Chapter I: H. R. Prince Guy De Lusignan (1)

Last of the Royal Line

THE ROYALTY OF ARMENIA

The Armenian Decoration

I have received a decoration, officially described as follows:

Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in 1186,
by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and
reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The
Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services
of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to
the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The
Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly
prized by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its
beauty. This decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of
Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.—CLARA BARTON.

See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 22.
]

To enter Turkey at this time was an undertaking _too great_ for man; this must be the work of woman. There was one woman equal to the emergency, and she seventy-five years of age. All eyes were turned toward that woman. She was chosen unanimously. Her assistants were to be men but she stood sponsor for man’s conduct, a responsibility the greatest in life woman ever assumes. The deference paid to this woman—_Mirabile dictu_—was some years before a woman was regarded even capable of sitting as member of the American House of Representatives or as Member in the English House of Commons. Did she accept? Nothing too hazardous for her to undertake; she ever was seeking for something to do that no one else would do, no one else could do.

Florence Nightingale sailed for Crimea “under the strong support of England’s military head and England’s gracious Queen;” Clara Barton set sail for Turkey, “prohibited, unsustained either by governmental or other authority,”—destined to a port five thousand miles away, from approach to which even the powers of the world shrank in fear. As Clara Barton, with her four assistants, left New York City, on the S. S. _New York_, “crowded were the piers, wild the hurrahs, white the scene with the parting salutes, hearts beating with exultation and expectation;” longing the anxious eyes that followed far out to sea that band of five fearless American crusaders, on humanity’s mission.

Would she reach Constantinople? The Turkish Minister, resident at Washington, forbade her and her Red Cross band to enter the land of the Moslem. Her Christian presence there was not desired; would not be permitted. Unperturbed, she proceeded on her way. She arrived at Constantinople. She stopped at Pera Palace hotel. She asked for an audience with Tewfik Pasha, Minister of State. She explained; she begged the privilege of self-sacrifice. The High Official listened attentively, then said: We know you, Miss Barton; have long known you and your work. And you shall have it. We know your position, and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and protection as we are able to render, we will cheerfully render you. I speak for my government. I extend to you my cordial good wishes in your work among our distressed people.

At the interview Clara Barton thus assured Tewfik Pasha: “We have no newspaper correspondent, and I promise you I will not write a book on Turkey. What we see and hear will be confidential—not repeated.” But she didn’t keep faith with the Government—she reported on the dogs. Dogs in Constantinople are held sacred, but not because decorated with a brassard they serve in Red Cross work or otherwise are useful. The streets and plazas day and night are filled with dogs, colonies of dogs. Fond of dogs, she enjoyed telling this story. About to be overpowered by other dogs the Turkish dog flops over on his back, his feet in air to serve as the dog’s Red Cross flag, over a hospital. In the “hospital” he remains until there is an opportunity of escape when, without so much as “by your leave,” he invalids himself home.

The British Legation had a blooded rat terrier, also _sacred_. By chance the terrier slipped out of the yard. Unsuspecting he was “ambushed” and, not knowing Turkish dog strategy, was foully slain. The secretary, in righteous wrath, forthwith imported from England “Bull Brindle,” of a famous fighting breed. The British “warrior” also strolled out on the plaza, _but not by chance_. A colony of several hundred dogs, with confused noises as terrifying as of a “pack of coyotes” hunting prey, massed an attack on the lone “Britisher.” Victory this time was not with the largest battalions. Bull terrier was killing mongrels without mercy or shame, and with as much ease as the terrier had killed rats, and so continuing until four score or more lay dead on the field.

As ranged
Achilles in his fury through the field
From side to side, and everywhere o’ertook
His victims, and earth was dark with blood.

_By chance_, through an opening in the walled fence of the embassy, the secretary was an eye-witness. The natives in numbers, aroused, watched the uneven contest but no one dared to lay hands on the “achilles.” Alarmed over the possible consequences to himself, the secretary rushed to the scene, grabbed Brindle by the collar, led him to the embassy, chained him. A diplomat, the secretary returned to the plaza—explained—expressed regrets—almost _heartbroken_, apologized, but to Miss Barton he confidentially said: “That’s one time I got even with the unspeakable Turk.”

Aghast and horrified had stood the world over the news of the then recent terrible massacres; of the contagious diseases that windswept Asia Minor, leaving thousands and tens of thousands dead and dying in its wake. But proud was America. Her heroine was at the Moslem Capital, the foreign representative of the one country there on guard for humanity. This, her picture of the trip to Killis, the scene of one of the many terrible massacres: “Our security, the official order, ‘Go and we protect,’—camels heavy-laden not with ivory and jewels, gold in the ingots and silk in the bales, but food and raiment for the starving, the sick, the dying. Onward toward dread Killis—the wild tribes’ knives before, the Moslem troops behind—till at length the spires of Aintab rise in view. Weary the camels and weary the men.” In fear that the means might not be at hand to do all she would, in anguish of soul Clara Barton writes to her friend Frances Willard: “My heart would grow faint and words fail to tell the people of the woes here and the needs. In the name of your God and my God, tell them not to be discouraged in the good work they have undertaken.”

She was then on the site of Ancient Byzantium whose history reaches back six hundred years before the Christian Era, a city with its successor Constantinople, the rival of Athens and Rome and Jerusalem, in service to civilization. She might have said, as did the proud Roman General, “I have come, I have seen, I have conquered.” But no word then,—neither before nor since—escaped her lips. She was there, having taken her life in her hands, not thinking of self, knowing no race, no creed, no religion, no nationality; there to distribute to the needy in such a way as an American President said she only knew how.

