TMDETL1HE 'RET) CROSS T1AG At HOME AND ABROAD MAKEL, 1. 'BOA.'RDMAN ', u^ARY ) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 1 SAN DIEGO \ UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG AT HOME AND ABROAD Copyright by Gutmann & Gutmann, New York A SUNBEAM IN A DARK CORNER UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG AT HOME AND ABROAD BY MABEL T. BOARDMAN CHAIRMAN NATIONAL RELIEF BOARD, AMERICAN RED CROSS WITH A FOREWORD BY WOODROW WILSON, PRESIDENT SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1915 COPYRIGHT, igiS, BT AMERICAN RED CROSS PUBLISHED OCTOBER, PRINTED BT J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. B. A. TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER FOBEWOBD To 0001; the duties that war or disaster impose upon the generous impulses of a nation with any degree of success and efficiency, united action is, of course, necessary under the centralized control of experienced And responsible public servants. For this. reason, and also to conform to the requirements of the Convention of Geneva, the American Sed Cross ras created by Act of Congress, v. I believe that" this great organization will more and more enjoy the confidence and receive the support of the people of the United States as its .purposes and methods become more widely known and more thoroughly understood. It seena to me very fortunate, therefore, tfcat a book dealing with thfr history and achievements of the Bed Cross should have been written by one so. long familiar with its work as Miss Boardmsn, and I commend this book to the careful perusal of all who are interested in the develop- ment of the great work the Red Cross represents. In common with all Americans who have been observant of the American Bed Cross, I am one of its sincere admirers. I admire not. .only the work done but the people who h&ve done it and the way in which it has been done. I. esteem It an honor to be connected with the society. I have had occasion to. observe at somewhat short range Its work in con- nection with many distressing conditions resulting both from disaster and. from v&r. I know how admirably Its officers responded to these calls ;and with what a practiced hand they responded.; how clearly the society understood its duties; and what excellent instrumental it lea it had throng which to act. I therefore. feel that direct. contact with the Ked Croat 'Justifies me In expressing my admiration for its pa,st accomplish- 1 ments and my hope for its continued success In the noble labors* for the benefit of mankind to vshich it is devoted. President of the American. "Red PREFACE As far as the writer knows, there does not exist in English any historical sketch of the Red Cross in general or of the American Red Cross in particular Several years ago Miss Clara Barton published a book consisting mainly of addresses and reports, which is now out of print. Though the first efforts to create a permanent society for the aid of the sick and wounded in war under the Treaty of Geneva were made by Dr. Burrows and other prom- inent members of the Sanitary Commission shortly after the close of the Civil War, no mention is made of this association in this early book, and it is almost impossible to gain from the compiled reports and addresses a clear comprehension of the organization, nature and duties of national associations and their international relation- ship. From 1881, when a permanent society was finally created, until 1905, when it was reincorporated by Act of Congress, there was developed neither membership nor organization. Since 1905 the American Red Cross has entered into so many active fields of relief and has so greatly developed, both in organization and efficiency, that a volume devoted to the subject seems due to the people of this country, from whom it receives such lib- eral and generous support. To Miss Lavinia L. Dock's interesting "History of Nursing;" to American and foreign reports, including those of the Sanitary Commission; to our Red Cross Magazine ; to members of our personnel both at home and abroad; and to many others, the writer is indebted for material utilized in this present volume. Not within these leaves are registered the names and labors of the thousands who have given time and valiant service to 8 10 PREFACE our American organization. This it was not possible to do. Not in written records lie their deeds engraved, but in the hearts of those whose sorrows and whose suf- ferings they have helped to lessen by their unselfish efforts. Whenever war or serious calamity arouses universal interest in the Red Cross, the requests for information increase a hundred fold, and at the same time the mem- bers of its staff are overwhelmed with duties that active relief measures bring upon them. Notwithstanding the fact that "Qui s' excuse s' accuse," the writer believes it not unfair to say that "Under the Red Cross Flag" has been written at such a time of stress and during long drawn-out pressure of work, with many attendant prob- lems and anxieties. No effort has been made to produce a detailed and complete history of the organization here or elsewhere. Such would require years of study and scores of volumes, for which there was neither time nor ability, and for which the general public has no desire. By this labor of love the hope has been rather to place briefly and simply before the American people something of the story of the Red Cross, its origin, development, especially in our own country, and its services for humanity. September 15, 1915. Washington, D. C. MABEL T. BOABDJJAN. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WAR RELIEF IN EARLY AGES. BATTLES OP THE HE- BREWS. OFFICIAL EGYPTIAN PHYSICIANS. A GREEK RELIEF EXPEDITION. ROMAN MILITARY HOSPITALS. THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS OP THE CRTTSADES. LATER EUROPEAN CONFLICTS. SUFFERING IN OUR REVOLUTIONARY DAYS. NAPOLEONIC WARS. NEW INFLUENCES. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AT SCUTARI. . . 17 II. HENRI DUNANT. THE BATTLE OP SOLFBRINO. MEAS- URES FOR TURNING THEORY INTO PRACTICE. THE TREATY OP GENEVA. OUR SHARE IN ITS ADOPTION. . . 32 III. A PRECURSOR OF THE RED CROSS. ORIGIN OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION. PREVENTIVE MEASURES. OFFICIAL OBSTACLES. INQUIRY AND ADVICE. RE- MARKABLE DEFEAT INVESTIGATION. HOSPITAL IN- SPECTION. LEAFLETS BY SPECIALISTS. EVACUATION BY BOAT AND TRAIN. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETIES. LACK OF FUNDS. CALIFORNIA SAVES THE DAY. SAN- ITARY FAIRS. DISTRIBUTION OP SUPPLIES. TRANS- PORTATION PROBLEMS. FIRST USE OP TREATY INSIG- NIA. RELIEF CORPS DUTIES. HOSPITAL DIRECTORY. UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. CON- CLUSIONS 46 IV. WOMEN IN WAR. Miss DOROTHEA Drx. Miss CLARA BARTON. "MOTHER BICKERDYKE." HELP FOR THE ENEMIES' WOUNDED. A VIVANDEERE. MRS. BAR- LOW'S STORY. RELIEF WORK IN CONFEDERACY. LACK OF RECORDS. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETIES. HOS- PITALS. CAPTAIN SALLIE TOMPKINS. PRIVATIONS AND INVENTIONS OF THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. AN INCIDENT IN THE TAKING OP COLUMBIA 65 V. AN ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE AN AMERICAN RED CROSS. WAS THE TREATY OF GENEVA AN ENTANGLING ALLI- ANCE? EARLY DAYS OP THE AMERICAN RED CROSS. DISASTERS. CUBAN RECONCENTRADOS. THE SPAN- ISH WAR 79 11 12 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VI. REASONS FOB REORGANIZATION. A NATIONAL SOCIETY. WHAT is THE AMERICAN RED CROSS? DANGER IN OUB CHARACTERISTICS 95 VII. How IN PEACE WE PREPARE FOB WAR. HUMAN SAC- RIFICES ON THE ALTAR OF INDUSTRY. TOLLS THAT NEPTUNE TAKES. FIELD COLUMNS AND WAR ORDERS. NEWS FROM THE FRONT 104 VIII. NURSING IN THE CIVIL WAR. THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL. THE RED CROSS NURSING SERV- ICE. THE SENTIMENTAL AMATEUR. LOVE OF ADVEN- TURE VERSUS HUMANITY AND PATRIOTISM. WHAT THE LAY WOMEN CAN Do. THE TRUE NURSE AND HER QUALIFICATIONS. ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION. USE AND NUMBER IN FIRE, FLOOD AND PESTILENCE. 118 IX. ALWAYS SOME WORK SOMEWHERE FOR THE RED CROSS. NATURE KEEPS IT BUSY. DESTRUCTION BY FIRE AND EARTHQUAKE. SAN FRANCISCO. Loss OF HUMAN LIFE. CHERRY MINE DISASTER. How THE RED CROSS BEAT JACK FROST. A PHILIPPINE POMPEII. A CITY HOLOCAUST AND AN OCEAN WRECK. A HUN- DRED FLOODED TOWNS 140 X. PUBLIC IDEAS OF RELIEF MEASURES. BREAD LINES. CLOTHING BUREAUS. REFUGEE CAMPS. MONEY. RED CROSS METHODS. REHABILITATION 156 XI. THE CHRISTMAS SEAL. ITS ANCESTORS, THE SANITARY FAIR STAMPS. ITS FOREIGN RELATIONS, THE EURO- PEAN CHARITY STAMPS. How THE SEALS ARE SOLD. A DAVID AGAINST GOLIATH. THE DOUBLE CROSS 169 XII. THE SICK IN SMALL COMMUNITIES. THE KOENIGSBERG SYSTEM. BEGINNINGS OF A GREAT NATIONAL WORK. HUMOR AND PATHOS IN THE TOWN AND COUNTRY NURSING LIFE. A SUGGESTION 179 XIII. ELEVATING THE NATIONAL CONSCIENCE. THE MACE- DONIAN CRY, "COME OVER AND HELP Us." MESSINA AND ITS HORRORS. IN THE FAR EAST. FACING DEATH TO STAY THE PNEUMONIC PLAGUE. FAMINE PICTURES. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND INDIA. FOOD FOR MILLIONS BY DRAINAGE AND RECLAMA- TION. THE WORLD THE RED CROSS FIELD 192 CONTENTS 13 CHAPTER PAGE XIV. WHERE THE MONET COMES FROM. THE DIFFERENT FUNDS. MEMBERSHIP AND ENDOWMENT. RELIEF AP- PEALS. STORIES OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS. ONE HUN- DRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. THE BABIES' PENNIES. THE JEWISH WOMAN'S GIFT. THE GRATEFUL ITALIAN SAILOR. FROM AN IRISH REFUGEE. THE MINERS' GRATITUDE. RECIPROCITY. THE IMPORTANCE OF A RESERVE FUND 206 XV. A RUSSIAN FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. DISASTER RELIEF NOT AN AMERICAN AMENDMENT. FAMINE IN THE VOLGA VALLEY. WAR IN THE FAR EAST. GIFT or THE EMPRESS MARIE FEODOROVNA. JAPANESE TRA- DITIONS AND WAR STORIES. THE EXPRESSION OF PATRIOTISM. THE HOSPITAL AT TOKYO. A SHINTO CEREMONY. THE PEACE ACTIVITIES. THE EMPRESS HARU Ko 's RED CROSS POEM 217 XVI. THE SOCIETIES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES. THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. THE BOER WAR. AN ACT OF PERFIDY. FROM BATTLE- FIELD TO BASE HOSPITAL. LET LOOSE THE DOGS OF THE RED CROSS. THE FRENCH BRANCHES. ABUSE OF THE INSIGNIA. REPORTED ATROCITIES. THE BELGIAN RED CROSS BEHIND THE LINES. IN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO. ITALY'S PREPARATIONS 228 XVII. WITH THE BEST ORGANIZED RED CROSS IN GERMANY. PREPARATIONS BY PEACE ACTIVITIES. THE EMPRESS AUGUSTA FUND. SANITARY COLUMNS. DEPOTS OF SUPPLIES. WOMEN'S UNION OF THE FATHERLAND. THE REICHSTAG LOANS ITS BUILDING. WAR SERVICE. SISTER DORA'S LETTER. THE SOCIETIES OP THE DUAL EMPIRE. THE RED CRESCENT OF TURKEY. . . 243 XVIII. THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS COMMITTEE. CON- FERENCES. ABUSE OF INSIGNIA. PRISONERS OF WAR. THE WOUNDED. THE MISSING. SWITZER- LAND'S SERVICE. INSPECTION OF PRISON CAMPS. HOLLAND AS A REFUGE. WHAT THE RED CROSS MEANS TO SOME CHINESE . . . 254 14 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIX. THE EUBOPEAN WAB AND THE AMERICAN RED CROSS. THE GATHERING OP THE STORM CLOUDS. THE GER- MAN DECLARATION AUGUST FIRST. OFFERS OF AID BY THE AMERICAN RED CROSS ON THE FIFTH. PREPARATIONS. THE WHITE SHIP OF MERCY. THE WEARERS OF THE BRASSARD. LIFE ON BOARD. THE QUESTIONING SEARCHLIGHT. ARRIVAL AT FAL- MOUTH. FUNDS AND SUPPLIES 267 XX. A CASTLE AT PAIGNTON. WAR STORIES. AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS. THE WINTER PALACE. FIVE SOLDIERS OF FRANCE. BY THE SEA IN BELGIUM. RESCUED FROM FIRE. ON THE POLISH BORDER. A THEATRE OF WAR. IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. GRATITUDE 280 XXI. A FINNISH WELCOME. THE DOCTOR BECOMES A GEN- ERAL. IN THE HOSPITAL AT KIEF. THE EMPEROR. A YOUNG CRIMEAN VETERAN. Two CHRISTMAS DAYS. A ROYAL VISIT. ON THE SERBIAN FRON- TIER. BELGRADE UNDER FIRE. WOUNDED BY THOUSANDS. A PLACE IN HISTORY 292 XXII. AN INVASION OF TYPHUS. THE ROCKEFELLER FOUN- DATION OFFERS HELP. DR. STRONG AGAIN TO THE FRONT. THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SANITARY COM- MISSION. DISINFECTING A NATION. OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO MONTENEGRO. CONQUEST OF THE FEVER. WITH THE TURKISH ARMY. A DESERT HOSPITAL. ON CAMEL AMBULANCE TO JERUSALEM. . 304 XXIII. A HISTORY OF NOBLE DEEDS. THE DAILY SERVICE. OUTCLASSED IN MEMBERSHIP AND ENDOWMENT. ALMONER OF THE PEOPLE. AUTHORITY IN WAR. A CASTLE OF DREAMS BECOMES ONE OF MARBLE. VISIONS OF THE FUTURE 316 APPENDIX. THE REVISED TREATY OF GENEVA SIGNED JULY 6, 1906 322 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A Sunbeam in a Dark Corner Frontispiece One of San Francisco's Long Bread Lines 142 Reproduction of the Cherry Mine Disaster 146 A Modern Pompeii hi the Philippines 148 Cyclone's Wreckage at Omaha 152 Fighting the Pneumonic Plague in Manchuria 196 Hunger Camp in China 200 Japanese Red Cross Surgeons and Nurses for the Allies 222 Interior of a British Red Cross Hospital Car 232 A Red Cross Dog Finds a Wounded Man 236 Preparing Food for the German Wounded near the Front 244 Turkish Women at Work for the Red Crescent 252 The Good Ship "Red Cross" Setting Sail on its Voyage of Mercy 274 A Theatre of War Under the American Red Cross 288 French and German Surgeons, Friends at the Side of the Wounded 290 New Red Cross Headquarters. In Memory of the Heroic Women of the Civil War. . . 320 . CHAPTER I WAR RELIEF IN EARLY AGES. BATTLES OF THE HE- BREWS. OFFICIAL EGYPTIAN PHYSICIANS. A GREEK RELIEF EXPEDITION. ROMAN MILITARY HOSPITALS. THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS OF THE CRUSADES. LATER EUROPEAN CONFLICTS. SUFFERING IN OUR REVOLUTIONARY DAYS. NAPOLEONIC WARS. NEW INFLUENCES. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AT SCUTARI. MAN for centuries remained in too primitive a state to exercise much care of the wounded because of any humane purpose, and to depict the sufferings of the sick and wounded during military conflicts previous to the Cri- mean War would be but to repeat again and again tales of misery and horror almost beyond belief. Even under modern conditions the words of such an experienced soldier as General Sherman are not too strong to describe them "War is hell!" It is a hell that only one who has been through the shock and brutality of battle, who has burrowed for months in the trenches with the soldiers, who has walked the interminable wards of suf- fering in the great military hospitals, who has seen the pitiful destruction and desolation of cities, towns, villages and countryside, and who has witnessed the wretchedness of shivering, half-starved prisoners, can comprehend. No history, be it traditional or authentic, antedates war. There is many a war story in the Old Testament, 2 17 18 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG but when the ancient Hebrew laws ordained that on the fall of a city, though the women and children became the spoils of the captors, "thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of thy sword," and even more drastic measures for the "cities of these people which the Lord, thy God, doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth," the wounded held no place in its history. The lines of some old ballad, caught in a phrase of Genesis, breathe the spirit of Cain in his descendant, "Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, for I have slain a man to my wound- ing, and a young man to my hurt." Abraham armed his household and pursued after the Elamite invaders, smiting them by night as they fled to Horab, and bring- ing back their plunder, his brother Lot, the women and the people, but not a word of any wounded is there in this first Biblical story of battle. In those old tribal wars it was victory or death, and not a note of tenderness or mercy sounds in Deborah's exultant song. Later, as the kingdom increased in size, mighty hand-to-hand contests took place. Abijah had "an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand men ; ' ' and the army of Jeroboam numbered "eight hundred thousand men, being mighty men of valor." The army of Judah prevailed against the hosts of Israel, and according to the ancient chronicler "slew them with great slaughter so that there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thous- and men." The story paints the picture with numbers of Oriental magnitude. It is so old the dead were dead so long ago we do not stop to question of the wounded. But compare the humanity of the battlefield of three thousand years ago with that of this mighty conflict of the twentieth century. Appalled as we may be by man's seeming retrogression, his laggard steps have yet moved onward in the march of moral evolution. The civilization of Egypt was in certain respects more A GREEK RELIEF EXPEDITION 19 advanced than that of the Hebrews, and medicine was no mean science in the land of the Pharaohs. Physicians in the earlier history of that country were employed by the State, paid from the public treasury, and the soldier being held in high regard, received their care without charge. There were men skilful in the art of removing arrows and of giving first aid during the Trojan War, and de Quincey says of Homer that his knowledge of wounds would have fitted him for the post of house surgeon in a modern hospital. The laws of Lycurgus ordered sur- geons to the rear of the right wing during battles, showing that they held a definite position in the army at that time. Xenophon reports that Cyrus commanded his sur- geons to care also for the enemy 's wounded, though some modern critics are skeptical of this anticipation of the Red Cross spirit in the sixth century before Christ. The earliest account of medicine to be found in au- thentic history is connected with the siege of Chyrrha, on the Gulf of Corinth, near Delhi. A pestilence broke out among the besiegers, and Nebrus, a celebrated physician, the great-great-grandfather of Hippocrates, was hastily summoned. He came, bringing with him his son Chrysus, also a famous physician, and a vessel laden with medical and other supplies provided at his own expense. By his skill and devotion the dread disease was arrested. Even Alexander the Great, who took a lively interest in his soldiers' welfare, employed physicians only for his own and his friends' benefit, leaving the common soldier to play the part of surgeon for himself, whereby he gained not a little rude skill. Before the invention of gunpowder wounds were caused by swords, spears and other sharp weapons, so that they were in the nature of cuts or bruises, and were not therefore complicated to treat. In the days of the Roman Empire the care of the sick or wounded man depended upon his worth as a slave to his wealthy owner or his value as a gladiator to a public 20 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG that delighted in barbaric sports. The life of the soldier was an asset to the State, and seriously wounded men were placed in the care of families or of women of noble rank. The Roman military doctors were in special favor with such generals as Julius Caesar and Germanicus, while Trajan and Alexander Severus visited personally their wounded soldiers, just as to-day royalty visits the military hospitals. In fact, the military hospital itself dates from the time of the Roman Empire. One of these was built at the right of the Praetorian Gate, and on the left at a sufficient distance to prevent the sick from being disturbed by the noise, were the veterinarian hospital and the blacksmith shop. Such a military hospital was sixty feet square and contained room for 200 men. Crude as all medical knowledge then was, it commanded respect, the doctors held military rank and received double pay ; men in charge of bandages and instruments were their assistants, while others occupied positions somewhat corre- sponding to our hospital orderlies. With the degeneracy of Rome the army medical ser- vice also degenerated, and quacks like Indian medicine men invaded the camps. In the old-time battles no quarter was given or taken, and this, together with the fact that the life of a captive was far worse than death itself, explains results where the dead so far exceeded the wounded in number. The consideration for the soldier was not confined to the Romans, for Tacitus gives accounts of the wives of the Germans dressing the warriors ' wounds. A touch of the Red Cross spirit manifested itself after a battle a thousand years ago, when Haldora of Iceland called to the women of her household, "Let us go and dress the wounds of the warriors, be they friends or foes." In the first century of the Christian Era hostelries for pil- grims sprang up along the routes of travel. In these both poor and sick found refuge. It was not, however, until about the tenth century that hospitals for the sick KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS OF CRUSADES 21 became separate institutions, and even then many of them were lazarettos, or leper hospitals. It has been estimated that in the thirteenth century there were thir- teen thousand lazarettos throughout Christendom, but in the fifteenth century leprosy had so greatly decreased that these were generally turned into pest-houses or regular hospitals. It is with special interest that the Bed Cross turns back the pages of history to the famous military nursing orders. They, like the Red Cross, sprang from the battle- field, for the Crusades gave them birth. At Jerusalem in the hospital of St. John, the Almoner, we find the cradle of the famous order of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, orders that still exist. Fortunate were the sick and wounded who in those early days fell into the hands of these good Knights. In 1187 at the siege of Acre the German sol- diers made a temporary hospital of the sails of their ships in order to care for the sufferers from disease or wounds. On the side of the Moslems, Saladin had his own medi- cal staff, including apothecaries. With true chivalry he permitted the Knights Hospitallers to minister to their own wounded within the walls of Jerusalem without inter- ference. A woman's branch of the Hospitallers founded the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene in the same city, at the head of which was Agnes, a noble Roman matron. These devoted men and women we may claim as ancestors of the Red Cross nurse. On the breasts of their armor or on the shoulder of the long mantle appeared the cross, sometimes of white, sometimes of gold, sometimes of red, sometimes of one form and sometimes of another but always the cross. These old Knights Hospitallers, though fighting for the Holy Land, never failed to give devoted care to all the sick and wounded, whether Christians or Moslems, thereby manifesting what to-day is the pervad- ing spirit of the Red Cross Neutrality, Humanity. The 22 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG quaint old seal of the Order shows a person stretched out on a bed with a cross at the head and foot. Driven out of the Holy Land, Rhodes became for a time the home of the Hospitallers, who continued to be subject to the Moslem attacks. In view of the present use of dogs for the finding of the wounded, it is interesting to note that the Knights kept a fine breed of dogs in the castle to aid in the rescue of Christians and give notice of the approach of the enemy. An old picture shows the kindly Hospitallers ministering to the victims of an earthquake in 1480. After the capture of Rhodes, the Order established itself at Malta. The account of the aid given by the Knights after a frightful earthquake in Sicily and Cala- bria in 1783, reads like a report of similar work to-day. The galleys were laid up for the winter when the news of the great calamity reached Malta. So intense was the desire to send immediate assistance that in a night they were made ready and gotten off, filled with a generous cargo of supplies. One-half of these were given to Reg- gio, but at Messina the commandant, unwilling to be obligated to the Knights, declined aid, saying that the King had provided all that was necessary. The ship, therefore, returned to Reggio, where the stores intended for Messina were landed. The hospital of the Order at Valletta was close to the harbor so that the sick and wounded could be easily re- moved from the ships. The building still exists, with its great wards, 503 feet long and 30 feet high. The walls were covered with hangings and pictures, the beds were canopied, the utensils were of silver; and it is reported with some pride that a clean supply of linen was provided every fortnight. Old pictures represent the wounded Knights in large, luxurious apartments, their servants standing by the bedside. Oriental rugs lie upon the floor, and the cross of the Order is embroidered upon the bed covering. At the head of the beds are boards on which LATER EUROPEAN CONFLICTS 23 were written the doctor's orders. Special wards were devoted to incurable or repulsive diseases, and the seri- ously wounded were placed in upper rooms whose win- dows were tightly closed, as sea air was considered dangerous, producing a result that required strong per- fumes to overcome some of its many evils. It has been said of these famous Knights, "Not their riches nor their power nor their military prowess have given them their distinguished place in history, but their deeds of mercy to the sick and wounded. ' ' Save for the volunteer aid of these nursing orders, there seems to have been no attempt made to provide any nursing care in time of war. If the battlefield lay near some convent or town, the religious sisterhoods and other kindly women of the neighborhood gave what help they could to the wounded within their reach. During the Thirty Years' War and the "War of the Fronde the Sisters of Charity, founded by St. Vincent de Paul, nursed the sufferers and also the victims of famine and pestilence, those two grim handmaidens of the God of War. When the despots of Italy were mutilating their wretched captives and throwing them out in a helpless condition to the mercy of the elements, or brutally butch- ering men, women and children, parading through the streets asses ladened with the limbs of their victims, or torturing most horribly political prisoners, hunting them with boar hounds and watching with fiendish pleasure the dogs tear to pieces these luckless persons, consideration for the wounded must have been a virtue quite undreamed of. Nor had they to dread only the cruelty of man, for the Abbe Suger, historian of Louis the Fat, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, records that "as many as possible of the wounded were carried off in litters, and those who could not be removed were left as a prey to the wolves. ' ' Here and there through history are meagre stories of the work of patriotic and humane women for the sick and wounded of military conflicts. Queen Isabella of 24 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Spain in the fifteenth century during the siege of Gra- nada had six great tents with beds set up, and called upon surgeons and physicians to attend the sick and wounded. The soldiers of Aragon and Castile gave to the establishment perhaps the first of the kind the name " Queen's Hospital." When the strict Castilian courtiers questioned the propriety of her visiting the hospital in person she is said to have replied: "Let me go to them, for they have no mothers here, and it will soothe them in their pain and weakness to find that they are not uncared for." Arras, around which lately there has been so much fighting, was the scene of Jeanne Biscot's labors for the sick and wounded in the siege of that city in 1654. She and two of her friends obtained the loan of a large build- ing where they established a hospital and continued their services throughout an epidemic. During the siege of Quebec the Sisters nursed both the French and English. They busied themselves knitting long stockings for the bare knees of the Highlanders, which Parkman says the men accepted with gratitude, though at a loss to know whether charity or modesty prompted the act. It is interesting to note that progress was slowly being made toward more humanitarian arrangements. In the eighteenth century we find several instances of agree- ments between commanding officers of the armies. The generals at the head of the French and Austrian forces accepted an arrangement suggested by Percy, the French surgeon-general, that the hospitals should be considered as sacred asylums, and that their location be plainly indi- cated so that the soldiers could readily recognize them. Each army was charged with the care of these hospitals, even after losing the country in which they were situated. The armies also were to favor and protect mutually the service of the hospitals in the countries that they occu- pied. The soldiers when recovered were to be sent back to their respective armies, with escort and safeguard. This same Percy undertook to form a permanent relief corps in the French army. He says: "With the desires springing up continually from the disgusting assemblage of famished and vagabond nurses; disheart- ened by the neglect of my request ; expressly grieved at seeing so great a number of soldiers die upon the fields of battle, whose lives might have been saved and whose limbs might have been preserved by the aid of some con- venient and well-organized method of transportation; and seeing also that it was necessary to have, as near as possible to the lines of battle, men expressly designated for the relief of the wounded, rather than leave this care to the soldiers (who too often seized such an opportunity to desert the ranks) , I took it upon me to organize a regu- lar corps of soldier nurses to whom I gave the name of 'the corps of stretcher bearers.' I chose one hundred soldiers from among the most courageous, strongest and most skillful. I had them uniformed, and as soon as they were completely equipped I put them to work. Very- soon the condition of the sick and wounded, before so neglected and abandoned, was entirely changed. ' ' Unfortunately for the famous surgeon 's humanitarian purposes the detachment which he had clothed and equipped, without any expense to the government, and sent to Paris as an example, was ordered to return to Madrid and disbanded. He was blamed instead of thanked; but it had already proved its value, and was eventually adopted in 1813. During our own Revolutionary War our care of the sick and wounded was no more advanced than that in Europe, and in addition to this we are familiar with