submission and her foes stand rebuked. There is no such person left, no
such mind, no such ability. Long ago I said she was our greatest living
woman; I now say she is our greatest dead.”
LX
Clara Barton has given us a constant lesson in thrift. She lived so
simply that at her desk, at work, a piece of bread and cheese and one
apple was her dinner; a frugal supper and a most abstemious breakfast.
ALICE HUBBARD.
Count Tolstoi gave up his whole time to mitigating the suffering
caused by the Russian famine. CLARA BARTON.
The simple needs being the only true needs, their satisfaction alone
is guaranteed. TOLSTOI.
The satisfaction of all simple, normal wants is guaranteed to men as
it is to the bird and the flower. TOLSTOI.
The brave soul rates itself too high to value itself by the splendor
of its table and draperies. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
Economy, prudence, and the simple life are the sure masters of need.
CLARA BARTON.
LIKE TOLSTOI SHE LIVED THE SIMPLE LIFE
Clara Barton’s food was of the simplest. Costly food, even at another’s
expense, she could not enjoy; eating costly food, to her, seemed a sin.
For breakfast, her first choice of menu was a dish of graham mush, with
milk and fruit; her second choice, meal grains and vegetables, with
simple accompaniments.
[Illustration:
COUNT LYOF NIKOLAYEVITCH TOLSTOI
I would like to visit the United States, but I would want to spend the
time among the farmers. Give Clara Barton my love; I feel that we
are related.—COUNT LYOF NIKOLAYEVITCH TOLSTOI.
]
CO-WORKERS WITH CLARA BARTON
[Illustration:
DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS
Miss Barton, I trust you will press this (Red Cross) matter upon our
present administration with all the might of your well-earned
influence.—DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS (November 21, 1881). Ex-Chairman, U.
S. Sanitary Commission.
]
[Illustration:
DR. JULIAN B. HUBBELL
Clara Barton was scrupulously honest, severely economical in her
personal needs, always sacrificing self for others, and her simple
life in her home was as beautiful as her public life.—DR. JULIAN B.
HUBBELL, Clara Barton’s physician and co-worker in the field for
thirty years.
]
A favorite meal was bread, cheese and a Rhode Island Greening Apple. Two
meals a day satisfied, and nothing eaten between meals. No tea, no
coffee, no substitutes, and no wine. A bottle of wine presented by a
friend would last from one year to five years. There is now a bottle of
Bordeaux, in her old home at Glen Echo, that has been there for
twenty-five years. Like Tolstoi, she was a vegetarian, and an advocate
of “low fare”; but, like Tolstoi, she did not so much as advise the
household of which she was a member what to eat, or how much to eat.
Like Tolstoi, Clara Barton lived the simple life, but did not impose her
philosophy upon others; like Tolstoi, she lived to a ripe old age,
endured persecution, and served the human race. So much in common were
their habits of living, and their philosophy of human life, that
Tolstoi, in sending his love to Clara Barton, said: “I feel that we are
related.”
LXI
Two Angels—God’s sweet gifts, one of the Old World, one of the New.—E.
MAY GLENN TOON.
Just as Florence Nightingale was “The Angel of Crimea,” so Clara
Barton was “The Angel of the World’s Battlefields.”
_Boston Transcript._
Florence Nightingale, who introduced into the world a system of women
hospital nurses, was ousted from her Governmental position, she then
being an invalid. Later the treatment accorded to her by England was
made a national issue, and on that issue her admirers and friends
overwhelmingly won. THE AUTHOR.
At the unveiling of the Florence Nightingale Memorial in the Crypt of
St. Paul’s Cathedral, as she pulled the cord revealing the beautiful
sculpture, Queen Victoria said: “I have great pleasure in unveiling
this memorial.” THE AUTHOR.
Although unknown to each other save in name, the “Lady of the Lamp”
and the “Angel of the Battlefield” were indeed sisters.
CONSTANCE WAKEFORD.
When Florence Nightingale labored among the sick and wounded at
Scutari, Clara Barton was still writing beautiful “copper-plate style”
in the office at Washington. ENGLISH AUTHOR.
When Florence Nightingale had safely returned to her lovely home in
England, the great call came to Clara Barton away on the other side of
the Atlantic. ENGLISH AUTHOR.
For half a century we have thanked God for what Florence Nightingale
has wrought and taught. CONSTANCE WAKEFORD.
