Clara Barton      Speeches  & Writings File    Books      The Red Cross      Manuscript typescript draftsTo be called on to tell [or revise within a few day]
the whole story of the Red Cross from its origin to present
time. It is a task that however unworthily it may now be
performed, in in itself not unworthy of the genius of George
Elliot or Facauley.
It is a story illustrating the rapid rise of the
human sentiment in the latter half of the nineteenth century. 
On its European side it tells of the first timid
and cautious putting forth of the sentiment of humanity in war, 
amid the rattling swords and guns of Solferino, its deaths and
wounds and its subsequent awful silence. 
It tells of its later fertilization on the red
fields of Gravelotte and Sedan beneath my own personal
observation. 
It was from such surroundings on those that the Red
Cross has become the means by while philanthropy has been 
grafted onto the wild and savage stems of war. 
From the first filaments spun in the heart of a
solitary traveler have been drawn onward stronger [longer] and larger strands, 
until now more than forty of the principal nations of the earth
are bound together by bonds of the highest international law,
that must make war in the future less barbarous than it has been
in the past. 
It gives hope that the very torrent, tempest and
[The universal opinion of ordinary business
people would have been that their results
could not have been obtained on the means
stated and Therefore something must be
wrong or hidden, and to save ourselves from
painful suspicion, [it was decided]] 
whirlwind" of war itself may some day at last, far off perhaps, 
give way to the sunny and pleasant days of perpetual and
universal peace. When a proposition for an absolute and common
disarmament of nations, made by the strongest of the rulers 
of Europe, will not be met by cynical sneers and suggestions of
Machavellian craft. 
On its American side it is a story of much
immense success on the part of the American National Red Cross in
some of its greatest and most difficult fields of labor, that
no financial report of them has ever been made, because the 
story would have been altogether incredible, [and] it was decided,
rightly or wrongly, that the story [it] must remain substantially untold on
its financial side till its work in other fields had prepared
the public mind to accept the literal truth. 
But the time has come at last when the facts may
be properly be set forth without fear that they will be discredited
or undervalued. [¶] This volume, I am told, is the sixth in the 
series relating to the Cuban War. 
It will relate some of the experiences, the
labors, the successes and triumphs of the American National Red
Cross in times of peace, by which it had prepared itself to
enter upon the Cuban contest as its first independent work in 
time of war. [*3*]

          [It] The Red Cross has done its part in that contest in the same
spirit in which it has heretofore done all the work which has
been committed to its care. It has done it unobtrusively,
faithfully and successfully.
          It may not altogether have escaped censure in the
rather wild cyclone of criticism that has swept over the
country, but we remember no single word of serious faultfinding
that has been visited upon the Red Cross or any of its [assistants] helpers; 
but rather blessings and benedictions from all sides
for work well and nobly done have fallen upon even its humblest
ministers and [assistants] assistants.
          It has been truthfully said that "so great has
been the pressure to share the difficulties and dangers of
this service with only transportation and subsistence for pay,
that the Red Cross could on these terms have had as many [assistants] volunteers 
as there were enlisted men, if their services could
have been utilized and made important."
          Indeed, it seems to have become the milder romance
of war, and is gradually winning its way into the very heart of
the pomp and circumstance of glorious war itself.
          The Red Cross has therefore come to be so loved
and trusted, its principles and insignia have been so deeply set
into the substance of international war, and the life of many
great nations, that people everywhere are beginning to ask with
enthusiasm about its origin and history; about the principles on
          3.


[*4*]

which it acts.    They ask for some statement of its experiences,
its hardships and its perils and for some account of those who
have been most prominent in its operations.
          It is [in part] partially to answer these and many similar
inquiries that this book has been prepared. It is in part
a compilation and revision of various statements necessarily
incomplete and unsatisfactory made from time to time to meet
emergencies.     In part it has been wholly rewritten.
          A great portion of the story of the Red Cross
has been told in other languages than English, because it was
of work done by other than English people.    Much of this
literature has never been translated [and been] or placed within the
reach of the English speaking public. [*End*]
          [The growth of the humane sentiment has in many
ways appeared in the civilization of these later years.    It
has appeared particularly in the absolute liberation of slaves
and peons and surfs, in the Governmental care of the unfortunate
and defective classes, the dead and dumb and blind, the ignorant
and the criminal, in the public education of children and the
public recognition of the rights of women, the final planting
of all government practically on the consent of the governed and
on the sentiment of the people.]
          In 1854 the deplorable condition of the British
army in the Crimean War attracted the attention of the British 
Government.     Its sickness and death rate were appalling.     The

          4.[*5*]

London Times called the public attention to it as being nothing
less than a national scandal that called for immediate investigation 
and correction.    The British public sentiment called
for relief from these awful [???]  calamities that were believed to be
largely preventable. 
          The work of Florence Nightingale, [????] carried on in accordance 
with that public sentiment, in demonstrating that
much could be done to introduce better conditions, is everywhere
known and honored. 
[*1/2*]


[*6*]
          On June 24th, 1859, occurred the memorable battle
of Solferino, in which the French and Sardinians were arrayed
against the Austrians.    The battle raged over a wide reach of
country and continued for sixteen hours; at the end of it sixteen 
thousand French and Sardinian soldiers, and twenty thousand 
Austrians lay dead or were wounded and disabled on that field. 
The old fact reappeared; the medical staff was wholly inadequate 
to the immense task sudden cast upon them.    For days
after the battle the dead in part [remained] unburied, and the 
wounded [????] as they fell, or crawled away as they could
for shelter and help.
           A Swiss gentleman, Henri Dunant by name, was then
travelling near that battle field, and was deeply impressed by
the scenes there presented to him.    He joined in the work of 
relief, but the facts haunted him afterwards.   He wrote a book
about them, entitled "A Souvenir of Solferino", in which he
strongly advocated more human and extensive appliances of aid 
to wounded soldiers.   He lectured about them before the "Society
of Public Utility" of Geneva.     [M]. Gustav Moynier, a gentlman of 
independent fortune, was then President of that society.    Dr. 
Louis Appia, a philanthropic physician, and Adolph Ador, a 
counsellor of repute in Geneva, became interested in his views. 
They drew the attention of Dufour, the General of the Swiss army, 
to the subject, and enlisted his hearty co-operation.    A meeting 
of this society was called to consider "a proposition relative
          6.[*7*]
[*Spa????e*]

to the formation of permanent societies for the relief of
wounded soldiers".   This meeting took place on the 9th of
February, 1863.   The matter was laid fully before the society. 
It was heartily received and acted upon, and a committee was
appointed with [M]. Moynier at its head to examine into methods
by which the desired result might be obtained.    So fully did 
this committee realize its responsibility and the magnitude, 
grandeur, and labor of the undertaking, that the first steps
were made even with timidity.    But overcoming all obstacles, 
it decided upon a plan which seemed possible, and announced for
the 26th of the following October a reunion to which were invited 
from many countries men sympathizing with its views
or able to assist in its discussions.    This international conference 
was held at the appointed time, and continued its sessions
four days.     The resolutions adopted by it contained the fundamental principles of the work since accomplished. Upon this
basin was commenced and brought out the Geneva Treaty, and the
fundamental plan of all the national, permanent relief societies. 
Upon this the Red Cross was founded. 

One of the first objects necessary and desired by
the international committee for the successful prosecution of
its work was the co-operation by some of the more important
states of Europe of a treaty which should recognize the neutrality
of the hospitals established, of the sick and wounded, and of 
all persons and effects connected with the sanitary service;
          7.


[*8*]
also the adoption of a uniform protective sign of badge.    It
inquired with care into the disposition of the several governments, 
and was met with active sympathy and moral support.   It
first secured the co-operation of the Swiss Federal Council and
the Emperor of France. It shortly after procured the signatures
of ten other Governments, which were given at its room in the
city hall of Geneva, August 22nd, 1864, and was called
the Convention of Geneva. 
          Its sign or badge was also agree upon, namely, 
a red cross on a white ground, which was to be worn on the arm 
by all persons acting with or in the service of the committees
enrolled under the Convention.    The number of governments adhering 
to the treaty was shortly after increased to twenty-two
and at the present date there are forty-
          The war of 1866, though not fully developing the
advantages of this international law, was yet the means of discovering 
its imperfections.    Consequently, in 1867, the relief
societies of Paris considered it necessary that this treaty should
be revised, modified, and completed.    Requests were issued for
modification.     The International Committee transmitted them
to the various governments, and in 1868 a second diplomatic conference was convened at Geneva at which were voted additional
articles, improving the treaty by completing its design and extending 
its beneficial actions to maritime warfare.
          8.[*9*]

          During the war of 1866 no decisive trial of the
new principles involved in the treaty could be made, for Austria
at that time had not adopted it.     But in 1870-71 it was otherwise.
The belligerents, France and Germany, had accepted not
only the first treaty, but likewise the additional articles.
Thus it became possible to show to the world the immense service
and beneficent results which the treaty, through the relief
societies, might accomplish.
          The dullest apprehension can partially appreciate
the responsibility incurred by relief societies in time of
war.    The thoughtful mind will readily perceive that these responsibilities involve constant vigilance and effort during
periods of peace.    It is wise statesmanship which suggests
that in time of peace we must prepare for war, and it is no
less a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of
peace for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.
We do not wait till battles are upon us to provide efficient
soldiery and munitions of war.    Everything that foresight and
caution can devise to insure success is made ready and kept
ready against the time of need.    It is equally necessary to
hold ourselves in readiness for effective service in the mitigation 
of evils consequent upon war, if humane work is to be
undertaken for that purpose.
          Permanent armies are organized, drilled and supported 
for the actual service in war. It is no less incumbent
          9.

[*10*]
[*Ban???*]

if we would do efficient work in alleviating the sufferings
cause by the barbarisms of war, that we should organize philanthropic 
efforts and be ready with whatever is necessary, to be
on the field at the sound of the first gun.     An understanding 
of this truth led the conference of 1863 to embody in its
articles as one of its first cardinal characteristics the following:
"In time of peace the committee will occupy itself with
means to render genuine assistance in time of war".  [*2/3*]

           The committee assumed that there should be a relief 
association in every country which endorsed the treaty,
and so generally was the idea accepted that at the end of the   [*10 1/2*]
year 1864, when only ten governments had been added to the
convention, twenty-five central committees had been formed,    [*X*]
under each of which relief societies were organized.     It was,
however, only after the wars of  1864,1866 and 1870 that the
movement began really to be popular.    These conflicts brought
not only contestants, but neutral powers so to appreciate the
horrors of war, that they were quite ready to acknowledge the
beneficence and wisdom of the Geneva treaty.    Many who approved 
the humane idea and expressed a hearty sympathy for the
object to be obtained, had heretofore regarded it as Eutopian,
a thing desirable, but not attainable, an amiable and fanatical
illusion which would ever elude the practical grasp. Nevertheless,
the work accomplished during the wars referred to won over, not
only such cavillers, but persons actually hostile to the movement
          10.[*11*]
 
to regard it as practical and most beneficent undertaking. 
The crowned heads of Europe were quick to perceive the benign
uses of the associations, and bestowed upon the central committees 
of their countries money, credit, and personal approbation. 
The families of sovereigns contributed their sympathy
and material support.    The list of princes and princesses who 
came forward with personal aid and assumed direction of the 
work, was by no means small, thus proving correct the augury of
the convention of 1863, that "The governments would accord
their high protection to the committees in their organization". 
               The whole of Europe is marshaled under the banner
of the Red Cross.    To its powerful and peaceful sign the committee 
hopes to bring all the civilized nation of the earth. 
Wherever men fight and tear each other in pieces, wherever the 
glare and roar of war are heard, they aim to plant the white 
banner that bears the blessed signs of relief.    Already they 
have carried it into Asia.    Their ensign waves in  Siberia, on
the Chinese frontier, and in Turkestan, and throughout the African 
committee in Algeria and Egypt.    Oceanica has a committee at 
Batavia.    Japan accept the treaty of Geneva in 1886, and [in
that same year] on the breaking out of hostilities between Japan
and China, the Minister of State for War issued a notification
to the Japanese army, September 22nd, 1894, calling their attention 
to the substance of the treaty. 
11.


[*12*]

ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF WORK
               One of the things considered indispensable, and
therefore adopted as a resolution by the conference of 1863, was
the centralization of the work in each country separately by
itself. 
               While the treaty must be universally acknowledged
and its badge accepted as a universal sign, it was equally essential 
that the society of the different countries should 
be simply national and in no respect international.    It was
therefore ordained by the conference that all local committees 
or organizations desirous of working with the Red Cross should
do so under the auspices of the Central Committee of their own
nation, recognized by its government and also recognized by
the international committee from which the sign o. the Red 
Cross emanates.     Singularly enough, the International Committee
has had considerably difficulty in making this fully understood,
and frequently has been obliged to suggest to local committees
the necessity for their subordination to the central or national 
committee.    Once in three months the International Committee
publishes an official list of all central committees recognized
by it as national.    In this way it is able to exercise a certain 
control and to repress entanglements and abuses which 
would become consequent on irresponsible or counterfeit organizations. 
To recapitulate: the commission of Geneva of which 
M. Moynier is President, is the only International Committee.
12.[*13*]
All other committees are simply national or subordinate to national
committees.    The Conference of 1863 foresaw that national
differences would prevent a universal code of management, and
that to make the societies international would destroy them so 
far as efficiency was concerned.     They therefore adopted a
resolution that "Central committees should organize in such a
manner as seemed the most useful and convenient to themselves".
Every committee being its own judge, has its own constitution
and laws.    To be efficient, it must have the recognition of
its own government, must bear the stamp of national individuality
and be constructed according to the spirit, habits and needs
of the country it represents.     No hierarchy unites the societies;
they are independent of each other, but they have each an individual 
responsibility to the treaty, under the ensiga of which
they work, and they labor in a common cause.    It is desirable
that they should all be known by one name, namely, the [Society]
of the Red Cross. The functions of the International Committee,
whose headquarters are at Geneva, were also determined by the
Conference of 1863.     It is to serve provisionally as an intermediate 
agent between national committees, and to facilitate
their communications with each other.    It occupies itself with
the general interests of the Red Cross, in correspondence and the
study of theoretical and practical methods of amelioration and
relief.

          The national committees are charged with the direction
           13.

[*14*]  
           The national committees are charged with the direction and responsibility for the work in their own countries.
They must provide resources to be utilized in time of need, take
active measures to secure adherents, establish local societies,
and have an efficient working force always in readiness for action,
and in time of war to dispatch and distribute safely and 
wisely all accumulations of material and supplies, nurses and
assistants, to their proper destination, and in short, whatever
may be gathered from the patriotism and philanthropy of the
country.     They must always remember that central committees
without abundant sectional branches would be of little use.
          In most countries the co-operation of women has
been eagerly sought.     It is needless to say it has been as
eagerly given.    In some countries the central committees are
mixed, both sexes working together; in others, sub-committees
are formed by women, and in others, such as the Grand Duchy of
Baden, woman leads.
           As a last detail of organization, the Conference
of 1863 recommended to the central committees to put themselves
en rapport with their respective governments, in order that
their offers of service should be accepted when required.    This
makes it incumbent upon national societies to obtain and hold government
recognition, by which they are endowed with the immunities and 
privileges of legally constituted bodies and with recognition
from other nations in time of war, not otherwise possible to
them. Finally, the [national] subordinate committees are advised to put
          14.[*15*]
themselves, through the medium of the central committee recognized 
by the government, into relations with the War Department
of their respective countries, in order to have their services
most perfectly utilized in time of war.
[*3/4*]


[*16*]

OCCUPATION OF RELIEF SOCIETIES IN TIME OF PEACE.
               Organization, recognition and communication are
by no means all that is necessary to insure the fulfillment of
the objects of these associations.     A thing most important to
be borne in mind is that if money be necessary for war, it is
also an indispensable agent in relief of the miseries occasioned
by war.    Self-devotion alone will not answer.    The relief societies 
need funds and other resources to carry on their work.    They
not only require means for current expenses, but most of all, for
possible emergencies.    To obtain prudently conserve these
resources is an important work.    The Russian Society set a
good example of activity in this direction. From the beginning
of its organization in 1867 it systematically collected money
over the whole empire and neglected nothing that tended to success.
It put boxes in churches, convents, armories, railroad
depots, steamboats, in every place frequented by the public.     All
these it has recently supplemented by the accumulation of a vast
war chest in gold.     Besides the collection of funds, the Conference 
of 1863 recommended that peace periods should be occuplied 
in gathering necessary material for sanitary service.    In
1868 there were in Geneva alone five depots where were accumulated
one thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight shirts, besides hosiery
bandages, lint, etc. for over one thousand wounded.     There were
also large collections in the provinces, and now, thirty years
later, these accumulations have probably greatly increased.    In
[*16*]Other countries the supplies remaining after wars were gathered in depots and were added to abundantly. Thus, in 1868 the Berlin Committee was in possession of supplies worth over twenty-five thousand dollars. Especial care is taken to acquire familiarity with the use of all sanitary material, to eliminate as far as possible whatever may be prejudicial to sick or wounded men, to improve both sanitary system and all supplies to be used under it, to have everything of the very best, as surgical instruments, medicine chests, bandages, stretchers, wagons, tents and field hospitals. 
We would refer to the effort made in the national exhibitions of the various countries, where the societies of the Red Cross have displayed their practical improvements and inventions on competitive fields, taxing to the utmost human ingenuity and skill. Some countries have taken grand prizes. An exposition at The Hague was held in 1867 exclusively for the work of the Red Cross. Permanent museums have been established where all sorts of sanitary material for relief are exhibited, as may be seen in Stockholm, Carlsruhe, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Paris. The museum of Paris is the most important of all, and is international, other countries having participated in its foundation. Another method is the publication of works bearing upon this subject, some of which are scientific and very valuable. Not less important is the sanitary personnel. Of all aid, efficient nurses are the most difficult to obtain. There are numbers of men and women who have the will and devotion necessary to lead them into hospitals or to battle fields, but very few of them are capable of performing well the duties of nurses. Therefore, but a small portion of the volunteers are available. The relief societies soon found that women were by nature much better fitted for this duty than men can be, and to enable them to fulfill to the best advantage the mission for which they are so well adapted, it was decided to afford them the best possible professional instruction. For this purpose, during peace training schools were established from which were graduated great numbers of women who are ready at a moment's notice to go upon the battle field or into hospitals. These professional nurses find no difficulty during times of peace in securing remunerative employment. Indeed, they are eagerly sought for by the community and easily arrange to take positions at the bedside of the sick, with the proviso that they are to be allowed to obey the pledge of their society at the first tocsin war. There are schools for this purpose in England, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Russia and other European countries, and nothing has been neglected to make them thorough and to place them on a strong and solid basis. [*19*]

CUBA

          We had scarcely returned from Armenia when paragraphs 
began to appear in the press from all sections of the country 
connecting the Red Cross with some undefined method of relief 
for Cuba.   These intimations were both ominous and portentous 
for the future, something from which we instinctively shrunk and 
remained perfectly quiet.    "The murmurs grew to clamors loud" 
and I regret to say, not always quite kind.   There were evidently 
two Richmonds in the field, the one ardently craving food 
alone, simply food for the dying. 


          Paragraphs to the effect that it would be useless to 
send relief, especially by the Red Cross;
          First it would not be permitted to land.
          Next, whatever it took would be either seized outright, 
or wheedled out of hand by the Spanish authorities in Havana. 
          That the Spaniards would be only too glad to have the
United States send in food and money for the use of Havana.
          Again, that the Red Cross being international, would 
affiliate with Spain, and ignore the Cuban Red Cross already 


[*20*]
working there and here. 
 

          That doubtless, the Red Cross, flushed with victory in 
Armenia, would be only too glad to enter on another campaign, 
direct another field, and handle its donations.    Tired, heart-sore 
and needing rest, we were compelled to read columns of 
such twaddle, and understanding that it was not without its political 
side and might increase to proportions dangerous to the 
good name of the Red Cross, we felt compelled to take steps in 
self-protection, and accordingly through the proper official authorities 
of both nations, addressed to the Government of Spain 
at Madrid a request for royal permission for the American Red 
Cross to enter Cuba and distribute unmolested among its starving reconcentrado population such relief as the people of America 
desired to send. 
          This communication brought back from Spain perhaps the most courteous assent and permission ever vouchsafed by a proud 
government to an individual request, especially when that request 
was in its very nature a rebuke to the methods of the government 
receiving it.    Not only was permission granted by the crown, 
the government, the Captain-General at Cuba, and the Queen Regent, 
but to the assent of the latter were added her majesty's gracious 
thanks for the kindly thought.  [*4/5 -*][*21*]

            This cablegram was published broadcast through the 
Associated and United Presses in its exact text with all official 
signatures duly appended, and over my signature the statement that 
the American Red Cross was ready to enter upon the relief of the 
starving Cubans whenever the people of the United States should 
place at its disposal a sum in money or material sufficient to 
warrant a commencement of the work.  
            Strange to say, so sensational had the tone of our 
press become, so warped the judgment, so [?ed] the 
taste of its readers, that in the hurried scramble between head 
lines and the waste basket they failed to discriminate between 
this announcement of clear, true official relations on the part 
of a government, with a body which it held sufficiently responsible 
to deal with officially, and the sensational guess of 
some interested representative of the press, who had caught a 
word at the crack of some office door, and made up his toothsome 
morsel for their consumption.
            It will seem a little singular to any one who should 
ever take the time to coolly read this account, (if such there
be), that in response to this announcement not one dollar or one 
pound ever came, or was offered, and the cry for "starving Cuba" 
still went on as if no door had been opened. ---Had the nation 
gone mad, or what had happened it?
            Societies of women were formed to raise money, among 
these the most notable, influential and worthy ladies in American 


[*22*]
[*Bundig*]

society.  They labored, instant in season and out of season, 
with small results; perfectly unable to comprehend their want of 
success.


            I think that dear Mrs. Thurston, one of their most 
ardent members, came to comprehend it a little, by the strong, 
prophetic words she spoke to me as months later in Havana our 
carriages rattled and thundered over rocky streets from one hospital 
of death to another.   And this only comparatively a few 
hours before the cruel, restless sea surged out of that worn, 
frail body the soul that glowed with the flame of humanity, 
justice and pity to the last.

            This state of things continued through the 
year of 1897, but as the present year of '98 opened, the reports 
of suffering that came were not to be borne quietly, and I decided 
to confer with our Government and learn if it had objections 
to the Red Cross taking steps of its own in direct touch 
with the people of the country, and proposing their co-operation 
in the work of relief.   I beg pardon for the personality of the 
statement which follows, but it is history I am asked to write:[*23*]

Deciding to refer to my inquiry to the Secretary of State, I called 
at his Department to see him, but learned that he was with the 
President.    This suiting my purpose, I followed to the Executive 
Mansion, was kindly informed that the President and Secretary 
were engaged on a very important matter and had given orders not 
to be interrupted.    As I turned to leave, I was recalled with, 
"Wait a moment Miss Barton and let me present your card." Returning immediately, I entered the President's room, to find 
these two men in a perplexed study over the very matter which 
had called me.     Distressed by the reports of the terrible condition 
of things so near to us, they were seeking some remedy, 
and producing their notes just taken, revealed the fact that they 
had decided to call me into conference.
          The conference was then held.     It was decided to form 
a committee in New York, to ask money and material of the people 
at large to be shipped to Cuba for the relief of the reconcentrados 
on that island.     The call would be made in the name of 
the President, and the committee naturally known as the "President's Committee 
for Cuban Relief".    I was courteously asked if I would go to 
New York and assume the oversight of that committee.    I declined 
in favor of Mr. Stephen E. Barton, Second Vice-President 
of the National Red Cross, who, on being immediately called, accepted; 
and with Mr. Chas. Schieren as Treasurer and Mr. Louis 
Klopsch of the "Christian Herald" as the raiser of funds, the 
committee was as once established, existing today as the Central [*Cuban Relief Committee.*]

[*24*]

Cuban Relief Committee

          The committee was solicit aid in money and material 
for the suffering reconcentrados in Cuba, and forward the same 
to Consul-General Fitzhugh Lee at Havana for distribution.    My 
consent was then asked by all parties to go to Cuba and aid in 
the distribution of the shipments of food as they should arrive. 
After all I had so long offered, I could not decline, and hoping 
my going would not be misunderstood by the Consul-General, who 
would regard me simply as a willing assistant, I accepted.    The 
Consul-General had asked the New York Committee to send to him 
an assistant to take charge of the warehouse and supplies in 
Havana.    This request was also referred to me, and recommending 
Mr. J. K. Elwell, nephew of General J. J. Elwell of Cleveland, 
Ohio, a gentleman who had resided six years in Santiago in connection 
with its large shipping interests, a fine business man 
and speaking Spanish, I decided to accompany him,   taking no 
member of my own staff, but going simply in the capacity of an 
individual helper in a work already assigned.
          On Saturday, February 6th, we left Washington for Cuba 
via Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West.
          Thus, with that simple beginning, with no though on 
the part of any person but to do unobtrusively the little that 
could be done for the lessening of the woes of a small island of 
people, whom adverse circumstances, racial differences, the inevitable 
results of a struggle for freedom, the fate of war, and[*25*]

the terrible features of a system of subjugation of a people, 
which, if true, is too dark to name, was commenced the relief 
movement of 1898 which has spread not alone over the entire 
United States of America from Maine to California, from Vancouver 
to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Indias on the west, to 
the Indias on the east and uniting in its free-will offerings 
the gifts of one third the best nations in the world.    Like 
the long-waiting century plant, the Red Cross has at length 
burst into bloom on American soil and spread its rich, free 
fruitage over all her lands.    Under its peaceful sign 
the weary have rested, the hungry have fed, and its shadow has 
fallen athwart the graves of those who came no more forever,--
great results in little space of time.    Is that all?   Must I 
say more?    Must I ask if it has accomplished what it went to 
do?    Is there no more hunger and death in Cuba?    Have we 
reached it; can we reach it?    Glorious women, aye, and glorious 
men, the problem is yet unsolved. 
[*5/6*]


[*26*]
          We had done all that could be done to advantage 
at that time in Santiago.    The United States troops had mainly 
left; the Spanish soldiers were coming in to their waiting ships, 
bringing with them all the diseases, long existing unprovided and uncleanly camps would be expected to hold in store.   Five weeks before we 
had brought into Santiago all the cargo of fourteen hundred tons 
of the "State of Texas", excepting the light hospital supplies 
which had been used the month previous among our own troops at 
Siboney, General Shafter's front and el Caney during the days 
of fighting.    To any one accustomed to apportioning food, it 
would be at once apparent that these twelve hundred tons of 
heavy supplies, of meal, meat, beans, and flour, etc., were too 
much for distribution at one time for a little town of thirty 
thousand, which naturally partly fed itself.    But it must all 
be stored. 
          The "State of Texas" discharged her cargo and left for 
New York on the 5th day, leaving us without a particle of transportation, 
and in the pressure and confusion none could be obtained.--
Let those who tried it testify.    The two railroads 
leading out of the town were destroyed.   The ports were not open, 
and the country portions of the province reached only by pack 
mules.    Later forty large, fine, healthy mules were shipped to 
us, but the half score of fully equipped ambulances, harnesses[*27*]
[*Keiley*]

and between four hundred and five hundred bushels of oats were 
on the transports which brought them, could not be lightered 
off, and up to the time of our departure were never seen.

          The schooner "Morse", which, following the behest of 
an angelic thought of some lovely committee of home ladies, had 
come in laden with a thousand tons of ice.    The tug "Triton" 
which towed her all the way from Kennebec, and to be held for 
our use, was at once siezed by the Government.     Santiago had 
neither an ice house nor a pile of dry sawdust, and the ice remained 
on the "Morse" till discharged order by order among the transports of sick, wounded and 
convalescing as they sailed one after another with their freight 
of human woe. 


