Part 14 (1/2)

”That's so! That's so!” and the cheer they gave was echoed by line after line, until the sound of the shouting was like the cheers after a great victory Bending loith a courtly sht, alloped away

”At the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietae of Charleston, in the hospital at Fort Wagner, with the ar and in the Wilderness and the hospitals about Richmond, there was no limit to the work Clara Barton acco all her experiences during those years of the war, the Battle of Fredericksburg was most unspeakably awful to her And yet afterward she saw clearly that it was this defeat that gave birth to the Emancipation Proclamation

”And the white May blossolad faces--the swarthy brows, the toil-worn hands of four million liberated slaves

'America,' writes Miss Barton, 'had freed a race'”

As the war drew to an end, President Lincoln received hundreds of letters fro for news of their boys There were eighty thousand e whether they were alive or dead In despair, and believing that Clara Barton had more information of the soldiers than any one else to whom he could turn, the President requested her to take up the task, and the ar so many mothers who had no news of their boys, and she went to work, aided by the hospital and burial lists she had compiled when on the field of action

For four years she did this work, and it was a touching scene when she was called before the Coation to tell of its results With quiet simplicity she stood before the row ofand dead, already traced

No available funds for the necessary investigation; in consequence, over eight thousand dollars of my own inco her heard the words of the bright-eyed woman as looked on as a sister by the soldiers frohout the land, not one of theovernment paid her back in part the ave her tie as well as h reward to read the joyful letters froave over three hundred lectures through the East and West, and as a speaker she held her audiences as if by ly about the work nearest to her heart, giving the proceeds of her lectures to the continuance of that work One evening in the winter of 1868, when speaking in one of the finest opera-houses in the East, before one of the es she had ever faced, her voice suddenly gave out, as it had in the days when she was teaching The heroic army nurse and worker for the soldiers orn out in body and nerves As soon as she was able to travel the doctor co the order, she sailed for Europe, and in peaceful Switzerland with its natural beauty hoped to regain nored from the black shadoar, and she felt that her life work had been accomplished, that rest could henceforth be her portion

But Clara Barton was still on the threshold of her complete achievement When she had been in Switzerland only ato respond to the change of air and scene, she received a call which changed the color of her future

Her caller represented the International Committee of the Red Cross Society Miss Barton did not knohat the Red Cross was, and said so

He then explained the nature of the society, which was founded for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers, and he told his eager listener what she did not know, that back of the Society was the Geneva Treaty, which had been providing for such relief work, signed by all the civilized nations except her own From that moment a new ambition was born in Clara Barton's heart--to find out why Aned the treaty, and to know more about the Red Cross Society

Nearly a year later, while still resting in quiet Switzerland, there broke one day upon the clear air of her Swiss ho back from a tour of the Alps To Miss Barton's amazement it came in the direction of her villa Finally flashed the scarlet and gold of the liveries of the Grand Duke of Baden After the outriders cahter of King Wilhelm of Prussia, so soon to be Emperor William of Ger her card through the foothted and clasped Miss Barton's hand, hailing her in the nah what she had done in the Civil War Then, still clasping her hand in a tight grip of coed Miss Barton to leave Switzerland and aid in Red Cross work on the battle-fields of the Franco-Prussian War, which was in its beginnings

It was a real te humanity, yet she put it aside as unwise But a year later, when the officers of the International Red Cross Society careat systematic plan of relief work such as that for which she had beco the Civil War, she accepted In the face of such consequences as her health ht suffer froh and flashi+ng eyes, said:

”Coel of the Aed to the world, and never again could she be claiel of our soldiers in the United States that her story concerns us, although there is reason for great pride in the part she played in nursing the wounded at Strassburg, and later when her presence carried coht with the Coible results of her work abroad, she was given an amethyst cut in the shape of a pansy, by the Grand duchess of Baden, also the Serbian decoration of the Red Cross as the gift of Queen Natalie, and the Gold Cross of Remembrance, which was presented her by the Grand Duke and duchess of Baden together Queen Victoria, with her own hand, pinned an English decoration on her dress The Iron Cross of Geriven her by the Prince of Jerusaleh to have made her a much-bejeweled person, had it been her way to make a show of her oards

Truly Clara Barton belonged to the world, and a suffering person had no race or creed to her--she loved and cared for all

When at last she returned to An the Geneva Treaty and to bring her own country into line with the Red Cross n countries, and which she saas the solution to efficient aid of wounded men, either in the battle-field or wherever there had been any kind of disaster and there was need of quick aid for suffering It was no easy task to convince American officials, but at last she achieved her end On the 1st of March, 1882, the Geneva Treaty was signed by President Arthur, ratified by the Senate, and immediately the American National Red Cross was formed with Clara Barton as its first president

The European ”rest” trip had resulted in one of the greatest achievements for the benefit of mankind in which America ever participated, and its birth in the United States was due solely to the efforts of the deterave her all to a sick brother, and later consecrated her life to the service of a sick brotherhood of brave men

On the day after her death, on April 12, 1912, one editor of an American newspaper paid a tribute to her that ranks with those paid the world's greatest heroes He said:

”On the battle-fields of the Rebellion her hands bound up the wounds of the injured brave

”The candles of her charity lighted the gloo

”Across the ocean waters of her sweet labors followed the flag of the saintly Red Cross through the Franco-Prussian war

”When stricken Armenia cried out for help in 1896, it was Clara Barton who led the relief corps of salvation and sustenance