To be applied to general fund being raised for
establishment of a camp.
NEW YORK—
New York Red Cross Branch $21,174.67
To be applied generally to maintenance of Day Camps.
NORTH CAROLINA—
Wilmington Red Cross Subdivision $415.00
To be applied to educational work.
OHIO—
Cincinnati Subdivision $1,203.02
To be applied to educational work through Cincinnati
Anti-Tuberculosis League.
Cleveland Subdivision $8,869.96
OKLAHOMA—
Oklahoma City $125.00
To be applied to diet for tuberculosis patients.
OREGON—
Visiting Nurse Association, Portland $1,606.22
To be applied to Sanatorium, educational work and
instructive nursing for advanced cases.
PENNSYLVANIA—
Pennsylvania Red Cross Branch (about) $17,000.00
Purposes to which fund will be applied not yet determined.
Dispensary Aid Society of the Tuberculosis League of
Pittsburgh $3,976.00
To be applied to building and maintenance of dispensary
building on the grounds of the Tuberculosis Hospital of
the above organization.
Mrs. Charles L. Taylor (“Pittsburgh Red Cross Circle”) $175.00
Given to the Pittsburgh Tuberculosis Hospital.
Mrs. J. E. Roys (“Bloomsburg Red Cross Circle”) $61.79
To be applied to anti-tuberculosis work in Columbia County.
RHODE ISLAND—
Rhode Island Anti-Tuberculosis Association $7,763.66
To be applied two-thirds to local work (Providence)
and one-third to State Association, to start new
associations, educational work, etc.
SOUTH CAROLINA—
South Carolina Red Cross Branch $141.65
Disposition not yet decided upon.
TENNESSEE—
Tuberculosis Committee. Memphis Civic League $637.21
Given to city Tuberculosis Hospital.
Federation of Women’s Clubs, Nashville $1,600.00
Principally towards support of State or Municipal
Sanatorium.
Chattanooga Woman’s Club $105.31
Care of tuberculosis patients among the poor.
TEXAS—
Anti-Tuberculosis Association, Austin $100.00
To be applied in educational work.
UTAH—
Utah Federation of Women’s Clubs $265.96
Application not yet decided.
VIRGINIA—
Nurses’ Committee, King’s Daughters (Petersburg) $164.06
To be applied to the starting of a fund to establish
a small hospital for local use.
WISCONSIN—
Visiting Nurses’ Association of Oshkosh $369.19
To be applied two-thirds for visiting nurse’s salary and
one-third for bed in sanatorium.
Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association, Milwaukee $8,754.88
To be applied to educational and organizational work.
[Illustration: WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT RED CROSS DAY CAMP, NEW YORK CITY.]
[Illustration: AMUSEMENTS AT RED CROSS DAY CAMP, VANDERBILT CLINIC, NEW
YORK CITY.]
[Illustration: KITCHEN, RED CROSS DAY CAMP, ROOF VANDERBILT CLINIC, NEW
YORK CITY.]
[Illustration: MEN’S SIDE. RED CROSS DAY CAMP, ROOF VANDERBILT CLINIC,
NEW YORK CITY.]
[Illustration: MORNING EXAMINATION OF TEETH AND FINGER-NAILS OF CHILDREN.]
COMPETITION FOR 1909 CHRISTMAS STAMP DESIGN
Report of Special Committee appointed to secure competitive designs for
Red Cross Christmas Stamp for “1909” issue, Committee consisting of
Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Washington.
Miss Emily P. Bissell, Delaware.
Mrs. Wm. K. Draper, New York.
Major-General Geo. W. Davis, Washington.
Mr. Joseph A. Steinmetz, Pennsylvania.
The Committee met at the call of the National Society at Washington
Headquarters on the morning of Tuesday, February 16th, and reported as
follows:
That the National Headquarters and all State Branches of the Red Cross be
instructed to give out information inviting the free competition for the
design for the Red Cross Christmas Stamp for 1909.
The State Secretaries and members of the Red Cross will address Art
Institutions and secure the co-operation of newspapers and magazines and
secure a wide public invitation for these designs.
There will be three main awards, consisting of the following cash prizes,
in order of merit:
$100.00
50.00
25.00
and there will be chosen out of the stamp sketches submitted, not to
exceed 10 other designs to be retained by the Red Cross as their property
as a matter of record and for such designs as will be retained there will
be a cash price of $10.00 each.
