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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Clara Barton a Centenary Tribute, by Charles
+Sumner Young
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you will
+have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
+this eBook.
+
+Title: Clara Barton a Centenary Tribute
+ To the World’s Greatest Humanitarian Founder of the American Red Cross
+ Society Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross
+ Convention of Geneva Founder of the National First Aid Association of
+ America
+
+Author: Charles Sumner Young
+
+Release Date: Mar 30, 2021 [eBook #64967]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Richard Tonsing, Roberta Staehlin, Charlene Taylor, Carlos
+ Colon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+ https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+ generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+ Libraries.)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARA BARTON A CENTENARY TRIBUTE
+***
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+
+ See Contents.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+ A CENTENARY TRIBUTE
+
+ TO
+ THE WORLD’S GREATEST HUMANITARIAN
+ FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SOCIETY
+ AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN AMENDMENT TO THE INTERNATIONAL
+ RED CROSS CONVENTION OF GENEVA
+ FOUNDER OF THE NATIONAL FIRST AID
+ ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
+
+
+ CHARLES SUMNER YOUNG, A.M. Ph.D
+
+ ILLUSTRATED
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ BOSTON
+
+ RICHARD G. BADGER
+
+ THE GORHAM PRESS
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY RICHARD G. BADGER
+
+ All Rights Reserved
+
+
+ Made in the United States of America
+
+ Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company, New York, U. S. A.
+
+ This book is respectfully dedicated to the Boys and Girls of the
+ World; and to the Men and Women who are still Boys and Girls, in their
+ love for humanity.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
+
+
+The author, in the preparation of his pen pictures, begs to acknowledge
+with sincere thanks the courtesies extended to him by Mr. Stephen E.
+Barton, the Executor of the Clara Barton Estate; by Doctor J. B.
+Hubbell, for many years the manager for Clara Barton; by the Oxford
+(Mass.) Memorial Day Committee of 1917; by the Twenty-First
+Massachusetts Regiment G. A. R.; by many of the Army Nurses of the Civil
+War; also for material assistance in data by the American National Red
+Cross; by Mrs. J. Sewall Reed Acting-President, National First Aid
+Association of America; by Honorable Herbert Putnam, Librarian of
+Congress; by General W. H. Sears for the use of his data in his book of
+177 pages, prepared for and used in the defense of Clara Barton before
+the Library Committee of Congress, and his generous contribution of
+incidents in the life of his personal friend; by Honorable Francis
+Atwater for data in “The Story of My Childhood,” by Clara Barton; by the
+Macmillan Co., Publishers of the Life of Clara Barton by Percy H. Epler,
+the book of the best data on her life now before the American people; by
+the National First Aid Association of America and likewise to many other
+associations, personal friends and admirers of America’s most remarkable
+woman.
+
+
+ There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
+ LAMARTINE.
+
+Honor women! they entwine and weave heavenly roses in our earthly life.
+SCHILLER.
+
+ “The fairest chaplet Victory wears
+ is that which mercy weaves.”
+
+ I live to learn their story,
+ Who suffered for my sake;
+ To emulate their glory
+ And follow in their wake;
+ Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
+ The noble of all ages,
+ Whose deeds crown History’s pages,
+ And Time’s great volume make.
+
+ · · · · ·
+
+ For the cause that needs assistance,
+ For the wrongs that need resistance,
+ For the future in the distance
+ And the good that I can do.
+
+
+
+
+ THE FOREWORD
+
+
+The author undertakes to produce a few pen pictures of a personal
+friend—humanity’s friend. They are pictures of sentiment, pictures of
+reality—pictures of humanity.
+
+Although precluded the use of data left by Clara Barton for her
+biography the author, nevertheless, is conforming to the sentiment of
+her oft expressed wish that he write the story of her life. Recognizing
+the wish to be a sacredly imposed trust, for the past six years he has
+gleaned what he could for his sketches from public documents, from her
+personal friends in California, New England, New York, Washington and
+elsewhere, as well as from his memory of facts developing through the
+years he enjoyed her confidence and received from her highest
+inspirations.
+
+The author assumes not a rôle literary—has herein no aspirations,
+literary. His impulse to write is not fame; it is sentiment, a
+love-sentiment for a woman whom all the world loves and whose “life
+gives expression to the sympathy and tenderness of all the hearts of all
+the women of the world.” His motive in writing is to point a moral in “a
+passion for service”; to limn scenes, vivid, along “paths of charity
+over roadways of ashes”; to depict for the lesson it teaches a career, a
+career the memory of which must remain a rich heritage to the American
+people.
+
+In life’s drama, wherein Clara Barton played the leading rôle, there
+appear faces to inspire, faces to instruct, but also the faces of
+intrigue. In the closing incidents of a life-heroic time’s detectives
+disclose the plotters, and the motive in their plot to destroy—
+
+ Like a led victim to my death I’ll go,
+ And, dying, bless the hand that gave the blow.
+
+Except now and then in dim outline, the faces of intrigue in the
+_tragic_ scene do not appear. These faces are un-American—inhuman—and
+would mar humanity’s picture.
+
+The Divine Humanitarian forgave His enemies, but the picture of the
+crucified on the cross ever suggests the Pontius Pilate and the
+executioners. Clara Barton also forgave her enemies, and yet some day a
+literary artist may portray the Judasette Iscariot, or possibly the
+plotting Antony and Cleopatra, to make a Clara Barton picture
+historically and tragically complete.
+
+In biography is the world’s history. If, in human logic, the silencing
+of truth in biography be an imperative virtue, then literature should be
+relegated to the ash-heap of forgotten lore. As “in a valley centuries
+ago grew a fern leaf green and slender,” leaving its impress on what
+have become the rocks of the centuries, so truth leaves its impress
+imperishable on what become the tablets of history. Truth crushed to
+earth again and again will appear; and, when Clara Barton’s Gethsemane
+appears with all its delineations in a picture complete, there will be
+none so poor to do reverence to Clara Barton’s character assassins, nor
+to the Clara Barton ghouls who desecrate her tomb and use the United
+States mails to traduce the dead.
+
+Sentiment is the soul of action. The highest tribute to mortal is the
+angel-sentiment—the tribute to self-sacrificing woman that blazes her
+“path where highways never ran.”
+
+ Ever the blind world
+ Knows not its angels of deliverance
+ Till they stand glorified ’twixt earth and heaven,
+
+and yet more powerful than armies is the soul-sentiment that protects
+fame,—the fame of the Florence Nightingales, the Clara Bartons and the
+Edith Cavells.
+
+Her “friends” say time will vindicate Clara Barton. The more such
+“friends” the more’s the pity. It’s not time, it’s truth, that
+vindicates. “Procrastination is the thief of time.” The thief of time
+must not be permitted to steal from the present, even under pledge to
+disgorge in the future. The present is ours to possess, ours to enjoy.
+It’s not that the millions can do something for Clara Barton; instead,
+the Clara Barton spirit can do something for the millions. The plotter
+may revile the Red Cross Mother; the Red Cross Artist may picture the
+cross of red on the breast of a fictitious “Greatest Mother in the
+World;” the self-constituted autocrat in Red Cross literature may
+suppress, and belie, truth; but the spirit of Clara Barton is the
+Mother-Spirit still, the real spirit of the American Red Cross, the Red
+Cross spirit in all Christendom. The fighting sons of America on the
+“Western Front” may not have read of Clara Barton in recent Red Cross
+literature but, trooping under the Red Cross peace-banner that Clara
+Barton brought here from Europe, were more millions of her followers in
+America than in the world war there were soldiers marshalled under the
+military banners in all the armies in Europe.
+
+Grant was “Grant the Great” at Appomattox; Lincoln was more than “six
+feet four” when in the home of Confederate General Pickett he stooped
+down to kiss the brow of “Baby George” Pickett; Stephen A. Douglass was
+more than “the little giant” when at the inauguration on the east steps
+of the capitol he held the hat of Abraham Lincoln; Clara Barton was more
+divine than human when, with love for her enemies, in her last world
+prayer she gave expression to the forgiving sentiment of the Divine
+Humanitarian.
+
+Clara Barton said that the bravest act of her life was crossing the
+pontoon bridge under fire at Fredericksburg. The historian will say that
+the bravest act of her life was snatching her Red Cross child from the
+social—political—fat-salaried-swiveled-chair clique at Washington, and
+handing over her best beloved unharmed to the country for which in the
+smoke of battle and terrors of disaster she had many times risked her
+life. The historian will further say that in refusing to accept a
+pension of $2500 for life and Honorary Presidency of the Red Cross from
+that “clique” as the price of her child, and suffering persecution for
+life as the penalty, there was shown the true mother spirit that must
+commend her for all time to those who respect the spirit of
+self-sacrificing Motherhood.
+
+President Warren G. Harding, the president also of the Red Cross,
+“entertains the highest sentiment regarding the splendid service of
+Miss Barton.” Ex-President Woodrow Wilson—also ex-president of the
+Red Cross—has voiced the sentiment of the American people in no
+uncertain sound as has a second Clara Barton,—the soldier-angel
+Margaret Wilson. General John J. Pershing has not been silent in his
+admiration of the great woman, nor have the hundreds of thousands of
+American boys on the “Western Front” been unmindful in gratitude to
+the Founder of the American Red Cross; and, if signs fail not, from
+the American Congress there will come to America’s greatest
+humanitarian a testimonial—accompanied by an acclaim that will be
+heard around the world.
+
+On a certain state occasion the statement was made that there is less to
+censure, and more to commend, in the public life of Clara Barton for the
+twenty-three years she was President of the Red Cross than in the public
+life of any one of the twenty-eight Presidents from George Washington to
+Woodrow Wilson. There commenting on the statement, America’s beloved
+Mrs. General George E. Pickett significantly said: “Yes, that’s true,
+but Clara Barton was a woman.” But woman is coming into her own, and
+Clara Barton said, “My own shall come to me.” Never was prophecy more
+certain of fulfillment. With hundreds of thousands of Americans
+receiving the benefits of “First Aid”; with more than thirty thousand
+brave American nurses, ten thousand of these following the illustrious
+example of Clara Barton by going to the battlefield; with more than
+thirty millions of Americans serving the Red Cross in time of war; with
+more than a billion of human beings making use of the Red Cross American
+Amendment in times of peace and war, Clara Barton already has come into
+her own.
+
+The American nation will come into its own, as did respectively two
+great nations of Europe, when she wipes out from the scroll of history
+its foulest blot,—by giving national recognition to a national heroine;
+the American Red Cross will come into its own when it shall repossess
+the name Clara Barton; the American people will come into their own when
+they patriotically recognize, and sacredly cherish, that immortal
+Mother-Spirit which, after a half century of heroic sacrifices in the
+war of human woes, passed triumphant through the archway ’twixt earth
+and heaven.
+
+If these pen pictures give to the boys and girls of America inspiration
+to loftier patriotism and higher ideals in achievement; if truth in the
+biography give renewed impulse to American Red Cross philanthropy; if
+through this volume immortal deeds, and a name unsullied, be treasured
+for world-humanity then Clara Barton’s dying message to the author shall
+not have been in vain.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CHARLES SUMNER YOUNG
+]
+
+
+ The only picture of myself that I have cared anything about at all is
+ the one taken at the time of the Civil War (1865), in which I am
+ represented in the uniform of a nurse. If my friends had let me have
+ my way, I would never have had another picture taken. (_Frontispiece_)
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER PAGE
+
+ I Babyhood Impressions 21
+
+ II School—Childish Memories—Military 24
+
+ III On Her Favorite Black Horse 28
+
+ IV Phrenology—Read Her Characteristics—Basis of Friendship 30
+
+ V “Spontaneous Combustion” Laid to Clara Barton 34
+
+ VI Christmas—a Christmas Carol 36
+
+ VII “Button”—“Billy”—Clara Barton Ownership 38
+
+ VIII Pauper Schools; from Six to Six Hundred 43
+
+ IX Child Love—Joe and Charlie—Appreciation 45
+
+ X Temperance—Clara Barton and the Hired Man—Stranger than
+ Fiction 48
+
+ XI Looking for a Job—Equal Suffrage 51
+
+ XII Credulous Ox—Innocent Child—Clara Barton, a Vegetarian 55
+
+ XIII Fell Dead on the Ground beside Her 57
+
+ XIV Wickedness of War—Settles no Disputes 59
+
+ XV Her Wardrobe in a Handkerchief—The Battle Scene 63
+
+ XVI The Bravery of Women—Clara Barton’s Bravest Act 66
+
+ XVII Yes, and Got Euchred 69
+
+ XVIII To Dream of Home and Mother 71
+
+ XIX Tribute of Love and Devotion 74
+
+ XX Cheering Words—Always Ready—Wears a Smile 76
+
+ XXI Horrible Deed—Leads American Navy—Angel of Mercy 80
+
+ XXII Confederates and Federals alike Treated 86
+
+ XXIII The Enemy, Starving—Tact—The White Ox 89
+
+ XXIV Bullethole—Amputated Limbs Like Cordwood—God Gives
+ Strength 91
+
+ XXV Fearless of Bullets and Kicking Mules 95
+
+ XXVI His Comfort, not Hers; His Life, not Hers 97
+
+ XXVII Does not Need any Advice 99
+
+ XXVIII Had but a Few Moments to Live 102
+
+ XXIX Enlisted Men First—The Colonel’s Life Saved 104
+
+ XXX You’re Right, Madam—Good Day 107
+
+ XXXI Bleeding to Death—His Headless Body—Women in the War 109
+
+ XXXII Timid Child—Timid Woman 112
+
+ XXXIII Ez Ef We Wuz White Folks 115
+
+ XXXIV In Her Dreams—Again in Battle 117
+
+ XXXV Four Famous Women 120
+
+ XXXVI Simplicity of Childhood—Pet Wasps—Pet Cats—Loved
+ Life—Domestic 122
+
+ XXXVII Clara Barton in the Literary Field 128
+
+ XXXVIII The Art of Dressing—Clara Barton’s Individuality 133
+
+ XXXIX The Jewelled Hand and the Hard Hand Meet 138
+
+ XL Clara Barton and the Emperor 140
+
+ XLI America—Scarlet and Gold—Europe 143
+
+ XLII Three Cheers—Wild Scenes in Boston—Tiger!! No, Sweetheart 147
+
+ XLIII The Last Reception—Her Autograph—The Boys in Gray 150
+
+ XLIV Open House—Cost of Fame, Self-Sacrifice—Best in Woman 152
+
+ XLV Kneeled Before Her and Kissed Her Hand 158
+
+ XLVI I Never Get Tired—Eating the Least of My Troubles 160
+
+ XLVII Royalty Under a Quaker Bonnet 163
+
+ XLVIII Still Stamping on Me—Personally Unharmed 165
+
+ XLIX At the Memorial—“The Flags of all Nations”—A Good Time 167
+
+ L Clara Barton Kept a Diary 171
+
+ LI Nursing a Fine Art—Over the Washtub 176
+
+ LII Immortal Words—A Million Thanks 178
+
+ LIII The Pansy Pin—For Thoughts 180
+
+ LIV Clara Barton Pays Respects to Florence Nightingale 182
+
+ LV The Passing of Years—Right Habits of Life 184
+
+ LVI She Won His Heart 186
+
+ LVII You Buy It for Him 188
+
+ LVIII Or God Wouldn’t Have Made Them 190
+
+ LIX Clara Barton—Mary Baker Eddy 192
+
+ LX Like Tolstoi She Lived the Simple Life 194
+
+ LXI Clara Barton—Florence Nightingale 196
+
+ LXII The General Has Money—I Am His Reconcentrado 201
+
+ LXIII Abraham Lincoln’s Son 204
+
+ LXIV The Butcher Didn’t Get It 207
+
+ LXV The Kind of Girls that Needed Help 209
+
+ LXVI A Romance of Two Continents 211
+
+ LXVII The Little Monument—For all Eternity 215
+
+ LXVIII Story of Baba—Dream of a White Horse—Life’s Woes 218
+
+ LXIX People, Like Jack Rabbits—No “Show-Woman” 223
+
+ LXX Clara Barton’s Heart Secret—$10,000 in “Gold Dust” 227
+
+ LXXI Fell on Their Knees before “Mis’ Red Cross” 231
+
+ LXXII Clara Barton’s Tribute to Cuba 233
+
+ LXXIII At the Birthplace of Napoleon—The Corsican Bandit 235
+
+ LXXIV When Cares Grow Heavy and Pleasures Light 238
+
+ LXXV A Red Cross Red Letter Day 240
+
+ LXXVI Patriotic Women of America Self-Sacrificing 242
+
+ LXXVII Opposition—The American Red Cross “Complete Victory” 246
+
+ LXXVIII Greetings—National First Aid Association of America 255
+
+ LXXIX Humanitarianism, Unparalleled in All History 264
+
+ LXXX Clara Barton’s Prayer Answered 268
+
+ LXXXI Not the Value of a Postage Stamp 272
+
+ LXXXII Honorary Presidency for Life—Proposed Annuity 275
+
+ LXXXIII Clara Barton’s Resignation 279
+
+ LXXXIV No Red Cross Controversy 285
+
+ LXXXV International Red Cross—American Red Cross—American
+ Amendment 287
+
+ LXXXVI Blackmail Alleged—“Congressional Investigation”—Truth of
+ History 294
+
+ LXXXVII Of Graves, of Worms, of Epitaphs 332
+
+ LXXXVIII Turkey—Statesmanship of Philanthropy—Armenia 340
+
+ LXXXIX Treason—Lincoln Assassinated—Grant Protects Clara Barton 349
+
+ XC President McKinley Sends Clara Barton to Cuba 352
+
+ XCI In Details—Clara Barton, a Business Manager—World’s
+ Record 355
+
+ XCII Superintendent of Woman’s Prison 363
+
+ XCIII Greatness—An Immortal American Destiny—Immortality 365
+
+ XCIV What Was Her Religion? 369
+
+ XCV One Day with Clara Barton 373
+
+ XCVI The Personal Correspondence—Clara Barton’s Proposed
+ Self-Expatriation 377
+
+ XCVII Closing Incidents—The Biography—Other Correspondence 392
+
+ XCVIII A Record History at the Funeral 398
+
+ XCIX Clara Barton’s Last Ride 401
+
+ C Chronology of the Leading Achievements in the Life of
+ Clara Barton 403
+
+ CI The Press and the Individual 411
+
+ CII The Clara Barton Centenary—Memorial Address, 1921 415
+
+ CIII Clara Barton—Memorial Day Address, 1917 422
+
+
+ I want the last picture of the friends I love to show them in their
+ strength, and at their best, not after time and age shall have robbed
+ them of all _characteristic_ features which represented them in actual
+ life.—CLARA BARTON, from her diary of December 13, 1910.
+
+
+
+
+ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON _Frontispiece_
+
+ FACING PAGE
+
+ CHARLES SUMNER YOUNG 12
+
+ THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, MAIN STREET, OXFORD,
+ MASSACHUSETTS 35
+
+ SUMMER HOME OF CLARA BARTON, OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS 35
+
+ BIRTHPLACE OF CLARA BARTON, NEAR OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS 42
+
+ OFFICERS OF THE W. N. M. A. PRESENT AT THE DEDICATION OF
+ THE CLARA BARTON MEMORIAL ON OCTOBER 12, 1921 42
+
+ HISTORIC IN EDUCATION, BORDENTOWN, N. J. 53
+
+ The School House
+
+ The Desk Used by Clara Barton
+
+ The Clara Barton Museum
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE TEMPERANCE ADVOCATES 56
+
+ Annie Wittenmeyer
+
+ John B. Gough
+
+ Mary Stewart Powers
+
+ Frances Willard
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE SUFFRAGE LEADERS 69
+
+ Susan B. Anthony
+
+ Carrie Chapman Catt
+
+ Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
+
+ WARREN G. HARDING 72
+
+ REPRESENTATIVES RESPECTIVELY OF THREE WARS 83
+
+ William T. Sampson
+
+ Isaac B. Sherwood
+
+ Joseph Taggart
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF TWO WARS 90
+
+ Mathew C. Butler
+
+ Joseph Wheeler
+
+ Harrison Gray Otis
+
+ LEONARD WOOD 117
+
+ THE RED CROSS HOME OF CLARA BARTON, GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND 120
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LITERARY WORLD 133
+
+ Ida M. Tarbell
+
+ Lucy Larcrom
+
+ Elbert Hubbard
+
+ Alice Hubbard
+
+ W. R. SHAFTER 136
+
+ THE ROYALTY OF GERMANY 149
+
+ Empress Augusta
+
+ Emperor William I
+
+ Luise, The Grand Duchess of Baden
+
+ Friederich, The Grand Duke of Baden
+
+ THE ROYALTY OF RUSSIA 152
+
+ Nicholas II, The Czar of Russia
+
+ Alexandra Feodorowna, The Czarina of Russia
+
+ Maria Feodorowna, The Empress Dowager
+
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE between pages
+ 182 and 183
+
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE MEMORIAL ON THE MALL, LONDON between pages
+ 182 and 183
+
+ CO-WORKERS WITH CLARA BARTON 195
+
+ Count Lyof Nikolayevitch Tolstoi
+
+ Dr. Henry W. Bellows
+
+ Dr. Julian B. Hubbell
+
+ WOODROW WILSON 202
+
+ SENTIMENT IN HISTORY 213
+
+ The Clara Barton Baby Cradle
+
+ The Pet Jersey Calf
+
+ Colony of Constantinople Dogs
+
+ HISTORIC AND SENTIMENTAL 216
+
+ Baba, Clara Barton’s Pet Horse
+
+ The Baba Tree and William H. Lewis
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON MONUMENT 229
+
+ MARIO G. MENOCAL 232
+
+ WILLIAM MCKINLEY 241
+
+ JAMES A. GARFIELD between pages
+ 246 and 247
+
+ CHESTER A. ARTHUR between pages
+ 246 and 247
+
+ THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (in 1898) 252
+
+ CLARA BARTON 275
+
+ HARRIETTE L. REED 275
+
+ MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN 282
+
+ AMBASSADOR BAKHMETEFF 289
+
+ ELUTHEROS VENIZELOS 293
+
+ GROVER CLEVELAND 296
+
+ FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS OF CLARA BARTON 300
+
+ ATTORNEYS FOR THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SOCIETY UNDER THE
+ PRESIDENCY OF CLARA BARTON 321
+
+ Richard Olney
+
+ Lewis A. Stebbins
+
+ William H. Sears
+
+ BADGES, MEDALS, DECORATIONS between pages
+ 326 and 327
+
+ DORENCE ATWATER 332
+
+ DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL TO CLARA BARTON AT ANDERSONVILLE,
+ GEORGIA 332
+
+ CEMETERY AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA 339
+
+ DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN between pages
+ 342 and 343
+
+ I. H. R. PRINCE GUY DE LUSIGNAN between pages
+ 342 and 343
+
+ ABDUL-HAMID 346
+
+ WILLIAM R. DAY 355
+
+ HER BUSINESS RECORD between pages
+ 358 and 359
+
+ Benjamin F. Butler
+
+ Francis Atwater
+
+ Leonard F. Ross
+
+ REDFIELD PROCTOR between pages
+ 358 and 359
+
+ THE AMERICAN RED CROSS BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C. 362
+
+ HENRY BRECKENRIDGE 369
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF UNITED STATES CONGRESS 380
+
+ Champ Clark
+
+ Charles F. Curry
+
+ Denver S. Church
+
+ REUNION OF 21ST MASSACHUSETTS REGIMEN between pages
+ 390 and 391
+
+ THE MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING TO THE MEMORY OF CLARA between pages
+ BARTON, 1922 406 and 407
+
+ Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles, with the first
+ shovel of dirt
+
+ Mrs. John A. Logan, with second shovel of dirt
+
+ The Clara Barton Oak
+
+ Miss Carrie Harrison, planting the Clara Barton Rose
+
+ Charles Sumner Young, while delivering the memorial
+ address
+
+ WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 417
+
+ THE INSIDE OF MEMORIAL BUILDING, OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS between pages
+ 422 and 423
+
+ THE OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, MEMORIAL BUILDING between pages
+ 422 and 423
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE MASSACHUSETTS STATESMEN 428
+
+ Henry Wilson
+
+ Charles Sumner
+
+ George F. Hoar
+
+ UNITED STATES SENATORS WHO SAW THE WORK OF CLARA BARTON 430
+
+ Charles E. Townsend
+
+ Jacob H. Gallinger
+
+ H. D. Money
+
+ NELSON A. MILES 433
+
+ JOHN J. PERSHING 435
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN 442
+
+ THE RED CROSS MONUMENT 444
+
+ The embossed cut on the front cover is a reproduction of a bronze bust
+ by Mrs. Otto Heideman.
+
+
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+
+
+ There is a kind of character in thy life,
+ That to the observer doth thy history
+ Fully unfold.
+
+
+
+
+ I
+
+
+I take my pencil (at 86 years of age) to describe the first moment of my
+life that I remember. CLARA BARTON—In _The Story of My Childhood._
+
+Do not sin against the child. GENESIS.
+
+ The fir trees dark and high,
+ I used to think their slender tops
+ Were close against the sky.
+ HOOD—_I remember, I remember_.
+
+The rude wooden cradle in which Clara Barton was rocked is now one of
+the very interesting curios in possession of the Worcester (Mass.)
+Historical Society. THE AUTHOR.
+
+The child’s grief throbs against the round of its little heart as
+heavily as the man’s sorrow. CHAPIN.
+
+Baby lips will laugh me down. TENNYSON.
+
+ A child’s sob curseth deeper in the silence
+ Than the strong man in his wrath.
+ E. B. BROWNING.
+
+Dispel not the happy delusions of children. GOETHE.
+
+Happy child! The cradle is to thee a vast space.
+
+ SCHILLER.
+
+ Who can foretell for what high cause
+ This destiny of the gods was born.
+ ANDREW MARVELL.
+
+
+ BABYHOOD IMPRESSIONS
+
+Babyhood repeats itself. Babyhood is practically the same yesterday,
+today and forever. And yet who does not try to recall first impressions
+and first experiences? Clara Barton says her first baby experience that
+she recalls was when she was two and one half years of age. She thus
+describes it:—
+
+“Baby los’ ’im—pitty bird—baby los’ ’im—baby mos’ caught ’im.
+
+“At length they succeeded in inducing me to listen to a question, ‘But
+where did it go, Baby?’
+
+“Among my heart-breaking sobs I pointed to a small round hole under the
+doorstep. The terrified scream of my mother remained in my memory
+forevermore. Her baby had ‘mos’ caught’ a snake.”
+
+Her second experience that she recalls was when four years old, at a
+funeral of a beloved friend of the family. She previously had been
+terrified by a large old ram on the farm. On this occasion she was left
+in care of a guardian, in a sitting room. The four windows were open.
+Suddenly there came up a thunder storm. Sharp flashes of lightning
+darted through the rising, rolling clouds. She thought the whole heavens
+were full of angry rams and they were coming down upon her. Her screams
+alarmed, and her brother rushed into the room only to find her on the
+floor in hysterics.
+
+Sorrows put permanent wrinkles on the face, in maturity; on the mind, in
+childhood. Only strangeness may produce fear in babyhood but, with a
+baby, strangeness is everywhere. Darkness and strange noises frighten.
+Forms of phantasy float on the imagination; when gradually, it’s comedy;
+when suddenly, it’s tragedy.
+
+These tragic moments left their impressions on Clara Barton’s plastic
+mind. Such impressions ever must remain. Miss Barton said she remembered
+nothing but fear in her earlier years; and terror-stricken she remained
+to the end, except when she could serve someone in distress, or rescue
+someone from danger of death. An English philosopher says: “the least
+and most imperceptible impressions received in our infancy have
+consequences very important and are of long duration.” The greatest
+minds of earth, in all ages, have tried to recall baby experiences, and
+have wondered what they had to do with success or failure.
+
+
+
+
+ II
+
+
+At three years Clara Barton was taken a mile and one-half to school on
+the shoulders of her brother Stephen; at eleven years she ceased
+growing, then but five feet three inches. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+When I found myself on a strange horse, in a trooper’s saddle, flying
+for life or liberty in front of pursuit, I blessed the baby lessons of
+the wild gallops among the beautiful colts.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+Clara Barton—The memories of her childhood belong to our little town,
+and are our most precious heritage.
+
+ MRS. ALLEN L. JOSLYN, Oxford, Mass.
+
+
+Remember that you were once a child, full of childish thoughts and
+actions. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Sweetly wild
+ Were the scenes that charmed me when a child.
+ LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY.
+
+The sports of children satisfy the child. GOLDSMITH.
+
+Children’s plays are not sports, and should be regarded as their most
+serious actions. MONTAGUE.
+
+When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
+thought as a child. I CORINTHIANS.
+
+A sweet child is the sweetest thing in nature. C. LAMB.
+
+ Sweet childish days, that were as long
+ As twenty days are now.
+ S. WORDSWORTH.
+
+The scenes of childhood are memories of future years.
+
+ J. O. CHOULES.
+
+I do not like to beat my children—the world will beat them.
+
+ ELIHU BURRITT.
+
+ How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood
+ When fond recollections present them to view.
+ S. WORDSWORTH.
+
+ Deep meaning often lies in childish plays. SCHILLER.
+
+ Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight!
+ Make me a child again, just for to-night.
+ ELIZABETH A. ALLEN.
+
+ Toil without recompense, tears all in vain;
+ Take them, and give me my childhood again!
+ E. A. ALLEN.
+
+
+ The Baker homestead (Bow, N. H.)—Around the memory thereof cluster the
+ golden days of my childhood.
+
+ MARY BAKER EDDY.
+
+ A long way seems the dear old New England home—its sheltering groves
+ and quiet hills; amid the clustering memories my tears are falling
+ thick and silently like the autumn leaves in forest dells.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Children have more need of models than of critics.
+
+ JOSEPH JOUBERT.
+
+ Children think not of what is past nor of what is to come but enjoy
+ the present time, which few of us do.
+
+ LA BRUYERE.
+
+
+ Women are only children of a larger growth.
+
+ CHESTERFIELD—_Letter to his son_.
+
+ The only fun is to do things. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I pledged myself to strive only for the courage of the right and for
+ the blessedness of true womanhood. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ SCHOOL—CHILDISH MEMORIES—MILITARY
+
+What woman has not said “I remember when I was a girl....” Clara Barton
+at eighty-six years said, in the story of her childhood, I remember ...,
+I remember riding wild colts when I was five years of age. I remember
+how frightened I was, but acquired assurance when my brother used to
+tell me to “cling fast to the mane.” To this day (at eighty-six years of
+age) my seat in the saddle, or on the bare back of a horse, is as secure
+and tireless as in a rocking chair. I remember I thought the President
+might be as large as the meeting house and the Vice President perhaps
+the size of the school house. I remember telling my teacher that I did
+not spell such little words as “cat” and “dog,” but I spell in
+artichoke, artichoke being the first word in the column of three
+syllables.
+
+I remember writing verses, many of which for years were preserved—some
+of these verses by others recited to amuse people—some verses to tease
+me. I remember, in school, making a mistake in pronouncing ‘Ptolmy,’
+when the children laughed at me, and I burst out crying and left the
+room.
+
+I remember that my father taught me politics; and that, as an old
+soldier,[1] he amused the other children and myself by giving us
+practical lessons in military life. We used improvised material, such as
+children are accustomed to use in “playing soldier,”—paper caps, plumes,
+banners, kettle for the kettle drum, tin swords, sticks for guns and
+bayonets—all of which were perfectly satisfactory to us.
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+ A Clara Barton paternal ancestor immigrated to America from
+ Lancashire, England, about twelve years after the landing of _The
+ Mayflower_. Since that date a direct descendant of his has
+ participated in every war, by this country.
+
+ Our muskets were of cedar wood
+ With ramrods bright and new;
+
+ With bayonets forever set,
+ And painted barrels, too.
+
+ We shouldered arms, we carried arms,
+ We charged the bayonet;
+ And woe unto the mullen stalk
+ That in our course we met!
+
+The armies played havoc with each other, had fearful encounters and,
+what seemed to our young minds then, suffered disastrous results. Camps,
+regiments, brigades, military terms, she said, thus became familiar to
+her as the most ordinary matters of home.
+
+ Is it warm in that green valley,
+ Vale of childhood, where you dwell?
+ Is it calm in that green valley,
+ Round whose bowers such great hills swell?
+ Are there giants in the valley—
+ Giants leaving footprints yet?
+ Are there angels in the valley?
+ Tell me—I forget.
+
+
+
+
+ III
+
+
+ In my home here at Oxford, we would listen with intense interest to
+ the story of her early years, to childhood and girlhood, and to scenes
+ and events in her old home on the hillside. Clara Barton, by her
+ shining example to our children and our children’s children, has left
+ a rare legacy to the town of her birth.
+
+ MRS. A. L. JOSLYN—In _Clara Barton In Memoriam_.
+
+
+ Bucephalus was calmed, and subdued, by the presence of Alexander and
+ became his favorite war-horse.
+
+ ABBOTT.
+
+ My arms, my arms. My horse; come quick, my horse——.
+ JOAN OF ARC.
+
+
+ My brother David was the “Buffalo Bill” of all that surrounding
+ country.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ My father was a lover of horses, one of the first in the vicinity to
+ introduce blooded stock.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The first horses imported into the United States were brought to New
+ England in 1629. Surviving the ocean voyage were one horse and seven
+ mares. Oxen being used for all farm work, horses did not come into
+ general use until one hundred years afterwards.
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Joan of Arc, Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale was each an expert
+ horsewoman and each made use of her skill in horsemanship, in war.
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ ON HER FAVORITE BLACK HORSE
+
+Like many other country girls, Clara Barton was fond of horseback
+riding. When twelve years of age, on one occasion, she ran away from
+home to go for a ride. She came down stairs quietly and slipped out for
+a ride on her favorite black horse.
+
+ What a wild triumph, that this “girlish hand”
+ Such a steed in the might of his strength may command!
+
+Falling from the horse, she injured her knee. Determined to keep the
+injury a secret she joined her brothers in the field as though nothing
+had happened. But she limped, and her brothers noticed it. She merely
+told her brothers she had injured her knee, but would say no more. They
+sent for a doctor. By plying many questions as to how it happened, the
+doctor drew from her a confession. In later life—in the Civil War, in
+the Franco-Prussian War, in the Spanish American War, her skill as a
+horseback rider was of great service to her. On several occasions she
+had to “ride for her life.” In speaking of this accomplishment, she used
+to say “When I was a little girl I could ride like a Mexican.”
+
+
+
+
+ IV
+
+
+ Clara Barton—the pitying sweetness which fills her eyes and the
+ sympathetic lines which have been drawn about her mouth bear witness
+ to a long intimacy with suffering and death.
+
+ Central (Mo.) _Christian Advocate_. (1912)
+
+ Physiognomy is the language of the face. JEREMY COLLIER.
+
+
+ Physiognomy is reading the handwriting of nature upon the human
+ countenance. CHATFIELD.
+
+ Palmistry is a science as old as the history of the human race. The
+ mind deceives; the hand tells the truth; the thumb in particular, the
+ tell-tale of character.
+
+ DOLORES CORTEZ, _Queen of the Spanish Gypsies_.
+
+ Show me an outspread hand and I’ll show you whether or not its master
+ is honest, is kind, is affectionate.
+
+ ARTHUR DELROY, _Author_.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Human nature, as unfolded by phrenology, is being universally accepted
+ by all classes of people. CRANIUM.
+
+ Phrenology can be used in every phase of life. C. S. HARDISON.
+
+ Phrenology is very fruitful in its capacity to paint mental images.
+
+ MISS JESSIE ALLEN FOWLER.
+
+ Phrenology,—a science that has been of great help to us in the
+ progress of life. DOCTOR CHARLES H. SHEPARD.
+
+ The shape of the brain may generally be ascertained by the form of the
+ skull. O. S. AND L. N. FOWLER.
+
+ Phrenology professes to point out a connection between certain
+ _manifestations of the mental and peculiar conditions and developments
+ of the brain_. O. S. AND L. N. FOWLER.
+
+ Of all the people in England, I was most glad to meet Doctor L. N.
+ Fowler, the same gentle, kind man he used to be so many years ago, and
+ who has done so much for the middle classes of England, giving them
+ helpful advice they could not get from other sources. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Remembering that fully one-fifth of my life (1856) has been passed as
+ a teacher in schools, it is not strange that I should feel some
+ interest in the cause of education. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ ’Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the
+ tree is inclined. ALEXANDER POPE.
+
+
+ PHRENOLOGY—READ HER CHARACTERISTICS—BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP
+
+The physiognomist reads character in the face; the palmist in the hand;
+the phrenologist in the skull. Physiognomy since the origin of man has
+been nature’s open book. The science of palmistry is at least five
+thousand years old; but the science of phrenology is of comparatively
+recent origin. When Clara Barton was a little girl phrenology received
+its really first great impulse in this country, through the lectures and
+writings of the Doctors Fowler of England. In England, as in this
+country, phrenology was then the subject of much ridicule. Of this
+strange science Thomas Hood sarcastically writes:
+
+ ’Tis strange how like a very dunce,
+ Man, with his bumps upon his sconce,
+ Had lived so long; and yet no knowledge he
+ Has had, till lately, of phrenology—
+ A science that by simple dint of
+ Head-combining he should find a hint of,
+ When scratching o’er those little pole-hills
+ The faculties threw up like mole hills.
+
+Little Clara was bashful, afraid of strangers, too timid to sit at the
+family table when guests were present; would not so much as tell her
+name when asked to do so. When spoken to by a stranger she would burst
+out crying—sometimes leaving the room. Now and then she would go hungry
+rather than ask a favor even of a member of the family. Doctor L. N.
+Fowler visited Oxford. While there he was a guest at the Barton home.
+
+Doctor, what shall we do with this girl, asked the mother; she annoys us
+almost to death. We can hardly speak to her without her crying, from
+fear. The doctor examined her head. He replied, she is timid, that’s
+all. The “bump” of fear is over-developed. Nothing will change a child’s
+innate fear; that is a characteristic of her nature. She may outgrow it
+to some extent but her sensitive nature will remain as long as she
+lives. The doctor advised the parents to give her something to do; to
+keep her at work, and thus to let her forget herself. Don’t scold her;
+encourage her. When she does anything well, give her full
+credit—compliment her. Throw responsibility on her; when she is old
+enough give her a school to teach.
+
+To be understood is the basis of friendship. The Doctor understood
+Clara; little Clara understood the Doctor. They became friends. That
+friendship lasted through life. Many years after the Doctor visited
+Oxford Clara Barton visited the Doctor, in London. They spent evenings
+together. The Doctor renewed his interest in the people of those early
+days in New England. He especially recalled the characteristics of Miss
+Barton’s father;—they became mutually reminiscent of the days of her
+childhood. The Doctor had then become old and decrepit but was still
+giving lectures on phrenology. The happiest hours Clara Barton spent in
+England were in the home of the Fowlers; with the Doctor, his charming
+wife and three beautiful daughters.
+
+
+
+
+ V
+
+
+ The earth can never have enough women like Clara Barton.
+
+ Detroit (Mich.) _Free Press._
+
+ Clara Barton belonged not only to the United States but to the entire
+ civilized world. Boston (Mass.) _Globe._
+
+ A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. PROVERBS.
+
+ Laugh and the world laughs with you. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
+
+ With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ A little nonsense now and then
+ Is relished by the best of men. ANONYMOUS.
+
+ The next best thing to a very good joke is a very bad one.
+
+ J. C. HARE.
+
+ Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee
+ At all his jokes, for many a joke had he. GOLDSMITH.
+
+ If ever there were lost, or omitted, a well-turned joke or a bit of
+ humor by the various members of the Barton family it was clearly an
+ accident. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Joking decides great things stronger and better of’t than earnest can.
+ MILTON-HORACE.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, MAIN STREET, OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
+
+ Where Clara Barton attended church. Oldest Universalist Church in the
+ world, built 1792. Society second oldest. Organized April 27, 1785.
+ Denomination organized here, September 14, 1785.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ SUMMER HOME OF CLARA BARTON, OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
+
+ Arrow points towards the window of the room where Clara Barton was
+ bed-ridden for several months, through her last fatal illness, in
+ the latter part of 1911.
+]
+
+
+ “SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION” LAID TO CLARA BARTON
+
+A timid child is invariably the butt of jokes. Clara Barton, in her
+youth, was not an exception. As a little girl she had learned to weave,
+working in a North Oxford satinet mill. She had not been it work there
+very long when the mill took fire and burned down. Then, as no
+satisfactory explanation of the cause could be given by the members of
+the Barton family, the fire was attributed to spontaneous combustion,
+brought on because Clara had worked so fast as to set the mill on fire.
+Clara Barton did not object to, but rather enjoyed, a joke on herself.
+She used to tell her friends of this joke and said that in her own town
+and among her playmates that joke was “told on me for many years.”
+
+
+
+
+ VI
+
+
+ Forget not Christmas. HENRY _IV._ of England.
+
+ At Christmas be merry, and thankful withal,
+ And feast thy poor neighbors, the great with the small. TUSSER.
+
+ Those who at Christmas do repine,
+ And would fain hence despatch him,
+ May they with old Duke Humphry dine,
+ Or else may ‘Squire Ketch catch him.’
+ POOR ROBIN’S ALMANAC, 1684.
+
+ Without the door let sorrow lie,
+ And if, for cold, it hap to die,
+ Wee ’le bury ’t in a Christmas pye,
+ And evermore be merry.
+ WITHER’S JUVENILIA.
+
+ Now Christmas is come,
+ Let us beat up the drum,
+ And call all our neighbors together.
+ And when they appear,
+ Let us make them such cheer,
+ As will keep out the wind and the weather. OLD SONG.
+
+ A Christmas baby! Now, isn’t that the best kind of a Christmas gift
+ for us all? FATHER STEPHEN BARTON (1821).
+
+ Clara Barton was a Christmas present, given to the world.
+
+ Bridgeport (Conn.) _Standard_ (—In 1912).
+
+ The sweet love-planted Christmas tree. WILL CARLETON.
+
+ A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
+
+ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
+
+ This day shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.
+ CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+ On Christmas Day we will shut out from our fireside nothing.
+
+ CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+ ’Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the
+ genial fire of charity in the heart. WASHINGTON IRVING.
+
+ I was born on one bright Christmas day, and I am told that there was a
+ great family jubilation upon the occasion. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ For which the shepherds at their festivals
+ Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays. JOHN MILTON.
+
+ The winds ever chant on the bright Christmas morn,
+ The sweetest of carols for “Two” that were born.
+ E. MAY GLENN TOON.
+
+
+ CHRISTMAS
+ A CHRISTMAS CAROL
+ (1894)
+
+ For my 30,000 Sea Island Friends
+
+ A Loving Greeting and Merry Christmas. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Lo! The Christmas morn is breaking,
+ Bring the angels bright array,
+ For the Christian world is waking,
+ And the Lord is born to-day.
+ Shout then, brothers; shout and pray,
+ For the blessed Lord is born to-day.
+
+ No more tears and pain and sorrow,
+ Hark! I hear the angels say
+ Blessed be the bright to-morrow,
+ For the Lord is born to-day.
+ Shout then, sisters; shout and pray,
+ For the blessed Lord is born to-day.
+
+ Forget your night of sad disaster,
+ Cast your burdens all away,
+ Wait the coming of the Master,
+ For the Lord is born to-day.
+ Shout then, children; shout and pray,
+ For the blessed Lord is born to-day.
+
+ In the sunlight, soft and golden,
+ Round the babe the angels play;
+ List, their notes so grand and olden,
+ Lo! The Lord is born to-day.
+ Shout, all people; shout and pray,
+ For the blessed Lord is born to-day.
+
+
+
+
+ VII
+
+
+ The life of Clara Barton should be familiarized to every child.
+
+ Woonsocket (R. I.) _Call._
+
+ Learning to ride, Clara, is just learning a horse.
+
+ BROTHER DAVID (“Buffalo Bill”) in 1826.
+
+ How can I learn a horse, David? SISTER CLARA.
+
+ Catch hold of his mane, baby, and just feel the horse a part of
+ yourself—the big half of the task being.
+
+ BROTHER DAVID. _Heroines of Service._
+
+ Love me, love my dog. HEYWARD’S PROVERBS.
+
+ The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this
+ selfish world, the one that never deserts him, and the one that never
+ proves ungrateful, or traitorous, is his dog. SENATOR VEST.
+
+ We are two travellers, Roger and I—Roger’s my dog—so fond, so
+ unselfish, so forgiving. JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE.
+
+ I have seen many friends in my travels,
+ Some friends whom the world would call game,
+ But the friendship of my old dog Roger
+ Would put all the others to shame.
+ WILLIAM DEVERE.
+
+ I would rather be a dog and bay at the moon
+ Than such a Roman. JULIUS CAESAR.
+
+ Every dog has his day, why not I?
+ Dogs are very much like people—
+ I am Preacher Smith’s dog, whose dog are you?
+ ABBIE N. SMITH, “_Bobtail Dixie_.”
+
+ A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ O for a horse with wings. CYMBELINE.
+
+ Champing his foam, and bounding o’er the plain,
+ Arch his high neck and graceful spread his mane.
+ SIR R. BLACKMORE.
+
+ A good rider on a good horse is as much above himself and others as
+ the world can make him. LORD HERBERT.
+
+ I die,—but first have possessed
+ And come what may, I _have been blessed_. BYRON.
+
+ Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession, many.
+
+ LOWELL.
+
+ How senseless is the love of wealth and treasure. GUARINI.
+
+ Remember not one penny can we take with us into the unknown land.
+ SENECA.
+
+
+ “BUTTON”—“BILLY”—CLARA BARTON OWNERSHIP
+
+A dog is a real philanthropist, his whole existence is living for
+others. The best “war-scout” known is the Red Cross dog, wearing the
+insignia. In a dog Miss Barton found a congenial spirit. Her first
+ownership was a dog, and known by the name of “Button.” He was
+medium-sized, very white, with silky ears, sparkling black eyes, and a
+very short tail. “Button” was Clara Barton’s guardian in the cradle, her
+playmate in childhood.
+
+ Some little dogs are very good,
+ And very useful too:—
+
+“Button” would try to pick her up when she fell down, sympathize with
+her in her troubles,—ever unselfish, helpful, loyal.
+
+Clara Barton’s second individual ownership was “Billy.” “Billy” was a
+horse. She said he was high stepping; in color, brown; of Morgan
+ancestry, with glossy coat, slim legs, pointed ears, long black mane and
+tail, and weighing nearly nine hundred pounds.
+
+Ownership endowed “Billy” with wonderful characteristics. He could trot,
+rack, pace, single-foot,—a Bucephalus worthy of world fame. “Like beads
+upon a rosary” she would count and recount the joys of memory, memory of
+her saddle horse, and she on his back, riding like mad, at ten years of
+age. He had many characteristics, doubtless, that she didn’t recount. As
+a horse is known to be “a vain thing for safety” “Billy” could probably
+run away, get frightened at a shadow, senselessly “kick up” and
+“smash-up,” as do other horses. But fun is in the danger; the greater
+the danger to life and limb the greater the fun. “Billy” would not stand
+over her to guard her, nor help her up when she fell down, but was
+useful and gave her pleasure. “The true, living love is love of soul for
+soul,” hence mankind loves, in return for love, only what gives love;
+but mankind also pretends to love what it can force to serve man’s
+purpose. The dog spirit and the horse spirit satisfy the longings of
+human nature—all the world loves a dog and assumes to love a horse.
+
+In hearing of the cannon’s roar one afternoon, an officer galloped up
+asking, “Miss Barton, can you ride?” “Yes sir.” “But you have no
+saddle—could you ride mine?” “Yes sir, or without it, if you have
+blanket and surcingle.” “Then you can risk an hour.” An hour later the
+officer returned at breakneck speed—and leaping from his horse said:
+“Now is your time Miss Barton; the enemy is already breaking over the
+hills.”
+
+ Oh! not all the pleasures that poets may praise,—
+ Not the wildering waltz in the ballrooms blaze,
+ Nor the chivalrous joust, nor the daring race,
+ Nor the swift regatta, nor the merry chase,
+ Nor the sail heaving waters o’er,
+ Nor the rural dance on the moonlight shore,—
+ Can the wild and fearless joy exceed
+ Of a fearless leap on a fiery steed.
+
+Romance enters into ownership of pet animals. Probably “Button” was
+_just_ a dog and “Billy” _only_ a horse. But one has said that the right
+of ownership is the cornerstone of civilization. Ownership of what is
+worthy of love at least enriches character—contributes to the happiness
+of human existence. If the Father of his Country was right, that the
+object of all government is the happiness of the people, then the love
+of animals serves a very high purpose.
+
+With the first “gold dust” suddenly acquired, an illiterate Western
+miner built on the desert a stone mansion. He ornamented it with gold
+door knobs door hinges of silver—the doors opening but to golden keys.
+
+ Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
+ To lay their just hands on that golden key,
+ That opes the palace to eternity,—
+ To such my errand is:—
+
+Where human beings throng, and men and women suffer, Clara Barton built
+a structure and ornamented it with a RED CROSS on a white ground—the
+emblem of service to the suffering. With unusual earning capacity for
+seventy-five years, and at all times practicing greatest economy, Clara
+Barton’s ownership at her passing was but $21,000. The Glen Echo Red
+Cross home that had been used, free of cost to the RED CROSS, was valued
+at $5,000. While the owner lived she continued to keep it as a charity
+center—a home for the homeless and indigent—ex-soldiers, civilians,
+children.
+
+In her closing years she had, therefore, for her own personal and
+exclusive use in money and realty, not to exceed $21,000. This was nine
+thousand dollars less than the value of her property when she first
+became interested in Red Cross work. “Mere money,” she said, “never
+separates me from my friends. I don’t care for money; I wish only not to
+become an object of charity, and to be a burden to my friends when I am
+unable to work for others.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ BIRTHPLACE OF CLARA BARTON, NEAR OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
+
+ On March 14, 1921, the title to the Barton Homestead was transferred
+ by Carl O. Carlson to The Woman’s National Missionary Society of the
+ Universalist Church. It is now known as The Clara Barton Memorial
+ Home. Mementoes, Red Cross literature and all else possible to
+ obtain that appertain to Clara Barton’s life work will be assembled
+ here and become a part of the Memorial. The homestead consists of
+ the house where Clara Barton was born, and eighty-five acres of
+ land. It was dedicated as a shrine for the public, October 12, 1921.
+
+ Arrow points to the room where Clara Barton was born. Size of the room
+ 8 × 10 feet. Ceiling 8 feet high. Clothes closet 5 feet 2 inches × 2
+ feet 5 inches. Two windows each 4 feet 5 inches high × 2 feet 3
+ inches wide. Two sashes in each window; six panes of glass in each
+ sash.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ OFFICERS OF THE W. N. M. A. PRESENT AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CLARA
+ BARTON MEMORIAL ON OCTOBER 12, 1921.
+
+ Left to Right: Mrs. Bertram O. Blaisdell, Trustee; Mrs. Ethel M.
+ Allen, Rec. Sec’y (now President); Mrs. Marietta B. Wilkins,
+ President; Mrs. Fred A. Moore, Literature Secretary; Miss Susan M.
+ Andrew, Trustee (Chairman Clara Barton Guild).
+]
+
+
+
+
+ VIII
+
+
+ Every child in the country has known of Clara Barton.
+
+ Oakland (Calif.) _Tribune_.
+
+ Pestalozzi was the Father of the Public School; Washington the Father
+ of his Country; Lincoln, the Father of a Race; Clara Barton, the
+ Mother of the Red Cross. THE AUTHOR.
+
+ The building which housed Clara Barton in her efforts for popular
+ education is still standing along with other historic landmarks.
+
+ Bordentown (N. J.) _Register_.
+
+ If you will let me try, I will teach the children free for six months.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I thank God that we have no free schools—in the colony—and I hope we
+ shall not have these hundred years.
+
+ GOVERNOR BERKELEY of Virginia in 1670.
+
+ The first incorporation to provide free schools, under the provisions
+ of the State, was passed in New York in 1805.
+
+ THE MODERN SCHOOL SYSTEM.
+
+ The basis of free government is in education; in a republic the hope
+ of the millions is the free public school.
+
+ THE TWO REPUBLICS.
+
+ The hope of all modern civilization is the public free school.
+
+ ANCIENT SCHOOL SYSTEMS.
+
+ I taught in an uninclosed shed at North Oxford, there being no house
+ for that purpose. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The first meetings for the establishment of a kindergarten system at
+ Washington was held at the Clara Barton home, in Washington; among
+ others present Phoebe Hearst and Mrs. Grover Cleveland, wife of the
+ President, the chairman. THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Let us live in our children. FREDERICK FROEBEL.
+
+
+ PAUPER SCHOOLS; FROM SIX TO SIX HUNDRED
+
+New Jersey had no public schools. The people said they were not paupers
+and would not have their children taught at public expense—would not
+send them to “pauper schools.” In New Jersey Clara Barton opened, for
+the first time, what was called a “free school for paupers.” Since those
+puritan days, what a change in public sentiment! Then it was “Pauper
+school” education; now
+
+ Free education is the poor man’s marble staircase that leads upward,
+ and into, the palaces of wealth, health and happiness.
+
+Clara Barton was told that a public school was impossible; every time it
+had been tried, it had failed. At Bordentown she found herself with six
+bright boys, and the public school[2] commenced. At the end of twelve
+months her six pupils had grown to six hundred pupils—among whom no
+corporal punishment had been administered.
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+ The School Building, erected in 1837. School taught by Clara Barton,
+ in 1853. Building and site the property of New Jersey, purchased
+ through contributions by teachers and pupils. Building dedicated June
+ 11, 1921, and now known as The Clara Barton Memorial School but used
+ as a Clara Barton Museum.
+
+“Pauper schools” became thence in fact the free public school; now the
+free public school is the one institution from whose flagstaff freedom’s
+flag is never hauled down.
+
+
+
+
+ IX
+
+
+ Clara Barton taught the rich to be unselfish and the strong to be
+ gentle. CHARLES E. TOWNSEND, U. S. Senate.
+
+ Her voice was soft,
+ Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman.
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Miss Barton was a soft-voiced, retiring little woman, yet she had a
+ way of approaching her work in a most telling manner.
+
+ Buffalo (N. Y.) _Express_.
+
+ Miss Barton followed her own light with steadfast steps.
+
+ Springfield (Mass.) _Republican_.
+
+ Clara Barton—a model of the beautiful simplicity of a life given to
+ others. Bridgeport (Conn.) _Standard_.
+
+ The severest test of discipline is its absence. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Social, friendly and human, Clara Barton joined with the children in
+ the playgrounds;—instead of being locked out as the previous teachers
+ had been she “locked” herself “in” the hearts of every boy and girl.
+ _The Life of Clara Barton_, by Epler.
+
+ Show me a child well disciplined, perfectly governed at home, and I
+ will show you a child that never breaks a rule at school.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Whenever corporal punishment is inflicted on a pupil it is a sign of
+ negligence and indolence on the part of the teacher, says Seneca.
+
+ ANCIENT SCHOOL SYSTEMS.
+
+ In refinement of taste and beauty of action, or purity of thought and
+ delicacy of expression, nature’s own best teacher is woman.
+
+ THE MODERN SCHOOL SYSTEM.
+
+
+ CHILD LOVE—JOE AND CHARLIE—APPRECIATION
+
+To the child nothing is small; nor does the child forget. Whatever
+kindness comes to the child is stored in one of the cells of the brain
+for future years. As an heirloom, the longer it is possessed the more it
+is cherished.
+
+Referring to her teacher of long ago, Dr. Eleanor Burnside recently
+related this incident in her school life: “I recall when a little girl
+in her school Clara Barton’s friendly interest in the progress of her
+pupils; unvarying patience, no matter what the circumstances might be. I
+do not think she knew how to scold, nor were scoldings and other
+manifestations of ill temper necessary. Her quiet, firm word, pleasantly
+expressed, seemed sufficient always.”
+
+ Speak gently; it is better far
+ To rule by love than fear—
+
+
+ Speak gently; ’tis a little thing
+ Dropped in the heart’s deep well;
+ The good, the joy, which it may bring,
+ Eternity shall tell.
+
+Not easily disturbed, Miss Barton did not notice little misdemeanors by
+the children at all. She seemed not to observe one day when some fun was
+started by a boy sitting back of Joe Davis. The mischievous boy was
+putting his finger in Joe’s red hair and pretending his finger was
+burnt. Of course it amused the children, but only for a moment. To
+govern too much is worse than to govern too little. This was an incident
+merely of a child’s humor, requiring no reprimand. “But no matter what
+happened, Clara Barton did not scold. Her pupils loved her and that made
+what she did, and what she said too, right.”
+
+The old desk used by Clara Barton recently has been found in possession
+of one of the old families at Bordentown, New Jersey. By tracing back
+the ownership it has been proved conclusively to be the original desk
+used by Miss Barton. The desk refuted the libel that she was a
+disciplinarian, and not a humanitarian. The libel referred to was that
+she had a particularly unruly boy; that she seized him by the nape of
+the neck, lifted the lid of the desk and dropped him inside. Now that
+the desk has been discovered, her admirers point to the interesting fact
+that it doesn’t have a top lid; it has a small drawer.
+
+Childhood is ever of the living present. Up the stream of time the eye
+keeps fixed on memory’s treasures of youth. In one of the battles of the
+Civil War, Clara Barton stooped down to place the empty sleeve, then
+useless to the bullet-shattered right arm, over the shoulder of a
+soldier boy. Recognizing the face of his former teacher the fair-haired
+lad dropped his face into the folds of her dress, then threw his left
+arm around her neck, in deepest grief, crying: “Why, Miss Barton, don’t
+you know me? I am Charlie Hamilton who used to carry your satchel to
+school.”
+
+
+
+
+ X
+
+
+ Like a patriotic soldier Clara Barton responded in the youth of her
+ womanhood to the call of service to others.
+
+ York (Pa.) _Gazette_.
+
+ Clara Barton is one of the greatest heroic figures of her time.
+
+ _Buffalo Press._
+
+ Clara Barton—our greatest national heroine. _Literary Digest._
+
+
+ We reckon heroism today, not so much on account of the thing done as
+ the motive behind the act. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.
+
+
+ Yes, it is over. The calls are answered, the marches have ended, the
+ nation saved. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The best blood of America has flowed like water.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The soldier is lost in the citizen. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The proudest of America’s sons have struggled for the honors of a
+ soldier’s name. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Their glory, bright as it shone in war, is out-lustered by the
+ nobleness of their lives in peace. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I shall never take to myself more honesty of purpose, faithfulness of
+ zeal, nor patriotism, than I award to another. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ What can be added to the glory of a nation whose citizens are its
+ soldiers? Whose warriors, armed and mighty,—spring from its bosom in
+ the hour of need, and peacefully retire when the need is over. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ I have taught myself to look upon the government as the band which the
+ people bind around a bundle of sticks to hold it firm, where every
+ patriot must grapple the knot tighter.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If our government be too weak to act vigorously and energetically,
+ strengthen it till it can act; then comes the peace we all wait for,
+ as kings and prophets waited—and without which like them we seek and
+ never find. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Henry Wilson worked on a farm at six dollars per month. Then he tied
+ up his scanty wardrobe in a pocket handkerchief, and walked to Natick,
+ Massachusetts, more than one hundred miles, to become a cobbler. The
+ trip cost him but $1.88.
+
+ HENRY MAKEPEACE THAYER.
+
+ I am the son of a hireling manual laborer who, with the frosts of
+ seventy winters on his head, lives by daily labor. I too lived by
+ daily labor. HENRY WILSON.
+
+ Henry Wilson, born in New Hampshire, February 16, 1812; elected to U.
+ S. Senate, 1855; elected Vice-President, 1872; died November 22, 1875.
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ We should yield nothing to our principles of right.
+
+ HENRY WILSON.
+
+ The sorrows of drunkenness glare on us from the cradle to the grave.
+ HENRY WILSON.
+
+ I would not have upon my soul the consciousness that I had by precept
+ or example lured any young man to drunkenness for all the honors of
+ the universe. HENRY WILSON.
+
+ Clara Barton’s never-failing friend, Senator Henry Wilson.
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+
+ TEMPERANCE—CLARA BARTON AND THE HIRED MAN—STRANGER THAN FICTION
+
+Way back in 1857 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clara Barton showed her
+humanitarian spirit and organization ability. Under the Reverend Horace
+James, she assisted in the organization of the Band of Hope,[3] a
+society originating in Scotland whose object was: “To Promote the Cause
+of Temperance and Good Morals of the Children and Youth.”
+
+Footnote 3:
+
+ First Temperance Society organized in America, in 1789; First National
+ Temperance Convention, in 1833; a “temperance revolution” urged, in
+ 1842, by Abraham Lincoln; Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized
+ in 1874; National Prohibition went into effect January 16, 1920.
+
+On the breaking out of the Civil War, the Reverend James became Chaplain
+of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, and two of the boys that
+Clara Barton induced to join the society became officers of the
+Fifty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment. One was Colonel J. Brainard Hall
+and the other Captain George E. Barton. At the Battle of the Wilderness
+the Colonel Hall referred to was seriously, then thought to be fatally,
+wounded. Clara Barton was the first at his side to nurse, and to care
+for, him. As soon as he was able to be moved, she sent him to Washington
+to be cared for there by one whom she told him was her very dear friend.
+Stranger than fiction, on reaching Washington, Colonel Hall discovered
+this friend to be the “Hired Man,” previous to 1839, who worked in his
+grandmother’s shoe-shop,—the late Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the
+United States.
+
+
+
+
+ XI
+
+
+ Every woman who loves her country and who realizes what true
+ patriotism means will always revere the name of Clara Barton, and
+ connect it with the highest ideal of service to one’s country. DR.
+ ANNA H. SHAW _President American Woman Suffrage Association_.
+
+ Clara Barton has won the hearts of the women of the world. CARRIE
+ CHAPMAN CATT, _President American Woman Suffrage Association_.
+
+
+ John Marshall, for thirty-five years Chief Justice of the U. S.
+ Supreme Court, held the female sex the equals of men.
+
+ JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY.
+
+
+ I had not learned to equip myself—for I was no Pallas ready armed but
+ grew into my work by hard thinking and sad experience.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I am a woman and know what barriers oppose all womanly efforts.
+ HARRIET G. HOSMER.
+
+ Clara Barton is the best clerk, either man or woman, I ever had in my
+ office. MR. MASON, _Commissioner of Patents_.
+
+ It is less difficult for a woman to obtain celebrity by her genius
+ than to be forgiven for it. BRISSOT.
+
+
+ Only the machinery and plans of Heaven move unerringly and we
+ short-sighted mortals are, half our time, fain to complain of these.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is possible for the wisest even to build better than he knows.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Who furnished the Armies; who but the Mothers? Who reared the sons and
+ taught them that liberty and their country was worth their blood? Who
+ gave them up and wept their fall, nursed them in their suffering and
+ mourned them, _dead_? CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There is none to give woman the right to govern herself, as men govern
+ themselves by self-made and self-approved laws of the land.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Only the Great Jehovah can crown and anoint man for his work, and he
+ reaches out and takes the crown and places it upon his head with his
+ own hand. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Whenever I have been urged as a petitioner to ask equal suffrage for
+ women a kind of dazed, bewildered feeling comes over me.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In making an appeal to her soldiers for “votes for women” Clara Barton
+ said: “When you were weak and I was strong, I toiled for you; now you
+ are strong, and I am weak. Because of my work for you, I ask your aid;
+ I ask the ballot for myself and my sex. As I stood by you, I pray you
+ stand by me and mine.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Clara Barton advocated “Votes for Women” on the platform of the First
+ National Suffrage Convention in this country.
+
+ Buffalo (New York) _Courier_.
+
+
+ LOOKING FOR A JOB—EQUAL SUFFRAGE
+
+Among the ancients, controlling the certain affairs worthy of man, were
+many goddesses; of these, Venus, Ceres, Juno, Diana, Pomona, Minerva.
+Such man’s inherent respect for femininity that feminine names in
+classic days were given to temples of worship; to the continents,
+Europe, Asia, Africa, and later to America.[4] Feminine names with few
+exceptions, also, have been given to all countries,—“she” and not “he,”
+likewise the word used to identify great things mechanical and useful.
+Long and hard has been the contest for woman to achieve in fact what in
+spirit seemingly comports with womanhood. In this contest through the
+last half of the nineteenth, and the first half of the twentieth,
+century Clara Barton was conspicuous.
+
+Footnote 4:
+
+ In 1507, by Martin Waldseemuller, the name of America was given to the
+ then newly discovered continent.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE SCHOOL HOUSE
+
+ Built of brick, in 1839, where Clara Barton taught school in 1853. See
+ page 47.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE DESK USED BY CLARA BARTON
+
+ See page 47.
+]
+
+
+ HISTORIC IN EDUCATION
+
+ Bordentown, N. J.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON MUSEUM
+
+ The old school house reconstructed. See page 47.
+]
+
+Alone in the world, dependent upon her own efforts for a living and
+looking for a “job,” the following is what in letters Miss Barton says
+of herself in 1854 and 1860 respectively:
+
+In a letter to her friend Miss Lydia F. Haskell, Washington, D. C.,
+January 20, 1854, Clara Barton said:
+
+ “Well, I am a clerk in the United States Patent Office, writing my
+ fingers stiff every day of my life.... The truth is, I have written
+ nights until one or two o’clock for the last two weeks. I shall not be
+ so very busy long. I am just now fitting the mechanical report for the
+ press; that off my hands and I shall be quite at ease, I suppose.”
+
+In a letter to Frank Clinton, Bordentown, New Jersey, dated January 2,
+1860, Clara Barton said:
+
+ “I can teach English, French, drawing and painting.... I am a rapid
+ writer or copyist, and have the reputation of being a very good
+ accountant ... and if, in your travels through the South, you see an
+ opening for me, tell me.”
+
+As the pioneer woman in Government service Clara Barton was the object
+of commiseration. And only because she was a woman, she suffered through
+jeers and hoots and cat-calls, and tobacco smoke in her face, and
+slanderous whisperings in the hallways and boisterous talks about
+“crinoline”—all sorts of offensiveness, on the part of Government
+employees. Clara Barton in the public school, in the patent office, in
+the Civil War, in the Franco-Prussian War, in the Cuban War, in national
+disasters, in the presidency of the Red Cross, now filled by the
+President of the United States, is a series of object lessons of the
+greatest significance in the progress of womankind in the public
+service. Clara Barton the _intruder_ among men in the patent office in
+1855, and Jeannette Rankin, the _honorable_ among men in Congress in
+1918, are the exponents respectively of two conditions of American
+sentiment as to the public function of women in the United States.
+
+Possibly because of her sad experience as a woman in the public service,
+she became one of those who, with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady
+Stanton, and other suffragettes, blazed the way to equal rights for
+women—equal rights now approved by the President, the United States
+Congress and the American people. At a meeting of the American Suffrage
+Association held in Washington, D. C., in language most caustic and
+argumentative, in part in a public address Clara Barton said:
+
+ A woman shan’t say there shall be no war—and she shan’t take any part
+ in it when there is one; and because she doesn’t take part in the war,
+ she must not vote; and because she can’t vote she has no voice in her
+ Government. And because she has no voice in her Government she is not
+ a citizen; and because she isn’t a citizen she has no rights, and
+ because she has no rights she must submit to wrong; and because she
+ submits to wrong she isn’t anybody. Becoming optimistic, she said, the
+ number of thoughtful and right minded men who will approve equal
+ suffrage are much smaller than we think and, when equal suffrage[5] is
+ an accomplished fact, all will wonder as I have done, what the
+ objection ever was.
+
+Footnote 5:
+
+ The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution proclaimed August 26,
+ 1920.
+
+
+
+
+ XII
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s simple life was long, and so full of stirring incidents
+ that all the books will not record the whole of it.
+
+ Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+ Be not like dumb-driven cattle.
+
+ LONGFELLOW—_The Psalm of Life_.
+
+ The Ox has therefore stretched his yoke in vain.
+
+ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
+
+ And the plain ox,
+ That harmless, honest guileless animal,
+ In what has he offended? he whose toil,
+ Patient and ever ready, clothes the land
+ With all the pomp of harvest.
+ THOMPSON—_The Seasons_.
+
+ A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
+ MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
+
+ Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.
+
+ BRILLAT SAVARIN.
+
+ The sign of true, not casual, progress, ... is the progress of
+ vegetarianism ... more and more people have given up animal food.
+ TOLSTOI.
+
+ I had not then learned the mystery of nerves. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CREDULOUS OX—INNOCENT CHILD—CLARA BARTON, A VEGETARIAN
+
+Among the Puritans the horse was a luxury; the beast of burden was the
+ox. In the first half of the nineteenth century the ox made possible in
+Massachusetts even the existence of man. In the snows of winter, at seed
+time and at harvest, the toiling ox was loyal—faithful to the best
+interests of the family. The ox himself was unsuspecting, and untutored
+in the art of deceiving others. He couldn’t think his kindly attentive
+Master, Man, unappreciative, disloyal—wholly obsessed with greed. He
+didn’t know that money was above life,—he hadn’t read war-history. He
+didn’t know that through the love of money, by man, come life’s woes.
+The ox knew only that _he_ was the friend to man; and he thought man
+must be _his_ friend. Poor credulous ox! And yet in the child the
+friendship of the ox is not misplaced. Innocent child! to man and beast
+Heaven’s best gift, a loyal friend.
+
+Captain Stephen Barton kept a dairy. When a small girl Clara used to
+drive the cows and oxen to, and from, the pasture. Clara also assisted
+morning and evening in milking the cows. One evening she observed three
+men, one holding in his hand an axe, driving a big, red, fat ox into the
+barn. She saw the man with the axe strike the ox in the head, then saw
+the ox drop to the floor. At the same moment she fell unconscious to the
+ground. She was carried to the house, placed on a bed, and a camphor
+bottle freely used. When she regained consciousness, in reply as to why
+she fell, she said: “Someone struck me.” “Oh, no, no one struck you,”
+they said. “Then what makes my head sore,” she asked. At that time her
+desire for meat left her; and in later years she used to say, “all
+through life to the present, I have eaten meat only when I must for the
+sake of appearances. The bountiful ground always yields enough for all
+of my needs and wants.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ANNIE WITTENMEYER
+
+ Clara Barton is second to none of womankind.—MRS. ANNIE WITTENMEYER,
+ First President W. C. T. U.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ JOHN B. GOUGH
+
+ Clara Barton’s lecture—I never heard anything more thrilling in my
+ life.—JOHN B. GOUGH, America’s Greatest Temperance Lecturer.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE TEMPERANCE ADVOCATES
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MARY STEWART POWERS
+
+ Clara Barton was prominent among women as an advocate of the cause of
+ temperance. Through her leadership in practical humanitarianism she
+ endeared herself to the whole world. Her good name will live
+ forever.—MRS. MARY STEWART POWERS, Public Lecturer and State
+ Superintendent of Scientific Temperance of Ohio.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ FRANCES WILLARD
+ President W. C. T. U.
+
+ In the name of your God and my God, ask your people and my people not
+ to be discouraged in the good work (Red Cross) they have
+ undertaken.—CLARA BARTON. From Armenia, in 1896, to Miss Willard.
+
+ See page 347.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XIII
+
+
+ The Mother, patriot though she were, uttered her sentiments through
+ choking voice and tender trembling words, and the young man caring
+ nothing, fearing nothing, rushed gallantly on to doom and to death.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The soldier’s fear is the fear of being thought to fear. BOVEE.
+
+ Self trust is the essence of heroism. EMERSON.
+
+ I have no fear of the battle field; I want to go to the suffering men.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I was always afraid of everything except when someone was to be
+ rescued from danger or pain. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Like the true Anglo-Saxon, loyal and loving, tender and true, the
+ Mother held back her tears with one hand while with the other she
+ wrung her fond farewell and passed her son on to the State.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ FELL DEAD ON THE GROUND BESIDE HER
+
+The first time Clara Barton visited in New Haven, she wore a gray dress
+that had bullet holes in it—received in caring for the wounded at
+Fredericksburg. In describing the battle scene Clara Barton said: “Over
+into that City of Death; its roofs riddled by shells, its very Church a
+crowded hospital, every street a battle line, every hill a rampart,
+every rock a fortress, and every stone wall a blazing line of forts!”
+
+ At Fredericksburg
+ They rated blood as water,
+ And all the slope shone red,
+ Past Valor’s call
+ By bristling wall;
+ Defeat linked arms with slaughter
+ Astride the blue-robed dead.
+
+As Miss Barton was being assisted off the bridge by an officer, an
+exploding shell hissed between them, passing below their arms as they
+were upraised, carrying away both the skirts of his coat and her dress.
+A moment later, on his horse, the gallant officer was struck by a solid
+shot from the enemy; the horse bounded in the air and the officer fell
+to the ground dead, not thirty feet in the rear.
+
+In her usual modest manner, in relating _war incidents_, she described
+the experience to a lady friend and said: “I never mended that dress. I
+wonder whether or not a soldier ever mends a bullet hole in his
+clothes.”
+
+
+
+
+ XIV
+
+
+ Military glory—that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood,
+ that serpent’s eye that charms to destroy.
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ The friends of humanity will deprecate war, whenever it may appear.
+ GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+ There is no need of bloodshed and war. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Wars are largely the result of unbridled passions.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ War is only splendid murder. JAMES THOMSON.
+
+ War is the mad game that the world so loves to play. SWIFT.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Every battleship is a menace to the peace of the world. With each new
+ battleship every nation carries a chip on its shoulder.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross took its rise in, and derived its existence from, war.
+ Without war it had no existence. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Deplore it as we may, war is the _great act_ of all history.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ War has been the rule, if not largely the occupation, of the peoples
+ of the earth from their earliest history. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Scarcely a quarter of the earth is yet civilized, and that quarter not
+ beyond the probabilities of war. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ General Sherman was right when, addressing an assemblage of cadets, he
+ told them “war was hell!” Take it as you will, it is this;—whoever has
+ looked active war full in the face has caught some glimpse of regions
+ as infernal as he may ever fear to see.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Only time, prolonged effort, national economics, universal progress
+ and the pressure of public opinion could ever hope to grapple with the
+ existence of war, the monster evil of the ages.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I have studied the massing of forces and scanned from point to point
+ the old battle-grounds of Marengo and Jena and Waterloo and the
+ Magenta and Solferino and it has seemed to me that these armies had a
+ fairer field and a better chance than ours, in the Civil War. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ War may be a _great harmonizer_, but it is not a _humanizer_.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ That which is won by the sword must be held by the sword, whether it
+ is worth the cost or not. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If there be any power on earth which can right the wrongs for which a
+ nation goes to war, I pray it may be made manifest.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If there be any good wars, I will attend them.
+
+ SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
+
+ That noble and numerous class of patriots who are brave with other
+ men’s lives and lavish of other men’s money. GLADSTONE.
+
+ There never was a good war, nor a bad peace.