The "Morse" did well its blessed work, but never came to us. 
          Neither for love nor money could transportation be 
gotten.   I did, however, near the last, obtain the use of a 
leaky lighter for two hours to get off some mules, but I might 
specify that it was on neither of the above considerations.
          Some reporter is responsible for the statement that a 
large chip seen floating near the dock that morning had been 
seized.    While it might not be possible to verify this statement 
by actual facts, it was not so very far out of the way in 
theory. 


[*28*]

          These were the last days of General Shafter in Santiago, 
who was, as he had at all times been, the kind and courteous 
officer and gentleman. 
          General Wood, alert, wise, and untiring, with an eye 
single to the general good of all, toiled day and night. 
          The Government warehouses were so filled with supplied 
that there seemed no room for more.    The harbor filling 
with merchant ships for the trade, would soon come to regard 
with a jealous eye any body of persons who dispensed anything 
without price to even the poorest and most destitute. 
          But all this did not stay the marching stride of the 
native fever, so persistent in its grasp as scarcely to merit the 
appellation of intermittent.    Day by day I watched my little 
band ever growing less; out of twenty which the good "State of 
Texas" brought, seven were on their feet; twelve had sickened, 
been nursed and gotten off home, and one had gone to heaven. 
Of our own band of the national Red Cross workers, none had 
actually gone down; of those who had joined us assistants, 
few remained. 
          At this juncture news came that Havana was open.     In 
all the country   I knew   but one person who had the power to 
order one of those waiting transports to take myself, staff, and 
some supplies to Havana, and my dispatch went to President McKinley, 
with the suggestion, in order to economize time and[*29*]
[*Smith*]


labor, that possibly he might furnish a ship already loaded with 
Government supplies, and let us repay from our supplies on 
shore.     This dispatch brought the following prompt reply from 
the Secretary of War.    It was a glad reminder of the kindly 
courtesy and friendship of many years.    I give below the text of both the dispatch of the Secretary and my reply, in order to set right a 
misunderstanding on the part of the public, which I have observed 
with pain: 
 
[*?*]
[*29 1/2*]
Washington, August 18, 1898. 
Miss Clara Barton,
Santiago de Cuba.
          Clinton cannot be until until unloaded.    Stores aboard were 
sent on special request and are necessary for the comfort of officers 
and men at Santiago.    The Government will send as soon 
as ship can be loaded at Port Tampa two thousand tons of supplies 
for the relief of destitute.    This accomplishes same result and in 
shorter time.    Will not this meet your wishes even better than 
recommended in your cablegram yesterday.    Would it be asking too 
much for you to go to Habana superintend the distribution of these 
stores under the law; only the destitute and those in immediate 
danger of perishing can receive these supplies. 
R. A. Alger, Secretary of War.

Santiago de Cuba, August 18, 1898. 
Pierson, War Dept., Washington.
          Tell Secretary Alger I appreciate to the greatest possible 
extent his responsive and practical sympathy.    His suggestions 
are better that I had asked, and are promptly accepted.    If the 
Clinton is unloaded in time, I will leave here Saturday morning. 
Will take forty mules from here.    Need ten additional wagons and 
harness for all my mules.    Please give me some horsefeed from 
here. 
Clara Barton. 
[*6/7*]


[*30*]

          The reloading was quickly accomplished, the direction 
of our remaining affairs placed in proper hands, and on the 21st 
of August, just five weeks to an hour since entering the harbor, we 
retraced the waters we had smiled over coming from Siboney to 
Santiago.   The same golden sunshine rested on the hills and 
tinged the still waters of the bay, but we were no longer the 
only ship.    The transports to take our soldiers home lay there; 
the great Spanish liners to take the Spanish soldiers to Spain; 
the hospital ships with their fevered weight of glad woe, "going 
home", dotted the sea and skirted the shore. 
          All who understood our movement, saluted, and with tearful 
glances back to the little spot of earth which had given so 
much pain, made so many homes in both lands desolate, we ordered 
on full steam and glided away.
          Five days of continuous sunshine and scarcely wind to 
fill a sail brought us to Havana.    I had cabled the Spanish 
authorities on departure from Santiago, and notified them of 
our arrival, and was courteously referred to the Civil Governor 
of Havana, on whom I called, and received in return a most cordial 
visit with the added respect of bringing his entire staff 
with him. 
          No supplies from Port Tampa having arrived, we spent 
the second day in Matanzas, receiving from the good Governor and 
his amiable household such a welcome as one might expect from 
those they had known longest and loved most.    We then hoped to
go there at once and leave the supplies they so badly needed.[*31*]
[*Bundig*]

go there at once and leave the supplies they so badly needed. 

          Next day there came into harbor the S.S. "Comal" from 
Port Tampa, laden with sixteen hundred tons of Government supplies 
for distribution.     We exchanged visits with her gentlemanly and 
sensible officers, who had governmental instructions to take 
their cargo to Havana and distribute it, but no instructions to 
act in conjunction with us or with anyone; and we, on the other 
hand, received no intimation that her supplies were in any way 
intended for our use. 
          Both ships alike met the restriction of the customs 
duties, and while I felt that it might be well for a governmental 
cargo to test its position with the law of nations, under the 
circumstances, it was by no means the course for the Red Cross to 
take--an organization which never leads but follows in all military 
matters. 


[*32*]

          No commissioners had arrived, and feeling that we 
might become a source of irritation to them by remaining, and being 
unable to distribute our supplies, we decided to withdraw.     Our 
captain, having been trained in the merchant service and being 
unaccustomed to military shipping, had neglected some little 
formality on leaving Santiago, which admitted, or perhaps called 
for, a fine of five hundred dollars.     This we promptly paid. [on] and
 best understanding with all parties, Spanish, Cuban, and 
our own, no coercion on the part of any one, impelled by nothing 
but our own sense of the situation, we decided our course.    In 
fact, strenuous efforts were made by their high officials, notably 
the Secretary of State, to open the way for us; and while they 
could not override the law and positively remit a duty, they 
offered in this case, to pay the duty themselves, and take part 
in the distribution.    We appreciated the courtesy, but still 
felt that we might in some way become a hindrance to the pending[*33*] 
ADDRESS

[Paper Read by Miss Barton by Request before a 
Congress of Women, 1895 or '96]

"What is the significance of the Red Cross in it's Relation 
to Philanthropy." 

          I am asked to say something upon the "Significance of 
the Red Cross in its relation to Philanthropy." I am not sure 
that I understand precisely what is desired. 
          If a morning paper should announce that three or four 
of the greatest political bosses, or greatest railroad kings in 
the country, had quietly met somewhere, and sat with closed doors 
till long after midnight, and then silently departed, people 
would ask, "What is the significance of that?   What mischief 
have they been devising in secret?   In that sense of the word 
significance--which is a very common one--the Red Cross has none 
that I ever heard of.    It has no rich offices to bestow, no 
favorites to reward, no enemies to punish.   It has no secrets 
to keep, no mystic word or sign.   Its proceeding would, and do, 
make a valuable library, accessible to all men and all women from 
Norway to New Zealand. 
          I will not say that it is so simple and common in character 
that he who runs may read, but surely she who desires information


[*34*]
[*Forsell*]
2 

can sit down, read, and obtain it.    The Red Cross has 
been quietly doing its work for thirty years and is now established 
in forty independent nations.   No other institution on 
the earth, not even Christianity, has a public recognition so nearly 
universal.   None has ever adhered more closely to its one single 
purpose of alleviating human suffering.    Has that any significance 
or any connection with philanthropy?     Let us see.  [*7/8*]
           
          An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, 
must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to 
the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.
I suppose it is a philanthropic movement to try to reverse the
process.    Christianity, temperance and sanitary regulations
in general are examples.    Great evils die hard; and all that has
yet been done is to keep them within as narrow limits as possible.
Of these great evils, war is one.     War is in its very
nature cruel--the very embodiment of cruelty in its effects--
not necessarily in the hearts of the combatants.    Baron Macaulay
thought it not a mitigation but an aggravation of the evil, that
men of tender culture and human feelings, with no ill will,
should stand up and kill each other.    But men do not go to war
to save life.    They might save life by keeping the peace and
staying at home.    They go solely with intent to inflict so
much pain, loss and disaster on the enemy that he will yield to
their terms.    All their powers to hurt are focused upon him.[*35*]

3.

            In a moving army the elements of destruction, armed 
men and munitions of war, have the right of way; and the means 
of preserving and sustaining even their own lives are left to 
bring up the rear as they best can.     Hence, when the shock and 
crash of battle is over, and troops are advancing or retreating 
and all roads are blocked, and the medical staff trying to force 
its way through with supplies, prompt and adequate relief can 
scarcely ever reach the wounded.    The darkness of night comes 
down upon them like a funeral pall, as they lie in their blood, 
tortured with thirst and traumatic fever. 
          The memory of such scenes set a kindly Swiss gentleman 
to thinking of ways and means for alleviating their horrors.    In 
time, and by efforts whose history must be familiar to many of you, there resulted the Geneva Convention for the relief of the sick and 
wounded of armies.    I shall not trace its history, as it seems 
to be more to the present purpose to explain briefly what it 
proposed to do, and how it proceeded to do it. 
          The Convention found two prime evils to consider.    First, 
the existence of war itself; second, the vast amount of needless 
cruelty it inflicted upon its victims.     For the first of these, 
with the world full of standing armies, every boundary line of 
nations fixed and held by the sword, and the traditions of four 
thousand years behinds its customs, the framers of the Convention,
however earnest and devoted, could scarcely hope to find an 

4.
[*Ro????*]

immediate, if indeed, a perceptible mitigation.    Only time, 
prolonged effort, national economics, universal progress and the 
pressure of public opinion could ever hope to grapple with this 
monster evil of the ages. 

          But the second, if it were not possible to dispense 
with the needless cruelties heretofore inflicted upon the victims 
of war, thus relieving human misery to that extent, seemed 
to the framers of the Convention a reasonable question to be 
considered.     This is what it proposed to do.     A few sentences 
will explain how it proceeded to do it. 
          A convention was called at Geneva, Switzerland, for 
the 4th of August, 1864, to be composed of delegates accredited 
by the heads of the governments of the world, who should discuss 
the practices of war and ascertain to what extent the restraints 
of the established military code in its dealing with the sick 
and wounded of armies were needful for the benefit of the service
and to what extent they were needless, of benefit to no 
one, causing only suffering, of not strength to the service, and 
might be done away with; and to what extent war-making powers 
could agree to enter into a legal compact to that end.     The 
consideration, discussion and concessions of two weeks produced 
a proposed agreement which took the form of a compound treaty, 
viz: a treaty of one government with many governments--the first 
ever made--a compact known as the Treaty of Geneva, for the relief 
of the sick and wounded in war.
          Its basis was neutrality.     It made neutral all sick,5.
[*37*]
Its basis was neutrality.  It made neutral all sick,
wounded, or disabled soldiers at a field; all persons, as surgeons, 
nurses and attendants, who cared for them; all supplies 
of medicine or food for their use; all field and military hospitals 
with their equipments; all gifts from neutral nations 
for the use of the sick and wounded of any army; all houses near 
a battle field that would receive and nurse wounded men:  none 
of these should be subject to capture.  It provided for the 
sending of wounded men to their homes, rather than to prison; 
that friend and foe should be nursed together and alike in all 
military hospitals; and most of all, that the people who had 
always been forcibly restrained from approaching any field of 
action for purposes of relief, however needed, (with the single 
exception of our Sanitary Commission, and that under great difficulties 
and often under protest) should not only be allowed 
this privilege, but should arm and equip themselves with relief 
of all kinds, with the right to enter the lines for the helpless; 
thus relieving not alone the wounded and dying, but the armies of 
their care.
          
            It provided a universal sign by which all this relief, 
both of persons and material, should be designated and known.   A 
Greek red cross on a field of white should tell any soldier of 
any country within the treaty that the wearer was his friend and 
could be trusted; and to any officer of any army that he was legitimately 
there and not subject to capture.

            Some forty nations are in that treaty, and from every 


6.
[*38*]
          
military hospital in every one of these nations floats the same 
flag; and every active soldier in all their armies knows that 
he can neither capture nor harm the shelter beneath it, though
it be but a little "A" tent in the enemy's lines, and every 
disabled man knows it is his rescue and his home.         
            It may be interesting to know the formula of this compact. 
It recognizes one head, the International Committee of 
Geneva, Switzerland, from which all communications are made. 
One national head in each country which receives such communications, 
transmitting them to its government.  The ratifying
power of the Treaty is the Congress of Berne.  The organization 
in each nation receives from its government its high moral 
sanction and recognition, but is in no way supported or materially 
aided by it.  The Red Cross means, not national aid for the 
needs of the people, but the people's aid for the needs of the
nation.  The awakening patriotism of the last few years should, 
I think, make this feature more readily apprehended.       
            As the foreign nations furnish the only illustrations 
of the value and material aid of the Red Cross in war, let us 
glance at what it has accomplished.  
[*8/9*][*39*]

          The first important war after the birth of the Treaty 
of Geneva, was between Germany, Italy and Austria.    Austria 
had not, at that time, entered the treaty, and yet its objects were 
understood and its spirit found a responsive chord in the 
hearts of the people.     Over $400,000, beside a great amount of 
material, were collected by that country, and made use of for 
the relief of the combatants.    Italy was fairly well organized 
and rendered excellent service, furnishing much substantial assistance. Germany, which was in the van-guard of the treaty 
nations, was thoroughly organized and equipped.    She was the 
first to demonstrate the true idea of the Red Cross--people's 
aid for national, for military, necessity.     Great store-houses 
had been provided at central points, where vast supplies were 
collected.     In an incredibly short time, between $3,000,000 and 
$4,000,000 were raised for relief purposes, and large numbers 
of volunteers came to help the already organized corps of workers. 
Great trains of supplies were sent to the front.    The wounded
enemy was tenderly cared for, and everything was accomplished 
so well and so systematically, that it proved the incalculable 
value of organized, authorized, civil aid.     French and Swiss 
Red Cross workers also rendered great assistance, this being 
the first instance of neutrals taking an active part. 

[*40*]
          In the Franco-Prussian War the German Red Cross performed 
even better service, it having learned many valuable lessons 
in the German, Australian conflict, and through their efforts 
an infinite amount of good was accomplished and great suffering 
averted.     Not only were the wounded and sick soldiers tenderly 
cared for, but the unprovided families of soldiers were also 
supplied.    The French Red Cross at the breaking out of the war 
was poorly organized and penniless.    Within one month, however, 
hospitals had been established, ambulances and a large amount of 
field supplies were at the front, with a considerable relief 
force to care for the sick and wounded.    The French Association, 
not including the branches in the provinces, spent over $2,000,000 
and assisted 110,000 wounded.    Many neutral Red Cross nations 
assisted in rendering aid and relief in this great war.   England 
alone sent a million and a half dollars, besides twelve hundred 
cases of stores.     Eighty-five thousand sick, wounded and famishing 
French soldiers entered Switzerland, and were cared for by 
the Central Committee at Berne.    The International Committee at 
Geneva, in one instance, asked for and obtained 2,500 seriously 
wounded French soldiers, supplied their wants, and sent them to 
their own country. 
          In the great Russo-Turkish War, the Red Cross of Russia, 
splendidly equipped, with ample means and royal patronage, was,
at the beginning of hostilities, greatly hampered by the jealousy 
of the military.     The relief organizations were assigned places 
well in the rear; but ere many months had passed the Military 
Surgeons gladly accepted the Red Cross aid, and colossal work 
did it perform. Over $13,000,000 were raised, and all that 
was necessary spent in supplying relief.    The neutral Red Cross 
countries furnished valuable assistance in this war also.[*41*]

          In the recent war between Japan and China, you undoubtedly 
read of the wonderful work performed by the Japanese 
Red Cross.    This society followed the precedent of Germany, in 
tenderly caring for the wounded enemy, even though fighting 
against a nation not in the treaty.    Japan had a cruel, merciless 
enemy to fight, and yet her soldiers were instructed to have 
respect even for a dead enemy. 
          It is needless to give further illustration; history 
records the wonderful achievements of this greatest of relief 
organizations, through it cannot record the untold suffering 
which has been averted by it. 
          Is the Red Cross a humanitarian organization?     What 
is the significance of the Red Cross?     I leave these two questions 
for you to answer. 
          But war, although the most, tragic, is not the only 
evil that assails humanity.     War has occurred in the United 
States four times in one hundred and twenty years.    Four times 
its men have armed and marched, and its women waited and wept. 
That is on an average of one war every thirty years.     It is now 
a little over thirty years since the last hostile gun was fired;  
we fondly hope it may be many years before there is another.     A 
machine, even a human machine, called into active service only 
once in thirty years is liable to get out of working order; 
hence to keep it in condition for use, no less than for the possible 
good it might do, the American Society of the Red Cross 
asked to have included in its charter the privilege of rendering 
such aid as it could in great public calamities, as fires, 
floods, cyclones, famines and pestilence. 


[*42*]
          
          In a time of profound peace, that has been the only 
possible field of activity.     It is not for me to say whether 
that field has been successfully cultivated; but a few of the 
facts will determine whether the innovation upon the treaty 
will commend itself to your judgment, as it has to those of the 
older societies of Europe. 
          Naturally it required not only diplomacy but arguments 
to obtain a privilege never before officially considered in the 
unbroken customs of the international treaty.   They must be 
submitted to a foreign Congress.    The same argument pertained 
fifteen years ago that pertains today; namely, that in all our 
vast territory, subject to incalculable disasters, with all our
charitable, humane and benevolent associations, there was not 
one which had for its object and duty to hold itself in preparation 
and training to meet and relieve the woes of these over-mastering 
disasters.     All would gladly aid, but there were none 
to lead.     Everybody's business was nobody's business, and the 
stricken victims perished. 
          We asked that under the Red Cross Constitution of the 
United States, its national organization should be permitted to 
act in the capacity of Red Cross relief agents, treating a 
national disaster like a field of battle, proceed to it at once,[*43*]
[*Bundig*]
11.

with experienced help, equipped with all the needful supplies 
and means to commence relief, overlook and learn the needs of the
field, make immediate statements of the true condition and wants 
to the people of the country, who, knowing the presence of the 
Red Cross there, could, if desirable, make it the medium of 
their contributions for relief either in money or material.    To
relieve the necessities in every way possible, keep the people 
at large in possession of reliable information, hold the field 
until relief has been given, and retire when all needed aid has 
been rendered.    This privilege was graciously granted by the 
ratifying Congress at Berne, and is known as the "American Amendment" 
of the Red Cross.    Nations since that date, on becoming 
signatory to the Treaty, have included that amendment in their 
charters.  [*9/10*]

          This is the principle upon which we have acted. The 
affording of relief to the victims of great disasters anywhere in 
the United States, is what the National Red Cross has proceeded 
to do, and it has confined itself strictly to its privileges, acting 
only in disasters so great as to be national.     It never 
asks aid; never makes an appeal; it simply makes statements of 
the real condition of the sufferers, leaving the people free 
to exercise their own humanity through any medium the may prefer.
          In the thirteen years of relief work by the Red Cross 
in the United States, every dollar and every pound that has been


[*44*]
12.

received and distributed by it, has been the free-will offering 
of the people, given for humanity with solicitation, and 
dispensed without reward.     It has received nothing from the 
Government.    No fund has been created for it.    No contributions 
have been made except those to be distributed as relief at its 
fields.    Its officers serve without pay.    There is not, nor 
ever was, a salaried officer in it, and even its Headquarters 
meets its own costs.     Among the various appropriations made by 
Congress for relief of calamities in the past years, as in great 
river floods, not a dollar so appropriated has ever been applied 
through the Red Cross, although working on the same field.     I 
name these facts, not by way of complaint, or even comment, but 
to correct popular errors of belief, which I know you would prefer 
to have corrected.    True to its method, this is simply a 
statement of the real condition of things, and left to the choice 
of the people--the Red Cross itself is theirs, created for them, 
and it is peculiarly their privilege to deal with it as they 
will. 
          The following list of calamities with the approximate 
value of material furnished, as well as money, will give you 
some appreciation of the services rendered in the cause of humanity 
by the American National Red Cross.     Limit of time and 
space forbid even an attempt at description of its various 
fields.    I can only name the most important, with estimated 
values distributed on each:13.

[*45*]

Michigan Forest Fires, 1881,   $80,000
Mississippi Floods, 1882,   8,000
Mississippi Floods, 1883,   18,500
Mississippi Cyclone, 1883,   1,000
Balkan War, 1883,   500
Ohio and Mississippi Floods, 1884,   175,000
Texas Famine, 1885,   100,000
Charleston Earthquake, 1886,   500
Mt. Vernon, Ill. Cyclone, 1888,   85,000
Florida Yellow Fever, 1888,   15,000
Johnstown Disaster, 1889,   250,000
Russian Famine, 1891-92,   125,000
Pomeroy, Iowa, Cyclone, 1893,   10,700
South Carolina Islands, 1893-94,   80,000
____________________________________________
                                                   $949,200
[*B????] 

          Only about one-eighth of the above estimates represent
cash; the balance represents material.
 
[*46*]
          In each of these emergencies something has been added
to the sum of human happiness, something subtracted from the
sum of human woe; the naked have been clothed, the hungry fed,
new homes have sprung up from the desolated ruins, crops revived,
and activities and business relations resumed.      In a neighboring
state and its adjacent islands scarcely two hundred miles distant
from this, could today be found several thousand human beings,
living in their homes, enjoying their family lives, following
their ordinary avocations, cultivating the ground, who, if asked,
would unhesitatingly tell you that but for the help of the Red
Cross, they would two years ago have been under the ground they
now cultivate.
          If the alleviation of human miseries, the saving of 
life, and the bringing of helplessness and dependence back to
methods of self-sustenance and independence are counted among
the philanthropic movements of the day, then to us, who have
seen so much and worked so long and so hard among it, it would
seem that the Red Cross movement has some significance in connection 
with philanthropy.


[*47*]
          There remains but one question more.  To whom is
this movement due?    Who instituted it?    In what minds did it
originate?     I wish I could say it was all woman's work; but
the truth compels the fact that this great, humane idea originated 
with men; the movement was instituted by them.    They thought
it out, and they wrought it out, and it was only meet and proper
that they should, for the terrible evil that made it necessary
was theirs as well.     Women as a rule are not war-makers.    For
centuries the caprices of men have plunged the world in strife,
covered the earth's surface with armies, and enriched its soil
with the best blood that ever flowed in human veins.     It is 
only right that at length, in the cycle of ages, something should
touch man's heart and set him humbly down to find out some way
of mending as much of his mischief as he could.    Perhaps he
"builded better than he knew", for in that one effort he touched
the spring that sooner or later will mend it all.    No grander
or truer prophecy has ever been made than uttered in that first
convention:     "The Red Cross shall teach war to make war upon 
itself".     It is the most practical and effective peace-maker and
civilizer in the known world.    It reaches where nothing else 
can.   If proof of this be wanting, study the action of Japan in 
its late war.   [*10 - 11*]

[*48*]
          But is man doing this work alone?    No--gladly no!
Scarcely had he made his first move, when the jeweled hands of
royal woman glistened beside him, and right royally have they
borne their part.   Glance at the galaxy--the great leader and 
exemplar of them all, Empress Augusta of Germany, her illustrious
daughter, the Grand Duchess of Baden, Eugenia, Empress Frederick,
Victoria and Princess Louise of England, Margherita of Italy,
Natalia of Servia, and the entire court of Russia, and today the
present Empress of Germany, and the hard-working Empress of
Japan, with her faithful, weary court, even now busy in the hospitals
of convalescing Chinese.    The various auxiliary societies
of women of all principal Red Cross nations are a pride and a glory to humanity.

16.
[*49*]

These nations have all two important features in their 
movement, which thus far, have not been accorded to us.    Their 
governments have instituted laws protecting the insignia and 
name of the  Red Cross from misuse and abuse as trade-marks by unscrupulous venders, and appropriation by the false societies for 
dishonest purposes.    This lack, and this alone, has thus far
rendered general organization in the United States impracticable 
and unsafe.     For seven years the most strenuous efforts at protection 
have failed; the loss has been to the people in general.
          The second advantage of other nations is that citizens, 
the men of wealth in those countries, have created a Red Cross 
fund for its use, varying in amounts from a hundred thousand 
to several millions of dollars.     Russia, I believe, has a fund 
of some three millions.     It seems never to have occurred to 
our wealth-burdened men that possibly a little satisfaction might 
be gained, some good accomplished, and some credit done the 
nation by a step in that direction.    It will dawn upon them 
some day, not perhaps in mine, but in some of yours, and then,
ladies, you can well join hands with them, and discern more 
clearly than now the significance of the Red Cross as related 
to philanthropy. 
------------------------

[*50*]
          Immediately following our accession to the Treaty of 
Geneva, fifteen years ago, the President of the Red Cross was
asked by the Committee of Foreign Relations of the Senate, to 
prepare a history of the Red Cross for publication by them
through the Government Printing Office.    This was done, and a 
book oftwo hundred and twenty-seven pages was issued, giving an 
account of the origin of the organization, the steps by which 
it became a treaty, of our own initiation, and not only the 
exact text by which our accession was made, but that of every 
other nation within the treaty up to that time, 1882. 
          A bill for a reprint by Congress of fifty thousand 
copies of this book was lost in the last session through lack 
of time. 
          No consecutive book has been published by us since that 
date, buy the history has been perhaps even more fully told, and 
that scores of times in public addresses which its President and 
assistants have been called to make before great assemblies; 
selections from some of which will appear in this volume, as the 
fullest information given in the most compact manner that we 
can render in the short space of time allotted us.[*51*]

          The very title of the organization, viz:"Relief in
War", has been a misnomer, and through all the early years especially 
was very generally misunderstood by the public.    I
have not unfrequently been invited and innocently urged to attend
Peace Meetings, and large charity gatherings for the poor
and afflicted, on the ground of needed instruction to myself;
inasmuch as I "was engaged in advocating war, wouldn't it be well
to hear something on the other side?"    And I have been invited
to become party to a discussion in which the merits of war and
peace should be compared.
          Large organizations of women, the best in the country,
and, I believe, the best in the world, have faithfully labored
with me to merge the Red Cross into their society as a part of 
woman's work; without the smallest conception or realization of
its scope, its international character, its treaty obligations,
and the official ground it was liable at any time to be called
to occupy.


[*52*]

Many charming invitations from ladies even more charming
to address their convention or meeting, have still contained
some well chosen word which might imply a question, if indeed
the Red Cross really were the humane and philanthropic instituition 
it claimed to be; naturally the address usually dealt
with the question as it was put.
          I name these facts as mere relics of the past, amusing 
now, but instructive to you of the present day (when no child
even questions the motives of the Red Cross), as showing what
it had to meet and live through in order to live at all.
[*11/12*]
#[*1*]
[*1A - Red Cross*]                                                            
  
[*From the formation of Danville Society
to Ohio flood, partly in[????????]                             

          It may be necessary to recall to the mind of the 
person reading these pages hastily, the fact that the National 
[Association of the] Red Cross of America was formed nearly a year 
before the accession to the treaty.    This was done by the advice 
of President Garfield, in order to aid as far as possible
the accession.     Referring to page (  ), will be found a notice of
this meeting in these words:  "Accordingly a meeting was held
in Washington, D.C., May 21, 1881, which resulted in the formation 
of an association to be known as the American National Association 
of the Red Cross". 
          Several years of Previous illness on the part of 
its President had resulted in fixing her country home at 
Dansville, New York, the seat of the great Jackson and Austin
Sanitarium and the acknowledged foundation of the hundreds of 
health institutions of that kind which bless the country today.
The establishment of the National [Association] of the Red Cross 
in Washington had attracted the attention of persons outside, who,
of course, knew very little of it; but among others, the people 
of Dansville, the home of the President, felt that if she were
engaged in some public move, they too might at least offer to 
aid.      Accordingly, on her return to them in midsummer, they
waited upon her with a request to that effect, which resulted 
in the formation of a society of the Red Cross, this being the 
first body of aid to the National Association formed in the United States. [for the establishment 
of the National Association.]     It is possible I cannot make  


[*2*]                                           
2

that more clear than in giving their report of that date, which
was as follows:

REPORT OF THE RED CROSS SOCIETY OF DANSVILLE.)  [*- 10 pt f.o.s. caps*]
To the American Association of the Red Cross,
Washington, D.C.