The wording shall read:
AMERICAN RED CROSS
1909
MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR
and the finished size of the stamp shall be ⅞ of an inch square.
It is preferred that the background of the stamp shall be “white,” and
that the emblem of the “Red Cross” shall be shown somewhere prominently
in the design. The Red Cross is a geometrical design, made up of 5 equal
squares, arranged in the form of a cross, and this proportion must be
strictly observed.
A design may be submitted in two or three colors, the ground work not
being considered as an applied color.
Artists’ designs submitted must not exceed 3 inches square, as it is
supposed that in a space 3 inches by 3 inches the design can be clearly
shown in proper detail, suitable for process reduction to size of the
finished stamp, which is ⅞ of an inch by ⅞ of an inch.
The competition closes at 6 o’clock P. M. May 15th and designs may be
submitted at any time up to that date.
There will be an Associate Committee of Artists to pass on the designs,
and it is hoped to have a public exhibition in Washington of the designs
submitted.
Designs may be submitted to Mr. Charles L. Magee, Secretary American
Red Cross, State, War and Navy Building, Washington, D. C., or to the
Secretary of any Red Cross State Branch.
The name and address of the artist must be subscribed on the back of the
design and shall not be visible anywhere in the design or on the face
thereof.
Respectfully submitted,
JOS. A. STEINMETZ,
Philadelphia, Pa.,
Chairman of Stamp Committee.
SOUTH CHINA FLOOD RELIEF
The following report of the relief work in Southern China has been
received by the Red Cross:
AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE,
CANTON, CHINA, December 14, 1908.
CHAS. L. MAGEE, ESQ., Secretary National Red Cross Society,
Washington, D. C.
Sir—Referring to your letter of August 18 and my reply of
September 18, 1908, regarding the $2,000 sent by your Society
through the Department of State for the relief of flood
sufferers, I have to enclose herewith a copy of a report just
received by me from Dr. Charles K. Edmunds, Secretary of the
Canton Flood Relief Committee. I also enclose eight photographs
taken in districts affected by the flood.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
WILLARD B. HULL,
Vice-Consul in Charge.
[Note.—$2,000 in gold in exchange gave $4,519.77 Mexican dollars for
relief work.]
[Illustration: BUILDING DESTROYED AT TSING YUEN.]
[Illustration: DYKES DESTROYED ON THE NORTH RIVER.]
[Illustration: HOUSES DESTROYED BY THE HIGH WATER.]
[Illustration: DESTROYED DYKE AND HOUSES NEAR TSING YUEN, NORTH
RIVER DISTRICT.]
REPORT TO W. B. HULL, ESQ., AMERICAN VICE-CONSUL-GENERAL IN
CHARGE, AT CANTON, IN REGARD TO AID GIVEN TO FLOOD SUFFERERS,
SUMMER 1908, By EXPENDITURE OF $2,000 GOLD, RECEIVED FROM THE
AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS.
Amount Received $4,519.77 Mex.
Disbursed in three lots:
A. To Rev. Mr. Roach, of the Baptist Mission on
North River, Yingtak $1,000.00 Mex.
B. To Chinese Committee (per Kwong On & Co.),
for West River Relief 1,000.00 Mex.
C. To Rev. W. W. Clayson, London Mission, acting
in co-operation with Chinese Commission on
North River, Tsing Yuen and Sham Shui Districts 2,519.77 Mex.
The most needy districts were Yingtak and Tsing Yuen.
The money was spent in the following manner in the three cases:
A. Employment given to a daily average of 80-85 men and women
and 30 cents and 25 cents (Mex.) per day, respectively, during
some forty days, tiding them over the worst period of want
until local officials came to aid more effectively. Work was
the repairing of a main public highway. The Baptist Mission
supplied the necessary road material, lime, etc. There remains
a balance of $200 Mexican on hand.
B. While in Yingtak it was thought wisest to give employment
to the needy as above described; along the West River it was
deemed best to give money direct. In this region rice and other
foodstuffs were being sold at a reduction of 30 or 40 per cent.
through the agency of local gentry of wealth, officials and
the native benevolent institutions. One thousand dollars was
then distributed through the Native General Committee from
the United Churches of Canton, and some thousands of people
supplied with cash to buy food at these reduced rates.
C. In Tsing Yuen and Sham Shui Districts, Mr. Clayson
personally assisted the Native Committee in distributing
tickets, which were redeemable in cash at three centres, Tsing
Yuen, Shek Kok and Sai Nam. Rather thorough investigations were
made so as to reach the most needy, and especial attention was
given to villages lying in from the river, which had, in fact,
suffered most from devastation of crops, and yet had up to the
time of this relief been least helped, because living back from
the river they did not know how to get relief, and had few
chances of earning any support.