Clara Barton’s personal devotion had already planted the idea of the
Red Cross in the heart of the American people better than any official
bureau could do. _Heroines of Modern Progress._
I will not speak of reward when permitted to do our country’s work—it
is what we live for. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
What is money without a country! CLARA BARTON.
CLARA BARTON—FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
Clara Barton was born in 1821 and lived to be ninety-one years of age.
Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 and lived to be ninety years of
age.
Clara Barton lived her long life without marrying; Florence Nightingale
likewise lived her long life without marrying.
Clara Barton is known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”; Florence
Nightingale, as the “Lady of the Lamp.”
Although they were strangers to each other, they are known as, indeed,
sisters.
Clara Barton had the distinction of being born on Christmas and passing
away on Easter; Florence Nightingale had the distinction of having for a
name the name of a stately city and a sweet-voiced bird.
Clara Barton as a nurse had her first experience nursing a brother by
the name of David; Florence Nightingale as a nurse had her first
experience caring for a pet shepherd dog by the name of “Cap.”
Clara Barton on an army wagon seated with a mule driver left Washington
to go to the battlefields of the Civil War; Florence Nightingale on
board of a vessel with 38 other nurses, sailed from England to go to the
hospitals at Scutari, Turkey, in the Crimean War.
Clara Barton continually “followed the cannon” from the camps of the
soldiers on to the “firing line”; Florence Nightingale lived at Scutari,
but on one occasion inspected the camps of the soldiers at Balaclava
within hearing of the cannon.
Clara Barton had for a pet, presented to her, a white Arabian horse and
known as “Baba”; Florence Nightingale had for a pet, presented to her, a
Russian hound, and known as “Miss Nightingale’s Crimean Dog.”
Clara Barton wore the Iron Cross of Prussia, representing Germany, and
presented to her by Emperor William I; Florence Nightingale wore a
brooch bearing a St. George’s Cross, in red enamel on a white field
representing England, and presented to her by Queen Victoria.
Clara Barton received from the Sultan of Turkey a “Diploma,” and
“Decorations”; Florence Nightingale received from the Sultan of Turkey a
costly diamond necklace.
The United States Government refused to appropriate one thousand dollars
for a memorial tablet to Clara Barton in the Red Cross Building; England
conferred on Florence Nightingale the dignity of a “Lady of Grace of the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem,” and later the still higher “Order of
Merit,” founded by King Edward VII himself, in 1902.
The people of the United States contributed to a fund for Clara
Barton—well, perhaps, this is a secret and should not be told here; the
people of England contributed to a fund for Florence Nightingale,
through the Jenny Lind concerts and in other ways, a fund amounting to
$250,000, the fund since used to establish the “Nightingale Home at St.
Thomas’ Hospital”—a Training School for Nurses.
By her request, Clara Barton was buried near her home at Oxford,
Massachusetts; by her request, Florence Nightingale was buried near her
home at Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, England.
Clara Barton built for herself, at her own expense, a very unpretentious
memorial in her family burying ground at Oxford; Her Majesty the Queen
unveiled the memorial to Florence Nightingale in the crypt of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, London, where are the tombs of Nelson, Wellington, Wolsey and
Lord Roberts.
The plain granite monument to Clara Barton in the country cemetery bears
the inscription:
CLARA BARTON
ANGEL OF THE BATTLEFIELD
Civil War 1861–1865.
Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871.
Spanish-American War 1898.
Organizer and President of the American
National Red Cross 1881–1904.
December 25, 1821–April 12, 1912.
BARTON
The memorial to Florence Nightingale is a beautiful sculpture in white
marble, representing Florence Nightingale bending over a wounded
soldier, to whose lips she is holding a cup. A rich alabaster frame
surrounds the marble, inscribed above with a legend, “Blessed are the
merciful” and below: Florence Nightingale, O. M.; born May 12, 1820—died
August 13th, 1910.
Of two famous women be it written:
Their bodies are buried in peace; but their names live for evermore.
LXII
American Red Cross Founder, a life of sacrifice.
_New York Tribune._
We realize the economies which Clara Barton lived and practiced, that
she might give life and aid to those who were in dire need. _The Fra._
Economy is not parsimony. BURKE.
Economy is no disgrace. BERZ.
It would be well if we had more misers. GOLDSMITH.
Economy is the poor man’s mint. TUPPER.
Economy is half the battle of life. SPURGEON.
Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease.
DR. S. JOHNSON.
A habit of economy is prolific of a numerous offspring of virtues.
C. BUTLER.
Sound economy is a sound understanding, brought into action.
HANNAH MORE.