           In reply to your request, given through the secretary
of your association, that we make report to you concerning the 
inauguration of our society, its subsequent proceedings and 
present condition, the committee has the honor to submit the following statement:

          Dansville, Livingston County, New York, being the 
country residence of Miss Clara Barton, president of the American
Association of the Red Cross, its citizens, desirous of paying 
a compliment to her, and at the same time of doing an honor to 
themselves, conceived the idea of organizing in their town the 
first local society of the Red Cross in the United States.    To 
this end, a general preliminary meeting was held in the Presbyterian 
church, when the principles of the treaty of Geneva and 
the nature of its societies were defined in a clear and practical 
manner by Miss Barton, who had been invited to address the
meeting.     Shortly after, on the 22nd of August, 1881, a second
meeting, for the purpose of organization, held in the Lutheran
church and presided over by the pastor, Rev. Dr. Strobel, was attended 
by the citizens generally, including nearly all the religious 
denominations of the town, with their respective pastors. 
The purpose of the meeting was explained by your president, a
constitution presented and very largely signed, and officers elected.

          Thus we are able to announce, that on the eighteenth
anniversary of the treaty of Geneva, in Switzerland, August 22,
1864, was formed the first local society of the Red Cross in the 
United States of America.    We most respectfully submit for your
inspection the following copy of its constitution.  * * * *

          Almost immediately following this occurred the memorable 
forest fires of Michigan, which raged for days, sweeping
everything before them--man, beast, forests, farms--every living[*3*]
3

thing, until in one report made of it, we find this sentence:
"So sweeping has been the destruction, that there is not food
left in its track for a rabbit to eat, and indeed, no rabbit to
eat it, if there were."     Here occurred the first opportunity for
work that the young society had found, and again I give without
further note their report:

REPORT OF THE RED CROSS SOCIETY IF DANSVILLE, N.Y., [10 pt f.o.s c]
To the American National Ass'n of the Red Cross, Washington, D.C.

The Red Cross at Work.
           Before a month had passed, before a thought of practical
application to business had arisen, we were forcibly and 
sadly taught again the old lesson, that we need but to build the 
altar, God will himself provide the sacrifice.      If we did not
hear the crackling of the flames, our skies grew murky and dark,
and our atmosphere bitter with the drifting smoke that rolled
over from the blazing fields of our neighbors of Michigan, whose
living thousands fled in terror, whose dying hundreds writhed in
the embers, and whose dead blackened in the ashes of their hard-earned
homes.     Instantly we felt the help and strength of our
organization, young and untried as it was.    We were grateful
that in this first ordeal your sympathetic president was with us.
We were deeply grateful for your prompt call to action, given
through her, which rallied us to our work.     Our relief rooms
were instantly secured, and our white banner, with its bright
scarlet cross, which has never been furled since that hour, was
thrown to the breeze, telling to every looker-on what we were
there to do, and pointing to every generous heart an outlet for
its sympathy.     We had not mistaken the spirit of our people;
our scarce-opened doorway was filled with men, women and children
bearing their gifts of pity and love.     Tables and shelves were 
piled, our working committee of ladies took every article under
inspection, their faithful hands made all the garments whole and 
strong; lastly, each article received the stamp of the society
and of the Red Cross, and all were carefully and quickly consigned
to the firm packing cases awaiting them.      Eight large boxes were
shipped at first, others followed directly, and so continued
until notified by the Relief Committee of Michigan that no more
were needed,     Meanwhile the hands of our treasurer were not left


[*4*]
4
empty, some hundreds of dollars were deposited with him.    A
most competent agent, our esteemed townsman and county clerk of
Livingston, Maj.Mark J. Bunnell, was dispatched with the first
invoice of funds, and charged with the duty of the reception of
the supplies, their proper distribution, and of making direct
report of the condition and needs of the sufferers.

          The good practical judgment of the people and society
led them to consider the near approach of winter and the unsheltered
condition of the victims, bereft of every earthly possession, 
and warm clothing and bedding were sent in great abundance.  
Our cases were all marked with the Red Cross and consigned 
to Senator Omar D. Conger, of Port Huron, who led the call
of the Michigan Committee, and to whom, as well as his kind-hearted
and practical wife, we are indebted for many timely suggestions
and words of grateful appreciation.

          In a spirit of gratitude and hope, we submit this partial
report of our first work under the Red Cross, which can be
but partial, as our rooms are still open and our work in progress
awaiting such further calls as may come to us.     We are grateful 
that we are called, grateful that your honored President, with
the acquired skill of the humane labors of many years in many
lands, was with us to counsel and instruct.     We are glad to have 
learned from this early object lesson the value of organized
effort, and the value of our own organization.

          We hope our report may be satisfactory to you, and that
our beautiful little valley town, quietly nestling among the 
green slopes of Genesee, after having offered the first fruits
of the Red Cross to its own countrymen, may always be as prompt
and generous in any call of yours for suffering humanity.

          ROCHESTER:--The neighboring city of Rochester, forty
miles to the north of Dansville, hearing of the activity of its
smaller neighbor in the great disaster that was paralyzing all,
desired also to unite in the work, and knowing much less even
than Dansville of what the Red Cross might mean, still desired to
act with it, if possible; and appended herewith will be found
their report, which will best tell their story:

SOCIETY OF THE RED CROSS OF MONROE COUNTY.
          Influential citizens of Rochester, Monroe County, New
York, having become interested in the subject of the Treaty of 
{*1/2*] Geneva and the Red [*/*] Cross work going on in Dansville, sent a request
through the mayor of the city to Miss Clara Barton to ad-[*5*]
5

dress them in a public meeting.     Miss Barton met an audience of
thinking, philanthropic men and women to whom it was a pleasure 
to unfold her theme.      The result was a proposition to organize 
a society before adjournment.     Accordingly names were pledged, 
and, the second evening after, a constitution was adopted and 
officers elected, Edward M. Moore, M.D., President.  *  *  *  *

          Steps were immediately taken for reducing to practice 
the theory of their newly-formed society, and in three days from 
its existence its agent, Prof. J.B.Hubbell, was on the burnt 
fields of Michigan with instructions to examine into the condition 
of the people and report their necessities to the society from 
actual observation.     These duties were faithfully and judiciously 
performed, and the day following his report of the special 
need of money the sum of $2,500 in cash was forwarded as a first 
installment.      At last reports the sum raised amounted ot $3807.28 
and the society numbered 250 members.      It is evident that no 
full report can be made concerning a movement of which only the 
first steps are taken, and which is still in active operation, 
but it is believed that the instances are rare when, with no 
distress of its own as an incentive, but from the simple motive   
of benevolence, a people has accomplished so much, both in organization 
and practical results, in so brief a space of time.

SYRACUSE:--
MENTION OF THE SOCIETY OF THE RED CROSS OF ONONDAGA COUNTY.
          Following close on the organization in Rochester, the 
citizens of the sister city of Syracuse and vicinity, in Onondaga 
County, New York, met at the Board of Trade rooms and perfected 
their organization under the above name.      Rev.Dr.Richmond 
Fiske, a widely known philanthropist, prominently connected with 
the principal charities of the city, assisted by Prof.G.F.Comfort, 
of the Syracuse University, led the movement.     The constitution, 
embracing in admirable form the principles of the 
Geneva Convention, was signed by a large number present, and 
officers appointed representing the names of the leading people 
of the city. 

[*6*]
6
           The close of this work, which may have seemed premature 
and preliminary, left the association free to continue its 
efforts with the Government of the United States on behalf of its 
accession to the treaty.
          The spring rise of the water o the Mississippi brought 
great devastation, and again the cry went over the country of 
the sufferings of the inhabitants of the Mississippi valley.     For 
hundreds of miles the great river was out of its bed and raging 
madly over the country, sweeping in its course, not only the 
homes, but often the people, the animals, and many times the land
itself.     This constituted a work of relief clearly within the 
bounds of the civil part of our treaty, and again we prepared for 
work.     Again our infant organization sent its Field Agent, Dr. 
Hubbell, to the scene of the disaster, where millions of acres 
of the richest valley, cotton and sugar lands of America, and 
thousands upon thousands of homes lay under the waters of the 
mightiest of rivers--where the swift rising floods overtook alike 
man and beast in their flight of terror, sweeping them ruthlessly 
to the gulf beyond, or leaving them clinging in famishing despair 
to some trembling roof, or swaying tree top, till relief 
could reach and rescue them.
          The National Association, with no general fund, sent 
of its personal resources what it was able to do, and so acceptable 
did these prove and so convincing were the beneficences of 
the work, that the cities of Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans[*7*]
7
desired to be permitted to form associate societies and work
under the National Association.   This was permitted, and those 
societies have remained until the present time, New Orleans organizing 
for the entire state of Louisiana.    The city of Rochester, 
proud and grateful of its success in the disaster a few
months before, again came to the front and again rendered excellent 
service.
               It was a singular fact that on the 1st day of March,
1882, while the National Association was in session, busily
engaged in devising ways and means for extending the relief which 
to them seemed so needed and so slender, a messenger came from
the Senate of the United States to announce to them that the 
vote had been taken, and that the United States had acceded to
the Treaty of Geneva without a dissenting voice.     This closed 
a meeting joyfully which had opened with many misgivings.     Fresh
courage and hope were taken, and every energy called into action 
for the furtherance of the work which seemed then fairly
commenced.
                In the following spring of 1883 occurred the first
great rise of the Ohio river; 1000 miles in extent.    This river,
although smaller than the Mississippi, is more rapid in its 
course, and its valleys hold the richest grain lands, covered
thickly with cultivated farms, and representing in fact, the
best farming interests of America.  


[*8*]
8
               The destruction of property was even greater here than
in the cotton and cane lands of the Mississippi.     Again our
Field Agent was dispatched and did excellent work, each society
contributing what it could, the National almost what it could
not.     The entire country was aroused, and so liberal were the 
contributions to the various committees of relief, that when 
Dr. Hubbell retired from the field, as being supplied, he had 
still unexpended funds in hand.     But they were soon needed.
In less than a month occurred the fearful cyclone of Louisiana
and Mississippi, which cut a swath of territory clear of all
standing objects, for thirty miles in width and several hundred
miles in length, running south east from the Mississippi river 
to the Gulf of Mexico.
               Our Special Agent for the South, Col.F.R.Southmayd,
took charge [in] of the Red Cross relief in this disaster, and so
efficient was his work, that societies struggled for organization 
under him, and the Red Cross was hailed as a benediction 
wherever he passed.  This was in May, 1883.
               Our Association now enjoyed a respite from active work,
which was surely needed, for a season of eight months,--the longest
rest we had yet known, and affording some small opportunity 
to gather up its records of past labors, organize some societies,
and compile a history of the Red Cross, so much needed for the
information of our people ans so earnestly asked for by them and[*9*]
9

by the United States Senate, from which history the preceding 
pages of this book have been extracted.     [*¶*] But [our] the respite was all 
too short for our purposes.   The rapidly melting snows of February, 
1884, brought the 1000 miles of the Ohio river again out 
of its bed.     A wild cry went out all over the country for help. 
The Government through Congress took immediate action, and appropriated several hundred thousand dollars for relief, to be applied 
through the War Department.     The Red Cross agents must 
again repair to the field, its societies again be notified.
               But its President felt that if she were to be called 
every year to direct the relief work of the Association in their 
inundations, it was incumbent upon her, to visit the scene in 
person, to see for herself what floods were like, to learn the 
necessities and be able to direct with the wisdom born of actual 
knowledge of the subject; and accordingly, with ten hours' preparation, 
joined Dr. Hubbell on his way, and proceeded to Pittsburgh, 
the head of the Ohio river.    There the societies were 
telegraphed, informed that Cincinnati would be headquarters, and 
money and supplies should be sent there.   This done, we proceeded 
to Cincinnati by rail.
               Any description of this city upon our entrance would 
fall so far short of the reality as to render it useless.


[*10*]
10

               The surging river had climbed up the bluffs like a devouring 
monster and possessed the town; large steamers could 
have plied its business streets; ordinary avocations were abandoned. 
Bankers and merchants stood in its relief houses and 
fed the hungry populace, and [*2/3*] men and women were out in boats, passing baskets of food to pale trembling hands stretched out 
to reach it from third story windows of the stately blocks and 
warehouses of that beautiful city.     Sometimes the water soaked 
away the foundations, and the structure fell with a crash and 
was lost in the floods below; in one instance seven lives went 
down with the building, and this was only one point, and probably 
the best protected and provided in a thousand miles of 
thickly populated country.
               It had not been my intention to remain at the scene of 
disaster, but rather to see, investigate, establish an agency, 
and return to national headquarters at Washington, which in the 
haste of departure had been left imperfectly provided.     But I 
might almost say, in military parlance, that I was "surprised 
and captured".
               I had made no call beyond the Red Cross societies,-expected 
no supplies from other sources-- but scarcely had news of 
our arrival at Cincinnati found its way to the public press, 
when telegrams of money and checks, from all sides and sources, 
commenced to come in, with letters announcing the sending of 
material.    The express office and freight depots began filling[*11*]
11

up, until within two weeks we were compelled to open large supply 
rooms, which were generously tendered to the use of the Red 
Cross.     A description could no more do justice to our flood of 
supplies than to the flood of waters which had made them necessary--
cases, barrels and bales of clothing, food, household supplies, 
new and old, all that intelligent awakened sympathy could 
suggest, were there in such profusion that, so far from thinking 
to leave it and return, one must call all available help to its 
care and distribution.
               The Government would supply the destitute people with
food, tents and army blankets, and had placed its military boats 
upon the river to rescue the people and issue rations until the 
first great need should be supplied.
               The work of the Red Cross is supplemental, and it sought 
for the special wants likely to be overlooked in this great general 
supply, and the necessities outside the limits of Governmental 
aid.    The search was not difficult.     The Government provided 
neither fuel nor clothing.     It was but little past midwinter. 
A cyclone struck the lower half of the river, with the water at 
its greatest height, and whole villages were swept away in a
night.      The inhabitants escaped in boats, naked and homeless. 
Hail fell to the depth of several inches, and the entire country 
was encased in sleet and ice.    The water had filled the coal 
mines, so abundant in that vicinity, until no fuel could be obtained.


[*12*]
12

obtained.    The people were more likely to freeze than starve, and 
against this there was no provision.
               We quickly removed our headquarters from Cincinnati to 
Evansville, three hundred miles, the head of the recent scene of 
disaster.     A new, staunch steamer of four hundred tons burden was immediately chartered, and laden to the water's edge with clothing 
and coal; good assistants, both men and women taken on board; 
the Red Cross hoisted, and as night was setting in, after a day 
of intense cold,-amid surging waters and crashing ice, the floating 
wrecks of towns and villages, great uprooted giants of the 
forest plunging madly to the sea, the suddenly unhoused people 
wandering about the river banks, or huddled in strange houses 
with fireless hearths,-the clear toned bell and shrill whistle of 
the Josh V. Throop announced to the generous inhabitants of a 
noble city that from the wharves of Evansville was putting out 
the first Red Cross relief boat that ever floated on American 
waters.
               The destroyed villages and hamlets lay thick on either 
bank, and the steamer wove its course diagonally from side to 
side, calling the people to the boat, finding a committee to 
receive and distribute, and learning as nearly as possible the 
number of destitute persons, put off the requisite quantity of 
clothing and coal, and steamed away quickly and quietly, leaving 
sometimes an astonished few, sometimes a multitude to gaze after,[*13*]
13

and wonder who she was, whence she came, what that strange flag 
meant, and most of all, to thank God with tears and prayers for 
what she brought.
               In this manner the Red Cross proceeded to Cairo, 
a distance of 400 miles, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi 
river, which latter at that time had not risen, and was giving 
no apprehension.     Returning, we revisited and resupplied the 
destitute points.     The Government boats running over the same 
track were genial and friendly with us, and faithful and efficient 
in their work.
               It should be said that, notwithstanding all the 
material we had shipped and distributed, so abundant had been 
the liberality of the people, that on our return to Evansville, 
we found our supply greater than at any previous time.
               At this moment, and most unexpectedly, commenced 
the great rise of the Mississippi river, and a second cry went 
out to the Government and the people for instant help.     The 
strongest levees were giving way under the sudden pressure, and 
even the inundation of the city of New Orleans was threatened. 
Again the Government appropriated money, and the War Department 
sent out its rescue and ration boats, and again the Red Cross 
prepared for its supplemental work.
               In an overflow of the Mississippi, owing to the 
level face of the country, and the immense body of water, the 
valley is inundated at times [90] 30 miles in width, thus rendering


[*14*]
14

it impossible to get animals to a place of safety. Great numbers 
drown, and the remainder, in a prolonged overflow, have 
largely starved, the Government having never included the domestic 
animals in its work of relief.     This seemed an omission 
of vital importance, both humanely and economically considered, 
and the Red Cross prepared to go to the relief of the starving 
animals of the Mississippi valley. It would also supply clothing 
to the destitute people whom the Government would feed.
               The navigation of the Mississippi river calls for 
its own style of boats and pilotage, the latter being both difficult 
and dangerous, especially with the changed channels and yawning 
crevasses of a flood.
               The steamer "Throop" was left at Evansville, and 
the Mattie Bell chartered at St. Louis, and laden with corn, 
oats, hay, meal and salt for cattle, clothing and cooking utensils 
for the destitute people, tea, coffee, rice, sugar and 
medicines, for the sick; and as quickly as possible followed 
the Government steamers leaving the same port with rations of 
meat and meal.     These latter boats kindly burdened themselves 
with large quantities of our forage which our over laden boat 
could not contain. 
               We soon found that our judgment in regard to the 
condition of the animals had not erred.     Horses, mules, cows, 
sheep and pigs had been hastily gotten upon floating rafts, and 
platforms of logs raised above the water, or had taken refuge,[*15*]
15

as many as could, on the narrow strips of land, known as broken 
levees, say eight to twelve feet in width, just peering above 
the water; and here they stood, often crowded beyond the possibility of 
lying down, with no morsel of food save the wee green leaves 
and tips of the willow branches and gray moss which their pitying 
owners, largely poor negroes, could gather in skiffs and 
bring to them.      Day by day they stood and wasted, starved and 
their bodies floated down the stream, food for the birds 
of prey hovering above.     Week after week, and the mighty river, 
pouring through its monster crevasses, spread wider and wider 
every hour. We left our steamer at times and were rowed out 
in little boats for miles alongside of the levees, and went 
among the cattle.     Some waded out into the water to their 
backs to reach after the green scum which gathered and swam delusively 
upon the surface.     Some, unable to stand, lay stretched 
at length with head and horns dabbling in the sand, fearlessly 
turning great pitiful eyes upon us as we approached.     Others, 
reeling, followed us tamely about, as if beseeching us to feed [*3 / 4*]
them.    I need not add that they were fed.     Committees of 
both white and colored persons were formed, and the requisite 
quantity of food for the animals, and clothing for the people 
were left with these committees at every needy point.     Our 
steamer was reladen, or our supplies replenished at each available 
port, and in this manner, we passed to New Orleans, and 
returning, resupplied our committees.


[*16*]
16

               The necessity for a change of boat on the Ohio and 
Mississippi has been mentioned; that the "Throop" was discharged at Evansville, and the Red Cross body passed over to St. Louis.    Perhaps 
some reference to the journals of that date would best illustrate the 
necessity for [our] there movements, as well as the spirit of the people and of the times.
               From an editorial in the Inter Ocean of March 31st, 1884, the following extract is taken:

               "The day is not far distant--if it has not already come-
"when the American people will recognize the Red Cross as one of the 
"wisest and best systems of philanthropic work in modern times. Its
"mission is not accomplished when it has carried the generous offerings 
"of the people to their brethren who have met with sudden calamity. 
"It does not stop with the alleviation of bodily suffering and the 
"clothing of the destitute--blessed as that work is, when wisely done, 
"so as not to break down the manly spirit of self-help.    The Red Cross 
"has become a grand educator, embodying the best principles of social "privilege to serve one's fellow-men in time of trouble.    The supply-
"ing of material wants--of food, raiment and shelter is only a small 
"part of its ministry.    In its work among suffering humanity, when 
"fire or flood or pestilence has caused widespread desolation, the Red 
"Cross seeks to carry to people's hearts that message which speaks of 
"a universal brotherhood.     It is all the time and everywhere sowing 
"the seed of brotherly kindness and good will, which is destined in[*17*]

"time to yield the fruits of world-wide peace.    Once let the love of 
doing good unto others become deeply rooted and practiced as an international 
custom, and arsenals and iron-clad navies will give way to 
the spirit of equity. War will cease as a relic of barbarism, and 
peace will shed its benedictions over all nations."

               From the Evansville Journal of April 3rd, the following:
               "The President of the Red Cross left for St. Louis last 
night, where she will take charge of a streamer which has been chartered 
under her direction for relief service in the lower Mississippi.  [- -]
The mission of the Red Cross, which has done such wonderful and effective
work in the Ohio valley, is not yet completed.     The lower Mississippi 
cries for aid.     The destruction of property below the mouth of 
the Ohio is, if possible, greater than was experienced on the Ohio. 
Life has not been in such desperate peril, but property has been 
swept away by oceans of water, and the land owner, with corn and cotton 
fields, has been reduced to pauperism.     [ -   -   - ]     This year 
the overflow has been of such a character that neither crop, mortgage, 
nor advance are safe, and the renter and half-share farmer must suffer. 
The Red Cross comes to the rescue.     Miss Barton will be accompanied 
by several ladies from this city, and will be joined by many gentlemen 
and ladies from St. Louis."
               From the St. Louis Democrat, April 4th, the following:
               "Miss Clara Barton arrived at the "Southern" yesterday 

[*18*]

morning.    Miss Barton is accompanied by Mrs. DeBruler and Miss Enola 
Lee, of Evansville, Indiana, Dr. J. B. Hubbell, Field Agent, and Mr. 
John Hites, of Washington, D.C.     The members of the party were busily engaged yesterday in superintending the landing of the streamer "Mattie 
Bell", which leaves for the inundated districts of the lower Mississippi 
this morning.    Miss Octavia Dix, Secretary of the St. Louis 
branch of the Red Cross, will accompany the expedition."
               For the sure interest of the brave men of the 5th Corps 
of the Spanish War of '98, who, under some slight degree of hunger 
and other accompanying conditions, better remembered than described, partook of Mrs. Dr. Gardner's gracious offerings of hot gruel, malted 
milk, boiled rice, apple wine, prune cordial, I would mention that 
Mrs. Dr. Gardner was the Miss Enola Lee of the "Mattie Bell" of '84. 
And for the interest of the brave men of '61 to '64, who on its hard-fought 
fields were cared for and provided under the direction of the 
veteran commissary Col. [A] Beckwith, at Washington headquarters, 
and who, despite all rank or position, stood many an hour of many a 
day beside my trains of army wagons loading at his headquarters, directing material best suited and most needed at the proposed terminus 
of the dark, weary journey I was about to undertake--for the memory of these men, I would add, that this same Col., [then] now General, Beckwith,
[loading] then holding the commissary of the department at St. Louis, came in the 
same old-time way and stood on the decks of the "Mattie Bell" twenty 
years later, and directed the placing of supplies.     One will never[*19*]

forget the terror depicted on his fine face when he saw the bales of 
hay taken on board.    "Great heavens, you are not going to risk that! 
Think of it--you in the middle of that great, rushing river, no land 
in sight, and your ship on fire!"     Still, the risk was taken, and 
both the ship and the stock were saved.
               A few hours previous to the sailing of the "Mattie 
Bell" from St. Louis a stranger came on board and asked to be permitted 
to go with us.     There was nothing very remarkable in his appearance, 
either for or against; but on general principles, we objected 
to taking on a stranger without some good reason for it.     His quiet 
persistence, however, won, and perhaps through lack of active measures 
on the part of some one, her went.     He was a silent man--walked by 
himself, or stood alone on some unfrequented corner of the deck.     As 
we got lower down and more tributaries were pouring their contributions 
into the mighty volume that rolled and seethed about and beneath us, the danger became more imminent.     Running after dark was out of the question, 
and timely orders were given one afternoon to tie up for the 
night; but our captain, anxious to make a headland a few miles further 
on, begged permission to run a little later, sure he could reach it 
before dark.      His request was rather reluctantly granted, and as we 
steamed on a fog and mist came up, and the night set in with us still 
afloat.      In less than a half hour the stranger rushed to me with: 
"We are in a crevasse!    We must pull out or we are lost!  I have 
warned the engineer and captain."    The forward rush of the boat 
ceased; she stood still, pulled first one way, then the other, shivered 


[*20*]

and struggled amid the shrieks of the reversed engine, while we waited,
thoroughly aware of the situation and the doom awaiting us all, depending 
on the power and strength of one mute body of steel and one 
firm man at the helm.     At length the struggling ceased; the engines 
had triumphed over the current.     We commenced to move slowly backwards,
and with a grateful awe in our hearts no words could express 
we found a place of safety for the night.
               Daylight revealed to us a crevasse opened the day before, 
where the river had broken through to a width of thirty rods, 
with the water pouring down a depth of twelve or fifteen feet in a perfect 
torrent into the current below, and rolling off in a self-made 
track to some other stream or to the Gulf of Mexico.
               I have no way of accounting for this incident, but the 
reader will perhaps not be "too hard" on me, if I say, "I have believed 
in God and the angels ever since one night last spring".
X    X
               We had come from the Ohio.     
               Down the Mississippi all was changed.     Two worlds 
could scarcely differ more.    The ofttimes shoreless waste of waters; 
the roaring crevasse through the broken levees: the anxious ebony faces, and the hungry animals that 
"looked up and were not fed", among whom and which we floated, could 
not fail to carry our thoughts back at times to the history of the 
Deluge and the Ark.     The [difference,] simile however, [was not so great.] had this important difference.     We 
were by no means so good as to be preserved, nor they so bad as to 
be destroyed.[*21*]
                       
                [These] Any bare description of this voyage constitutes only the woody [* 4 / 5 *]
frame work of the structure.    You will readily imagine, that, when it 
should be clothed with its ever recurring incidents, it would become 
a very different edifice.     Never a day that did not bring us incidents 
to be remembered, sometimes sad and touching, sometimes laughable 
or ridiculous. 
               The rough tattered and uncouth garb of the Ohio river
farmer and woodsman was offset by his quick wit and sterling sense,
and the rude dialect of the southern negro was buried out of sight 
by his simple faith.     But the most touching of all was the honest
gratitude which poured out on every side.  
               These people adopted the Red Cross and those who bore 
it, and we, in turn have held to them.     We selected helpers from
among them, banded them together, gave them responsibility, and thus 
made them mutual helps to each other and to us as well, in case of 
subsequent disaster. 
               One day as we were near the left bank of the river, we 
saw a small herd of cattle wading out far into the water for what they 
could reach.     A few cabins stood back of them.     Steaming as near as 
we could, we made fast to the body of a small fig tree and called the 
negroes, men and women, to us in their skiff. 
               It proved to be a little neighborhood of negroes, with 
no white "boss", as they say, but had their own mules and cows and 


 [*22*]

were farming independently.     But the food and feed were gone.     The 
Government boats had passed without seeing them, and no help had 
come to them.     Their mules and cows were starving; they had no one to 
apply to.      They had their little church; and their Elder, a good
honest-faced man, who led them onto the boat, told the story of their 
sufferings and danger.      We selected two men and two women, formed
them into a committee of distribution and wrote out formal directions 
and authority for them.      But before presenting it to them to sign,
I asked them seriously, if we left these supplies with them, if they 
thought they could share them honestly with each other and not quarrel
over them. 
               They were silent a moment.     Then the tallest of the 
women rose up, and with commanding gesture said:   "Miss, dese tings
is from de Lord; day is not from you, caze you is from Him.     He sent 
you to bring dem.     We would not dare to quarrel ober dem tings; we 
would not dare not to be honest wid 'em." 
               I presented the paper with no further pledge.     It was 
signed with one name and three marks.     The supplies were put off,
on the only little spot of land that could be reached.     The negroes 
left the boat, and stood beside the pile, which seemed a little 
mountain in the level space of waters.      We raised steam and prepared 
to put off, expecting as we did so, some demonstration, some shout of 
farewell from our new-found friends on shore, and held out handkerchiefs 
ready to wave in reply;--not a sound--and as we rounded to[*23*]

and looked back, the entire group was knelt beside the bags of grain
and food, and not a head or hand was raised to big us speed.    A 
greater than we had possessed them, and in tearful silence, we bowed
our heads as well and went our way. 
                After the first rush of danger was over, and repairs 
commenced among the business men, it was not always easy to find 
faithful, willing agents to distribute supplies among those who had 
nothing left to repair but their stomachs, and no material for this. 
               At Point Coupee the Mississippi sends out a false 
branch of thirty miles in length, forming an island, and again joining 
the main river at Hermitage.    These are known as False River and 
Island.    The Government boats had not entered False River, and 
there was great want among both people and cattle. 
                All the way down we were besought to hold something back
for this point.     At Hermitage we found the one business man, owner 
of the boat which plied the thirty miles of river, its warehouse and 
all.     He, of course, was the only man who could take charge of and 
distribute relief around the island; and Capt. Trudeau was sought.
He was a young, active man, full of business, just pulling out of his
own disaster, and did not know how to attend to it.   "Guessed the 
trouble was most over up there; hadn't heard much about it lately."
We knew better, and felt discouraged that persons cold not be found 
of sufficient humanity to distribute relief when brought to them. 


