.
+
+In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to
+gather.
+
+In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross, if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert
+Adamson.
+
+The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.
+
+Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall--the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.
+
+Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.
+
+The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.
+
+On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.
+
+It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.
+
+Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.
+
+A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:
+
+A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major--with his Grand Army
+button--overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."
+
+It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.
+
+Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.
+
+Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.
+
+No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:
+
+
+"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom--the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing--many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;--mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost--a dazed and tearless throng, such as Dante
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.
+
+"Of Texas City--a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses--nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest--and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together--compared to which, for softness, the _penitente's_ slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'--and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers
+require?
+
+"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question--stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon--for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.
+
+"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth--simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day, people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.
+
+"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief--as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the _debris_ for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'
+
+"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds--must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.
+
+"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously--fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses--which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets--had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of _debris_,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.
+
+"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses, rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.
+
+"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.
+
+"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it--to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'
+
+"'What is in there now?' I asked.
+
+"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em--jest bones, you
+know--down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'
+
+"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.
+
+"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'
+
+"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.
+
+"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair--with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly
+scalped.'
+
+"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call--how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task--and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.
+
+"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so as to make them
+immediately available--to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another--was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+A. M. till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes--some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.
+
+"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods--streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by--but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of--wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments--the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law--presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens--forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!
+
+"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened--and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!
+
+"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years--hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars--not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity--plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.
+
+"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord--but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields--that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.
+
+"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose--all that
+a girl would need--even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.
+
+"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.
+
+"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore, in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants--and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer--here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.
+
+"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:--for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.
+
+"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat--Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone--but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.
+
+"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks--the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain. Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.
+
+"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States--a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand--and left
+in it a bank-note--I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.
+
+"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."
+
+
+My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day, taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.
+
+Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.
+
+Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.
+
+From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.
+
+Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.
+
+Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
+their hands.
+
+It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.
+
+That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.
+
+Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.
+
+I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the
+Galveston seashore?
+
+At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.
+
+All were burned.
+
+The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the _debris_ and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused--what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.
+
+The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.
+
+This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.
+
+I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That grand committee of Galveston
+relief--than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met--are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.
+
+I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years--initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.
+
+To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.
+
+To you--the people of America--this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever
+so need you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Story of the Red Cross
+       Glimpses of Field Work
+
+Author: Clara Barton
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2009 [EBook #30230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+[Illustration: CLARA BARTON
+
+From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager]
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK
+
+BY
+
+CLARA BARTON
+
+FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+MCMIV
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+_Published, June, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner--the distributer and
+organizer--of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.
+
+Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered--not as charity--but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.
+
+The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.
+
+It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.
+
+To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.
+
+CLARA BARTON.
+
+GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND,
+_May 15, 1904._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+                                                            PAGE
+EARLY HISTORY. 1880-1884                                       1
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MOUNT VERNON CYCLONE. 1885-1888      30
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA. 1887                                 38
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 1889                                     54
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. 1891                                      70
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF. 1893                                   77
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF. 1896                                         94
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA. 1898                                                   115
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON. 1900                                              164
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+1880-1884
+
+     "I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+     nothing that I have not lived."
+
+
+It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."
+
+There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:
+
+"Not that--not that, tell me something it _does_--it and you, I can
+understand it better then."
+
+A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must
+have.
+
+In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.
+
+For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.
+
+I will commence even back of itself.
+
+Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."
+
+To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
+I went.
+
+Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.
+
+This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.
+
+The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never
+written.
+
+Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.
+
+All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the _Evening Star_, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.
+
+No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.
+
+Thus the spring of 1882 found us--a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the
+Government.
+
+Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was
+commenced.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.
+
+The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.
+
+A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester--who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president--of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the four States--Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi--and planted for the crops of the coming season.
+
+Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds--something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester--always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.
+
+A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.
+
+This was the commencement of 1883. In May, at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston--remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler
+as Governor.
+
+In the short and interrupted existence of our association--scarce two
+years--our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:
+
+_First._ To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.
+
+_Second._ Not to pay salaries to officers--paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor--and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.
+
+_Third._ To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster--this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.
+
+_Fourth._ To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.
+
+_Fifth._ That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field--make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted
+community.
+
+To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.
+
+Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.
+
+It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.
+
+I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.
+
+I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the
+rise.
+
+Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed--but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress--even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.
+
+Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current--catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore--with every coal-pit
+filled with water, and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.
+
+There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way--the Government
+boats had come with rations of food--we too must take to the water.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal--our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck--and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American
+waters.
+
+I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side--from village to
+village--where the homeless, shivering people were gathered--called for
+the most responsible person--a clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.
+
+Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.
+
+The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.
+
+We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.
+
+We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.
+
+Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.
+
+I am thus particular to mention this from the loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.
+
+From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been--and was not.
+
+Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.
+
+Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house--floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their
+eyes.
+
+At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:
+
+"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."
+
+When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
+used it.
+
+We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:
+
+
+WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.
+
+DEAR MISS BARTON:
+
+We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."
+
+
+JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
+FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
+MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
+REED WHITE, eleven years old.
+BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
+LOYD BARTON, seven years old.
+
+
+These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little
+Six."
+
+The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.
+
+As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board--a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow--Mrs. Plew--whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand--"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.
+
+They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a _clean_ hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.
+
+"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.
+
+"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."
+
+There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.
+
+Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.
+
+"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.
+
+No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."
+
+We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.
+
+Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.
+
+"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"
+
+We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help--all were well.
+
+Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and
+Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.
+
+On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his
+reply:
+
+"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."
+
+"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."
+
+"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"
+
+"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.
+
+"Has any one complained?" he asked.
+
+"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."
+
+"Then to whom would you report?"
+
+"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall
+designate."
+
+"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness--you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt--and shall appoint you."
+
+This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.
+
+The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE
+
+
+Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
+
+Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns--the
+second was a drought with no returns--the third the same. Hunger for
+themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back--the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos--the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the
+plains.
+
+These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the _press_,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.
+
+We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.
+
+In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters--traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."
+
+The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.
+
+I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.
+
+The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.
+
+In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."
+
+President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.
+
+Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.
+
+In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three
+delegates.
+
+It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.
+
+Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated--and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had
+happened.
+
+No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.
+
+It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?
+
+In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.
+
+In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.
+
+Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.
+
+At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:
+
+
+"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.
+
+"AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
+
+"Clara Barton, President."
+
+
+This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.
+
+As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA
+
+
+During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.
+
+An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay
+them.
+
+This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that
+work.
+
+The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"--a tall Norwegian--Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.
+
+Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.
+
+When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.
+
+During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.
+
+That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.
+
+"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"
+
+"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."
+
+"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"
+
+"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.
+
+One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.
+
+On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.
+
+But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved
+his people.
+
+Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band--Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward
+Holyland.
+
+I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+_Howard_ stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "_Old Guard_."
+
+Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."
+
+It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of
+prayer.
+
+Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"
+
+"Twenty-nine, madam."
+
+"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"
+
+"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."
+
+"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."
+
+"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."
+
+"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."
+
+Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.
+
+"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."
+
+By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."
+
+There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"
+
+"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow
+fever."
+
+We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical
+fraternity.
+
+"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.
+
+The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.
+
+The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.
+
+Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.
+
+To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."
+
+The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days--their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
+
+
+On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.
+
+Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.
+
+It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.
+
+For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.
+
+I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day--the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain--all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from
+neglect.
+
+Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.
+
+Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the
+streets.
+
+But I am not here to describe Johnstown--the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it--but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.
+
+From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point--the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields--and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.
+
+Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.
+
+We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.
+
+Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.
+
+A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.
+
+This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.
+
+The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.
+
+When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.
+
+To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.
+
+It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
+of food.
+
+This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.
+
+The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.
+
+On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.
+
+I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.
+
+The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead--"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following
+six months.
+
+This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.
+
+I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had
+left in May.
+
+In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies--new and old--for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.
+
+The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.
+
+Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.
+
+It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.
+
+The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels--still it will not satisfy all.
+
+In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:
+
+"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."
+
+Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+phoenix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE
+
+
+As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia--embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.
+
+Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.
+
+The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian _Chargé d'Affaires_ at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.
+
+Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.
+
+Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.
+
+But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.
+
+Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.
+
+That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.
+
+When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.
+
+The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:
+
+"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"
+
+A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:
+
+"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans--Christ
+is risen.
+
+"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest--Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."
+
+In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.
+
+The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:
+
+"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of
+art.
+
+"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this
+department."
+
+In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn--$12,500--besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.
+
+We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF
+
+
+This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.
+
+On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has
+this passage:
+
+"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months, and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."
+
+At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.
+
+The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.
+
+Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.
+
+We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.
+
+On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:
+
+"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."
+
+Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."
+
+One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.
+
+Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.
+
+The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.
+
+As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."
+
+A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.
+
+We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.
+
+Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small
+new State.
+
+If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.
+
+Dr. Egan's report has this passage:
+
+"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."
+
+The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.
+
+The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.
+
+In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified"
+homes.
+
+A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as
+impracticable.
+
+"No use, Mistah--no use--'cause de pig eat it all up."
+
+It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.
+
+To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.
+
+The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.
+
+The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.
+
+Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed--every "eye" of the potato making a sprout--these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.
+
+I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket--in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.
+
+If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.
+
+The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the
+storm.
+
+This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a
+shelter.
+
+A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."
+
+The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs--the gift of seventy-one families--being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.
+
+Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.
+
+Nothing better illustrates the native good heart of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into
+town.
+
+His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"--and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another--if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"--and it would
+help him so much.
+
+The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter" as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.
+
+If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before--often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"--this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.
+
+The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established--one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"--good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."
+
+Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.
+
+I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.
+
+The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.
+
+It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.
+
+A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.
+
+A half dozen years later, when our negro protégés of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.
+
+"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.
+
+Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black--such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.
+
+In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.
+
+They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:
+
+"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done
+for us."
+
+I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF
+
+1896
+
+
+Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year--at a day's notice--the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.
+
+Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.
+
+England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open
+the way.
+
+A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.
+
+Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.
+
+As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.
+
+These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds--one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds--we did not do it for ourselves.
+
+Second, there must be perfect unanimity between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
+
+Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.
+
+The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.
+
+A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.
+
+The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government--a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.
+
+Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious
+significance.
+
+The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."
+
+I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great. If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons--humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return--such as I give I shall expect to receive."
+
+Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."
+
+I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.
+
+I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.
+
+The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.
+
+While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics--typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox--that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.
+
+This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+_teskeres_, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.
+
+With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria. The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America--Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood--were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the--to them--unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.
+
+While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.
+
+During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.
+
+Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
+anxious people.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.
+
+The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
+
+The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all--that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.
+
+It was a new experience that these strangers _dared_ to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.
+
+When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and _débris_ of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.
+
+At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.
+
+They have told me since their return that the pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.
+
+Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal--ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep--had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.
+
+When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.
+
+As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.
+
+Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
+difference.
+
+At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
+destroyed.
+
+The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer--five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.
+
+It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.
+
+They knew we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.
+
+That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to _make_ us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.
+
+Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.
+
+Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor--physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.
+
+And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
+music.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA
+
+1898
+
+
+On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.
+
+These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.
+
+Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
+result.
+
+The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.
+
+The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.
+
+Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea--our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters--and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.
+
+Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.
+
+Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?
+
+At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?
+
+Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.
+
+We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.
+
+Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
+
+Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.
+
+Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.
+
+By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone--of all the Red Cross nations--had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_
+of the world, as well as the armies.
+
+Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."
+
+Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
+not what.
+
+The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.
+
+The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.
+
+On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.
+
+Three days later the following letter was received:
+
+
+"To MISS CLARA BARTON, President,
+
+"American National Red Cross:
+
+"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.
+
+"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding
+Hospital."
+
+
+To this the following reply was immediately returned:
+
+
+"Steamship State of Texas,
+
+"SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
+
+"DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.
+
+"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means--not legitimately
+fitted for the work--still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.
+
+"Cordially yours,
+
+"CLARA BARTON,
+
+"President, American National Red Cross."
+
+
+Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban
+hospitals.
+
+A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers'
+hospital.
+
+On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:
+
+
+"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for
+transportation.
+
+"SHAFTER."
+
+
+The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.
+
+I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.
+
+Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies--meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing--entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.
+
+An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps--General Shafter's headquarters.
+
+The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket
+under them.
+
+Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.
+
+A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made--the bits of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it--appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.
+
+After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.
+
+The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.
+
+It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.
+
+When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out--putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain--I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty
+years.
+
+The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled--bucket after bucket went
+out--until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,
+and wet--scarcely a groan, no word of complaint--no man said he was not
+well treated.
+
+The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold--for naked men bitter
+cold--before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.
+
+Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there--that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up--where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.
+
+They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.
+
+More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.
+
+The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us--magnificent in its dimensions--shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.
+
+Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.
+
+It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:
+
+"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"
+
+"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.
+
+"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."
+
+"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he
+said.
+
+"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."
+
+"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"
+
+The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice, tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army
+rations.
+
+"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."
+
+"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.
+
+Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.
+
+The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.
+
+At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:
+
+
+"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.
+
+"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.
+
+"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
+men.
+
+"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made--neither cots nor food--practically no hospital supplies.
+
+"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded--some 1,500 killed and wounded.
+
+"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.
+
+"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint--only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.
+
+"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible--to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.
+
+"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.
+
+"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.
+
+"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.
+
+"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.
+
+"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.
+
+"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.
+
+"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men. Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.
+
+"Their wounds were very similar--in the head--and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.
+
+"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.
+
+"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.
+
+"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
+vacant cot?'
+
+"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.
+
+"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.
+
+"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
+Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'
+
+"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.
+
+"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'
+
+"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'
+
+"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.
+
+"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.
+
+"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his
+pain.
+
+"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head--the misery is awful.'
+
+"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.
+
+"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture--a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.
+
+"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night--a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked
+God."
+
+
+Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North--a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night--with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again--recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military
+Academy.
+
+Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.
+
+I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.
+
+Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot--the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill--had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know--but something
+told me.
+
+The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered--and the people as
+well--would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that
+city.
+
+I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of prisoners--officers at that--in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane
+principles.
+
+By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.
+
+I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp--sending to El
+Caney what was most needed there--and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.
+
+But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned--all buildings gone or smoking--and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.
+
+All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.
+
+The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:
+
+
+"State of Texas,
+
+"_July 16, 1898_.
+
+"ADMIRAL SAMPSON, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.
+
+"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.
+
+"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who _need_ and _own_ it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.
+
+"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.
+
+"Respectfuly and cordially,
+
+"CLARA BARTON."
+
+
+These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?
+
+On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.
+
+Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me--are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?
+
+As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.
+
+Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.
+
+Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."
+
+The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that _naïveté_ and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."
+
+How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?
+
+A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.
+
+The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.
+
+A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red
+Cross.
+
+The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.
+
+Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.
+
+These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender--alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all--toiled day and night.
+
+The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, _Cuba
+Libre_.
+
+Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves--by a general adoption
+in their own homes--and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.
+
+Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.
+
+Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.
+
+Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?
+
+"In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.
+
+"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."--FROM PRESIDENT
+MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON
+
+1900
+
+
+This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word--Galveston.
+
+Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.
+
+In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to
+gather.
+
+In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross, if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert
+Adamson.
+
+The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.
+
+Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall--the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.
+
+Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.
+
+The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.
+
+On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.
+
+It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.
+
+Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.
+
+A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:
+
+A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major--with his Grand Army
+button--overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."
+
+It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.
+
+Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.
+
+Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.
+
+No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:
+
+
+"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom--the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing--many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;--mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost--a dazed and tearless throng, such as Danté
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.
+
+"Of Texas City--a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses--nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest--and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together--compared to which, for softness, the _penitente's_ slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'--and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers
+require?
+
+"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question--stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon--for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.
+
+"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth--simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day, people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.
+
+"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief--as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the _débris_ for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'
+
+"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds--must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.
+
+"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously--fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses--which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets--had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of _débris_,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.
+
+"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses, rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.
+
+"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.
+
+"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it--to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'
+
+"'What is in there now?' I asked.
+
+"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em--jest bones, you
+know--down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'
+
+"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.
+
+"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'
+
+"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.
+
+"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair--with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly
+scalped.'
+
+"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call--how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task--and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.
+
+"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so as to make them
+immediately available--to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another--was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+A. M. till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes--some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.
+
+"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods--streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by--but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of--wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments--the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law--presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens--forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!
+
+"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened--and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!
+
+"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years--hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars--not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity--plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.
+
+"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord--but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields--that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.
+
+"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose--all that
+a girl would need--even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.
+
+"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.
+
+"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore, in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants--and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer--here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.
+
+"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:--for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.
+
+"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat--Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone--but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.
+
+"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks--the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain. Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.
+
+"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States--a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand--and left
+in it a bank-note--I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.
+
+"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."
+
+
+My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day, taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.
+
+Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.
+
+Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.
+
+From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.
+
+Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.
+
+Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
+their hands.
+
+It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.
+
+That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.
+
+Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.
+
+I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the
+Galveston seashore?
+
+At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.
+
+All were burned.
+
+The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the _débris_ and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused--what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.
+
+The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.
+
+This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.
+
+I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That grand committee of Galveston
+relief--than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met--are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.
+
+I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years--initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.
+
+To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.
+
+To you--the people of America--this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever
+so need you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Story of the Red Cross
+       Glimpses of Field Work
+
+Author: Clara Barton
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2009 [EBook #30230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE<br />RED CROSS</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/i001.jpg" width='449' height='641' alt=" CLARA BARTON From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager" /></div>
+
+
+<h4>CLARA BARTON<br /><br />From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902,<br />showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the<br />Czar and the Empress Dowager</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE<br />RED CROSS</h1>
+
+<h3>GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK</h3>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>CLARA BARTON</h2>
+
+<h4>FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS<br />AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/i003.jpg" width='100' height='118' alt="Logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK<br />D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br />MCMIV</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904, by</span><br />D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>Published, June, 1904</i></h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p>Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner&mdash;the distributer and
+organizer&mdash;of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.</p>
+
+<p>Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered&mdash;not as charity&mdash;but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.</p>
+
+<p>It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.</p>
+
+<p>To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Clara Barton.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Glen Echo, Maryland,</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>May 15, 1904.</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#I">I</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Early History.</span> 1880-1884</li>
+<li><a href="#II">II</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Texas Famine and the Mount Vernon Cyclone.</span> 1885-1888</li>
+<li><a href="#III">III</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Yellow Fever in Florida.</span> 1887</li>
+<li><a href="#IV">IV</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Johnstown Flood.</span> 1889</li>
+<li><a href="#V">V</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Russian Famine.</span> 1891</li>
+<li><a href="#VI">VI</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">The Sea Island Relief.</span> 1893</li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#VII">VII</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Armenian Relief.</span> 1896</li>
+<li><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Cuba.</span> 1898</li>
+<li><a href="#IX">IX</a></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Galveston.</span> 1900</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>A STORY OF THE RED<br />CROSS</h1>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h3>EARLY HISTORY</h3>
+
+<h3>1880-1884</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p class="center">"I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+nothing that I have not lived."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p><p>"Not that&mdash;not that, tell me something it <i>does</i>&mdash;it and you, I can
+understand it better then."</p>
+
+<p>A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must have.</p>
+
+<p>In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.</p>
+
+<p>For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I will commence even back of itself.</p>
+
+<p>Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."</p>
+
+<p>To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and I went.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.</p>
+
+<p>This time I brought the idea of the treaty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet&mdash;James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln&mdash;a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.</p>
+
+<p>The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never written.</p>
+
+<p>Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.</p>
+
+<p>All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the <i>Evening Star</i>, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.</p>
+
+<p>No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the spring of 1882 found us&mdash;a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the Government.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.</p>
+
+<p>The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester&mdash;who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president&mdash;of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> four States&mdash;Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi&mdash;and planted for the crops of the coming season.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds&mdash;something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester&mdash;always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.</p>
+
+<p>A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.</p>
+
+<p>This was the commencement of 1883. In May,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston&mdash;remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler as Governor.</p>
+
+<p>In the short and interrupted existence of our association&mdash;scarce two