_Permission D. Appleton & Co._

ABDUL-HAMID
1876–1899

Some months after returning home I received through our State
Department at Washington, the Sultan’s decoration of Shefacat and
its accompanying diploma in Turkish. The translation is here given:
“As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and
distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am
pleased, therefore, to accord to her the second class of my
decorations of Shefacat.” CLARA BARTON (in 1897).

See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 12.
]

Strange and startling must have been the sensation to the Moslem as, on an eventful reunion of the Crusaders, through the open windows of [10]Red Cross headquarters there came from his foreign benefactors, in chorus, strains of sweetest music: “Home, Sweet Home,” of which the native was merely dreaming; “Sweet Land of Liberty,” of which he had only read; “Nearer My God to Thee,” which was wholly foreign to his religious teachings. It was on the patriotic Fourth at Constantinople, at the time of her carrying a message to the Turkish people, that in a poem entitled “Marmora,” of her own country Clara Barton sung:

Footnote 10:

Red Cross work in Turkey is under the name of Red Crescent.

MARMORA

It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea, A thousand in the onward march of human liberty, Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled, Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.

And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong, And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?” The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light; The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.

Four expeditions through Turkey, Armenia and other parts of Asia Minor were planned and successfully carried out. Coasting boats were used to reach the interior, as were caravans of camels over the deserts and other almost waste places—the expeditions supplying the destitute with food, medicine, clothing, seed and farming implements. For this, the greatest undertaking of its kind in history, she was decorated by the Sultan of Turkey, by the Prince of Armenia, and from each of these rulers also she received a Diploma of Merit.

She was then in the hey-day of her popularity. Abdul-Hamid was on the throne of Turkey. Twelve years later the Sultan was dethroned and by his people put into prison. Oh! the irony of fate! About that time she draws this picture: “The Sultan was locked in and I locked out, but my whole country seemed my prison and I struggled to free myself of it.” Unfair the comparison! The “Young Turks” (a political party), representing the people, had dethroned, then imprisoned, Abdul-Hamid. Not so Clara Barton, by her people.

She was dethroned by methods that would shame a Turkish brigand; her prison-keeper was not the people, but

Man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority.

On her return from Turkey Clara Barton was accorded a most wonderful reception at the nation’s Capital, and was acclaimed a world-heroine by the whole American people.

LXXXIX

Clara Barton, friend and counselor of Abraham Lincoln. KATE BROWNLEE
SHERWOOD.

Already the pale messenger waits at the gate, and his weird shadow
falleth near. CLARA BARTON.

Treason must be made odious. ANDREW JOHNSON.

Treason is ever odious. J. HALL.

Treason doth never prosper. SIR JOHN HARRINGTON.

Treason is one of the greatest crimes possible. T. DWIGHT.

Treason seldom dwells with courage. W. SCOTT.

Treason always operates, if possible, by surprise. W. H. SEWARD.

Treason and murder ever kept together as two yoke-devils, sworn to
either’s purposes. HENRY IV.

Washington brought the United States of America into being; Lincoln
made that being immortal. GEORGE H. SMYTHE, JR.

The life of Lincoln should never be passed by in silence by young or
old. DAVID SWING.

His biography is written in blood and tears.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Lincoln—not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul!

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Lincoln now belongs to the ages. EDWIN M. STANTON.

TREASON—LINCOLN ASSASSINATED—GRANT PROTECTS CLARA BARTON

On the evening of the 14th of April, 1865, Clara Barton was at 488½ Seventh Street, Washington, D. C. She saw two men on the opposite side of the street, talking, and then excited men and women running up and down the street. Not long afterwards she heard the footsteps of a man pacing up and down the hall outside of her door, on the third floor. She cautiously opened the door to see who it was. In the hall she saw a sentinel, with his gun, passing—she wanted to know what it was all about. He said that he had been sent there to guard her, but could only tell her that a general massacre was feared. The sentinel stood guard there all night.

The news came sometime in the night that Lincoln had been assassinated, and that there was a plot to assassinate W. H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, U. S. Grant, and Andrew Johnson; that they were protecting her because they felt sure that she was also to be attacked, as she was close to Lincoln. She did not close her eyes in sleep, but paced the floor until morning. In the morning she opened the door and saw another sentinel outside the door. This other sentinel said it would not be safe for her to leave her room; that if she would give him her order for breakfast he would see that it was served; that if she had any letters to mail to pass them out, but she must remain a prisoner for the present.

The first person that came to see her in the morning was a messenger from General Grant—to see if she were all right. Soon after this she heard that Lincoln had died,—another messenger brought her the news. Describing the terrible events of the saddest of all nights at the Capital, Miss Barton said: “I heard a great commotion in the street and looking out the window I saw strong men standing everywhere, crying.” The people still feared there was going to be a general massacre. At the end of three days Miss Barton was told she might leave her room. The body of Lincoln was taken to Philadelphia to lie in state at the old State House, Sixth and Chestnut streets. Miss Barton received a letter from General Grant, asking her to go to Philadelphia. The General sent a companion to accompany her on the trip. Clara Barton attended the memorial in the “City of Brotherly Love,” and there paid her last tribute of respect to her friend, the immortal Lincoln.

XC

It is a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace
for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.

CLARA BARTON.

The thoughtful mind will readily perceive that these responsibilities
incurred by relief societies involve constant vigilance and effort,
during periods of peace. CLARA BARTON.

The Red Cross has stood, unrecognized in the shades of obscurity, all
the eighteen years of its existence among us, waiting for sure, alas,
too sure the touch of war to light up its dark figure, and set in
motion the springs of action. CLARA BARTON.