[*24*] 

               I was sitting heart sore and perplexed in my state 
room, trying to think out a way, when two rather young women of prepossessing 
appearance entered with a bouquet of early flowers for me,
introducing themselves as Mrs. and Miss Trudeau, wife and sister of 
the captain.      I scarcely felt gracious, but those fair womanly faces
were strong to win, and I entered into conversation, asking Mrs. Trudeau 
what she thought of the condition of the people of the island. 
Her face grew sad, as she said in touching tones, "Indeed, I cannot 
say, Miss Barton; my husband's boat runs around twice a week, and I 
tried to go on it for a while, but the sight of such destitution and 
those starving cattle, mules, cows, horses and sheep, were beyond my 
endurance.      I had nothing to give them, and I could not see it, and 
so left off going." 
                       "Would you ladies take the agency of the Red Cross, to 
deliver supplies to these people?" 
                       I shall not forget the appropriate and womanly manner 
in which this delicate lady received the abrupt proposition--no hesitation, 
no surprise, no self-deprecation, no simpering, but the 
straight-forward reply, "We would, most willingly and gladly, and do
our best.     Our warehouse could store them, our boat take, and we 
distribute them."    The customary official document was at once drawn
up and a signed. 
                       An our later the busy captain rushed in to see how
much was really expected of him.[*25*]

               "Captain," I said, "I have found agents to distribute 
our relief, and very satisfactorily, I think, and shall be able to 
release you from all responsibility."    His fine face fell; he had 
not expected this, and in spite of all, did not relish being quite
relieved from duty.     I went on, "You will hav some share in it,
Captain.     For instance, you will supply storage in your warehouse;
your boat will take supplies on any day when demanded.     Your men will
handle and load all material.     You will, in short, provide all accommodations,
do all the work, meet all the cost, obey orders implicitly, 
but have none of the credit.    Mrs. and Miss Trudeau are 
my agents." 
               The good fellow fairly threw up his hat.     "Good!   That's
just what I'm used to.    It shall be done."    And it was done; but 
how well it was done, I could not describe to you--not only wisely 
and well, but elegantly. 
               The captain's warehouse had little empty space after 
our cargo of supplies had gone into it.    The next day but one would 
be the day appointed for Governor McEnnery of Louisiana to make at 
Point Coupee his re-election speech, which would call all the people 
of the island who could reach it to that point, to see and hear the 
popular Governor.     The little steamer "Gov. Wiltz" was laden with
supplies, and under the direction of Madame Trudeau proceeded to Point 
Coupee in order to meet the people, learn the needs, and inform everyone
that supplies and relief were at hand.  The gallant Govern or addressed 


 [*26*]

the crowd from the deck of the "Gov. Wiltz" under the Red
Cross flag, and took passage on her down the river. 
               We resupplied these agents on our return.   [Their offices 
at the date of this report holds, and in the case of a disaster in 
that region, we have only to send these agents to have every direction 
carried out.    This we have done]    We did this all the way, among both white and black. 
[Today we should scarcely need send an agent to the Mississippi in 
order to supply it.]     And from that time the red cross has had faithful
willing agents along all the uncertain track of the lower Missippi
               Months later, in January of this year, when a sea voyage, 
foreign travel, the cares of an International Conference of military 
men, the splendor of foreign courts, much of weariness and 
illness had passed between, and I had thought all those little days 
of river work gone from memory, I found myself in the upper gallery
of the New Orleans Exposition, and stepping in at a restaurant at 
the end of the hall, was met by Colonel Lewis, the noted colored 
caterer of the South.      He had [ 5/6 ] been on the relief committee of New
Orleans, appointed to meet our steamer at the time of our visit in 
May. 
               He came with cordial recognition, seated me, and was 
telling me of his success in the restaurant, when all his waiters, 
men and women seemed to forget their work, and stood gazing at us. 
The Colonel smiled and said, "They have caught sight of the Red Cross
brooch at your neck, and recognize you by it.  They will come to 
themselves in a few minutes." 
               Next day I went in again for my lunch, when Colonel[*27*] 

Lewis brought to me a little, thin, white-haired mulatto man of 73 
years, but still able to take charge of and direct the help at the 
tables, saying, "This, Miss Barton, is Uncle Amos, whom I promised
yesterday to introduce to you when you came again.    Uncle Amos is my 
most true and faithful man."    I reached out for the withered, hard, 
dark, bony hand he gave me, as he said: "Yes, Miss Barton, I did want 
once to see and speak to you, to tell you in the name of our people 
how grateful dey is for what your society has done for dem.     Dat 
is never forgot.     You came to us when we had nothing.    You saved 
what was never saved before in a flood, our cattle, so dey could go 
on and help derselves to raise something to eat.    Dey has all heard 
of it; all talk about it in de churches and de meetings..   Our 
people is singular in some tings; dey never forgets a kindness.    Dey 
hab notions.     Dey have a way of nailing up a horse-shoe ober de door 
for luck.     I want to tell you dat in a thousand little cabins all up 
and down dis river, dey has put up a little Red Cross ober de door,
and every night before dey goes to bad, dey names your name, and prays 
God to bless you and de Red Cross, dat he sent to dem in time of 
trouble and distress."     Uncle Amos looked straight in my face the 
while.    Colonel Lewis wiped his eyes; and I got away as fast as I 
could. 
 

[*28*]
         
               It would scarcely be faithful to the subject of this relief,
if some mention were not made of the third trip, namely, that of the 
voyage up the Ohio after the fall of the waters and the attempted 
return of the people to their former homes. 
               From an editorial of the Evansville Journal [of May 28], headed 
"Good By Red Cross", we make an extract or two which have reference 
to the voyage and its purposes:   [?] [?] May 28, 1884 
               "The Red Cross, having concluded its labors on the Ohio 
river below this point, will start today for the upper Ohio and go as 
far as Pittsburg, relieving the meritorious cases on the way.    x    x
The Josh V. Throop, which has been rechartered for this trip, was 
loaded last Saturday.     A part of the load was distributed between 
this point and Cave-in-Rock, and the room made vacant by the lower 
river distributed up the river.    The load consists of what the 
people in the overflowed country will want and most need.    There is 
clothing in immense quantities, over a hundred plows, large quantities 
of rakes, hoes,scythes, spades, shovels, groceries, flour, meat, meal,
corn, bedsteads, chairs, buckets, tubs, tables, queensware, tinware, pots, 
kettles, skillets, etc., etc. 
               This trip was arranged in [June] general at Cincinnati, when Miss Barton 
first came West.     At that time her policy took definite shape,
and it has never changed.     She saw that the Government was providing 
for all the immediate necessities of the sufferers, and looked forward[*29*]

to the time when the unfortunate people [who] would come almost hopelessly 
back to ruined homes--come back to find houses, furniture, tools, 
food, everything gone--and although aid would have been extended during
the calamity by the Government and benevolent institutions, the
ruined people would have but a poor chance to proceed in the business
of life.     This was the anticipated opportunity of the Red Cross;
this was the time Miss Barton foresaw would be pregnant with possibilities
for doing large good, and the event has fully justified her 
prophetic view of the situation.     The load now on the 'Throop' will 
not only provide for the house, it will do much for the farm". 
               It would be difficult to imagine a voyage more replete with
live interest than this beautiful May passage from Evansville to 
Pittsburg.    The banks were dotted with the marks of torn and washed-out
homes; and occasionally one found the family, from father and
mother to the wee little ones, gathered about the bare spot that once
was home, trying in vain to find enough of the buried timbers to recommence
a framework for another house, if ever they could build it,
with all the hunger and need for daily food staring them in the face.
               Picture, if possible, this scene:    A strange ship,
with two flags, steaming up the river; it halts, turns from its course, 
and draws up to the nearest landing.    Some persons disembark and
speak a few minutes with the family; then a half dozen strong mechanics
man a small boat laden with all material for constructing a


[*30*]

                               one-room house, take it to the spot and commence
putting it up.    Directly there is a structure with floor, [sides]
roof, doors, windows, and walls; the boat returns for furniture.   Within
three hours for the strange ship sails away, leaving a bewildered family
in a new and clean house, with a bed, bedding, table, chairs, clothing,
dishes, candles, a well-made little cooking stove, with blazing fire,
with all the common quota of cooking utensils, meat, meal, groceries, 
a plow, rake, axe, hoe, shovel, spade, hammer, hatchet and nails, etc.
We ask few questions, they none; but often it proves that the little,
bare, boyhood feet of that desolated father had [long ago] once skipped,
through the dewy grass of the green hills of New England, the brave old
parent of states, where great riches are slow to come, and famishing
hunger never enters.   [ x x ] Again referring to the "Evansville Journal" of May 28 we find the following
                "A band of little folks in Chicago, called the 'Busy
Bees', were  organized in a plan to extend succor to the suffering,
and collected a large box of goods which they sent to Miss Barton,
with the request that it might be put where it would do the most good.
She was some time in finding a place where she could put it with the 
greatest satisfaction to the givers and the donees.     She found the
opportunity she had been looking for, yesterday.     On her last voyage, 
a gentleman at Cave-in-Rock told her that a poor, but worthy, family
was in that vicinity, and on becoming acquainted with the family,
Miss Barton gave them some supplies and left fifteen dollars with 
the gentleman aforesaid, to either give to the family, or spend for
them, as he might think best.     He concluded that it would be judiciously 
expended by the people for whom it was intended, and accordingly 
turned it over to them.     The woman of the family came some days[*31*]

afterward, to the gentleman, bringing with her another woman who was
very destitute, and said:  'This is my neighbor, and I have come to 
ask you if you think Miss Barton would care if I divided my $15 with
her.'    'Most certainly not' was the reply; and then, out of her
penury, did this poor woman give.    She retained ten dollars and gave
five.    Yesterday Miss Barton divided the contents of the store the 
'Busy Bees' had gathered among these two families, consisting of eight 
and five persons respectively.    When she was delivering the goods
to the poor woman who had generously shared with her neighbor, Miss
Barton gave her back her five dollars, and said:   'You have read
where it is said, He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord., and
He has sent it back already.'" 


[*31 1/2*]                                                      
             
               On February 11th Congress, in response to appeals from Ohio,
Kentucky and West Virginia, appropriated three hundred thousand
dollars for the relief of the people who had lost their homes and
other property by the Ohio river floods.     On February 15th, the
first appropriation having been considered hardly sufficient to
meet the demands, two hundred thousand dollars more were appropriated
for the same purpose, making five hundred thousand dollars in all
to be expanded under the direction of the War Department.     A
boat load of supplies was sent down the river from Pittsburg, two
boats left Cincinnati, one going up the river and the other down;
one boat went down the river from Louisville, and a fifth boat
was sent down the river from [6/7] Evansville.    Afterwards some additional
boats were sent out from other places.     Between February
15th and March 15th 536,00 rations were distributed by the Government 
at a cost of $350,000.    The remaining one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars were transferred to the Mississippi flood
supplies.
               In the official report of the relief furnished to the Ohio
river flood sufferers written by R.P.M.Ames, Assistant Surgeon
U.S.Marine Hospital Service, Evansville, Indiana, he speaks as
follows of the part taken by the Red Cross in this work:

             "At this time also the Red Cross Association came actively to
the front for now had the time arrived when this Association of all 
others, could do the most good.    [ x   x   x   x]   Through its instrumentality
much suffering and destitution has been relieved throughout [*32*]

the Ohio valley which it would have been almost impossible to 
reach but for this organization. With Miss Clara Barton at the 
head, and a large corps of active and intelligent assistants, the 
relief work performed by this Association has been most thorough 
and efficacious.     Contributions of money and clothing have been 
sent to all points in the inundated districts of the Ohio valley 
where such assistance was needed, while a thorough and careful 
investigation, by members of the Association, of the flooded territory, 
has rendered the aid most beneficial.    As soon as it became 
apparent that the suffering from the high water would necessitate 
the various relief movements, Miss Barton removed her headquarters 
from Washington, D.C., to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she carefully 
and intelligently superintended the distribution of a large amount 
of supplies donated from all parts of the country, consisting of 
money, food, clothing, and fuel.    As the water receded then came 
the time for the relief proffered by this Association to be given. 
After remaining several days in Cincinnati and relieving all the 
suffering so far as it was met with, Miss Barton on March 3rd, removed
her headquarters to Evansville, Indiana, where arrangements
were at once commenced to reach and aid the sufferers between this 
point and Cairo, Illinois.     Captain J.V.Throop kindly placed his 
steamer, the "Josh.V .Throop," at the disposal of the Red Cross 
without any expense except the actual running cost of the boat. 
The steamer was at once loaded with an immense quantity of boxes, 
barrels, bales, and bundles of clothing, being donations from various
private parties and relief organizations throughout the 
country which had been accumulating here for some time, together 
with a large amount of bedding and fuel, and started on its mission 
of mercy down the river in charge of Miss Clara Barton, Saturday,
March 8th, 1884.    Miss Barton was accompanied and assisted on this 
trip by Dr. J.B.Hubbell, of Washington,D.C., the Field Agent of the 
Association, Rev.E.J.Galvin, agent of the Chicago Red Cross Association, 
Miss Hamilton, of St. Louis, with Mrs. DeBruler and several 
other Evansville ladies.     Relief was given to all the sufferers
needing it below Evansville and Wickliff, Kentucky, below Cairo. 
The party reached Cairo, March 15th, and after proceeding down the 
river to Wickliff, Kentucky, turned back, arriving at Evansville,
March 20th.    In addition, to the supplies mentioned, the Rev .E.J.
Galvin of Chicago, had placed at his disposal $25,000, from which 
checks were drawn and left with any party needing financial assistance.  
Miss Barton and her corps of assistants remained in 
Evansville after their return until April 2nd, when the relief 
transactions throughout the Ohio valley having been practically 
finished, she removed her headquarters to St.Louis, Mo., where a 
relief boat was at once fitted out and similar assistance tendered
to the sufferers in the inundated districts of the Lower Mississippi.
Miss Barton was further aided on this trip by Mr. John Hitz, of 
Washington, D.C. 

[*Red Cross*]
[*Galley D*]
               It is possible that some readers may recall the story of     [*1*]   
the "Little Six", which was locally published at the time, but 
which I venture to reproduce, as an extract from the Erie Dispatch,
of Monday, March 23, 1884: 


                 "THE LITTLE SIX."
 [THE GOOD THEIR NOBLE WORK DID.]

[Red Cross Acknowledgements–The Relief
      Works–A Pathetic Story Beautifully 
                Told – Kind Words from 
                        Miss Barton.] 

Erie, Pa., Dispatch. 
     Dispatch readers doubtless recollect its
account some weeks ago of the manner in
which six children of Waterford gave a 
public entertainment for the benefit of the 
Ohio flood sufferers; how they themselves 
suggested it; how their efforts were
crowned with success; and how they 
brought  the entire proceeds, $51 25, raised
by their unpaid efforts, to the editor of the 
dispatch with the request that the latter
forward it "where it would do the most 
good." The Dispatch complied by forwarding
it to Miss Clara Barton, President
of the American Red Cross Association. 
The following letter tells the story of the 
dispositions of the money. The names of 
the noble little band, of which any town
in the nation ought to be proud of, are:
Reed White, Florence Howe, Lloyd Barton,
Zoe Farrer, Mary Barton, Bertie Ensworth.  
The oldest is twelve years of age.[*2*]
Miss Barton's Letter.
A TOUCHING INCIDENT VERY TOUCHINGLY RELATED.
RED CROSS RELIEF STEAMER, JOSH V. THROOP,
OFF SHAWNEETOWN, ILLS., Ohio River
[**Mr. M. E. Camp**] March 18, 1884
To the Editor of the Erie Dispatch.
  At length, I have the happiness to inform
you that I have placed the contribution
of the brave Little Six to my own
satisfaction, and, as I believe, to the satisfaction
of the little donors and the friends
interesting in them as well. Your letter
inclosing the touching article describing
their pretty thought and act and the check
for the sum donated by them to the sufferers
from the floods, came during the
early days of hurry and confused activity.
The entire matter was too beautiful
and withal unique, to meet only a common
fate in its results. I could not, for a moment,
think to mingle the gift of the little
dramatists with the common fund for general
distribution, and sought through all
these weeks for a fitting disposition to
make of it, where it would all go in some
special manner to relieve some special necessity.
I wanted it to benefit some children 
who had "wept on the banks" of the
river which in its madness had devoured
their home. I watched carefully all the
way down on this trip, and tried, last Sunday,
at Smithland on our return to make a
little "foundation" for a children's help
and instruction at that town which had
suffered so terribly; but I could not satisfy
myself, and after telling the pretty
story to the best people of the town
assembled on our boat, I still declined to
leave the appropriation, waiting in confidence
for the real opportunity to present
and which we have met in the last hour.
As we neared that picturesque spot on the
Illinois side of the Ohio, known as "Cave-in-Rock," 
we were hailed by a woman and
her young daughter. The boat "rounded
to" and made the landing and they came
on board--a tall, thin worn woman in a
tattered suit, with a good, but inexpressively
sad face, who wished to tell us that a
package which we had left for her at the
town on our way down had never reached
her. She was a widow-Mrs. Plew-whose

[*3*]
husband, a good river pilot, had died from
overwork on a hard trip to New Orleans in
the floods on the Mississippi two years before,
leaving her with six children dependent
upon her, the eldest a lad in his
"teens," the youngest a little baby
girl. They owned their home, just on the
brink of the river, a little "farm" of two
or three acres, two horses, three cows,
thirty hogs, and a half hundred fowls, and
in spite of the bereavement, they had gone
on bravely, winning the esteem and commendation
of all who knew them for thrift
and honest endeavor. Last year the floods
came heavily upon them, driving them
from their home, and the two horses were
lost. Next the cholera came among the
hogs and all but three died. Still they
worked on and held the home. This spring
came the third flood. The water climbed
upon the bank, crept in at the door, and filled
the lower story of the house. They had
no where to remove their household goods,
and stored them in the garret carefully
packed, and went out to find a shelter in
an old log house near by, used for a corn
crib. Day by day they watched the house,
hailed passing boats for the news of the
rise and fall of the water above, always
trusting the house would stand-"and it
would," the mother said ("for it was a
good, strong house,) but for the storm."
The wind came, and the terrible gale that
swept the valley like a tornado, with the
water at its height, leveling whole towns,
descended and beat upon that house, and
it fell. In the morning there was no house
there, and the waves in their fury rushed
madly on. Then these little children
"stood and wept on the banks of the river,"
and the desolation and fear in the careful
mother's heart; none by herself and
her God can know.

[*4*]
   They lived in the corn crib, and it was
from it they came to hair us as we passed
to-day.   Something had been told us of
them on our downward trip, and a package
had been left them at "Cave-in-Rock,"
which they had not received. We went
over shoe-tops in mud to their rude home,
to find it one room of logs, an old stone
chimney, with a cheerful fire of drift-wood
and a clean hearth, two wrecks of beds, a
table and two chairs which some kind
neighbor had loaned. The Government
boats had left them rations. There was an
air of thrift, even in their desolation, a
plank walk was laid about the door, the
floor was was cleanly swept, and the
twenty-five surviving hens, for an
equal number was lost in the storm,
clucked and craiked comfortably about the
floor, and there were two and a half dozen
fresh eggs to see us at a higher rate than
paid in town. We stood, as we had done
so many scores of times during the last
few weeks, and looked this pitiful scene
in the face. There was misfortune,
poverty, sorrow, want, loneliness, dread of
future, but fortitude, courage, integrity
and honest thrift.
   Would she like to return to the childhood
home in Indiana?" we asked the
mother, for we would help them go.
   "No," she said tenderly. My husband
lived and died here.   He was buried here,
and I would not like to go away and leave
him alone.  I won't be very long, and
it is a comfort to the children to be
able to visit his grave. No, I reckon we
will stay here, and out of the wreck of the
old house which sticks up out of the mud,
we will put another little hut, higher up on
the bank out of the way of the floods, and
if it only a hut, it will be a home for
us and we will get
into it.'

[*5*]
if it is only a hut, it will be a home for us
and we will get into it."
   There were no dry eyes, but very still
hearts, while we listened to this sorrowful
but brave little speech, made with a voice
full of tears.
   Our thoughtful field agent, Dr. Hubbell,
was the first to speak.
   "Here are six children," he said with an
inquiring glance at me.
  No response was needed. The thing was [**5**]
done. We told the mother the story of the
"Little Six" of Waterford, and asked her
if that money with enough more to make
up one hundred dollars would help her to
get up her house? It was her turn to be
speechless. At length with a struggling,
choking voice she managed to say-"God
knows how much it would be to me. Yes,
with my good boys I can do it, and do it
well."
  We put in her hands a check for this
sum, and directed from the boat clean
boxes of clothing and bedding, to help restore
the household, when the house shall
have been completed.
   Before we left her, we asked if she
would name her house when it would be
done. She thought a second and caught
the idea.
   "Yes," she replied quickly, with a really
winsome smile on that worn and weary
face, "yes, I shall name it "The Little
Six."
   And so, dear Mr. Camp, will you kindly
tell those brave little philanthropic dramatists,
that they are to have a house
down on the banks of the great rolling
river, and that one day, I think, will come
a letter to tell them that another six children
are nightly praying God to bless them for
the home that will shelter them from the
floods and the storms.
Sincerely and cordially yours,
CLARA BARTON
President American Association of the 
Red Cross[*6*] [*2*]

[*Ohio River - Ms hastely writter
for prospectus
Should be reviewed*]

In reply the following letters were received:

Waterford, Pa., March 25, 1884
M. E. Camp,
Editor Erie Dispatch.
Dear Sir:
The Little Six met yesterday and wrote the accompanying letter, 
which they would like to have you forward to Miss Clara Barton.
They wish me to thank you for sending them copies  of your paper
containing Miss Barton's beautiful letter to them.    If you or Miss
Barton ever had any doubts in regard to a child's appreciation of
favors shown, I wish you could have seen those bright, happy faces
as they gave three cheers for "ye Editor" and three times three for
Miss Clara Barton and the "home of the Little Six" on the banks of
the Ohio.
"Mrs. Lloyd Benson, Committee."

Waterford, March 24, 1884.
Dear Miss Barton:-
           We read your nice letter in the Dispatch and we would like
very much to see that house called "the little six", and we are so
glad we little six helped six other little children, and we thank
you for going to so much trouble in putting our money just where
we would have put it ourselves.
           Sometime again when you want money to help you in your good
work call on the 'Little Six.'
          " Joe Farrar, twelve years old.
           "Florence Hose, eleven years old.
           "Mary Barton, eleven years old.
           "Reed White, eleven years old.
           "Bertie Ensworth, ten years old.
           "Lloyd Barton, seven years old."


[*7*]

           It could not fail to have been a satisfaction to me to know
that I had done my work as they would have "done it themselves".
           As long as we remained on the river this family was occasionally
visited by our boat.   On one occasion a strong flagstaff
twenty feet in length was taken and firmly set upon a bank near
where they would place their house.   Its well-lettered cross board
at the top showed "Little Six Red Cross Landing", and this point
has remained a landing on the Ohio River probably unto this day.
           During this trip on the upper Ohio, which was even yet
scarcely safe for running at night, we had, after a hard day's work,
found a cove and tied out boat for the night.    It was a rather
sequestered spot, and the appearance of a full-size river steamer,
halting for the night on one of its banks, attracted the attention 
of the few people residing there, and at dusk a body of five or
six men came to the boat to ask if we were in trouble that we stopped
there, and if there were anything they could do for us.    We
quieted their kindly apprehensions and invited them on board.     The
lights revealed a condition of personal poverty which should have 
more naturally asked help that offered it.     On the entire trip
with its thousands of miles, among white and black, we had never
seen such evidence of destitution.    They scarcely could have decently
gone among civilized people, and yet as they spoke, there
was no lack of sense.   On the contrary, they seemed in many ways
to be men of the world.    Their language, while provincial, had
nothing uncommon in it, and altogether they were a study to us.
We gave them some supper, and while eating, learned the facts
of their lives.[*8*]

        Either by blood or marriage, they were all relatives, consisting 
of six families, making in all about thirty people.   They 
all lived together--such livings as it was--and there seemed to be 
among them a perfectly good understanding.    They had always lived 
on the river banks, probably more on the river than off of it. 
They were not farmers, never planted or raised anything, subsisting 
mainly upon fish and the floating drift to be picked up.   Thus, 
they clung to the river like the muskrat and beaver, and were 
washed out with every flood.    Sixteen of them at all time were 
living under some slanting boards.
        After supper our men quietly invited them to the clothing 
department on the stern of the ship, and exchanged their garments.

        Thus we got hold of these people, clothed, fed, encouraged 
and advised them, got them into houses, furnished them, formed them 
into a little colony, put up a landing named, at their own request, 
"Red Cross Big Six", and took care of the women and children.
Every man foreswore his drink, his cards and his betting, and went 
to work for the first time in his life.


[*9*]

        We found a faithful merchant to stand by, advise them, and 
report to us.    From year to year we have helped to keep them 
clothed.     The children immediately went to school, and the next 
year for the first time they planted land and raised their own 
food; and the growing thrift and strange prosperity of this body 
of heretofore vagrants began after a time to excite the envy of 
its neighbors, who thought they were getting on better than themselves, 
and their merchant friend had to repel it.
        Only one or two of them could write a little, but they made 
good use of their accomplishments as far as possessed.     One day I 
received a letter from one of their savants, Charley Hunter, out 
of which among much that was encouraging, with considerable labor,
I deciphered the following:    "We are all doing well.    We don't 
drink or play cards no more.    I got the flannel undershirts and 
drawers and the medicine you sent me.   My rhumatis is better. 
I know now I  have got two friends; one is you, and the other is
God ."
        I was sorry he named me first; I do not think he intended 
it.    I might add that two years later these people had united with 
the church; that the children were all in school, and that one 
daughter was being educated for a teacher.
        On the lower Ohio one of the villages most wrecked by the 
waters and the cyclone was Smithland, an old aristocratic borough 
on the Kentucky  side.   They had no coal, and we supplied them 
as we went down.   On our return we lowered steam and threw out 
our landing prow opposite the town.   The whistle of the "Throop" 
was as welcome to their eyes as the flag to their eyes.[*10*]

        It was a bright, clear, spring morning and Sunday. In an
hour the entire little hamlet of people stood on our decks; only
four, they said, were left at home, and these sick and infirm. 
They had selected their lawyer to speak their thanks, and they had
chosen well.    No words will ever do justice to the volume of
native eloquence which seemed to roll unbidden from his lips.   We
listened in mute surprise until he finished with these sentences:
        "At noon on that day we were in the blackness of despair. 
The whole village in the power of the demon of waters, hemmed in by
sleet and ice, without fire enough to cook its little food.   When 
the bell struck nine that night, there were seventy-five families
on their knees before their blazing grates, thanking God for fire
and light, and praying blessings on the phantom ship with the unknown 
device that had come as silently as the snow, they knew not
whence, and gone, they knew not whither."