It is not what we earn, but what we save, that makes us rich.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a ship.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that every
man who looks before him must resolve to avoid it.
DR. S. JOHNSON.
I was brought up New England, and I have the New England thrift. CLARA
BARTON.
My expenses have been so heavy and my receipts so “nothing” that I
cannot take on more “help.” CLARA BARTON.
There must be no more big hotel bills; the money must be saved for the
sufferers. CLARA BARTON.
Clara Barton has often been known by those near her to rob herself of
all her personal income—to carry on the work of an abiding and
all-absorbing charity. DR. J. GARDNER.
At first I used to be shocked over her penuriousness but when I
discovered the motive, that it was to save for others in need, no
words could describe my conscience-stricken feeling and my admiration
of that self-sacrificing woman.
GENERAL W. H. SEARS, “Secretary.”
THE GENERAL HAS MONEY—I AM HIS RECONCENTRADO
When traveling on the cars, Clara Barton would take her lunches with
her. At night she would sit up in the day coach, and not take a
sleeper—because of the expense. She made a trip from Washington to
Boston. Her secretary was with her. He wanted a sleeper. How could he
enjoy the luxury and Miss Barton not know it? Miss Barton had taken her
shawl—in a bundle tied together with straps—and laid her head on it for
a pillow. “Now is my opportunity,” thought the secretary, but she didn’t
close her eyes. Four or five hours any night was enough sleep for Miss
Barton, and the secretary knew it. The secretary was becoming ill at
ease. He said, “Now, if you will excuse me, Miss Barton, I will go to
the smoking car and have a smoke.” He was not there long;—he quietly
slipped into the Pullman and went to sleep.
[Illustration:
© _Jaro Studio_
WOODROW WILSON
The President, also President of the American Red Cross Society, March
4, 1913–March 4, 1921.
I have learned, from all I have heard of Clara Barton, to admire her
very much.
WOODROW WILSON (in 1918).
]
Early the next morning he passed unseen into the smoker of the day
coach, then to where Miss Barton, bright and cheerful, was sitting. As
nothing was said about “a good night’s rest,” he assumed that she
thought he too had practiced self-denial. Nevertheless, he was ashamed
over his “make-believe,” and also that a lady of seventy years the
possessor of wealth had beaten him, her able-bodied young secretary, on
a small salary, at the “game of economy.”
On arriving at Boston “Sister Harriette,” owner of one of the ancestral
homes of Massachusetts, was at the station to meet her. The secretary
unsuspecting—still “blooded” and a “real sport”—as they entered the
station restaurant said “Now, ladies, you are going to have breakfast
with me this morning.”
“Sister Harriette,” having served with the Red Cross in the
Spanish-American War and knowing the secretary, fully understood when
Miss Barton slyly remarked “oh, yes, the General has money, you know;
_he_ travels in a Pullman and I am his reconcentrado.”
LXIII
The greatest generals were proud to know her; eminent statesmen felt
honored by her friendship.
Bridgeport (Conn.) _Post_.
Abraham Lincoln—the simplest, serenest, sublimest character of the
age. U. S. SENATOR JOHN M. THURSTON.
The beauty of Lincoln’s immortal character has thrown in the shade the
splendor of his intellect. BISHOP J. P. NEWMAN.
Presidents Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley, with their
cabinets, have been actively interested in, and committed to its (Red
Cross) work. WALTER P. PHILLIPS, Chairman, Red Cross Committee (in
1903).
Character is higher than intellect. EMERSON.
Character is the dearest earthly possession. T. SHARP.
If our character is lovely we are loved. PRESTON.
Character lives in a man; reputation lives outside of him.
J. G. HOLLAND.
Character, like everything else, is affected by all the forces that
work upon it, and produce it. BISHOP W. F. MCDOWELL.
Character is made up of small duties faithfully performed.
_Anon._
The true character of a man displays itself in great events.
NAPOLEON.
Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman
of the last century said: “Men succeed less by their talents than by
their character.” WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Great trials test great characteristics. CLARA BARTON.
Great trials seem to be a necessary preparation for great duties.
EDWARD THOMPSON.
Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of
greatest minds. COLTON-LACON.
It is only by the active development of events that character and
ability can be tested. A. LINCOLN.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S SON
Robert T. Lincoln was Secretary of War.
When Clara Barton handed her card to the porter, he asked, “What do you
want to see him about?”
“Just because he is Abraham Lincoln’s son. I knew his father and merely
want to pay my respects to him.”