+years&mdash;our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p><i>First.</i> To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second.</i> Not to pay salaries to officers&mdash;paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor&mdash;and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.</p>
+
+<p><i>Third.</i> To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster&mdash;this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fourth.</i> To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fifth.</i> That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field&mdash;make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted community.</p>
+
+<p>To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.</p>
+
+<p>It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.</p>
+
+<p>I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the rise.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed&mdash;but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress&mdash;even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current&mdash;catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore&mdash;with every coal-pit
+filled with water,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.</p>
+
+<p>There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way&mdash;the Government
+boats had come with rations of food&mdash;we too must take to the water.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal&mdash;our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck&mdash;and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American waters.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side&mdash;from village to
+village&mdash;where the homeless, shivering people were gathered&mdash;called for
+the most responsible person&mdash;a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.</p>
+
+<p>Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.</p>
+
+<p>The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> and rescue the perishing stock&mdash;as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.</p>
+
+<p>We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading&mdash;clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay&mdash;besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal&mdash;we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.</p>
+
+<p>We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material&mdash;had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.</p>
+
+<p>Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.</p>
+
+<p>I am thus particular to mention this from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.</p>
+
+<p>From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been&mdash;and was not.</p>
+
+<p>Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.</p>
+
+<p>Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house&mdash;floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:</p>
+
+<p>"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair&mdash;the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters&mdash;hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."</p>
+
+<p>When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return&mdash;four months on the rivers&mdash;traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars&mdash;gathered as we used it.</p>
+
+<p>We left at one point on the Ohio River a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"&mdash;probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Waterford, Pa.</span>, <i>March</i> 24, 1884.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Barton</span>:</p>
+
+<p>We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Joe Farrar</span>, twelve years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Florence Howe</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Mary Barton</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Reed White</span>, eleven years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Bertie Ainsworth</span>, ten years old.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Loyd Barton</span>, seven years old.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little Six."</p>
+
+<p>The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board&mdash;a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow&mdash;Mrs. Plew&mdash;whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand&mdash;"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.</p>
+
+<p>They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a <i>clean</i> hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.</p>
+
+<p>"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."</p>
+
+<p>There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.</p>
+
+<p>No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was <i>her</i> turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say&mdash;"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."</p>
+
+<p>We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left her, we asked if she would name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"</p>
+
+<p>We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria&mdash;run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help&mdash;all were well.</p>
+
+<p>Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies&mdash;St. Louis and
+Chicago&mdash;we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>"Has any one complained?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Then to whom would you report?"</p>
+
+<p>"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall designate."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness&mdash;you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt&mdash;and shall appoint you."</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.</p>
+
+<p>The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE</h3>
+
+<p>Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.</p>
+
+<p>Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns&mdash;the
+second was a drought with no returns&mdash;the third the same. Hunger for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back&mdash;the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos&mdash;the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the plains.</p>
+
+<p>These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the <i>press</i>,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.</p>
+
+<p>In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters&mdash;traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."</p>
+
+<p>The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."</p>
+
+<p>President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.</p>
+
+<p>Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three delegates.</p>
+
+<p>It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.</p>
+
+<p>Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated&mdash;and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had happened.</p>
+
+<p>No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.</p>
+
+<p>It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.</p>
+
+<p>In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.</p>
+
+<p>At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">American National Red Cross</span>,<br />
+"Clara Barton, President."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA</h3>
+
+<p>During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.</p>
+
+<p>An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay them.</p>
+
+<p>This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p>The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"&mdash;a tall Norwegian&mdash;Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.</p>
+
+<p>Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.</p>
+
+<p>When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."</p>
+
+<p>"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.</p>
+
+<p>One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.</p>
+
+<p>On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.</p>
+
+<p>But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved his people.</p>
+
+<p>Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band&mdash;Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward Holyland.</p>
+
+<p>I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+<i>Howard</i> stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "<i>Old Guard</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."</p>
+
+<p>It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-nine, madam."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."</p>
+
+<p>"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."</p>
+
+<p>"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."</p>
+
+<p>Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."</p>
+
+<p>By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."</p>
+
+<p>There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow fever."</p>
+
+<p>We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical fraternity.</p>
+
+<p>"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.</p>
+
+<p>The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.</p>
+
+<p>The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.</p>
+
+<p>Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.</p>
+
+<p>To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."</p>
+
+<p>The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days&mdash;their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD</h3>
+
+<p>On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.</p>
+
+<p>For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day&mdash;the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain&mdash;all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from neglect.</p>
+
+<p>Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.</p>
+
+<p>Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the streets.</p>
+
+<p>But I am not here to describe Johnstown&mdash;the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it&mdash;but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.</p>
+
+<p>From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point&mdash;the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields&mdash;and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.</p>
+
+<p>Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.</p>
+
+<p>We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.</p>
+
+<p>Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.</p>
+
+<p>A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.</p>
+
+<p>This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.</p>
+
+<p>The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.</p>
+
+<p>When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.</p>
+
+<p>To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.</p>
+
+<p>It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal of food.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.</p>
+
+<p>The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.</p>
+
+<p>I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.</p>
+
+<p>The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead&mdash;"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following six months.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><p>This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.</p>
+
+<p>I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had left in May.</p>
+
+<p>In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies&mdash;new and old&mdash;for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.</p>
+
+<p>The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.</p>
+
+<p>Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.</p>
+
+<p>The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels&mdash;still it will not satisfy all.</p>
+
+<p>In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:</p>
+
+<p>"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."</p>
+
+<p>Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+ph[oe]nix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RUSSIAN FAMINE</h3>
+
+<p>As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia&mdash;embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.</p>
+
+<p>The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian <i>Charg&eacute; d'Affaires</i> at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.</p>
+
+<p>Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.</p>
+
+<p>But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.</p>
+
+<p>Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.</p>
+
+<p>That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.</p>
+
+<p>The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:</p>
+
+<p>"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"</p>
+
+<p>A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:</p>
+
+<p>"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans&mdash;Christ is risen.</p>
+
+<p>"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest&mdash;Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."</p>
+
+<p>In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:</p>
+
+<p>"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of art.</p>
+
+<p>"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this department."</p>
+
+<p>In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn&mdash;$12,500&mdash;besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.</p>
+
+<p>We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF</h3>
+
+<p>This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has this passage:</p>
+
+<p>"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."</p>
+
+<p>At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.</p>
+
+<p>The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.</p>
+
+<p>Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."</p>
+
+<p>Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach&mdash;'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."</p>
+
+<p>One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them&mdash;bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.</p>
+
+<p>The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.</p>
+
+<p>As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."</p>
+
+<p>A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.</p>
+
+<p>We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.</p>
+
+<p>Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small new State.</p>
+
+<p>If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Egan's report has this passage:</p>
+
+<p>"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."</p>
+
+<p>The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.</p>
+
+<p>The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.</p>
+
+<p>In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified" homes.</p>
+
+<p>A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>"No use, Mistah&mdash;no use&mdash;'cause de pig eat it all up."</p>
+
+<p>It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.</p>
+
+<p>To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.</p>
+
+<p>Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed&mdash;every "eye" of the potato making a sprout&mdash;these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.</p>
+
+<p>I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket&mdash;in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.</p>
+
+<p>If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.</p>
+
+<p>The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the storm.</p>
+
+<p>This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a shelter.</p>
+
+<p>A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."</p>
+
+<p>The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs&mdash;the gift of seventy-one families&mdash;being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.</p>
+
+<p>Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing better illustrates the native good heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into town.</p>
+
+<p>His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"&mdash;and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another&mdash;if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"&mdash;and it would
+help him so much.</p>
+
+<p>The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before&mdash;often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"&mdash;this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established&mdash;one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"&mdash;good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.</p>
+
+<p>The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.</p>
+
+<p>It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.</p>
+
+<p>A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.</p>
+
+<p>A half dozen years later, when our negro prot&eacute;g&eacute;s of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black&mdash;such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.</p>
+
+<p>In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.</p>
+
+<p>They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done for us."</p>
+
+<p>I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>ARMENIAN RELIEF</h3>
+
+<h3>1896</h3>
+
+<p>Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year&mdash;at a day's notice&mdash;the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.</p>
+
+<p>England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open the way.</p>
+
+<p>A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.</p>
+
+<p>Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.</p>
+
+<p>These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds&mdash;one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds&mdash;we did not do it for ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Second, there must be perfect unanimity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.</p>
+
+<p>Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.</p>
+
+<p>The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government&mdash;a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious significance.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."</p>
+
+<p>I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons&mdash;humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return&mdash;such as I give I shall expect to receive."</p>
+
+<p>Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."</p>
+
+<p>I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.</p>
+
+<p>I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.</p>
+
+<p>The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.</p>
+
+<p>While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics&mdash;typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox&mdash;that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+<i>teskeres</i>, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.</p>
+
+<p>With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America&mdash;Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood&mdash;were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the&mdash;to them&mdash;unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.</p>
+
+<p>While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.</p>
+
+<p>During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the anxious people.</p>
+
+<p>On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.</p>
+
+<p>The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."</p>
+
+<p>The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all&mdash;that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was a new experience that these strangers <i>dared</i> to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and <i>d&eacute;bris</i> of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.</p>
+
+<p>They have told me since their return that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.</p>
+
+<p>Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal&mdash;ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep&mdash;had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.</p>
+
+<p>As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the difference.</p>
+
+<p>At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer&mdash;five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.</p>
+
+<p>It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.</p>
+
+<p>They knew we had taken our lives in our hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.</p>
+
+<p>That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to <i>make</i> us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.</p>
+
+<p>Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.</p>
+
+<p>Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor&mdash;physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.</p>
+
+<p>And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices&mdash;"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"&mdash;that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of music.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CUBA</h3>
+
+<h3>1898</h3>
+
+<p>On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.</p>
+
+<p>These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.</p>
+
+<p>Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the result.</p>
+
+<p>The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.</p>
+
+<p>The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea&mdash;our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters&mdash;and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?</p>
+
+<p>At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?</p>
+
+<p>Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.</p>
+
+<p>We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.</p>
+
+<p>Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.</p>
+
+<p>Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.</p>
+
+<p>By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone&mdash;of all the Red Cross nations&mdash;had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the <i>navies</i>
+of the world, as well as the armies.</p>
+
+<p>Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+<i>ready</i>. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."</p>
+
+<p>Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we&mdash;poor fellow&mdash;and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for&mdash;he knows not what.</p>
+
+<p>The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital&mdash;indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a <i>later</i> line which could not be crossed.</p>
+
+<p>The Cubans who had just come into camp <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building&mdash;Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital&mdash;and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Three days later the following letter was received:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"To <span class="smcap">Miss Clara Barton</span>, President,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "American National Red Cross:</p>
+
+<p>"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Your obedient servant, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Louis A. Le Garde</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>To this the following reply was immediately returned:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Steamship State of Texas,</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Siboney, Santiago de Cuba</span>, <i>June 30, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dr. Louis A. Le Garde</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.</p>
+
+<p>"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means&mdash;not legitimately
+fitted for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>work&mdash;still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Cordially yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Clara Barton</span>, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"President, American National Red Cross."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers' hospital.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for transportation.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Shafter.</span>"</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.</p>
+
+<p>Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies&mdash;meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing&mdash;entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.</p>
+
+<p>An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps&mdash;General Shafter's headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket under them.</p>
+
+<p>Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.</p>
+
+<p>A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made&mdash;the bits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it&mdash;appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.</p>
+
+<p>After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.</p>
+
+<p>The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.</p>
+
+<p>When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out&mdash;putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain&mdash;I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled&mdash;bucket after bucket went
+out&mdash;until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+and wet&mdash;scarcely a groan, no word of complaint&mdash;no man said he was not
+well treated.</p>
+
+<p>The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold&mdash;for naked men bitter
+cold&mdash;before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there&mdash;that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up&mdash;where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.</p>
+
+<p>They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.</p>
+
+<p>The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us&mdash;magnificent in its dimensions&mdash;shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.</p>
+
+<p>"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"</p>
+
+<p>The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army rations.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."</p>
+
+<p>"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.</p>
+
+<p>The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our <i>menage</i> quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.</p>
+
+<p>At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Siboney</span>, <i>July 8, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life&mdash;the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>"And it all came at once&mdash;a quick blow&mdash;with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing&mdash;no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick men.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made&mdash;neither cots nor food&mdash;practically no hospital supplies.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded&mdash;some 1,500 killed and wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.</p>
+
+<p>"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint&mdash;only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible&mdash;to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.</p>
+
+<p>"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.</p>
+
+<p>"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.</p>
+
+<p>"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.</p>
+
+<p>"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.</p>
+
+<p>"Their wounds were very similar&mdash;in the head&mdash;and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.</p>
+
+<p>"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.</p>
+
+<p>"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these&mdash;a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a vacant cot?'</p>
+
+<p>"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.</p>
+
+<p>"And so it went on through the long night&mdash;the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.</p>
+
+<p>"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch&mdash;Captain
+Mills and Private Clark&mdash;one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'</p>
+
+<p>"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p><p>"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'</p>
+
+<p>"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.</p>
+
+<p>"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his pain.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head&mdash;the misery is awful.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><p>"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.</p>
+
+<p>"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture&mdash;a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.</p>
+
+<p>"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night&mdash;a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked God."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North&mdash;a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night&mdash;with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again&mdash;recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military Academy.</p>
+
+<p>Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.</p>
+
+<p>I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.</p>
+
+<p>Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot&mdash;the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill&mdash;had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know&mdash;but something told me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><p>The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered&mdash;and the people as
+well&mdash;would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that city.</p>
+
+<p>I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> prisoners&mdash;officers at that&mdash;in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane principles.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp&mdash;sending to El
+Caney<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> what was most needed there&mdash;and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.</p>
+
+<p>But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned&mdash;all buildings gone or smoking&mdash;and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.</p>
+
+<p>All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.</p>
+
+<p>The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"State of Texas,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<i>July 16, 1898</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Admiral Sampson</span>, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.</p>
+
+<p>"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.</p>
+
+<p>"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who <i>need</i> and <i>own</i> it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.</p>
+
+<p>"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Respectfuly and cordially,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Clara Barton</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?</p>
+
+<p>On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me&mdash;are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?</p>
+
+<p>As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.</p>
+
+<p>Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."</p>
+
+<p>The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."</p>
+
+<p>How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?</p>
+
+<p>A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.</p>
+
+<p>Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p><p>These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender&mdash;alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all&mdash;toiled day and night.</p>
+
+<p>The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, <i>Cuba Libre</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves&mdash;by a general adoption
+in their own homes&mdash;and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.</p>
+
+<p>Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.</p>
+
+<p>Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"In this connection it is a pleasure for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.</p>
+
+<p>"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."&mdash;<span class="smcap">From President
+McKinley's message to Congress, December</span> 6, 1898.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>GALVESTON</h3>
+
+<h3>1900</h3>
+
+<p>This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word&mdash;Galveston.</p>
+
+<p>Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.</p>
+
+<p>In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to gather.</p>
+
+<p>In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert Adamson.</p>
+
+<p>The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.</p>
+
+<p>Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall&mdash;the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.</p>
+
+<p>The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.</p>
+
+<p>A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:</p>
+
+<p>A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major&mdash;with his Grand Army
+button&mdash;overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."</p>
+
+<p>It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.</p>
+
+<p>Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.</p>
+
+<p>No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:</p>
+
+<p>"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom&mdash;the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing&mdash;many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;&mdash;mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost&mdash;a dazed and tearless throng, such as Dant&eacute;
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>"Of Texas City&mdash;a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses&mdash;nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest&mdash;and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together&mdash;compared to which, for softness, the <i>penitente's</i> slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'&mdash;and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers require?</p>
+
+<p>"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question&mdash;stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon&mdash;for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.</p>
+
+<p>"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth&mdash;simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.</p>
+
+<p>"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief&mdash;as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'</p>
+
+<p>"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds&mdash;must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously&mdash;fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses&mdash;which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets&mdash;had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of <i>d&eacute;bris</i>,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it&mdash;to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What is in there now?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em&mdash;jest bones, you
+know&mdash;down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'</p>
+
+<p>"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair&mdash;with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly scalped.'</p>
+
+<p>"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call&mdash;how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task&mdash;and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.</p>
+
+<p>"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> as to make them
+immediately available&mdash;to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another&mdash;was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+<span class="smaller">A. M.</span> till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes&mdash;some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods&mdash;streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by&mdash;but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of&mdash;wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments&mdash;the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law&mdash;presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens&mdash;forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!</p>
+
+<p>"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened&mdash;and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!</p>
+
+<p>"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years&mdash;hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars&mdash;not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity&mdash;plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord&mdash;but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields&mdash;that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.</p>
+
+<p>"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose&mdash;all that
+a girl would need&mdash;even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.</p>
+
+<p>"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> knickerbockers contained a note&mdash;generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries&mdash;coffee, sugar, and tobacco&mdash;to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.</p>
+
+<p>"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes&mdash;except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants&mdash;and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer&mdash;here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.</p>
+
+<p>"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:&mdash;for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat&mdash;Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone&mdash;but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.</p>
+
+<p>"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks&mdash;the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States&mdash;a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand&mdash;and left
+in it a bank-note&mdash;I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."</p>
+
+<p>My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.</p>
+
+<p>Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.</p>
+
+<p>From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away&mdash;sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung their hands.</p>
+
+<p>It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.</p>
+
+<p>That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.</p>
+
+<p>Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.</p>
+
+<p>I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the Galveston seashore?</p>
+
+<p>At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.</p>
+
+<p>All were burned.</p>
+
+<p>The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused&mdash;what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.</p>
+
+<p>The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.</p>
+
+<p>This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.</p>
+
+<p>I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> grand committee of Galveston
+relief&mdash;than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met&mdash;are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.</p>
+
+<p>I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years&mdash;initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.</p>
+
+<p>To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.</p>
+
+<p>To you&mdash;the people of America&mdash;this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever so need you.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 30230-h.htm or 30230-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Story of the Red Cross
+       Glimpses of Field Work
+
+Author: Clara Barton
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2009 [EBook #30230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A STORY OF THE RED CROSS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+[Illustration: CLARA BARTON
+
+From a photograph taken in St. Petersburg in July, 1902, showing the
+decorations conferred upon her by the Czar and the Empress Dowager]
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+GLIMPSES OF FIELD WORK
+
+BY
+
+CLARA BARTON
+
+FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT, 1881-1904
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+
+NEW YORK
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+MCMIV
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+_Published, June, 1904_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the foundation of the Red Cross in America, many direful
+calamities have afflicted the country. In each of these visitations the
+Red Cross has acted in some degree as the Almoner--the distributer and
+organizer--of the bountiful measures of relief that have been poured out
+by the American people.
+
+Its work has been accomplished quietly and without ostentation. All the
+relief has been administered--not as charity--but as God-sent succor to
+our brothers and sisters who have been overwhelmed by some mighty
+convulsion of the forces of nature.
+
+The wreckage has been cleared away, the stricken people have been
+wisely, tenderly, and calmly guided out of panic and despair on to the
+road of self-help and cooperative effort to restore their shattered
+homes and broken fortunes; and then the Red Cross has retired as quietly
+as it came, and few, outside of the people immediately concerned, have
+realized the beneficent powers of help and healing that have fallen like
+a benediction upon the stricken wherever that sacred symbol of humanity
+has made its way.
+
+It is my thought that a brief account of the work of the Red Cross
+during the past twenty-five years will be of interest to the American
+people. In a volume of this size it must of necessity be but a brief
+outline, sufficient, however, to convey a clear impression of what the
+Red Cross really means to every individual in this great country of
+ours.
+
+To the thousands of American men and women whose generous bounty has
+made the work of the Red Cross possible, to the stricken and distressed
+who because of it have been helped back to life and hope, and to all the
+friends of the great, universal humanity which it typifies, this small
+book is lovingly dedicated.
+
+CLARA BARTON.
+
+GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND,
+_May 15, 1904._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+                                                            PAGE
+EARLY HISTORY. 1880-1884                                       1
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MOUNT VERNON CYCLONE. 1885-1888      30
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA. 1887                                 38
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. 1889                                     54
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. 1891                                      70
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF. 1893                                   77
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF. 1896                                         94
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA. 1898                                                   115
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON. 1900                                              164
+
+
+
+
+A STORY OF THE RED CROSS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+EARLY HISTORY
+
+1880-1884
+
+     "I have lived much that I have not written, but I have written
+     nothing that I have not lived."
+
+
+It was a little blue-eyed girl of ten who sat on a low hassock at my
+feet, slowly drawing the soft auburn curls between her fingers, when,
+suddenly lifting her head and looking me earnestly in the face, she
+exclaimed: "What is the Red Cross? Please tell me about it; I can not
+understand it."
+
+There was a pleading earnestness in the tone not to be resisted, and
+laying down my pen I commenced to explain to her the principles,
+history, and uses of the Red Cross. She listened anxiously, the pretty
+brow knitted; she seemed more and more perplexed, until, as if a light
+had broken over her, she exclaimed, half impatiently:
+
+"Not that--not that, tell me something it _does_--it and you, I can
+understand it better then."
+
+A light had broken over me. It was a story the child wanted to
+illustrate the principle and bring it home to her. A story she must
+have.
+
+In a half hour she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
+even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
+Here was food for thought.
+
+For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
+of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
+and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
+did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
+practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
+principles to present themselves.
+
+I will commence even back of itself.
+
+Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
+fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
+thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
+unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
+years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
+out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
+for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
+personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."
+
+To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
+to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
+Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
+peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
+fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
+resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
+me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
+I went.
+
+Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
+and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
+stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
+be for its good and the good of our people.
+
+This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
+Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
+with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
+years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
+friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
+second martyred President and three members of his historic
+cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
+national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
+Red Cross, and, by desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was
+made its president, and requested to name my officers.
+
+The association was formed during the winter of 1880-'81, with the view
+on the part of President Garfield of facilitating the adoption of the
+treaty which he would name in his next message, which message was never
+written.
+
+Before the message, he, too, had joined the martyred ranks, and his
+gentle successor, Arthur, filled his chair and kept his promise, and
+through action of his own executive department the treaty was adopted;
+indorsed by action of the Senate; proclaimed by the President to our
+people; later ratified by the International Powers in the Congress of
+Berne, with the pledge to render relief to unfortunate victims of war,
+and the privilege, by my request, of rendering similar relief to the
+victims of great national calamities or disasters.
+
+All this had been accomplished by the kindly help of a few personal
+friends, tireless and unrewarded, and while the news of the accession of
+the Government of the United States, to the treaty of Geneva, lit
+bonfires that night (for I cabled it by their request) in the streets of
+Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain, a little four-line paragraph in
+the congressional doings of the day in the _Evening Star_, of
+Washington, alone announced to the people of America that an
+international treaty had been added to their rolls.
+
+No personal distinction had been bestowed, no one honored, no one
+politically advanced, no money of the Government expended, and, like
+other things of like nature and history, it was left in obscurity to
+make its own way and live its own hard life.
+
+Thus the spring of 1882 found us--a few people, tired and weak, with
+five years of costly service, a treaty gained, with no fund, no war nor
+prospect of any, and no helpful connection with or acknowledgment by the
+Government.
+
+Soon the news of "Half the State of Michigan on Fire" called us to
+action on our own laws of civil relief. A little draft on the purse of
+the new, inexperienced president of the association paved the way for an
+agent to go to the field. Others generously joined, all reported to our
+friend and advocate, Senator Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. Some supplies
+were sent, a society or two formed to provide and forward them. The
+agents remained until the suffering was relieved, and thus the first
+field relief work of which we have any record in the United States was
+commenced.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been asked by the Senate to write the history of the
+Red Cross, and show the official action taken by our Government on the
+acceptance of the treaty, which history the Senate would have printed at
+the Government printing-office. This volume I prepared as requested. A
+thousand copies were printed for information to the public, to be
+circulated by the society; but with no frank or other means provided,
+and with a postage of some ten cents a volume, we were compelled to
+limit the circulation to the means.
+
+The following year, 1883, a disastrous rise in the Ohio River called for
+our aid. Dr. J. B. Hubbell, who had been our agent the year before, was
+called from Michigan University, where he was completing a course, to
+examine the needs of the inhabitants and take such relief as we could
+provide. There was little loss of life, and the destruction of property
+lay largely in the loss of stock, and washing away of the soil,
+vegetation, and the means of reproduction.
+
+A remarkable provision for this latter loss was made by the gift of Mr.
+Hiram Sibley, the noted seed dealer of Rochester--who had become
+associated with the Red Cross, being an old-time friend of the family of
+its president--of ten thousand dollars' worth of seed, to replant the
+washed-out lands adown the Mississippi. As the waters ran off the mud
+immediately baked in the sunshine, making planting impossible after a
+few days. Accordingly, Mr. Sibley's gift was sent with all haste to our
+agent at Memphis, and in forty-eight hours, by train and boat, it was
+distributed in the four States--Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and
+Mississippi--and planted for the crops of the coming season.
+
+Besides this generous gift of material, a little money had been raised
+and sent by the three societies of the Red Cross which had been formed,
+viz.: Dansville and Syracuse, a few hundreds--something more from the
+Red Cross at Rochester--always thoughtful and generous, which served to
+help in the distribution of clothing and supplies promiscuously sent.
+And at the finish of the work, when every donation had been carefully
+acknowledged, one thousand dollars and some cents were left in the
+treasury unexpended.
+
+A cyclone occurring within a few months in Louisiana and southern
+Alabama, cutting a swath from New Orleans to Mobile, decided us to send
+eight hundred dollars of this reserve to the secretary of the Red Cross
+Society of New Orleans, which sum was forwarded by our vice-president,
+Mr. A. S. Solomons. This left a sum of two hundred dollars and some
+cents in the treasury with which to commence another field.
+
+This was the commencement of 1883. In May, at the solicitation of
+General Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts, I took the
+superintendence of the Massachusetts Woman's State Prison at Sherborn,
+at the customary salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To this duty
+the Legislature added, after my arrival, those of secretary and
+treasurer, without increase of salary, discharging the former incumbent,
+a man, at three thousand dollars a year. I accepted the new duties,
+became my own bondsman for ten thousand dollars, by transfer of that
+amount of bonds from my bankers, Brown Brothers, New York, to the
+Massachusetts State Treasury at Boston--remaining in charge of the
+prison until the close of the year, and the retirement of General Butler
+as Governor.
+
+In the short and interrupted existence of our association--scarce two
+years--our few official advisers had formed some general regulations,
+relating to our course of procedure. Realizing that to be of any real
+service as a body of relief for sudden disasters, we must not only be
+independent of the slow, ordinary methods of soliciting relief, but in
+its means of application as well, it was decided:
+
+_First._ To never solicit relief or ask for contributions.
+
+_Second._ Not to pay salaries to officers--paying out money only to
+those whom we must employ for manual labor--and as our officers served
+without compensation they should not be taxed for dues.
+
+_Third._ To keep ourselves always in possession of a stated sum of money
+to commence a field of disaster--this sum to be independent even of the
+closed doors of a bank which might prevent leaving for a field on a
+Sunday or holiday.
+
+_Fourth._ To take this sum of our own, going directly to a field with
+such help as needed, giving no notice until there, overlooking the
+field, and learning the extent of the trouble and conditions of the
+people, making immediate and reliable report to the country through the
+Associated Press, some of whose officers were our own Red Cross officers
+as well. These reports would be truthful, unexaggerated, and
+non-sensational statements that could be relied upon.
+
+_Fifth._ That if, under these conditions, the people chose to make use
+of us as distributers of the relief which they desired to contribute to
+the sufferers, we would do our best to serve them while at the
+field--make report directly to each and all contributors, so far as in
+our power, and proceed to carry out any directions and apply the relief
+at hand, in the wisest manner possible, among a dazed and afflicted
+community.
+
+To inaugurate this method, I, as president, placed a sum of three
+thousand dollars, free of bank or interest, upon momentary call, at the
+service of the association. On more than one occasion it has been taken
+on Sunday, when every bank in the country was closed and charitable
+bodies were at their prayers. Even the relief of Johnstown was thus
+commenced. This provision has never for a day been broken. It is as good
+at this moment as it was in 1883, and from the same source. It may not
+have been a "business-like" method nor one to be approved by stated
+boards of directors nor squared by bank regulations. But the foes we had
+to meet were not thus regulated, and had to be met as they came; and so
+they always must be if any good is to be accomplished.
+
+Until the Government and society can control the elements, and regulate
+a spring freshet, a whirlwind or a cyclone, they will find that red
+tape is not strong enough to hold their ravages in check.
+
+It was well that these regulations had been formulated and their
+provisions acted upon, as the state of our treasury and the conditions
+immediately following will show.
+
+I returned to Washington upon my retirement from the superintendence of
+the State Prison at Sherborn, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, who, having
+completed his university course, had come to the Red Cross for permanent
+service. Before we had even time to unpack our trunks, the news of the
+fearful rise of the Ohio River, of 1884, began to shock the country with
+its loss of life and property.
+
+I had never been present at a disaster in civil life. It had never
+occurred to me that they recurred so frequently. But if by virtue of my
+office as president I was liable to be called every year to preside over
+and provide for them, it was essential that I learn my duties
+experimentally. I accordingly joined Dr. Hubbell, who had been appointed
+general field agent, and proceeded to Pittsburg, the headwaters of the
+rise.
+
+Telegraphing from there to our agents of the Associated Press, we
+proceeded to Cincinnati, to find the city afloat. Its inhabitants were
+being fed from boats, through the second-story windows. These conditions
+were telegraphed. Supplies commenced to flow in, not only from our own
+societies but from the people of the country. Warehouses were filled, in
+spite of all we dispensed--but there were four hundred miles of this
+distress--even to Cairo, where the Ohio, sometimes thirty miles in
+width, discharged its swollen waters into the Mississippi.
+
+Recognizing this condition lower down the river as the greater need, we
+transferred our supplies and distribution to Evansville, Ind. Scarcely
+had we reached there when a cyclone struck the river below, and
+traveling up its entire length, leveled every standing object upon its
+banks, swept the houses along like cockle-shells, uprooted the greatest
+trees and whirled them down its mighty current--catching here and there
+its human victims, or leaving them with life only, houseless, homeless,
+wringing their hands on a frozen, fireless shore--with every coal-pit
+filled with water, and death from freezing more imminent than from
+hunger.
+
+There were four hundred miles more of this, and no way of reaching them
+by land. With all our tons of clothing, these people and their homeless
+little children were freezing. There was but one way--the Government
+boats had come with rations of food--we too must take to the water.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning I chartered my first boat, with captain
+and crew, at sixty dollars per day, to be at once laden to the water's
+edge with coal--our own supplies to be stored on the upper deck--and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon, as the murky sun was hiding its clouded
+face, the bell of the "John V. Troop," in charge of her owner, announced
+the departure of the first Red Cross relief-boat ever seen on American
+waters.
+
+I found myself that night with a stanch crew of thirty men and a skilled
+captain, and a boat under my command. I had never until then held such a
+command. We wove the river diagonally from side to side--from village to
+village--where the homeless, shivering people were gathered--called for
+the most responsible person--a clergyman if one could be found, threw
+off boxes of clothing, and hove off coal for a two weeks' supply, and
+steamed away to the opposite side, leaving only gratitude, wonder at who
+we were, where we came from, and what that strange flag meant? We
+improved every opportunity to replenish our supply of coal, and reached
+Cairo in five days.
+
+Waiting only to reload, we returned up the river, resupplied the revived
+villages of people, too grateful for words, reaching Evansville at the
+end of three weeks, where more supplies than we had taken awaited us.