The method of distribution adopted was very laborious, but it
is thought that it was the most satisfactory. Those wanting
most relief were reached and given tickets, and even if they
were too weak to go to the centre to get the money, they could
be trusted to see that they did get it. Those helped in these
districts were mostly widows, the blind, lame and diseased and
aged. Two days around each centre were taken to distribute
tickets, and one day at the centre for distribution of
money—with which the people then bought foodstuffs at reduced
prices from the officials or Benevolent Societies—the latter
turning their money over and over as long as it lasted under
this depreciating process.
The $2,519.77 (Mexican) which our Committee gave Mr. Clayson
was put with that of the Native Christian Committee, making a
total of $4,610.00, which was disbursed at the three centres as
follows: Tsing Yuen, $1,448; Shek Kok, $1,047, and in Sai Nam,
$1,115.
It can confidently be said that but for the timely aid this
money made possible, several thousands of people on the verge
of starvation would have suffered worse agony than they did.
Our Committee wishes to offer our most sincere and appreciative
thanks to the Red Cross Society for this timely aid, and to you
for your kind offices in the matter.
Respectfully submitted,
C. K. EDMUNDS,
Secretary.
To Hon. W. B. Hull, American Vice-Consul in Charge.
[Illustration: REFUGEES CAMPED IN MAT SHEDS ON THE HILLSIDES WAITING FOR
THE WATERS TO RECEDE.]
[Illustration: REFUGEES ON THE BANK OF THE NORTH RIVER WAITING FOR THE
BOATS OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE.]
AN INSPIRATION
BEING THE STORY OF ST. MATTHEW’S RED CROSS HOSPITAL.
BY NELLIE OLMSTED LINCOLN.
[Illustration: ST. MATTHEWS RED CROSS GUILD HOSPITAL.]
A beautiful thought of a wise and generous woman, like a fruitful
seed, has blossomed and borne fruit in an ideal, modern hospital, just
completed and given to the people of San Mateo.
Thursday, February 11, 1909, was a red letter day in the annals of this
lovely little California town, for on that day was formally opened St.
Matthew’s Red Cross Hospital, built and equipped by Mrs. Whitelaw Reid in
memory of her mother.
It was a happy combination of circumstances that made it possible for
four officers of the Red Cross to be present at the opening: Mrs.
Whitelaw Reid, Hon. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the California
Branch; Mrs. John Merrill, Vice-President, and Mrs. Thurlow McMullin,
Secretary. Addresses were made by the Rt. Rev. William T. Nichols, Bishop
of California; the Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, rector of St. Matthew’s;
President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, of the University of California, and Mr.
Paul Pinckney, thanking the donor in the name of the people of San Mateo.
[Illustration: DINING-ROOM OF HOSPITAL.]
Two years and a half ago, immediately after the earthquake, Mrs. Reid,
feeling the great good a district nurse could do in the community, sent
from New York a nurse who could be called upon for emergency cases and
also to work among the poor. In providing for her, a house was built in
which there was a fine operating room and rooms for six patients. Other
nurses were secured, and in a short time one hundred and one cases were
cared for. It was soon found that the building was inadequate, and Mrs.
Reid immediately took steps to have it moved and on its place erected the
one just completed.
This is a charming building, with timbered and plastered exterior,
generous porches and accommodations for twenty-four patients, in three
wards and ten private rooms. The operating room is entirely in white
tiling, with an exceptionally fine light and every appliance for
the use of surgeon and nurse. Opening from it are two rooms, one a
sterilizing room with the finest of apparatus, and the other the room for
anaesthetizing. In the entrance hall is a modest bronze tablet, bearing
the date of opening and stating that the building is in memory of Jane
Templeton Mills, born August 1st, 1832, died April 26th, 1888.
The halls are wide and well lighted, and the elevator with its electric
motor can bring the patients from the lower floor to be wheeled upon the
two porches, where they can find new life in the California sunshine.
There is a special room for X-ray work, and there, as elsewhere, the
outfit is complete.
[Illustration: WARD OF ST. MATTHEWS RED CROSS GUILD HOSPITAL.]