[*11*]
        A few days later we finished the voyage of relief, having 
covered the Ohio river from Cincinnati to Cairo and back twice, and
the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans and return, occupying 
four months time on the rivers, in our own chartered boats, finishing
at Pittsburg and taking rail for Washington on the 1st of July, 
having traveled over eight thousand miles, and distributed in relief
of money and estimated material $175,000.
        The Government had expended an appropriation from the Treasury
on the same waters of $150,000 in money, and distributed it
well.    The difference was that ours was not appropriated; we 
gathered it as we used it.    [In the efficient report to the War
Department from its officers, appears the following:]
[*e-f*]
        [It is probable that there are few instances in record
where a movement of such magnitude towards relief][*19 Cuba Red Cross*]

[*Now in type 1/18/98*]

[*small caps*]

[*24*]

[*29c*]

Artemisa.

          Whilst these various provisions and improvements in and
around Havana, [like Matanzas], in the little orphanage and Los Fosos were
going on, food was going out from the great warehouse upon requisition, 
to thirty or forty towns and villages in number, which no one had yet
had the time to visit; and their first distribution must be made on
trust.   From many sources we had heard of the needs of Artemisa, several
miles to the east by rail.    As usual, there was but one train
daily [per day] from Havana, and that, like the road we had traveled to
Jaruco and Matanzas on the west, left at six o'clock in the morning,
and also meant rising at half past four,  a carriage ride of three 
quarters of an hour in the dark and a ferry across the bay, between 
daybreak and sunrise.    Our party again formed, including Mr. Elwell,
Drs. Hubbell and Egan, Senator Proctor, Col. Parker, and a few other
attendants.   The day was clear and fine, affording an excellent opportunity
to observe the condition of the country as we passed 
through.   There was entire lack of cultiviation; the tall palm threw
its stately shadow over miles of desolated, rolling and meadow land; 
no people in sight save in the little thatched hovels; no cattle, no
tools, the rank, wild grass swarding the soil where the riches of 
crops belong;and we bringing food grown on the sterile fields of
North America, among the gravel and rocks, with a quarter of the 
year under snow, nearly one half under frost,-- to a country like this, 
where the verdure is perpetual and three crops possible, where the
rain and the sun never fail, where land is abundant, and yet where millions
of hands want acres, and millions of acres want hands. 


[*30c*]

[*to go with previous paragraph*]
Heavenly Father Great God, what is the matter with this beautiful earth
that thou hast made!   And what is man that thou art mindful of him!

          Eight o'clock in the bright, morning sunshine found us at Artemesia.
A brief examination by carriage served to show us where its defenses
had one been, now practically abandoned and the field of military activity
drawn to other points.
          We found here a most practical mayor, with two thousand to
three thousand people about him, almost entirely without food.    Since
November 24th until some three months ago, the Spanish Government had
issued small rations to these people; but these grew less and less,
and finally stopped altogether.    This small help from the Government 
has saved the people thus far, but [who are] they were now beginning to be dangerously 
hungry.    What gladness it was to feel that our provisions
[will] would fall in just in time to save, we trust, the greater portion of 
those [now] remaining.

          The district of Artemesia had originally ten thousand, and
the town two thousand inhabitants.   Into this small number ten thousand
and reconcentrados had been sent.  Three thousand of these had died;
some had strayed away to other places in the hope of more food and 
fewer persons to eat it; five thousand still remained.   In August
seven hundred and seventy persons died--now the death rate is five 
to six persons per day, or about one hundred and seventy-five per
month.   We found only one hospital and this for smallpox, far out
in the fields, with forty patients.   There were three physicians who
would be more than glad to make up a hospital,--if there were anything[*26*]
[*31c*]

to provide it with, attend to it personally, and find women who would
care for the sick as nurses. They were directed to do this at once,
and the suitable hospital food should be sent to them as soon as their
hospital was reported ready for it. They were also directed to
gather all the sick in the outlying hovels and bring them into
hospitals. One of our physicians would go directly with the food and 
assist in the establishment of the institution. We remained over
night; the distribution of food which has been sent them took place at seven the next morning.
Their system of tickets was excellent; a better system of relief we
had not seen. The mayor himself would visit every family and the 
physicians the same, until the sick would be all in hospitals. It
was a welcome sight at eight o'clock that morning, when the crowd of
waiting thousands stood around the mayory, to see the tight hand grasp
on the bag of rations, like a godsend from heaven when hope was lost. 
The mayor had a thousand acres of land lying within the military lines
of fortifications, which he offered free for the use of the people, if
they [can] could get permission, and if the people [can] could help to cultivate it.
In three months, he said, under their own cultivation, it would feed
them all.

     Our work at Artemisa closed at noon, and we returned to
Havana.

     Sagua la Grande and Cienfuegos yet remain within
our limits to be reached at once. We have not a day to lose, and 
again leave at six o'clock for Sagua la Grande. This meant the usual


[*27*]
[*32c*]

morning ride in the dark, the ferry, and the beautiful opening of
the day speeding on through a strange land of waste and desolation.
Our same company assembled, and as we neared Sagua we were met by our
friend, Consul Barker, and later on the mayor, Senor Machado. 
Carriages were taken and inspection made of the reconcentrados, their
condition and needs, the land, etc.  Whilst there is evidently great
want here, there is still an atmosphere of care and effort on the 
part of the best people and the officials which fills one with an 
earnest desire to help them on.  The best place possible for the 
poor had been provided by the mayor, and as he passed among them,
pointing out to us especial cases and conditions, their eyes followed
him with a look of grateful devotion.  While sympathizing with all,
his deepest care seemed to be for the young girls; to find some
occupation for them, and some protection.  The plan most feasible to him
was the starting of a cigarette factory where the hundreds might
be employed, with suitable time for instruction, earn their living, 
and be kept out of danger.  I am glad to know that he is partially
succeeding in this, and also that he had, and I think still has, the 
earnest co-operation of our good Consul at Sagua, Mr. Barker.

The day had been very fully occupied, and we must remain
until morning to witness the operation of the kitchens established
by the Consul and the Mayor, where the poor are a fed with well-cooked
rice, beans, and such vegetables as can be obtained.[*28*]
[*33c*]

          Those people are desperately poor, and need all the help 
that can be given them, and yet they are not in the condition of the 
people of Matanzas.   Their doctors are caring for the sick, and the 
ladies of the town giving every assistance in their power.   The mayor 
again reverts to his great interest in the young girls;" Here is the 
greater danger of all.   Can you not help me out with this?"   His 
earnestness made such an impression upon me that I finally asked if 
he had young daughter of his own.   He hesitated a moment, and then 
with a look of confidence, as if he were about to entrust a secret 
to me, he replied: "We have an adopted daughter, who is very, very 
dear to us.   She is the sister of Miss Cisneros, but does not know it, 
and we have not the courage to tell her.   She is some fourteen or fifteen 
years of age, has read everything regarding Miss Cisneros, and 
admires her intensely, but never mistrust the relationship."    "Will 
you not tell her?" I asked.   "Oh yes; some day." he replied, "and it 
must be before long; but the relationship are so sweet that my wife 
and I both dread to break them.   Of course, some day we must tell 
her, but we put it off as long as we can."  He then explained that 
the father had been an active patriot and fell under political censure; 
in his imprisonment the family was broken up, and this little 
girl, then a mere babe, had been adopted by the Mayor and his wife, 
who were intimate friends of the family.   I hope I have not betrayed 
a trust; but there was a little touch of romance in this--something so 
sweet and paternal in the relationship--and something altogether so 
interesting in the thought of this bright young girl reading and admiring 

[*29*]
[*34c*]

the courage and successful exploits of her sister, without 
ever dreaming that it was anything to her--it seems really too good 
a point to keep dark.   I trust that the good Mayor, If he ever learns 
that I have betrayed his trust, will forgive me.[*Cuba / 30*]  
[*30 [21]*]
[*35c*]

Cienfuegos  [* Small caps*] 

           Although a rather early train on the next day would take us
to Cienfuegos, the visit to the kitchen with their great, steaming
cauldrons of food must not be passed by.    Although it was simply
beans, rice, such dry vegetables as could be obtained, and the
little meat or lard that came with the ration, slowly and thoroughly
cooked, it was still a food that any good appetite could appreciate--
wholesome, clean and as abundant as the circumstances would permit.
It was a pleasure to see the children and the mothers come up with
the little pails and buckets and receive the one large ladle of food,
steaming hot from the cauldron, and bear it cheerfully away for the
coming meal.    There was a degree of order and systematic thought in
this rarely met occasions so grave.    It will remain ever a
happy memory with Consul Barker and the good mayor of Sagua that
under their wise direction this system was instituted and carried
out.     The courtesies of the railroad were cheerfully extended to
us, and without incident worth relating the night found us at Cienfuegos. 
The country round about Cienfuegos is favorable to cultivation;
the troubles there had been of a less grave nature, consequently
the suffering has been less.    Judging from the report of the Consul,
there had been very little; but to our stranger eyes,  upon personal
observation, there were traces of something not compatible with
thrift, prosperity and happiness.    We were sure that some help might
be comfortably given there, and made our preparations accordingly.
This also was a visit of investigation, and being Tuesday, the next
day's boat from Havana to the states must take our good friends from


[*Keiley*]
[*31*]
[*36c*]
[*[22]*]

Back to Havana [*Small caps*]

us; and an early start, over a long jolting road, took us from Cienfuegos
back to Havana.  Our journey through the three or four districts
had shown us the worst of human suffering, the greatest of
desolation, and a degree of discouragement as hard perhaps to rally
the people from as the absolute physical conditions under which they
existed.    We had arranged for food for all.    The ships with their
various consignments were already on the way, the ["Bergen"] "Fern" to Matanzas,
a shipment from Philadelphia Red Cross on the "Bergen" also bound for Matanzas,
from both of which supplies could go forward to Artemisa and Sagua,
for the rail roads were generous in giving free transportation; and we were informed
that a shipment was also enroute for Cienfuegos.     Remembering
our own generous shipment of food to Matanzas of the 3rd inst., we felt
that we might give the time of a day or two to the institutions we were founding
and supporting in Havana.    The [little] hospital was growing finely,
increasing in numbers, and the numbers increasing in strength.    The
[little] frail, pale creatures were commencing to sit up in bed and hold
the playthings that generous friends had brought them by the basket-full;
[and] some even walked about and tried to play.    Their heavenly
godmother, "Sister Bettina," was providing everything for their comfort,
also for their nurses and the little household that made up a
pattern hospital.    Dr. Lesser had established a clinic on the grounds
and under the shade of the great, beautiful garden trees the poor invalids
of the town assembled by the hundred each afternoon with the 
various maladies that misfortune, poverty and neglect had brought
them.   The gratitude which their strange tongues spoke in evidentblessing upon him who had thought to come to their relief, and the
great, brown eyes that followed him as he turned quickly and gently
from one to another, were a pictures not to be forgotten.
           Los Fosos, on the other hand, was fast losing its terrors. 
A regular distribution of American food had gone into it, and even
rooms partitioned off for a dispensary, fairly well provided with 
medicines, and another for clothing and bedding fast filling up from
our warehouse were all in grateful operation. All had beds; the floors
and stairs were strengthened, and the food went regularly though
twice a day among all the waiting inmates.         M.
the Consul of Bolivia, and a member of our committee, had volunteered
to take personal charge, and his fine manly from seen day by day among
those poor, suffering creatures, watching and providing their wants,
was like a benediction from heaven. And Sister Bettina, with her
band of faithful nurses, soon carried strong traces of order and 
cleanliness where it had once seemed impossible.
      The morning that saw our first welcome party of American 
visitors, Senator Proctor and friends,  leave us, brought another party
still larger, among whom were Senator and dear Mrs. Thurston, Senator
Money and nieces, Senator Gallinger, Mr. Cummings, Mr.Smith, Mr. & Mrs. Louis
Klopsch, the former a member of the New York Committee of Cuban Re-
lief. It was not only comforting, but hopeful to see such interest
manifested in these dreadful conditions by the highest prestige in
our country and those who had it in their power to make these condi-
tions better. We welcomed them with an earnestness they could scarce-
ly comprehend. 

38c
     There was in all these surroundings a feeling akin to hor-
ror, an isolation from the world it reemed known before, and it
is not difficult to understand the welcome we gave in our hearts to
those who came to us. Our new guests visited Havana, its institutions,
the little orphanage, and the Los Fosos of that day-- a terror to them,
but a comfort to us, as we saw it daily growing better and better.
Matanzas must of course be visited, and another early morning train
found our large party enroute for that city and the sights that had so distressed
us ten days before. Although realizing how terrible the state of 
things must seem to our party of American visitors, we still rejoiced
during the entire journey that they were not to see those hospitals
in the condition in which we had first found them. Our supplies 
so promptly and generously sent [? we were sure had dulled the keen edge of hunger ?] could [?] not fail to show an
improvement there. Our guests [?then, would] not see all the terrors of unfed
famine the had so shocked us, and we knew that by the time the 
ships from the north must have arrived. The breakfast at the hotel 
and a second visit to our hospitable Governor brought with them no ap-
prehension of what was to meet us a little later. We drove to the
hospitals to learn that no food had been distributed [ or recent ?]. Those
whom we had seen dying there on our first visit were gone; others had
taken their places, and it was only a repetition of the first visit, 
with the addition of ten days more of hunger. Astonished and shocked 
beyond description, we drove at once to the railway station, to find
in its freight house our [?] of provisions sent from Havana ten[*34 / 39c*]

days before.    Although every notice had been given by us that the
good would be sent--again that they were sent--and the authorities
asked to look out for them, our Consul appeared to have no intimation
that they were there.    The hospital authorities,of course,had none,
and it only remained for us to order out the provisions and get something
to the patients as quickly as possible, leaving Dr.Hubbell to 
see that at last they had a supper. [*Range*]

           It is not strange that from this event went out the cry of
"starving Matanzas", although at that moment, in addition to our four 
tons of goods previously sent, the "Fern" lay in the harbor under the
American flag, with fifty tons of American supplies, and fifty rods
away lay the "Bergen" under the same colors, bearing a cargo of fifty-two
tons from the Philadelphia Red Cross, faithfully sent through the
New York Committee, by request.     So uncontrollable a thing is human
excitement that these facts could not be taken in, and the charities
of our whole country were called afresh to arms over "starving Matanzas",
which was at that moment by far the best provided city in Cuba.
The result of this was an entire train of supplies from Kansas, which,
remaining there after the blockade, not being consigned to the Red
Cross, was, we were informed, distributed among the Spanish soldiery
by the Spanish officials.   Goods bearing the mark of the Red Cross were
everywhere respected, and we have no record of any of our goods having
been appropriated by the Spanish authorities. [*20 / 21*]

           The third member of the Cuban Relief Committee of New York,
Mr.Louis Klopsch, having arrived, it was perhaps natural and proper tha
that the work of relief and distribution under the Consul General passed to his direction.

35 
[*40c*]
Accordingly and by his direction no more visits were made to other cities. Mr.Elwell
[giving] gave his entire attention to the warehouse, and I found opportunity
to continue the very hopeful negotiations I had commenced with the 
Spanish authorities for the privilege of [cultivating] unmolested cultivation
by the reconcentrados of the broad glades of land lying within
the trochas.    In some instances, as around Sagua, [from] hundreds [?] of 
[?] acres lay thus unoccupied by either Cubans or Spanish, and only
the fear of the Spanish soldiery from their own side of the trochas
prevented the cultivation of this land by the reconcentrados gathered
in the towns.    In some long and earnest interviews with General
Blanco I laid this matter before him, and begged his interference and 
commands on behalf of the safety of the poor people who might desire 
[and find a way, if possible] to cultivate this land.    [He}The Captain General  said they
had the matter already under consideration, and desired me to meet his
board of education, who would be glad to co9operate.    I met this body
of gentlemen--middle-aged, thoughtful, intelligent men.   They had
already taken some important steps, but were perplexed on both sides;
first by the Spanish soldiery, liable to attack the workers, likewise
the Cuban guerrillas, who were equally as dangerous.    And yet, despite
all this, some important steps had really been taken and some 
little commencement made.    I need not say that the exciting news
which followed in less than a month put to an end all thoughts of
steps in that direction.    A new enemy would appear and the ground was
likely to be plowed by shells from the monster ships that would line
the bay.36 
[*41c*]

           I met the Spanish authorities, not merely as a bearer of
relief, but as the President of the American National Red Cross with
all the principles of neutrality which that implied, and received in 
return the unfailing courtesy which the conditions demanded.    From
our first interview to the last sad day when we decided that it was
better to withdraw, giving up all efforts at relief, and leave those
thousands of poor, dying wretches to their fate, there was never any
change in the attitude of the Spanish authorities, General Blanco or
his staff, toward myself or any member of my staff.    One of my last
visits before the blockade was to the palace.    The same kindly spirit
prevailed; I was begged not to leave the island through fear of them;
every protection in their power would be given, but there was no guarantee 
for what might occur in the exegencies of war.     I recall an
incident of that day:    General Blanco led me to the large salon, the
walls of which are covered with the portraits of the Spanish officials
for generations past, and pointing to the Spanish authorities under
date of 1876, said, with a look of sadness, "When your country was
in trouble, Spain was the friend of America.    Now Spain is in trouble; America is
her enemy."    I knew no answer for this but silence, and we passed out 
through the corridor of guards, he handling me to my carriage with a 
farewell and a blessing. [It reminded me] I could but recall my experience
with the Turkish officials and government, where I entered with 
such apprehension and left with such marks of cordiality.
           During this interval of time important business had called
me to Washington, and I only [revert] returned to Cuba [again at about the 7th]


[*Smith*]
[*42c*]
37
sometime during the second week of April, when the diary commences with,
           "Strong talk of war"?   

Leaving Havana
           It is needless to say that the strong
talk went on--well or ill, wise or unwise, welcome or unwelcome, --it
went on.    Evidently the blockade was near at hand and a declaration of
war liable to follow.    What should one do, but to ask counsel of all 
within reach?    I have given the result of my interview with the Spanish
authorities; cabling to American authorities brings the answer
"The Consul should know best.   Take no chances."   Reference to the 
Consul brings the kindly reply, "I am going myself."  The order was 
for all American citizens to leave Havana, and the order was obeyed,
but not without having laid the matter formally in counsel before my
staff of assistants and taking their opinion and advice, which was to
the effect, that while personally they would prefer to remain for the 
chance of the little good that might be accomplished, in view of the 
distress which we should give our friends at home, and in fact, the whole
country, when it should be known that we were inside that wall of fire
that would confront us, with no way of extricating or reaching us, it
seemed both wiser and more humane to leave.   And the 9th of April
saw us again on shipboard, a party of twenty, bound for Tampa.  We would not, however, go
beyond, but made headquarters here, remaining within easy call of any 
need there might be for us.  Here follow the few weeks of impending war.
Do we need to live them over?   Do we even want to recall them?   Days
when the elder men of thought and memory pondered deeply and questioned 
much!   When the mother, patriot though she were, uttered her sentiments[*43c*]
38
[*ogb????*]

ments through choking voice and tender, trembling words, and the young
men, caring nothing, fearing nothing, rushed gallantly on to doom and
to death!   To how many households, alas, these days recall themselves
in tones never forgotten.  ¶  Not withstanding all this excitement
and confusion and all the pressure that weighed upon him, our good
President still remembered the suffering, dying reconcentrados,
and requested that a ship be provided as quickly as possible,
loaded from the warerooms of the indefatigable Cuban Relief Committee in New
York, and be sent for the relief of the sufferers in Cuba whenever
they could be reached.    One need not say with what promptness
this [ever prompt] committee acted, and I was informed that the
"State of Texas" laden with fourteen hundred tons of food would
shortly leave New York enroute for Key West, and it was the desire
of that committee and the government that I take command of
the ship, and with my staff and such assistants as I would select,
undertake the getting of that food to its destination.
           Some members of the staff were here in New York, and with Dr.
Hubbell in charge sailed from [New York] that port on Saturday, the 23rd of April.
A hasty trip from Washington, gathering up the waiting staff at
Tampa, and pushing on by the earliest train brought us to Key
West in time to meet the "State of Texas" as she arrived, board
her and take charge of the snug little ship that was henceforth
to take its place in American history.    She was well built, but
by no means new, nor handsome.    Her dull black hull could in no
way compare with the snow white, green and red striped hospital ships, those heralds of


[*44c*]
39 - 40
[*Gree?*]

relief that afterwards graced the waters of the bay.   Still she
was firm, sound, heavy-laden, and gave promise [to] of some good to
someone at some future day,  that day being only when the great
war monsters should have pealed out to the world that an entrance
was made on the coast of Cuba, and we [would] be invited to follow.  
[*21
/
22*]

           By the authorities at Washington [we were] the "State of Texas" had been consigned to the
[care] protection of the Navy, and accordingly we must report our arrival.   This
was done to the senior officer representing Admiral Sampson in [command of] the port, Captain.
Harrington of  the monitor "Puritan".   This brought at once a personal
call from the Captain with an invitation to our entire
staff to visit his beautiful ship the following day.   The launch
of the "Puritan" was sent to take us, and not only was the ship
inspected, but the dainties of his elegant tea table as well.
When all was over the graceful launch returned us safely to our
ship, with grateful memories on the part of the younger members
of our company, who had never chanced to form an intimate acquaintance
with a piece of shipping at once so beautiful and so
terrible, as that death-dealing engine of destruction.   I record 
this visit and courtesy on the part of Captain Harrington as the
first of an unfailing series of kindnesses extended by the
Navy to the Red Cross from first to last.   There was no favor
too great, no courtesy too high to be cheerfully rendered on
every occasion.[*45c*]
41
           The memories of pitiful Cuba would not leave us, and, knowing 
that under our decks were fourteen hundredtons of food for the 
want of which its people were dying, the impulse to reach them grew
very strong, and a letter was addressed to Admiral Sampson. 

          This brought immediately the [graceful] launch of the"New
York" to the side of our ship, and Captain Chadwick, the gallant 
officer whom no one forgets,stepped lightly on board to deliver 
the written message from the Admiral, or rather to take me to the "New
York".   Nothing could have exceeded the courtesy of the Admiral,
but we were acting from entirely [different] opposite standpoints.
I had been requested to take a ship, and by every means in my
power get food into Cuba.   He, on the other hand, had been commanded 
to take a [ship] fleet, and by every means in his power keep
food out of Cuba.   When one compared the two ships lying side by
side and thought of a contest of effort between them, the situation 
was ludicrous, and yet the Admiral did not absolutely refuse to give
me a flag of truce and attempt an entrance into Havana; but it 
[was so evident that] he disapproved it, [that he] feared the results
 for me and [was] acting in accordance with his highest wisdom and
best judgement, I felt it to be my place to wait.  [At the sugges-]
By the concurrence of the Admiral our letters were both given to 
the public, and appear elsewhere in these pages. and we remained, as we had been, neighbors and
friends.

[*46c*]
42

          These days of waiting were by no means lost time.   The accidents 
constantly occurring in a harbor filled with transports,
most of which had no surgeon, kept the surgeons of the Red Cross
constantly in active duty, while the twenty or thirty [prison] Spanish
ships which had been and were being captured as prizes, lay a
few miles out, unprovided either by themselves or their captors.
They had been picked up whilst out at sea some of them having no knowledge of
the existence of a war and supposing themselves as safe as in the
balmiest days of peace.   Most of them were provided with a little
open well in the bottom of the ship where live fish are kept.  But
for this provision,  it is by no means certain that deaths from
starvation would not have occurred.    The ships were [simply] mainly little
Spanish cruisers--their crews honest working men, who knew their
ships and the hills and harbors of Spain and Cuba, and little else--could
speak no word of any [other] language but their own--would not have
dared to attempt to communicate with anyone if they had the opportunity--
our people, unused to privateering  or to the treatment of
captives, forgot to provide them, and thus they waited, living on
the few fish in their holds, with neither meat, lard, butter, nor 
oil for their cooking, nor vegetables, nor bread as accompaniments.   Our men learned
this state of things, and naturally [took] attended to it.   It is
enough for me to say that [within two weeks] recently the thanks of
all Spain, through its Red Cross, has come back to us for the
kindnesses rendered her captive seamen.   [*(Diploma from Spain)*] 
          The days waxed and waned; the summer sun poured its hurning[*47c*]
43

rays down on the glistening waters of the bay; [the harbor filled
with transports bearing their thousands of men]; the reville and
tatoo warned us that we were in camp, with little difference
between land and sea--waiting for some onward movement.   [At
length the ships drew out one by one.  They were evidently searching
an enemy somewhere and we preapred to follow}

[*47C*]
1
[*Cuba*]

Clothing Department 
Report of Miss. Anna M. Fowler
[REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OF CLOTHING CUBAN RELIEF]
[Santiago De Cuba, July 26 - August 21, 1898] 
[*Now in Type 1/18/98*]

  [To Miss. Clara Barton,]
  [President,]
               On July 26, in the large back room on the ground floor,
and opening out upon the flagged courtyard of the warehouse, Casa 
[de] Buena Santiago, was undertaken, under the direction of Mrs. Gardner,
the work of the Department of Clothing, to sort out the garments 
as to kind and quality, and to re-pack them for distribution 
among the people of Santiago and outlying districts and
towns.
              On August 1st, Mrs. Gardner returned to the States, 
and the responsibility of carrying out work so ably directed 
by her fell upon me.
              During the twenty days since, until our departure for 
Havana on the 21st of August, the work of examing boxes, barrels, 
trunks, sacks of clothing, and keeping a minute record 
of each case.. where it came from, by whom sent, its contents and 
condition, etc., has gone steadily on, taking out the various 
provisions ranging from canned meats, soups, vegetables, fruits, 
and condensed milk; flour, corn meal, beans and various  preparations 
of cereals, sugar, tea, chocolate and coffee: hams, bacon, 
salt pork, dried beef and cod fish, dried fruits, even to roasts.[*48C*]
2
[*Keely*]

of once fresh meat, potatoes and eggs packed in February and
March; in varying conditions of preservation according to the
dual factors of kind and mode of packing.   These provisions have
been given in part to the [retail] demands from suffering
individuals and soldiers or have been re-packed by themselves
to go to the Provision Department for wholesale distribution
among the people of Santiago and the outlying districts.
          That nothing should be lost, such packages of meals
and grains as had been broken in transportation, and had become
mixed in the box's contents, were put into barrels and sent to
the Public Soup Kitchen, that worthy benevolence of one public
spirited citizen of Santiago.
          In the process of its re-packing for wholesale distribution
from the various centers, the Department was able to give
much individual aid in clothing those cases whose needs were
made known of it.   Not among the fewest of these were the soldiers
whose privations and forlorn conditions would have to be
actually seen to be fully appreciated.   The officers, themselves 
unable to procure the necessary articles of clothing,
food and medicine for themselves, their men and their sick, the
Red Cross had the privilege of lending a hand to these brave men
who so uncomplainingly suffered danger, hardship, exposure, sickness
and death for their country's sake, and who so gratefully 
appreciated the least office done for them.  As one man said to
me, "The Red Cross has been a Fairy God-mother to us men."