+St. Louis and Chicago had caught the fever of relief, had arranged
+societies, and had asked permission to join our aid. Up to this time the
+Mississippi had given no indication of trouble, but now its great June
+rise commenced.
+
+The Government boats, by another appropriation, were sent to the
+Mississippi, and we prepared to supplement them. Discharging our Ohio
+River boat we went to St. Louis by rail and chartered the "Mattie Bell."
+The Red Cross Societies of St. Louis and Chicago, under their respective
+presidents and officers in charge of them and their funds, joined us,
+and together we prepared to feed and rescue the perishing stock--as
+well as people adown the Mississippi. The animals had never been saved
+in an overflow; and besides the cruelty of letting them starve by
+thousands, the loss to the people was irreparable, as the following year
+must inevitably be replete with idleness and poverty till more stock
+could be obtained to work with.
+
+We found as commissary at St. Louis, General Beckwith, the historic
+commissary-general of the old civil war, who had personally
+superintended the loading of my wagons in Washington, year after year,
+for the battle-fields of Virginia. He came on board the "Mattie Bell"
+and personally superintended the lading--clothing, corn, oats, salt, and
+hay--besides putting upon the Government boats large quantities of
+supplies which we could not take on at first, and giving us his
+blessing, watched us steam out on our joint mission; they putting off
+rations of meat and meal--we supplementing with clothing for the people
+and feed for the stock. We purchased all we could at cities as we
+passed, picked our course among the broken levees and roaring crevasses,
+all the way to New Orleans. The hungry were fed, the naked clothed, and
+the stock saved. The negro had his mule, and the planter his horses and
+cattle to carry on his work when the flood should disappear. We had
+lighter boats, still lighter purses, but lightest of all were the
+grateful hearts that a kind Providence and a generous people had given
+to us the privilege of serving.
+
+We discharged the "Mattie Bell" at St. Louis, bidding adieu to the
+officers of the Red Cross Society, who had rendered most acceptable
+service to the cause. They had brought their own funds and material--had
+personally administered them from the decks of the "Mattie Bell," made
+their own reports, and modestly retired to their home duties, there to
+await the next call.
+
+Chicago, which had a new Red Cross Society, formed almost for the
+occasion, through its most worthy and notable representative, Rev. E. I.
+Galvin, did the same, performing the long journey with us,
+superintending the distribution of his own relief and making his own
+report with such convincing power, that societies of no less excellence
+than the Lend-a-Hand were its outgrowth.
+
+I am thus particular to mention this from the loving gratitude
+fervently cherished for strong, tender help in the day of small things.
+Their contributions largely served to run our boat and keep our crew,
+and with heads, hearts, and hands we struggled as one, to avert the
+destruction so rife around us.
+
+From St. Louis we crossed over to Evansville, rechartered the "John V.
+Troop," and put on accumulated supplies. The waters of the Ohio had
+subsided and the people were returning to the old spots of earth that
+once had been their home, but there was neither house to live in nor
+tool to work the land with. We reloaded with pine lumber, ready-made
+doors, windows, household utensils, stores and groceries, farming
+utensils, and with a good force of carpenters proceeded up the Ohio once
+more. The sight of the disconsolate, half-clad farmer waiting on the
+bank told us where his home had been--and was not.
+
+Three hours' work of our carpenters would put up a one-room house,
+meanwhile our efficient men and women helpers, among them the best
+ladies of Evansville, would furnish it with beds, bedding, clothing,
+provisions for the family, and farming tools ready to go on with the
+season's work.
+
+Picture, if possible, this scene. A strange ship with a strange flag
+steaming up the river. It halts, turns from its course, and draws up to
+the nearest landing. Some persons disembark and speak a few minutes with
+the family. Then, a half dozen strong mechanics man a small boat laden
+with all material for constructing a one-room house--floor, roof, doors,
+windows. The boat returns for furniture. Within three hours the strange
+ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family in a new and clean house
+with bed, bedding, clothing, table, chairs, dishes, candles, a little
+cooking-stove with a blazing fire, all the common quota of cooking
+utensils, and meat, meal, and groceries; a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel,
+spade, hammer, and nails. We ask few questions. They ask none. The
+whistle of the "Troop" is as welcome to their ears as the flag to their
+eyes.
+
+At one of these wrecked villages the entire little hamlet of people
+stood on our decks. Only four, they said, were left at home, and these
+were sick. They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks. No
+words will ever do justice to the volume of native eloquence which
+seemed to roll unbidden from his lips. He finished with these sentences:
+
+"At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair--the whole
+village in the power of the demon of waters--hemmed in by sleet and ice,
+without fire enough to cook its little food. When the bell struck nine
+that night, there were seventy-five families on their knees before their
+blazing grates, thanking God for fire and light, and praying blessings
+on the phantom ship with the unknown device that had come as silently as
+the snow, they knew not whence, and gone, they knew not whither."
+
+When we finished the voyage of relief, we had covered the Ohio River
+from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and the Mississippi from St.
+Louis to New Orleans, and return--four months on the rivers--traveled
+over eight thousand miles, distributed in relief of money and estimated
+material, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars--gathered as we
+used it.
+
+We left at one point on the Ohio River a well-lettered cross-board,
+"Little Six Red Cross Landing"--probably there to this day. The story of
+The Little Six might be given in their own little letter:
+
+
+WATERFORD, PA., _March_ 24, 1884.
+
+DEAR MISS BARTON:
+
+We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like very much to
+see that house called "The Little Six," and we little six are so glad
+that we helped six other little children, and we thank you for going to
+so much trouble in putting our money just where we would have put it
+ourselves. Some time again when you want money to help you in your good
+work call on "The Little Six."
+
+
+JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
+FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
+MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
+REED WHITE, eleven years old.
+BERTIE AINSWORTH, ten years old.
+LOYD BARTON, seven years old.
+
+
+These children had given a public entertainment for the benefit of the
+flood sufferers. They themselves suggested it, planned and carried it
+out, and raised fifty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, which they
+sent to the editor of the Eric Dispatch, asking him to send it "where it
+would do the most good." The Dispatch forwarded it to the president of
+the Red Cross, with an account of the entertainment given by "The Little
+Six."
+
+The entire matter was too beautiful and withal unique, to meet only a
+common fate in its results. I could not, for a moment, think to mingle
+the gift of the little dramatists with the common fund for general
+distribution, and sought through all these weeks for a fitting
+disposition to make of it, where it would all go in some special manner
+to relieve some special necessity. I wanted it to benefit some children
+who had "wept on the banks" of the river, which in its madness had
+devoured their home.
+
+As we neared that picturesque spot on the Illinois side of the Ohio,
+known as "Cave-in Rock," we were hailed by a woman and her young
+daughter. The boat "rounded to" and made the landing and they came on
+board--a tall, thin, worn woman in tattered clothes, with a good but
+inexpressibly sad face, who wished to tell us that a package which we
+had left for her at the town on our way down had never reached her. She
+was a widow--Mrs. Plew--whose husband, a good river pilot, had died from
+overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in the floods of the Mississippi
+two years before, leaving her with six children dependent upon her, the
+eldest a lad in his "teens," the youngest a little baby girl. They owned
+their home, just on the brink of the river, a little "farm" of two or
+three acres, two horses, three cows, thirty hogs, and a half hundred
+fowls, and in spite of the bereavement, they had gone on bravely,
+winning the esteem and commendation of all who knew them for thrift and
+honest endeavor. Last year the floods came heavily upon them, driving
+them from their home, and the two horses were lost. Next the cholera
+came among the hogs and all but three died. Still they worked on; and
+held the home. This spring came the third flood. The water climbed up
+the bank, crept in at the door, and filled the lower story of the house.
+They had nowhere to remove their household goods, and stored them in the
+garret carefully packed, and went out to find a shelter in an old log
+house near by, used for a corn-crib. Day by day they watched the house,
+hailed passing boats for news of the rise and fall of the water above,
+always trusting the house would stand--"and it would," the mother said,
+"for it was a good, strong house, but for the storm." The winds came,
+and the terrible gale that swept the valley like a tornado, with the
+water at its height, leveling whole towns, descended and beat upon that
+house, and it fell. In the morning there was no house there, and the
+waves in their fury rushed madly on. Then these little children "stood
+and wept on the banks of the river," and the desolation and fear in the
+careful mother's heart, none but herself and her God can know.
+
+They lived on in the corn-crib, and it was from it they came to hail us
+as we passed to-day. Something had been told us of them on our downward
+trip, and a package had been left them at "Cave-in Rock," which they had
+not received. We went over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home, to find
+it one room of logs, an old stone chimney, with a cheerful fire of
+drift-wood and a _clean_ hearth, two wrecks of beds, a table, and two
+chairs which some kind neighbor had loaned. The Government boats had
+left them rations. There was an air of thrift, even in their desolation,
+a plank walk was laid about the door, the floor was cleanly swept, and
+the twenty-five surviving hens, for an equal number were lost in the
+storm, clucked and craiked comfortably about the door, and there were
+two-and-a-half dozen fresh eggs to sell us at a higher rate than paid in
+town. We stood, as we had done so many scores of times during the last
+few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene in the face. There were
+misfortune, poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of the future, but
+fortitude, courage, integrity, and honest thrift.
+
+"Would she like to return to the childhood home in Indiana?" we asked
+the mother, for we would help them go.
+
+"No," she said tenderly. "My husband lived and died here. He is buried
+here, and I would not like to go away and leave him alone. It won't be
+very long, and it is a comfort to the children to be able to visit his
+grave. No, I reckon we will stay here, and out of the wreck of the old
+house which sticks up out of the mud, we will put up another little
+hut, higher up on the bank out of the way of the floods, and if it is
+only a hut, it will be a home for us and we will get into it, and make
+our crop this year."
+
+There were no dry eyes, but very still hearts, while we listened to this
+sorrowful but brave little speech, made with a voice full of tears.
+
+Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell, was the first to speak.
+
+"Here are six children," he said with an inquiring glance at me.
+
+No response was needed. The thing was done. We told the mother the story
+of "The Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her if that money with
+enough more to make up one hundred dollars would help her to get up her
+house? It was _her_ turn to be speechless. At length with a struggling,
+choking voice she managed to say--"God knows how much it would be to me.
+Yes, with my good boys I can do it, and do it well."
+
+We put in her hands a check for this sum, and directed from the boat
+clean boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore the household, when
+the house should have been completed.
+
+Before we left her, we asked if she would name her house when it should
+be done? She thought a second, and caught the idea.
+
+"Yes," she replied quickly, with a really winsome smile on that worn and
+weary face, "yes, I shall name it 'The Little Six.'"
+
+We came to Pittsburg, discharged our empty boat, bade a heart-breaking
+good-by to our veteran volunteers from Evansville, who had shared our
+toil and pain and who would return on the boat, we taking train once
+more for Washington. We had been four months on the rivers, among fogs,
+rain, damp, and malaria--run all manner of risks and dangers, but had
+lost no life nor property, sunk no boat, and only that I was by this
+time too weak to walk without help--all were well.
+
+Through the thoughtfulness of our new societies--St. Louis and
+Chicago--we had been able to meet our share of the expenses, and to keep
+good the little personal provision we started with, and were thus ready
+to commence another field when it should come.
+
+On arriving home I found that I was notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva, that the Fourth International Conference would be
+held in that city in September, and I was requested to inform the
+United States Government, and ask it to send delegates. With the aid of
+a borrowed arm, I made my way up the steps of the Department of State
+(that was before the luxury of elevators) and made my errand known to
+Secretary Frelinghuysen, who had heard of it and was ready with his
+reply:
+
+"Yes, Miss Barton, we will make the needful appointment of delegates to
+the International Conference, and I appoint you as our delegate."
+
+"No, Mr. Frelinghuysen," I said, "I can not go. I have just returned
+from field work. I am tired and ill. Furthermore, I have not had time to
+make a report of our work."
+
+"There is no one else who sufficiently understands the Red Cross, and
+the provisions of the treaty, that our Government can send, and we can
+not afford to make a mistake in the matter of delegates to this first
+conference in which our Government shall participate," answered the
+Secretary. "As to the report, have you not acknowledged the
+contributions to all those who have sent?"
+
+"Oh, yes; every dollar and every box of goods where the donor was
+known," I replied.
+
+"Has any one complained?" he asked.
+
+"No; not a single person so far as is known. We have had only thanks."
+
+"Then to whom would you report?"
+
+"To you, Mr. Secretary, or to such person or in such manner as you shall
+designate."
+
+"I don't want any report; no report is necessary," answered the
+Secretary. "Our Government relief-boats have reported you officially,
+and all the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied.
+Regarding your illness--you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton,
+I recommend salt--and shall appoint you."
+
+This was done, and the appropriation for expenses was made, and at my
+request Judge Joseph Sheldon, and by invitation Mr. A. S. Solomon, our
+vice-president, were also appointed to accompany me. The appropriation
+sufficed for all.
+
+The conference was held at Geneva, September 17, 1884, and thus was had
+the first official representation of the United States Government at an
+International Conference of the Treaty of Geneva. There have since been
+five. I have attended all but one.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TEXAS FAMINE AND THE MT. VERNON CYCLONE
+
+
+Before the close of the following year, 1885, came what was known as the
+"Texas Famine." Thousands of miles of wild land, forming the Pan Handle,
+had been suddenly opened by the building of a Southern Railroad. In the
+speculative anxiety of the Road to people its newly acquired territory,
+unwarranted inducements of climatic advantages had been unscrupulously
+held out to the poor farmers of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
+
+Lured by the pictures presented them, some thousands of families had
+been induced to leave their old, worn-out farms, and with the little
+they could carry or drive, reach the new Eldorado, to find a new farm
+that needed only the planting to make them rich, prosperous, and happy,
+without labor. They planted. The first year brought some returns--the
+second was a drought with no returns--the third the same. Hunger for
+themselves and starvation for their stock stared them in the face. They
+could not pick up and go back--the rivers were dry from the Rio Grande
+to the Brazos--the earth was iron, and the heavens brass; cattle
+wandered at will for water and feed, and their bones whitened the
+plains.
+
+These were poor little peoples. They tried to make the great State know
+of their distress, but the rich railroad proprietors held the _press_,
+and no one knew their condition or could get correct information. At
+length a faithful clergyman came to Washington, to President Cleveland,
+and the Red Cross.
+
+We consulted with the President, who gave encouragement for us to go to
+Texas and learn the facts.
+
+In mid-winter, 1886, accompanied by Dr. Hubbell, the journey was
+undertaken. We proceeded to Albany, Texas, made headquarters--traveled
+over the stricken counties, found wretchedness, hunger, thirst, cold,
+heart-breaking discouragement. The third year of drought was upon them,
+and the good people of that great State, misled by its press, its press
+in turn misled by the speculators, innocently discredited every report
+of distress, and amused themselves by little sly innuendoes and witty
+jokes on the "Texas Famine."
+
+The condition was pitiful. To them it was hopeless. And yet not a dollar
+or a pound was needed outside of Texas. They only required to know the
+truth. This then was our task. We ceased to journey over arid fields of
+suffering, and turned our steps resolutely to the editorial rooms of the
+Dallas and Galveston News, at Dallas. Both editors were present; both
+sat half-breathless while the flood of information rolled over them in
+no uncertain terms.
+
+I shall never forget the tears in the mild blue eyes of General Belo, as
+he learned what he had done, and was still doing. Twelve hours brought
+another issue of the two papers. A column of editorial told the true
+situation. A modest contribution of the Red Cross headed a subscription
+list, General Belo following with his, and almost immediately the
+legislature made an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for
+food and supplies.
+
+The tender-hearted and conscience-smitten people sent their donations.
+Our task was done. We had seen and conquered.
+
+In the midst of a cold rain in February we reached Washington. A concise
+and full report was made to President Cleveland, saying in conclusion:
+"I thank you with all my heart, Mr. President, for the encouragement at
+the commencement, and for the privilege of writing you. We have done
+this little bit of work faithfully and hope it may meet your approval."
+
+President Cleveland's letter of thanks still bears testimony of his care
+for the people of the country, and his faith in its institutions.
+
+Not a dollar of outside help passed through our hands, but the little
+permanent provision was equal to the occasion and we had still a half
+left of our three thousand dollars. That was our first acquaintance with
+Texas. Galveston followed many years later with the same firm accord and
+good results. The bonds of affection had grown deep and strong between
+the great thousand-mile State and the little Red Cross that loved to
+serve her.
+
+In the following year, 1887, we were notified by the International
+Committee of Geneva of the conference to be held at Carlsruhe, by
+invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden. We were
+directed to inform the Department of State of this fact. We did so, and
+an appropriation was made by Congress to defray the expenses of three
+delegates.
+
+It may be well to explain that in these appointments the Government does
+not place the appropriation in the hands of the appointees, but simply
+becomes a guaranty. The appointee provides his own funds. If, after
+return, vouchers can be shown that the sum guaranteed has been spent
+according to regulations, he is reimbursed in due course.
+
+Here was at least a contrast from a rough Mississippi River boat and the
+crude homes of an unsettled Western State, to the royal carriage waiting
+to convey one to the apartments reserved in a palace, the elegance and
+culture of a court, the precision of a congress of representatives of
+the nations of the world. The questions of humanity discussed by them,
+the meeting of friends of other days, the regal bearing of the royal
+host and hostess, the last parting from the dear old Emperor of
+ninety-two, and his tenderly spoken, "It is the last time, good-by"; the
+loving and last farewell of the beloved Empress Augusta, the patron
+saint of the Red Cross; Bismarck and Moltke, in review, each with his
+Red Cross insignia; the cordial hand grasp and the farewell never
+repeated--and all of this attention to and interest in a subject that
+the country I had gone to represent scarcely realized had an existence
+beyond the receiving of some second-hand clothing, misfit shoes, and a
+little money sent by some one to some place, where something bad had
+happened.
+
+No one dreamed that it meant anything more, or that it needed anything
+after this, and nothing more was done.
+
+It is only now, after almost two decades and within the last three
+months, that we commence to awaken and wonder, with a mingled national
+and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is not as
+rich and great as in other nations?
+
+In February, 1888, occurred the Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, cutting a
+broad swath through one-half of the beautiful county-seat, tearing down
+all heavy buildings, picking up the lighter ones and sweeping them
+along like cardboard.
+
+In three minutes the work of destruction was over. Ten minutes later the
+sun shone out brightly over the ruins of the town, the wails of the
+maimed and dying, and the lifeless bodies of the dead.
+
+Fires broke out on every hand, and the victims pinned down under the
+wreckage were subjects for the flames. Appeals for assistance went out,
+but by unfortunate press representation failed to arouse the public,
+till after several days, when we were reached, through their
+representative in Congress, begging that in mercy we go to them. We
+arrived in the night, found homes destroyed, hospitals full, scant
+medical care, few nurses, food scarce and no money, a relief committee
+of excellent men, but little to distribute.
+
+At daylight we looked over the situation and sent this simple message to
+the Associated Press:
+
+
+"The pitiless snow is falling on the heads of three thousand people, who
+are without homes, without food or clothing, and without money.
+
+"AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS,
+
+"Clara Barton, President."
+
+
+This was all. We assisted their relief committee to arrange for the
+receipt and distribution of funds, sent for experienced helpers to take
+charge of supplies, to distribute clothing, and aid the hospital
+service. We remained two weeks, and left them with more supplies than
+they knew how to distribute, and the Citizens' Committee, with
+accumulating cash in its treasury of ninety thousand dollars, full of
+hope, life, and a gratitude they could not speak.
+
+As in the Texas famine, we paid our own expenses and no dollar but our
+own had passed our hands. We were only glad to do this, in the hope that
+we were building up an institution of self-help of the people, that
+would one day win its way to their favor and aid.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+YELLOW FEVER IN FLORIDA
+
+
+During the same year the yellow fever broke out in Jacksonville, Fla.,
+and was declared epidemic in September.
+
+An arrangement had been made between the National Association and the
+Auxiliary Society of the Red Cross of New Orleans, which society
+embraced the famous old "Howard Association," that, in case of an
+outbreak of yellow fever, they would send their immune nurses from the
+South, and we of the North would supply the money to support and pay
+them.
+
+This arrangement was carried out so far as could be, under the very
+natural differences of a medical department of active, professional men,
+taking up the treatment of an epidemic of which they knew very little
+experimentally, but filled with the enthusiasm of science and hope, and
+the unprofessional, fearless, easy-going gait of the old Southern
+nurses, white and black, whose whole lives had been spent in just that
+work.
+
+The Red Cross sent no Northern nurses. But eighteen or twenty "Howard
+nurses," mainly colored, went out from New Orleans under charge of Col.
+Fred. F. Southmayd, their leader of twenty years in epidemics. A part of
+his nurses were stationed at Macclenny, and a part went on to
+Jacksonville. Under medical direction of their noted "yellow fever
+doctor"--a tall Norwegian--Dr. Gill, they did their faithful work and
+won their meed of grateful praise.
+
+Our place was in Washington, to receive, deal carefully with, and hold
+back the tide of offered service from the hundreds of enthusiastic,
+excited untrained volunteers, rushing on to danger and death. Their
+fearless ignorance was a pitiful lesson. In all the hundreds there was
+scarcely one who had ever seen a case of yellow fever, but all were sure
+they were proof against it. Only three passed us, and two of these had
+the fever in Jacksonville.
+
+When the scourge was ended we met our nurses personally at Camp Perry,
+paid and sent them back to New Orleans. All that are living are at our
+service still, faithful and true.
+
+During the fourth week in November a dispatch to national headquarters
+announced that the last band of Red Cross nurses, known as the
+"Macclenny Nurses," had finished their work at Enterprise, and would
+come into Camp Perry to wait their ten days' quarantine and go home to
+New Orleans for Thanksgiving.
+
+That would mean that seventy-nine days ago their little company of
+eighteen, mainly women, steaming on to Jacksonville, under guidance of
+their old-time trusted leader, Southmayd, of New Orleans, listened to
+his announcement that the town of Macclenny, thirty-eight miles from
+Jacksonville, Fla., and through which they would soon pass, was in a
+fearful state of distress; a comparatively new town, of a few thousand,
+largely Northern and Western people, suddenly-stricken down in scores;
+poor, helpless, physicians all ill, and no nurses; quarantined on all
+sides, no food, medicine, nor comforts for sick or well.
+
+"Nurses, shall I leave a part of you there; the train can not stop in,
+nor near the town, but if I can manage to get it slowed up somewhere,
+will you jump?"
+
+"We will do anything you say, colonel; we are here in God's name and
+service to help His people; for Him, for you, and for the Red Cross, we
+will do our best and our all."
+
+"Conductor, you had a hot box a few miles back; don't you think it
+should be looked to after passing Macclenny?"
+
+"I will slow up and have it seen to, colonel, although it may cost me my
+official head." And it did.
+
+One mile beyond town, the rain pouring in torrents, the ground soaked,
+slippery, and caving, out into pitchy darkness, leaped three men and
+seven women from a puffing, unsteady train, no physician with them, and
+no instructions save the charge of their leader as the last leap was
+made, and the train pushed on: "Nurses, you know what to do; go and do
+your best, and God help you." Hand to hand, that none go astray in the
+darkness, they hobbled back over a mile of slippery cross-ties to the
+stricken town. Shelter was found, the wet clothes dried, and at midnight
+the sick had been parceled out, each nurse had his or her quota of
+patients, and were in for the issue, be it life or death. Those past
+all help must be seen through, and lost, all that could be must be
+saved. The next day a dispatch from Southmayd went back to New Orleans
+for Dr. Gill to come and take charge of the sick and the nurses at
+Macclenny. It was done, and under his wise direction they found again a
+leader. Their labors and successes are matters for later and more
+extended record.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that these nurses found no general table, no
+table at all but such as they could provide, find the food for, and cook
+for themselves, for the sick, the children, and the old and helpless who
+had escaped the fever and must be cared for. No patient could be left
+till the crisis was passed, and many are their records of seventy-two
+hours without change or sleep or scarcely sitting down. As the disease
+gradually succumbed to their watchful care, experience, and skill, they
+reached out to other freshly attacked towns and hamlets. Sanderson and
+Glen St. Mary's became their charge, and return their blessings for
+lives preserved.
+
+On November 1st it was thought they could safely leave and go into camp
+for quarantine; but no regular train would be permitted to take them.
+The Red Cross secured and paid a special train for them, and, as if in
+bold relief against the manner of their entry seven weeks before, the
+entire town, saving its invalids, was assembled at the station at seven
+o'clock in the morning to bid them good-by and God speed.
+
+But their fame had gone before them, and "Enterprise," a hundred miles
+below, just stricken down among its flowers and fruits, reached out its
+hands for aid, and with one accord, after two days in camp, all turned
+back from the coveted home and needed rest and added another month of
+toil to their already weary record. At length this was ended, and word
+came again to us that they would go into quarantine. Their unselfish,
+faithful, and successful record demanded something more than the mere
+sending of money. It deserved the thanks of the Red Cross organization
+in the best and highest manner in which they could be bestowed; it was
+decided that its President, in person, should most fittingly do this,
+and I accordingly left Washington on the morning of November 22d in
+company with Dr. Hubbell, field agent, for Camp Perry, the quarantine
+station of Florida. Two days and one night by rail, a few miles across
+country by wagon, where trains were forbidden to stop, and another mile
+or so over the trestles of St. Mary's on a dirt car with the workmen,
+brought us into camp as the evening fires were lighted and the bugle
+sounded supper. The genial surgeon in charge, Dr. Hutton, who carried a
+knapsack and musket in an Illinois regiment in '62, met us cordially and
+extended every possible hospitality. Soon there filed past us to supper
+the tall doctor and his little flock; some light and fair-skinned, with
+the easy step of a well-bred lady, others dark and bony-handed, but the
+strong, kind faces below the turbans told at a glance that you could
+trust your life there and find it again. They were not disturbed that
+night, and no certain information of our arrival got among them. It was
+cold and windy, and the evening short, as nine o'clock brought taps and
+lights out. In spite of all caution the news of our coming had spread
+over the surrounding country, and telegrams bringing both thanks for
+what had been received and the needs for more, came from all sides, and
+the good Mayor of Macclenny made his troubled way to reach and greet us
+in person, and take again the faithful hands that had served and saved
+his people.
