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.”
[Illustration:
© _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?”
[Illustration:
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
[Illustration:
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.
]
[Illustration:
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.
]
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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.”