[*49C*]
3

          This partial list will give an idea of [the incidental
aid] the way in which this Department gave incidental aid as it prepared for the bulk of its merchandise
for the main arteries of circulation:

"To Clothing Dep.
Caridad Alayo    
     5 feet 6" stout, 17 years old.    Woman
1 dress
2 skirts
3 waists
2 sacks
1 wrapper
2 pair shoes
3 nightgowns
3 drawers
3 chemises
3 under vests
3 pr stockings
[*22*]

[*23*]
Avelina Lanfant
[very tall woman]   60
Recibi
Avlina Lenfant
[Exam    A. M. F."]

[Aug 5]
Mrs. Ovide –
4 sheets
1 suit of clothes
   drawers
4 under drawers
   nightgowns
   coat
3 nightshirts
5 shirts
6 women's under vests
3  children        "
6 chemises
7 children's slips
1 apron
9 dresses
6 pair shoes

[Ma Josefa Ovich]
[Exam A. M. F]

[Aug?9]
[Si tiene an frasco Extracto
Malta]
To Carbarada St Bacito    60
[Dandole un millon de gracias
Ana Cabrera]
1 dress
1 skirt
1 shirt waist
1 dressing sack
1 piece of cloth for boy's shirt
3 child's dresses
1 boy's waist
5 pieces child's underwear[*50C*]
4

2 under vests
1 pair drawers
1 skirt
2 chemises
1 night dress
3 shoes
2 sheets
1 pillow slip
6 stockings
[A.M.F."]

["Aug 16]
     Spanish Soldier from Gen. Wood.
2 night shirts
2 sets underwear
1 pair trousers
1 coat
1 shirt
1 negligé shirt
3 pairs socks
3 handkerchiefs [A.M.F.]
               Francisco Rodergen
                            Spanish Prison

["Aug. 18]
     Marcus Sancho
5 trousers
    stockings
5 shirts
4 dresses
3 coats
3 ladies' dresses
1 petticoat
3 drawers
2 chemises
[A.M.F."]

[*Bundig*]

             Could the story of these sufferers be individually
told there would not be wanting subject matter of much interest;
in many cases the thrilling, tender, or romantic element stands
forth.
             Perhaps one of the most romantic instances is that of
a young American.    A fine specimen of manhood as he stood before
me and quietly told me his story, led  on by my interest and
questioning:  tall, erect, well-knit and seasoned to meet emergencies;


[*51C*]
5

a refined, open, strong face; a well poised head; one
felt the real courage in the man.    Over three  years ago, led by
high hopes inspired by the cause of suffering Cuba, as set forth
in our land of free press agency, and fanned to a holy flame by
the pen of a ready writer, he set out with the zeal of a crusader
to plant the ensign of true liberty.    A handful of comrades they
were with hopes high burning to do a righteous deed.
             Landed upon Cuban soil at evening this little body of
men was embraced by the natives; on the morrow these new found
friends had looted even the luggage of their would-be-helpers.
The life of frontier warfare began; in combat the Americans were
always given the exposed positions of danger, and were accordingly
picked off one by one.
             Over a year ago, the friend of this young hero was
dangerously wounded in the hip.  A Cuban operation was performed; 
finally a piece of bone had worked itself out from the injured
hip.   The condition of the injured man becoming serious; food,
medicine, and clothing growing less; no possibility of carrying
the injured man to find help, the case became desperate, and for
his comrade's sake, the young warrior started overland to Santiago,
a distance of some three hundred miles, in quest of aid.   He,
a young French captain, and two servants made up the little caravan
for this journey.            Any one who has experienced Cuban roads in the rainy
season can imagine what such a journey means through woods and
[*52C*]
marsh, over mountains and across burning plains.    That he was
not to be daunted he proved by safely reaching Santiago.    Horses
had to be discarded and the journey over the mountains made on
foot.    Tales of destitution and suffering he brought from all the
country through which he came.    People were so scantily clad that
they could not come out to offer a glass of water.    Lands laid
waste where guerilla force had swept by like a swarm of locusts
and had left nothing but desolation behind.     In one of the
Cuban hospitals he told of the situation; the wounded are left to
care of themselves as best they may; a barrel of water stands
in one corner; to it the injured man must drag himself to quench
his thirst.     The very provisions were sold by this Cuban doctor,
and the inmates of the hospital left to actually starve if they
are too weak to betake themselves away.
            It was, indeed  a pleasure to give of our stores such
as the young officer could venture to carry upon that hazardous
return journey, unarmed, for even his weapons had been stolen,
and his recital in Santiago of his experiences had caused scowling
looks from under drawn brows.    His hope is to get his wounded
comrade home, or at least where surgical aid may be had before it
is too late.
            One of the thrilling tales is that of Marco Sancho, a
Cuban warrior, who was brought in to be clothed.    He had been in
the country whither he had deserted from the Spanish ranks to
join the Cubans.    While one of the Red Cross Staff had been


[*53C*]
7

making an overland tour of this province, he had discovered the
man and told him to come to Santiago for medical treatment.
He came with a companion.     There his former captain, a Spaniard,
discovered him, had him arrested, threatened him with death when
he was returned to Spain.    Fortunately, the Cuban be-thought himself
of the Red Cross physician, and sent word to him of this
peril.     At the jail, the prisoner was brought out between two
guardsmen.     A needless precaution one would think to see the
diminutive form of the man; anything but hero-like in appearance,
almost gnome-like.
[*Ogborn?*]

            The Spanish captain was over confident of his right to
punish his soldier.     The thought was suggested that he, a prisoner
himself, had no right to punish a man, who by birth a Cuban,
had served in his country's cause.     Pompously he could not see it
until by the persuasion of General Wood's order to liberate the
man at once, he became servilely humble.     Marco Sancho was so rejoiced
at his escape from horrors untried, that his agile little
framework expressed his entire satisfaction in the situation by
turning a complete somersault.
            The tender side to hard soldier life is not wanting.
A  young lieutenant, refined yet every inch a soldier and a gentleman,
with a something indefinably fine above the common lot of
man, brought in a little Cuban lad of eight years.     He had lost
his mother five years ago, and in the encounter in July his
father had been killed.    Three officers had adopted the boy, and[*54C*] 
8
were about to take him North when they returned.    The difficulty
of introducing a Cuban lad into our civilization habilitated
after the fashion and condition of his native land faced them,
when they bethought themselves of the resources of the Red Cross.
The boy himself was a pitiful object; he had had the fever, the
results of which had left him with a partial paralysis in the 
hips; he seemed out of physical proportion; his bright, intelligent
eyes, and that peculiar pathetic soprano of the voices of 
many of the children in Cuba made him a strangely picturesque
figure.     But the manly tenderness of the young officer as he did
the little offices of the toilet for the lad, the unconsciously
gentle tone of his voice as he spoke, the kindly gleam of his eye
as it lighted upon the boy, made a picture not to be forgotten.
As they rolled away in one of the quaintly primitive looking
Cuban carriages, the front seat stacked with purchases, the little
fellow delightfully spick and span, and confidingly trustful of 
his future in the hands of his youthful protector who sat beside
him, one felt quickening at the heart strings to know what the 
adopted son of the regiment would become, how it would all turn 
out.    Surely so far as the boy is concerned unusual opportunities 
have opened.
           Contrasts stand ever quietly side by side, telling
their story to him who will read, perhaps nowhere else more markedly
than here in Cuba where the conditions of life are most abnormal.
[*23/24*]


[*55C*]
9
            Unobtrusively while cases were being re-packed to relieve
the living, a kindly hearted soldier from the far eastern 
states, one of the [Second] Ninth Massachusetts that so dearly paid in 
lives, through exposure and lack of medical and proper commissary 
provisions, its toll of men, sat quietly working.
            How many of those willing hands that packed cases of
goods for the starving reconcentrados, their hearts full of loving 
sympathy for their unfortunate fellow-beings, as the few words on
a slip of paper pinned to some bundle, or a letter enclosed, well 
attested, realized the dark cloud of war that hovered over the 
nation, and that the boards of these very cases were to mark the 
grave of some silent hero who had given of his best, his life in 
the hour of his nation's need?     And yet this is so.    Patiently, 
lovingly this comrade worked to hold these men to life if might
be.     When a power stronger than life claimed them, he placed 
them reverently in kind Mother Earth.    Not yet was his office 
ended.    The rough boards were turned into neat white head stones,
the name and place in his country's service distinctly marked in
black letters.    Day by day, and side by side with the busy, active 
work of the Department this silent ministry went on.    It was 
not a welcome task to count the increasing number of these slabs.
But it was good to feel that in the pressure of life, when even
the native priest could not find time to say the office of the
church to a dying soldier, was a fellow man who could and did do
what loving reverent hands would have done in those far distant
homes.[*56c*]
10
            It was with a sigh of relief that I saw those bits of
wood depart and missed the quiet worker from his accustomed spot,
for his boys who had not gone to the home from which there is no
returning were journeying northward, the only checkmate that could
be given to the grim fever that was claiming them, not one by
one, but by numbers.
            These few snap shots at history, as it is making in
these stirring times, show that even behind the closed doors of a 
wareroom, where the overlooking, assorting and repacking of cases
of garments, which the kind hearts of people at home have prompted 
them to send, is not without its human, vital interest.     Meanwhile
the work goes steadily on; as each case is repacked, it is
nailed up.    A Red Cross label is pasted on, below the label its
contents are duly noted in blue pencil, and the box is neatly piled,
with like cases and barrels, ready to be sent out to the commissioners, 
the hospitals, orphanages, medical clinic, outlying 
towns whenever the call may come.
            Below is a tabulated list of the work accomplished after coming to my [?]
            Fifty-eight barrels and fifty cases of clothing were 
put on the Clinton to be taken to Havana.    A hundred and eight
boxes and barrels have been distributed.     About six hundred cases
are left in the wareroom of Casa [de] Buena, there to be distributed
by the commission of ladies who have consented to give out 
this clothing to the needy.


[*57c*]
11
List of Boxes, etc., packed.
                                                       Boxes.   Barrels.  Total.
July 26 Opened and repacked          5            3          8
July 27                               1 trunk    7                         8
July 28                                             10           4          14
July 29                                             11          10         21 
July 30                                              6            9          15
July 31                                              5            2            7
Aug. 1                                              15                       15
Aug. 2                                              13                       13
Aug. 3                                              17                       17
Aug. 4                             1 sack.      19          4            24
Aug. 5                                              22                        22
Aug. 6                                              20                        20
Aug. 7   Trip to San Luis     
Aug. 8   Opened and repacked       18                       18
Aug. 9                                              17                       17
Aug. 10                                            21                        21
Aug. 11                                            22                        22
Aug. 12                                            12                        12
Aug. 13                                            10                        10
Aug. 14    Sunday, journey to San Juan
                   Opened and repacked    1                          1
Aug. 15                                               8            1            9
Aug. 16                                             14            2          16
Aug. 17                     2 sacks              1           40          43       
Aug. 18                     1 sack              17            1           19
Aug. 19                     2 sacks              1           22           25
Aug. 20                                               1                           1
                                                                                  ———      
                                                                                     398                                                                                                  
[* [24/25] *][*58c*]
12

List of Clothing sent out.
                                                                                      Boxes.      Barrels 

July 27      To Miss Wheeler,                                               1
 "      "       To French consul                                               1 
Aug. 9       To Dr. Sollosso                                                10
 "      "       To Miss Wheeler                                                1
 "      10     To Dr. Sollosso (shoes)                                      1
 "       "      To Mr. Bettancourt                                             1
 "      11     To Baracoa                                                       20
 "      12     To Dr. Sollosso                                                   8
 "      15     To Dr. Mascaro                                                   3
 "       "       To Dr. Sollosso                                                   5
 "       "       To Orphanage                                                    6             1
 "      17     To Dr. Sollosso                                                    3           10
 "      18     To Firmesa                                                         12
 "        "     To 2nd Div Hospital 75 second hand shirts         1
 "       19    To Colombian consul                                           5
 "        "     To San Luis                                                           8           11
                                                                                          ——       ——
                                                                                             86          22
  Boxes 86                                                                           
Barrels  22
          ——
            108
 
[Respectfully submiitted]
[Annie M. Fowler]
[S. S. Clinton, off Cape Antonio]
[August 24, 1898]
[*24/25*]


[*CUBA*]  [*Cuba Red Cross*]  [*1-C*] 
[*Put all sub-Headings in Small caps*]

Report of C. H. H. Cottrell, Financial Secretary [and assistant to
Clara Barton.]

The Red Cross goes to Cuba  [*caps*] 
[Clara Barton Goes to Cuba]  

      Early in February, 1898, after the president of the United States
had called Clara Barton to several conferences on the question of
relieving the sufferings of the Cuban reconcentrados; and the Central
Cuban Relief Committee had formed to take charge of the funds and
supplies which it was know the generous American people were anxious
to donate for this purpose, it was decided that Miss Barton should go
to Cuba at once to [arrange for] assist in the prompt and efficient distribution
of the succor which was so near at hand.   It is her habit to act quickly
when her plans have been matured, and not a moment's time was lost
in preparing for her journey to Havana.   Gathering up what personal
money she had available, she invited Mr. J. K. Elwell to accompany 
her  as interpreter and assistant, and they took the first train for
the field of their [?] proposed labors.
      On her arrival at Havana Miss Barton communicated with the American
Consul General, the Spanish officials, and some of the best known
and benevolently disposed citizens; and after freely conferring with
them, and learning the existing conditions, the city was divided into
distribution districts, and a committee of citizens, who [would be] were
fully acquainted with the people and their wants, was appointed to take
charge of each district.   Abundant space in a very large warehouse had
already been secured by the Consul General, which was, with the use of
its employees, given [gratis] free of charge to the Red Cross.
      Several of the villages near Havana and as far east as Matanzas were then visited
and arrangements similar to those made in Havana were perfected [fo]
for the distribution of food and clothing; and these [committees] communities were
supplied as quickly as possible.2, [*c*]

Visits the Victims of the Maine Disaster
      Shortly after Miss Barton's arrival in Havana the deplorable
Maine disaster occurred, killing, drowning and injuring so many of 
our brave sailors and marines.    As soon as she heard of this awful calamity
she visited the hospital where the victims who were not killed
outright were lying, and arranged to have them provided with every
possible attention, and the best of everything needed that money and
sympathy could procure. 

Working Force of Red Cross Increased
      As the situation developed and the needs of the country became
known it was found to be necessary to largely increase the working
force of the Red Cross, and arrangements were accordingly made to
have some of the oldest and most experienced workers of that organization,
with some new recruits, come to Havana at once.    A large
house for their accommodation was secured in the suburb of Cerro,
about three miles from the business center of the city, where they
were pleasantly and comfortably established. The party when completed
consisted of the following named ladies and gentlemen:
Miss Clara Barton, Mr. J. K. Elwell, Dr. J. B. Hubbell, Dr. E.
Winfield Egan, Dr. A. Monae Lesser, Mrs. A. Monae Lesser, known as
"Sister Bettina", Misses Annie McCue, Minnie Rogall, Blanche McCorresten 
and Isabelle Olm, Red Cross nurses or "sisters"; ;Mr. J. A.
McDowell and Mr. C. H. H. Cottrell.

Best Citizens Welcome the Relief Corps
      Many of the best citizens of Havana, ladies and gentlemen,
Spaniards and Cubans, gave us a most hearty welcome and every encouragement,
many of them volunteering their services in any capacity
in which they could be made useful, and we were thus enabled to 
secure quite a number of doctors and nurses, who gave excellent
service, and who received the well-deserved thanks of the Red Cross. 


3, [*c*]
Relief Distribution from the San José Warehouse
      Mr. Elwell was put in charge of the warehouse with an able corps
of assistants, and his work there was all that could be desired, as
it was something that he was perfectly familiar with from long [service]
experience; [and] he had the great advantage of knowing the Spanish 
language and the character of the people with whom he was dealing. 
Many hundred tons of the finest supplies, including everything
that a generous and sympathetic public could think of that would be
suitable for a famishing people, were given out as fast as orders
were issued for them; but in every instance the utmost care was
exercised that nothing should go out that might reach the hands of
irresponsible persons; and every possible safeguard of check and
receipt was adopted and successfully used.

[Clara Barton] Opening a Hospital and Orphanage 
      The large number of orphan children that had been left unprovided 
for appealed to the sympathies of some worthy people for whom
Consul General Lee was the spokesman, and Miss Barton was asked
by them to provide a hospital and home for these waifs. She therefore
rented and furnished a large private residence on Tulipan street in
Cerro, near the Red Cross residence, which was opened and named the
"Lee Memorial."   The house was completely arranged and had a capacity
for seventy-five inmates, besides the attendants, and it was soon 
filled.   Dr. and Mrs. Lesser were placed in charge of the orphanage,
assisted by several Cuban doctors and nurses.   The greater part of 
the children who were brought there were in an extreme state of exhaustion
from lack of nourishment, many being unable to sit up, and
the greatest care and watchfulness had to be observed to save their 
lives.   A few of them died after they reached the hospital; but by
careful and unremitting attention the larger part of them were gradually
brought back to health, and it is to be hoped that some of them4. [*c*]
will eventually find homes in good families.

Los Fosos, the Horrible  [*small caps*]
      An old ramshackle building long before abandoned as unsafe and undesirable was owned by the city and known as Los Fosos.   Being 
worthless and unwatched, it had become the lodging place of a horde 
of beggars and tramps, and when the unfortunate reconcentrados were 
driven into the city from their homes in the country hundreds of them 
flocked to this miserable place.   Miss Barton found there men, women 
and children crowded together in almost pitiable and disgusting mass; 
and suffering from disease and exhaustion and in such a state of filth 
that her party was unable to endure the stench and had to get out after 
a very short stay.   These poor victims of cruel war were lying on the 
bare floor in their dirty rags, and entirely helpless except for such 
poor aid as they could render each other.   Many of them died daily and 
their corpses would lie for hours before being removed.   Altogether it 
was one of the most horribly pictures imaginable.
       Permission was obtained by the Red Cross to repair the building and make a hospital 
of it, and carpenters were put to work to strengthen the swaying 
floors and batten up the sides and make the roof rainproof.   Three 
rooms were partitioned off for a dispensary, store-room and kitchen. 
Scrub women were put to work and a plentiful supply of soap, water 
and disinfectants soon made a great change for the better.   When the 
place had been thoroughly cleansed new cots were brought in and clean bedding put on them.   Then the hardest job of all had to be attempted, 
and if it was not altogether successful, it was from no fault of those 
who undertook it.   The lower classes of Cubans seemingly hate water 
as much as a cat does, judging from their usual appearance, and the 
thought of getting three hundred of them to take a bath was very discouraging. 
However, our people tried it and succeeded very well, and 


5[*c*]
in a day or two had a very respectable looking lot of patients.   But 
the habits of the poor Cubans were not formed in a day, and as they 
had no desire to learn new ones, the following morning found the place 
in almost as bad a condition as it was before the good work began.   Up 
to the time of their forced departure those devoted nurses worked 
faithfully from early morn till late in the day to keep the place 
decently clean and instill habits of neatness into those miserable 
beings; but when they [all] came away they had to confess with tears in their eyes that it was of no use; that those poor people preferred dirt,that 
they were used to it and they liked it.   Deprived of the pride and 
care of those trained women, it is easy to believe that within a week 
after they left, [Havana] Los Fosos had resumed its former reputation 
as the most unsavory spot in all Havana.  [*Spagler*]  [*1/2*]

      During the time that Los Fosos was under the care of the Red 
Cross, the best medical skill obtainable was given to the inmates; 
and the untiring care and attention of as faithful a body of trained 
nurses as the world has ever known was freely given them, and the best 
of nourishing food and delicacies were abundantly supplied; and if 
fate had willed that this body of self-sacrificing men and women 
should remain, there is no doubt that in the course of time this old 
pest house would have become a famous hospital with a reputation 
second to none.

[*small caps*] Relief Work Discontinued [by [?] of Governmental Relations]
      One of the most comprehensive systems of charitable work had 
been inaugurated, and was doing incalculable good, and was receiving 
praise and gratitude from all classes, when it was announced that the 
official relations between Spain and the United States, which had 
been strained for some time, were about to be broken.   The American Consul General6. [*c*] 
announced that he did not think that it was safe for American
citizens to remain in Cuba while the excited state of feeling existed
and that he should leave on a certain day, and he advised all Americans
in Cuba who wished to go to the States that he would provide transportation
for them.   The time given for settling affairs and preparing 
to leave was less than a week, and accordingly there was much
excitement, and great sacrifices had to be made, which in many cases
meant ruin and beggary.    Quite a number of the refugees afterward
became entirely dependent upon the bounty of the Red Cross at Key West
and Tampa, Florida.

[*small caps*] A Staff Conference.
      When it thus became necessary to decide whether the Red Cross
should abandon its work in Cuba, Miss Barton called her staff around
her (as is her invariable custom in deciding all important matters) and
asked for their individual opinions as to the advisability of 
their leaving, and a full discussion of all points involved
ensured, and a unanimous decision was arrived at.   All Spanish officials
national and municipal, had never failed to show the utmost courtesy
to all our members, and time after time they had shown their sincerity 
by repeated acts of kindness, and none of us believed that they
were likely to change their attitude towards us.   But when it was considered 
that war was almost inevitable, and that if we remained in
Cuba we should be shut up in an enemy's country, and unable to 
communicate with our friends and relatives, who would be daily harrowed 
by the sebsational stories of the "yellow journals", it was 
decided that we should withdraw when the Consul General was ready 
to leave.

[Sympathy Shown by Spanish Authorities and Others]
      When it became known that we were about to leave Miss Barton
received some very hearty assurances of regard and protection from
high Spanish officials, and many Spanish and Cuban ladies and gentlemen

7. [*c*]
called on her and assured her of their high regard and deep gratitude 
for all she had done for their suffering people.

Archbishop of Havana Blesses Lee Orpanage.
      The day before we were to leave Cuba the Archbishop of Havana came
to the Lee Orphanage, where quite a number of the best people of the 
city had assembled, and gave his blessing to the little institution;
which was, with those Catholic people, an augury equivalent to a 
guaranty that the success and protection of the undertaking was fully
assured; and, indeed, we learned several months after the war had 
begun that the Spanish authorities had not only take the most scrupulous
care of this hospitaland all its abundance of provisions with
which the Cuban Relief Committee had supplied it, but they had also
placed a guard around Miss Barton's residence, and had kept it inviolate 
from all predatorily disposed persons.   After the war some of our
party visited the residence and the Orphanage, and they found everything 
in the best order at the house, and some provisions which had
been left at both places were still on hand.

[The Example of the Trained Nurse Needed]
      Of course, it was to be expected that the hospital, being deprived 
of the example of the trained Red Cross nurse, with her habits of
order and neatness, would naturally retrograde in many ways, and our
party therefore was prepared for the many evidences of neglect and disorder
that met their eyes on their return visit.   The old saw about cleanliness 
and godliness has not yet got a foothold in Cuba.

[Stoppage of Relief Results in Large Number of Deaths] 
     The Central Cuban Relief Committee of New York, which had been
appointed by the President of the United States, had abundant means to
successfully [carry on] maintain this work that had been so successfully inaugurated, and it is to be greatly deplored that the unfortunate declaration 
of war prevented the carrying out of all the plans that had been
[so carefully worked out][*Bundig*]
8. [*c*]

so carefully matured; and which would have saved the lives of thousands of men, women and children, who now lie under the sod.

[The Relief Expedition Leaves Cuba.]
      Having made the best possible arrangement for the maintenance 
of the institutions, we had brought into being and had fostered in 
Havana; and with the saddest regrets that we should have to abandon 
a work so well begun, we boarded the ship "Olivette" on April 11th, 
and started for the United States.   After a great deal of discomfort, 
caused by the overcrowding of passengers and the heavy seas, we reached Tampa, Fla., on April 13th.   After a day or two of rest, Miss 
Barton proceeded to Washington with Drs. Hubbell and Egan, the remainder
of the party stopping in Tampa.

[Large Numbers Cuban Refugees in the United States]
There were at that time probably about fifteen hundred 
Cuban refugees in Tampa and eight or nine hundred in Key West, who 
were entirely dependent on alms.   The Red Cross took upon itself the 
task of maintaining these poor people, and for a period of seven 
months its agents provided for them.   It should be said, however, that 
the citizens of both these cities appointed committees and did all 
they could to relieve the necessities of these large bodies of indigent 
people. 

[Steamer "State of Texas" is Chartered]
     Early in April it had been decided to charter a steamer in 
New York and to load her with supplies and send her to different ports 
in Cuba, where her cargo could be unloaded in such quantities as
might be required.   Accordingly, the steamer "State of Texas", of about eighteen hundred tons burden, was chartered from Messrs.Mallory & Co. 


9. [*c*]

of New York, and notwithstanding the fact that our party had been 
obliged to leave Havana, and subsequently war had been declared, the preparations for sailing were kept up, and the steamer was loaded with 
a cargo of fourteen hundred tons, which embraced a fine assortment 
of substantials and delicacies, and many household articles, medicines 
and hospital stores.   When she was finally loaded in the latter part 
of April, the "Texas" sailed for Key West in charge of Dr.J.B.Hubbell, 
with Capt. Frank Young as sailing master, arriving there on the 
28th of that month. 

Reception [Given] at Tampa [in Honor of Clara Barton]
     In the meantime, Dr.Jos.Gardner and wife, of Bedford, Indiana, 
had joined our party at Tampa; and soon after Miss Barton, Dr. 
Egan, Mr. D.L.Cobb and Miss Lucy M. Graves came along, and it was arranged that the entire party was to leave Tampa on the evening of
April 28th to go abroad the steamer "State of Texas" at Key West, 
and remain on her until the army had made a landing in Cuba, when it 
was expected that we should be able to resume our work there.   The 
day of the evening we were to arrive in Tampa Mrs. J.M.Towne, the lady 
at whose house our party was stopping, gave a reception in honor of 
Miss Barton, to which General Wade and the army officers who were 
then stationed there, and many ladies and gentlemen of that fine little 
city, were invited.   It was a most brilliant and enjoyable occasion, 
the uniforms of the officers and the lovely toilets of the 
ladies making a picture that will long remain in the memories of 
those who saw it.10. [*c*]

The Relief Party Returns to Key West [and Goes Aboard The Texas.]
      On our arrival at Key West, on the afternoon of April 29th,
we were met by Dr. Hubbell and Mr. C.C.Bangs, who had been sent by
the New York Committee to assist in our work; and Mr. A. Butler Duncan, [*2/3*]
a well-known gentleman of New York, and were taken aboard the steamer 
"State of Texas", where we were welcomed by Capt. Young, and where we
subsequently passed many pleasant weeks together.    A few days later
we were joined by Mr. Geo. Kennan, First Vice-President of the American
National Red Cross, and his wife.

[Clara Barton communicates with Commodore Sampson.]
     Key West at that time was a very busy place, the harbor
being filled with naval vessels which came in there daily from the
Cuban blockading squadron for coal and provisions.   Miss Barton
immediately paid her respects to Capt. Harrington of the Monitor "Puritan",
who was the senior commander of the port, and presented her
credentials from the State and Navy Departments.   Subsequently she
placed herself in communication with Commodore Sampson, and stated
her desire to reach Cuba at the earliest possible moment.

[How the Members of the Relief Corps were Kept Busy]
     Many naval officers and citizens of Key West called on
Miss Barton daily, and this attention, combined with her enormous
correspondence, kept her time fully occupied till late in the night.
There was scarcely a day that some accident of more or less severity
did not happen to some of the sailors or workmen on the many auxiliary 
craft that were in the harbor; and the Red Cross doctors were at
all times in demand.   In order to keep every one in the best preparation 
for possible contingencies of any kind, everybody on the
ship was instructed and drilled in the various phases of his or her


[*Saunders*]                  
11. [c*]

particular kind of work; and thus all were kept happily and busily
engaged.   The doctors inaugurated a series of lectures for the benefits
of the nurses and others, and clinics were of frequent occurrence, 
and every member of the party benefitted by the practical
knowledge thus attained in bandaging and taking care of various
kinds of injuries.