+
+Surgeon Hutton's headquarter tent was politely tendered for the first
+meeting, and as one could never, while memory lasts, forget this scene,
+so no words can ever adequately describe it. The ample tent was filled.
+Here on the right the Mayor, broad shouldered, kind faced and efficient,
+officers of camp, and many visitors, wondering what it all meant; in the
+center the tall doctor and his faithful band--Eliza Lanier, Lena Seymour
+(mother and daughter), Elizabeth Eastman, Harriet Schmidt, Lizzie Louis,
+Rebecca Vidal, Annie Evans, Arthur Duteil, Frederick Wilson, and Edward
+Holyland.
+
+I give these names because they are worthy a place in the history of any
+epidemic; but no country, race, nor creed could claim them as a body:
+four Americans, one German, one French, one Irish, three Africans, part
+Protestant, and part Catholic, but all from New Orleans, of grand old
+_Howard_ stock, from Memphis down, nursing in every epidemic from the
+bayous of the Mississippi to Tampa Bay; and hereafter we will know them
+as the "_Old Guard_."
+
+Here, in the winds of approaching winter they stand in the light garb of
+early September in New Orleans, thin, worn, longing for home, but
+patient, grateful, and glad, some trifling "nubia" or turban about the
+head, but only one distinguishing feature in common. A pitiful little
+misshapen Red Cross, made by their own hands, of two bits of scarlet
+ribbon, soiled, fringed, and tattered, pinned closely upon the left
+breast of each, strove in mute appeal to say who they were, and what
+they served. A friendly recognition and some words of thanks from their
+President, opened the way for those anxious to follow. The rich, warm
+eloquence of Mayor Watkins plainly told from how near his heart the
+stream of gratitude was flowing, and his manly voice trembled as he
+reverted to the condition of his stricken people, on that pitiless
+night, when this little band of pilgrim strangers strayed back to them
+in the rain and darkness. "I fear they often worked in hunger," he said,
+"for then, as now, we had little for ourselves, our sick, or our well;
+but they brought us to our feet, and the blessing of every man, woman,
+and child in Macclenny is on them."
+
+It was with a kind of paternal pride that Dr. Gill advanced and placed
+before us his matchless record of cases attended, and life preserved.
+"This is the record of our work," he said. "I am proud of it, and glad
+that I have been able to make it, but without the best efforts of these
+faithful nurses I could not have done it; they have stood firm through
+everything; not a word of complaint from, nor of, one of them, in all
+these trying months, and I thank you, our President, for this
+opportunity to testify to their merits in your presence." The full cups
+overflowed, and as we took each brown calloused hand in ours, and felt
+the warm tears dropping over them, we realized how far from calloused
+were the hearts behind them. The silence that followed was a season of
+prayer.
+
+Then came opportunity for some conversation, questions, and
+explanations. "We wish to introduce to our President our chief nurse,
+whom Colonel Southmayd placed in charge of us when we left the car, and
+directed us to obey him; he is younger than any of us, Ed. Holyland." A
+slight young man with clear, olive complexion, and dark-browed earnest
+eyes that looked you straight in the face, came forward; his apparent
+youthfulness gave rise to the first remark:
+
+"How old are you, Mr. Holyland?"
+
+"Twenty-nine, madam."
+
+"And you have taken charge of these nurses?"
+
+"I have done what I could for their comfort; I think that was what the
+colonel desired; he knew they would need only care and advice, they
+would do their best of themselves. During the few days that Colonel
+Southmayd remained in Jacksonville," he continued, "he was able to send
+us some such comforts as we needed for the sick, and some nourishing
+food for ourselves; but this was only a few days, you know, and after
+that we got on as well as we could without. I know that after he left
+the nurses gave to the sick, the children, the old and the helpless,
+what they needed for their own strength."
+
+"But you did not tell us this, Mr. Holyland."
+
+"No, we were dazed and frightened by the things we heard. We felt that
+your organization was having enough to bear. We knew we must look to
+you for our pay, and we thought, under the circumstances, that would be
+your share. But permit me, please, to call your attention to Mr. Wilson
+(a stout colored man advanced), who took charge of a little hospital of
+six cases, and carried them all through, day and night, without an
+hour's relief from any person, and never lost a single case."
+
+"And permit me," chimed in the clear-toned Irish voice of Lizzie Louis,
+"to tell of Mr. Holyland himself, who found a neglected Italian family a
+mile or more outside of the town. He went and nursed them alone, and
+when the young son, a lad of thirteen or fourteen years, died, knowing
+there was no one to bury him there, he wrapped him in a blanket and
+brought him into town on his back, for burial."
+
+Holyland's face grew sad, and his eyes modestly sought the floor, as he
+listened to this unexpected revelation.
+
+"I wish to speak of something else," added one of the men, "which we
+were held back from doing, and for which we are now very glad. We should
+not have thought of it ourselves. It is customary," he continued, "when
+a patient dies in an epidemic, to give the nurse ten dollars for
+preparing the body for burial; this was done in our first case, but Mr.
+Holyland had the gift promptly returned with thanks, and the explanation
+that we were employed by an organization which fully rewarded its
+nurses, and was too high and too correct to accept tribute for
+misfortune; it was enough that the patient was lost."
+
+By this time poor black Annie Evans, the "Mammy" of the group, could
+hold quiet no longer, and broke silence with, "Missus President! whar is
+de colonel? Colonel Southmayd; dey tells me all de time he's gone away
+from New Orleans, and I can't b'l'eve 'em. He can't go away; he can't
+lib anywhar else, he was always dar. I'se nursed in yellow fever and
+cholera more'n twenty-five year, and I neber went for nobody but him; it
+arn't no New Orleans for us widout him dar. I doesn't know de name of
+dat place dey say he's gone to, and I doesn't want to; he'll be in New
+Orleans when we gets dar."
+
+There were pitying glances among the group, at this little burst of
+feeling, for in some way it was an echo of their own; and Lena Seymour
+added tenderly: "We have been trying for these two months to convince
+Mammy about this, but she is firm in her faith and sometimes refuses to
+hear us." But the subject changed with "How many cases did you lose in
+this epidemic, Mammy?"
+
+"I didn't lose no cases! Lor' bless you, honey, I doesn't lose cases if
+dey hasn't been killed afore dey gets to me; folks needn't die of yellow
+fever."
+
+We didn't suppose that "Mammy" intended any reflection upon the medical
+fraternity.
+
+"But now, friends, we must turn to our settlement, which can not be
+difficult. Three dollars a day for each nurse, for seventy-nine days,
+till you are home on Thanksgiving morning. But here are only ten. There
+are eighteen on our list who left with you and Colonel Southmayd; where
+are your comrades?" Some eyes flashed and some moistened, as they
+answered, "We do not know." "They remained in the car that night, and
+went on to Jacksonville." Swift, dark glances swept from one to another
+among them. Instinctively they drew closer to each other, and over
+knitted brows and firmly set teeth, a silence fell dark and ominous
+like a pall, which the future alone can lift.
+
+The bugle sounded dinner, and this ended our little camp-meeting, than
+which few camp-meetings, we believe, ever came nearer to the heart of
+Him who offered His life a ransom, and went about doing good.
+
+The winds blew cold across the camp; the fires shot out long angry
+tongues of flame and drifts of smoke to every passer-by. The norther was
+upon us. Night came down, and all were glad of shelter and sleep. The
+morning, quiet, crisp, and white with frost, revealed the blessing which
+had fallen upon a stricken land.
+
+Thanksgiving was there before its time. The hard rules relaxed. One day
+more, and the quarantine was at an end. The north-bound train halted
+below the camp, and all together, President and agent, tall doctor and
+happy nurses, took places on it, the first for headquarters at
+Washington, the last for New Orleans, and home for Thanksgiving morning,
+full of the joys of a duty well done, rich in well-paid labor, in the
+love of those they had befriended, and the approval of a whole people,
+South and North, when once their work should be known to them.
+
+To the last, they clung to their little home-made Red Crosses as if they
+had been gold and diamonds; and when at length the tracks diverged and
+the parting must be made, it was with few words, low and softly spoken,
+but meaning much, with a finger touch upon the little cross, "When you
+want us, we are there."
+
+The supplies forwarded by us were estimated at ten thousand dollars. The
+money received was $6,281.58. Out of this sum we paid our twenty nurses
+three dollars a day, for seventy-nine days--their cost of living, and
+their transportation when needed. We paid our doctor in charge twenty
+dollars a day, the customary price, for the same period. We paid our
+office rent, assistants, telegraphing, drayage for supplies sent on by
+us (railroad transportation free), and all incidentals for a relief work
+of over three months' duration. This ran our debit column over on the
+other side over one thousand dollars. Our little part of the relief of
+that misfortune was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars, and only
+those relieved were more grateful than we.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
+
+
+On Sunday afternoon, May 31, 1889, with the waters of the Potomac two
+feet deep on Pennsylvania Avenue, a half dozen of us left Washington for
+Johnstown, over washed-out ties and broken tracks, with every little
+gully swollen to a raging torrent. After forty-eight hours of this, we
+reached the scene, which no one need or could describe, but if ever a
+people needed help it was these.
+
+Scarcely a house standing that was safe to enter, the wrecks piled in
+rubbish thirty feet in height, four thousand dead in the river beds,
+twenty thousand foodless but for Pittsburg bread rations, and a cold
+rain which continued unbroken by sunshine for forty days.
+
+It was at the moment of supreme affliction when we arrived at Johnstown.
+The waters had subsided, and those of the inhabitants who had escaped
+the fate of their fellows were gazing over the scene of destruction and
+trying to arouse themselves from the lethargy that had taken hold of
+them when they were stunned by the realization of all the woe that had
+been visited upon them. How nobly they responded to the call of duty!
+How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed! No idle
+murmurings of fate, but true to the god-like instincts of manhood and
+fraternal love, they quickly banded together to do the best that the
+wisest among them could suggest.
+
+For five weary months it was our portion to live amid the scenes of
+destruction, desolation, poverty, want and woe; sometimes in tents,
+sometimes without; and so much rain and mud, and such a lack of the
+commonest comforts for a time, until we could build houses to shelter
+ourselves and those around us. Without a safe and with a dry-goods box
+for a desk, we conducted financial affairs in money and material to the
+extent of nearly half a million dollars.
+
+I shall never lose the memory of my first walk on the first day--the
+wading in mud, the climbing over broken engines, cars, heaps of iron
+rollers, broken timbers, wrecks of houses; bent railway tracks tangled
+with piles of iron wire; bands of workmen, squads of military, and
+getting around the bodies of dead animals, and often people being borne
+away; the smouldering fires and drizzling rain--all for the purpose of
+officially announcing to the commanding general (for the place was under
+martial law) that the Red Cross had arrived in the field. I could not
+have puzzled General Hastings more if I had addressed him in Chinese;
+and if ours had been truly an Oriental mission, the gallant soldier
+could not have been more courteous and kind. He immediately set about
+devising means for making as comfortable as possible a "poor, lone
+woman," helpless, of course, upon such a field. It was with considerable
+difficulty that I could convince him that the Red Cross had a way of
+taking care of itself at least, and was not likely to suffer from
+neglect.
+
+Not a business house or bank left, the safes all in the bottom of the
+river; our little pocketbook was useless, there was nothing to buy, and
+it would not bring back the dead. With the shelter of the tents of the
+Philadelphia Red Cross, that joined us en route with supplies, when we
+could find a cleared place to spread, or soil to hold them, with a
+dry-goods box for a desk, our stenographer commenced to rescue the first
+dispatches of any description that entered that desolate city. The
+disturbed rivers lapped wearily back and forth, the people, dazed and
+dumb, dug in the muddy banks for their dead. Hastings with his little
+army of militia kept order.
+
+Soon supplies commenced to pour in from everywhere, to be received,
+sheltered as best they could be from the incessant rain, and distributed
+by human hands, for it was three weeks before even a cart could pass the
+streets.
+
+But I am not here to describe Johnstown--the noble help that came to it,
+nor the still more noble people that received it--but simply to say that
+the little untried and unskilled Red Cross played its minor tune of a
+single fife among the grand chorus of relief of the whole country, that
+rose like an anthem, till over four millions in money, contributed to
+its main body of relief, with the faithful Kreamer at its head, had
+modestly taken the place of the twelve millions destroyed. But after all
+it was largely the supplies that saved the people at first, as it always
+is, and the distribution of which largely consumed the money that was
+contributed later.
+
+From one mammoth tent which served as a warehouse, food and clothing
+were given out to the waiting people through the hands of such volunteer
+agents, both women and men, as I scarcely dare hope to ever see gathered
+together in one work again. The great cry which had gone out had aroused
+the entire country, and our old-time helpers, full of rich experience
+and still richer love for the work, faithful to the cross of humanity as
+the devotee to the cross of the Master, came up from every point--the
+floods, the cyclones, the battle-fields--and kneeling before the shrine,
+pledged heart and service anew to the work. Fair hands laying aside
+their diamonds, and business men their cares, left homes of elegance and
+luxury to open rough boxes and barrels, handle second-hand clothing, eat
+coarse food at rough-board tables, sleep on cots under a dripping canvas
+tent, all for the love of humanity symbolized in the little flag that
+floated above them.
+
+Clergymen left their pulpits and laymen their charge to tramp over the
+hillsides from house to house, to find who needed and suffered, and to
+carry to them from our tents on their shoulders, like beasts of burden,
+the huge bundles of relief, where no beast of burden could reach.
+
+We had been early requested by official resolution of the Finance
+Committee of the City of Johnstown to aid them in the erection of
+houses. We accepted the invitation, and at the same time proposed to aid
+in furnishing the nucleus of a household for the home which should in
+any way be made up. This aid seemed imperative, as nothing was left for
+them to commence living with, neither beds, chairs, tables, nor cooking
+utensils of any kind; and there were few if any stores open, and no
+furniture in town.
+
+Of this labor we had our share. Six buildings of one hundred feet by
+fifty, later known as "Red Cross Hotels," were quickly put up to shelter
+the people, furnished, supplied, and kept like hotels, free of all cost
+to them, while others were built by the general committee. Three
+thousand of the latter were erected, and the Red Cross furnished every
+one with substantial, newly purchased furniture, ready for occupancy.
+The books of the "Titusville Manufacturing Company" will show one cash
+order of ten thousand dollars for furniture. The three thousand houses
+thus furnished each accommodated two families.
+
+A ponderous book of nearly two feet square shows the name, sex, and
+number of persons of each family, and a list of every article received
+by them. To-day one looks in wonder at such a display of clerical labor
+and accuracy, under even favorable conditions.
+
+This was only accomplished by the hard, unpaid labor of every officer,
+and the large amount of volunteer friendly aid that came to us.
+
+The great manufacturers of the country, and the heavy contributing
+agents, on learning our intentions, sent, without a hint from us, many
+of their articles, as, for instance, New Bedford, Mass., sent mattresses
+and bedding; Sheboygan, Wis., sent furniture and enameled ironware;
+Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
+dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
+chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
+Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
+bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
+utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
+delivering these goods.
+
+When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
+needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
+our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
+books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
+served by us. They had received our help independently and without
+begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.
+
+It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
+entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
+society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
+more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
+in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
+town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
+home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
+must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
+unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
+being picked up by the military guard.
+
+To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
+might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
+to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
+of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
+in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
+erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
+fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
+feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
+hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
+heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
+thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
+cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
+center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.
+
+It was fully furnished with excellent beds, bedding, bureaus, tables,
+chairs, and all needful housekeeping furniture. A competent landlady,
+who, like the rest, had a few weeks before floated down over the same
+ground on the roof of her house in thirty feet of water, was placed in
+charge, with instructions to keep a good house, make what she could rent
+free, but charging no Johnstown person over twenty-five cents for a meal
+of food.
+
+This was the first attempt at social life after that terrible
+separation, and its success was something that I am very proud of. The
+house was full of townspeople from the first day, and strangers no
+longer looked in vain for accommodations.
+
+The conception of the need of this house, and the method of selecting
+its inmates, and the manner of inducting them into their new home, were
+somewhat unique and may be of interest to the reader. I had noticed
+among the brave and true men, who were working in the mud and rain, many
+refined-looking gentlemen, who were, before this great misfortune
+carried away most of their belongings, the wealthiest and most
+influential citizens. Never having had to struggle amid such hardships
+and deprivations, their sufferings were more acute than those of the
+poorer and more hardy people; and it did not require any great
+foresight to know that they were physically incapable of such labor if
+prolonged, nor to predict their early sickness and death if they were
+not properly housed and fed. As the salvation of the town depended in a
+great measure upon the efforts of these men, it was vitally necessary
+that their lives should be preserved. Realizing all this, it occurred to
+us that the most important thing to do, next to feeding the hungry, was
+to provide proper shelter for these delicate men and their families. The
+idea once conceived was soon communicated to my staff, and, after due
+consideration, it was put in the way of realization.
+
+On the afternoon of July 27th hundreds of citizens called on us, and
+congratulations and good wishes were the order of the day. As the
+members of each family whom we had selected to occupy apartments in the
+house arrived, they were quietly taken aside and requested to remain and
+have dinner with us. After all the guests were departed except those who
+had been requested to remain, dinner was announced, and the party was
+seated by the members of the Red Cross. Beside the plate of each head
+of a family were laid the keys to an apartment, with a card inviting the
+family to take possession at once, and remain as long as they chose.
+
+I can not describe the scene that followed; there were tears and broken
+voices; suffice to say, the members of that household were made happy
+and comfortable for many long months; and I venture to assert that those
+now living recall those days with the fondest recollections.
+
+The contributions to the general committee had been so liberal that it
+was possible to erect and provide for the great burial-place of its
+dead--"Grand View," that overlooks the city. It was also suggested that
+a benevolent society, as a permanent institution, be formed by the
+united action of the general committee and the Red Cross. This was
+successfully accomplished by the generous provision of eight thousand
+dollars from the committee on its part and the turning over of our
+well-made and supplied hospital buildings, and the funds we had left
+placed in charge of a faithful custodian under our pay for the following
+six months.
+
+This is the present "Union Benevolent Society" of Johnstown to-day.
+
+I remained five months with these people without once visiting my own
+home, only returning to it when the frost had killed the green I had
+left in May.
+
+In that time, it was estimated, we had housed, handled, and distributed
+$211,000 worth of supplies--new and old--for, by request of the weary
+chairman of the general committee, at the last, we took up the close of
+its distribution. It is our joy and pride to recall how closely we
+worked in connection with that honored committee from first to last, and
+how strong and unsullied that friendship has remained.
+
+The value of money that passed through our hands was $39,000, as stated
+in the official report of the general committee, to which all required
+returns were made, recorded, and published by the committee.
+
+Our usual quota of assistants was fifty persons, the higher grade of men
+and women assistants largely volunteers. Two railroads brought our
+supplies. To handle these the strongest men were required, and seven
+two-horse teams ran daily for three and a half months in the
+distribution, at customary rates of pay. These were the workingmen of
+the town who had suffered with the rest.
+
+It was a joy that in all the uncertainties of that uncertain field not a
+single complaint ever reached us of the non-acknowledgment of a dollar
+entrusted to us.
+
+The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would tread
+them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction, jealousy, and
+calumny. Let his work be that of angels--still it will not satisfy all.
+
+In the light of recent events, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting a
+few lines from the official report of the Johnstown Flood Finance
+Committee appointed by Governor Beaver, as showing how these gentlemen,
+the foremost men in the community, regarded our efforts to give them a
+helping hand:
+
+"In this matter of sheltering the people, as in others of like
+importance, Miss Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Association,
+was most helpful. At a time when there was a doubt if the Flood
+Commission could furnish houses of suitable character and with the
+requisite promptness, she offered to assume charge, and she erected with
+the funds of the Association three large apartment houses, which
+afforded comfortable lodgings for many houseless people. She was among
+the first to arrive on the scene of calamity, bringing with her Dr.
+Hubbell, the Field Officer of the Red Cross Association, and a staff of
+skilled assistants. She made her own organization for relief work in
+every form, disposing of the large resources under her control with such
+wisdom and tenderness that the charity of the Red Cross had no sting,
+and its recipients are not Miss Barton's dependents, but her friends.
+She was also the last of the ministering spirits to leave the scene of
+her labors, and she left her apartment houses for use during the winter,
+and turned over her warehouse with its store of furniture, bedding, and
+clothing, and a well-equipped infirmary, to the Union Benevolent
+Association of the Conemaugh Valley, the organization of which she
+advised and helped to form; and its lady visitors have so well performed
+their work that the dreaded winter has no terrors, mendicancy has been
+repressed, and not a single case of unrelieved suffering is known to
+have occurred in all the flooded district."
+
+Enterprising, industrious, and hopeful, the new Johnstown,
+phoenix-like, rose from its ruins more beautiful than the old, with a
+ceaseless throb of grateful memory for every kind act rendered, and
+every thought of sympathy given her in her great hour of desolation and
+woe. God bless her, and God bless all who helped save her!
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RUSSIAN FAMINE
+
+
+As early as 1889, the foreign journals began to tell us of the
+apprehension caused by an unusual failure of the crops in Central
+Russia, extending from Moscow north and south, and east beyond the Ural
+Mountains and into Siberia--embracing an era of a million square miles.
+This failure was followed by another in 1890.
+
+Eighteen hundred and ninety-one found the old-time granaries empty, and
+a total failure of the crops, and a population of thirty-five millions
+of people, paralyzed with the dread of approaching famine.
+
+The American Red Cross had placed itself in communication with the
+Secretary of State, Hon. James G. Blaine, whose name and memory it
+treasures with reverence, and Mr. Alexander Gregor, the accomplished
+Russian _Charge d'Affaires_ at Washington, and ascertained that Russia
+would gladly receive donations of relief from America. She would even
+send her ships for any food that might be offered. This, America would
+not permit and Congress was appealed to for ocean transportation. The
+Senate voted a liberal appropriation, which was defeated in the House.
+
+Then the Red Cross, with the aid of the citizens of Washington, took up
+the matter. They were joined by the Order of Elks, which contributed a
+sum of seven hundred dollars, than which perhaps that liberal Order
+never made a more timely gift. Funds were raised to charter a steamship
+for the Red Cross. The spirit spread generally over the country.
+Philadelphia sent a messenger to learn what Washington was doing, and
+was advised to charter one of its own ships, which was done, and two
+consignments were finally made by them.
+
+Minnesota had already acted, and later, by the advice and aid of the
+extra provision of the Red Cross, the Christian Herald sent out its ship
+cargo, under convoy of Rev. Dr. Talmage.
+
+But the State of Iowa led all others in active generosity.
+
+Under the supervision of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, of Davenport, aided by
+the able pen of Miss Alice French, that State alone raised, and sent in
+trains across the country from Iowa to New York, one hundred and
+seventeen thousand bushels of corn and one hundred thousand pounds of
+flour, which was loaded onto the "Tynehead," a staunch British ship, and
+consigned to the port of Riga.
+
+That year we had been notified of an International Conference to be held
+in Rome. The customary appropriation was made by Congress, and again I
+was appointed delegate. Too much occupied by the relief at home, Dr.
+Hubbell, also a delegate, went in my place to Rome, and from there
+reached Riga in time to receive and direct the distribution of the
+immense cargo of grain throughout Russia.
+
+When Dr. Hubbell reached Riga he learned that two hundred and forty
+peasants had been waiting on the dock two days, watching and waiting for
+the ship from America. Not waiting for food, for Riga was not in a
+famine province, but waiting that they might not miss the opportunity
+and the honor of unloading the American ship that had brought food to
+their unfortunate brothers in the interior. As soon as they could get
+into the hold of the ship, one hundred and forty of them began the
+unloading. They worked night and day, without rest, determined to unload
+the entire cargo themselves, without help. But on the third night our
+Consul, Mr. Bornholdt, insisted on their having a relief of twelve
+hours, and when the twelve hours were up they were all in their places
+again, and remained until the cargo was out, declining to take any pay
+for their labor. Twelve women worked along with them in the same spirit,
+in the ship and on the dock, with needles, sewing up the rents in the
+bags, to prevent waste in handling, and cooking meals for the men.
+
+The Mayor of St. Petersburg, in an address on behalf of that city to
+American donors, declared:
+
+"The Russian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two
+great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never
+quarreled, but on the contrary wished each other prosperity and strength
+always, these feelings of sympathy can grow only stronger in the future,
+both countries being conscious that in the season of trial for either it
+will find in the other cordial succor and support. And can true
+friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?"
+
+A peasant of Samara sent to a Russian editor, together with three
+colored eggs, a letter which he asked to have forwarded to America. The
+following is an extract from the letter:
+
+"Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the
+poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans--Christ
+is risen.
+
+"North Americans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and
+prosperity to your land, and may your fields be filled with abundant
+harvest--Christ is risen. Your mercifulness gives us a helping hand.
+Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your
+magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift, which I send to the
+entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts
+of the poor filled with feelings of joy."
+
+In the gratitude manifested by the Russian Government and people we were
+glad to feel that a slight return had been made to Russia for past
+favors in our own peril, and a friendship never broken.
+
+The Department of State at Washington, under date of January 11, 1894,
+forwarded the following:
+
+"I have to inform you that on November 7, 1893, the American Minister at
+St. Petersburg received from the nobility of that city, through their
+Marshal, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy, an address to the people of the United
+States. This address, which is in the English language, embodies in
+terms fitly chosen the thanks of the Russian people to the American for
+the aid sent to their country from our own during the famine period of
+the past two years. It is beautifully engrossed and its illumination
+embraces water-color drawings which render it a most attractive work of
+art.
+
+"The document, which is superbly bound and enclosed in a fine case, was
+duly forwarded to this city by the American Minister at St. Petersburg,
+and will be given a conspicuous place in the library of this
+department."
