Clara Barton. General Correspondence.   Allison, William M.
                                                                          Oct. 1889-Dec.1909
32             Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct 29, 1889.
Dear Miss Barton:
Your letter
of Oct 25 reached me yesterday.
It was a delight to read it.
Appreciation and praise from
you make anyone feel proud.
You have emphasized to me the
fact that journalism is not only
a fascinating means of earning
a livelihood, but a powerful
and far reaching medium for
doing and recording good deeds.
I shall take more pride in my
profession hereafter through having
met and been encouraged by
you, and stimulated by your noble
example.
I did not neglect one feature
of the interview, as will be seen
from the enclosed editorial which
was printed in the Pittsburgh Chronicle
Telegraph yesterday, Oct 29, 1889.
Faithfully Yours,
Wm. M. Allison.

Ansd Jan 13.
1904
Allegheny, Penn'a, Dec 30, 1903.
No. 813 Federal St.-Wednesday, 7:35pm
Dear Miss Barton:
"New Year's Greeting"
"Best Wishes" and "Congratulations!"
I received the Washington newspapers
addressed in your own handwriting!
What have I done to deserve
"this honor?"
With me, "the result" never was
"in doubt!" There could have been
"no other result!"  The "dead ones,"
however, are "remarkably quiet!"
Who "intimated" that Clara Barton was
"losing her grip?"
In all my life I have never been
"so well," "so happy", or "so prosperous!"
And, I know that you are "the same"
- nothing "ever disturbs" you
do not be too impatient to "cross over"
to "your sure reward!" Joyously, Your Friend,
Wm. M. Allison, Jr.R. Alleren
Allegheny, Penn's July 14, 1904
No. 813 Federal St. Thursday, 8:25pm

Dear Miss Barton:
The Reception of your letter 
this evening has greatly cheered, as well as
honored, me +
I am not now connected with any newspaper,
but have forwarded the clipping enclosed by 
you to Erasmus Wilson, one of the editors
of the Pittsburgh Gazette, with the request
that he "make some kindly reference to it"
in his column, or ask the Sunday Editor
to reprint it, in whole, or in part +
should anything result from my request,
it will be a pleasure to me to supply
you with copies +

I think that you attach too much 
importance to what you designate a 
"stigma!"  God help the man or woman
who even tried to place one on 
you!  Anybody can "make changes!"
If we were all to "be sensitive" on
that point, there would be "no recompense" 
for the workers!  Think of what was said
and written about such men as 
Lincoln and Blaine!2/
I, long ago, learned to "discount them",
partly through my personal experience
as Editor of the Los Angeles Republican
in the Hayes campaign of 1876 +
They didn't "make me wince," though, at first,
I did dread their effect on "my friends."
To my great surprise, every friend who was
"worth while," "disbelieved them", and
"stood by me!"  Some of them said to me:
"It's contrary to your proved character, Bill."
I have since learned to have no friend
who has not "proved his character"
- and then, "hooks of steel!"
Even when uncertain about, or unfamiliar with, 
"the character" of an assailed party, I apply 
the advice once given to me by John Walker,
formerly President of Carnegie, Phipps & Co.:
"When in doubt, give 'the other fellow' 
the benefit!"
   Elbert Hubbard recently printed some
very wise remarks about "being too anxious
for justification," his summary being:
"Do your work the best you can, and
be not concerned about results!" And,
do you recall this passage of Scripture:
"He that saveth his soul shall lose it?"