Clara Barton was admitted. The War Secretary rose as she entered the
office, and Miss Barton opened the conversation by saying: “I knew
President Lincoln well. He was good and kind to me in whatever I tried
to do for the soldiers. He seemed to appreciate the little things I had
succeeded in doing; and when there came a great undertaking (referring
to making a record of the missing soldiers), so great as to appal with
its seeming impossibility, he encouraged me. Survivors of the missing
entreated me to undertake the work and, when other officials said it
could not be done, your father, with his big heart, said ‘I will help
you.’ He smoothed the way and made it possible, assisting me until the
work was done. When I came back to Washington, he was not here to
receive my grateful thanks. He had gone beyond all that. It was a sad
little burden to carry around with me unshared, but I have carried it.
At home and beyond the sea, wherever I have been, it has gone with me,
and I have come today to ask you, as his representative, to accept my
burden of thanks for him.”
The tears were filling Miss Barton’s eyes before she had finished. She
was abashed at her failure to control her emotions but, glancing up at
the Secretary, she saw that he too was weeping. Looking at each other a
moment in silence, the Secretary reached out his hand to Miss Barton and
said “I do accept your tribute of thanks—for my father.”
LXIV
Clara Barton—intelligent and reclaiming, her leading attributes.
Atlanta (Ga.) _Constitution_.
Pity it is to slay the meanest thing. HOOD.
Man is an aristocrat among animals. HEINE.
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul. PROVERBS.
How deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to kill
animals. TOLSTOI.
Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men.
JOSEPH ADDISON.
Could we understand the language of animals, how instructive a
dialogue of dogs would be. EUDOXES.
Animals, in our degenerate age, are every day perishing under the
hands of barbarity, without notice, without mercy. A. DEAN.
Surely the sensibility of brutes entitles them to a milder treatment
than they usually meet with from hard and unthinking wretches. A.
DEAN.
THE BUTCHER DIDN’T GET IT
“Miss Barton, the butcher has been here today. He wants to buy the
little Jersey calf; offered me $5.00 for it,” said the manager of the
Red Cross home, “and I told him he could have it.” “But he can’t,—why
didn’t you ask me about it?” “Well, I knew we couldn’t keep it; we need
the milk—” “But the calf needs the milk too, and I tell you that the
calf is not going to be killed.” “But I have sold it.” “That doesn’t
make any difference; I haven’t—and it’s my calf.”
“You just ask your neighbors, and they’ll tell you that nobody thinks of
raising a calf—in town here.” “But I’m not asking my neighbors.”
“Now, Miss Barton, don’t you know we have no pasturage and we have to
buy all our feed, and feed is high now, too.”
“Never mind, we’ll get the feed.”
“But, Miss Barton, the calf is a nuisance around the house, and it will
cost more——”
“Now, you’ve said enough; the calf is _not_ a nuisance and _I_ am paying
the expenses. If you don’t want to take care of the calf, I’ll take care
of it myself. Now go along and don’t talk to me any more about that
calf. The butcher will _not_ get it.”
And the butcher didn’t get it.
LXV
Clara Barton, an example of charity to a younger generation.
Boston (Mass.) _Pilot_.
Woman! there is a place for thee; go forth and fill it, that in thee
mankind may be doubly blessed. CLARA BARTON.
Let all things be done in charity. I. CORINTHIANS.
Go and sin no more. ST. JOHN.
The Lord alone can direct me. CLARA BARTON.
Go straight to God’s work, in simplicity and singleness of heart.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
I never in my life performed a day’s work at the field that was not
grounded in that little sentence “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.”
CLARA BARTON.
With malice towards none; with charity for all. A. LINCOLN.
Alas, for the rarity of Christian charity under the sun. HOOD.
O charity, thou friend to him who knows no other friend besides.
CANON BOWLES.
Charity and personal force are the only investment worth anything.
WALT WHITMAN.
Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven and hell a
fable. COLTON.
Clara Barton—the candles of her charity lighted the gloom of death.
_Grand Rapids Herald._
Clara Barton—her beautiful deeds of charity.
_Roswell Record._
How white are the fair robes of charity, as she walketh amid the lowly
habitations of the poor. HOSEA BALLOU.
THE KIND OF GIRLS THAT NEEDED HELP
In Miss Barton’s relief work in the overflow of the Ohio River at one of
the stops, at Shawneetown, among the people who came on board the boat
for relief were two girls. They had evidently told Clara Barton their
needs in a private conversation and were leaving, when somebody living
in the town came to Miss Barton and quietly told her that she had better
not have anything to do with these girls; they were not the kind she
should be helping.
