The weekly soliphone., 1917-08-16
RED CROSS
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(By H. R. Partlow. )

investigating nefOlC ana nODlt sac riices of men and women for ages but prior to 1850 all such efforts were wholly lacking in organiza- tion although replete in self-sacri- flee. If the term "red cross is to be applied to workers who have served humanity from patriotic and humane standpoint, then his tory abounds with many such char acters. For instance, it is said that the story of the exalted spirit of devotion to human service of the mother of Andrew Jackson, the Red Cross heroine of the Revolution ary War during the history of vel low fever along the Carolina coast, was ever an inspiration to our own Clara Barton. Her father had fought with Mad Anthony Wayne in the war of 1872 and was famil- imposed as well as the noble deeds which charaeteriZes such struggles.
 During the Crimean war of 1854, when the world stood daZed at the suffering of the wounded, q young lady of noble birth and thorough ed ucatiOnal training for the work in hand, Florence Nightingale. came forward and offered her services to Lord Berbert of the British War Office She entered the hospital at Scutari and from her ceaseless and untiring energy during long sleep less nights she was dubbed by the wounded soldiers as the Lady With the Lamp" Her praises were afterwards sung by our own poet. Henry w. Longfellow. in poem en- titled: "The Lady With the Lamp" Possibly Julia Ward Howe got her first inspiration from her visit to Florence Nightingale in 1S44, which caused the establishment of the sanitary commission in 1861; Julia Ward Howe being one of the first as well as one of the most prominent members of the commis- sion.
 The battle of Solferino was fought in 1859 in the northern part of one side and the combined forces of France and Sardinia upon the other side. At the end of the days battle more than 35,OO0 men lay dead or disabled with no adequate relief or aid for any. For days the wounded lay uncared for where they had fallen. It was the old story Oi the barbarity of war. While the bat tie was raging with all of it's at tendant horrors. it was visited by thropist, whose heart was touched at the suffering around him as the dying soldiers begged for relief and some in an unknown tongue. He aided what few surgeons were on the field and was intrumental in helping to save the lives of many. Henri Dunant, a Swiss philan- tured continuously, which resulted in a worlds conference at Geneva, Switzerland, in which eleven ma lions participated and signed a formative plan for the alleviation of the distressed and wounded This was the beginning of the Red Cross. The society determined and agreed in order that the workers should be known and protected at posts of danger and that hospitals and all their belongings be pro tected, it was necessary to adopt Il badge or insignia that should be universally known and respected. The flag of Switzerland is white cross with a red back ground. The insignia chosen, therefore, was in honor of the Swiss government, eX- cent the order was reversed, and that is red cross with a white back ground. The insignia was first called the Geneva crosS and is spoken of as such in our first laws concerning the organization. of the Red Cross in this country, bat later We used the term red cross for the insignia. The organization being given the name of Red Cross from the insignia.
 The American Red Cross is large ly the product of the cooperation and sympathy of Clara Barton and President Garfield. History indi- eates that God raises up person to do a certain work and in His own way educates such person for the duty at hand. In no historical in stance is the evidence more abun- dant than in this case. Clara Bar ton was the daughter of Captain stephen Barton, prominent Royal Arch Mason and a hero of the war of 1872. Her instruction in patriotic duty and high ideals of citizenship had been thorough and painstaking. Her personality and charming man. ner commanded respect gin any field of activity. As a teacher she was a pronounced suGcess. In one school