Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1889-06-27
CLARA BARTON.
THE RED CROSS OF AMERICA AND
ITS HISTORY.

States-Her Work Among the Afflicted =
A Visit to the German Emperor-An I'M
pressive Interview.
Especial Correspondence of the Times.
WASHINGTON, June 22.-As l sat in the
Office of The United Press the evening
after the Johnstown disaster, quiet lit
tie woman in black came in to ask what
news there was from the stricken city.
She listened to the story quietly, not with
the quiet of Indifference but with the
calmness of experience. The little wom-
an in black was Clara Barton, president
of the American Red Cross. She heard
the story of the horrors in the Conemaugh
Valley with an almost professional calm
ness, for death and suffering have been
her companions and familiars all her life.
The following evening she came in again.
81 am gong to Johnstown," she said
calmly. There was no hustle of prepara-
ton. no excitement in anticipation of the
fearful sights and sounds that she was to
misunderstanding but the quiet deter
mination to 90 where duty seemed to
call. needless of hardship and danger.
That night Miss Barton and her little
band of faithful workers headed by her
field agent, DR.. j. b. Hubhell, started in
the direction of JohnstOwn. The first
train that went through from the East
bore them to their destination, for all
things save the forces of nature give way
before the Red Cross. Within an hour
or two of their arrival they had estab-
lished their headquarters and were hard
at work preparing clothing for the desti-
tute and tenderly caring for the injured.
The good work that they have done and
the good work they are still doing are
chronicled by the daily papers.
You have heard of Clara Barton; you
have heard of the Red Cross. You know
one as you know the other for they are
inseparable. You know the one as the
ministering spirit that hovers over the
field of flood and war and pestilence, Of
fering succor to the helpless, binding up
the wounds of the injured and comfort
ing the afflicted. You have known the
other as band of just such women fol-
lowing in her wake; helping her to ac-
complish the task of charity which she
has set herself. But do you know any
thing of the history of Clara Barton and
her Red Cross? Few of those that know
her do. The wounded on the battlefield
who have seen that kindly face bending
over them and who have felt the touch
of those soft hands have blessed their
owner then and afterward. But even in
the army and among the veterans where
Clara Barton's name is by-word the Red
Cross is known only by its works. Clara
Barton is nearly 60 years of age. She
was born in Oxford, Mass, and was edu-
Gated in Clinton, n. Y. Her first public
act was the establishment of free school
at Bordentown, n. Y. When this was
opened it had but six pupils but before
Miss Barton left it it had more than 600.
From Bordentown. Miss Barton came to
Washington where she became a clerk in
the patent office. She remained in this
position until the war broke out. When
on the 10Th day of April, 1861, the sixth
Massachusetts regiment was assaulted in
the city of Baltimore on its way to pro-
tect the capital, by an armed body OF Sc
ceSsiOnists, a number OF the men Were
wounded. There was no one to care for
them there; but when they reached the
capital there waited for them one who
took charge of their wounded and took
them to her home to nurse them back to
health. This woman was Clara Barton,
and her attention to the members of the
sixth Massachusetts was the first wom-
ans nursing of the war. 1t was, too, the
first experience of Miss Barton in what
was to become her life work. From that
time she devoted all of her time to the
wounded who were brought to the city
to be cared for. Almost without sleep,
she moved from hospital to hospital di-
recting the work which every day grew
more pressing. When the work of nurs-
ing the sick became so systematized that
she could leave it, she went out into the
field and nursed the sick and the dying
there. Gotten have l seen her on the
battlefield" said well known army Off
Ger in speaking of her work, s'amid the
shrieking of shot and bursting of shell,
seeking out the wounded to relieve them
with drop of spirits or water. Often
Miss Barton was the only woman present
and through her untiring efforts, many a
soldier was returned to his wife and fam
lily and many soldier-boy to his poor
mother"
When the war was. over Miss Barton
turned her attention to another task.
She suggested to Secretary Stanton in
1865 the idea of marking the graves of
the Union dead in the South, and she her.
self went to Andersonville to mark the
graves of Union soldiers there. In the
same year she was placed by President
missing men of the Union armies, and it
is mainly through her efforts that the sys-
tenn of national cemeteries has been es-
tabished. But her great work was at
Andersonville. There, almost unaided,
she marked the graves of almost all of
the go. 900 soldiers who lie buried there.
This task accomplished, Miss Barton lee
tured for two years on her war expert
ences. Afterward she went to Switzer-
land for her health. But in 1870, when
the France-German war broke out, she
went to the assistance of the grand OUCH
ess of Baden in the preparation of militia
ry hospitals, and during the war she. gave
much assistance to the Red Cross of
which the grand duchess was the ruling
spirit.
When the city of Strasburg capitulated,
one of the first to enter it was Clara Bar
ton. She found the people naked, hun
CRY and wounded. In forty days she had
clothed the naked, fed the hungry and