The fundamental principle of good citizenship is willing acquiescence.
CLARA BARTON.

It will be history by and by to whom Cuba belongs and, while one has
to study to learn past history, it is not worth while to let slip that
which is all the time making history in our day and generation. CLARA
BARTON, in 1874.

With funds, or without, the Red Cross has been first on every field of
disaster. CLARA BARTON.

The cause the American Red Cross is meant to promote stands first in
my affections and desires. CLARA BARTON.

The Cuban field gave the first opportunity to test the co-operation
between the Government and its supplemental hand-maiden, the Red
Cross. CLARA BARTON.

Thirty years of peace had made it strange to all save the veterans,
with their gray beards, and silver-haired matrons of the days of the
old war long since passed into history. Could it be possible that men
were to learn anew (in Cuba)? Were men again to fall and women to
weep? CLARA BARTON.

The able and experienced leadership of the President of the Society,
Miss Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and at the hospital at the
front in Cuba. PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY SENDS CLARA BARTON TO CUBA

President McKinley personally had subscribed $1,000 to a fund to relieve the starving Cubans. He issued an appeal to the American people; the people responded with barely $50,000. Discouraged, he sent for Clara Barton. Not knowing the President’s desire to see her, Private Secretary Pruden told her that the President was very busy, and probably would not be able to see her until the next day. As she was about to leave Major Pruden said: “Wait a minute, Miss Barton, I’ll take your card in.” Returning, Major Pruden said: “Miss Barton, the President wants very much to see you.” Entering, Miss Barton found the President in conference with Secretary of State Day on the very matter of sending her to Cuba, to take charge of furnishing relief to the starving reconcentrados. The conference, which was to have been held next day, was held at once. At this conference Miss Barton outlined a complete plan of action. The plan was approved by the President, but provided only that Miss Barton herself should go to Cuba to take charge of the relief work. The President, in highest appreciation of her, said: “My dear Miss Barton, this is your work; go to the starving Cubans, if you can with your relief ship, and distribute as only you know how.”

In Red Cross relief work through Clara Barton, under her slogan “People’s Help for National Needs,” the uniform policy was _not to sell_, but _to distribute_. In Cuba when “Teddy the Rough Rider,” with money in his pocket and a gunny sack over his shoulders, in behalf of his soldiers ill and in distress, appeared at the door of her tent _to buy_, Clara Barton said: “Colonel, we have nothing to sell. What do your boys need? We have food and clothing to give away.” Recently commenting on that policy, an editorial writer says: “That its members should know neither friend nor foe, but serve all alike in fields of war and in camps of sickness, was the essence and spirit of the Red Cross which Clara Barton founded.”

© _Harris & Ewing_

WILLIAM R. DAY

In the troublesome times preceding and following the outbreak of the
Spanish-American War, I learned to know how valuable the services of
Clara Barton have been to her country.—WILLIAM R. DAY, Associate
Justice, U. S. Supreme Court; the Secretary of State under President
McKinley.
]

XCI

Everything Clara Barton did was performed in a masterly and
businesslike way. _New York Examiner._

Clara Barton possessed rare executive ability.

Boston (Mass.) _Journal_.

Clara Barton—her strong and capable hands—her clear and logical
brain—her systematic methods. Boston (Mass.) _Globe_.

Is it not the finest kind of glory that when the American Red Cross is
seen the name of Clara Barton comes to the mind like a benediction.
New York (N. Y.) _Sun_.

The world lost in Clara Barton a great lawyer when it gained a
whole-souled philanthropist. ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY, Attorney for
American Red Cross.

Had Clara Barton belonged to the other sex, she would have been a
merchant prince, a great general, or a trusted political leader.

DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS.

Clara Barton’s herculean work was done with means that most men would
scorn as too trivial to begin a work with.

ALICE HUBBARD—In _The Fra_.

Our methods are based upon strict business principles.

CLARA BARTON, President Red Cross.

No donor to, nor recipient of, Red Cross relief ever criticised Clara
Barton’s bookkeeping. CORRA BACON-FOSTER, Author.

After each event a financial statement has been prepared showing in
full detail both receipts and expenditures. Every donation of money
sent to the field and every one of the supplies, so far as could be
identified, has had individual acknowledgment.

Red Cross Committee,
By WALTER P. PHILLIPS, _Chairman_.
SAMUEL L. JARVIS,
J. B. HUBBELL,
House Document, No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th Congress.

_In re_ Clara Barton’s business methods,—although the exigencies of
the situation rendered the distribution one of great difficulty, it
has been done so wisely, prudently and effectively, as not only to
accomplish its purpose but to excite the admiration of all who are
personally conversant with it. Red Cross Committee, in Official
Communication to Congress, House Document, No. 552, Vol. 49, 58th
Congress.

The Red Cross has set in motion the wheels of relief at a moment’s
warning over the whole land. CLARA BARTON.

It has been my custom, as the head of the organization which has grown
up around me, to reach a field of great disaster in the shortest
possible time, regarding neither weather, night, nor Sunday.

CLARA BARTON.

IN DETAILS—CLARA BARTON, A BUSINESS MANAGER—WORLD’S RECORD

On Christmas Eve, 1899, there arrived for Clara Barton at her Glen Echo home, besides letters, more than a bushel basket full of presents. These presents were from various parts of the world. One of them from Cuba was a large cocoanut with her name and address burned with a hot iron, the cocoanut plastered with postage stamps. The other presents were in packages. From these her secretary commenced to cut the strings. “Don’t do that, General; untie the strings. I save all the strings; we may need them.” Following her custom the General then untied the strings, looped the ends together in every case and so continuing until each bunch was about six inches long; then he tied the bunches respectively with a loose bow-knot. All the bunches so arranged were then taken upstairs into one of the small rooms of the house and there hung on nails for future use. Red, white, and blue strings to the number of perhaps thousands were thus hung on the row of nails on the wall, the whole length of the room. Whenever a string of a certain length was wanted she would take from the nail a bunch of the length needed at that particular time.