the fearful deprivations and sufferings undergone by our forces. Hunger and nakedness were followed by disease. The entire army during the war numbered in all on our side 231,791 men. Before the war was over many a time the men were without food to eat, their clothing hung in tatters; without shoes they made long marches, leaving 26 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG on the ground the tracks of their bleeding, naked feet. The officers fared little better than the men, and there is a story of a dinner that no one was allowed to attend who confessed to the ownership of a whole pair of trousers. A condition of famine actually existed at Valley Forge, and the men were so enfeebled that it was difficult to find enough to carry on the regular camp duties. When this was the condition prevalent in the army it can be easily comprehended what little attention was paid to the sick and the wounded. It is true that this distress appealed to the women of the country then as it does at all times of war. Associations were formed for the aid of the soldiers. Great quantities of shirts were made, for which the women bought the materials that they themselves cut out and sewed. Twenty-two hundred of these the Marquis de Chastellux saw in their rooms in Philadelphia, and on each shirt was the name of the lady who made it. Lafayette, attending a ball in Baltimore, expressed his inability to enter into the gayety of the occasion because of his consciousness of the suffering of the soldiers. Aroused by this comment of the great French general, the women of that city flew to work, and like those of Phila- delphia made a large amount of clothing for the soldiers out of materials donated by the men. The women of New York had their own association formed particularly for the purpose of knitting socks and preparing other comforts for the soldiers. All these efforts were directed for the aid of the soldiers in general, and not in any particular way for the unfortunate sick and wounded, whose sufferings in the primitive hospitals, with inadequate supplies and attendants, were pitiful. How little, though, could all such occasional, unsys- tematized effort mitigate the sufferings of the thousands and tens of thousands of the victims of war ! Seventeen days after the battle of Leipzig men were f oun'd who had died not from their wounds but from exposure. It was NEW INFLUENCES 27 the Napoleonic Wars, however, which first aroused the women of Germany to the realization of the need of organization for relief purposes. A number of them banded together for the care of the wounded. Napoleon himself recalled many of the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul who had fled to England during the Revolution, as he realized the value of their services to his soldiers, and decorated one of their number with the Legion of Honor. But new and forceful factors were soon to lead to a remarkable change in conditions. These factors were the telegraph and the press. The majority of those who witnessed the horrors of the battlefield were they who had taken part in the struggle and accepted conditions as the grim and terrible fate of war. Not so, though, was it with those at home, to whom the telegraph, through the daily press, brought the story of the misery, the agony of the thousands of wounded, for they saw among the suffer- ing men some husband, father, brother, son or other dear one of their own. Sixty years ago the cry, coming from a war corre- spondent in the Crimea, rang out one morning in the London Times, " Are there no devoted women among us able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East in the hospitals of Scutari ? Are none of the daughters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such a work of mercy ? ' ' What had hap- pened ? Great Britain and France had united in 1854 to aid Turkey against Russia. The forty years which had passed since Waterloo had deadened the memories of the horrors of war. So proudly the English fleet with thou- sands of brave soldiers had set sail. The nation acclaimed with joy the victory of Alma, but upon the heels of victory came the reports of the uncared-for sick and wounded men. The whole country was aroused. Mr. Sidney Herbert, then at the head of the War Department, wrote to the one woman in England whom he believed competent to relieve the situation ; and while the post was 28 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG carrying his letter to her, one from her to him offering her services crossed it on the way. When this, her country's call for help, arose, Florence Nightingale re- sponded before it was received in official form. Tho supreme appeal of her life came to her, and she went to the Crimea. With her went thirty-eight nurses, called by Punch "The Nightingales," but by Kinglake "The Angel Band. ' ' French Sisters were caring for their own soldiers, and one of these, Sister Marie Theresa, was wounded at the battle of Balaklava, later at Magenta ; and again at Worth, when a grenade fell into the hospital, she, without a moment's hesitation, picked it up, carry- ing it a long distance, until it exploded, and injured her seriously. Three hundred of the Eussian Sisters of the Exaltation of the Cross, founded by the Grand Duchess Helene Pawlowna, and other devoted women went to Sebastopol. Nor were these women of the Slavic race lacking in courage, for many of them ventured forth upon the battlefield under fire to carry in the wounded. Such are the exigencies of war, which at the best can hardly be deemed a humane institution, that considera- tion for the wounded always becomes a secondary matter. Train loads of these unfortunate men are side-tracked for hours that reinforcements and ammunition may be rushed to the fighting line or long trains of the commissary de- partment with necessary supplies are moved forward. Suddenly improvised, slow and poorly arranged hospital ships are utilized for the evacuation of the wounded at sea. At the time of the Crimean War it took generally eight days for the hospital ships to make the trip from Balaklava to Scutari, and during the first four months of the war out of every thousand that embarked seventy- four died on the voyage. The little group of English nurses reached Scutari November 4, 1854, just before the battle of Inkerman. In the vast barrack hospital lay four miles of human misery beyond all words to describe. Into these crowded FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AT SCUTARI 29 wards and amidst these appalling conditions poured the human debris from the field of Inkerman. The buildings were little better than pest-houses. Open sewers under- neath breathed their poisonous odors up and through the corridors and wards. Reporting this condition, Miss Nightingale later told the Royal Commission of 1857: "It is impossible to describe the state of the atmosphere of the Barrack Hospital at night. I have been well acquainted with the dwellings of the worst parts of most of the great cities of Europe, but have never been in any atmosphere I could compare with it." Most of the usual and necessary hospital supplies were unprovided, while comforts were entirely lacking. The sheets were of coarse and heavy canvas, so that the wounded and emaci- ated men begged to be left in their softer blankets. Surgi- cal instruments and medical supplies were inadequate. Under these horrible conditions it is not surprising that dysentery, cholera and typhus likewise claimed many victims. In February, 1855, so desperate was the situa- tion that forty-five per cent, of the cases in the hospital died. The human problems connected with the medical per- sonnel also presented their difficulties for solution. Of the surgeons Miss Nightingale wrote to a friend, "Two of them are brutes, and four are angels, for this is a work that makes either angels or devils .of men and women, too." If among the nurses few Were found belonging to the latter category, there were some whose limitations in the midst of such suffering and misery were pitiful, if occa- sionally amusing. Miss Nightingale quotes a speech of one of them: "I came out, Ma'am, prepared to submit to anything ; to be put upon in every way, but there are some things, Ma'am, one can't submit to. There's the caps, Ma'am, that suit one face, and some that suit another; and if I'd known, Ma'am, about the caps, great as was 30 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG my desire to come out and nurse at Scutari, I would not have come, Ma'am." Nurses at that time were not only without the training now required of the regular profession, but, they had never been subject to the excellent discipline of the training school a discipline particularly suitable to military conditions. Then, as to-day, the war office was overwhelmed with offers to go out to nurse from women influenced by sentiment and emotion but totally unfitted for the hard and serious work. A certain number of these added to Miss Nightingale's difficulties. To go out to nurse the sick and to be told that the wash-tub re- quired her services was not conducive to increasing the enthusiasm of a would-be nurse. There were laundries, diet kitchens and storerooms to be established which were quite as important for the relief of the patients as any of the actual nursing work. In the midst of all this labor of organization, with over two thousand three hundred sick and wounded filling the hospitals, word would come to prepare for several hundred more. Mattresses would be hastily stuffed with straw and placed on the floor to re- ceive this new contingent of exhausted and often dying men. Days of incessant activity followed: hours spent kneeling by the suffering soldiers to dress their ghastly wounds ; and then in the quiet of the night would come the lonely vigil beside some dying man. Operations were sometimes performed without anaesthetics in the open wards, and until Miss Nightingale devised a screen a wounded man awaiting his turn might witness his neigh- bor die under the surgeon's knife. Fever, erysipelas and gangrene, especially among the Russian soldiers, added their miseries to the situation. In this terrible and chaotic crisis Florence Nightingale stands out above all others because of her powers of organization, her ability to bring order out of chaos. Her sympathetic compre- hension and her tact commanded respect from officials FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AT SCUTARI 31 who had seriously doubted the advisability of the presence of women in military hospitals. All the immense labor of organization never blotted out of Miss Nightingale's nature the tender, devoted nurse. From sundown until daybreak it had been the custom to leave the wretched victims in darkness and alone. This changed with her coming, and when at night she passed through the long wards, her little lamp in her hand, to minister to the suffering men they kissed her shadow as it fell across their pillows. She had lit the light of a broader humanity. Longfellow in his poem of "St. Filomena" says of her: On England's annals, through the long Hereafter of her speech and song, That light its rays shall cast From portals of the past. A Lady with a Lamp shall stand In the great history of the land, A noble type of good, Heroic womanhood. CHAPTER II HENRI DUNANT. THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO. MEAS- URES FOR TURNING THEORY INTO PRACTICE. THE TREATY OF GENEVA. OUR SHARE IN ITS ADOPTION. GREAT as were Florence Nightingale's individual labors to alleviate suffering, they accomplished still more valuable work for humanity at large by their inspira- tions to others. When she was eight years old there was born at Geneva, in 1828, a boy who was destined to be the initiator of a remarkable extension of her humane efforts in the hospitals at Scutari. Henri Dunant was of French-Swiss descent. His father, Jean Jacque Du- nant, of an old Geneva family, was a member of the Council of that city. The ancestors of his mother, An- toinette Coladon, were driven to Switzerland in 1560 from Bourges by the religious disturbances which brought so much strife and bloodshed to France. The boy, when still a child, interested himself in works of benevolence. As he grew to manhood the story of the Quakeress Elizabeth Fry's labors for prison reform aroused his enthusiasm. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Un- cle Tom's Cabin" stirred his soul, and Florence Nightin- gale's work in the Crimea awoke within him a strong responsive chord of sympathy. He had traveled much and was always an ardent advocate of peace and uni- versal brotherhood. In 1859, when Dunant was thirty-one years old, the forces of Sardinia under Victor Emanuel, with the allied army of France under Napoleon III, sought to throw off of northern Italy the yoke of Austrian supremacy. The young Swiss, traveling as a tourist, but doubtless burn- ing with zeal to aid the many suffering wounded, wit- nessed one of the great and terrible battles of history. Forty thousand killed and wounded was the deadly har- 32 THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO 33 vest of Solferino. No treaty then protected the medi- cal service of the armies. That of the defeated Aus- trians retreated with their forces, while with the pur- suing allies went nearly all of the French and Italian surgeons, leaving almost deserted of medical care the victims of this appalling slaughter. Dunant, in his ' ' Souvenir de Solferino, ' ' pictures the battle, the awful scenes of suffering and of death as only a man can do who has lived through the horrors of such an experience. The battle of Magenta, on June 4th, opened Milan to the French army. Back the Austrians retreated, fol- lowed by the French and Sardinian armies. ' ' The morn- ing of June 24th dawns with the sound of battle. Three hundred thousand men are face to face. Fifteen miles long stretches the battle line. The bugle notes and the roll of the drum resound the charge. At three in the morning the allied army corps are marching on Sol- ferino and Cavriana. By six o'clock the fire becomes more furious. In the warm June morning the Austrian troops in compact masses march along the open roads under the fluttering banners of black and red. The bril- liant Italian sun glitters on the polished armor of the French dragoons and cuirassiers. In the burning mid- day heat still more furiously the battle rages. Column after column fling themselves one upon the other. Piled high lie the dead on hills and in ravines. Austrians and Allies trample the wounded under foot, kill each other and fall upon their bleeding comrades. Drunk or mad with blood, the butchery goes on. Over the field of slaughter dashes the wild cavalry charge, the horses' iron hoofs beating down the wretched men. Back and forth the conflict rages. Villages are taken and retaken ; every house, every farm, the scene of battle and of strug- gle. Back of dark, threatening clouds, the sun is lost. A tempest of wind and lightning arises ; icy rain sweeps across the field. As the shadows of the night begin to 3 34 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG fall the tumult of the battle dies away. Exhausted men sink down to sleep where they stand or search for some missing comrade. The silent darkness is broken by the groans and cries for help of the wounded men." Hastily improvised hospitals were established in nearby villages, but the greater part of the wounded were taken to Castiglione. On the rough and dusty road jolted the merciless carts with their pitiful burdens. Many died by the way, their bodies being cast out along the roadside. Into the city poured this endless pro- cession of misery, and the whole place was soon one vast hospital. Churches, barracks, convents, and private homes were filled with the wounded ; they overflowed into the open streets and lay upon the stone pavements of the piazzas, where straw had been hastily scattered. Hither and thither rushed distracted citizens, seeking doctors to minister to those within their walls. Side by side on the stone flooring of the churches lay friend and foe alike, French, Austrians, Slavs, Italians and Arabs. Their agonizing cries, in many languages, rent the air. Their curses and their prayers mingled together. Burn- ing with fever, with thirst unquenched, they appealed in vain for water, for the hands were too few to min- ister to them. There a man writhed in the agony of tetanus, and one with shattered jaw motioned dumbly with his hands for aid. On the straw-covered altar steps lay an African chasseur, leg, thigh and shoulder wounded. For three days he had had nothing to eat. He was covered with mud and clotted blood ; his clothing was in rags. When Dunant bathed his wounds, gave him a little bouillon, and wrapped a cover about him he lifted his benefactor's hand to his lips with an indescribable expression of gratitude. At the church door was a Hun- garian, whose piercing cries for a doctor were inces- sant. His back and his shoulders torn by shrapnel, were masses of red and quivering flesh. His body was swollen, green and black horrible. He could rest in THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO 35 no position. Dunant dipped lint in fresh, water and tried to make him comfortable, but gangrene had set in and death soon ended his suffering. Not far away lay a dyinge Zouave, weeping bitterly, needing to be con- soled like a little child. On the other side of the church were wounded Austrian prisoners, defiant of aid. Some tore off their bandages that their wounds might bleed afresh, but others received with gratitude the help that was given them. Dunant gathered a number of the good women of the city into a volunteer corps, whose tireless, if unskilled, services brought some relief. Noticing that he made no distinction of nationality, they followed his work, giv- ing the same kind care to all, and went from one to another repeating with compassion, "tutti fratelli" (all are brothers). Visiting Brestia, where many other thousands of wounded had taken refuge, he describes still further the suffering he witnessed there operations performed without anaesthetics, by surgeons with untrained assist- ants. The poor young soldier, weak from suffering and quivering with fear and anguish, is carried to an oper- ating table, his heart-rending shrieks, and then the si- lence as if Nature herself could bear no more and had brought merciful unconsciousness to the wretched man. Bead scene after scene from Dunant 's ' ' Souvenir de Solferino, " and wonder if nations must continue to settle their differences or protect their so-called honor at such a price. Dunant asks, "Why have we thought well to recall these scenes of grief and desolation, to recount such la- mentable and gruesome details, and to draw such vivid pictures of despair?" He answers this question by another: "Would it not be possible to found and organize in all civilized coun- tries permanent societies of volunteers which in time of 36 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG war would render succor to the wounded without dis- tinction of nationality?" Here had the Treaty of Geneva its first inception, and the spirit of the Red Cross began to quicken into life. A month after the Battle of Solferino, full of the misery he had witnessed and anxious to do something toward mitigating such sufferings in the future, Henri Dunant first enunciated in the salons of the Countess Verri Vorromeo at Milan the idea of a committee of suc- cor everywhere being made permanent and also of the internationalization of the charity, with the adoption of a special sign recognized by all. Greatly to his regret, the Milan society organized for the relief work was dis- solved at the end of the war. On his return to Geneva he wrote his famous account already referred to, a brief pamphlet, but one that has had a remarkable result. It was widely distributed throughout Europe and made a profound impression. Victor Hugo wrote to the author, ' ' You armed humanity and served liberty. " The commander-in-chief of the Swiss army in a letter said, "It is necessary that it should be seen from such vivid examples as you have recorded what the glory of the battlefields costs in torture and in tears. The world is prone to see only the brilliant side of war and to shut its eyes to all of the terrible con- sequences. ' ' Dunant followed up the success of his pamphlet by visiting many European countries and interesting many persons in his plans. The Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Frederick Charles of Prussia, promised the support of this famous order. The King of Saxony gave his endorsement, adding, "Any nation that does not join in this work of humanity deserves to be banned by public opinion in Europe." Napoleon III was an enthusiastic sympathizer. The proposal to adopt a common and uniform flag THE TREATY OF GENEVA 37 to mark hospital formations was most welcome, for at this time each country had a different flag for its medi- cal service. In Austria it was white, in France red, in Spain yellow, and in other countries black or green. The soldiers knew only the hospital flag of their own country, and were ignorant of the others. For many years there had existed in Geneva a Soci- ety of Public Utility, whose efforts were devoted to the furtherance of philanthropic and humane work. This Society, of which Monsieur Gustav Moynier was presi- dent, appointed a special committee, which sent out a general invitation for a conference to be held at Geneva in October, 1863, to consider the question of volunteer aid for the medical service of armies in time of war and also the neutralization of its personnel. Occa- sionally special temporary agreements had been ar- ranged between nations at war whereby hospital for- mations and their personnel were neutralized and pro- tected, but there was no international agreement to this effect. In the letter of invitation for the conference sent to a large number of public-spirited men the Committee for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers said : ''The Geneva Society of Public Utility, complying with the desire expressed by Mr. Henri Dunant in a book entitled 'A Souvenir of Solferino,' organized among its members a committee charged with working towards its realization. ' ' This committee in turn thought that the best course to pursue in order to carry the ideas of Mr. Dunant from the domain of theory to that of practice, would be to bring about a meeting of those persons who in the various countries have at heart the philanthropic work in question, in order to examine within what limits his suggestion is practicable, and to devise measures for carrying it out if possible. ' ' With this letter was sent a draft of a proposed 38 UNDER THE BED CROSS FLAG agreement for discussion. The somewhat lengthy name suggested for the conference was, "An International Con- ference for Investigating the Means to Supplement the Inadequacy of Medical Services of Annies in Cam- paigns. ' ' At this first conference, at which fonrteen European countries were represented, we learn from Mr. Moy- nier's address that an objection sometimes still made to Red Cross work had already been raised: "It has been stated that instead of seeking expedients to render war less murderous, we should do better to attack the evil at its root and to work toward universal and perpetual pacification of the world. To hear our critics it would really seem that we are attempting to do nothing less than take part in legitimate warfare by regarding it as a necessary evil. "Is this criticism serious? I cannot believe so. We certainly desire as much as, and more than, anyone that men shall cease to butcher one another and that they shall repudiate this remnant of barbarism which they have inherited from their forefathers. With the aid of Christianity, they will succeed in doing this sooner or later, and we applaud the efforts of those who work to bring about better relations. However, we are convinced that it will be necessary for a long time yet to reckon with human passions and endure their baleful conse- quences. Why, then, if we cannot absolutely and imme- diately do away with them, should we not seek to lessen them? Charity commends this course, and it is because we have listened to the voice of charity that we are here. I cannot understand wherein our attempts would seem to be calculated to retard the dawn of the era of peace, of which we see a glimpse. Moreover, I am convinced that in organizing assistance for the wounded, in addressing earnest appeals to the inhabitants in behalf of their misery, and in describing, for the needs of our cause, the lamentable spectacle of a battlefield, THE TREATY OF GENEVA 39 unveiling the terrible realities of war and proclaiming them in the name of charity, a thing which it is too often the interest of politics to keep hidden, we shall do more for the disarmament of peoples than those who resort to the economy arguments or declarations of sterile sentimentality. "An attempt has also been made to dissuade us from our project by telling us that we are pursuing a chimera, that we are swimming in Utopia itself, and that after wasting our time on dissertations regarding the neces- sity of remedying the present state of affairs, we would encounter insurmountable obstacles. "Gentlemen, the committee which has called you together has never failed to realize the difficulties of execution which awaited it ; but it has been sufficient for it that its design should not be a dream in its own eyes, in order not to abandon its plan without subjecting it to a decisive test. The organization of volunteer hos- pital attendants, as sketched in 'A Souvenir of Sol- ferino, ' aroused much criticism, but this book contains a noble idea which deserves close examination. It was after maturely and deliberately reflecting thereon at the invitation of the Geneva Society of Public Utility that we formulated in a draft agreement the proposi- tions which we have invited you to come and discuss with us." Mr. Twining, an eminent English philanthropist, though not present at this meeting, sent a letter con- taining a number of suggestions, one of which was startling in its nature, providing that a fatally wound- ed man on the field of battle might have his agony put an end to in some merciful way. This recalls a story told by Ambroise Pare in his account of the Campaign in Turin in 1537: "Being come into the city I entered into a stable thinking to lodge my own and my man's horse and found four dead soldiers and three propped against the wall, their features all changed and they 40 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG neither saw, heard nor spake, and their clothes were still smouldering where the gunpowder had burnt them. As I was looking at them with pity there came an old soldier who asked me if there were any way to cure them. I said 'No.' And then he went up to them and cut their throats very gently and without ill will toward them. Seeing this great cruelty, I told him he was a villain , he answered that he prayed God when he should be in such a plight he might find someone to do the same for him that he should not linger in misery." Mr. Twining 's other proposals were that there- should be a Sunday truce like the "Truce of God" of the Mid- ^dle Ages; truces for the burial of the dead and the re- moval of the wounded ; regulations as to conduct toward wounded and prisoners; reprisals; the fate of places taken by assault ; the rigors to be permitted toward hos- tile populations, according to their more or less hostile attitude. Certain of these suggestions were later adopt- ed by the Treaty of Geneva and others by that of The Hague. Prince Demidoff, of Russia, called attention to the attitude toward prisoners of war. He said: ' ' There is no doubt but wounded persons deserve the most energetic demonstration of interest and the prompt- est assistance. But after them there is another class of unfortunates, who, being more or less ill treated by marches and combats, suffer a moral agony, although their life is saved, which it is the duty of a Christian spirit to console. I speak of prisoners of war. These latter are dragged off into exile, far from their country, into regions where everything is unknown to them habits, customs and language. Without doubt the hu- maneness of all governments has done much in recent times to relieve the condition of prisoners. The aid which is afforded them in order to insure their material existence is generally humane and adequate; moreover, the hospitable spirit of all nations receives with respect THE TREATY OF GENEVA 41 and pities those who have been betrayed by the fate of armies. However, these exiles, like all other people on this earth, do not live on bread alone. Pictures of their country and of their families follow them on to soil where everything is mute to them. They therefore feel intensely the need of a sign or souvenir which will recall to them the things which they miss. "During the great wars which preceded 1815 a prisoner of war was practically a forgotten man. The difficulty of communications across regions which were disorganized by war caused it to be considered as a rare fortune to receive a letter, though often delayed several months; but nowadays there are no longer any coun- tries which are inaccessible. Now the mail is a prisoner's consolation. It gives him courage and resignation, it is a thing which reconciles him with exile and makes him judge without hostile prejudice the country where fate has thrown him. With the assistance of means which were less perfect than to-day this work of enabling the prisoners of war of belligerent nations to correspond with their country was undertaken by me during the war of 1854. Being established at Vienna, at the Impe- rial Russian Legation, of which I formed a part, I had had from the beginning of hostilities a quite natural thought of affording fraternal and anonymous protection to those of my compatriots taken prisoners who were in- terned in France and England. With the help of a devoted agent residing in Paris, and who was continu- ally visiting all of the depots, with the pious assistance of the two heads of the Orthodox Greek Church at Paris and London, who gave the prisoners the encouragement of their words and charity, the assistance given to these expatriated was as complete as possible. Letters, news from their families, remittances of money, useful infor- mation and material relief sent from afar by sympa- thetic patriotism all of this