+
+ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
+
+ Don’t talk about war; we have done with war. The Peace of the world is
+ the question now. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ WICKEDNESS OF WAR—SETTLES NO DISPUTES
+
+Clara Barton was a patriot, but “not a war woman.” She had no sympathy
+with the religion such as was Odin’s, of the ninth century, which
+religion assured for him who had killed in battle the greatest number
+the highest seat reserved in the Paradise of the Valhalla; nor with the
+sentiment of the King of Denmark of that day, “What is more beautiful
+than to see the heroes pushing on through battle, though fainting with
+their wounds;” nor with the sentiment of that same king’s boast, “War
+was my delight from my youth, and from my childhood I was pleased with a
+bloody spear.”
+
+ Princes were privileged to kill,
+ The numbers sanctified the crime.
+
+Wolves in “packs” seek prey; so do men—in sheep’s clothing. Wolves
+truthful, in howls, send forth their propaganda—hunger; men untruthful,
+in words, send forth their propaganda—hate. If the “survival of the
+fittest” be nature’s law only brutes conform to nature—by using no
+weapons. Men kill their own “kith and kin”; brutes combine to protect
+their own species. The more one sees of men on war’s slaughter-fields
+killing their friends or strangers, for prospective profit, the more he
+must admire the ethics of the brute. In brute history there have been no
+wars. Facing human record, the record of 3,400 years, there have been
+3,166 years of war, and only 234 years of peace; facing the picture of
+which history makes no mention and which in the wake of armies she had
+seen, Clara Barton says: “Faces bathed in tears and hands in blood, lees
+in the wind and dregs in the cup of military glory, war has cost a
+million times more than the world is worth, poured out the best blood
+and crushed the fairest forms the good God has ever created.”
+
+Through war and its consequences, one third of “civilized man” since the
+world began has come to an untimely end, by violence, as did Abel at the
+hands of Cain.
+
+ Earth’s remotest regions
+ Lie half unpeopled by the feuds of Rome.
+
+“Mankind is the greatest mystery of all mysteries,” says Clara Barton,
+and insists that she can never understand the history of human conduct
+in this world, and wonders whether or not she will in the next. In the
+light of war’s history and, trying to solve the “mystery of all
+mysteries,” she asks: “Heavenly Father! what is the matter with this
+beautiful earth that thou hast made? And what is man that thou art
+mindful of him?”
+
+Further philosophizing on the “Wickedness of War,” in a masterful public
+address, she says: “There is not a geographical boundary line on the
+face of the earth that was not put there by the sword, and is not
+practically held there by this same dread power. War actually settles no
+disputes, it brings no real peace; it but closes an open strife;—the
+peace is simply buried embers. The war side of the war could never have
+called me to the field—_through and through_, thought and act, body and
+soul, _I hate it_. We can only wait and trust for the day to come when
+the wickedness of war shall be a thing unknown in this beautiful world.”
+
+Again philosophizing she says: “As I reflect upon the mighty and endless
+changes which must grow out of war’s issues, the subject rises up before
+me like some far-away mountain summit, towering peak upon peak, rock
+upon rock, that human foot has not trod and enveloped in a hazy mist the
+eye has never penetrated.”
+
+
+
+
+ XV
+
+
+ In the same year, and about the same time in the year, that Clara
+ Barton first started for the battlefield her warm personal friend,
+ Julia Ward Howe, wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ You remember the time was Sunday, September 14th, 1862.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Society forbade women at the front. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Tradition absolutely forbade a good woman to go unprotected among
+ rough soldiers. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ And what does woman know about war, and because she doesn’t know
+ anything about it she mustn’t say, or do, anything about it.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It has long been said, as to amount to an adage, that women don’t know
+ anything about war. I wish men didn’t either. They have always known a
+ great deal too much about it for the good of their kind. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I struggled long and hard with my sense of propriety—with the
+ appalling fact that “I was only a woman” whispering in one ear; and
+ thundering in the other the groans of suffering men dying like
+ dogs—unfed and unclothed, for the life of every institution which had
+ protected and educated me. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When war broke over us, with an empty treasury and its distressed
+ Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, personally trying in New York to borrow
+ money to pay our first seventy-five thousand soldiers, I offered to do
+ the work of any two disloyal clerks whom the office would discharge
+ and allow the double salary to fall back into the treasury. When no
+ legal way could be found to have my salary revert to the national
+ treasury, I resigned and went to the field.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I could not carry a musket nor lead the men to battle; I could only
+ serve my country by caring for, comforting, and sustaining the
+ soldiers. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I broke the shackles and went to the field. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Washington, D. C., June 20, 1864.
+
+ Dr. J. M. Barnes,
+ Acting Surgeon General, U. S. A.,
+
+ Sir: The undersigned, Senators and Representatives of Massachusetts,
+ desire you to extend to Miss Clara Barton of Worcester, Massachusetts,
+ every _facility_ in your power to visit the army at any time or place
+ that she may desire, for the purpose of administering to the comfort
+ of our sick and wounded soldiers. Also that such supplies and
+ assistants, as she may require, may be furnished with transportation.
+
+ We are, very respectfully,
+
+ H. L. DAWES,
+ ALEX. H. RICE,
+ D. W. GOOCH,
+ JOHN D. BALDWIN,
+ THOS. D. ELIOT,
+ GEO. S. BOUTWELL,
+ CHARLES SUMNER,
+ HENRY WILSON,
+ JNO. B. ALLEN,
+ OAKES AMES,
+ W. F. WASHBURNE.
+
+
+ HER WARDROBE IN A HANDKERCHIEF—THE BATTLE SCENE
+
+On September 14, 1862, Clara Barton started from the City of Washington
+to the firing line, then at Harper’s Ferry. She took with her no
+Saratoga, no grip, no “go-to-meeting clothes.” The articles in her
+wardrobe on that eventful trip will never be known but it is known to a
+“dead certainty” that whatever “worldly goods” she did take with her
+were all tied up in a pocket handkerchief.
+
+Her only escort was a “mule skinner.” He, wearing the blue, held the one
+_jerk line_ to the team of six mules, animals known in the west as
+“Desert Canaries.” The vehicle in which Clara Barton took that eventful
+ride was an army freight wagon covered with canvas, such wagon sometimes
+called the “prairie schooner.” “In the Days of Old, the Days of Gold,”
+as “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way,” the “prairie schooner”
+was almost the exclusive vehicle of conveyance over the deserts for
+freight and passengers. It was in the “prairie schooner” that the
+Mormons went to Utah in 1848, and the Argonauts to California, in “’49
+and ’50.” It was from a “prairie schooner” that, rising from a sick bunk
+and looking out over that beautiful valley of Salt Lake, Brigham Young
+exclaimed: “This is the Place!”
+
+After an eighty-mile ride bumping over stones and dykes and ditches, up
+and down the hills of Maryland, Clara Barton arrived at the battlefield.
+There, side by side, cold in death with upturned faces, were the brave
+boys of the Northern blue and the Southern gray. In closing a
+description of this battle scene Clara Barton says: “There in the
+darkness God’s angel of Wrath and Death had swept and, foe facing foe,
+the souls of men went out. The giant rocks, hanging above our heads,
+seemed to frown upon the scene, and the sighing trees which hung
+lovingly upon their rugged edge dropped low and wept their pitying dews
+upon the livid brows and ghastly wounds beneath.”
+
+
+
+
+ XVI
+
+
+ Clara Barton carried on her work in the face of the enemy, to the
+ sound of a cannon, and close to the firing line.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Transcript_.
+
+ So long as the Republic lives the name of Clara Barton will be
+ honored. _Roswell Record._
+
+ Clara Barton—Glorious Daughter of the Republic!
+
+ _The Buffalo News._
+
+ Clara Barton performed work for wounded soldiers often at the risk of
+ her life. PHEBE A. HANAFORD, AUTHOR.
+
+ Clara Barton—right into the jaws of death she went, ministering to the
+ wounded, soothing the dying.
+
+ CHAPLAIN COUDON (_of G. A. R._)
+ _National House of Representatives_.
+
+ Follow the cannon. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The soldier has been supposed to die painlessly, gloriously, with an
+ immediate passport to realms of bliss eternal. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The soldier who has fallen in battle “with his face to the foe” has
+ been regarded as a subject of envy, rather than pity.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If wounded and surviving, the honor of a soldier’s scars has been
+ cheaply purchased, it has been supposed, though he strolled a limping
+ beggar. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Only a small portion of the thought of the generations of the past has
+ been devoted to the subject of devising, or affording, any means of
+ relief for the wretched condition resulting from the methods of
+ national and international strife. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The pitiable neglect of men in war appears to have constituted one of
+ the large class of misfortunes for which no one is to blame, or even
+ accountable, assuming that wars must be. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Go card and spin,
+ And leave the business of war to men. DRYDEN.
+
+ I am a U. S. soldier and therefore not supposed, you know, to be
+ susceptible to fear. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THE BRAVERY OF WOMEN—CLARA BARTON’S BRAVEST ACT
+
+When asked where occurred her bravest act, Clara Barton replied: “At
+Fredericksburg.” She made headquarters at the Lacy House, just north of
+the Rappahannock River. While there, the surgeon in charge of the
+wounded on the south bank of the river sent a special messenger to Miss
+Barton to come across with her assistants and supplies at once. As a
+_soldier_ and as an American patriot, she obeyed orders and followed the
+flag over the bridge and on to the battle field. In later years
+describing the women who went to the war Clara Barton sings:
+
+ The women who went to the field, you say,
+ The women who went to the field;—what did they go for—?
+ Did these women quail at the sight of a gun?
+ Will some soldier tell us of one he saw run?
+
+In referring to the _incident_, in her experience at Fredericksburg, she
+said: “As I walked across this bridge with the marching troops, the
+bullets and shells were hissing and exploding in the river on either
+side of me, the long autumn march down the mountain passes—Falmouth and
+old Fredericksburg with its pontoon bridge,—sharp-shooters—deserted
+camps—its rocky brow of frowning forts—the one day bombardment, and the
+charge!” There, unperturbed, among the men was Clara Barton, there in
+the broad glacis, the one vast Aceldama, where—
+
+ In the lost battle,
+ Borne down by the flying,
+ Were mingled war’s rattle
+ With the groans of the dying.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ SUSAN B. ANTHONY
+
+ My dear Clara Barton, you have done some wonderful things in the
+ world.—SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Pioneer Suffrage Leader.
+
+ Susan B. Anthony was the first woman to lay her hand beside mine in
+ the promotion of the Red Cross Society.—CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE SUFFRAGE LEADERS
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
+
+ One of the great women of the world. Broad of vision, exalted of soul
+ and absolutely free from selfishness that binds, Miss Barton was a
+ rare human being.—CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President National American
+ Woman Suffrage Association, 1900–1904; 1913——; Ex-President
+ International Woman Suffrage Alliance.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW
+
+ Every woman who loves her country will revere the name of Clara
+ Barton.—DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President National American Woman
+ Suffrage Association, 1904–Dec., 1915.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XVII
+
+
+ Clara Barton—soldiers of every battlefield since the Civil War have
+ almost deified her. Mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of the
+ conflict have ever since held her name in the highest reverence.
+
+ Hartford (Conn.) _Post_.
+
+
+ The ears of the sick are strangely acute. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A light heart lives long. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ The burden becomes light that is cheerfully made. OVID.
+
+ A cheerful spirit is one of the most valuable gifts ever bestowed upon
+ humanity by a kind Creator. AUGHEY.
+
+
+ Whatever comes, keep up cheerful and happy and hope for the best.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ YES, AND GOT EUCHRED
+
+During the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, while the
+Federals lay again in Fredericksburg, Clara Barton one evening went to
+the hotel which from ground to garret was filled with wounded men. Five
+hundred of these were lying upon the bare floors. They had no food to
+eat, nor was there any food to give them. Clara Barton was struck with
+their fine soldierly figures and features, remarkable even in their
+terrible extremity, and stopping near one she asked: “Where are you
+from?” “Michigan,” he said. On to another—“Michigan,” and so on
+“Michigan”—“Michigan”—“Michigan.” Up one flight of stairs, then another,
+still “Michigan.” At length in her surprise, she said somewhat
+humorously and without reflection, “Did Michigan take up this hand and
+play it alone?” “Yes,” answered a poor fellow lying on the floor nearby,
+seriously wounded but one who evidently understood the game better than
+she did, “Yes, and got euchred.”
+
+
+
+
+ XVIII
+
+
+ With a strong, brilliant, cultivated mind was united a gentle, tender,
+ loving heart, and nothing was too great, nothing too small to enlist
+ Miss Barton’s earnest thought and tender sympathy.
+
+ HARRIETTE L. REED,
+ _Past National Secy. Woman’s Relief Corps_.
+
+
+ Men are what their mothers make them.
+
+ RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+ All I have, and am, I owe to my mother. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ All that I am my mother made me. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+ Work and words are for the individual soldier—what he does, sees,
+ feels or thinks in the dread hours of leaden rain and iron hail.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me. They
+ have clung to me all my life. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Happy he
+ With such a mother! faith in womankind
+ Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high
+ Comes easy to him. TENNYSON.
+
+
+ As the years sped on and the hands were stilled, there shone the gleam
+ of the far sighted mother’s watchfulness that neither toil could
+ obscure nor time relax. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ His sweetest dreams were still of that dear voice that soothed his
+ infancy. SOUTHEY.
+
+
+ TO DREAM OF HOME AND MOTHER
+
+At Decatur, Alabama, in a well-remembered scene of the Civil War many
+were the songs by southern chivalry started, but none finished. All
+efforts to sing one evening having been boisterously tabooed, there
+arose in the air a voice carrying the sentiment that thrills the camp,
+the field, the hospital. In gloom for today with foreshadowing for
+tomorrow, around a score of camp fires thousands of voices following the
+leader there broke forth pathetic, in full chorus, “Who will care for
+Mother now?”
+
+While General Butler was digging Dutch Gap in 1863, a hospital boat was
+plying daily between Fortress Monroe and Point of Rocks. In the Civil
+War, among the wounded brought in from the battlefield to Point of Rocks
+was a lad about sixteen or seventeen years of age. One of his arms, and
+a leg, had been amputated.
+
+Away from home! Crippled for life! Homesick, and no “tear for pity.”
+Hope gone! No, not all hope. He still has his Mother—“She floats upon
+the river of his thoughts.”
+
+ A Mother is a Mother still
+ The holiest thing alive.
+
+“Mother, come to me—thine own son slowly dying far away.” “No, you
+_can’t_ come. May I come to you, my dearest Mother?”
+
+ Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
+ Mother, O Mother, my heart calls for you!
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ WARREN G. HARDING
+
+ The President, also President American Red Cross Society, March 4,
+ 1921–.
+
+ From a letter by the Secretary to President Harding: “The President
+ entertains the highest sentiment regarding the splendid service of
+ Miss Barton and her contribution to the development of practical
+ modern humanitarianism.”
+]
+
+His soldier chum heard his pleadings and interceded: “Miss Barton, can’t
+we _possibly_ find room for this boy on the boat going down to Fortress
+Monroe tonight? I think he has grit enough to live.” Miss Barton,
+turning to the boy said: “My dear boy, you _shall_ go, though they have
+sent word they can take no more.” The boy was taken down a long steep
+hill on a stretcher, tenderly placed in a nice comfortable cot way up on
+the hurricane deck, to dream of home and Mother.
+
+
+
+
+ XIX
+
+
+ The test of civilization is the estimate of woman.
+
+ GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
+
+
+ A woman who is resolved to be respected can make herself so, even
+ amidst an army of soldiers. CERVANTES.
+
+ Clara: Go, if it is your duty to go. I know soldiers, and they will
+ respect you and your errand. STEPHEN BARTON (_Her Father, an old
+ soldier_).
+
+
+ To a gentleman every woman is a lady, in right of her sex.
+
+ GEORGE ELIOT.
+
+ Man pays deference to woman instinctively, involuntarily.
+
+ GAIL HAMILTON.
+
+
+ I gaze upon the men through blinding tears of admiration and respect,
+ and sing in my heart “It is well to be a soldier.”
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ TRIBUTE OF LOVE AND DEVOTION
+
+“I was young and strong and loved to walk,” says Clara Barton. “I had
+four great wagons loaded with supplies for sick and wounded soldiers
+coming in the rear, so I decided I would not get my feet wet, but wait
+for my wagons and cross in one of them. The soldiers splashed right
+through in solid ranks, the water being only about a foot deep. Suddenly
+the captain of a company in the middle of the stream called out to his
+men ‘Company, Fours, Left, March! Halt! Right, Dress! Front! Now, Boys,
+There stands Clara Barton. I want you to kneel down in the water on your
+right knees, and let Miss Barton walk across on your left knees.’ This
+order the soldiers instantly obeyed, and I stepped from knee to knee,
+the soldiers reaching up and holding my hands, and passed dry shod to
+the other shore.” As Miss Barton related this incident the tears
+streamed down her cheeks, and she said, “This was the most beautiful
+tribute of love and devotion ever offered me in my life.”
+
+
+
+
+ XX
+
+
+ All the elements of desolation have traced such lines upon that face
+ as no mortal artist ever drew, and filled it with emotions that no
+ music could incite. Oh, the power of the expression of the face of
+ Clara Barton! CONGRESSMAN PORTER H. DALE.
+
+
+ Welcome ever smiles
+ And farewell goes out sighing.
+ TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
+
+
+ Her smile which cheered—like the breaking day.
+
+ JOHN G. WHITTIER.
+
+
+ A smile is a thankful hymn. GERALD MASSEY.
+
+ A smile—the effusion of fine intellect, of true courage.
+
+ CHARLOTTE BRONTË.
+
+ A tender smile, our sorrow’s only balm. YOUNG.
+
+ Smile and the world smiles with you. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
+
+
+ A smile that turns the sunny side o’ the heart
+ On all the world. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+
+ Duke of Marlborough—his fascinating smile and winning tongue, equally
+ with his word, swayed the destinies of Empires.
+
+ WILLIAM MATTHEWS.
+
+
+ Smiles are the language of love. HARE.
+
+ Smiles more sweet than flowers. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Smiles are better teachers than mightiest words.
+
+ GEORGE MCDONALD.
+
+ Smiles are smiles only when the heart pulls the wire.
+
+ THEODORE WINTHROP.
+
+ Smiles, not allowed to beasts, from reason move. DRYDEN.
+
+ Sweet intercourse of looks and smiles, for smiles from reason flow.
+
+ MILTON.
+
+ There is no society where smiles are not welcomed.
+
+ WILLIAM MATTHEWS.
+
+ A beautiful smile is to the female countenance what the sunbeam is to
+ the landscape. LAVATER.
+
+ Her smiles were like the glowing sunshine. BULLARD.
+
+
+ If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I am
+ ready. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s energy and humanity, with a “God bless you.”
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Journal_.
+
+ A noble and attractive everyday bearing comes of goodness, of
+ sincerity, of refinement. WILLIAM MATTHEWS.
+
+
+ I have no higher ambition than to work obscurely, and singly, where I
+ can see the greatest necessity. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CHEERING WORDS—ALWAYS READY—WEARS A SMILE
+
+No being other than the human knows how to wear a smile. A smile is as
+significant as are words—the smile oft proclaims the mind. Wearing
+apparel is the gift of man; the smile, the gift of nature. Wearing
+apparel wears out; the smile that is genuine never wears off. Of a woman
+it is said her face is her fortune. It also may be said, to rob the
+world of woman’s smile would leave the human race poor indeed. Of Clara
+Barton an author has said, “her heart made music and her face radiated
+sunshine.” Of Clara Barton a soldier said, “No discordant word ever
+escaped her lips; in camp or on the field she always wore a smile.” Her
+smile and her cheering words won the heart of the private soldier, the
+heart of royalty—won the heart of the world.
+
+A woman without effort may receive a “windfall,” in wealth; but success
+is achieved through personal qualities, by effort. Said a writer: “The
+life of Clara Barton should be familiarized to every child. Her history
+and work should be as well known to the young of the nation as those of
+the great Presidents. Her history should be taught in the public schools
+for the enlightenment of all pupils, boys and girls, that they may
+realize how great a task for humanity was undertaken and accomplished,
+by a weak woman.”
+
+It was at Fredericksburg. The rising sun was casting its rays aslant the
+eastern sky. The boys had just come off picket-duty. Their fingers were
+stiff with cold; their clothes, wet and frozen. Five or six of the
+comrades went to the rear; there they discharged their rifles. Then they
+went to a brick house one quarter mile distant—where they found Clara
+Barton. In anticipation of their proposed call, Clara Barton was ready.
+She had not forgotten, when a little girl, how she suffered from the
+cold, fell unconscious in a pew at Church and was taken home with frozen
+feet. She had for them a “blazing-hot” fire, and also had prepared for
+them plenty of hot ginger tea. In the gloom of war’s woes all must wear
+“sorrow’s crown of sorrows;” but, seeing them approaching the house, she
+met them at the door with a smile—with greetings as kindly as if they
+had been her long-ago friends, of happier days.
+
+At a recent annual reunion of _her_ regiment Comrade Vincent, in tears
+while relating the incident, said “THAT’S CLARA BARTON. I will never
+forget that smile and that welcome.” In speeding her parting guests, at
+the door she said: “God bless you, my boys! If I can do anything for you
+at any time, call on me—it is never too late nor too early. I want you
+to know you will always find me ready.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXI
+
+
+ From the days of earliest cravings for “fairy stories” there have been
+ recounted to young people the wonders wrought by that noble woman of
+ New England. Oakland (Cal.) _Tribune_.
+
+ Clara Barton’s work in Cuba, in 1898, added still greater luster to
+ her glory. Holyoke (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+ We have heard soldiers, who faced death green-eyed, tell with
+ quivering voice of Clara Barton’s services before the Battle of
+ Santiago when, perched on a gun-carriage, she gave directions to the
+ doctors and nurses. Lexington (Ky.) _Herald_.
+
+
+ Miss Barton, when your country was in trouble (1776) Spain was the
+ friend of America; now Spain is in trouble, America is her enemy.
+ GENERAL BLANCO (_In a Salon, Santiago de Cuba_, 1898.)
+
+ Miss Barton, you will need no directions from me, but if any one
+ troubles you let me know. ADMIRAL SAMPSON.
+
+
+ God will not call me home until my work is done.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There was an Overruling Providence when the “State of Texas” was
+ loaded for Cuba. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I have with me a cargo of 1400 tons, under the flag of the Red Cross,
+ the one international emblem of humanity known to civilization. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ A man said to me “The Red Cross has been a fairy godmother to us.”
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Wherever men fight and tear each other to pieces, wherever the glare
+ and sound of war are heard, there the Red Cross aims to plant the
+ white banner that bears the blessed sign of relief.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has come to quicken into fresh new growth the best
+ things in life. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Our Red Cross century tree blossomed in the smoke, and valor, and
+ wails of the Spanish-American War. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The highest and best in the land stood under the cooling shade of the
+ Red Cross, and breathed its atmosphere of peace, love and help. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross recognizes no features other than the relief of the
+ victims and the mitigation of the horrors of war. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross is founded in the soundest and noblest principles, in
+ the deep needs of human nature and in the enduring instincts of
+ mankind. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Men do not go to war to save life; they might save life by keeping the
+ peace, and staying at home. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Men go to war solely with the intent to inflict so much pain, loss and
+ disaster on the enemy that he will yield to their terms.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is a wise statesmanship which suggests that in time of peace we
+ must prepare for war. It is no less a wise benevolence that makes
+ preparation in the hour of peace for assuaging the ills that are sure
+ to accompany war. CLARA BARTON..
+
+ In no other country, as in ours, have the people so often risen from a
+ state of unreadiness and accomplished such wonderful results—at _such
+ a sacrifice_. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ As friends of humanity, while there is still a possibility of war or a
+ calamity, it behooves us to prepare. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The memories of pitiful Cuba would not leave us.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ To those who could not understand, Heaven came; to those who could,
+ “Cuba Libre.” CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Not with the booming of cannon; not with the shouts of victory, but
+ with the singing of Christian hymns and the outstretched hand of
+ help,—never before in the history of warfare was there triumphant
+ entry such as this. WM. E. BARTON, D.D.
+
+ Oh, the horrible, useless, tragic waste which no Peace Congress has
+ yet been able to avert! O treacherous fate! That made the great woman
+ of peace wait to see men of blood go before her to kill, to wound, to
+ devastate. ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+
+ Could it be possible that the commander would hold back his flagship
+ 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. How sadly the recollection of
+ that pleasant memorable day has since recurred to me! CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ HORRIBLE DEED—LEADS AMERICAN NAVY—ANGEL OF MERCY
+
+“Go to the starving Cubans!” She went. She had been entertained by
+Captain Sigsbee and his officers on the Maine the evening before the
+explosion. “Remember the Maine!” became the war cry.
+
+War was declared. The Government wired: “Take no chances; get out of
+Cuba.” She returned to Florida to await events. The blockade of Cuban
+ports followed; the war was on. Let Clara Barton draw a picture of the
+war scene:
+
+“War has occurred four times in the United States in 120 years. Four
+times men have armed and marched; and its women waited and wept. But we
+cannot always hold our great Ship of State out of the storms and
+breakers. She must meet and battle with them. Her timbers must creak in
+the gale. The waves must dash over her decks; she must lie in the trough
+of the sea. But the Stars and Stripes are above her. She is freighted
+with the hopes of the world. God holds the helm; and she is coming into
+port.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ WILLIAM T. SAMPSON
+
+ Miss Barton, you need no advice, only the opportunity. If any trouble
+ happens you, let me know. REAR-ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON, of New
+ York. Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Atlantic Naval Forces,
+ Spanish-American War.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVES RESPECTIVELY OF THREE WARS
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ ISAAC B. SHERWOOD
+
+ Clara Barton is the greatest woman of either the nineteenth or
+ twentieth century.—ISAAC B. SHERWOOD, of Ohio, Brigadier-General,
+ Civil War; U. S. Congress, 1869–1875; 1907–1921.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ JOSEPH TAGGART
+
+ Clara Barton gave expression to the sympathy and tenderness of all the
+ hearts of all the women in the world.—JOSEPH TAGGART, of Kansas. U.
+ S. Congress, 1912–1918; Captain, World War.
+]
+
+Bullets had done their ghastly work; disease had run riot amidst filth
+and squalor. Starvation had stalked ruthlessly over the island. “May I
+return to the starving,” asked Clara Barton, “with my relief ship of
+supplies now in waiting?”
+
+“Not so,” replied Admiral Sampson, “I go first; I am here to keep
+supplies out of Cuba.”
+
+“I know, Admiral, my place is not to precede you. When you make an
+opening I will go in. You will go in to do the horrible deed. I will
+follow you and, out of the human wreckage, restore what I can.”
+
+Cervera’s fleet was at the bottom of the sea, or wrecked on the shores.
+Spanish Cuba doomed, the enemy had raised the white flag, capitulated;
+soldiers, sailors, civilians, women and children, the human wreckage.
+Fateful days! Enough crime and misery rampant to satisfy the God of War
+and the imps of regions infernal.
+
+ Fair land of Cuba! on thy shores are seen
+ Life’s far extremes of noble and of mean;
+ The world of sense and matchless beauty dressed,
+ And nameless horrors hid within thy breast.
+
+
+ Cuba! Thou still shalt rise, as pure, as bright
+ As thy free air—as full of living light;—
+
+The American navy, with flags flying, in triumph was ready to enter the
+Bay of Santiago. The Red Cross Flag floats from the flagstaff of the
+State of Texas. The Admiral gives the order that the “Red Cross Ship” is
+to lead; that now “flag-ship” moving majestically, is commanded by a
+woman—that woman “The Angel of the Battlefield.” Moving over the smooth
+waters of the Bay that Angel with her cospirits thrilled the ear with
+the patriot’s song “My Country ’Tis of Thee;” and there too the little
+band of crusaders, while nearing the holy wreckage they would rescue,
+touched the human heart with the grandest of all hymns of gratitude,
+“Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.”
+
+As on the Island of Corsica nearly three decades before, again there
+goes in spirit to Heaven the prayer of Clara Barton: “And I pray, Oh!
+how earnestly, once more to battle with error; to help sever the
+shackles of the oppressed of every name and kind; to hold firm the right
+and to set right the wrong; to raise up the weak against the power of
+the mighty; to make our country what it should, and must, be—true and
+just as well as great and strong. Once more to comfort the afflicted; to
+give rest and shelter to the weary, water to the thirsty, bread to the
+hungry; to stay the tide and bind the wounds that bleed, or to take the
+farewell message and point the glazing eye to hope and heaven.”
+
+ There is a woman, it’s the Red Cross!
+ My God, boys, it’s Clara Barton! now we’ll
+ Get something to eat. (_Starving children._)
+
+“Majestic in simplicity” and of more heraldic splendor than that of the
+army and navy, with their thousands of heroes, stands the little woman
+overlooking the scene of woe’s misery. There on the peaceful waters are
+the destroyers that had done the “horrible deed;” there on the bridge of
+the Peace-Ship, leading all others, stands the “Angel of Peace,” who
+will restore what she can; and before the eyes of all lay the “Gem of
+the Ocean,” strewn with life’s woes—a scene of pathetic grandeur
+unequaled in the annals of history.
+
+ Miss Barton: Admiral Sampson, I wish to express to you my sincere
+ appreciation of your exceeding courtesy in permitting my ship to
+ precede the battleships into Santiago.
+
+ Admiral Schley (in a side remark): Don’t give the Admiral too much
+ credit, Miss Barton; he was not quite sure how clear of torpedoes the
+ channel might be. Remember that was a _trial trip_.
+
+
+
+
+ XXII
+
+
+ Clara Barton dressed the wounded of both armies indiscriminately—a
+ practice which first annoyed and sometimes angered the Union
+ officers—from whose headquarters she worked. IDA TARBELL.
+
+
+ Be generous and noble. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ War is in its very nature cruel—the very embodiment of cruelty in its
+ effects—not necessarily in the hearts of the combatants.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ As the daughter of a Mason my Father bade me to seek and comfort the
+ afflicted everywhere, and as a Christian he charged me to honor God
+ and love mankind. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Baron Thomas B. Macaulay thought it not a mitigation but an
+ aggravation of the evil that men of tender culture and humane
+ feelings, with no ill will, should stand up and kill each other.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is comforting, in our reflections upon the past, to know that the
+ idea of humanity to an enemy in distress is not entirely modern; for
+ Xenophon in Cyropaedia, about 400 B.C. represents Cyrus the Great as
+ ordering his surgeons to attend the wounded prisoners.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A wounded Confederate that Clara Barton had been serving whispered to
+ her, “Lady, you have been kind to me—every street and lane in the city
+ is covered with cannon. When your entire army has reached the other
+ side of the Rappahannock, they’ll find Fredericksburg only a slaughter
+ pen. Not a regiment will escape. Do not go over or you will go to
+ certain death.”
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+
+ AT GALVESTON FLOOD
+
+ Major McDowell, ex-Union soldier, wounded—assistant to Clara Barton:
+ Comrade, here is some clothing for you.
+
+ Ex-Confederate: But, Major (hesitating), I am an ex-Confederate
+ soldier....
+
+ Major McDowell: God bless you, poor suffering soul; what difference
+ does that make—here, will this fit you?
+
+ Love and tears for the Blue
+ Tears and love for the Gray.
+ FRANCES MILES FINCH.
+
+
+ CONFEDERATES AND FEDERALS ALIKE TREATED
+
+Quite a number of wounded Confederate officers were brought to us. They
+shared alike with our own men. They were amazed, said C. M. Welles, at
+the kindness of northerners, particularly at a Massachusetts lady (Clara
+Barton) devoting herself to them as freely as to her own neighbors. One
+of them, a captain from Georgia, needed shirt, coat, stockings and
+something to eat. After being supplied, he said to me, while tears were
+streaming down his face, “Sir, I find that I have mistaken you; and, if
+I live to return, I will never fight against such a people any more.”
+
+ An Angel of Mercy,—her touch they will miss,
+ That was felt by the Boys of the Blue and the Gray;
+ But her name is still fragrant with Service, and this
+ Will inspire their sons in the Cause of Today.
+
+At Fredericksburg a shell shattered the door of the room in which Miss
+Barton was attending to wounded men. True to her mission, she did not
+flinch but continued her duties as usual. She found a group of
+Confederates with their garments frozen fast in the mud. As the wounded
+were helpless, Miss Barton got an axe and chopped them loose. She then
+built a fire in a negro cabin and, while the wounded were warming
+themselves she dressed their wounds, fed them gruel and otherwise cared
+for them as if they were her “Brothers in Arms.”
+
+
+ A KNOT OF BLUE AND GRAY
+
+ Upon my bosom lies
+ A knot of blue and gray;
+ You ask me why; tears fill my eyes
+ As low to you I say:
+
+ I had two brothers once,
+ Warm hearted, bold and gay;
+ They left my side—one wore the blue
+ The other wore the gray.
+
+ One rode with Stonewall and his men,
+ And joined his fate with Lee;
+ The other followed Sherman’s march
+ Triumphant to the sea.
+
+ Both fought for what they deemed the right,
+ And died with his sword in hand;
+ One sleeps amid Virginia hills,
+ And one in Georgia’s sand.
+
+ The same sun shines upon their graves,
+ My love unchanged must stay;
+ And so upon my bosom lies,
+ The knot of blue and gray.
+
+
+
+
+ XXIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton deserves first place in the living memory of the world
+ today, and of generations to come.
+
+ Jacksonville (Florida) _Times-Union_.
+
+
+ She bore herself with a poise that lost for her no friends.
+
+ Utica (N. Y.) _Observer_.
+
+ She had a faculty for seeing what needed to be done, and how to do it.
+ _New York Examiner._
+
+ She accomplished what crowned heads failed in.
+
+ _Unity_, Chicago.
+
+
+ Things came to me as if ordered by a world-controlling power.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.
+
+ ATHENÆUS.
+
+ O God! that bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap.
+
+ HOOD.
+
+ The greatest attribute of Heaven is mercy;
+ And ’tis the crown of justice, and the glory,
+ Where it may kill with right and save with pity.
+ J. FLETCHER.
+
+
+ Tact is born with some people.
+
+ WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THAYER.
+
+ Tact is not a single faculty, but a combination of faculties.
+
+ W. M. THAYER.
+
+ What men call “shrewdness” and “Common Sense” usually signify no more
+ than tact. W. M. THAYER.
+
+
+ THE ENEMY, STARVING—TACT—THE WHITE OX
+
+To know is power, but the power may be latent. Tact is skill, ever
+alert. Tact knows what to do, when and how to do it. Queen Elizabeth had
+tact, unerring. Her long reign was a series of tactful events. Tact was
+the basis of the supremacy of the Elizabethan Age.
+
+Clara Barton had tact, unerring. Tact gave her position among rulers of
+nations, and likewise won for her the esteem of the lowly. Tact
+attracted to her unpaid Red Cross assistants, who cheerfully shared her
+privations. Through tact she retained her friends, made new friends, and
+to an extent unprecedented.
+
+Clara Barton was with the Army of the Blue, but nearby was a hospital in
+which were the wounded Gray, starving. The surgeons from within were
+begging for food. The Federal Quartermaster had refused supplies, giving
+as a valid excuse that he was a bonded officer and responsible for the
+property under his charge.
+
+A “bunch” of cattle were seen passing. Clara Barton said to the officer:
+“I know you are bonded, but I am neither bonded nor responsible.” The
+officer taking the “cue” was soon out of sight. Clara Barton then gave
+orders to her men, at the same time pointing to the large unsuspecting
+white ox that had strayed from the “bunch.” The men appreciated the
+_delicate situation_; the ox somehow _strayed_ over to the enemy, and
+later received a hearty reception among the starving wounded inside the
+hospital.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MATHEW C. BUTLER
+
+ My dear Miss Barton:—
+
+ I do not see how those poor people in South Carolina will ever be able
+ to thank you enough for your noble work of relief. Certainly you
+ have been to them a “ministering angel.” I shall never cease to be
+ grateful for your self-sacrificing, heroic work.—MATHEW C. BUTLER,
+ of South Carolina, Major-General Civil War, Major-General
+ Spanish-American War, U. S. Senator 1877–1895.
+
+ General Butler, that busy, hard-worked Senator, prompt and kind. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF TWO WARS
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ JOSEPH WHEELER
+
+ I think it due Miss Barton that the government should give to her the
+ highest possible recognition, and thanks.—JOSEPH WHEELER, of
+ Alabama, Major-General Civil War; Major-General Spanish-American
+ War; U. S. Congress, 1881, 1882; 1885–1893; 1895–1900.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ HARRISON GRAY OTIS
+
+ Clara Barton is one of the blessed ones of the earth, and her name
+ will remain green in the heart of America.—HARRISON GRAY OTIS, of
+ California; Brigadier-General, Civil War; Major-General (Brevet),
+ Spanish-American War; America’s Great Journalist.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XXIV
+
+
+ One’s blood runs cold and then mounts high in reading of the amazing
+ feats of strength and courage of heart shown by this little lone
+ woman. _The Outlook._
+
+ Clara Barton—her personal service and self-sacrifice are beyond
+ praise. _Philadelphia Public Record._
+
+
+ The sum of all human agony finds its equivalent on the battlefield.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ We cannot desert our poor charge of humanity, but must stay and suffer
+ with them if need be. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ And if you chance to feel that the positions I occupied were rough and
+ unseemly for a _woman_—I can only reply that they were rough and
+ unseemly for _men_. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The sooner the world learns the better that the halo of glory which
+ surrounds a field of battle and its tortured, thirsting, starving,
+ pain-racked victims exists only in the imagination.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When dying President Garfield murmured: “The great heart of the nation
+ will not let a soldier die,” I prayed God to hasten the time when
+ every wounded soldier would be sustained by that sweet assurance.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ My business is staunching blood, and feeding fainting men.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I am so sorry for the _necessity_, so glad for the _opportunity_, of
+ ministering with my own hand and strength to the dying wants of the
+ patriot martyrs who fell for their country and mine.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I sometimes discuss the application of a compress, or a wisp of hay
+ under a broken limb, but not the bearing of a political movement.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I make gruel, not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers,
+ not political addresses. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ You must never so much as think whether you like it or not, whether it
+ is bearable or not; you must never think of anything except the need,
+ and how to meet it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If it has been granted to me to be ever so little service to those
+ about me, in need of my help, He alone who granted me the privilege
+ knows how grateful I am for it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ BULLETHOLE—AMPUTATED LIMBS LIKE CORDWOOD—GOD GIVES STRENGTH
+
+The valley of Antietam lies in Maryland. In September, 1862, on the
+night of the 16th, the Federals were on one ridge of the valley; the
+Confederates, on the opposite ridge. Somber night was hushed to
+stillness. Within the fog that arose from the valley and the smoke of
+the campfires there gleamed the stacked bayonets and the properly placed
+cannon which portend the fateful tomorrow. On the tomorrow Antietam was
+to be the harvest field, death and suffering the harvest.
+
+In the early morning were heard the bugle notes which call to battle.
+The fight to death was on—possibly the fight that would unmake a nation,
+or make a new nation. A little lone woman had flanked the cannon at
+midnight and, in the early sunlight, stood beside the artillery.
+Terrifying the sharp crack of the musketry, deafening the boom of the
+cannon. The earth quaked; the sun, obscured. Over her head were shells
+bursting or, passing, buried themselves in the hills beyond. Her tongue
+was dried by the sulphurous powder smoke; her lips parched to bleeding.
+Such the scene of the conflict in which Clara Barton said she had the
+most terrible experiences of her life.
+
+The men were falling, bleeding to death. Within that organized system
+for death there was no system to save life,—no surgical instrument, no
+bandage, no lint, no rag, no string. Clara Barton hastens to her supply
+wagon, and with all things needful rushes into the line of fire. There
+on the battlefield, with a pocket knife, she extracted a ball from the
+face of a wounded soldier. There, while lifting a canteen of water to
+quench the thirst of a soldier-lad, a minnie ball from the gun of the
+enemy passed harmlessly through her clothing and fatally into the body
+of the soldier she was trying to save.
+
+ Close beside her, faintly moaning, fair and young a soldier lay,
+ Torn with shot and pierced with lance, bleeding slow his life away!
+ With a stifled cry of horror, straight she turned away her head;
+ With a sad and bitter feeling looked upon her dead.
+ But she heard the youth’s low moaning, and his struggling breath of
+ pain,
+ And she raised the cooling water to his parching lips again.
+ Whispered low the dying soldier, pressed her hand and faintly smiled;
+ Was that pitying face his mother’s? Did she watch beside her child?
+ All his broken words with meaning her woman’s heart supplied:
+ With her kiss upon his forehead, “Mother!” murmured he and died.
+
+There through the day, in that awful carnage of blood, fearless Clara
+Barton worked to save human lives. Did she shrink from danger? She said
+“_I am an American Soldier_ and am not supposed to be susceptible to
+fear.”
+
+But the most gruesome of her experiences was after nightfall. Through
+the night in a barn near by, she assisted the surgeons. The surgeons had
+no bandages, she supplied them; they had no light, she supplied the
+lanterns and candles until the operating tables were in a blaze of
+light. They had no food; she supplied the gruel made from Indian corn
+meal, cooked in great brass kettles. The surgeons were without adequate
+assistance; she assisted at the amputating tables. “Through the long
+starlit night,” she said, “we wrought and hoped and prayed.” When the
+morning came the amputated limbs made a pile so high that you had to
+look up to see the top, a pile of human limbs like a cord of wood.
+
+Not only gruesome was that “cord of wood” but pathetic. In that pile the
+limbs were from mere boys,—innocent victims of the greed of men;—not a
+leg, not an arm in that pile was from “War’s Profiteers.” And with the
+morning came complete exhaustion. When she returned from her uncanny
+labors her arms were crimson with blood; her skirts, blood-soaked; her
+shoes, blood-sopping. In all human history did woman have such
+experience as had Clara Barton through that two days of human
+carnage—carnage on one of America’s most famous battlefields in the most
+infamous fratricidal war in history? Frail Clara Barton! “The most timid
+person on earth!” The same Clara Barton who fainted at the killing of an
+ox? Can it be? Let hers be the explanation: “I was always afraid of
+everything except when someone was to be rescued from danger or pain.
+Human endurance has its limits;—God gives strength and the thing that
+seems impossible is done.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXV
+
+
+ An Overruling Providence seemed to interpose its hand between Clara
+ Barton and the perils of war and epidemic alike, for a high and
+ splendid purpose. Pawtucket (R. I.) _Times_.
+
+
+ If Almighty God gives a man a cowardly pair of legs, how can help
+ their running away with him? A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Cowards die many times before their deaths
+ The valiant never taste of death but once.
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ For others Clara Barton will be perfectly fearless.
+
+ DR. L. N. FOWLER (Phrenologist.)
+
+ I have no fear of the battlefield; I have large stores but no way to
+ reach the troops. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ FEARLESS OF BULLETS AND KICKING MULES
+
+General Shafter used to say that he did not think Clara Barton knew the
+meaning of the word fear. Sharp words passed between the General and
+Miss Barton because she would not obey his orders to keep away from the
+“firing line,” out of the way of the fighting men and of the bullets. On
+one occasion he even threatened to order her out of Cuba, if she
+continually disobeyed his orders in this respect.
+
+Sergeant Henry White, of the 21st Massachusetts Regiment, said that he
+had seen Clara Barton in positions of danger where an old veteran would
+hardly dare venture. He had seen her passing among the wounded lying
+around on the ground, the battle raging in front of them. As she did so,
+she supplied the boys in turn with coffee, milk, and other food. Just to
+please the “boys” she accepted the Sergeant’s pistol which she carried
+several weeks.
+
+Not only was she oblivious to the danger of the bullets on the
+battlefield but even more reckless as to her personal safety in the
+camp. She would go around among the army wagons, close to the heels of
+kicking mules, where any moment there might be a “stampede,” endangering
+her life. In a “stampede” of mules, she would be as helpless as in a
+shower of grape and cannister from the guns of the enemy.
+
+
+
+
+ XXVI
+
+
+ And when at morning and evening repast, with folded hands and grateful
+ heart, you bless God for the bounties He has placed before you, let
+ your thoughts wander a little to find if there is not another than
+ yourself. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Paradise is open to all kind hearts. BERANGER.
+
+ Kind words are the music of the world. F. W. FABER.
+
+ Happiness must be unselfish; only in the happiness of all can one find
+ happiness. TOLSTOI.
+
+
+ Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks
+ Shall win my love. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ I have always refused a tent unless the army had tents also, and I
+ have never eaten a mouthful of my own soft bread or fresh meat, until
+ the sick of the army were abundantly supplied with both.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Clara Barton is the noblest, bravest, and most unselfish woman God
+ Almighty ever made. JUDGE JOSEPH SHELDON.
+
+
+ HIS COMFORT, NOT HERS; HIS LIFE, NOT HERS
+
+In the winter of 1863–64 Clara Barton lived for a time in an old
+plantation house on Chapin’s farm, in Virginia. Chapin’s farm was not
+far from the field hospital. In the hospital were the sick and wounded;
+her services there were greatly needed. An ambulance was sent as a
+detail to bring her to the hospital. The soldier-messenger arrived at
+the house, and called for her. It was in the midst of a snow storm, the
+thermometer indicator hovering around zero. “Wait a minute,” she said;
+“tie your horses and come in. Have you had any dinner?” “No marm,” he
+replied. The soldier sat down to a dinner of cold meat, hot biscuit,
+cake and cocoa,—a refreshing change from “hardtack” and “salt hash,” the
+daily rations of the soldier.
+
+While the soldier-messenger was eating his meal she had been thinking.
+“The soldier has generally no part nor voice in creating the war in
+which he fights. He simply obeys, as he must, his superiors and the
+laws of his country.” The soldier is under orders, but he is under
+_my_ orders now. It’s bitter cold and, while I can ride comfortably on
+the inside of the ambulance, he must ride outside on the seat in the
+snow. She considered his comfort, not her own; his life, not hers. She
+_ordered_ him to put his horses in the barn and care for them. She
+made him her guest, standing sponsor for him at military
+headquarters—awaiting a pleasant day for the trip. In soliloquizing on
+her conduct she said: “God forbid that I should ask the useless
+exposure of _one_ man, the desolation of _one_ home.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXVII
+
+
+ Advice is seldom welcome. LORD CHESTERFIELD.
+
+
+ Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.
+
+ ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+ I do not like giving advice; it is incurring an unnecessary
+ responsibility. BEACONSFIELD.
+
+
+ Those who give bad advice to the prudent both lose their pains and are
+ laughed to scorn. PHAEDRUS.
+
+ I pray thee cease thy counsel, which falls into my ears as profitless
+ as water in a sieve. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
+
+
+ Clara Barton—in her 77th year—followed to the fever ridden tropics, to
+ lead in the relief work on Spanish battle grounds.
+
+ Grand Rapids (Mich.) _Herald_.
+
+
+ In Cuba one saw only
+ Nodding plumes over their bier to wave,
+ And God’s own hand in that lonely land
+ To lay them in their grave. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Mr. Cottrell, private secretary of Clara Barton, says: “Miss Barton
+ was the means of saving thousands of lives in Cuba. She was a small,
+ unostentatious woman, very quiet in her demeanor and spoke in a soft,
+ sweet tone. Her habits were simple, but she had a great capacity for
+ organization work.”
+
+ New Orleans (La.) _Times-Democrat_.
+
+ My post is the open field between the bullet and the hospital.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ DOES NOT NEED ANY ADVICE
+
+At Santiago Miss Barton approached Admiral Sampson and said, “There is
+some doubt about our being able to unload.”
+
+“Miss Barton,” replied Sampson, “Tell the world that the Red Cross
+Society does not need any advice. We only need an opportunity. If any
+trouble happens you, let me know.”
+
+On one of the boats in the harbor of Santiago, the following
+conversation took place between a Major-Surgeon and Clara Barton:
+
+Major: “You have been at the front?”
+
+Clara Barton: “Yes, Major.”
+
+Major: “I should think you would find it very unpleasant there.”
+
+Clara Barton: “Such things are not supposed to be pleasant.”
+
+Major: “What do you go for? There is no need of your going there; it is
+no place for women. I consider women very much out of place in a field
+hospital.”
+
+Clara Barton: “Then I must have been out of place a good deal in my
+lifetime, Major, for I have been there a great deal.”
+
+Major: “That does not change my opinion; if I had my way I would send
+you home.”
+
+Miss Barton: “Fortunately for me, if for no one else, Major, you have
+not your way.” Major: “I know it, but again that does not change my
+opinion. I would send you home....”
+
+Miss Barton: “Good morning, Major.”
+
+ “I am with the wounded,” flashed along the wire
+ From the Isle of Cuba swept with sword and fire.
+ Angel sweet of mercy, may your Cross of Red
+ Cheer the wounded living; bless the wounded dead.
+
+
+
+
+ XXVIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton—humanity is richer for her having lived.
+
+ Grand Rapids (Mich.) _Press_.
+
+
+ Life is a shuttle. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+
+ Life is a bubble. WM. BROWNE.
+
+ Life is a miracle. KING LEAR.
+
+ Life is a walking shadow. MEREDITH.
+
+ Life is like a stroll on the beach. THOREAU.
+
+ Life is scarcely the twinkle of a star. BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+ Life lives only in success. SWIFT.
+
+
+ That life is long that answers life’s great end.
+
+ YOUNG’S NIGHT THOUGHTS.
+
+
+ For the multitude of failures I have encountered I am sorry.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Life is so short at best. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It’s now three minutes past twelve and I am thirty-three. Alas, my
+ friend, the years pass swiftly by, but I do not regret them so much
+ for what I have done, as what I _might_ have done. BYRON.
+
+
+ HAD BUT A FEW MOMENTS TO LIVE
+
+Clara Barton supplied the place of mother and sister to the sick
+soldiers, and this she did for many months, while in the deadly miasma
+of the South Carolina marshes. Much of this time she was with the
+soldiers and facing the guns of Fort Wagner. There with the shot and
+shell whistling about her, the heroic woman could be seen at all hours
+of the day and night stooping over the wounded soldiers, and tenderly
+administering to their wants. An officer who had been with the Army of
+the Potomac said that he had seen this woman upon the field of battle,
+sitting with the head of a dying soldier in her lap, apparently
+unconcerned and then only for the comfort of the poor fellow who had but
+a few moments to live.
+
+
+
+
+ XXIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton—representing the mercy and magnanimity of the nation.
+ Columbus (Ohio) _Despatch_.
+
+ Clara Barton—her works of mercy in war and peace made her an
+ international figure. _New York Tribune._
+
+
+ Everybody’s business was nobody’s business, and the stricken victims
+ perished. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The door that never creaked a hinge for the feeble child of want may
+ swing wide open at the thundering knock of the Marshal’s Staff. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ The incentive to help and heal another in distress is spontaneous,
+ generally the result of sympathetic impulse and kindness—a thing of
+ the feelings and consequently of sudden growth.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ “The other ladies could not endure the climate at Morris Island,” and,
+ as I knew somebody must take care of the soldiers, I went.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The idea of humanity in distress is not entirely modern;
+ Alexander was accompanied in his march by the most famous physicians
+ of the age. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Homer and Plato were so struck with Egyptian Science and skill that
+ they declared the Egyptians were all doctors.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is probable that the first practitioners in common life were women.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A wise physician, skilled, our wounds to heal
+ Is more than armies to the public weal.
+
+ A sister and family followed me to Washington that I should not be
+ quite alone in that slave city, for up to 1860 they bought and sold
+ slaves at the Capital. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When I think, I fear how supreme an International Court must have been
+ to be able to induce the Southerners to liberate the slaves, or to
+ convince them that “mudsills” and “greasy mechanics” and “horned
+ yankees” are a people entitled to sufficient respect to be treated on
+ fair international grounds. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ ENLISTED MEN FIRST—THE COLONEL’S LIFE SAVED
+
+In ancient Greece, in the Roman Empire, in Europe through the middle
+ages, in the more modern chivalry of “Dixie,” among soldiers no slave,
+no servant—none but a _gentleman_ carried a gun to kill. Killing in war
+time was the occupation of “gentlemen” only. For the first time in the
+history of the Centuries—in 1863—the ex-slave alongside the “gentlemen”
+on the battlefield, fought for human rights. It was at the battle of
+Fort Wagner on Morris Island; Colonel Shaw had led his “colored
+regiment” to that field of slaughter.
+
+The first woman nurse on any battlefield, a veteran nurse at the front,
+was there,—the only woman present among the thousands of boys in blue.
+The chivalric southern soldiers hated the “mudsills,” the “greasy
+mechanics” and the “horned yankees,” but with a still more deadly hatred
+the “nigger in blue”—the ex-slave now marshalled in battle array against
+his former master. The onslaught there amidst the whizzing of bullets
+and bursting of shells is pictured as the “orgy of hell.”
+
+The Colonel while leading that colored regiment was among the wounded.
+“Miss Barton, Colonel Shaw is lying on a dissecting table. His leg has
+been taken off. His life is ebbing away; won’t you go to him?”
+
+ Bearing the bandage, water and sponge,
+ Straight and swift to the wounded I go—
+
+Miss Barton replied: “Officers generally have friends enough to see that
+their wants are attended to, while the poor enlisted men are neglected.
+I will go to see the Colonel as soon as I have attended to my charges
+here.” When she was through with the wounded enlisted men, Clara Barton
+gave her attention to the Colonel, and through her services his life was
+saved.
+
+
+
+
+ XXX
+
+
+ If any number of Americans were asked off-hand to name the woman who
+ stands highest in the esteem of the American people, the reply would
+ be unanimously, “Clara Barton.”
+
+ _Republic Magazine._
+
+
+ The patience, the nobility of soul, the resignation and bravery of our
+ gallant troops! CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Love chivalry. ARMAND.
+
+ Chivalry is the essence of virtue. LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
+
+ Chivalry was the parent of honor. A. DELEVAN.
+
+ The true spirit of chivalry is a generous impatience of wrong.
+
+ CHATFIELD.
+
+ Chivalry has not entirely died out in this prosaic age.
+
+ CECILIA FINDLAY.
+
+
+ “People say that I must have been born brave,” said Clara Barton.
+ “Why, I seem to remember nothing but terrors in my early days, I was a
+ shrinking little bundle of fears, fears of thunder, fears of strange
+ faces, fears of my strange self.”
+
+ MARY R. PARKMAN—In _Heroines of Service_.
+
+
+ Fear loves the idea of danger. S. CROXALL.
+
+ The moment my fear begins, I cease to fear. SCHILLER.
+
+
+ The weak most fear, the timid tremble, but the brave and stout of
+ heart will work and hope and trust. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ YOU’RE RIGHT, MADAM—GOOD DAY
+
+Immediately following the Battle of Fredericksburg, every house in the
+city became a hospital. Among the thousands of wounded Clara Barton, in
+her usual unobtrusive manner, passed in and out of the houses, first on
+one side of the street then on the other, on her mission of mercy.
+Provost Marshal General Patrick seeing her alone among the soldiers
+mistook her for a resident driven from her home.
+
+The general did not seem to know that any good woman is safe among men,
+brave and true, and nowhere else more so than among soldiers. He did not
+fully appreciate that when a woman is true to herself
+
+ So dear to heav’n is saintly chastity,
+ That when a soul is found sincerely so,
+ A thousand liveried angels lackey her;
+
+and he did not know Clara Barton.
+
+So, with admirable southern chivalry, he dashed to her side, bowing with
+hat in hand, and said: “Madam, you are alone and in great danger here!”
+
+“No, I think not, Marshal.”
+
+“Yes, you are, Madam. May I offer you my protection?”
+
+“No, Marshal, I think it is not necessary.” Then turning to the ranks of
+the soldiers she further commented: “No, Marshal, I am the best
+protected woman in the United States.”
+
+The soldiers appreciating the compliment sent up cheer after cheer,
+accompanied with “That’s so! that’s so!”
+
+The Marshal, taking in the situation and waving his hand towards Miss
+Barton with a broad smile, said: “I think you are right, Madam, Good
+day!”
+
+
+
+
+ XXXI
+
+
+ Clara Barton dared the bullets on the battlefield with the abandon of
+ a dashing cavalry leader. Pawtucket (R. I.) _Times_.
+
+ In Clara Barton, the world has lost a guardian angel.
+
+ PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN.
+
+
+ Death grinned a horrible ghastly smile. JOHN MILTON.
+
+ Says Clara Barton, in one of the battles of the Civil War, “A little
+ sibley tent had been hastily pitched for me in a slight hollow upon a
+ hillside. How many times I fell from sheer exhaustion in the darkness
+ and mud of that slippery hillside I have no knowledge; but at last I
+ grasped the welcome canvas, and a well established brook which washed
+ in on the upper side, at the opening which served as the door, met me
+ on my entrance to the tent.”
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+
+ Clara Barton slept on the ground, wrapped in a blanket like a soldier,
+ but her zeal was in no way diminished by hardship.
+
+ St. Paul (Minn.) _Pioneer Press_.
+
+ Clara Barton gave a lifetime of glorious service to humanity—a
+ ministering angel like a benediction of her God amid the desolate, the
+ stricken, the hungry and despairing. _Los Angeles Examiner._
+
+
+ Sickness, confusion and death—these are inseparable from every
+ conflict. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I can never see a poor mutilated wreck, blown to pieces with powder
+ and lead, without wondering if visions of such an end ever floated
+ before his mother’s mind when she washed and dressed her fair-skinned
+ boy. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When giant misery stalks to the very threshold, and raps with bloody
+ hands on one’s door, it is almost a libel upon the good Christian term
+ to call it charity that answers. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Women should certainly have some voice in the matter of war, either
+ affirmative or negative, and the fact that she has not this should not
+ be made the ground to deprive her of other privileges.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ “They say”:
+
+ Imagine their skirts ’mong artillery wheels,
+ And watch for their flutter as they flee ’cross the fields,
+ When the charge is rammed home and the fire belches hot;—
+ They never will wait for the answering shot.
+ They would faint at the first drop of blood in sight—
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ BLEEDING TO DEATH—HIS HEADLESS BODY—WOMEN IN THE WAR
+
+One day Miss Barton was asked to tell what was the most terrible
+experience she had ever gone through on a field of disaster or war, and
+she replied: “It was at the battle of Antietam. The poor boys were
+falling so fast that I rushed up into the line of fire to save them from
+bleeding to death by temporarily binding up their wounds. Bullets went
+through my clothing, but I did not think of danger. I loaded myself with
+canteens and went to a nearby spring and filled them with water, until I
+staggered under the load. The wounded were crying for water and I went
+to one poor boy who was wild with thirst and, stooping, I lifted his
+head on my arm and knee and was giving him water from the canteen when a
+cannon ball took his head off, covering me with blood and brains. I
+dropped the headless body and went to the next wounded soldier, and so
+all day I worked through this awful battle and refused to retire, though
+officers and men tried to drive me back.”
+
+In the Civil War there was widespread opposition to the presence of
+women on the battlefield—both on the part of civilians and the military
+officers. Lincoln was not the exception. He protested that a woman on
+the battlefield would be a “fifth wheel to a wagon.” After the close of
+the war Clara Barton penned the following, a part of the poem entitled
+“The Women who went to the Field”:
+
+ Will he glance at the boats on the great western flood,
+ At Pittsburgh and Shiloh, did they faint at the blood?
+ And the brave wife of Grant stood there with them then,
+ And her calm stately presence gave strength to the men.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXII
+
+
+ In spite of her retiring nature and shrinking from publicity, Clara
+ Barton remained probably the best known woman in America, surely one
+ of the best-beloved.
+
+ New Orleans (La.) _Item_.
+
+ Miss Barton took the lecture platform, under an agreement to lecture
+ 300 nights at $100 a night.
+
+ Louisville (Ky.) _Courier-Journal_.
+
+
+ Fear is the mother of foresight. HENRY TAYLOR.
+
+ Fear is the mother of safety. EDMUND BURKE.
+
+ Fear makes us feel for humanity. EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
+
+ In the earlier years of my life, I remember nothing but fear.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person: “Always
+ do what you are afraid to do.”
+
+ RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+ Timid as a sheep. OUIDA.
+
+ Timid as a doe. ROBERT NOEL.
+
+ Timid as a fawn. THACKERAY.
+
+ I am the most timid person on earth. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Some critic has said that I was visibly agitated when I arose to
+ address my audience;—the critic was right, and why should I not be?
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ All speech-making terrifies me. First I have no taste for it, and
+ lastly I hate it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Nothing could gratify me more than to know that I had been one of
+ these self-reliant American girls like our sweet poetess Lucy Larcrom.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If I could have gotten over my timid sensitiveness it would have given
+ far less annoyance to my friends, and trouble to myself, all through
+ life. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ TIMID CHILD—TIMID WOMAN
+
+Fear is relative. The fear of death by flames is greater than by water.
+The fear not to do is ofttimes greater than the fear to do. The fear of
+failure is supplanted by courage. To the sensitive nature the fear that
+others may suffer impels to the greatest courage. Despite innate fear,
+courage is uppermost in the minds of those who would achieve results.
+The most renowned in the fine arts, in oratory, in patriotism, in the
+humanities, are those by nature timid.
+
+John B. Gough and Clara Barton at one time lived in the same town; were
+personal friends; in the lecture season, successively talked from the
+same platform. These two Americans were each as timid, probably, as ever
+appeared before a public audience. But each achieved an enviable
+reputation as a platform lecturer.
+
+The morning following one of his inimitable temperance lectures, I
+remarked: “Mr. Gough, I wish I had your assurance before an audience.”
+“Young man,” he replied, “you don’t know me. I have given thousands of
+lectures, but I never rise to address an audience that my knees don’t
+knock together, from stage fright. Last night, as I arose to address
+that splendid body of college boys, I was scared stiff; for some moments
+I was so frightened I couldn’t utter a word.”
+
+In his autobiography he wrote: “For thirty-seven years I have been a
+public speaker, but have never known the time when I did not dread an
+audience. Often that fear amounts to positive suffering. In my
+suffering, trembling seizes every nerve.”
+
+Clara Barton was a timid child; so much so as to annoy her parents, and
+other friends. When about eight years of age she was sent away to school
+in the hope that, among strangers, she would become at ease in the
+presence of others. At school she grew tired; became thin and pale; said
+she was hungry, but refused to eat. It was suspected that it was all on
+account of her timidity, and that she might die of starvation. Because
+she dared not eat, the teacher returned her to her home. In referring to
+this experience, and her later experiences in the presence of strangers,
+a few years before she died, she said: “To this day I would rather stand
+behind the lines of artillery at Antietam, or cross the pontoon bridge
+under fire at Fredericksburg, than to preside at a public meeting.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXXIII
+
+
+ The negro has no linguistic laws—his pathetically musical speech is
+ fast dying away—only will linger the salient printed form to convey to
+ the future some idea of the olden dialect.
+
+ LA SALLE CORBELL PICKETT—“_In de Miz Series_.”
+
+
+ I know of the intelligence of the negro, for I have heard of his
+ unquestioned loyalty between every war of our land from Bunker Hill to
+ the Argonne. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY DANIELS.
+
+ The only flag the negro ever carried was when his spirit was stirred
+ crimson by the sacrificial blood he gave for America. Cite me a negro
+ traitor! JUSTICE STAFFORD.
+
+ In the World War, in France up in the zone where death was spread
+ about I found the black man and the white man fallen side by side.
+ SECRETARY OF WAR BAKER.
+
+
+ The courage that faces death on the battlefield, or calmly awaits it
+ in the hospital, is not the courage of race or color.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Two of the bravest men I ever saw lay wounded, almost side by side,
+ one white and the other black. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The patient suffering of the black soldier is fully equal to that of
+ the Anglo-Saxon. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ EZ EF WE WUZ WHITE FOLKS
+
+At Galveston one day, when Miss Barton was busy dictating letters her
+companion, Mrs. Fannie B. Ward, came in and told her that there were two
+negro soldiers of the Civil War waiting to see her. Miss Barton said,
+“Let them come in.” The two old negroes came in with their hats in their
+hands and bowing at every step.
+
+One of them asked, “Miss Barton, do you know us?” She replied, “No, I
+don’t remember you.”
+
+“We knows you, Miss Barton,” was the reply, “We wuz in de battle er Fo’t
+Wagner an’ got wounded dyar, an’ you foun’ us an’ tied up our wounds an’
+tuk cyar er us same ez ef we wuz white folks.”
+
+Proud of their wounds, one of the negroes rolled up his sleeve and
+showed a great scar on his arm, saying, “I wuz in de cha’ge, Miss
+Barton, an’ a officer slashed me wid a swo’d.” The other pulled up his
+trousers and displayed a very deep scar on the calf of his leg and said,
+“En’ I got wounded in de leg wid a bullet.”
+
+Miss Barton’s smile of appreciation and her cordial handshake sent them
+away with happy memories.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ LEONARD WOOD
+
+ There is a call for women who will carry forward the work begun by
+ Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton.—LEONARD WOOD, Major-General
+ Spanish-American War; Major-General World War; Governor-General
+ Philippine Islands.
+
+ General Wood, alert, wise and untiring, with an eye single to the good
+ of all, toiled day and night.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XXXIV
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s name will take its place among the world’s heroines.
+ Denver (Colorado) _Times_.
+
+
+ Life is like a dream. DR. S. JOHNSON.
+
+ Our Life is a dream. CHARLES WESLEY.
+
+
+ I have a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Dreams are the bright evidence of poem and legend, who sport on the
+ earth in the night season. CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+ Dreams in their development have breath and tears, and torture and a
+ touch of joy. LORD BYRON.
+
+
+ I have dreamed of bloody turbulence; and this whole night
+ Hath nothing been but forms of slaughter. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ It seems to me I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years; now
+ the nightmare is gone. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ O Memory! that midway world,
+ ’Twixt earth and paradise,
+ Where things decayed and loved ones lost
+ In dreamy shadows rise.
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ To dream of battle—danger of persecution.
+
+ MADAME CLAIRE ROUGEMONT, Author.
+
+ For a woman to dream that she is in battle is a very lucky omen.
+
+ _The Queen of the Romanies._
+
+
+ IN HER DREAMS—AGAIN IN BATTLE
+
+“What’s that big barn of a house?”
+
+“It’s the Red Cross house.”
+
+“Who lives there?” “Clara Barton, don’t you know Clara Barton?” “And
+what does she want to live in a house like that for?”
+
+“It is her headquarters—her home. There is where she does her work;
+there is where she keeps her supplies. Whenever there is a cry of
+distress anywhere in the United States she is off at a moment’s notice.”
+
+No paint on the outside of the house, none on the inside—a regular
+barn—why wouldn’t the stranger ask questions?
+
+The inside of the house is also strangely mysterious, with its great
+central part open to the ceiling; the balconies protected by railings,
+reminding one of a steamship, the atmosphere giving the stranger a sort
+of weird, uncanny feeling.
+
+The visitor when within is still curious, and would ask other questions.
+“What are all these things on the wall?”
+
+“They are diplomas, resolutions of cities, states and nations—medals won
+for services rendered in distress—all kinds of souvenirs complimentary
+to Clara Barton.”
+
+“Interesting, very interesting!”
+
+“Yes, no other place like it in all the world.”
+
+“But what are these small doors for? They look like doors to sleeping
+berths.”
+
+“No, they are doors to closets. There are thirty-eight rooms in this
+house and seventy-six closets.”
+
+“What are the closets for?”
+
+“Well, these closets in the walls, on either side of the big hall, are
+where she keeps bandages, linen, clothes, food in large quantities, to
+be shipped wherever wanted. It is surely no vine-clad cottage; it is a
+veritable store-house of food for the needy, a ware-house of clothes for
+the suffering,—anywhere in the world. Clara Barton called it her ‘House
+of Rough Hemlock Boards’—the boards were from the wreckage of the
+Johnstown flood.”
+
+Hourly in the presence of such environments as to suggest war and flood
+and famine, and at times delirious, it is not strange that two nights
+before her death, on April 10, 1912, in her dreams there flitted before
+her the tragic past; that she dreamt that she was again in battle; that
+she saw “her boys” with legs and arms gone; that she gave crackers and
+gruel to the sick and bound up the wounds of the soldiers; that again
+she felt the twitching at her dress and heard “You saved my life;” that
+again she caught the last words of the dying to be sent to the mothers
+and sisters and sweethearts, and heard from the lips of her dying
+soldier-brother, “Oh! God, save my country!”
+
+
+
+
+ XXXV
+
+
+ Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, was the greatest feminine mind of the
+ ancient deities concerned in human welfare. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Bring the feminine mind to bear upon all that concerns the welfare of
+ mankind. JULIA WARD HOWE.
+
+
+ Judge—You voted as a woman, did you not?
+
+ Miss Anthony—No, sir, I voted as a citizen of the United States.
+
+ SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
+ (In 1872, she then being under arrest for voting
+ for President of the United States.)
+
+
+ Let us “push things” so that every state in the union shall speedily
+ surrender to the advocates of women’s equality and elevation.
+
+ MARY A. LIVERMORE—Jan. 8, 1870.
+
+
+ American women and students of American history have long deplored the
+ meagre credit which has been given to women for the part they have
+ taken in the progress and achievement of America, as a nation. MRS.
+ JOHN A. LOGAN.
+
+ In “Part Taken by Women in American History.”
+
+
+ I know nothing remarkable I have done. The hum-drum of my every day
+ life seems to me quite without incident. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Speaking of myself, and my own doings, is a thing very distasteful to
+ me. CLARA BARTON.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE RED CROSS HOME OF CLARA BARTON, GLEN ECHO, MARYLAND
+
+ “Clara Barton to the end kept open house at her Glen Echo home, for
+ the soldier boys.”
+
+ “The Red Cross House at Glen Echo was a flag museum of historical
+ achievements.”
+
+ Historical ground carries its own sentiment: Mount Vernon, American
+ Liberty; Monticello, American Democracy; Glen Echo, World Humanity.
+]
+
+
+ FOUR FAMOUS WOMEN
+
+A famous artist called at Miss Barton’s home and explained to her that
+he had been sent out to secure the portraits of the four most famous
+women in America. She asked him, “Whom have you been to see?” And he
+replied, “I have come to you first.” “And whom will you go to next?”
+Miss Barton inquired. “To Julia Ward Howe, of Boston,” he replied. “And
+whom for the third?” Miss Barton asked. “I do not know,” he answered.
+“You tell me, Miss Barton.” “Well,” replied Miss Barton, “why not go to
+Mrs. General John A. Logan?” “I will, Miss Barton,” he said. “And whom
+will I go to next?” asked the artist. Miss Barton replied, “I cannot
+tell you, but if Susan B. Anthony were living, or Mary Livermore, I
+could tell you.”
+
+Susan B. Anthony wrote to Clara Barton: “I know, in a general way, my
+dear Clara, that you have done some wonderful things in the world, but I
+would like to have a list of just what you have done, to present to my
+audiences. So please prepare a brief story of your achievements for my
+use.” In due time came the reply, enclosing a very brief chronological
+list of Miss Barton’s achievements. Miss Anthony wrote back at once and
+said: “Dear Clara: I cannot present this skeleton to the public. Please
+put some clothes on it.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVI
+
+
+ Clara Barton—a wonderful majesty in the simplicity of her character.
+ Sacramento (Cal.) _Record-Union_.
+
+ Like the stories from fairy lore are the accounts, modestly written
+ and simply given, of the tremendous, almost super-human, work done by
+ this little woman. Oakland (Cal.) _Tribune_.
+
+ Clara Barton loved everything that lived. Roanoke (Va.) _News_.
+
+
+ Bugs and other insects, as well as squirrels and other animals, gave
+ her hourly enjoyment. Clara used to say, “these are my friends, they
+ have as good a right to live as I have.”
+
+ “SISTER HARRIETTE” L. REED.
+
+ Her love for the farmyard and its animals never left her.
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ It was her heroic soul and deep woman sympathy that made Clara Barton
+ strong and brave. WILLIAM E. BARTON.
+
+ Nothing endures but personal qualities. WALT WHITMAN.
+
+
+ Sir John Franklin,—who never turned his back upon a danger, yet of
+ that tenderness that he would not brush away a mosquito.
+
+ WILLIAM MATTHEWS.
+
+
+ I too have a kitty and he is pretty much master of the house. He
+ doesn’t speak German, although I have no doubt he understands it.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A harmless necessary cat. MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+ A cat may look on a king. HAYWOOD’S PROVERBS.
+
+ In the night all cats are grey. CERVANTES.
+
+ When the cat’s away the mice will play. OLD PROVERBS.
+
+ As vigilant as a cat to steal cream. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ It has been the providence of nature to give this creature nine lives,
+ instead of one. PILPAY.
+
+
+ Hang sorrow! Care will kill a cat,
+ And therefore let’s be merry. GEORGE WITHER.
+
+ Confound the cats! All cats—alway—
+ Cats of all colors, black, white, gray;
+ By night a nuisance and by day—
+ Confound the cats! DOBBIN.
+
+
+ Even poverty has its compensation. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There is neither teacher nor preacher like necessity.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ No work can retain its vitality without constant action.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Though to bed at daylight, or at best midnight, Clara Barton never
+ slept late in the morning. J. B. HUBBELL.
+
+ Let us each make haste to do the work set before us, in the Providence
+ of God, unostentatiously, thoroughly and well.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the
+ bread of idleness. PROVERBS.
+
+
+ In October, 1911 (at the age of 90), while she was propped up in bed
+ and seriously ill, I asked “why, Miss Barton, you haven’t a gray hair
+ in your head, have you?” Quick was the response, “I don’t know, I
+ haven’t had time to look.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Oftener than I could wish my heart sinks heavily, oppressed with fear
+ that I am falling short of the fulfillment of life’s duties.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss
+ Of Providence that hast survived the Fall. COWPER _Task_.
+
+
+ SIMPLICITY OF CHILDHOOD—PET WASPS PET CATS—LOVED LIFE-DOMESTIC
+
+The simplicity of childhood continued with Clara Barton through to her
+latest years. Because requested by children in letters to do so, at
+eighty-six years she commenced to write “The Story of My Childhood.” She
+did not reach second childhood; she was in her first childhood at
+ninety. On a certain occasion, having declined to address an audience,
+she reconsidered and said: “Oh, yes, I will talk to the children.”
+
+Pets, as in childhood, continued; she had them wherever she happened to
+be,—pets of the chickens, pets of the birds, pets of the squirrels, pets
+of the domestic animals. She saw Divinity in nature; loved as does the
+believer in pantheism, as does the believer in the “transmigration of
+souls.” To the science of entomology she was not a stranger. Among her
+swarms of bees she continued the student of those who work for man and
+do not “bruise their Master’s flower;” loved even that household “pest,”
+the wasp.
+
+ A wasp met a bee that was just buzzing by
+ And she said, “Little Cousin, Can you tell me why
+ You are loved so much better by people than I?”
+
+But in the existence of a wasp Miss Barton did not think there was
+wholly of “mischief to do.” Genius philosophizes. To serve its uses, the
+wasp is perfect in its organs, and in its symmetry. The male wasp does
+not sting at all; and, while the “female of the species is deadlier than
+the male,” the female does not sting except in defence, in obeying the
+first law of nature,—the law which is the saving principle in the
+universe.