3/
I know of no one who can so well afford
to "be complacent" as - Clara Barton!
Aside from her own consciousness of 
absolute rectitude, she is "the best 
beloved woman in the United States"
- which is equivalent to saying: "The
most beloved human being on earth!"
You have more friends, and better friends,
than any man, or woman, I have ever 
known + And, though some of us may be
"humble", all of us are "active!"
We don't "mean well feebly!" You
"disappoint us" when you "look for 
anything else" from "the jealous [malcontents?]"
who assail you - it would be 
"contrary to their 'proved character!'"
So, the only "criticism" that "your friends"
can justly pass on you is that,
in view of your lifework, your gentle,
affectionate, sympathetic, helpful, self-
sacrificing disposition, you "show weakness"
when you "are disturbed!" Your friends
"believe in you", the whole country "believes in you"
- and cannot help "loving you!"4/
I am pained at the thought that you
"spent an entire afternoon in Pittsburgh"
without my seeing you! I couldn't have been 
"too busy" to have "sought you out" - and
bluntly told you: "We love you the more
for 'the enemies you have made!'"
   I was in New York for a week or more, early
in October, but every minute was occupied,
and I was called away by wire before
I "had finished my work +" The only
"social call" I made was on three little 
children who have several times been sent 
on vacation to "my home County" (Juniata) 
by the New York Tribune + I never "go to 
New York" without "calling on "My Little
Fresh- Ains!"  Their father is a cigarmaker, 
and their mother "takes in washing" on the
top floor of a tenement in East Sixth Street +
The little girls are sweet and pure - "like
lilies growing in a barnyard!" Had I 
consulted my own wishes, I would have 
gone to "East 58th Street+" I feel 
"under moral obligation" never to slight
"My Little Fresh-Ains!"  But, I "owe a duty"
to you, too - and such "a pleasant duty!"  
   Your most Respectful and Affectionate Friend,
      Wm. M. Allison, Jr.


Philadelphia, Penn'a April 19, 1904
No. 2008 Etting St. Tuesday 6:45PM
Dear Miss Barton:
     A very dear 
friend who loves you (and loves
me too!) sent me the enclosed 
marked clipping + [*25 The press*]

Thank you for the "interesting 
literature" which you recently
sent to me +
My friend has read it, too,
and "filed it away +"
What "a real joy" to be esteemed
"One of Clara Barton's Boys!"
     Admiringly, and Reverently,
        Wm. M. Allison, Jr.DEEDS VS. DOLLARS.
What the Red Cross, Through Clara 
Barton, Has Accomplished.
        (Butler, Pa., Citizen.)
     Some of the great newspapers and men 
throughout the country are criticizing 
the National Red Cross society. Its 
plans and methods need to be revised be-
cause it has not a $4,000,000 bank account 
like the Japanese Red Cross, or $3,000,000 
cash and $6,000,000 real estate like the Rus-
sian society. The last report of our 
American Red Cross showed that there 
was $124 in the treasury. Suppose our 
society is poor in money, why should it 
be censured for that? Its object is not 
the accumulation of wealth or property. 
     In the words of Miss Clara Barton, the 
permanent president of the Red Cross, 
its purpose is to lend a helping hand 
everywhere quietly and humbly, as a 
brother to a brother, in the time of need. 
Can any one cite a single instance of fail-
ure in its mission?
     The work of the Good Samaritan is not 
measured in dollars and cents. "The 
quality of mercy is not strained. It 
droppeth as the gentle dew of heaven 
upon the place beneath" nor does it bear 
the dollar mark.
     Let the record of our Red Cross in 
Cuba, at Galveston, in and around San 
Pierre, Porto Rico, at Ithaca, in our own 
Butler, and at a score of other places 
where distress existed, speak for it, and 
not its bank account.
     It has no money, it does not wish nor 
try to gather money, but it gets it when-
ever needed, and there is no lack. Per-
haps some men whose hearts, purses, and 
modesty are alike great, supply it, un-
known to the general public. However, it 
comes when needed. Miss Barton and 
her associates, like the disciples of old, 
have only to say, "The Master hath need 
of it." and the resources of a nation are 
theirs. And they do not blare their doings 
needlessly abroad.
     All honor to Clara Barton, the head and 
organizer of this great society of mercy, 
and the grandest and humblest woman 
in the world to-day. She is frail, delicate, 
and aged, but her life has been that of 
an angel of mercy.
     May the Lord prolong her days with 
blessings and when old time shall bring 
her to an end, may her mantel fall on 
worthy shoulders.[*Ansd, Oct 8 1904*]
Pittsburgh, Penn'a Sept 30, 1904.
(Homewood) No. 522 Albion St. -- Friday, 2:10 A.m. 