contributed toward reliev- ing their situation under the benevolent authorization 42 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG of the respective governments. As soon as this work in behalf of my compatriots had attained success, I has- tened to extend it to the prisoners of nations hostile to Russia and scattered throughout the various parts of the Empire. The most generous facilities were afforded to me. A general centre of correspondence was estab- lished at Constantinople, and until the war ended and the prisoners were sent home the latter were enabled to profit by the benefit of a simple and practical idea, which, to sum up, had imposed upon me only very slight sacrifices. "This is what I take the liberty of commending to your consideration, when the noble thought which you have expressed comes up for discussion in centres where Christian philosophy and universal philanthropy pre- vail." This suggestion of Prince Demidoff was not taken up at the Geneva Convention, but later by the Treaty of The Hague, which recommends the formation of bu- reaus of prisoners of war, Red Cross Societies agreed to make this aid part of their official duties. At present there are doubtless nearly a million prisoners of war, and the importance of aid being given them must be realized. If consideration for the wounded, even in humane countries, is secondary in war, the prisoner is very apt to receive slight consideration. The deliberations of this conference at Geneva were expressed in resolutions to the following effect: That in each country adhering to the proposed agree- ment a committee should be formed to co-operate in time of war with the military medical service, each commit- tee being organized as its members deemed expedient ; in time of peace a trained personnel should be organized and supplies collected ; the aid of the societies of neutral nations might be invited; the volunteer societies irre- spective of the country to which they belong should wear a distinctive badge a red cross on a white ground. THE TREATY OF GENEVA 43 The conference also recommended the neutralization of hospital formations and their personnel. Because of the success of this conference, the Swiss Government in 1864 addressed an invitation to twenty- five sovereign States to send representatives to a diplo- matic convention to be held that year in August at Geneva. At this convention the United States was rep- resented informally by our Minister to Switzerland, Mr. George C. Fogg, and associated with him was Mr. Charles S. P. Bowles, European agent of the Sanitary Commission. In the letter authorizing Mr. Fogg to attend the con- vention, the Secretary of State said: "The object of the proposed congress is certainly laudable and important, and the Department sees no objection to your being present on the occasion. You are, therefore, authorized to attend the meeting in an informal manner, for the purpose of giving or receiving such suggestions as you may think likely to promote the humane ends which have prompted it. It is hardly nec- essary to add that your presence at the congress would be improper if any of the insurgent emissaries of the United States in Europe should be permitted to take part in its proceedings." Many of the military representatives at this conven- tion were incredulous as to the possibility of securing the adoption of a treaty based on the recommendations of the conference of the year before. Fortunate it was for this great project that a representative of the Sani- tary Commission was present. Mr. Bowles in his report, says: "But I was able to prove that this same 'mythical' institution the United States Sanitary Commission * had long since met with and overcome the difficulties which some delegates were now predicting and recoiling before; had long since solved, and practically, too, the very problems which they were now delving over. More- 44 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG over, I had just arrived from the scene of these labors in the United States, and with the battlefield, hospital and burying ground freshly pictured in my mind, could speak to them but too earnestly of war, the disease of all nations, and its known or proposed remedies. I had brought with me from the United States the latest re- ports and most valuable publications of the Commission, and a number of photographs from life of the field relief corps with its men, wagons, horses, tents, and their arrangements and action. These life pictures, books and practical proofs, produced an effect as great as it was valuable. To many of them, earnest men seeking for light, with their whole hearts in the interest of a long suffering humanity, it was like the sight of the promised land They had been working in the dark, and this was the opening of a window, letting in a flood of light and putting an end to all darkness and doubt." A remarkable spirit of harmony characterized the convention, for, although discussions were often in- tense and opinions differed widely, one of the delegates reports : ' ' Yet the charm was never broken by an unkind word or feeling between any two of its members. ' ' The treaty which was eventually adopted is generally called the Geneva Treaty, but sometimes the Red Cross Treaty. It provides for protection for hospital formations and their personnel in time of war. Out of compliment to Switzerland the Swiss flag with its colors reversed a red cross on a white ground was adopted as the world- wide insignia of humanity and neutrality. This treaty, revised at a convention held at Geneva in 1906, includes under its protection the Red Cross or volunteer aid soci- eties which have received official sanction from their respective governments. The Treaty of The Hague ex- tends to naval warfare the provisions of the Treaty of Geneva. At a banquet given for the delegates to the original convention of 1864 there was in the centre of the table THE TREATY OF GENEVA 45 a large piece of confection, representing a fortress with its garrison and sanitary workers, distinguished by the Eed Cross brassard, pursuing their functions. The tower was surmounted by small silk flags of the Swiss Republic and Canton of Geneva, around the central flag, a red cross on a white field, the emblem of neutral- ity, just adopted by Congress. "After the first toast, this flag was taken from its place by the President, who, turning to me as the representative of the United States Sanitary Commission, presented it as a token of appre- ciation of the Commission's labors for the good of all humanity. To this kind and unexpected compliment to our Commission and to the accompanying speech of the President, I replied as well as I could; but the act, the sentiment, the acclamations of surrounding friends, and, withal, the proud consciousness of a deserving cause, almost overwhelmed me. The full outburst of a chorus from 'William Tell,' given by the Geneva Musical So- ciety in the hall outside, though it covered my retreat, did not add to my equanimity ; for from the windows of the dining hall we could almost see the spot on which the Republic 's hero shot Gessler. These associations and the music by Rossini sung by Swiss compatriots upon the historic ground made an inexpressibly powerful impres- sion upon me. Those of us who amid darkness, doubt and the exultant sneers and insults of aristocratic des- potism had been forced to watch from abroad the second great struggle for the maintenance of our country's liberties will best understand the force of pent-up feeling which events like these at Geneva could not have failed to let loose." As the noble work of Florence Nightingale had been the inspiration for Henri Dunant's and his collaborators' splendid achievement, so had the practical labors of our own great Sanitary Commission helped to lay the foun- dations for the Treaty of Geneva. CHAPTER III A PRECURSOR OF THE RED CROSS. ORIGIN OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION. PREVENTIVE MEASURES. OFFICIAL OBSTACLES. INQUIRY AND ADVICE. RE- MARKABLE DEFEAT INVESTIGATION. HOSPITAL INSPECTION. LEAFLETS BY SPECIALISTS. EVACU- ATION BY BOAT AND TRAIN. SOLDIERS' AID SOCI- ETIES. LACK OF FUNDS. CALIFORNIA SAVES THE DAY. SANITARY FAIRS. DISTRIBUTION OF SUP- PLIES. TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS. FIRST USE OF TREATY INSIGNIA. RELIEF CORPS DUTIES. HOSPITAL DIRECTORY. UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. CONCLUSIONS. PREVIOUS to our own Civil War organized and sys- tematic relief for the sick and wounded soldiers had never been undertaken on any large scale. Because we had to create an army out of undisciplined civilian sol- diers in charge of untrained and inexperienced officers, it became at the very first evident to thoughtful men that if the health and morale of our forces were to be maintained the medical department of the army must be organized and supplemented by volunteer aid. If by experience alone the lessons of war were to be learned, the price would be appalling. The public itself had no understanding of the needs of preventive measures. State by State the regiments were being formed and gathered into local camps. In most cases little or no attention was paid to the selection of the camp and its sanitation, while clothing and quarters were matters of small importance. There was a blind optimism preva- lent. Discipline was unnecessary, not to be borne by volunteers, and courage could take the place of training. With a vivid recollection of the fearful mortality due to such ignorance and neglect during the Crimean 46 A PRECURSOR OF THE RED CROSS 47 War, an earnest group of our American men studied the situation existing here. They knew that had not the matter been taken in hand by the British War Depart- ment after it had already paid a heavy and unnecessary toll of human life, in ten months' time the entire British army would have been destroyed. There was need with us of immediate attention to preventive measures, and not investigation after the war was over. The medical service of our own army was out of date ; and even with the desire to do more effective work it was without power to carry out any vital reforms. It was also jealous of outside interference, yet nothing could be accomplished without co-operation upon the part of the medical department on the one hand and intelli- gent volunteer assistance on the other to educate public opinion, force government action and likewise supple- ment the actual labors of the official organization. Many of the first regiments that reached Washing- ton were unfit for military service. They arrived after long, slow journeys in crowded cattle cars, where no provision had been made for their care and comfort. The officers, new to their duties, had made no prepara- tion for their reception at the Capital, and hours of weary waiting followed the exhausting journey. When at last a hastily prepared camp was reached, the men, utterly tired out, found scanty straw for their beds and shoddy blankets for their covering. The careful stu- dents of this situation became convinced of the necessity of arousing the Government to the importance of promptly taking in hand active measures to change such conditions. The necessity also of controlling and putting to practical use the excited generosity of the public im- pressed itself upon them. On April 15, 1861, the day that President Lincoln called for volunteers, the women of Bridgeport, Connec- ticutt, and those of Charleston, West Virginia, started or- ganizations for soldiers' relief. Soon other cities followed 48 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG their example. Inspired with; a patriotic desire, plans were hastily made to supply nurses, bring home sick and wounded soldiers, and to forward comforts, provisions, books and papers to the men at the front. The latter part of April there was held at Cooper 's Institute, on the invitation of ninety-two of the most prominent women of New York city, a large and enthusiastic meeting, which was attended by Dr. Bellows and Dr. Elisha Har- ris, later two of the most active members of the Sani- tary Commission. At that time there was organized "The Women's Central Association of Relief," whose duties were to collect suitable supplies, establish ware- houses for their storage, bureaus for the examination and registration of nurses, and to provide supplement- ary aid in various forms to the Army Medical Service. Physicians' and surgeons' associations organized and opened a depot for lint and bandages. The nervous energy soon led to excited discussions over medical matters, such, for example, as, What was the most suitable kind of lint? As trained nursing at that time was not a profession, the important problem of securing nurses received apparently little attention. It became evident in a short time that there were many complicated questions besides that of lint requiring solu- tion by the Government. For this reason a delegation consisting of Dr. Bellows and several others represent- ing the associations that had just been formed went to Washington. The utmost confusion prevailed there. The Government, deluged by suggestions from all parts of the country, recommending every kind of remedy for war or imaginary evils, was pursuing a "tentative policy" without definite purpose. The delegation taking its place with many others, was received courteously, rather because of its personnel than for its counsels. At first a call was made upon General Scott, and though the Medical Department later declined assist- ance, one important point was gained. The experienced ORIGIN OF SANITARY COMMISSION 49 old commander of the Mexican War was cognizant of the condition of many of the volunteers, and a physical examination test was decided upon before the men were permitted to enlist. However, the carrying out of this regulation to weed out the unfit made such serious in- roads upon the troops there was grave danger of arous- ing the country's alarm, so that many unqualified for hard service were still retained. After the exercise of much diplomacy, the delegation succeeded in having appointed a Sanitary Commission to act in an advisory capacity to the Surgeon General's Department. Neither President Lincoln nor the Sec- retary of War looked with favor upon the proposition, the former referring to it as " a fifth wheel to the coach. ' ' The obstacles that the Commission was forced to overcome and the consequent delay because of Govern- ment reluctance to avail itself of the invaluable service offered it were a serious handicap. No better proof is required than this of the need for a permanent and trained Eed Cross organization, which, having received governmental authority beforehand, is constantly in touch with the departments that in war would require its assistance. It is then possible for its duties to be care- fully studied out and regulated by both government and association officers when not under the stress and pres- sure of war. In the organization of our American Eed Cross the surgeon generals of the army and navy are, respectively, chairman and vice-chairman of the War Relief Board. It would therefore be impossible for the situation that confronted volunteer assistance at the out- break of the Civil War to again arise. To be quite sure that the Commission's functions in no way interfered with the Government it was given the cumbersome title of " Commission of Inquiry and Advice in Respect to the Sanitary Interest of the United States Forces." Dr. Henry W. Bellows was selected as chairman, and Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted as secretary. 4 50 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG The Commission was divided into two committees; the first, on Inquiry, subdivided its work between com- mittees on inquiries from experience of foreign wars, on inspection in camps for actual conditions, on matters of diet, clothing and quarters, etc. The second commit- tee, on Advice, took upon itself a service somewhat greater than its name implied. Acting upon conclusions based upon the inquiries of the former committee, its duties were to get such conclusions approved by the Medical Bureau, ordered by the War Department, and carried out by officers and men. Though the Commission became the active agency in the distribution of the vast quantities of material sup- plies, and so to the public lost its primary object, this was ever uppermost in the minds of the initiators. It looked to preventive measures. It planned to supple- ment Government deficiencies and with courteous firm- ness to secure the fulfilment of their responsibilities by the officers entrusted with the general welfare of the troops. The commission was without any Government finan- cial support and therefore independent of Government control. As bureaus of inspection, by various capable agents, were immediately necessary, a first appeal for funds was made to life insurance companies, which promptly responded. The inspection of twenty camps of volunteers near Washington revealed the facts : that there was no system of drainage, no attention paid to camp sanitation or bathing facilities provided for the men ; the tents were overcrowded, the atmosphere about them of- fensive, the clothing of the men of the poorest quality, and generally very soiled. Police duty and the enforce- ment of camp regulations were totally inadequate. Ra- tions were unsuitable. Beef and pork there were in plenty, but no fresh vegetables; and the food was wretchedly cooked, so that scurvy and dysentery were REMARKABLE DEFEAT INVESTIGATION 51 inevitable. The Western camps presented the same un- fortunate conditions to the inspectors. The Commission's first recommendations were for accommodations near the station at Washington to re- ceive troops on their arrival, that part of the soldier's pay be remitted to his family, that the camps establish proper regulations and adequate policing, that compe- tent cooks be employed, and fresh vegetables provided. Little attention was paid by the Government to these gratuitous recommendations. But the disastrous defeat at the first battle of Bull Run produced an impression that the recommendations had failed to do. Seventy-five questions as to the practical reasons for the defeat were asked of officers and men by the Commission. These questions included inquiries as to the strength of the regiments, when the last meal before the encounter was taken, the degree of vigor at the commencement, the causes of exhaustion before it began, the fulfilment of their duties by the Commissary Department, the physical and moral condition of the troops during the battle and causes of exhaustion, the extent and degree of demoraliza- tion and its causes. Never in history has so remarkable a category of questions looking to the explanation of a defeat after a severe battle been made on the spot and so soon after the result. The Government's incompetence in looking out for the welfare of the troops was made so manifest, based on the evidence obtained through the answers to these questions, that the report was withheld from the public. In a few regiments, like the Second Rhode Island, where inspection had shown that sanitary conditions prevailed and discipline was maintained in the camp before it left for the battlefield, no demoraliza- tion was found. But the troops that previously had been illy fed, neg- lected and undisciplined started the battle exhausted and in a short space of time were converted into a routed, 5fc UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG half -starved mob. Mr. Olmsted's report gives a graphic picture of Washington shortly after this defeat : "Groups of men wearing parts of military uniforms and some of them with muskets were indeed to be seen ; but upon second sight they did not appear to be soldiers. Bather they were a most woe-begone rabble, which had perhaps clothed itself with the garments of dead sol- diers left on a hard-fought battlefield. No two were dressed completely alike; some were without caps, oth- ers without coats, others without shoes. All were alike excessively dirty, unshaven, unkempt, and dank with dew. The groups were formed around fires made in the streets, of boards wrenched from citizens' fences. Some were still asleep, at full length in the gutters and on doorsteps, or sitting on the curbstone resting their heads against the lamp-posts. Others were evidently begging for food at house-doors. Some appeared ferocious, others only sick and dejected all excessively weak, hungry and selfish. There was no apparent organization; no officers were seen among them, seldom even a non-com- missioned officer. At Willard's Hotel, however, officers swarmed. They, too, were dirty and in ill condition ; but appeared indifferent, reckless, and shameless, rather than dejected and morose. ' ' Justly alarmed, the Government inaugurated reforms that had been previously suggested, and the disinterested men of the Commission had the satisfaction of witness- ing immediate improvement in the health, morale and contentment of the volunteers, who at first were con- sidered unwilling to submit to strict military discipline. The next important field of usefulness undertaken by the commission was the inspection of hospitals. The buildings selected for this purpose were generally Unsuitable and badly arranged. The attendants and nurses were almost totally untrained and unqualified for such service. Encouraged by the Government's change of attitude, the Commission advised that tern- HOSPITAL INSPECTION 53 porary hospitals for fifteen thousand be built, and arranged in the "Pavilion System," each ward of fifty beds in a separate building. The result of the adoption of this plan was a prompt reduction in the death rate. More thorough camp inspec- tion by six especial delegates followed. This included inspection of the soldiers' bedding and clothing, of the sources and quality of water, the character of rations and cooking, camp discipline, qualification of medical officers, sickness and mortality among the troops, and the nature of local hospital accommodations. On the whole, the officers, though ignorant, were willing to receive suggestions and to try to carry them out. Adequate transportation of the wounded was another problem to be considered; and also that pertaining to nurses, as many of the male nurses employed in the evacuation were inefficient and even brutal. Jealousy sometimes interfered with the efforts of the Commission, but back of it was the strong force of public confidence that enabled it to continue and to carry on its great work. The purpose of the Commission and to which it clung with an ever-steadfast tenacity was defined by its officers in these words : "The one point which controls the commission is just this : A simple desire and resolute determination to secure for the men who have enlisted in this war that care which it is the duty of the nation to give them. That care is their right, and in the Government or out of it, it must be given them, let who will stand in the way. ' ' To carry out this purpose involved work so varied and so extensive that it is not easy to give even a brief account of its activities, yet everyone of them is of immediate practical value to-day. The Commission printed thousands of leaflets pre- pared by expert specialists, containing the latest medi- cal advice regarding the treatment of sick and wounded, and these were distributed among the surgeons, many 64 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG of whom, hastily selected men, were poorly qualified for their duties. By patient and persistent efforts the Army Medical Service was reorganized, and more effective co- operation between it and the Quartermaster's Depart- ment, upon which it largely depended, was brought about. Branches of the commission were established in the western cities, with depots for the collection of supplies to be distributed from central stations at army head- quarters. Evacuation of the wounded by steamers on the Mis- sissippi and Ohio was another duty. Strange as it may seem, with all the improvements of medical service of armies, they are yet unable to keep pace with war's destruction. The picture of the conditions of the wounded after the capture of Fort Donelson, as described by an eye-witness, might find its reproduction back of many of the battle lines to-day: "Some were just as they had been left by the for- tune of war (four days before) ; their wounds, as yet, undressed, smeared with filth and blood, and all their wants unsupplied. Others had had their wounds dressed one, two or three days before. Others, still, were under the surgeons' hands, receiving such care as could be given them by men overburdened by the number of their patients, worn out by excessive and long-continued labor, without an article of clothing to give to any for a change, or an extra blanket, without bandages or dressings, with but two ounces of cerate to three hundred men, with few medicines and no stimulants, and with nothing but corn- meal gruel, hard bread, and bacon, to dispense as food. ' ' Save for the Sanitary Commission, there was no centralized national relief work carried on. State gov- ernments, instead of co-operating, frequently sent trans- ports for the use only of the men of their own regiments. These floated idly at their docks, while hundreds of un- fortunate wounded from other States lay waiting vainly EVACUATION BY BOAT AND TRAIN 55 for transportation. The State's right in such a case becomes a nation's wrong. In log huts, surrounded by fever breeding swamps, the wounded from the siege of Yorktown, wearing still their heavy uniforms, died by scores, until eight thousand of them were brought away by the Commission's trans- port steamers. The earliest hospital trains were formed of ordinary freight cars, without any comfort or con- venience for the men, who, without proper food and attendants, often passed days of fearful and unnecessary suffering. Here was a new field for the Commission's activities. Heavy elastic loops for litter handles were fitted to the sides of the cars to carry three tiers one above the other of litters, equipped with mattresses, pillows and quilts; and invalid chairs were placed in the aisles between. Pantries were filled with blankets, clothing and other necessary supplies, and food could be served hot or cold during the exhausting journey. Sur- geons and nurses with hospital appliances accompanied each train. These trains, originally organized and sup- ported by the Commission, in time were taken over by the Army Medical Service, and during the war by this means over five hundred thousand wounded were transported. Though the primary purpose of the Commission had been the adoption and carrying out of preventive meas- ures, the scope of its labors had immensely broadened under the exigencies of the demands made upon it. One of the most important departments of its work was that devoted to the collection and distribution of sup- plies. This feature in war relief measures predominates in the public mind over others in importance, as it is in this particular line of aid that the people them- selves are best able to play an active part. In all wars governments are forced to devote their chief energies and resources to the maintenance of the efficiency of the fighting forces, and this tends to leave the care of 56 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG the sick and wounded man to the particular charge of the people. He is inevitably of secondary importance to the State. Because of this and because popular sym- pathy and public patriotism seek some method for prac- tical expression, the incapacitated soldier depends largely upon volunteer aid. During the Civil "War, in the North some seven thou- sand Soldiers' Aid Societies were organized, and the estimated value of the supplies collected by them amounted to over fifteen millions of dollars. No pro- vision was made by the Government for hospital gar- ments, and practically none for sick diet, absolutely neces- sary for hospital use. We have, on the one hand, the need of assistance, and, on the other, the irresistible and energetic desire of the people to give it. Hence, the great importance of centralized organization to bring together the need and the assistance, to direct energy, prevent waste and control enthusiasm. The public had to be made to realize the impossibility of sending supplies to individual sol- diers, to be guided away from a zeal that made hundreds of mysterious headgears, called ' ' Havelocks, ' ' and pro- vided impossible delicacies for the sick. The Sanitary Commission officers and women rep- resentatives of the Soldiers' Aid Societies met in con- ference in Washington and wisely decided that all sup- plies should go into the Commission stock for distribution where most needed. Bi-weekly bulletins were issued, giv- ing particulars as to needs, and reports as to distribution of supplies in letters from the agents with the armies in the field. When scurvy made its appearance, potato and onion circulars were issued, and thousands of barrels of these were donated to the Commission by the farmers of the country. Bazaars of modern times sink into insignificance before the great sanitary fairs, that raised nearly three millions of dollars. To these everyone poured out their CALIFORNIA SAVES THE DAY 57 gifts. The fanner brought his harvest, the manufacturer and the machinist the product of the mills and the shops, the artist or the artisan his handicraft. Everyone gave and everyone bought until there is no wonder that a single bazaar yielded a million of dollars. At first the maintenance of its varied activities brought large demands upon the limited treasury of the Commission, and in October, 1862, failure loomed before it for lack of funds to carry on its work. Just at this critical moment California saved the day with a totally unexpected contribution of one hundred thousand dol- lars. With this the tide turned, and from then on funds were never wanting. California and the other Pacific States in selecting the far away Commission for their almoner, had set an example. In writing of the value of this aid the historian of the Sanitary Commission dwells on the fact of its example : "The immense national advantage in a struggle for unity, of a common enterprise of humanity around which the homes of the country could rally, adding thus the united strength of the domestic feeling of the American people to its political and military power in the council and the field would have been lost, if