+
+The wasp renders service, service to the fruit-grower by destroying the
+caterpillar, especially of the green fly and black fly, and of other
+harmful insects. The wasp is not too aristocratic to act as scavenger,
+stripping the bones of small dead animals of skin and flesh—for its
+grubs—thus precluding carrion from becoming offensive and, through
+pollution of the atmosphere, unhealthful. The social wasp is strategic,
+is accredited with amazing cleverness, with courage never-failing, with
+intelligence higher than instinct,—having a system of living that should
+shame its human enemy. He who, in his ignorance, comes to the wasp to
+scoff goes away to admire. If only the wasp would toil for man,
+appeasing man’s appetite for sweets, that winged “pest” would be _loved_
+as is the honey bee.
+
+At the Glen Echo Red Cross house, on the window-ledges, in the slats for
+window-catches, where the walls and ceilings join, in every nook and
+corner, the welcomed wasps had their little mud cells. While at the
+dining table, or at her writing desk, Miss Barton would cut an apple and
+sometimes around it would gather a swarm of these “pests.” Of the wasps,
+that nobody likes, she was wont to say “these are my little friends;
+they keep me company;”—as they hovered over and around her she seemed to
+get inspiration from them in her literary work.
+
+In her early years Clara Barton’s special pets were the dog and the
+horse; in later years, the cat. She accredited her black and white cat
+at Dansville with human personality. Her Maltese cat at Glen Echo she
+accredited with _reasoning_ powers, with a _logical_ mind. Of Maltese
+Tommie she tells this story. Tommie saw another cat in the mirror. He
+stared at it; moved his head in rapid succession to one side of the
+mirror, then to the other side. The other cat did likewise. He dashed
+like mad to the back of the mirror, but found no cat. Returning to the
+front of the mirror, he put his left paw on the glass; the right paw of
+the other cat responded. He put his right paw on the glass; the left paw
+of the other cat met his. He again put his left paw on the glass, this
+time being close to the edge of the mirror and, continuing to hold it
+there he reached around to the back of the mirror with his right paw to
+grab the insolent intruder. Not seeing the other cat, as he quickly
+glanced around the edge of the mirror, and not having found it with his
+right paw, “he wiser grew” and walked away philosophizing;—in this vain
+world—
+
+ Things are not what they seem—but then,
+ A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.
+
+The picture of Maltese Tommie, painted by Antoinette Margot, is still
+one of the historic art-treasures on the walls of the Clara Barton Glen
+Echo home.
+
+Those who think of Clara Barton only as the “war woman” within the
+battle smoke, or on the rostrum addressing literary audiences, or on
+state occasions as the cynosure of all eyes, or as the guest of honor
+among the crowned heads of Europe—as masculine and not feminine—have not
+seen the daily life-picture of Clara Barton. Clara Barton was most
+womanly when most childlike, queenliest when lowliest and, like the
+Roman Matron, most aristocratic when most domestic.
+
+As Divinity lives in all life, as God the first garden made and work was
+the best religion Clara Barton had, her applied religion was in the yard
+as she cared for the domestic animals; in the garden as she cared for
+the shrubs, the flowers, the vegetables, her special pride being in
+raising fine strawberries. Frequently was Miss Barton called from the
+yard or garden, to meet guests in her “House of Rough Hemlock
+Boards,”—there where was welcome ever royal and farewell went out loyal;
+there where—
+
+ Honest offered courtesy
+ Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
+ With smoky rafters than in tapestry halls
+ And courts of princes, where it first was named
+ And yet is most pretended.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVII
+
+
+ Of the women writers that lived at the time of the Civil War the mind
+ of Harriet Beecher Stowe was the most imaginative; “the vehicle of
+ thought” used by Clara Barton, the best equipped, the most powerful.
+ In war-literature Mrs. Stowe will live through the genius of her great
+ novel; Clara Barton, through her descriptive powers, forceful diction,
+ and patriotic sayings. THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Learn to be good readers. CARLYLE.
+
+ God be thanked for books. CHANNING.
+
+ Mankind are creatures of books, as well of other circumstances.
+
+ LEIGH HUNT.
+
+ The true university of these days is a collection of books.
+
+ HERO AND HERO WORSHIPPERS.
+
+
+ Reading to the mind is what exercise is to the body. ADDISON.
+
+ Books that are books are all that you want, and there are but
+ half-a-dozen in a thousand. THOREAU.
+
+ Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. FULLER.
+
+ Read much, but not many books. SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON.
+
+ When a new book appears, read an old one.
+
+ ENGLISH APHORISM.
+
+ Old wood to burn, old wine to drink.
+ Old friends to trust, old books to read.
+ ALONZO of Arragon.
+
+
+ Miss Barton would not rewrite a public address; on looking it over,
+ not a sentence, not a word, could be improved by changing.
+
+ J. B. HUBBELL, Assistant to Clara Barton.
+
+ She who desires information can sit down, read, and obtain it.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Persons who use their brains, tongues and pens for the improvement of
+ their kind, are those of whom biographies may profitably be written.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Miss Barton is in the front rank of American lecturers—excelled by
+ none. AURORA BEACON.
+
+ The Secretary to President McKinley used to say that in his
+ correspondence at the White House the letters of Clara Barton excelled
+ all others in literary merit. THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Clara Barton’s lecture is beautifully written. JOHN B. GOUGH.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON IN THE LITERARY FIELD
+
+The treasure-house of the world is of books. Books are one’s chosen
+friends, and friends are of souls with like aspirations. From the
+contents of books character is made. The legacy in books is what youth
+bequeaths to maturity. In youth Clara Barton entered the “true
+university,” that of books. She read not only books from the shelf but
+found “books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in
+everything.” Her favorite authors were Shakespeare, Longfellow, Milton,
+Keats, Schiller, Bunyan, Tennyson, Scott and Browning.
+
+Had she followed the promptings of her head, and not her heart, Clara
+Barton might have been a Mrs. Sigourney. One of her admirers says that,
+had she been an author, “her gracefulness of expression, her buoyancy of
+thought, and brilliancy of imagery” would have placed her in a class
+with Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë. But Clara
+Barton is now in a class—in a class by herself—and throughout the future
+the student of humanity will study Clara Barton.
+
+Clara Barton’s descriptions of battle, and other, scenes are surpassing
+in vividness—unequalled. In her diaries, which she kept for more than
+half-a-century, are nuggets of human wisdom. Her wise sayings, as those
+of Benjamin Franklin, would fill a volume. Such Clara Barton Red Cross
+maxims, and other wise sayings as appear in these pages, are but the
+flotsam and jetsam of a cargo of writings, the cargo partly wrecked and
+no part of it available by the author.
+
+Clara Barton was a nurse, but only as Lincoln was a rail-splitter. As an
+executive, Clara Barton is accredited as the greatest _man_ in America,
+by one of America’s greatest statesmen; as the greatest woman in the
+world, by one of America’s greatest generals; as having done more for
+humanity than any other woman since the time of Mary of Galilee, by a
+great State Executive. By a great writer, it is said that through
+reading everything is within one’s reach. Clara Barton’s mental reach
+into national and world problems at least widens and heightens the
+possibilities of womankind.
+
+Her Red Cross lectures are not “Caudle Lectures to Ladies”; they,
+including official reports, are high-class state papers which would do
+credit to the White House—literary, argumentative, statesmanlike. For
+twenty-three years in America Clara Barton was the Red Cross
+encyclopedia, the Red Cross dictionary. She was also the Red Cross
+legislature, the Red Cross Supreme Court, the Commander-in-Chief of our
+Red Cross battalions, at home and abroad. Although one of the
+“remonstrants,” in the press, referred to the Red Cross as “Clara
+Barton’s Bread and Butter Brigade” the Achilles in that brigade had won
+for humanity the greatest battle on American soil.
+
+Her address, “History of the Red Cross; Its Origin and Progress,” is all
+comprehensive, showing research, scholarship, logic. Her “Address to the
+President, Congress and People of the United States” on “The Red Cross—A
+History of This Remarkable Movement in the Interest of Humanity” is as
+overwhelmingly convincing, as to the necessity of adhesion by this
+Government to the Treaty of Geneva, as was Webster’s historic reply to
+Hayne, in advocacy of the perpetuity of the Union. Her address on “What
+is the Significance of the Red Cross in its Relation to Philanthropy” is
+hardly less meritorious. Her address at Saratoga on “International and
+National Relief in War” is more than a literary gem; it is a compendium
+of humanitarian history—of Red Cross philosophy. No similar humanitarian
+address even approximates it, in wisdom and argument.
+
+Through seven years, in the field of letters and politics, there raged a
+war against woe, a war led by a Master Spirit. Humanity won—won through
+that Master Spirit. That Master Literary Spirit, says another great
+woman, has “won the hearts of the women of the world.” She not only
+“walked like a benediction of her God amid the desolate, the stricken,
+the hungry and despairing,” but she walked and talked and lived “in
+pulses stirred to generosity.” Her pathos of sentiment and elegance of
+diction won the hearts of the American people, won Congress, won the
+President, won the Red Cross for America. And “the Red Cross in its
+great and human principles, its far-reaching philanthropy, its
+innovations upon long established and accepted customs and rules of
+barbaric cruelty, its wise practical charity, stands forever next to the
+immortal proclamation of freedom to the slaves that crowns the name of
+Abraham Lincoln.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ IDA M. TARBELL
+
+ Clara Barton got the preliminary experience which led to the
+ foundation of the Red Cross work, on the battlefields of the Civil
+ War. I have a high regard for her devotion, her organization
+ ability.—IDA M. TARBELL.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ LUCY LARCROM
+
+ Even a casual observer can not fail to see in Clara Barton’s work a
+ unity peculiar to itself—a work which has grown out of a character,
+ and which no one but herself could have done.—LUCY LARCROM.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LITERARY WORLD
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ELBERT HUBBARD
+
+ Clara Barton has given us a constant lesson in thrift; a worker from
+ infancy, taking neither vacation nor recreation.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ALICE HUBBARD
+
+ The greatest woman of all times. The people of the United States
+ admire, revere and devotedly love Clara Barton.
+]
+
+ _The Fra_—Elbert and Alice Hubbard.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s dress was so simple that no one tried to follow her
+ fashion. ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+ For personal adornment Clara Barton cared little, choosing green
+ dresses in her youth; and ornaments of bright red, for cheer, in her
+ older years. CORRA BACON-FOSTER, Author.
+
+
+ Dress changes manners. VOLTAIRE.
+
+ Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. FRANKLIN.
+
+ Ridiculous modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.
+
+ SMOLLETT.
+
+ To live to dress well indicates a fool. DR. A. E. WINSHIP.
+
+ The plainer the dress with greater luster does beauty appear.
+
+ LORD FAIRFAX.
+
+ Beauty, like truth, never is so glorious as when it goes plainest.
+
+ STERNE.
+
+ Those who think that, in order to dress well, it is necessary to dress
+ extravagantly, make a great mistake. Nothing so well becomes feminine
+ beauty as simplicity. GEORGE D. PRENTICE.
+
+ A plain, genteel dress is more admired and obtains more credit than
+ lace and embroidery, in the eyes of the judicious and sensible.
+
+ GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+ Elizabeth, who died the happy owner of 3,000 dresses, issued a solemn
+ proclamation against extravagance in dress.
+
+ GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
+
+ loveliness
+ Needs not foreign aid of ornament,
+ But is, when unadorned, adorned most.
+ THOMSON—_Autumn_.
+
+ We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress
+ drains our cellar dry and keeps our larder lean. COWPER.
+
+ The dress that shows taste and sentiment is elevating to the home, and
+ is one of the most feminine means of beautifying the world.
+
+ MISS OAKEY.
+
+ A lady of genius will give a genteel air to her whole dress by a well
+ fancied suit of knots, as a judicious writer gives to a whole sentence
+ by a single expression. GAY.
+
+ A rich dress is not worth a straw to one who has a poor mind.
+
+ AZ ZUBAIDI.
+
+ ’Tis the mind that makes the body rich. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ I wear what I want to. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THE ART OF DRESSING—CLARA BARTON’S INDIVIDUALITY
+
+Dress is a sentiment, sentiment of an occasion. Dress is an expression
+of the attitude of the mind as to propriety, necessary to accomplish
+results. Like smiles, dress is an expression of the intelligence of the
+wearer. Dress is an art, one of the highest of the arts. Dress has to do
+with the form divine and, whether dress be for good or ill, depends on
+the mind that fashions it. Court dress, then the want of _dress_, Clara
+Barton disliked and on one occasion would not conform. She thereby
+missed the honor of being a guest on a state occasion—proffered her by
+the world’s greatest queen.
+
+There is an individuality of dress, as of conduct. Clara Barton had
+individuality. There has been no one else like her, and a famous
+American woman says we shall never again produce her like. In religion
+she adhered to no creed; in social life, to no rules; in wearing
+apparel, to no fashion. In service to the world she wished for something
+to do that no one else would do—something that no one else thought of
+doing. “Clara Barton was Clara Barton,” individual even in her wearing
+apparel. The first straw bonnet she ever had she made herself. She cut
+the green rye; she scalded it; she bleached it in the sun; she cut it
+into lengths; with her teeth she split the straws into strands,
+flattening them. She braided the bonnet by the use of eleven strands;
+she fashioned it to suit herself; she wore it; it was Clara’s individual
+bonnet, and at 86 years of age she regarded it the great achievement of
+her life.
+
+When advised by a clerk in a store that a woman of her age should wear
+lavenders and violets, Clara Barton turned to her shopping companion and
+said, “I guess she doesn’t know I wear what I want to.” While on the
+lecture platform, to a limited extent, she conformed to custom and wore
+trains. On a certain occasion, looking her over from head to feet, an
+obtrusive flatterer said to her “How stunning!” Floating on a breeze
+several degrees below zero came from Miss Barton’s lips “_What did you
+say!_” Nor would she gossip about the dress of others. Says Goethe: The
+“highest fortune of earth’s children is personality.” Characteristic of
+her observations on personality rather than of dress, on an occasion
+when she was a special guest of honor, she thus writes of her hostess:
+“I want you to know what a beautiful, bright lady I think Mrs. President
+Hayes to be. She is brilliant and beautiful, brunette with abundant jet
+black hair, put back over her ears;—she is entirely different from the
+Grand Duchess of Baden, and still _bright_ and _full of life_, like
+her.”
+
+Every human being dresses for effect, as does the actress before the
+footlights—the greater the intelligence the greater the discrimination.
+Clara Barton was the designer of her own fashions, the mistress of her
+own stitches. In the use of one of her stitches, she taught the women of
+Corsica to do more work in one hour than previously they had done in
+five hours. She found forty thousand people in despair, ill clothed. In
+her “dress-making shop,” she taught large classes of girls to sew.
+Daily, with these poor girls,
+
+ Plying her needle and thread,—
+ Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
+
+she left those people the best clothed people in Europe.
+
+Clara Barton was as proud of her skill with the needle as was Lucretia
+with the spinning wheel, or Florence Nightingale in the art of nursing.
+In a western town a lady was discredited, and shunned, because she had
+been a sewing girl. Appreciating the situation, and ambitious socially,
+she made her home the center of fashionable sewing circles. She taught
+fancy crochet, and embroidery stitches; in a very short time she had the
+aristocratic women at her feet, and became the social leader.
+
+ The bright little needle, the swift-flying needle,
+ The needle directed by beauty and art.
+
+Clara Barton’s apparel was her personal care, and not the care of a
+_modiste_. While in charge of relief work on a field of disaster, she
+said I have no clothing, and couldn’t attend to it if I had.” She fully
+appreciated also that “rags are royal raiment when worn for virtue’s
+sake.” She would sew on her own buttons, mend, clean, stitch and
+hemstitch, make and remake, her own clothes,—not only as a matter of
+economy but as a matter of personal pride.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ W. R. SHAFTER
+
+ No governmental red tape system could possibly be as effective as were
+ Clara Barton’s sensible business methods in Cuba.
+ W. R. SHAFTER.
+ Brigadier-General Civil War; Major-General
+ Commanding the American Army in the Spanish-American War.
+
+ General Shafter, the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+Clara Barton received no one until she had donned the, to her, becoming
+apparel,—the proper bow at the neck, the proper bow in her hair.
+Everything about her dress must be, to her, _au fait_. Propriety of
+dress had been a part of her education. She recognized that a tramp
+seldom gets by the barking dog at the gate, while the door of the palace
+opens wide to the person well-dressed. And possibly also she entertained
+the sentiment of Emerson, “The sense of being well-dressed gives a
+feeling of inward tranquillity which religion is powerless to bestow.”
+She agreed with Walt Whitman that only personal qualities endure, and
+dress bespeaks personal qualities.
+
+That she succeeded in the art of dress—that her personal qualities were
+at all times in the ascendancy, is attested by the fact that the press
+reporter overlooked her dress, in describing the “ladies’ costumes.” He
+would describe her very dark, bright eyes, her face as the ideal one
+which conforms to her character, her raven black hair worn in the
+fashion of our mothers and grandmothers; or “her hair, black as the
+raven’s wing, does not follow fashion’s ways but is dressed like
+Longfellow’s Evangeline, low down on either side of her forehead,” and
+then possibly dismiss her with the simple statement: “Miss Barton was
+attired in black silk.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXXIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton—her brilliancy and bravery won her a European reputation;
+ she was decorated with several honorary orders in recognition of her
+ exploits. Raleigh (N. C.) _Times_.
+
+
+ The whole of Europe is marshaled under the banner of the Red Cross.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In the Grand Duchy of Baden, woman leads in Red Cross work.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Scarcely had man made his first move in organizing the Red Cross, when
+ the jeweled hand of royal woman glistened behind him, and right
+ royally she has done her part. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Sovereigns deeply interested in the work of the Red Cross will be less
+ and less disposed to precipitate their peoples into war for light and
+ trivial causes, for small, or personal, or unworthy ends.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The patrons of the Red Cross in Europe are always of the Crown, or
+ royal families, as Empress Augusta of Germany, Victoria of England,
+ Dagmar of Russia, Marguerite of Italy, and the Royal Grand Duchess of
+ Baden. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THE JEWELLED HAND AND THE HARD HAND MEET
+
+In the Franco-Prussian War the jeweled hand of the princess and the hard
+hand of the peasant met, and labored side by side unquestioned and
+unquestioning in their God-given mission. Side by side they wrought,
+says Clara Barton, as side by side their dead lay on the battlefield.
+
+Empress Augusta became the active head of the Red Cross Society of
+Germany. Luise, Grand Duchess of Baden, only daughter of the Emperor and
+Empress of Germany, was untiring in the conduct of the Society she had
+already formed and patronized. Her many beautiful castles, with their
+magnificent grounds throughout all Baden were at once transformed into
+military hospitals. The whole court with herself at its head formed into
+a committee of superintendents an organization for the relief of the
+wounded soldiers. Clara Barton was the leading spirit in all such relief
+work. She says: “I have seen a wounded Arab from the French Armies, who
+knew no word of any language but his own, stretch out his arms to my
+friend, the Grand Duchess, in adoration and blessing as she passed by.”
+
+
+
+
+ XL
+
+
+ Clara Barton—The object of decorations by many sovereigns.
+
+ Tacoma (Wash.) _Ledger_.
+
+ Clara Barton—The rulers of many nations have done her honor.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Herald_.
+
+
+ The title of Emperor never loses itself. NAPOLEON.
+
+ A throne is but of wood, covered with velvet. NAPOLEON.
+
+ Royalty is no longer the feeling of the age. NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Every monarch is subject to a mightier one. SENECA.
+
+ The name of Emperor is a word, like another; but he who bears it must
+ have a better title to render him worthy of posterity.
+
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ Clara Barton was the welcome guest in the soldiers’ camp, the
+ woodman’s hut, and the palace of the king.
+
+ _Universal Leader_, Boston, Mass.
+
+ Clara Barton’s services in the Franco-Prussian War brought her
+ recognition from the German Emperor in the shape of an iron cross,
+ Germany’s most prized decoration.
+
+ Bridgeport (Conn.) _Post_.
+
+ The “little woman” accomplished what crowned heads failed in.
+
+ _Unity_—Chicago.
+
+
+ Germany, which was in the vanguard of treaty nations was thoroughly
+ organized and equipped. She was the first to demonstrate the true idea
+ of the Red Cross—people’s aid for national, for military, necessity.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ His Majesty, in the name of humanity, was glad to meet and welcome
+ those who labored for it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON AND THE EMPEROR
+
+The royalty of Germany had assembled to speed the parting guest, to pay
+tribute of respect to the “little lady” who had sacrificed herself for
+the sick and wounded in the Franco-Prussian war. William the First was
+there. The Emperor observed, among her many decorations, two decorations
+worn on that occasion by the “little lady.” One of these had been
+presented to her by His Majesty on his 75th birthday; the other, the
+“Warrior Brothers in Arms” of Milwaukee, he had not seen. It was the
+“Iron Cross of Germany,” on an American shield. The “American Eagle”
+surmounted the arms for defence; and the colors of Germany—the Red,
+White, and Black, of the Empire,—united the two.
+
+The Emperor, with much curiosity, turned to his daughter, the Grand
+Duchess, as if to ask “does my daughter understand this?” His daughter’s
+explanation was satisfactory, whereupon the Emperor expressed the wish
+to know whether or not the Germans make good American citizens. “The
+best that could be desired,” responded the “little lady,”—“industrious,
+honest, and prosperous.”
+
+The Emperor then commented on the high compliment thus paid the
+German-Americans; “I am glad to hear this; they were good soldiers and,
+thank God, they are true men everywhere.”
+
+In a personal sense the Emperor said: “Of myself, I am nothing. God be
+praised; it is all from Him. I am only His. He made us what we are. God
+is over all.”
+
+Miss Barton, “this is probably the _last_ time; we may not meet again in
+this world, but we will be sure to meet in the world beyond. Good-bye.”
+
+ Farewell! if ever fondest prayer
+ For others availed on high
+ Mine will not all be lost in air,
+ But waft thy name beyond the sky.
+
+This was the _last time_. When she again visited Europe he had passed to
+the Beyond. But Prince Henry later visited the United States. Clara
+Barton was then temporarily at Hotel Willard, Washington, D. C. At the
+request of Kaiser William, Lieutenant Commodore Von Egidy, of the Royal
+Suite, made a personal call upon Clara Barton at her hotel. She had been
+apprised of his coming and was tastefully attired, wearing her historic
+souvenirs, including those presented to her by the Royal Family of
+Prussia. Among the souvenirs were the Iron Cross of Prussia, by Emperor
+William the First and Empress Augusta; Gold Cross of Remembrance, by the
+Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden; Silver Medal, by Empress Augusta
+of Germany; Jewels, including the Ruby Pin, by the Queen of Prussia;
+Jewels, including the famed Pansy Pin, by the Grand Duchess of Baden;
+Medal of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Geneva,
+Switzerland. The Lieutenant Commodore, in full uniform, bore the
+greetings of Prince Henry to Miss Barton; and also friendly messages
+from the Emperor and other members of the Royal Family. Among the other
+pleasant messages from the Emperor was the statement that he still
+cherished the “little lady,” as a member of his own family.
+
+
+
+
+ XLI
+
+
+ Were all the crowns and laurels of earth won by the kings of earth
+ within my reach on one hand, and on the other there rested the One
+ Never Dying Jewel—made brilliant and lustrous by Clara Barton’s good
+ deeds—I would count myself most blessed of men to—in reverence—touch
+ the latter rather than become the owner of all the others. T. V.
+ POWDERLY.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s name was mingled with the orations of statesmen, the
+ elegance of the pulpit, the command of royalty, the commands of
+ generals—engraved in the halls of fame, in books of story for children
+ and adults, and engraved on jewels of costly make and rare art. Bangor
+ (Me.) _Commercial_.
+
+ What have kings
+ The privates have not, too, save ceremony?
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ A crown
+ Golden in show is but a wreath of thorns. MILTON.
+
+ The crowned heads of Europe were quick to perceive the benign uses of
+ Red Cross Associations, and bestowed upon the Central Committees of
+ their countries money, credit and personal approbation.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Secretary of State Frelinghuysen, insisting that illness was not a
+ good excuse, and that Clara Barton _must_ represent the United States
+ at the International Conference at Geneva, in 1884, said: “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.”
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ I saw Paris when the Commune fell; the Army of Versailles shot down
+ its victims on the streets by the ghastly glare of blazing palaces.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In 1872, at the time of the Reign of Terror there, Clara Barton walked
+ into the city of Paris. When the people saw her entering the stricken
+ city on her errand of mercy, they cried out: “God, it is an angel!”
+ PERCY H. EPLER, Author.
+
+
+ As Clara Barton and her faithful attendant, Antoinette Margot, a fair
+ haired Swiss maiden, were on their way in Europe to the front they
+ heard “Turn back, turn back; turn back; the Prussians are coming.”
+ “Yes,” said Miss Barton, “that is why we are going, we are on our way
+ to care for the wounded of the battle.” And the people cried out:
+ “Dieu vous benisse!” PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ For services among the Armenians, Turks and Kurds, Sultan Abdul-Hamid
+ of Turkey decorated Clara Barton with the order of Shefacat and
+ diploma for charity, and referred to her as “A Missionary of
+ Humanity.” W. H. SEARS.
+
+
+ Miss Barton was President of the Red Cross at the time of the Russian
+ famine. The total contribution from America was estimated at $800,000.
+
+ In 1902 Clara Barton, and party, was invited to Moscow, Russia, where
+ she had a royal reception lasting three days.
+
+ Referring to her relief work in Russia, to Clara Barton the mayor of
+ St. Petersburg said: “The Russian people know how to be appreciative.”
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ The Czar of Russia personally decorated me (1902) with the highest
+ honor conferred on anyone not of royal blood. I was entertained in the
+ royal palaces and the imperial railway trains were placed at my
+ disposal. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In 1902 the delegates were received by the Czar, and as such they
+ passed in review. Everyone bent over and kissed his hand. When it was
+ Miss Barton’s turn, she attempted to bend over to kiss his hand, but
+ he pulled his hand away and said: “Oh! no, Miss Barton, not you,” and
+ shook her hand, instead. B. F. TILLINGHAST, Delegate to Quinquennial
+ Conference of the International Red Cross Society, in 1902.
+
+
+ To honor me, the likes o’ me, not so! Poor little me who has not seen
+ the present ruler (1909) of her own country.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ AMERICA—SCARLET AND GOLD—EUROPE
+
+In the autumn of her life honors, like the rich and beautifully colored
+leaves from the trees of New England, fell upon Clara Barton in showers.
+Twenty-seven testimonials officially were conferred upon America’s
+greatest woman philanthropist. The nations thus recognizing her valuable
+services to their respective countries are: Germany, Prussia, Austria,
+Russia, Switzerland, Servia, Turkey, Armenia, Spain, Portugal and Cuba.
+Through official sources it is learned that several of these nations
+have under consideration a perpetual Clara Barton memorial, and it is
+not improbable that the first great monument to our American
+World-Character will be on foreign soil.
+
+Before the organization of the National Red Cross Society, in 1870–71,
+Clara Barton was an active participant in relief work on the following
+battlefields: Hagenau, Metz, Strasburg, Sedan; in relief work at
+Belfort, Woerth, Montbelard; in hospitals at Baden; in relief work in
+Paris at the Fall of the Commune; and for some time thereafter
+personally assisted in organizing relief work for the sick and wounded
+in France.
+
+Clara Barton officially represented the United States Government at the
+Red Cross International Conferences. She was appointed by President
+Arthur in 1884, as our country’s representative at Geneva, Switzerland;
+by President Cleveland in 1887 to the Conference at Carlsruhe, Germany;
+by President Harrison in 1890 to the Conference at Rome, Italy; by
+President McKinley at Vienna in 1897; by President McKinley in 1902 to
+the Conference at St. Petersburg, Russia. In person she attended the
+Conference at Geneva, at Carlsruhe, at Vienna and at St. Petersburg.
+
+At Geneva, “Mlle. Barton bien merite de l’human’te,” prepared by an
+Italian delegate, was adopted by acclamation by the representatives of
+all the governments of Europe—an honor to a woman never before or since
+equaled in the world’s history.
+
+At St. Petersburg Clara Barton and party were received by all the
+royalty of Russia; entertained by them at dinners, luncheons, on
+excursions, given free transportation with an escort, everywhere. At
+Carlsruhe she received signal honors at the hands of the Emperor and
+Empress of Germany, Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, Grand Duchess
+Luise, Bismarck, Von Moltke, and other statesmen and military officers.
+At the palace of the Grand Duchess Louise, she had attendants liveried
+in “scarlet and gold”; received all the honors accorded to royalty; and
+on leaving for America all Royalty stood hat in hand wishing her _Bon
+Voyage_ and _Dieu Vous Benisse_!
+
+
+
+
+ XLII
+
+
+ Clara Barton is the greatest woman in the world.
+
+ GENERAL W. R. SHAFTER.
+
+
+ Greatness is the courage to exercise common sense in high places.
+
+ JUDGE T. M. COOLEY.
+
+
+ General Shafter, while in Santiago as he had been at all other times,
+ was the kind and courteous officer and gentleman.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ In Cuba General Leonard Wood—alert, wise and untiring, with an eye
+ single to the good of all—toiled day and night.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Take whatever three or four years of my existence you will, but leave
+ the old army life _untouched_. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THREE CHEERS—WILD SCENES IN BOSTON—TIGER!! NO, SWEETHEART
+
+It was on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Grand Army of the
+Republic, held at Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. W. M. Scott, of O. M. Mitchell
+No. 2, W. R. C., was the President. At that meeting the President
+described the scene occurring at one of the sessions in Boston the
+previous year.
+
+Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer was the President of the W. R. C. at the session
+in Boston. As President she said: “I have the pleasure and the honor to
+introduce to you”—and hundreds of lips ejaculated “Clara Barton!” Then
+there occurred an ovation seldom witnessed. Handkerchiefs waved from
+every part of the hall, and loving little tears of tenderness streamed
+down the faces in that vast throng of admirers of the beloved woman. And
+Clara Barton talked. She, describing a former meeting, said (her voice
+tremulous): “They showed me the wounds they said _I_ had helped to heal,
+and the stubs of the limbs they said _I_ had tried to save, and they
+clustered around me like loving boys, and I—I cried, and they cried too;
+and we talked of those terrible times, and then we talked of those
+glorious times. They were grateful to me for what I had done for them,
+and I was grateful that I had the privilege of doing it.” “And,” says
+Mrs. Scott, “as Clara Barton told the simple story of her experiences
+with her soldier boys every one of us women, gazing at her, thought that
+if we did not have a sweetheart, or husband, at that time to nurse,
+well,—we wish we had.”
+
+The old soldier boys _brave and true_ in numbers were there. The G. A.
+R. too was having its session in Boston, and their heroine also was
+there. He, too, whom history will record as one of the greatest of
+American generals, was there. As since has the soldier’s idol, the great
+General also had “suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous
+fortune”—at the hands of schemers and politicians. Under the General she
+had served in Cuba—the same fearless woman that at the battle of
+Santiago, perched on a gun-carriage, gave orders to the doctors and
+nurses. Clara Barton again received an ovation, and General Shafter
+shared in the honors.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ EMPRESS AUGUSTA
+
+ The Empress—her precious gift, the beautiful cross, is the chiefest
+ among my treasures. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See pages between 326–7, decorations Nos. 9, 18.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ EMPEROR WILLIAM I
+ (1861–1888)
+
+ Tell the “little lady” I still cherish her as a member of my own
+ family.—THE EMPEROR.
+
+ See pages between 326–7, decoration No. 3.
+]
+
+
+ THE ROYALTY OF GERMANY
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ LUISE, THE GRAND DUCHESS OF BADEN
+ née Princess of Prussia
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ FRIEDERICH, THE GRAND DUKE OF BADEN
+ Duke of Zährengen
+]
+
+ For more than forty years, I have known dear, beloved Miss Clara
+ Barton. Great affection and great admiration and great gratitude
+ united me with her. Her memory I will keep sacred in faithful and
+ thankful remembrance of her whose friendship was in our never altering
+ affection so very precious to me.—LUISE, the Grand Duchess of Baden
+ (in 1912).
+
+ The Grand Duke, one of the kindest and noblest types of manhood. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ See pages between 326–7, decorations Nos. 2, 4, 5, 16, 17.
+
+The literary exercises were over. The General had stepped down from the
+platform. There at the foot of the steps the General waited. The
+audience had remained sitting. In a few moments Clara Barton and her
+chivalric old Commander were in private conversation. As that great
+audience, composed principally of old soldiers, saw together the
+greatest hero and the greatest heroine of the Spanish-American War,
+reminiscing of common hardships and common dangers, as one man they rose
+to their feet, tumultuously cheering.
+
+An old soldier at the top of his voice shouted:
+
+ “Three cheers for Clara Barton!”
+
+The cheers given were uproarious, cheers continuing again and again. At
+a still higher pitch of voice another shouted: “Tiger!!”
+
+Hardly had the echo of that voice died away when still another voice
+cried out: “No, Sweetheart!!”
+
+Then shouts and tears were intermingled and little Clara, with a love as
+true to her “soldier boys” as that of her “soldier boys” to her, much
+embarrassed and speechless, could only smile back her love in return,
+and in tears smile and smile and smile.
+
+
+
+
+ XLIII
+
+
+ I have been shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning, and my
+ right hand is almost paralyzed.
+
+ A. LINCOLN, January 2, 1863.
+
+ My “duties?” Receiving and shaking hands with _two thousand persons_,
+ sitting down to the May breakfast at one o’clock with eleven
+ hundred—leaving the table at four P. M.
+
+ CLARA BARTON, May 3, 1910.
+
+
+ All speaking terrifies me. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Formality and parade I hate. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Vain pomp and glory of the world
+ I hate ye. KING HENRY VIII.
+
+
+ Who was it that said that life is three-fourths conduct? Matthew
+ Arnold, I think. BISHOP WILLIAM F. MCDOWELL.
+
+ While Clara Barton’s religion was real, it was a thing expressed not
+ in words nor creeds, but almost wholly in deeds.
+
+ REVEREND PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ Such lives as Clara Barton’s teach the world a lesson which it must
+ never be permitted to forget—namely, that the wealth of human life is
+ not what it gets, but what it gives.
+
+ REV. WM. E. BARTON, D.D.
+
+
+ THE LAST RECEPTION—HER AUTOGRAPH—THE BOYS IN GRAY
+
+The last great public reception to Clara Barton was in Chicago, May 3,
+1910. Miss Barton made the trip alone from Washington to Chicago, she
+then being nearly ninety years of age. The reception was given by the
+Social Economics Club, in Mandel’s Tea Room, to twelve hundred
+delegates, representing the club women of the State of Illinois, Clara
+Barton being the special guest of honor. Just back of Miss Barton on the
+stage was a snow-white flag bearing in its center a blazing red cross.
+
+The question to be discussed was “Are We Elevated by Knocks or Boosts?”
+Under the spell of Miss Barton’s presence, “Knocks” was omitted from the
+program and “Boosts” resulted in a symposium of tributes,—in an ovation
+given to Miss Barton “such as few mortals receive.”
+
+Since her death her autograph has become very valuable. Even then it was
+highly prized, and she was not permitted to leave the hall until every
+delegate present had her autograph. At the close of the meeting a
+delegation of Southern women waited on Clara Barton to thank her for
+what she did for the “boys in Gray” during the Civil War.
+
+The following Sunday evening she was asked to fill the pulpit of a
+famous Chicago divine. She declined. “But you must, Miss Barton; it is
+announced, and the audience expects you.”
+
+Commenting on the occasion she remarked to a friend: “I got even with
+the pastor, for he had to sit in the pulpit to listen to my talk; but
+possibly more annoying to him is the fact that he sat there, facing the
+largest audience he had ever seen in his church—wondering all the while
+what had been the trouble with his sermons.”
+
+
+
+
+ XLIV
+
+
+ I am sure I express the sentiment of our great commonwealth when I say
+ “All honor to the memory of the great founder of the Red Cross.”
+
+ CHARLES E. TOWNSEND, U. S. Senate.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s fame will live as long as the race honors
+ self-sacrificing devotion in ministering to the suffering.
+
+ Dayton (Ohio) _Journal_.
+
+ Clara Barton—her fame will live throughout the ages.
+
+ Tampa (Fla.) _Tribune_.
+
+
+ Thou art Freedom’s now and Fame’s. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.
+
+
+ Fame outlives marble. W. G. CLARK.
+
+ Fame is but a phantom. J. BROOKS.
+
+ Fame is the echo of action. FULTON.
+
+ Fame is a magnifying glass. PAVILLON.
+
+ Fame is the thin shadow of eternity. MARTIN LUTHER.
+
+ Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. SOCRATES.
+
+ Fame comes only when deserved. H. W. LONGFELLOW.
+
+ Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil. MILTON.
+
+
+ The temple of fame stands upon the grave. HAZLITT.
+
+ With fame—in just proportion, envy grows. YOUNG.
+
+ He lives in fame that died in virtue’s cause.
+
+ TITUS ANDRONICUS.
+
+
+ What is fame? A fancied life in other’s breath.
+
+ POPE—_Essay on Man_.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ NICHOLAS II
+ The Czar of Russia
+
+ Oh, no, Miss Barton, not you.
+
+ THE CZAR.
+
+ The Czar is young and handsome, an educated, refined, kind-hearted
+ gentleman. I know him. CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ALEXANDRA FEODOROWNA
+ The Czarina of Russia
+
+ The Czarina was the active head of the Red Cross, in the Russian
+ famine of 1892. She and the Czar gave a special audience to Clara
+ Barton, on the occasion of her visit to St. Petersburg, in 1902.
+]
+
+
+ THE ROYALTY OF RUSSIA
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MARIA FEODOROWNA
+ The Empress Dowager
+ _née_ Princess Dagmar of Denmark
+
+ The personal friend of Clara Barton and who, with the Czar, presented
+ her with a decoration. See page 327, decoration No. 23.
+]
+
+ There is nothing vainer than the love of fame. THEOPHRASTUS.
+
+ Earth hath bubbles as the water has. MACBETH.
+
+ What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you
+ yourself know nothing and for whom you care as little.
+
+ STANISLAUS.
+
+
+ Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favors call;
+ She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all.
+ ALEXANDER POPE—In _The Temple of Fame_.
+
+
+ So long as we love, we serve. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
+
+ Happiness can be attained only by considering the good of others as
+ our own. TOLSTOI.
+
+ Love gives itself to others, and inclines to extremest sacrifice.
+
+ TOLSTOI.
+
+
+ To give up seeking one’s own happiness, as animals, is the true law of
+ the life of humanity. TOLSTOI.
+
+ When we help someone else, we add to our own resources and power. DR.
+ EUGENE UNDERHILL.
+
+ If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to
+ deserve happiness. FICHTE.
+
+
+ He serves most who serves his country best. ALEXANDER POPE.
+
+ They never fail who die in a good cause. BYRON.
+
+
+ Coarseness and roughness lock doors and close hearts; courtesy,
+ refinement and gentleness are “open sesame” at which bolts fly back
+ and doors swing open. WILLIAM MATTHEWS.
+
+
+ The years of unsheltered days and nights, the sun and storm, the dews
+ and damps have done their work and now with bitter tears I turn my
+ face away from the land I have loved so well and seek in a foreign
+ clime, perchance, a little of the good strength once lent me here.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Reserve your energies, doing those little things that be in your way,
+ each as well as you can, so that when God shall call you to do
+ something good and great you will be ready to do the work quickly and
+ well. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ We question whether there has been any man or woman in the whole
+ world’s history who has been a greater blessing to mankind than Clara
+ Barton. _Topeka Daily Journal._
+
+ Clara Barton stands as the complete refutation of the spirit of the
+ age that either great wealth, social position or political power is
+ necessary to the achievement of success.
+
+ _The Universalist Leader_ (Boston).
+
+
+ Life is giving one’s self to save others. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Grace was in all her steps, heav’n in her eye,
+ In every gesture dignity and love. MILTON.
+
+
+ OPEN HOUSE—COST OF FAME, SELF-SACRIFICE—BEST IN WOMAN
+
+Clara Barton kept “open house.” She was “in” to everybody. One had but
+to knock and enter. Expressive of her welcome, on one occasion she says:
+“You will begin to feel the strings of welcome tugging at your footsteps
+when you leave the cars, and will know that it is fastened firmly to the
+knob of the door, pulling only the harder as the door swings wide open.”
+At one time her Glen Echo home was filled with indigent, homeless
+soldiers. About this time “Bessie Beech” was heard to say: “Clara Barton
+really needs a guardian; she gives away everything she has and almost
+starves herself. Recently she gave to her soldier friends in distress,
+$800.00—all the money she had and is “strapped.” A well known
+millionaire gave, fearing he might die _rich_; Clara Barton gave,
+knowing that she must die _poor_. Giving,—that was Clara Barton’s whole
+existence.” “All the world,” she says, “expects me to give something
+every time it can get through the door or get a letter to me.”
+
+“To pay respects” is a convenient excuse for imposing on good nature. To
+pay respects to America’s humanitarian became a fad. She not only
+personally answered 3,700 letters annually, besides her foreign
+correspondence, but thousands of people every year called, on her “to
+pay their respects.” On one occasion it would be for her to entertain
+the First Lady of the Land, representatives of the Army, the Navy, the
+Military, the Members of the Cabinet, the Members of Congress, the
+Officers of the Bureau of Education—“Official Washington.” On another
+occasion it was for her to entertain 600 members of the American Woman
+Suffrage Association, headed by the President Susan B. Anthony. It was
+for her almost daily to receive delegation after delegation, titled men
+from Europe, “globe trotters,” “sight-seers,” “prominent officials”—and
+to receive the “people who want something” all the time. If “the
+greatest of all sacrifices is the sacrifice of time,” for others, Clara
+Barton made a sacrifice theretofore without precedent,—“the sacrifice of
+half a century.”
+
+Fame is one’s misfortune. Clara Barton did not seek fame, she sought
+work; fame was thrust upon her. It may be enjoyable to achieve fame, but
+it is misery to be a slave to fame. Only when the possessor of fame is
+dead can there come compensation—_that’s a monument_. A famous English
+Cardinal moaned, “Would that I had served my God with half the zeal I
+served my king!” A world-famed French philosopher soliloquized, “What a
+heavy burden is a name that has become famous!” An immortal American
+President said: “I wish I had never been born—my position is anything
+but a bed of roses.” Again, in the nation’s darkest night, despairingly
+this same President said: “Oh, if there is a man out of hell that
+suffers more than I do I pity him.” Another, America’s most beloved
+President, advised a small boy: “Grow up to be a good man, a useful man,
+but don’t try to be President; it won’t pay you.” Responsive to an
+admirer, who said “I helped to nominate you,” a world-famed President in
+the afternoon of his release, with nerves shattered, from an invalid
+chair commented: “Yes, you helped me into a lot of trouble.”
+
+Even more than a famous man does a famous woman “belong to history and
+self-sacrifice.” In the evening following an “afternoon at home” to a
+thousand people, in full dress, and while sitting on the floor
+entertaining her little children with their toys, America’s most famous
+society entertainer and wife of a multimillionaire U. S. Senator, was
+heard to say, “This is the only pleasure I get out of Washington
+society.” To reach the heights of mere social fame is an achievement of
+folly. To live in an atmosphere of social aristocracy is to live on a
+desert-waste; the only attraction, the mirage that deceives.
+
+On the steamer, while in ill health on her way to Europe, in her diary,
+Clara Barton philosophizes: Is my life really worth while? I give all of
+my time and strength to the public that seems unappreciative. In
+obscurity I might have had health, at least personal comfort. I might
+have married and had a home, a family of children; I might have taken up
+painting or literature, in each of which my friends say I have ability.
+In either of such life’s work I might have achieved success. As it is,
+even while serving the public, I am alone in the world, buffeted about
+and nobody seems to care for me unless to use me for some purpose. I
+wonder whether or not any woman thinks her life a success? Oh, well, I
+guess it was intended that I should do the work I am doing, forget
+myself and live for others, so I might as well make the best of it and
+try to be happy.
+
+All organization is difficult; Clara Barton organized. She brought into
+existence the machinery of the organization and her master mind,
+unerring, directed the movements of every part of the machinery, “in a
+way that the people knew what she had done and are more than satisfied.”
+Without a title she occupied such a position as now must be filled by
+the male executive of a great nation. In qualities feminine, in sympathy
+tender, shrinking from publicity as no other woman in history, she
+filled a public-service position as no man could fill it. To an audience
+of women in Boston, another self-sacrificing woman who would serve the
+human race, said: “Clara Barton is an epitome in her life and character
+of all that is best in woman; she is what we would all like to be.”
+
+
+
+
+ XLV
+
+
+ She had all the royal makings of a queen. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen. HOMER—_Iliad_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton, America’s uncrowned queen.
+
+ HON. FRANCIS ATWATER.
+
+
+ We crown you in our minds and hearts as a “Queen Among Women.” B. H.
+ WARNER, Chairman, Public Reception, Washington, August 8, 1896, to
+ Clara Barton on her return from Turkey and Armenia.
+
+ Clara Barton’s “queenliness as a woman and womanliness as a queen”
+ endear her to our hearts beyond all words.
+
+ President Economics Club, Chicago, Ill.
+
+ Clara Barton should be exalted above queens.
+
+ Central Relief Committee of Galveston, Texas.
+
+
+ KNEELED BEFORE HER AND KISSED HER HAND
+
+In 1902 the International Red Cross Conference was held at St.
+Petersburg. At this conference the civilized nations of the world were
+either indirectly or directly represented. The Czar and Czarina gave
+Clara Barton a special audience. The Dowager Empress also gave her the
+honor of a state dinner. Of all the delegates present Clara Barton was
+the most sought after personage. Not only at St. Petersburg but wherever
+she went throughout Europe, similar queenly honors were accorded Clara
+Barton by rulers and world-famed military officers.
+
+When they came into her presence and were introduced, as to a queen, the
+greatest generals kneeled before her, and kissed her hand. They were
+invariably profuse in compliments and in undisguised praise of her
+services to humanity. Whenever the little, modest, timid woman attended
+the sessions of the Conference as she entered the hall the whole
+audience would rise to their feet and would remain standing while she
+was walking down the aisle to take her seat, and this was not
+infrequently accompanied by cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs, as
+if in the presence of royalty.
+
+Referring to Clara Barton, at a public reception, one of America’s great
+women said: “No one loves a self-sacrificing woman as well as—as all
+other good women.” In America, as in Europe, Clara Barton was honored as
+has been no other American woman,—by the “First Lady of the Land,” by
+the Julia Ward Howes, by the Frances Willards, by the Susan B. Anthonys,
+by all great and good women—all recognizing her “queenliness as a woman
+and womanliness as a queen,” and graciously willing to crown her “Queen
+Among Women.” Writers also have referred to her as “The Angel of the
+Battlefield,” “The Angel of the World’s Battlefields,” “The Beautiful
+Lady of the Potomac,” “The American Lady with the Lamp,” “The Angel of
+Peace,” “The Angel of Mercy,” “The Angel of Humanity,” “Our Lady of the
+Red Cross.”
+
+
+
+
+ XLVI
+
+
+ Life at best is so exhaustive. FRANK W. GUNSAULIS, D. D.
+
+
+ Clara Barton was a soft-voiced little woman, yet she had a way of
+ approaching her work in the most telling manner.
+
+ _Buffalo Express._
+
+
+ The Stars make no noise. IRISH PROVERB.
+
+ The secret of my long life, “Hard work and low fare.”
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A surfeit of the sweetest things
+ The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.
+ MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
+
+ They are sick that surfeit with too much,
+ As they that starve with nothing.
+ MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+
+ This was the afternoon of Monday. Since Saturday noon I had not
+ thought of tasting food.
+
+ CLARA BARTON (At Battle of Chantilly).
+
+ You have the full record of my sleep—from Friday night till Monday
+ morning—two hours.
+
+ CLARA BARTON (Among the wounded at Chantilly).
+
+ At Cedar Mountain, among the wounded, Clara Barton had five days and
+ nights with only three hours’ sleep, and a narrow escape from capture.
+ PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+
+ I never think of weariness. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Clara had some source of strength that we knew nothing about.
+
+ “SISTER HARRIETTE” L. REED.
+
+ Clara Barton’s endurance is unprecedented, and I have never known her
+ equal. SURGEON-IN-CHIEF A. MONAE-LESSER.
+
+ Gentleness, sweetness, quiet unobtrusiveness were her armor; from dawn
+ to midnight usually her working day; the frugal meal at Red Cross
+ headquarters was frequently prepared solely by her hand. CHARLES A.
+ BAKER, Treasurer, Red Cross.
+
+
+ Clara Barton: My working hours are fourteen out of the twenty-four.
+
+ Port Royal Nurse: You mean eighteen out of the twenty-four, Miss
+ Barton, don’t you?
+
+
+ I NEVER GET TIRED—EATING, THE LEAST OF MY TROUBLES
+
+“Miss Barton, these workers say they are _starving_,” said “Sister
+Harriette”; “it’s four o’clock, and they have had nothing to eat since
+early morning.”
+
+“Why, bless their dear hearts; I had forgotten all about them. Take them
+to the restaurant across the street, and get them something to eat.”
+
+“But, Miss Barton, you need a rest and something to eat as much as we
+do.” “Oh, no, I never get tired, you know, and eating is the least of my
+troubles.” Miss Barton kept at her work in the warehouse, unpacking and
+repacking, preparatory to leaving.
+
+In the dusk of the evening, her assistants returned and Miss Barton was
+still there, alone, and at work. Turning to the workers Sister Harriette
+said: “Did you ever see such a tireless worker? Miss Barton must have
+some source of strength we know nothing about.”
+
+The relief workers had cared for, provisioned and resettled in their
+homes 30,000 negro refugees, victims of the cyclone and hurricane
+disaster on the Carolina Islands. The party arrived at Beaufort late
+that night; the “workers,” worn out; Clara Barton, as vigorous as when
+the relief-work-campaign opened ten months before.
+
+
+
+
+ XLVII
+
+
+ Clara Barton, “Our Lady of the Red Cross”—her real life is measured by
+ deeds, not days—rich in the joy of service.
+
+ MARY R. PARKMAN—Author of _Heroines of Service_.
+
+
+ The ladies of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, presented Clara Barton with a
+ gold pin having a large diamond in the center. From it hung two small
+ gold chains to which was attached a superb gold locket with a
+ beautiful sapphire on the face of it. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Clara Barton learned how to care for her many pets which lived in the
+ farm yard and was especially fond of horses. Her turkeys, dogs, geese,
+ and cats were added to Clara’s stock of pets. She also learned to milk
+ the cows. ENGLISH AUTHOR.
+
+
+ I was a very poor boy, hired on a flat-boat at $8.00 a month—if you
+ call this aristocracy, I plead guilty to the charge.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ I have neither clerk nor typewriter; I still _aristocratically_ eat by
+ myself and do my own work. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ ROYALTY UNDER A QUAKER BONNET
+
+Clara Barton had at Glen Echo a beautiful pet Jersey cow. This she
+personally cared for, feeding and milking her morning and evening. While
+milking the cow she would wear usually a plain black gown, white and
+blue checked apron, a white shawl over her shoulders, and on her head a
+brown, old-fashioned Quaker bonnet. As pendants on her breast there
+would be the elegant Pansy pin, presented to her by the Grand Duchess of
+Baden, and the Iron Cross of Prussia, presented to her by the Emperor of
+Germany. These royal jewels she had promised the donors to wear as long
+as she lived, and the promise she faithfully kept, whether she was in
+the parlor entertaining guests or in the yard among the animals doing
+the “chores.”
+
+ Miss Barton: What beautiful medals you are wearing.
+
+ Diplomat: Oh, yes, Miss Barton, but mine are from my own country,
+ while yours are from the whole world.
+
+
+
+
+ XLVIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton, a Christian-like spirit.
+
+ Pueblo (Colo.) _Chieftain_.
+
+ Clara Barton—no other woman has come so near the Christ Spirit.
+ Worcester (Mass.) _Gazette_.
+
+
+ Revenge, at first though sweet,
+ Bitter ere long back on itself recoils. JOHN MILTON.
+
+
+ This was the most unkindest cut of all. JULIUS CAESAR.
+
+ Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ The wicked plotteth against the just. PSALMS.
+
+ The black destroyers, the red torturers
+ Shall vanish—they like smoke shall disappear.
+ MOTHER ARMENIA.
+
+
+ Women always find their bitterest foes among their own sex.
+
+ J. PETIT-SENN.
+
+
+ ’Twill not, false traitor!
+ ’Twill not restore the truth and honesty
+ That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.
+ JOHN MILTON.
+
+
+ The traitor to humanity is the traitor most accursed. LOWELL.
+
+ The utmost ingenuity of metaphysics cannot
+ Excuse the man who wantonly wounds another.
+ BENJAMIN CONSTANT.
+
+
+ A woman’s shape doth shield thee. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Aunt Clara has only Christian forgiveness for others. STEPHEN E.
+ BARTON (Executor of the Clara Barton estate, 1911).
+
+ Clara Barton had no time to hate; only time to serve, to live, to
+ give,—one of the greatest souls that ever came to earth.
+
+ ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+
+ STILL STAMPING ON ME—PERSONALLY UNHARMED
+
+In a letter under date of November 20, 1905, Clara Barton said: “I thank
+you for the clipping concerning Miss ——’s lecture. I have received
+others not at all complimentary to me personally. I am learning some
+very bad things of myself.
+
+“I wonder whether it ever occurs to her that taking a reputation and
+appropriating the work of another might be quite honest. I have,
+however, nothing to say. I have done with it all and so long as I am
+left _personally_ unharmed I expect nothing more. They have long ago
+done everything else, and I have lived through it thus far. If they
+think their work will progress faster, or show better, by still stamping
+on me I shall not complain. I never have.”
+
+ The fairest action of human life
+ Is scorning to revenge an injury.
+
+
+
+
+ XLIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton—Let all flags fly at half-mast, and all the world stand
+ reverently with uncovered head.
+
+ _Richmond_ (Va.) _Leader_.
+
+ The world stands with uncovered head.
+
+ Chicago (Ills.) _Inter-Ocean_.
+
+ A grateful world pays tribute to her. Boston (Mass.) _Pilot_.
+
+ Her soul goes marching on. Boston (Mass.) _Journal_.
+
+
+ The pomp that is attendant on funerals feeds rather the vanity of the
+ living than does honor to the dead. ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+ Let me not be made to appear proud and fond of vain show, when I am
+ dead. JOHN BURROUGHS.
+
+
+ When her mother died Clara Barton wore no evidence of mourning. THE
+ AUTHOR.
+
+ Clara Barton said that death was only one of the things of life, a
+ part of life. She is not dead; I cannot even say she is away.
+
+ ALICE HUBBARD—In _The Fra_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton still lives. FATHER TYLER.
+
+
+ Great sorrows speak not. C. MARAT.
+
+ The deeper the sorrow the less the tongue has it. TALMUD.
+
+ Suspect that sorrow which is anxious to show itself. RUZZIK.
+
+
+ Some grief shows much love
+ But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
+ ROMEO AND JULIET.
+
+ Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to
+ the living and the dead knows it not. XENOPHON.
+
+ Christ never preached any funeral sermons.
+
+ REV. D. L. MOODY.
+
+
+ I cannot go to Heaven until my work is done. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ How often I have wondered whether or not the souls will know us in the
+ Great Beyond. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The Red Cross is a peculiar institution, without nationality, race,
+ creed or sect, embracing the entire world in its humanizing bond of
+ brotherhood; without arbitrary laws or rules, and yet stronger than
+ armies and higher than thrones. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The world is my country; to do good is my religion.
+
+ TOM PAINE.
+
+ I know no section. In the labors that have come to me the nations of
+ the world, and their strange tongues, have become my own. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+
+ Just to have seen the collection of flags from all over the world,
+ brought together through the mercy and loving kindness of one woman,
+ made us feel that a Peace Proclamation is not an improbable thing.
+ ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+ There flowed in upon Clara Barton blessings uttered in all tongues
+ known among men. Portland (Ore.) _Telegram_.
+
+ All nations shall call you blessed. MALACHAI.
+
+
+ AT THE MEMORIAL—“THE FLAGS OF ALL NATIONS”—A GOOD TIME
+
+Charon, the ancient guide over the River Styx, was peculiarly equipped
+to serve departing souls. Following the souls’ escape from earth,
+mourning customs are as numerous as are tribes and nations, as varied as
+are nationalities. At funerals, lives have been sacrificed, human forms
+disfigured, mourners employed, bells rung, lighted candles used—to serve
+their respective purposes, as have food, jewels, implements and weapons
+at the “last resting place.”
+
+ Go, call for the mourners and raise the lament,
+ Let the tresses be torn and the garments be rent,—
+
+Funerals and memorials sometimes are to honor the dead; sometimes to
+cater to the vanity of the living; sometimes seemingly to strengthen an
+organization, social, religious, political, but in every instance
+following custom’s ways. Were not the public funeral display the custom,
+it would be sacrilege—custom sanctifies barbarity. Averse to personal
+display Clara Barton was also averse to the use of any custom of public
+mourning.
+
+At the memorial held in honor of America’s greatest humanitarian, soon
+after her passing, the stage and the boxes of the theatre were decorated
+with flags that had been given to Clara Barton by grateful nations. Some
+were of silk, rich and magnificent; some, battle-stained and
+bullet-scarred. Some she had carried on the battlefield along with the
+Red Cross flag, the emblem to the sick, wounded and dying, that an Angel
+of Mercy was winging her way to their presence. There were the flags of
+England, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, France, Russia, Cuba,
+Prussia, Holland, Greece, Switzerland, Turkey—and the flag of the United
+States.
+
+ To me remains nor place nor time;
+ My country is in every clime.
+
+Anticipating that there might be a memorial for her by the Philadelphia
+School of Nurses, Clara Barton thus advised the President: “Do not make
+it a serious occasion; let the people laugh if they want to, and tell
+stories and have a good time. There is no reason why it should be
+serious.”
+
+ When I am dead, no pageant train
+ Shall waste their sorrows at my bier.
+
+
+
+
+ L
+
+
+ Clara Barton—a biography of absorbing interest.
+
+ Duluth (Minn.) _Tribune_.
+
+ Clara Barton wrote several golden pages in the history of the
+ brotherhood of man. Houghton (Mich.) _Gazette_.
+
+
+ “Amici! diem perdidimus” (Friends! we have lost a day), said Titus
+ when at the end of a day he had nothing memorable for his diary. THE
+ AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Nothing is of greater value than a single day. GOETHE.
+
+ A great library contains the diary of the human race.
+
+ GEORGE DAWSON.
+
+ The diary is greatly relied on by the writers of history, but—
+
+ CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
+
+
+ Tolstoi keeps a diary in which he notes down what he has been
+ thinking. Translator for Tolstoi.
+
+
+ Diaries tell their little tales with a directness, a candor conscious
+ or unconscious, a closeness of outlook which gratifies our sense of
+ security. Reading them is like gazing through a small pane of clear
+ glass. _Varia_—By AGNES REPPLIER.
+
+ A man’s diary is a record in youth of his sentiments, in middle age of
+ his actions, in old age of his reflections.
+
+ JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+ A well kept diary is one of the most interesting productions of human
+ industry—not the least benefit of a diary is that it produces a taste
+ for writing. REVEREND WILLIAM SUTTON, S. J.
+
+ We converse with the absent by letters, and with ourselves by
+ diaries—many of our greatest characters in public life have left such
+ monuments of their diurnal labors. ISAAC DISRAELI.
+
+
+ Her unpublished diaries and letters are my chief original sources of
+ information that the book should come forth with the force of an
+ autobiography. _The Life of Clara Barton_, by Epler.
+
+ Only two classes of people can keep diaries of unimportant
+ things—those who never have time to do anything else and those who
+ have stopped doing things. I have done neither. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s war diaries, and diaries of her travels, if published,
+ would be eagerly read by the people and be of great historic interest.
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Clara Barton could say with Seneca: “I keep an account of my expenses;
+ I cannot affirm that I lose nothing, but I can tell you what I lose,
+ and why, and in what manner.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON KEPT A DIARY
+
+The diary is an important factor in literary culture, and likewise in
+history. Diaries in some form are probably co-existent with the history
+of man. Keeping diaries, however, was revived in the seventeenth
+century. The best known diaries are those by Samuel Pepys and John
+Evelyn, of England. In this country, among the many well known diarists
+are John Quincy Adams and Henry David Thoreau. From youth continuous
+through her long and eventful life, Clara Barton kept a diary. The
+subject matter therein consists of routine daily work, travels, public
+functions, personal opinions of people she met, and philosophizing,
+which would fill volumes with interesting reading.
+
+In her diary also she discussed questions of the day, public men, the
+problem of life, spiritualism, religion, politics,—everything that
+passes through the human mind, besides keeping account of every cent
+expended and for what purpose. By reading her diaries, almost any friend
+could find Miss Barton’s opinion of himself. Before retiring for the
+night her custom, amounting almost to a religious one, was to write in
+her diary the day’s events.
+
+ Pleasing, when youth is long expired, to trace
+ The forms our pencil or our pen designed;
+ Such was our youthful air, and shape, and face,
+ Such the soft image of our youthful mind.
+
+Illustrating this remarkable characteristic in her life are appended two
+excerpts of a domestic nature from her diary in 1907, she then being
+eighty-seven years of age.
+
+
+ “DOING MY WORK,” AT 87
+
+ Friday, October 18, 1907.
+
+This is my first day (since my illness) of doing my work and having a
+guest, but it has gone superbly. The breakfast table was neatly
+elegant—all silver and glass except the plates and cups and saucers. We
+had soft boiled eggs, cooked on the table, corn flakes, and a delightful
+platter of cream toast, with grapes, apple sauce, Dutch cheese and thick
+cream, and two kinds of coffee. Mr. Brown went to town returning at 5 P.
+M., when we had supper (or dinner)—a nicely cooked steak and sausage,
+fine potatoes, rice pudding, bananas, cake and tea—fruit.
+
+I arranged the milk and cream, put the house in order, took care of
+lamps and room, and drafted a long letter to the Grand Duchess (from the
+medium), and Empress.
+
+Doctor got Uncle Silas to come at evening and I engaged one hundred
+bundles of fodder at .04 cents a bundle, to be bought and put in the
+stable next week.
+
+Have talked with Mr. Brown concerning Lucy.
+
+
+ “A RATHER HARD DAY”
+
+ Saturday, Oct. 26, 1907, Glen Echo.
+
+Another fine day. But an experience this morning was anything but that.
+As Mrs. Barker did not come I was “doing up” the breakfast dishes at the
+sink and had put a kettle of beans on the stove to parboil for baking,
+as Doctor had expressed a desire for them. A rather heavy coal fire was
+going for this purpose. Suddenly I was startled by a great rush at the
+stove. Supposing that my kettle of beans had boiled over, I turned to
+see a flame three feet high from a vehicle larger than my kettle,
+pouring a liquid out over the hot stove that blazed the moment it
+touched. The Doctor had wanted to use some tar about the roof, and
+brought in a two-gallon tin bucket partly full and set it on the stove
+to warm up, and left it without speaking or in any way calling my
+attention to it. It had gotten boiling hot, and my first notice of its
+presence was the burst of blaze. The bucket of boiling black tar running
+over all on fire, the flame streaming up some two feet high. I called
+the Doctor at the cellar steps, at the windows—no response. The blaze
+went higher and wider. The carpenters must be on the roof and to the top
+I rushed, to find no one there—down again. I saw I was the only person
+on the premises. The room was dark with smoke. I could see little but
+the blaze. Four feet to the left stood a five-gallon can of kerosene oil
+for the lamps. I could not remove it and, if I could, I must carry it
+directly past the flame—if a spark reached, we would be blown to atoms,
+house and all. The floor was bare, with one or two small _cotton_ mats.
+I dared not use even them. There was but one way; I must grapple the
+boiling, blazing mass, take it across the room and throw it from the
+window. I had no inflammable material on me, being dressed in entire
+black silk, waist and skirt. There was no time to lose. I tore away the
+curtain, raised the window to its fullest height, seized the bucket
+firmly with both hands and landed it on the ground. I knew the smoke
+must raise outside help as I did it. The Doctor had been to the post
+office. He rushed in to find me in the midst of darkness. I had closed
+the doors at first, still the smoke poured out of the chamber windows we
+kept closed. My right hand, which had taken the tip of the bucket, was
+nearly covered in a coat of tar, put on boiling hot, and to stay. I did
+not try to remove it but put it in hot water and went to work with it. I
+need not say that the rest of the day was needed, and given to the
+house, but we were only too thankful that we _had_ a house to clean up.
+The tar coating and hot water saved the hand, so that a few heavy
+blisters tell the story of their hardship. It is all over now. I write
+this the _next_ day; last night I could not have done it.
+
+Doctor went to Mrs. Warneke’s; I remained home. Mrs. Hinton came but I
+made no mention of the morning adventure. She has commenced her new
+home. I gave her butter, fruit, jellies, to help her table. A _rather_
+hard day.
+
+
+
+
+ LI
+
+
+ All the world pays homage to the nurse—poets, warriors, statesmen,
+ kings, and the numberless multitudes of human sufferers.... EUGENE
+ UNDERHILL, M.D., author of “_Nursing—The Heart of the Art_.”
+
+
+ Efficient nurses are the most difficult to obtain of all aid in Red
+ Cross work. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I never claimed to be a nurse. There are hundreds of women who could
+ nurse as well as I, if not better, than I could.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Time is the great physician. DISRAELI.
+
+ Physicians mend or end us. LORD BYRON.
+
+ Send for a physician;—but the sick man answered, “It is no matter for,
+ if I die, I’ll die at leisure.” LORD BACON.
+
+
+ For the woman has a friend
+ Who will keep her to the end. IRONQUILL.
+
+
+ NURSING A FINE ART—OVER THE WASHTUB
+
+Was Clara Barton a nurse? Yes, and Florence Nightingale said that
+nursing is a fine art; and to succeed requires greater devotion than
+that in the art of painting or sculpture, for nursing has to do with
+“the living body, the temple of God’s spirit.” It’s probably the finest
+of the fine arts. Clara Barton did not assume the rôle of an art-nurse;
+she said others could surpass her in this art.
+
+Miss Barton in her passion for service claimed to be only a
+“working-woman.” Work did not undignify her; instead, she seemed to
+dignify work—she surely made nursing popular. Work was a part of the
+best religion she ever had. With her
+
+ Human hopes and human creeds
+ Have their seat in human needs.
+
+The day preceding the delivery of her public address she spent washing
+the clothes of the family and the linen of the household. Such exercise,
+more useful than golf and serving like purpose, strengthened the
+muscles, increased the blood circulation, made the brain active.
+
+Commenting on the “wash-tub custom” her old physician said as she became
+so very tired after a hard day’s washing at first he used to protest,
+then facetiously remarked,
+
+ But her spirits always rose
+ Like the bubbles in the clothes;
+
+and therefore he concluded that Miss Barton knew better than he did what
+was good for her.
+
+
+
+
+ LII
+
+
+ Clara Barton—The millions she has blest.
+
+ KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD.
+
+ With the gleam of the scarlet she walks with the immortals now.
+
+ Haverhill (Mass.) _Gazette_.
+
+
+ One of the few immortal names. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.
+
+
+ Oh! the love of woman, the love of woman! no coldness, no neglect, no
+ harshness, no cruelty can extinguish thee! Like the fabled lamp in the
+ sepulchre, thou sheddest thy pure light in the human heart, where
+ everything around thee is dead forever.
+
+ WILL CARLETON.
+
+
+ Will Carleton—author of “The New Church Organ,” “Betsy and I are Out,”
+ “Over the Hill to the Poor-house,” and many others. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Thy voice sounds like a prophet’s word;
+ And in its hollow tones are heard
+ The thanks of millions yet to be.
+ FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.
+
+
+ IMMORTAL WORDS—A MILLION THANKS
+
+The following correspondence occurred between two beloved Americans:
+
+On the occasion of Memorial Day, May 30, 1895, at Arlington, Will
+Carleton delivered the poem. It was so fine that at its close I felt a
+great desire to reach him with some word of appreciation and, tearing a
+scrap from an envelope which I had, I wrote this upon it:
+
+ Thanks: Immortal thanks for immortal words.
+ Arlington, 1895. (_Signed_) CLARA BARTON.
+
+Folding and addressing the scrap to Mr. Will Carleton, Miss Barton
+passed it to the next person, who graciously passed it to the next, and
+so on, through possibly a hundred hands, until finally it was lodged
+with Mr. Carleton. In due course of time, another little scrap with the
+following words came back to Miss Barton, through the same hands:
+
+ To Miss Clara Barton,
+ A million thanks to one,
+ Who hath a million plaudits won,
+ For deeds of love to many millions done.
+ (Signed) WILL CARLETON.
+
+
+
+
+ LIII
+
+
+ Wherever flowers cannot be reared, there man cannot live.
+
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ A rose to the living is sweet. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The roses are sweet, and blessed be they who bring them into one’s
+ life. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A heaven-sent gift, and blessing, is the rose,
+ Its grace inspireth aspirations high. E. G. BROWNE.
+
+ The red rose has been blazoned with a boar’s head on the Barton crest
+ ever since the War of the Roses.
+
+ DR. WILLIAM E. BARTON.
+
+
+ All the world brings its roses to the bier of Clara Barton.
+
+ _Grand Rapids Herald._
+
+ My life is like the summer rose
+ That opens to the sky,
+ But ere the shades of evening close
+ Is scattered on the ground—to die.
+ RICHARD HENRY WILDE.
+
+
+ There’s the rosemary, that’s for remembrance;—and there is pansies,
+ that’s for thoughts. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ THE PANSY PIN—FOR THOUGHTS
+
+ Once Friendship weaves its silken band
+ It cannot be by time or distance broken;
+ And severed friends are bound by Mem’ry’s hand
+ More closely by some little simple token.
+
+The “Pansy Pin,” of which so much has been written, and which Miss
+Barton continually wore, was given to her by the Grand Duchess of Baden.
+The pin is about as large as the case of a lady’s watch and in the shape
+of a pansy. The five petals are splendid amethysts and a single large
+beautiful pearl rests in the center, like a dew drop. The gift was
+accompanied with the words: “This is a simple gift, but it is a pansy
+which means ‘for thoughts.’”
+
+Jeweler—“Miss Barton, do you know the value of that pin?”
+
+Miss Barton—“No, sir, it was a present to me.”
+
+Jeweler—“Each of these jewels is almost priceless. They represent a
+king’s ransom.”
+
+Miss Barton—“The pin is priceless to me. I always wear it ‘for thoughts’
+of a very dear friend.”
+
+
+
+
+ LIV
+
+
+ AT A DINNER IN LONDON
+
+ Lord Stratford—Will the guests kindly write on a slip of paper the
+ name of the one, including the famous generals, who served in the
+ Crimean War they think will be the longest remembered?
+
+ Guests—Florence Nightingale (written on every slip).
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Clara Barton is to America what Florence Nightingale is to us.
+
+ _London Times._
+
+
+ No general that led hosts to victory on the battlefield is nearly so
+ secure of lasting fame as is the name of Clara Barton.
+
+ Dayton (Ohio) _Journal_.
+
+
+ Miss Nightingale found herself misunderstood and lost her Governmental
+ position—suffering much from Governmental heartlessness and neglect.
+ England, in later Governmental acts, was more appreciative of her war
+ heroine.... PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ English women are solid and sensible, learned and self-possessed, and
+ all the world respects them. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Surely woman should bring the best she has, whatever that is, to the
+ work of God’s world. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+
+ A white marble cross, 20 feet high, overlooking Balaclava and seen
+ from ships crossing the Black Sea, is known as the “Nightingale
+ Cross,”—erected at the personal expense of Florence Nightingale in
+ memory of the soldiers and nurses who died in the War. THE AUTHOR.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _American Red Cross_
+
+
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
+
+ Clara Barton is to America what Florence Nightingale is to us.
+ London _Times_.
+
+ I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our Country’s work—it
+ is what we live for.
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+ Florence Nightingale, covered with the praises and honors of the
+ world.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See pages 183; 197.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE MEMORIAL ON THE MALL, LONDON
+
+ (Left to right.) The monument erected at Waterloo Place, corner of
+ Pall Mall, London, England, to the memory of Florence Nightingale.
+ Funds, by public subscription. Unveiled, February 24, 1915.
+
+ “To the memory of 2162 officers, non-com. officers and privates of
+ Brigade of Guards who fell during the war with Russia in 1854–1856.
+ Erected by their comrades.”
+
+ (In front) Statue of Sidney Herbert, associated with the life work of
+ Florence Nightingale.
+]
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON PAYS RESPECTS TO FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
+
+In the year 1854 occurred the Crimean War. At the Scutari and Barrack
+Hospitals, Florence Nightingale rendered service that gave her immortal
+fame. “Her services there,” said Clara Barton in 1882, “marked an era
+never before reached in the progress of the world. When Miss
+Nightingale, with her thirty-eight faithful attendants, sailed from the
+shores of England, it meant more for the advancement of the world, more
+for its future history, than all the fleets of armies and navies, cannon
+and commissary, munitions of war, and regiments of men, than had sailed
+before her in that vast campaign.
+
+“This unarmed pilgrim band of women that day not only struck a blow at
+the barbarities of war, but they laid the axe deep at the root of war
+itself. When Florence Nightingale, covered with the praises and honors
+of the world, bending under the weight of England’s gratitude, again
+sought her green island home, it was to seek also a bed of painful
+invalidism, from which she has never risen and probably never will.”
+
+ ’Tis good that thy name springs
+ From two of earth’s fairest things
+ A stately city and a sweet-voiced bird.
+
+
+
+
+ LV
+
+
+ How age is a matter of individual commendation I have never been able
+ to see. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ We have no control over the beginning of life and, unless criminally,
+ none over its ending. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is not my fault, if my gray hairs are not honorable.
+
+ JOHN B. GOUGH.
+
+
+ One is as old as his strength. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ We can neither hasten, nor arrest, age. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Let work be thy measure of life. W. E. H. LECKY.
+
+
+ We live in deeds, not years—we should count time by heart-throbs. He
+ most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
+
+ PHILIP J. BAILEY.
+
+
+ Although she had lived more than ninety years Clara Barton never gave
+ the impression to anyone that she was an old woman. ‘Her age knows no
+ time.’ She gave to the world nearly a century of work. ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+
+ A life spent worthily should be measured by a noble line—by deeds, not
+ years. PIZARRO.
+
+ Age is opportunity no less than youth itself, but in a different
+ dress. H. W. LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+ THE PASSING OF YEARS—RIGHT HABITS OF LIFE
+
+At the age of 11 years Clara Barton was a nurse; at 15 years, a teacher;
+at 34 years, a clerk in the Patent Office; at 40 years, a nurse in the
+Civil War; at 59 years, an organizer of nurses in the Franco-Prussian
+war; at 60 years, President of the American Red Cross; at 78 years as
+President of the Red Cross in the Spanish-American war; at 83 years,
+retired from the Presidency of the Red Cross; at 84 years, organizer and
+the President of the National First Aid Association, which Presidency
+she held up to the time of her death in 1912, when she was 91 years of
+age.
