Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-10
AMONG THE LATE BOOKS

TN a neat little volume which will be
published by the Baker & Taylor
= company Clara Barton, the founder
and organizer of the National Red Cross
society, gives the first insatllment of her
memoirs. The book. bearing the title Of
THE Story of My Childhood" Is adj
dressed to the children of America, and
forms the venerable authors response 70
the various appeals which have reached
her in her peaceful retreat at Glen Echo,
Maryland.
The career of Miss Barton as an organ
izer of relief work, dating from the COM
|mencement of the Livil War and extend
ing since that time through the great
military campaigns of Europe and Amer
lea, has become a familiar part of recent
history. Outside of her public life, how
ever, little Is known of this gifted and
courageous woman, whose services in the
cause of humanity have received signal
marks of honor from the leading nations
of the world. II am studying about you
in my history and what you did in the
war, and I thought / would write and
ask you what you did before you did
that is the way. in which one of her
youthful admirers indicates the material
that is lacking in the current biographies
of Miss Barton. To supply this lack the
simple STORY of My Childhood" made
up of quaint and homely anecdotes, has
been written.
AMONG the experiences of her child
hood Miss Barton recalls mo dolls;" but
there were delighted, ecstatic attempts
to learn the mysteries of dancing. and
again of skating, resulting, unfortu-
nately, in a complete failure to learn
either of these accomplishments. The
first vivid awakening of her childish
sympathies with those who suffer from
physical pain came from witnessing the
killing of an OK in her fathers barn,
and it was soon after that experience
when she was called upon to nurse
her brother, David. through all the
dangers of a wellnigh fatal fever, a
task which was destined to WELD a
lasting influence on her career, as 1t
familiarized her with the sight OF
human suffering and the crude efforts
employed for it's alleviation. my little
hands became schooled to the handling
of the great, loathsome, crawling
leeches, which were at first so many
snakes to me, and no fingers could SO
painlessly dress the angry blisters as
mine; and thus it came about that
was the accepted and acknowledged
nurse of a man almost too i'll to re-
cover"
| In the light of the humanitarian SER
vice to which Miss Barton's life has
been dedicated this volume of simply
| told "reminiscences of her quaint child
hood is decidedly suggestive, and inten-
sifies the hope that the memories thus
started may speedily be continued until
the complete story of her stirring
career Is given to the public.
Probably few photographers have been
able to go as far back in their personal
recollections as Miss Barton, who tells a
characteristic story of herself at the age
of 2h years, which would be eighty -four
years ago, when she was living with her
father and mother, two sisters and two
brothers, in the picturesque little home
stead in Oxford, Mass. The story chroni-
cles the "baby's' grief over the loss OF
no less plaything than snake. whose
disappearance under the doorstep of the
house gave rise to series of infantile
walls which directed the attention of ar
alarmed mother to the rather dangerous
proclivities of her offspring.
| From the first period of her menta
awakening Miss Barton found herself ir
a rather military atmosphere; her father