+
+In so general an uprising of relief no great sum in contributions could
+be expected from any one source. The Red Cross felt that, if no more, it
+was glad to be able to pay, by the generous help of the city of
+Washington, the charter of a ship that conveyed its
+corn--$12,500--besides several thousands distributed in Russia through
+Tolstoi and American agents there.
+
+We paid the cost of loading, superintended by Mr. Tillinghast in person,
+whose financial record shows the exact cost of transportation. All this
+was done in connection with the State of Iowa. Our home record showed,
+when all was finished, a field closed with a small balance in our favor,
+which we had no active call for. By the advice of one of the best
+personal advisers, bankers, and friends that the Red Cross has ever had,
+this small sum was placed in bank, in readiness for the next call.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SEA ISLAND RELIEF
+
+
+This little timely provision, advisedly made, was none too much or none
+too soon.
+
+On the 28th of August, 1893, a hurricane and tidal wave from the
+direction of the West Indies swept the coast of South Carolina, covering
+its entire range of Port Royal Islands, sixteen feet below the sea.
+These islands had thirty-five thousand inhabitants, mainly negroes. At
+first, it was thought that all must have perished. Later, it was found
+that only some four or five thousand had been drowned, and that thirty
+thousand remained with no earthly possession of home, clothing, or food.
+The few boats not swept away took them over to the mainland in
+thousands, and calls went out for help. In this emergency Governor
+Tillman called for the services of the Red Cross, and my note-book has
+this passage:
+
+"The next night, in a dark, cheerless September mist, I closed my door
+behind me for ten months, and with three assistants went to the station
+to meet Senator Butler."
+
+At Columbia we were joined by Governor Tillman, and thus reinforced
+proceeded to Beaufort. After due examination the work which had been
+officially placed with us by the Governor was accepted October 1st, and
+carried on until the following July.
+
+The submerged lands were drained, three hundred miles of ditches made, a
+million feet of lumber purchased and houses built, fields and gardens
+planted with the best seed in the United States, and the work all done
+by the people themselves. The thousands of boxes of clothing received
+were distributed among them, and we left them in July, 1894, supplies of
+vegetables for the city of Beaufort.
+
+Free transportation for supplies continued till about March. No
+provisions in kind were sent from any source after the first four weeks
+of public excitement. After this all foodstuffs were purchased in
+Charleston and distributed as rations. Men were compelled to work on the
+building of their own homes in order to receive rations.
+
+We found them an industrious, grateful class of people, far above the
+ordinary grade usually met. They largely owned their little homes, and
+appreciated instruction in the way of improving them. The tender memory
+of the childlike confidence and obedience of this ebony-faced population
+is something that time cannot efface from either us or them.
+
+On the third day after our arrival at Beaufort four middle-aged colored
+men came to the door of the room we had appropriated as an office, and
+respectfully asked to see "Miss Clare." They were admitted, and I waited
+to learn what request they would probably make of me. At length the
+tallest and evidently the leader, said:
+
+"Miss Clare, we knows you doesn't remember us. But we never fo'gits you.
+We has all of us got somethin' to show you."
+
+Slipping up a soiled, ragged shirtsleeve, he showed me an ugly scar
+above the elbow, reaching to the shoulder. "Wagner?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clare, and you drissed it for me that night, when I crawled
+down the beach--'cause my leg was broke too," he replied. "And we was
+all of us there, and you took care of us all and drissed our wounz. I
+was with Colonel Shaw, and crawled out of the fote. The oth's nevah got
+in. But we all got to you, Miss Clare. And now you's got to us. We's
+talked about you a heap o' times, but we nevah 'spected to see you. We's
+nevah fo'git it, Miss Clare."
+
+One by one they showed their scars. There was very little clothing to
+hide them--bullet wound and sabre stroke. The memory, dark and sad,
+stood out before us all. It was a moment not to be forgotten.
+
+Our purchases consisted of meat, mainly dry sides of pork, and grits, or
+hominy, for eating. For planting, beside the seed contributed and the
+nine hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, were eighteen hundred bushels of
+Northern Flint seed corn.
+
+The contributions of food and clothing had been sent to Beaufort, and
+were in the warehouses of the perplexed committee of its leading
+citizens. This had naturally drawn all the inhabitants of the scores of
+desolated islands for fifty miles to Beaufort, until, it is safe to say,
+that fifteen to twenty thousand refugees had gathered there, living in
+its streets and waiting to be fed from day to day.
+
+As the food was there they could not be induced to return to the
+islands. Indeed, there was more often nothing on the islands to return
+to. The description given by the heads of families and owners, for they
+had largely owned their homes, gotten on the old-time plantations "'fo
+de wah," was this: If all had been swept out to sea and nothing
+remained, it was described as, "done gone." But if thrown down and parts
+of the wreck still remained, it was described as "ractified."
+
+A few of the churches, being larger and more strongly built, still
+remained standing. During the first ten days of our stay it would have
+been impossible to drive through the principal streets of Beaufort. They
+were a solid moving mass, crowding as near to the storehouses as
+possible to get, in spite of the policeman, who kindly held them back.
+
+We sat daily in counsel with the local committee, until seeing that only
+systematic measures and a decided change could relieve the conditions
+and render the city safe. We then, on the first of October, decided to
+accede to the request of the Governor made at first, and take sole
+charge of the relief.
+
+Our first order was to close every storehouse, both of food and
+clothing, and inform the people that all distributions would hereafter
+be made from the islands. It is impossible to convey to the mind of the
+reader the difficulty of getting into a few intelligent sentences the
+idea of the means adopted to produce these changes and inaugurate a
+system that was to restore to active habits of life a body of utterly
+homeless, demoralized, and ignorant people, equal in numbers to a small
+new State.
+
+If these little covers would admit the scores of pages of admirably
+written reports of the officers and helpers on that field, every line
+replete with interest, that lie here at my hand, it would be an easy and
+a welcome task to reproduce them entire, and no more than deserved for
+their faithful and gratuitous labor.
+
+Dr. Egan's report has this passage:
+
+"October 2d came my marching orders. Take charge of the warehouse and
+stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men, and rid the city
+of the demoralizing influence of idle people. The doors are closed and
+the inventory begun."
+
+The local committee had kindly pointed out the most suitable man to take
+charge of each community, and to him would be consigned the rations to
+be distributed to each family and person within his charge, for which
+receipt and distribution he became as responsible as a merchant.
+
+The goods and rations were at once shipped across the bay to them, or
+taken on their own boats, if so fortunate as to have one left from the
+storm. It is needless to say that the multitude followed the food.
+
+In three days there were not people enough left in Beaufort, besides its
+own, to be hired for a "job of work." Then followed the necessity for
+material to rebuild the "done gone," and to repair the "ractified"
+homes.
+
+A million feet of pine lumber was purchased of a leading lumber dealer,
+shipped down the Combahee River, and delivered at the landings on the
+islands most convenient of access to the points needed. Each man
+received his lumber by order and receipt, and was under obligation to
+build his own house. The work was all performed by themselves. A garden
+was insisted upon. At first this proposition was resisted as
+impracticable.
+
+"No use, Mistah--no use--'cause de pig eat it all up."
+
+It was suggested that a fence might be made enclosing at least a quarter
+of an acre about the house to keep "de pig" out, as we should later
+send, for planting, the best seed to be obtained in the country.
+
+To this moment our thanks go out to the Agricultural Department at
+Washington, and the great seed houses of all the North, for the generous
+donations that served to bring once more into self-sustaining relations
+this destitute and well-disposed people.
+
+The fact that the building of the fence, and its subsequent keeping in
+strict repair, had some bearing on the weekly issuance of rations, was
+evidently not without its influence. There were no poor fences and "de
+pig" did no damage. But there were such gardens, and of such varieties,
+as those islands had never before seen.
+
+The earliest crop to strive for, beside the gardens, was the Irish
+potato, which they had never raised. Nine hundred bushels were purchased
+from Savannah for planting in February. The difficulty of distributing
+the potatoes lay in the fact that they would be more likely to find
+their way into the dinner pot than into the ground. To avoid this the
+court-yard inside our headquarters was appropriated for the purpose of
+preparing the potatoes for planting.
+
+Some forty women were hired to come over from the islands and cut
+potatoes for seed--every "eye" of the potato making a sprout--these
+distributed to them by the peck, like other seed.
+
+I recall a fine, bright morning in May, when I was told that a woman who
+had come over from St. Helena in the night, waited at the door to see
+me. I went to the door to find a tall, bright-looking woman in a clean
+dress, with a basket on her head, which, after salutation, she lowered
+and held out to me. There was something over a peck of Early Rose
+potatoes in the basket--in size from a pigeon's to a pullet's egg. The
+grateful woman could wait no longer for the potatoes to grow larger,
+but had dug these, and had come ten miles over the sea, in the night, to
+bring them to me as a first offering of food of her own raising.
+
+If the tears fell on the little gift as I looked and remembered, no one
+will wonder or criticise. The potatoes were cooked for breakfast, and
+"Susie Jane" was invited to partake.
+
+The shores of the mainland had not been exempt from the ravages of the
+storm and in many instances had suffered like the islands. Some thirty
+miles above Beaufort was a kind of plantation, with a community of sixty
+or seventy families of colored people. The property was owned by two
+elderly white ladies who had not returned since driven away by the
+storm.
+
+This village was reported to us as in need and demoralized, with no
+head, scant of food, and its "ractified" houses scarcely affording a
+shelter.
+
+A representative mulatto man came to tell us. An inspection was made and
+resulted in this man being put in charge to build up the community.
+Lumber and food were provided and the people set to work under his
+charge. From time to time word came to us, and after some months the
+tall representative came again. He had been asked by the people to come
+and bring their thanks to the Red Cross for "de home, de gard'n, de pig,
+and de chick'n dey all has now."
+
+The thanks they had emphasized and proved by the heavy basket that
+Jackson had carefully brought all the forty miles. It contained
+seventy-one fresh eggs--the gift of seventy-one families--being a
+contribution of one egg from each family, from the day or two previous
+to his leaving on his mission.
+
+Domestic gardens were a new feature among these islanders, whose whole
+attention had been always given to the raising of the renowned "Sea
+Island Cotton," the pride of the market, and a just distinction to
+themselves and the worthy planter. The result of this innovation was
+that, when we left in July, it was nearly as difficult for a pedestrian
+to make his way on the narrow sidewalks of Beaufort because of piled-up
+vegetables for sale from the islands, as it had been in October to pass
+through the streets because of hungry, idle men and women.
+
+Nothing better illustrates the native good heart of these people than
+their kindly interest in and for each other. Often the young men,
+without families, would club together and put up a house for some lone
+old "auntie," who had neither family nor home, and occasionally there
+seemed to develop among them an active philanthropist. Of this type was
+Jack Owens, who rebuilt his own "done gone" premises. One day as the
+field agent was driving out on some inspection he met Jack walking into
+town.
+
+His decrepit neighbor's house had burned a few weeks before, and Jack
+had gotten lumber and rebuilt the house himself. In describing the utter
+devastation, Jack explained that "all de house and de well was
+burned"--and he had built another house and was coming in on foot "for
+funituh to funish it." Jack had lost his ox, "a big ox," he said, in the
+storm, and now he "hadn't any nuther" to plow his ground. He pleaded for
+another--if it was only "a lil' critter it would grow big"--and it would
+help him so much.
+
+The appeal was not to be resisted. Dr. Hubbell treasures to this day the
+satisfaction he felt in procuring something better than the "lil'
+critter" as reward and encouragement for Jack's active philanthropy.
+
+If any practical woman reading this should try to comprehend what it
+would be to undertake to clothe and keep clothed thirty thousand human
+beings for a year, and to do this from the charitable gifts of the
+people, which gifts had all done more or less service before--often
+pretty thoroughly "ractified"--this woman will not wonder that sewing
+societies suggested themselves to us at headquarters.
+
+The women were called together and this suggestion made to them, with
+the result that an old time "sewing circle" was instituted in every
+community. Its membership, officers, dues, and regulations were properly
+established--one-half day in each week devoted by each member to the
+work in its sewing-rooms, with a woman in charge to prepare it. The
+clothing was given out to them as received by us. Many a basket came
+proudly back to show us the difference between "den an' now"--good,
+strong, firmly mended garments. Ragged coats and pants disappeared from
+among the men, as no longer "'spectable fo' de fambly."
+
+Provision was also made that the little girls from ten years old should
+attend and be taught to sew. Many a little dress was selected at
+headquarters for them to make over or repair.
+
+I wish I could do fitting justice to the band of women volunteers who
+stood by me through those long months. Some had commenced with me when
+society belles, years before, now mistresses of their own palatial
+homes; some had come from under the old historic elms of Boston, and
+some from the hard-fought fields of Britain's Africa, and wearing the
+Victoria Cross. To them, white and black were the same, and no toil too
+hard or too menial.
+
+The money contributed and received for the entire relief of ten months
+was thirty thousand five hundred, and a few additional dollars and cents
+which I do not at this moment recall. It aggregated one dollar apiece
+for the entire maintenance of thirty thousand persons for ten months.
+
+It is the general custom in this part of the country for the merchants
+to furnish supplies to their patrons, and wait until the gathering of
+the crops for their pay. But when we left these people at the beginning
+of their harvest, not one family in twenty-five had contracted a debt
+for supplies: an experience before unknown in their history.
+
+A report was made and passed into the hands of our legal counsellor,
+who, on seeing that no change could be truthfully made in it, advised
+that it be not published, as no one would believe it possible to be
+done, and we would get only distrust and discredit. Having now come to a
+pass where distrust and discredit are no longer to be feared by the Red
+Cross, we ourselves are free to make the statement. But back of the hard
+facts there is compensation.
+
+A half dozen years later, when our negro proteges of the Sea Islands
+heard of the disaster that had fallen upon Galveston, they at once
+gathered for aid and sent in their contributions.
+
+"'Cause dey suffers like we did, and de Red Cross is dar," they said.
+
+Of course I would not permit one dollar of this holy gift to Galveston
+to go to other than the hands, hard, bony, and black--such as had raised
+it in their penury. I also wanted it to do more. Searching for the most
+reliable colored people in the city I found in the superintendent of the
+colored schools a man who had occupied that place for many years, and
+who had the respect and confidence of the people of Galveston. I asked
+him to consult his foremost women teachers, and if it pleased them, to
+form a society and fit themselves to receive a little money.
+
+In about a week he appeared with his deputation. I informed them that I
+had a little money from their own people of the Sea Islands for them;
+that they had been chosen to receive it, because as teachers of the
+children they would have access to the needs and conditions of the
+families. I told them that I had desired to do more than merely make a
+gift for distribution. I wished to plant a tree. I could have given them
+their peach, which they would eat, enjoy, and throw the pit away. But I
+wished them to plant the pit, and let it raise other fruit for them, and
+for that reason I had asked the formation of this society.
+
+They all sat quiet a few moments, the tears were on their faces. At
+length their president, the school superintendent, spoke for them:
+
+"Miss Barton," he said, "we all appreciate this, and in the name of all
+I promise you that the pit shall be reverently planted, and I trust the
+time will come when I can tell you that our tree is not only bearing
+fruit for ourselves, but for all suffering brethren, as theirs have done
+for us."
+
+I then handed them the check for $397. The moment seemed sacred when
+these poor dark figures, struggling toward the light, walked out of my
+presence. The pit has been successfully planted in Galveston, and we are
+from time to time informed of its bearing.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ARMENIAN RELIEF
+
+1896
+
+
+Leaving the Port Royal field past midsummer of 1894, after an absence of
+nearly a year--at a day's notice--the remainder of the autumn and winter
+was scarcely less occupied in the details which had been unavoidably
+overlooked. Before spring our correspondence commenced to enlarge with
+rumors of Armenian massacres, and so excited and rapid was the increase
+that, so far as actual labor, consultation, and thought were concerned,
+we might as well have been on a field of relief.
+
+Unfortunately, the suspicions of the Turkish Government had fallen upon
+the resident missionaries, both English and American, as favoring the
+views and efforts of its anarchistic population, or the "young Turks,"
+as they were designated. This had the effect of placing the missionaries
+in danger, confining them strictly to their own quarters, preventing
+all communication and the receiving of any funds sent them from abroad.
+
+England had a large waiting fund which it could not distribute, and
+appealed to the American Missionary Boards of Boston and New York, to
+find them equally powerless. The need of funds among the missionaries
+throughout Turkey was getting painfully urgent, and as a last resort it
+was suggested from Constantinople that the Red Cross be asked to open
+the way.
+
+A written request from the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., of Boston, was
+nearly identical with one received by us from Mr. Spencer Trask, of New
+York, who with others was about to form a national Armenian relief
+committee, to be established in that city.
+
+Following these communications, both of these eminent gentlemen, Mr.
+Smith and Mr. Trask, came in person to urge our compliance with their
+request that the Red Cross accept the charge and personally undertake
+the doubtful and dangerous task of distributing the waiting funds among
+the missionaries in Turkey.
+
+As Mr. Trask was to take the lead in the formation of a committee for
+the raising of funds, his interest was naturally paramount, and his
+arguments in favor of our acceptance were wellnigh irresistible.
+Immediate action on the part of some one was imperative. Human beings
+were starving, and could not be reached. Thousands of towns and villages
+had not been heard from since the massacres, and only the Red Cross
+could have any hope of reaching them. No one else was prepared for field
+work; it had its force of trained field workers. Turkey was one of the
+signatory powers to the Red Cross Treaty. Thus it was hoped and believed
+that she would the more readily accept its presence.
+
+These are mere examples of the reasons urged by the ardent advocates of
+the proposed committee, until at length we came to consider its
+acceptance, on conditions which must be clearly understood. First, we
+must not be expected to take any part in, or to be made use of, in the
+raising of funds--one of our fundamental rules being never to ask for
+funds--we did not do it for ourselves.
+
+Second, there must be perfect unanimity between themselves. We must be
+assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough
+then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
+
+Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a
+feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this
+untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to
+discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking
+establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of
+funds. They were likely to be disappointed. In reality, the amount, so
+there were something to go with, made very little difference to us, as
+we were merely to place what was entrusted to us where most needed, and
+when that was done we had but to return. We never named any amount as
+preferable to us.
+
+The means resorted to in raising the funds were unfortunate. In the
+great public meetings called for that purpose the utmost indiscretion
+prevailed in regard to language applied to Turkey and the Turkish
+Government. This aroused the indignation of the Turkish officials, who
+very reasonably took measures to have our entrance into Turkey
+forbidden.
+
+A date of sailing, however, had been given Mr. Trask, and his committee,
+feeling that any change would be detrimental to their efforts, no change
+was made, and we sailed on time, to find in England no permission, and
+further efforts necessary. With time and patience the troublesome
+effects of these mistakes were overcome, and Constantinople was reached,
+and a heavenly welcome by the harassed missionaries awaited us.
+
+The first step was to procure an introduction to the Turkish Government,
+which had in one sense refused to see me. Accompanied by the American
+Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, and his premier interpreter, Gargiulo, one
+of the most experienced diplomatic officers in Constantinople, I called
+by appointment upon Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, or Minister of State. To those conversant with the personages
+connected with Turkish affairs, I need not say that Tewfik Pasha is
+probably the foremost man of the government--a manly man, with a kind,
+fine face, and genial, polished manners. Educated abroad, with advanced
+views on general subjects, he impresses one as a man who would sanction
+no wrong it was in his power to avert.
+
+Mr. Terrell's introduction was most appropriate and well expressed,
+bearing with strong emphasis upon the suffering condition of the people
+of the interior, in consequence of the massacres, the great sympathy of
+the people of America, and giving assurance that our objects were purely
+humanitarian, having neither political, racial, nor religious
+significance.
+
+The Pasha listened most attentively to Mr. Terrell, thanked him, and
+said that this was well understood, that they knew the Red Cross and its
+president. Turning to me he repeated: "We know you, Miss Barton; have
+long known you and your work. We would like to hear your plans for
+relief and what you desire."
+
+I proceeded to state our plans for relief, which, if not carried out at
+this time, the suffering in Armenia, unless we had been misinformed,
+would shock the entire civilized world. None of us knew from personal
+observation, as yet, the full need of assistance, but had reason to
+believe it very great. If my agents were permitted to go, such need as
+they found they would be prompt to relieve. On the other hand, if they
+did not find the need existing there, none would leave the field so
+gladly as they. There would be no respecting of persons--humanity alone
+would be their guide. "We have," I added, "brought only ourselves; no
+correspondent has accompanied us, and we shall have none, and shall not
+go home to write a book on Turkey. We are not here for that. Nothing
+shall be done in any concealed manner. All dispatches which we send will
+go openly through your own telegraph, and I should be glad if all that
+we shall write could be seen by your government. I can not, of course,
+say what its character will be, but can vouch for its truth, fairness,
+and integrity, and for the conduct of every leading man who shall be
+sent. I shall never counsel or permit a sly or underhand action with
+your government, and you will pardon me, Pasha, if I say I shall expect
+the same treatment in return--such as I give I shall expect to receive."
+
+Almost without a breath he replied: "And you shall have it. We honor
+your position and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and
+protection as we are able, we shall render."
+
+I then asked if it were necessary for me to see other officials. "No,"
+he replied, "I speak for my government," and with cordial good wishes
+our interview closed.
+
+I never spoke personally with this gentleman again, all further business
+being officially transacted through the officers of our legation. Yet I
+can truly say, as I have said of my first meeting with our matchless
+band of missionary workers, that here commenced an acquaintance which
+proved invaluable, and here were given pledges of mutual faith, of which
+not a word was ever broken on either side.
+
+The Turkish Government, when once it came to understand American methods
+and enthusiasm was forgiving and kind to us. No obstruction was ever
+placed in our way. Our five expeditions passed through Armenian Turkey
+from sea to sea, distributing whatever was needed, repairing the
+destroyed machines, enabling the people to make tools to harvest their
+grain, thus averting a famine; providing medical help and food as well
+for thousands of sick; setting free the frightened inhabitants, and
+returning them to the villages from which they had fled for their lives;
+restoring all missionary freedom that had been interrupted; establishing
+a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of the government; and
+through all this, we had never one unpleasant transaction with any
+person of whatever name or race.
+
+While our expeditions were getting ready to go out by the Black Sea, a
+request was brought to me by Dr. Washburn, of Robert College, from Sir
+Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, asking if I
+could not be "persuaded" to turn my expedition through the
+Mediterranean, rather than the Black Sea, in order to reach Mirash and
+Zeitoun, where the foreign consuls were at the moment convened. They had
+gotten word to him that ten thousand people in those two cities were
+down with four distinct epidemics--typhoid and typhus fevers, dysentery
+and smallpox--that the victims were dying in overwhelming numbers, and
+that there was not a physician among them, all being either sick or
+dead, with no medicine and little food.
+
+This was not a case for "persuasion," but of heartfelt thanks from us
+all, that Sir Philip had remembered to call us, whom he had never met.
+But here was a hindrance. The only means of conveyance from
+Constantinople to Alexandretta were coasting boats, belonging to
+different nationalities, which left only once in two weeks, and
+irregularly at that. Transport for our goods was secured on the first
+boat to leave, the goods taken to the wharf at Galata, and at the latest
+moment, in order to give time, a request was made to the government for
+_teskeres_, or traveling permits, for Dr. J. B. Hubbell and assistants.
+To our surprise they were granted instantly, but by some delay on the
+part of the messenger sent for them they reached a moment too late. The
+boat left a little more promptly, taking with it our relief goods, and
+leaving the men on the dock to receive their permits only when the boat
+was beyond recall. It was really the fault of no one.
+
+With the least possible delay Dr. Hubbell secured passage by the first
+boat at Smyrna, and a fortunate chance boat from there took him to
+Alexandretta, via Beyrout and Tripoli, Syria. The goods arrived in
+safety, and two other of our assistants, whom we had called by cable
+from America--Edward M. Wistar and Charles King Wood--were also passed
+over to the same point with more goods. There, caravans were fitted out
+to leave over the--to them--unknown track to Aintab, as a first base.
+From this point the reports of these three gentlemen made to me will be
+living witnesses. They tell their own modest tales of exposure, severe
+travel, hard work, and hardship, of which no word of complaint has ever
+passed their lips. There have been only gratitude and joy, that they
+could do something in a cause at once so great and so terrible.
+
+While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
+Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
+of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
+virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
+Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
+Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
+something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
+daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
+normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
+care and treatment.
+
+During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
+was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
+18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
+four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
+probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
+prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
+of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
+their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
+and a state of prolonged starvation.
+
+Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
+kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
+My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
+dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
+your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
+small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
+to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
+ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
+at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
+have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
+anxious people.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
+overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
+charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
+him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
+to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
+justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
+lands perform deeds of worth like that.
+
+The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
+general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
+missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
+
+The apathy to which the state of utter nothingness, together with their
+grief and fear, had reduced the inhabitants, was by no means the
+smallest difficulty to be overcome. Here was realized the great danger
+felt by all--that of continued alms-giving, lest they settle down into a
+condition of pauperism, and thus finally starve, from the inability of
+the world at large to feed them. The presence of a strange body of
+friendly working people, coming thousands of miles to help them,
+awakened a hope and stimulated the desire to help themselves.
+
+It was a new experience that these strangers _dared_ to come to them.
+Although the aforetime home lay a heap of stone and sand, and nothing
+belonging to it remained, still the land was there, and when seed to
+plant the ground and the farming utensils and cattle were brought to
+work it with, the faint spirit revived, the weak, hopeless hands
+unclasped, and the farmer stood on his feet again.
+
+When the cities could no longer provide the spades, hoes, plows, picks
+and shovels, and the crude iron and steel to make these was purchased
+and taken to them, the blacksmith found again his fire and forge and
+traveled weary miles with his bellows on his back. The carpenter again
+swung his hammer and drew his saw. The broken and scattered
+spinning-wheels and looms from under the storms and _debris_ of winter
+again took form and motion, and the fresh bundles of wool, cotton, flax,
+and hemp in the waiting widow's hand brought hopeful visions of the
+revival of industries which should not only clothe but feed.