+
+Commenting on the passing of years, Clara Barton philosophizes: “Age is
+no business of ours. We have no control over its beginning and, unless
+criminally, none over its ending. I have never, since a child, kept a
+‘birthday’ nor thought of it only as a reminder by others.
+
+“I have been able to see that persistent marking of dates, and adding
+one mile-stone every year, encourages the feeling of helplessness, and
+release from activities which might still be a pleasure to the
+possessor. Somehow it has come to me to consider strength and activity,
+aided so far as possible by right habits of life, as forming a more
+correct line of limitation than the mere ‘passing of years.’”
+
+
+
+
+ LVI
+
+
+ Clara Barton, the good angel of comfort, will live enshrined in the
+ hearts of America and of the world.
+
+ _Western Christian_ (Ohio) _Advocate_.
+
+
+ Great evils die hard. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Don’t drink. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Cold water,—the only beverage I have used, or allowed, in my family.
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+ The saloon, the most blighting curse;—liquor traffic, the tragedy of
+ civilization—I am a practical prohibitionist. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Intemperance is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all the
+ evils among mankind. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ The one victory we can ever call complete will be that one which
+ proclaims there is not one slave nor drunkard on the face of God’s
+ green earth.
+
+ A. LINCOLN—(In a letter to George E. Pickett.)
+
+ Although the temperance cause has been in progress for nearly twenty
+ years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned with a
+ degree of success hitherto unparalleled.—Hail, full of fury! Reign of
+ reason, all hail! A. LINCOLN, February 22, 1842.
+
+
+ Humanity is the peculiar characteristic of great minds.
+
+ CHESTERFIELD.
+
+
+ Lincoln’s tenderness was as gentle as a woman’s.
+
+ HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+ Lincoln was human and thus touched the chord that makes the world
+ akin. H. W. BOLTON, D.D.
+
+ God has placed the genius of women in their hearts, because the works
+ of their genius are always the works of love. LAMARTINE.
+
+
+ SHE WON HIS HEART
+
+The son had broken a mother’s heart, and crushed out her life. The
+relatives and other mourners were at the open grave, made ready to
+receive her. Among them stood the son, then maudlin with drink. In that
+pathetic scene was Clara Barton. She stepped to the side of the boy, and
+grasped his arm. The ceremony halted. In a low voice she made her
+appeal; she won his heart; he promised—The casket was lowered; the group
+separated and she led the boy away. A few more words, then humanity’s
+friend and the boy parted, she to other deeds of mercy and he to a new
+life.
+
+
+
+
+ LVII
+
+
+ The philosophy of the old-time African servitor was of the most
+ consoling character—he preached the gospel of contentment, perhaps as
+ divine as any other principle of the moral law.
+
+ LASALLE CORBELL PICKETT—“_In de Miz Series_.”
+
+
+ America had freed a race. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ A gift must be outright. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Our gifts fall short of the best. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Charity and beneficence are degraded by being reduced to a dependence
+ upon a system of beggary. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Charity bears an open palm; to give is her mission.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ How good it is to make two blades of grass grow where was one.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I know I am right because I know liberty is right. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ The colored people would probably help, in some trying time, to keep
+ the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line of Grey’s
+ elegy:
+
+ “The short and simple annals of the poor.”
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ The history of philanthropy has few brighter pages to record than at
+ the Sea Island Hurricane, and its pleasant memories will gladden the
+ hearts long after its weary hours are forgotten.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ YOU BUY IT FOR HIM
+
+The policy of the Red Cross was to help people to true independence by
+enabling them to support themselves by their own work. In Galveston
+after the flood had produced widespread ruin, Clara Barton authorized
+her field agent to visit the coast towns, ascertain the needs of the
+people, and send in requisitions by telegraph. As the agent was leaving
+on this mission she said:
+
+At the Sea Islands one day a negro came to see me. He said that we had
+built a little house for him, fenced in his field and garden and given
+him seed and plow and tools to work with. Now if he had a horse or a
+mule or a little bull to pull the plow he could put in his crops. I gave
+instructions that his need should be supplied and, as the horse or mule
+could not be found, a two-year-old steer was bought for him.
+
+Now you are going to the coast country, but wherever you go in all the
+world if you find anybody who needs a horse or a mule or a little bull,
+you buy it for him.
+
+ Oh, chillun, life’s contra’wise,
+ But you’ll neber know no diff’unce
+ ’Twel you’s knockin’ at de skies.
+
+
+
+
+ LVIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton—perhaps the most perfect incarnation of mercy the modern
+ world has known. _Detroit Free Press._
+
+
+ Peace and good will to all the world. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Animals are such agreeable friends; they ask no questions, pass no
+ criticism. GEORGE ELIOT.
+
+
+ Humanity is much more shown in our conduct towards animals than
+ towards our fellow creatures. CHESTERFIELD.
+
+ Some animals are so faithful that I hate to call them brutes.
+
+ LORD ERSKINE.
+
+ There is in every animal’s eye a dim image and gleam of humanity.
+
+ RUSKIN.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s affection for dumb animals showed itself in almost
+ every letter. REV. PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. CORIOLANUS.
+
+ Asoka, Ruler of India, about 300 years before Christ, organized
+ hospitals for the treatment of animals. LAJPAT RAI.
+
+
+ Clara Barton had some reward in the fact that every human living thing
+ that knew her loved her. Roanoke (Va.) _News_.
+
+
+ OR GOD WOULDN’T HAVE MADE THEM
+
+Just back of the old Red Cross house at Glen Echo, the hills slope
+somewhat abruptly about 100 feet down to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal.
+The canal is still in use, with its locks intact, the boats plying day
+and night up and down between its banks. The canal is historic—one of
+the oldest in the United States. It is of unusual interest because the
+first construction work was under the supervision of George Washington,
+he being the President of the canal company. The canal was operated long
+before railroads came into use in this country. From the Red Cross house
+forest trees and thick underbrush cover the slope of the hills down to
+the canal.
+
+One day Miss Barton had a distinguished guest, who wanted to stroll down
+to the edge of the canal and have her tell him about it. Miss Barton
+accompanying him, they made their way slowly through the growth of
+ferns, tall brakes, thick underbrush and dead timbers. On their way a
+“cotton tail” jumped out from the brush. The visitor suddenly pulled out
+of his pocket a pistol to kill the rabbit but Miss Barton protested,
+saying: “I do not permit wild animals to be killed around my place.
+These animals are my friends; I am very fond of them.” The visitor,
+disappointed in not enjoying the “sport” of killing, tried to convince
+his hostess that the squirrels, rabbits, muskrats and other such animals
+would injure her fruit trees, destroy her flowers and ruin her garden.
+Miss Barton mildly responded: “I suppose they do, but they also must do
+some good in the world too, or God wouldn’t have made them.”
+
+
+
+
+ LIX
+
+
+ All creeds in need of help enlisted Clara Barton’s sympathies and
+ received her cordial assistance. HARRIETTE L. REED, Past National
+ Secretary, Woman’s Relief Corps.
+
+
+ Neither “Mental” nor “Christian” Science, nor Theosophy claims to be
+ new, but only the distinct enunciation of great world-wide truths.
+ TOLSTOI.
+
+ I read “Science and Health” very conscientiously at all times.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I accepted Christian Science as something better than I had known,
+ without seeing its text books, without ever having heard an argument.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Isn’t it blessed that the way is opening for the relief of the ills of
+ the human race—poor, suffering race, how many of our ills we make
+ ourselves. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON—MARY BAKER EDDY
+
+Clara Barton and Mary Baker Eddy[6] were warm personal friends.
+
+Footnote 6:
+
+ Born July 16, 1821, five months and nine days before Clara Barton.
+
+For three years Clara Barton attended the Christian Science Church, but
+did not become a member. On numerous occasions Miss Barton expressed
+high estimation of the work done under the leadership of that most
+wonderful woman, Mary Baker Eddy, in the religious life of the people.
+Spiritually these two great women were in harmony.
+
+“Miss Clara Barton,” says Mrs. Eddy, “dipped her pen in my heart, and
+traced its emotions, motives and objects. Then lifting the curtain of
+mortal mind, she depicted its rooms, guests, standing and seating
+capacity, and thereafter gave her discovery to the press.
+
+“Now, if Miss Barton were not a venerable soldier, patriot,
+philanthropist, moralist and stateswoman, I should shrink from much
+salient praise, but in consideration of all that Miss Barton really is,
+and knowing that she can bear the blame which may follow said
+description of her soul visit, I will say ‘Amen,’ so be it.”
+
+On December 5, 1910, in her diary, Clara Barton writes: “This morning
+brings the sad news of the death of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy.” In the diary
+the following day Miss Barton writes: “More particulars concerning the
+passing of Mrs. Eddy. All so quiet, correct—no form, no excitement, no
+mourning; all peaceful, thoughtful, proper. What a lesson she has taught
+the world, and what faithful, apt scholars she has taught and trained!
+The greatest woman of all; her life a signal triumph and her death the
+greatest of all.
+
+“No criticisms _now_, no light comments. Her followers bow in meek
+submission and her foes stand rebuked. There is no such person left, no
+such mind, no such ability. Long ago I said she was our greatest living
+woman; I now say she is our greatest dead.”
+
+
+
+
+ LX
+
+
+ Clara Barton has given us a constant lesson in thrift. She lived so
+ simply that at her desk, at work, a piece of bread and cheese and one
+ apple was her dinner; a frugal supper and a most abstemious breakfast.
+ ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+
+ Count Tolstoi gave up his whole time to mitigating the suffering
+ caused by the Russian famine. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The simple needs being the only true needs, their satisfaction alone
+ is guaranteed. TOLSTOI.
+
+ The satisfaction of all simple, normal wants is guaranteed to men as
+ it is to the bird and the flower. TOLSTOI.
+
+ The brave soul rates itself too high to value itself by the splendor
+ of its table and draperies. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+ Economy, prudence, and the simple life are the sure masters of need.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ LIKE TOLSTOI SHE LIVED THE SIMPLE LIFE
+
+Clara Barton’s food was of the simplest. Costly food, even at another’s
+expense, she could not enjoy; eating costly food, to her, seemed a sin.
+For breakfast, her first choice of menu was a dish of graham mush, with
+milk and fruit; her second choice, meal grains and vegetables, with
+simple accompaniments.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ COUNT LYOF NIKOLAYEVITCH TOLSTOI
+
+ I would like to visit the United States, but I would want to spend the
+ time among the farmers. Give Clara Barton my love; I feel that we
+ are related.—COUNT LYOF NIKOLAYEVITCH TOLSTOI.
+]
+
+
+ CO-WORKERS WITH CLARA BARTON
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS
+
+ Miss Barton, I trust you will press this (Red Cross) matter upon our
+ present administration with all the might of your well-earned
+ influence.—DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS (November 21, 1881). Ex-Chairman, U.
+ S. Sanitary Commission.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DR. JULIAN B. HUBBELL
+
+ Clara Barton was scrupulously honest, severely economical in her
+ personal needs, always sacrificing self for others, and her simple
+ life in her home was as beautiful as her public life.—DR. JULIAN B.
+ HUBBELL, Clara Barton’s physician and co-worker in the field for
+ thirty years.
+]
+
+A favorite meal was bread, cheese and a Rhode Island Greening Apple. Two
+meals a day satisfied, and nothing eaten between meals. No tea, no
+coffee, no substitutes, and no wine. A bottle of wine presented by a
+friend would last from one year to five years. There is now a bottle of
+Bordeaux, in her old home at Glen Echo, that has been there for
+twenty-five years. Like Tolstoi, she was a vegetarian, and an advocate
+of “low fare”; but, like Tolstoi, she did not so much as advise the
+household of which she was a member what to eat, or how much to eat.
+Like Tolstoi, Clara Barton lived the simple life, but did not impose her
+philosophy upon others; like Tolstoi, she lived to a ripe old age,
+endured persecution, and served the human race. So much in common were
+their habits of living, and their philosophy of human life, that
+Tolstoi, in sending his love to Clara Barton, said: “I feel that we are
+related.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXI
+
+
+ Two Angels—God’s sweet gifts, one of the Old World, one of the New.—E.
+ MAY GLENN TOON.
+
+
+ Just as Florence Nightingale was “The Angel of Crimea,” so Clara
+ Barton was “The Angel of the World’s Battlefields.”
+
+ _Boston Transcript._
+
+
+ Florence Nightingale, who introduced into the world a system of women
+ hospital nurses, was ousted from her Governmental position, she then
+ being an invalid. Later the treatment accorded to her by England was
+ made a national issue, and on that issue her admirers and friends
+ overwhelmingly won. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ At the unveiling of the Florence Nightingale Memorial in the Crypt of
+ St. Paul’s Cathedral, as she pulled the cord revealing the beautiful
+ sculpture, Queen Victoria said: “I have great pleasure in unveiling
+ this memorial.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Although unknown to each other save in name, the “Lady of the Lamp”
+ and the “Angel of the Battlefield” were indeed sisters.
+
+ CONSTANCE WAKEFORD.
+
+
+ When Florence Nightingale labored among the sick and wounded at
+ Scutari, Clara Barton was still writing beautiful “copper-plate style”
+ in the office at Washington. ENGLISH AUTHOR.
+
+ When Florence Nightingale had safely returned to her lovely home in
+ England, the great call came to Clara Barton away on the other side of
+ the Atlantic. ENGLISH AUTHOR.
+
+ For half a century we have thanked God for what Florence Nightingale
+ has wrought and taught. CONSTANCE WAKEFORD.
+
+ Clara Barton’s personal devotion had already planted the idea of the
+ Red Cross in the heart of the American people better than any official
+ bureau could do. _Heroines of Modern Progress._
+
+ I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our country’s work—it
+ is what we live for. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+
+ What is money without a country! CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON—FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
+
+Clara Barton was born in 1821 and lived to be ninety-one years of age.
+
+Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 and lived to be ninety years of
+age.
+
+Clara Barton lived her long life without marrying; Florence Nightingale
+likewise lived her long life without marrying.
+
+Clara Barton is known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”; Florence
+Nightingale, as the “Lady of the Lamp.”
+
+Although they were strangers to each other, they are known as, indeed,
+sisters.
+
+Clara Barton had the distinction of being born on Christmas and passing
+away on Easter; Florence Nightingale had the distinction of having for a
+name the name of a stately city and a sweet-voiced bird.
+
+Clara Barton as a nurse had her first experience nursing a brother by
+the name of David; Florence Nightingale as a nurse had her first
+experience caring for a pet shepherd dog by the name of “Cap.”
+
+Clara Barton on an army wagon seated with a mule driver left Washington
+to go to the battlefields of the Civil War; Florence Nightingale on
+board of a vessel with 38 other nurses, sailed from England to go to the
+hospitals at Scutari, Turkey, in the Crimean War.
+
+Clara Barton continually “followed the cannon” from the camps of the
+soldiers on to the “firing line”; Florence Nightingale lived at Scutari,
+but on one occasion inspected the camps of the soldiers at Balaclava
+within hearing of the cannon.
+
+Clara Barton had for a pet, presented to her, a white Arabian horse and
+known as “Baba”; Florence Nightingale had for a pet, presented to her, a
+Russian hound, and known as “Miss Nightingale’s Crimean Dog.”
+
+Clara Barton wore the Iron Cross of Prussia, representing Germany, and
+presented to her by Emperor William I; Florence Nightingale wore a
+brooch bearing a St. George’s Cross, in red enamel on a white field
+representing England, and presented to her by Queen Victoria.
+
+Clara Barton received from the Sultan of Turkey a “Diploma,” and
+“Decorations”; Florence Nightingale received from the Sultan of Turkey a
+costly diamond necklace.
+
+The United States Government refused to appropriate one thousand dollars
+for a memorial tablet to Clara Barton in the Red Cross Building; England
+conferred on Florence Nightingale the dignity of a “Lady of Grace of the
+Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” and later the still higher “Order of
+Merit,” founded by King Edward VII himself, in 1902.
+
+The people of the United States contributed to a fund for Clara
+Barton—well, perhaps, this is a secret and should not be told here; the
+people of England contributed to a fund for Florence Nightingale,
+through the Jenny Lind concerts and in other ways, a fund amounting to
+$250,000, the fund since used to establish the “Nightingale Home at St.
+Thomas’ Hospital”—a Training School for Nurses.
+
+By her request, Clara Barton was buried near her home at Oxford,
+Massachusetts; by her request, Florence Nightingale was buried near her
+home at Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, England.
+
+Clara Barton built for herself, at her own expense, a very unpretentious
+memorial in her family burying ground at Oxford; Her Majesty the Queen
+unveiled the memorial to Florence Nightingale in the crypt of St. Paul’s
+Cathedral, London, where are the tombs of Nelson, Wellington, Wolsey and
+Lord Roberts.
+
+The plain granite monument to Clara Barton in the country cemetery bears
+the inscription:
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+ ANGEL OF THE BATTLEFIELD
+ Civil War 1861–1865.
+ Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871.
+ Spanish-American War 1898.
+ Organizer and President of the American
+ National Red Cross 1881–1904.
+ December 25, 1821–April 12, 1912.
+ BARTON
+
+The memorial to Florence Nightingale is a beautiful sculpture in white
+marble, representing Florence Nightingale bending over a wounded
+soldier, to whose lips she is holding a cup. A rich alabaster frame
+surrounds the marble, inscribed above with a legend, “Blessed are the
+merciful” and below: Florence Nightingale, O. M.; born May 12, 1820—died
+August 13th, 1910.
+
+Of two famous women be it written:
+
+ Their bodies are buried in peace; but their names live for evermore.
+
+
+
+
+ LXII
+
+
+ American Red Cross Founder, a life of sacrifice.
+
+ _New York Tribune._
+
+ We realize the economies which Clara Barton lived and practiced, that
+ she might give life and aid to those who were in dire need. _The Fra._
+
+
+ Economy is not parsimony. BURKE.
+
+ Economy is no disgrace. BERZ.
+
+ It would be well if we had more misers. GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+ Economy is the poor man’s mint. TUPPER.
+
+ Economy is half the battle of life. SPURGEON.
+
+ Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease.
+
+ DR. S. JOHNSON.
+
+
+ A habit of economy is prolific of a numerous offspring of virtues.
+
+ C. BUTLER.
+
+ Sound economy is a sound understanding, brought into action.
+
+ HANNAH MORE.
+
+ It is not what we earn, but what we save, that makes us rich.
+
+ SIR WALTER SCOTT.
+
+ Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a ship.
+
+ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
+
+
+ The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that every
+ man who looks before him must resolve to avoid it.
+
+ DR. S. JOHNSON.
+
+ I was brought up New England, and I have the New England thrift. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ My expenses have been so heavy and my receipts so “nothing” that I
+ cannot take on more “help.” CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There must be no more big hotel bills; the money must be saved for the
+ sufferers. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Clara Barton has often been known by those near her to rob herself of
+ all her personal income—to carry on the work of an abiding and
+ all-absorbing charity. DR. J. GARDNER.
+
+
+ At first I used to be shocked over her penuriousness but when I
+ discovered the motive, that it was to save for others in need, no
+ words could describe my conscience-stricken feeling and my admiration
+ of that self-sacrificing woman.
+
+ GENERAL W. H. SEARS, “Secretary.”
+
+
+ THE GENERAL HAS MONEY—I AM HIS RECONCENTRADO
+
+When traveling on the cars, Clara Barton would take her lunches with
+her. At night she would sit up in the day coach, and not take a
+sleeper—because of the expense. She made a trip from Washington to
+Boston. Her secretary was with her. He wanted a sleeper. How could he
+enjoy the luxury and Miss Barton not know it? Miss Barton had taken her
+shawl—in a bundle tied together with straps—and laid her head on it for
+a pillow. “Now is my opportunity,” thought the secretary, but she didn’t
+close her eyes. Four or five hours any night was enough sleep for Miss
+Barton, and the secretary knew it. The secretary was becoming ill at
+ease. He said, “Now, if you will excuse me, Miss Barton, I will go to
+the smoking car and have a smoke.” He was not there long;—he quietly
+slipped into the Pullman and went to sleep.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Jaro Studio_
+
+
+ WOODROW WILSON
+ The President, also President of the American Red Cross Society, March
+ 4, 1913–March 4, 1921.
+
+ I have learned, from all I have heard of Clara Barton, to admire her
+ very much.
+ WOODROW WILSON (in 1918).
+]
+
+Early the next morning he passed unseen into the smoker of the day
+coach, then to where Miss Barton, bright and cheerful, was sitting. As
+nothing was said about “a good night’s rest,” he assumed that she
+thought he too had practiced self-denial. Nevertheless, he was ashamed
+over his “make-believe,” and also that a lady of seventy years the
+possessor of wealth had beaten him, her able-bodied young secretary, on
+a small salary, at the “game of economy.”
+
+On arriving at Boston “Sister Harriette,” owner of one of the ancestral
+homes of Massachusetts, was at the station to meet her. The secretary
+unsuspecting—still “blooded” and a “real sport”—as they entered the
+station restaurant said “Now, ladies, you are going to have breakfast
+with me this morning.”
+
+“Sister Harriette,” having served with the Red Cross in the
+Spanish-American War and knowing the secretary, fully understood when
+Miss Barton slyly remarked “oh, yes, the General has money, you know;
+_he_ travels in a Pullman and I am his reconcentrado.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXIII
+
+
+ The greatest generals were proud to know her; eminent statesmen felt
+ honored by her friendship.
+
+ Bridgeport (Conn.) _Post_.
+
+
+ Abraham Lincoln—the simplest, serenest, sublimest character of the
+ age. U. S. SENATOR JOHN M. THURSTON.
+
+ The beauty of Lincoln’s immortal character has thrown in the shade the
+ splendor of his intellect. BISHOP J. P. NEWMAN.
+
+
+ Presidents Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley, with their
+ cabinets, have been actively interested in, and committed to its (Red
+ Cross) work. WALTER P. PHILLIPS, Chairman, Red Cross Committee (in
+ 1903).
+
+
+ Character is higher than intellect. EMERSON.
+
+ Character is the dearest earthly possession. T. SHARP.
+
+ If our character is lovely we are loved. PRESTON.
+
+ Character lives in a man; reputation lives outside of him.
+
+ J. G. HOLLAND.
+
+ Character, like everything else, is affected by all the forces that
+ work upon it, and produce it. BISHOP W. F. MCDOWELL.
+
+ Character is made up of small duties faithfully performed.
+
+ _Anon._
+
+ The true character of a man displays itself in great events.
+
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman
+ of the last century said: “Men succeed less by their talents than by
+ their character.” WENDELL PHILLIPS.
+
+ Great trials test great characteristics. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Great trials seem to be a necessary preparation for great duties.
+
+ EDWARD THOMPSON.
+
+ Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of
+ greatest minds. COLTON-LACON.
+
+
+ It is only by the active development of events that character and
+ ability can be tested. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S SON
+
+Robert T. Lincoln was Secretary of War.
+
+When Clara Barton handed her card to the porter, he asked, “What do you
+want to see him about?”
+
+“Just because he is Abraham Lincoln’s son. I knew his father and merely
+want to pay my respects to him.”
+
+Clara Barton was admitted. The War Secretary rose as she entered the
+office, and Miss Barton opened the conversation by saying: “I knew
+President Lincoln well. He was good and kind to me in whatever I tried
+to do for the soldiers. He seemed to appreciate the little things I had
+succeeded in doing; and when there came a great undertaking (referring
+to making a record of the missing soldiers), so great as to appal with
+its seeming impossibility, he encouraged me. Survivors of the missing
+entreated me to undertake the work and, when other officials said it
+could not be done, your father, with his big heart, said ‘I will help
+you.’ He smoothed the way and made it possible, assisting me until the
+work was done. When I came back to Washington, he was not here to
+receive my grateful thanks. He had gone beyond all that. It was a sad
+little burden to carry around with me unshared, but I have carried it.
+At home and beyond the sea, wherever I have been, it has gone with me,
+and I have come today to ask you, as his representative, to accept my
+burden of thanks for him.”
+
+The tears were filling Miss Barton’s eyes before she had finished. She
+was abashed at her failure to control her emotions but, glancing up at
+the Secretary, she saw that he too was weeping. Looking at each other a
+moment in silence, the Secretary reached out his hand to Miss Barton and
+said “I do accept your tribute of thanks—for my father.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXIV
+
+
+ Clara Barton—intelligent and reclaiming, her leading attributes.
+
+ Atlanta (Ga.) _Constitution_.
+
+
+ Pity it is to slay the meanest thing. HOOD.
+
+
+ Man is an aristocrat among animals. HEINE.
+
+ The merciful man doeth good to his own soul. PROVERBS.
+
+ How deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to kill
+ animals. TOLSTOI.
+
+ Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men.
+
+ JOSEPH ADDISON.
+
+ Could we understand the language of animals, how instructive a
+ dialogue of dogs would be. EUDOXES.
+
+ Animals, in our degenerate age, are every day perishing under the
+ hands of barbarity, without notice, without mercy. A. DEAN.
+
+
+ Surely the sensibility of brutes entitles them to a milder treatment
+ than they usually meet with from hard and unthinking wretches. A.
+ DEAN.
+
+
+ THE BUTCHER DIDN’T GET IT
+
+“Miss Barton, the butcher has been here today. He wants to buy the
+little Jersey calf; offered me $5.00 for it,” said the manager of the
+Red Cross home, “and I told him he could have it.” “But he can’t,—why
+didn’t you ask me about it?” “Well, I knew we couldn’t keep it; we need
+the milk—” “But the calf needs the milk too, and I tell you that the
+calf is not going to be killed.” “But I have sold it.” “That doesn’t
+make any difference; I haven’t—and it’s my calf.”
+
+“You just ask your neighbors, and they’ll tell you that nobody thinks of
+raising a calf—in town here.” “But I’m not asking my neighbors.”
+
+“Now, Miss Barton, don’t you know we have no pasturage and we have to
+buy all our feed, and feed is high now, too.”
+
+“Never mind, we’ll get the feed.”
+
+“But, Miss Barton, the calf is a nuisance around the house, and it will
+cost more——”
+
+“Now, you’ve said enough; the calf is _not_ a nuisance and _I_ am paying
+the expenses. If you don’t want to take care of the calf, I’ll take care
+of it myself. Now go along and don’t talk to me any more about that
+calf. The butcher will _not_ get it.”
+
+And the butcher didn’t get it.
+
+
+
+
+ LXV
+
+
+ Clara Barton, an example of charity to a younger generation.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Pilot_.
+
+
+ Woman! there is a place for thee; go forth and fill it, that in thee
+ mankind may be doubly blessed. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Let all things be done in charity. I. CORINTHIANS.
+
+ Go and sin no more. ST. JOHN.
+
+
+ The Lord alone can direct me. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Go straight to God’s work, in simplicity and singleness of heart.
+
+ FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+ I never in my life performed a day’s work at the field that was not
+ grounded in that little sentence “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
+ of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.”
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ With malice towards none; with charity for all. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Alas, for the rarity of Christian charity under the sun. HOOD.
+
+ O charity, thou friend to him who knows no other friend besides.
+
+ CANON BOWLES.
+
+ Charity and personal force are the only investment worth anything.
+ WALT WHITMAN.
+
+ Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven and hell a
+ fable. COLTON.
+
+
+ Clara Barton—the candles of her charity lighted the gloom of death.
+ _Grand Rapids Herald._
+
+ Clara Barton—her beautiful deeds of charity.
+
+ _Roswell Record._
+
+
+ How white are the fair robes of charity, as she walketh amid the lowly
+ habitations of the poor. HOSEA BALLOU.
+
+
+ THE KIND OF GIRLS THAT NEEDED HELP
+
+In Miss Barton’s relief work in the overflow of the Ohio River at one of
+the stops, at Shawneetown, among the people who came on board the boat
+for relief were two girls. They had evidently told Clara Barton their
+needs in a private conversation and were leaving, when somebody living
+in the town came to Miss Barton and quietly told her that she had better
+not have anything to do with these girls; they were not the kind she
+should be helping.
+
+Without ostentation, or without making any display about it, she called
+the girls back, had a long private talk with them and furnished them
+with all of the supplies they needed, in quiet defiance of the advice
+which had been volunteered about the character of the girls. Of course
+her advice would be of a kind that they would never forget through their
+whole lifetime and would be their guide in the future. And as they left
+she calmly remarked that they were the kind of girls that probably
+needed her help more than any others in the place.
+
+
+
+
+ LXVI
+
+
+ Clara Barton—loved and honored as perhaps no other woman of her day.
+ Tacoma (Wash.) _Ledger_.
+
+
+ Switzerland is an _armed_ neutrality in which one has faith.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The Red Cross was chosen out of compliment to the Swiss Republic; the
+ Swiss colors being a white cross on a red ground. The badge chosen
+ were those colors reversed. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Romance is the poetry of literature. MADAME NECKER.
+
+ Romance is always young. WHITTIER.
+
+ Romance—the parent of golden dreams. BYRON.
+
+ The Red Cross seems to have become the milder romance of war.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Love took up the glass of time. TENNYSON.
+
+ Love will find out the way. ALFRED NOYES.
+
+ Love took up the harp of life. LOCKSLEY HALL.
+
+ Love conquers all things. VIRGIL.
+
+
+ All mankind loves a lover. EMERSON.
+
+ True love is better than glory. THACKERAY.
+
+ Love is the beginning of everything. F. W. BOREHAM.
+
+
+ None but the brave and beautiful can love. BAILEY.
+
+ Love rules the camp, the court, the grove.
+
+ _Lay of the Last Minstrel._
+
+ A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Hail wedded love,
+ Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets. MILTON.
+
+ Love’s history, as Life’s, is ended not by marriage.
+
+ BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+
+ Love is greater than war, truer than steel, stronger than fear or
+ danger of death. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS
+
+The battle had been fought, and on the bloody field lay the wounded.
+Among these was a Swiss boy who had left his native country, coming to
+America to fight in the cause of the Union. In her ministerings on the
+field, Clara Barton had heard of this lad, by name Jules Golay, but had
+not seen him. He was undergoing a surgical operation. As the knife was
+doing its work, in great pain he cried out, “Mon Dieu!” Clara Barton
+heard the cry and went to him. He could not speak in English, but in
+French Clara Barton while dressing his wound gave him words of sympathy.
+Daily, as tender as a mother, she cared for him until he recovered.
+
+Only the brave know how to be grateful. The soldier’s gratitude knew no
+bounds. He did not forget, and awaited his opportunity. Years later Miss
+Barton was taken ill, and went to Switzerland. Jules begged her to come
+to his home. There, in her shattered physical condition, she was cared
+for in greater than a royal palace—a cottage where love reigns. Clara
+Barton returned to America. The elder Golay died; his family then
+scattered. The eldest son, Mons A. Golay, came to New York. There his
+wife, of a
+
+ The hand that rocks the cradle
+ Is the hand that rocks the world.
+ WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON BABY CRADLE
+
+ I remember my first baby experience, when I was two and one-half years
+ of age. CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+
+ SENTIMENT IN HISTORY
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE PET JERSEY CALF
+
+ The butcher will not get it.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See page 208.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ COLONY OF CONSTANTINOPLE DOGS
+
+ “Dogs in Constantinople are held sacred.”
+
+ See page 345.
+]
+
+year, died also. He, ill and penniless, came to Dansville to see Miss
+Barton, then convalescing.
+
+Mons A. Golay, recovering his health, went to Chicago and became
+established there in business with his brother Jules. Jules’ old wounds
+broke out afresh and in consequence he died, leaving a broken hearted
+wife and several children. “One woe doth tread upon another’s heel so
+fast they follow.” The widow soon followed him to the Beyond. The orphan
+children became the care of Mons. A. Golay, who struggled nobly to
+provide for them. In his distress over the problem of life, he
+remembered.
+
+ She was a form of life and light
+ That seen becomes a part of sight
+ And goes wher’er I turn my eye
+ The moving star of memory.
+
+But the romance does not end here; the romance follows:
+
+A Miss Kupfer while traveling had been stricken with a fever, and was
+seriously ill at a hotel in Switzerland. There the ever humane Clara
+Barton took care of her, nursing her back to life. When Miss Kupfer, in
+her far-away home, heard of Miss Barton’s serious illness she crossed
+the ocean to be at the bedside of her benefactor, then living at
+Dansville.
+
+Mons A. Golay revisits Dansville and there, as on former visit, meets
+the beautiful Miss Kupfer, herself still exemplifying that “the religion
+of humanity is love.”
+
+“Love is life’s end, an end but never ending.”
+
+The two of foreign birth thus strangely brought together were each of
+gentle manners, of rare culture,—of like tastes and alike spiritually.
+As love is the spiritual friendship of two souls, unwittingly through
+Miss Barton there became inter-clasped two human loves, the crowning
+event of all human bliss.
+
+It was one of the happiest of occasions in her home at Dansville when
+Miss Barton gave away the bride,—Miss Kupfer becoming Mrs. Mons A.
+Golay, and the guardian spirit of the little children needing a mother’s
+care. The romance of two continents, which reads like a fiction resulted
+in a happy family, in an ideal American home.
+
+
+
+
+ LXVII
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s monument is the gratitude of humanity.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Record_.
+
+
+ Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great.
+
+ MOTLEY.
+
+
+ The grave, dread thing! Men shiver when thou’rt named; nature,
+ appalled, shakes off her wonted firmness. ROBERT BLAIR.
+
+
+ An immortal hope was in her gaze and in her soul—in her life she did
+ everything thoroughly. What more natural than that she should want to
+ know her last resting place would be in order when the Master called?
+ REV. PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ The monument means a world of memories, a world of deeds, a world of
+ tears and a world of glories. JAMES A. GARFIELD.
+
+ By desire and nomination of President Garfield, I was made President
+ of the American Red Cross. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Life’s race well run,
+ Life’s work well done,
+ Life’s crown well won
+ Now comes rest.
+ PRESIDENT GARFIELD’S _Epitaph_.
+
+
+ THE LITTLE MONUMENT—FOR ALL ETERNITY
+
+She suddenly stopped talking; she faltered; she choked; then trembling,
+the veteran of many struggles, propped up in bed and suspecting the end
+near, on Oct. 3, 1911, there occurred the following conversation:
+
+“Now Mr. Young, I want to ask something of you. Would you do me a
+favor?”
+
+“Why certainly, Miss Barton, what is it?”
+
+“I know it is uncanny. You may not want to do it. I must not ask it, and
+yet I _must_.”
+
+“My dear Miss Barton, tell me what it is.”
+
+“You know, I have no one to leave my little property to,—well, I have
+from time to time been spending some money out in the cemetery.” Then
+she hesitated for fully two minutes, sobbing but trying to control her
+emotions, when she continued—“where I’ll remain for all eternity. Maybe
+you would like to see the little monument I have had constructed; to
+keep it in memory, and to associate me with the place I am to be always.
+I would so much like to have you see it, and it might be some
+satisfaction to you. Will you do me this favor? You can get off the
+electric car on your way to Worcester; it won’t take you long, and I
+would feel better to have you do so.”
+
+“My dear,” I said, “it is so kind of you to have mentioned this. I
+appreciate it more than I can tell you. I won’t get off the car, but if
+Doctor Hubbell will go with me, I’ll get an auto to drive out there. I
+also want to see where you were born. How far is that?”
+
+“Only two or three miles. If you will do this you will make me very
+happy.”
+
+ I am taught by the Oak to be rugged and strong
+ In defense of the right, in defiance of wrong.
+ HELEN O. HOYT.
+
+
+ HISTORIC AND SENTIMENTAL
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ BABA, CLARA BARTON’S PET HORSE
+
+ Baba was presented to Clara Barton at Santiago, Cuba, by a war
+ correspondent of the New York _World_, 1899.
+
+ We both loved him. I am glad my last act was for his welfare.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See page 219.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE BABA TREE—WILLIAM H. LEWIS
+
+ (Tree registered in Hall of Fame for Trees, Washington, D. C.)
+
+ The Baba Tree (Quercus Alba), grown on Cedar Green Farm, Battlefield
+ of Chancellorsville, Virginia. Planted April, 1912, on Woodland
+ Farm, two and one half miles from Bloody Angle, of said battlefield.
+ White oak trees nearby, eleven feet in circumference, whose age
+ (estimated) is between two hundred and three hundred years.—WILLIAM
+ H. LEWIS, Chancellor Virginia.
+]
+
+“Do you know, I can get no help here; I thought when I came here I could
+get all the help I wanted, but it seems to be something that neither
+love nor money will buy. Haven’t been able to get a nurse to wait on me.
+But my tenants on the lower floor are very kind, and bring me my meals.
+I feel very much alone. I am the lonesomest lone woman in the world. You
+do not know how much I appreciate your coming such a long distance to
+see me; it has done me so much good—”
+
+Moved by a sudden impulse I took her right hand in mine, kissed it and
+said “God bless you!” Faster than the mind thinks, she raised up in bed
+with a “No, no”—caught my left hand in both of her hands so excitedly
+that I could not divine her movements, other than to suspect that I had
+performed a breech of decorum. Holding tight my hand in both of hers she
+kissed it, and with tears in her eyes said: “I’ll never see you again,
+this is the last—”
+
+“Oh! yes you will,” I said.
+
+“No, not again. Good-bye!”
+
+“No, Miss Barton, I’ll not say good-bye to you; you cannot die. You will
+live always. I will only say—God bless you!”
+
+And then, backing out of the room, facing her all the while and watching
+her changing expressions as the shadows played over her features,—waved
+a kiss, and said “God bless you!”
+
+
+
+
+ LXVIII
+
+
+ I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. JOYCE FILMER.
+
+
+ The trees are monuments with a meaning, for they live gloriously just
+ as did those for whom they are planted. CHARLES LATHROP PACK,
+ _President of the American Forestry Association_.
+
+
+ The soil is right and the husbandman will not fail. CLARA BARTON,
+ _President The National First Aid_.
+
+
+ There never was any heart truly great and generous that was not also
+ tender and compassionate. SOUTH.
+
+
+ Life is war; eternal war with woes.
+
+ YOUNG’S _Night Thoughts_.
+
+
+ Before any great national event I have always had the same dream.
+
+ I had it the other night; it is a ship sailing rapidly.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Whichever way it ends, I have the impression that I shall not last
+ long after it is over. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ O, I have passed a miserable night,
+ So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams.
+ KING RICHARD III.
+
+
+ Always there have been believers in dreams. From Genesis to Revelation
+ we read of dreams and visions and their influence for good or evil
+ upon the acts and lives of numerous characters in Biblical history. In
+ Genesis, Jacob dreams of a ladder to Heaven; Joseph’s rise to eminence
+ is based on dreams and his solution of them. The Revelation of St.
+ John the Divine in its entirety is given to us as a vision seen while
+ on the Isle of Patmos.
+
+ _Queen of the Romanies._
+
+
+ STORY OF BABA—DREAM OF A WHITE HORSE—LIFE’S WOES
+
+While in Santiago Clara Barton was presented with a beautiful white
+Arabian horse, named Baba. Baba was a pacer and an ideal saddle animal.
+Miss Barton was fond of Baba, and Baba just as fond of Miss Barton.
+Having been bred and reared on the Island of Jamaica, Baba was very fond
+of bananas and, when Miss Barton brought from the store any of this
+fruit, her first thought on returning home was to share it with Baba. On
+one occasion, when her little nephew was out riding Baba, Baba spied a
+banana on the side of the road; he refused to go further, and insisted
+on turning around and going back. Not knowing why Baba acted in this
+way, the little boy kicked him, struck him with his stick, but Baba won
+out, went back and got the banana. After eating it, he went on as if
+nothing had happened. When Miss Barton found it out she scolded the
+little boy for mistreating the horse. And when it was explained to the
+boy he cried piteously because he had been so cruel, for he too was fond
+of Baba.
+
+Baba was a great traveler. He visited New York, Massachusetts, and
+Virginia, always living on the best in the land. Baba made friends
+wherever he went for he was not only kind and beautiful but he was fond
+of children. Baba was never happier than when the children were on his
+back, having a good time. Baba passed his last days in a pasture in
+Virginia and as the favored guest of a good friend of Miss Barton.
+
+In the absence of Baba from Glen Echo, Miss Barton would frequently
+dream of a white horse. To dream of a white horse, she interpreted, was
+a bad omen. When she heard of Baba’s death Miss Barton became very
+despondent, and said to the members of her household “this means that I
+am not going to stay here a great while.”
+
+Clara Barton, who was at that time preparing for herself a monument,
+wished also a monument for Baba. She philosophizes and thinks it should
+be a tree—the longest-lived of all living things. Of a tree’s longevity
+there is of record in England an oak 800 years, an elm 2,600 years, one
+yew 3,000 years, and another yew, with a diameter of 27 feet, 3,200
+years; in Africa, baobabs 4,000 years; near the Castle of Chapultepec,
+Mexico, a cypress 26 feet in diameter, and said to be 6,000 years old.
+
+Of the first class at Bowdoin was George Thorndike. He planted the
+Bowdoin Oak, and is the only one of that class remembered by the
+students of that American college. The boy died in 1802, at the age of
+twenty-one years, but the tree is still the pride of that great
+institution of learning, and sacred to the memory of him who planted it.
+
+In this instance, Miss Barton thought “Woodman, spare that tree” might
+be a sentiment to be respected for hundreds of years. She, therefore,
+selected for a monument to Baba a tree,
+
+ Jove’s own tree,
+ That holds the woods in awful sovereignty.
+
+Characteristic of the heart that quickened to sympathy for life’s woes
+the peoples of the world is the sentimental philosophizing of Clara
+Barton on the death of Baba in the following remarkable letter:
+
+ Glen Echo, Maryland,
+ November 19, 1911.
+
+ My Dear Mr. Lewis:
+
+ Your letter telling me of the last of our dear Baba came yesterday;
+ and I hasten to reply, for I know you need sympathy as well as myself.
+ We both loved him, and are alike grieved; and yet there is much to be
+ thankful for. He went quickly and was not left to suffer, nor to give
+ pain or trouble to others.
+
+ His future care and keeping are no longer questions. He no more needs
+ me. He lived without harm and died well. I do not think he ever
+ knowingly nor intentionally did a wrong thing in his life. Could a
+ human being blest with intelligence and language do better? He had a
+ language of his own which we both understood, and I always felt that
+ he largely understood ours. Kindly as a brother and obedient as a
+ child,—I am glad my last act was for his welfare. He lived with you,
+ and loved you, to the last. He has gone from our hands and our care,
+ leaving with us a loving memory tinctured with respect for the virtues
+ he possessed, and knew not of.
+
+ Let me thank you, dear Mr. Lewis, for the tender care given his
+ remains, and for the grave you have given him on your own farm. Some
+ time when the spring days come, if you see a thrifty oak sapling and
+ have time, will you kindly transplant it beside the grave? His body
+ will nourish it, and let it be his monument. The children will love
+ and protect it as Baba’s tree. His saddle and bridle you ask; you keep
+ them and his little belongings as no one else could hold them so
+ tenderly as you.
+
+ I will take back the check for his winter feed as useless now; but
+ wish to enclose in this ten dollars for the last tender care and
+ burial, with the assurance that you will always hold a high place in
+ my esteem and affection for the kind and manly part you have taken in
+ this little episode of life’s woes.
+
+ Let me repeat from your letter this sentiment, the hope that we may be
+ friends while life shall last.
+
+ Yours gratefully,
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+
+
+ LXIX
+
+
+ Resolved, in behalf of the State of Texas especially does the
+ legislature thank Clara Barton, President of the Red Cross Society.
+
+ Approved February 1, 1901.
+
+ A tribute of honor, of which sovereigns might be proud, clothed in
+ language the eloquence of which our English tongue does not surpass.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
+ his friends. ST. JOHN.
+
+
+ Clara Barton is the embodiment of the saving principle of laying down
+ one’s life for one’s friends. Her achievements are greater than the
+ conquest of nations or the inventions of genius, and who is justly
+ crowned in the even-tide of her life with the love and admiration of
+ all humanity.
+
+ Central Relief Committee of Galveston, Texas.
+
+ The name of Clara Barton has ever been a cherished one in our
+ Southland, and the Red Cross the symbol of the most noble charity.
+ MRS. ROSENE RYAN, Chairman, the Governor’s Relief Committee for
+ Clothing, March 5, 1901.
+
+ It proves to us more strongly than ever, after the experience we have
+ had since the arrival of Miss Barton, that “woman rules the world, as
+ she has always done.” MRS. JENS MOLLER, of the Central Relief
+ Committee, November 13, 1900.
+
+ No name in Texas is today dearer to its people than that of Clara
+ Barton. Red Cross Committee, 1903.
+
+
+ How much of the heroic there is in our people when it is needed.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has come to be the first thought of any community
+ suddenly overtaken by disaster. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross creates an organized neutral volunteer force, from the
+ people, supplied by the people. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross is the outward and practical expression of that
+ universal sympathy that goes out from millions of homes and firesides;
+ from the heart of the nation to humanity in distress.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Not one dollar, for twenty years or more, on twenty fields of national
+ disaster, has there been drawn from the Treasury of the United
+ States,—the beneficence of the people through their awakened
+ characters were equal to all needs. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ High or low, rich or poor, we are the people of this God-given nation;
+ we are also the arbiters of its fate.
+
+ “For sure as sin and suffering’s born
+ We walk to fate abreast.”
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I am here at Galveston, my fingers are in the wound, and I assure you
+ that the side was pierced and the nails did go through.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Despite all its woes and terrors, the memory of Galveston comes ever
+ back to me with a gleam of pleasure for the hope in humanity, which it
+ has kindled, and the noble characteristics of our country which it
+ disclosed. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In every instance the gratitude of the people has been the glad
+ heritage of the Red Cross and its willing servers.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ PEOPLE, LIKE JACK RABBITS—NO “SHOW-WOMAN”
+
+In 1900 a devastating flood visited Galveston. Thousands of human lives
+were destroyed. For two miles back from the shore not a house remained
+standing. Only here and there on the barren sands were seen the wreckage
+of the storm-swept city. Suffering and death held sway in that city of
+once happy homes. Clara Barton, with a corps of able assistants, was
+there having come from Washington at the urgent solicitation of the
+authorities of the City of Galveston.
+
+From overwork and nervous strain she had been taken ill. She was in bed
+at the Tremont Hotel. For three weeks her life hung in the balance. The
+writer, with a party of California tourists, happened to be in the city
+on his way east. He incidentally “dropped in” the hotel, only to learn
+of the serious condition of his friend. Fanny Ward was standing guard at
+the door of the sick room. Undaunted, the writer ventured to suggest:
+“I’d like to see Miss Barton.” “Well, sir, you can’t see Miss Barton.”
+“Why not?” “She is ill, and nobody is permitted to see her.” “But she is
+a friend of mine.” “That makes no difference. I have orders from her
+physician not to let _anybody_ go to her room. No one but the nurse has
+been permitted to enter this room for three weeks.” “Well, if that’s so,
+I don’t expect to see her, but kindly take in my card.” “No, I’ll not do
+that either.” “Well, it seems strange to me that I cannot at least send
+a card of sympathy to my friend.” “Oh, well, if you insist, I’ll take in
+your card, but it won’t do you any good.” “All right, I insist.”
+
+The messenger returned, and reported that Miss Barton wanted to see me
+and would be ready in about fifteen minutes, but she could see no one
+else in the party. As I entered the room, she was half sitting and half
+reclining in her bed, having two large pillows at her back. She had her
+hair neatly arranged, a pink bow adjusted tastefully at the neck, a
+little white shawl hanging loosely over her shoulders and otherwise
+attired as for a state occasion, as similarly was her custom when
+receiving any friend.
+
+Miss Barton: “Mr. —— I am glad to see you. The Doctor said two weeks ago
+that I had but one chance to live. I told him that I would take that
+chance. I did; and I know I am going to get well.”
+
+Mr. ——: “Miss Barton, do you know that on the barren sands between here
+and the shore they already have two or three ‘shacks’ going up?”
+
+Miss Barton: “That does not surprise me. People are like jack-rabbits.
+Scared out of their nice warm nests, they soon forget and return from
+where they started. That whole sand waste will soon be built on again,
+and the people will forget that there has been a flood.”
+
+M. ——: “Miss Barton, there is a very wealthy young lady in our party who
+wants to see you.”
+
+Miss Barton: “But I cannot see her.”
+
+Mr. ——: “I know, Miss Barton, but she told me to tell you that, if your
+assistant would open the door wide enough so that she could just see
+your face, she would give a hundred dollars to charity, and you could
+use it among the sufferers.”
+
+Miss Barton: “I have worked very hard here, and am a very sick woman,
+but I have not yet become a ‘show-woman,’ and I don’t think I will. I do
+not understand such curiosity, nor why your young lady friend would care
+to see me,” and she unconcernedly passed on to another subject
+apparently more agreeable to her modest nature.
+
+
+
+
+ LXX
+
+
+ Clara Barton was loved by the people of the whole world.
+
+ _The Two Martyrs_—By HON. FRANCIS ATWATER.
+
+
+ Love is the life of the soul. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.
+
+ The law of Heaven is love. HOSEA BALLOU.
+
+ The soul of woman lives in love. MRS. SIGOURNEY.
+
+ Love—’tis woman’s whole existence. BYRON.
+
+ The religion of humanity is love. MAZZINI.
+
+ Love is the Amen of the universe. NOVALIS.
+
+
+ Love is indestructible;
+ The holy flame forever burneth
+ From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.
+ SOUTHEY—_Curse of Kehama_.
+
+
+ There is in the heart of woman such a deep well of love that no age
+ can freeze it. BULWER-LYTTON.
+
+ Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of everything.
+
+ LA CORDAIRE.
+
+ Love lives on, and hath a power to bless when they who loved are
+ hidden in their grave. LOWELL.
+
+
+ Julia—His little speaking shows his love but small.
+
+ Lucetta—Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all.
+ _The Two Gentlemen of Verona._
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON’S HEART SECRET—$10,000 IN “GOLD DUST”
+
+Clara Barton was very non-communicative as to her personal affairs,
+confiding in no one her heart’s secrets. But a woman’s curiosity got the
+best of the closest friend Clara ever had, and on a certain occasion
+“Sister Harriette” ventured to draw out of her heart what she had long
+wanted to know:
+
+“Clara, have you never had a sweetheart?”
+
+“Oh yes!” she replied, “just the same as all other girls.”
+
+“But tell me about yours,” Harriette ventured further.
+
+“I will, sometime,” Clara said.
+
+“Oh, no, tell me now,” Harriette continued.
+
+“No, not now—some other time I’ll tell you all about it,” persisted
+Clara. Then she said: “Oh, well, I’ll tell you I had a dear friend in my
+younger days, but he went to California in the rush to the gold fields
+with my brother David, and never came back.”
+
+“Did you really love him?” asked Harriette again, trying to draw her
+out.
+
+“Now, don’t ask me anything more, for I am not going to tell you,”
+replied Clara.
+
+“But you said you would and I am really curious,” continued Harriette.
+
+Clara hesitated, then said: “I don’t feel like it now, but sometime I’ll
+tell you the story.”
+
+ She never told her love,
+ But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,
+ Feed on her damask cheek; she pined in thought;
+ And with a green and yellow melancholy,
+ She sat (like patience on a monument)
+ Smiling at grief.
+
+On a certain other occasion it became necessary for her attorneys to
+know in detail of her finances, and their origin, so they plied her with
+questions:—
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON MONUMENT
+
+ Built at her expense in the cemetery at North Oxford, Massachusetts.
+ In her will Clara Barton left sixteen hundred dollars for the
+ permanent maintenance of the Barton cemetery lot. WILLIAM E. BARTON.
+
+ No more fitting tribute could be paid by the American people than the
+ raising of a monument that will perpetuate the life work of Clara
+ Barton.
+ LIEUTENANT-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.
+
+ Monuments and endowments are the physical testimonials, but they do
+ not express the entire obligation. The life of Clara Barton should
+ be familiarized to every child. Woonsocket (R. I.) _Call._
+
+ Congress should pass a Special Act setting aside a plot and defraying
+ the expenses of a suitable monument over the last resting place of
+ the noble woman who has served the nation in peace and in war.
+ Manchester (N. H.) _Mirror_.
+
+ As we passed one particular monument in the cemetery at Buffalo Clara
+ Barton said: “There is a design which I wish to have copied, and
+ sometime to have a monument put up in my family yard in Oxford for
+ my Father and Mother, my brothers and sister and to be ready for me
+ when I join them.” The design was copied and the monument placed as
+ Miss Barton desired. FRANCIS ATWATER.
+]
+
+Attorney—Now, Miss Barton, tell us where you got all your wealth.
+
+Miss Barton—I haven’t much wealth—what do you mean?—Everything?
+
+Attorney—You inherited some money did you not? Tell us about that.
+
+Miss Barton—I inherited, no—Oh! yes, I got some money once, but why
+should I tell you?
+
+Attorney—It may be brought up in “the investigation” by the attorney on
+the other side and we don’t want any surprise sprung on us.
+
+Miss Barton—Well, that seems reasonable—I’ll tell you. My brother and
+_another_ went to the California gold fields; my brother returned,—the
+other _never did_ return. But he left me all his savings, $10,000 in
+gold.
+
+Attorney—What did you do with the $10,000?
+
+Miss Barton—I always regarded this too sacred to use, so I placed it in
+a New York bank. This was in 1851. I kept it there on interest until
+President Lincoln commissioned me to look up the names of the missing
+soldiers. I did not consider it _too sacred_ for this purpose, and so in
+1865 I drew it out of the bank, then with the interest about $15,000,
+and used it to pay the expenses....
+
+The romance includes the trip in a sailing vessel around the “Horn,” the
+“49ers outfit” in San Francisco, and on the way to the “placer diggins,”
+the death scene in the pueblo of Los Angeles, the story of the sack of
+“gold dust” that reached the sweetheart, and its use later in giving
+cheer to thousands of unhappy homes.
+
+Only on the two occasions were these disclosures of that heart secret,
+and yet visions of her sweetheart are said to have appeared to Clara in
+her dying hours. The most sacred of the heart secrets of womankind Clara
+Barton carried with her to the other world—a secret of her love affair
+which her closest friends think may have been the inspiration of her
+self-sacrifice for humanity.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXI
+
+
+ Clara Barton represented the spirit that knows not race nor color.
+
+ _New York Globe._
+
+
+ Charity and beneficence are degraded by being reduced to a dependence
+ on a system of beggary. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A grateful mind is a great mind. T. SECKER.
+
+ There is not a more pleasing attitude of mind than gratitude.
+
+ JOSEPH ADDISON.
+
+ A grateful mind is not only the greatest of virtues but the greatest
+ of all virtues. CICERO.
+
+
+ Don’t kneel to me—that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and
+ thank Him for the liberty you will now enjoy. I am but God’s humble
+ instrument. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Grateful to me! It is I who should be grateful, and I am.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ We of South Carolina can never forget her contributions to the
+ storm-wrecked people on our desolated sea-coast, after the fearful
+ tempest of 1893. She came as an angel of mercy. With uncovered heads,
+ and with profound deference, we bow to the blessed name of Clara
+ Barton. _The Southern Reporter._
+
+
+ FELL ON THEIR KNEES BEFORE “MIS’ RED CROSS”
+
+A terrific hurricane and tidal wave had struck the coasts of North
+Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. It was estimated that at least
+thirty thousand people were rendered homeless,—the larger number of
+these being of the colored population. Governor Tillman and Senator M.
+C. Butler sent an urgent request to Clara Barton to come to their
+assistance.
+
+Clothing was so scarce among the poor colored people that only the men
+could appear on the streets. About four o’clock in the morning, a crowd
+gathered about the warehouse. Only men were present and these were
+attired in such garments as could be found, mostly ragged at the best.
+In some cases only rags were tied about them, just enough to enable them
+to come for their rations of food, for their starving families. A motley
+crowd it was, but there was never any jostling or crowding, nor
+confusion of any sort.
+
+“Many pathetic scenes come to my mind as I remember this work,” says
+“Sister Harriette.” “When Miss Barton was engaged and could not be seen,
+it was my place to receive the visitors, ascertain their wishes, and
+dispose of them as seemed best. They called Miss Barton ‘Mis’ Red
+Cross,’ came to see her, sometimes in crowds and, when she was not
+otherwise engaged, they were taken to her office. Many of them were old
+women, and upon entering the room one and all fell upon their knees and
+bowed their heads, as if in the presence of a superior being. She
+approached them graciously; some seized her hands and kissed them;
+others reached a fold of her skirts and carried it to their lips, never
+saying a word, asking for nothing, satisfied with just being permitted
+to look at her. They left as quietly as they had come in and went out to
+their homes satisfied that they had been permitted to see ‘Mis’ Red
+Cross.’”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MARIO G. MENOCAL
+
+ In commendation of the Founder of the American Red Cross—Clara Barton,
+ it gives me great pleasure to state that her services rendered to
+ the cause of humanity in general and the poor starving people of
+ Cuba in particular, during our last struggle for independence, were
+ inestimable and her memory is linked to the history of Cuba by ties
+ of gratitude, love and respect.
+ MARIO G. MENOCAL,
+ The President of Cuba, 1912–1920.
+
+ See pages 82; 100; 234; 241; 354.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ LXXII
+
+
+ While the American Navy (in 1899) was sinking the ships of Spain, the
+ Spanish Cortes, by unanimous vote, granted Clara Barton a “Diploma,” a
+ “Decoration,” and a “Vote of Thanks”; and following the war, a
+ “Diploma of Gratitude.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ I am with the wounded. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Cuba was a hard field, full of heart-breaking memories.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Send food, medicine—anything. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is to the Rough Riders we go, and the relief may be rough but it
+ will be ready. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ At the time of the Spanish-American War, in Cuba, Colonel Theodore
+ Roosevelt personally accepted favors at the hands of Clara Barton, as
+ President of the Red Cross. PERCY H. EPLER.
+
+ Keep the pot boiling; let us know what you want.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The first American War (Spanish-American), since the adoption of the
+ Treaty of Geneva, has brought the Red Cross home to the people; they
+ have come to understand its meaning and desire to become a part of it.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Without the Red Cross, as one of our treaties, we could not in the
+ Spanish-American War have floated a relief boat without danger of
+ capture. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The Red Cross of Spain has officially recognized in a most graceful
+ and welcome manner its high appreciation and gratitude for the good
+ offices we were able to render in line of our duty to its sick and
+ wounded countrymen, during the late Spanish-American War.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON’S TRIBUTE TO CUBA
+
+After the Spanish-American war nearly 500 of the leading men and women
+of Cuba joined in inscribing their names together with the most touching
+tribute, and sentiments of appreciation, in a beautiful album to Clara
+Barton. In order to get their signatures it required five and one half
+years of time for the collection of the same throughout the Republic.
+
+Miss Barton’s reply to the testimonial in part follows:
+
+“I have watched the beautiful island since independence came to it as a
+proud, careful mother watches her child; have seen the steps, at first
+uncertain, grow to the sturdy strides of manhood, and the gem of the sea
+become a nation among nations and its destinies held by the same strong
+patient hands that so struggled for its life.
+
+“It had learned endurance from suffering, drawn strength from adversity,
+courage from the proud ancestral nations whose blood is its own, and the
+memory of its untold woes has enveloped it in a veil of tender
+thoughtful justice to others that will form its brightest gem.
+
+“God bless the new nation the world is glad to welcome. She is still the
+‘Gem of the Ocean.’ My soul craves once more to look upon her beautiful
+face, and its grateful prayer forever goes up to Him who ruleth and
+guideth all—that He watch over her, keep her pure and true, and
+safe-guard forever her motto and watchword, ‘Cuba Libre’!”
+
+ NOTE.—If Cuba gets free, she must come to the United States, as she is
+ too small to stand alone against the greed of great nations which will
+ try to gobble her up for her riches, in soil and products. (Prophecy
+ in 1874) Clara Barton.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIII
+
+
+ Upon every line of Clara Barton’s life may be hung a thrilling story
+ of perilous adventure and pathetic moving incidents.
+
+ “_Clara Barton and Her Work._”
+
+
+ Like everything in Corsica, my education was pitiful.
+
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+ Greatness is nothing, if it is not lasting. NAPOLEON.
+
+ Impossible! That word is not in the French dictionary.
+
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+ Drama is the tragedy of women. NAPOLEON.
+
+ I have fought like a lion for the Republic and, by way of recompense,
+ it grants me permission to die of hunger. NAPOLEON.
+
+ Fortune is a woman. The more she does for us the more we expect.
+ NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ The wicked flee when no man pursueth. PSALMS.
+
+ The thief doth fear each bush an officer. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ Little sea-girt Corsica is weird, wild, soft and bewitching, strange,
+ unique, but she had so much that one wearied of.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ AT THE BIRTHPLACE OF NAPOLEON—THE CORSICAN BANDIT
+
+At Ajaccio, on the Island of Corsica, there is still carefully preserved
+the house where was born Napoleon, in 1769. The island (a French Colony)
+is 114 miles long and 52 miles wide, and contains about 300,000
+inhabitants; Ajaccio, the capital, about 19,000 inhabitants. Many of the
+street names, and statues of the city likewise, perpetuate the memory of
+the great military chieftain, as do other spots of similar historic
+interest in connection with his boyhood.
+
+At Ajaccio, Clara Barton lived for some time. There she not only visited
+every place of interest but she also studied the character, and military
+strategy, of that masterful leader of men, as later she studied him in
+the city made by him “Paris Beautiful.”
+
+For a time, until she regained her health, she lived _incognito_; later,
+she produced a letter from our U. S. Minister Washburn, then at the
+Court of Paris. When her identity became known she was overwhelmed with
+attentions from the natives, as well as from Americans, and attended
+many receptions given in her honor by that most hospitable people. Her
+experiences there were so numerous and sensational as worthy to become
+the basis for a great novel.
+
+From the back door of her hotel a path led out into a forest of wildness
+and rare beauty. Describing the wood, by way of comparison, Clara Barton
+said: “The wood of Cuba is beautiful in quality, but hard to burn; in
+Corsica, one may take the green, wet wood and make a blazing fire.” By
+the side of the house were terraces on which were orange trees, loaded
+with the golden fruit. A little strategy secured what oranges Miss
+Barton wanted. She would take her blue bandana, put a franc in it, tie
+the ends of the bandana with a stone mason’s cord, then let it down from
+her room on the fourth story of the hotel to a little girl living in a
+rude hut. The back of the hut was against a precipitous stone cliff, the
+living quarters of the girl’s family being partly in the hut and partly
+in a chamber blasted out of the rock, as frequently occurs on the
+island. The girl would fill the bandana with fruit then, the signal
+given, Miss Barton would pull the fruit through the side window to her
+sick room.
+
+All Americans in Europe are supposed to have money. Clara Barton there
+alone, unsuspecting and unguarded, was not protected against theft. A
+native bandit one evening sneaked into her room and demanded her money,
+or her life. With her usual presence of mind, and fearlessness in
+imminent danger, Clara Barton at the top of her voice cried out: “Now,
+boys, come on; I’ve got him!” Quicker than it takes to tell it, the
+bandit jumped through an open window in one corner of the room, and
+escaped into the forest.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIV
+
+
+ Clara Barton, beloved by every one who knew her. HON. PETER VOORHEES
+ DEGRAW, U. S. Fourth Postmaster General.
+
+
+ And memory turns to him fondly
+ Whom we call by the name of Friend!—
+ CARL F. ROSECRANS.
+
+ The chiefest of human virtues,—loyalty to friends.
+
+ C. S. YOUNG in _The Richmond Terminal_.
+
+
+ The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Friendship and love
+ Take second place to loyalty and honor. CALDERON.
+
+ Friendship is necessary to life. BISHOP WM. F. MCDOWELL.
+
+
+ Friendship’s the wine of life. YOUNG’S _Night Thoughts_.
+
+ Friendship is a sheltering tree. S. T. COLERIDGE.
+
+ No man is useless while he has a friend.
+
+ ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
+
+ Our wisest friends are life’s best book. CALDERON.
+
+ Poor is he, and beggar, that hath no friends at all. GRACIAN.
+
+
+ The face of an old friend is like a ray of sunshine through dark and
+ gloomy clouds. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
+ Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ And can true friendship be tested, if not in the hour of misfortune?
+ The Mayor of St. Petersburg to Clara Barton.
+
+
+ WHEN CARES GROW HEAVY AND PLEASURES LIGHT
+
+It became incumbent upon Clara Barton to write tens of thousands of
+autographs, and inscriptions in books. As a philosopher, many such
+inscriptions are interesting and instructive. Characteristic of her is
+the following inscription which she wrote in a book presented to a
+personal friend:
+
+ My Dear General and Friend:
+
+ When life’s track has grown long, and the road bed flinty and hard;
+ when the cares grow heavy and the pleasures light; and the tired soul
+ reaches out for help, may you find those who will be as loyal and
+ faithful to you as you have ever been to me.
+
+ Fraternally,
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ You have bound yourself so closely round my heart,
+ Friend of mine,
+ That it seems as if our paths could never part,
+ Friend of mine!
+ Oft the vine forsakes the wall
+ Stars have e’en been known to fall,
+ You are not like star nor vine,
+ Friend of mine!
+
+
+
+
+ LXXV
+
+
+ The Red Cross Organization has been built up largely by the heroic
+ work of Clara Barton. FREDERICK H. GILLETT, Chairman (1900) House
+ Committee on Foreign Relations; now Speaker of the House of
+ Representatives.
+
+
+ Honor to whom honor is due. ST. PAUL.
+
+ Never did an organization select so wisely and elect so judiciously as
+ did the National Red Cross Association when it chose Clara Barton to
+ preside over its beneficent work.
+
+ Johnstown (Pa.) _Democrat_.
+
+ In Cuba, the Red Cross Society snatched thousands from the grave and
+ made the sufferings of other thousands much lighter. But for Clara
+ Barton America would today have been a stranger to the Red Cross and
+ its beneficent work. DOCTOR HENRY M. LATHROP. Author of “_Under the
+ Red Cross; or the Spanish-American War_.”
+
+ Miss Barton’s well-known ability, her long devotion to the noble work
+ of extending relief to suffering in different lands, as well as her
+ highest character as a woman, commend her to the highest consideration
+ and good will of all people.
+
+ PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
+
+
+ Officers and men unite in saying that too much praise cannot be given
+ those noble Christian women, Clara Barton and her assistants, for
+ their gentle care, their tender solicitude and untiring efforts in
+ aiding and comforting our sick and wounded soldiers. They came as
+ ministering angels to the suffering army at Santiago.
+
+ GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING (in 1919).
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ WILLIAM McKINLEY
+
+ The President, March 4, 1897–September 14, 1901.
+
+ Whatever Clara Barton says, and does, is always honest and right.
+ WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
+
+ Miss Barton, I have long wanted to thank you for what you did for my
+ boys in Cuba.
+ WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
+
+ Mr. President, I could not have done what I did in Cuba, if you had
+ not stood by me so nobly.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+
+ A RED CROSS RED LETTER DAY
+
+For thirteen years Clara Barton had tried to secure from Congress and
+the President a National Charter for the Red Cross. The bill had been
+before the 56th Congress, and passed. It was then before the President
+for his signature. He sent for Miss Barton. She went, accompanied by a
+few personal friends. They were at the White House, at the appointed
+hour. After a few moments of waiting, the President came into the room,
+receiving Miss Barton in a beautiful manner. He put his left arm around
+her, and holding her right hand in his said:
+
+“Miss Barton, I have long wanted an opportunity to thank you for what
+you did for my boys in Cuba.”
+
+She replied: “Mr. President I deeply appreciate your thanks, but I could
+not have done what I did in Cuba if you had not stood by me so nobly.”
+Then the President said:—
+
+“Miss Barton, I am proud of this opportunity to sign this bill.” Miss
+Barton then introduced one by one her friends to the President. With his
+usual graciousness, he chatted for a few moments with his guests, then
+sat down at his desk where Secretary Cortelyou had placed the bill. With
+a plain steel pen he signed his name: “William McKinley, June    ,” and
+then stopped, looked over his desk and asked, “Captain where is my
+calendar?” An old soldier looked high and low but couldn’t find the
+missing calendar. The calendar was standing on one corner of the broad,
+flat-topped desk, in another part of the room. Seizing it, one of the
+party tore off “June 5th,” and placed it before the President. He said
+“thank you, sir,” then signed “6th, 1900.” Rising from his seat, and
+extending his hand, he said: “Miss Barton, I will make you a present of
+this pen.” Graciously appreciative Miss Barton replied: “I thank you,
+Mr. President. I will preserve it in the archives of the Red Cross as a
+treasured memento of this occasion.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVI
+
+
+ As a nurse in the Civil War Clara Barton performed invaluable service.
+ Pueblo (Colo.) _Star Journal._
+
+ Clara Barton in the theme of her address here, “The Ministering
+ Angel,” urged the organization of Nurses’ Associations and Training
+ Schools for Nurses. Atlanta (Ga.) _Constitution_.
+
+ The great war-nurse, friend of the world. The loftiest eloquence could
+ give her none that more clearly expressed the keynote of her life.
+ Grand Rapids (Mich.) _Press_.
+
+
+ Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that
+ they may live. EZEKIEL.
+
+
+ Nothing is impossible to Organized Womanhood,—united in aims and
+ effort. CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE—“Mother of Clubs.”
+
+
+ American nurses are covering their profession with a glory that will
+ live forever is the report that comes from France.
+
+ AMERICAN RED CROSS.
+
+ The nurse is proud to be chosen from millions of women anxious to care
+ for the sick, as the representative of American womanhood.
+
+ AMERICAN RED CROSS.
+
+ Thirty-two thousand graduate nurses have said to the American Red
+ Cross, “We are ready, use us.” AMERICAN RED CROSS.
+
+
+ Profane histories are three-fourths filled with the details of battles
+ and sieges, and almost silent as to any provision for the sick and
+ wounded. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There were probably surgeons and nurses long before there were
+ military chieftains. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Agrippina, wife of the General, distributed clothing and dressings to
+ the wounded. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Courage of the soldier awakes the courage of woman. EMERSON.
+
+ Scarcely had man made his first move in organizing the Red Cross when
+ the jeweled hand of royal woman glistened beside him, and right
+ royally has she done her part. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Women are, by nature, much better fitted for nurses than men can be.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Had there been need for them, the Red Cross could easily have
+ recruited an army of twenty-five thousand nurses from the flower of
+ American womanhood. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Large organizations of women, the best in the country and I believe
+ the best in the world, have faithfully labored with me to merge the
+ Red Cross into their societies, as a part of woman’s work.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I have wrought day after day and night after night, so sorry for the
+ _necessity_, so glad for the opportunity,—ministering with my own
+ hands and strength to the dying wants of the patriot-martyrs, who fell
+ for their country and mine. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ To the army of nurses, brave, generous and true who, either as
+ auxiliaries at home or as nurses in the field, made up that
+ magnificent array of womanhood ready for sacrifice on the altar of
+ humanity and their country—no words of mine can do justice.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Three great conflicts were seen by Miss Barton, and her career is an
+ example to thousands of women who today are trying to heal human
+ suffering. Buffalo (N. Y.) _Express_.
+
+
+ PATRIOTIC WOMEN OF AMERICA SELF-SACRIFICING
+
+Nursing in war is of comparatively recent origin. While it is recorded
+that Fabiola, a patrician Roman lady, founded a hospital in A.D. 380,
+and 600 nurses in the early part of the fifth century were in the
+hospitals in Alexandria, nursing in war hospitals dates from the Crimean
+War; and on the battlefields, from our Civil War. The Crimean War gave
+the first real impulse to this humanitarian work, and the Civil War gave
+added luster to the glory of this work of humanity, as did the
+Franco-Prussian War and the Spanish-American War. But the late war broke
+all records; now, war-nursing will continue until “Nation shall not lift
+up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any more.”
+
+The true disciples of humanity in war are the nurses, wearing the sign
+of the Red Cross and whose sacred mission it is to bind up the soldier’s
+wounds and “To heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases.”
+In the World War, reports show that there were approximately 11,600
+American Red Cross nurses in service over-seas.
+
+ The total number of nurses employed:
+ Army Nurse Corps, Regulars and Reserves 22,854
+ Navy Nurse Corps, Regulars and Reserves 1,500
+ Nurses assigned directly under the Red Cross for
+ service overseas 604
+ Nurses assigned to U. S. Public Health Service in
+ this country—extra military zones, essential
+ war industries plants; marine hospitals 284
+ ———
+ Total 25,242
+
+ The cost for operation for June 30, 1917–July 1, 1918, was
+ $197,180.00.
+
+ Total assignments of Red Cross nurses in foreign activities:
+ To the Army 17,931
+ To the Navy 1,058
+ To the U. S. Public Health Service 284
+ To the Red Cross nurses 604
+ ———
+ Total 19,877
+
+The Red Cross has furnished equipment to approximately 12,000 nurses and
+lay women personnel engaged in foreign war service, and to nurses in
+cantonments and naval hospitals in this country, at an approximate cost
+of $2,000,000.
+
+Personnel equipped by the Red Cross for overseas duty, from the
+beginning of the war to December 31st, 1918, at the following cost:
+
+ Army $2,031,120.00
+ Navy 60,120.00
+ Red Cross 138,960.00
+ —————————————
+ 12,546 nurses—Total cost $2,230,200.00
+
+As to the work of the American Red Cross Clara Barton says: “History
+records the wonderful achievements of the Red Cross, the greatest of
+relief organizations, though it cannot record the untold suffering which
+has been averted by it.” As to the Red Cross war-nursing, she says:
+“There can be no estimate of the misery assuaged and the deaths
+prevented by the unselfish zeal and devotion of the nurses of the Red
+Cross.” In prophecy she says:
+
+ And what would they do if war came again?
+ The scarlet cross floats where all was blank then.
+ They would bind on their “brassards” and march to the fray.
+ And the man liveth not who could say to them nay;
+ They would stand with you now, as they stood with you then,—
+ The nurses, consolers, and saviours of men.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVII
+
+
+ Clara Barton started the Red Cross alone.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Transcript_.
+
+
+ Miss Clara Barton, the American Red Cross is your society alone, and
+ none other we will patronize. G. MOYNIER, President, International Red
+ Cross Committee, Geneva, Switzerland.
+
+ The total expense connected with the acceptance of the Treaty by this
+ Government, in addition to the personal service of more than five
+ years, was defrayed individually by Clara Barton. Red Cross Committee
+ (in 1903). House Document No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Cong.
+
+
+ If we heed the teachings of history we shall not forget that in the
+ life of every nation circumstances may arise when a resort to arms can
+ alone save it from dishonor.—We must be prepared to enforce any policy
+ which we think it wise to adopt. CHESTER A. ARTHUR, The President. (In
+ advocacy before Congress of Clara Barton’s Red Cross Measure).
+
+ Legislation by Congress is needful to accomplish the humane end that
+ your society has in view. It gives me, however, great pleasure, Miss
+ Barton, to state that I shall be happy to give any (Red Cross) measure
+ which you may propose careful attention and consideration. JAMES G.
+ BLAINE, Secretary of State (in 1881).
+
+
+ The first official advocate of the Red Cross measure, and fearless
+ friend from its presentation in 1877, was Omar D. Conger, now Senator
+ from Michigan, then a member of the House.