[Many Patients in the Harbor of Key West.]
          Doctor E. Winfield Egan of Boston, an eye and ear specialist,
and one of the foremost of our young surgeons, effected some wonderful
cures in his practice, here and at Port Tampa, and won the warm
friendship of many a poor fellow, who, but for his skillful ministrations 
would have fared badly. Some of the injured men were so 
badly hurt that days and weeks elapsed before they were fully recovered, 
and during the time of their convalescence, they were carefully 
attended and watched by the Red Cross nurses; and at all times of the
day the Red Cross boat, with its well-known flag floating, could be
seen going from one transport to another on its errands of mercy.

Feeding Spanish Prisoners.
          While we were lying at Key West there was scarcely a day
passed that some of our vigilant blockading squadron did not bring
in from one to three captured prizes; sometimes large steamships,
and from that class through the various grades of shipping down
to fishing smacks; and in the course of a couple of weeks there were
between thirty and forty of these boats lying at anchor in the harbor, with
their crews aboard under guard.   Somehow it was forgotten that these
poor foreigners must eat to live; or else perhaps somebody thought
that somebody else was responsible for this very important matter;
be that as it may, they were [neglected and there was blame somewhere.] unprovided for.12. [*c*]

The boats, of course, had a small amount of provisions aboard when
they were captured, and while that lasted all went well; but in a 
few days their supply was exhausted and calls were made on the
United States Marshal, in whose charge the prisoners were, for food.
That officer, having no contingent fund on which to draw, and knowing
the quantities of red tape that must be unraveled before he could secure
any relief, was in despair and came to Miss Barton with his
troubles.   That good lady reassured him by saying that she would
attend to the matter at once, and would provide for all the prisoners
until such time as he could get his petition through the "Circumlocution
office".    Accordingly several boatloads of provisions were
hastily gotten together and taken in tow by a steam launch which
landed them alongside of each prize.    Miss Barton personally visited
these boats and with the aid of an interpreter she learned the
needs of the crews, and not only supplied them with food, but she arranged
to take letters from all who wished to communicate with
friends and relatives in Spain and elsewhere, and forwarded the letters to their destination.

[Sending Spanish Prisoners Letters to their Friends.]
          All governmental relations between Spain and the United
States having been broken by the declaration of war, it was necessary,
where letters were to go to Spain, to send them to the Red Cross of
Portugal, which organization kindly acted as the intermediary friend
all through the war.   And here I may say that the Red Cross adopted
this method wherever there were Spanish Prisoners and through its
kind offices thousands of anxious hearts received news of their absent


3[*c*]

ones who were "held by the enemy".

New York Red Cross Relief Committee [Authorized to Act]
          About the middle of May the friends of the Red Cross in New
York City conceived the idea of forming a relief committee for the
collection of money and supplies to be used in aiding the soldiers
in camp and field, who were poorly provided by the Government with
the merest essentials of their calling, and with no comforts whatever.
The committee was accordingly formed, with some of the richest
and most prominent people of the country on its list, and it became
necessary for Miss Barton to go to New York to empower the committee
with authority to act in the name of the Red Cross.    So the steamer
"State of Texas" left Key West and proceeded to Port Tampa, where Miss
Barton took train for the north, leaving the remainder of the party
on the steamer.

Emergency Relief at Port Tampa
          At this time there were several camps at Tampa and Port
Tampa and several thousand troops were preparing for the invasion of
Cuba; transports were daily arriving at Port Tampa and were being
placed in readiness to carry this vast host to the "Pearl of the
Antilles".    These were busy days for everybody, and the Red Cross
doctors and nurses were called upon hourly to render services to many
victims of injury and disease.

[Miss Jennings, Mrs. White and Mrs Porter Join the Expedition]
          While we were waiting at Port Tampa we were joined by Miss 
Janet Jennings of Washington and Mrs. Trumbull White of Chicago, both
of whom afterward did excellent work in the hospitals at Siboney.
          Miss Barton rejoined our party on June 16th, being accompanied
by Mrs. J. Addison Porter, the wife of the Secretary to President
McKinley, who went with us to Key West, returning to Washington from there.14. [*c*]

there.

[Assurances of Government Recognition]
          Miss Barton had been the recipient of such assurances on her
recent trip to Washington from the heads of the various Government
departments, that she believed that the Red Cross would receive the
most cordial recognition from the Army and Navy as an auxiliary aid,
and would be able to co-operate with them in the utmost harmony.  Although
the mission of the steamer "State of Texas" was to render relief
to the Cuban reconcentrados, it was tacitly understood and believed
by all that every possible aid would be extended to the Army and Navy
forces whenever it was necessary or called for.

[Expedition Sails for Key West]
          All of the Government transports carrying General Shafter's
army had sailed from Port Tamps, bound for Cuba, when on June 17th
the "State of Texas" heaved her anchor and started for Key West where
we arrived on the following afternoon.

[A Supply of Tasajo Added to Cargo]
          It was learned at Key West that the cargo of a captured
ship, consisting of South American "tasajo", or jerked beef, was
about to be sold by the United States Marshal; and as we knew this
was a favorite food of the Cubans, and that we could get all that we
needed at a very log figure, Miss Barton decided to take aboard
twenty tons of it.  [*3/4*]

[The Secretary of the Navy Notified of Proposed Departure]
          A telegram had been sent from Port Tampa to the Secretary
of the Navy, under whose authority the "State of Texas" was then
sailing, notifying him that we were going to Key West, where he could
communicate with us, and thence to Cuba, if orders to the contrary
were not received.

Sailing for Cuba
          On June 20th, everything being in readiness, and no orders


15. [*c*]

having been received from the Secretary of the Navy, it was decided
to sail and find Sampson's fleet near Santiago de Cuba, where it
was generally believed that General Shafter [was making for] would try to effect a landing; so at
10:15 A.M. we started, taking the westerly course around Cape Antonio.
Just as we were about to leave Mr. W.S. Warner joined our party
and afterwards became one of our most useful and valued workers.

[Arrival Off Santiago Bay]
          After a pleasant but uneventful voyage, on the morning of
June 25th we arrived off Morro Castle, at the entrance of the Bay of
Santiago.   The Spanish flag was flying over the land fortifications
and Sampson's fleet was stationed in the adjacent waters.   Miss Barton
sent a representative aboard the flagship "New York", who presented
her compliments to Commodore Sampson and asked for orders, or an
expression of his wishes regarding the position to be taken by the
Red Cross ship.   The Commodore sent back word saying that General
Shafter's army had disembarked at Daiquiri, a point about twelve
miles east of Morro Castle, and he advised Miss Barton to take her
ship to Guantanamo Bay, where she would find good anchorage and calm
water; and where she would be able to learn more of what was taking
place on land, as there was constant communication from there with
the invading army.   Accordingly we drew away and arrived that evening
at Playa del Este, which is about forty miles from Santiago, and
situated just inside the mouth of Guantanamo Bay.

[Welcomed at Guantanamo Bay.]
          Commander McCalla, the Naval Commander of the port, with
several other naval officers came aboard the "Texas" that evening,
and warmly welcomed Miss Barton.   Among these officers were the
Captain and medical staff of the United States Naval Hospital Ship16. [*c*]

"Solace" which was lying at anchor near us, and they extended an
invitation to all the members of our party to visit their ship on
the following morning.   The invitation was accepted, and the next day
the launches of the "Solace" came for us, and we passed a couple of
very enjoyable hours looking over one of the most complete and
handsome ships we had ever seen.

Departure for Siboney
          After our return to the "State of Texas" two reporters of
New York papers called on Miss Barton, informing her that they had
just come in from Siboney, where there was a great need of supplies and
medical aid.   They said that the men who were wounded in the fight
between the Rough Riders and the Spaniards on the previous Friday
had just been brought in and that they were suffering from the lack
of everything in the way of comforts and conveniences.    Our steamer
was at once headed westward and started within a few minutes for the
scene of suffering.   A two months sojourn in tropical waters had
enabled the busy little cirripeds to attach themselves in millions
to the bottom of our ship, and in nautical parlance, she was very
"foul", and consequently our speed was reduced from a normal of about
ten knots an hour to between seven and eight knots, so we did not
reach Siboney until after eight o'clock that night.

[Difficulties of Landing on an Unknown Coast]
          Soon after our ship was anchored a boat was lowered and a
party of our doctors started for the shore.   As the night was dark
and there was no wharf nor other landing place, save one small bit
of sandy beach which was bounded on each side by precipitous rocky
ledges, and no lights other than those of the ships which were
anchored safely from the shore, and the uncertain and misleading


[*Smith*]
17. [*c*]

flare of an occasional campfire some distance away from the beach, our
landing was a matter of some difficulty and anxiety.    A heavy ground
swell was running quite high and dashed itself against the rocks with
a roar that deafened us: however the officer who was in charge of the
boat was an old sailor, who was used to landing in strange places, and
by constantly "ahoying" to every sign of life on shore, we
managed to strike the one soft spot in that vicinity and soon had our
boat drawn up on the sand.

Government Surgeons Reject Offers of Assistance
          By inquiring of several sentinels, we [soon] found our way to
the army hospital, which was a rough wooden building, which had evidently
been used for a store or warehouse in more peaceful times.    On a veranda in
front of the hospital a group of officers was standing, and on our
asking for the surgeon in charge, Major Havard stepped forward.    Drs.
Gardner and Lesser introduced themselves and the other members of the 
party to Major Havard and formally offered him, in the name of Clara
Barton and the Red Cross, the personal services of all our doctors
and nurses, and any of our supplies that might be needed.   Major
Havard very courteously thanked them for their [officer] offers and said that
he fully appreciated the value of such services, but he thought that
he and his assistants would be able to take care of all the sick and
wounded that were there at that time; and as for supplies, he knew
there was an abundance of them on the transports and he hoped they
would be landed the next day.    During these speeches our members were
looking through the miserable place that bore the name of hospital,
and the sights that met us brought tears to our eyes.    There were [perhaps]
half a dozen cots in a building where there were, perhaps, fifty or18. [*c*]

sixty patients, the greater number of whom were lying on the floor
some with a blanket under them, but a great many [of them] were lying
on the bare boards.   Sheets and pillows and bedclothes were unknown,
and those poor fellows who were not dressed in their uniforms were
lying almost naked.   There were some wounded men, and others who
were sick with fever; and in the dim light of a few lanterns we
could see [the poor fellows] them turning from side to side in their discomfort
and agony and hear their moans, and in some cases imprecations
against a Government that would so illy provide for such a contingency.
One of the nurses (?), a young fellow who sat out on the veranda in
his shirt sleeves complacently smoking a cigarette, told us that he
couldn't do very much for the boys, as he didn't have anything to do
with; besides one nurse couldn't do very much for forty men, all
wanting him at the same time, and he thought there ought to be more
help.   I couldn't help contrasting this goodnatured but rather indolent
chap who was performing his duty in such a careless and perfunctory 
manner, with the brave, clean, intelligent and energetic 
young women who I knew, who, when on duty, never took a minute's
rest, but were constantly busy, and who anticipated every want of a
patient and who by their bright faces and cheerful voices drove
away all feelings of despondency and homesickness among the [poor]
sufferers, and in this way helped them further on the road to recovery
[than all] quite as much as the medicine that the doctors might prescribe.

Cubans Gladly Accept Assistance.
            With saddened hearts we turned away and entered the Cuban
army hospital near by.   This house was better furnished with beds and
bedding and other hospital appliances than the place we had just left,


19 [*c*]

as it had been a regular army hospital when the Spaniards were in
possession of the place, and they in their quick retreat had left
nearly everything intact.   So that these patients were in a much better
condition.   But how dirty it was !   And how bad it smelled!   [*4/5*]

            The surgeon in charge of the Cuban hospital was a very intelligent
Cuban who spoke good English, and he welcomed us warmly, and
insisted on taking us to see General Calixo Garcia, whose headquarters
were nearby.   That fine old warrior, with his gentlemanly and courtly
manners, received us with the greatest cordiality, introducing us to
the members of his staff who were present, and in every way made us
feel that we were more than welcome.   He had no hesitation in accepting
any aid we had to offer; and he said that his men had suffered so
terribly during the past three years that he welcomed our coming as
a perfect godsend.   So it was arranged that the Red Cross should take
hold of the Cuban hospital the next day and do what it could to make
it healthier and pleasanter; although the surgeons in charge begged
that the ladies, i.e., the nurses should not come until the place
had been cleaned.   But Red Cross nurses are trained in a school that
makes the annihilation of dirt its first principle; and early the following
morning they appeared with pails, scrubbing brushes, soap,
whitewash, and disinfectants, and the way in which they went to work
elicited the admiration and astonishment of all who saw them.   After
thoroughly washing and disinfecting the floors, walls and furniture,
they took the beds and put them through the same process, and afterwards
put new mattresses, pillows and bedding on them.   Then the patients
were taken in hand and carefully bathed and put in [the] clean20. [*c*]
[*Green*]

clothing and then into clean, sweet-smelling beds.   The looks and words
of gratitude that were given to those little women in blue will always
remain a happy recollection to them.

[American Soldiers Kick Because Red Cross Aids Cubans]
          This grand [?] transformation of the dirty Cuban hospital
was watched with great interest by the American officers and men, and
when it was finally finished, it presented such a noticeable contrast
of peace, cleanliness and comfort to the United States Army Hospital
where everything was the very opposite, in all its hideousness of
neglect, squalor and suffering, that there was a universal "kick"
in the camp; and men were heard to mutter; "What kind of people are
these Red Cross folks that come down here and give the best of everything
to the Cubans , and pass by our own boys who are dying for the
want of these very attentions?"   When it was explained to them that
the Red Cross had first gone to our own hospital and offered all it
had to our own army surgeons, and that they had declined assistance,
there was an immediate and wide-spread inquiry, "Why?", and as no
answer that would satisfy could be given, and the "kick" was becoming
more general and forcible all the time, a day or two later the army
surgeons thought best to allay further irritation by a general acceptance
of whatever was needed from the Red Cross stores, and any 
personal assistance  that might be offered. 

[Harmonious Understanding and Work with American Surgeons]
          As a result of this change of mind everything that was needful
to make the American hospital the equal of the Cuban hospital was
gladly given by the Red Cross, and from that time on to the end of the
war the army surgeons and the Red Cross worked in perfect harmony and


21. [*c*]

with mutual respect and admiration.   A Red Cross hospital was opened
at Siboney and immediately filled to its capacity with American soldiers
and Government employees; and the Red Cross surgeons were given
operating tables in the army hospital and on the field, and with the
aid of Red Cross nurses rendered splendid service in the bloody days
that soon followed.

Urgent Call for Help at the Front
          As General Shafter pressed forward with his troops, the
fighting became more severe, and his chief surgeon, Col. Pope, sent
word to Miss Barton asking for aid [and supplies] to be sent out to
the front.   She responded immediately and personally led a party
consisting of Mr.Geo.Kennan, Mrs.J.Addison Porter, who had recently
rejoined us) Dr.& Mrs.Gardner, Dr.E.Winfield Egan, Dr. J.B.Hubbell,
and Mr..J.A.McDowell, which went forward in army wagons and on foot
over a road whose badness could not be exceeded anywhere; and they soon
had their tents up and their kettles boiling, and for several days
they devoted all their time to relieving the sufferings of the wounded
men on the field.   They made gruels and soups, and all the delicacies
that could be prepared with the facilities at hand, and distributed
fruits and cooling drinks.   These poor wounded soldiers were lying
on the field where they were left after their wounds had been dressed;
and as there was no food for them except to eat the regular army ration
of ["sow belly and hard tack"] salt meat, hardtack and coffee which many of them were unable to
swallow, in some instances they had not taken any nourishment for
three days and were nearly starved.

[Some of the Sufferings the Soldiers Endured]
          The "rainy season" had just set in and these "martyrs to the
cause of Cuban liberty", who were helpless in many cases, without

22. c

clothing of any kind, were left without protection, except such as 
could be had from small bushes and trees; and they were subjected 
daily to alternate "sunshine and shower"' and when it was said that 
those words are not to be taken in a poetical sense, but that they 
mean intense heat and deluging rains, the suffering that ensued can 
be understood.  And it may be well to say that in the locality at 
that time of year, when the sun sets the cold air from the mountains 
drops down into the valleys and the nights become uncomfortably 
chilly before morning.

[Major Bell's Report]
     That the statement of the sufferings of these men may not be 
thought overdrawn, I shall introduce here an extract from the testimony 
of Major William Duffield Bell, an army surgeon, as given on this 
point in his report for the War Department:

[*small type*]
     "The First Division of the Fifth Army Corps Hospital was the only 
one in the field.   The surgical force in this hospital was insufficient 
to meet the demands upon it, and numbers of the wounded lay unattended 
for twelve and even twenty-four hours on the bare ground before 
their turn came.  There was an insufficient supply of proper food 
for invalids, due to lack of transportation, though there was no lack 
of surgical supplies at the hospital, thanks to the energy and business 
like efforts of Major Wood, chief surgeon of the Division Hospital.
     "Another great want was the scarcity of clothing and blankets.  
In many cases soldiers were soaked with rain and stiffened with mud 
from the trenches, so that  [they] their clothes had to be removed before an  operation 
or dress, and could not be put on again.  Men were often taken from the operating table and of necessity in many cases were laid upon the 
wet ground without shelter, and in the majority of cases with even a

23. c
[*Robison*]

[*small type*]
blanket, and with little or no nourishment for two awful days, until the 
Red Cross Society under Miss Barton, appeared on the scene.
     "With no intention to place the blame for the condition of 
things existing, it is only just to state that some officers of 
the commissary and quartermaster's departments displayed the same 
zeal and enthusiasm as did Major Wood and his officers and men, such things need not have happened, and the poor sick and wounded sufferers would not have had to feel, as many did, that they were almost 
forgotten by God and man."  [*5/6*]

     Dr. Bell speaks of the inadequate means of transporting the 
wounded from the field of battle.  "Men with desperate wounds" he 
says, "had to walk or crawl a mile or perhaps five or six miles from 
el Caney and the San Juan Hill back to the el Poso house."
     Surgeon Bell says the insufficient supply of medicines and 
food suitable for the sick furnished by the Government was one of the greatest evils the regiment had to content with.  "There never was a sufficient supply of medicines," he says, "furnished by the Government, 
and even those furnished were not suitable in many cases to the 
diseases incidental to tropical life."
     In speaking of the food furnished to the men Major Bell 
says:
[*small type*]
     "Never during the stay of the regiment in Cuba was anything 
like a full ration issued to the men, nor was that ration as issued 
suitable.  The issuing of green coffee to the men in the trenches was 
wrong, where the only means of roasting it was a small tin plate of24. c

the mess kit."

A Yellow Fever Scare
     It is not to be wondered at that in such conditions our 
soldiers began to fall victims to calentura, a prevalent fever from 
which very few people there escape, even though surrounded by the best sanitary conditions.  The yellow fever scare had taken hold of a large 
part of our soldiers before they left the states; and there were a 
great many young, inexperienced and ambitious "contract surgeons" in 
the army who were [incapable of] inexperienced in diagnosing [any kind of] tropical fevers it was
not long before it was reported that the yellow fever had broken out 
and considerable demoralization ensued.   The Red Cross party which 
was at the front [were] was ordered to go aboard the steamer; and all the buildings at Siboney, including the hospital, were ordered to be burned 
"to stop the spread of fever", Dr. and Mrs. Lesser and Sister 
Minnie Rogal has already fallen victims to the fever and were at that 
time lying in the Red Cross Hospital at Siboney.    A temporary fever 
camp had been started in the hills at the back of Siboney, and they were 
taken there, accompanied by Sisters Isabelle Olm and Annie McCue, both 
of whom afterwards had the fever.

[Dr. Gray's Erroneous Statement]
    Right here let me say that a Dr. Gray connected with the 
Medical Department of the Army has been quoted in the papers as saying 
that the Red Cross was to blame for the outbreak of the yellow 
fever in Siboney, inasmuch as that organization had opened a hospital 
in the building that had been condemned, before any army hospital had 
been opened.   It is only necessary to say that the Red Cross Hospital 
was not opened until [several days] a week after the American and Cuban Army

25. c

Hospitals had been opened in buildings that had been previously condemned by army officers.

[Disproved by Major La Garde's Statement] 
     Referring to this subject, Major Louis A. La Garde, Surgeon 
U.S.A., has given this testimony:
[*small type*]
     "The Cubans deceived Dr. Pope, as they had deceived Dr. Guiteras, 
by telling him that there had been no yellow fever in Siboney.  
Dr. Guiteras believed this.   On one occasion he told me that Siboney 
didn't look like a yellow fever locality, as the place was hilly and 
well drained, except in a small section to the northeast of the town,  
where there was a stream.   Dr. Guiteras advised that hospitals be 
established in houses in Siboney, and he thought there was no danger 
of infection because of such action."

[Noble and Unselfish Services]
     In simple justice to faithful, brave and efficient workers, 
I take pleasure in commending Drs. A. Monae Leser and E. Winfield Egan 
and Sisters Bettina Lesser, Minnie Rogall, Annie McCue, Isabelle Olm, 
and Blanche MacCorristen; and Miss Janet Jennings and Mrs. Trumbull 
White, volunteers, all of whom worked at one time in hospitals attending 
the wounded soldiers for many days, with scarcely any sleep 
and in conditions that afterwards broke them down and made them all, 
with three exceptions, fit subjects for [the yellow] fever, to which 
they fell victims.   Certainly no more faithful and willing workers ever 
served poor humanity.   For several weeks these [delicate] women were subjected to the deprivations and discomforts of a soldiers life in 
the field, and it can be said to their credit that there never was a complaint from any of them.[*Major Appell story*]
26. c

[Malicious and Unmanly Charges Refuted]
     A relative of Surgeon General Sternberg's, Major Appell, 
who is a surgeon in the United States Army, and had charge of the 
Hospital Ship "Olivette" during the late war, has recently charged 
that Miss Barton told him that the cargo of the "State of Texas" was 
intended for the reconcentrados, and that she should not give it out 
to the army.   I shall pass over the interview in which this alleged 
assertion was made, by simply saying that the Major seemingly came 
to Miss Barton with the intention of making himself disagreeable, and 
that he succeeded, and showed himself to be perfectly ignorant of the 
Red Cross and all connected with it.  That his statement was either 
intentionally false, or based on a misunderstanding of what was said, can be proven
by half a dozen persons who were present at the interview; and every 
action of the Red Cross, both before and after the interview, disproves
it.   In furtherance of what I assert, I will quote here from the 
official testimony of Major Louis A. La Garde, heretofore referred to:
[*small type*]
     Dr. Conner--"Did you draw upon the Red Cross for supplies?"
     Dr. LaGarde--"I did, and I got everything they could spare 
of value."
     Dr. Conner--"Did they grant it willingly or grudgingly?"
     Dr. LaGarde--"They granted everything I asked for that they 
had in stock, and they gave it willingly."
     Dr. Conner--"Was it ever said that their supplies were for 
the reconcentrados and could not be given to our army?"

     Dr. LaGarde said that Miss Barton had told him she had 
brought supplies on the "Texas" for reconcentrados only, but she said 
the army should be supplied first.  The Corps Surgeon, Dr. Pope, told


27. C

him Miss Barton apologized that she did not have everything the army 
needed.  She said that if she had known they would be in the condition 
in which she found them, she would have brought supplies especially 
adapted to an army going into battle.   Dr. La Garde said that 
Miss Barton had supplied him with nurses and medical men to take charge 
of a hospital at Siboney, and had sent him malted milk, beef tea, and delicacies, [gruel] together with various other things, and rendered the greatest 
service.
     He said, in reply to a question, that he believed the medical 
service at Siboney and in Cuba was the best that could have been rendered under the circumstances;  [He said] the doctors were patient and 
faithful men.  In reply to a question he said:
[*small type*]
     "I believe that if the U.S. Government had expected for a 
moment that we were going to have such a battle, we would have had a number of ships loaded with medical stores, as was the Red Cross ship 
"Texas".  I doubt very much whether anybody anticipated such a battle 
as was had."

[A Great "Hustle" Where?]
     As I write this report the War Investigating Commission is 
holding its sessions, and the country is impatiently awaiting its decision 
as to where the blame rests for the many shortcomings that 
were developed during the Santiago campaign.   I have just been reading 
the testimony of Dr. Frank Donaldson, Assistant Surgeon of Roosevelt's 
Rough Riders, in which he remarks"
     "My experience is that the reason the Rough Riders fared so 
well was because we hustled for ourselves."
     When Dr. Donaldson arrived in Siboney he immediately came28. c

aboard the Red Cross steamer and announced that he was about to join 
the Rough Riders, and would like some supplies to take out with [*6*]
[*7*] him. He was given everything that he wanted that we had in our stores; and 
the next day he came with two more members of his regiment, and after having breakfast with us, made another requisition for an increased 
amount of good things.   These were cheerfully given and, in addition, 
shoes and underclothing from the private wardrobes of the members of 
the Red Cross were added, to meet the required needs that could not 
be filled otherwise, owing to the fact that these things were not in 
the steamer's cargo.
     I esteem it a privilege to be able to testify to the exactness 
of the doctor's testimony as to his ability and success as a 
"hustler", and still more to be able to show where he "hustled", which 
appears to have escaped his memory.
     [The above paragraph applies equally well to the testimony of Colonel Roosevelt, who seems to have forgotten old friends.]

[The Texas Goes to Jamaica for Supplies]
     A few days previous to the fever scare our supply of ice, 
coffee, fruit and other needful articles running short, the steamer 
"State of Texas" was order to go to Jamaica to replenish her stores.  
While in Kingston we met may refugees from Santiago, among them Mr. 
Louis Brooks and [family] and Mr. Robt. Douglas, Sr.    Both these gentlemen placed their residences in Santiago at the disposal of Miss Barton; 
she accepted that of Mr. Douglas, and we afterwards spent several 
very happy and comfortable weeks within its hospitable walls.  Mr. 
Douglas also offered the Red Cross the use of his warehouses in Santiago, which was accepted; and we are indebted to these gentlemen for many other favors

29. c
[*Sutphin*]

and their kindness is remembered with gratitude and pleasure.

Relief for [the] Cubans, [at] Guantanamo Bay.
     Commander McCalla of Guantanamo Bay had already made calls 
upon the Red Cross for relief supplies for the Cubans in his vicinity, 
and the "State of Texas" had made two trips there, leaving five thousand 
rations at one time and ten thousand at another.  The Commander 
then called for fifty thousand rations, and we started at once to deliver 
them.   On our arrival at Playa del Este the Commander met us 
in his steam launch as we were coming into the harbor, [in his steam launch] and before we 
had cast anchor he demanded to know if we had come from Siboney, and 
if any of our members had been ashore there recently.  Being answered 
in the affirmative, he said that he could not expose the men of his 
fleet to the risk of taking yellow fever from us, and ordered our ship 
to turn about and leave at once.   I hope the Commander found a way 
to feed his needy Cubans.

[Two Real Hustlers]
     While we were lying at Siboney Messrs. Elwell and Warner 
were kept busy with a crew of [eight or ten] from fifty to seventy-five Cuban soldiers, and a Government
pontoon, in landing supplies from the steamer; and the work they 
did and the success they achieved calls for the highest praise; for 
it was accomplished under the most adverse conditions and with most inadequate facilities.