+
+At length, in early June, the great grain-fields of Diarbekir, Farkin,
+and Harpoot valleys, planted the year before, grew golden and bowed
+their heavy spear-crowned heads in waiting for the sickle. But no
+sickles were there, no scythes, not even knives. It was a new and sorry
+sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard
+Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull
+it by the roots. This state of things could not continue, and their
+sorrow and pity gave place to joy when they were able to drain the
+cities of Harpoot and Diarbekir of harvest tools, and turned the work of
+all the village blacksmiths on to the manufacture of sickles and
+scythes, and of flint workers upon the rude threshing machines.
+
+They have told me since their return that the pleasantest memories left
+to them were of those great valleys of golden grain, bending and falling
+before the harvesters, men and women, each with the new, sharp sickle or
+scythe, the crude threshing planks, the cattle trampling out the grain,
+and the gleaners in the rear as in the days of Abraham and Moab. God
+grant that somewhere among them was a kind-hearted king of the harvest
+who gave orders to let some sheaves fall.
+
+Even while this saving process was going on another condition no less
+imperative arose. These fields must be replanted or starvation must be
+simply delayed. Only the strength of their old-time teams of oxen could
+break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an
+animal--ox, cow, horse, goat, or sheep--had been left. All had been
+driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
+for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
+rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
+and replied accordingly.
+
+When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
+Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
+judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
+imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
+hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
+lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
+secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
+(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
+divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
+progress of the harvest of 1897.
+
+As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
+men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
+to report in person at Constantinople.
+
+Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
+were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
+uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
+and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
+waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
+chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
+escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
+region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
+been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
+difference.
+
+At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
+and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
+Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
+contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
+leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
+committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
+was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
+Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
+our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
+interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
+destroyed.
+
+The appearance of our men on their arrival at Constantinople confirmed
+the impression that they had not been recalled too soon. They had gone
+out through the snows and ice of winter, and without change or rest had
+come back through the scorching suns of midsummer--five months of rough,
+uncivilized life, faring and sharing with their beasts of burden,
+well-nigh out of communication with the civilized world, but never out
+of danger. It seemed but just to themselves and to others who might need
+them, that change and rest be given them.
+
+It would scarcely be permissible to express in words the obligation to
+our American Minister, Hon. A. W. Terrell, at Constantinople, without
+whose unremitting care and generous aid our work could not have been
+accomplished. And, indeed, so many were the duties of that difficult and
+delicate field that it seemed the help of no one hand or heart could be
+spared. We felt that we had them all; from the palace of the Sultan to
+beloved Robert College, from the American Legation to the busy rooms of
+the American Board, with its masterly treasurer, Peet, were the same
+outstretched hands of protection and care for our little band.
+
+They knew we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, and with
+no thought of ourselves. We had done the best we knew to accomplish the
+mission so persistently sought of us in our own country.
+
+That our work had been acceptable to those who received its results, we
+knew. They had never failed to _make_ us know. If also acceptable to Him
+who gave us the courage, protection, and strength to perform it, we need
+care for little more.
+
+Funds to the total amount of $116,326.01 were cabled us by Mr. Spencer
+Trask's committee, all of which were placed in the hands of Mr. W. W.
+Peet, treasurer of the missionary board at Constantinople. All proper
+receipts were given and taken, and feeling that we had faithfully and
+successfully accomplished the work we had been asked to perform, we
+closed the field, and prepared to return to America.
+
+Some days of physical rest were needful for the men of the expeditions
+after reaching Constantinople before commencing their journey of
+thousands of miles for home, worn as they were by exposure and incessant
+labor--physical and mental. I need not attempt to say with what
+gratitude I welcomed back these weary, brown-faced men and officers
+from a field so difficult and so perilous; none the less did the
+gratitude go out to my faithful and capable secretary, who had toiled
+early and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
+all should go well.
+
+And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
+voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
+Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
+headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
+and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
+that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
+music.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CUBA
+
+1898
+
+
+On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
+result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
+died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
+had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
+gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
+system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
+uppermost in the minds of all persons.
+
+These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
+heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
+with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
+effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
+as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
+a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.
+
+Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
+doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
+the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
+"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
+result.
+
+The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
+all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
+praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
+the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
+Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
+memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
+and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
+nation at its recall.
+
+The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
+was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
+would not recall. The starving mothers and motherless babes, the
+homelessness and squalor, the hopelessness and despair, are beyond all
+words and all conception, save to those who saw and lived among them. It
+is past and let it rest.
+
+Then followed the declaration of hostilities, the blockade, the fleets
+of war, and the stately, glistening white ships of relief that dotted
+the sea--our navy after forty years of peace again doing service in its
+own waters--and among them one inconspicuous, black-hulled sea-going
+craft, laden with food for the still famishing reconcentrados, when they
+could be reached.
+
+Day after day, in its weary, waiting cruise, it watched out for an
+opening to that closed-in suffering island, till at length the thunder
+of the guns, Siboney, San Juan, opened the track, and the wounded troops
+of our own army, hungering on their own fields, were the reconcentrados
+of the hour.
+
+Tampa became the gathering-point of the army. Its camps filled like
+magic, first with regulars, then volunteers, as if the fiery torch of
+Duncraigen had spread over the hills and prairies of America. The great
+ships gathered in the waters, the transports, with decks dark with human
+life, passed in and out, and the battleships of the sea held ever their
+commanding sway. It seemed a strange thing, this gathering for war.
+Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans of
+the days of the old war, long passed into history. Could it be possible
+that we were to learn this anew? Were men again to fall, and women weep?
+Were the youth of this generation to gain that experience their fathers
+had gained, to live the war-lives they had lived, and die the deaths
+they had died?
+
+At length the fleet moved on, and we prepared to move with, or rather
+after it. The quest on which it had gone, and the route it had taken,
+bordered something on the mystery shrouding the days when Sherman
+marched to the sea. Where were the Spanish ships? What would be the
+result when found and met? Where were we to break that Cuban wall and
+let us in?
+
+Always present in our minds were the food we carried, the willing hands
+that waited, and the perishing thousands that needed. We knew the great
+hospital ships were fitting for the care of the men of both Army and
+Navy. Surely they could have no need of us.
+
+We had taken possession of our ship at Key West on the 29th of April. It
+was now the 20th of June and the national records of two countries at
+least will always give the history of those days. It is our part to keep
+as clearly, truthfully, and kindly as possible, the record of the little
+that fell to us to perform in this great drama.
+
+Weighing anchor at Key West the State of Texas steamed for the open
+Caribbean, we having first taken the official advice of Commodore Remy
+to find Admiral Sampson and report to him.
+
+Sunrise of the twenty-fifth gave us our first view of the water at
+Santiago. Our transports and battle-ships were gathered there. The
+advice of Admiral Sampson was that we proceed to Guantanamo, where the
+marines had made a landing and were camped on the shore. There had been
+some fighting at Guantanamo. The naval hospital ship Solace was there.
+
+Whoever has enjoyed this quiet, sheltered harbor, protected on three
+sides by beautiful wooded hills, will not require to be reminded of it.
+At six o'clock our anchor sunk in the deep, still waters and we had time
+to look about and see the beginning of the war. The marines were camped
+along the brow of a hill. On our right a camp of Cubans, and all about
+us the great war-ships with their guns, which told of forthcoming
+trouble. Captain McCalla, who was in command of Guantanamo, had sent his
+compliments and a launch, leading us in to our place of anchorage. The
+courtesies of the navy so early commenced at Key West were continued
+throughout the war.
+
+By invitation of Commander Dunlap our entire company visited the Solace
+the following day. If that beautiful ship or its management had left
+room on the records of our country's meed of gratitude, for more words
+of appreciative praise, I should be glad to speak them. Only those
+familiar with the earliest history of the Red Cross in our country, and
+the methods by which our navy alone--of all the Red Cross nations--had
+gained even an approximately legal place, can judge what the sight of
+that first naval relief ship in American waters was to me. It brought
+back so vividly the memory of the day in 1881 when President Arthur
+called me to him to carefully explain the conditions of the treaty which
+he had just signed, and that, Congress having generously included the
+navy in its treaty for war, he would provide to hold it carefully until
+the probable widening of the original treaty would include the _navies_
+of the world, as well as the armies.
+
+Before the day closed news came to us of a serious character. The daring
+Rough Riders had been hardly dealt by. Hamilton Fish and Allyn Capron
+had been killed, and the wounded needed help. Wherever they might be, it
+must be possible to reach them, and it was decided that no time be lost.
+Our men commenced work in the hold of the ship to get at medical
+supplies and dressings, and the captain took his orders. I find in my
+diary at the close of that day the following paragraph: "It is the Rough
+Riders we go to, and the relief may be also rough, but it will be
+_ready_. A better body of helpers could scarcely be gotten together."
+
+Nine o'clock of the same night found us at Siboney, which can scarcely
+be called a harbor, for it has no anchorage. The next morning at
+daybreak we stood on deck to see the soldiers filing up over the hill,
+in heavy marching order, forming in lines by ones and twos, winding up,
+in and out among the hills, higher and higher. As we watched them they
+were a moving line trailing on toward the clouds, till lost in the mist,
+and we could only think, as we looked at them, on how many and on which,
+is set the mark of death? He knew no more than we--poor fellow--and
+with his swinging, steady gait, toils up and up and waits for--he knows
+not what.
+
+The hospitals, both American and Cuban, located on the shore just to the
+right of us, were visited by our men that same evening. Some of their
+surgeons called on us. All seemed interested in the Red Cross, but none
+thought that a woman nurse would be in place in a soldiers'
+hospital--indeed, very much out of place. I suggested that that decision
+was hard for me, for I had spent a great deal of time in soldiers'
+hospitals myself. They appeared to understand that perfectly, but there
+seemed to be a _later_ line which could not be crossed.
+
+The Cubans who had just come into camp expressed a desire for any
+assistance we could give them. They would be glad to have the Red Cross
+Sisters in their little hospital, but begged us to wait just a day until
+it could be put in better order. The Sisters were not the persons to
+grant that day of preparation.
+
+On the contrary they at once went to work, thoroughly cleaned the little
+three-room building--Garcia's abandoned headquarters, to be used as a
+hospital--and when the day closed the transformation showed clean rooms,
+clean cots, and the grateful occupants wondering whether Heaven itself
+could be more comfortable, or anything more desirable than the palatable
+food prepared for them by the Sisters.
+
+Three days later the following letter was received:
+
+
+"To MISS CLARA BARTON, President,
+
+"American National Red Cross:
+
+"I have the honor to request your assistance in caring for the patients
+in a so-called hospital near the landing at this point.
+
+"The orders are to the effect that all patients now under treatment on
+the shore shall be transferred to the Iroquois and Olivette, but the
+facilities for carrying out this order are apparently inadequate. In
+order that the division hospital may remain unhampered for the care of
+the wounded in the engagement about to take place, it is necessary for
+me to request this favor of you, and I trust that you may find it
+possible to comply with said request.
+
+"Your obedient servant,
+
+"LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding
+Hospital."
+
+
+To this the following reply was immediately returned:
+
+
+"Steamship State of Texas,
+
+"SIBONEY, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, _June 30, 1898_.
+
+"DR. LOUIS A. LE GARDE,
+
+"Major and Surgeon, U. S. A., Commanding Hospital.
+
+"Major: Permit me to express the pleasure given me by your letter
+inviting the assistance of the persons here under my direction in the
+care of the sick and wounded of the engagement about to take place.
+Although not here as a hospital ship by any means--not legitimately
+fitted for the work--still we have some hospital supplies, a few
+intelligent workers, skill, experience, the willingness to serve, the
+readiness to obey, and I believe the true spirit of the Red Cross, that
+seeks to help humanity wherever its needs exist. I send them to you in
+the hope that they may be of service.
+
+"Cordially yours,
+
+"CLARA BARTON,
+
+"President, American National Red Cross."
+
+
+Our surgeons and assistants went on shore, where Dr. Le Garde and Dr.
+Lesser secured a small house, and in a few hours this had undergone the
+same transformation and by the same hands as the Cuban hospital. The Red
+Cross flag was hoisted, Dr. Lesser placed in charge, and scores of our
+soldiers who had been lying on the filthy floors of an adjacent
+building, with no food but army rations, were carried over, placed in
+clean cots, and given proper food. From that on, no distinction was
+made, the Red Cross flag floating over both the American and Cuban
+hospitals.
+
+A few feet away, all the available army tents were put up as additional
+accommodation for the "wounded in the engagement about to take place."
+It did take place the following day, and, as will be well remembered, in
+those two days, Friday and Saturday, the first and second of July, the
+tents were more than filled with wounded in the battle of San Juan Hill.
+Three of the five Sisters went into the operating tent, and with the
+surgeons worked for thirty hours with only a few moments' rest now and
+then for a cup of coffee and a cracker or piece of bread. We heard
+nothing more about a woman nurse being out of place in a soldiers'
+hospital.
+
+On Saturday evening, the second day of the San Juan battle, a slip of
+paper with these penciled words was brought to the door of the hospital:
+
+
+"Send food, medicines, anything. Seize wagons from the front for
+transportation.
+
+"SHAFTER."
+
+
+The call for help was at once sent over to the State of Texas, and we
+worked all night getting out supplies and sending them ashore with a
+force of Cubans, only too glad to work for food.
+
+I wish I could make apparent how difficult a thing it was to get
+supplies from our ship to the shore in a surf which, after ten o'clock
+in the morning, allowed no small boats to touch even the bit of a pier
+that was run out without breaking either the one or the other, and
+nothing in the form of a lighter save two dilapidated flat-boat
+pontoons. These had been broken and cast away by the engineer corps,
+picked up by ourselves, mended by the Cubans, and put in condition to
+float alongside of our ship, and receive perhaps three or four tons of
+material. This must then be rowed or floated out to the shore, run onto
+the sand as far as possible, the men jumping into the water from knee to
+waist deep, pulling the boat up from the surf, and getting the material
+on land. And this was what was meant by loading the "seized wagons from
+the front" and getting food to the wounded. After ten o'clock in the day
+even this was impossible, and we must wait until the calm of three
+o'clock next morning to commence work again and go through the same
+struggle to get something to load the wagons for that day. Our supplies
+had been gotten ashore, and among the last, rocking and tossing in our
+little boat, went ourselves, landing on the pier, which by that time was
+breaking in two, escaping a surf which every other moment threatened to
+envelop one from feet to head, we reached the land.
+
+Our "seized" wagons had already gone on, loaded with our best hospital
+supplies--meal, flour, condensed milk, malted milk, tea, coffee, sugar,
+dried fruits, canned fruits, canned meats, and such other things as we
+had been able to get out in the haste of packing--entirely filling the
+two wagons already in advance.
+
+An ambulance had been spoken of. We waited a little while by the
+roadside, but the ambulance did not appear. Then, halting a wagon loaded
+with bales of hay, we begged a ride of the driver, and our little party,
+Dr. and Mrs. Gardner, James McDowell, and myself, took our seats on the
+hay and made our way to the front, Dr. Hubbell following afoot. Four
+hours' ride brought us to the First Division Hospital of the Fifth Army
+Corps--General Shafter's headquarters.
+
+The sight that met us on going into the so-called hospital grounds was
+something indescribable. The land was perfectly level; no drainage
+whatever; covered with long, tangled grass; skirted by trees, brush,
+and shrubbery; a few little dog-tents not much larger than could have
+been made of an ordinary table-cloth thrown over a short rail, and under
+these lay huddled together the men fresh from the field or from the
+operating-tables, with no covering over them save such as had clung to
+them through their troubles, and in the majority of cases no blanket
+under them.
+
+Those who had come from the tables, having been compelled to leave all
+the clothing they had, as too wet, muddy, and bloody to be retained,
+were entirely nude, lying on the stubble grass, the sun fitfully dealing
+with them, sometimes clouding over and again streaming out in a blaze
+above them. Fortunately, among our supplies were some bolts of
+unbleached cotton, and this we cut in sheet lengths, and the men of our
+party went about and covered the poor fellows, who lay there with no
+shelter either from the elements or the eyes of the passers-by.
+
+A half dozen bricks laid about a yard apart, a couple of pieces of
+wagon-tire laid across these, so low and so near the ground that no fire
+of any strength or benefit could be made--the bits of wet wood put
+under crosswise, with the smoke streaming a foot out on either side, two
+kettles of coffee or soup, and a small frying-pan with some meat in
+it--appeared to be the cook-house for these men. They told us there were
+about eight hundred men under the tents and lying in the grass, and more
+constantly coming in.
+
+After a few moments' consultation as to the best methods to be pursued,
+we too gathered stones and bricks and constructed a longer, higher
+fireplace, got more wagon-tires, found the water, and soon our great
+agate kettles of seven and ten gallons were filled.
+
+The rain, that had been drizzling more or less all day, increased. Our
+supplies were taken from the wagons, a piece of tarpaulin found to
+protect them, and as the fire began to blaze and the water to heat, Mrs.
+Gardner and I found the way into the bags and boxes of flour, salt,
+milk, and meal, and got material for the first gallons of gruel. I had
+not thought to ever make gruel again over a camp-fire. I can not say how
+far it carried me back in the lapse of time, or really where, or who I
+felt that I was.
+
+It did not seem to be me, and still I seemed to know how to do it.
+
+When the bubbling contents of our kettle thickened and grew white with
+the condensed milk, and we began to give it out--putting it into the
+hands of men detailed as nurses, and our own men, to take around to the
+poor sufferers, shivering and naked in the rain--I felt that perhaps it
+was not in vain that history had repeated itself. When the nurses came
+back and told us of the surprise with which it was received, and the
+tears that rolled down the sun-burned, often bloody face, into the cup
+as the poor fellow drank his hot gruel, and asked where it came from,
+who sent it, and said it was the first food he had tasted in three days
+(for they had gone into the fight hungry), I felt that it was again the
+same old story and wondered what gain there had been in the last thirty
+years.
+
+The fires burned, the gruel steamed and boiled--bucket after bucket went
+out--until those eight hundred men had each a cup of gruel and knew that
+he could have another and as many as he wanted. The day waned, the
+darkness came, and still the men were unsheltered, uncovered, naked,
+and wet--scarcely a groan, no word of complaint--no man said he was not
+well treated.
+
+The operating-tables were full of the wounded. Man after man was taken
+off, brought on his litter and laid beside other men, and something
+given him to keep the little life in his body that seemed fast oozing
+out. All night it went on. It grew cold--for naked men bitter
+cold--before morning. We had no blankets, nothing to cover them, only
+the strips of cotton cloth.
+
+Early in the morning ambulances started, and such of the wounded as
+could be loaded in were taken to be carried back over that rough,
+pitiless road, down to Siboney, to the hospitals there--that we had done
+the best we could toward fitting up--where our hundred cots, hundred and
+fifty blankets had gone, cups, spoons, and delicacies, that would help
+to strengthen these poor, fainting men, if they could get there, and
+where also the Sisters would care for them.
+
+They brought man after man, stretcher after stretcher, to the waiting
+ambulances, and they took out seventeen who had died in the night,
+unattended, save by the nurse.
+
+More supplies arrived, and this time came large tarpaulins, more
+utensils, more food, and more things to make it a little comfortable. We
+removed our first kitchens across the road, up alongside the headquarter
+tent of Major Wood, in charge of the camp. Words can not do justice to
+his kind-hearted generosity. He strove in every way to do all that could
+be done, and the night before had given us a small tent in which we had
+huddled from the pouring rain, for a couple of hours, in the middle of
+the night, the water rushing through like a rivulet.
+
+The tarpaulins were put over supplies, a new fireplace made near
+us--magnificent in its dimensions--shelter given for boxes and barrels
+that by this time had accumulated about us, and there was even something
+that looked like a table, on which Mrs. Gardner prepared her delicacies.
+
+Early in the day there came to our improvised headquarters an officer in
+khaki uniform showing hard service, and a bandanna handkerchief hanging
+from his hat, to protect the back of his head and neck from the fierce
+rays of the sun.
+
+It was Colonel Roosevelt, and we were very glad to meet the gallant
+leader of the "Rough Riders." After a few moments conversation he said:
+
+"I have some sick men with the regiment who refuse to leave it. They
+need such delicacies as you have here, which I am ready to pay for out
+of my own pocket. Can I buy them from the Red Cross?"
+
+"Not for a million dollars," Dr. Gardner replied.
+
+"But my men need these things," he said, his tone and face expressing
+anxiety. "I think a great deal of my men. I am proud of them."
+
+"And we know they are proud of you, Colonel. But we can't sell Red Cross
+supplies," answered Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Then, how can I get them? I must have proper food for my sick men," he
+said.
+
+"Just ask for them, Colonel," replied Dr. Gardner.
+
+"Oh," he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a bright smile; "then
+I do ask for them."
+
+"All right, Colonel; what is your list?"
+
+The list included malted milk, condensed milk, oatmeal, cornmeal, canned
+fruits, dried fruits, rice, tea, chocolate, and even prepared beefsteak
+and vegetables, and other things good for men who could not eat army
+rations.
+
+"Now, Colonel, when will you send for these supplies?" asked Dr.
+Gardner. "They will be ready any time."
+
+"Lend me a sack and I'll take them right along," he answered with
+characteristic decision.
+
+Mrs. Gardner at once looked up a sack, and when filled it must have held
+a good many pounds of supplies. Before we had recovered from our
+surprise, the incident was closed by the future President of the United
+States slinging the big sack over his shoulders, striding off, and out
+of sight through the jungle.
+
+The gruel still remained the staple, but malted milk, chocolate, rice,
+and tea had come in, and little by little various things were added by
+which our _menage_ quite resembled a hotel. The wounded were still being
+taken away by ambulance and wagon, assorted and picked over like fruit.
+Those who would bear transportation were taken away, the others left
+where they were. By the third day our patients seemed strong enough that
+we might risk giving them food as solid as rice, and the great kettles
+were filled with that, cooked soft, mixed with condensed and malted
+milk. The number of wounded grew less day by day, and better care could
+be taken of them.
+
+At Siboney, the great needs of the hour were met by the little band of
+surgeons and nurses, working night and day. The following is from a
+letter in the Times-Herald, now Record-Herald, of Chicago, by Miss Janet
+Jennings, who volunteered her service in the hospital. One gets from
+this simple, direct picture, a better appreciation of that heroism which
+lives after excitement, which survives the rush and shouting of assault,
+which is sustained without comradeship:
+
+
+"SIBONEY, _July 8, 1898_.
+
+"Above hospital tents Red Cross flags are flying, and here is the real
+life--the suffering and heroism. Everybody who can do even so little as
+carry a cup of water lends willing hands to help the wounded. Most of
+the wounded are from the first day's engagement, when the infantry was
+ordered to lead the attack on Santiago, instead of using the artillery.
+
+"And it all came at once--a quick blow--with little or no preparation
+to meet it. I mentioned in a former letter the lack of preparation on
+the part of the army to care for the sick. There was then almost
+nothing--no cots, bedding or proper food, for less than one hundred sick
+men.
+
+"Two days later, when the wounded came in, the needs of the hour were
+overwhelming. The situation can not be described. Thousands of our men
+had been hurried to the front to fight. It was well understood that it
+would be a hard fight. The dead would need only burial, but the wounded
+would need care. And yet, with the exception of a limited number of
+stretchers, a medicine-chest and a few bandages, no preparation had been
+made--neither cots nor food--practically no hospital supplies.
+
+"It is not strange that surgeons were desperate and nurses distressed.
+The force of each was wholly inadequate. The exact number of wounded may
+never be known. But the estimate at this time is about 1,000
+wounded--some 1,500 killed and wounded.
+
+"Wounded men who made their way down on foot eight miles over the rough,
+hilly road will never know just how their strength held out. Others were
+brought down in army wagons by the load, as few ambulances were at
+hand. Fortunately, there were some tents here that had been used by
+troops before going to the front. Under these hay was spread and covered
+with blankets, and the improvised hospital was ready. One tent was taken
+for operating-tables, and the work of surgeons and nurses began. They
+worked night and day for forty-eight hours, with only brief intervals
+for coffee and hard-tack.
+
+"Wounded men had to wait for hours before bullets could be extracted and
+wounds dressed. But there was no word of complaint--only silent, patient
+suffering, borne with a courage that was sublime. As the wounded
+continued to come in, tent-room gave out, and hay with blankets were
+placed outside, and to these 'beds' the less severely wounded were
+assigned. It was evident that the medical department of the army had
+failed absolutely to send hospital supplies, or by this time they would
+have been landed. As it was, the surgeons turned to the Red Cross ship
+'State of Texas' for help, and the supplies originally intended for the
+starving Cubans were sent ashore for our wounded.
+
+"Miss Barton had been urged and advised to wait until the army opened
+and made the way safe to land supplies for reconcentrados and refugees.
+But she had foreseen the situation to a certain degree and followed the
+army as quickly as possible--to wait for the emergency, rather than have
+the emergency wait for her. The 'State of Texas' was here a week before
+the attack on Santiago.
+
+"While surgeons and nurses were probing for bullets and dressing wounds,
+a force of men on the Red Cross ship worked half the night getting out
+cots and blankets, food and bandages, and at daylight next morning the
+supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
+and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
+difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
+eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
+dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
+assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
+surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
+Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
+revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
+went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
+of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.
+
+"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
+of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
+surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
+to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
+prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
+furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
+cooking utensils must have been left behind.
+
+"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
+loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
+this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
+history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
+cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
+gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
+forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
+tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
+for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
+hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
+take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.
+
+"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
+American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
+'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
+gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
+greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
+and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.
+
+"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of men
+wounded in the head, arm, and upper part of the body. Some of these
+cases, the most serious, were taken into the Red Cross Hospital, where
+they received the most skilful and gentle nursing.
+
+"Two days' steady strain began to show on the Sisters.