the United States Sanitary Com mission had not succeeded. It was a des- perate enterprise to attempt to unite by humane feeling what was so disunited by distance and the disintegrating tendencies of local pride and interest, as the different States and communities of so broad a country. Neither the excellency of the plan, nor the ability of its adminis- tration, could have succeeded against the force of sectional pride and independence, and the truly Ameri- can love of multiplying local associations. Desperate efforts to throw off the yoke of the United States Sanitary Commission would constantly have been made by its already half-independent branches, and would have succeeded. Coaxing and compromising and humoring did wonders to bring about unity and co-operation. And 58 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG we did not hesitate to say that the cash resources of the Commission, which alone commanded and utilized its supplies, were mainly due to the largeness, the constancy, the persistency of the contributions from California and the Pacific coast, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and the Sand- wich Islands so that to California more than to any State in the Union is really due the growth, usefulness, success, the national reputation of the United States Sanitary Commission." The measures used to raise the large funds that con- tinued to be forwarded to the Commission from the Far West were both ingenious and amusing. The entire young community bubbled over with enthusiasm and possibly with something of the generous spirit of the lucky gambler. Articles were sold at auction a pullet, a nugget of gold, a box of strawberries followed each other and fell to the highest bidder under the hammer. A train's delay and an energetic sportsman resulted in the bagging of a single hare, which was carried through the twenty cars and sold over and over again until the engine was reached, with $157 for the cause. Nevada equalled California in the originality of her schemes. To settle a bet a defeated candidate for mayor of the little two-year-old town of Austin carried a sack of flour to a neighboring village. Preceded by a band of music in a wagon, accompanied by his small son in full uniform and followed by a lively crowd of miners and other citizens, the defeated candidate paid his bet, and seizing the opportunity to utilize the amused and good-natured mob he proposed to sell the sack at auction. The crowd entered into his plan with enthusiasm and with the lavish hand of the gold miner. Soon five thou- sand dollars were secured ; but the bag had not yet com- pleted its work, for, delighted with his success, the would- be mayor continued with his bag of flour a successful journey from place to place throughout the State. It went to San Francisco, turned up in New York, and DISTRIBUTION OF SUPPLIES 59 journeyed on with its indefatigable promoter to the fair at St. Louis. No less than forty thousand dollars did this one bag of flour gain for the Commission's treasury. Of the total fund of five million dollars, the Pacific Coast gave one and a quarter million. The Sanitary Fairs raised $2,736,000, leaving about $700,000, received from all other sources. The distribution of supplies was divided into two classes : general and special. The general distribution was for the benefit of general field and regimental hos- pitals and for the men in camp or on the march. Special distribution included that for disabled and discharged soldiers and paroled prisoners. The wise plan was to supplement, not supplant, the Army Medical Service. Regulations required that the need must be apparent, and surgeons were called upon to explain why it existed, so that their responsibility was emphasized and waste- ful measures prevented. The Commission did not encour- age well-meaning people and others who sought self- exploitation or personal thanks entering into the hospi- tals to the annoyance of those in charge and the inter- ference with proper discipline. It did not enter into the cry against Army " red tape," realizing that without the upholding of government discipline and responsi- bility the whole fabric would fall into ruin. At ten collecting depots stationed in ten large cities all supplies were sorted, repacked and stored to replen- ish the stock of the two large distributing warehouses at the headquarters of the armies Washington and Louisville. A careful system of accountability was carried on at both receiving and distributing stations. After such great battles as those of Antietam, Gettys- burg, and the Campaign of the Wilderness, the prompt filling of requisitions by the distributing stations was of immense value in the relief of the wounded men. The commanding generals were full of appreciation of the 60 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG service rendered and General Grant expressed his appre- ciation indirectly in an order issued in 1863 : HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE, Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 28, 1863. Commanding Officer, Cairo, 111.: Sir. Direct the Post Quartermaster at Cairo to call upon the U. S. Sanitary agent at your place, and see exactly what buildings they require to be erected for their charitable and humane purposes. The Commission has been of such great service to the coun- try, and at Cairo are doing so much for this army at this time, that I am disposed to extend their facilities for doing good in every way in my power. You will therefore cause to be put up, at Government expense, suitable buildings for the Sanitary Commission, connecting those they already have, and also put up for them necessary outbuildings. (Signed) U. S. GRANT, Major General. Because of its employment of paid agents, the Com- mission had to meet the same criticism that is sometimes experienced by the Red Cross to-day. This criticism arises, as do so many others, from the ignorance of real conditions and no better answer can be made to the critics of then and of to-day than that made in Mr. Stiles' "History of the Sanitary Commission:" " It would hardly seem necessary to say one word upon the superior effectiveness, and the greater real cheapness, of paid labor in the kind of work in which the Commission was engaged during the war, had not its policy in this matter been not only questioned, but vehemently assailed by many well-meaning persons. Nothing could well be more lofty, than the scorn which was so often expressed during the war for those who would consent to receive money for their services in such a mission of mercy as this, but the Commission felt at the outset, and experience soon confirmed it in its opinion, that it had entered upon a work altogether too full of toil, drudgery, and repulsive reality to be upheld by any mere sentimental pity or sympathy for the poor soldier. Its object was to help the suffering by the best EMPLOYMENT OF PAID AGENTS 61 practical methods it could discover, not to give an oppor- tunity for sympathizing friends at home to relieve their overburdened hearts by spending a few weeks in the army hospitals in busy yet fruitless attempts to aid him. The work of relieving the soldier was found in practice to be a very hard, continuous and prosaic one. The best mode of doing it was not learned by inspiration, but was to be acquired only by patient and long-continued watchfulness and labor. No man was fit for it who was not moved to undertake it by a principle of duty, but it was a novel idea that that duty was less conscientiously performed, and its lofty nature degraded by those who received compensation for their services. The great object which the Commission had in view of course was to secure the best services of the best men. The whole practice of the military service as well as that of every association or individual having work to do, and needing the ihelp of agents to do it, was opposed to the assump- tion that any man's zeal and devotion in the perform- ance of any duty is unfavorably affected by his receiv- ing a salary. Why the rule heretofore universally recog- nized, that paid services have always been more steady, regular and abundant in results than those of mere volunteers, should be reversed in the matter of army relief, it is difficult to say." The experience of our Civil War; in fact, of all serious wars, proves that prompt alleviation of human suffering upon the battlefield where a large number are wounded is a problem almost impossible of solution. The long continuation of the fighting, the difficulty under such conditions of rescuing the wounded, the distance from the base of supplies, the demand upon the limited number of surgeons and attendants, present the gravest obstacles to immediate aid. After the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, nearly ten thousand wounded Federal soldiers and a large number of the defeated Confederates remained to be cared for. Though every 62 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG building church, house and even barn was filled with the wounded, there was not place enough; and shelter- less hundreds lay in the woods and open fields. To the army surgeons were added scores of civilian medical men ; but the need far exceeded the supply, and seriously wounded men waited days before receiving surgical care. The lack of transportation facilities prevented the medical supplies already at Baltimore being shipped, though a day's delay meant to many a man life or death. The Sanitary Commission, perceiving this difficulty, had secured its own large wagons and by means of their use the first medical supplies were hurried to the front, to be followed by a daily service. Had it not been for this work of the Commission, even chloroform, opiates and surgical instruments would have been wanting; and by this means thousands of blankets and clothing were like- wise provided. All transportation facilities were in the Quartermas- ter Department's hands, thus leaving the medical ser- vice without any means of its own to forward its sup- plies. Before the battle of Perryville even surgeons were prevented from carrying supplies, and the pitiful condition of the twenty-five hundred wounded can be imagined. Three large army wagons and twenty-one ambulances were hastily filled from the Commission's warehouse at Louisville and rushed to the scene of the conflict, where the suffering and agony of the men were indescribable. Herald of the spirit of the Red Cross, the Sanitary Commission recognized neither friend nor foe in the wounded man, for after Gettysburg supplies were freely offered to the Confederate surgeons, and side by side the Blue and the Gray cared for the sick and wounded of both armies. To provide aid at the front, field relief corps were organized, and to supplement these, auxiliary relief corps for the care of the wounded left behind or sent to hospitals. HOSPITAL DIRECTORY 63 It was probably this latter corps that first adopted the insignia of the Geneva cross, not in color, but in form, cut in a silver badge. At the conclusion of the war the corps presented to its chief, Mr. Frank B. F. Fay, a large silver cross suspended in a laurel wreath of carved oak. This a few years ago was presented to the American Bed Cross by Mr. Fay's son. The first duty undertaken by the Commissary Relief Corps was the organization of feeding stations along the routes for the evacuation of the wounded. Freder- icksburg, after the battle of the Wilderness, with its twenty thousand wounded, like Castiglione after Sol- ferino, was converted into one vast hospital. Totally unprepared for such an influx of wounded, only the pres- ence of this trained and experienced corps, with the sup- plies transported to the city by the forty four-horse wagons of the Commission, brought any relief to this scene of awful confusion and misery. Death took its toll among these faithful laborers, and on the altar of sacrifice no nobler lives were offered up. The labors of the Commission did not end with the care of the sick and wounded. Under a special relief service, soldiers' homes and convalescent camps aided the discharged men, furnished temporary food and lodg- ings, received their papers of discharge and secured their pay, provided transportation to their homes; in fact, constituted itself the faithful, conscientious guardian of the soldier incapacitated for active duty. By establishing a hospital directory another impor- tant humanitarian act was accomplished. In the con- stant changes of the moving armies it was not possible for a soldier's family or friends to keep in touch with him. Weeks passed without information, and every battle brought renewed anxiety to those at home. In- quiries by the thousands poured in upon the Commis- sion, and these led to the formation of a hospital direc- tory, in whose four offices were registered the complete 64 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG lists of over six hundred thousand men in the two hun- dred and thirty-three army hospitals, with reports as to their conditions obtained through the medical depart- ment. From this directory the constant stream of anxious inquiries were answered. Though, the Sanitary Commission was the great volun- teer relief agency of the Civil War, there was organized by the Young Men's Christian Association a Christian Commission, which, while it also ministered to the sick and wounded, had for its primary purpose the spiritual and moral welfare of the soldiers. The study of the remarkable achievement of the Sanitary Commission lead to certain inevitable conclusions : first, that volunteer aid to the sick and wounded in war is absolutely essential; second, that unless, as was done during the Civil War, the selfish desire to create independent relief organiza- tions is suppressed for the sake of true efficiency, there will result hopeless confusion, fruitless efforts and untold suffering for the victims of such a misguided and egoistic system of relief. The work of the Sanitary Commission shines out amidst the darkness and misery of war, a warning against failure and a guide to success. CHAPTER IV WOMEN IN WAR. MISS DOROTHEA DIX. MISS CLARA BARTON. " MOTHER BICKERDYKE." HELP FOR THE ENEMIES' WOUNDED. A VIVANDIERE. MRS. BAR- LOW'S STORY. RELIEF WORK IN THE CONFEDERACY. LACK OF RECORDS. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETIES. HOS- PITALS. CAPTAIN SALLIE TOMPKINS. PRIVATIONS AND INVENTIONS OF THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH. AN INCIDENT IN THE TAKING OF COLUMBIA. THE successful achievement of all great organizations is almost invariably accomplished by the well-system- atized, directed and controlled labors of the many. So it was with the Sanitary Commission. There were those whose names shone out more brightly than the others in its myriad workers; executive ability fell into places of responsibility; training and experience brought their share in the glory. There were others who by reason of fortunate chance, though not connected with its service, became publicly recognized; and still others rightfully wore the halo of saints, having given their lives for their suffering fellow-men. But back of all these, in the quiet of the home, in the busy turmoil of the great supply depots, and by the bedsides of the sick, the wounded and the dying, were an army of unselfish, self-sacrificing men and women whose names mark no pages of history nor are lettered forth on any monuments of marble. Women have been called the greatest victims of war, for day by day they bear the heartbreaking burden of anxiety for those they love. Busily they ply their ner- vous fingers or fill their active brains with plans for help so that there remains no time to let their imagina- tion picture the fate of the well loved soldiers at the front. To them must fall the greatest share of the vol- unteer aid in time of war, and with devotion, self-sacri- 5 66 66 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG fice and courage did the women of the North and the women of the South fulfill this mission during our own great civil strife. No history of our American Red Cross can be complete without some reference to those who, though they labored before any flag of the Red Cross proclaimed its merciful services in the United States, yet were the pioneers in its duties. In a record of " Woman's Work in the Civil War," published in 1867, the author says: "Among all the women who devoted themselves with untiring energy and gave talents of the highest order to the work of caring for our soldiers during the Civil War the name of Dorothea L. Dix will always take the first rank." Miss Dix, the daughter of a Worcester physician, while main- taining a school for girls in Boston, became interested in prison work, in poor-houses and insane asylum reforms. Her labors led her into many States and to the very doors of Congress for assistance, so that already she was recognized as a woman of marked ability and experience. The outbreak of the war brought her to Washington, where her first duty was the nursing of some wounded soldiers, victims of the Baltimore attack. The ability and practical experience of Miss Dix was such that when selected by the Secretary of War as ' ' Superintendent of Female Nurses, ' ' the choice was universally commended. The appointment and approval of such nurses were placed in her .hands. There existed no professional training as a standard, and it is interesting and somewhat amusing to read certain qualifications required by Miss Dix, such as maturity in years, plainness in dress, good health, and an unquestioned moral character. To be by no means endowed with personal attractions was a fur- ther commendation to Miss Dix's favor. Her duties were not confined to the selection of nurses, for she inspected hospitals and, like Florence Nightingale, had her obsta- cles to overcome because of the surgeons who resented any interference. She received no salary, maintaining MISS CLARA BARTON 67 from her private means ambulances, rest homes for nurses and soldiers, and depots of supplies. In spite of many difficulties, due largely to the fact that her position was one without precedent and which lacked authority to enforce obedience, Miss Dix accom- plished a great work. She gave herself, heart and soul, to her duties, without thought of name or fame, and no woman during the Civil War more fully deserved the gratitude of her fellow citizens. Among the many scores of women whose names are associated with the care of the sick and wounded is that of Miss Clara Barton. As Miss Barton was not con- nected with either the Sanitary or the Christian Commis- sion during the war, and as in the one hundred and twenty-eight volumes of the Civil War Eeports in the War Department her name occurs only once, in connec- tion with a letter written about prisoners at Annapolis, we turn to an account written by one of her friends. Like Miss Dix, she was a native of Worcester County, Massachusetts; and also, like Miss Dix, began her work for the soldiers by caring for the wounded of the Massa- chusetts troops attacked on their way through Balti- more. During the Peninsular Campaign, with an ambu- lance of dressings and restoratives, she met the trans- ports as they landed with the wounded at the wharves of Washington. In September, 1862, she followed General McClellan's army, and after the Battle of Antietam she and her assistants, turning over the dressings to the sur- geons, devoted themselves to distributing bread and making gruel for the wounded. At Culpeper Court House, Fairfax Station and Fredericksburg her biog- rapher tells of her continuous efforts to relieve the suf- fering. The story is related that after the battle of Fredericksburg among others she cared for a dying Con- federate officer, who, in his gratitude, gave her valuable information as to the plans of the Southern forces to entrap the Federal Army in that city and advised her 68 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG against going there. Miss Barton, however, regained her army corps, but it is not related whether or not she passed on the information she had received. During the siege of Fort Wayne, in 1863, with a few men to aid her boil water, she washed the wounds of the men or prepared tea, coffee and other delicacies for the sick. After a rest in 1864 in preparation for the coming campaign, she returned to her labors. Towards the lat- ter part of the war she devoted (her energies to the trac- ing of missing soldiers. To reimburse her for her expen- ditures in this work Congress, in 1865, appropriated for her benefit $15,000. Though Miss Dix's and Miss Barton's names are per- haps the best remembered among those of our Northern women, it is difficult to pass by hundreds of others who gave equally devoted and untiring service. There were those in the humbler walks of life, like ' ' Mother Bicker- dyke," whose zeal for her wounded soldiers was un- bounded and untrammeled. Robust, with remarkable powers of endurance, of stern exterior and indomitable will, she was a tower of strength to the wounded men. She would forage for them regardless of personal danger. Tenderness itself to "her boys," she was a martinet towards careless hospital orderlies, and even surgeons were known to quake before her onslaught. On one occasion, visiting one of the wards containing the badly wounded men, at eleven o'clock, A.M., she found that the assistant surgeon in charge of the ward, who had been out on a drunken spree the night before, and had slept very late, had not yet made out the special diet list for the ward, and the men, faint and hungry, had had no breakfast. She denounced him at once in the strongest terms, and as he came in, and with an attempt at jollity inquired, "Hoity-toity, what's the matter?" she turned upon him with, " Matter enough, you miser- able scoundrel ! Here these men, any one of them worth a thousand of you, are suffered to starve and die, because MOTHER BICKERDYKE 69 you want to be off on a drunk ! Pull off your shoulder- straps," she continued, as he tried feebly to laugh off her reproaches, "pull off your shoulder-straps, for you shall not stay in the army a week longer." The surgeon still laughed, but he turned pale, for 'he knew her power. She was as good as her word. Within three days she had caused his discharge. He went to headquarters and asked to be reinstated Major General Sherman, who was then in command, listened patiently, and then inquired who had procured his discharge. "I was dis- charged in consequence of misrepresentation," answered the surgeon, evasively. "But who caused your dis- charge?" persisted the general. "Why," said the sur- geon, "I suppose it was that woman, that Mrs. Bicker- dyke." "Oh!" said Sherman. "Well, if it was she, I can do nothing for you. She ranks me. ' ' Intense as was the war feeling, it did not blot out humanity. Georgiana Woolsey in her graphic "Three Weeks at Gettysburg," in many a story shows that the tenderness of the woman's nature was extended to the soldier in gray as well as the one in blue. To the sender of a number of boxes of supplies she wrote: "You will not, I am sure, regret that those wretched men those enemies, sick and in prison were helped and cared for through your supplies, though certainly they were not in your mind when you packed your barrels and boxes. ' ' A soldier has respect for a courageous foe, and it is generally the civilian at home who needs Lord Roberts' fine advice: "Do not kill Krueger with your tongues." " 'Have you friends in the army, madam?' a rebel soldier, lying on the floor of the car, said to me, as I gave him some milk. 'Yes, my brother is on an officer's staff.' 'I thought so, ma'am. You can always tell; when people are good to soldiers they are sure to have friends in the army.' 'We are rebels, you know, ma'am/ another said. ' Do you treat rebels so ?' It was strange 70 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG to see the good brotherly feeling come over the soldiers, our own and the rebels, when side by side they lay in our tents. 'Hullo, boys! this is the pleasantest way to meet, isn't it? "We are better friends when we are as close as this than a little farther off.' And then they would go over the battles together. '"We were here,' and 'you were there/ in the friendliest way." Another interesting and amusing story told by Miss Woolsey rather reflects on the Gettysburg farmer, but shows how the Southern wounded were also cared for in her camp : "Few good things can be said of the Gettysburg farmers, and I only use Scripture language in calling them 'evil beasts.' One of this kind came creeping into our camp three weeks after tha battle. He lived five miles only from the town, and had 'never seen a rebel.' He heard we had some of them, and had come down to see them. 'Boys,' we said, marching him into the tent which happened to be full of rebels that day, waiting for the train, 'Boys, here's a man who never saw a rebel in his life, and wants to look at you ; ' and there he stood with his mouth wide open, and there they lay in rows, laughing at him, stupid old Dutchman. 'And why haven't you seen a rebel?' One of us said, 'why didn't you take your gun and help to drive them out of your town?' 'A feller might 'er got hit!' which reply was quite too much for the rebels ; they roared with laughter at him, up and down the tent." Another type of woman was Annie Etheridge, a vivandiere, or fille du regiment. Like an Amazon, she rode in the midst of the shot and shell, with utter disre- gard of danger, that she might find and aid the wounded ; she encouraged the men in the trenches and led back many a straggling deserter to the battle line. Then there were those noble women many of them who, like Mrs. Barlow, gave up their lives in the hospital service. During the hearings before the Senate Com- MRS. BARLOW'S STORY 71 mittee for the Memorial to the Women of the Civil War, Captain James A. Scrymser gave the simple story of her short married life. He and his friend, Frank Barlow, had agreed if civil war arose they would go. On President Lincoln's call for volunteers in April, 1861, they met at Delmonico's, one of the recruiting offices: ''So upstairs we went and enlisted. As Barlow left the armory he said, ' I am going uptown to be married. ' "The next morning when the regiment was paraded on Union Square I saw a handsome woman on the curb- stone in tears. Barlow beckoned to me and said, 'Jim, that is the bride. ' "When the regiment marched she took his arm and marched with it down Broadway. Finally we brought up in Washington and encamped in Franklin Square on Fourteenth Street. Barlow had been made a captain and I was a lieutenant. Barlow at that time did not look to be over eighteen years of age. In fact, he was known as the boy general in the army. One Sunday morning the regiment having left the camp, I was in charge of the camp grounds. "I heard a lady talking outside the guardhouse to one of the sentries. I heard a woman's voice say, 'I will come in.' The answer was, 'No, you can not come in.' She said, ' I will come in ; I am the wife of Captain Bar- low.' She was met with the reply, 'No, you don't; that boy is no husband of yours.' ' ' The next time I saw Mrs. Barlow was on the morn- ing of the battle of Antietam, the 17th of September, 1862. I was riding through what was known as the east woods, east of the Dunkard Church, which was then about the centre of the battle, and there I found this lone woman. I do not suppose there was another woman within five miles. I said, 'Mrs. Barlow, what are you doing here?' She replied, 'You know, I belong to the Christian Commission and I left Baltimore yesterday and was detailed for service at Hagerstown, and last 72 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG night I heard there was going to be a fight down here and so here I am.' I said, 'Did you leave Hagerstown last night?' She answered, 'Yes; and I have tramped seventeen miles, and here I am, and this is my only escort, ' pointing to a negro with a wheelbarrow, a trunk, and a handbox. ' ' I had seen a field hospital being organized down in a valley, so I took Mrs. Barlow there and left her in charge of the surgeons. About noon I was out at the front and saw Barlow brought in on a stretcher. I directed that he be taken down to the field hospital, as I knew his wife was there. In a few minutes she was alongside of him and she saved his life by careful nursing. "Again at the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863, Barlow was terribly wounded and fell within the enemy's lines. General Early and General Gordon came along and when they saw Barlow, General Gordon said, 'Here is a Yankee officer, perhaps we can do something for him.' General Early remarked, 'No, he is too far gone; we can not do anything for him. ' General Gordon then got down and gave Barlow a drink; whereupon Barlow raised himself on his elbow and said, ' General Early, I will live to whip you yet. ' Barlow gave him a package saying, 'Here are some letters from my wife; if I die, destroy them ; if I live, keep them and give them to me. ' ' "Mrs. Barlow was with General Hancock's com- mand fourteen miles away. Hancock's command did not reach Gettysburg until the afternoon. She soon heard that Barlow had fallen wounded within the enemy's lines and appealed to General Hancock for permission to go through to care for him. He refused, saying, 'No, Madam; for military reasons you can not pass through the lines.' However, after dark, she went down to the picket lines, gathered up her skirts and ran over to the enemy's lines. She said both sides fired on her. As soon MRS. BARLOW'S STORY 73 as she entered the enemy 's lines she was treated with the utmost courtesy, taken to the hospital and she again nursed Barlow and again saved his life. "I speak of this lady simply as one of a type of which there were thousands, who would have shown the same courage and devotion under like circumstances. "At the battle of the Wilderness, Barlow fulfilled his threat when he said he would whip General Early. He captured half of General Early 's command and six- teen of his guns, the only redeeming feature of that battle. He was again wounded and was placed upon a steamer and sent to Washington, and on that steamer his guardian angel, Mrs. Barlow, reappeared. Again she nursed him and again saved his life. Mrs. Barlow died of camp fever in 1864. Barlow entered the ser- vice as a private and retired as a major general. After- wards he was elected Secretary of State and Attorney- General of the State of New York. A few days before his death I think it was in 1896 I went to see him and he said to me, 'Jim, do you remember Arabella? The time will come when the finest monument in this country will be built to the memory of the women of the Civil War, ' and I am here, gentlemen, to ask that you will appropri- ate the sum necessary for the site as provided in this bill." Such were the types of hundreds of Northern women who did the Red Cross work of Civil War days. There were thousands who then, as now, because of sentiment or egotism, overwhelmed officials and relief organizations with their applications to nurse the wounded, with little or no comprehension of the hardship, dangers and sacri- fices involved. The history of war relief work in the South is not so easily obtained as in the North. It is to be regretted that there are so few records of the same self-sacrificing service given by the women of the Confederacy. In those days of sorrow for ' ' The Lost Cause, ' ' of poverty 74 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG from long sacrifice, and of slow reconstruction there was no heart to gather up reports and statistics of such work. Forty years later by careful gleaning from newspaper files and by long delayed written memoirs the women of South Carolina gathered together such a record; and what was true of the work in the ' ' Old Palmetto State ' ' was doubtless true of all the others in the Southern Con- federacy. No central organization like that of the Sanitary Commission existed, but innumerable soldiers' aid societies sprang up everywhere. A civilian army there as in the North required not only lint, bandages and gar- ments for the hospitals, but home-made uniforms for the soldiers and, in their case, the newly adopted flag for the regiments. Like the women of the Eevolution, the unpre- pared troops demanded their aid, and their clever inge- nuity was only equalled by their persistent courage. On July 4, 1861, a proposition was laid before the President of the Confederacy by South Carolinians lead- ing to the establishment, under volunteers, of hospitals along the line of defence, but thinking this would impede rather than aid the efficiency of the medical service it was not favorably received. On the failure of the plan it was decided to establish at Charlottesville a depository to collect and furnish hospital stores, attendants and nourishment. In reply to an appeal, supplies poured in from all sides, and from the Young Men's Christian As- sociation men nurses were sent. A wayside shelter was fitted up near the railroad for the sick, which soon located in larger quarters, half way between the court- house and the university under the name of "The Mid- way." It was the first volunteer hospital in Virginia. The success of a plan at first unfavored led to the estab- lishment with official approval of several similar institu- tions, some of which took the cheerier name of Soldiers' Homes. Temporary wayside hospitals were occasionally maintained in tents, which, were it not for matters of CAPTAIN SALLIE TOMPKINS 75 temperature, are generally more satisfactory than the old, unsanitary buildings often selected in war for such a purpose. Captain Sallie Tompkins is dear to the memory of many a Virginia man and woman. Of her service one who knew her writes: ' ' When the govrttment was removed to Richmond Miss Sallie Tompkins with some other gentlewomen of wealth and standing opened the Robinson Hospital on Main Street, of which she took charge using her own servants and her own means to run it until those means were wholly exhausted. The servants remained faithful until Richmond was evacuated. 