Dear Miss Barton: 
     I am not going to 
reply to this notice, unless you say so + 
I "don't know " these people!'" You were 
"the whole thing 'with me!'"
   Your health and Your happiness 
and Your Welfare are ever my concern 
-- Your Salvation "is Assured!" 
     One of Your Proud Boys,
         Wm. M. Allison, Jr. 

[*25 s . *?][left side]

William M. Allison Jr
d. Oct - 3- 904

[Right side]

Allegheny, Penn'a, Dec 22, 1909. 
No. 422 Sherman Avenue, Wednesday, 6:30 P.m. 
(Elbert Hubbard made "The Humanist" 
Eleven years too old! What do we care?) 

Dear Miss Barton:
     A word of Affection and Veneration, "In Remembrance." 
Three years ago, when I wrote you from Colorado, I had little hope that I 
should be alive this date, and no assurance that you would be + Yet. 
Fate has dealt Kindly with us both, especially with myself. Fellow humans 
are born and die, and we take no heed;  yet among them are no doubt kindred 
souls whom we should be all the better for knowing + They are the 
"unsung songs" of our lives + The folly of human planning and 
preparation is instanced in our case + Suppose that I had died, 
or you had died, before I wrote that letter; or suppose I had not 
written it, or you had not answered it + I should have floundered around 
through a few more years of hopeless, because misdirected, struggle, 
and then "laid still+" But you came to me with the directing finger: 
"Examine Christian Science +" It was not that I hoped to discover 
any real, helpful truth in its teachings, but solely because you 
"pointed the way +" I "skimmed through" its "curdled verbosity," 
its, to me, "meaningless metaphors," and extracted its "Essence of Truth+" 
The "seed," planted by you, "hatched out in my own brain+" I felt "the 
change" in my attitude toward life; I saw that I had been "living wrong+"
Unseen, untaught, unassisted, unguided, I began "treating myself" 
"from within+" Such "struggles" are necessarily "unwitnessed." My 
venerated grandfather used to say: "Give unto us a clean heart, 
O, God, and renew a right spirit within us+" The words were without 
meaning to me in my boyish days but after receiving your message, 
I strove for their fulfillment + Without saying a word to anybody, I 
fought for "freedom" from "old habits" and "old vices," especially the 
handicaps of carelessness and wrong thinking, or no thinking + 
Arrived at a measure of success which I thought would please you, 
I "quit drinking" - felt strong enough, even, to "sign the pledge +" 
Believe me, Miss Barton, it "was easy+" The conflict in which I had 
many times "come off vanquished" gave me my first taste of real success + 
In the Spring of 1908 Nature had "purged my body" of a threatening abscess 
- You "purged my mind" of far more dangerous "foreign growths+" 
What, Miss Barton, was "the Power behind you?" I at once plunged into 
activities, abandoned the slavery of a desk, and sought health "in the open air+"2/
For nearly seven months now my life has been full of "strange coincidences"; 
but the strangest "coincidence" of all was that you should have returned 
into it with "your message of  'Common Sense+'"  Even in life, you 
are one of "My Best Beloved Spirits+"  My very dear friend Christopher 
Zug, the iron manufacturer, totally blind, who died at the age of 92 years, once said to me: 
"If I 'can send you a message,' I will, Bill, and 'give you power!"' 
I have never had enough faith to go to "a medium+" I do not need to now!  
Some one who loves me has spoken to me through you - it is not my place 
to "ask questions+" Neither you nor I can tell who it is that "inspires 
the instrument!'"  My sole "power of acknowledgment" lies in "passing it 
along"+ Could I have reached my stricken brother's heart, and induced him 
to "cut out the [doctors]", to "take a fast," and to go to Cambridge Springs 
and "drink the healing waters", I believe that he would now be 
alive and healthy+  I do not believe in "healers," but I do believe in 
"a state of mind"+ I have "felt its power+" And I have come to regard 
the "soul= sick" as more needy than the "bodily afflicted".  I try to 
make the "heavy-laden" love me; then I "can influence" them, 
as you did me, without their knowing it.+  Without "Love" and "Trust", 
one can do nothing +  I am always looking for "hidden meanings"+  
Christ did not tell us to "influence" one another, but said:  "A new 
commandment I give unto you: that ye 'love one another!'"  Love, 
with me, Miss Barton, "spells" Influence + The blind faith which I 
put in your words, is typical of the "blind faith" which the Christian 
Scientist and the professing Christian must have "in God!"  But the professing 
Christians who pride themselves on "their converts", and the Christian 
Scientists who boast of "their cures", are "false prophets+"  
The wrecks and ruins which mark the pathways of some of the "young 
Carnegie partners" show what happened when Andrew Carnegie's "spirit" 
was removed from them - when his "influence" was no longer felt+ 
We are "all instruments," Dear Miss Barton - some "good", others "bad+"  
I inclose to you a pertinent "clipping" about Judge John D. Works + 
I found it in Human Life, a publication of which my old friend Alfred Henry Lewis
is editor+ You may have known him as a Washington correspondent+  Will you 
kindly return the clipping?  I wish to send it to my very dear friend Dick Bryan, 
a lawyer of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was Astronomer of the Polaris 
Expedition, and the first Superintendent of the Indian School at Albuquerque+  
I have taken it from Dick's "envelope" that you may read it, as I cannot now 
get another copy+  I can easily imagine that some such "instrument" as yourself 
"persuaded" Judge Works to try Christian Science+  But my "spirit healer" Clara Barton was "no professional"