+
+"The strain had been the greater because there were no facilities for
+anything like a regular meal short of the ship, reached by a long, hard
+tramp in the sand, then a row over the tossing waves. But nobody thought
+of meals. The one thing was to feed and nurse the 500 wounded and sick
+men. Human endurance, however, has its limit, and unless the Sisters
+could get a little rest they would give out. I went on duty for
+twenty-four hours, at night, with the assistance of one man, taking care
+of forty patients, fever, measles, and dysentery cases, and half a dozen
+badly wounded men. Among the latter was Captain Mills, of the First
+Cavalry, and William Clark, a colored private in the Twenty-fifth
+Infantry, regulars. They were brought over from the hospital tents and
+placed on cots out on the little porch, where there was just room to
+pass between the cots.
+
+"Their wounds were very similar--in the head--and of such a character as
+to require cool applications to the eyes constantly. Ice was scarce and
+worth its weight in gold, for the lives of these men as well as others
+depended chiefly on cool applications to the eyes, with as uniform
+temperature as possible. We had one small piece of ice, carefully
+wrapped in a blanket. There never was a small piece of ice that went so
+far. If I were to tell the truth about it nobody would believe me.
+
+"Never in my whole life, I think, have I wished for anything so much as
+I wished for plenty of ice that night. It was applied by chipping in
+small bits, laid in thin, dry cotton cloth, folded over in just the
+right size and flat, to place across the eyes and forehead, enough of it
+to be cold, but not heavy, on the wounds.
+
+"The ears of the sick are strangely acute. Whenever the sick men heard
+the sound of chipping ice they begged for ice-water; even the smallest
+bit of ice in a cup of water was begged with an eagerness that was
+pitiful. I felt conscience-smitten. But it was a question of saving the
+eyes of the wounded men, and there was no other way. To make the ice
+last till morning I stealthily chipped it off so the sick men would not
+hear the sound.
+
+"At midnight a surgeon came over from his tent ward with a little piece
+of ice not larger than his hand. I do not know his name, but it does not
+matter, it is inscribed above. 'This is all we can spare,' he said.
+'Take it. You must keep those wounds cool at all hazards. I have another
+case very like these--a man wounded in the head. I want to bring him
+over here, where he will be sure of exactly the same nursing. His life
+depends on the care he gets in the next twenty-four hours. Have you a
+vacant cot?'
+
+"There was not a vacant cot, but we could make room for one on the porch
+if he could find the cot. He thought he could, and went back, taking the
+precious piece of ice that he really needed more than we did. In the
+course of a half hour the surgeon returned to say it was impossible to
+get a cot anywhere, and the wounded man must be left where he was in the
+tent, at least until morning.
+
+"And so it went on through the long night--the patient suffering of the
+sick men, the heroism of the wounded, all fearing to give any trouble,
+desiring not to do so, find grateful for the smallest attention.
+
+"The courage that faces death on the battlefield or calmly awaits it in
+the hospital is not a courage of race or color. Two of the bravest men I
+ever saw were here, almost side by side on the little porch--Captain
+Mills and Private Clark--one white, the other black. They were wounded
+almost at the same time, and in the same way. The patient suffering and
+heroism of the black soldier was fully equal to that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+It was quite the same, the gentleness and appreciation. They were a
+study, these men so widely apart in life, but here strangely close and
+alike on the common ground of duty and sacrifice. They received
+precisely the same care; each fed like a child, for with their bandaged
+eyes they were as helpless as blind men. When the ice pads were renewed
+on Captain Mills's eyes the same change was made on Private Clark's
+eyes. There was no difference in their beds or food. Neither uttered a
+word of complaint. The nearest to a regret expressed by Captain Mills
+was a heavy sigh, followed by the words: 'Oh, we were not ready. Our
+army was not prepared.'
+
+"Of himself he talked cheerfully, strong, and hopeful. 'I think I shall
+go home with the sight of one eye,' he said. That was all.
+
+"In the early part of the night he was restless, his brain was active,
+cool, and brave as he might be. The moonlight was very bright, a flood
+of silver, seen only in the tropics. Hoping to divert him I said: 'The
+moonlight is too bright, captain. I will put up a paper screen so you
+can get to sleep.'
+
+"He realized at once the absurdity and the ludicrous side, and with an
+amused smile replied: 'But you know I can't see the moonlight.'
+
+"I said it was time to get more ice for his head and half stumbled
+across the porch, blinded by tears. When told who his nearest neighbor
+was, Captain Mills expressed great sympathy for Private Clark and paid a
+high tribute to the bravery of the colored troops and their faithful
+performance of duty.
+
+"Private Clark talked but little. He would lie apparently asleep until
+the pain in his head became unbearable. Then he would try to sit up,
+always careful to keep the ice-pad on his eyes over the bandage.
+
+"'What can I do for you, Clark?' I would ask, anxious to relieve his
+pain.
+
+"'Nothing, thank you,' he would answer. 'It's very nice and comfortable
+here. But it's only the misery in my head--the misery is awful.'
+
+"Poor fellow! there was never a moan, merely a little sigh now and
+then, but always that wonderful patience that seemed to me not without a
+touch of divine philosophy, complete acceptance.
+
+"I have mentioned these two men, not as exceptional in bravery, but to
+illustrate the rule of heroism, and because they were among the patients
+under my immediate care that night. It was a strange night picture--a
+picture that could never be dimmed by time but live through all the
+years of one's life.
+
+"After midnight a restful atmosphere pervaded the hospital and the
+blessing of sleep fell upon the suffering men, one by one. In the little
+interval of repose I dropped into an old chair on the porch, looked away
+to the beautiful mountains sharply outlined in the moonlight, and the
+sea like waves of silver, the camp on the shore; near by thirty or forty
+horses standing motionless. Then the hospital tents, with now and then
+the flickering light of a candle; in the background the cliffs, with
+here and there a Spanish blockhouse. Over all the tragedy of life and
+death, the pain and sorrow, there was the stillness of a peaceful
+night--a stillness broken only by the sound of the surf brought back on
+the cool breeze, the cool, refreshing breeze, for which we all thanked
+God."
+
+
+Later on, as will be remembered, Miss Jennings went North--a volunteer
+nurse on the transport Seneca. The brave men whose lives hung in the
+balance that night--with little hope that, if life were spared, they
+would ever see again--recovered, but each with the loss of an eye. After
+a long furlough Private Clark returned to his regiment. Captain Mills,
+now General Mills, is the Superintendent of the West Point Military
+Academy.
+
+Three times in the first week I went over those terrible roads from the
+front to Siboney and return. Arriving at Siboney late one night, there
+was no way I could get on board the State of Texas and I was obliged to
+remain on shore. The Postmaster insisted that I occupy a room in the
+building used for a post-office. Such a courtesy could not be refused,
+and against all feeling of acquiescence, and with a dread as if there
+were something wrong about it, I allowed myself to be helped out of the
+wagon and entered the house. The Postmaster sat down and talked with me
+a little while. I thought he seemed ill. I had never met him before, but
+my heart went out in sympathy for him. I feared I was taking his room,
+although he did not admit it.
+
+I was shown into a room where there was a cot, a table, and a candle
+without a stick, burning upon the table. The men went outside and laid
+down upon the steps for the night. I laid down upon the cot, but it was
+impossible for me to remain there. Something constantly warned me to
+leave it. I got up, went to the door, looked out upon the night and
+darkness, and waited for the gray of the morning. I went out and stood
+upon the beach beside the sea and waited more and more, until finally
+some of the men appeared, and I went with them down to the water.
+
+Six days later they told me that the rightful occupant of the cot--the
+Postmaster, who had seemed so ill--had died of a fever raging here that
+they called "yellow fever." I had occupied his cot. I wonder who it was
+that so continually warned me that night to keep away from that room,
+away from the cot, away from all connected with it? "Yellow fever" was
+not then talked of. Did some one tell me? I do not know--but something
+told me.
+
+The negotiations between General Shafter and the Spanish army at
+Santiago were going on. The flag of truce, that threatened every day to
+come down, still floated. The Spanish soldiers had been led by their
+officers to believe that every man who surrendered--and the people as
+well--would be butchered whenever the city should fall and the American
+troops should come in. But when General Shafter commenced to send back
+convoys of captured Spanish officers, their wounds dressed, and
+carefully placed on stretchers, borne under flags of truce to the
+Spanish lines at Santiago, and set down at the feet of General Toral,
+and when in astonishment that officer learned the object of the flag of
+truce and sent companies of his soldiers to form in line and present
+arms, while the cortege of wounded were borne through by American
+troops, a lesson was learned that went far toward the surrender of that
+city.
+
+I happen to know that it was not without some very natural home
+criticism that General Shafter persisted in his course in the face of
+the time-honored custom of "hostages." One can readily understand that
+the voluntary giving up of prisoners--officers at that--in view of an
+impending battle, might seem in the light of old-time army usages a
+waste, to characterize it by no harder term. It is possible that none of
+the officers in that field had ever read the Articles of the Treaty of
+Geneva, or fully recalled that the treaty had become a law, or that
+their commander was acting in full accord with its wise and humane
+principles.
+
+By this time the main talk of the camp was "yellow fever." It was soon
+discovered by the medical authorities that, from there having been at
+first one case of fever, there were now one hundred and sixteen, and
+that a fever camp would probably be made there, and the wounded gotten
+away. It was advisable then that we return to our ship and attempt, as
+far as possible, to hold that free from contagion. I was earnestly
+solicited to do this, in view of what was expected of our ship, and of
+what was expected of us, that we not only protect ourselves but our
+cargo and ship from all contamination and even suspicion.
+
+I faithfully promised to do so, and again called for an army wagon,
+leaving all supplies that were useful for the men in camp--sending to El
+Caney what was most needed there--and taking only our personal effects,
+started for Siboney. In less than twenty minutes the rain was pouring on
+us and for two hours it fell as if from buckets. The water was from a
+foot and a half to two feet deep in the road as we passed along. At one
+time our wagon careened, the mules were held up, and we waited to see
+whether it should go over or could be brought out, the water a few
+inches only from the top of the lower side. It was scarcely possible for
+us to stir, hemmed in as we were, but the men from the other wagons
+sprang to our wheels, hanging in the air on the upper side, and we were
+simply saved by an inch.
+
+But like other things, this cleared away. We came into Siboney about
+three o'clock, in a bright glare of sunshine, to find the town entirely
+burned--all buildings gone or smoking--and a "yellow fever" hospital
+established a mile and a half out from Siboney.
+
+All effort was made to hold our ship free from suspicion. The process of
+reasoning leading to the conclusion that a solid cargo, packed in tight
+boxes in the hold of a ship, anchored at sea, could become infected in
+a day from the land or a passing individual, is indeed an intricate
+process. But we had some experience in this direction. Captain McCalla,
+in his repeated humane attempts to feed the refugees around Guantanamo,
+had called again for a hundred thousand rations, saying that if we could
+bring them to him soon he could get them to the starving people in the
+woods. We lost no time, but got the food out and started with it in the
+night. On reaching Guantanamo we were met some distance out, called to,
+and asked if any one on our ship had been on shore at Siboney within
+four days; if so, our supplies could not be received. We took them away,
+leaving the starving to perish.
+
+The constantly recurring news of the surrender of Santiago was so well
+established that we drew anchor, came up to the flag-ship, and sent the
+following letter to Admiral Sampson:
+
+
+"State of Texas,
+
+"_July 16, 1898_.
+
+"ADMIRAL SAMPSON, Commanding U. S. Fleet off
+Santiago, Flag-Ship New York.
+
+"Admiral: It is not necessary for me to explain to you my errand, nor
+its necessity; both your good head and heart divine it more clearly
+than any words of mine can represent.
+
+"I send this to you by one of our men who can tell all you wish to know.
+Mr. John Elwell has resided and done mercantile and shipping business in
+Santiago for the last seven years; is favorably known to all its people;
+has in his possession the keys of the best warehouses and residences in
+the city, to which he is given welcome by the owners. He is the person
+appointed four months ago to help distribute this food, and did so with
+me until the blockade. There seems to be nothing in the way of getting
+our twelve hundred tons of food into a Santiago warehouse and giving it
+intelligently to the thousands who _need_ and _own_ it. I have twenty
+good helpers with me. The New York committee is urging the discharge of
+the State of Texas, which has been raised in price to four hundred
+dollars a day.
+
+"If there is still more explanation needed, I pray you, Admiral, let me
+see you.
+
+"Respectfuly and cordially,
+
+"CLARA BARTON."
+
+
+These were anxious days. While the world outside was making up war
+history, we thought of little beyond the terrible needs about us; if
+Santiago had any people left, they must be in sore distress; and El
+Caney, with its thirty thousand homeless, perishing sufferers, how could
+they be reached?
+
+On that Sunday morning, never to be forgotten, the Spanish fleet came
+out of Santiago Harbor, to meet death and capture. That afternoon
+Lieutenant Capehart, of the flag-ship, came on board with the courteous
+reply of Admiral Sampson, that if we would come alongside the New York
+he would put a pilot on board. This was done, and we moved on through
+waters we had never traversed; past Morro Castle, long, low, silent, and
+grim; past the wrecks of the Spanish ships on the right; past the
+Merrimac in the channel. We began to realize that we were alone, of all
+the ships about the harbor there were none with us. The stillness of the
+Sabbath was over all. The gulls sailed and flapped and dipped about us.
+The lowering summer sun shot long golden rays athwart the green hills on
+either side and tinged the water calm and still. The silence grew
+oppressive as we glided along with scarce a ripple. We saw on the right
+as the only moving thing, a long, slim yacht dart out from among the
+bushes and steal its way up half-hidden in the shadows. Suddenly it was
+overtaken by either message or messenger, and like a collared hound
+glided back as if it had never been.
+
+Leaning on the rail, half lost in reverie over the strange, quiet beauty
+of the scene, the thought suddenly burst upon me--are we really going
+into Santiago, and alone? Are we not to be run out, and wait aside, and
+salute with dipping colors, while the great battle-ships come up with
+music and banners and lead the way?
+
+As far as the eye could reach no ship was in sight. Was this to remain
+so? Could it be possible that the commander who had captured a city
+declined to be the first to enter, that he would hold back his flag-ship
+and himself, and send forward and first a cargo of food on a plain ship,
+under direction of a woman? Did our commands, military or naval, hold
+men great enough of soul for such action? It must be true, for the
+spires of Santiago rise before us, and turning to the score of
+companions beside me I ask: "Is there any one here who will lead the
+Doxology?" In an instant the full rich voice of Enola Gardner rang out:
+"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." By that time the chorus was
+full, and the tears on many a face told more plainly than words how
+genuine was that praise, and when in response to a second suggestion "My
+Country 'Tis of Thee" swelled out on the evening air in the farewell
+rays of the setting sun, the State of Texas was nearing the dock, and
+quietly dropping her anchor she lay there through the silence of the
+night in undisputed possession, facing a bare wind-swept wharf and the
+deserted city of Santiago.
+
+Daybreak brought quiet to an end. The silence was no longer oppressive.
+A hundred and twenty stevedores lined up on the wharf for work and
+breakfast. The dock had tracks, and trucks running to its open
+warehouses. Boxes, barrels, and bales, pitched out of that ship, thrown
+onto the trucks and wheeled away, told the story of better days to come.
+It was something to see the lank, brawny little army of stevedores take
+their first breakfast in line, alongside of the ship.
+
+Later in the day the flag-ship brought Admiral Sampson and Admiral
+Schley, who spent several hours with us. They had every opportunity to
+see how our work was done, and if we were equal to unloading our ship.
+When they were about to leave Admiral Sampson was asked what orders or
+directions he had for us. He replied: "You need no directions from me,
+but if any one troubles you let me know."
+
+The amiable pleasantries of these two gallant officers during that visit
+are a pleasure to recall. As I was, at an opportune moment, attempting
+to express my appreciation and thanks to Admiral Sampson for the
+courtesy of allowing us to precede him into Santiago, Admiral Schley,
+with that _naivete_ and apt turn of expression so characteristic of him,
+in a half undertone side-remark, cautioned me with "Don't give him too
+much credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear the channel
+might be. Remember that was a trial trip."
+
+How sadly the recollection of that pleasant, memorable day has since
+recurred to me; brave, gallant brothers in arms, and in heart; knowing
+only a soldier's duty; each holding his country's honor first, his own
+last; its glory his glory, and for himself seeking nothing more. Ah,
+people, press, and politics! How deal ye with your servants?
+
+A message was received from General Shafter, who telegraphed from his
+headquarters; "The death rate at El Caney is terrible; can you send
+food?" The answer was to send the thirty thousand refugees of El Caney
+at once back to Santiago; we were there and could feed them; that the
+State of Texas had still twelve hundred tons of supplies.
+
+The thirty thousand inhabitants of Santiago had been driven to El Caney,
+a village designed for five hundred. In two days all were called back
+and fed, ten thousand the first day, twenty thousand the second. Then
+came our troops, and Santiago was lived and is remembered. Its
+hospitals, the ante-chamber to Montauk, are never to be forgotten.
+
+A general committee was formed, the city districted into sections, with
+a commissioner for each district, selected by the people themselves
+living there. Every family or person residing within the city was
+supplied by the commissioner of that district, and all transient
+persons were fed at the kitchens, the food being provided by the Red
+Cross.
+
+The discharge of the cargo of the State of Texas commenced at six
+o'clock Monday morning, July 18th. One hundred and twenty-five
+stevedores were employed and paid in food issued as rations. Four days
+later the discharge was completed.
+
+Although the army had entered the city during the latter part of that
+time, there had been no confusion, no groups of disorderly persons seen,
+no hunger in the city more than in ordinary times. We had done all that
+could be done to advantage at that time in Santiago. The United States
+troops had mainly left. The Spanish soldiers were coming in to their
+waiting ships, bringing with them all the diseases that unprovided and
+uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store. Five weeks before we
+had brought into Santiago all the cargo of the State of Texas excepting
+the hospital supplies, which had been used the month previous among our
+own troops at Siboney, General Shafter's front, and El Caney during the
+days of fighting.
+
+These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, who was, as he
+had at all times been, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+General Wood, who was made Governor of the Province of Santiago upon the
+day of surrender--alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye single to the
+good of all--toiled day and night.
+
+The State of Texas steamed away to its northern home. Peace and plenty
+came. The reconcentrados we went in search of were never reached. To
+those who could not withstand, Heaven came. To those who could, _Cuba
+Libre_.
+
+Later on, general efforts were made for the protection of the thousands
+of orphans over the island, in which efforts the Red Cross joined. But
+the people of Cuba solved the question themselves--by a general adoption
+in their own homes--and orphanages in Cuba became a thing of the past.
+
+Thus our work on that distressful field closed, after nearly two years
+of such effort as one would never desire to repeat. The financial
+management of that field, so far as the Red Cross was concerned, was
+done under the attorneyship of the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New
+York, whose reports are models of accuracy and accountability, and to
+which any person desiring information may be referred.
+
+Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories. It gave the
+first opportunity to test the cooperation between the government and its
+supplemental handmaiden, the Red Cross. That these relations might not
+have been clearly understood at this initial date may well be
+appreciated, but that time and experience will remedy this may be
+confidently hoped.
+
+Through all our discouragements the steady hand and calm approval of our
+great head of the army and navy was our solace and our strength. And
+when at length it was all over, his hand could trace for his message to
+his people the following testimonial, what need had one even to remember
+past discouragements, however great? It was as if the hand of the martyr
+had set its undying seal upon the brow of the American Red Cross. What
+greater justification could it have? What greater riches could it crave?
+
+"In this connection it is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of
+cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American Red
+Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary
+assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and, later, under the
+able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss
+Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front
+in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and
+under their sanction and approval, and with the enthusiastic cooperation
+of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red
+Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense
+earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its
+international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support
+which it has received at the hands of the American people. To the
+members and officers and all who aided them in their philanthropic
+work, the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public
+is due and freely accorded.
+
+"In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations
+to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us, and His safe
+guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers
+humble prayers for the continuance of His favors."--FROM PRESIDENT
+MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+GALVESTON
+
+1900
+
+
+This time there was no murmur in the air, no warning of approaching
+danger. Even the watchful press, that knows so much before it ever
+happens, slumbered quiet and deep, till the hissing wires shrieked the
+terrifying word--Galveston.
+
+Then we learned that, as at Port Royal, the sea had overleaped its
+bounds and its victims by thousands were in its grasp.
+
+In all the land no one slept then. To us it was the clang of the
+fire-bell, and the drop of the harness. The Red Cross clans commenced to
+gather.
+
+In two days a little coterie of near a dozen left Washington under
+escort of the competent agency of the New York World, which had on the
+first day telegraphed that it would open a subscription for the relief
+of Galveston, and would be glad to send all supplies and money received
+to the Red Cross, if its president, Miss Clara Barton, would go and
+distribute it. It was the acceptance of this generous offer that had
+brought to the station in Washington the escort; and a palace-car,
+provided with all comforts for the journey to Galveston, was under the
+management of the World's efficient correspondent and agent, Robert
+Adamson.
+
+The direfulness of the news gathered as we proceeded on our journey, and
+delays were gotten over as quickly as possible. A detention of several
+hours in New Orleans gave opportunity for consultation with the officers
+of the Red Cross Society of that city, which had held its loyal ranks
+unbroken since 1882, and became a tower of strength in this relief. A
+day of waiting in Houston for a passage over the Gulf gave us a glimpse
+of what the encroachment had been on the mainland. We found the passage
+across to Galveston difficult, and with one night of waiting by the
+shore in almost open cars, at Texas City, we at length arrived in
+Galveston on the morning of the 15th of September.
+
+Here again no description could adequately serve its purpose. The sea,
+with fury spent, had sullenly retired. The strongest buildings, half
+standing, roofless and tottering, told what once had been the make-up of
+a thriving city. But that cordon of wreckage skirting the shore for
+miles it seemed, often twenty feet in height, and against which the high
+tide still lapped and rolled! What did it tell? The tale is all too
+dreadful to recall--the funeral pyre of at least five thousand human
+beings. The uncoffined dead of the fifth part of a city lay there. The
+lifeless bodies festering in the glaring heat of a September sun told
+only too fatally what that meant to that portion of the city left alive.
+The streets were well-nigh impassable, the animals largely drowned, the
+working force of men diminished, dazed, and homeless. The men who had
+been the fathers of the city, its business and its wealth, looked on
+aghast at their overwhelmed possessions, ruined homes, and, worse than
+all, mourned their own dead.
+
+Yet these men, to the number of thirty or more, had, as one may say,
+pulled themselves together, and were even at that early date a relief
+committee, holding their meetings at the wrecked and half-ruined hotel,
+almost the only public house left standing. To this hotel we also went
+and reported to the committee. To say that we were kindly and
+gratefully received by them says nothing that would satisfy either
+ourselves or them.
+
+The conditions were so new to them that it was a relief to meet persons
+who had seen such things before. We were asked not only to act with
+them, but to assume charge of the administration of relief. This, of
+course, we would not do, but that we would meet with, counsel, and aid
+them in every way in our power, is needless to affirm. That we did do
+this, through every day of our stay of three months, not only our own
+conviction, but the unasked and unexpected testimony of both Galveston
+and the Legislature of the State of Texas, go to assure.
+
+On the third day after our arrival we were joined by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, President of the former Central Cuban Relief Committee, and Mr.
+Fred L. Ward, its competent secretary, who became our secretary from the
+time of his arrival until the close of the field, continuing until after
+our return to headquarters and settling the last account. Not only the
+thanks of the Red Cross are due for his faithful, painstaking work, but
+his name is still a household word through the score of counties
+skirting the shore on the mainland of Texas.
+
+It may be interesting to readers to know what is done first, or just how
+a relief party commence under circumstances like that. A few words will
+give an outline. First the ground must be overlooked and conditions
+learned. This is not easy when it is remembered that broken houses,
+cars, wagons, church steeples, and grand pianos were liable to be
+encountered in the middle of the leading streets, themselves buried
+three feet in the coarse black sand, brought in by the great tidal wave.
+
+Nevertheless, a building must be found in which to store and distribute
+the supplies that would immediately come. How needful these supplies
+would be can be inferred when it is recalled that scores of persons came
+alive out of that wreck, with simply the band of a shirt or a
+night-dress held by its button about the neck as the only reminder that
+ever a cover of clothing had been theirs.
+
+A little meeting of my assistants early held assigned each to his duty
+and his place. A warehouse, fortunately still intact, was generously
+supplied by Mr. John Sealy. Major James A. McDowell, with the
+experience of this branch of Red Cross work from Johnstown down, and the
+record of twenty-six battles in the old civil war, was placed in charge.
+Here is one of the scenes given by a casual eye-witness:
+
+A poor feeble-looking man, with scant clothing, enters the warehouse and
+waits. "Hello there," calls the observant major--with his Grand Army
+button--overhauling clothes for the visitor. "But, major, I was a
+Confederate soldier." "Lord bless your poor suffering soul, what
+difference does that make? Here, this will suit you."
+
+It was thought advisable by some of the party to establish an orphanage,
+which was done and carried through, regardless of the common-sense idea
+that few children would survive, when the parents were drowned. And so
+it proved, although the work was faithfully administered.
+
+Homes must be made, lumber obtained, and houses built. The Red Cross
+sent out the appeal for lumber and aided in the work of shelter.
+
+Mrs. Fannie B. Ward was placed in charge of a special clothing
+department. Need I remind thoughtful readers that in a disaster like
+that, where people of affluence, culture, and position are in a night
+bereft of all, one of the cruelest features might be to go to the open
+boxes of a relief station for clothing, such as never before worn, and
+could not be asked for through the choking tears. In all humanity these
+cases must be properly, respectfully, and discreetly met, as one lady
+could meet another in distress.