Equally methodical was she with wrapping paper. She ironed out the paper and folded it, placing the papers respectively on shelves; the papers likewise were classified as to size, and this including corrugated paper. She would remind her assistants that it is not the value of the strings and the paper but the certain need of them; and being saved and thus classified, time would be saved when the need came. Spools of thread, needles, thimbles, hosiery, garments, shoes, or whatever else used by her in her work, were in like manner classified and through a system as nearly perfect as in the best arranged store in the world.

In 1893 occurred the Sea Islands Hurricane and Tidal Wave Disaster. Thirty thousand people were homeless in consequence. Clara Barton, with her four Red Cross assistants, was in charge. Admiral Beardslee, of the U. S. Navy, volunteered as a “helper.” He made notes, and later a report, on the Red Cross work there. He reported that for a desk Clara Barton had a dry goods box; for a bed, a cot; that she had systematic and businesslike methods; that books were kept and every penny, or penny’s worth, were accounted for;—that what had been contributed by the people was honestly and intelligently placed where it would do most good.

General Leonard F. Ross, of Civil War record and of large affairs, was in Cuba at the sinking of the “Maine.” Clara Barton accepted his proffered services as superintendent of the warehouse. The General said Miss Barton had a perfect business system—such a system as he had not seen equalled. General W. R. Shafter, in charge of the American forces in the Spanish-American War, commending Clara Barton, said that in relieving distress and saving life no Governmental red tape system could possibly be as effective as Clara Barton’s sensible, business methods, in Cuba. United States Senator Redfield Proctor was not only a statesman but also a business man, handling successfully millions of dollars in business annually. He was chairman of the Senate Committee, to make investigations in Cuba. In his official report, in his speech to the Senate, he eulogized Clara Barton in highest terms. The Senator told the Senate that Clara Barton could give him points in business; that she needed no commendation from him; that he found in her conduct of the business affairs of the Red Cross there was nothing to criticise, but everything to commend her to the American people.

The storm and tidal wave had struck Galveston. Clara Barton received the news in the evening. A moment’s warning was all that was necessary. At once she took counsel with her secretary. “General, what are we going to?”

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER

There has been inaugurated by Clara Barton a system of economy that
will save ten thousand dollars, within a year of her
administration.—BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, Governor of Massachusetts,
1881–1882; Major-General Civil War; U. S. Congress, 1867–1875;
1877–1879. See pages 359; 364.
]

HER BUSINESS RECORD

FRANCIS ATWATER

Clara Barton had rare business qualifications. No person existed more
scrupulously honest, as I know from having been her financial
adviser for nearly forty years. There was no time in her life when
she was not doing good. A wonderful woman!—FRANCIS ATWATER, State
Senator in 1906, Connecticut; Journalist. See pages 323; 359.
]

LEONARD F. ROSS

In Cuba, Clara Barton had a perfect business system, such as I have
never seen equalled.—LEONARD F. ROSS, Brigadier-General, Civil War;
Superintendent of Red Cross Warehouse in Cuba, 1898, under Clara
Barton.

General Ross is one of the most gracious, courteous gentlemen I have
ever known.—CLARA BARTON. See page 359.
]

REDFIELD PROCTOR

I especially looked into Clara Barton’s business methods, as to
system, waste and extravagance. I found nothing to criticise, but
everything to commend. She could teach me on these points.—REDFIELD
PROCTOR, Colonel in the Civil War; Governor of Vermont; member of
the U. S. Senate, 1891–1908; Chairman Red Cross Proctor Committee to
“investigate” Clara Barton.

See page 359.
]

Secretary: “Well, Miss Barton, we are going to an awful scene of death and destruction.”

Miss Barton: “Yes, but what are we going to; we are going to nothing, aren’t we?”

Secretary: “I suppose we are, Miss Barton.”

Miss Barton: “Why, at Johnstown I hunted a half day and couldn’t find a thimble with which to do some sewing. Here, General, take these keys and go through the house and whenever you find anything that can be used _where there is nothing_, you pack it up.”

The secretary took the keys, went through the house of thirty-eight rooms and seventy-six closets. He found carefully stored away supplies of every description. He found packing-chests, trunks, valises and telescopes all ready for use—everything imaginable at hand. Miss Barton and her secretary worked all night. The next morning two great dray-loads of goods were _en route_ to the railway station, and Galveston. Arriving at Galveston she asked: “Mr. Mayor, have ward committees been organized?”

Mayor Jones: “No, Miss Barton.”

Miss Barton: “How many wards are there in the city?”

Mayor Jones: “Twelve.”

Miss Barton: “Do go at once and organize strong committees in every ward; provide ward headquarters, and a store-room where every ward committee can take charge of supplies furnished. Have your ward committees canvass every ward thoroughly and get the name of every person and what he needs—the food necessary and in case of clothing the exact size of the clothing. Then have your committees make requisition for what is needed on the Red Cross at its headquarters. My corps of helpers will see that these requisitions are promptly filled, and the goods sent to ward headquarters for distribution.”