+
+ CLARA BARTON (Sept. 6, 1882).
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ JAMES A. GARFIELD
+ The President, March 4, 1881–September 19, 1881.
+
+ Executive Mansion.
+ Will the Secretary of State please hear Miss Barton on the subject
+ herein referred to? J. A. GARFIELD.
+
+ The first tribute to Clara Barton in her Red Cross measure, March 30,
+ 1881.
+
+
+ Clara Barton, friend and counselor of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S.
+ Grant, of Garfield, of Hayes, Harrison, Cleveland and McKinley.
+ Organized the American Red Cross and was appointed for life by
+ Garfield. While the republic lives and womanhood is honored, her
+ place is sure among the millions she has blest and whose name and
+ fame they will cherish and revere.
+ KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD,
+ in a letter to the Toledo (Ohio) _Times_.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CHESTER A. ARTHUR
+ The President, September 19, 1881–March 4, 1885.
+
+ The President in whose administration the American Red Cross was
+ approved by the U. S. Government, also the first President of the
+ Board of Consultation, American Red Cross Society.
+
+ Washington, March 3, 1882.
+
+ _Whereas_ (certain facts of Red Cross history here detailed)....
+
+ Now, therefore, the President of the United States of America, by and
+ with the advice and consent of the Senate, do hereby declare that
+ the United States accede to the said Convention of October 20, 1868.
+
+ Done at Washington this first day of March in the year of our Lord one
+ thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of
+ the United States the one hundred and sixth.
+
+ By the President, CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
+
+ FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN,
+ Secretary of State.
+]
+
+
+ In 1877 Monsieur Moynier, President of the International Red Cross
+ Committee, decided to make a further effort to obtain the adherence to
+ the Treaty by our Government. For this purpose a special letter was
+ sent to Miss Barton to deliver to President Hayes. MABEL T.
+ BOARDMAN—In “_Under the Red Cross at Home and Abroad_.”
+
+
+ In 1869 Clara Barton went to Geneva, Switzerland. She was visited
+ there by the President and members of the International Committee for
+ Relief and of the Wounded in War, who came to learn why the United
+ States had refused to sign the Treaty of Geneva.—Years of devoted
+ missionary work by Miss Barton with preoccupied officials and a
+ heedless, short-sighted public at length bore fruit. MARY R.
+ PARKMAN—Author of “_Heroines of Service_.”
+
+
+ Miss Barton, I trust you will press this matter upon our present
+ administration with all the weight of your well-earned influence.
+ Having myself somewhat ignominiously failed to get any encouragement
+ for this (Red Cross) measure from two administrations, I leave it in
+ your more fortunate hands, hoping that the time is ripe for a less
+ jealous policy than American isolation in international movements for
+ extending and universalizing mercy towards the victims in war. DR. H.
+ W. BELLOWS (Nov. 21, 1881).
+
+ Later—Miss Barton, I advise you to give it up as hopeless.
+
+ DR. H. W. BELLOWS
+ (Ex-Chairman U. S. Sanitary Commission).
+
+ Miss Clara Barton, I thank you in the name of all of us (myself and
+ colleagues of the International Committee).—Thanks to a perseverance
+ and zeal which has surmounted every obstacle. Wishing to testify to
+ you its gratitude for the services you have already rendered to the
+ Red Cross (in securing the adherence of the United States to the
+ Treaty), the Committee decided to offer to you one of the medals which
+ a German engraver caused to be struck off in honor of the Red Cross.
+ Please to regard it only as a simple memorial, and as a proof of the
+ esteem and gratitude we feel for you. G. MOYNIER, President Red Cross
+ International Committee.
+
+ NOTE.—The silver medal referred to is beautifully engraved with the
+ coat of arms of the nations within the Treaty compact,—the medal being
+ a model both of skillful design and exquisite workmanship.
+
+ Department of State,
+ Washington, D. C.
+ February 16, 1883.
+
+ My dear Miss Barton:
+
+ It affords me great pleasure to transmit a parcel containing a book
+ presented to you by Her Majesty, the Empress of Germany, as a token of
+ her high appreciation of the success of your efforts for the formation
+ of an Association of the Red Cross in America.—Congratulating you upon
+ the compliment which the Empress has paid to you by her action in
+ sending you this gift I am, my dear Madam,
+
+ Very truly yours,
+ SEVELLON A. BROWN,
+ Chief Clerk.
+
+
+ On the night that came to Europe the news of the accession of the U.
+ S. Government to the Treaty of Geneva (news sent by cable) there were
+ lit bonfires in the streets of Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain.
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ If I live to return to my country (from Switzerland) I will try to
+ make my people understand the Red Cross and that Treaty.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Weak and weary from the war-soaked fields of Europe, I brought the
+ germs of the thrice-rejected Red Cross of Geneva, and with personal
+ solicitations from the international Committee sought its adoption.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I stood with this unknown (Red Cross) immigrant from the little
+ Republic of Switzerland, outside the doors of the Government, for five
+ years before I could secure for him citizenship papers and recognition
+ as a desirable resident of the United States.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Perhaps no act of this age or country has reflected more merit abroad
+ upon those especially active in it than this simple and beneficent Red
+ Cross measure. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Transitions are neither rapid nor easy. Dark days, if not dark ages,
+ have shadowed them all. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross is one of the thresholds to the Temple of Peace.
+
+ CLARA BARTON, President, Red Cross.
+
+ Respect for the rights of others is peace.
+
+ BENITO JUAREZ, President, Republic of Mexico.
+
+
+ The history of a country is _mainly_ the history of wars.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Men have worshipped at Valkyria’s shrine and followed her siren lead
+ until war has cost a million times more than the whole world is worth;
+ poured out the best blood and crushed the finest forms that God has
+ ever created. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ There is in the Red Cross no entangling alliances that any but a
+ barbarian at war can feel any restraint. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ There is not a peace society on the face of the earth today, nor can
+ there be one, so potent, so effectual against war as the Red Cross of
+ Geneva. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ There can be no estimate of the misery assuaged, and the deaths
+ prevented, by the unselfish zeal and devotion of the Red Cross.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Your children and your children’s children will need the Red Cross,
+ when your hands are powerless to do that which is within your grasp.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ OPPOSITION—THE AMERICAN RED CROSS “COMPLETE VICTORY”
+
+She had served in Europe with a brassard on her arm; she had served in
+the camp, on the march, in the hospital, in the smoke of battle; she had
+bound up the wounds, soothed in a foreign tongue the dying; and there
+had learned her first Red Cross lessons. She had visited the Solferino
+battle ground where Dunant caught the humane inspiration for relieving
+distress of victims in war. She had breathed the spirit of great minds
+in the Red Cross world movement. She was armed _cap-a-pie_ for a humane
+warfare. She made a vow, “If I live——;”—the vow of woman is a decree,
+unrecorded.
+
+Since 1864 the Red Cross measure had been before the American people.
+Dr. Henry W. Bellows, of more than national fame as a diplomat and
+humanitarian, through a period of ten years had failed of a respectful
+consideration. For nearly two decades man had failed—signally failed;
+what could woman do?
+
+The vow of woman! that’s all between failure and success. The woman with
+the vow lived to return to America. She “pestered” her friends with her
+visionary scheme; she haunted the offices of Senators and
+Representatives; she pled her cause before the Secretary of State and
+the President. With her logic and eloquence she combated “it’s an
+entangling alliance with foreign powers;” “it would encourage war;”
+“it’s a war policy in the interest of war-makers;” “it’s un-American;”
+“it would demoralize army discipline;” “the military doesn’t want it,
+Congress doesn’t want it, the people don’t want it;” “Secretary of State
+Seward years ago gave the ultimatum: ‘The Government wishes to act as a
+free agent with option in the premises and in its own good time;’” “Dr.
+Bellows has given it up;” “it’s no use, Miss Barton, to discuss this
+question, it has been before the American people for many years and it’s
+a dead issue, forever settled.”
+
+ Alone her task was wrought,
+ Alone the battle fought.
+
+She took the rostrum, travelling from place to place throughout the
+country; she appealed to the people in the name of God and humanity. She
+was denounced as “that war woman;” “that woman who is trying to put
+something over on the people;” “something behind it, or she wouldn’t be
+spending her own money;” “wonder what she’s going to get out of it,
+anyway?”
+
+Senator John Sherman was then a tower of strength in this country. She
+approached him on the subject. He was against it; said that he did not
+see any use of going to this trouble; that making such preparation for
+war would have a tendency to agitate the public, and bring on war. Oh,
+no, Miss Barton, I can’t support such foreign organization as is your
+proposed Red Cross. Besides, we will never have another war in this
+country. Having given his final answer and subsided, the
+ever-ready-with-answer Miss Barton remarked that it seemed to her years
+ago, back in 1858, a certain Senator Sherman had made such a statement
+in the Senate. Caught in a trap set by himself, yet graciously smiling,
+the Senator replied, “Yes, I believe we did have a little brush after
+that.” A second “brush” occurred, in 1898. Senator Sherman, then
+Secretary of State, had occasion in connection with Red Cross work to
+issue to the head of the Navy the following order: “I have the honor to
+commend Miss Barton to the kind attention of your department.”
+
+One of the ablest arguments ever presented on any national issue was
+presented in an address in November, 1881, by Clara Barton on the Red
+Cross issue “To the President, Congress and the People of the United
+States.” In that masterful address among other things she said: “Yes,
+war is a great wrong and sin and, because it is, I would provide not
+only for but against it. But here comes the speculative theorist! Isn’t
+it encouraging a bad principle? Wouldn’t it be better to do away with
+all war? Wouldn’t peace societies be better? Oh, yes, my friend, as much
+better as the millennium would be better than this, but the millennium
+is not here. Hard facts are here; war is here; war is the outgrowth,
+indicator and relic of barbarism. Civilization alone will do away with
+it, and scarcely a quarter of the earth is yet civilized, and that
+quarter not beyond the possibilities of war. It is a long step yet to
+permanent peace.... Friends, was it accident, or was it Providence,
+which made it one of the last acts of James A. Garfield, while in
+health, to pledge himself to urge upon the representatives of his in
+Congress assembled this great national step for the relief and care of
+wounded men? Living or dying, it was his act and wish, and no member of
+that honored, considerate, and humane body but will feel himself in some
+manner holden to see it carried out.”
+
+Among the first who became champions in her cause for the Red Cross were
+Senators Conger of Michigan, William Windom of Minnesota, Chairman of
+the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and who was the first to investigate,
+and take the matter up, as a member of President Garfield’s Cabinet.
+Senator E. G. Lapham, of New York, “who spared neither time nor thought,
+patience nor labor, in his legal investigations of the whole matter;”
+Senators Morgan of Alabama, Edmonds of Vermont, Hawley of Connecticut,
+Anthony of Rhode Island, Hoar of Massachusetts, “all accorded to it
+their willing interest and aid.” And also she had the support of the
+eminent Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Presidents Garfield and
+Arthur, as well as many other statesmen of whose services on this
+measure there has been left no official record.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (in 1898)
+
+ _Resolved_: That this conference declares that in obtaining the
+ accession
+ the United States of America to the Convention of Geneva, Miss Clara
+ Barton has well merited the gratitude of the world.—INTERNATIONAL
+ CONFERENCE
+ OF THE RED CROSS, Geneva, Switzerland, 1884.
+]
+
+Early Red Cross history reads like a tale of romance from some long ago
+past century, the leading woman character inspirited by a power
+superhuman. Was Clara Barton the Founder of the American Red Cross? Of
+the millions of Americans who would esteem such honor, no one else so
+much as lays claim to it. In appreciation, Monsieur Moynier, President
+of the International Red Cross Committee, in an address delivered in
+Europe on September 2, 1882, on “The Foundation of the American Society
+of the Red Cross” in part said: “Its whole history is associated with a
+name already known to you—that of Miss Barton. Without the energy and
+perseverance of this remarkable woman we should probably not for a long
+time have had the pleasure of seeing the Red Cross revived in the United
+States. We will not repeat here what we have said elsewhere of the
+claims of Miss Barton to your gratitude;—we know that on the first of
+March she gained a complete victory.”
+
+Commenting on her struggles, and expressing her natural desire for the
+Red Cross, Clara Barton says: “A time will come when I shall lay down my
+work. Out of the many years I have given to it has grown one great,
+natural desire, a desire to leave my little immigrant of twenty-seven
+years ago a great National Institution, in the hands of the people,
+supported by the people, for their mutual help and strength in the face
+of disaster; and I would have those who take it up and follow in our
+footsteps freed from the severity of toil, the anguish of perplexity,
+uncertainty, misunderstanding, and often privations, which have been
+ours in the past.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVIII
+
+
+ War, although more tragic, is not the only evil that assails humanity.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Do you know that more than 1,500,000 persons were killed or injured in
+ automobile accidents in 1921? _Boston American_, May 16, 1922.
+
+
+ Not nearly all the sick and crippled are on the battlefield, nor is
+ all the danger there. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Peace has her battlefields, no less than war. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Day by day men and women are being maimed and killed in our great
+ industrial struggle, and in the rush and hurry of our strenuous life.
+ It is in the mitigation of the horrors of this strife, and of this
+ struggle, that the First Aid Department of the Red Cross is to find
+ its mission and its work. E. HOWE, Superintendent of the First Aid
+ Department, American National Red Cross (December 8, 1903).
+
+
+ The mission of the First Aid (National First Aid Association of
+ America) is to preserve the name of Clara Barton all over the country.
+ The work she accomplished during the Civil War placed her at the head
+ of the women of the country at that time, and her name should stand
+ forever before the American people. We all know how England is
+ reverencing the name of Florence Nightingale, and it is for America to
+ preserve the name of her Florence Nightingale in Clara Barton whose
+ efforts have been so world-wide as to place her at the head of woman’s
+ work for humanity throughout the world. MRS. J. SEWALL REED, first
+ Acting President, National First Aid Association of America (in
+ address to 9th annual meeting of the association held May 7, 1914).
+
+
+ The work of the National First Aid Association of America, which was
+ founded by the noble Clara Barton, continues to “Carry On” in the
+ philanthropic spirit which it has inherited from her. The association
+ is practically a college for National First Aid work, offering one
+ course of lectures, one textbook, one examination in kind, for all to
+ follow. The handsome diploma which is only granted to students
+ attaining 80 per cent., or over, upon a thorough examination is the
+ prized possession of thousands of graduates all over the United
+ States, Alaska, Panama, Canada and England. Thus do we honor our
+ president, Clara Barton, in death—world honored as she was in life for
+ her achievements for suffering humanity; for upon each diploma the
+ association has placed these words—“Clara Barton, Founder and
+ President.” ROSCOE GREEN WELLS, present Acting President, National
+ First Aid Association of America. October 15, 1921.
+
+ Clara Barton was a world worker for suffering humanity, and our first
+ president. As a perpetual tribute to her memory the National First Aid
+ Association of America has established her name as “President—In
+ Memoriam.” Clara Barton has passed on, but the noble spirit which
+ lived within her continues to live in her last great national
+ endeavor. MARY KENSEL WELLS, Secretary of the National First Aid
+ Association of America. October 16, 1921.
+
+
+ The First Aid will become time-honored in America, for it has come to
+ stay. Its character is broad and firm, its title clear; and although
+ young its organization is complete. It has its own characteristics, in
+ keeping with its motives,—neither ambition, self-seeking, nor
+ vain-glory, but good-will, helpfulness, kindliness, the spirit of Him
+ who gave his life for others, whose example we seek to follow, and
+ whose blessed birth was God’s great Christmas gift to the world. CLARA
+ BARTON (Christmas, 1905), President, the National First Aid
+ Association of America.
+
+
+ GREETINGS
+
+ To the Friends of these, and other, days:
+
+“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Ay! Many New Years, each happier
+than the last.
+
+“The unerring records affirm that on Christmas day of 1821, 84 years
+ago, I commenced this earthly life; still, by the blessing of God I am
+strong and well, knowing neither illness nor fatigue, disability nor
+despondency, and take the privilege of bringing to you an outline of My
+Later Work (First Aid). * * * Work has always been a part of the best
+religion I had.”
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+ (In 1905.)
+
+
+ NATIONAL FIRST AID ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
+
+ (Clara Barton, President In Memoriam; and First Aid Department in the
+ American National Red Cross)
+
+On February 9, 1903, there was established in the American National Red
+Cross a department known as “First Aid to the Injured.” Mr. Edward Howe,
+a member of the St. John Ambulance Association of London, England, was
+made the Superintendent of the department.
+
+On December 8, 1903, Section 7 of the By-Laws to the Constitution was
+adopted and provided for its permanent operation—the formation of
+classes of instruction in first aid, methods of treatment of the injured
+and other necessary provisions. On December 8, 1903, Superintendent Howe
+made his first annual report, including the approval of thirty-five
+States of the Union, through the Governors respectively; also his report
+of its successful inception in Massachusetts. “The American Amendment”
+to the Red Cross Treaty of Geneva, and relating to national disasters,
+was thus followed by the First Aid Department to the Red Cross.
+
+ There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
+ Where highways never ran;—
+ But let me live by the side of the road
+ And be a friend to man.
+
+After Clara Barton’s retirement from the Presidency of the Red Cross in
+1904, the First Aid Department was discontinued, but was reëstablished
+January 2, 1910. Independent of the American National Red Cross Clara
+Barton organized the National First Aid Association of America. She was
+the President of the Association while she lived and, since her death,
+to perpetuate the Clara Barton spirit and to be a permanent Memorial to
+the Founder, Clara Barton is officially recognized as
+
+ “The President In Memoriam.”
+
+The National First Aid Association of America was the development of a
+little New England organization named The New England First Aid
+Association, and Clara Barton was the Chairman of its Advisory Board.
+When the work grew and calls came for classes from western and southern
+states, it was Clara Barton who suggested the value of national
+incorporation. Therefore, on April 18, 1905, The National First Aid
+Association of America was incorporated, under the laws of the District
+of Columbia, and Clara Barton accepted the Presidency.
+
+“To Clara Barton’s First Aid,” thus addressed, are many letters which
+arrive at the headquarters of The National First Aid Association of
+America in Arlington, Massachusetts. Although not the corporate name of
+the last great work of Clara Barton, it serves the purpose of
+demonstrating that First Aid and Clara Barton are inseparable.
+
+The real tribute of Clara Barton to the organization, which is today
+paying tribute to her, lies in the following words of welcome which she
+delivered at the second annual meeting of The National First Aid
+Association of America in 1907, as its President. Opening her address by
+reading a letter from former field workers, she continued:—
+
+“They are not with us, and I have given this soulful letter in their
+place.
+
+“I have read it because it speaks the silent sentiment of a body of
+people, few of whom are here, and few of whom you know. From far off
+scattered homes they watch the flickering blaze of this new bonfire,
+with an anxious tender interest you little dream of. Below its sparkling
+flame they see the embers from which it springs. They live over again
+the terrible fields of woe where the sufferers suffered, and the dying
+died; where, in the moment of consternation paralyzing the whole land,
+they stood, the sudden vanguard of order and relief, till other help
+could reach—never asking for help—never shouting for aid nor money, but
+trusting to the great hearts of the people to render what they had to
+render, when they should understand the need. This, friends, was First
+Aid, and the people were the doctors. We held life in the injured till
+they could be reached.
+
+“Did our method fail? Let the old friends answer. Was a more
+satisfactory relief record ever made? Let the swollen Ohio and
+Mississippi, Johnstown, the Sea Islands, Armenia, and Galveston make
+reply. It was the foundation of knowledge through experience gained
+there and then that makes this work and this day possible. These are the
+smouldering embers watched from afar.
+
+“But this, friends, is the giving, and the teaching of mere material aid
+for human suffering; all to be done over and over again to the end of
+time, and no one the wiser, no one knowing any better what to do than
+before. This was charity. Blessed be it for ‘the greatest of these is
+charity.’ Leave it to do its work in its own way.
+
+“But out of this has come to us another feature of human beneficence,
+having its foundation in knowledge; when one shall know, not only how to
+give, but how to do, and possibly prevent; when every man may understand
+his wounded brother’s need and how to meet it; when the mother shall
+know how to save her child in accident; when even the child shall be
+taught how to lessen the pain or to save the life of its playmate—then
+comes the real help.
+
+“Think, friends, what it would be—yes, what it will be, when all the
+rough, sturdy men of danger, living every hour in the face of accident
+and death, shall know what to do in the moment for his writhing
+companion in toil; when the homes—the children in the streets and in the
+schools—shall all possess the knowledge which this method of human
+beneficence teaches—this is First Aid—this is what it stands for—the
+lessons which it inculcates and its faithful apostles teach.
+
+“So young, so tiny, this beginning seems to you, scarcely meriting the
+attention or the aid of busy people.
+
+“But, watch it, busy men and women, it will bear watching.
+
+“We are here today to learn something of what it has accomplished in a
+year.... I am dumb with amazement. The very thought of the diligence—the
+tirelessness—the cheerful alacrity—the bravery with which obstacles have
+been attacked—the courage with which they have been overcome—the single
+handedness—the small means and the great results astonish, and gratify
+me. So much for so little. Let me step aside and give place to the
+report which will tell us all.”
+
+The association is today what its name implies—The National Association
+of First Aid in America. It is to the American people what the St. John
+Ambulance Association is to England, and the St. Andrews Ambulance
+Association is to Scotland. It is a college of National First Aid
+instruction—offering one textbook, one course of lectures, one
+examination, one diploma in kind for all.
+
+For the past nine years, since the death of the Founder, it has given
+service the Clara Barton way—promptly, efficiently, thoroughly—and its
+classes send forth each year hundreds of National First Aid graduates
+who are capable men and women, and who wear the little medallion of
+National First Aid service (which only a graduate may purchase and
+wear), out into a world of suffering humanity. Word of their activities
+comes back to national headquarters from many fields—even from far off
+India, South America, and the Hawaiian Islands. One graduate sent back
+word from the Soudan, Africa, “What would we have done without National
+First Aid when there is only one medical doctor to every 500,000
+natives?”
+
+Clara Barton said of The National First Aid Association of America:
+“Another work reaches out its hands to me and I have taken them. The
+humane and far sighted are pressing to its standard—the standard of
+organized First Aid to the Injured.”
+
+The true history of Clara Barton should not leave out the work of The
+National First Aid Association of America, Clara Barton’s last work. If
+so, the history of the great philanthropist becomes an unfinished
+record. The association stands today as a working memorial to Clara
+Barton. It continues to serve the American people under her name.
+Without ostentation it continues its humane service, making friends,
+sending forth efficient graduates, and carrying systematic and organized
+First Aid instruction to every part of the country.
+
+By a leading cosmopolitan newspaper: “It is said that every year more
+than 11,000,000 persons, about one-tenth of the total population of the
+United States, fall downstairs, get run over, drown, lean too far out of
+the window or peer into a gun they ‘didn’t think was loaded,’ meeting
+death or injury in these and kindred ways. Statisticians say that, when
+war claims a victim, accident takes four victims.”
+
+It is estimated that 100,000 fatal accidents occur annually in the
+United States, and 500,000 accidents occur that render the victims
+incapable of earning their own living. Hundreds of thousands are being
+trained in first aid classes; and likewise many hundreds of thousands of
+victims of accidents on the railways, in the factories, and on the
+farms, are receiving the benefits of first aid assistance. The First Aid
+Division of the American Red Cross is affiliated with the Young Men’s
+Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Boy
+Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of America, and also allied with many
+other humanitarian and patriotic associations.
+
+“First Aid,” therefore, is becoming hardly less important in war and
+peace than Red Cross Aid in war. Clara Barton’s constructive
+humanitarian work in First Aid may yet be recognized by her country as
+even of greater humanitarian service than her Red Cross achievement, or
+that of the “American Amendment” to the International Red Cross. For
+seven years—from the inception of the “First Aid” in 1905 to 1912—Clara
+Barton was the unanimous choice of its members for President. To her
+co-workers in her latest national humanitarian association are the
+prophetic words of the “Mother of First Aid:”
+
+“I believe the ‘First Aid’ to be the beginning of an organized movement
+that shall permeate more homes, carry useful knowledge to more men and
+women who would get it in no other way, assuage more suffering that
+nothing else could reach, awaken an interest in the welfare of his
+brother man in more rough toil-worn hearts unknown to it before, than
+lies in our power to estimate or our hopes to conceive.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton worked for humanity, for whom she had a love unparalleled
+ in history. ALICE HUBBARD—In _The Fra_.
+
+
+ My first endeavor has been to wipe from the scroll of my country’s
+ fame the stain of imputed lack of common humanity—to take her out of
+ the rôle of barbarism. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Alas! what a stony soil the Red Cross has sometimes found, and the
+ seeds scattered by the wayside many a day. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ With what fidelity, wisdom and unanimity it has fulfilled its
+ important and peaceful mission, its vast work of almost twenty years
+ (1901) has conclusively shown. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The whole civilized world acclaims the noble character and good work
+ of Clara Barton. Portland (Oregon) _Union_.
+
+ The Clara Barton movement spanned the globe.
+
+ Springfield (Mo.) _Republican_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton is one of the greatest women that ever lived.
+
+ JULIA H. GULLIVER, President Rockford College.
+
+
+ I personally inspected the vouchers—In tracing the missing men Clara
+ Barton expended $2,000 more than the government gave her for the
+ expenses. U. S. SENATOR GRIMES, in a speech in the Senate.
+
+ Clara Barton expended from her own savings during the Civil War $1,000
+ each year ($4,000), receiving no pay nor salary, except her bare
+ living expenses and these expenses she paid, herself, largely.
+
+ FRANCES B. GAGE.
+
+ Miss Barton has devoted her life and strength to Red Cross work in
+ America and during which time she has not received, nor desired to
+ receive, a penny for her services. It will be readily seen that she
+ has made an investment in principal and interest for the benefit of
+ her countrymen to the amount of another quarter of a million of
+ dollars—half a million of dollars in all.
+
+ ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY, Attorney for the Red Cross.
+
+
+ The life of Clara Barton ought to be taught in the public schools for
+ the enlightenment of all pupils, boys and girls, that they may
+ understand the work of the Red Cross and realize how great a task for
+ humanity was undertaken, and accomplished by a weak woman.
+
+ Woonsocket (R. I.) _Call_.
+
+ Largely through Clara Barton’s endeavors, the Red Cross became
+ international, with the national power represented by the Stars and
+ Stripes as one of its staunchest supporters. HON. JOHN M. ROSS,
+ President of District of Columbia Board of Commissioners.
+
+
+ We question whether there has been any man or woman in the world’s
+ history who has been a greater blessing to mankind than the
+ sweet-faced Clara Barton. _Topeka Daily Capital._
+
+
+ HUMANITARIANISM, UNPARALLELED IN ALL HISTORY
+
+Greater than the organization of the American Red Cross, and of far more
+reaching importance to the human race, was the securing of the so-called
+American Amendment to the original International Red Cross treaty. To
+secure this amendment, Clara Barton personally addressed the Governments
+through the “International Committee of Geneva,” advocating the measure.
+This measure was seriously considered by the “Congress of Berne,” and
+adopted by the powers. The amendment is in force by every civilized
+nation in the world—wherever there is a Red Cross Society. Through their
+representatives, hundreds of millions of people are reaping continuing
+benefits of this humanitarian Clara Barton measure.
+
+The amendment permits the Red Cross to do the work of alleviating
+distress in all national calamities, such as fire, flood, famine,
+cyclone and earthquake. Under this amendment, Clara Barton
+administered relief at Johnstown, Charleston, Carolina Islands—in all,
+in about twenty disasters—relief of untold benefits to hundreds of
+thousands of American people. No other woman in this country, nor in
+the history of civilization, has to her credit an achievement of such
+world-humanitarian influence.
+
+Clara Barton, as President of the Red Cross, served for over twenty
+years and on every field of national disaster then occurring in the
+United States; and also served in Cuba through the Spanish-American War
+within that period of time. Through that period of over twenty years,
+not one dollar was drawn by her from the national treasury; with
+confidence in her, the people contributed what was necessary. And,
+further, unprecedented in all history was her self-sacrificing
+humanitarian spirit in this, and in all similar work. Clara Barton, in a
+personal letter, confides to her friend as follows: “In all my life, in
+its various humanitarian activities, _I have never received, nor have I
+desired, remuneration for my services_; and with the exception of the
+$15,000 (expended out of my private funds and returned to me by the 39th
+Congress), I have never received in all my life _anything in return for
+my personal expenditures_.”
+
+“During the first nineteen years, to maintain the Red Cross
+Headquarters, to build up the Organization and carry on its work,”
+according to an official report made to the House of Representatives by
+the Red Cross Committee, “Clara Barton expended from her individual
+funds an average of $4,000 a year, or a total of $76,000. This does not
+include her expenses for the four years that followed while she was
+President of the Red Cross, nor for the five years spent in securing for
+this country the American Red Cross. Nor does this include the amount
+expended by Miss Barton, after retiring from the Red Cross—from 1905 to
+1912—in organizing and carrying on the work of the National First Aid
+Association—this amount from her personal funds being about $5,000.”
+
+As through her fifty years of public services she continuously expended
+moneys from her personal funds, accepting no remuneration for her
+services, it has been estimated by an ex-secretary of the Red Cross that
+Clara Barton put the equivalent of a half million dollars in the Red
+Cross Society.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXX
+
+
+ The great good Christian woman—one of God’s noblest creatures.
+
+ DOCTOR HENRY A. LATHROP, Author.
+
+ Clara Barton lives in deeds, and will be an inspiration to millions
+ who shall come after her.
+
+ CHAPLAIN COUDON, Nat’l House of Representatives.
+
+
+ Clara Barton bequeathed to the world a glorious heritage.
+
+ Birmingham (Ala.) _Age-Herald_.
+
+ Whatever the Red Cross accomplishes in the future; whatever it has
+ accomplished in the past, to this one woman (Clara Barton) belongs the
+ credit. It was her child, with which she blessed the race. 90,000
+ years will not blot out the mercies which Clara Barton set in motion.
+ Springfield (Ill.) _News_.
+
+ Clara Barton,—founder of the most philanthropic movement of the age—an
+ intrinsic part of world civilization. _Detroit Free Press._
+
+ World-wide, Clara Barton will be remembered.
+
+ Holyoke (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+
+ At the mention of the name of Clara Barton the world stands with
+ uncovered head. _Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+
+ Clara Barton, worthy immortality. JANE ADDAMS.
+
+ Clara Barton did a world’s work, and her name will be immortalized.
+ WILLIAM SULZER, Governor of New York.
+
+ At all of our early fields the Red Cross went, and worked, alone.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ For twenty years (1901) the Red Cross work so small at first—a mere
+ speck—has grown up under our hands until its welcome blaze has
+ lightened the footsteps of relief for the entire and direful contest
+ of nations. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON’S PRAYER ANSWERED
+
+In loud acclaim by the man whose arm had been cut off by order of the
+Queen, with the other arm upraised there came forth from the throat of
+the guiltless victim, “God Save Elizabeth.” Although her strong arm,
+serving humanity for half a century, had been paralyzed by the tyrannous
+“Powers that Be,” Clara Barton’s daily prayer, from 1904 to the closing
+scene at Glen Echo in 1912, was “God Save the American Red Cross.”
+
+The Mother’s prayer for the Red Cross has been gloriously answered; the
+Red Cross is safe and the spirit of Clara Barton still lives.
+Practically for 23 years Clara Barton was the Red Cross and the Red
+Cross was Clara Barton. The American people knew none other than Clara
+Barton. Through the confidence of the people in her, she received and
+distributed to the suffering, $2,557,000.00, in money and supplies.
+Through her Red Cross literature, her Red Cross talks from the rostrum
+and as the official representative of this nation at the International
+Red Cross Conferences in Europe, Clara Barton became widely known, and
+the Clara Barton spirit became the spirit of every humanity-loving
+household in America.
+
+Tens of thousands of women who as girls learned to love her were proud
+in the World War to wear, as nurses, the Red Cross badge of distinction.
+Men of national fame were honored in accepting a position in the Red
+Cross Service. Men of wealth were glad of the opportunity to finance
+such a worthy organization, and of such deservedly good name, in
+humanity’s cause.
+
+Through the reputation of Clara Barton, the adhesion of the Government
+to the “Treaty of Geneva” had been secured; by Congressional action and
+the signature of the President, a national charter had been granted; the
+American Government had given official recognition to the American Red
+Cross. The American people recognize that, when the Mother of the Red
+Cross retired from the Presidency, what she then said was true: “When I
+retired from the Red Cross, my little nursling (Red Cross) had grown to
+manhood. It was taken over with the highest reputation of any
+organization in the country—its methods settled, its organization
+unexceptional, its prestige assured at home and abroad, and a balance of
+funds subject to its call, and sufficient for all its needs.”
+
+A greater need arose; the call came and, Clara Barton’s home people in
+Massachusetts leading all others in the Red Cross spirit, the American
+people responded. They responded, up to January 1, 1918, to the number
+of 21,000,000 in memberships, with 9,000,000 members additional of the
+Junior Red Cross. Besides, there were more than 8,000,000 volunteer Red
+Cross workers. The memberships, and volunteer enrollment workers, were
+made possible on the lines laid down by Clara Barton; “I would recommend
+the enrolling of the whole country under the banner of the Red Cross.”
+In the first drive for funds, the Red Cross realized $110,000,000; in
+the second drive, $135,819,911.56; a total in the two drives of
+$245,818,911.56.
+
+In less than eleven months the American people contributed more than
+$300,000,000 to the Red Cross; through the World War up to February 18,
+1919 $400,000,000. This enormous amount of money was used for the
+benefit of the millions of soldiers and others, of this country and of
+the allies. The foregoing memberships and financial strength have
+verified Clara Barton’s conception of the Red Cross possibilities:
+
+“The Red Cross is capable of becoming the largest organization in the
+United States and one of the most useful.”
+
+Of what she had done in her life-time, Governor W. R. Stubbs of Kansas
+said: “Looking over history as far back as Mary of Galilee, I cannot
+recall where God has chosen a maid servant—who has done more for
+humanity than Clara Barton.” In prophecy of the future results of her
+life’s work, Honorable George F. Hoar in the United States Senate said:
+“Known not only throughout our land, but throughout the whole civilized
+world, countless millions and uncounted generations will profit by the
+humanity of which Clara Barton has been largely the embodiment.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXI
+
+
+ Clara Barton—America’s foremost philanthropist.
+
+ Pasadena (Calif.) _News_.
+
+ Clara Barton—the usefulness of this extraordinary woman.
+
+ San Jose (Calif.) _Herald_.
+
+ Clara Barton—the most useful woman of her day.
+
+ Bangor (Me.) _News_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s slogan: “People’s Help for National Needs.”
+
+
+ The American Red Cross (1896) never appeals for, nor solicits, aid for
+ any purpose. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has received nothing from the Government. No fund has
+ been created for it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Not a penny of tax, nor dues, has ever been asked for the expenses of
+ the National Red Cross. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Every dollar and every pound that has been received by the Red Cross
+ has been the free-will offering of the people, given for humanity
+ without solicitation and disbursed without reward.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The greatest work performed by the Red Cross has consisted in the
+ education of the peoples along the lines of humanity.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross was “her child,” and Clara Barton naturally and
+ willingly provided for it. _Heroines of Modern Progress._
+
+ When the Government accepted the Red Cross, perhaps a bit arrogantly,
+ I felt that my end was accomplished and I was ready to give it up.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross “opposes the arms of humanity to the arms of violence.”
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Antagonistic to nothing the Red Cross can know neither jealousies nor
+ rivalry. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The future of the Red Cross will be worthy of the labors and
+ sacrifices in which it originated. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ But for the never-ending kindly words that bade me strive on, I fear I
+ should have been inclined to give up the fight.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ For me I had few words of prayerful gratitude and many memories of the
+ long years of patient watching that had brought the American Red Cross
+ even up to the point it had attained.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ NOT THE VALUE OF A POSTAGE STAMP
+
+In 1902 a party of friends visited Clara Barton in her Glen Echo Red
+Cross home. In our party were two gentlemen from Mexico. One of the
+latter, an Englishman, had lived in the “Land of the Montezumas” for
+many years. He described to Miss Barton the people, their peculiar
+customs, their love of music and the other arts, their beautiful Moorish
+architecture, their lofty mountains and fertile valleys. Then he
+portrayed the characteristics of Porfirio Diaz, the then popular ruler
+of the Mexican Republic.
+
+Miss Barton was much interested. She said that for some time she had
+been doing what she could to get the Mexican Government to organize,
+under the Geneva Convention, a Red Cross Society. With the tact of a
+diplomat and the strategy of a general she laid out her plan of
+campaign. She asserted that in no other country could so much good be
+done by the Red Cross as in Mexico.
+
+She wanted the influence of President Diaz. How could she get it?
+Through whom? And of what assistance could her Mexican guests be to her?
+That her guests might become interested in the Red Cross she described
+in detail her work, how she got the necessary funds, the supplies, and
+how they were distributed. She explained that whenever there was
+suffering from flood, fire, famine—suffering anywhere in the world from
+any cause—she would issue a call, setting forth the fact and needs.
+Immediately thereafter, the good people would respond with money, food,
+clothing. In some cases money and material were sent to her personally,
+and sometimes to her as President of the Red Cross.
+
+Also she would send out an appeal for assistants who would serve without
+pay on any certain field of disaster. At that time the Government did
+nothing whatever for the Red Cross; had not contributed towards it so
+much even as the value of a postage stamp. Then the people were being
+educated along the lines of humanity, and which Clara Barton said was
+the most important work of the Red Cross Society. As the result of such
+education and of its then growing importance, she predicted that
+sometime it would be the largest organization in the United States. In
+fulfillment of this prediction, in the World War, the people on one
+occasion, in a few days, responded to a Red Cross call for $100,000,000.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+
+ The President (now In Memoriam) of the National First Aid Association
+ of America.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ HARRIETTE L. REED
+
+ With statesmanlike ability Clara Barton directed the affairs of
+ panic-stricken citizens paralyzed by the fearful calamities which
+ had overtaken them and rendered them powerless.—HARRIETTE L. REED
+ (Sister Harriette). Also known as Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, First Acting
+ President of the National First Aid Association of America, June 6,
+ 1912–April 2, 1920.
+]
+
+ The historic pictures on this page were taken each on the occasion of
+ the organization of the National First Aid Association of America, in
+ Boston, in 1905.
+
+ See page 257.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXII
+
+
+ _In re_ a bill before Congress (1902) proposing an annuity of $5,000
+ for Clara Barton during life, in an official letter to Congress, she
+ protested as follows: “Any grant of Government moneys, either in aid
+ of this body (Red Cross) direct, or of myself as its President, would
+ be subversive of its principles and methods, and not to be desired.”
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ If those now (1904) at variance with me on Red Cross matters will meet
+ me in the same spirit by which I am animated, we cannot fail to adjust
+ all difficulties to our mutual satisfaction, and to the advantage of
+ the cause all should have at heart. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Unless one is actually going down hill with a load, it is easier to
+ stop than to go on. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I have nothing to gain from the Red Cross, and never have had.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ In Red Cross work I have no ambitions to serve, and certainly no
+ purposes. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I am glad that after thirty years our country has been awakened to the
+ thought that it could confer an honor on the Red Cross; and I wish you
+ could know how entirely indifferent I am to the _personal_ “honors”
+ conferred. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ No private individual in the world’s history has ever before been able
+ to command through a long term of years, and a continuous succession
+ of almost a score of great public disasters, the unlimited confidence
+ of the whole people, so that the response to each successive call has
+ been instant and in generous amount.
+
+ Contributions in money and supplies have been received for the relief
+ of the sufferers by these national calamities of more than $1,900,000.
+
+ The Officers and Members of the American National Red Cross (in
+ 1903)—in a Memorial to Congress—From House Document No. 552, Volume
+ 49, 58th Congress.
+
+
+ HONORARY PRESIDENCY FOR LIFE—PROPOSED ANNUITY
+
+Miss Mabel T. Boardman, after the retirement of Clara Barton, became
+Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Red Cross Society.
+In the following excerpts from letters in 1903, she certifies to the
+_integrity_, good name and fame, of Clara Barton, this being at the time
+the “MOTHER OF THE RED CROSS” was offered the Honorary Presidency for
+life, with an annuity of $2,500:
+
+“The character of Miss Barton nobody has assailed.
+
+“No such assault was made, nor intended, upon Miss Barton’s character.
+
+“No loss of confidence in Miss Barton’s personal integrity is meant.
+
+“A proposition of —— which I should not for a moment have thought of
+assenting to, if I had believed Miss Barton wanting in integrity.
+
+“Believe me, there is no desire for one moment to humiliate Miss Barton
+nor to withdraw her from any honor due her for past services in the
+interest of humanity. The very fact of our trying to get up a fund for
+Miss Barton to place her in an honorable position—is sufficient evidence
+that there was no purpose to attack Miss Barton personally.
+
+“I feel that by accepting the position of Honorary President for life
+(with an annuity given as a token of appreciation of her past services)
+Miss Barton will be placed in a most dignified and honorable position.
+
+“Mr. Foster, Mr. Glover, Mr. Chas. Bell, Mr. Walsh and my Father will
+act as guarantors of the annuity for the first year.
+
+“As to the annuity;—five or six responsible gentlemen, such as Messrs.
+Bell, Glover, and others, would sign a letter guaranteeing to Miss
+Barton, for the first year, an annuity of $2,500, and pledging
+themselves to have set on foot a movement to raise a Red Cross fund,
+within a year, out of which should be paid to Miss Barton a similar
+annuity during life.
+
+“People are continually urging that a complete investigation be made of
+Red Cross expenditures and methods, beginning with the Johnstown
+disaster, the Armenia disaster, Russian famine, Sea Islands, etc.; but
+we do not want to have to do this, and will not, if Miss Barton in the
+true interest of the Red Cross, and in the true interest of her own name
+and fame, will consent to take the distinguished position of Honorary
+President.” (The foregoing are excerpts from a letter by Miss Mabel T.
+Boardman under date of February 20th, 1903, and found in Document 552,
+House Documents, Volume 49,—58th Congress.)
+
+Under date of February 18, 1903, Honorable John W. Foster, of the Red
+Cross Society, the ex-Secretary of State, in a letter says: “We have
+canvassed the matter of a proper person to succeed Miss Barton as
+President (she accepting the place of Honorary President,) and the best
+fitted person for the position seems to be Admiral Van Reypen.... It is
+presumed he would be acceptable to Miss Barton. As to the annuity: five
+or six responsible gentlemen—will sign a letter guaranteeing to Miss
+Barton for the first year an annuity of $2,500 and pledging themselves
+to have set on foot a movement to raise a Red Cross fund, within a year,
+out of which should be paid to Miss Barton a similar annuity during
+life.” (From House Document No. 552, Volume 49, 58th Congress.)
+
+The official records show that the highest representative of a former
+Administration, the minority and majority in the so called “controversy”
+unanimously commended the name of Clara Barton; and in writing the
+minority, through Miss Mabel T. Boardman, unanimously solicited Clara
+Barton to become, and to remain for life, Honorary President of the Red
+Cross.
+
+ NOTE.—For reasons which seemed good to Clara Barton and her friends
+ the foregoing named annuity and _honor_ were declined. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s services in the Franco-German war, as a member of the
+ Red Cross, were memorable throughout both continents. Holyoke (Mass.)
+ _Telegram_.
+
+ There are old soldiers, veterans of the German battlefield, who still
+ live and tell with tear-dimmed eyes of Clara Barton’s work among the
+ wounded and the dying. Sioux Falls (S. D.) _Press_.
+
+
+ O, reputation! dearer far than life. SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+
+ A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.
+
+ PROVERBS.
+
+ Good name, in man or woman, is the immediate jewel of their souls.
+ OTHELLO.
+
+
+ Why persecutest thou me? ACTS.
+
+ Those about her
+ From her shall read the perfect ways of honor.
+ KING HENRY VIII.
+
+
+ Miss Barton witnessed the work of the Red Cross during 1870. MABEL T.
+ BOARDMAN—In “_Under the Red Cross Flag at Home and Abroad_.”
+
+
+ In 1870–71 Clara Barton attached herself by invitation to the foreign
+ Red Cross, and in that relation was actually in the Red Cross work
+ during the entire Franco-Prussian war.
+
+ Red Cross Committee.
+
+ My physical strength had long ceased to exist, but on the borrowed
+ force of love and memory I strove with might and main—I walked its
+ hospitals day and night; I served in its camps, and I marched with its
+ men; and I know whereof I speak.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ During the eighteen months of European experience I worked with the
+ Red Cross on my arm. The horrors and sufferings of Weissenburg,
+ Woerth, and Hagenau, Strasbourg, Metz, Sedan and Paris—poor twice
+ shattered Paris—and every besieged and desolated city of France fell
+ under my observation and shared the labor of my hands through eighteen
+ hard and dreadful months.
+
+ CLARA BARTON, in public address at Cape May.
+
+
+ Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; but, like the sun, only
+ for a time. BOVEE.
+
+
+ Our dearly beloved and most honored Clara Barton! She understood fully
+ the meaning of the Red Cross, and knew well how to put into action the
+ great and beautiful, though difficult, duties of the Red Cross. How
+ shall I forget what she was to us here in the year 1870, helping us
+ during the time of war we had to go through with then! God grant her
+ peace eternal! There where her beautiful soul will live in the glory
+ of Christ.
+
+ LUISE, Grand Duchess of Baden (1912).
+
+
+ OMISSION OF, OR ACQUIESCENCE IN, THE TRAGEDY OF 1904
+
+
+ “PASSES THE BUCK”
+
+ It may be we shall let most of the period of the differences with the
+ Red Cross remain in solution till the larger life and letters (by
+ William E. Barton).
+
+ Reverend Percy H. Epler,
+ (In 1915)
+ One of the “Committee to Advise,” and
+ Author of “The Life of Clara Barton.”
+
+
+ “REFUSES TO ANTE”
+
+ If there was any lack of consideration for Clara Barton, it would do
+ no good now to remember it.
+
+ Reverend William E. Barton,
+ (In 1922)
+ One of the “Committee to Advise,” and
+ Author of “The Life of Clara Barton.”
+
+
+ Years were to Clara Barton merely opportunities of service, not
+ measures of life. This attitude prolonged her life and kept her young
+ in spirit.
+
+ At ninety (1911) there was no mark of physical infirmity upon her nor
+ was there any slightest slacking in the interest of the object for
+ which she long had cared.
+
+ Senility was farther removed from her at ninety (1911) than from most
+ women at sixty.
+
+ At the age of ninety-one (1912) there was not a physical lesion nor a
+ diseased organ in the body.
+
+ She lived to enter her tenth decade, and when she died (1912) was
+ still so normal in the soundness of her bodily organs and in the
+ clarity of her mind and memory that it seemed she might easily have
+ lived to see her hundredth birthday.
+
+ WILLIAM E. BARTON
+ “Her Cousin, the Author.”
+ (“William E. Barton is one of our third or fourth cousins.
+ Stephen E. Barton,”)
+ Clara Barton’s Nephew, and Dedicatee of
+ Barton’s “Life of Clara Barton.”
+
+
+ At no time in her life has Miss Barton been in sounder bodily or
+ mental health or better able to continue the work to which her years
+ of experience and natural endowments have preeminently fitted her.
+ Moreover, the nation’s confidence is Miss Barton’s, and no hand can
+ better guide its Red Cross work than hers.
+
+ Red Cross Committee, officially, to Congress.
+ Written report unanimously concurred in.
+ (In 1903.)
+
+ Year after year your President has framed and offered her resignation
+ to the preceding Board and Committees. These have been resolutely met
+ by appointment for life. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Miss Barton has resigned three times before this time (May 14, 1904)
+ but every time we have elected her again unanimously; and twice we
+ have elected her for life and every member, 315 in number, voted for
+ her. W. H. SEARS, Secretary for Clara Barton.
+
+ I certify that at the meeting of the American National Red Cross, held
+ in Washington, D. C, December 9, 1902, on motion to elect Clara Barton
+ President of the organization for life, a standing vote was taken,
+ resulting as follows: Ayes 28, noes 3, the three negative votes
+ being....
+
+ S. W. BRIGGS, Secretary, Red Cross Committee.
+
+ It is the Red Cross, without the glamor of war or disaster, to attract
+ your interest, that I bring to you to nourish and protect.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When the Government accepted the Red Cross, perhaps a bit arrogantly,
+ I felt that my end was accomplished and that I was ready to give it
+ up. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It is a pride as well as a pleasure to hand to you an organization
+ perfectly formed, thoroughly officered, with no debts and a sum of
+ from $12,000 to $14,000 available to our treasury as a working fund.
+ (Amount realized $15,541.89. The Author.) CLARA BARTON (on May 14,
+ 1904, in offering her resignation as President).
+
+
+ It would be strange, if after so many years of earnest effort for the
+ relief of human suffering, during which time I have always lived and
+ moved in the full glare of the public gaze, I could not now safely
+ trust my character and good name to the care of the American people.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN
+
+ Clara Barton is the greatest woman of this, or any other, age.—MRS.
+ JOHN A. LOGAN, the Vice-President under Clara Barton; the President
+ of the American Red Cross Society, May 14, 1904–June 16, 1904.
+
+ It is an unspeakable joy to me that the toil-worn, weary mantle, that
+ drops from mine, falls upon the shoulders of my vice-president, the
+ woman so cherished in our own country and honored and trusted in
+ other countries.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON’S RESIGNATION
+
+At a meeting of the American National Red Cross, held December 10, 1901,
+President Clara Barton said: “at that meeting (July 10, 1900) I brought
+my armor, worn and rusted, and reverently laid it at your feet with the
+request that I be released. You declined to permit me to retire. I again
+lay my armor before you, recommending the filling of this most eminent
+position in your gift by someone better fitted than I ever have been to
+assume its duties, and wear its honors.” The Red Cross again refused to
+accept the resignation.
+
+The so called “charges” against Miss Barton were made December 10, 1903.
+The case was heard before the Proctor Red Cross Committee on May 3,
+1904. Only one witness testified and, as elsewhere stated, he refused to
+be cross examined whereupon his statements were discredited, the case
+summarily dismissed for want of evidence, and on motion of the committee
+itself. Miss Barton previously had been re-elected, almost unanimously,
+to succeed herself.
+
+The “remonstrants” discredited, their “charges” found baseless, Miss
+Barton vindicated, on May 14, 1904, she again offered her resignation[7]
+of the Presidency, this time in favor of Mrs. General John A. Logan, and
+insisted on its acceptance. Her friends protested her resignation;
+insisted she should not resign but should hold the position for life.
+Miss Barton persisted in sacrificing herself for what she _then_ thought
+would be in the interest of harmony, and the cause nearest her heart.
+The following is the personal explanation of her then attitude of mind.
+
+Footnote 7:
+
+ Clara Barton resigned the presidency May 14, 1904. Mrs. John A. Logan
+ succeeded to the presidency, holding the office until June 16, 1904.
+ Mrs. Logan nominated W. H. Taft as her successor. Mr. Taft declining
+ then to serve, Admiral W. K. Van Reypen, according to Red Cross
+ official records, acted as president pro tern until January 8, 1905,
+ when Mr. Taft accepted the presidency.
+
+“In initiating measures for the conciliation of opposing interests and
+views, it may seem to some of my friends that I have overlooked just
+grounds of personal offence in imputations wantonly made upon my honor
+and integrity. I do so knowingly and willingly, and because the cause
+that the American Red Cross is meant to promote stands first in my
+affections and my desires. It would be strange if it did not—if the
+cause for which I have devoted myself for half a century were not deemed
+by me worthy of any possible sacrifice of personal pride or personal
+interest.”
+
+ ’Tis not the house and not the dress,
+ That makes the saint or sinner,
+ To see the spider sit and spin,
+ Shut with her walls of silver in,
+ You would never, never, never guess,
+ The way she gets her dinner.
+
+Had she entered the spider’s web of the society “remonstrant”; had she
+accepted the proposed annuity—and proposed honor of Honorary President,
+and thrown her child to the sharks, Clara Barton’s frail bark would have
+been towed into port, in peace. Instead, with her never failing courage
+she took to the life boat, on a stormy sea, and survived the storm to
+hand over her Red Cross child not to an unworthy, but to her Country and
+humanity.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXIV
+
+
+ No cynic will find a flaw in what Miss Barton did.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Record_.
+
+ The spiteful factionist, to be found in every cause—even the cause of
+ Christ himself—formed an opposition to Miss Barton.
+
+ Harrisburg (Pa.) _Telegram_.
+
+
+ Truth hath a quiet breast. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Great souls suffer in silence. SCHILLER.
+
+ Silence is the Mother of Truth. EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
+
+
+ Come, let us have peace. U. S. GRANT.
+
+ Peace to the land forevermore. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I never spoke a discordant word in my life, meaningly.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Like her Master, whom she followed, Clara Barton opened not her mouth.
+ KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD.
+
+
+ And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders He answered
+ nothing. ST. MATTHEW.
+
+
+ NO RED CROSS CONTROVERSY
+
+“There has been no Red Cross controversy,” says Clara Barton, “as the
+sensational press has termed it, inasmuch as the Red Cross has taken no
+controversial part. It has only spoken when it _must_, and as little as
+possible, and its President not at all, nor ever will.
+
+“When it is necessary for me to defend myself before the _American
+people_, let me fall. I should not value the defense thus gained, and I
+trust I shall never feel it needful.”
+
+In her later years the following was oft quoted by Clara Barton:
+
+ The stars come nightly to the sky,
+ The tidal wave unto the sea
+ I’ll rail no more ’gainst time or tide,
+ For lo! my own shall come to me.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXV
+
+
+ A Greek Red Cross on a field of white should tell any soldier of any
+ country within the treaty that the wearer was his friend and could be
+ trusted; and to any officer of any army that he was legitimately
+ there, and not subject to capture. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ This is what the Red Cross means, not an order of knighthood, not a
+ commandery of it, not a secret society, not a society at all by
+ itself, but the powerful, peaceful sign and the reducing to practical
+ usefulness of one of the broadest and most needed humanities the world
+ has ever known. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I hope that all the patriotic and humane men, women and children of
+ the United States who are able to do so, will give it (the Red Cross)
+ their support by becoming members of our national organization.
+ EX-PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+ I hereby commend the plan of the Red Cross to secure a large
+ membership in this country. I hope the American people will prove as
+ patriotic in this respect as are the people of other nations, so that
+ we may be as well prepared as they to render relief in the misfortune
+ of war or to mitigate the suffering caused by pestilence, famine,
+ fire, floods, mine explosions and other great disasters.
+
+ EX-PRESIDENT W. H. TAFT.
+
+ A large, well-organized and efficient Red Cross is essential. It is
+ both a patriotic and humane service that is rendered by every citizen
+ who becomes a member of the American Red Cross.
+
+ EX-PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON.
+
+
+ I perceive that in creating an institution that shall be National and
+ of the people the foundations must be as broad and as solid as the
+ whole nation. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has become well known and well beloved. Of all the great
+ humanitarian institutions of this country the Red Cross is surely
+ among the greatest. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Though we may leave our task unaccomplished, the task may be glorious
+ in design if not in completion, and speak of us sincerely and with
+ more fitting substance than words could ever compass or suggest. CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+
+ The Red Cross is the Big Brother of the Fighting Man.
+
+ GENERAL LEONARD WOOD.
+
+
+ The Red Cross is the most generally recognized humanitarian movement
+ in the known world. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has awakened the senses, and attuned the public ear to
+ the cry of distress wherever emanating. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Treaty of Geneva takes its powers from the common consent of the
+ United Governments of the civilized world.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Human intelligence has devised the provisions of the Red Cross, and it
+ is peculiarly adapted to popular favor. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ It is probable that no sign nor figure in the secular world is sacred
+ to so many people as is the Red Cross of Geneva. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The insignia, which has given its name to the Treaty of Geneva, has
+ become universally known and respected. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross never leads, but follows, in all military matters.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The Red Cross has given rise to most valuable inventions and, under
+ its humane impulses, sanitary science has made rapid progress.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Inspired by the love of humanity and the world-wide motto of the Red
+ Cross: “In time of peace and prosperity, prepare for war and
+ calamity.” CLARA BARTON.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Clinedinst, Washington, D. C._
+
+
+ AMBASSADOR BAKHMETEFF
+
+ The veneration in which Russians of every class hold the name of Clara
+ Barton.—RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR BORIS BAKHMETEFF (in Boston in 1917).
+
+ The Ambassador requested me to transmit to you the expression of every
+ loyal Russian appreciation for the splendid work done by the
+ American Red Cross during the last war, and especially for its
+ assistance to the needy in Russia.—G. GAGARINE, First Secretary to
+ the Embassy (in Washington in 1920).
+]
+
+ Some forty nations are in the Red Cross treaty, and from every
+ military hospital in every one of these nations floats the same flag.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Of all existing organizations, there is possibly not one that has
+ causes for sentiment of higher devotion and more prayerful gratitude
+ than the Red Cross, which owes its very life to pity and help for the
+ woes of the world. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross means not national aid for the needs of the people, but
+ the people’s aid for the needs of the nation.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ History records the wonderful achievements of the Red Cross, greatest
+ of relief organizations, though it cannot record the untold suffering
+ which has been averted by it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I desire to enroll all to whom this message may come as subscribing,
+ or sustaining, members of the Red Cross; and I wish this idea to
+ spread and grow until it develops into a great National Red Cross
+ movement. Then my hope will be realized. And when the call shall come
+ I can lay the burden of my work tenderly and lovingly into the lap of
+ the whole people, with whom I have labored so many years, and who will
+ keep and cherish it always because it is the sacred cause of humanity
+ they hold. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In France recently there was found in the mails an unstamped postcard
+ addressed, “Clara Barton, Heaven,” and on the card was written, “You
+ certainly founded a wonderful institution,” and signed “A Soldier.”
+ _Press Dispatch._
+
+
+ No country is more liable than our own to great overmastering
+ calamities, various, widespread and terrible. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Seldom a year passes that the nation, from sea to sea, is not by the
+ shock of some sudden, unforeseen disaster, brought to utter
+ consternation and stands shivering like a ship in a gale, powerless,
+ terrified and despairing. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Through Clara Barton’s influence the International Congress of Berne
+ adopted the “American Amendment.”
+
+ MARY R. PARKMAN, Author.
+
+
+ Although the original purpose and object of the Red Cross was indeed
+ to heal the wounds and sickness incident to warfare, there will remain
+ the work under the “American Amendment,” in which the Red Cross goes
+ forth to heal other great ills of life.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS—AMERICAN RED CROSS—AMERICAN AMENDMENT
+
+The International Treaty of Geneva—Red Cross—dates from August 23rd,
+1864. The Red Cross is a Confederation of Societies in different
+countries for the amelioration of the condition of wounded soldiers in
+arms, in campaigns on land and sea. The World Society originated with
+Henri Dunant of Switzerland, after seeing the condition from neglect of
+the wounded at the battle of Solferino, Italy, on June 24, 1859. Gustave
+Moynier, also of Switzerland, called a meeting at Geneva, Switzerland,
+and the organization followed—August 23, 1864.
+
+France was the first nation to adopt the treaty, this being September
+23, 1864. The United States was the thirtieth in the list of nations
+adopting the treaty, this being on March 1, 1882. Up to the present time
+49 nations have acceded to the Treaty of Geneva. In this list are the
+following possessing a National Red Cross Society:
+
+ 1. Wurtemberg
+ 2. Belgium
+ 3. Prussia
+ 4. Denmark
+ 5. France
+ 6. Italy
+ 7. Spain
+ 8. Hessie (Grand Duchy)
+ 9. Portugal
+ 10. Sweden
+ 11. Norway
+ 12. United States
+ 13. Saxony
+ 14. Baden
+ 15. Switzerland
+ 16. Russia
+ 17. Austria
+ 18. Netherlands
+ 19. Bavaria
+ 20. Turkey
+ 21. Great Britain
+ 22. Montenegro
+ 23. Serbia
+ 24. Roumania
+ 25. Greece
+ 26. Peru
+ 27. Argentine
+ 28. Hungary
+ 29. Bulgaria
+ 30. Japan
+ 31. Congo
+ 32. Venezuela
+ 33. Uruguay
+
+The following are governments that have signed the Geneva convention but
+have not Red Cross Chapters recognized by the International Committee:
+
+ 34. Bolivia
+ 35. Brazil
+ 36. Chili
+ 37. Colombia
+ 38. Cuba
+ 39. Ecuador
+ 40. Guatemala
+ 41. Haiti
+ 42. Panama
+ 43. Siam
+ 44. Luxembourg
+ 45. Mexico
+ 46. Persia
+ 47. Honduras
+ 48. Nicaragua
+ 49. China
+
+Anticipating the adoption of the treaty by the United States, in July
+1881 the American Association of the Red Cross was organized,
+seventy-five persons present with Clara Barton the President. The United
+States Senate having acceded to the Treaty of Geneva, its ratification
+was proclaimed by President Arthur July 26, 1882. This association was
+incorporated April 17, 1883, under the name American National Red Cross;
+reincorporated by Act of Congress, the charter signed by President
+McKinley June 6, 1900. That charter was repealed and a new charter
+substituted, the same being adopted by an Act of Congress and approved
+by President Roosevelt January 5, 1905. Under the new charter the name
+continued to be The American National Red Cross. Section 4 of this Act
+was amended by an Act of Congress, and approved by President Taft June
+23, 1910. This amendment relates to the collection of moneys by
+authorized agents, the use of the Red Cross emblem or any other insignia
+colored, and similar matters. A second amendment was adopted by Congress
+and approved by the President December 12, 1912, and relates to the time
+of the annual meeting.
+
+The American National Association of Red Cross (organized in July 1881)
+was independent of the Treaty of Geneva; it was a private association,
+but Miss Barton was constantly urging this Government’s adhesion to the
+Red Cross Treaty of Nations. In compliment to Clara Barton, she was
+invited to address a meeting at Dansville, New York. As a result there
+was formed on August 2, 1881, the first local Society of the Red Cross
+in the United States of America.
+
+In September 1881, the Michigan forest fires occurred. This became the
+first test of the merits of the Red Cross work in America. Miss Barton
+was at this time also invited to make an address on this subject to the
+citizens of Syracuse, New York. A proposition to organize an auxiliary
+in that city was made at the close of the meeting. The amount there
+raised for the relief of the Michigan sufferers was $3,807.28, the new
+Red Cross Auxiliary Society numbering 250 members. This, in brief, is
+the history of the inception of the Red Cross and the two auxiliaries in
+America.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ELUTHEROS K. VENIZELOS
+
+ Although I never met Miss Barton, her achievement in establishing the
+ American Red Cross is such as to win for her the lasting gratitude
+ of many millions of people all over the world.
+
+ Greece, in particular, will never forget the noble work accomplished
+ here by the American Red Cross. Its aid has been invaluable during
+ the world war and I am therefore glad to be given this opportunity
+ to pay this small tribute to the founder and first President of this
+ splendid organization.
+ ELUTHEROS K. VENIZELOS,
+ The Ex-Premier of Greece.
+]
+
+Of the Michigan forest fires Clara Barton said: “So sweeping has been
+the destruction that there is not food enough left in its wake for a
+rabbit to eat, and indeed there is no rabbit, if there were food.”
+
+In the spring of 1882 for hundreds of miles there overflowed the raging
+waters of the Mississippi, destroying homes and causing great suffering.
+Again the new association responded to the cries of distress. While the
+National Association was in session, devising ways and means for
+extending relief, a messenger came from the U. S. Senate announcing that
+the United States had acceded to the Treaty of Geneva. “Through all the
+past years, during which the Red Cross has sought recognition,
+protection and cooperation of the Government,” says Clara Barton, “it
+has been but for one purpose—to be ready.” The relief of suffering in
+national disasters, hitherto unknown in the history of the world through
+Miss Barton had become popular among the American people.
+
+The ratifying powers at Berne accepted the National American Red Cross
+with the proposed Clara Barton amendment, generally known as the
+American Amendment. The system for relief work in national disasters,
+made popular in the United States through Clara Barton, was later
+approved and adopted by the International Red Cross Committee of the
+Treaty of Geneva. It has therefore become a part of the Red Cross system
+of all Treaty nations. These nations, representing a population of more
+than one billion of human beings, or four-fifths of the human race, are
+now enjoying the beneficence of the constructive genius of Clara Barton.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVI
+
+
+ Clara Barton—one of God’s noblest. Augusta (Ga.) _Journal_.
+
+ One of the world’s greatest.
+
+ Sacramento (Cal.) _Record-Union_.
+
+ Honored in three continents. St. Paul (Minn.) _Dispatch_.
+
+ Her movement spanned the globe.
+
+ Springfield (Mo.) _Republican_.
+
+
+ The preferring of charges against Clara Barton, and her subsequent
+ investigation, is one of the rankest instances of injustice in the
+ history of this country. Unfounded charges, political spite and the
+ hope of remuneration,—the charges were refuted and the schemers were
+ discredited, but politics had triumphed and Miss Barton was cast
+ aside. Los Angeles (Cal.) _Examiner_.
+
+ It was demanded of Clara Barton that she give an accounting of goods
+ and food distributed to dying and wounded on the battlefield. The
+ unspeakable Turk never did anything as bad as this.—But that
+ investigation was only an exigency, an excrescence, a malformation, a
+ wart on the nose. _The Fra_, East Aurora, N. Y.
+
+
+ Squint-eyed slander. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
+
+ Slanderous as Satan. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Slander expires at a good woman’s door. EWALD.
+
+
+ ’Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words,
+ Slander, the foulest whelp of sin.
+ POLLOCK—_Course of Time_.
+
+ Slander, meanest spawn of Hell—
+ And woman’s slander is the worst.
+ TENNYSON—_The Letters_.
+
+ ’Tis slander “whose breath
+ Rides on posting winds and doth belie
+ All corners of the world.” CYMBELINE.
+
+
+ If the end brings me out all right what is said against me won’t
+ amount to anything. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Speak not evil of the dead. CHILO.
+
+ They that slander the dead are like envious dogs that bark, and bite,
+ at bones. ZENO.
+
+
+ A poor lone woman. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Done to death by slanderous tongues. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Speak me fair in death. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ And thereby hangs a tale. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ The greater the truth the greater the libel. LORD MANSFIELD.
+
+
+ The greatest friend of truth is Time. COLTON-LACON.
+
+ Truth is the daughter of Time. MAZZINI.
+
+ Truth is Truth. TENNYSON.
+
+
+ There is nothing so powerful as truth. DANIEL WEBSTER.
+
+ Truth pierces the clouds; it shines like the sun and, like it, is
+ imperishable. NAPOLEON.
+
+ The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
+
+ GEORGE ELIOT.
+
+ All error, false hate, malice, evil company and their kindred, are
+ sure to find their true value, and though apparently successful are
+ doomed to die at last. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Almighty has his own purposes. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+
+ We never know the uses the Master will put us to. His designs are
+ known only to himself. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When you come to the certain conclusion that only truth and justice
+ are eternal, you will find it easy to wait and let the Heavens rule.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Nothing but truth lives. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ My Lord will help me. JOAN OF ARC.
+
+ God shows me the way I shall go. JOAN OF ARC.
+
+
+ We are all lost! We have burned a saint.
+
+ TRESSART, Secretary to Henry VI.
+
+ Would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman is.
+
+ JOHN ALESPIE,
+ PETER MAURICE.
+ (Two of the judges that condemned Joan of Arc.)
+
+
+ First in the list of American great women is Clara Barton; first in
+ her ideals; first in her achievements. In America, she ranks with
+ Jeanne d’Arc, of France, to whom the English are now (1818) placing a
+ monument in Manchester.
+
+ CORRA BACON-FOSTER, Author, _Clara Barton, Humanitarian_.
+
+
+ Joan of Arc was rather tall, well shaped, dark, with a look of
+ composure, animation and gentleness. GUIZOT.
+
+
+ It is not true, I think, that Miss Barton has ever done anything to
+ disentitle her to a conspicuous recognition in the Red Cross Building.
+ EX-SECRETARY OF STATE RICHARD OLNEY (in 1917). (The eminent American
+ selected by the “Remonstrants” in 1903, and unanimously approved by
+ the Red Cross, to name the members of the Red Cross Proctor
+ Committee—to investigate the “charges.”)
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ GROVER CLEVELAND
+
+ The President, March 4, 1885–March 4, 1889; March 4, 1893–March 4,
+ 1897
+
+ Miss Barton, I want you to represent the United States at the
+ International Red Cross Conference at Carlsruhe, Germany.
+ FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN (in 1887),
+ Secretary of State, under Grover Cleveland.
+
+ I thank you, Mr. Secretary, but I cannot do so; I am ill.—CLARA
+ BARTON.
+
+ Miss Barton, all the country knows what you have done, and are more
+ than satisfied. Regarding your illness, you have had too much fresh
+ water, Miss Barton, I recommend salt.—FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN.
+]
+
+
+ There is, and can be, no foundation for such a charge.... During all
+ the twenty-five years that Miss Barton has devoted herself to the Red
+ Cross work she has been in receipt of an individual income which it
+ has been her pleasure to use in defraying her own expenses and for
+ such helpers as the extensive correspondence compelled.
+
+ (Signed Red Cross Committee
+ By WALTER P. PHILLIPS Chairman,
+ SAMUEL M. JARVIS,
+ J. B. HUBBELL.)
+
+(In a Memorial to Congress, March 3, 1903—from House Document No. 552,
+ Vol. 49, 58th Cong.)
+
+ Wherein ... was removed from his position, under Miss Barton, he said:
+ “I can stand a great deal of cuffing, but then my time will come, so
+ help me God I will not humbly submit to all I am having to bear.” ...
+ was brought to Washington from a distant State ... principal witness
+ for the “Remonstrants.” Mr. Stebbins and I were convinced that ...’s
+ object was blackmail.
+
+ W. H. SEARS, Attorney for Red Cross.
+
+ ... conspired to supplant Miss Barton by destroying her name and fame.
+ Miss Barton resigned in my favor. Hoping to secure justice for Miss
+ Barton I accepted the Presidency, but finding that I would be unable
+ to assume the onerous duties as her successor, with Miss ...’s
+ insatiable desire to be at the head of the Red Cross, I resigned in
+ favor of a party Miss ... dared not oppose. Affidavit by MRS. JOHN A.
+ LOGAN. (From a book of 177 pages by General W. H. Sears, in a report
+ to the Library Committee of Congress, in 1916.)
+
+
+ ... not one of whom (“remonstrants”) ever went to a field nor gave a
+ dollar, above fees; and half of whom were never known as members until
+ now they appear in protest against the management. CLARA BARTON
+ (1903).
+
+
+ As to the threat of an investigation, if there be any, Miss Barton
+ cannot assent that it be suppressed by any act of hers. Red Cross
+ Committee, 1903. From House Document No. 552, Vol. 49th, 58th
+ Congress.
+
+ The Red Cross up to this time, 1898, had kept clear of political
+ rings, and uncontaminated. Miss Barton was the acknowledged chief in
+ authority. The Society had begun to win the most enviable reputation;
+ it was growing to be a power; and politicians who had hogged
+ everything else, from a cross-roads postoffice to a foreign minister,
+ had begun to lay plans for displacing Miss Barton with a wife, niece,
+ or daughter of a Washington politician. Miss Barton was probably not
+ aware of this unholy scheme at this time. Perhaps, even if she had
+ been, it would not have disturbed the serenity of her countenance for
+ she was working for God and humanity. _Under the Red Cross; or the
+ Spanish-American War_ (Page No. 154, book published 1898; Author,
+ Doctor Henry M. Lathrop; Editor, John R. Musick.)
+
+
+ BLACKMAIL ALLEGED—“CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION”—TRUTH OF HISTORY
+
+Joan of Arc was born in 1410; Clara Barton in 1821—411 years
+later. The former became the leader of the armies of France; the
+latter, the leader of humanitarianism in America. Each was a
+patriot—self-sacrificing—serving not for self-glory, but for a
+great cause. The little clique of politicians and military
+aristocracy plied Joan of Arc for five months with “catch
+questions” on “trumped-up” charges, then condemned her to be
+burned at the stake. The little clique of politicians and social
+aristocracy plied Clara Barton with “catch questions” on
+“trumped-up” charges, then tried to condemn her to eternal
+ignominy. General Leonard Wood, humanity’s friend and chivalric,
+with whom Clara Barton served in the camp, the hospital, and on
+the battlefield, says: “There is a call for women actuated by the
+same spirit of service as a Deborah, a Joan of Arc, a Molly
+Pitcher—women who will carry forward the work begun by Clara
+Barton and Florence Nightingale.”
+
+ Let the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s
+ Thy God’s and Truth.
+
+Clara Barton met her fate in the Nation’s Capital. Says _The Fra_: “The
+clique went before Congress and secured an amended charter to the Red
+Cross, which included none of Miss Barton’s friends. Because the name of
+Clara Barton headed the list, the bill was passed; the members of
+Congress supposed it was a bill that Miss Barton wanted. This was done
+without Miss Barton’s knowledge or consent. However, Miss Barton was
+ignored by the new organization. Her name has never been mentioned in
+their reports or publications; she has never been invited to attend any
+meeting of the Society which she had created, and established in this
+country.”
+
+The Red Cross then was non politics, non society, non salary, non graft.
+President Clara Barton was obdurate, non pliable. She could not _be
+used_. Her virtues became her undoing. She was retired. From Europe, for
+inspiration in America, was brought the English heroine;—suppressed or
+belittled, the American Red Cross Mother in semi-official literature,
+“At Home and Abroad.” The _coup_ won—the conspiracy completely
+triumphed. And how the official records disclose.
+
+Washington is the rendezvous of “in full dress”
+criminals—character-assassins,—“that strange bedlam composed largely of
+social climbers and official poseurs.” They carry a stiletto, half
+truth, but in desperate cases make use of slander, of forty-five
+calibre. Their prospective victims range from rich Uncle Sam down to a
+poor lone woman, of charity. They ply their vocations sometimes, through
+envy, for self-glorification; sometimes, through ambition, for
+self-exaltation. While Washington was having the _honor_ of dishonoring
+the great American philanthropist, a western town was offering as a
+present to her a fifty thousand dollar home, just to have the honor of
+her presence there. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Miss Barton’s three
+cospirits and co-workers for humanity, met their fate while guarded by
+detectives; under certain customs prevailing in the West and South, as
+there is no protection from slander against a woman, “Chivalry” would
+have come to the rescue of defenseless Clara Barton.
+
+There is an official Red Cross report to Congress, made in 1903, said
+report on file in House Document No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Congress,
+statements of historic interest relating to the status of Red Cross
+affairs about that time. _In re_ the proposed annuity of $2,500 and the
+Honorary Presidency for Life, should Clara Barton consent to permit the
+minority membership _thereafter to control the Red Cross_, and other
+matters relating thereto, appear the following in that report:
+
+ Since the filing of their (the remonstrants) Memorial in Congress, at
+ least two thousand newspapers, in the country and out of it, have
+ openly published these damaging statements, without the slightest
+ knowledge of the facts.
