Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-04
Clara BartOn.

We find in the New York Tribune a letter
from Strasbourg, written by lady, and dated
April 23d, from which we take the following:
"Your brave and noble fellow country woman,
Miss Clara Barton, who, since the first days of
the war, has been with the sufferers in Alsace,
or among the Baden hospitals, is now, and has
been since the second day of its surrender, in
Strasbourg, and by her vigorous and charitable
initiative has firmly held up and prevented its
ruined population from falling into beggary.
She has founded, with her own resources, a
large and always increasing establishment of
work for women, which counts now more than
250 mothers of large Manifestations, wives of
prisoners, or of wounded soldiers. Twelve hun
dred persons-little children and aged parents
have been fed and warmed, and clothed all win
ter by the earnings of these women; and by
this means held through this terrible crisis
above the degradation of beggary and the sins
Of yagrancy. 1t is sight never to be forgotten,
when twice each week these hundreds of home
less women, from out their temporary
abodes, enter the work rooms, and depositing
their finished package of well-made gar
ments, receive the next and the money which is
to give bread to their children. The garments
nre all cut and prepared in the rooms, and are
of the strongest and best material for service;
1900 are made and returned each week, of all
sizes, suitable for men, women and children,
and this by women whose homes lie in ashes
and ruins, whose last cent of property is gone
daughters who have seen their fathers and
mothers torn in pieces by bombs-and mothers
whose babes have been killed in their arms,
whose sons and husbands wasted away in hos
pital or prison, or sleep peacefully under the
bloody sods OF Haguenau, Graveotte, and Sc
dan. And when, for some cause, one is COM
PEELED to resign her work and leave the city,
there is no more touching sight than to see her
seek her faithful patron TO beg of her a certif.
cate, to prove everywhere, as if she would
have ii written Every large" that all the world
may see, that she has labored all winter for
those honorable work-rooms, earned her own
and her children's living, and has "aot been
beggdr."
Zone would have thought that, with the end
of the war, and the return of peace and spring,
stranger and foreigner would have grow
weary OF so heavy burden and laid down: but
the dissensions Of unhappy France still hold its
people in unrest. There is neither work nor
pay for them, and one sees in Miss Barton the
most intense desire TO extend the benefits of her
work through all this destitute country. Since
the LIST of January the "eomite de Secours
Strasbourgeois" has begged Miss Barton to al
low it to become associated with her in her
work, but this comite, receiving its funds in the
name of the poor of Srasbourg, is not free to
distribute its proceeds or receipts in other
places. The paid labor and the 1900 garments
each week sent out from Miss Barton's rooms,
in addition to the other gifts of the comite have
ludue OlfdSUOuIR ueIteF pIOFlueuj perhaps, at
this moment, than any war-destroyed city in
We, Of Strasbourg, are so grateful to Miss Bar
ton for all she is doing and has done, so differ
ent is our city from what it would have been if
she had never entered it, that we would make
her work known to you, and proclaim through
all the world what she has done for us. We
would that you should be as proud of this Amer
can work of your cOuntrywoman in Europe as
we are grateful for it. We can fix her form in
marble, and her features on canvas-and this
we are doing-but we would also have her en-
shrined anew in the hearts of her own people
whom she loves so well and honors so much
"You will not be surprised to hear of her good
deeds, for know she has accustomed you 10
this at home; but her modesty may never per-
nit her to speak of them herself and it must
be that America does not know at this moment
of this great and new work in foreign land
and yet here it is celebrated enough to receive
visits from German sovereigns who, with their
court, have spent hours in the little modest par
lor of the rue des Bouchers IS, admirng the
organization so complete of all the work, the
rich, ripe, and more than golden fruit of almost
eight months of Miss Barton's labors, who has
given to il her days, her nights, her strength,
her thought, her rich experience, and all the
rest she was seeking in Europe. More than one
reputation has been sent from the German
women unions (of which the soyeregns are al
ways the head,l TO inspect the manner of Miss
Daltoh "oikIoOms for the Deneht OF their
| own; and all alike have left filed with admira-
ton, and have exclaimed, "only an american
could have organized anything like this"
A letter from Miss Barton herself, dated
June 9Th, and addressed to Mrs. Frances D.
Gage, gives the following account of her work :
although l have carried on a charitable
work among the sufferers Of Strasbourg since
the day of its surrender, have never had oc-
casion to ask for help. No Funds are exhaust
ed" and no Contributions" needed. | entered
Strasbourg when its gates opened to the Ger
man army, the 29th of September, and q
wretched enough city found it. Twenty thou
sand persons without the shadow of roo
above their heads, an ounce of food, or an ar
ticle of clothing save that in which they had
rushed from their burning homes-neither work
nor pay.
"In the hope Of preventing, at first, starya
tion, aud later, wholesale beggary, instituted
system Of so0rk for to0nlen, by which thu
more Intelligent were paid for making clothing