Without ostentation, or without making any display about it, she called
the girls back, had a long private talk with them and furnished them
with all of the supplies they needed, in quiet defiance of the advice
which had been volunteered about the character of the girls. Of course
her advice would be of a kind that they would never forget through their
whole lifetime and would be their guide in the future. And as they left
she calmly remarked that they were the kind of girls that probably
needed her help more than any others in the place.
LXVI
Clara Barton—loved and honored as perhaps no other woman of her day.
Tacoma (Wash.) _Ledger_.
Switzerland is an _armed_ neutrality in which one has faith.
CLARA BARTON.
The Red Cross was chosen out of compliment to the Swiss Republic; the
Swiss colors being a white cross on a red ground. The badge chosen
were those colors reversed. CLARA BARTON.
Romance is the poetry of literature. MADAME NECKER.
Romance is always young. WHITTIER.
Romance—the parent of golden dreams. BYRON.
The Red Cross seems to have become the milder romance of war.
CLARA BARTON.
Love took up the glass of time. TENNYSON.
Love will find out the way. ALFRED NOYES.
Love took up the harp of life. LOCKSLEY HALL.
Love conquers all things. VIRGIL.
All mankind loves a lover. EMERSON.
True love is better than glory. THACKERAY.
Love is the beginning of everything. F. W. BOREHAM.
None but the brave and beautiful can love. BAILEY.
Love rules the camp, the court, the grove.
_Lay of the Last Minstrel._
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable.
SHAKESPEARE.
Hail wedded love,
Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets. MILTON.
Love’s history, as Life’s, is ended not by marriage.
BAYARD TAYLOR.
Love is greater than war, truer than steel, stronger than fear or
danger of death. CLARA BARTON.
A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS
The battle had been fought, and on the bloody field lay the wounded.
Among these was a Swiss boy who had left his native country, coming to
America to fight in the cause of the Union. In her ministerings on the
field, Clara Barton had heard of this lad, by name Jules Golay, but had
not seen him. He was undergoing a surgical operation. As the knife was
doing its work, in great pain he cried out, “Mon Dieu!” Clara Barton
heard the cry and went to him. He could not speak in English, but in
French Clara Barton while dressing his wound gave him words of sympathy.
Daily, as tender as a mother, she cared for him until he recovered.
Only the brave know how to be grateful. The soldier’s gratitude knew no
bounds. He did not forget, and awaited his opportunity. Years later Miss
Barton was taken ill, and went to Switzerland. Jules begged her to come
to his home. There, in her shattered physical condition, she was cared
for in greater than a royal palace—a cottage where love reigns. Clara
Barton returned to America. The elder Golay died; his family then
scattered. The eldest son, Mons A. Golay, came to New York. There his
wife, of a
The hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rocks the world.
WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE.
[Illustration:
THE CLARA BARTON BABY CRADLE
I remember my first baby experience, when I was two and one-half years
of age. CLARA BARTON.
]
SENTIMENT IN HISTORY
[Illustration:
THE PET JERSEY CALF
The butcher will not get it.
CLARA BARTON.
See page 208.
]
[Illustration:
COLONY OF CONSTANTINOPLE DOGS
“Dogs in Constantinople are held sacred.”
See page 345.
]
year, died also. He, ill and penniless, came to Dansville to see Miss
Barton, then convalescing.
Mons A. Golay, recovering his health, went to Chicago and became
established there in business with his brother Jules. Jules’ old wounds
broke out afresh and in consequence he died, leaving a broken hearted
wife and several children. “One woe doth tread upon another’s heel so
fast they follow.” The widow soon followed him to the Beyond. The orphan
children became the care of Mons. A. Golay, who struggled nobly to
provide for them. In his distress over the problem of life, he
remembered.
She was a form of life and light
That seen becomes a part of sight
And goes wher’er I turn my eye
The moving star of memory.
But the romance does not end here; the romance follows:
A Miss Kupfer while traveling had been stricken with a fever, and was
seriously ill at a hotel in Switzerland. There the ever humane Clara
Barton took care of her, nursing her back to life. When Miss Kupfer, in
her far-away home, heard of Miss Barton’s serious illness she crossed
the ocean to be at the bedside of her benefactor, then living at
Dansville.
Mons A. Golay revisits Dansville and there, as on former visit, meets
the beautiful Miss Kupfer, herself still exemplifying that “the religion
of humanity is love.”
“Love is life’s end, an end but never ending.”