Miss Barton then said to her helpers: “_Now we must work!_ Mr. Lewis, you go at once and secure a good saddle-horse, and direct the organization of Mayor Jones’ ward committees. General Sears, you go into the city and secure a headquarters building for the Red Cross. Mr. Talmage, you go to Houston and stay there until every delayed Red Cross car is forwarded to Galveston. Major McDowell, you go to the headquarters to take charge of the unpacking, the classifying, and the issuing of the supplies. Mr. Ward, you will go with Major McDowell to open up an office at the headquarters. Keep a careful book account of the receipts of all supplies and moneys. Mr. Marsh, you will go with Mr. Ward, to be his assistant. Mrs. Ward, you will stay by me to take such directions as I may have to give you from time to time. Miss Coombs, you are to be my stenographer and typewriter—you’ll find plenty to do to keep busy. Miss Spradling (a trained nurse), you arrange proper space for the opening up of an orphanage at headquarters building, then gather up all the homeless, uncared-for orphans in the city and take care of them. Every person in charge of work is expected to report to me daily, and hourly if necessary.” In less time than it takes the military commander to get his columns into action the woman, who had “the command of a general,” had humanity’s forces on the “firing line.”

Clara Barton possessed in the highest degree the elements necessary to succeed in business. She had the mental grasp of a great enterprise; she had executive ability; she inspired confidence in those serving with her; she was methodical in attention to details—without a superior in the business world; she was economical in her personal expenditures, exacting like economy on the part of her assistants;—ever anticipating the future by making wise provision. When much was at stake, and means necessary to accomplish her purposes, she was without limit as to expenditures. These elements, combined in her, gave to her the power she swayed as the business head of a great corporation.

The measure of success is the measure of the capacity for achievement. It was on her nursing record in the Civil War that she made her national reputation; on her business record, her world reputation. She was not a Hetty Green in a bank account, for she invested in the field of humanity, not of finance; but her genius shone in handling, unerringly, a great business enterprise, her record far surpassing that of the woman-wizard of Wall Street. By American Presidents, by commanders of armies, by statesmen, by financiers, by her co-workers, without an exception who were with her on fields of war and disaster, she was commended for her business acumen, business methods, and in the results obtained. From previous knowledge, from personal observation at the Galveston flood, from having, within the past five years, spent many months in her Glen Echo Red Cross home, with the accountants who were going through her business records and assisting myself in the work, I speak what I do know.

She did not come into the business world panoplied as from the head of a Jupiter, her record was not temporary camouflage; it is a record of years; nor was it solely through the heart, for other women have hearts. Clara Barton had genius, “the power of meeting and overcoming the unexpected;” had genius for work, and through work comes genius. Her business record is as firmly established as is that of her heart record; as is that of the great “captains of industry” and, as theirs, is based on _methods and success_, the only known data for such determination. In the use of her approved methods in continuous service for twenty-three years, she was without one record-failure, achieving success under varied and most trying conditions.

It is said of her by one writer, “a woman of great force of character;” by another, from the results accomplished and without prejudice toward womankind in the business world, “one of the world’s greatest personages, for greatness knows no sex;” by another, as shown in her capacity to do things, “she must be classed as a genius, for genius is the intuitive capacity for overcoming insurmountable difficulties.”

Clara Barton’s twenty-three years as the Executive Head of the Red Cross; her collection and distribution of two and one-half millions of money and material; her unanimous election three times to the Red Cross presidency for life, on her business record, is without precedent. She might have been a _Merchant Prince_; she could teach one of America’s most successful business men on _business points_; she excited _the admiration of all who were acquainted with her business methods_. Some day some man or woman may appear as her rival on the horizon of the business world but, up to the present time as an unpaid executive with unpaid helpers, Clara Barton holds the world’s record as Business Manager, in public service.

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Dedicated to the Heroic Women of the Civil War.

Cost $800,000.00—$400,000 by Congress; $400,000 by Friends of the Red
Cross (Mrs. Russell Sage, $150,000, Rockefeller Foundation,
$100,000, James A. Scrymser, $100,000, Mrs. E. H. Harriman,
$50,000).

One and one-half million of names were represented on the petition
memorializing the 65th Congress to place a Clara Barton tablet in
the new Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C.—CORRA BACON-FOSTER,
author of _Clara Barton, Humanitarian_.

Clara Barton, “Her character eternally crystallized at the base of an
enduring foundation and an immortal American destiny—the greatest an
American woman has yet produced.”—HON. HENRY BRECKENRIDGE, Acting
Secretary of War, at the laying of the corner stone of the American
Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C., March 15, 1915.
]

XCII

Honor any requisition Clara Barton makes; she outranks me.

GENERAL B. F. BUTLER.

The Jury passing on the prisoner’s life may in the sworn twelve have a
thief or two guiltier than him they try. SHAKESPEARE.

A felon’s cell—
The fittest earthly type of hell. WHITTIER.

Prison—the living grave of Crime. JOAQUIN MILLER.

Prison—Young Crime’s finishing school. MRS. BULFOUR.

Every penitentiary should be a real reformatory—the discipline of the
average prison hardens and degrades—the criminal should be treated
with kindness. R. G. INGERSOLL.

Even the most obstinate yields to the rule of kindness, firmly and
steadily administered. CLARA BARTON.

SUPERINTENDENT OF WOMAN’S PRISON

There is a woman’s prison, supported by the state at Sherborn, Massachusetts. Its condition had been unsatisfactory. Governor Ben F. Butler[11] sent for Miss Barton, and begged her to accept its superintendency. He said: “I ask it as a personal favor.” “But, if I accept, Governor, what would be required of me?” “Well, it will be necessary first for you to put up a ten thousand dollar bond.” “Would you accept a cash bond, Governor?” “Of course,” he replied. And she put up the bond.