All the nurses are graduates, Miss Sarah M. Dick, of the Cook County
Training School, being superintendent, so that the care offered patients
is of the best; and to hold and attract the highest type of nurse,
everything connected with their rooms is as dainty as the rest of the
hospital. Charming pictures in sitting room and dining room add to the
homelike appearance. All physicians of the community are urged to bring
their patients, and there is no distinction of creed—everything is
offered in the broad spirit of the Red Cross.
Several beds have been endowed. Adjacent to the main building, yet
surrounded by larger grounds of its own, stands the maternity house, in
which there are also nurses’ rooms and headquarters for the district
nurse, one of whose duties is to hold classes for anyone interested in
“first aid.”
It seems as if Mrs. Reid had thought of every detail possible to make the
gift as near perfect as a mortal may, even providing one of the purest
specimens of radium. It is her earnest hope that similar hospitals will
be erected throughout the country, so that in times of emergency they may
be ready for immediate use for Red Cross purposes.
The affairs of the Hospital are administered by a Board of representative
women consisting of Mrs. Ansel M. Easton, Vice-President; Mrs. Charles E.
Green, Treasurer; Mrs. Lewis P. Hobart, Secretary; Mrs. Ernest Coxhead,
Corresponding Secretary; Mrs. A. M. Easton, Mrs. William H. Crocker,
Miss Jennie Crocker, Mrs. Frances C. Carolan, Mrs. Walter Martin, Mrs.
Laurence Irving Scott, Mrs. William Tubbs, Mrs. E. D. Beylard, Mrs. N.
B. W. Gallwey, Mrs. J. D. Grant, Mrs. Mountford Wilson, Mrs. James Otis
Lincoln. The president is Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, whose deep interest and
able leadership have been of inestimable assistance.
[Illustration: OPERATING-ROOM OF HOSPITAL.]
Mrs. Reid is Honorary President of the Board, and as perhaps it can be
said of no other person living, this modest, generous donor has in the
completion of this work finished a golden circle around the world of love
and service for suffering humanity, for the Philippines, Paris, London,
New York and California now share in the ministering care which she has
provided.
THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS
WAR’S AFTERMATH.
Improvised hospitals were organized in every straggling village, but by
far the largest number of wounded were brought to Castiglione. There
was an almost interminable procession of wagons, packed with officers
and soldiers—cavalrymen, infantry, artillery—all battered and bleeding,
covered with dirt and dust and blood, each jolt of the carts adding to
their suffering. Many died on the way, their bodies being transferred
from the wagons to the roadside, and left there for others to bury. Such
were reported as “missing.”
From Castiglione many of the wounded were sent on to hospitals in other
Lombard towns for regular treatment and necessary amputations. As the
means of transportation were very limited, long delays were caused and
the overcrowding baffles description. The whole city became one vast
improvised hospital. The convents, the barracks, the churches and the
private houses were filled with wounded. Others were placed on straw in
the open courts and parks, with hastily constructed roofs of planks and
cloth. The citizens of the town were seen running from street to street,
seeking doctors for their suffering guests. Later others came and went
with dejected air, begging for assistance to remove the dead bodies, with
which they knew not what to do. All the physicians in the place were
inadequate and most of the military surgeons were forced to leave with
their armies.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON III.]
By Saturday following the battle the wounded who had been assembled in
the city became so numerous that the attempt to cope with the attention
they required became impossible, and the most terrible scenes followed.
There was food and water, but the wounded died from hunger and thirst,
for there were not hands enough to minister to their necessities. There
was lint in abundance, but not enough persons to apply it, nor to give it
out. To make matters even worse, a sudden panic occurred. A detachment
of hussars escorting a convoy of prisoners was mistaken by some of the
peasants for Austrians and the report rapidly spread that the Austrian
Army was returning. Houses were barricaded, their inhabitants hiding in
cellars and garrets, and the French flags were burned. Others fled to
the fields, and still others hastily sought Austrian wounded upon whom
to lavish care. Down the streets and roads, blocked with vehicles of
all kinds carrying wounded, raced frightened horses, amidst a din of
curses and cries of fear and pain. Indescribable confusion prevailed;
the wounded were thrown from the wagons and some were trampled under
foot. Many of those in the temporary hospitals rushed out into the
streets, only to be knocked down and crushed, or to fall exhausted from
their weakness and fright. What agonies, what suffering, were undergone
during those terrible days of June 25th, 26th and 27th! Wounds infected
because of the heat, the dust and lack of care became insufferable.
Poisonous vapors filled the air. Convoys of wounded still poured in.