+
+
+ The memorial includes an ex parte statement.—It is greatly to be
+ regretted that such action should have been taken—without giving a
+ hearing to the majority of the organization, or to Miss Barton
+ herself.
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a photograph taken at St. Petersburg, Russia, July, 1902, at the
+ time the Decoration of the Red Cross was conferred on Clara Barton
+ by the Czar and Empress Dowager.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a photograph taken in 1904, at the time when occurred the
+ so-called “investigation” of Clara Barton, at Washington, D. C.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a photograph taken in Washington, D. C., in 1878.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a photograph taken in 1897, just before leaving the United States
+ for her work among the Reconcentrados in Cuba.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a photograph taken in 1882, just after Clara Barton had completed
+ the organization of the American Red Cross.
+]
+
+ While there were seven States represented by members actually present
+ (at the meeting), the entire list of signers to the Memorial (by the
+ remonstrants), with one exception, were residents of Washington, D. C.
+
+
+ With one exception, not one of the twenty-five members has ever taken
+ part in Red Cross Field work for a single day;—and she valuing her
+ services, however, at $50.00 per week for two weeks, making a sum of
+ $100, which was allowed and paid by the board; nor were there any
+ records to show that, aside from their membership fees aggregating
+ about $160, they have ever contributed to the funds of the Red Cross,
+ while individual signers of this Memorial have drawn from it more than
+ 500, in aggregate amount.
+
+
+ Clara Barton has never been a pensioner on the Red Cross Society, and
+ certainly could not assent to be placed in that relation. We may, too,
+ reasonably ask how these sticklers for correct form in all proceedings
+ can find authority, being only a small minority of the membership, to
+ offer such terms; and how can they undertake to barter its offices,
+ privileges, and funds for a compliance with their demands? They admit
+ they can stop the proceedings in Congress—for a consideration—thereby
+ indirectly admitting the purpose of their movement from the beginning.
+ The mere statement of the situation will suggest its difficulties. The
+ majority in control of the body is at a loss to know where and how,
+ under the charter or any of its bylaws, past or present, there can be
+ authority for such proceedings.
+
+“That it was physically withstood,” says Clara Barton after her
+retirement, “was beyond either the expectation or the intention;” “still
+stamping on me;” “so long as I am _personally_ unharmed I expect nothing
+more.” Fortunately for her country her life was spared, by her
+“enemies,” eight years more; for in that eight years she did a work many
+times more difficult than to have kept running her perfected and
+well-oiled Red Cross machinery. She brought into existence a new
+organization, of possible greater benefit to the American people than
+the Red Cross, an organization with headquarters in Boston and branch
+societies everywhere from Maine to California.
+
+And why should she not have done so? About the time of her retirement
+(in 1903) there was filed with Congress by a committee of the Red Cross
+an official report, unanimously concurred in by the committee, in which
+report appears the following: “At no time in her life has Miss Barton
+been in sounder bodily or mental health, or better able to continue the
+work to which her years of experience and natural endowments have
+preeminently fitted her. Moreover, the nation’s confidence is Miss
+Barton’s, and no hand can better guide its Red Cross work than hers.
+While every right minded person will deplore the mental suffering,
+anxiety, and personal humiliation inflicted upon one of the noblest
+women that ever lived, it cannot be supposed that she will abandon her
+life work on such a demand as this, or that she will retire from the
+office to which she has been almost unanimously elected, while under
+fire; nor would her friends permit it if she were so disposed.—We find
+nothing in the opposition except malice, resentment, and the jealousy of
+a few people whose ambition has been thwarted.”
+
+ Tis eminence that makes envy rise;
+ As fairest fruit attract the flies.
+
+Successful with her new organization, the Red Cross a few years later
+(in 1910) formed in its society a department to carry on relief as then
+carried on in Miss Barton’s new organization, the department being of
+like name—The First Aid Division. In her new field of humane service,
+Clara Barton expended from her personal funds about $5,000, besides five
+years of hard work, before she achieved success.
+
+She was herself again; she was on the “firing line”; she had the support
+of her former Red Cross field forces,—not one had deserted her. She
+didn’t flee her “enemies” to Mexico, but to the “Hub”;—where, and in
+which vicinity, she had enjoyed social amenities with the Julia Ward
+Howes, the Wendell Phillips’, the George Bancrofts, the John B. Goughs,
+the Louisa M. Alcotts, the Lucy Larcoms, the Mary Baker Eddys, the Henry
+Wilsons, the Charles Sumners, the George F. Hoars. Either among such
+then living or their friends, she had lost none of her prestige because
+she had been attacked in the “Den of Character-Assassins.”
+
+ Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
+ Thou shalt not escape calumny.
+
+On her “First Aid” Advisory Board were Lieutenant-General Nelson A.
+Miles and ex-Governor John L. Bates, of Massachusetts; Dr. Eugene
+Underhill, of Pennsylvania; Dr. Charles R. Dickson, of Canada; Dr.
+Joseph Gardner, of Indiana. Associated with her in various other
+capacities, also, were persons of national fame and widely-known
+humanitarianism. She was unanimously elected and re-elected, while she
+lived, the Active President of the organization—the organization known
+as the National First Aid Association of America: now she is the
+President _In Memoriam_.
+
+In the House Records of 1903 and 1904 there is found the following:
+“They (Remonstrants) suggest that Miss Barton is a party to loose and
+improper arrangements for securing the needed accountability for
+supervision of disbursements for money furnished in demand of exigency
+of the Red Cross by the charitable public.” In 1916, a letter signed by
+a leading Red Cross official was mailed to the members of the United
+States Senate and the House of Representatives. In that letter, among
+many other “charges,” was the following: “I think I have given
+sufficient evidence to show why the dishonest appropriation of relief
+funds for the personal use of Miss Barton makes the officials of the Red
+Cross strongly opposed to having the memorial of such a woman placed in
+a building that stands in remembrance of the noblest, finest, and most
+self-sacrificing womanhood of America.”
+
+It is inexcusable, on the part of a member of the present management of
+the Red Cross, to make public “accusation” of Clara Barton’s
+book-records without certification to that effect by an expert
+accountant, in an official capacity, and then only confidentially to the
+organization itself for some good purpose; and in no case to the public
+in defamation, to support the position taken by an “enemy.” Similar
+conduct, on the part of an employé in a well-ordered private corporation
+would subject the guilty, probably, to dismissal in disgrace from the
+service. If in the interest of public policy such information should be
+made public, and become of record, it should be made officially public,
+and through the President of the society.
+
+In what has been done, _pro bono publico_ has had no
+consideration. In publicly attacking the Red Cross Founder’s
+book-records before the members of the National Legislature,
+there should also have been considered that conditions now
+are not as were the conditions a score of years ago. Then the
+President-Vice-President-Chairman-Vice-Chairman-Comptroller-General
+Manager received no salary; _now_ (in 1919) the annual salary of
+four Red Cross officers is $41,400; $15,000 and $10,000
+respectively, for Chairman and Vice-Chairman; $8,000 and $8,400
+respectively, for Comptroller and General Manager. _In re_ the
+attitude of the “Remonstrants” towards her, Clara Barton said: “I
+am still unanimously bidden to work on for life; bear the burden
+of an organization; meet its cost myself—and now threatened with
+the expenses of the ‘investigation.’”
+
+In consonance with her sentiment, and statement, “The foundation on
+which all good government rests is conformity to its laws,” Clara Barton
+in 1904 turned over to the new management all Red Cross books, official
+papers, official records, public funds—all Red Cross matters of
+whatsoever kind or nature. If there were evidence of defalcation, or
+“dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Miss
+Barton,” then was the time to have made the charges, and in the criminal
+court. “Instead, the _post mortem_ charges were made twelve years after
+Clara Barton’s resignation of the Red Cross Presidency, and four years
+after her death.”
+
+ Kings, queens and states,
+ Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
+ This vituperous slander enters.
+
+Under the laws of this country the accuser was estopped from making
+“charges” in 1916; or at any other time, except in a court of competent
+jurisdiction. Were it not for this wise provision the reputation of no
+man nor woman, alive or dead, could have adequate protection from
+“enemies,” in ambush. By what code of ethics, legal or moral, is such
+_personal_ judgment against the dead rendered? And where is the
+record-verdict of the “crime”? In five or six years of the
+investigation, I have been unable to find any record that such “crime,”
+as is alleged against Miss Barton, was committed. Nor do I find that a
+criminal charge of any kind against her is of record in the criminal
+court, the only institution under the laws of this country where a
+person should be adjudged guilty of crime. I do find from the records,
+however, that the Red Cross official making these charges was one of the
+“Remonstrants” of 1903–4, and who then certified to Miss Barton’s
+“_integrity_”; and also over her own signature proposed that Miss Barton
+accept the Honorary Presidency of the Red Cross as a tribute to her
+“_integrity_.”
+
+“Loose and improper arrangements for securing the needed
+accountability”; “such a woman”; “dishonest appropriation of relief
+funds for the personal use of Clara Barton!” Says _The Fra_, then under
+the management of Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Hubbard, “Such accusation is not
+only the blunder of boors but it is crime and sacrilege.” If such
+unproved, unfounded charges against a woman, with immunity to their
+author, can get into the government record, into the hands of the
+people’s representatives at Washington, passing without governmental
+protest through the mails, perilous the adventure of the women of
+America to enter upon a career of public service.
+
+And has the cause of Clara Barton grown? Yes, gloriously, to the
+infinite credit of Clara Barton in laying the foundation in conformity
+to her statement, “To be efficient, the Red Cross must have government
+recognition, must bear the stamp of national individuality, and be
+constructed according to the spirit, habits, and needs of the country it
+represents;—in contemplating the possible realization of my hope and all
+it would entail and involve, I have been looking carefully and anxiously
+to the plans of the foundations of the structure we are hoping to build;
+and I perceive in creating an Institution that shall be National and of
+the people, the foundations must be as broad and as solid as the whole
+nation.”
+
+To the credit of the Clara Barton management, and of the succeeding
+management, of the Red Cross; to the credit of the American people that
+for twenty-three years previous to the “accusation,” and thereafter
+notwithstanding, the world has held in highest regard the Red Cross
+Founder and Red Cross integrity. What of financial support, _for
+reasons_ that have been withheld, (probably millions) has not been
+reported. What of financial and moral support accorded to the Red Cross
+brings a flush of pride to the face of every true American; what of
+seeming policy toward the Founder also brings a flush,—but not of pride.
+A public policy, not in harmony with public sentiment, has brought on
+national disasters—a world disaster.
+
+Mere growth, of itself, is not a virtue; for the upas tree grows, with
+spreading branches. The best prosperity is that prosperity whose
+foundation is secure, whose record-history is untarnished. The best
+philanthropy is that philanthropy which lives in the best atmosphere,
+breathes of the purest, gives of the soul’s best. To her latest breath
+Clara Barton breathed love, breathed purest Red Cross philanthropy,—but
+prayed justice for herself. She had never spoken a discordant word in
+her life, meaningly; her “enemies” monopolized the discordant words. So
+far as known, she never made an enemy; her “enemies” were
+self-made—their self-made record, on the books, reported “in the red.”
+
+Wearing a “political helmet,” those who attacked a helpless woman took
+possession of her reputation and prospered. At no time in her life has
+it been shown that in her chosen field, with years of successful
+experience, Clara Barton was not a good business manager; her “enemies”
+assumed themselves, _without experience_, to be good in business and
+took charge of her affairs:—but under _proper_ political protection.
+
+ Slander—it is a coward in a coat of mail
+ That wages war against the brave and wise.
+
+Her “enemies,” shielded behind “charges,” made accusation against
+her,—_without self-sacrifice_; she exposed herself to attacks of every
+character known to womankind, and made self-sacrifices for the Red Cross
+and for country. What is inscribed over the portals of the cell, near
+Brussels, of Edith Cavell, must be inscribed on history’s tablets, of
+Clara Barton: “She sacrificed herself for the Red Cross; she sacrificed
+herself for the country.”
+
+ Slander
+ I saw it tread upon a lily fair—
+ A maid of whom the world could say no harm;
+ And when sunk beneath the mortal wound,
+ It broke into the sacred sepulchre
+ And dragged its victim from the hallowed grave
+ For public eyes to gaze upon.
+
+
+ Yea, I have seen this accursed child of envy
+ Breathe mildew on the sacred fame of her
+ Who once had been her country’s benefactor.
+
+Human nature hasn’t changed since he, who became the first American
+President, suffered through the “Conway Cabal,” a cabal not dissimilar
+in the motives, the charges and the execution, to that through which
+suffered the first Red Cross President. But George Washington was a
+fighter; Clara Barton, a woman of peace. The Red Cross President was as
+patient as was the first martyred American President, under persecution,
+and who then said “I am nothing, but truth is everything.” She was as
+innocent and unsuspecting as was our last martyred American President,
+who said “I have never done any man wrong, and I believe no man will do
+me one.”
+
+Man, political, cowardly-man constructed the apparatus;—the tongue of
+woman, the sender; the ear of woman, the receiver. Of all the God-given
+good of earth, one woman is the best; TWO WOMEN, the worst. The only
+serious charge in history that will stand against Clara Barton is that
+she WAS A WOMAN; her most serious “misappropriation,” that of her
+confidence in _another woman_.
+
+ Away the fair detractors went
+ And gave by turns their censures vent.
+
+Elected for life? Yes. Then resigned? She was not a “war-woman,”—she had
+never filled a swiveled-chair;—yes, she resigned in the interest of
+peace and _harmony_. And from the facts, distorted, and the motives,
+impugned, as to why she resigned were taken the bundle of faggots to add
+fuel to the flames of her torture.
+
+ Slander never wants for material;
+ Virtue itself provides it with weapons.
+
+As for safety, the ancient criminal fled to the Temple of the Gods, so
+America’s modern character-assassin fled to the Temple of the Red Cross,
+and implored silence; for then to recite the historic facts of the
+martyrdom might cause vibrations that would have shaken to earth the
+pillars of that sacred temple. President Clara Barton of the Red Cross
+said: “Its President has spoken not at all, and never will.” Silence
+reigned. The truth was withheld at the Red Cross receiving station,
+while untruth sped wireless—and all the world wondered.
+
+The Red Cross! No, the recent Red Cross officials don’t know the
+facts,—the reputation of the Mother is the child’s richest heritage. The
+Mother loved the Red Cross child; the child, the Mother—the slander of
+the Mother, dead, is by the individual, not by the Red Cross. The
+slander having coiled itself in Red Cross official circles there it
+lives, and will live, until scotched by the Red Cross or the American
+people.
+
+ For slander lives upon succession;
+ Forever housed, where it gets possession.
+
+The so-called “investigation of charges” against Clara Barton in 1904
+was before the Red Cross Proctor Committee. The “Remonstrants” demanded
+an investigation, and suggested that Honorable Richard Olney name the
+committee. The Red Cross unanimously approved the selection. The great
+Ex-Secretary of State named as that committee: U. S. Senator Redfield
+Proctor of Vermont; William Alden Smith of Michigan, then a member of
+the House and later a member of the Senate; General Fred C. Ainsworth,
+of the United States Army, of Washington, D. C. This in fact was a Red
+Cross Committee and not, as so-called, a Congressional Committee.
+“Congressional Committee to investigate” was a threat to frighten a
+timid woman.
+
+In the so-called “remonstrance” (of record) there is by the
+“remonstrants,” of whom the “post-mortem accuser” was one, a disclaimer
+of
+
+(a) “Any dishonesty on the part of Miss Barton in the administration of
+the affairs of the Red Cross.
+
+(b) “Any charge of misappropriation of any property or any money by Miss
+Barton; or
+
+(c) “Any improper act or conduct of any kind which involved in the
+slightest degree any element of moral turpitude.”
+
+Had there been an official charge at that time of “misappropriation of
+any property or any money,” or any other charge involving “in the
+slightest degree any element of moral turpitude,” on the part of the Red
+Cross Founder, charities would have thenceforward ceased to flow into
+Red Cross coffers, the Red Cross would have collapsed, and the
+“remonstrants” making such accusation haled into court, on a charge of
+criminal libel. The “remonstrants” foresaw that the good name of the
+Founder was the one hope of the Red Cross. The disclaimer was
+prerequisite to the attainment of the “remonstrant’s” ultimate object,
+namely: the coming into possession of a popular organization that
+carried political and social prestige.
+
+Mrs. Logan, the Vice-President, threatened court proceedings unless her
+name was removed from Red Cross literature, and in consequence it was
+removed. Not so, Miss Barton. She at all times wished it removed, at one
+time threatened court action, but she dared not risk the possibly fatal
+consequences to the Red Cross. She suffered, in heart-aches, because of
+such conscienceless fraud on the American people, as she often said,
+that the Red Cross might survive. Thus to the very day of her death,
+through silent acquiescence in the fraudulent use of her name to secure
+legislation and the people’s confidence for the new management, she was
+being terrorized, lest by her own word or act her Red Cross child might
+come to grief. The _post mortem_ charges are camouflage, a shield to
+protect the actors in the “tragedy of 1904;” the game as of the
+cuttle-fish in making the waters murky, when being chased by a superior
+force;—in this case, that of Truth.
+
+The charges made were:
+
+(a) “That proper books of account were not at all times kept;
+
+(b) “That the property and funds of the Red Cross were not at all times
+distributed upon the order of the Treasurer of the Society, as alleged
+to be required by the by-laws of the Society; and
+
+(c) “That a certain tract of land in Lawrence County, Indiana, had been
+donated to the Society by one Joseph Gardner; that the Society was
+reincorporated after such donation, and that such donation was never
+reported to the new corporation.”
+
+It was shown at the investigation that no Red Cross money had been
+invested in the tract of land referred to; that for reasons the proposed
+deal was not consummated, and the title lapsed; that proper books of
+account had been kept, and receipts taken for material and money, but
+not individual receipts from the sick, the wounded and the dying on
+fields of disaster—a system of red-tape impossible consistent with good
+service; that also the by-laws had been complied with in making
+disbursements through the Treasurer except,—when that too was
+impossible—during the stress of active relief work in the field. As her
+every field worker, then living that had at any time served under
+President Barton, approved her methods in Red Cross work; as the
+Washington “Society Remonstrants” had no experience in field work,
+manifesting pitiful ignorance as to what was required, the “charges” of
+_incompetency_ on the part of the accused received no consideration at
+the hands of the Committee.
+
+L. A. Stebbins, of Chicago, Illinois, ex-attorney for the Red Cross, in
+July, 1916, in a written report to the Library Committee of the House,
+and to which report he makes affidavit, refers to the charges of 1903
+and 1904 in words such as follow: “The _only witness_ ever produced to
+give testimony;—testimony was wholly unworthy of credit—false and
+untrue;—for blackmailing purposes;—clearly indicating blackmail.”
+
+On February 20, 1903, as elsewhere stated, the “remonstrants” certified
+in writing (certification of record) as to the “integrity, good name and
+fame of Clara Barton.” At the investigation held in the Senate Foreign
+Relations Committee Room on April 12, 1904, _in re_ the terrifying
+twenty-four page “remonstrance” before the Proctor Red Cross Committee,
+General John M. Wilson, himself a “remonstrant” and representing the
+“remonstrants” on that occasion, among other things said “We do not
+charge that anybody has been guilty of malfeasance,” in Red Cross
+affairs.
+
+Referring to this very occasion, Major-General W. R. Shafter, Commander
+of the American Army in the Spanish-American War, in 1904 while the case
+was pending, said: “If the charges made against Clara Barton were true,
+no gentleman could afford to be mixed up in the affair, but not one word
+uttered against her _is_ true.” Clara Barton, in 1911, referring to that
+now historic event, said: “The harvest is not what the reapers expected,
+and I suspect if it were all to be done over again in the light of their
+newly-gained experience, it would not be done.”
+
+To the credit of man’s respect for historic truth in official decisions,
+and his innate American chivalry, since the exoneration in 1904 there is
+not, at least of record, by any man an adverse criticism of the Red
+Cross Founder. _The perversion of the truth of history, however, by
+woman is as injurious to the public weal as such perversion by man, and
+through no ingenuous excuse of chivalry for a live woman, and against a
+dead woman, should untruth have countenance._ The investigation, for
+want of evidence, was _summarily dismissed_, on motion of the Committee
+itself. It thus became a mere farcical episode in American history.
+
+The written certification of the Founder’s “integrity,” by the
+“remonstrants” in 1903; the oral disclaimer by the “remonstrants” of
+_any_ Red Cross malfeasance in office officially proclaimed at the
+investigation in 1904, followed by a unanimous decision adverse to the
+“remonstrants,” the incident then should have been closed. The
+“accusation,” however, of even worse import than that originally in the
+_indictment_, by the “remonstrants” of 1903 and of 1904, again comes to
+the attention of the public in a semi-official way, from the same “lone
+woman accuser,” and is still a living factor in Red Cross policy,—still
+coming—still going—never ending—
+
+ All slander
+ Must still be strangled in its birth; as time
+ Will soon conspire to make it strong enough
+ To overcome truth.
+
+A certain letter by a Red Cross official, assuming to represent the Red
+Cross Society, was mailed from the Washington Red Cross headquarters to
+the members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. Said
+letter was written to be used, and was used, as the basis of an argument
+against the record and fame of Clara Barton before the Library Committee
+of Congress. On the letter-head was the following:
+
+ The American Red Cross
+
+ Pointe-au-Pie
+ Province of Quebec,
+ Canada. July 29, 1916.
+
+ The letter was signed ... (unofficially).
+
+ From that long letter, certain to be in American annals of peculiar
+ interest as an epistolary curio, are taken the following excerpts:
+
+ “Her father died in 1862, leaving property valued at a little more
+ than $1,000, of which she received a few hundred.”
+
+ “I may say individually that previous to the war Miss Barton appears,
+ according to her statement to have taught school at Bordentown, New
+ Jersey, where a teacher’s salary was $300 per year. A little later the
+ records show that she and some other woman occasionally did copying in
+ the Interior Department.”
+
+ “She obtained from Congress in 1866, $15,000 which she said she had
+ expended of her own money in tracing the missing soldiers. It is
+ difficult to understand where she obtained this money and also upon
+ what her income depended in future years, as she stated she never
+ received any salary or income from the Red Cross and yet she had no
+ other remunerative occupation that we know of.”
+
+ “In the 126 volumes of the War Department records of the Civil War no
+ mention is made of Miss Barton’s name or services except in a single
+ letter from her asking information as to prisoners at Annapolis.”
+
+ “We have a printed diary of.... This diary was published in 1863.
+ Though the names of a number of efficient women like Miss Dix and
+ others connected with the Sanitary Commission are mentioned in a
+ laudatory way, Miss Barton is never referred to.”
+
+ “In many published accounts of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions,
+ Miss Barton is not mentioned, though hundreds of other devoted women
+ are given.”
+
+ “Just after the Civil War, several gentlemen who had been connected
+ with the Sanitary Commission organized the first American Red Cross
+ Society, but as the Senate had not at that time ratified the treaty of
+ Geneva, this body could hold no official status and shortly went out
+ of existence.”
+
+ “In 1881 Miss Barton who, previously when visiting in Vienna, had
+ learned of the treaty of Geneva and the Red Cross societies, with a
+ number of others organized the American Red Cross.”
+
+ “The International Committee of Geneva transmitted through her a
+ letter to the President of the United States requesting the
+ ratification of the Treaty.”
+
+ “Mr. Blaine interested himself in the matter and in 1882 the Treaty
+ was ratified by the United States Senate.”
+
+ “From 1881 until 1904 Miss Barton remained the President of this small
+ American Red Cross, and sometimes acted also as its treasurer.”
+
+ “Financial statements were not made public and it is impossible to say
+ what funds were received and expended during the 23 years of its
+ existence.”
+
+ “I don’t care to take your time in stating many evidences of the
+ misuse of the Red Cross relief funds under Miss Barton, but I desire
+ to mention two or three incidents.”
+
+ “She advertised in the Worcester papers for contributions for relief
+ among the soldiers, but no record was made of what she received or
+ expended during the Civil War.”
+
+ “Certain letters we have seem to show that she occasionally had some
+ of the contributed funds invested in the West.”
+
+ “It is difficult to obtain data regarding the receipts and expenditure
+ of funds.”
+
+ “At the time of the Russian famine in 1892 ... no financial report was
+ made.”
+
+ “Shortly after this time Miss Barton bought real estate in Washington
+ and Glen Echo....”
+
+ “I think I have given, however, sufficient evidence to show why
+ dishonest appropriation of relief funds for the personal use of Miss
+ Barton makes the officials of the American Red Cross strongly opposed
+ to having the memorial of such a woman placed in a building that
+ stands in remembrance of the noblest, finest and most self-sacrificing
+ womanhood of America. Should your committee desire me to go to
+ Washington and lay before it the evidence I have given and more in our
+ possession, I would be willing to do so.”
+
+ ... would well become
+ A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
+ _Authorized_ by her grandam.
+
+The “charges,” including detractions, innuendoes and suspicions (of
+which the foregoing are only in part), take a wide range, extending from
+the time Clara Barton taught her first school at Bordentown in 1836 (80
+years previous), down to the Sea Islands hurricane in 1893 (22 years
+previous). These “charges” were segregated by a friend of Clara Barton
+for the Library Committee. In that form they consist of thirty-one
+“charges,” including the accuser’s _personal verdict_, “the dishonest
+appropriation of relief funds.” In history the “accusation” will be
+referred to as “_The Thirty-One Charges Without a Charge In It._” In
+legal circles such affirmations are known as “stale charges,” or by a
+worse name; but, even if presented immediately, such “charges” would
+have no standing in any court of equity in this country. The “charges”
+are further negatived by the admissions of the accuser, “It is difficult
+to obtain data regarding the receipts and expenditures;” “It is
+impossible to say what funds were received and expended.”
+
+Also, inexcusable ignorance was shown on the part of the accuser of
+Clara Barton as to her methods in Red Cross affairs. It is certified to
+by the Red Cross (and of official record) that Clara Barton made her
+report at the close of every disaster, and in every instance the report
+was approved by the Red Cross, and was satisfactory to her government
+and the American people. Besides besmirching the history and good name
+of the Red Cross and her country, thus to impeach the integrity of the
+Founder of the Red Cross and for more than a score of years its
+President, is to impeach also her various boards of officers and her
+hundreds of other associates, including American Presidents,—all of whom
+uniformly approved her methods, her reports and the results achieved,
+while “she remained the President of this small American Red Cross and
+sometimes acted also as its Treasurer.”
+
+If what the “lone accuser” asserts be true, that “we (Red Cross) have
+letters that seem to show that she occasionally had some of the
+contributed funds invested in the West,” they are letters, among other
+Red Cross effects, that came officially into the possession of the Red
+Cross, in 1904, through the pleasure and free-will offering of the
+conscientious-and-honest-to-a-fault-concealing-nothing Clara Barton. And
+for which also she received a _clearance card_, a “receipt in full.” As
+an American citizen and a member of the Red Cross I protest the legal
+right, or the moral right, of the Red Cross “accuser” now to incriminate
+her whose lips are sealed, or longer to approve of record, _upon what
+seems to show_.... The facts _not only seem to show, but do show_, that
+if Clara Barton had not accepted as a present from the twin brothers,
+Edwin and Edward Baltzley of Glen Echo, Chautauqua, her Glen Echo real
+estate, and for a house thereon as a present, the wreckage lumber from
+the people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889, there would have been no
+free-of-rent home for the Red Cross for the last fifteen years of her
+Red Cross administration and that of other philanthropies; that, while
+the accuser was living in a palace and “rolling in wealth,” the accused
+would have been homeless and penniless, living on charity.
+
+The “lone accuser” has no “letters that seem to show,” save and except
+such letters be interpreted by an “enemy,” and for an ulterior purpose.
+There is no truth in cynicism, or but half truth, which is more untruth
+than no truth. There is no truth in “we (Red Cross) have others in our
+possession” which the “lone accuser” pretended to have in her
+_post-mortem cruise_, in 1916, while trying to thwart the will of the
+people as to the proposed Clara Barton memorial tablet in the American
+Red Cross Building; and, still worse, trying to blot out forever the
+name of the Red Cross Founder. As the sentiment of all the people, but
+said by the people of Johnstown just after the flood, in 1889: “Try to
+describe the sunshine. Try to describe the starlight. Picture the
+sunlight and the starlight, and then try to say good bye to Clara
+Barton.”
+
+ Truth will come to sight.
+
+_In re_ Memorial to Clara Barton in 1916, the Library Committee of the
+House of Representatives, having before them all charges of whatsoever
+nature against Clara Barton, but especially those certain _post mortem_
+“charges,” wholly ignored each charge, and all “charges,” made by the
+“remonstrants” of 1902–4, in their memorial to Congress at that time.
+The report of the Library Committee in 1916 was favorable to Miss
+Barton, and as disastrous to the cause of the “remonstrants” as was that
+of the Red Cross Proctor Committee, in 1904.
+
+From the House Records, in the unanimously approved report by the
+Library Committee, are the following excerpts:
+
+“Miss Barton’s life was given up to the work of relieving the distress
+in Europe and America, and her place in the affection of her friends and
+admirers is secure. None of them is willing to admit that she needs any
+special tablet, or stone, or that either is required to keep alive her
+memory as a benefactor of all distressed mankind. As one of the women of
+the Civil War, and a distinguished one, she also is memorialized in the
+Red Cross Building.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ RICHARD OLNEY
+
+ I have always believed in Miss Barton’s merits as a patriot and
+ disinterested worker in aid of suffering humanity.
+ RICHARD OLNEY, in 1916.
+]
+
+
+ ATTORNEYS FOR THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SOCIETY UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF
+ CLARA BARTON
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ LEWIS A. STEBBINS
+
+ Clara Barton is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of
+ humanitarians of recent times.
+ LEWIS A. STEBBINS, in 1922.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ WILLIAM H. SEARS
+
+ Measured by her achievements, Clara Barton is the greatest woman the
+ world has yet produced.
+ WILLIAM H. SEARS.
+]
+
+The memorial tablet[8] was not placed in the Red Cross Building, as
+requested by the friends of Clara Barton, backed by one and one-half
+millions of petitioners to have it so placed, the most forceful argument
+being that one of the largest contributors to the cost of the
+building—and a friend of the accuser—made objection.
+
+Footnote 8:
+
+ As a substitute for the proposed memorial tablet in the Red Cross
+ building, the statue of Clara Barton, representing American
+ philanthropy, should be placed in the “Hall of Fame” in the National
+ Capitol, alongside that of Frances Willard, representing temperance;
+ and the name of the Red Cross Founder also should be recognized as
+ President _In Memoriam_ of the American Red Cross, as her name is now
+ recognized by The National First Aid Association of America.
+
+The foregoing is the authentic record presented to Congress in 1916, and
+a complete statement of facts—all the important recorded facts—relating
+to the “charges” of 1903–1904, with no official charges succeeding that
+date. Nor have I found in many months of examination in the Library of
+Congress, consisting of 2,800,000 volumes, or anywhere else of record,
+any detraction of early American Red Cross history or the slightest
+intimation that the Red Cross Founder was dishonest or a malfeasant in
+office, except from the pen of this “lone accuser.”
+
+Every officer, under oath sworn to conduct his office to the best of his
+ability, that knowingly conceals “dishonest appropriation” of public
+funds becomes _particeps criminis_, in the dishonest transaction. If
+true, therefore, as the “lone accuser” asserts over her signature in her
+letter to the Members of Congress, that “we (i.e., Red Cross) have
+letters that seem to show”—“dishonest appropriation of relief funds”
+then, inasmuch as no effort was made to recover from her or her estate
+these alleged losses, Clara Barton’s successors as Red Cross executives,
+in their capacity as trustees of a public trust, Mrs. John A. Logan, W.
+H. Taft and Woodrow Wilson become involved.
+
+
+ “CHARGES”? YES, REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM
+
+If not true, what could have been the object hoped for by the accusing
+Red Cross official, in her perversion of Red Cross history? Was it that
+she might dictate to one hundred millions of people the sentiment of a
+government building, known as The American Red Cross Building? It is
+somewhat significant that a few months later the United States put four
+millions of soldiers in the field, to make “The World Safe for
+Democracy.”
+
+Since this chapter was written and in type, there came into the
+possession of the author a letter, unsolicited, and relating to the
+possible motive. The letter was written by the Honorable Francis
+Atwater, the well-known Journalist and Ex-State Senator of Connecticut,
+and who for 40 years was Clara Barton’s co-worker and financial adviser.
+The letter, sworn to, follows:
+
+ October 14, 1921.
+
+ Mrs. Marietta B. Wilkins,
+ 359 Boylston Street,
+ Boston, Mass.
+
+ My dear Mrs. Wilkins:
+
+ Miss Andrews informs me that —— has been in communication with you in
+ regard to Miss Barton. I would like to say a few words about ——. About
+ 1900 she became interested as a member of the American Red Cross. Miss
+ Barton, some fifteen years previous, had founded the association after
+ years of effort. She furnished the funds for the purpose, as she did
+ for many years afterward for its support. It became a very popular
+ institution. Miss Barton was honored by the world as no other woman
+ had ever been.
+
+ —— having great wealth and connected with the social elements of
+ Washington, coveted Miss Barton’s position and honors. She used her
+ every endeavor to accomplish this purpose. She visited me in my office
+ at Meriden, Conn., knowing I had great influence with Miss Barton, and
+ offered, if I would get her to become honorary president of the Red
+ Cross, to raise a million dollars for a Red Cross temple to be built
+ in Washington and Miss Barton could have any sum she chose as an
+ annuity, expecting, of course, to succeed Miss Barton as president. If
+ we did not accept her offer she insinuated we would be sorry. Her
+ proposition was spurned.
+
+ From that day she hounded and persecuted Miss Barton until her wicked
+ design was completed. Since Miss Barton’s death —— has made the most
+ damaging, slanderous statements, well knowing there is no law to which
+ she is amenable. If there was we would avenge Miss Barton’s memory
+ quickly.
+
+ I will say that Miss Barton when she died was several thousand dollars
+ poorer than when she established the Red Cross. She had the friendship
+ and confidence of every president from Lincoln to McKinley, also Gen.
+ B. F. Butler, Vice-President Wilson, Charles Sumner, Senator Hoar and
+ Richard Olney of Massachusetts, the most influential men of the
+ country, and the crowned heads of the world. Many, like myself, gave
+ years of our time and paid our own expenses, not for the Red Cross,
+ but for Miss Barton and humanity. With friends of great wealth who
+ offered and sent her checks for large amounts to her individual order
+ to be used as she pleased (I opened many such letters) could any one
+ imagine that Miss Barton would stoop to steal a few paltry dollars?
+
+ If —— persists in vilifying Miss Barton’s character, I wish you would
+ ask her to make her statements in my presence.
+
+ Our Saviour was crucified, but has been remembered affectionately ever
+ since.
+
+ —— is down and out in the Red Cross, which since her removal has
+ printed much in Miss Barton’s favor.
+
+ —— seems obsessed with only one idea, to besmirch the memory of Clara
+ Barton but, like Abraham Lincoln, who in life was so sadly traduced,
+ Miss Barton’s name will be blessed more and more as the years pass by,
+ while —— will pass away practically unknown and unmourned.
+
+ Yours truly,
+ (Signed) FRANCIS ATWATER.
+
+ _AFFIDAVIT_
+
+ Personally appeared before me Francis Atwater, and made oath that the
+ facts set forth in the above statement are true to the best of his
+ knowledge and belief.
+
+ (Signed) _Edward B. Whitney_.
+ Notary Public.
+
+ Meriden, Conn., Oct. 21, 1921.
+
+The probable motive of the “lone accuser” was the subject of much
+comment on Capitol Hill. Soon after the defamatory letter reached the
+Members of the National Legislature there came a near-explosion in the
+House that promised to rival that of the Petersburg mine explosion of
+Civil War days; and to which scene, in the blackness of night, midst
+thunder and lightning and blinding storm, and on her horse with one
+attendant taking her life in her hands, Clara Barton rushed to the scene
+of death and mangled bodies, to save the lives of her country’s
+patriots. Accompanying the near-explosion, there also was predicted a
+tidal-wave as destructive to the Red Cross management as was that at
+Galveston in 1900 to her stricken people; and hard-following which, from
+what was then thought to be her death-bed, Clara Barton was on that
+storm-swept coast, in charge of the life rescue station.
+
+Especially tense was the consternation on the part of the members from
+fifteen or twenty states whose peoples respectively (from 1881 to 1900),
+had been the beneficiaries to the extent of thousands of lives saved and
+untold sufferings assuaged, at the hands of that “_small American Red
+Cross_.” What really quieted the five hundred legislators on Capitol
+Hill was the rumor that the sensation came from a luxurious summer
+resort in Canada, where there had been summering merely a harmless
+phenomenon—an incinerator with a “continuous performance” furnace-flame,
+containing no heat units. But just what happened, and why, at the
+Nation’s Capital with threats, impendent, of a criminal suit and in the
+“jungle of intrigue” following, is a story for the novelist, not a
+subject for this pen picture.
+
+One patriot-Congressman, however, for days kept revolving in his mind
+the many awful scenes, in which Clara Barton was her country’s “Angel of
+Mercy”; of the Michigan forest fires of 1881; of the two Mississippi
+River floods of 1882 and 1883; of the Ohio and Mississippi River flood
+of 1884, in which Clara Barton came near losing her life; of the
+Charleston earthquake of 1886; of the Mt. Vernon cyclone of 1886; of the
+Florida Yellow Fever scourge of 1888; of the Johnstown flood of 1889; of
+the Cuban scourge of famine and war of 1898, where “The Angel of Mercy”
+again lay at death’s door; nor could he forget the many other national,
+and international, disasters in which the woman-patriot served her
+country.
+
+Her fitful days of war were over; in far-away New England, she was
+sleeping her sleep of harmless peace; her character was being assailed
+in the very Capitol Building where fifty-five years before she had cared
+for the unfortunate boys of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, who had
+fallen in service to country. In all the world was there ever such
+tragedy? But the “assassin” lives to a purpose; he serves to perpetuate
+to posterity the virtues of his victim; in contrast, his victim seems
+the more glorious. In such atmosphere of near-treason, as did many other
+Congressmen, “Fighting Joe,” of Kansas, tried to be “reasonable,” but
+his “Fighting Irish” got the best of him. He was too chivalric to give
+his pent-up feelings vent to a woman; but he was less considerate of one
+of the most distinguished of his men compatriots, as is shown in the
+following letter (letter of record in “Sears’ Report to the Library
+Committee of Congress”—page 139, but text given by Taggart from memory):
+
+ September 6, 1916.
+
+ Major-General Arthur Murray, U.S.A., Retired,
+ American Red Cross Society,
+ Washington, D. C.
+ My Dear General:
+
+ After a careful perusal of the enclosure on the subject of a tablet
+ for Miss Clara Barton, I find it my duty to say to you that I am
+ profoundly astonished that an officer of your rank would lend himself
+ to the publication of such an unseemly screed against one who is
+ esteemed the greatest of American women.
+
+ As one who served as a soldier in the least of capacities, I am
+ astonished that a distinguished soldier should have a shame in
+ belittling and accusing the dead—not simply the ordinary and common
+ dead, but a glorious woman who has departed.
+
+ To my mind, Miss Clara Barton gave expression to the sympathy and
+ tenderness of all the hearts of all the women in the world. If she was
+ overwrought, and did more than she might have done, who will say that
+ it was a fault? The whole world knew and loved her; and I daresay that
+ her own dear land, that she served with such unremitting devotion as
+ an angel of mercy, is the only place under all the stars where harsh
+ words were ever written or said about her.
+
+ General, I know you are not responsible for the inscrutable jealousy
+ that gnaws at the hearts of women. You did not write the article. I
+ have no commission to defend Miss Barton, except what I trust is the
+ best impulse of an American citizen. Her name should not perish and no
+ one should listen with patience to an attack upon her record, much
+ less her character.
+
+ Yours truly,
+ (Signed) JOSEPH TAGGART, M.C. 2nd Kansas District.
+
+
+THE LIST OF NAMES OF TRIBUTES IN THE WAY OF BADGES, MEDALS, DECORATIONS
+ AND OTHER EVIDENCES OF ESTEEM PRESENTED TO CLARA BARTON.
+
+No. 1. _Masonic Emblem._ Given to Clara Barton by her father, and worn
+by her through the Civil War, 1861–1865.
+
+No. 2. _The German Official Red Cross Field Badge._ Presented by the
+Grand Duchess of Baden, and worn by Clara Barton through the
+Franco-German War, 1870–1871.
+
+No. 3. _The Iron Cross of Germany._ Conferred by Emperor William I and
+Empress Augusta, 1871, in recognition of Clara Barton’s services for
+humanity in the Franco-German War.
+
+No. 4. _The Gold Cross of Remembrance._ Conferred by the Grand Duke and
+Duchess of Baden, Germany, 1871.
+
+No. 5. _Royal Brooch._ Presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden, Germany,
+1897. When presenting this brooch to Clara Barton, the Grand Duchess
+said: “An unbroken friendship of 26 years deserves to be tied by a knot
+of gold.”
+
+No. 6. _The Official Medal of the International Red Cross._ Presented by
+The International Committee of Geneva to Clara Barton when, through her
+efforts, the Congress of the United States adopted the Treaty of Geneva
+in 1882.
+
+No. 7. _Servian Decoration._ Conferred by Queen Nathalie of Servia,
+1883, in recognition of Clara Barton’s services for humanity.
+
+No. 8. _Gold Badge._ Presented by the National Woman’s Relief Corps to
+Clara Barton, the sole Honorary Member of the Relief Corps, 1883.
+
+No. 9. _Silver Medal._ Conferred by Augusta, Empress of Germany, 1884.
+
+No. 10. _The Gold Badge of the “Waffengenosen.”_ German soldiers in
+America, who took part in the Franco-German War 1870–1871, presented to
+their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, 1885.
+
+No. 11. _Silver Medal._ Of the Mass. Charitable Mechanics Institution.
+Presented 1887.
+
+No. 12. _Turkish Decoration._ Conferred by the Sultan Abdul-Hamid 1897,
+through the State Dept., with the request that if America desired to
+send further relief to his domains please send back the missionaries of
+humanity they sent before.
+
+No. 13. _Gold Badge of “Sorosis,” N. Y._ Presented to Clara Barton,
+their Honorary Member, 1890.
+
+No. 14. _Red Cross Insignia._ In Commemoration of the Armenian Relief
+Field, 1896. Presented by Clara Barton’s Assistants on the field, in
+memory of the same.
+
+No. 15. _Gold Brooch and Locket._ Presented by the Ladies of Johnstown,
+Pa., at the close of the Relief Work of the Johnstown Flood, 1889.
+
+No. 16. _Amethyst Pendant—Royal jewel._ Given by the Grand Duchess of
+Baden and constantly worn by Clara Barton.
+
+No. 17. _Royal Jewel—Smoky Topaz surrounded by perfectly matched
+pearls._ Presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden, 1884.
+
+No. 18. _Royal Jewel—Topaz brooch with Red Cross._ Presented by Augusta,
+Empress of Germany, 1887.
+
+No. 19. _Belgian Decoration._ Conferred by the Red Cross of Belgium, in
+1892.
+
+No. 20. _Spanish Decoration of Honor._ Conferred by the Spanish
+Government in 1898.
+
+No. 21. _Gold Badge of “The Clara Barton Lodge of the Sisters of the G.
+A. R. of Gloucester, Mass.”_ Presented to Clara Barton, their Honorary
+Member, 1890.
+
+No. 22. _Armenian Decoration._ Conferred by the Armenian Prince Guy
+Lusignan, 1896, in recognition of services in relief of the Armenian
+Massacres.
+
+No. 23. _Russian Decoration._ Conferred by the Czar Nicholas and the
+Dowager Empress Dagmar, 1892.
+
+No. 24. _Gold Medal of the Vanderbilt Benevolent Association of South
+Carolina._ Presented to Clara Barton, their Honorary President, 1894.
+
+In addition to the above pictured decorations, the original collection
+as arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe G. Wells for exhibition at the first
+annual meeting of The National First Aid Association of America
+contained
+
+_Gold Badge of the War Veterans and Sons Association, of Brooklyn, N.
+Y._ Presented to their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, April, 1899.
+
+_Badge of the Loyal Legion of Women of Washington, D. C._ Presented to
+their Honorary Member, Clara Barton, 1893.
+
+_American Red Cross Pin._ Presented by a Friend.
+
+_Silver Ink Stand._ Presented to Clara Barton on her departure for
+Armenia, 1896, by Mr. Spencer Trask.
+
+_Ivory Sealing Wax Set with Gold Trimmings._ Presented to Clara Barton
+on her departure for Armenia in Relief of the Sufferers of the Massacres
+in 1896 by Mrs. Charles Raymond, President Red Cross Hospital.
+
+Top.—Picture of Clara Barton taken in Paris in 1871.
+
+Clara Barton was also the recipient of many diplomas of honor,
+resolutions, votes of thanks and commendations from rulers of nations,
+legislative bodies, relief Committees and distinguished or titled
+personages. In her home at Glen Echo the visitor could see many of
+these, together with great flags of foreign nations which had been
+presented to her as tributes to, and testimonials of, Clara Barton’s
+great work for humanity.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ BADGES, MEDALS, DECORATIONS
+]
+
+The unintentionally offending official, on receiving the foregoing
+letter, forthwith resigned his position in the Society; but the author
+of the “unseemly screed” continues “full of honors”—a _shining_ Red
+Cross light to the youth of this country, while the “screed” remains of
+record as a blot on the fair name of the Red Cross Founder.
+
+Contrasting Patriotic West towards the memory of the Father of his
+Country and Political Washington towards the memory of the Mother of the
+Red Cross, about this time there appeared the following
+pertinent-to-the-occasion Associated Press dispatch:
+
+ JAIL WASHINGTON’S LIBELER
+
+ Tacoma Man Must Serve 4 Months for Attack on First President.
+
+ Olympia, Wash., Dec. 29.—As a libeler of George Washington’s memory,
+ Paul Haffer, of Tacoma, must serve four months in the county jail, the
+ Washington supreme court today upholding the conviction of Haffer on a
+ criminal libel charge.
+
+ Haffer published an article accusing the first President of the United
+ States of drunkenness and other irregularities.
+
+ _Washington Post_, Dec. 30, 1916.
+
+It might be of interest, both to the friends and “enemies” of Clara
+Barton, by way of contrast to this pathetic picture of her closing years
+and of the more recent years, to know that three years before her
+passing she deeded her “Glen Echo Red Cross Home,” the gift to her by
+friends, to Dr. Julian B. Hubbell, who had served her cause for more
+than thirty years without compensation, but with the expressed wish that
+eventually it should revert to the American Red Cross. It can,
+therefore, be said of Clara Barton and the Red Cross as similarly it was
+said of that bond of “love eternal” between Theodosius and Constantia,
+“They were lovely in their lives, and in their death they were not
+divided.”
+
+At no time in her life did Clara Barton seek preferment;—she said, “I
+wish you could know how entirely indifferent I am to _personal_ honors
+conferred.” She did not seek the Red Cross Presidency; she accepted it,
+under protest, from President Garfield. Resigning the position several
+times, she still continued to hold it because no one else acceptable to
+the Society was found to take her place. She appealed to no jurist nor
+politician to protect her, for _she had always lived and moved in the
+full glare of the public gaze and could safely trust her character and
+good name to the care of the American people_. She entrusted her all—her
+Red Cross and her good name—to the Government she had “_loyally tried to
+serve_:” and so long as the Red Cross banner is held sacred as the
+emblem of America’s humanity God have mercy on her country and ours, if
+that trust of woman shall have been misplaced.
+
+The records, in the “reign of _terrorizing_,” show that the so-called
+“charges” before the Library Committee were made by _one_ person,
+unofficially, not by the Red Cross; by the _same_ person, of record in
+1903, who made similar “charges” before the Red Cross Committee, the
+accuser by the Committee discredited; by the _same_ person who appeared
+before the Red Cross Proctor Committee, and there unceremoniously
+“turned down”; by the _same_ person referred to by Clara Barton’s
+successor to the Red Cross Presidency, as to the motive of the accuser
+in the affidavit herein presented; by the _same_ person whom Clara
+Barton refused to support as her successor; by the _same_ person who has
+taken the rostrum since Clara Barton’s death to traduce the country’s
+benefactor; by the _same_ “enemy” who has relentlessly persecuted Clara
+Barton and traduced her memory for nearly twenty years; by the _same_
+person whom Clara Barton received in her Red Cross household, and in her
+personal household, as her friend; by the _same_ person who, on February
+20, 1903, wrote to their mutual “_friend_,” Mrs. General John A. Logan
+(letter of record): “Miss Barton is in town.... I know you will use all
+your influence to have her accept the position of Honorary Presidency
+for Life, with an annuity.”
+
+The affidavit by Clara Barton’s immediate successor to the Red Cross
+Presidency, Mrs. John A. Logan, as to the conspiracy and the object
+hoped for, in the persecution; the statement by the “remonstrants”
+themselves in 1903 as to the “_integrity_” of Clara Barton; the
+statement of ex-Secretary of State Richard Olney; the summary dismissal
+by the Proctor Red Cross Committee, and on motion of the Committee
+itself, of the investigation of all “charges” whatsoever made by the
+“remonstrants”; the unchallenged sworn statement by Attorney L. A.
+Stebbins; the unchallenged signed statement by Attorney W. H. Sears; the
+official statement by the American Red Cross that “There was no
+foundation for such a “charge”; the exceeding high compliment by the
+Library Committee of Congress;—all these facts of public record make
+officially conclusive the _vindication_ (no, the spotless record), of
+Clara Barton.” As her reputation has been three times in jeopardy, Clara
+Barton has been thrice-_vindicated_, thrice officially complimented,
+every time unanimously.
+
+ Truth is truth
+ To the end of the reckoning.
+
+Previous to the date of the so-called “charges” in 1904, as tributes
+unsolicited and graciously tendered, Clara Barton had received
+twenty-seven decorations and other official honors; had received
+tributes from nine American presidents, nine foreign rulers; also by
+eleven foreign nations and several of our American States and Cities,
+through official resolutions. Since 1904, the year in which the
+conspiracy occurred, Clara Barton has been commended by two American
+Presidents, at the laying of the corner stone of The Red Cross Building
+at Washington by the U. S. Government through the then Acting Secretary
+of War; by the Commander of the largest American army ever mobilized; by
+at least three thousand American newspapers, not one newspaper in the
+country commenting on the “charges” with approval; by America’s great
+statesmen; by America’s great women; by a memorial representing a
+million and one-half of American citizens; by the Civil War veterans,
+North and South; by the United Spanish War Veterans; by the Sons of
+Veterans; by the Legion of Loyal Women; by the National Woman’s Relief
+Corps; by the National Army Nurses; by the National Woman Suffrage
+Association; by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; by the
+Protestant, Catholic and other religious organizations; and by all other
+public and private institutions whose attention has been called to this
+matter of national interest.
+
+Whether in art, literature or philanthropy the pride of a nation is in
+the realized ideal. That which must live longest and best serve the race
+is the highest ideal, realized. American philanthropy, the realized
+ideal obtained through “a movement the most philanthropic of the age and
+an intrinsic part of world-civilization,” is the nation’s chiefest moral
+asset. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that the
+memorial tributes to the Founder and petitions by the people be
+heeded,—the schemers discredited officially—that _the record of untruth_
+may not stand against this nation through envy of “one of God’s
+noblest.”
+
+Justice is the end of government, womanhood the crown of American
+civilization,—and the spirit of the woman “whose movement spanned the
+globe,” a heritage to this nation priceless. That spirit through wars
+and national disasters should be the saving spirit in untold suffering
+among “the countless millions and uncounted generations throughout the
+civilized world.” “Unfounded charges,” inhumanity’s foul blot, _must be
+and will be_ removed from the scroll of The American Red Cross, off the
+escutcheon of the American nation—that the name of humanity’s luminary
+may shine throughout time as the guiding star in American philanthropy.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVII
+
+
+ Andersonville[9] was not the gateway of hell; it was hell itself.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+Footnote 9:
+
+ Without honoring the request of the Secretary of War, Edwin M.
+ Stanton, to take an expedition to Andersonville to mark the graves
+ of the missing soldiers, there could have been no cemetery at
+ Andersonville. The cemetery which the Government now so worthily
+ owns is a gift from our active corps of women.—Clara Barton.
+
+
+ He (President Lincoln) said, “I will help you.” He smoothed the way
+ and made it possible, assisting me until the work was done.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Only in the Great Book of Life is it written what Clara Barton did for
+ the homes of this land, after the Civil War was over.
+
+ SARAH A. SPENCER.
+
+ In a Memorial to U. S. Congress, Clara Barton said that in doing this
+ work referred to, as per itemized bill, she reported that she had
+ expended from her private funds as a contribution to the cause
+ $1,759.33, and further said: “My own time and services have been
+ cheerfully given.” THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ I remembered our prisons crowded with starving men whom all the powers
+ and pities of the world could not reach with a bit of bread. I thought
+ of the widows’ weeds still fresh and dark through all the land, north
+ and south, from the pine to the palm, the shadows on the hearths and
+ hearts over all my country—sore, broken hearts; ruined, desolate
+ homes. CLARA BARTON.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DORENCE ATWATER
+
+ For the record of your dead you are indebted to the forethought,
+ courage and perseverance of Dorence Atwater, a young man not
+ twenty-one years of age.—(Signed) CLARA BARTON, in an official
+ report to the people of the United States of America, in 1865.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ This memorial will stand as a silent reminder of the untiring and
+ loyal devotion of one whose memory will live while time endures.—IDA
+ S. MCBRIDE, Chairman Memorial Committee.
+
+ DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL TO CLARA BARTON AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA, MAY
+ 31, 1915
+
+ Erected by the Woman’s Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
+ Republic.
+
+ Left to right: Mrs. Emma E. Grinnell, P. Dept., Pres. Wisc. W. R. C.;
+ William Grinnell, P. Dept., Com. G. A. R., Wisc; Mrs. Ida S.
+ McBride, P. Natl. Pres. W. R. C.; Miss Agnes Hitt, P. Natl. Pres.,
+ W. R. C.; Hon. Washington Gardner, P. Com.-in-Chief, G. A. R.; Mrs.
+ Mary A. North, P. Natl. Jun. Vice-Pres., W. R. C.
+]
+
+ The path of this work was opened for her through records kept by
+ Dorence Atwater, a Connecticut boy-prisoner at Andersonville, who had
+ been detailed to keep a record for the prison officials of the dead,
+ and their burial. He kept a secret duplicate record, with location of
+ graves. He saw a notice asking for information signed “Clara Barton,”
+ when he at once wrote to her. Together they went to Andersonville and
+ with his aid she succeeded with the identification of 19,920 graves
+ and placing headstones above them, while 400 of these were marked
+ “unknown.”
+
+ Manchester (N. H.) _Mirror_.
+
+
+ Yes, give me the land with a grave in each spot,
+ And the names in the graves that shall not be forgot;
+ Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb—
+ There’s grandeur in graves, there’s glory in gloom;
+ For out of the gloom future brightness is born,
+ And after the night looms the sunrise of morn;
+ And the graves of the dead, with the grass overgrown,
+ May yet form the footstool of liberty’s throne;
+ And earth’s single wreck in the war path of night
+ Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right.
+ FATHER RYAN.
+
+
+ OF GRAVES, OF WORMS, OF EPITAPHS
+
+After the Civil War Clara Barton engaged in a sad mission. Of the
+Federal soldiers, there were 80,000 missing. Letters from the sorrowing
+were coming to the President and the Secretary of War, for information.
+To obtain the names of the missing, how died, where buried, and other
+information about loved ones, was a tremendous undertaking,—it was Clara
+Barton’s mission. Many of her personal friends said it was impossible,
+but President Lincoln gave her encouragement. She also received her
+Commission from the President, who had published the following:
+
+ TO THE FRIENDS OF THE MISSING PRISONERS:
+
+ Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing
+ prisoners of war. Please address her at Annapolis, Maryland, giving
+ the name, regiment, and company, of any missing prisoner.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+For four long years she carried in her heart the sorrows of scores of
+thousands, in unhappy homes. She took the lecture platform and, in
+public halls, churches and school-houses, she said to the people “let’s
+talk of graves and worms and epitaphs.”
+
+ She had known Sorrow,—he had walked with her,
+ Oft supped, and broke the bitter ashen crust;
+ And in the dead leaves still she heard the stir
+ Of his black mantle trailing in the dust.
+
+Few of the obscure dead had even head-boards at their graves. In the
+absence of head-boards, the information was obtained through an
+ex-federal prisoner, who had kept the necessary data. Tens of thousands
+of letters were exchanged. Through correspondence, private information,
+personal contact with friends of the missing, and an inspection in the
+cemetery, the remains of 19,920 of the missing were found, the remains
+sent home, or the grave marked. The whole expense of this work was about
+$17,000, the amount advanced by Miss Barton. Later, the Government
+reimbursed her to the extent of $15,000. So stupendous, so
+philanthropic, and so successful, was this work that this one mission of
+love, of itself, would have given Clara Barton eternal fame.
+
+ Sad wistful eyes and broken hearts that beat
+ For the loved sound of unreturning feet
+
+ And when the oaks their banners wave,
+ Dream of the battle and an unmarked grave!
+ FRANK L. STANTON.
+
+
+ If all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of
+ the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it
+ would not do them justice, for their conduct during the war. God bless
+ the women of America. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ I feel how weak and fruitless would be any word of mine which should
+ attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming; but I
+ cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in
+ the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
+
+ A. LINCOLN (in his letter to Mrs. Bixby).
+
+
+ Mothers—wives—and maidens, would there were some testimonials grand
+ enough for you—some tablet that could show to the world the sacrifice
+ of American womanhood and American motherhood in the Civil War!
+ Sacrifices so nobly and so firmly—but so gently and so
+ beautifully,—made. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ In the crowded yards of every prison ground, in the dark ravines of
+ the tangled forests, in the miry, poison swamps, where the slimy
+ serpent crawls by day and the will-o’-the-wisp dances vigil at night,
+ in the beds of the mighty rivers, under the waves of the salt sea, in
+ the drifting sands of the desert islands, on the lonely picket line,
+ and by the roadside, where the weary soldier laid down with his
+ knapsack and his gun, and his march of life was ended; there in their
+ strange beds they sleep till the morning of the great reveille.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+To show the sentiment then existing among the people, and the
+appreciation of the services rendered,—of the thousands of letters
+received by Miss Barton are appended the following:
+
+
+ GRATITUDE OF A BROKEN-HEARTED MOTHER
+
+ “Paw Paw, Van Buren Co., Michigan,
+ July the 5th, 1865.
+
+ “MISS CLARA BARTON,
+
+“_Dear Madam_:—Seeing a notice in the paper of the effort you are making
+to ascertain the fate of missing soldiers from Michigan, I hasten to
+address you in regard to my son. His name is Eugene P. Osborne. He was a
+private in the 13th Michigan Regiment, Co. H Infantry; was in Sherman’s
+Army; left Atlanta last November with the Regiment, became lame soon
+after leaving there, and fell out the first day of December, near
+Louisville, Georgia. Since that time we have never been able to learn
+anything of him, or what has become of him. Those that went with him
+from this place, and were in the Company with him, have returned, but
+they know not what has become of him, or what his fate may be. We have
+endeavored to learn something of him by writing to various persons and
+places, but as yet we have heard nothing reliable.
+
+“Will you, Oh! will you, aid me in the search for my loved but
+unfortunate son; if so, the prayers and gratitude of a heartbroken
+Mother shall be yours. Please answer without delay and tell me if you
+know aught concerning him, for this cruel suspense is dreadful.
+
+ “Respectfully yours,
+
+ “Address
+ “Mrs. C. A. OSBORNE,
+ “Paw Paw, Van Buren Co., Michigan.”
+
+ I never for a moment lose sight of the mothers and sisters and
+ white-haired fathers, and children moving quietly about, and dropping
+ the unseen, silent tear in those far-away saddened homes.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THANK YOU FROM MY VERY HEART, HIS POOR HEART-BROKEN MOTHER
+
+ “MISS BARTON:
+
+“_Dear Angel of Love and Mercy_:—I address these few lines to you hoping
+to get some information in regard to my son’s remains. He died in August
+in the dreadful prison pen at Andersonville. I think it was about the
+ninth day of the month. Did you find when you were there on the list the
+name of Edward H. Walton, Co. H, 57th Regt. Massachusetts Volunteers? If
+so, you will confer a great kindness on me, his poor heartbroken Mother,
+by giving me what information you can. He went from Worcester, Mass.
+
+“Please let me know if you think I could obtain his remains if I should
+send for them, as I am very anxious to get them. I shall ever remember
+your great kindness and labor in thus giving me the comfort that you
+have seen the remains of the poor murdered ones decently buried. I thank
+you from my very heart and may heaven bless you while you live and when
+you have done on earth may the richest of heaven’s blessings be yours
+through that never ending eternity for which thousands of mothers will
+pray.
+
+ “Very respectfully,
+ “Your humble servant,
+ (Signed) “MRS. DOLLY WALTON,
+ “Worcester, Mass.
+
+“Mother of Edward H. Walton, Co. H, Fifty-seventh Regt. Mass. Vol., died
+at Andersonville Prison in August, ’64.”
+
+ Nor has morbid sympathy been all; out amid the smoke and fire of our
+ guns, with only the murky canopy above and the bloody ground beneath,
+ I have not lost sight of those saddened homes.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ MAY GOD BLESS YOU
+
+ “LaFayette, Ind., March 30, 1866.
+
+ “DEAR MISS BARTON:—
+
+“Will you please excuse a bereaved Mother again addressing you. I have
+seen by the papers that you have visited Andersonville. Can you give me
+any information respecting my dear lost son, my poor boy, as you have
+visited the graves of the precious dead; did you find the name of John
+Newton Strain? Oh! it would be a satisfaction, although a melancholy
+one, to know where his dear remains rest and oh! if I could only have
+them brought home, my noble boy, no better son a Mother ever had. If he
+had died on the field of battle it would not have been so hard. He
+belonged to the New York 2nd Cavalry Co. I. Dear Miss, if you can give
+me any information it will be most thankfully received and the best I
+can say is, may God bless you and be your great reward.
+
+ “From your afflicted friend,
+ (Signed) “ELIZA FORESMAN.
+ “Lafayette, Ind.”
+
+“Please answer.”
+
+ I have too often wiped the gathering damp from pale anxious brows and
+ caught from a shy quivering lip the last faint whispers of home, not
+ to realize the terrible cost of these separations.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The history of Andersonville is the most sad, and at the same time the
+ most discouraging to our confidence in man’s inhumanity to man, of all
+ the episodes of the Civil War.—_Harper’s Weekly_, Oct. 7, 1865.
+
+ The name of Clara Barton will be held in grateful remembrance whenever
+ and wherever human needs are weighed in the scales of human
+ want.—_Washington Gardner._
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ _By permission of “Harper’s Weekly.”_
+
+
+ CEMETERY AT ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA
+
+ The Department of Georgia, Grand Army of the Republic, early secured
+ title to the Andersonville stockade, which it later transferred to
+ the National organization, Woman’s Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the
+ Grand Army of the Republic. This body, after having purchased very
+ considerable additions and improved and beautified the whole through
+ a period of sixteen years, deeded the entire property to the United
+ States Government which, together with the cemetery, will be held in
+ trust perpetually as the most tragic and hallowed plot of ground
+ under the flag. WASHINGTON GARDNER, Post Commander-in-Chief, G. A.
+ R., in his memorial address, May 31, 1915.
+
+ The number of graves marked is 19,920. Scattered among the
+ thickly designated graves stand four hundred tablets, bearing
+ only the number and the touching inscription “Unknown Union
+ Soldiers.”—(Signed) CLARA BARTON, in an official report to the
+ people of the United States of America, in 1865.
+]
+
+ The winds will blow, the skies will weep,
+ Where fair Columbia’s heroes sleep,
+ And Clara Barton’s name is known
+ Where waves our flag or stands a throne;
+ The work she did fills every heart
+ Wherein affection hath a part;
+ A woman to her country true,
+ She marked the graves where sleep the Blue.
+ —From the dedicatory poem _Clara Barton_, by T. C. Harbaugh.
+
+
+ MY PRAYERS FOR YOU
+
+ _“Miss Clara Barton_:
+
+“Please give me some information, if you can, of Frank Pearson of the U.
+S. Str. _Mackinaw_, North Atlantic Squadron. He was from New York State.
+I have not heard from him since the last of March. They were then on the
+Appomattox River and I suppose he fell when Petersburg was captured. I
+wrote to him the first of April, and not getting any word from him I
+wrote to his Captain but never heard from him. I had given up all hopes
+of ever hearing what has happened my _best friend_. When I saw your
+name, that you were trying to find our lost friends, I took courage, but
+whether I will have any better luck to hear just a word about _Poor
+Frank_. Three years and a half on the _Blockade_. Oh! how fast the time
+was passing; only six months from April until he would have been once
+more free. I would have willingly died for him, but God has ordered it
+otherwise and I am not the only one that is mourning for a _Dear
+Friend_.
+
+“If you can find anything about him please let me know as soon as you
+can conveniently. My prayers for you. Oh! how lonely! how sad I feel all
+alone in this cold world. ‘Would that I were resting too!’
+
+“Pardon me and excuse the writing. My eyes are dim. Please answer soon.
+I am
+
+ “Your friend,
+ (Signed) “MATTIE C. BEATTY,
+ “Coal Bluff, Washington County, Penna.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVIII
+
+
+ Clara Barton is Clara Barton. DR. SAMUEL WOODWARD.
+
+
+ Clara Barton went to Russia, in 1892, to carry food to the famine
+ sufferers there;—the most widely known American of today.
+
+ _Central Christian Advocate._
+
+ The total value of contributions from America to Russia in 1892 was
+ estimated at about $800,000. Through all sources, here and in Europe,
+ upwards of 35,000 people were saved from starvation.
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER, Author.
+
+ Clara Barton gave to the world a greater influence than Catherine of
+ Russia with her millions of subjects—her name will be remembered when
+ that of Catherine shall have been forgotten.
+
+ Parsons (Kan.) _Sunday_.
+
+ The sign of the Red Cross, in crimson red, had come nearer its true
+ significance under Clara Barton’s direction than it ever did before,
+ whether by Constantine, named, or borne by crusader bands in assaults
+ upon the Crescent. Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+ When stricken Armenia called for help in 1896, it was Clara Barton who
+ led the relief corps of salvation and sustenance.
+
+ Grand Rapids (Mich.) _Herald_.
+
+ Resolved, That we regard Miss Barton the highest representative and
+ purest embodiment of the Christian humanitarian spirit in America. The
+ Church of Martyrs (Armenian Congregational Church). Worcester, Mass.
+
+
+ They knew, in Turkey, we had taken our lives in our hands to come to
+ them, with no thought of ourselves. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ No American will hereafter in foreign lands feel any less security
+ since the American National Red Cross has been before them in Russia
+ and Armenia. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ When the cry came from Turkey, what man was there in all this land
+ brave enough to lead where Clara Barton went, like an Angel of Mercy?
+ The boundless love of that woman’s heart! God bless Clara Barton! MRS.
+ ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY.
+
+ When the wail of the Armenians and downtrodden of the Oriental World
+ was heard, Clara Barton was among the first to raise the banner of the
+ Red Cross, like the crusader of old and push forward to the scenes of
+ anguish and carnage.
+
+ MRS. GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.
+
+ The work Clara Barton did in Asia Minor, and which Col. Hinton
+ designated as the Statesmanship of Philanthropy, was similar to the
+ work along this line she did at the Sea Islands flood, in the
+ Carolinas. THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ Clara Barton, in Asia Minor, has done a splendid work, sensibly and
+ economically managed. HENRY C. DWIGHT, D.D., American Board of Foreign
+ Missions at Constantinople.
+
+ The difficulties of the work in Asia Minor, the perils and discomforts
+ would surely have appalled a less courageous heart than Clara
+ Barton’s. JOS. K. GREENE, Resident Missionary in Armenia.
+
+ To Turkey and Armenia—a mission so difficult and perilous that all the
+ world wondered, watched, waited, hoped and prayed for her success, and
+ her safe return to her native land. W. H. SEARS.
+
+
+ To us who have seen so much and worked so long and so hard, it would
+ seem that the Red Cross movement has some “significance”—some
+ connection with philanthropy. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross flag has no Christian sense that many suppose. It is
+ broader than Christianity itself, because it has neither prejudice nor
+ bounds; Christian, Mohammedan and pagan are the same in the eyes of
+ the Red Cross. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The principal nations of earth are bound together by the bands of the
+ highest international law that must make war in the future less
+ barbarous than it has been in the past. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Bakashish is the substitute for our “tip” system. To make any headway
+ in Turkey with a hoard of beggars, two words must be mastered:
+ “Yok”—No; and “Hide-git”—Be off with you.
+
+ GEORGE H. PULLMAN, Secretary to Clara Barton in Turkey.
+
+ The moral support given in Asia Minor was far beyond any valuation. At
+ such a money valuation then, the aggregate value of the relief
+ distribution is nearly $350,000. GEO. H. PULLMAN.
+
+
+ Reticent, constant and efficient, Clara Barton has won the confidence
+ of every government under whose flag she has labored—as in the land of
+ the Crescent and Scimitar—and has done honor to her native land. B. H.
+ WARNER.
+
+
+ No matter how far from home, how lone and desolate, the soldier knows
+ the Red Cross for his own; the glazing eye can discern it and next to
+ God or “Allah” it is his Saviour, the American Annie Laurie of the
+ wounded soldier. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ There is, we are happy to believe, a warmth and an appreciation of the
+ Red Cross that brings added honor to the country.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ TURKEY—STATESMANSHIP OF PHILANTHROPY—ARMENIA
+
+“Alone, bereft, forsaken, sick and heartbroken, without food, raiment or
+shelter, on the snow-piled mountain sides and along the smiling valleys
+they wander and linger and perish. By scores, by hundreds, they die; no
+help, no medicine, no skill, little food and, as if common woes were not
+enough, the Angel of Disease flaps his black wings like a pall.” Such
+the condition, says Clara Barton, in Asia Minor in 1896; and “Help or we
+perish,” the cry of the people.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN
+
+
+ THE DEMOCRACY OF ARMENIA
+
+ Armenian Legation,
+ January 17, 1922.
+
+ After the great massacre of 1895, thanks to the personal testimony of
+ Clara Barton, we came to learn of another Christian Power, a nation
+ dedicated to the lofty principles of our common religion, a champion
+ of liberty and justice, and a helpful friend to all oppressed and
+ suffering peoples. We are indebted to Clara Barton in the sense that
+ she was the first among other Americans to inspire us with this
+ faith.
+
+ DR. G. PASDERMADJIAN,
+ Minister from Armenia to United States.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ I. H. R. PRINCE GUY DE LUSIGNAN
+ Last of the Royal Line
+
+
+ THE ROYALTY OF ARMENIA
+
+
+ The Armenian Decoration
+
+ I have received a decoration, officially described as follows:
+
+ Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in 1186,
+ by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and
+ reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The
+ Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services
+ of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to
+ the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The
+ Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly
+ prized by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its
+ beauty. This decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of
+ Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.—CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 22.
+]
+
+To enter Turkey at this time was an undertaking _too great_ for man;
+this must be the work of woman. There was one woman equal to the
+emergency, and she seventy-five years of age. All eyes were turned
+toward that woman. She was chosen unanimously. Her assistants were to be
+men but she stood sponsor for man’s conduct, a responsibility the
+greatest in life woman ever assumes. The deference paid to this
+woman—_Mirabile dictu_—was some years before a woman was regarded even
+capable of sitting as member of the American House of Representatives or
+as Member in the English House of Commons. Did she accept? Nothing too
+hazardous for her to undertake; she ever was seeking for something to do
+that no one else would do, no one else could do.
+
+Florence Nightingale sailed for Crimea “under the strong support of
+England’s military head and England’s gracious Queen;” Clara Barton set
+sail for Turkey, “prohibited, unsustained either by governmental or
+other authority,”—destined to a port five thousand miles away, from
+approach to which even the powers of the world shrank in fear. As Clara
+Barton, with her four assistants, left New York City, on the S. S. _New
+York_, “crowded were the piers, wild the hurrahs, white the scene with
+the parting salutes, hearts beating with exultation and expectation;”
+longing the anxious eyes that followed far out to sea that band of five
+fearless American crusaders, on humanity’s mission.
+
+Would she reach Constantinople? The Turkish Minister, resident at
+Washington, forbade her and her Red Cross band to enter the land of the
+Moslem. Her Christian presence there was not desired; would not be
+permitted. Unperturbed, she proceeded on her way. She arrived at
+Constantinople. She stopped at Pera Palace hotel. She asked for an
+audience with Tewfik Pasha, Minister of State. She explained; she begged
+the privilege of self-sacrifice. The High Official listened attentively,
+then said: We know you, Miss Barton; have long known you and your work.
+And you shall have it. We know your position, and your wishes shall be
+respected. Such aid and protection as we are able to render, we will
+cheerfully render you. I speak for my government. I extend to you my
+cordial good wishes in your work among our distressed people.
+
+At the interview Clara Barton thus assured Tewfik Pasha: “We have no
+newspaper correspondent, and I promise you I will not write a book on
+Turkey. What we see and hear will be confidential—not repeated.” But she
+didn’t keep faith with the Government—she reported on the dogs. Dogs in
+Constantinople are held sacred, but not because decorated with a
+brassard they serve in Red Cross work or otherwise are useful. The
+streets and plazas day and night are filled with dogs, colonies of dogs.
+Fond of dogs, she enjoyed telling this story. About to be overpowered by
+other dogs the Turkish dog flops over on his back, his feet in air to
+serve as the dog’s Red Cross flag, over a hospital. In the “hospital” he
+remains until there is an opportunity of escape when, without so much as
+“by your leave,” he invalids himself home.
+
+The British Legation had a blooded rat terrier, also _sacred_. By chance
+the terrier slipped out of the yard. Unsuspecting he was “ambushed” and,
+not knowing Turkish dog strategy, was foully slain. The secretary, in
+righteous wrath, forthwith imported from England “Bull Brindle,” of a
+famous fighting breed. The British “warrior” also strolled out on the
+plaza, _but not by chance_. A colony of several hundred dogs, with
+confused noises as terrifying as of a “pack of coyotes” hunting prey,
+massed an attack on the lone “Britisher.” Victory this time was not with
+the largest battalions. Bull terrier was killing mongrels without mercy
+or shame, and with as much ease as the terrier had killed rats, and so
+continuing until four score or more lay dead on the field.
+
+ As ranged
+ Achilles in his fury through the field
+ From side to side, and everywhere o’ertook
+ His victims, and earth was dark with blood.
+
+_By chance_, through an opening in the walled fence of the embassy,
+the secretary was an eye-witness. The natives in numbers, aroused,
+watched the uneven contest but no one dared to lay hands on the
+“achilles.” Alarmed over the possible consequences to himself, the
+secretary rushed to the scene, grabbed Brindle by the collar, led him
+to the embassy, chained him. A diplomat, the secretary returned to the
+plaza—explained—expressed regrets—almost _heartbroken_, apologized,
+but to Miss Barton he confidentially said: “That’s one time I got even
+with the unspeakable Turk.”