Footnote 11:

At a public reception in honor of Miss Barton a few years after the
Civil War, the wife of a Massachusetts Congressman, addressing General
Benjamin F. Butler, said: “How wonderfully well Miss Barton looks in
her evening dress! What beautiful arms and shoulders she has!” General
Butler replied: “Yes, I have seen those arms red with human blood to
the shoulders.”

The ten thousand dollars was not in the “coin of the realm”; it was in railroad bonds, then above par. The governor had enemies who at no time closed their eyes to his faults, real or imaginary; but he also had adherents, who were his “friends to a fault.” It was reported that the governor had accepted her personal bond. His enemies adversely criticized the waiving of the requirements of the law in her case. His friends justified the official conduct of the executive, protesting that Miss Barton’s personal bond was good anywhere. While the agitation of the public mind over the bond was at its height, the governor paid an official visit at the prison. On the issue pending the governor to Miss Barton made this comment: “If the good Lord would only protect me from my ‘fool friends,’ I could take care of my enemies myself.”

Her executive ability and methodical work soon showed results. Discipline and economy had transformed the prison. Instead of insubordination, there was obedience; instead of wastage, there was frugality. The Governor and his Council paid the institution an official visit. In a public address delivered shortly after this at Springfield, the Governor said: “I’ll tell you that the _Prison Is In a Thorough Condition_, and there has been inaugurated there a system of economy that will save $10,000 within a year of her administration.”

XCIII

America’s foremost woman. Houghton (Mich.) _Gazette_.

Clara Barton’s, a career which has no parallel in American history.
Cleveland (Ohio) _Plain Dealer_.

Clara Barton—in citizenship, the memory of her career must remain a
rich heritage to the people of this country.

Portland (Ore.) _Telegram_.

Clara Barton’s Red Cross achievements are monumental, and because of
the corner-stone she laid the present superstructure will endure. Her
name is the synonym for the American Red Cross as it was, and as it
is. B. F. TILLINGHAST, Delegate to the International Red Cross
Conference at St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1902.

Destiny is the decree of God. A. CUNNINGHAM.

Destiny cannot be avoided. G. COWPAY.

Destiny bears us to our lot. DISRAELI.

Who can turn the stream of destiny? SPENCER.

In your own bosom are your destiny’s stars. COLERIDGE.

How circumscribed is woman’s destiny. GOETHE.

Let a woman steer straight onward to the fulfillment of her own
destiny. MRS. EMMA R. COLE.

Clara Barton—one of the immortals. _Brooklyn Citizen._

Quaff immortality. JOHN MILTON.

Born of immortality. WORDSWORTH.

This longing after immortality. ADDISON.

I have an immortal longing in me. SHAKESPEARE.

Immortality! We bow before the very term, Immortality!

GEORGE DOUGLAS.

’Tis immortality to die aspiring. CHAPMAN.

No one could meet death for his country without the hope of
immortality. CICERO.

Clara Barton—she earned immortality.

Boston (Mass.) _Herald_.

She passes through the portals of immortality.

Joplin (Mo.) _Globe_.

Rest thee among the immortal names that were not born to die.

Rutland (Vermont) _Herald_.

He is truly great that is great in charity.

THOMAS À KEMPIS.

The most useful is the greatest. THEODORE PARKER.

Great names stand not alone for great deeds. HENRY GILES.

He who does the most good is the greatest. BISHOP JARTIN.

He only is great at heart who floods the world with a great affection.
ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK.

As the stars are the glory of the sky, so great men are the glory of
their country; yea, of the whole earth. HEINE.

Greatness is nothing unless it is lasting. NAPOLEON.

On eagle’s wings immortal scandals fly. STEPHEN HARVEY.

To reproach is a concomitant to greatness, as satire and invectives
were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

Such is the destiny of great men that their superior genius always
exposes them to the butt of the envenomed darts of calumny and envy.
VOLTAIRE.

America has her Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lees, and others whose names
are written down in the hearts of all Americans, but Clara Barton
accomplished a work compared with which the career of generals fade in
the distance as a shadow.

Pensacola (Fla.) _Journal_.

GREATNESS—AN IMMORTAL AMERICAN DESTINY—IMMORTALITY

From a speech by Honorable Henry Breckenridge, Acting Secretary of
War, representing the United States Government, at the laying of the
corner-stone of the American Red Cross Building, at Washington, D. C,
March 27, 1915.

To every soldier who fought in the Union Army, and survived the war, the name of Clara Barton was known. And as long as the American Red Cross endures or its name is remembered the memory of Clara Barton will be cherished. Her sympathies were universal, her zeal unflagging. She nursed the wounded of two wars on the continents, in our Civil War and in the Franco-Prussian War. She directed the work of her association to the calamities of peace, as well as the stricken fields of war. She was in Cuba before the Spanish War—was on the “Maine” the day before it was blown up, and tended the wounded survivors in the hospital ashore. Wherever humanity called for help—in the Balkans or in Strasburg—in Cuba or in Galveston—in Paris or on the American battlefields of the sixties—there came the ministering hand of Clara Barton.

To take an historical perspective, disfavor with a temporary and passing administration means nothing in the end to a name as great and a career as long as Clara Barton’s, as this estimate shows. For a while it may mean on both sides much misconstruction and suffering, but in the end this is forgotten and the fame remains undimmed.