'As medicines were con- trabrand of war, her treatment, ' says her nephew, ' for all diseases was air, light, turpentine and whiskey, all home products. If these failed, her panacea was prayer and the Bible. The percentage of recoveries holds its own with the most scientific treatment of to-day. When her private fortune was spent, the Confederate War Office bestowed upon her a captain's commission so that she could draw supplies from the Commissary Department. This commission can be seen in the Confederate Museum, Richmond. Many of the negroes from Poplar Grove, her former home in Mathews County, Virginia, had been freed and provided for during their natural lives. ' Miss Tompkins is now an inmate of the Confederate Women 's Home, Richmond, having spent her originally large for- tune in active beneficence. She cannot be canonized in the Episcopal Church but only saints can do the work she did. "Well organized hospitals in times of peace are sad places, but words cannot fitly paint the horrors of even the best during war time, especially when famine was added to the wounds, bruises, and gangrened sores of the patient victims in them. ' ' As the pathetic trainloads of misery moved back- ward from the front willing hands carried in food or 76 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG cooling drinks. It is told of one cleanly old lady, at Sumter that she boarded the trains every morning to wash the soldiers, returning home by a later train. The system of bookkeeping of the South Carolina Bureau of Supplies at Charlottesville provided for an invoice book for receipts, issue book for distribution in gross, and a requisition book for those given out to indi- viduals on request from officials. In the cities, towns and villages of the State money was contributed, supplies pur- chased or made, and box after box followed the armies or was sent to this depository. As the war went on and the conflict was maintained, the inventive faculty was put to a severe test and never found wanting. Leaves were gathered in nearby forests to dye the wool and cot- ton; and mixtures of blue, black and white carded to- gether, were spun by hand and woven into cloth uni- forms for the Confederate soldiers. After every available blanket was given away even carpets were taken from the floors for the use of the troops. Wool stuffed mattresses were ripped apart that their contents might be recarded and woven into cloth. Trunks and attics were ransacked for old garments and bits of cloth which, raveled out and respun, were knitted into socks. The dresses of the women themselves were of home-spun, the gloves made from silk stockings that had danced through the balls of ante-bellum days. The old voluminous paternal cape supplied jackets for all the girls of the family. Buttons were cut from pieces of gourds and persimmon seeds did service on the children 's clothes, while palmetto, corn shucks or straw were braided and woven into hats, trim- med with well-washed bits of ribbon. Equally resourceful became the women in the pro- visioning of their household. Coffee was made of rye, wheat, or sweet potatoes, sweetened with sorghum or honey. Blackberry vine leaves disguised themselves as tea ; the waves of the sea gave them their salt ; the herbs or roots were their medicines. In the evening blazing THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH 77 knots of pine in the chimney provided their only light, save when some unusual occasion justified the extrava- gance of tallow candles. Under the women's hands the plantations were cultivated and the crops raised. It was in the midst of such deprivations with ever cheerful courage that the women of the South gave much of their little to the sick and wounded. They gave themselves as well. The wayside hospitals, developments of the rest stations, grew up along the lines of evacuation of the wounded, who received there nursing care. A surgeon who had seen service in one of these hospitals in 1866 volunteered in the Austrian Red Cross, and is said to have put to good use his experience in aiding the estab- lishment of similar institutions in Europe. The good Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, faithful to their name, went into Virginia to minister to the wounded of the army near the front. An unusual gift, though not an in- frequent one, numbered among donations for the hos- pitals would appear as "One negro man as nurse." Among the lists of deaths published in a Charleston paper is that of ''One of our faithful nurses, Soye, the property of William Rovenal, Esq. ' ' When a call came for help for five thousand prisoners ill with typhoid fever, in three hours' time many boxes of food were packed and sent off to the sick and starving men. Page after page with their prosaic lists of donors and supplies tell the same old story of the practical ex- pression of woman's love and sympathy. True to the traditions of war, crowds of famished, frightened refugees poured into the cities on the approach of the Northern armies, adding their needs to the already heavy burden. In 1861 the destruction of a large part of Charleston by fire brought another horror upon the un- fortunate people and taxed their efforts to the utmost to care for the homeless and destitute of their own city. In August, 1863, began the siege of the city, and after 568 days it fell. Casualties sometimes occurred 78 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG among the women and children, their houses were shat- tered and sometimes burned. Our papers to-day are filled with reports of the burning and destruction of cities, and it behooves us to remember how much a part and parcel of war are all such horrors. To watch shells bursting overhead, to listen to the roar of guns and to fly from the destruction of their homes brought war close to these women of the South. Very vivid are their accounts of the burning and sacking of Columbia. Yet in spite of the gloom and anxiety there came the occa- sional touch of humor that links so closely tragedy to comedy, as illustrated by one of the writers. "Never shall I forget a little incident that occurred on Thursday afternoon before the occupation on Friday morning. I was promenading the front piazza listening to the dull boom of cannonry as it came borne on the western breeze from across the river, feeling all the horrors of the situation when my attention was called to a ragged little darkey one of the institutions of all Southern cities as he went whistling quite unconcern- edly on the opposite side of the street. Suddenly a big shell came hurtling through the air, striking a limb just over his head, shivering it into a thousand pieces. Like lightening the little Arab rolled himself into an incon- ceivably small black ball, crowding against the fence, with scarcely anything visible but the whites of his eyes, which he turned in amazement towards the shattered limb. For one brief moment he lay there. Then spring- ing up he exclaimed: 'Fore God; I thought he had me,' and fled like the wind.'* In reading this South Carolina record it has proved impracticable to single out individuals, so universal was the interest and the assistance; and the lack of records for the other states, in which were given the same devoted labor and service, makes it impossible. North and South alike the women loved and labored, sorrowed and sacriced, as only women do. CHAPTER V AN ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE AN AMERICAN RED CROSS. WAS THE TREATY OF GENEVA AN ENTANGLING ALLIANCE? EARLY DAYS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS. DISASTERS. CUBAN RECONCENTRADOS. THE SPANISH WAR. THOUGH the first use of the Geneva cross as a means of designating a relief personnel was evidently made by the Commissary Belief Corps of the Sanitary Com- mission, our government had not signed the treaty, and even had it done so it would not be operative as an agreement under the condition of civil war. The treaty is not mandatory upon any country unless the enemy's government is also party to the compact, and in civil war the state or any party in rebellion cannot sign such a treaty until its government has been officially recognized by a number of the other signatory powers. At the time of the convention Mr. Seward looked with doubtful eyes upon the propriety of sending representa- tives of our government save as informal delegates. He had a wholesome dread of any entangling foreign alli- ance that made him naturally cautious regarding any- thing in the nature of a treaty. The Secretary of State is reported to have said of the convention: "Our government, while always ready to forward all humanitarian action, has a well-understood policy of holding itself aloof from all European congresses or compacts of a political nature. The congress at Geneva being for the modification of international laws of war is one of great significance and the sending of delegates officially empowered to represent and act for the United States was from the many difficulties apparent, nearly or quite impossible. The government wishes to act as a free agent, with option in the premises, and in its own good time. ' ' 79 80 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG It was due to this attitude on the part of the govern- ment that many years passed before the United States affirmed this humanitarian treaty. In 1865, after the close of the war, and again in 1867, the Swiss Federal Council suggested to the United States Government the adoption of the treaty. These communications were sent by the State Department to the Secretary of War for recommendations and returned without comment. On July 20, 1866, a number of men who had been the most active in the Sanitary Commission formed the Am- erican Association for the Belief of Misery on the Bat- tlefields. Its objects were to obtain the government's adherence to the treaty of Geneva and to maintain a per- manent relief society. Its badge was the Red Cross in- signia on a white ground. Neither the government nor the public could it arouse into action favorable to the treaty, though during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 it received generous contributions, which were for- warded to the belligerent nations. It was the first Red Cross organization of the United States, but holding an anomalous position under a government that had not acceded to the treaty under which it must function in time of war, in 1871 its existence ceased. In the autumn of 1869 Miss Clara Barton, one of the many women who had aided in the care of the sick and wounded during the Civil War, met at Geneva members of the International Red Cross Committee, and they expressed their regret that the United States Govern- ment, which through its own orders during the war had manifested such a humanitarian spirit, had not yet ac- cepted the convention of Geneva. Miss Barton later witnessed the work of the Red Cross during the War of 1870. In 1877, after her return to America, Monsieur Moynier, President of the International Red Cross Committee, decided to make a further effort to obtain the adherence to the treaty by our government. For this purpose a special letter was sent to Miss Barton to EARLY DAYS OF AMERICAN RED CROSS 81 deliver to President Hayes. He in his turn referred it to the State Department, where it again met the fate of previous appeals. In 1881, through President Garfield, another effort was made, which elicited a response from Mr. Blaine, giving assurance that, with the President's approval, the adoption of the treaty would be recom- mended to Congress. Encouraged by this promise, a Red Cross organization was incorporated in the District of Columbia in July, 1881, under the name of ' ' The Ameri- can Association of the Red Cross," of which Miss Clara Barton was president. President Garfield did not live to see the adoption of the treaty, but President Arthur and Mr. Blaine secured its confirmation by the Senate with- out a dissenting vote, in March, 1882. The President then issued a proclamation making public the convention, "To the end that the same in every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and citizens thereof. ' ' Hardly had one small branch of the American Red Cross started into existence at Dansville, N. Y., before Nature gave it work to do. Across the great forests of Michigan swept one of those raging forest fires, so con- stant a menace to our Northwestern states. Crackling and roaring, with curling tongues of flame, it devoured trees and house, live stock and barns, and before its wild fury fled the terrified victims, men, women and children. Murky clouds of smoke darkened even the distant skies over the town where this little Red Cross began its work of relief. Money and clothing were quickly collected and sent to the sister state. If fire had given the Red Cross its first occupation, wind and water were ready to follow. In 1882 and 1883 over its banks tore the flood waters of the Mississippi, covering for hundreds of square miles the rich cotton and sugar plantations, sweeping away to the gulf scores of little houses, and frightened people clinging to their roofs or hanging, *5old, wet and famished, to the sway- 6 82 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG ing trees. But a little later, like an invisible giant, a fear- ful cyclone cut a path of crushed desolation thirty miles wide across Mississippi and Louisiana from the river to the gulf. The earlier floods had made faint calls to the Red Cross, new to its duties, but these had been suffici- ent to bring to it a realization of flood relief work. In February, 1884, without warning a sudden thaw after heavy snows raised the waters of the Ohio River to a great height. Over the farm lands, flooding villages, towns and cities, the river poured its mass of muddy waters. A cry for help arose from the raging torrents. Congress appropriated hundreds of thousands of dol- lars; rations and tents were rushed to the scene by the army for immediate relief. Miss Barton, the president of the Red Cross, and other members of her staff, left for the West, establish- ing headquarters first at Cincinnati and later three hundred miles below at Evansville, where relief supplies poured in upon them. Realizing the need for aid all along the flood-swept valley, a 400-ton steamer was secured, loaded with clothing and coal to the water's edge, and started down the river, flying the Red Cross flag, the first of the many ships of mercy to fly that ban- ner from its foremast. Back and forth from bank to bank it wended its way, amidst debris from the city, farm and forest. Every little hill or promontory held its clus- ter of wretched fugitives to whom the loaded boat car- ried help from the heaped-up stores. Local relief com- mittees from the large places were provided with a goodly stock for distribution. Was there ever a ship with a less romantic name than the "Josh V. Throop?" It could not even be mentioned with the grace of the feminine gender. But from Evansville to Cairo four hundred miles of woe-begone people and long-drawn-out assistance no name was ever more welcome. Hardly had it reached Evansville on its return than there came a mighty wail from the Mississippi Valley, DISASTERS 83 where, washing away the river dikes, the flood had sud- denly created an inland sea, a great waste of waters, at some places thirty miles wide. Again the army rushed to the rescue with emergency supplies. Human victims were the rightful objects of its aid, but pitiful was the plight of the unfortunate animals. There had been no chance to get them away. Some of the owners had tried to save them on frailly constructed rafts, where they were forced to abandon the miserable creatures. Sometimes they had huddled together on low hummocks of ground, where they stood knee-deep in water until weakened by starvation they fell and drifted away in the currents. Abandoning the ' ' Throop, " which was not suitable for navigation on the Mississippi, the "Mattie Bell" was chartered by the Red Cross at St. Louis, and loaded with hay, corn, oats, and salt for the cattle, with clothing, cook- ing utensils, medicines and other supplies not furnished by the government. To the simple farmers, to the tat- tered negroes, to appealing women and children and to hungry-eyed cattle all the way from St. Louis to New Orleans the Bed Cross ship carried its aid. Long after an old Uncle Amos told Miss Barton that above a hun- dred little cabin doors along the Mississippi the negroes had put up the Red Cross, that "Every night befo' dey goes to bed dey names your name and prays God to bless you an' de Red Cross dat he sent to dem in, time of trouble and distress." A drouth in Texas that brought thousands of families to the verge of starvation, a cyclone in Illinois that de- stroyed the larger part of a prosperous little town, kill- ing some and injuring others, called for Red Cross aid. A new form of calamity had to be met in an epidemic of yellow fever that broke out at Jacksonville, Florida, in 1888. Not until after the reorganization of the Red Cross in 1905 was a corps of graduated nurses for active service provided, so that this early epidemic was met by the hasty gathering together of some thirty persons, 84 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG mainly colored women, who had nursed yellow fever patients in New Orleans. On the way to Jacksonville, ten of these were dropped off in the inky darkness of a rainy night to make their way to the small town of Mac- clenny, where the epidemic had stricken down most of the population. Here, the Bed Cross reported that helpful, if untrained service, was given for more than two months. Some untold story of unfaithfulness on the part of the remainder of the nurses is hinted at in the account of the relief work. In connection with this yellow fever epidemic, it is an interesting fact that Miss Jane A. Delano, then a young graduate nurse, to whom is due the splendidly organized Red Cross Nursing Corps of to-day, volun- teered her services to Jacksonville, and with several nurses under her was in charge of the Sand Hill Hos- pital. Though it was not then known that the mos- quito was the carrier of yellow fever germs, Miss Delano insisted upon the use of mosquito bars, and not one of her nurses suffered from the fever. In a slight drizzle of rain, Decoration Day, with its music, its flags and its flowers, had passed at Johnstown, lying peacefully in the Conemaugh Valley, with never a dream of the awful fate before it. The drizzle devel- oped into a downpour of rain. River and creek, joining their rapidly rising waters, flooded the town without developing serious alarm. Suddenly, the horrified peo- ple saw rushing down upon them a wall of water, carry- ing everything before it when the dam of South Fork Lake gave way. The narrowness of the valley added to the force of the rushing torrent. Building after build- ing crumbled in its grasp, carrying down with them those who had not gained the perilous though only security, their house roofs. The total number known to have been drowned was 2228, and the entire damage to prop- erty, as sworn to by claimants, amounted to $9,674,105. The State Flood Relief Commission's report of the THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD 85 relief work gives a total of $4,116,801, of which amount Miss Barton reported the Red Cross received and ex- pended $39,000. The president of the Red Cross and her assistants erected at Johnstown warehouses and offices, and were actively engaged in the distribution of supplies. Boarding houses were also built, and proved of much value to thousands whose duties kept them at Johnstown until their houses could be repaired or re- built. It will be noted in the relief work report what an unusual percentage of the personal losses were secured in contributions. It is also to be noted that according to the Red Cross statement less than one per cent, of the contributed funds were entrusted to the Red Cross. Nature had still another form of calamity to provide, one so far almost unknown in our land of plenty the disaster of famine. Two years of poor harvest, followed by the almost total failure of that of 1891, over two hundred thousand square miles in Central Russia, the most productive part of the country, brought thirty mil- lions of people face to face with famine. Large appro- priations were made by the Russian government; the Russian Red Cross and wealthy citizens did what they could, but the need was far beyond the supply. Famine does not startle the world by sudden headlines in the papers announcing its thousands of victims, as does some fearful earthquake. Slowly the wretched story of star- vation creeps forth to the outer world. Our American people, quick to respond to such a pathetic cry, sent over five shiploads of food supplies, one of which was sent by the Red Cross and consisted of corn donated by Iowa farmers. With this and those sent by other contributors the American minister at St. Petersburg estimated more than seven hundred thousand people were fed for a month. Life came to them from the far away countries, and their appreciation was deep and sincere. The mayor of St. Petersburg said in an address to the American donors: 86 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG "The Kussian people know how to be grateful. If up to this day these two great countries, Russia and the United States, have not only never quarreled, but on the contrary, wished each other prosperity and strength always, these feelings of sympathy shall grow only stronger in the future both countries being conscious that, in the season of trial for either it will find in the other cordial succor and support. And when can true friendship be tested if not in the hour of misfortune?" With a gift at Easter of three colored eggs a peasant of Semara wrote to a Russian editor this letter, with the request that both be sent to America : "Christ is risen! To the merciful benefactors, the protectors of the poor, the feeders of the starving, the guardians of the orphans Christ is risen ! North Am- ericans! May the Lord grant you a peaceful and long life and prosperity in your land, and may your fields give abundant harvests Christ is risen. Your merciful- ness gives us a helping hand. Through your charity you have satisfied the starving. And for your magnificent alms accept from me this humble gift which I send to the entire American people for your great beneficence, from all the hearts of the poor, filled with feelings of joy." True friendship is expressed, not in words, but in deeds. The Red Cross carries on its wonderful work for the sake of suffering humanity, but all unconsciously it is laying foundation stone after foundation stone in the great structure of international brotherhood yet to be built. No part of our country may count itself free from the need of Red Cross aid, and already a dozen States had received assistance from the small organization. The low sea islands off the coast of South Carolina were the next field of its labors. A hurricane, piling up the waters of the sea into a huge tidal wave, beat over these islands, little more than sand bars, drowning several thousand persons and destroying the small homes and plantations THE TURKISH RELIEF EXPEDITION 87 of the others. The little huts, built without foundations, collapsed like houses of cards before the storm of wind and water. The people were mainly negroes, and the ruin of their cotton crops, just gathered, left them abso- lutely destitute. To have simply clothed and fed them would have brought utter demoralization. It was essen- tial to provide work, so the repairing of roads, the open- ing of old drains and the making of new ones were un- dertaken, while the women were given sewing to do ; and all were paid in food and supplies. The tools and farm- ing implements were marked with the Geneva Cross, which not only enhanced their values in their users' eyes but seemed to throw a happy, industrious charm about the work. Looking to further rehabilitation, pota- toes and corn were given out and planted for the next harvest, and thereby two crops were produced, to the wonderment and delight of the dusky population. The wells, overrun with sea water, brought about seriously unsanitary conditions that necessitated the creation of a clinic and dispensary in connection with the relief work. Among people, accustomed as were these, to the medical quackery of the charlatan, little better than the Indian medicine men, it was a trifle difficult to make an accurate diagnosis from such description as was given by the darkeys, one of whom described his ailments thus : ' ' I got a lump in de stomach here, sir, and he jump up in de t'roat and den I gits swingness in de head. Dat lump he done gone all over sometime; I fine him here and den he go way down in de leg." Far into the East went next the Bed Cross. One of those periodic disturbances between Moslems and Chris- tians broke out in Armenia and left barbaric horrors in its wake. A committee to raise relief funds was organ- ized in New York, and the Red Cross was asked to un- dertake the work. Unexpected obstacles arose. The old prejudice against the cross, born of the days of the Cru- sades, was to be dealt with. An official notification came 88 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG that the Red Cross could not enter Turkey. The per- sonnel of the relief corps was already on the way to London when the message arrived, and there it had to wait for diplomacy to settle the problem. Finally it was agreed that the American Minister to Turkey should be permitted to appoint a relief committee, and he promptly selected that of the Red Cross, enabling it to proceed to Constantinople. Miss Barton in an interview there with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tewfik Pasha, explained the plans of the relief work, that it was to be open and above board, asking the same fair treatment and protec- tion in return. This was promised and the promise ful- filled. The five expeditions that were sent out were con- stantly provided with a Turkish guard at the expense of that Government. But there were still other difficulties in the way. Our American people are strangely obtuse to the naturally resentful attitude aroused by the expression of criticisms and attacks in our public press, often based on incom- plete information. How were the Red Cross people to secure the necessary permission and protection from a Government whose sovereign was Commander of the Faithful and which found in our American papers articles announcing that a pro-Armenian alliance was working "hand in glove" with the Red Cross. The alliance, according to the press, was to be formed throughout the country, aided by Governors of the States. The watchwords of its propaganda, printed large, being ' ' God against Allah, Christ against Moham- med, Bible against Koran, Heaven