Part 13 (1/2)

Clara Barton's eyes flashed with determination ”Give me three months, and I will teach free!” she said

As a result of her generous offer, she was allowed to rent a tu, and opened her school with six pupils! Every one of the six became so enthusiastic over a teacher as interested in each individual that their friends were eager to be her pupils, too, and parents were anxious to see what the wonderful little bright-eyed, friendly woman could do for their children At the end of five weeks the building was too small for her scholars, and the roll-call had almost six hundred names on it To a triumphant teacher who had volunteered her services to try an experiiven her And so Clara Barton again proved her talent for teaching

But Bordentoas her last school When she had been there for two years and perfected the public-school systeave out as a result of constant use, and she went to Washi+ngton for a rest But it did not take her long to recuperate, and soon she was eagerly looking out for so

Government work interested her, and she heard rumors of scandals in the Patent Office, where so the ideas of inventors who had filed patents This roused her anger, for she felt the inventors were defrauded and undefended individuals who needed a protector As her brother's bookkeeper, she had developed a clear, copper-plate handwriting, which would aid her in trying to get the position she deterress she secured a position in the Patent Office, and when it was proved that she was acceptable there, although she was the first woman ever appointed independently to a clerkshi+p in the departe of a confidential desk, where she had the care of such papers as had not been carefully enough guarded before Her salary of 1,400 a year was as much as was received by the men in the department, which created much jealousy, and she had reeable treatment fro her duty and enjoying the new line of ith its chances for observation of the governather over both North and South, and signs of an approaching conflict were oton, where slavery sentiments swayed all departns of the times, and there was much to worry her, for froly on the unpopular side of the disturbing question, and believed with Charles Sumner that ”Freedom is national; slavery is sectional” She believed in the Union and she believed in the freedoovern national crisis that she offered her services as a clerk, to do the work of two dishonest men; for this work she was to receive the salary of one clerk, and pay back into the Treasury that of the other, in order to save all the ht into the character of Clara Barton than that As it was in the case of the school in Bordentown, so was it now If public service was the question, she had no thought of self or of money--the point was to achieve the desired end And now she was nearer the goal of her own personal service to the world than she dreamed

Fort Sumter was fired on President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand troops, and all those ere at the seat of government knew that the hour for sacrifice of men and money had come Massachusetts responded to the call for troops with four regiton at once As they h the streets of Baltimore they were attacked by a furiousht them off as bravely as possible and marched on to the station, where they entrained for Washi+ngton,there in a pitiable condition When they detrained at the national capital they werethenized so, or with injured arms, or carried on stretchers, and her heart went out to the their services to their country in an hour of need

The men who had not been injured were temporarily quartered at the Capitol, while the wounded were taken to the Infirmary, where their wounds were dressed at once, anyused When the supply of handkerchiefs gave out, Clara Barton, as well as other impromptu nurses, rushed to their hoes, and Miss Barton also filled a large box full of needles, pins, buttons, salves and other necessities, and carried it back to the Infir for wounded soldiers When she could leave the Infirmary, she went to the Capitol and found the poor fellows there famished, for they had not been expected and their commissary stores had not yet been unloaded

Down to the etic volunteer nurse, and soon ca basketful of supplies, which ry men Then, as she afterrote in a letter to a friend, ”the boys, who had just one copy of the _Worcester Spy_ of the 22nd, were so anxious to know its contents that they beggedto the desk of the President of the Senate, that they all ht hear”

In her letter she says, ”You would have smiled to see _me_ and my _audience_ in the Senate Chamber of the U S A” and adds: ”God bless the noble felloho leave their quiet happy homes at the call of their country So far as our poor efforts can reach, they shall never lack a kindly hand or a sister's syiven all the comforts and necessities which could be obtained, Miss Barton put an advertise for supplies and iive the Sowas sent to her that her sed to rent rooms in a warehouse to store them

