The New York herald., 1922-02-26


monument. But certain elements in
her first war work call for comment.
From the very first. Immediately
after the battle OF Bull Run, the
most significant thing is her mani
festation of what l have ventured
TO call her superlative common
sense. She saw. more clearly and
more foreseeingly than any one
else. the one thing that was being
neglected and that needed to be
done; namely, some way of taking
care OF the wounded on the battle
field itself and some means of col
iecting and distributing supplies in
advance of sheir immediate need.
And she acted. "She thought" says
Mr.. Barton, "of the good clean
cloth in New England homes that
might be used for bandages; of the
fruits and jellies in Northern farm
homes which the soldiers would en-
joy" Her advertisement In the
Worcester Spy asking for provisions
for the wounded met an immediate
local response. This was the begin
ming of her war work. "The thing
that became increasingly plain to
Clara Barton was that every hour
that elapsed after man was wound
ed before relief reached him was an
hour on which might easily hang
the issues of life and death. Some
how she must get relief to men on
the battlefield itself" And she did.
Naturally she met opposition, diff
ficulties, red tape and official iner-
tia. Naturally she was misunder-
stood. But she perservered. and the
one great thing she had to supply
was precisely that sane, organizing,
efficient common sense.
~.
Another characteristic manifesta-
ton of her good sense is that, un-
like some Of her contemporaries,
she very early recognized the uses
and Importance of publicity. 1t was
largely through the press that she
managed to keep up the flow of
supplies needed, and it was through
Horace Greeley's aid in the Tribune
that she succeeded in bringing out
the records of Andersonville, in the
face of official disapproval. Public
ity, too, was an important instru-
ment in her work to find the many
missing soldiers"
After the war, her first impulse
was to write book, or several
books, both to record what she had
seen and knew, and to arouse public
opinion for the future. But book
publication was expensive, and
slow: and those were the days of
the popular lecture platform. More
over. lecturing was profitable and
she had, literally, spent her last
cent of savings in her own war
work. Later Congress reimbursed
her, but at the moment, she had to
earn a living, somehow. Partly
upon the advice of John Il. Cough,
she went on the lecture platform,
making her first appearance at
Poughkeepsie, October 30, 1856, and
going thence to Schenectady and
Brooklyn. Her success, particular
ly in Brooklyn, was decisive, and
determined her course for some
time. But at the height of her lee
ture career, in 1869, her health
broke down, and she once more lost
her voice. But she now was once
more financially independent. The
doctors diagnosed her trouble as
nervous prostration, due to the
strain of more than eight years.
Nor need one wonder at that. Few
could have endured as she did, so
long.
So, under medical advice, she
went TO Switzerland to recuperate.
When she arrived in Geneva, in
1869, she had never so much as
heard of the Red Cross" 1t was
then a comparatively untested in
ternational organization, called into
being in 1864, at a conference be-
fwaeu rpnreeantafiVaa of eleven Fu-