against Hell." Yet the Turkish Government did finally grant permission, and the relief expedition set forth, Miss Barton remain- ing at headquarters in Constantinople to take charge of matters there and to reply to the dissatisfaction with the Red Cross that arose in the finance committee in Amer- ica. The expedition found it necessary to travel over the rocky defiles and snowy passes in caravan form, the THE TURKISH RELIEF EXPEDITION 89 personnel journeying on horseback, the supplies carried on camels and the Turkish guard in attendance. To avoid the danger of infection from typhus and small- pox, on arriving in most of the villages tents were pitched in the outskirts The aid of the courageous missionaries scattered throughout the country proved invaluable in the distribution of food, clothing, tools, farming imple- ments, live stock, seeds and medicines. The Red Cross agents generally employed natives to nurse the typhus victims, for, though not aware of the medium of infec- tion, they recognized the importance of avoiding too close contact with the disease, and so themselves fortu- nately escaped this serious danger. As the Finance Committee in America raised the funds for the relief work, it required an account of the receipts and expenditures. This was contrary to the usual policy of the Red Cross officials of the old regime who had declined before to make any such reports pub- lic. This financial statement is to be found among the reports of the national organization. The end of the nineteenth century brought to the American Red Cross the first and only demand from its own country for relief under war conditions, and sharply emphasized the fact that it was totally inadequate to the fulfilment of its duties It is impossible in this brief outline to go into detailed accounts of conditions. Suf- fice it to say that war is a national calamity and the necessary relief it entails can only be efficiently main- tained by a national organization in close affiliation and understanding with the Medical Service of both army and navy on the one hand, and possessed of public con- fidence and united support on the other. According to the congressional charter of the American Red Cross, its purposes are clearly defined for war relief work as follows : "To furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war, in accordance with the spirit and 90 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG conditions of the conference of Geneva of October, 1863, and also of the treaty of the Red Cross, or the treaty of Geneva, of August 22, 1864, to which the United States of America gave its adhesion on March 1, 1882. And for said purposes to perform all the duties devolved upon a national society by each nation which has acceded to said treaty. To act in matters of voluntary relief and in accord with the military and naval authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States of America and their army and navy, and to act in such matters between similar national societies of other governments through the ' Comite International de Secours,' and the Government and the people and the army and navy of the United States of America. ' ' No small group of individuals can cope with the needs of war. If this is attempted the result will invariably be the creation of innumerable independent organiza- tions, full of enthusiasm but with neither knowledge, experience nor training, and with no well informed cen- tral officers duly authorized by the Government to bring about that union and co-operation which alone can se- cure success. Because of the fact that no strong national Bed Cross existed on the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1898, the inevitable formation of many independent committees and so-called "national" organizations oc- curred. Out of the tangle of many reports it is not pos- sible to obtain a connected story. The unrest and disturbances that had existed for a long time in the island of Cuba induced the Spanish authorities to adopt very drastic, and what were consid- ered cruel, methods. Men, women and children by thou- sands, herded together near seacoast towns and sur- rounded by barbed wire network of fences, dotted here and there with guard houses, were left without adequate shelter or provisions, so that their condition became one of intense suffering and misery. A report on this situation made by Senator Procter CUBAN RECONCENTRADOS 91 after a personal investigation not only aroused public sympathy but led President McKinley, through John Sherman, Secretary of State, to appeal for funds, pro- visions and clothing to be sent for distribution to Gen- eral Fitzhugh Lee, American Consul General at Havana. The Red Cross offered its services to the President for this relief work, and the State Department, with the President's approval, proposed to its officers to unite with certain others interested to form a committee to be called "The Central Cuban Relief Committee," for the purpose of collecting and forwarding supplies to the Consul General, "he having been placed by the President in sole charge of the receipt and distribution of the relief in the island." Later the American Red Cross acted as distributing agent at Havana, but with the breaking out of hostilities with Spain it withdrew. The Cuban Relief Committee then chartered for the Red Cross the "State of Texas" for the transportation of further relief to aid the reconcentrados. This ship was placed under the orders of the com- mander-in-chief of the naval forces, and in Mr. Long's the Secretary of the Navy, letter of instructions handed Miss Barton to deliver to Admiral Sampson he was cautioned to see "that none of these supplies shall come into the possession of the Spanish army, as this would result in defeating the purpose for which the blockade has been established." It was thus made im- possible to land the supplies until our forces were in con- trol of a portion of Cuba, and eventually they were utilized for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers of our army at El Caney and Siboney, the New York Committee refunding their value to the Cuban Relief Committee. In the meantime the American National Red Cross Relief Committee was organized in New York City, with various auxiliaries in the eastern part of the country 92 and at Pittsburgh. This committee acted practically independently of the National Association, raised, ad- ministered and accounted for its own funds. It had sub-committees on nurses, on ice plants, on cots, on am- bulances, and on employment for soldiers' wives. Most excellent and devoted service was given by these com- mittees, but the work was carried on under many diffi- culties because there existed at Washington no capable central organization in close and sympathetic under- standing with the Government officials. Nurses were needed, but it required a visit to the Capital, interviews with the President, special conferences with War De- partment officers, and many explanations before they were accepted. Among the early nurses gathered to- gether from those who offered their services on the West Coast there were some sent to the Philippines who proved so objectionable that later Mr. Taft, when Gov- ernor of the islands, was compelled to ask for their recall. To carry supplies to Cuba a yacht was purchased, renamed the "Red Cross," and loaded with stores, but storms injured her machinery and drove her back to Key West, where her suplies had to be re-shipped by transport. Eleven ambulances were bought, but only five were landed from the ship on which they were sent. Misunderstandings with the Government, and lack of capacity to handle the situation on the part of the Red Cross at Washington prevented these ambulances reach- ing Santiago, where Government surgeons stated they would have been of incalculable value, as the lack of transportation facilities resulted in the death of many of the wounded. In the meantime, Philadelphia, which, because the Red Cross officers at Johnstown would make no report of receipts and expenditures, declined to have further association with the society, started a National Relief Commission, which refused to affiliate with the New THE SPANISH WAR 93 York Red Cross Relief Commission. In New York still another commission was organized, called "The Woman's National War Relief Association." An invi- tation to become auxiliary to the Red Cross was like- wise declined by this association "upon the ground of preference for work entirely national in character, which should .be by Americans, for Americans, with the treas- ury so regulated that, war ended, every dollar should be for Americans still to the ultimate dollar ieceived." In Boston other committees were organized for the chartering and fitting out of a hospital ship. In Minne- sota and on the Pacific Coast Red Cross Associations sprang into existence, and like that of New York, acted independently in the collection and administration of funds and supplies. Cleveland had its War Emergency Relief Board, but what was done in Chicago, St. Louis and scores of other cities it is difficult to discover, as no reports are to be found in the Congressional Library. As a result of this lack of centralization and of co- operation and in spite of most devoted and self-sacrific- ing work on the part of many individuals, this rich coun- try failed to give the aid it should have given to our sick and wounded men. Dr. 'Reilly, later surgeon general, used to tell with comical pathos of the inviting boxes that reached his hospital and were opened with eager hands, in hopes of finding desperately needed hospital garments and linen, only to discover that they were filled to over- flowing with abdominal bands. Colonel William Gary Sanger felt the tragedy of all this unorganized work while scores of his men lay ill with burning fever and had nothing to wear but their heavy uniforms. In some cases tons of ice were side-tracked and melted away, while the fever-stricken soldiers moaned for ice water or other cooling drinks. The story of the suffering on the first transport that brought the wounded north, because of lack of sufficient surgeons and nurses and supplies, filled the papers with indignant criticism; quite value- 94 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG less, though, to undo what these men had undergone. At Camp Wickoff the sick when first landed slept on the ground, without a board beneath them or a shelter above them. Facts like these are not recalled to reflect upon the committees or to minimize the splendid work they accom- plished. Money, supplies and thousands eager to aid there were on the one hand, and need and suffering on the other ; but no well organized Ked Cross to bring the two together. Such conditions emphasize the necessity, if they are not to be repeated time and time again, of a permanent organization which in time of peace has prepared for war. The harassed officials of the War Department in the hurry and excitement following the outbreak of hostilities cannot devote their time to con- ferences with representatives of innumerable inexperi- enced volunteer aid committees, no matter how eager, patriotic and helpful they may prove Any other way of carrying on war relief save by a well organized and prepared Red Cross will prove equally unfortunate and will reflect seriously upon the practical common sense and business-like ability of the American people. CHAPTER VI REASONS FOR REORGANIZATION. A NATIONAL SOCIETY. WHAT IS THE AMERICAN RED CROSS? DANGER IN OUR CHARACTERISTICS. THE time was fast approaching when it was to be- come evident that a reorganization of the American Red Cross was necessary. After its first field of relief work in the Ohio and Mississippi floods surprise was expressed that no state- ment as to the receipts and expenditures was made pub- lic. When the Pennsylvania State Committee for relief at Johnstown prepared a general report a request was made of the President of the Red Cross for an account of its receipts and expenditures, which was refused as contrary to the policies of the organization, and the only information given was to the effect that $39,000 had been received and expended, leaving no balance. This atti- tude on the part of the Red Cross officers alienated the people of Philadelphia, who proceeded to organize and maintain from then on their own permanent association for relief after disasters. At the time of the Russian famine in 1892, when an appeal signed by Chief Justice Fuller and Cardinal Gibbons asked that contributions be sent to the Red Cross, no financial report was made. The Armenian Relief Committee, which raised funds for its relief work, obtained after delay a report of receipts and expendi- tures which it did not regard as satisfactory. In the many reports of the Cuban and Spanish War relief work there are on file the various committee treasurers' finan- cial statements, but no statement of the funds received by the president of the Red Cross, who was also its treasurer. At the outbreak of the war the International Red 95 96 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Cross Committee of Geneva, according to its usual cus- tom, wrote to both, the Spanish and the American Red Cross, asking if the assistance of the societies of neutral countries was desired. On the receipt of replies it issued a circular saying that the Spanish Red Cross had de- clined, unless necessary later, but that "on the con- trary," the American Red Cross would gratefully re- ceive assistance, and all contributions were to be sent to Miss Clara Barton, president. As no financial report was made by the national headquarters, we do not know what countries responded to the appeal, which hardly represented the public sentiment of the American peo- ple in connection with, a war of so short duration and involving comparatively such a small expenditure. From other sources, it is learned that the Red Cross Societies of France, Germany, Austria and Portugal sent financial aid. The Russian Red Cross, in reply to this appeal, offered a contribution through our State Department, which our Government courteously declined to accept. In June, 1900, the American Red Cross was re-incor- porated by Act of Congress and the charter required that a financial statement should be made annually, though there was no provision for an official audit. After the Galveston disaster dissensions arose over certain expenditures that were not approved by all of the mem- bers of the Executive Board. A new Executive Com- mittee was elected the following year, but again serious differences arose, leading in 1903 to an actual cleavage in the small membership. The following year Mr. Rich- ard Olney, at the annual meeting, was requested to ap- point a committee to investigate conditions. This com- mittee consisted of Senator Redfield Proctor, chairman; Honorable "William Alden Smith, then in the House of Representatives; and General Fred C. Ainsworth, adju- tant general of the army. The "Remonstrants," as those were called who disapproved of the methods of the old organization, laid certain facts before this committee, REASONS FOR REORGANIZATION 97 which decided to have a Treasury expert audit the books of the Society. With the exception of the financial state- ment already referred to, he found no records save one of the Kussian famine, which showed some forty-five thousand dollars received, but not more than fifteen thousand expended. Evidence was given before the committee showing that certain moneys contributed for this famine relief were deposited in western banks and a portion expended in the purchase and improvement of a farm, later called the "Red 'Cross Park," and which, in an officially printed circular of the Red Cross, was announced as a gift to the organization. The year follow- ing the Johnstown disaster, 1890, nearly thirty thousand dollars' worth of land was purchased in Washington, the titles of which stood in the personal name of the presi- dent of the association. At the time that certain portions of this land were purchased a balance of Red Cross funds for Johnstown relief that had been sent directly to a Washington bank was drawn upon for the amount paid. This particular land had been sold, a certain amount being paid down and the rest to be paid in installments. These latter payments the Red Cross eventually secured. Mr. Spencer Trask, who was chairman of the execu- tive committee of the National Armenian Relief Com- mittee, in a deposition that was laid before Senator Proc- tor 's committee, testified to the unsatisfactory organiza- tion of the Red Cross, the indisposition of its then managers to undertake any work without burdensome guarantees, and to the serious lack of business manage- ment. There was also laid before the committee on investi- gation a letter sent by Bishop Potter and other promi- nent men and women who from past experience with the Red Cross were convinced of the necessity of a reorgani- zation : ' ' The undersigned persons who, in times of previous 7 98 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG activities, and during the war with Spain, have been associated with the American National Ked Cross, desire to state that in their judgment the financial arrange- ments of this association need reorganization in order to merit the confidence of the American public. "They most heartily endorse the efforts now being made by some of the prominent members of the Bed Cross in Washington to thoroughly reorganize the asso- ciation, and to provide for a careful and business-like administration of its finances. (Signed) Henry C. Pot- ter, Spencer Trask, Robert C. Ogden, Cleveland H. Dodge, Helen Fidelia Draper (Mrs. W. K. Draper), Howard Townsend, Elizabeth Mills Reid (Mrs. White- law Reid), Sam Wolverton, F. Augs. Schennerhorn, A. S. Solomons, Gustaf H. Schwab, Olivia M. Cutting (Mrs. Bayard Cutting)." The committee held only three meetings when the matter was settled by Miss Barton's resignation and the calling of a special Red Cross meeting, at which such officers as the "Remonstrants" approved were elected. The following autumn the old association was dis- solved and a new corporation created by Act of Congress, signed by President Roosevelt January 5, 1905. The new charter provided that all accounts should be audited by the War Department and an annual report submitted to Congress by the Secretary of War. For the first time the American Red Cross became truly national in its scope and standing In each country its respective Red Cross Society is organized to suit local conditions, but the governing body of each is always entitled the Central Committee. Upon that of the American Red Cross the President of the United States appoints the chairman and represent- atives of the Department of State, Treasury, War, Jus- tice and Navy. The incorporators a self-perpetuating body elect six, and the delegates of boards, chapters and affiliated bodies elect six. This committee of eighteen A NATIONAL SOCIETY 99 selects an executive committee of seven from among its own members. ^A.t the first annual meeting William Howard Taft, then Secretary of War, was elected president, and this office he continued to occupy by annual elections after he became President of the United States. In March, 1913, on retiring from the presidency he retired as president of the Red Cross, giving his reason in his letter of resig- nation : ' ' I was elected president of the Red Cross in Decem- ber to succeed myself. I had been president for four years during my incumbency as President of the United States. The cause which the Red Cross promotes is greatly aided, I think, by having the President of the United States at its head, and I do not think that it embarrasses the incumbent of the office of President of the nation to accept the office of the head of the Red Cross. It gives it a standing abroad where its reputa- tion is most useful in enabling it to carry out its high purposes. I accepted the last election with the under- standing that when I ceased to be President of the United States I would resign the office, with the hope that President Wilson might accept it and use the union of the two offices in the same way that I have attempted to use it, for the benefit of the public of the United States and of the world at large. " Wherefore, I hereby resign my position as president of the Red Cross, to take effect upon the acceptance of the same by the central committee of the Red Cross. ' ' Speaking of Mr. Taft's resignation and his aid to the Red Cross the magazine published by the society said at the time : "Only those who endured the strain of the early days of reorganization, who bore the burden of the many complex problems of development, who battled against discouragement and disappointments, can com- prehend what the constant interest, the helpful, tire- 100 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG less counsel and the sympathetic inspiration of Mr. Taft's eight years' presidency meant to the Red Cross. He built foundations that were true and strong like the man himself, not counting the structure raised upon them for the credit of the man but for the service of his fellow-man. "Our people and those in foreign lands who have benefited because of the American Red Cross owe to Mr. Taft a debt of gratitude for all that he so quietly, so modestly did to build up its present state of efficiency and to obtain its position in public confidence." The Central Committee, which has the power of fill- ing vacancies in the interim between the annual meet- ings, asked President Wilson to accept the presidency, a request to which he promptly acceded, writing, "I have much pleasure in accepting the office of president of the American Red Cross. I warmly appreciate the action of the Central Committee." President Wilson has, like President Taft, occupied the position of active presi- dent, for the position is not an honorary one as is gen- erally supposed. Though the chairman of the Central Committee is the active executive officer, the president presides at part of the annual meeting, issues its impor- tant public appeals in war or disaster, and appoints the members of various boards. Organization is a dry subject, but there can be no clear comprehension of the Red Cross without some knowledge of its construction and its methods. Of primary importance is the fact that it is not a private association created by certain persons for benevolent pur- poses, but that it is the official volunteer aid department of the United States, so recognized by its own Government and by all of the signatory powers of the treaty of Geneva. The Central Committee forms a sort of cabinet, under it coming three important boards whose chairmen and vice-chairmen are members of the committee. These THREE IMPORTANT BOARDS 101 boards are the War, National and International Belief Boards, to each of which have been assigned special duties in connection with its particular department of relief operations. Policies are established by these boards in their respective fields and recommendations for ap- propriations made to the Central or Executive Committee, which reserves to itself the right to approve recommen- dations and appropriate funds. The chairman and vice-chairman of the War Belief Board are the surgeon generals of the Army and Navy. Those of the National Belief Board are members of the committee particularly familiar with this department of its duties, and those of the International Belief Board are representatives of the State Department and the navy, as in foreign relief co-operation with the Navy is often desirable. Under these boards are various sub-committees, the medical bureau, the first aid department, the nursing ser- vice, town and country nursing, and the Christmas seal. State boards, consisting of from three to ten prominent persons, constitute permanent emergency finance com- mittees in each State, the governor of the State being the chairman. Besides the State boards, there are local organizations which are called chapters, each with its own officers and members. The special duties of the chapters are to col- lect funds and supplies on an appeal from headquarters or from the governor of their respective State, and, in case of local disasters, to co-operate with the institutional member in immediate relief measures. To provide a force of trained assistants the Bed Cross has made a number of the most efficient charity organi- zations institutional members, thereby obtaining an experienced personnel for service in time of disaster relief. The society has affiliated with it certain other organi- zations, such as the American Nurses' Association and the 102 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Needlework Guild, which are available for special assist- ance. The American Medical Association has appointed a Red Cross Committee to assist the medical bureau of the society. The chairman of the Central Committee is the active executive officer of the Red Cross. It has besides the usual officers a general manager and a national director. The former has particular charge of the office and busi- ness part of its work, and in the absence or disability of the chairman becomes acting chairman. The national director has immediate control of all disaster relief operations within the United States under the super- vision of the National Relief Board. He has the organi- zation and control of State boards and chapters, and the four assistant directors stationed in the Atlantic, Cen- tral, Mountain and Pacific divisions work under his instructions. A bureau of information, under a bureau chief, keeps in close touch with the work of the various branches of the Red Cross, issues a monthly magazine, supplies information to inquirers, and advises the pub- lic generally of the nature and progress of Red Cross activities. This in brief is the organization structure of the American Red Cross. It is the outcome of careful study of foreign Red Cross organizations and home conditions, and it possesses the healthy power of future growth and development. We Americans are considered a curious combina- tion of practical, business-like common sense and strongly developed sentiment. We possess remarkable powers of organization and initiative, but we are too much given to over-confidence in such powers. We are apt to become opportunists, believing that we can be found equal to any emergency upon demand and that preparation for something that has not yet occurred is a waste of time and energy. In this we reveal our lack of maturity and DANGER IN OUR CHARACTERISTICS 103 show neither wisdom nor common sense. We are not content to build a fire-engine after a fire has begun nor to depend upon a hastily organized fire brigade, for we have been taught by bitter experience the danger and the cost. Neither do we call in a layman to cure our bodily ills or settle our legal difficulties, and yet we are inclined, in such matters as organization to meet emergencies, to believe that the length of our purse will make up for want of preparation and enthusiasm take the place of training and experience. It is a happy- go-lucky way of living that in the end causes not only waste and inefficiency but which may either leave thou- sands in need of aid, suffering because of lack of method, or demoralized by misapplied generosity. Great wars are not likely to occur more than once in a generation in any one country, and the experience gained at such a time, unless preserved in the methods and policies of a permanent organization, become lost for future benefit. Similar disasters rarely afflict the same community within many decades, and those trained at the cost of local misfortune are seldom available for service at a remote distance. Again there is apparent the need of a permanent organization which can immediately provide experts in relief methods to aid and direct com- munities suffering from some sudden great calamity. Let us have the wisdom to recognize the danger of these certain national characteristics and overcome them by the virtue of our practical common sense. CHAPTER VII HOW IN PEACE WE PREPARE FOR WAR. HUMAN SAC- RIFICES ON THE ALTAR OF INDUSTRY. TOLLS THAT NEPTUNE TAKES. FIELD COLUMNS AND WAR ORDERS. NEWS FROM THE FRONT. THE geographical situation of the United States of America has been its greatest safeguard against war, but, in spite of our almost immune condition, during the last century we were involved in four different wars, and since the beginning of the twentieth century more than once war clouds have gathered on the horizon. We cannot witness this present world-wide conflict without realizing that no millenium is yet at hand and that behind the curtain that fate holds closed before our future there may lie grim battlefields with all their horrors of desolation, suffering and death. To attempt, however, to maintain a Red Cross in this country to be prepared for war only would be futile. In fact, even in the most military of nations peace activi- ties are necessary to keep up public interest and the society 's efficiency. The good right arm if tied for years inactive to the side will prove utterly useless in the end when it is called upon for work. How then in America can we maintain an efficient Red Cross, ready "to furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war in accordance with the spirit and conditions of the conference of Geneva?" There occur from time to time great calamities requir- ing relief operations that are quite akin to war relief, and an organization prepared to deal with war would be best fitted to deal with disasters. Therefore, at such a time the use of the Red Cross proves of double value. On the one hand, it provides trained and experienced 104 HOW IN PEACE WE PREPARE FOR WAR 105 assistance, and, on the other, it exercises the society in functions that develop its abilities and render it fit to cope with the demands of military conflicts. It is most difficult for the American people to com- prehend war conditions and regulations. Certain remarkable privileges are granted to the army and navy medical service and to "the volunteer aid societies duly recognized and authorized by their respective govern- ments," under the treaty of Geneva. Each signatory power, therefore, becomes responsible for its volunteer aid society and the personnel of the same. For this reason it is essential that there exist at all times a permanent organization, under such government supervision as will insure, in the event of war, its ful- filling international obligations. For