And now Clara Barton was a new creature She felt within herself the ability tohad been pent up within her was poured out in a see humanity There was no time now for sensitiveness, or for shyness; there ork to do through the all-too-short days and nights of this struggle for freedoone the woht and action, and in her place we find the ”Angel of the Battlefields,” who for the reures inwould otherwise have had no alleviation

”On the 21st of July the Union forces were routed at Bull Run with terrific loss of life and many wounded Two months later the battle of Ball's Bluff occurred, in which there were three Massachusetts regi friends a theton had been well organized, and there was no desperate need for the supplies which were still being shi+pped to Miss Barton in great quantities, nor was there need of her nursing However, she went to the docks to ht up the Potomac on transports” Often they were in such a condition frolect that they were baked as hard as the backs of turtles with blood and clay, and it took all a woether with the use of ater, restoratives, dressings, and delicacies to make theo with theain in the ambulance she would drive, to repeat her works of mercy

But she was not satisfied with this work If wounds could be attended to as soon as the men fell in battle, hundreds of deaths could be prevented, and sheto override public sentiment, which in those early days of the war did not allooo to the very firing-line itself as a nurse And, as she had got her way at other times in her life, so now she achieved her end, but afterwhich the bloody battle of Fair Oaks had been fought with terrible losses on each side

The seven days' retreat of the Union forces under McClellan folloith eight thousand wounded and over seventeen hundred killed On top of this came the battle of Cedar Mountain, with

One day, when assistant Quarterreat-hearts of the arht-eyed little woave sympathetic attention

”I have no fear of the battle-field,” she told hie stores, but no way to reach the troops”

Then she described the condition of the soldiers when they reached Washi+ngton, often too late for any care to save theo to the battle-front where she could care for theiven the needed passports as well as kindly interest and good wishes that she burst into tears as she gripped the old soldier's hand, then she hurried out toher supplies loaded on a railroad car As she tersely put it, ”When our arht on Cedar Mountain, I broke the shackles and went to the field” When she began her work on the day after the battle she found an immense amount of work to do Later she described her experience in this hts with three hours' sleep--a narrow escape fro the wounded into hospitals at Washi+ngton brought Saturday, August 30th And if you chance to feel that the positions I occupied were rough and unseeh and unseemly for men But under all, lay the life of a nation I had inherited the rich blessing of health and strength of constitution such as are seldoiven to women, and I felt that soht to be there”

The fah the weary years of the hich dragged on with alternate gains and losses for the Union forces, Clara Barton's naan to be spoken of with awe and deep affection wherever a woundedunder no society or leader, she was free to coo at will But froed in it by individual officers who saw the great value of what she accoons were driven through a field of tall corn to an old homestead, while the shot whizzed thick around the ht from the places where they had fallen All was in confusion, for the areons were trying to es of corn husks The new army nurse immediately had her supplies unloaded and hurried out to revive the wounded with bread soaked in wine When her bread gave out there were still many to be fed All the supplies she had were three cases of unopened wine

”Open the wine, and give that,” she commanded, ”and God help us”

Her order was obeyed, and as she watched the cases being unpacked her eyes fell on the packing around the bottles of wine It was nicely sifted corn-old dust it could not have been more valuable The as unpacked as quickly as possible; kettles were found in the far that corn-ruel for theThen it occurred to Miss Barton to see as in the cellar of the old house, and there three barrels of flour and a bag of salt were found, stored by the rebels and left behind when they marched away ”What wealth!” exclaier to feed her flock All that night Clara Barton and her workers carried buckets of hot gruel up and down the long lines to the wounded and dying men

Then up to the farht of a lone flickering candle, she could di in apparent despair by the table, his head resting in his hands She tiptoed up to hi up, he exclaimed: ”Tired? Yes, I am tired! Tired of such heartlessness and carelessness! And,” he added, ”think of the condition of things Here are at least one thousand wounded men; terribly wounded, five hundred of whoht without attention That two-inch of candle is all I have, or can get

What can I do? How can I bear it?”

A smile played over Clara Barton's clear-cut face Gently but firmly she took hi toward the barn, where dozens of lanterns gleamed like stars