3/
I started out, Miss Barton, with the idea of "supplying an omission"
of my last letter + My brother Charlie, in New York, a few months ago sent me
a newspaper clipping containing Elbert Hubbard's tribute to you as "a
woman 'with a message!'" Is not that what I have just been saying?
Why did you never send this article by Hubbard to me? The copy my brother
sent is faint and faded and frayed, but he said he could get no more+
I have placed it among "My Sacred Treasures+" I feel that you
should know, Miss Barton, that "the seed sown" by you - in me -
"has sprouted," and that I, too, shall lose no chance to "go forth
'as a sower+'"
The "omission" referred to was to "ask an accounting" of your progress with
"The Personal Recollections of Clara Barton+" That is the medium, Miss Barton,
for "your message" to humanity + Secretary Blaine left his message;
so did President Grant; so, also, as I note in the papers recently,
has John Bigelow; and so even did "Dan Rice," the clown who used
to make us laugh+ But what of Clara Barton? B. F. Jones, and Harry
Oliver, and Robert Pitcairn, and Captain Vandergrift, of this city, wanted to
"leave their message," but "couldn't find the time+" They, however, wanted me
to write it for them+ I refused+ "You talk it," I said, "and I'll do
the manual labor of writing it down+" "And correct it?" asked Mr. Pitcairn+
"No," I replied+ "A man's 'literary errors' are as much a part of himself
as 'his own breath+' It must exhale your own aroma+" And so, 
to my chagrin, the "lessons of the lives" of these great men are
"lost to humanity!" Is it to be so with my best friend, Clara Barton?
Will she rest content on "her services to humanity" as 
a Nurse, when there are "diseased souls," "famishing souls,"
which might be "cured" and "fed" by "seeing Clara Barton 'as she is?"'
Our greatest men and women have been best known through their "familiar letters+"
You are "a proved friend to humanity+" Address it, therefore, in all confidence
easily, familiarly, entertainingly, instructively, affectionately+
"Put yourself in it," Dear Miss Barton+ Concern yourself not
about "possible mistakes" + Your "Grand Army of Readers"
will be "Posterity"- people whom you never saw! What they will
want to see will be the most beautiful part of you - "your 'Spirit!'"
Do not "write it out"- "make notes," and "talk from them" to "a trusted,
sympathetic stenographer"+ Then "edit yourself!" "Time presses," Dear Miss Barton+4/ When this message reaches the world, your "real work" will have
"only commenced+" Do not be oppressed by the weight of "your message"
- make it "as lightsome" as you please+ Just "put yourself in it",
Miss Barton+ Forget your "honors" and your "Eminences" and your "services",
and tell what you saw and felt and thought, "as one human to another+"
There is a responsibility attaching to such experiences as yours that
does not end with your professional work+ Most people talk too much
and do too little+ You have done much - now, talk some!
But do not attempt the herculean task of writing it all yourself,
unless, however, you should find difficulty in "preserving the
aroma" while "dictating+" But a woman who can satisfy the
"cranky Roycrofters," "can talk," all right! "Talk" as you would 
"speak to" Grand Army Veterans, your patients, your nurses, "your Boys"
- only "talk" - with the conciousness of being "but an instrument!"
When I was at the funeral of my beloved friend Christopher Zug,
Hart Given, President of the Farmers' Deposit National Bank, said
in reply to a question by a stranger: "Oh, he! He was - 'his
closest friend!"' And so, one of these days, my chief honor
will not be, as it is now, that I am "One of your Boys,"
but that I, as "an instrument," "influenced you" to [write]
your "Personal Recollections+"
You have profoundly impressed my Sister Isabella, Miss Barton+
And, I may add, you have influenced her+ She asked me recently
in a letter if Vorie DeGraw "were dead+"  I replied: "No, or I would
have heard of it+"
I am distressingly busy just now, Miss Barton, "getting ready" to
go back into the country to lease 90,000 acres of land "for oil and gas."
I have not given a thought to "miscellaneous gifts+" But I felt
that I dare not omit this letter to you+ I want to "strike"
oil or gas, but I want still more to see "The Personal
Recollections of Clara Barton" given to the world, as she
"gave herself." You write well, Miss Barton, to me+ Write it as
though it were to me alone - people "with hearts" "will understand."
I do want to read it; but I want more that it should reach
the "soul=sick sufferers" in this "sin=sick world"+ Your Benefitted and Grateful "Boy,"
Wm. M. Allison, Jr.


