The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-07-13
A TRUE PHILANTHROPY.
THE FGOOD WORK OF AN AMERICAN w0-
MAN.
From the New York Tribune,


Among the noble women who did so
much to assuage the sufferings Of our sol
diers in the late war Of the rebellion, |
perhaps there is 10 one who has larger
claims upon the gratitude Of her country |
men than Miss Clara Barton, of Massa |
chusetts, who, brsides nursing the
wounded in hospitals as long as the war
lasted, formed and executed q plan for
marking the graves Of the soldiers Who'll
died in the prisons Of the South. It was
natural that this woman, when the war
broke out between France and Germany, |
should have at once determined to do |
what she could to mitigate its horrors.
The story Of what she has done is told in
part in the following letter, which, though
written in april last, has only Just
reached US through the private hands to
which it was intrusted. 1t has lost little
by the delay, and will be read with deep
interest:
STRAsBoURG, April %, 1871.
1t seems to me that, in moment in
which all minds are full of pity and sym
patty for the unfortunate condition of
France, your subscribers regardless of
the Earring imperfection of foreign
tongue, will be grateful to your paper,
fyou will give place to the following
| lines:
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, large
and always increasing establishment of
work for women, which counts now more
than $50 mothers of large families
widows, wives of prisoners, or Of wounded
soldiers. Twelve hundred persons
little children and aged parents-haye
been fed and warmed, and clothed all
winter by the earnings Of these women :;
and by this means held through this ter
ribie crisis above the degradation of beg
gary and the sins of vagrancy It is I,
sight never to be forgotten, when twice
each week these hundreds of homeless
women, from out their temporary abodes,
enter the work-rooms, and, depositing
their finished package of well.made
garments, receive the next and the mon
ely which is to give bread to their chill
dren. The garments are all cut and pre-
pared i'll the rooms, and and are the
strongest and best material for service
500 are made and returned each week,
of all sizes, suitable for men, women, and
r children, and this by women whose
homes lie in ashes and ruins, whose last
cent OF property is gone-daug hters 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 hospital or in prison, or sleep peace
$ fully under the bloody sOds.of Haguenau,
Grayelotte and Sedan. And when, from
some cause, one is compelled to resign
her work and leave the city, there is no
l mere touching sight than to see her seek
, her faithful patron to beg of her certi
, ficate, to prove everywhere, as ii she
would have it written Every large" that
4 all the world may see, that she has laborcd
f all winter for those honorable work
. rooms, earned her own and her children'>
living, and has ''not been beggar."
: One would have thought that, with the
t end Of the war, and the return of be ICE
and spring, stranger and a foreigner
would have grown weary of so heavy 4
:, burden and laid it down. but the dis
I senslon of unhappy France still hold it.
: people in unrest. There is neither work
p nor pay for them, and one sees in Mis-.
Barton the most intense desire to extend
: the benefits OF her work through all this
}, destitute country. Since the 1st of Jan
# uary the "Comite de Secours Strasbour.
!. geois'' has begged Miss Barton to allow
it TO become associated with her in hel
. work, but this Comite, receiving it:
Q funds in the name of the poor of Stras
d bourg, Is not free to distribute its pro
cceds or receipts in other places. The
paid labor and the 1900 garments each
l. week sent out from Miss Barton's rooms
+ In addition to the other gifts of The
y Conlite, have made Strasbourg better
provided, perhaps at this moment, thar
J any war-destroyed city in France.
n We sometimes wonder if this heron,
!. and noble. hearted lady, standing dav b1
day among her quarter of a regiment o
70 women, at the same time encouraging
7, sustaining and guiding them with tho
!. tenderness OF q woman and the firmnes
"a OF man, does not yearn for the co-opera
: ton and aid of you, her genseous coun
II trymen and women beyond the sea. tt
q, take up her beautiful work and pass it
products outside the limits of this walled
city, and spread them through all th
u war-troddeD villages and hamlets o
he France, would be work we'll worthy O
s. your matchless people-then would 10,
put in execution one of the best anC
IL noblest thoughts which have ever crossed
W a living soul, for only we who live among
st them, and witnessed the calamities which
. have crushed these nannle. can realiz