+
+Aghast and horrified had stood the world over the news of the then
+recent terrible massacres; of the contagious diseases that windswept
+Asia Minor, leaving thousands and tens of thousands dead and dying in
+its wake. But proud was America. Her heroine was at the Moslem Capital,
+the foreign representative of the one country there on guard for
+humanity. This, her picture of the trip to Killis, the scene of one of
+the many terrible massacres: “Our security, the official order, ‘Go and
+we protect,’—camels heavy-laden not with ivory and jewels, gold in the
+ingots and silk in the bales, but food and raiment for the starving, the
+sick, the dying. Onward toward dread Killis—the wild tribes’ knives
+before, the Moslem troops behind—till at length the spires of Aintab
+rise in view. Weary the camels and weary the men.” In fear that the
+means might not be at hand to do all she would, in anguish of soul Clara
+Barton writes to her friend Frances Willard: “My heart would grow faint
+and words fail to tell the people of the woes here and the needs. In the
+name of your God and my God, tell them not to be discouraged in the good
+work they have undertaken.”
+
+She was then on the site of Ancient Byzantium whose history reaches back
+six hundred years before the Christian Era, a city with its successor
+Constantinople, the rival of Athens and Rome and Jerusalem, in service
+to civilization. She might have said, as did the proud Roman General, “I
+have come, I have seen, I have conquered.” But no word then,—neither
+before nor since—escaped her lips. She was there, having taken her life
+in her hands, not thinking of self, knowing no race, no creed, no
+religion, no nationality; there to distribute to the needy in such a way
+as an American President said she only knew how.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ _Permission D. Appleton & Co._
+
+
+ ABDUL-HAMID
+ 1876–1899
+
+ Some months after returning home I received through our State
+ Department at Washington, the Sultan’s decoration of Shefacat and
+ its accompanying diploma in Turkish. The translation is here given:
+ “As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and
+ distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am
+ pleased, therefore, to accord to her the second class of my
+ decorations of Shefacat.” CLARA BARTON (in 1897).
+
+ See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 12.
+]
+
+Strange and startling must have been the sensation to the Moslem as, on
+an eventful reunion of the Crusaders, through the open windows of
+[10]Red Cross headquarters there came from his foreign benefactors, in
+chorus, strains of sweetest music: “Home, Sweet Home,” of which the
+native was merely dreaming; “Sweet Land of Liberty,” of which he had
+only read; “Nearer My God to Thee,” which was wholly foreign to his
+religious teachings. It was on the patriotic Fourth at Constantinople,
+at the time of her carrying a message to the Turkish people, that in a
+poem entitled “Marmora,” of her own country Clara Barton sung:
+
+Footnote 10:
+
+ Red Cross work in Turkey is under the name of Red Crescent.
+
+
+ MARMORA
+
+ It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea,
+ A thousand in the onward march of human liberty,
+ Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled,
+ Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.
+
+ And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong,
+ And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”
+ The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light;
+ The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
+
+Four expeditions through Turkey, Armenia and other parts of Asia Minor
+were planned and successfully carried out. Coasting boats were used to
+reach the interior, as were caravans of camels over the deserts and
+other almost waste places—the expeditions supplying the destitute with
+food, medicine, clothing, seed and farming implements. For this, the
+greatest undertaking of its kind in history, she was decorated by the
+Sultan of Turkey, by the Prince of Armenia, and from each of these
+rulers also she received a Diploma of Merit.
+
+She was then in the hey-day of her popularity. Abdul-Hamid was on the
+throne of Turkey. Twelve years later the Sultan was dethroned and by his
+people put into prison. Oh! the irony of fate! About that time she draws
+this picture: “The Sultan was locked in and I locked out, but my whole
+country seemed my prison and I struggled to free myself of it.” Unfair
+the comparison! The “Young Turks” (a political party), representing the
+people, had dethroned, then imprisoned, Abdul-Hamid. Not so Clara
+Barton, by her people.
+
+She was dethroned by methods that would shame a Turkish brigand; her
+prison-keeper was not the people, but
+
+ Man, proud man!
+ Drest in a little brief authority.
+
+On her return from Turkey Clara Barton was accorded a most wonderful
+reception at the nation’s Capital, and was acclaimed a world-heroine by
+the whole American people.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton, friend and counselor of Abraham Lincoln. KATE BROWNLEE
+ SHERWOOD.
+
+
+ Already the pale messenger waits at the gate, and his weird shadow
+ falleth near. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Treason must be made odious. ANDREW JOHNSON.
+
+ Treason is ever odious. J. HALL.
+
+ Treason doth never prosper. SIR JOHN HARRINGTON.
+
+ Treason is one of the greatest crimes possible. T. DWIGHT.
+
+ Treason seldom dwells with courage. W. SCOTT.
+
+ Treason always operates, if possible, by surprise. W. H. SEWARD.
+
+ Treason and murder ever kept together as two yoke-devils, sworn to
+ either’s purposes. HENRY IV.
+
+
+ Washington brought the United States of America into being; Lincoln
+ made that being immortal. GEORGE H. SMYTHE, JR.
+
+ The life of Lincoln should never be passed by in silence by young or
+ old. DAVID SWING.
+
+ His biography is written in blood and tears.
+
+ HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+ Lincoln—not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul!
+
+ HENRY WARD BEECHER.
+
+ Lincoln now belongs to the ages. EDWIN M. STANTON.
+
+
+ TREASON—LINCOLN ASSASSINATED—GRANT PROTECTS CLARA BARTON
+
+On the evening of the 14th of April, 1865, Clara Barton was at 488½
+Seventh Street, Washington, D. C. She saw two men on the opposite side
+of the street, talking, and then excited men and women running up and
+down the street. Not long afterwards she heard the footsteps of a man
+pacing up and down the hall outside of her door, on the third floor. She
+cautiously opened the door to see who it was. In the hall she saw a
+sentinel, with his gun, passing—she wanted to know what it was all
+about. He said that he had been sent there to guard her, but could only
+tell her that a general massacre was feared. The sentinel stood guard
+there all night.
+
+The news came sometime in the night that Lincoln had been assassinated,
+and that there was a plot to assassinate W. H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase,
+U. S. Grant, and Andrew Johnson; that they were protecting her because
+they felt sure that she was also to be attacked, as she was close to
+Lincoln. She did not close her eyes in sleep, but paced the floor until
+morning. In the morning she opened the door and saw another sentinel
+outside the door. This other sentinel said it would not be safe for her
+to leave her room; that if she would give him her order for breakfast he
+would see that it was served; that if she had any letters to mail to
+pass them out, but she must remain a prisoner for the present.
+
+The first person that came to see her in the morning was a messenger
+from General Grant—to see if she were all right. Soon after this she
+heard that Lincoln had died,—another messenger brought her the news.
+Describing the terrible events of the saddest of all nights at the
+Capital, Miss Barton said: “I heard a great commotion in the street and
+looking out the window I saw strong men standing everywhere, crying.”
+The people still feared there was going to be a general massacre. At the
+end of three days Miss Barton was told she might leave her room. The
+body of Lincoln was taken to Philadelphia to lie in state at the old
+State House, Sixth and Chestnut streets. Miss Barton received a letter
+from General Grant, asking her to go to Philadelphia. The General sent a
+companion to accompany her on the trip. Clara Barton attended the
+memorial in the “City of Brotherly Love,” and there paid her last
+tribute of respect to her friend, the immortal Lincoln.
+
+
+
+
+ XC
+
+
+ It is a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace
+ for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The thoughtful mind will readily perceive that these responsibilities
+ incurred by relief societies involve constant vigilance and effort,
+ during periods of peace. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Red Cross has stood, unrecognized in the shades of obscurity, all
+ the eighteen years of its existence among us, waiting for sure, alas,
+ too sure the touch of war to light up its dark figure, and set in
+ motion the springs of action. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The fundamental principle of good citizenship is willing acquiescence.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ It will be history by and by to whom Cuba belongs and, while one has
+ to study to learn past history, it is not worth while to let slip that
+ which is all the time making history in our day and generation. CLARA
+ BARTON, in 1874.
+
+
+ With funds, or without, the Red Cross has been first on every field of
+ disaster. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The cause the American Red Cross is meant to promote stands first in
+ my affections and desires. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Cuban field gave the first opportunity to test the co-operation
+ between the Government and its supplemental hand-maiden, the Red
+ Cross. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans,
+ with their gray beards, and silver-haired matrons of the days of the
+ old war long since passed into history. Could it be possible that men
+ were to learn anew (in Cuba)? Were men again to fall and women to
+ weep? CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The able and experienced leadership of the President of the Society,
+ Miss Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and at the hospital at the
+ front in Cuba. PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
+
+
+ PRESIDENT MCKINLEY SENDS CLARA BARTON TO CUBA
+
+President McKinley personally had subscribed $1,000 to a fund to relieve
+the starving Cubans. He issued an appeal to the American people; the
+people responded with barely $50,000. Discouraged, he sent for Clara
+Barton. Not knowing the President’s desire to see her, Private Secretary
+Pruden told her that the President was very busy, and probably would not
+be able to see her until the next day. As she was about to leave Major
+Pruden said: “Wait a minute, Miss Barton, I’ll take your card in.”
+Returning, Major Pruden said: “Miss Barton, the President wants very
+much to see you.” Entering, Miss Barton found the President in
+conference with Secretary of State Day on the very matter of sending her
+to Cuba, to take charge of furnishing relief to the starving
+reconcentrados. The conference, which was to have been held next day,
+was held at once. At this conference Miss Barton outlined a complete
+plan of action. The plan was approved by the President, but provided
+only that Miss Barton herself should go to Cuba to take charge of the
+relief work. The President, in highest appreciation of her, said: “My
+dear Miss Barton, this is your work; go to the starving Cubans, if you
+can with your relief ship, and distribute as only you know how.”
+
+In Red Cross relief work through Clara Barton, under her slogan
+“People’s Help for National Needs,” the uniform policy was _not to
+sell_, but _to distribute_. In Cuba when “Teddy the Rough Rider,” with
+money in his pocket and a gunny sack over his shoulders, in behalf of
+his soldiers ill and in distress, appeared at the door of her tent _to
+buy_, Clara Barton said: “Colonel, we have nothing to sell. What do your
+boys need? We have food and clothing to give away.” Recently commenting
+on that policy, an editorial writer says: “That its members should know
+neither friend nor foe, but serve all alike in fields of war and in
+camps of sickness, was the essence and spirit of the Red Cross which
+Clara Barton founded.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ WILLIAM R. DAY
+
+ In the troublesome times preceding and following the outbreak of the
+ Spanish-American War, I learned to know how valuable the services of
+ Clara Barton have been to her country.—WILLIAM R. DAY, Associate
+ Justice, U. S. Supreme Court; the Secretary of State under President
+ McKinley.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XCI
+
+
+ Everything Clara Barton did was performed in a masterly and
+ businesslike way. _New York Examiner._
+
+
+ Clara Barton possessed rare executive ability.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Journal_.
+
+ Clara Barton—her strong and capable hands—her clear and logical
+ brain—her systematic methods. Boston (Mass.) _Globe_.
+
+ Is it not the finest kind of glory that when the American Red Cross is
+ seen the name of Clara Barton comes to the mind like a benediction.
+ New York (N. Y.) _Sun_.
+
+
+ The world lost in Clara Barton a great lawyer when it gained a
+ whole-souled philanthropist. ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY, Attorney for
+ American Red Cross.
+
+ Had Clara Barton belonged to the other sex, she would have been a
+ merchant prince, a great general, or a trusted political leader.
+
+ DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s herculean work was done with means that most men would
+ scorn as too trivial to begin a work with.
+
+ ALICE HUBBARD—In _The Fra_.
+
+
+ Our methods are based upon strict business principles.
+
+ CLARA BARTON, President Red Cross.
+
+ No donor to, nor recipient of, Red Cross relief ever criticised Clara
+ Barton’s bookkeeping. CORRA BACON-FOSTER, Author.
+
+ After each event a financial statement has been prepared showing in
+ full detail both receipts and expenditures. Every donation of money
+ sent to the field and every one of the supplies, so far as could be
+ identified, has had individual acknowledgment.
+
+ Red Cross Committee,
+ By WALTER P. PHILLIPS, _Chairman_.
+ SAMUEL L. JARVIS,
+ J. B. HUBBELL,
+ House Document, No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Congress.
+
+ _In re_ Clara Barton’s business methods,—although the exigencies of
+ the situation rendered the distribution one of great difficulty, it
+ has been done so wisely, prudently and effectively, as not only to
+ accomplish its purpose but to excite the admiration of all who are
+ personally conversant with it. Red Cross Committee, in Official
+ Communication to Congress, House Document, No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th
+ Congress.
+
+
+ The Red Cross has set in motion the wheels of relief at a moment’s
+ warning over the whole land. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ It has been my custom, as the head of the organization which has grown
+ up around me, to reach a field of great disaster in the shortest
+ possible time, regarding neither weather, night, nor Sunday.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ IN DETAILS—CLARA BARTON, A BUSINESS MANAGER—WORLD’S RECORD
+
+On Christmas Eve, 1899, there arrived for Clara Barton at her Glen Echo
+home, besides letters, more than a bushel basket full of presents. These
+presents were from various parts of the world. One of them from Cuba was
+a large cocoanut with her name and address burned with a hot iron, the
+cocoanut plastered with postage stamps. The other presents were in
+packages. From these her secretary commenced to cut the strings. “Don’t
+do that, General; untie the strings. I save all the strings; we may need
+them.” Following her custom the General then untied the strings, looped
+the ends together in every case and so continuing until each bunch was
+about six inches long; then he tied the bunches respectively with a
+loose bow-knot. All the bunches so arranged were then taken upstairs
+into one of the small rooms of the house and there hung on nails for
+future use. Red, white, and blue strings to the number of perhaps
+thousands were thus hung on the row of nails on the wall, the whole
+length of the room. Whenever a string of a certain length was wanted she
+would take from the nail a bunch of the length needed at that particular
+time.
+
+Equally methodical was she with wrapping paper. She ironed out the paper
+and folded it, placing the papers respectively on shelves; the papers
+likewise were classified as to size, and this including corrugated
+paper. She would remind her assistants that it is not the value of the
+strings and the paper but the certain need of them; and being saved and
+thus classified, time would be saved when the need came. Spools of
+thread, needles, thimbles, hosiery, garments, shoes, or whatever else
+used by her in her work, were in like manner classified and through a
+system as nearly perfect as in the best arranged store in the world.
+
+In 1893 occurred the Sea Islands Hurricane and Tidal Wave Disaster.
+Thirty thousand people were homeless in consequence. Clara Barton, with
+her four Red Cross assistants, was in charge. Admiral Beardslee, of the
+U. S. Navy, volunteered as a “helper.” He made notes, and later a
+report, on the Red Cross work there. He reported that for a desk Clara
+Barton had a dry goods box; for a bed, a cot; that she had systematic
+and businesslike methods; that books were kept and every penny, or
+penny’s worth, were accounted for;—that what had been contributed by the
+people was honestly and intelligently placed where it would do most
+good.
+
+General Leonard F. Ross, of Civil War record and of large affairs, was
+in Cuba at the sinking of the “Maine.” Clara Barton accepted his
+proffered services as superintendent of the warehouse. The General said
+Miss Barton had a perfect business system—such a system as he had not
+seen equalled. General W. R. Shafter, in charge of the American forces
+in the Spanish-American War, commending Clara Barton, said that in
+relieving distress and saving life no Governmental red tape system could
+possibly be as effective as Clara Barton’s sensible, business methods,
+in Cuba. United States Senator Redfield Proctor was not only a statesman
+but also a business man, handling successfully millions of dollars in
+business annually. He was chairman of the Senate Committee, to make
+investigations in Cuba. In his official report, in his speech to the
+Senate, he eulogized Clara Barton in highest terms. The Senator told the
+Senate that Clara Barton could give him points in business; that she
+needed no commendation from him; that he found in her conduct of the
+business affairs of the Red Cross there was nothing to criticise, but
+everything to commend her to the American people.
+
+The storm and tidal wave had struck Galveston. Clara Barton received the
+news in the evening. A moment’s warning was all that was necessary. At
+once she took counsel with her secretary. “General, what are we going
+to?”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ BENJAMIN F. BUTLER
+
+ There has been inaugurated by Clara Barton a system of economy that
+ will save ten thousand dollars, within a year of her
+ administration.—BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, Governor of Massachusetts,
+ 1881–1882; Major-General Civil War; U. S. Congress, 1867–1875;
+ 1877–1879. See pages 359; 364.
+]
+
+
+ HER BUSINESS RECORD
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ FRANCIS ATWATER
+
+ Clara Barton had rare business qualifications. No person existed more
+ scrupulously honest, as I know from having been her financial
+ adviser for nearly forty years. There was no time in her life when
+ she was not doing good. A wonderful woman!—FRANCIS ATWATER, State
+ Senator in 1906, Connecticut; Journalist. See pages 323; 359.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ LEONARD F. ROSS
+
+ In Cuba, Clara Barton had a perfect business system, such as I have
+ never seen equalled.—LEONARD F. ROSS, Brigadier-General, Civil War;
+ Superintendent of Red Cross Warehouse in Cuba, 1898, under Clara
+ Barton.
+
+ General Ross is one of the most gracious, courteous gentlemen I have
+ ever known.—CLARA BARTON. See page 359.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ REDFIELD PROCTOR
+
+ I especially looked into Clara Barton’s business methods, as to
+ system, waste and extravagance. I found nothing to criticise, but
+ everything to commend. She could teach me on these points.—REDFIELD
+ PROCTOR, Colonel in the Civil War; Governor of Vermont; member of
+ the U. S. Senate, 1891–1908; Chairman Red Cross Proctor Committee to
+ “investigate” Clara Barton.
+
+ See page 359.
+]
+
+Secretary: “Well, Miss Barton, we are going to an awful scene of death
+and destruction.”
+
+Miss Barton: “Yes, but what are we going to; we are going to nothing,
+aren’t we?”
+
+Secretary: “I suppose we are, Miss Barton.”
+
+Miss Barton: “Why, at Johnstown I hunted a half day and couldn’t find a
+thimble with which to do some sewing. Here, General, take these keys and
+go through the house and whenever you find anything that can be used
+_where there is nothing_, you pack it up.”
+
+The secretary took the keys, went through the house of thirty-eight
+rooms and seventy-six closets. He found carefully stored away supplies
+of every description. He found packing-chests, trunks, valises and
+telescopes all ready for use—everything imaginable at hand. Miss Barton
+and her secretary worked all night. The next morning two great
+dray-loads of goods were _en route_ to the railway station, and
+Galveston. Arriving at Galveston she asked: “Mr. Mayor, have ward
+committees been organized?”
+
+Mayor Jones: “No, Miss Barton.”
+
+Miss Barton: “How many wards are there in the city?”
+
+Mayor Jones: “Twelve.”
+
+Miss Barton: “Do go at once and organize strong committees in every
+ward; provide ward headquarters, and a store-room where every ward
+committee can take charge of supplies furnished. Have your ward
+committees canvass every ward thoroughly and get the name of every
+person and what he needs—the food necessary and in case of clothing the
+exact size of the clothing. Then have your committees make requisition
+for what is needed on the Red Cross at its headquarters. My corps of
+helpers will see that these requisitions are promptly filled, and the
+goods sent to ward headquarters for distribution.”
+
+Miss Barton then said to her helpers: “_Now we must work!_ Mr. Lewis,
+you go at once and secure a good saddle-horse, and direct the
+organization of Mayor Jones’ ward committees. General Sears, you go into
+the city and secure a headquarters building for the Red Cross. Mr.
+Talmage, you go to Houston and stay there until every delayed Red Cross
+car is forwarded to Galveston. Major McDowell, you go to the
+headquarters to take charge of the unpacking, the classifying, and the
+issuing of the supplies. Mr. Ward, you will go with Major McDowell to
+open up an office at the headquarters. Keep a careful book account of
+the receipts of all supplies and moneys. Mr. Marsh, you will go with Mr.
+Ward, to be his assistant. Mrs. Ward, you will stay by me to take such
+directions as I may have to give you from time to time. Miss Coombs, you
+are to be my stenographer and typewriter—you’ll find plenty to do to
+keep busy. Miss Spradling (a trained nurse), you arrange proper space
+for the opening up of an orphanage at headquarters building, then gather
+up all the homeless, uncared-for orphans in the city and take care of
+them. Every person in charge of work is expected to report to me daily,
+and hourly if necessary.” In less time than it takes the military
+commander to get his columns into action the woman, who had “the command
+of a general,” had humanity’s forces on the “firing line.”
+
+Clara Barton possessed in the highest degree the elements necessary to
+succeed in business. She had the mental grasp of a great enterprise; she
+had executive ability; she inspired confidence in those serving with
+her; she was methodical in attention to details—without a superior in
+the business world; she was economical in her personal expenditures,
+exacting like economy on the part of her assistants;—ever anticipating
+the future by making wise provision. When much was at stake, and means
+necessary to accomplish her purposes, she was without limit as to
+expenditures. These elements, combined in her, gave to her the power she
+swayed as the business head of a great corporation.
+
+The measure of success is the measure of the capacity for achievement.
+It was on her nursing record in the Civil War that she made her national
+reputation; on her business record, her world reputation. She was not a
+Hetty Green in a bank account, for she invested in the field of
+humanity, not of finance; but her genius shone in handling, unerringly,
+a great business enterprise, her record far surpassing that of the
+woman-wizard of Wall Street. By American Presidents, by commanders of
+armies, by statesmen, by financiers, by her co-workers, without an
+exception who were with her on fields of war and disaster, she was
+commended for her business acumen, business methods, and in the results
+obtained. From previous knowledge, from personal observation at the
+Galveston flood, from having, within the past five years, spent many
+months in her Glen Echo Red Cross home, with the accountants who were
+going through her business records and assisting myself in the work, I
+speak what I do know.
+
+She did not come into the business world panoplied as from the head of a
+Jupiter, her record was not temporary camouflage; it is a record of
+years; nor was it solely through the heart, for other women have hearts.
+Clara Barton had genius, “the power of meeting and overcoming the
+unexpected;” had genius for work, and through work comes genius. Her
+business record is as firmly established as is that of her heart record;
+as is that of the great “captains of industry” and, as theirs, is based
+on _methods and success_, the only known data for such determination. In
+the use of her approved methods in continuous service for twenty-three
+years, she was without one record-failure, achieving success under
+varied and most trying conditions.
+
+It is said of her by one writer, “a woman of great force of character;”
+by another, from the results accomplished and without prejudice toward
+womankind in the business world, “one of the world’s greatest
+personages, for greatness knows no sex;” by another, as shown in her
+capacity to do things, “she must be classed as a genius, for genius is
+the intuitive capacity for overcoming insurmountable difficulties.”
+
+Clara Barton’s twenty-three years as the Executive Head of the Red
+Cross; her collection and distribution of two and one-half millions of
+money and material; her unanimous election three times to the Red Cross
+presidency for life, on her business record, is without precedent. She
+might have been a _Merchant Prince_; she could teach one of America’s
+most successful business men on _business points_; she excited _the
+admiration of all who were acquainted with her business methods_. Some
+day some man or woman may appear as her rival on the horizon of the
+business world but, up to the present time as an unpaid executive with
+unpaid helpers, Clara Barton holds the world’s record as Business
+Manager, in public service.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE AMERICAN RED CROSS BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.
+ Dedicated to the Heroic Women of the Civil War.
+
+ Cost $800,000.00—$400,000 by Congress; $400,000 by Friends of the Red
+ Cross (Mrs. Russell Sage, $150,000, Rockefeller Foundation,
+ $100,000, James A. Scrymser, $100,000, Mrs. E. H. Harriman,
+ $50,000).
+
+ One and one-half million of names were represented on the petition
+ memorializing the 65th Congress to place a Clara Barton tablet in
+ the new Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C.—CORRA BACON-FOSTER,
+ author of _Clara Barton, Humanitarian_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton, “Her character eternally crystallized at the base of an
+ enduring foundation and an immortal American destiny—the greatest an
+ American woman has yet produced.”—HON. HENRY BRECKENRIDGE, Acting
+ Secretary of War, at the laying of the corner stone of the American
+ Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C., March 15, 1915.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XCII
+
+
+ Honor any requisition Clara Barton makes; she outranks me.
+
+ GENERAL B. F. BUTLER.
+
+
+ The Jury passing on the prisoner’s life may in the sworn twelve have a
+ thief or two guiltier than him they try. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+ A felon’s cell—
+ The fittest earthly type of hell. WHITTIER.
+
+
+ Prison—the living grave of Crime. JOAQUIN MILLER.
+
+ Prison—Young Crime’s finishing school. MRS. BULFOUR.
+
+ Every penitentiary should be a real reformatory—the discipline of the
+ average prison hardens and degrades—the criminal should be treated
+ with kindness. R. G. INGERSOLL.
+
+
+ Even the most obstinate yields to the rule of kindness, firmly and
+ steadily administered. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ SUPERINTENDENT OF WOMAN’S PRISON
+
+There is a woman’s prison, supported by the state at Sherborn,
+Massachusetts. Its condition had been unsatisfactory. Governor Ben F.
+Butler[11] sent for Miss Barton, and begged her to accept its
+superintendency. He said: “I ask it as a personal favor.” “But, if I
+accept, Governor, what would be required of me?” “Well, it will be
+necessary first for you to put up a ten thousand dollar bond.” “Would
+you accept a cash bond, Governor?” “Of course,” he replied. And she put
+up the bond.
+
+Footnote 11:
+
+ At a public reception in honor of Miss Barton a few years after the
+ Civil War, the wife of a Massachusetts Congressman, addressing General
+ Benjamin F. Butler, said: “How wonderfully well Miss Barton looks in
+ her evening dress! What beautiful arms and shoulders she has!” General
+ Butler replied: “Yes, I have seen those arms red with human blood to
+ the shoulders.”
+
+The ten thousand dollars was not in the “coin of the realm”; it was in
+railroad bonds, then above par. The governor had enemies who at no time
+closed their eyes to his faults, real or imaginary; but he also had
+adherents, who were his “friends to a fault.” It was reported that the
+governor had accepted her personal bond. His enemies adversely
+criticized the waiving of the requirements of the law in her case. His
+friends justified the official conduct of the executive, protesting that
+Miss Barton’s personal bond was good anywhere. While the agitation of
+the public mind over the bond was at its height, the governor paid an
+official visit at the prison. On the issue pending the governor to Miss
+Barton made this comment: “If the good Lord would only protect me from
+my ‘fool friends,’ I could take care of my enemies myself.”
+
+Her executive ability and methodical work soon showed results.
+Discipline and economy had transformed the prison. Instead of
+insubordination, there was obedience; instead of wastage, there was
+frugality. The Governor and his Council paid the institution an official
+visit. In a public address delivered shortly after this at Springfield,
+the Governor said: “I’ll tell you that the _Prison Is In a Thorough
+Condition_, and there has been inaugurated there a system of economy
+that will save $10,000 within a year of her administration.”
+
+
+
+
+ XCIII
+
+
+ America’s foremost woman. Houghton (Mich.) _Gazette_.
+
+ Clara Barton’s, a career which has no parallel in American history.
+ Cleveland (Ohio) _Plain Dealer_.
+
+ Clara Barton—in citizenship, the memory of her career must remain a
+ rich heritage to the people of this country.
+
+ Portland (Ore.) _Telegram_.
+
+
+ Clara Barton’s Red Cross achievements are monumental, and because of
+ the corner-stone she laid the present superstructure will endure. Her
+ name is the synonym for the American Red Cross as it was, and as it
+ is. B. F. TILLINGHAST, Delegate to the International Red Cross
+ Conference at St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1902.
+
+
+ Destiny is the decree of God. A. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+ Destiny cannot be avoided. G. COWPAY.
+
+ Destiny bears us to our lot. DISRAELI.
+
+
+ Who can turn the stream of destiny? SPENCER.
+
+ In your own bosom are your destiny’s stars. COLERIDGE.
+
+
+ How circumscribed is woman’s destiny. GOETHE.
+
+ Let a woman steer straight onward to the fulfillment of her own
+ destiny. MRS. EMMA R. COLE.
+
+
+ Clara Barton—one of the immortals. _Brooklyn Citizen._
+
+
+ Quaff immortality. JOHN MILTON.
+
+ Born of immortality. WORDSWORTH.
+
+ This longing after immortality. ADDISON.
+
+ I have an immortal longing in me. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Immortality! We bow before the very term, Immortality!
+
+ GEORGE DOUGLAS.
+
+ ’Tis immortality to die aspiring. CHAPMAN.
+
+ No one could meet death for his country without the hope of
+ immortality. CICERO.
+
+
+ Clara Barton—she earned immortality.
+
+ Boston (Mass.) _Herald_.
+
+ She passes through the portals of immortality.
+
+ Joplin (Mo.) _Globe_.
+
+ Rest thee among the immortal names that were not born to die.
+
+ Rutland (Vermont) _Herald_.
+
+
+ He is truly great that is great in charity.
+
+ THOMAS À KEMPIS.
+
+ The most useful is the greatest. THEODORE PARKER.
+
+ Great names stand not alone for great deeds. HENRY GILES.
+
+ He who does the most good is the greatest. BISHOP JARTIN.
+
+ He only is great at heart who floods the world with a great affection.
+ ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK.
+
+
+ As the stars are the glory of the sky, so great men are the glory of
+ their country; yea, of the whole earth. HEINE.
+
+ Greatness is nothing unless it is lasting. NAPOLEON.
+
+
+ On eagle’s wings immortal scandals fly. STEPHEN HARVEY.
+
+ To reproach is a concomitant to greatness, as satire and invectives
+ were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
+
+ JOSEPH ADDISON.
+
+ Such is the destiny of great men that their superior genius always
+ exposes them to the butt of the envenomed darts of calumny and envy.
+ VOLTAIRE.
+
+ America has her Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lees, and others whose names
+ are written down in the hearts of all Americans, but Clara Barton
+ accomplished a work compared with which the career of generals fade in
+ the distance as a shadow.
+
+ Pensacola (Fla.) _Journal_.
+
+
+ GREATNESS—AN IMMORTAL AMERICAN DESTINY—IMMORTALITY
+
+ From a speech by Honorable Henry Breckenridge, Acting Secretary of
+ War, representing the United States Government, at the laying of the
+ corner-stone of the American Red Cross Building, at Washington, D. C,
+ March 27, 1915.
+
+To every soldier who fought in the Union Army, and survived the war, the
+name of Clara Barton was known. And as long as the American Red Cross
+endures or its name is remembered the memory of Clara Barton will be
+cherished. Her sympathies were universal, her zeal unflagging. She
+nursed the wounded of two wars on the continents, in our Civil War and
+in the Franco-Prussian War. She directed the work of her association to
+the calamities of peace, as well as the stricken fields of war. She was
+in Cuba before the Spanish War—was on the “Maine” the day before it was
+blown up, and tended the wounded survivors in the hospital ashore.
+Wherever humanity called for help—in the Balkans or in Strasburg—in Cuba
+or in Galveston—in Paris or on the American battlefields of the
+sixties—there came the ministering hand of Clara Barton.
+
+To take an historical perspective, disfavor with a temporary and passing
+administration means nothing in the end to a name as great and a career
+as long as Clara Barton’s, as this estimate shows. For a while it may
+mean on both sides much misconstruction and suffering, but in the end
+this is forgotten and the fame remains undimmed.
+
+Florence Nightingale, at the Crimea, England’s great introducer into the
+world of the system of women hospital nurses, was actually so ignored by
+a subsequent English ministry that, though a poor invalid, she was
+ousted from her minor position in a Governmental office. It caused her
+intense pain, and although a chronic sufferer from her many labors, she
+saw herself ignominiously thrown out by new political leaders who, great
+as they were, could not understand her. But when she became an
+octogenarian, all this became a buried incident, and all England a few
+years ago bent to do her homage, when the Lord Mayor of London granted
+her the freedom of the city, and the Golden Casket, England’s highest of
+honors. Now, since her death, a monument is being erected and nothing is
+considered too good to let Great Britain make her memory green in the
+British Isles.
+
+Thus will perish the temporary unhappy misunderstanding and
+misconstruction of 1902–1904, through which Clara Barton suffered. In
+the atoning stream that swallows time’s ticking seconds of little
+troubles, its unessentials will be dissolved. Indeed, as demonstrated in
+nearly 3000 American newspapers in 1912, they have already been
+dissolved, leaving her character and career eternally crystallized at
+the base of an enduring national foundation and an immortal American
+destiny—the greatest an American woman has yet produced.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ HENRY BRECKENRIDGE
+
+ So long as the American Red Cross endures, and its name is remembered,
+ the memory of Clara Barton will be cherished.—HENRY BRECKENRIDGE, of
+ Kentucky. Orator of the Day, Assistant Secretary of War,
+ representing the U. S. Government at the laying of the corner stone
+ of the Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C., March 17, 1915;
+ Lieutenant-Colonel World War.
+
+ See page 368.
+]
+
+
+
+
+ XCIV
+
+
+ Clara Barton has built an imperishable monument for herself in the
+ hearts of the people of all creeds. Dallas (Texas) _Herald_.
+
+ Clara Barton—her deeds lend honor to her country’s fame.
+
+ _The Outlook._
+
+ Clara Barton—the embodiment of one vital principle of all creeds, the
+ love of humanity. _Detroit Free Press._
+
+ Before her gentle assault the steel walls of religious prejudice and
+ race hatred melted like a mist. Leadville (Colo.) _Herald_.
+
+
+ Put your Creed in your Deed. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+ Souls in Heaven are placed by their deeds. ROBERT GREENE.
+
+ Things of today? Deeds which are honest, for eternity.
+
+ EBENEZER ELLIOTT.
+
+
+ Truly does the Hindoo say, with averted face: “God only is great.”
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God.
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Each of the great religions of the world seems to have some good in
+ it. BISHOP W. F. MCDOWELL.
+
+
+ God bless all the Churches. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ There are few people who have memories of harder Church work and
+ better Church love than I. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say that it is the best
+ gift that God has given to man. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ What sensations can possess the mind but wonder and adoration for the
+ power of Almighty God, and a humble gratitude that no words can speak.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ You believe that God is a Divine Immanence; you believe that God is
+ now communicating himself to humanity and that his loving Presence is
+ here now as ever. Why, then, can’t you call up a direct relationship,
+ rather than going around to the uncertain allusions of Theodore
+ Parker? CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ In the Universalist Church at Oxford, where Clara Barton attended
+ Church, there is carefully preserved the pulpit in which the famous
+ Reverend Hosea Ballou was ordained in 1794.
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Reverend Father Tyler, a memorable Universalist minister, who
+ officiated at the funerals of Father and Mother Barton, on the
+ occasion of her funeral pronounced also at the grave a memorial
+ tribute to Clara. Among her religious friends also were Hosea Ballou,
+ Phillips Brooks, Mary Baker Eddy, Archbishops Gibbons and Ireland. THE
+ AUTHOR.
+
+
+ I firmly believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Jesus of
+ Nazareth, in His life and death, His suffering to save the world from
+ sin, so far as in His power to do so. But it would be difficult for me
+ to stop there, and believe that this spirit of divinity was accorded
+ to none others of God’s creation who, like the Master, took on the
+ living form and, like Him, lived the human life.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Miss Barton does not wait and “wish to be an angel.” She goes right
+ about it. A visible, substantial, present angel she is—a “ministering
+ spirit.” W. H. ARMSTRONG.
+
+
+ Over all, spreading its Aegis like a benediction is the great mantle
+ of Christianity, wrapping all in its beneficent folds.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ WHAT WAS HER RELIGION?
+
+Was Clara Barton a Church woman? Of herself she says: “There are few
+people who have memories of harder Church work and better Church love
+than I; I have never lost my love for the old Church of my Fathers, my
+family and my childhood.”
+
+Was she a Mormon? A friend of the Mormons, and one of the biggest
+receptions ever tendered to her was in the tabernacle at Salt Lake City,
+by the Mormons of Utah. Was she a Mohammedan? She was most cordially
+received by the Mohammedans, and decorated by the Sultan of Turkey. Was
+she a Spiritualist? She attended spiritualistic meetings, studied the
+cult, consulted mediums, and mingled with spiritualists. Commenting on
+the fact, claimed, that spiritual communications occur between those of
+this world and those of the other world, she said: “I am more and more
+filled with wonder how these things can be” but—“I hope so.”
+
+Was she a Catholic? She frequently attended the Catholic Church, and
+counted among her friends Sisters of Mercy, Priests, Bishops, and
+Archbishops. Was she a Congregationalist? She attended that Church at
+times. Several Congregational ministers officiated at the funeral, and a
+beautiful Clara Barton window is preserved in the Congregational Church
+at Oxford. Was she a Methodist? She attended the Methodist Church, and
+the Methodists now use Clara Barton leaflets, and other Clara Barton
+literature, in their Sunday Schools throughout the country.
+
+Was she a Christian Scientist? She said: “I do not know enough to be
+one, nor to understand it,” but she also said: “I cannot see why
+Universalists should not become Christian Scientists.” She attended the
+Christian Science Church for three years, but a leading scientist editor
+said: “We do not claim her, nor do I think any other Church can claim
+her.” Was she a Universalist? She was reared a Universalist, and in her
+youth attended the Universalist Church where the famous divine, Hosea
+Ballou, was pastor and she also requested a Universalist pastor to
+assist in officiating at her funeral.
+
+She attended other Churches, and ministers of several denominations
+officiated at her funeral. Clara Barton says: “I am not what the world
+denominates a Church woman; I was born to liberal views, and have lived
+a liberal creed.”
+
+But really what was her religion? “Perplexed in faith but pure in
+deeds,” Clara Barton, to the annoying question so often asked by the
+curious, answered: “I am a well disposed pagan.”
+
+
+
+
+ XCV
+
+
+ I never had a mission and I don’t know what I should do with one, if I
+ had it. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ We all tumble over opportunities for being brave and good, at every
+ step we take. Life is just made up of such opportunities.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+ There are other altars than that of Venus on which to light your
+ fires—work, incessant, hard, earnest work. SIR WILLIAM OSLER.
+
+ How much of the sweets of life one loses in the rush of it.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I lost two months entire, but the time went on and spun its web each
+ day. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The gray haired military chieftain, whom all would recognize were I to
+ name him, was correct when he once said to me: “Strange as it may
+ seem, the days of ‘rest’ at the field are the hardest days.”
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I always had a passion for service. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Honest labor bears a lovely face. THOMAS DECKER.
+
+ Labor: All labor is noble and holy. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.
+
+ Work ye, and God will work. JOAN OF ARC.
+
+ Life is a great bundle of little things. O. W. HOLMES.
+
+ Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little
+ things. SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.
+
+ Nothing is of greater value than a single day. GOETHE.
+
+ Life is but a day at most. BURNS.
+
+ Life is a short day, but it is a working day. HANNAH MOORE.
+
+ Living is doing. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ “Even while we say there is nothing we can do, we stumble over
+ opportunities for service that we are passing by in our tear-blinded,
+ self-pity.” CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I have had more work than I could do lying _around my feet_, and try
+ to get it out of my way so I can go on to the next.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ There is but one method, and that is hard labor.
+
+ SIDNEY SMITH.
+
+ If God works, Madam, you can afford to work also.
+
+ JULIA WARD HOWE.
+
+ Clara Barton was a worker from infancy. She gave to the world nearly a
+ century of work, taking neither vacation nor recreation.
+
+ ALICE HUBBARD.
+
+ Women, always—as a rule—have worked harder than men.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ I do hope I may live long enough to get the story of my life and my
+ life’s work in shape for publication. I am doing this ill in bed (at
+ 90 years of age), sometimes working until two or three o’clock in the
+ morning. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ ONE DAY WITH CLARA BARTON
+
+How so much was accomplished in the lifetime of one woman may be
+understood by reading “One Day with Clara Barton,” as described by
+herself in a personal letter to a friend:
+
+“How shall I manage to be a woman of business, and act like a lady of
+leisure? How strangely odd it seemed to me when I read your pretty
+description of how your time was passed, that you could dress for
+breakfast, help do some little things about the house, get ready for tea
+and walk after it. When _did_ I see such days, or even _one_ such day.
+If it would not take too long I could tell you something of how I pass a
+day. Let me try; and as one day is a fair sample of another, suppose I
+take yesterday as I remember it better than any other. Well, let me
+brush up my hair and try to think. First, I rose when I could see to
+dress, I suppose a little past four, went into my bath room, and bathed
+thoroughly in preparation for a scorching day and partly made my toilet;
+then read my chapter in the scriptures by _myself_, and offered my own
+prayer and thanksgiving (no family service to unite in like you, and I
+have too much of the dust of old Plymouth Rock sticking to me to omit
+it); then finished a hurried toilet, and sat down to a French lesson at
+half past six; went to my breakfast at seven, commenced my French
+recitation, lasted until eight; after this put my chamber and myself in
+order and started for the office; called on my dress-maker on my way and
+tried on a dress; called at the post office and found one business
+letter; and reached the office at nine; distance little over a mile, and
+then commenced the tug of war. I wrote until three o’clock P. M., took
+an omnibus home, took my writing, or a portion of it, along with me
+(don’t tell; it’s against the rule), reached home at three-thirty, took
+a hurried bath, went to dinner and at four-thirty was seated at my table
+writing for my life. Did not leave my room again, or scarce arose from
+my table until twelve o’clock, when I retired and slept as fast and hard
+as I could until daylight in preparation for a repetition of the same.
+Perhaps you wish, or are curious, to know how much I accomplished in all
+that time. Ten thousand words of bold round record which must live and
+be legible when the mound which once covered me shall have become a
+hollow and the moss-covered headstone, with ‘born’ and ‘died’ no longer
+to be traced upon its time-worn front shall have buried itself beneath
+the kindred turf.”
+
+Working twenty hours out of the twenty-four would give almost any woman
+the reputation of being a _genius_. Thinking the woman who had done
+things held the secret of woman’s success, a touring party of ambitious
+young ladies called on Clara Barton, in her later years, at Glen Echo.
+The following conversation took place:
+
+Vassar Girl—Miss Barton, these other ladies and myself called to pay our
+respects. We have heard much of you since we were little girls. A few
+weeks ago, in the class of ——, we graduated from Vassar College. We, as
+you have done, wish to do some good in the world. We cannot decide what
+we should do; we want your advice.
+
+Clara Barton—My dear young lady, do the first thing that comes to your
+hand. Do it well. Then do the next thing. Do that well. Then do the next
+thing, just so keep on doing——.
+
+Clara Barton then pinned a Red Cross badge on each of these young
+ladies, the happiest visitors when leaving, says Miss Barton’s
+secretary, that he had ever seen in that “house of rough hemlock
+boards.”
+
+
+
+
+ XCVI
+
+
+ Finally Clara Barton was forced out of her position in May, 1904.
+
+ _New York Examiner._
+
+ Clara Barton—antagonism she encountered. But in all of them she bore
+ herself with a poise that lost for her no friends.
+
+ Utica (N. Y.) _Observer_.
+
+
+ I know there is a God, and he hates injustice. A. LINCOLN.
+
+
+ There were no heroes, there were no martyrs.
+
+ BULWER-LYTTON.
+
+ Great women belong to history and self-sacrifice.
+
+ LEIGH HUNT.
+
+
+ I am in the Garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is full
+ to the overflowing. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Let us have faith that right makes might. A. LINCOLN.
+
+ Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice
+ of the people? Is there any better, or equal, hope in the world? A.
+ LINCOLN.
+
+
+ Beneficence breeds gratitude, gratitude admiration, admiration fame,
+ and the world remembers its benefactors.
+
+ PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON.
+
+
+ To be great is to be misunderstood. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+ The people will never understand the motive, and of course cannot
+ comprehend that it was necessary for the “aspirants” to resort to
+ “charges” in order to accomplish their purpose,—to gain possession of
+ the Red Cross. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ What you are speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say.
+
+ RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+ Crowns of roses fade; crowns of thorns endure. Calvaries and
+ Crucifixions take deepest hold of humanity; the triumphs of might are
+ transient, they pass and are forgotten; the sufferings of the right
+ are graven deepest on the chronicles of nations.
+
+ FATHER RYAN.
+
+
+ Alas! I have not words to tell my grief:
+ To vent my sorrows would be some relief. DRYDEN.
+
+
+ For the heart must speak when
+ The lips are dumb. KATE PUTNAM OSGOOD.
+
+
+ Clara Barton speaketh from the heart in eloquence pathetic and
+ convincing; through her own words, written to Professor Charles Sumner
+ Young at this time (1904), are “The most vital, and interesting of a
+ wonderful life and a wonderful work, and few men hear of it without
+ envy and emulation.” _New York Sun._
+
+
+ THE PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE—CLARA BARTON’S PROPOSED SELF-EXPATRIATION
+
+Occurring in October, 1911, in the sick room at Oxford, was the
+following interview:
+
+Mr. Young: Miss Barton, you once requested me to do a certain thing for
+you. I did not do it then and I won’t do it now, so please don’t ask it.
+
+Miss Barton: What’s that? I don’t understand.
+
+Mr. Young: You requested me to destroy a certain letter. I did not do
+it.
+
+Miss Barton: Was that the letter in which I asked you to take me to
+Mexico? And why did you not destroy it as I requested?
+
+Mr. Young: That’s the letter. It is now in a safe deposit box in Los
+Angeles. I did not destroy it because, in my opinion, that letter would
+do more in your defense than any argument that could be put up by the
+greatest lawyers in America. What you wrote at the time of your
+persecution, in confidence to a friend with a request that the letter be
+destroyed, the American people would believe. No slander would stand for
+a moment against your heart’s secrets, thus told to a friend. In case I
+should die before you do, I have arrangements with a mutual personal
+friend that in any event the letter will be published after you shall
+have passed.
+
+Miss Barton: (Hesitatingly, then very frankly): Mr. Young, you are a
+very wise man; possibly you are right. Anyway, do what you please with
+that letter when I am gone. Now, Mr. Young, I meant it. For several
+months I was getting together my belongings and adjusting my affairs so
+that I could go. There were but two countries where the _Red Cross_ did
+not exist; one was China, and the other Mexico. I did not want to go to
+China, but I did want to go to Mexico. Oh! Well, it’s probably best that
+I did not go; if I had gone I might not be alive now.
+
+ Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Have stooped my neck under your injuries, eating the bitter bread of
+ banishment. SHAKESPEARE.
+
+The letter referred to and similar correspondence follow:
+
+
+ THE WAIL OF AN ACHING HEART
+
+ Glen Echo, Maryland,
+ January 13, 1904.
+
+ My dear Mr. Young:
+
+ It is a blessing to your friends that you have a good memory.
+ Otherwise, how should you have carried the recollection of poor me,
+ all these weary months running into years and, through friends all
+ unknown to me, sent such tribute of respect.
+
+ I waited, after receiving the notices from you, to be sure of the
+ arrival. I have directed the acknowledgement to be made to Mr. and
+ Mrs. Canfield, but words tell so little; you will, I am sure, thank
+ them for me.
+
+ You will never know how many times I have thought of you, in this
+ last, hard and dreadful year to me. I cannot tell you, I must _not_,
+ and yet I _must_. So much of the time, under all the persecution it
+ has seemed to me I _could_ not remain in the _country_, and have
+ sought the range of the world for _some_ place among strangers and out
+ of the way of people and mails—and longed for some one to _point_ out
+ a quiet place in some _other_ land; my thoughts have fled to you, who
+ would at least tell me a _road_ to take, outside of America, and who
+ would ask of the authorities of Mexico if a woman who could not live
+ in her own country might find a home, or a resting place, in theirs.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Hartsook._
+
+
+ CHAMP CLARK
+
+ Clara Barton rendered her country and her kind great and noble
+ service.—CHAMP CLARK, of Missouri. Congress, 1893–1895; 1897–1921;
+ Speaker of the House, 1911–1921.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE OF UNITED STATES CONGRESS
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CHARLES F. CURRY
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DENVER S. CHURCH
+]
+
+ Clara Barton, one of the great characters of history; unselfish and
+ altruistic in her service for humanity; an American, intensely
+ patriotic, but with an international mind and sympathy that embraced
+ all humanity.—CHARLES F. CURRY, of California. Congress 1913—
+
+ I regard Clara Barton one of the greatest women that ever
+ lived.—DENVER S. CHURCH, of California. Congress, 1913–1919.
+
+ This will all sound very strange to you—you will wonder if I am “out
+ of my mind”—let me answer—no; and if you had only a glimpse of what is
+ put upon me to endure, you would not wonder, and in the goodness of
+ your heart, would hold the gate open to show me a mule-track to some
+ little mountain nook, where I might escape and wait in peace. Don’t
+ think this is _common_ talk with me, I have never said it to others;
+ and yet I think they, who know me best, may _mistrust_ that I cannot
+ endure _everything_ and will try in some way to relieve myself.
+
+ To think of sitting here through an “_investigation_” by the country I
+ have tried to serve,—“in the interest of _harmony_,” they say, when I
+ have never spoken a discordant word in my life, meaningly, but have
+ worked on in _silence_ under the fire of the entire press of the U. S.
+ for twelve months,—forgiven all, offered friendship,—and am still to
+ be “investigated,” for “inharmony,” “unbusinesslike methods,” and too
+ many years—all of these I cannot help. I am still unanimously bidden
+ to work on for “life,” bear the burden of an organization—meet its
+ costs myself—and am now threatened with the expenses of an
+ “investigation.”
+
+ Can you wonder that I ask a bridle track? And that some other country
+ might look inviting to me?
+
+ Mr. Young, this unhappy letter is a poor return to make for your
+ friendly courtesy, but _so long_ my dark thoughts have turned to you
+ that I cannot find myself with the privilege of communicating with you
+ without expressing them. I cannot think where I have found the courage
+ to do it, but I _have_.
+
+ I know how unwise a thing it seems but if the pressure is too great
+ the bands may break, that may be my case, and fearing that my better
+ judgment might bid me put these sheets in the fire—I send them without
+ once glancing over. You will glance them over and put them in the
+ fire. Forgive me. You need not forget, but kindly _remember_, rather,
+ that they are the wail of an aching heart and that is all. Nature has
+ provided a sure and final rest for all the heart aches that mortals
+ are called to endure.
+
+ If you are in the East again, and I am here, I pray you come to me.
+
+ Receive again my thanks and permit me to remain,
+
+ Your friend,
+ (Signed) CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Earth naught nobler knows
+ Than is the victim brave beneath his cross.
+ ’Tis in the shadow that the dawn-light grows.
+ ARCHAG TCHOBANIAN.
+
+
+ SCHEMERS—DEFAMERS—PIRATES
+
+ Bakersfield Club,
+ Bakersfield, Cal., February 2, 1904.
+
+ My Dear Miss Barton:
+
+ Your favor of January 13 received, and read with exceeding interest.
+ Mr. and Mrs. Canfield appreciate your letter to them personally, as
+ well as your kind words sent through me, in recognition of their
+ slight token of high regard for you. While here a day or two ago, Mrs.
+ Canfield requested me to convey these sentiments to you.
+
+ Now, Miss Barton, why you have confided in obscure me is a mystery I
+ cannot solve; such a compliment is more than I can hope to deserve.
+ (Having written the above General W. R. Shafter came into the Library
+ and sat beside me at the table. I stopped writing and we entered into
+ a discussion of you and your affairs. He is exceedingly complimentary
+ to you and of your work. He especially requested me to extend to you
+ his greetings and sincerest good wishes.)
+
+ I have known for several years more of the secret plottings than you
+ think. From our mutual friends I have known also of your heart aches
+ and the causes, and a thousand times have wished that I might say
+ something, or do something, so that you might know that in my inmost
+ heart I was in sympathy with you and your struggle against the coterie
+ of schemers. I have also wished that I might have power long enough to
+ show you in what esteem you are held by the households in America;
+ what a charm attaches to your name wherever spoken,—such as neither
+ royalty possesses nor money buys.
+
+ Your defamers no more represent the American people than pirates upon
+ the high seas the country from which they spring.
+
+ The unanimous vote of confidence, last week by the Woman’s Club of
+ Bakersfield enthusiastically expressed by all present rising to their
+ feet, was but one manifestation among tens of thousands of similar
+ ones which would occur if the facts were known. I hope you will soon
+ hear of similar evidence of love for you and fidelity of your friends
+ from organizations elsewhere in California, including the State
+ Federation of Women soon to convene in Sacramento.
+
+ My Uncle, General Ross, never told me of any event in his military
+ career with so much pride as that of offering you his services, and
+ acting as your lieutenant in the ware-house of the Red Cross at
+ Havana. Likewise would I be proud of the distinction to serve you in
+ the most humble capacity, either for the cause you represent or for
+ yourself personally.
+
+ While I do not, and can not, take seriously even the remotest
+ suggestion that you might seek retirement and seclusion, I would
+ gladly volunteer to be your Kit Carson over any mountain trail leading
+ to happiness. I don’t think the American people will ever permit your
+ forced retirement, but in the event you should voluntarily withdraw
+ from public service, I would indeed be glad to suggest to some of my
+ friends, who I am sure would esteem it an honor and privilege, to
+ offer you a home in Los Angeles and a competence the rest of your
+ life.
+
+ I expect to be in the East again soon and hope to have the honor of
+ seeing you. I have in mind several things I would like to talk over
+ with you, and thank you kindly for the invitation to call at your home
+ in Glen Echo.
+
+ If in my humble way I can be of any service to you, you will please
+ remember that you have but to command me.
+
+ Believe me,
+
+ Sincerely your friend,
+ (Signed) C. S. YOUNG.
+
+ To
+ Miss Clara Barton,
+ Glen Echo, Maryland.
+
+ Whispering tongues can poison truth.
+
+ SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.
+
+ The paths of charity are over roadways of ashes; and he who would
+ travel them must be prepared to meet opposition, misconstruction,
+ jealousy, and calumny. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting
+ lots upon them what every man should take. ST. MARK.
+
+
+ SHE READ THE ACTORS LIKE A BOOK
+
+ EXECUTIVE OFFICE
+ 6 Beacon Street,
+ Boston, Mass.
+
+ July 11th, 1907.
+
+ Mr. C. S. Young,
+ Los Angeles, California.
+
+ My dear Mr. Young:
+
+ I wonder if I have ever said a word in reply to your comforting letter
+ of May. If I have or have not said anything on paper I have in my
+ heart answered it many times and bless both you and Mrs. Logan for
+ your kindliness and trust. I have never in my life had a moment’s
+ doubt of the loyalty of Mrs. Logan. She stood the brunt of the battle
+ while she could, and longer than I wished her to. She foresaw what was
+ coming with her keen knowledge of human nature and thorough political
+ training. She read the actors like a book. I well remember one night
+ when she made this remark, and it was comparatively early in the game.
+ Looking earnestly at me she said, calling me by name, “At first I
+ called this prosecution, then I called it persecution, but now I name
+ it crucifixion, and that is what they mean.” I knew it too but there
+ was no redress, no course but to wait the resurrection if it came.
+
+ The trust even of one’s best friends, under the circumstances, and
+ knowing nothing of the facts could not be expected to withstand it.
+ That it was physically withstood was beyond either the expectation or
+ the intention. But, my good friend, that is all passed. The press no
+ longer turns its arrows upon me. The harvest was not what the reapers
+ expected, and I suspect if it were all to be done over again in the
+ light of their newly gained experience it would not be done.
+
+ I would like to tell you some day of the newer work that occupies, and
+ will take pleasure in sending you a report issued at our second annual
+ meeting when it leaves the press. I am writing from Boston, where I am
+ spending a few days at our headquarters, but return soon to Glen Echo,
+ where I hope to see you whenever circumstances call you to the East.
+
+ Again thanking you most warmly for your letter, which brought me much
+ satisfaction, and wishing the best of all good things for you I am,
+ dear Mr. Young,
+
+ Most cordially yours,
+ (Signed) CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ A TRIBUTE
+
+ And Marie of Logan; she went with them too,
+ A bride, scarcely more than a sweetheart, ’tis true,
+ Her young cheek grows pale when bold troopers ride
+ Where the “Black Eagle” soars she is close at his side.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The name of Clara Barton will forever shine among women who won
+ deathless fame in the days of war that called for loyal effort.
+
+ PHEBE A. HANAFORD, Author.
+
+
+ For patriotism, for national honor, I would stand by that at all cost.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ If my life could have purchased the life of the patriot martyrs who
+ fell for their country and mine, how cheerfully and quickly would the
+ exchange have been made. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ What king so strong,
+ Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+The following are excerpts from letters written to the author:
+
+
+ LOVED AND LOYALLY TRIED TO SERVE
+
+In April, 1909, she writes as follows:
+
+“Does ‘Mexico’ recall to your mind a request I once made of you that you
+should see me across the border line of that strange country? However
+much I needed it and whether well or ill I never knew. I only know I did
+not go. But my own country seemed to me so hard that I thought I could
+not live it through.
+
+“The Government which I thought I loved and loyally tried to serve has
+shut every door in my face and stared at me insultingly through its
+windows. What wonder I want to leave?
+
+“The locks have never turned, the doors are rusted in their hinges. The
+old warders go out and the new ones come in, sworn faithfully to their
+charge, with no knowledge of why they are charged to do it; ignorant of
+every fact, simply enemies by transmission; and yet I stay represented
+as of ‘doubtful integrity,’ ‘weak,’ ‘decrepit,’ ‘imbecile,’ but yet,
+very ‘dangerous.’”
+
+
+She then draws a picture of a Sultan of Turkey who was made a prisoner.
+
+“He was locked in and I locked out, but my whole country seemed my
+prison and I struggled to free myself of it. Pardon me, I never thought
+to recall the disagreeable subject again, but like the boy’s whistle it
+‘blew itself.’”
+
+ A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. ECCLESIASTES.
+
+ I am reminded of what Theodore Parker used to say so piteously of
+ himself—‘I can never talk but I talk too much.’
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+The following is an excerpt from a letter under date of Nov. 9, 1909:
+
+
+ THE STRICTEST SILENCE
+
+
+ “There has never been an occasion, nor a time, when I have so missed
+ my old time privilege of speaking in behalf of a friend. I never
+ before have so fully realized what a pleasure that privilege had been
+ to me through half a century. It is a change to me, to come to feel
+ that my only help must lie in the _strictest_ silence; an expressed
+ wish for any one would be fatal; not perhaps with President Taft
+ _personally_, for I am of small importance to him, if he even knows
+ me, but from the advice he would be sure to receive from those he does
+ know. So I wait and hope....”
+
+Excerpts from letter written under date of Dec. 14, 1909:
+
+
+ OVER THE MEXICAN LINE
+
+ May 31st, the date runs, and I know I never answered that letter, for
+ I never in my life could have answered a letter like that, but still
+ more, I never even tried to. Discouraged at the onset and gave up the
+ encounter. A glimpse at the topics it handled were so far beyond any
+ reply from the “likes o’ me.” “Great services unnoticed”—“Future
+ remembrances when others are forgotten”—“To be told in story and sung
+ in other lands”—poor little me who has never seen the present Ruler of
+ her own country!
+
+
+ “Then let us hope, and although you may never escort me over the
+ Mexican line, I have never lost sight of the darkness of the day when
+ I proposed that you should.”
+
+ If it were not my firm belief in an overruling Providence.
+
+ A. LINCOLN.
+
+Excerpts from a letter under date of November 21, 1910:
+
+
+ A GREATER POWER AND A WISER MIND
+
+
+ “How well I remember when I once asked you to escort me over! and I
+ never can understand _why_ I failed to go; a Greater Power and a Wiser
+ Mind were guiding me, no doubt——”
+
+ To God my life was an open page,
+ He knew what I would be;
+ He knew how the tyrant passions rage,
+ How wind swept was all my anchorage,
+ And why I would drift to sea.
+
+ He who hath a thousand friends hath none to spare.
+
+ ALI BEN ABOU TALEB.
+
+ I am never weary when meeting my friends. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Clara Barton’s intellect was never keener, clearer nor more alert than
+ it is now (1911). STEPHEN E. BARTON.
+
+
+ The report which went out that I was ill set the country, nay the
+ world, by the ears and the letters came pouring in by the score, yes,
+ and more. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Such beautiful letters! I have read them through tears.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ WRITE NONE—SEE ONLY THOSE I MUST[12]
+
+ Oxford, Sept. 21, 1911.
+
+ Prof. Young,
+
+ My Dear friend:
+
+ I am trying to speak to your letter of yesterday, myself, but it is
+ from a very sick bed.
+
+ I write none—see only those I must.
+
+ I _must see you_. Come and see me though only a week. I had hoped to
+ see you under better conditions.
+
+ I replied to your dispatch. Come when you will; all times are alike to
+ me.
+
+ Yours sincerely and always,
+ (Signed) CLARA BARTON.
+
+Footnote 12:
+
+ Her friends who were with her through her last illness say the letter
+ of which the above is a copy is the last letter written by Clara
+ Barton.
+
+ I did not err: there does a sable cloud
+ Turn forth her silver lining on the night.
+
+
+ Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,
+ Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled;
+ Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm
+ Shall in the happy trial prove most glory
+
+
+ DATA AS TO THE TWENTY-FIRST MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT
+
+ Number
+
+ Enlisted men leaving Worcester, August 23, 1861 1,001
+ Total enlisted men throughout the war 1,277
+
+ Number Ages
+ 1 Emery G. Wilson, Co. K. 15 years
+ 5 17 years
+ 101 18 years
+ 111 19 years
+ 140 20 years
+ ———
+ 358 Total number under 21 years
+
+ 170 at the age of 21 years
+ 574 between 22 years and 30 years
+ 120 between 30 years and 40 years
+ 50 between 40 years and 48 years
+ 2 at the age of 46 years
+ 1 at the age of 47 years
+ 2 at the age of 53 years
+ ————
+ 1277
+
+Of this number 560 were killed or wounded in battle. The regiment was a
+member of the ninth-army Corps under General Burnside, a corps that did
+not lose a color nor a gun.
+
+Membership of the Twenty-first Massachusetts Regiment Association August
+23, 1921–61.
+
+ Carrie E. Cutter, Daughter, 1861–1862.
+ Clara Barton, Daughter, 1862–1912.
+ Flora S. Chapin, Secretary and Daughter, 1912——.
+
+Miss Carrie E. Cutter, delicate and accomplished, was known as the
+Florence Nightingale of the Twenty-first. She was the daughter of Calvin
+E. Cutter, surgeon of the regiment; died in the service as nurse, March
+24, 1862. Aged, nineteen years and eight months. Mrs. Flora S. Chapin is
+the daughter of Reverend Charles E. Simmons Hospital Steward in the
+Civil War, under Surgeons Calvin E. Cutter and James Oliver, of the
+Twenty-first Massachusetts Regiment. Clara Barton was the daughter of
+non-commissioned officer Stephen Barton. He enlisted in 1793, serving
+three years in the Indian wars (1793–97), and later was known by his
+friends as “Captain Barton.”
+
+Clara Barton, then a war nurse and nearly forty-one years of age, was
+made Daughter of the Regiment on the battlefield of Antietam, in
+October, 1862. This was a few days after President Lincoln had reviewed
+the Army of the Potomac, the review occurring October third. The army at
+that time numbered about 145,000 men. It was towards nightfall, and the
+regiment was on dress parade. “She made a little speech,” says Comrade
+James Madison Stone, “and there was cemented a friendship begun under
+fire which was destined to last to the end of the lives of all the
+participants.”
+
+Says Captain Charles F. Walcott of the Twenty-first Regiment (afterward
+Brigadier-General), and the author of the history of the regiment: “Our
+true friend, Miss Barton, a Twenty-first woman to the backbone, was now
+permanently associated with the regiment and, with two four-mule covered
+wagons which by her untiring efforts she kept well supplied with
+delicacies in the way of food and articles of clothing, was a
+ministering angel to our sick. General Sturgis kindly ordered a detail
+from the regiment of drivers and assistants about her wagon. And this
+true, noble woman, never sparing herself nor failing in her devotion to
+our suffering men, always maintained her womanly dignity, and won the
+lasting respect and love of our officers and men.”
+
+Clara Barton’s last message to the regiment was delivered forty-five
+years after the Civil War, through an address and original poem, she
+then being eighty-nine years of age. The occasion was the annual reunion
+of the regiment, the date August 23, 1910; the reunion held at
+Worcester, Massachusetts.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ REUNION OF 21ST MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT
+]
+
+ Picture taken on the occasion of the annual reunion of the
+ Twenty-first Massachusetts Regiment Association—on August 23,
+ 1921—Sixtieth anniversary of the day the Regiment left Worcester for
+ the field.
+
+ On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
+ Their silent tents are spread;
+ And Glory guards, with solemn round,
+ The bivouac of the dead.
+ THEODORE O’HARA.
+
+ I hear the loved survivors tell
+ How naught from death could save,
+ ’Til every sound appears a knell
+ And every spot a grave.
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
+
+ “I never made a secret of the fact that of all the glorious regiments
+ that marched to the music of the Union and cooled their heated brows
+ in the shadows of the Stars and Stripes, the Twenty-first
+ Massachusetts was peculiarly my own—nearest in my thoughts, and
+ deepest in my love, and there are many who know that more than once my
+ heart went down in agony under the blood-stained soil with the
+ lifeless forms of its bravest and its best. I would divide the last
+ half of the last loaf with any soldier in that regiment, though I had
+ never met him.”—CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Top, left hand corner—Clara Barton.
+ Top, right hand corner—Carrie E. Cutter.
+ Lower row, center—Flora S. Chapin.
+
+ But evil on itself shall back recoil,
+ And mix no more with goodness when, at last,
+ Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,
+ It shall be an eternal restless change,
+ Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail
+ The pillared firmament is rottenness,
+ And earth’s base built on stubble.
+
+
+
+
+ XCVII
+
+
+ CLOSING INCIDENTS—THE BIOGRAPHY—OTHER CORRESPONDENCE
+
+ I am so glad to see you; I was afraid you wouldn’t get here in _time_.
+ CLARA BARTON. From “Notes” at Oxford, Massachusetts, Oct. 2, 1911.
+
+
+ AUTHORIZED TO SPEAK FOR CLARA BARTON
+
+Accompanying the letter under date of December 14, 1909, came data from
+Clara Barton to be used in her proposed biography, and which data the
+author had previously promised to make use of as soon as his private
+business would permit him to give the time necessary to do this literary
+work. Commenting on the author’s final acceptance of her commission, in
+her letter she said: “Your talent to writing a biography of me—of me!
+Your talent and time for such as this! ‘Why was this waste made’?” The
+object hoped for in her letter of September 21, 1911, wherein Clara
+Barton says “_I must see you_” and therein the “dispatch” referred to,
+was that she might consult the author on her biography and to make a
+final request that after her passing he would protect her good name
+which, continuously being assailed, she then thought to be in jeopardy.
+
+Arriving at Oxford, Massachusetts, at the end of a special trip from
+California for the final consultation as to the facts and motives
+involved in her persecution, on October 3, 1911, in the sick room and at
+the time when she thought that she had but a few hours to live, the
+author made the promise. The further object of the visit at Oxford, on
+the part of the author, was to try to stimulate her health, through a
+possible sea voyage. That there had been in anticipation for several
+months previous such sea voyage was well known in her household, and is
+personally indicated by her in her Easter Greetings for 1911. In this
+letter she writes: “And we may expect you in the East!! That is more
+than I _dared_ hope. It would surely be a luxury to visit the old _old_
+countries of the world. I should indeed be glad to see them with you.”
+
+ I may come to California this winter; will do so, if I am able.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+ From “Notes” of a visit in the sick room at
+ Glen Echo, Maryland, Oct. 20, 1911.
+
+
+ PROPOSED HOME IN CALIFORNIA
+
+A few days after the consultation at Oxford she rallied, and on a
+Pullman was taken to her Glen Echo home. Seriously ill and thinking this
+would be her last ride, she expressed the wish to have for the party of
+three, consisting of her physician, her nephew and herself, the Pullman
+exclusively. The cost for the use of the car would be three hundred
+dollars. This having been made known to her she protested the seeming
+extravagance whereupon a friend, after having been refused such tender
+by the Pullman office in New York, himself made the tender of the car,
+without cost to her. Characteristic of her, she declined to accept the
+courtesy, but said she would have accepted such courtesy from the
+Pullman Company. She accepted, instead, a drawing room—to save the
+proposed expense, even by another. Early on the way to Glen Echo, she is
+reported to have said to those accompanying her: If he were here now I
+would not leave the car until I shall have reached California, where I
+would make my home with my friend as long as I live, thereby accepting
+his invitation to become his guest permanently—in his home nearby and
+overlooking the Pacific ocean.
+
+She stood the journey so well, says her physician, that again she said
+to us just before reaching Washington that she would be glad to remain
+on the train and continue on to California, emphasizing “That’s what I’d
+like to do.” The physician further comments: “Her faith in her friend’s
+loyalty would have been sufficient tonic to make the journey easy and a
+delight, and I feel sure now that had she taken the journey then, as she
+expressed the wish, the end of the journey would have found her in an
+_improved condition_, with constant-increasing physical strength.”
+
+In the author’s diary for October 20, 1911, is found the following:
+
+ At ten A.M. visited Calumet Place. Mrs. John A. Logan and I then went
+ to Glen Echo on the street car. Visited Miss Clara Barton, who was in
+ a chair awaiting our presence. Spent an hour or so with her. She was
+ in good spirits, happy and much improved in health. Mrs. Logan and she
+ talked over personal matters. She received me most cordially, and said
+ she was most happy to see me; also said she would like to go to
+ California with me. Mrs. Logan, Dr. Hubbell, Stephen E. Barton and I
+ had a talk in the room downstairs on matters of personal interest to
+ Miss Barton, formulating a plan for her vindication.
+
+
+ FORECASTING THE BIOGRAPHY
+
+In April, 1912, her physician, Dr. Julian B. Hubbell, wrote from Glen
+Echo that a few hours before her passing Clara Barton expressed the wish
+that, if not exclusively so, in any event the author _must be_
+associated with her biographer. The protection of her “good name” by her
+biographer was more to her than a recital of her deeds of valor. She had
+in mind in selecting her biographer not what fame thereby might come to
+him, not kinship nor the family name, not what profit there might be in
+her biography. She had in mind her own “good name,” and the cause such
+“good name” represents. These were to her vital; these to her were
+dearer than life itself. Respect for the wish of the dying, and the
+dead, is regarded sacred; such wish has been regarded sacred, and
+binding, throughout the centuries, alike by Christian and Pagan. To do
+violence to the sentiment and well known wish of Clara Barton, on the
+part of the author, similarly would do violence to the sentiment of the
+country which would protect her “good name,” a name historic and beloved
+by the people—violence to the sentiment pervading all humanity.
+
+As the financial executor had possession of, and control of, the
+historic data prerequisite, for all practical purposes he could name the
+biographer of the nation’s heroine;—could dictate what data and
+sentiment must be, and must not be, included in the biography of his
+Aunt. As soon after her passing as it could be written and reach
+California there came from her nephew, Mr. Stephen E. Barton, of her
+nearest of kin and by her made the Executor of her Estate, the following
+letter:
+
+
+ ONE OF MY AUNT’S LAST REQUESTS
+
+ Boston, Mass.,
+ April 20, 1912.
+
+ Col. Charles Sumner Young,
+ Los Angeles, Cal.
+
+ My dear Col. Young:—
+
+ When the death of our beloved occurred at Glen Echo on the morning of
+ the 12th inst. Doctor Hubbell thought you were at the Palace Hotel in
+ San Francisco and I immediately wired you there, but I was notified
+ that you had left the city. I was exceedingly glad to receive your
+ beautiful message of the 13th from Los Angeles.
+
+ I followed your wishes by placing some beautiful flowers in your name
+ upon her bier at Oxford and I knew that the sympathy and tenderness of
+ your great heart were with us that day. I am sending you Worcester
+ newspapers, which will give an account of the last ceremonies, all of
+ which were carried out just as she desired them, both at Glen Echo and
+ Oxford....
+
+
+ I am sending you enclosed a copy of the tribute written by Mrs. Logan
+ and read at the Glen Echo services by her daughter.
+
+ Has it not the ring of eloquence, of justice and of fearless
+ friendship? I gave it to the Associated Press, but I believe it was
+ used only in a garbled form. You are at liberty to use it in any form
+ which you choose.
+
+ At this moment I have not time to say more, but I hope to hear from
+ you and to see you again. There is much to do and to say in the
+ future. I shall need the good advice and guidance of such friends as
+ your good self and one of my Aunt’s last requests was that I invite
+ you with a few other such friends to compose a committee to advise
+ with me in the future.
+
+ Very truly yours,
+ (Signed) STEPHEN E. BARTON.
+
+
+ EXCERPTS FROM OTHER LETTERS
+
+ Concerning the biography of my Aunt, she desired that I call to my
+ assistance several of her good friends, including your dear self.
+
+ STEPHEN E. BARTON.
+
+ From a letter to the author, and dated November 18, 1912.
+
+ I judge from your letter that you may not be aware that a preliminary
+ biography of my Aunt has been written by Reverend Percy H. Epler, of
+ Worcester, and published by the Macmillans.
+
+ I have organized a literary committee composed of Reverend William E.
+ Barton of Oak Park, Illinois, Reverend Percy H. Epler of Worcester,
+ Massachusetts, Honorable Francis Atwater of New Haven, Connecticut,
+ Dr. Julian B. Hubbell of Glen Echo, Maryland, and myself.
+
+ STEPHEN E. BARTON.
+
+ From a letter to the author, and dated February 29, 1916.
+
+
+ AUTHORIZED
+
+ Charles Sumner Young was authorized by Clara Barton to write the
+ history of her life and so far as I know the only person so
+ authorized.
+
+ JULIAN B. HUBBELL.
+
+ Clara Barton’s General Field Agent for the twenty-three years she was
+ President of the American Red Cross.
+
+ Glen Echo, Maryland,
+ July 8, 1922.
+
+
+
+
+ XCVIII
+
+
+ Last words of Clara Barton: Father, forgive them, for they know not
+ what they do. Let me go! Let me go!
+
+ PERCY H. EPLER, Author.
+
+
+ A diagnosis of Clara Barton’s illness was made a few months before she
+ passed. The report of the Doctors was that every organ in her body was
+ perfect—heart, lungs, stomach—every organ functioning as in her youth.
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+ This morning’s papers (Tuesday, April 23, 1912) are filled with
+ startling stories to the effect that Miss Barton died of a broken
+ heart, caused by a clique of Washington politicians and ambitious
+ society people. That she died of a broken heart, so caused, is a fact.
+ W. H. SEARS, Secretary to Clara Barton.
+
+ Considerable comment was caused at the funeral of Clara Barton by the
+ absence of any representative of ——, or of the American National Red
+ Cross, the organization which Miss Barton founded; neither were there
+ any flowers from either the organization nor the White House in
+ evidence. Rockford (Ills.) _Register Gazette_.