Judge John D. Works
A Pacific Coast Jurist
who is active in C.S. -

Miss Clara Barton,
Glen Echo,
Maryland.

[*Wm. M. Allison
Xmas 1909
Ansd. Jan 10. 1910*]

Postmark:
PITTSBURG, PA.
DEC 23 
4-PM
1909Postmark:
GLEN ECHO
DEC
24
P.M.
1909
MD.

                                   Glen Echo, Maryland,
                                       December 31, 1909
 Mr. William Allison,
      422 Sherman Ave...
               Allegany, Ta.
     
     My dear Boy,
                        Do you mind if I scribble you a few lines? I have 
been laying down, and so cannot use a pen. I was not just at my 
best today, and decided not only to "lay off", but lie down, and 
while I wait, you come to my thoughts and I have read over again, 
the good four page letter that you sent me, and prize it more 
and more. From every stand-point I prize it. The good news of 
yourself that it brings - the joy that you should be on the right 
track to welfare and happiness, and the certainty I feel that you 
will not forsake it, but study deeper, and deeper into the cause 
of this great blessing, and this change from uncertainty, depression, 
discouragement, and unhappiness to the steady, hopeful, healthy 
conditions that surround you. It is a great thing to abandon 
habits long fixed: habits that in themselves tend directly to 
weaken one's powers of resolution; I question if, without the 
strengthing power of something more than mere self determination, 
it could have been done.successfully. You caught a glimpse, a 
mere shadow of power of mind over matter, and even that glimpse(W.A.#2)
asserted itself. Think what will be as you follow on and 
realize still more the power of this ------- shall we call it 
Science?
     I am quite prepared to hear you scout the idea. I think 
probably you cannot help it.
     History tells us of some other ideas now classed among the 
fixed and accepted sciences, which were not only refuted, but life 
costing in their infancy.
     The world has long recognized, in vague ways, the power of mind 
over matter, but it has attributed it to various influences, 
usually religious (or to the irreligious superstition) : but no 
one, in my limited knowledge, has attempted to fix it to a reality 
and reduce it to a science till the present movement, and mover 
of Christian Science.
     And today there are few Paul and many Agrippas.
     If Jesus of Nazareth had this power it is no wonder that the 
multitudes followed him, or even that the seemingly dead arose 
and spake. All of these heretofore "miracles" have a new-born 
interest when viewed in the light of an original science, and 
are no miracle at all, but simply a natural sequence of such 
premises.
     But pardon, I pray you this unsual preface, quite 
unintentional, for "it turns out" to be neither a "sang nor a 
sermon" and if you can accept it as a kind "memento", I shall be 
glad.

