Part 51

“Clara Barton has never sought it. In 1873, invalided and entirely prostrated, Miss Barton returned to America, promising to use her influence with the government to open the Red Cross treaty. Her health entirely failing her, it was 1877 when she was able to call for the documents lying unused in our State Department; the communications were all in foreign languages, and they seemed almost incomprehensible to the American mind.

“From the year 1877 to 1881, we see Miss Barton in a new rôle. She translated, wrote, published, and lectured, all at her own expense, trying to educate some minds into the work of the Red Cross. In constant communication with the heads of foreign governments, with the eyes of all of them watching and waiting for the success of this patient, earnest, pleading woman with her stubborn nation, ready to publish the least progress in her task, it was not until 1881, at the commencement of President Garfield’s administration, that her labors had any success. President Garfield and his Cabinet listened, comprehended, and approved.

“President Arthur faithfully carried out his noble predecessor’s idea. After one year’s consideration, during which Miss Barton personally explained, before the Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Relations, the work of the Red Cross, the United States unanimously acceded to the Treaty of Geneva.

“Since the adhesion of the United States to this treaty, there have been two International Conferences, to which Congress appointed Miss Barton as chief delegate to represent the United States. The conferences were composed of delegates sent by the heads of the nations adhering to the treaty. The first conference met in Paris, the second in Berlin, the third in Geneva, the fourth in Carlsruhe. Miss Barton was present at the two latter.

“The legal application of the Red Cross to great national calamities, already referred to as the American Amendment to the Red Cross, is the work of Clara Barton.

“The practical demonstrations of the administrations of the American Amendment, which Miss Barton has had to lead in and carry on, are: First, in the relief work of the Michigan forest fires; second, in the overflow of the Mississippi River in 1882; third, in the cyclone of Louisiana in 1883, and the floods of the Ohio River in the same year; fifth, in the overflow of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in 1884. In the drought of Texas in 1886. In the Mount Vernon cyclone, Ill., in 1887. In the yellow fever pestilence of Florida. And in 1889, when the world received the shock of the Johnstown horror, we see this wonderful being, like some subtle, silent, force, appearing noiselessly on a scene of such horrors as a Dante never conceived, and by the power of her will and a remarkable endurance, as if by the hand of an enchantress, work order out of horror and chaos, restoring life and comfort where all was before desolation and death!

“These feeble words are all I can now say in this brief way of the work of Clara Barton—_The Woman_ in the Red Cross!”

Footnote 220:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 221:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 222:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 223:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 224:

Statistics of 1886–87.

Footnote 225:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 226:

Colored.

Footnote 227:

Majority of the pupils are colored.

Footnote 228:

Statistics of 1887–88.

Footnote 229:

Colored.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● The caret (^) serves as a superscript indicator, applicable to individual characters (like 2^d) and even entire phrases (like 1^{st}).