Florence Nightingale, at the Crimea, England’s great introducer into the world of the system of women hospital nurses, was actually so ignored by a subsequent English ministry that, though a poor invalid, she was ousted from her minor position in a Governmental office. It caused her intense pain, and although a chronic sufferer from her many labors, she saw herself ignominiously thrown out by new political leaders who, great as they were, could not understand her. But when she became an octogenarian, all this became a buried incident, and all England a few years ago bent to do her homage, when the Lord Mayor of London granted her the freedom of the city, and the Golden Casket, England’s highest of honors. Now, since her death, a monument is being erected and nothing is considered too good to let Great Britain make her memory green in the British Isles.

Thus will perish the temporary unhappy misunderstanding and misconstruction of 1902–1904, through which Clara Barton suffered. In the atoning stream that swallows time’s ticking seconds of little troubles, its unessentials will be dissolved. Indeed, as demonstrated in nearly 3000 American newspapers in 1912, they have already been dissolved, leaving her character and career eternally crystallized at the base of an enduring national foundation and an immortal American destiny—the greatest an American woman has yet produced.

© _Harris & Ewing_

HENRY BRECKENRIDGE

So long as the American Red Cross endures, and its name is remembered,
the memory of Clara Barton will be cherished.—HENRY BRECKENRIDGE, of
Kentucky. Orator of the Day, Assistant Secretary of War,
representing the U. S. Government at the laying of the corner stone
of the Red Cross Building at Washington, D. C., March 17, 1915;
Lieutenant-Colonel World War.

See page 368.
]

XCIV

Clara Barton has built an imperishable monument for herself in the
hearts of the people of all creeds. Dallas (Texas) _Herald_.

Clara Barton—her deeds lend honor to her country’s fame.

_The Outlook._

Clara Barton—the embodiment of one vital principle of all creeds, the
love of humanity. _Detroit Free Press._

Before her gentle assault the steel walls of religious prejudice and
race hatred melted like a mist. Leadville (Colo.) _Herald_.

Put your Creed in your Deed. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

Souls in Heaven are placed by their deeds. ROBERT GREENE.

Things of today? Deeds which are honest, for eternity.

EBENEZER ELLIOTT.

Truly does the Hindoo say, with averted face: “God only is great.”
CLARA BARTON.

Without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God.
A. LINCOLN.

Each of the great religions of the world seems to have some good in
it. BISHOP W. F. MCDOWELL.

God bless all the Churches. A. LINCOLN.

I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. A. LINCOLN.

There are few people who have memories of harder Church work and
better Church love than I. CLARA BARTON.

In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say that it is the best
gift that God has given to man. A. LINCOLN.

What sensations can possess the mind but wonder and adoration for the
power of Almighty God, and a humble gratitude that no words can speak.
CLARA BARTON.

You believe that God is a Divine Immanence; you believe that God is
now communicating himself to humanity and that his loving Presence is
here now as ever. Why, then, can’t you call up a direct relationship,
rather than going around to the uncertain allusions of Theodore
Parker? CLARA BARTON.

In the Universalist Church at Oxford, where Clara Barton attended
Church, there is carefully preserved the pulpit in which the famous
Reverend Hosea Ballou was ordained in 1794.

THE AUTHOR.

Reverend Father Tyler, a memorable Universalist minister, who
officiated at the funerals of Father and Mother Barton, on the
occasion of her funeral pronounced also at the grave a memorial
tribute to Clara. Among her religious friends also were Hosea Ballou,
Phillips Brooks, Mary Baker Eddy, Archbishops Gibbons and Ireland. THE
AUTHOR.

I firmly believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Jesus of
Nazareth, in His life and death, His suffering to save the world from
sin, so far as in His power to do so. But it would be difficult for me
to stop there, and believe that this spirit of divinity was accorded
to none others of God’s creation who, like the Master, took on the
living form and, like Him, lived the human life.

CLARA BARTON.

Miss Barton does not wait and “wish to be an angel.” She goes right
about it. A visible, substantial, present angel she is—a “ministering
spirit.” W. H. ARMSTRONG.

Over all, spreading its Aegis like a benediction is the great mantle
of Christianity, wrapping all in its beneficent folds.

CLARA BARTON.

WHAT WAS HER RELIGION?

Was Clara Barton a Church woman? Of herself she says: “There are few people who have memories of harder Church work and better Church love than I; I have never lost my love for the old Church of my Fathers, my family and my childhood.”

Was she a Mormon? A friend of the Mormons, and one of the biggest receptions ever tendered to her was in the tabernacle at Salt Lake City, by the Mormons of Utah. Was she a Mohammedan? She was most cordially received by the Mohammedans, and decorated by the Sultan of Turkey. Was she a Spiritualist? She attended spiritualistic meetings, studied the cult, consulted mediums, and mingled with spiritualists. Commenting on the fact, claimed, that spiritual communications occur between those of this world and those of the other world, she said: “I am more and more filled with wonder how these things can be” but—“I hope so.”

Was she a Catholic? She frequently attended the Catholic Church, and counted among her friends Sisters of Mercy, Priests, Bishops, and Archbishops. Was she a Congregationalist? She attended that Church at times. Several Congregational ministers officiated at the funeral, and a beautiful Clara Barton window is preserved in the Congregational Church at Oxford. Was she a Methodist? She attended the Methodist Church, and the Methodists now use Clara Barton leaflets, and other Clara Barton literature, in their Sunday Schools throughout the country.

Was she a Christian Scientist? She said: “I do not know enough to be one, nor to understand it,” but she also said: “I cannot see why Universalists should not become Christian Scientists.” She attended the Christian Science Church for three years, but a leading scientist editor said: “We do not claim her, nor do I think any other Church can claim her.” Was she a Universalist? She was reared a Universalist, and in her youth attended the Universalist Church where the famous divine, Hosea Ballou, was pastor and she also requested a Universalist pastor to assist in officiating at her funeral.