                                                                 (Wm.A.#3)
     I do accept, most willingly, you plea for the "Autobiography". 
I know how earnest you are in the desire, and I will do all I 
can to gratify the many personal friends, who are earnest like 
yourself; all cannot express themselves as forcibly or as well 
as you do - alas' few can, but it all "Means my praise however poor." 
For you and for them I will try. I wonder sometimes, if these 
friends ever think that there may be other calls, duties, necessities, 
and occupations embraced in my life of the present time, that make 
[it real] living of the past a double duty to perform?
     I venture to assert it as my belief that no clerk in the 
Washington offices works more hours, or at more exhaustive labor, 
or calls more brain-force (such as it is) in any month or any 
year than I do.
     The official a bit remuneration at the end of the month that 
enables him to employ the needed help of stenographers or other, 
even higher assistance. - - - - - -
     Few persons comparatively, know what it means to have 
accumulated, or to have had thrust upon them, a correspondence 
extending nearly the world over. In addition to this, there are 
all the home and personal duties and necessities, with no one, no 
sister, aunt or family connections to share one of these duties 
with me. I must meet all alone, even to the making up of the 
"shrine" which you so tenderly promise to visit.
     Last summer, the six months that I passed in Oxford, where I 
was supposed to be "resting", and "recuperating" and enjoying a(Wm.A. #4)
delightful leisure, I worked like a driven bond-woman, with quick  
meals and short sleep, and in spite of all came home the middle of 
November with an accumulation of nearly a hundred and fifty 
unanswered letters of one day to another, with which to end the 
year and face its Holidays.  And this Glen Echo home, which had 
been left with no suitable care, to be made up when I could.  Fortunately, 
I did succeed in finding a stenographer, who could manage 
my typewriter, and last week we came about to the end of the old-
kept up to the new, and sent to the printer a little slip of a 
Christmas Greeting to help me out with the Holidays.  I am glad it 
is done, but tired.  Don't commiserate me, it is restful to lie 
here and tell you of it.  I shall send you a greeting if it ever 
gets here.  They are storm-bound in Boston now.
     Now again, it would be some encouragement, if, what I do write 
and publish, ever got any circulation.  The publisher never loses 
on them, for he is bound to push it, till he gets his pay; then it 
falls dead.  Any one who cares to read it, borrows it from some 
friend, or goes to the library and gets it.  I would not know 
what a so-called royalty was like.  
     You will not regard this as a complaint I know.  It is merely 
a kind of mental settling up with the world.  that is in my mind. - 
according to its own figures, I have worked for it over a half 
century, with no pay, entirely gratituous work, and found "myself" 
as the terms goes, and it now claims that I should give it the 
remainder of my time and my labor in writing up an account of 

                     (Wm.A.#5)
what I have done, for its still further betterment and satisfaction.  
You will pardon me, if sometimes upon reflection, I come to feel 
that the world is a rather exacting partner to do business with.

     About the Roycrofters.
Yes, they are "cranky", but they mean what they say, and have the 
ability to say what they mean.