The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-18
New Pictures.
TIE RED CROSS SOCIETY.
Clara Barton's Story of How She
Began Her Work as an Army Nurse.
From the New York SIM


Began Her Work as an Army Nurse.
From the New York sun.
Miss Clara Barton, so famous as the
| head Of the Red Cross Society in this
country, began her career almost by
| chance At the outbreak of the civil war
| Miss Barton was copying clerk in the
| patent Office at Washington She did
not anticipate any serious difficulty be-
/ tween the north and south, however, and
/ even after Fort Sumter imagined that a
compromise would be effected But on
| April 49, 1861 regiment from her own
| state, Massachusetts, was passing
through Baltimore and was assaied by a
mob of disatfected persons and a number
killed. Miss Barton, in speaking recently
of these old days, said
~ was greatly moved, and, going into
the street, found everywhere forebod-
ings of ill. Washington was full of the
the partisans of the south, and there
were many ordinations of Joy over the
incident at Baltimore Excited, alarmed
| and scarcely knowing where ! went,
fell into the current and was swept along
TO the Baltimore and Ohio depot. There
! saw forty men covered with blood, many
of them faint and helpless. landed from
the cars and borne away for shelter and
treatment. They found resting place at
what was then the infirmary
on Judiciary square, and l followed
them. | did what | could for their
relief, and was so deeply interested that
| went again the next day and the next,
and on many subsequent days. On Sun
day, the 2lst, went to the capitol, where
the regiment was quartered. | took with
me five negroes, carrying baskets Of pro-
visions, which ] tributed among the
soldiers. Some of the men we're from my
own town, and greeted me with the feel
ing that they had found friend Before
/ left the men all gathered around and |
stood on the steps that lead to the Vice
Presidents chair and read them the
newspaper accounts of their journey and
the assault at Baltimore
1t was in this spontaneous way that
Clara Barton's work began. She had no
special training for the hospital, but her
heart was full of pity and the need was
great. Washington was soon surrounded
by camps and the sick and wounded were
brought there from the front. Before
long Miss Barton resigned her position in
the patent Office and gave herself up ell
tirely to the work. She soon realized
that the great necessity was for immedi-
ate attention to the wounded, and, full of
this thought, she procured a pass from
Surgeon General Hammond, and loading
a railroad car with supplies, went TO Cul-
pepper court house, which was crowded
with wounded soldiers from the battle of
Cedar Mountain, Aug. 8, 1862 Next she
loaded an army wagon with supplies and
joined McClellan's army in Maryland
She arrived on the eve of the battle of
Antietam and early the next morning she
took her wagon to the shelter of a barn,
and there remained all day caring for the
wounded and dying. BY night her face
was so blackened by gunpowderr that she
could scarcely be recognized from one of
her own contrabands. After the close
of the war Miss Barton was so exhausted
that she finally, in 1869, sailed for
Europe. Then came the E'ranco-P russian
war, and Miss Barton became a minister
ing angel in Germany and France as she
had been in America. The pin she wears,
the red cross Of Geneva in a gold circle,
was given her by the Grand Duchess of
Baden. The German emperor also con-
ferred on her several decorations Later
came the JohnstoVyD food, where Miss
Barton led the work Of rescue, and last of
all, she has turned her piUying thoughts
toward Siberia. She is often compared
to Florence Nightingale, but, unlike her,
Miss Barton's sympathies do not turn ia
one direction only. She is full of sympa-
thy for all who suffer.