Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-19

daughter the Grand Duchess Louise OF
Baden fills the position) Says Miss
Barton. NO record of needless cruel
ty to SICK and wounded soldiers stain
the annals of that war. | walked its
hospitals by day and night. | served
In its camps; l marched with Its men,
and know whereof | speak. The Ger
man, and the Frenchman. the Italian.
the Arab, the Turk and the Tonave
were gathered tendcrly alike, and lay
side by side IN the Red Cross palace
hospital of Germany
The United States did not accept the
international treaty of the Red
Cross until eighteen years after
II was first presented to our
government; and that we finally came
into the fold is due entirely to Miss
Barton. When our Ctvil War be-
gan she was u young lady of wealth.
spending some time in washington. At
the first news that northern troops were
en- route to the capital had been fired
upon In Baltimore she. with several
others, volunteered to go and care for
the wounded. That day her life-work
opened. Thereafter she was found in
the hospitals, and soon came to be rec
ogni2cd us u nurse of uncommon abil-
lily. In her quiet. self-contalned way.
she went unchallenged wherever SOL
dlers needed assistance. She met the
pinia and took care of them in camp
and field. Military trains We're at her
service. She was present Mt the battle
OF Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run.
Antietam. and Fredericksburg; was
eight months at the siege OF Charleston,
at Fort Wagner. in front of Petersburg,
and in the wilderness; also in the hos
pitfalls near Richmond, and on Morris
island. When the war ended. her labors
were not over. In obedience to the
most tender OF human sympathy, she
remained many weeks at Anderson
VILE, engaged in the herculean
task of marking as many as pos
sible of the graves OF the 1900
Union prisoners there buried. Then
her health broke down completely and
her physicians ordered her to Europe.
Before she was half rccuperated, the
-Prussian war broke out and
she Immediately Joined the relief corps
of the Red Cross in the field. where she
did heroic service during all that stormy
period.
In 1869 Miss Barton went to Geneva.
The fame OF her splendid work had pre-
ceded her. and she was at once called
upon by the president of the Swiss In
ternational Red Cross Society. He
asked an explanation of the anomalous
fact that the United States which In its
own Civil War had shown such un-
paralleled care of the wounded and or
ganlzed a sanitary service on n scale
hitherto undreamcd of the world over
yet held aloof from the Red Cross and
refused to sign the treaty under whose
banner twenty nations were already en-
rolled Miss Barton replied that she
had never even heard of such thing,
and she doubted II the people of the
United States whatever might be said
OF its ofiicials) were aware that any
proposal to unite such an organization
had been submitted to the government.
When all had been made plain, her hui
mainly embracing heart at once be-
came afiame with enthusiasm and she
resolved that II she lived to return to
her native land the Red Cross principles
should at least become known there.
But she came home a suffering invalid
and lowered for years between life and
death. When Mt last nature rallied she
had to begin life anew. almost like a
little child, and acquired even the power
to walk. The mind. however, was as
clear and the heart as warm as ever
She went to Washington as soon as
she was able and presented the sub
ject of the Geneva treaty to President
Hayes. This was In 1877. Her efforts
won no response from the Hayes ad-
minstration; not until four years later.
Then another soldier President, Gar
field. was in the chair. and she met
with encouragement. The late Secre-
tary Windon laid the subject before the
cabinet. The Presidents SILENT part
| ners" yere cordially Interested; Secre-
tary OF State Blaine wrote warm