this reason the President of the United States, through the medium of the Department of State, issued a special proclamation in August, 1911, calling attention to the status of the American Red Cross: "Now, therefore, I, William H. Taft, President of the United States, by virtue of the authority in me vested, do hereby declare and proclaim "That the American National Red Cross is the only volunteer society now authorized by this Government to render aid to its land and naval forces in time of war. "That any other society desiring to render similar assistance can do so only through the American National Red Cross." The rest of the proclamation is devoted to specific regulations regarding the Red Cross relationship to the Army and Navy Departments. In this public order there is no intention of monopo- lizing war relief, but to bring it under proper regulation and control. In case of war the Government does not permit individual companies or regiments to be organ- ized to assist in the fighting nor is privateering allowed at sea. Responsibility under a national treaty makes it 106 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG obligatory on the part of the Government to see that its volunteer relief operations are in the hands of an organi- zation over which it has supervision and in whose training and reliability it can repose absolute confidence. In time of war volunteer aid divides itself mainly into two classes, personnel and supplies. The United States Army has a medical reserve corps, but in a war of any magnitude its numbers could not meet the de- mands. At such a time of sudden stress, thousands of surgeons and physicians volunteer whose character, training and experience are not up to the standard that should be maintained in this humanitarian service. Too often have the sick and wounded soldiers, helpless in themselves, been left to the inadequate care of such men. To obviate a repetition of these conditions and to sup- plement the Army Eeserve Corps the medical bureau of the Red Cross, in co-operation with the Red Cross County Committees of the American Medical Associa- tion, is prepared to furnish a personnel for whose fit- ness and standing after careful investigation it is ready to vouch. The medical service is available for relief when serious disasters occur, but this field of activity is not frequent enough to warrant supporting a standing organization. It should be made of use in the daily life of the country, and this is what the Red Cross does. About ninety thousand fatal accidents occur annu- ally in the United States. To these may be added at a conservative estimate a half million which result in dis- ability for work, and some two million which cause tem- porary incapacity. Statistics show that some sixty-six per cent, of these accidents are due to negligence and thirty-four per cent, to inevitable risk. Such appalling records appear to the Red Cross as evidence of nothing less than a public calamity of the gravest nature. We are constantly congratulating ourselves on the progress science is making against disease. Typhoid fever does not compare with accidents as a cause of death, yet by SACRIFICES ON ALTAR OF INDUSTRY 107 scientific means it is steadily decreasing while accidents are constantly increasing. The prevention of accidents and of the unfortunate results of accidents is just as important as the prevention of disease. How can this be brought about? By the education of the public, by the use of safety devices and by instructions in accident pre- vention and first aid. This work appeals to the employer of labor, both from the humane and the economic point of view. In the first issue of the Red Cross text-book on first aid, ' ' dedicated to the industrial army of the United States of America," the late Surgeon General O'Reilly in the preface said that he knew of no other book on this subject that gave so much thought to teaching the pre- vention of accidents, "as the beneficent mission of the Red Cross, like that of the good physician in disease, should be to go deeply into the causes which are respon- sible for the physical sufferings of humanity rather than to resort solely to palliative measures. ' ' The best work along these lines of accident preven- tion and first aid instructions has been done among the miners. Winter's cold is driven from our homes, our offices, our schools and churches ; hither and thither over the country huge engines are constantly dragging trains loaded with multitudes of passengers and thousands of tons of merchandise and supplies; innumerable great machines are whirring throughout the land in the tur- moil of its industrial life, all these depending upon the agency of coal. What demands on human life does this black giant make? Slain annually on the altar of this industrial Moloch are 3260 miners, and 9000 more lie maimed and crippled on the altar steps. In 1907 there was one death for every 144,000 tons of coal mined. Five years later there were 244,000 tons of coal mined for one human sacrifice, showing that progress had been made. Into this field of daily usefulness went the Red Cross to teach the lessons of prevention and first aid. The 108 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Government Bureau of Mines gave enthusiastic co-op- eration in every way; Dr. Holmes, its director, became a member of the first aid committee. To mining com- panies and miners it appealed alike. Major Charles Lynch, the army medical officer detailed to be the chief of the Eed Cross Medical Bureau, entered into the work with the conviction that no greater service could be rendered to humanity than this work for the men of our industrial world. He prepared a special first-aid text- book for miners which has been translated into Slovack, Polack, Lithuanian and Italian. Classes of volunteers were formed among the miners, who, living amidst con- stant danger, were keenly alive to the value of such instructions. When a sudden accident occurs at the distant end of a long gallery a mile or more from the shaft his comrades' knowledge of first aid may mean life or death to the injured man. In the miners' text-book special emphasis is laid upon prevention, and many a wise precaution is given to firemen, miner, laborer, run- ner, driver, door-boy, footman or eager. Terse sen- tences there are that to the layman's mind speak in rid- dles but are clear to the miner. ' ' Don 't put sulphur and gas squids into the same place." "Don't allow driver to make flying switches." A score of pictures show the wrong way of doing things and their dangerous or fatal results. To encourage the men, competitions between teams from different mines are held after a preliminary contest has taken place to select the best team from each company. On a race-track or a ball park or in some open field near the mines these competitions generally take place. Thousands of spectators gather round or fill the stands of the park or track. There are the miners' wives, with the children clinging to their skirts and the babies in their arms. How often has fear clutched their hearts when the word goes out of an accident at the mines. There are hundreds of the miners, each ready to cheer for the team of his own company as enthusiast!- SACRIFICES ON ALTAR OF INDUSTRY 109 cally as the fans of the baseball world, the keenness of their interest teaching them, unconsciously as they watch, many a helpful lesson. Those that come from distant States are accompanied by mine officials, as eager for the success of their teams as the men themselves. An atmosphere of tragedy is in the air. Onto the field in a long procession march the men from a dozen different States and a score of different mines. Every man is in his miner's clothes, and many a group have their little lamps lighted in their caps. Each team consists of four or five miners, with another for a subject. A box of first aid supplies is carried by one; crowbars, pieces of board and other objects for improvised splints by others. The judges, frequently army surgeons, are ready, score cards in hand, for each feature in first aid receives so many marks to its credit, according to the way it is done. There they stand, those groups of ear- nest faced miners. Long hours have they given to their training, and whether they win or lose the prize they have won a better thing the knowledge of how to save a fellow -man's life. To the captain of each team is handed a sealed envelope containing a paper giving the nature of the first aid accident they are to treat. At a signal this is opened while one of the judges reads the problem aloud. It is given as though applicable to an actual accident. Some require one or two men to under- take the first aid, and others the entire team. "Full team. After a fall of roof and gas explosion the miner has suffered the following: A compound frac- ture of right thigh, compound fracture of left arm, with bleeding in jets, bright red in color, and is severely burned about the face and arms. Five men to dress and carry over steam pipe and track, under trolley wire, up breaker steps, over prop pile, over loaded mine car and place in ambulance. Time allowed, fifteen minutes. " Often the competition ends with a mine accident depicted in a realistic and dramatic way. At a contest 110 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton a few years ago the facsimile of a mine was built above ground. The miners were seen busily at work with their pickaxes; a blinding flash of light and an explosion, followed by the falling roof; the groaning of the burned and in- jured men. Suddenly arose the pathetic cry of a Welch miner, who came to their assistance, ' ' Come quick, there 's a man hurted. ' ' A cry that goes to the heart of the Red Cross and to which it seeks to respond, that cry for the conservation of human life. With the work progressing well among the miners, the Red Cross turned its attention to the needs of the railroad men. During the Civil War 110,070 were killed in the Federal Army and 275,175 wounded. From 1888 to 1907 153,366 were killed by the railroads, and 1,042,486 injured. During 1913 one railroad employee was killed every two hours and forty-one minutes, and every four minutes one was injured. With statistics such as these there can be no doubt of the need of safety and first aid instructions among rail- road employees. To carry on this work the Red Cross has two special cars donated by the Pullman Company. On each car there is a doctor who has been trained to understand railroad conditions and accidents, to instruct the men in a simple and non-technical manner and to drill them to do the work themselves, using often impro- vised splints and stretchers. The cars are equipped with first aid material for teaching, and the main body forms a small lecture room, which, however, is rarely large enough for the size of the audience. The railroads carry the cars free, and special arrangements are made to stop at points where there are a large number of employees. The doctors on the cars have time to do little more than start classes whose instructions are continued by the railroad or other doctors. Interest is aroused by a mass meeting, with music, and addresses from the superinten- dent and others on safety, at the end of which the doctor SACRIFICES ON ALTAR OF INDUSTRY 111 gives a demonstration of first aid for accidents with which the men are familiar. Quick to grasp its import- ance, they murmiir to their neighbors, "What a dif- ference it would have made to Jack if he had been car- ried that way. I guess he wouldn't have lost his leg." Or, "If I had known that I might have saved poor Bill's life." These cars have traveled over many thousands of miles, and many thousands of employees have been trained and drilled, but as yet only a beginning has been made in the way of competitions among railroad men. The interest, however, will grow, as it has among miners, until such contests are held frequently between picked teams representing important railroads. For all such contests the Red Cross is ready to give its ser- vice and to provide bronze medals for the winning teams. Unfortunately the vital statistics of our country are as yet far from perfect, and no data concerning accidents in the lumber industry can be obtained. There are some 800,000 men engaged in this field of industry. If the statistics of the State of Washington hold good throughout the country, 1,920 men are killed, 8,256 per- manently partially disabled, and over 70,000 suffer from serious temporary injuries annually. There is almost no labor utilized in the lumber industries that has not some danger involved in it. The sharp edge of the axe, the jagged teeth of the saw in a moment may cause a wound where unchecked hemorrhage will result in certain death. Physicians have signed many a death certificate of men who bled to death from slight injuries and whose lives might have been saved by some knowledge of first aid. The application of cobwebs or some such traditional remedy or the use of soiled rags often produce infection with crippling or fatal results. There lurks danger in the falling tree, in the handling of logs at the skidway or the loading of the trains. The hardships to which the log drivers are exposed and the great personal danger 112 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG in the excitement of freeing jammed logs when a single mis-step may mean the crushing out of life or drowning in the waters below, are familiar from the graphic descriptions of the story teller's pen. Nor does the dan- ger end with the logging, for the sawmills, with their powerful, sharpedged machinery, add their quota to the number of yearly accidents. One who knows well the lum- ber man's life, wrote: "Logging is a hazardous life at the very best, and calls for strong, dare-devil men, men who are willing to take chances. Danger is always pres- ent, and men become so used to it that they get careless. This, however, is no excuse for needless loss of life or limb." He commends "the benefit of co-operative ef- fort in conserving human life and in protecting the bread winners, upon whom depend the life and happiness of so large a population. ' ' Into these lumber camps the Bed Cross is pushing its way that it may help to conserve the lives of the lumber-jacks of the country. There is probably no calling that so constantly comes in contact with accidents as that of the policeman. No sooner does the crowd begin to collect about the vic- tim of an accident in the street than the blue-coated offi- cer puts in an appearance and takes charge of the situ- ation. His own p'osition is a hazardous one and not with- out its personal danger; so both for the public and his own benefit the policeman should be trained in first aid. The firemen are also in frequent danger and in fre- quent touch with accidents. In his textbook for policemen and firemen Major Lynch says : ' ' Moreover, it has always been my feeling that if our Red Cross in its object of reducing human suffering could be of any service in this direction to our local guardians of law and order and to our protectors from the danger of fire, it was specially obligated to do so." After studying such instructions in Europe, Major Lynch wrote to all the police and fire departments of our TOLLS THAT NEPTUNE TAKES 113 larger cities, and received such universal commendation that the special textbook was prepared. Instructions have been given in certain of our cities, but such know- ledge should be made a necessary qualification for en- rollment in both of these important public services. Only two hours after receiving one of these lessons two police officers discovered a man, who in a serious accident, had cut a large blood vessel. Sending someone to sum- mon a hospital ambulance, they applied their recently acquired knowledge to stopping the bleeding. The man recovered, but had this first aid not been rendered the doctor, when he arrived, would have found his help too late. It is almost extraordinary how promptly what has been taught is often put into practice. At Oswego, New York, the chief of the fire department wrote Dr. Shields, one of the first aid doctors: "The instructions received by my men at your interesting lecture on March 30th were the means of restoring back to life of two of our firemen who were overcome by dense smoke the day following your lecture. My men and myself cannot ex- press too strongly our appreciation of the help you gave us. You are doing a great and noble work for the country. ' ' Among the companies who realized the value of first aid instructions have been the Western Union and Bell Telephone. On request the Red Cross has given to thou- sands of their employees courses in first aid particularly adapted to their dangers, including the safest way for the men to work to rescue a person in contact with a live wire and how to resuscitate him. The seamen are another class of men who need first aid instructions. These men by the hundreds go down into the deep on the whaling and the fishing fleets and on the many freighters that dot the surface of the sea. For weeks, and often months, they are remote from medical aid in case of accident or illness. In England no master or mate is allowed his license unless he has his 8 114 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG first aid certificate. Section 118 of the United States Navigation Laws requires: "Every vessel belonging to a citizen of the United States bound from, a port in the United States to any foreign port, or being of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward and bound from a port of the Atlantic to a port of the Pacific, or vice versa, shall be provided with a chest of medicine." The rest of the section relates to the use of lime or lemon juice. No mention is made as to the contents of the chest nor whether anyone on board should know how to use the contents. Classes in first aid for seamen have been held by the Red Cross at the Seamen 's Institute in New York, and at San Francisco. These rovers of the world are not often long enough in port for many consecutive lessons, but by making each lesson as complete in itself as possible and by giving them to the intelligent masters and mates much good may be accomplished. Instructions for seamen include something more than those in first aid. An effort is made to impart a little knowledge as to the treatment of illness. When sickness develops many days away from port much can be done by even elementary knowledge. Familiar among sailors is the story of the captain who explained that he had a book which described different symptoms giving a num- ber for the bottle of the remedy suitable to each case. The symptoms in a particular case called for number nine, but as this bottle was empty the captain took a mixture of numbers four and five, with the resultant decease of the patient. Neptune from his caverns under the sea demands his toll of human life, and many a beautiful lake nestling among the wooded hills holds the story of some tragic fate. Between six and seven thousand lives, including suicides, are lost every year in the waters of the United States. When some great vessel sinks with its freight of human lives the world shudders with horror over the TOLLS THAT NEPTUNE TAKES 115 catastrophe, but it thinks little of the numberless drown- ings that occur, one by one, day after day, aggregating many fold more than those sacrificed in the steamer's loss. Under the First Aid Department a life-saving branch has been organized, and along our docks in sea- coast, lake and river cities an instructor has been occu- pied in organizing life-saving corps among men and boys, teaching them to swim, to rescue a drowning person and to resuscitate him. When a swimmer can tow a person of his own weight ten yards, knows how to release him- self when grasped by a frightened victim, and can pass various other tests, a medal is awarded him. Large num- bers of dock hands, sailors, yachtsmen, and boys have joined these classes, which have already proved their practical value in the saving of life. The Red Cross has received active co-operation in all this first aid work from the Young Men 's Christian Association, which has organized and carried on instructions among large num- bers of men. A joint certificate is issued to those who pass the examinations. What practical connection there is between this first aid instruction and preparation for war relief may be at first difficult to understand, until a study is made of the war department circular outlining the duties and regulations of the American Red Cross in time of war. ' ' The American National Red Cross having been author- ized by the act of Congress to render aid to the land and naval forces in time of actual or threatened war, the following regulations governing the status, organization and operations of this society when employed with the land forces, having received the approval of the president, are published for the information and guidance of all concerned:" These regulations are embodied in twenty different sections. Red Cross units constitute part of the sanitary service of the Army. The personnel reporting for active duty become subject to military laws and will receive the brassard and a certificate of identity. The 116 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG personnel will be employed in base hospitals, on hospital trains and ships and along lines of communication. Inde- pendent hospitals and organizations are not to be estab- lished except under the direction of medical officers of the Army. The personnel that may be required consists of physicians, surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, clerks, cooks, hospital orderlies, litter bearers, drivers and laborers. These will be formed into field, hospital, and supply columns. A field column consists of a direc- tor and four assistant directors, who must be surgeons or physicians, and eighty-four men, a certain number of whom are section chiefs. The training of these field columns includes instructions in first aid, elementary hy- giene and hospital corps drill. The personnel must be familiar with appliances for transporting sick and wounded, such as litters and ambulances, with the fitting up of trains and ships for patients and other similar duties. Experience has shown the difficulty of securing upon the outbreak of war men fitted for the duties devolv- ing upon the hospital corps and litter bearers. Those that the Red Cross has trained in first aid will provide most valuable material upon which to draw for these hospital columns. Such men, with surgeons as medical directors and medical students as chiefs, can in a comparatively short time be drilled into efficient field columns. Hence, the value of this department of the Red Cross for war preparations. Members of these columns wear a uniform of forest green that has been approved by the War De- partment and which the surgeons, doctors and sanitary inspectors whom the Red Cross has sent to Europe have worn. Hospital columns consist of three sections : a director, three assistant directors, and fifty-one nurses. These will be utilized in base hospitals, upon hospital trains and ships. The extension of first aid instructions led to the demand for first aid supplies. To meet this situation NEWS FROM THE FRONT 117 and also to prepare a nucleus for the all-important department in charge of material gifts in time of war, a supply division, under an experienced pharmacist, has been organized. From this division boxes with con- tents suitable to various accidents of household, school, factory, railroad and mines, as well as those for the life- saving corps, are obtained. In case of war a number of collecting stations will be established in different parts of the country upon which the large distributing warehouses will make requi- sitions for the kind and character of supplies used in the sanitary service. There appears to be no limit to the sufferings war inflicts, and perhaps there are none harder to bear than the agony and suspense over the fate of some loved one in the fighting line. To lighten this pathetic burden, to bring the news from the front, the Red Cross accepts a still further duty. It is placed in charge of informa- tion by the War Department regulations. The Informa- tion Bureau of the Society that keeps the public informed of Red Cross activities by means of the press and the monthly magazines will in war immediately expand into a very active department, its sections composed of clerks, stenographers and typewriters under directors will be stationed at army headquarters in the field to forward information concerning the sick and wounded, the pris- oners and dead to relatives and friends. The inquiry of the poor distracted mother about her wounded son that the busy colonel of his regiment has no time to answer will not remain unheeded. The soldier too ill to write him- self may by this aid send a letter of comfort from his hospital bed, and the final story of some brave life, often so longed for by the aching hearts at home, will not be lost. CHAPTER VIII NURSING IN THE CIVIL WAR. THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL. THE RED CROSS NURSING SERV- ICE. THE SENTIMENTAL AMATEUR. LOVE OF AD- VENTURE VERSUS HUMANITY AND PATRIOTISM. WHAT THE LAY WOMAN CAN DO. THE TRUE NURSE AND HER QUALIFICATIONS. ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION. USE AND NUMBER IN FIRE, FLOOD AND PESTILENCE. IN order to carry out the provisions for mitigating the sufferings of the sick and wounded the committee that drafted the treaty of Geneva passed resolutions recommending that the duties of the permanent com- mittees for war relief should include the training and instruction of volunteer nurses to co-operate with the military medical authorities for active service. The ages have taught the need for the Red Cross nurse, and every Red Cross Society recognizes this neces- sity. At the time of the drafting of the treaty of Geneva trained nursing as a profession was practically unknown. At Kaiserswerth, in Germany, where Florence Nightingale had studied, it was a part of the simple religious training of the deaconesses. Miss Nightingale, on her return to England from the Crimea devoted herself to the inauguration of a training school to provide regu- lar professional training for nurses for the sick. During our Civil War many of the male nurses were thoroughly incompetent, and some of them brutal and indifferent. Most of the women, on the contrary, were kindly and sympathetic, many of them, volunteers, devot- ing their services to the work because of patriotic devo- tion and love of humanity or because someone of their own was a soldier boy at the front. The lack of an efficient nursing corps during the Civil War led not only to unnecessary suffering among 118 NURSING IN THE CIVIL WAR 119 the wounded, but even to their abuse. Dr. Thomas T. Ellis, who was post surgeon in New York and medical director in Virginia, in his diary published in 1863, gives some interesting information in regard to women nurses. He commends enthusiastically the work of the Sanitary Commission and speaks highly of a number of women connected with it, but of others his condemna- tion is severe. Dr. Muir, medical inspector-general of the British army, came to America to study the care of the wounded here and spent some time with the troops in Virginia. Because of his experience in the Crimea and East Indies his opinions were entitled to the highest respect. In referring to one of them Dr. Ellis says : "Dr. Muir made many valuable suggestions, promi- nent among which he advised the organizing, under a competent head, of the female nurses, who should be selected between the ages of thirty and forty-five. This suggestion, which coincided with the opinions of many of the surgeons, has been since acted on; and Miss Dix, whose name has for many years been identified with the most philanthropic exertions in behalf of suffering humanity has consented to take the supervision and man- agement of that department, which has hitherto been a source of annoyance to all the surgeons of the army. Women from New York and other cities, of doubtful age and reputation, had succeeded in getting employed as nurses, and had abused the privileges of their ill- assumed position to plunder the poor wounded soldiers and embezzle the clothing and luxuries generously con- tributed by individuals and the Sanitary Commission. I can recall to mind more than one of these female harpies, who, under the garb of religion and philan- thropy, have robbed the dying sufferer of his hard- earned pay, sacredly hoarded and intended for his suf- fering family. Some of these miserable counterfeits of noble women have been detected and exposed ; but others, I regret to say, have carried on their nefarious practice 120 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG with such artful and methodical secrecy, as to elude detection." The simple story told in the letters home of "The Lady Nurse in Ward E" gives an accurate description of the work then expected of a nurse. She administered the medicine as directed by the doctor, aided the order- lies in preparing meals, fed the more helpless patients, wrote their letters, read aloud, sang to them and amused them in other ways with games and puzzles. When a large number of wounded arrived the card of each one was made out and hung at the head of his bed. His clothes were rolled into a parcel and labeled "For the knapsack room/' and an account entered in the ward master 's book. There can be no doubt of the valuable aid given by these kindly women, and experience in time must have provided certain training that added to their efficiency, but the service that is to-day expected of the professional nurse was then unheard of. The duties in the operating room, the careful keeping of the charts that convey quickly so much to the hurried doctor, the many means of relieving pain and suffering taught in the hospital training schools were yet to come. In her delightful "Recollections of a Happy Life," published for private circulation, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Hob- son gives a most interesting account of the start of the nurses ' training school at Bellevue Hospital, a portion of which, by kind permission, is quoted, as I know of no bet- ter story of the origin of this important work in America. Mrs. Hobson was chairman of one of the sub-committees on inspection. Ignorant of the duties expected of her, she asked the aid of one of the young doctors. "He replied 'Look at the beds and the bedding, the clothing of the patients, their unclean condition, and go into the bathroom and see the state of things there; after a while I will come back into the ward and you follow me without speaking. ' I did as he bade me. The condition of the patients and the beds was unspeakable; one FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL 121 nurse slept in the bathroom, and the tub was filled with filthy rubbish. As for the nurse, she was an Irishwoman of a low class, and to her was confided the care of twenty patients, her only assistants being paupers, so-called 'helpers,' women drafted from the workhouse, many of whom had been sent there for intemperance; and those convalescents who could leave their beds. It was Friday, and the dinner of salt fish was brought in a bag to the ward and emptied on to the table; the convalescents helped themselves, and carried to the others their por- tions on a tin plate with a spoon. While I was watch- ing this, the young doctor returned, and without speak- ing to him I followed him out of the ward, down a steep staircase, across a yard filled with every kind of rub- bish, into a large building which proved to be the laundry. Nauseous steam was rising from great caul- drons filled with filthy clothing, which one old pauper was stirring with a stick. I looked about; hideous masses were piled up all around, but where were the laundresses? There were none, the old man was alone. 