+
+No more vivid picture of the conditions by which we were surrounded can
+be imagined than the following extract from Mrs. Ward's report:
+
+
+"Just seven days after the storm we found ourselves stranded at Texas
+City, on the mainland opposite Galveston Island, waiting for
+transportation across the six-mile stretch of water. Bridges had been
+swept away, and new sand-bars thrown up in the bay; floating roofs and
+timbers impeded navigation, and the only method of communication between
+the mainland and Galveston was one poor little ferry-boat, which had to
+feel her now dangerous way very cautiously, by daylight only. She had
+also to carry nearly a quarter of her capacity in soldiers to prevent
+her being swamped by waiting crowds of people, frantic to learn the
+fate of their friends on the island. Each trip to the mainland, the boat
+came filled with refugees from the city of doom--the sick, the maimed,
+the sorrowing--many with fearful bodily injuries inflicted by the storm,
+and others with deeper wounds of grief;--mothers whose babies had been
+torn from their arms, children whose parents were missing, fathers whose
+entire families were lost--a dazed and tearless throng, such as Dante
+might have met in his passage through Inferno. These were dumped by
+thousands on the sandy beach at Texas City, and then conveyed by rail to
+Houston, to be cared for by the good people of that city, who,
+notwithstanding their own grievous losses, were doing noble work for
+their stricken neighbors.
+
+"Of Texas City--a flourishing town of four or five thousand
+houses--nothing remained but heaps of bricks and splintered wood, sodden
+bales of cotton and bits of household furniture, scattered over the
+plain; not a standing habitation within miles, nor any shelter for the
+crowds above-mentioned, except two or three hospital-tents, hastily set
+up for the sick and wounded, but inadequate for their accommodation.
+What was our dismay when told that here we must remain at least
+twenty-four hours, for the return of the boat! However, we were better
+off, even physically, than most of the waiting crowd, though weariness
+of the flesh amounted to actual suffering, after more than fifty hours'
+travel. As a special courtesy to Miss Barton, the railway company left a
+car to shelter her during the night. Luxurious Pullmans did not abound
+at Texas City, and this was the shabbiest of day-coaches, equipped with
+few 'modern conveniences.' But this was no time to think of personal
+comfort, on the threshold of so much misery; and who could murmur when
+the head of our little company set such an heroic example of patience. I
+have seen her in many trying situations, that threatened the fortitude
+and endurance of the strongest--and have yet to hear the first word of
+complaint from her lips. She smilingly 'bunked' upon two seats laid
+together--compared to which, for softness, the _penitente's_ slab of
+stone would be as 'downy beds of ease'--and encouraged her companions to
+do the same. Hunger and thirst would also have been our portion, had it
+not been for a Salvation Army Corps encamped in the vicinity, and the
+Relief Train of the Philadelphia North American, stranded like
+ourselves. Thanks to those good Samaritans, we dined and breakfasted on
+tinned beef, bread and coffee; and what more could good soldiers
+require?
+
+"That night in Texas City will be long remembered. Sleep was out of the
+question--stretched on those cross-bars, like St. Lawrence on his
+gridiron. Soldiers patrolled the beach, not only to prevent a stampede
+of the boat, but to protect both the quick and the dead from fiends in
+human guise, who prowled the devastated region, committing atrocities
+too horrible to name. All night the steady tramp, tramp, of the guard
+sounded beneath the car-windows, while at either door stood two
+sentinels, muskets on shoulders. Skies of inky blackness, studded with
+stars of extraordinary brilliancy, seemed to bend much nearer the earth
+than at the North; and the Great Dipper hung low on the horizon--for
+only just across the Gulf it disappears to give place to the Southern
+Cross. Myriads of big, bright fire-flies, resembling balls of flame,
+flitted restlessly over the plain, like the disembodied souls whose
+homes were here one short week before, searching for their scattered
+treasures. Over on Galveston Island, a long line of flame, mounting to
+the heavens, marked the burning of ruined homes and corpses; while other
+fires, in all directions on the mainland, told of similar ghastly
+cremations. At one time I counted twenty-three of these fires, not
+including those on the island. Early in the morning a strange odor drew
+attention to a fresh funeral-pyre, only a few rods away, around the
+horse-shoe curve of the shore. We were told that thirty bodies, found
+since daybreak in the immediate vicinity, were being consumed in it.
+That peculiar smell of burning flesh, so sickening at first, became
+horribly familiar within the next two months, when we lived in it and
+breathed it, day after day.
+
+"We found the situation in Galveston infinitely worse than had been
+described. The most sensational accounts of the yellowest journals fell
+far short of the truth--simply because its full horror was beyond the
+power of words to portray. Figures and statistics can give little idea
+of the results of such an appalling calamity; and to this day, people
+at a distance have no realization of the unutterable woe which our Red
+Cross band of less than a dozen, strove to alleviate. We arrived on the
+eighth day after the tragedy, in which upward of ten thousand lives went
+suddenly out in storm and darkness; and the survivors were just
+beginning to realize the extent of their losses.
+
+"At first they seemed stunned to partial insensibility by the very
+magnitude of their grief--as a man who has been mangled almost unto
+death in a railroad disaster is said to be oblivious to pain. Dead
+citizens lay by thousands amid the wreck of their homes, and raving
+maniacs searched the _debris_ for their loved ones, with the organized
+gangs of workers. Corpses, dumped by barge-loads into the Gulf, came
+floating back to menace the living; and the nights were lurid with
+incinerations of putrefying bodies, piled like cord-wood, black and
+white together, irrespective of age, sex, or previous condition. At
+least four thousand dwellings had been swept away, with all their
+contents, and fully half of the population of the city was without
+shelter, food, clothes, or any of the necessaries of life. Of these,
+some were living in tents; others crowded in with friends hardly less
+unfortunate; many half-crazed, wandering aimlessly about the streets,
+and the story of their sufferings, mental and physical, is past the
+telling. Every house that remained was a house of mourning. Of many
+families every member had been swept away. Even sadder were the numerous
+cases where one or two were left out of recently happy households; and
+saddest of all was the heart-breaking suspense of those whose friends
+were numbered among the 'missing.'
+
+"We find it hard enough to lay away our dead in consecrated ground, with
+all the care and tenderness that love can suggest, where we may water
+the sacred spot with our tears and place upon it the flowers they loved
+in life; but never to know whether their poor bodies were swallowed by
+the merciless Gulf, or fed to the fishes with those grewsome
+barge-loads, or left above ground to become an abomination in the
+nostrils of the living, or burned in indiscriminate heaps with horses
+and dogs and the mingled ashes scattered to the winds--must indeed have
+been well-nigh unbearable. No wonder there were lunatics in Galveston,
+and unnumbered cases of nervous prostration.
+
+"After weeks had passed and two thousand men, aided by several hundred
+teams, had partially reduced the mountain of wreckage, cremation fires
+yet burned continuously--fed not only by human bodies, but by thousands
+of carcasses of domestic animals. By that time, in the hot, moist
+atmosphere of the latitude, decomposition had so far advanced that the
+corpses--which at first were decently carried in carts or on stretchers,
+then shoveled upon boards or blankets--had finally to be scooped up with
+pitchforks, in the hands of negroes, kept at their awful task by the
+soldiers' bayonets. And still the 'finds' continued, at the average rate
+of seventy a day. The once beautiful driving beach was strewn with
+mounds and trenches, holding unrecognized and uncoffined victims of the
+flood; and between this improvised cemetery and a ridge of _debris_,
+three miles long and in places higher than the houses had been, a line
+of cremation fires poisoned the air.
+
+"I think it was during our sixth week in Galveston, when, happening to
+pass one of these primitive crematories, I stopped to interview the man
+in charge. Boards, water-soaked mattresses, rags of blankets and
+curtains, part of a piano, baby-carriages, and the framework of
+sewing-machines, piled on top, gave it the appearance of a festive
+bonfire, and only the familiar odor betrayed its purpose.
+
+"'Have you burned any bodies here?' I inquired. The custodian regarded
+me with a stare that plainly said, 'Do you think I am doing this for
+amusement?' and shifted his quid from cheek to cheek before replying.
+
+"'Ma'am,' said he, 'this 'ere fire's been goin' on more'n a month. To my
+knowledge, upwards of sixty bodies have been burned in it--to say
+nothin' of dogs, cats, hens, and three cows.'
+
+"'What is in there now?' I asked.
+
+"'Wa'al,' said he meditatively, 'it takes a corpse several days to burn
+all up. I reckon thar's a couple of dozen of 'em--jest bones, you
+know--down near the bottom. Yesterday we put seven on top of this 'ere
+pile, and by now they are only what you might call baked. To-day we have
+been working over there (pointing to other fires a quarter of a mile
+distant), where we found a lot of 'em, 'leven under one house. We have
+put only two in here to-day. Found 'em just now, right in that puddle.'
+
+"'Could you tell me who they are?' I asked.
+
+"'Lord! No,' was the answer. 'We don't look at 'em any more'n we have
+to, else we'd been dead ourselves before to-day. One of these was a
+colored man. They are all pretty black, now; but you can tell 'em by the
+kinky hair. He had nothin' but an undershirt and one shoe. The other was
+a woman; young, I reckon. 'Tenny rate she was tall and slim and had lots
+of long brown hair. She wore a blue silk skirt and there was a rope tied
+around her waist, as if somebody had tried to save her.'
+
+"Taking a long pole he prodded an air-hole near the center of the
+smoldering heap, from which now issued a frightful smell, that caused a
+hasty retreat to the windward side. The withdrawal of the pole was
+followed by a shower of charred bits of bone and singed hair. I picked
+up a curling, yellow lock and wondered, with tears, what mother's hand
+had lately caressed it.
+
+"'That's nothin',' remarked the fireman. 'The other day we found part of
+a brass chandelier, and wound all around it was a perfect mop of long,
+silky hair--with a piece of skin, big as your two hands, at the end of
+it. Some woman got tangled up that way in the flood and jest na'cherly
+scalped.'
+
+"I mention these incidents merely to show some of the conditions that
+had to be met. The most we could do for the grief-stricken survivors was
+to mitigate in some degree their bodily distress. The world knows how
+generously the whole country responded to the call--how contributions
+came pouring in by trainloads and shiploads, consigned to the Red Cross.
+To distribute all this bounty judiciously was a herculean task--and our
+working force was very small. The ladies and gentlemen of Galveston who
+had suffered less than their neighbors, formed themselves into
+committees, which opened relief stations in the several wards; and
+through these channels the bulk of supplies was issued. If mistakes were
+made, it was not from lack of faithful endeavor on the part of the
+distributers; and let us hope that the errors, if any, were all on the
+side of too liberal giving.
+
+"Merely to sort over one carload of garments, so as to make them
+immediately available--to put the infants' clothes in one department,
+the shoes in another, grown-up dresses in another, coats and trousers in
+another, underwear in another--was a work of time and strength; as the
+writer, who for a while was 'Mistress of the Robes,' can testify. From 7
+A. M. till dark we toiled; and when at last we dragged ourselves back to
+the hotel, too wearied for anything but bed, 'tired Nature's sweet
+restorer' was hard to woo, because of aching feet and swollen muscles.
+But the experience was well worth it! Besides the joy of administering
+to the suffering, what we learned of human nature (mostly good, I am
+glad to say) would fill volumes. To be sure, there were shadows, as well
+as lights, in the picture. Greed and hypocrisy, jealousy, malice, and
+the reverse of Christian charity, came sometimes unpleasantly to the
+fore, to be offset by the magnificent generosity of the American nation,
+and the knowledge that in most quarters our efforts were appreciated.
+Most of us were unused to manual labor, and all had left comfortable
+homes--some at considerable financial sacrifice of well-salaried
+positions, not for earthly gain or self-aggrandizement, but from pure
+love of the splendid cause of the Cross of Geneva.
+
+"In that Rag Fair department of old clothes, the ludicrous and pathetic
+called for an equal blending of smiles and tears. It seemed as if every
+household, from Maine to California, from the St. Lawrence to the Rio
+Grande, had rummaged its attics for the flood sufferers. Merchants
+delivered themselves of years' accumulations of shop-worn
+goods--streaked, faded, of fashions long gone by--but a great deal
+better than nothing for the destitute. There were at least a million
+shirtwaists, all thin and summery, though cold winter was at hand, when
+frequent 'northers' chill the very marrow in one's bones, and ice and
+snow are not unknown on Galveston Island. There was another million of
+'Mother Hubbard' wrappers, all of the sleaziest print and scrimpest
+pattern, with inch-wide hems at bottom and no fastening to speak
+of--wrappers enough to disfigure every female in Southern Texas. Fancy a
+whole city full of women masquerading in those shapeless garments--the
+poorest of their class; and then remember that, a few years ago, the
+great and glorious State of Pennsylvania found it necessary to pass a
+law--presumably for the peace of mind of her male citizens--forbidding
+the wearing of 'Mother Hubbards' in the street!
+
+"One day there came to our warehouse a large case of beautiful, buttoned
+shoes, of the kind called 'Sorosis.' 'What a bonanza!' we thought, when
+that box was opened--and through our minds went trooping a procession of
+the shoeless feet we had longed to comfort. But behold! every blessed
+shoe of the one hundred and forty-four was for the left foot!
+
+"There was an enormous box from a city laundry, containing the unclaimed
+'washings' of many years--hundreds of waiters' aprons and cooks' caps,
+worn hotel towels and napkins, ragged shirts and collars--not a thing
+worth the lumber in the box, except as old linen for the hospitals.
+There was a great deal of bedraggled finery, than which nothing could
+have been less appropriate, when nine out of every ten women who applied
+for clothes, wanted plain black in which to mourn for their dead. And
+the hats and bonnets were of every shape and style within the memory of
+man! They were mostly so crushed in careless packing that to have
+worshiped them would have been no sin, according to Scripture, as they
+were no longer in the 'likeness of anything in the heavens above, or the
+earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' There were workmen's
+blouses and overalls, evidently shed in haste, under a sudden impulse of
+generosity--plastered with grease, paint, and mortar, and odoriferous of
+that by which honest bread is said to be earned.
+
+"Occasionally a box or barrel was found to contain garments
+disgracefully dirty and ragged, or dropping in pieces from the ravages
+of moths. Possibly the sending of such worthless trash produced in the
+hearts of the donors that comfortable feeling of lending to the
+Lord--but it was no use at our end of the line. What to do with it was a
+problem. The lowest plantation darky would regard the gift as an insult,
+and to burn even the filthiest rags would give rise to stories of wanton
+waste. So we hit upon an expedient which had been successfully employed
+in other fields--that of putting worthless articles in nice, clean
+barrels, rolling them out on the doorstep, and forgetting to bring them
+in at night; and every morning the barrels were found empty.
+
+"In striking contrast to these few 'shadows' were such gifts as that of
+the New England girl, who sent a large, carefully packed satchel,
+accompanied by a letter, explaining that she was seventeen years of age,
+and had taken from her own wardrobe an outfit, intended for a
+flood-sufferer of about her own age, whom the clothes would fit. The
+satchel contained three good suits complete, from hat to hose--all that
+a girl would need--even veil, handkerchiefs and fan; and it is needless
+to add that they soon found their way to a most grateful young
+'sufferer.' Here a poor widow divided her well-worn 'mourning' with some
+stranger sister-in-grief; there the bereaved mother brought out the
+treasured garments her little one had worn, for some happier mother who
+had lost only earthly possessions.
+
+"Letters by hundreds were found in the packages, pertinent and
+impertinent, but all demanding answers. They were stuffed into old shoes
+and the linings of hats, cracked tea-pots and boxes of soap, combs and
+matches. Every small boys' knickerbockers contained a note--generally
+of original spelling and laboriously written in large capitals, from
+'Tommy' or 'Johnnie' or 'Charley,' asking a reply, telling all about the
+storm, from the boy who should receive the gift. Sentimental epistles
+from ladies were hidden in the pockets of coats and trousers, inviting
+correspondence with the future wearers; and billet-doux from
+disconsolate widowers, presumably beginning to 'take notice,' were
+pinned to the raiment of deceased wives. Such manifold phases have our
+poor human nature! Happily there was another and far more numerous class
+of letters, from charitable men and women, offering to adopt children,
+or to assist in any way in their power; from Sunday-school classes and
+sewing societies and day-schools, enclosing small sums of money, or
+telling of gifts to come. There was even a letter from an almshouse,
+enclosing a check for eighty dollars, raised by thirty aged pensioners,
+who gave up their only luxuries--coffee, sugar, and tobacco--to swell
+the fund for Galveston's relief. Another came from the poor, forgotten
+negroes of the Carolina sea islands, to whose assistance the Red Cross
+went, after their disastrous floods a few years ago. Impelled by
+gratitude for the benefits then received, those simple-minded people
+contributed a surprising amount, considering their poverty. Truly, in
+heaven's reckoning those unselfish 'mites' of the poor and lowly will
+count for as much as the millions given by the great cities.
+
+"Notwithstanding the vast amount of old clothes that came to us, we were
+always particularly short of the most important articles of an outfit,
+such as underwear, respectable skirts and dresses, and shoes--except of
+extraordinary sizes, sent because unsalable. It frequently happened
+that, for days together, there was hardly a thing in stock fit for
+people of the better class. It must be remembered that we were not
+supplying tramps and beggars, nor the ordinary applicants for charity,
+but ladies and gentlemen, accustomed to the luxuries of life, whose
+possessions had been suddenly swept away. How could we offer those
+dreadful wrappers, or bedraggled finery, or soiled and ragged garments
+which our servants would despise, to ladies of taste, culture, and
+refinement, whom we had come to assist in their misfortune, not to
+insult? Therefore, in many cases, the only decent thing to do was to go
+out and buy what was needed, with some of those blessed contributions
+which bore the message, 'to be used at your own discretion.' That was
+Christian charity, pure and simple, in its most practical form. For
+example: A widow, of highest social standing and former wealth, lived
+with her three daughters in one of those ill-fated cottages near the
+beach, which was swept away with all its contents. Thus the four
+helpless women were left entirely destitute, even the clothes on their
+backs borrowed from neighbors a little less unfortunate. Friends in a
+Northern city wrote, offering them a home. Transportation could be
+easily provided, but the four must be fitted out for the journey. We
+searched the Rag Fair over, but found few suitable articles. Perhaps
+something better might come in by and by, next week, some other time;
+but for every hoped-for article were a hundred waiting applicants--and
+meanwhile those ladies must be supported until sent to their friends. To
+say nothing of their own feelings, and ours, we could not disgrace the
+Red Cross by sending that stately gray-haired mother and the three
+delicate young ladies out into the world equipped by our alleged bounty
+in scanty calico 'Mother Hubbards,' men's cow-hide brogans, and
+scare-crow headgear. So we picked out what would answer--here and there
+a garment which might be altered, the only pair of shoes in the place
+that came near to fitting one of the ladies, a bolt of unbleached muslin
+which they, themselves, could fashion into underclothes, and four
+disreputable old hats. The latter we gave to a local milliner to remodel
+and trim, simply but respectably. Then we went to the store and
+purchased shoes and other necessary articles, including enough
+inexpensive but serviceable cloth for four gowns and jackets, and
+employed a woman to make them.
+
+"This was not extravagance, but good use of the money, all around:--for
+the poor little milliner whose shop had been destroyed and business
+ruined, whose children were then eating the bread of charity; and for
+the customless dressmaker, who was also a grievous sufferer by the
+flood, with younger sisters to support. We gave her the first work she
+had had for weeks, and her gratitude was good to see.
+
+"As for merchants, who were all on the verge of failure, but making
+heroic efforts to keep afloat--Heaven knows we did them injury enough
+every day of our stay in Galveston, to be thankful for the privilege of
+occasionally becoming their patrons. Not only had they suffered immense
+losses by the storm, their stocks being practically ruined and customers
+gone--but who would buy, so long as the Red Cross had food and clothes
+to give away, without money and without price? Though ours is a noble
+and necessary work, it is never to the advantage of the local merchants,
+as a little reflection will show.
+
+"Another case was that of a young woman, who, with an aged relative, was
+keeping a hotel in a near-by village, when the floods lifted their house
+from its foundations and ruined everything in it. Its four walls stood,
+however, and furnished shelter for all the houseless neighbors, who
+flocked in, naked and hungry, and with whom the generous girl divided
+her last garment and bit of food. Death also entered the family, twice
+within a few weeks--the last time leaving a sister's four half-grown
+children for this young woman to maintain. Take them she must, because
+they had nowhere else to go. Finding her in terrible straits, without
+even clothes to wear to her sister's funeral, were we not justified in
+buying the heroic young woman a decent suit of black, besides sending
+her a box of food supplies? Why were we there, if not to exercise
+judgment in the matter of relief? If merely to distribute second-hand
+articles, without discrimination, we might have saved ourselves much
+peril and hardship by remaining at home, and sending the boxes down to
+take care of themselves.
+
+"None of us will ever forget the grandniece of an ex-President of the
+United States--a handsome and imposing woman of middle age, traveled,
+educated, and evidently accustomed to the best society. She called one
+day at headquarters, and although she did not ask for aid, the truth
+came out in a heart-to-heart talk with Miss Barton that she had lost all
+in the storm and had not where to lay her head, nor food for the morrow;
+even the clothes she wore were not her own. Nobody living could put this
+lady on the pauper list, and none with a spark of human feeling could
+wish to wound her pride. Our honored President, who reads hearts as
+others do open books, clasped this unfortunate sister's hand--and left
+in it a bank-note--I do not know of what denomination, but let us hope
+it was not a small one. The look of surprise and gratitude that flashed
+over that woman's face was worth going far to see, as, speechless with
+emotion, the tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned away.
+
+"One might go on multiplying incidents by the hour, did time permit.
+There were teachers to be fitted out with suitable clothes before the
+opening of the schools; boys and girls needing school-books and shoes,
+caps, and jackets; new-born babes to be provided, whose wardrobes,
+prepared in advance, had been swept away; mothers of families, destitute
+of the commonest conveniences of life, to whom the gift of a pan or
+kettle was a godsend; aged people, whose declining years must be
+comforted; invalids to be cheered with little luxuries. My greatest
+regret is that we had not hundreds of dollars to use for every one that
+was expended in these directions."
+
+
+My stenographer, Miss Agnes Coombs, found her post by me, and sixty to
+eighty letters a day, taken from dictation, made up the clerical round
+of the office of the president. This duty fell in between attending the
+daily meetings of the relief committee and receiving constant calls both
+in and out of the city.
+
+Our men made up their living-room at the warehouse. The few women
+remained at the hotel, the only suitable place in the town.
+
+Later on arrived a shipload of supplies from the business people of New
+York, which were stored with the Galveston committee, and we were asked
+to aid in the distribution of these supplies, and to a certain extent we
+did, but succeeded in organizing a committee of citizens, ladies and
+gentlemen, to carry out and complete this distribution.
+
+From lack of knowledge of the real conditions of the disaster and its
+geographical extent, this munificent donation had been assigned to the
+"Relief of Galveston," and thus, technically, Galveston had no authority
+to administer a pound or a dollar to any communities or persons outside
+of the precincts of the city proper. This left at least twenty counties
+on the mainland on the other side of the Gulf, some of which were as
+badly wrecked and ruined as Galveston itself, without a possibility of
+the slightest benefit from this great, generous gift.
+
+Seeing this pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
+result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
+knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
+so far as we might be able.
+
+Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
+supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
+These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
+made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
+owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
+the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
+all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
+subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
+their hands.
+
+It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
+these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
+Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
+replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
+also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
+crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
+better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
+wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
+ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
+they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
+adapted to their use.
+
+That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
+of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
+nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
+Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
+two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
+in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
+the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
+was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
+it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
+will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
+this very springtime.
+
+Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
+idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.
+
+I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
+ask, what became of these miles of wreckage and the dead on the
+Galveston seashore?
+
+At this distant day it may be safe to tell. I recall that at the time
+much criticism was indulged in.
+
+All were burned.
+
+The heat grew greater and the stench stronger every day. They tried to
+remove the _debris_ and get the bodies out for burial. No human being
+could work in that putrefying mass. Previously had come the glorious
+thought of getting them into boats and shipping them a mile out to sea.
+With hopeful hearts this experiment was tried for one day. Alas! the
+night tide brought them all back to shore. The elements of earth and
+water had refused--what remained but fire? Openings in the long
+continuous lines were cut through at given spaces, the fire engines set
+to play on the open, and the torch applied to the end of sections; thus
+a general conflagration of the city was prevented, and from day to day
+the pile diminished.
+
+The stench of burning flesh permeated every foot of the city. Who could
+long withstand this? Before the end of three months there was scarcely a
+well person in Galveston. My helpers grew pale and ill, and even I, who
+have resisted the effect of so many climates, needed the help of a
+steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track,
+courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.
+
+This is a tedious story; but if gone through, one has a little insight
+into the labor of a Red Cross field of relief. There are twenty in my
+recollection, and this was by no means the hardest or the most useful.
+They have been lived, but never told.
+
+I beg my readers to bear in mind that this is not romance that I am
+writing, where I can place my characters in the best light and shape
+results at will, but history, with my personages still alive, ready to
+attest the reality of this statement. That grand committee of Galveston
+relief--than whom no nobler body of men I have ever met--are, I hope,
+all yet alive to testify to the conditions and statements made.
+
+I have dedicated this little volume to the people with whom, and for
+whom, have gone the willing labors of twenty-five years--initial labors,
+untried methods, and object lessons. Well or ill, they have carried with
+them the best intentions and the best judgment given for the purpose.
+Whatever may betide or the future have in store for the little work so
+simply commenced, so humbly carried on, merely a helper with no thought
+of leadership, it bears along with it the memories of pain assuaged,
+hope revived, endeavor strengthened, and lives saved.
+
+To the noble sympathies of generous hearts these results are due, and
+yet it is not in its past that the glories or the benefits of the Red
+Cross lie, but in the possibilities it has created for the future; in
+the lessons it has taught; in the avenues to humane effort it has
+opened, and in the union of beneficent action between people and
+Government, when once comprehended and effected, that shall constitute
+a bulwark against the mighty woes sure to come sooner or later to all
+peoples and all nations.
+
+To you--the people of America--this sacred trust is committed, in your
+hands the charge is laid. To none will your help ever be so precious as
+it has been to me, for in its proud growth and strength none will ever
+so need you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Story of the Red Cross, by Clara Barton
+
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