She attended other Churches, and ministers of several denominations officiated at her funeral. Clara Barton says: “I am not what the world denominates a Church woman; I was born to liberal views, and have lived a liberal creed.”

But really what was her religion? “Perplexed in faith but pure in deeds,” Clara Barton, to the annoying question so often asked by the curious, answered: “I am a well disposed pagan.”

XCV

I never had a mission and I don’t know what I should do with one, if I
had it. CLARA BARTON.

We all tumble over opportunities for being brave and good, at every
step we take. Life is just made up of such opportunities.

CLARA BARTON.

Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.

A. LINCOLN.

There are other altars than that of Venus on which to light your
fires—work, incessant, hard, earnest work. SIR WILLIAM OSLER.

How much of the sweets of life one loses in the rush of it.

CLARA BARTON.

I lost two months entire, but the time went on and spun its web each
day. CLARA BARTON.

The gray haired military chieftain, whom all would recognize were I to
name him, was correct when he once said to me: “Strange as it may
seem, the days of ‘rest’ at the field are the hardest days.”

CLARA BARTON.

I always had a passion for service. CLARA BARTON.

Honest labor bears a lovely face. THOMAS DECKER.

Labor: All labor is noble and holy. FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD.

Work ye, and God will work. JOAN OF ARC.

Life is a great bundle of little things. O. W. HOLMES.

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little
things. SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.

Nothing is of greater value than a single day. GOETHE.

Life is but a day at most. BURNS.

Life is a short day, but it is a working day. HANNAH MOORE.

Living is doing. CLARA BARTON.

“Even while we say there is nothing we can do, we stumble over
opportunities for service that we are passing by in our tear-blinded,
self-pity.” CLARA BARTON.

I have had more work than I could do lying _around my feet_, and try
to get it out of my way so I can go on to the next.

CLARA BARTON.

There is but one method, and that is hard labor.

SIDNEY SMITH.

If God works, Madam, you can afford to work also.

JULIA WARD HOWE.

Clara Barton was a worker from infancy. She gave to the world nearly a
century of work, taking neither vacation nor recreation.

ALICE HUBBARD.

Women, always—as a rule—have worked harder than men.

CLARA BARTON.

I do hope I may live long enough to get the story of my life and my
life’s work in shape for publication. I am doing this ill in bed (at
90 years of age), sometimes working until two or three o’clock in the
morning. CLARA BARTON.

ONE DAY WITH CLARA BARTON

How so much was accomplished in the lifetime of one woman may be understood by reading “One Day with Clara Barton,” as described by herself in a personal letter to a friend:

“How shall I manage to be a woman of business, and act like a lady of leisure? How strangely odd it seemed to me when I read your pretty description of how your time was passed, that you could dress for breakfast, help do some little things about the house, get ready for tea and walk after it. When _did_ I see such days, or even _one_ such day. If it would not take too long I could tell you something of how I pass a day. Let me try; and as one day is a fair sample of another, suppose I take yesterday as I remember it better than any other. Well, let me brush up my hair and try to think. First, I rose when I could see to dress, I suppose a little past four, went into my bath room, and bathed thoroughly in preparation for a scorching day and partly made my toilet; then read my chapter in the scriptures by _myself_, and offered my own prayer and thanksgiving (no family service to unite in like you, and I have too much of the dust of old Plymouth Rock sticking to me to omit it); then finished a hurried toilet, and sat down to a French lesson at half past six; went to my breakfast at seven, commenced my French recitation, lasted until eight; after this put my chamber and myself in order and started for the office; called on my dress-maker on my way and tried on a dress; called at the post office and found one business letter; and reached the office at nine; distance little over a mile, and then commenced the tug of war. I wrote until three o’clock P. M., took an omnibus home, took my writing, or a portion of it, along with me (don’t tell; it’s against the rule), reached home at three-thirty, took a hurried bath, went to dinner and at four-thirty was seated at my table writing for my life. Did not leave my room again, or scarce arose from my table until twelve o’clock, when I retired and slept as fast and hard as I could until daylight in preparation for a repetition of the same. Perhaps you wish, or are curious, to know how much I accomplished in all that time. Ten thousand words of bold round record which must live and be legible when the mound which once covered me shall have become a hollow and the moss-covered headstone, with ‘born’ and ‘died’ no longer to be traced upon its time-worn front shall have buried itself beneath the kindred turf.”

Working twenty hours out of the twenty-four would give almost any woman the reputation of being a _genius_. Thinking the woman who had done things held the secret of woman’s success, a touring party of ambitious young ladies called on Clara Barton, in her later years, at Glen Echo. The following conversation took place:

Vassar Girl—Miss Barton, these other ladies and myself called to pay our respects. We have heard much of you since we were little girls. A few weeks ago, in the class of ——, we graduated from Vassar College. We, as you have done, wish to do some good in the world. We cannot decide what we should do; we want your advice.

Clara Barton—My dear young lady, do the first thing that comes to your hand. Do it well. Then do the next thing. Do that well. Then do the next thing, just so keep on doing——.

Clara Barton then pinned a Red Cross badge on each of these young ladies, the happiest visitors when leaving, says Miss Barton’s secretary, that he had ever seen in that “house of rough hemlock boards.”

XCVI

Finally Clara Barton was forced out of her position in May, 1904.

_New York Examiner._

Clara Barton—antagonism she encountered. But in all of them she bore
herself with a poise that lost for her no friends.