[Thousands of Cubans Relieved]
     At the nearby village of Firmeza were thousands of Cuban 
refugees and residents, who were in abject need and many were sick 
and dying.  Through the energetic efforts of the above named gentlemen 
and Dr. J.B.Hubbell all these people were fed and clothed, in addition 
to many more who came into Siboney.30. [*c*]

Exodus from Santiago
          During the siege of Santiago General Shafter sent word
to General Toral, the Spanish Commander, that unless the city was
surrendered within twenty-four hours, he should bombard it.   Notice
was give to the citizens of this place, and the surrender was refused.
An exodus of non-combatants, men, women and children, hurridly
took place; it was said there were thirty thousand of them, and they
fled to the country to the north and east, some twenty thousand crowding
into the little village of El Caney which normally has not over
five hundred inhabitants.
          The city of Santiago at that time was in a destitute condition, 
several people having already starved to death, and there was
consequently little or no provisions for the people to take away.
So this vast horde of hungry wretches overwhelmed the little country 
places that they came to, and the suffering that ensued was something
frightful.

[Great Suffering Relieved at El Caney]
          General Shafter notified Miss Barton of the conditions at
El Caney, and she immediately sent Mr. Elwell there to form a citizens
connittee to assist in distributing the food that was to follow as
quickly as we could get [wagons] transportation to carry it.   Every horse, mule, vehicle
of any kind that could be borrowed, begged of hired, was impressed
into the service, and tons of supplies were taken there at the
earliest possible moment.   For about two weeks the Red Cross force
worked night and day in relieving this place.   Mr. C. C. Bangs, an 
elderly gentleman from Brooklyn, N.Y., who had been sent to the Red
Cross by the New York Cuban Relief Committee, was given charge of the
relief supplies at El Caney, and he remained there until the surrender


31. [*c*]

of Santiago, when the city people returned to their homes, faithfully
working as cook and dispenser from sixteen to eighteen hours a day.
The hard work, lack of sleep, and poor sanitary conditions, were too
hard a strain on him, and he came to us at Santiago sick and very
much broken.  He was attacked by the calentura and removed to a hospital
where in a few days he died.   He was buried by the Red Cross
[people] in the Santiago cemetery, his funeral being attended by the
members of that body.

The Relief Expedition Enters Santiago
          The surrender of Santiago having been arranged to take
place at ten o'clock on the morning of July 17th, and Miss Barton
being anxious to get to that city at the earliest moment, knowing
full well the terrible condition that existed there, the steamer
"State of Texas" steamed down from Siboney that day to the entrance
of Santiago Bay. Miss Barton sent word to Admiral Sampson that she
was ready to go in to the city whenever he was ready to have her;
and he answered that he would send her a pilot to take her ship in
as soon as the channel was made safe by the removal of torpedos that 
had been planted by the Spaniards.
          Accordingly about 4:30 in the afternoon a Cuban pilot came
aboard the "Texas" from the flagship "New York" and we were soon
on our way to Santiago, where we arrived just before sundown.   We
came to anchor just off the main wharf and Messrs. Elwell and Warner 
went ashore to make arrangements for warehouse room and to engage men
to unload the ship on the morrow.

[Unloading the State of Texas]
          Early the next morning the "Texas" was drawn up beside the32. c
[*Slaughter*]

principal wharf and one hundred Cuban stevedores began the work of discharging her.  These poor fellows were a sorry looking crowd of 
undersized and half starved men, the effects of their long fast being 
plainly visible in their hollow cheeks and thin arms and legs.  Many 
women and children were on the wharf ready to sweep up any stray bits 
of meal or beans that might escape from leaky sacks or boxes.  [*7/8*]

     As the stores came from the ship they were loaded on hand 
cars and rolled to the land end of the wharf, where they were placed 
under a large shed and a guard of soldiers was placed over them to 
keep back the hungry people and dogs who hung around like a pack of famished wolves.

[Prominent Citizens Lend a Hand]
     The same plan of distribution that we had so successfully 
pursued in Havana was adopted in SAntiago and with the aid of such 
splendid men as Mr. Wm. Ramsden, son of the English Consul; Mr. Robt. Mason, Chinese Consul and Vice British Consul; and Mr. Michelson, [Vice]  German Vice Consul, we were soon possessed of full knowledge of the place and in perfect touch with its best people.
     Genl. McKibben, the Military Governor of the city and many 
other army officers and citizens called on Miss Barton, giving her 
a warm welcome and offering their assistance in any way they could be 
of service to her.

[Plan of Distribution of Supplies]
     A central committee of citizens was appointed, to whom was 
deputed the duty of dividing the city into districts, and of appointing 
sub-committees of responsible persons to distribute the supplies 
to the needy.   All applications for relief from the sub-committees
had to be approved by the general committee, and then brought to the

33. c

Red Cross warehouse, where they were filled in bulk and sent back 
to the district committees for distribution.  In this way all confusion 
was avoided, and our headquarters was kept comparatively [from] free from 
crowding.

[The State of Texas Returns to New York]
     By steady work and long hours the cargo of the "State of Texas" 
was discharged, and she left on her return trip to New York on 
the fifth day after her arrival; and we were thus left without any 
means of transportation that we could depend upon in any direction, 
the railroads being broken and there being none but Government ships 
in the harbor.

[Army Red Tape Drives Officers to the Red Cross]
     The Government not having many delicacies for its sick men, 
and such as it had being so hard to get that those in quest of them 
could not get their orders filled until their patients had died or 
recovered, it was only natural that they should come to the Red 
Cross when they needed anything of that kind, where it was only necessary 
to state the need and write a requisition to be supplied with 
anything that we had in stock.   That this privilege was appreciated 
can be attested by hundreds of chaplains, surgeons and officers; and
if it was abused in rare instances, there is little to complain of 
when it is remembered how many lives were thus saved and how many 
poor [wretches] fellows were made comfortable and happy.

[More Recruits Join the Expedition]
     While we were at Santiago we were joined by Mrs. Fanny B. 
Ward of Washington, D.C.; Miss Annie M. Fowler of Springfield, Ill., 
and Miss Annie Wheeler, of Alabama, a daughter of General Joe Wheeler, 
the celebrated and much-liked cavalry leader.  All of these ladies 
did splendid work in their several fields, and hundreds of soldiers
34. 

will gratefully remember their kindly ministrations. [to the end of
their days.]
               General Shafter, General Wheeler, General McKibben, General
Wood, General Bates and Colonel Roosevelt;  Admiral Sampson, Admiral Schley, Capt. Chadwick,
and in fact, almost every military and naval officer with whom we
had any business relations, did everything they could for the Red
Cross, and it is our proud satisfaction to feel that we met their 
wishes to the extent of our ability, and that the most perfect reciprocity
of good feeling and mutual regard existed.
               
               Spanish Hospitals Cared For
               Miss Barton visited all the Spanish hospitals in Santiago
and made a thorough inspection and inquiry into their needs; and
subsequently furnished them with everything required that we had in
our stores.    The Spanish Red Cross had no active workers with the
Spanish army in Cuba that we could find, and whatever was done for
their soldiers by that organization must have been done through the
officials of the army.    It was said that Spain was well furnished with
army hospitals at home, all of which were carried on by the Red Cross;
and that it was the custom, previous to the breaking out of the
Spanish-American War, to send all invalid soldiers back to Spain to
recover.
               Municipal Hospitals and Free Dispensaries
               The municipal hospitals of Santiago were also visited and
their inmates made happy by a plentiful supply of good food and clean
clothing.
               The Red Cross opened a free dispensary where doctors Gill,
Solloso, and Zuniga attended many hundreds of the sick poor and dispensed
medicine and delicacies to all needing them.   These faithful doctors
also visited the sick in their homes wherever  they could find them,


35.
[*Green*]

and did a great deal of good work.
               An expedition was sent inland some seventy miles to Holguin, and
the need of all the intervening communities were carefully investigated.
Miss Barton and several members of her staff also went to San
Luis, -and made arrangements with some of the most prominent citizens
of that place to take charge  of a large quantity of stores; and word
was sent to all the adjacent country for forty miles on each side,
notifying the people that all were in need of help could [could]
receive supplies by coming to San Luis.
               Dr. Hubbell went to Baracoa and Sagua de Tanamo before the Spanish
soldiers and the inhabitants of those places had learned of General
Toral's surrender; and he was obliged to go in under a flag of truce
and was not grnerally believe when he told the people that the Province
was then under the domination of the Americans.   But they were
in such straits of sickness and hunger that they gladly accepted the
medicine and food that he proffered them.
               There was at both Siboney and Santiago a great congestion of Government
streamers, causing much confusion and consequent delay in getting
commissary and quartermaster stores ashore.    The Government, of
course, had charge of everything including wharves and lighters;
we were unable to command these facilities
and several shipments of goods sent to the Red Cross at Santiago were 
never allowed to land there and were returned to the United States.   They
were not needed, however, as we had ample supply for the demands
that were then made upon us.
               Some kind lady, who evidently had some experience in tropical
countries, conceived the idea of sending ice to the soldiers in Cuba; no other of the many methodsof relief that had been suggested, was more welcome36. [*c*]

come or acceptable to the suffering heroes of Santiago. This auxiliary 
society sent us a large schooner load of ice, and no single article 
that was sent to the [?] soldiers gave one quarter the satisfaction to them 
that was given by this cooling and comforting necessity. Owing to the 
lack of facilities for landing, as stated above, [and the fact that ther
there was no suitable storehouse in Santiago, and no sawdust to be had,]
we were unable to get the ice ashore to deliver to the hospitals; but 
as transports, loaded with sick and wounded soldiers were leaving almost 
daily for the States, we notified the captains of all those steamers 
that they could have all the ice they might need, and as they [coul]
could easily run [aside the] alongside the schooner and take it aboard 
they all availed themselves of the privilege until the cargo was exhausted. 

[Supplies Sent to Gibara]
     When the schooner that had brought the ice to Cuba was discharged, 
she was towed alongside a transport that had on board some seven 
hundred tons of Red Cross supplies, which it was impossible to land, 
and they were taken aboard the schooner and subsequently sent to Gibara 
on the northern coast, where they were distributed by Messrs Warner 
and Conklin. [*8/9*]

[Santiago Relieved]
     After a five weeks stay in Santiago it became apparent that the 
distribution of further general relief was unnecessary and inadvisable, 
as the more pressing wants had been supplied, and the presence 
of the army, and the returning commercial and industrial prosperity 
had given employment to all the available laborers, who were now amply 
able to provide for themselves and their families.   In these circumstances, 
it was decided to restrict the distribution henceforth to 
such people as might be vouched for by the various members of the committee as having no means of support.  


37. [*c*] 

[Immense Quantity of Stores in Santiago]
          The Red Cross had at that time in its warehouse at Santiago 
about eight hundred tons of stores, and the New York Committee was 
sending more all the time.   The Government warehouses and wharves 
were overcrowded with quartermaster and commissary stores, although 
the troops, both sick and well, were being sent North as fast as steamers 
could be secured to carry them.   General Wood, the Military Governor, 
was devoting all of his time to the betterment of the general 
condition of the people; and in addition to cleaning the streets and 
yards and disinfecting all foul spots, he was exercising a general 
oversight for the moral and physical welfare of the community.    Miss 
Barton had several conferences with General Wood, and she gave him 
authority to take anything that he might need from the Red Cross 
stores for the succor of the people in the province of Santiago. Consignments of supplies were also being sent directly to General Wood 
from the New York Relief Committee. 

[Precautions to Prevent Possible Suffering.]
          With all this great abundance of provisions and clothing,
and the small number of needy people that were within reach, and the
perfect arrangements that had been made that no one needing relief
should be overlooked, a longer stay of the full Red Cross staff seemed
unwise and useless; so it was decided that we should go to some other
field where our services could be utilized to better advantage.   As
a further precaution, that there might be no possibility of any
needy person being overlooked, Miss Barton appointed a committee of
ladies, who should by house to house inspection discover and report
to the general committee any cases of suffering that might escape notice otherwise.38. C

tice otherwise.

President McKinley Furnishes Transportation
       Having heard that the port of Havana was open, it was natural 
that our part should be eager to return there and take up the work 
that we had been compelled to relinquish during the previous spring.  
The only means of transportation that was at our disposal to use in 
reaching Havana was the Schooner "Mary E. Morse", and as she had been already destined for another port, and was withal so slow that she 
would not have served our requirements, we had not other recourse than 
to appeal to the Government.   Miss Barton accordingly telegraphed 
President McKinley, asking for the use of a transport, and he promptly 
placed at her disposal the Morgan Line steamer "Clinton", which 
was then in the Government service.   Within the following four days 
we loaded the "Clinton" with thirty-four mules that had been sent to 
us by one of the Red Cross Auxiliary committees of New York, and about 
three hundred tons of general stores, which we hoped would serve as 
a starter in the distribution at Havana, other supplies having been 
promised to meet us at that place.

[Expedition Arrives at Havana]
       We sailed away from Santiago on the afternoon of August 
21st, after a pleasant voyage we arrived at Havana on the morning 
of the 25th.

[Unloaded for Impediments]
       We learned on entering the Harbor that we were as much in 
Spanish waters as we had been during our previous sojourn in Havana, 
and that there was no marked change in anything.  The same customs' 
officers, whom we had known before the war, boarded our boat, and we 
were treated with the old-time courtesy; but there was no let up in the 

39. C

rigid enforcement of all the requirements of the law, the necessary 
clearance papers, manifests, etc., being demanded.    As we were on a Government transport, and carrying a cargo intended for charitable distribution, we expected to be admitted [free of duty] without hindrance 
or ceremony; but we were woefully disappointed.   We were informed 
that we should have to pay full duties on our cargo, which 
amounted to as much as the original cost of the goods; and that as 
we had failed to make a specific manifest of every article we had on 
board, we much pay a fine of five hundred dollars before we should be 
allowed to land our cargo or leave the harbor.

[Officials Unfriendly or Indifferent]
       Just before we left Santiago Miss Barton telegraphed Senor 
Congosto, the Secretary of the Colonial Government, and a gentleman 
who had previously shown her the warmest friendship and courtesy, 
saying that she was coming with a shipload of relief; and on her arrival 
she endeavored to see him and Capt. General Blanco, but she was 
unsuccessful in both instances.   She then went to see the Governor of 
Havana, who received her with great urbanity; but when she told him 
the nature of her visit to Havana, he insisted that there was no need 
of aid in that city, that there was no suffering, that the people 
were all well fed and had been all through the blockade.

[Trying to Give a False Impression]
       In riding through the business part of the city it was evident 
to us that a special effort had been made to have the streets as clean 
as possible, when the Americans should come in; and from all our 
experience we came to the conclusion that the Spaniards, as a matter 
of pride, if not of malice, were trying to make us think that they40. C

were very much better off than we had thought them to be; and that 
they were determined that we should do no more charitable work for 
the Cubans as long as they were in authority, without paying the 
highest possible price for the privilege.

[All efforts to Land Cargo Proved Futile]
       No possible endeavor was omitted that gave any hope of enabling 
us to land our cargo; and we brought every influence to bear 
that we could command.   After a couple of days had elapsed, one of the Government officials came aboard our ship and told Miss Barton that 
the Colonial Council had held a meeting and that its members had 
voted to take the amount of money needed from some special fund that was available and pay the duties on the cargo of her ship, provided she 
would turn it over to their agents to distribute.   Recalling the 
stories of Spanish greed and duplicity that run through history for 
hundreds of years past, this proposition naturally did not meet with 
a favorable response; and finding that there was no likelihood of 
any better terms being offered, Miss Barton decided that it was useless 
to remain longer.   Then again, the American Evacuation Commissioners 
were expected to arrive in a few days, and it was thought that 
the presence of this boatload of Cuban relief might be an embarrassment 
to them in dealing with the Spanish Commission; and that we had better 
pay our fine and quietly withdraw until such time as we might return 
without hindrance.

[Prominent Citizens Try to Persuade Spanish Officials]
       During our stay in Havana hundreds of the best people of
that city, including Spaniards and Cubans, came aboard the Clinton
and assured Miss Barton of their warmest friendship and heartiest
During our stay in Havana hundreds of the best people of that city, including Spaniards and Cubans, came aboard the Clinton and assured Miss BArton of their warmest friendship and heartiest 

41. C

welcome; and it is believed that they did their utmost to persuade 
the officials to allow Miss Barton to resume her work in Havana.  
They told the most harrowing stories of the suffering in and about the 
city; and they said that with the exception of some "soup houses", 
which the government was ostentatiously supporting, and which gave 
out to the poor, miserable sufferers who called for it a small quantity 
of an alleged soup, in which there was not enough nourishment to 
keep a chicken alive, there was no other distribution of food, and 
that people were daily dying in the streets.   We knew that this was 
true, as we all had seen scores of these people every time we had 
gone ashore.
[*Bundig*]   [*9/10*]

[Expeditions Starts for Home]
       On September 1st we paid our fine of five hundred dollars 
and arranged all other matters, so that we were ready to sail at 
seven o'clock that evening; and with many regrets and some little 
bitterness in our hearts, we started for Egmont Key, Florida, where 
we knew that we should have to go into quarantine.
       As our ship's charter would expire on September 7th and 
she ought to be in New Orleans, where she belonged, on that date, it 
was decided to unload her cargo of goods at Egmont Key, and have it transferred from there to Tampa.   The mules were to be left aboard, 
and taken to New Orleans, where they were to be turned over to a 
firm of dealers to be sold.

[An Exchange of Mutual Good Will]
       Captain Wertsch and the entire crew of the steamer "Clinton", 
having exerted themselves to make all of our party comfortable and 
happy, and having succeeded in an eminent degree, Miss Barton was42. C

pleased to make acknowledgement of their courtesy in a letter a copy 
of which follows:

On board steamer "Clinton",
En route Havana to Egmont Key,
September 1st, 1898

Capt.P.C. Wertsch,
Steamer "Clinton":

Dear Sir:
       As we draw near the end of our voyage on the steamer "Clinton", 
I cannot refrain from giving expression to the feeling of satisfaction 
and gratitude that all the members of the Red Cross party 
entertain for you and your crew.   If you have any influence with the 
gods of wind and wave, you must certainly have exerted it, for verily 
we have been "sailing o'er summer seas" during the past weeks, and a pleasanter time than we have had could not well be imagined.  It 
gives me great pleasure to say to you that the uniform courtesy and consideration that have been shown our people and the general comfort 
of the "Clinton" are highly appreciated.  We congratulate the Morgan 
Line on having such a ship and such a crew.
       In saying good-by, permit me to thank you most heartily for 
your many kindnesses and your unfailing courtesy, and to wish you and 
all the members of your crew a long life and the best of everything 
in it.
       Sincerely yours,
       Clara Barton.

       Captain Wertsch replied in the happy manner following:
On board steamer "Clinton", 
September 2nd, 1898.

Miss Clara Barton,
Pres. American Natl. Red Cross:

Dear Madam:
       Your very kind note, in which you commend my ship and crew; 
as received, and I have to return my most grateful thanks.  A commander's duties not only embrace the safe navigation of his craft, but the 
comfort and happiness of his passengers and crew, and it is a great 
pleasure to know that my efforts in that direction, combined with the precipitous conditions of the elements, have met with your approval, 
and I shall always treasure your approbation as one of the bright 
spots in my rather monotonous calling.   I esteem it one of the greatest honors to have as passenger and friend one who has so distinguished 
and endeared herself to all the civilized world by her many years of 
faithful and never-ceasing devotion to suffering humanity, and it is 
my sincere hope that God may grant you many years more in which to

43. C

continue your work of love, and that every success may crown your 
efforts.  I have the honor to subscribe myself
       Your devoted friend,
       P.C. Wertsch, Captain.

[Enjoying Quarantine on a Florida Key]
       We arrived at Egmont Key on the morning of Sept. 3rd, and 
the party went into camp for a five days quarantine, which, barring 
the heat and mosquitoes, was rather a pleasant rest after the worry and suspense 
of the past week.   Dr. Geddings of the Marine Hospital Service, 
the gentleman in charge of the quarantine station, did everything in 
his power to make our stay agreeable, and he succeeded far better 
than we had anticipated.

[The Relief Party Separates]
       As our party was about to break up, after a pleasant union 
of seven months, in which we had become like one family, and  had conceived 
a mutual esteem and regard for each other, it seemed fitting that 
some little expression of good feeling should be manifested in a  way that would be lasting and memorable.  The following address to Miss 
Barton was accordingly drawn up, signed by all the members present 
and read to her:
[*Spangler*]

       Now that our work has ceased for a time, and our party 
which has labored so long and so harmoniously together, is returning 
home, we, the members of the Cuban relief expedition, desire to express 
to you our leader, as delicately and fittingly as may be, our 
unbounded confidence and admiration, and our sincere and heartfelt 
gratitude and love.    As we look back over the past few months, and 
recall the many scenes of suffering and death that we have witnessed, 
and remember how ceaselessly, faithfully, and tirelessly you have worked44. [*c*]

and how much you have accomplished under the most unpromising 
circumstances, our wonder grows and we cannot help but reverence and
admire your wisdom, patience and industry.  No more trying position
than you have occupied during the past seven months could well be
imagined, and no one not possessed of nerves of steel and of [righteous] ripest
wisdom and the rarest judgment, combined with a purpose as fixed as
the stars, could have made the great success that you have made of
the work we had in hand.   When it is remembered how many thousands of
brave soldiers have been saved from suffering and death through your
efforts, and how many starving and sick people have been brought back
to health and happiness, and all with so little cost of actual
money, our warmest admiration is excited, and we cannot withhold that
praise which you so justly deserve.
     Personally each of us wishes
to express his or her acknowledgment of your unfailing kindness
and interest in our comfort and general welfare, and we have to thank
you for thousands of those little considerations of word and look
that go so far to brighten one's thoughts and make life a pleasure.
We all have the greatest satisfaction in knowing that all the work
we were permitted to do has been done with thoroughness and economy,
and we are vain enough to think that no one could have done more under 
the conditions that existed.  We shall soon separate and go our 
several ways, and it will be with the deepest sorrow and regret that
we shall say good-by to our leader;  but throughout life it will always 
be a pleasure to call to mind her image and remember all the


45. [*c*]
[*Hilbert*]

happy moments we have passed her.  So in parting, it will no
doubt be a satisfaction to you to have the assurance that you hold
our warmest love and good will, and that at any time each and all of
us will be ready to serve you in any way that lies within our
power.

A. Von Schelle, Membre du Comite Directeur de la
Croix Rouge de Belgique, Membre de
l'Association Nationale de la Croix
Rouge des Etats Unis l'Amerique.

J. B. Hubbell,  General Field Agent of the 
American National Red Cross.

E. Winfield Egan,  Surgeon
American National Red Cross.

C. H. H. Cottrell,  Financial Secretary.

Lucy M. Graves.         Annie M. Fowler
J. A. McDowell.          J. K. Elwell.
Chas. R. Gill, M.D.      Geo. J. Hassett.
C. D. Cottrell.
[* 10/11*]

       At the conclusion of this kind and just tribute to our beloved 
leader there was a moment of profound silence, our feelings being 
"too deep for utterance".  At length, when Miss Barton had subdued
her emotions sufficiently to speak clearly, she responded in most
graceful terms, expressing her warm and sincere appreciation of the
[faithful] work [all had] performed, and the loyal support that had ever
been accorded her;  [she said] that no words could fully express the 
gratitude she felt for this thoughtful little memento of our comradeship, 
and she should prize it quite as much as any badge or decoration 
she had ever received.
       Farewells were said, and the party separated, going to their46.  [*C*]

several homes; and so ended our first Cuban expedition.

Financial and Conclusive
     It is a very hard matter to express in dollars and cents
the value of the relief distributed, as it was all donated in either
material or money which was turned into material; and the kinds were
so varied, the market value so fluctuating, and the data so scattered,
that only an approximation can be ventured.   It is probably underestimating 
the amount of relief stores that have been sent to Cuba by the
Central Cuban Relief Committee and the American National Red Cross to
place it at six thousand tons, approximating in value [one] half a million dollars
in New York.   Had those same goods been bought in Cuba, their
cost would easily have been doubled.
     In estimating the cost of distribution great difficulties
present themselves, as large numbers of laborers, sometimes as many
as two hundred per day were paid in food taken from the stores; but
such labor can only be paid in that way while the need is extreme;
and the moment the direst wants are satisfied money is demanded for
every service.
     Charity giving is most disheartening to those who look for
any return of gratitude from those who are benefitted;  for in perhaps,
a majority of the cases, the relief is accepted as  a right;  and if 
opportunity [is offered] presents itself, it will be taken without the offering.   The
great majority of Cubans whom it has been our privilege to succor were 
of the lower [least] classes, [hybrids of a dozen nationalities, so intermixed
in some instances, that it was hard to tell the dominant racial characteristics]47.  [*C*]

[characteristics.  Such mixtures are not conducive to the intelligence or
morality, and the product is very little removed form the savage, but
without the latter's courage and honesty.]
     We found, however, quite a considerable number of people who had once
been wealthy, but who were utterly helpless after being despoiled of
their riches, and gave up in despair, and would have died without making
any adequate effort to save themselves, had not relief been
brought to them.  There were [, however,] many sterling families who had
cast their fortunes with the revolution; had sacrificed everything for
"Cuba libre", and were willing to give life itself, if necessary; these
people accepted relief reluctantly and sparingly, and with warmest
gratitude. 
     For nearly two months after our arrival in Havana the entire
expenses of the relief work were borne by Miss Barton from her private
purse.  Then the Central Cuban Relief Committee began to furnish
her with means which came thereafter in abundance, and nothing that
was needed that money could procure was ever omitted.  Volunteers
for work were plentiful, but they were generally without experience
and therefore not available.  For this reason, and considering the
magnitude of the work to be attempted and the celerity with which it
must be carried on in order to be effective, in was necessary to
override a time-honored precedent of the Red Cross, and pay salaries
to certain grades of professional workers who could not be obtained
otherwise.  It should be stated though, that all these people who were
engaged required no more money than was sufficient to meet the necessities
of those who were dependent on them; and the few salaries that


48.  [*C*]

were paid were very low considering the high grade of ability that
was secured.
     The first funds sent for our use were in drafts payable in
Spanish gold at Havana.  Gold was then held at a premium of about
thirty-five per cent.  over Spanish silver, with which the greater part
of the ordinary business of the country was carried on.
     On entering Santiago we found both American and Spanish
money in circulation, and consequently considerable confusion resulted
on account of the fluctuation in values, there being no established
standard.  The military Governor made an arbitrary ruling that there
should be a premium of one hundred per cent.  on American money over
Spanish silver, or in other words, that one dollar in American money
should be worth two dollars in Spanish silver.   Spanish gold and
American gold were on a par in ordinary transactions of limited
amounts, but in large amounts American gold was worth a small
percentage more that the Spanish.
     While we were in Santiago our supply of condensed milk ran
short, owing to the large amount that was used in the hospitals.  
Fortunately there was at that time in the harbor a merchant ship loaded
with groceries which could not be disposed of satisfactorily, and we
were able to purchase at a very reasonable figure quite a large amount
of that greatly needed delicacy, and continue filling all requisitions.
     The following is a statement of our accounts at the end of
the expedition: 

[*Private - Mr Keller: 
(This statement will follow in a few
days - leave one page open for it)
C. H. H. C.*][*49 &*]  50. [*C*]

     The expense accounts will generally explain themselves by
their titles, with a few exceptions which will be noted.  "Cuban
Relief expenses" covered all charges for labor outside of that performed
by our own party, and for supplies, etc., that were purchased outside
of those we had brought from New York.   "American Red Cross expenses"
included expenses of nurses and hospitals on account of army work, as
distinct from Cuban relief work; also the maintenance of forty mules
that had been sent us by that organization.  "Household expenses" 
covered house rent, servant hire, and maintenance of the entire party,
which numbered as high as thirty people at times and averaged twenty
most of the time, making an average of less than $2.50 expense per week
for each person.  "General expenses" included work on hospitals and
other buildings necessary to make them habitable and comfortable, and
all other expenses not properly chargable to any other account.
     On an estimated distribution of [three thousand tons of] relief
supplies, valued at half a million dollars, the cost of distribution,
covering a period of seven months, exclusive of the charter
price for the steamer "State of Texas", amounts to less than 3 per
cent. of the value of the goods distributed.

[* # *]