St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-04-06

CThe name of Clara Barton is known
throughout the world through her efforts
to alleviate the horrors of war She was
president of the American National Red
Gross from its organization in 1881 TO 1874
During the American civil war she did
relief work on the battlefelds. during the
Franco Prussian war of 1870 and 1871 she
was associated with the international Red
Gross. She has represented the United
States in many international conferences 9nn tes
During the Russian famine of 1892 and the
Armenian massacres of 1896 she distrib-
uted relief. At the time of the Spanish
American war she carried relief to Cuba.)
1t is probable that there are few
terms in general use among us, or few
subjects so frequently referred to of
which 50 little is correctly known as
the so-called Red Cross.
The causes for this obscurity are
many. Among The great movements
of civilization the Red Cross is COM
paratively new. 1t is of foreign birth,
consequently its literature is in for
eign languages and in many languages,
while we are notably one-language
people. The subject with which it
was born to deal-namely, human war
fare, was, until the Spanish-American
war, experimentally unknown to our
present generation, and the desire for
and the certainty of perpetual peace
for the future had begotten an indiffer-
ence, not to say repulsion, in the
minds of the public, which turned
It instinctively = often impatiently -
away from all topics bearing upon the
subject of war.
The history of the world is largely
a history of it's wars ana through the
1000 years, until three and a half
centuries ago, there is no official rec
ord of any movement to lessen the
woes of those who fought them. At
that date a medical service was at
aached to armies, and was thought to
he sufficient for any emergency that
could ever arise. Through all the ter
rible wars of Napoleon l. this service
was never changed, increased or Ques
toned. But when the doors of Scutars
opened for Florence Nightingale and
her 40 nurses, the food of light which
followed them revealed serious de
fects, Still SO slow is the march o.
Improvement that the war Of Lom
hardy in 1859 showed no amendment
On June "a of that same year the
armies of Napoleon ILL.,, equipped witt
every facility then known to military
medical science, stood face to fac'
with the foe in northern Italy, 3Oo.OOl
comhatants in a line five leagues il
length. and fought Is hours withou
cessation or rest. The horrors of thu
ae1d through the suffering of 1T
wounded from want of care-scarcel
one surgeon for so men, bleeding
fainting and famishing-were wit
messed by a humane Swiss gentleman
Henri Dumant, who stayed his traV
cling carriage I'm the vicinity of tn
hattie and worked among the wound
cd The memories of the suffering h
had witnessed haunted him, until q
length he wrote and published them
and the Souvenir de Solferino" in
few months had been translated int
the leading languages of the world
and Law on the tables and on tn
hearts of the best of Europe.
The seed had been well sown, an
in 1863 it took root in conference a
Geneva. Switzerland, which sought
ind if some way could be devised t
lessen the needless suffering of so
diers ON the field, which seemed to
largely the result of customary mil
torv restrictions It was proved tina
po army ever had been found equal
tie needs Of its wounded in battle
# was equally decided that this neve
could be, as no army could NOV
,narch and fight, while burdened wit
sufticient medical material or person
mel to meet the needs OF its wounde
n and after battle The remedy SUI
gested struck blow at one of th
Strongest, time-honored rules OF war
namely. that no civilian be above
upon a field, especially in time Of ba
he: the proposition Of the conferent
na5nq that societies Of civilians