On the stone floors of the churches men of different nationalities lay
side by side; French, Austrians, Slavs, Italians, Arabs, covered the
pavement of the chapels, their oaths, curses and groans echoing through
the vaulted roofs of the sanctuaries. The air was rent with cries of
suffering—“We are abandoned, we are left to die in misery, and yet we
fought so bravely.” In spite of the sleepless nights and the fatigue they
had endured, they found no rest. In their distress they cried in vain
for help. Some struggled in the convulsions of lockjaw. There lay one,
his face black with the flies which infested the air, turning his eyes
to all sides for help, but no one responded. There lay another, shirt,
flesh and blood forming a compact mass that could not be detached. Here
a soldier entirely disfigured, his tongue protruding from a shattered
jaw, attracted M. Dunant’s pitying attention, and taking a sponge full
of water he squeezed it into the formless cavity representing the man’s
mouth. There, a miserable victim, whose nose, lips and chin had been
taken off by a sabre cut, unable to speak and half blind, made signs with
his hands, and M. Dunant brought him water and bathed his wounds gently.
A third, with cloven skull, expired in a pool of his own blood on the
floor of the church, a horrible spectacle, and those about him pushed
aside his body with their feet, as it obstructed the passage.
By Sunday morning, though every household had become a hospital, M.
Dunant succeeded in organizing a volunteer corps of women to aid the
hundreds of wounded in the churches and open squares who were without
assistance. Food and drink had to be brought them, as they were literally
dying of hunger and thirst; their wounds had to be dressed; their poor
bleeding bodies, covered with dust and vermin, washed, and all this in
a terrible heat, in a nauseating atmosphere, and amidst the cries and
lamentation of the suffering. In the largest church of Castiglione were
nearly five hundred soldiers and a hundred more lay on the pavement in
front of the church. In the churches the Lombard women—young and old—went
from one to another, carrying water and giving courage to the wounded.
From the fountains the boys brought great jugs of water. After the thirst
of the suffering men had been assuaged, bouillon and soup were provided.
Before any lint had been obtained the men’s underlinen had been torn into
bandages to bind their wounds. M. Dunant bought new linen and sent his
carriage to Brescia for other necessary supplies, for oranges, lemons
and sugar, for refreshing drinks. He secured some new recruits for his
volunteer band of mercy—an old naval officer, some English tourists, a
Swiss merchant and a Parisian journalist. Some of these soon found the
work more than they could endure and withdrew.
Pitiful are the stories M. Dunant tells of individual cases. Man after
man would cry out in despair, “Oh, do not let me die,” as they seized
the hands of their kind benefactor. “Oh, sir, please write to my father
to console my poor mother!” exclaimed a young corporal of only twenty.
M. Dunant took the address of his parents and in a few minutes the poor
boy was dead. He was an only son, and but for the letter M. Dunant sent
his parents they would never have learned his fate. An old sergeant,
decorated with many chevrons, repeated with great sadness and with
bitter conviction, “If I had only had care at first I should have
lived—and now I must die,” and death came to him at nightfall. “I will
not die! I will not die!” cried with almost fierce energy a grenadier
of the guards, who only three days before was well and strong and who
now, fatally wounded, struggled against this certain fate. M. Dunant
talked with him, and, listening, he became calm and consoled, and finally
resigned himself to death with the simplicity of a child.
On the steps of an altar, which were covered with straw, lay an African
Chasseur, wounded in the thigh, leg and shoulder. For three days he
had had nothing to eat. He was covered with dried mud and blood, his
clothing was in rags. After M. Dunant had bathed his wounds, given him
some bouillon and placed a blanket over him the poor fellow lifted his
benefactor’s hands to his lips with an expression of infinite gratitude.
At the entrance of the church was a Hungarian who kept crying aloud for
a doctor. His back and shoulders, lacerated by grape-shot, were one
quivering mass of raw flesh. The rest of his body was horribly swollen.
He could not lie down nor rest. Gangrene had set in and the end came
soon. Not far from him lay a dying zouave, crying bitterly. The fatigue,
the lack of food and rest, the horror of the suffering, the fear of dying
without any care developed among even the bravest soldiers a nervous
condition that reduced many to tears. Often when not overcome by pain the
dominant thought of the soldier was for his mother, and the fear of what
she would suffer when she learned of his death. Around the neck of one
of the dead men was found a locket containing the portrait of an elderly
woman, evidently his mother, which, with his left hand, he had pressed to
his heart.