+
+
+ Governments are but the voice of the people. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Government of my country _is_ my country, and the people of my
+ country are the government of my country as nearly as a representative
+ system will allow. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The Government which I thought I loved, and loyally tried to serve,
+ has shut every door in my face, and stared at me insultingly through
+ its windows. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The humanity of peoples is beyond that of Governments.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend, more hideous when thou showest
+ thee in a child than the sea monster.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE.
+
+ Of all the anguish our Heavenly Father calls us to endure—none pierces
+ more keenly, nor wounds more deeply, than the sting of ingratitude.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Dear Clara Barton! I hope that somewhere she is reaping a glorious
+ reward of her life-long heroism and self-sacrifice. MRS. LA SALLE
+ CORBELL PICKETT.
+
+ Clara Barton will still live as a potential force for good, and coming
+ centuries will see her labors carried on even as they were carried on
+ while she directed them in person.
+
+ Springfield (Illinois) _News_.
+
+ Sublime, O Life, when in Easter balms did cease,
+ When shadows of thy sunset hour bore thee “peace.”
+ E. May Glenn Toon.
+
+
+ A RECORD HISTORY AT THE FUNERAL
+
+The funeral exercises for Clara Barton, who had served for 23 years as
+President of the Red Cross, were held in her Red Cross home in Glen
+Echo, Maryland. Flowers in profusion were there; her personal and _real_
+friends, with moistened eyes and aching hearts, were there; hundreds of
+telegrams of sympathy from all over the country were there; millions of
+humanity-loving American men and women, in spirit, were there; her
+devoted friend and immediate successor as President of the Red Cross,
+Mrs. General John A. Logan, was there.
+
+History will record that certain then acting officials of the Red Cross,
+either personally or in sympathy, were _not_ there; that not a flower,
+not a word of sympathy, from any Red Cross official was there; that not
+national honors, not even Red Cross honors, were then bestowed lovingly
+or at all upon the great and good Red Cross Mother, that made possible
+officially the very existence of the then Red Cross officers.
+
+And history will record that no good reason could be given why these
+certain Red Cross officials were _not_ there; and history will further
+record that the reason must be understood as that in the case of Another
+when, on a similar occasion, no Pontius Pilate and no politicians were
+there, but “many women were there beholding from afar.” And finally
+history will again record that, centuries after the doer of “petty
+politics” shall have been forgotten, the doer of humane deeds will shine
+as a fixed star in humanity’s firmament, diffusing her beneficent rays
+upon the millions, in generations as they successive come and go.
+
+
+
+
+ XCIX
+
+
+ Clara Barton saved too many lives to count.
+
+ Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+
+ The lives he had saved were enough to gain Heaven’s chiefest diadem.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ God’s plans are known only to Himself. He alone knows what plan He is
+ working out. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ The grave is but a covered bridge, leading from light to light through
+ a brief darkness. LONGFELLOW.
+
+ The paths of glory lead but to the grave. GREY.
+
+
+ FROM LINCOLN’S FAVORITE POEM
+
+ Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
+ Like a swift-fleeing meteor, a fast flying cloud,
+ A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
+ He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
+
+
+ WILLIAM COLLINS.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON’S LAST RIDE
+
+On her last ride from Glen Echo, Maryland, to Oxford, Massachusetts,
+Clara Barton went by the Federal Express. She was accompanied by her
+three friends, Stephen E. Barton, Doctor Julian B. Hubbell and Doctor
+Eugene Underhill. Every consideration was shown her by her personal
+friends and the railway company. Because of the fog on New York Bay and
+certain formalities to be imposed by the New York City authorities, an
+embarrassing delay was menacing the party. To circumvent the delay the
+party ignored the advice of the railway authorities to take another
+route from Jersey City, and continued on to New York.
+
+At New York, to make connections with the outgoing train, the party
+transferred themselves to a covered express wagon. It was nearly
+midnight. The streets were wet and slippery from the fog. The busy
+throng of human beings were in their slumbers. The streets were bereft
+of all things living, save now and then a belated traveler; and silent,
+except the tread of his footsteps on the sidewalk.
+
+The party’s destination, Oxford, must be reached at a certain hour.
+There must be no delay. The driver was urged to hurry. He became
+impatient and, turning to one member of the party, asked: “Whom have you
+got in this box anyway?” Then came the reply: “It’s the body of Miss
+Clara Barton.” “You don’t mean the Civil War Nurse, the Red Cross
+woman!” “Yes, that’s the one.”
+
+Then there followed a scene pathetic, and most dramatic. Dropping his
+lines and throwing up his hands the driver exclaimed: “My God! is it
+possible? My father was a Confederate soldier and, at the battle of
+Antietam, was wounded in the neck. Miss Barton found him on the
+battlefield and bound up his wounds in time to save his life. And just
+to think ‘the likes o’ me,’ a poor driver, is hauling her body across
+the city tonight.”
+
+
+
+
+ C
+
+
+ Clara Barton has to her credit 72 achievements, every one of which
+ entitles her to a page in history.
+
+ W. H. SEARS, Secretary to Miss Barton.
+
+
+ Clara Barton,—this woman’s immortal work.
+
+ _Boston Transcript._
+
+
+ Not all the noblest songs are worth one noble deed.
+
+ ALFRED AUSTIN.
+
+
+ Clara Barton,—her work and her achievements,—wonders wrought by that
+ noble woman of New England.
+
+ Oakland (Cal.) _Tribune_.
+
+ Clara Barton,—no other whose achievements even approximate hers; her
+ allegiance ran the whole race of mankind.
+
+ Sacramento (Cal.) _Union_.
+
+ Clara Barton,—measured by any scale you may choose, was the most
+ useful woman of her day and generation.
+
+ Bangor (Me.) _News_.
+
+
+ By our deeds, and by our deeds alone—
+ God judges us—if righteous God there be,
+ Creeds are as thistle-down, wind-tossed and blown,
+ But deeds abide throughout eternity. GEORGE BARLOW.
+
+
+ All who work beneath its glorious folds (Red Cross) are coworkers not
+ only with the noblest spirits of all ages and all countries but, even
+ reverently be it spoken, co-workers with the Divine beneficence whose
+ blessed task we know will one day wipe every tear from every eye.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ ACHIEVEMENT—WORLD RECOGNITION
+
+ Clara Barton was the recipient of twenty-seven decorations, medals of
+ honor, diplomas of honor, badges, jewels, flags, resolutions, votes of
+ thanks, and commendations from rulers of nations, legislative bodies,
+ Red Cross decorations, relief committees, and distinguished, or
+ titled, personages,—as testimonials of her great work for humanity.
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+ Some day the full and complete history of Clara Barton and her
+ unparalleled achievements will be given to the world, and no library
+ on the face of the earth will be complete without a set of the volumes
+ of that history.
+
+ W. H. SEARS,
+ J. B. HUBBELL,
+ Ex-Secretaries to Clara Barton.
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY OF THE LEADING ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE LIFE OF MISS CLARA BARTON
+
+(Especially prepared for this volume by her ex-secretary, W. H. Sears)
+
+
+ ACHIEVEMENTS
+
+1. Organized, conducted and popularized Free School System, Bordentown,
+N. J., at her own expense. Commenced her school with six pupils, all
+boys, and in one year had six hundred; secured five teachers to assist
+and had promises of a new building, if she would continue. It was built
+for her and is still in use. “Pauper Schools,” that is, Public Schools
+at public expense, were ridiculed by the people. The six boys were
+renegades from private schools. Third week, room filled and assistant
+required. Such was the success that the private schools were
+discontinued and a four thousand dollar school house, three stories of
+brick, was built and Miss Barton inaugurated the _Free Public School of
+Bordentown, N. J._ With six hundred pupils and eight teachers, impetus
+was given to the cause of free education over the State, 1852–4.
+
+2. First Woman Clerk in Government Office, Washington, D. C. A place of
+trust at $1,400 per year, in charge of caveats, Patent Office, which
+position she gave up at the opening of the Civil War to work in the
+field. 1854–’61, under Mr. Charles Mason, Commissioner of Patents.
+Discharged when Buchanan came in; but recalled under Lincoln; resigned
+when war came on.
+
+
+ THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
+
+3. Met and furnished relief at “Old Infirmary,” where Judiciary Square
+Hospital now stands; first day and next day at Capitol, in Senate
+Chamber (Senate not in session) to wounded soldiers of the 6th Mass.
+Volunteers in Washington, on arrival from the Baltimore attack by mob,
+April 19, 1861. _First Civil War Field._
+
+4. Met and furnished relief to sick and wounded soldiers, brought from
+the front on trains and boats to Washington, D. C., May 1, 1861 to July,
+1862.
+
+Afterwards she was on the following fields of battle and relief:
+
+5. James Island, battlefield, July 7, 1862.
+
+6. Cedar Mountain, battlefield, August 9, 1862, 3,700 killed and
+wounded.
+
+7. Second Bull Run, battlefield, August 30 to September 1, 1862. Found
+seven of her old pupils, Massachusetts schools, in this field and each
+had lost an arm or leg.
+
+8. Chantilly, battlefield, August 31 to September 1, 1862.
+
+9. Point of Rocks, Md., battlefield, September 4, 1862.
+
+10. Point of Rocks, Md., battlefield, September, 1862.
+
+11. Antietam, battlefield, September 16 and 17, 1862.
+
+12. Falmouth battlefield, December 11 and 12, 1862.
+
+13. Fredericksburg, battlefield, December 12 and 13, 1862. 18,000 killed
+and wounded.
+
+14. Folly Island, battlefield, April 10, 1863.
+
+15. Morris Island, battlefield, July 10 to September 7, 1863.
+
+16. Fort Wagner, battlefield, September 7, 1863.
+
+17. Charleston, S. C., battlefield, September 8, 1863.
+
+18. The Wilderness, battlefield, May 6–7, 1864.
+
+19. Spotsylvania, battlefield, May 8 to 21, 1864.
+
+20. Petersburg, battlefield, June 15 to 18, 1864.
+
+21. Petersburg Mine, battlefield, July 30 to August 5, 1864.
+
+22. Deep Bottom, battlefield, August and September, 1864.
+
+23. Richmond Campaign, battlefield, January 1 to April 3, 1865.
+
+24. Annapolis Hospital, 1865, met starving, sick and wounded returning
+Federal prisoners and furnished relief.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles, the chairman of the ceremonies,
+ with
+ the first shovel of dirt.
+
+ (The Chairman of the National Advisory Board, National First Aid
+ Association
+ of America)
+]
+
+
+ THE MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING TO THE MEMORY OF CLARA BARTON
+
+by the American Forestry Association at Glen Echo, Md., 3 P. M., Easter
+Sunday, April 16, 1922. The occasion—to commemorate the tenth
+anniversary of the passing of Clara Barton.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Mrs. John A. Logan, with second shovel of dirt. Author of the
+ Congressional
+ measure creating May 30th a national holiday, known as Decoration
+ Day; and sponsored in Congress by U. S. Senator John A. Logan.
+]
+
+He who plants an oak looks forward to future ages, and plants for
+posterity.
+
+ WASHINGTON IRVING.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON OAK
+ Registered in the Hall of Fame for Trees, Washington, D. C.
+]
+
+ The American Flag
+ The Glen Echo Service Flag
+ The Red Cross Flag
+ The Clara Barton Red Cross Home
+
+ Pin Oak (Quercus Palustris), 8½ feet high, 5½ inches in circumference
+ at the base; 3½ inches in circumference, 4½ feet from the ground.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON AND THE OAK
+
+ _The Memorial Address_
+
+The tree is the longest lived of all the lives of earth. Trees are in
+existence whose birth antedates that of our Christian civilization. The
+Cedar of Lebanon of the Old World is a part of the religious sentiment
+of the human race. The General Sherman Sequoia of the New World had
+battled against the warring elements of Nature for thousands of years
+before existed the warring forces of the Anglo-Saxons, on this
+continent. If there “be tongues in trees” every historic tree might say:
+“What I have seen and known is identified with the human race.”
+
+Every country has its trees, historic, sacred through association with
+an individual or with some great national event. Of the tree, historic,
+the historian writes, the poet sings, and in delineating its beauties
+the painter exhausts his art. He who plants an historic tree transmits
+history and poetry and art to posterity. The tree becomes a part of a
+country’s history.
+
+England has her Parliament Oak, under whose branches King John held his
+parliament; her Pilgrim Oak, associated with Lord Byron, her Falstaff
+Tree, her Shakespeare Tree. The United States has her Penn Treaty Elm,
+under whose possible inspiration, for once at least, faith was kept with
+the North American Indian; her Charter Oak that became the guardian of
+the parchment that held the liberties of the Puritans; her Cambridge Elm
+within whose cooling shades George Washington took command of the
+Colonial forces in the struggle for human liberty; her Liberty Tree,
+whose very soil wherein it grew, said Lafayette, should be cherished
+forever by the American people.
+
+At the nation’s capital there are trees historic. On Capitol Hill there
+is the great elm, said to have been planted by George Washington in
+1794. On the grounds of the Woman’s National Foundation, near Dupont
+Circle, is the tree known as the Treaty Oak. Its history is of pathos,
+possibly in part of fiction, but whether of fact or of fiction, like the
+wanderings of Ulysses the tree is of never-ceasing interest. In the
+Botanic Gardens is the Peace Oak, said to have been planted by a
+Southerner who tried desperately to prevent the Civil War, and died
+broken-hearted over his failure. And near by this historic tree is the
+picturesque oak that came from an acorn picked up by the grave of
+Confucius, in far away Shantung.
+
+Of all the trees of ancient and modern times the oak is the most
+historic. The Ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the oak was
+Jupiter’s own tree; the Ancient Britons, that it belonged to the God of
+Thunder—groves of oaks were their temples. Among the Celts the oak was
+an object of worship; the Yule log was invariably of oak.
+
+We plant an oak to commemorate a career, sacred, sacred to one who loved
+the world—to one whom all the world loves. As in Japan a certain tree is
+sacred, in America every tree is sacred that is love-planted. Our act,
+and sentiment, is in consonance with hers whose almost last wish was
+that an oak sapling be planted at the shrine of her beloved horse; that
+it might be his monument, and with the hope that the children would love
+and protect it as Baba’s Tree.
+
+ “Sing low, green oak, thy summer rune,
+ Sing valor, love, and truth.”
+
+In no other atmosphere of her native land as here is a place so
+appropriate to plant this historic tree. Through this atmosphere, into
+yonder edifice, came the cry “Come and Help Us”;—from Cuba that cruelty,
+pestilence and starvation were the portions of thousands; from Galveston
+that still other thousands of men, women and children had become victims
+of disaster, on her storm-swept coast. In every instance to the cry for
+help was there response, and on wings of love the Angel of Mercy sped
+forth to minister with her own hands to suffering humanity.
+
+It was here that she basked in the sunset rays, as they dipped gently
+towards the west. Yonder are the trees which she planted with her own
+hands; yonder the soil wherein grew her beautiful flowers; yonder
+humanity’s centre from which flowed her charities to almost every part
+of the known world; yonder the chamber from whose bed of sorrow she
+cried: “Let me go; let me go”; yonder the window through whose casement
+on Easter Morn, in 1912, her spirit flew to the Great Unknown.
+
+Nature that springs from the soil decays and dies; deeds that spring
+from the soul never die. Nature’s foliage that ornaments is destroyed by
+the frosts of winter; the spiritual foliage that ornaments is perennial.
+The American Red Cross whose bud, in 1881, opened to the sunlight in the
+forests of Michigan is now the sheltering tree for the world’s millions;
+the woman that planted the seed and nourished it with her tears, as
+later she planted that other tree known as THE NATIONAL FIRST AID, is
+now the spirit that stands sponsor for certain charities, charities the
+most widely known of all the charities of earth.
+
+Neither marble nor canvas is so venerated as the tree, from out of GOD’S
+FIRST TEMPLES—a tree to commemorate the individual is the most venerated
+memorial in the world. The world will little care, or note not at all,
+what we say and do here and yet the spirit of these environments may
+become the inspiration of future ages. The mound that soon must shut out
+from view our mortality will be leveled and covered with earth’s
+foliage, only to be forgotten or marked “UNKNOWN.” But let us pray that
+the tree, whose sentiment is world-humanity, may take highest rank among
+the world’s other historic trees; that through the centuries the
+children of successive generations will love and protect THE CLARA
+BARTON OAK, NATURE’S EASTER-TRIBUTE TO IMMORTALITY.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Planting the “Clara Barton Rose”—Miss Carrie Harrison, Chairman Clara
+ Barton Centennial Committee of the National Woman’s Party.
+]
+
+
+ MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING TO THE MEMORY OF CLARA BARTON
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Charles Sumner Young, while delivering the memorial address.
+]
+
+25. Summer of 1865 at Andersonville identifying the dead, and laying out
+the first National Cemetery, by request of the Government. Raised the
+first United States flag over Andersonville.
+
+26. 1865–67 Searching for the 80,000 missing men of the army. Found
+19,920 of them at an expense to herself without pay of $17,000. The
+Government reimbursed $15,000 of this sum.
+
+27. The Lecture Field. Delivered 300 at $100 per lecture on the
+battlefields of the Civil War, 1867–8.
+
+
+ THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+Was on the following battlefield and relief fields during this war:—
+
+28. Hagenau, battlefield.
+
+29. Metz, battlefield.
+
+30. Strasburg, battlefield (8 months) siege, and relief after siege.
+
+31. Belfort, relief.
+
+32. Woerth, relief.
+
+33. Baden Hospitals.
+
+34. Sedan, battlefields.
+
+35. Montbelard, relief.
+
+36. Paris, Fall of the Commune; relief.
+
+37. Organizing and managing relief for sick and wounded soldiers and
+sick and destitute people in France at close of war, 1871.
+
+
+ RED CROSS WORK
+
+38. With the International Red Cross Committee in Europe, Switzerland,
+Germany and France. 1869–71. 1872–73, ill in London.
+
+39. Seven years’ effort to make Red Cross known to the United States and
+asking for the treaty; 1875–1882. Secured adhesion of the United States
+to the Treaty of Geneva, March 1, 1882, having organized the American
+National Red Cross Association the year before, and was nominated to
+first presidency by President Garfield, 1882; was the President for
+twenty-three years; 1881–1904.
+
+40. Author of American Amendment authorizing Red Cross to administer
+relief in time of great National disasters, which was adopted by all
+treaty nations.
+
+41. Organized First Aid Department within the Red Cross; but when she
+resigned in 1904 as President, it was discontinued by her successors,
+1903.
+
+42. Organized The National First Aid Association of America, independent
+of the Red Cross, similar in its scope and object to the St. John
+Ambulance Association of England. Five hundred and twenty-two classes
+have been organized with ten thousand students and five thousand four
+hundred graduates—January 1, 1922.
+
+43. Conceived idea of a Rest Cure and School where people should be
+taught to keep well.
+
+(The cost of distributing the funds and other contributions entrusted to
+Clara Barton, as President of the American Red Cross during her
+twenty-three years of administration, did not exceed two per cent. of
+the amounts contributed for the twenty fields of relief in this country
+and the four fields in foreign countries. Signed: Julian B. Hubbell,
+General Field Agent of the Red Cross during the twenty-three years of
+Clara Barton’s Presidency.)
+
+
+ RED CROSS FIELDS
+
+ 44. Michigan Forest Fire, 1881, expended $80,000.00
+
+ 45. Mississippi River Floods, 1882, expended 8,000.00
+
+ 46. Mississippi Cyclone, 1883, expended 1,000.00
+
+ 47. Mississippi River Floods, 1883, expended 18,000.00
+
+ 48. Balkan War; relief, 1883, expended 500.00
+
+ 49. Ohio and Miss. River Floods, 1884, expended 175,000.00
+
+ 50. Texas Famine, 1885, expended 100,000.00
+
+ 51. Charleston Earthquake, 1886, expended 85,500.00
+
+ 52. Mt. Vernon Illinois Cyclone, 1886, expended 85,000.00
+
+ 53. Florida Yellow Fever, 1888, expended 15,000.00
+
+ 54. Johnstown Flood, 1889, expended 250,000.00
+
+ 55. Russian Famine, 1892, expended 125,000.00
+
+ 56. Pomeroy, Iowa, Cyclone, 1893, expended 2,700.00
+
+ 57. S. C. Islands Hurricane and Tidal Waves, 1893, 65,000.00
+ expended
+
+ 58. Armenian Massacres, Turkey, Asia Minor, 1896, 116,325.00
+ expended
+
+ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+ 59. Cuban Reconcentrado relief, Spring of 1898, expended 1,300,000.00
+ 60. Spanish-American War at San Juan, battlefield, 1898
+ 61. Cuban Orphan Asylums, Summer and Fall of 1898
+ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+ 62. Galveston Storm, 1900, expended 130,000.00
+ 63. Typhoid Fever Epidemic, Butler, Pa., 1904
+ —————————————
+ Total $2,557,025.00
+
+64. Superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Criminal Women.
+One year; appointed by General Butler, then governor of Massachusetts,
+1884. _Represented United States Government at International Red Cross
+Conferences, as follows_:—
+
+65. At Geneva, Switzerland, in 1884.
+
+66. At Carlsruhe, Germany, in 1887.
+
+67. At Rome, Italy, in 1890.
+
+68. At Vienna, Austria, in 1897.
+
+69. At St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1902.
+
+70. Author of books.
+
+71. Author of lectures.
+
+72. Author of poems.
+
+
+
+
+ CI
+
+
+ The press is the representative of the people.
+
+ GEN. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY.
+
+ The newspaper is the immediate recorder and interpreter of life.
+
+ HENRY IRVING.
+
+
+ Three Thousand newspapers voiced the public opinion of the nation;
+ thousands no doubt escaped us.
+
+ EDITOR—_Clara Barton In Memoriam_ (1912).
+
+
+ The press shapes the fortunes of the world and makes and unmakes with
+ a breath. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ The American press has been to me, to my assistants, and our work, a
+ band of faithful brotherhood. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Human progress had evolved a “Press” whose lever moved the world.
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Among the dark hours that came to us in the hopeless waste of work and
+ war on every side, the strong sustaining power has been the _Press_ of
+ the United States. CLARA BARTON.
+
+ I thank the press of my country for its unwavering and genuine
+ kindness for all the years it has dealt with my name.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+ Through all of good report or ill; contradictory, perplexing,
+ incomprehensible, the one thing that has not only sustained but
+ astonished me has been the loyalty of the American press.
+
+ CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ THE PRESS AND THE INDIVIDUAL
+
+
+ THE PRESS
+
+Clara Barton is to America what Florence Nightingale is to us. The
+American Civil War created her, and determined the whole course of her
+life. There is that which war, and nothing less, can do with a woman. It
+can make her, right away, what we may without irreverence call
+superwoman; and, having done that, it can set her to hard administrative
+work, to reform and organize great matters of national welfare; and it
+can keep her at that high level to the end of her days. Only, it must
+have her all to itself; she must give up everything that she was doing.
+
+It was a wonderful life. She was inspired to save lives. Providence,
+very wisely, chose her for its purposes, not because she was an
+intellectual woman but because she was a pure flame of sympathy. Not
+peace, but war, made her what she was.
+
+ London (Eng.) Times,
+ January 27, 1916.
+
+
+ THE INDIVIDUAL
+
+Among the countless thousands, in her lifetime, that Miss Barton
+numbered as her friends, the following have been culled; and Miss Barton
+had not only letters thanking her for her work from the following but
+also enjoyed their personal friendship:
+
+ _Presidents of the United States_
+
+ Abraham Lincoln
+ Andrew Johnson
+ Ulysses S. Grant
+ Rutherford B. Hayes
+ James A. Garfield
+ Chester A. Arthur
+ Grover Cleveland
+ Benjamin Harrison
+ William McKinley
+
+ _Vice-Presidents of the United States_
+
+ John C. Breckinridge
+ Hannibal Hamlin
+ Schuyler Colfax
+ Henry Wilson
+ William A. Wheeler
+ Garret A. Hobart
+
+ _Secretaries of the Interior_
+
+ Zachariah Chandler
+ Henry M. Teller
+ John W. Noble
+
+ _Secretaries of the Navy_
+
+ Benjamin F. Tracey
+ Hillary A. Herbert
+ John D. Long
+
+ _Secretaries of the Treasury_
+
+ Salmon P. Chase
+ George B. Boutwell
+ William Windom
+ Charles J. Folger
+
+ _Secretaries of State_
+
+ William H. Seward
+ Elihu B. Washburn
+ Hamilton Fish
+ William M. Evarts
+ James G. Blaine
+ T. F. Frelinghuysen
+ Thomas F. Bayard
+ John W. Foster
+ Walter Q. Gresham
+ Richard Olney
+ John Sherman
+ William B. Day
+ John Hay
+
+ _Secretaries of War_
+
+ Edwin M. Stanton
+ John M. Schofield
+ William T. Sherman
+ Robert T. Lincoln
+ William C. Endicott
+ Redfield Proctor
+ Daniel S. Lamont
+ Russell A. Alger
+
+ _Secretaries of Agriculture_
+
+ Norman J. Coleman
+ Jeremiah M. Rusk
+ J. Sterling Morton
+ James Wilson
+
+ _Postmasters General_
+
+ James N. Tyner
+ John Wanamaker
+ Wilson S. Bissell
+ William L. Wilson
+
+ _Chief Justices U. S. Supreme Court_
+
+ Salmon P. Chase
+ Morrison R. Waite
+ Stanley Matthews
+
+ _The Army_
+
+ Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles
+ Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt
+ Maj. Gen. John R. Brooke
+ Gen. Daniel E. Sickels
+ Brig. Gen. James F. Wade
+ Brig. Gen. M. I. Luddington
+ Brig. Gen. Adolphus W. Greely
+ Brig. Gen. John M. Wilson
+ Brig. Gen. Jos. C. Breckinridge
+ Brig. Gen. W. A. Hammond
+ Brig. Gen. H. D. Rucker
+ Lieut. Gen. John M. Schofield
+
+ _General Officers U. S. Volunteers_
+
+ Maj. Gen. William R. Shafter
+ Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood
+ Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson
+ Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee
+ Brig. Gen. William Ludlow
+ Brig. Gen. Fred D. Grant
+
+ _The Navy_
+
+ Rear Admiral Winfield S. Schley
+ Rear Admiral William F. Sampson
+
+ _Sovereigns of Europe_
+
+ Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria
+ Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden
+ Abdul-Hamid, Sultan of Turkey
+ William I., Emperor of Germany
+ Empress of Germany
+ Nathalie, Queen of Servia
+ Czar of Russia
+ Grand Duchess of Baden
+
+ _Miscellaneous_
+
+ Surg. Gen. Joseph K. Barnes, U.S.A.
+ Gen. Phil H. Sheridan
+ Gen. R. D. Mussey
+ Hon. George B. Loring
+ Hon. E. G. Lapham
+ Surg. Gen. George H. Crum, U.S.A.
+ Gen. Benjamin F. Butler
+ Sumner I. Kimball, General Superintendent U. S. Life Saving Corps
+ Walter Weymann, Surgeon General, Marine Hospital Service
+
+
+
+
+ CII
+
+
+ Time rolls rapidly—and the events we meet to revive are already
+ history. CLARA BARTON.
+
+
+ Clara Barton—before the growing strength and power of her sweet
+ spirit, the armies of the world shall some day halt and ground arms.
+ Madison (Wis.) _Journal_.
+
+ Worcester has even a tenderer affection than all humanity for Clara
+ Barton, the “Angel of the Battlefield.” She was in her Oxford birth a
+ Worcester County Contributor to the world’s upward move. Worcester
+ (Mass.) _Post_.
+
+ Her career as a nurse in the battlefields of the Civil War ranks high
+ among the achievements of women in human history. In the roll of the
+ centuries no other name will stand higher nor shine brighter than that
+ of the modest, the loving, the loyal, the world-wide patriot. Worcester
+ (Mass.) _Gazette_.
+
+ MILLIONS WILL REGARD THE SIMPLICITY OF THE END. Worcester (Mass.)
+ _Telegram_.
+
+
+ She lives whom we call dead. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
+
+ To die is to begin to live. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+ Death borders on our birth and our cradle stands in the grave.
+
+ BISHOP HALL—_Epistles_.
+
+ Death but entombs the body; life, the soul;—death is the crown of
+ life. YOUNG’S _Night Thoughts_.
+
+ How sleep the brave who sink to rest
+ By all their Country’s wishes blest!
+ WILLIAM COLLINS.
+
+ Nor shall your story be forgot,
+ While Fame her record keeps,
+ Or Honor points the hallowed spot
+ Where Valor proudly sleeps.
+ THEODORE O’HARA.
+
+
+ Resolutions have been adopted by the army nurses to provide for
+ perpetual decoration of Miss Barton’s resting place with the flag she
+ loved, and served under from 1861 to 1865, that its folds may wave,
+ summer and winter, in loving remembrance of the glorious work for
+ humanity accomplished during her long life. Boston (Mass.)
+ _Transcript_. April 17th, 1912.
+
+
+ THE CLARA BARTON CENTENARY
+
+ THE SIMPLICITY OF THE END
+
+ Memorial address delivered at the Annual Reunion of the Twenty-first
+ Massachusetts Regiment,—held at Worcester, Mass., August 23, 1921
+
+ By COMRADE CHARLES SUMNER YOUNG
+ (Honorary Member of the Regiment)
+
+ Comrades of the Twenty-first Massachusetts:
+
+This year is the centenary of the birth of a Daughter of the Regiment.
+Three score years today that regiment left Worcester for fields of
+frightful carnage. Regiment and daughter shared in scenes tragic that
+the Union might live.
+
+At the close of the war the war-service of the regiment ended, but not
+the public service of the daughter. Continuous thereafter she served the
+human race. She served in disaster;—in fire and flood and famine and
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
+
+ The President, March 4, 1909–March 4, 1913.
+
+ President American Red Cross Society, January 8, 1905–March 4, 1913
+
+ Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, 1921——.
+]
+
+cyclone and earthquake and yellow-fever and massacre. She served in two
+succeeding wars. She served in the camp, in the hospital, and on the
+firing-line. She was on the firing-line in the Civil War, in the
+Franco-Prussian War, in the Spanish-American War;—she was on the
+“firing-line” for half a century in the War of Human Woes.
+
+It was fifty years after his passing that the American people fully
+appreciated the heart and public services of Abraham Lincoln. Long
+before half a century shall have lapsed into history world-recognized
+will be the world-services of the Daughter of the Regiment. An oft
+recital of her deeds is the best tribute that mortal man can pay to her.
+But there are now of record tributes to her by powerful influences;
+tributes by eleven American presidents, including ex-President Wilson
+and President Harding; tributes to her by nine foreign rulers, by eleven
+foreign nations, by several American States, and Cities, and by more
+than fifteen hundred thousand American citizens. At the laying of the
+corner stone of the Red Cross Building, in March, 1915, at Washington,
+D. C., Acting Secretary of War Henry Breckinridge of her said: “Hers is
+an immortal American destiny, the greatest an American woman has yet
+produced.” General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American
+Expeditionary Forces, in November, 1919, said, “The accomplishments of
+the Red Cross during the past four years constitute an historical
+monument to the memory of this noble woman.”
+
+Autocracy cannot take precedence over heart; wealth cannot compensate
+the loss of the spirit of love; wrong cannot win permanent victory over
+right; official mandate cannot dim the glory of record achievements. The
+highest achievement is the highest ideal, realized. In a nation the
+highest ideal, realized, is not wealth, not the palace of wealth; it is
+the individual. Eliminate the individual and there would be no history.
+The history of the individual is the history of a nation. In Greece the
+highest realized ideal is Homer; in Italy, Dante; in England,
+Shakespeare; in American philanthropy it is the Founder of the American
+Red Cross, of the National First Aid, and author of the American
+Amendment.
+
+As in the early sixties the Daughter of the Regiment lit the fires of
+hope on the field and in the hospital of the Southland, in later years
+through her “American Amendment” her service-system in alleviating human
+suffering has become the system of forty civilized nations, comprising
+four-fifths of the human race. Certain of fulfillment the prophecy of
+our illustrious statesman, the late George F. Hoar of this city, who
+said that countless millions and uncounted generations will profit
+through the Founder of our American systems of philanthropy.
+
+The achievements of the Daughter of the Regiment are the heritage of the
+nation. But the fame of the daughter is indissolubly linked with that of
+the regiment; the fame of the regiment, with that of the daughter.
+
+Regiment and daughter were comrades in adversity, comrades when bullets
+whizzed and death stalked. That comradeship was the most beautiful of
+the humanities in the Civil War. Said a gallant son of the Twenty-first
+Massachusetts: “We dearly loved her, and I do not think there was a man
+in the regiment who would not have been willing to die for her.” Said
+the Daughter of the Regiment: “If my life could have purchased the lives
+of the patriot martyrs who fell for their country and mine, how
+cheerfully and quickly would the exchange have been made.” That
+sentiment reciprocal—willing to serve at the risk of life—is a sentiment
+chivalric, unsurpassed by the belted and spurred knights of the sword in
+Feudal Days.
+
+The guns cease firing,—the battleground, a ghastly scene. Human ghouls
+are lurking, preying upon the helpless. The “lone woman” is in their
+midst, going in and coming out of houses where lay the dead and dying,
+walking through the streets and alley ways, on her mission. A
+knight-errant in his saddle, with hat in hand graciously bowing, gallops
+up to her, admonishing that she is in great danger and offering her the
+City’s protection. Pointing to the thousands of boys wearing the blue,
+she answered: “No, Marshal, I think not; I am the best protected woman
+in the United States.”
+
+In the autumn of her life when war scenes were a misty memory, on a
+public occasion, she again comments: “In all the world none is so dear
+to me as the Old Guard who toiled by my side years ago.” As she is not
+here to speak for herself, kindly permit me to echo her sentiments in
+the very words the late daughter expressed to you at a former annual
+reunion:
+
+ Ye have met to remember, may ye ever thus meet,
+ So long as two comrades can rise to their feet;
+ May their withered hands join, and clear to the last
+ May they live o’er again the great deeds of the past
+ Till summoned in victory, honor and love,
+ To stand in the ranks that are waiting above,
+ And on their cleared vision God’s glory shall burst,
+ Re-united in Heaven, the old Twenty-first.
+
+The meek brown-eyed little maiden who, in 1836, left the scenes of her
+childhood at the age of fifteen had returned crowned with laurel, in
+1912, then seventy-six years a veteran in the service of humanity.
+Impressive in its simplicity is that home coming which occurred at
+Oxford. In Memorial Hall had assembled gray-haired men and women who had
+known her from her youth. In that hall were the children, grandchildren
+and great-grandchildren of the playmates of her childhood. The hall had
+been decorated by loving hands; flowers of rare beauty gently had been
+placed near the temporary altar. By her request her beloved pastor was
+there to invoke Him who was highest in service to humanity; to speak
+words of cheer and to bespeak immortality. Songs were sung, prayers were
+said, eulogies of her real character pronounced, and the long line of
+personal friends accompanied her to the Silent Home of her ancestors.
+Still clad as from youth in her fair robes of charity, there she lives
+and sleeps and sleeps and lives.
+
+ The Cradle and the Tomb
+ Alas! so nigh.
+
+No bugle sound reached the ear, no crack of the soldier’s rifle rent the
+air, no war hero’s honors were hers; hers were the honors of a gentle
+maiden that came to save life, not to destroy it. Into the open earth
+that received her, and on the grassy slope of the hill, lovingly were
+dropped flowers of sentiment; among these the red rose, the flower she
+loved best; the lily, symbol of immortality. There Valor proudly
+sleeps,—there almost in sight of the birthplace; where her eyes greeted,
+first, the Christmas Morn; where she was rocked in her rude wooden
+cradle; where her baby fingers had pressed against the window pane and
+her eyes looked out upon innocent nature; where she had romped with
+other children in the wildwood, gathered wild flowers in the field,
+ridden untamed horses, skated upon the smooth surface of frozen waters,
+learned life’s early lessons at home and in the school-room; where she
+had said “goodbye” to childhood, to enter public service. There, after
+more than four score years and ten, death was still almost amidst her
+baby playthings. Only a few steps from her cradle to the grave and yet,
+on that short journey, she had taken millions of steps for humanity. At
+the end of her journey is her memorial tribute to those she loved;
+waving appreciative is the flag she served; looming significant is the
+Memorial Red Cross, a memorial that gives expression to “a world of
+memories, a world of deeds, a world of tears and a world of glories;”
+and, as was said of another great American at his passing, Clara Barton
+now belongs to the ages.
+
+
+ THE FINALE
+
+ After the ceremonies at the cemetery, concluding with the hymn
+ “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” the following conversation took place, at a
+ christening:
+
+ The Mother: My little girl was born in Clara Barton’s birthplace; in
+ the very room.
+
+ Reverend Barton: Bring her to me and I will christen her at once,
+ “Clara Barton.”
+
+
+
+
+ CIII
+
+
+ Honorable Charles Sumner Young’s address was an eulogy surpassing
+ anything ever heard in Oxford on the woman whom the town delights to
+ honor—Clara Barton. Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_, May 31, 1917.
+
+
+ There is properly no history—only biography.
+
+ RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+ CLARA BARTON
+
+(Delivered by Charles Sumner Young, at Oxford, Massachusetts, Memorial
+Day, 1917)
+
+The inspiration of this historic day originated in the mind of woman. To
+the credit of womanhood there is a woman at the beginning of every great
+undertaking, sentimental and humanitarian. Today we pay the floral
+tribute to the late soldier-patriot. Equally befitting is it, amidst
+flowers of memory and at her birthplace, to pay tribute to the soldier’s
+comrade, the greatest woman-patriot of the Civil War.
+
+In ancient days woman was the cultivator of the soil, the guardian of
+the fire, the creator of the home, the oracle of the Temple, and not
+infrequently the leader of men. Countless women in closing their career
+could similarly say as, according to Greek legend, said Semiramis:
+“Nature gave me the form of a woman, my actions have raised me to the
+level of the most valiant of men.” Artemisia was a heroine, wise in the
+councils of war, and had Xerxes not scoffed her advice he would not have
+gone down to eternal disgrace at Salamis. Cornelia, the mother of the
+Gracchi, who of her two sons said “These are my jewels,” lives honored
+as the highest type of Roman motherhood.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, MEMORIAL BUILDING
+
+ “A memorial to the defenders of the Union from Oxford, Mass.”
+
+ The building in which were held the funeral ceremonies for Clara
+ Barton April 15, 1912, and the Clara Barton Memorial Exercises,
+ Memorial Day, 1917.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE INSIDE OF MEMORIAL BUILDING, OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
+
+ Scene on the stage, on the occasion of the Clara Barton Memorial
+ Exercises, Memorial Day, 1917; also where were held the funeral
+ exercises for Clara Barton, April 15, 1912.
+]
+
+To a woman Rome was indebted for her republic; to a woman, the legal
+right of plebeians to become office-holders in the Roman Commonwealth;
+to a woman, the inspiration of Dante in transmitting to the world the
+Divine Comedy; to a woman, who pawned her jewels that she might finance
+Columbus, must be accorded the discovery of America; to a woman, the
+saving of the colonists of Jamestown and the colony’s future existence;
+to a woman America owes the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo; to a woman,
+the Sisters of Charity in the United States with its thousands of angels
+of mercy; to a woman, the foundation of Christian Science to which is
+anchored the hope of millions; to a woman, known as the “Grandmother of
+the Revolution,” the revolt against tyranny by autocracy in Russia; to a
+woman, the American Red Cross with its millions of humanists.
+
+So vital to the human race is labor that in the centuries of the classic
+past gods and goddesses supervised the various fields of human effort.
+Such was the dignity of labor that even a toiling ox was regarded
+sacred, and whoever killed this companion of toiling man was punishable
+with death.
+
+ There is dignity in labor
+ Truer than e’er pomp arrayed.
+
+In the presence of more than a hundred suitors, Penelope was daily
+engaged in weaving while waiting the return of her Ulysses. The
+celebrated Lucretia was not too proud to spin in the presence of her
+attendants. In the days of Homer princesses did themselves the honor to
+dip the water from the springs, and with their own hands to wash the
+linen of the household. Augustus, the world sovereign, wore with pride
+the clothes made by his wife and sister. The sisters of Alexander the
+Great made the clothes worn by their distinguished brother. To the
+request of her son to make Mt. Vernon her home during her declining
+years Mary, the mother of Washington, replied: “My wants are few in this
+world, and I feel perfectly competent to take care of myself.” Queen
+Victoria became world-beloved because she rendered personal service to
+her children, and to the children in families less fortunate than her
+own.
+
+Hypatia, the philosopher and teacher at Alexandria, refused the advances
+of all would-be lovers that she might give instruction to her pupils.
+Elizabeth accepted maidenhood rather than motherhood that she might
+exclusively serve her subjects; Maria Theresa reproached herself for the
+time she spent in sleep, as so much robbed of her people; Clara Barton,
+with but a few hours of sleep daily, served not her people but
+strangers. Wherever locating, Clara Barton was the directing spirit of a
+swarm of workers where were permitted no drones, and among whom she was
+the queen. She adopted as her rule of conduct, “hard work and low fare,”
+sacrificed health without complaint, risked life without hope of reward.
+
+Nations are the rising and falling tides of humanity; women, the fixed
+beacon lights along the wave-borne highway of human progress. Fabiola,
+the Roman Matron of the fourth century, who established the first
+hospital and herself cared for human wrecks, set a precedent existent
+through all succeeding centuries. All honor to Queen Isabella, the first
+to appoint military surgeons and to originate what was known as the
+“Queen’s Hospital” for the sick and wounded. As a nurse in her home, in
+the plagues of her country and the wars of the fourteenth century,
+Catherine Benincasa rose to the exalted position of Saint Catherine,
+patron saint of Italy. As a nurse among the poor, sewing, cooking,
+keeping the house clean indoors, and working with her brothers in the
+harvest field—before she saw the vision of St. Michael—prepared Joan of
+Arc to become the deliverer of France from Britain in the fifteenth
+century, and in consequence the Maid of Orleans became a patron saint of
+that period.
+
+Maria Theresa provided hospitals for the wounded soldiery in the country
+over which she ruled, until then a soldiery wholly neglected in their
+sufferings on the battlefield. Ever green in memory should be kept the
+name of Grace Darling, and that graphic picture of her as she hastens
+down from the lighthouse on Farne Island, and through the mists of that
+terrible night in 1838 goes to the rescue of the shipwrecked sailors.
+Born in Florence, Italy, reared in England, a little girl caring for the
+injured birds and animals in her improvised hospital at Lea Hurst, the
+student nurse in Germany, the superintendent of nurses in the Crimean
+War, Florence Nightingale became adored throughout Christendom,
+diffusing rays of glory on the closing years of the nineteenth century.
+
+Of England’s heroine, Longfellow sings:
+
+ A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
+ In the great history of the land;
+ A noble type of good,
+ Heroic Womanhood.
+
+CLARA BARTON! The Babe of Oxford, a Christmas gift to humanity. In a
+little corner room of a little farmhouse, her tiny eyes greeted, first,
+the eyes of highly esteemed but not far-famed parents. From this
+Huguenot Colony, with no prestige of birth and no power of wealth, the
+meek, brown-eyed maiden went forth unheralded to carry her message of
+love and service. No Star of Destiny had cast its rays aslant the
+cradle, and no omen betokened her future as
+
+ Out of the quiet ways
+ Into the world’s broad track
+
+she ventured.
+
+Timid as a fawn, “the sweet voiced retiring little woman” emerged from
+Youth’s environs. She had dreams romantic, but her romance was wrecked.
+She had visions of a mission, but for her no mission materialized.
+Things came to her “as if by a world controlling power.” In whatever her
+field of service, she stumbled over opportunities to be brave and
+good;—there seems to have been for her a decree of the Fates against
+“how circumscribed is woman’s destiny.”
+
+Having a wide vision, she laid the foundation for the superstructure.
+She was a student of the best English writers; of the classics that gave
+prestige to Aspasia, the mentor of Socrates and Pericles. She studied
+sanitary methods at Jackson Sanitorium, and treatment of diseases with
+Doctor Carpenter at London and with her co-worker, Doctor Hubbell. In
+statesmanship she learned at the feet of Webster, Calhoun, Sumner and
+Lincoln. In military tactics and military strategy, she studied Napoleon
+at Ajaccio, his birth-place, and at Paris made by him “Paris Beautiful,”
+whence the leader of men promulgated the Napoleon Code of Laws;—“Paris
+Beautiful” and the Code, two services which of themselves entitle
+Napoleon to lasting fame.
+
+Of great versatility, she had varied accomplishments. She conversed in
+French, and was a close student of Holy Writ. In crayon and painting,
+she produced work highly commended by artists. In letter writing, as
+evinced by letters which “excelled all others in literary merit that
+come to the White House,” and by tens of thousands of other letters, she
+must ever rank in a class with Cornelia, the Roman matron; and Abigail
+Adams, the illustrious American. In poetry, as tokened in “Marmora,” “A
+Christmas Carol,” “The Women Who Went to the Field,” and in many other
+published and unpublished poems, she at times received real inspiration
+from some gentle muse. In pedagogy, as through Pestalozzi in Switzerland
+so through Clara Barton in New Jersey, “pauper schools” were transmuted
+into public schools.
+
+In oratory, through her six war lectures and many other public
+addresses, she established her reputation as a public speaker. Speaking
+from the same platform, receiving a like fee and being as great a
+“drawing card” as John B. Gough, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips and
+Henry Ward Beecher, she must rank for all time as one of the greatest
+orators of a half century ago. Mr. W. J. Kehoe, having reported
+thousands of speeches and for twenty-five years official reporter of
+Congress, says: “Clara Barton evinced qualities of diction and oratory
+hardly excelled by any other American.”
+
+Separate and distinct from that of man is the inner machinery of woman’s
+mind; distinctive also are the outward manifestations. Whether as the
+ruler of a nation or the ruler of a cottage, a woman’s mind rules in its
+own inimitable way. In the realm of heart, woman is the queen and in
+that realm there can rule no king. Of our many great American heroes and
+statesmen, only one has been honored in having had accorded to him the
+heart of woman—all Americans worship at his shrine. Of a woman’s mind,
+the inner workings and outward manifestations, no man has made
+portrayal, none save perchance the Bard of Avon through his fifty
+heroines. Having “the brain of a statesman, the command of a general and
+the heart and hand of a woman” no man, as indicated by Lincoln, could
+have become world-adored through services such as were rendered by Clara
+Barton.
+
+Equipped a leader among women, she became no Zenobia with thirst for
+fame; no Cleopatra, with Cæsars and Anthonys at her beck and call; no
+Catherine the Great, with political and military support; no Joan of
+Arc, with a frenzied and despairing soldiery at her heels; no Elizabeth
+nor Victoria, with an Empire to acclaim her reign; Clara Barton became
+the self-termed “lonesomest-lone-woman-in-the-world”;—a woman “majestic
+in simplicity,” who went about merely doing good and, in enduring
+influence for good, surpassed them all.
+
+She came not from a line of ancestors reliant mainly on social prestige.
+Her inheritance from environments was a spirit intensely practical—the
+puritan spirit.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ HENRY WILSON
+
+ To President Lincoln: Clara Barton is worthy of entire
+ confidence.—HENRY WILSON. U. S. Senate, 1855–1873; Chairman
+ Committee on Military Affairs, Civil War; Vice-President, 1873–1875.
+
+ Senator Henry Wilson was my always good friend.—CLARA BARTON.
+
+ See page 48.
+]
+
+
+ REPRESENTATIVE MASSACHUSETTS STATESMEN
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CHARLES SUMNER
+
+ Clara Barton has the brain of a statesman, the command of a general,
+ and the heart and hand of a woman.—CHARLES SUMNER, U. S. Senate,
+ 1851–1857; 1863–1869.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ GEORGE F. HOAR
+
+ Clara Barton is the greatest “man” in America. Where will you find a
+ man to equal her?—GEORGE F. HOAR, U. S. Senate, 1877–1901.
+]
+
+She achieved through nature’s endowments—a head to think, a heart to
+feel and hands to work. From her hard-working Barton forbears she
+inherited the sentiment in the Roman adage—“There is no easy way to the
+stars from the earth”;—all things are conquered by labor. For her to
+labor was to worship; to her the dignity of labor was greater than
+queenly dignity; labor, “wide as earth,” became her passport from the
+farm, the field of war, fire, flood, drouth, famine and pestilence, into
+every country of earth; her “labor of love,”—the open sesame to the
+White House, to the palaces of kings and emperors.
+
+The illustrious author of “The True Grandeur of Nations,” a personal
+friend of Clara Barton, says: “No true and permanent fame can be
+founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.” Clara
+Barton learned lessons in manual training before manual training became
+a science; she learned to use her hands in the kitchen, in the garden,
+in the factory, in the sick room. She not only knew how to sew and spin
+and weave and cook and care for the sick, but she organized women for
+such work throughout two continents. Labor organized by her among the
+poor, the sick and wounded in Germany, France, Russia, Sea Islands,
+Turkey, Armenia, Cuba and other countries, attesting her appreciation
+Luise, the Grand Duchess of Baden, writes: “Clara Barton possesses the
+ever powerful mind and ready love for suffering mankind;—faithful
+gratitude follows her for ever.”
+
+In person she was not a Queen of Sheba arrayed for kings to admire; not
+a Cleopatra bejeweled in richest splendour to beguile military heroes;
+not an Elizabeth with a new dress for every day in the year to impress
+millions of subjects—she was a “working-woman.” Her raiment was homespun
+or commonplace, by her ‘made over,’ raiment which would put to shame for
+economy the average rural housewife, and yet she could but be envied for
+her artistic taste by the heiress to millions. Simple in dress she lived
+close to Nature, a Nature-child of perennial growth;—“a passion for
+service,” she developed through the years an identity all her own. Her
+identity thus developed, she became a landmark in her own country for
+humanity, as in Switzerland became Dunant who first caught the spirit of
+the Red Cross work on the bloody fields of Solferino.
+
+Most unusual were Clara Barton’s physical and mental powers. If her
+powers were portrayed by the imaginative mind of a Homer, Clara Barton
+would be a composite being possessed of attributes as to the head, of a
+Jupiter; as to the heart, of a Venus; as to the shoulders, of an Atlas;
+as to the hands, of a Vulcan. But she was human, intensely human, a
+“frail woman,”—in her own words, a “Poor little me.” Her weakness was
+her strength; her courage, a woman’s heart.
+
+She dwelt not on a Mount Olympus, not in a palace;—when on the
+“firing-line,” “rolled in her blankets” she camped under the wagon, or
+on the ground within a canvas tent. In the days of _rest_ through her
+closing years, she “camped” in a warehouse of thirty-eight rooms, with
+seventy-six closets; in her “house of rough hemlock boards,” a house
+stored with food and clothing and she ready “to set in motion the wheels
+of relief at a moment’s warning over the whole land.” She lived on the
+banks of the quiet Potomac, in the midst of Nature’s foliage, in the
+presence of the oak, the elm, the cedar, the poplar,—within “God’s first
+temples,”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ CHARLES E. TOWNSEND
+
+ Michigan people have special reason to venerate the memory of Clara
+ Barton.—CHARLES E. TOWNSEND, of Michigan. Senate, 1911——.
+]
+
+
+ UNITED STATES SENATORS WHO SAW THE WORK OF CLARA BARTON
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ JACOB H. GALLINGER
+
+ In my investigations (in Cuba) I visited the orphanage under the care
+ of that sainted woman, Clara Barton. I wish I could command language
+ eloquent enough to pay just tribute to her,—a very angel of mercy,
+ and of human love and sympathy. God bless Clara Barton.—JACOB H.
+ GALLINGER, of New Hampshire. Senate 1891–1915.
+]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ H. D. MONEY
+
+ Everybody knows Clara Barton’s work, and when I mention the name of
+ that lady, it is not only with respect but reverence, for I have
+ seen her work in foreign lands, in hospitals, and amid scenes of
+ suffering and distress.—H. D. MONEY, of Mississippi. Senate
+ 1897–1911.
+]
+
+where birds sang to her beautiful songs, and where flourished sweetest
+scented flowers.
+
+Within that house on the Potomac, Clara Barton received from President
+McKinley the command: “Go to the starving Cubans with your relief ship,
+and distribute as only you know how.” In haste to carry out that
+command, when nearing the point of service, she begged that she might
+have the right of way. “Not so,” said the Admiral of the Navy; “I am
+here to keep the supplies out of Cuba; I go first.” Clara Barton
+replied: “I know my place is not to precede you. When you make an
+opening, I will go in. You will go and do the horrible deed; I will
+follow you, and out of the human wreckage restore what I can.” Having
+herself achieved a place in unusual fields of public service, in this
+war timely the advice of Clara Barton: “Woman, there is a place for
+thee, my hitherto timid, shrinking child; go forth and fill it, that in
+thee mankind may be doubly blessed.”
+
+Following the precedent of him who was “first in war, first in peace,”
+in war and in peace at her own expense and without salary, Clara Barton
+served her country. Hers was the patriotism of a Washington, “What is
+money without a country.” In the early days of the Civil War, as to the
+probable capture of the City of Washington by the Confederates, she
+exclaimed: “If it must be, let it come, and when there is no longer a
+soldier’s arm to raise the Stars and Stripes above the Capitol, may God
+give strength to mine.” In defiance of sentiment as to the propriety for
+a “lone-woman” to go with the soldiers on the battlefield, she conformed
+to her father’s patriot-sentiment, “Go, if it is your duty to go.”
+
+Through the thousands of years of Pagan and Christian history there had
+existed the sentiment “Humanity in war must stand aside.” Among men,
+war-trained and war-sacrificed, rare the word of pity that reached the
+Most High for the wounded soldier. On the battlefield there had been
+seen no angel of mercy until was seen the angel nurse, with the candles
+of her charity lighting up the gloom of suffering and death.
+
+At the second Bull Run, in August, 1862, with a tallow candle in her
+hand through the darkness, in tears the ministering angel moved gently
+among the suffering thousands, putting socks and slippers on the
+wounded, feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty. Her own life
+then in peril, while on that field of carnage there came from her lips
+the heroic words: “I should never leave a wounded man, if I were taken
+prisoner forty times.” Was hers patriotism to country? Greater than
+patriotism. Was hers woman’s love—woman’s love for her friend? It was
+love divine, a woman’s love for all mankind.
+
+ On, on to Chantilly, mid darkness and gloom,
+ Fire, thunder and lightning, guns boom upon boom.
+
+At Chantilly the rain came down in torrents, the darkness impenetrable
+save when lit up by the lightning or the fitful flash of the guns. There
+up the hill to her tent she goes, falling again and again from
+exhaustion,—only to find a few moments’ rest on her bed of earth soaked
+with water. From her tent at midnight, the dead grass and leaves
+clinging to her, her hair and clothes dripping wet, she comes back to
+heartrending scenes. Forgetful of self, she carries army crackers mixed
+with wine, brandy and water for her compatriots, such work continuing
+for more than one hundred consecutive hours, save two hours of dreamful
+sleep.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © _Harris & Ewing_
+
+
+ NELSON A. MILES
+
+ Clara Barton is the greatest humanitarian the world has ever
+ known.—NELSON A. MILES, Major-General Civil War, Commander American
+ Army, 1895–1903; made Lieutenant General, 1900.
+]
+
+It was on Sunday morning, September 14th, 1862, in plumed hats, costly
+jewels, silken dresses and French-made shoes, that the ladies with their
+equally well-attired escorts were on their way to church. Adown
+Pennsylvania Avenue at the same time at our national capital, on an army
+wagon, the wagon loaded with well filled boxes, bags and parcels for the
+suffering—and seated with the driver—again there goes to the scene of
+war-carnage a woman, the woman self-styled as to theoretical religion a
+“well-disposed pagan.” For more than half a century past she has been,
+and for centuries to come the woman who went to the front on that Sunday
+morning—as to practical religion—will be known as the purest Christian
+womanhood.
+
+“Chaste and immaculate in very thought,” chosen from above “by
+inspiration of celestial grace, to work exceeding miracles on earth!”
+“Inspiration of celestial grace!” That inspiration carried Clara Barton
+on an army wagon, through the night, past the sleeping artillery to the
+front of the battlefield of Antietam. There with her own hands she
+bandaged the wounds of the boys that were falling, falling and bleeding
+to death, herself escaping with a bullet through her clothes; carried
+her to another point on that battlefield, and there while supporting on
+her arm and knee a soldier his head by a cannon ball was severed from
+the body. That inspiration carried her with the soldiers under fire over
+the pontoon bridge at Fredericksburg, amidst the hissing of bullets and
+exploding of shells; across the Rappahannock where a cannon ball tore
+away a part of the skirt of her dress and where a few moments later the
+officer, who had assisted her off the bridge, was brought to her shot to
+death.
+
+It was that inspiration which gave her the strength with an axe to chop
+the ice from around the wounded “boys in gray”; to carry them to a negro
+cabin; to feed them gruel and to bind up their wounds; that nerved her
+with a pocket knife on the field of battle to cut the bullet from the
+face of a wounded soldier. It was that inspiration which gave her the
+courage to assist in a hospital where amputated human limbs were stacked
+in piles like cordwood. It was this scene to which General Butler
+referred, and of her in her presence at a public reception in Boston, to
+say, “I have seen those beautiful arms red with human blood to her
+shoulders.” Inspiration! “Inspired to save lives,” says of her the
+_London Times_.
+
+“A great mind is an appreciative mind”; Clara Barton was appreciative.
+Of a simple New Year’s greeting she says: “’Twere worth the passing of
+the year to be so remembered.” At various periods in her life, from
+those she served and whose minds could appreciate, upon her honors fell
+thick and fast as fall the autumn leaves in your maple groves. As the
+daughter of the twenty-first Massachusetts Regiment stood on the banks
+at Aquia Creek by no divine command did the waters part that she might
+cross on dry land; but by command of a chivalric officer, in an instant
+and proud of the honor, on the left knees of that line of boys in blue
+with the soldiers’ helping hand Clara Barton crosses over. With tears
+streaming down her cheeks, she relates this incident and says “This is
+the most beautiful tribute of love and devotion ever offered me in my
+life.” On the three cheers given her as she entered Lincoln Hospital by
+the seventy soldier boys, boys she had served on the battlefield of
+Fredericksburg, she says “I would not exchange their memory for the
+wildest applause that ever greeted conqueror or king.”
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ © Harris & Ewing
+
+
+ JOHN J. PERSHING
+
+ It gives me sincere pleasure to add an expression of appreciation for
+ the inestimable services which Miss Clara Barton rendered to her
+ country and to mankind in founding and fostering the American Red
+ Cross, of which she was the President for twenty-three years, as
+ well as for her unselfish interest and splendid achievements during
+ a life devoted to public welfare work. The accomplishments of the
+ Red Cross during the past few years constitute an historical
+ monument to the memory of this noble woman.—JOHN J. PERSHING, (1919)
+ Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe;
+ made General of the Armies of the United States, September 4, 1919.
+]
+
+From the days of Benjamin Franklin honors in Europe have been showered
+upon the dignity of the American office, on two ex-Presidents in private
+life, but high and above office-holders and ex-Presidents in the list of
+royal honors received stands Clara Barton. Her royal receptions, her
+royal decorations in all history have not been equaled. Czar and
+Czarina, Emperor and Empress, King and Queen, Prince and Princess, Duke
+and Duchess, all royalty so poor as to do honor to the richest in
+world-service. Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Geneva, Carlsruhe, Vienna,
+Baden-Baden, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Santiago,—no city too
+great, no city too unchristian, to open her gates to welcome Clara
+Barton.
+
+At the great international sittings of the Red Cross in Geneva, in
+Carlsruhe, in Vienna, in St. Petersburg,—Clara Barton, the only woman
+officially representing any government among the representatives of
+forty nations. As the unpretentious woman of five feet three comes
+into the hall, the great men of the earth rise to their feet,—eyes
+eager, handkerchiefs in air, then huzzas that echo the heart throbs of
+a world humanity greet the ear and touch the heart of the
+“lonesomest-lone-woman” as she walks down the aisle of the auditorium
+to take her seat among the great world-humanitarians. Small in stature
+but great in deeds, a galaxy of deeds!
+
+Peasants,—Russians, German, Austrian, Turk, Greek, Swiss, Cuban,
+Spaniard, Armenian, American soldier,—all so rich in gratitude as to
+“God bless her,” the angel of the world’s battlefields. Was it mere
+pastime that moved the famous generals of Europe to kneel in front of
+her and kiss her hand, accompanied by greetings of the highest praise?
+Did the Czar of all the Russians honor himself most or her when he
+declined to permit her to kiss his hand, as is the custom in the
+presence of royalty? Of Puritan origin, in _peasant_ attire, she was
+recognized as royalty itself, American royalty, the highest type of
+royalty.
+
+As “fame comes only when deserved,” would you know Clara Barton? Follow
+her into countless permanent and improvised hospitals, over nineteen
+battlefields of the Civil War,—from Cedar Mountain in ’62 through the
+Richmond Campaign in ’65; and I beg of you not to forget that
+twenty-mile ride on one night in June, ’64, as on to Petersburg astride
+her black horse in the darkness, in a rain storm amidst thunder and
+lightning that “lonesomest-lone-woman” goes on her mission to the relief
+of the thousands of victims of an explosion. Follow her into the
+malarial climate through the “Campaign before Charleston,” water deadly
+in character, on the barren sands under a tropic sun, sand granules
+transforming brown eyes to eyes swollen and bloodshot, feet calloused
+and blistered, where again she is seen under the fire of death-dealing
+guns, serving the whites and blacks alike. Follow her through nineteen
+national disasters,—from the Michigan forest fires in ’81 to the typhoid
+fever epidemic in Butler, Pa., in 1904. Follow her as she accepts the
+commission at the hands of President Lincoln and through the long,
+mournful months, searches the records, and walks the cemetery in the
+southland to identify the graves of the missing soldiers. Follow her
+over four of the great battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War; and then
+on the public highway as she walks into the city of stricken Paris.
+
+Follow her again through numerous hospitals and on American relief
+fields. Follow her as on the relief ship State of Texas, to the strains
+of “My Country ’Tis of Thee” she leads the American navy into the
+torpedo-mined Bay of Santiago, and from Santiago into the war-stricken
+fields and the yellow fever camps of Cuba. Follow her as President of
+the American Red Cross through a score of national calamities and as
+President of the First Aid Association in untiring service. Follow her
+into an American audience where she receives the official greetings of
+Japan for her services in securing adhesion of the Japanese government
+to the Red Cross International Treaty. Follow her, as the official
+representative of our American nation, on four trips across the
+Atlantic, thence into the halls of world conference where not hate but
+love rules. Follow through half a century the woman whose deeds of love
+are as lighted candles for vestal virgins to keep burning on the altar
+in the Temple of Fame.
+
+Of America’s heroine, Will Carleton sings:
+
+ A million thanks to one
+ Who hath a million plaudits won
+ For deeds of love to many millions done.
+
+In having the fullest confidence of our Presidents, Clara Barton
+expressed herself in 1909 as follows: “I never before have so fully
+realized what a pleasure that privilege has been to me through half a
+century.” That confidence, by the record, existed between her and
+Lincoln, and Johnson, and Grant, and Hayes, and Garfield, and Arthur,
+and Cleveland, and Harrison, and McKinley, a record with presidents
+unequaled by any other American in public life. McKinley expressed the
+sentiments of nine presidents when he said: “What Clara Barton says and
+does is always honest and right.”
+
+ Nor might nor greatness in mortality
+ Can censure ’scape; back wounding calumny
+ The whitest virtue strikes.
+
+All streams reach the ocean and calumny in the limpid streams of truth
+is lost in the grand ocean of human thought. Whenever “back wounding
+calumny” the nation’s heroine strikes, paraphrasing the words of
+President Garfield to Secretary of State Blaine and relating to Clara
+Barton, “Will the American people please hear the truth from the truly
+great and good of America on the subject herein referred to?” General
+Nelson A. Miles says: “Clara Barton is the greatest humanitarian the
+world has ever known.” “Clara Barton rendered her country and her kind
+great and noble service,” says Speaker Champ Clark. “The greatest of
+American women, the whole world knew and loved her,” says Congressman
+Joseph Taggart. Says Carrie Chapman Catt: “Clara Barton has won the
+hearts of the women of the world.” Speaking of her, no less a scholar
+and statesman than Senator George F. Hoar said: “Clara Barton is the
+most illustrious citizen of Massachusetts, the greatest _man_ in
+America.”
+
+General W. R. Shafter says: “She was absolutely fearless. Miss Barton is
+a wonder; the greatest, grandest woman I have ever known.” Mrs. General
+John A. Logan, says of her: “One of the noblest, if not the noblest,
+woman of her time—the greatest woman of the nineteenth century.” Says
+Senator Charles E. Townsend: “The modest, unselfish and yet undaunted
+Clara Barton did as much for the highest good of the world as any single
+individual since the birth of civilization.” Says General Joe Wheeler:
+“The good work done by Clara Barton will live forever and her memory
+will be cherished wherever the Red Cross is known.” Mrs. General George
+E. Pickett says of her: “A veteran of the ’60’s, with all the years
+since filled with noble deeds, she is a marvel to the world; with all of
+our executive women, social figures and ambitious Zenobias, we shall
+never produce her like.”
+
+Living at the same time, and serving in the same great struggle for
+humanity, the two names alike adored and which for all time will be
+associated in American history are ABRAHAM LINCOLN and CLARA BARTON.
+Lincoln was born in obscurity, reared on the farm; so was Clara Barton.
+Lincoln was inured to poverty, self-educated in mature years; similarly,
+Clara Barton. Lincoln stands alone,—no type, no famed ancestors, no
+successors; true of Clara Barton. Lincoln, in the opinion of Robert G.
+Ingersoll, had the brain of a philosopher and the heart of a mother;
+likewise Clara Barton. Lincoln was gracious to social aristocracy, but
+did not court it; far from it, Clara Barton.
+
+As was true of Lincoln, Vice-President Henry Wilson said of Clara
+Barton: “She has the brain of a statesman, the heart of a woman.”
+Lincoln was a many-sided man; Clara Barton a many-sided woman. Lincoln
+had intellect without arrogance, genius without pride and religion
+without cant; so had Clara Barton. Lincoln stood the test of power, the
+supremest test of mortal; so did Clara Barton. Lincoln worked seventeen
+years, paying in instalments a debt incurred in a mercantile adventure;
+Clara Barton, while serving humanity, disbursed hundreds of thousands of
+dollars without the appropriation of a penny to her personal use.
+
+Oblivious of titles, epaulettes, clothes, rank and race, Lincoln saw
+only the weak mortal; not less so Clara Barton. Lincoln was an
+orator,—clear, sincere, natural, convincing. In her hundreds of lecture
+engagements, made through the same literary bureau, speaking from the
+same platform, Clara Barton was classed with Charles Sumner, Wendell
+Phillips, John B. Gough, and Henry Ward Beecher, the greatest orators of
+half a century ago.
+
+Lincoln broke the shackles of the blacks in bondage; Clara Barton broke
+the shackles of education in America, as Pestalozzi in Europe, and
+transformed “pauper schools” into public schools. She broke the shackles
+of her sex, and her name was placed on the payroll as the first woman in
+the government’s service at the nation’s capital. She broke the shackles
+of war-ethics, and was the first woman “angel” on the battlefield.
+
+She broke the shackles as to national lines, and was the first woman to
+traverse the ocean to minister to the war stricken of another continent.
+She broke the shackles as to national disasters, and was the first human
+being to organize a system to relieve human distress in times of peace,
+this now the system of every Red Cross organization in the world. She
+broke the shackles of women in educational life, in military life, in
+social life, in humanitarian life. Through the centuries Clara Barton,
+as Abraham Lincoln, will stand as the sentinel on the parapet between
+the warring forces of humanity and inhumanity.
+
+Lincoln advocated the admitting of “all whites to the right of suffrage
+who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females.” Clara Barton
+advocated “the admission of women of whatever race to all the rights and
+privileges—social, religious and political—which as an intelligent being
+belongs to her.” Lincoln directed the greatest political organization of
+his time; Clara Barton, the greatest humanitarian organization. Lincoln
+bore malice toward none,—charity for all; equally so Clara Barton.
+Lincoln is the strongest tie that binds together all classes of
+Americans; Clara Barton is the strongest, tenderest tie that binds
+together humanitarians. Lincoln was the grandest man in the Civil War,
+is now receiving the highest homage; Clara Barton, the grandest woman,
+and now the most beloved.
+
+Lincoln was denounced a failure, inefficient as an executive and
+disloyal to the Union. Clara Barton was accused of “inharmony,
+unbusinesslike methods and too many years.” Lincoln passed without
+warning and could make no defense; in her own words Clara Barton says:
+“When it becomes necessary for _me_ to defend _myself_ before the
+_American people_, let me fall.”
+
+Fleeing the scene of his crime, and referring to Lincoln, there emitted
+from the lying tongue of the assassin: “_Sic semper tyrannis_”; in
+answer from the regions of the dead to the woman with the serpent’s
+tongue, Clara Barton replies: “Truth is eternal; evil conspiring and
+their kindred are doomed to die at last—my own shall come to me.” If
+Lincoln dead may yet do more for America and Americans than Lincoln
+living, so Clara Barton dead may yet do more for America and world
+humanity than Clara Barton living. Abraham Lincoln and Clara Barton,
+humanity’s martyrs, the two immortals.
+
+A score of “the Immortals” lost to memory in any nation and that nation
+might well exclaim: “I have lost my reputation, I have lost the immortal
+part of myself.” Efface from memory the twenty, or fewer, immortals of
+Carthage, of Greece, of Rome, of Italy, of France, of Germany, of
+England, of America, then in the centuries hence over the tomb of every
+such nation only could be written “Nation Unknown.” In all the world
+destroy a score of “the Immortals” respectively in religion, in
+literature, in science, in art, in the heroic,—a hundred names and their
+influence,—and wealth greater to the human race shall have been
+destroyed than if were destroyed every public structure possessed by one
+billion six hundred millions of people now living.
+
+Whether real or imaginary, the heroes of Homer and Virgil are worth more
+to the literature of that ancient period than all the physical wealth of
+Greece and Rome. What legacy to a nation could be greater than to have
+inherited the name and influence of a Homer, a Socrates, a Michael
+Angelo, a Queen Victoria, a Washington, a Franklin, a Lincoln, a
+Florence Nightingale, a Clara Barton? In the long centuries ago, of fame
+it was decreed: “Fame (’tis all the dead can have) shall live.” Through
+the centuries, Church and State have fought for their respective heroes
+and heroines not unlike Peter the Hermit and his followers, in the cause
+of Him on whom depended their future happiness. Now, as in all the past,
+the chiefest of a nation’s enduring wealth are the immortal names that
+were not born to die.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+ (Picture taken in June, 1860)
+ The President, March 4, 1861–April 15, 1865
+
+ Miss Barton, I will help you. A. LINCOLN (in 1865).
+
+ President Lincoln was good and kind to me in whatever I tried to do
+ for the soldiers. CLARA BARTON.
+]
+
+As an inspiration to the millions yet to be, the name of America’s Angel
+of Mercy will live—live heroic in the deathless songs of peace and of
+war. There is Second Bull Run, and Chantilly, and Antietam, and
+Fredericksburg, and Petersburg, and Strasburg, and Sedan, and Paris, and
+Johnstown, and Santiago, and Galveston,—there on tablets of memory her
+heroism is inscribed, there to remain forever. Neither will the millions
+forget, nor cease to cherish, The American Red Cross and The American
+Amendment and The National First Aid,—forever theirs and their
+children’s, through the constructive genius of the American
+philanthropist. If “gratitude is the fairest of flowers that springs
+from the soul,” perennial must spring millions of fairest flowers over
+her whose services to the millions are unending, and world-wide.
+
+At Glen Echo on the Potomac when the world-humanist received her final
+orders, sustained by an unfaltering trust, she exclaimed: “Let me go,
+let me go!” Thence, as if by imperial summons called, the spirit of
+Clara Barton arose triumphant and on Easter Morn winged its flight to
+that undiscovered bourne amid the Islands of the Blest.
+
+ In yonder Silent City,
+ Pointing heavenward,
+ Stands a granite shaft;
+ Above that shaft of gray,
+ The granite Cross of Red,
+
+and there a shrine for the human race till the end of time.
+
+[Sidenote: CLARA BARTON]
+
+ _Clara Barton_
+
+ Born at Oxford, Massachusetts
+
+ Christmas Day, 1821
+
+ Died at Glen Echo, Maryland
+
+ Easter Morn, 1912
+
+ President of the American Red Cross Society
+
+ from
+
+ 1881 to 1904
+
+ President of the National First Aid
+
+ Association of America
+
+ from
+
+ 1905 to 1912; now, The President
+
+ In Memoriam.
+
+[Sidenote: ABRAHAM LINCOLN]
+
+ Born at Hodgensville, Kentucky
+
+ February 12, 1809
+
+ Died at Washington, D. C.
+
+ April 15, 1865
+
+ President of the United States
+
+ from
+
+ 1861 to 1865
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE RED CROSS MONUMENT
+
+ Built by Stephen E. Barton, Executor of the Estate of Clara Barton in
+ the Cemetery at North Oxford, Massachusetts.
+
+ How peaceful and powerful is the grave. LORD BYRON.
+
+ Her memory deserves a monument. Nashville (Tenn.) _Banner_.
+
+ Her monument is the sign of the Red Cross. Sioux Falls (S. D.)
+ _Press_.
+
+ Clara Barton needs no monument, her fame is written on the world’s
+ battlefields. Albany _Press Knickerbocker_.
+
+ Congress should provide for the erection of a handsome monument to the
+ woman who has served the nation in war and in peace. Baltimore
+ _Sun_.
+ The Red Cross will serve as her monument and that is her work which,
+ we trust, will keep alive her merciful spirit through the oncoming
+ centuries.
+ Boston _Journal_.
+
+ Clara Barton needs no monument; her name will live in the hearts of
+ the people. Jackson (Mich.) _Patriot_.
+
+ The whole civilized world owes Clara Barton more than it can ever pay
+ in the form of tributes or material monuments.
+ Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_.
+
+ Long after the funeral service, as we passed on the way home, pathways
+ were full of people coming from a distance; and next day hundreds
+ trod the worn by-path in the cemetery to the still-standing Red
+ Cross—a path that the feet of the world will tread to the end of
+ time.
+ _Clara Barton In Memoriam._
+]
+
+
+
+
+ “Clara Barton joined the choir invisible
+ Of those immortal dead who live again
+ In minds made better by their presence; live
+ In pulses stirred to generosity,
+ In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
+ For miserable aims that end with self,
+ In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
+ And with their mild persistence urge man’s search
+ To vaster issues.
+ So has she joined the choir invisible
+ Whose music is the gladness of the world.”
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ 1. P. 40, changed “she would could and recount” to “she would count and
+ recount”.
+ 2. P. 274, changed “responded to a Red Cross call for $ 00,000,000.” to
+ “responded to a Red Cross call for $100,000,000.”.
+ 3. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
+ 4. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
+ 5. Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and moved to the bottom of
+ the paragraph.
+ 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARA BARTON A CENTENARY TRIBUTE
+***
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