'They had gone away,' he said. I asked him what soap he used. ' I haven 't had any for quite a while, ' he said. ' How long a while ? ' said I. ' Oh, I should say a matter of several weeks. ' In reply to my exclamation of horror, the doctor explained ' that it took the commissioners a good while to supply all the requisitions, meanwhile the hos- pital had to wait. Now let us cross to the kitchen.' A huge negro cook was ladling out soup into great tin basins which the workhouse women were to take up to the wards, and I learned that these same cauldrons were used for the tea and coffee in the morning. Some pau- per women were huddled together in a corner, peeling potatoes, and the whole place reeked with the smell of foul steam and food. I had to escape, it was too dreadful ! ********** ' ' We learned, among other things, that there were no regular night nurses. A man, called a night watchman, 122 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG passed through the wards, and if he found a patient very ill or dying he called a young doctor. Occasionally patients, who had been overlooked, were found dead in the morning. Rats scampered over the floors at night. In fact, it seemed hopeless to attempt to cleanse that Augean stable. "One day, on my way home, I stopped at a book- seller's and ordered Miss Nightingale's works and some treatises on hospital management. These I studied, and with the members of my committee visited the hospital constantly. We had learned a great deal in that first month. Miss Nightingale's papers had taught us what was required and what ought not to exist in a hospital. But oh ! how low our standards were, how much we had to learn and act up to; certainly in Bellevue, the only hospital I had ever seen, and which, I was told, was the largest pauper hospital in the city, with its thirty-two wards and over eight hundred patients. "It will hardly be believed that there was not an antiseptic of any kind in use in the hospital except car- bolic acid. The house staff dressed the wounds, going from one patient to another, often carrying infection in spite of the precautions used. Sponges for washing wounds were not cotton, but bits of real sponge, and were used on one patient after another without any dis- infection. I could fill pages with anecdotes of suffering and death caused by the carelessness and ignorance of doctors, nurses and public officials, but, thank God! these are things of the past. The world has certainly improved in humanity, intelligent philanthropy and scientific knowledge during the last forty years. ********** "And here I must return to that first meeting, in January, when our visiting committee was formed. I did not then know that, a few weeks before that meeting at Miss Schuyler's house, she had been over Bellevue Hospital with Mrs. David Lane and Commissioner FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL 123 Bowen, and had come away with the strong conviction that only through radical improvements in the nursing service could that hospital be redeemed; and that only through the establishment of a Training School for Nurses could the needed high standard of nursing be attained, and the patients be properly cared for. It was with this in view that the membership of that com- mittee had been selected. "At the time of which I write, there were no Train- ing Schools for Nurses in this country, the trained nurse was unknown. To have spoken of what was projected when we first visited the hospital would have been most unwise, would most certainly have antagonized the au- thorities, who had, some of them, never even heard of a Training School for Nurses. 'What is it?' one of them asked later. ' "What kind of a thing is a Training School for Nurses ?' ' ' The time had come when my committee was to make its first monthly report to the full committee. How well I remember that day! It so happened that the reports of the other four standing committees were read first, and when I listened to the accounts of the good work which had been done among the sick, the comforts that had been dispensed, the jellies and dainties distributed to the sick and dying, my heart sank within me. I had done none of these things ; I had nothing but horrors to relate; and when the moment came to read my report my voice trembled and I could hardly stand. But, strengthened by the whispered encouragement of my two friends who sat beside me, I took courage, and as I pro- ceeded I was conscious of a sympathetic atmosphere, and when I sat down there was a buzz which was almost applause. * * * * * * * # * ' * "We had now visited the hospital for three months, and we knew what we wanted. What we wanted was a Training School for Nurses at Bellevue Hospital, 124 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG formed on the lines of Miss Nightingale's Training School at St. Thomas' Hospital, London. The entire Visiting Committee wanted it ; there was not a dissenting voice. This was in April, 1872. ' ' Then followed a period of suspense. No notice was taken of our application, and the summer was passing. But although we chafed under the delay, it was not time wasted. I had been appointed chairman of the Hospital Committee of the State Charities Aid Association, to which was assigned the duty of preparing a plan for the organization of the school. Of course the first thing to do was to learn exactly how the work of such a training school should be conducted. Dr. Wylie, a member of the Hospital Committee, offered to go to England, at his own expense, and get the practical information we needed, while others studied at home. Dr. Wylie spent three weeks in St. Thomas' Hospital, with every facility placed at his disposal. He put himself in communication with Miss Nightingale, who wrote him a long letter stat- ing the fundamental principles of the management of a training school, and wishing us 'God Speed!' in our work. This letter we have always regarded as the con- stitution of our school." After the reluctant consent of the Commission was obtained, plans for the school were drawn up and an appeal to the public was made for funds, which met with a generous response. The school was to be opened the first day of May, 1873, but the first of April arrived and no one had been obtained as the trained superin- tendent, which Miss Nightingale had said was indispen- sable. Mrs. Hobson began to despair when a woman in a religious conventional garb called upon her. She proved to be Sister Helen, of the All Saints (Protestant) Sis- terhood, which had charge of the nursing of University Hospital, London. She offered her services, and was engaged as superintendent. "As was promised, we opened the school on the first FIRST AMERICAN TRAINING SCHOOL 125 day of May, 1873, with three wards, and the reformation and purification began. Sister Helen's experience was our salvation, and that summer she fought hard and kept the school alive by her energy and tact, and the respect which her knowledge inspired upon the house staff. By autumn the results began to tell in the care of the patients and in the improved condition of the wards. During the following winter we were asked to take charge of two more wards, and by the end of a year we were able to discharge our monthly nurses and place our best pupils in their places. Applications from pupils commenced to pour in, and, in spite of difficult questions which constantly arose, we felt that success was before us. "One of our difficulties, in the light of to-day, is amusing. Early in the work we decided that a uniform was necessary, but, to our surprise, great opposition was expressed by the pupils; they objected to a livery. Among our pupils was Miss Euphemia Van Rensselaer, belonging to the distinguished family of that name, who, learning of our dilemma, offered to try to solve it for us. She asked for two days' holiday, and, when she returned to the hospital, she was dressed in a blue-and- white 'seersucker' dress, white apron, collar and cuffs, and a very becoming cap. She was very handsome, and gave an air of distinction to the simple costume. Within a week every nurse had adopted it, and it has been the uniform of Bellevue School ever since. Another instance is typical of Miss Van Rensselaer 's character and influ- ence. When we took charge there was not a screen in the hospital, no privacy whatever for sick or dying. Of course we remedied that, but we also discovered that the female patients were taken to the amphitheatre for operations before all the students, unassisted and un- protected by the presence of a nurse. We felt that this could not be allowed from our wards, and I consulted a friendly surgeon, Dr. Crosby. He said he should be 126 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG delighted to have a nurse attend his patients, but, he added : ' medical students are a rough lot, and they may make it unpleasant for the nurses.' Again Miss Van Rensselaer stepped into the breach. 'I will go with the patient and take Miss B with me ; I am not afraid. ' The day came and I went to the hospital to await the result. I saw the patient carried out, followed by two nurses. It was an anxious moment. To have had those nurses insulted by jeers and howls, and perhaps forced to retire, would have been very serious, and it was quite possible. Nearly an hour passed; finally I heard the students thundering down the stairs. I waited anxiously until I could see Dr. Crosby, and rushed to meet him. His face beaming with smiles, he extended both hands: 'Their presence was a benediction; I never had a more successful operation, and the students were as quiet as if they were in a church!' he exclaimed. Miss Van Rensselaer told me later that the theatre was crowded, and when they entered with the patient there was a faint murmur as if in surprise. It ceased and during the operation the order was absolute. From that day to this, no female patient has been unattended. "As I have already said, the Bellevue Training School for Nurses, opened May 1, 1873, was the first school of the kind in this country. The New Haven and Boston schools followed closely, being also opened in 1873. Twenty-five years later, in 1898, thirty schools had been established; and to-day (1911) there are 1,100 training schools for nurses in the United States." It is largely due to the persistent and courageous efforts of these New York women that to-day our Amer- ican Bed Cross has one of the largest and most efficient corps of trained nurses in the world. A further inter- esting link between this Bellevue Training School and the Red Cross is the fact that the woman to whom the Red Cross owes mainly the remarkable organization of its nursing service, Miss Jane A. Delano, was for some THE SENTIMENTAL AMATEUR 127 years superintendent of both the Women's and the Men's Schools for Nurses connected with this hospital. One of the annoyances and amusements of the medi- cal service in time of war is the sentimental young woman who feels herself called upon to nurse the sick and wounded soldiers. Such young women have become almost proverbial both among the doctors and the pa- tients. "I am too tired to be nursed to-day, miss," or, "I don't mind if you do wash my face ; the other ladies have already washed it five times to-day and I am get- ting quite accustomed to it, thank you, ma'am," are familiar comments on amateur nursing. The Red Cross, like the surgeon general's office, receives innumerable offers of this untrained service. This is particularly the case if there seems any danger of war. When there arose some prospect of a military conflict in Mexico one young woman wrote that she was eighteen years old and believed herself qualified to be a nurse. If the Red Cross would confer with the President and the Secre- tary of State and they advised her going she could obtain parental consent. Another of twenty informed the Red Cross that she had twice nursed a man through typhoid fever and that as he was still alive her qualifica- tions for a nurse were of undoubted character. Perhaps the most interesting and original offer of such service came on a postcard from one of America's foreign-born daughters. The spirit of adventure seemed strong in this applicant, though she expresses a great patriotic devotion to her adopted country. "I am inlisted the volunteers of the field hospital service. I feel honored of it as I am foreigner, came only several months ago in this country. I am honored of it as I said, but not quite satisfied, as I feel the strength in me to do greater services for my adopted country. I speak more different languages, I am sharpshooter and do duel with sword and dagger. I am strong and brave- hearted too. I beg you to let me have the chance to 128 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG prove my love of my adopted country and the bravery of my nation. Let me have the chance to go any danger where no one dare to go. I am willing to sacrifice my body, my soul, my last drop of blood of the country's concern. ' ' I am engaged to be married, and if I ever will come back saved, I want the flag with Stars and Stripes for my bridal veil, for my pall if I die for it. My fiance is a lieutenant of U. S. N. My brother at the service of the U. S. A., but I want to be more than they are, to do great things to be worthy for the country and my dear one 's love. I beg you to stand by me in my project. I promise to be worthy of your patronizing. I am await- ing of answer." In all of such offers it is difficult to differentiate patriotism and the real love of humanity from the desire for a novel and exciting experience. These young women know little and think less of the hard, self-sacrificing duties of the true nurse. The test of the real sentiment can be made by the offering of work for which they may be really fitted but which occupies them at home, and not at the hospitals. Yet the lay woman has just as much right to be of service to her country as the trained nurse, if she is willing to undertake what she is capable of doing. There is a great variety of supplies that are as necessary to alle- viate the sufferings of the sick and wounded as is the nursing care. Up to the hospital doors rumble the am- bulances. Out of them are tenderly lifted the wounded men, unshaven and unshorn, with pallid faces, sunken eyes, exhausted forms, clothed in tattered, blood and mud-stained uniforms. What a horrible picture they present of war's cruel harvest ! After the bath, the fresh garments made by the lay woman's helpful hand are put on, and sinking down into the comfortable bed, with its clean linen, also provided by her busy fingers, the weary soldier sighs his content. One, whose whole right WHAT THE LAY WOMAN CAN DO 129 side was shattered by shrapnel, brought lately to a hos- pital at Dinard, after traveling for three long, suffering days in a train for the wounded, murmured as he was placed in his cot: "This is paradise!" Surgical shirts and pajamas, warm convalescent robes, socks, sheets, towels and pillow-cases these are the lay woman's charge. Bandages and surgical dress- ings she may also prepare, for any lack of these means not only additional suffering, but actual danger to the patient. Hundreds of thousands of garments sent to Europe from America have borne upon them the little red crosses. From Pau, France, one of the American Bed Cross nurses wrote, ' ' The men all wish to wear the shirts and pajamas with the red crosses on them;" and from Gleichwitz, in Germany, reports another nurse, "A wounded Galician, who spoke no known language, ges- ticulated for two days before we discovered that he want- ed a shirt with a little red cross on it." No wonder that they love these little red crosses, for to these men they carry a message of kindly sympathy from beyond the seas. During weary days of convalescence the men can be read to, and simple games provided for their amusement. Here again the lay woman may find a field ready for her service. Along the lines of the evacuation of the wounded rest stations must be established, where hot soup, coffee and other suitable refreshments for the soldiers must be ready for every train. These should be installed and operated by lay women, under the supervision of a Red Cross nurse, on guard against a diet of mince pie or lobster salad being served to a typhoid fever convales- cent. There will be the men temporarily permanently crippled, who will need the aid of the lay woman. Many must be taught how again to earn their livelihood by some method suitable to the loss of eyesight, or of a leg, 9 130 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG or an arm. There will be the wives and children of the soldiers at the front who will need her assistance, and, to her tender sympathy and care must be confided the widows and the orphans. The woman, be she lay woman or trained nurse, who is willing to do what she is best fitted to do will find no limit to the field of her useful- ness in the misfortune of war. To fulfil one of the most important of the duties devolving upon the Red Cross the National Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service, created by the War Relief Board of the American Red Cross (and consisting of fifteen members, nine of whom are selected by the Amer- ican Nurses' Association), has been made responsible for the establishment of uniform qualifications to govern the enrollment of nurses and for the organization of an adequate Red Cross nursing personnel. State and local Red Cross committees of nurses have also been appointed throughout the country. The Red Cross does not conduct a training school for nurses, but enrolls through its local committees grad- uate nurses who fulfil the requirements prescribed by the National Committee. To be eligible for enrollment, an applicant must have had at least a two years' course of training received in a general hospital which includes the care of men and has a daily average of at least fifty patients during the applicant's training. Upon recommendation of the local committee, subsequent hospital experience or post-grad- uate work which seems to supply deficiencies of training, may be accepted as an equivalent by the National Com- mittee. In States where registration is provided for by law, an applicant, to be eligible for enrollment, must be reg- istered. She must be a member of and endorsed by an organization affiliated with the American Nurses' Asso- ciation, have the endorsement of the training school from THE NURSE AND HER QUALIFICATIONS 131 which she graduated, and of at least two members of the Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service in her locality; or must submit such other evidence of fitness for the work as may be acceptable to the National Com- mittee. Applicants must be at least twenty-five and not over forty years of age. Nurses enrolling need not be native-born citizens, but if called upon for service in time of war they would be required to take the following oath of allegiance specified in Army Regulations: "That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same ; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. ' ' The above oath does not in any way affect the citi- zenship of the nurse, and is only operative during the period of her employment in time of war. The Red Cross nurse receives an appointment card and badge bearing the same number, record of which is kept on file both by the local committee and the National Committee. The badge remains at all times the prop- erty of the American Red Cross, and in case of death, resignation or annulment of appointment, both badge and card are returned to the National Committee. The use of the badge is protected by Act of Congress, and it is not permitted to be worn by any other than the person to whom issued. The Red Cross has a regular uniform for its nurses. This is of a grayish-blue material. The caps, collars and aprons are made of the simplest nature to enable them to be easily laundered. This uniform was selected after careful study so as to make it practical in every way, the first consideration in its selection. Many of the 132 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG nurses have provided themselves with two or three of these simple uniforms; but in case of a sudden disaster where nurses of the Red Cross Corps are called upon who have not on hand the regular uniform, the usual plain white uniforms are permitted. The Red Cross brassard can never be worn without special authority, and in case of war such brassards are issued only by the War Department. When a nurse is placed on a long tour of duty the Red Cross itself provides her with a coat for winter service and a cape for warmer weather. In time of peace a nurse is not expected to respond to a call for service if this would seriously interfere with duties she has already assumed. Otherwise she is ex- pected to respond. In the event of war in which the United States may be involved all of the Red Cross nurses are required to report to their local committees the earliest possible date on which they would be avail- able for service, and must thereafter hold themselves in readiness. As it is of the utmost importance that nurses who undertake active duty for any length of time should be in the best health possible, they are required at such times to take a physical examination. The enrolled Red Cross nurses receive no allowance except when called upon for active service under the Red Cross, when their pay is the same as that provided for the Army Nurse Corps. Under these regulations the Red Cross has al- ready enrolled six thousand of the best trained nurses in the country, coming up to the highest standard ever set for a nursing service. The record of each individual nurse is on file in Washington. She is required to keep her local committee informed of her address, as it is by means of the local committees that these nurses are mobilized. When a serious disaster occurs at which the nurses' services are required a telegram goes from headquarters ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION 133 to the local committees in the vicinity asking each chair- man to provide a definite number of nurses. By means of her local list the chairman communicates with the nurses, asking each in turn if she is free to go. If a favorable response is received, instructions are given at what time and at what station to report. A nurse is selected among the number as supervising nurse because of some experience or training she has received which fits her for the position of responsibility. These nurses proceed immediately to the scene of the disaster. In the meantime headquarters at Washington, on receipt of information as to what nurses are reporting for duty, selects one as the supervising nurse of all the groups. In the case of the European war, from the enrolled nurses selections were made from those who volunteered for this service ; and in the case of Serbia after typhus fever developed, the nurses were informed of the danger. Not once have our nurses failed to respond, more being ready to go in every instance than were required, and they have already made an enviable reputation for them- selves. Above the badges of their enrollment the service bars of many of them testify to the fine sense of duty that inspires them. After cyclones at Hattiesburg, in 1908, and Omaha, in 1913, they cared for the injured. Two hundred and thirty-eight were scattered throughout the devastated flood districts of Ohio and the neighboring States in 1913. They not only nursed the sick, but they proved of incal- culable value to the health authorities in the prevention of epidemics by their inspection and their instructions to the people. Promptly in the field, they donned rubber boots, waded through mud and climbed over debris to reach those who needed their aid. At night they slept on mattresses on the floor or spent watchful waiting hours at remote stations to be ready for a sudden call. After the Salem fire, in 1914, thirty of the Red Cross 134 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG nurses were on active duty in the camps, the temporary hospitals, and at headquarters. In the camps they moth- ered the whole community, looked out for the babies, gave lessons in their proper care, made wise suggestions about the children, inspected daily the entire camp, aided in maintaining its health, and left much practical informa- tion as the legacy of their work. At Gettysburg and other veteran encampments, at inaugurations, various other functions and parades all over the country, they have maintained first aid stations. Some idea of a nurse's duties in a disaster is given by Miss Mary E. Gladwin, who was in charge of a hun- dred nurses at Dayton after the floods, and who spent months at Belgrade as supervising nurse of the American Red Cross unit, courageously standing at her post of duty in the face of danger both from shot and shell and from the dread disease of typhus. "Sleep will not come, behind tired eyelids the too active brain sees picture after picture of the nurses at work in Dayton. In the dripping rain, the 'bread line,' an appalling line of patient, waiting people, two nurses hurrying up and down its length, helping a mother with her child, bestowing packages more securely in a basket, fastening a cloak about weary shoulders, giving a smile here, a few cheerful words there, carrying away a fret- ful child until the mother is ready to go home, helping a fainting woman to rest and shelter. A big modern schoolhouse, turned into a veritable hive of new activi- ties; dormitories, dining-room, kitchen, hospital, a reci- tation room transformed into an accident and first-aid room, drugs and dressings on the teacher's desk; a blue- gowned young woman with the Red Cross on her arm, bandaging cuts and bruises, caring for scores of small ailments and some grave ones. A city church, the tem- porary home of hundreds of refugees, the 'Red Cross Lady,' ceaselessly busy caring for many patients and, FIRE, FLOOD AND PESTILENCE 135 between whiles, cutting bread and butter, pouring coffee, sorting and giving out old clothes, stopping to hold the hand of a forlorn old creature and to persuade her that the almshouse is a comfortable and proper place to which she need not be ashamed to go. Another schoolhouse, another nurse bathing and finding clothes for a dozen little children whose mothers have gone to see what may be saved from homes wrecked by the flood. Churches, clubs, schoolhouses, halls, each with its nurses, each a centre of beneficent healing of mind and body, pass in rapid review, and then back to our hospitable shelter, the N. C. R., as we quickly learned to call it, the National Cash Register factory, for luncheon. "Automobiles starting from the N. C. R. in various directions ; each with its Red Cross nurse, this one with an armful of blankets going to remove two children with measles from their place of refuge to a hospital; that one taking a distraught mother to the place where her lost child was last seen ; another hurrying to the juvenile court to report a father's cruelty to his children; an- other helping a deserted wife to a train which will bear her to shelter and protection. The fifth floor of the N. C. R., bearing now little resemblance to a factory office, an alert, business-like young woman coming for- ward, all in white, wearing a dainty cap with its tiny Red Cross in front, to tell us that her two hospital wards are full, her patients well cared for, and her nurses with a smile 'working beautifully.' A mod- ern hospital, this, with its up-to-date supervisor and its nurses wearing the uniforms of training schools of widely-separated cities. "A city street, river mud and debris piled breast high an either side, houses off their foundations or en- tirely washed away; a very different looking 'Red Cross Lady, ' serenely picking her way around wrecked furni- ture, sodden mattresses, ruins of porches and sheds; 136 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG wearing rubber boots, skirts kilted high, wet nearly to the waist, sending sick people to hospitals, inspecting plumbing, back yards and cellars; superintending all sorts of work from feeding the baby to the digging of trenches. Through all parts of the flooded city, nurses going on similar errands, inspecting nearly nine thou- sand houses and reporting conditions found. On the way to sanitary headquarters, a hurried glimpse of a nurse in an automobile whose triumphant expression is accounted for by the mattress, secured with great effort, in the back of the machine. On the next street another nurse in a second automobile flashing by, this time in possession of a four-burner oil stove and a great bundle of clothes and blankets. Up the sticky, muddy steps of sanitary headquarters, to find a little nurse in brown, well known in Teachers' College, New York, dispensing the most varied assortment of knowledge as to mat- tresses, shoes, rubber boots, baby clothes, contagious ambulances, the obligations of landlords, the cleaning of cellars. At a table on one side, a nurse in the well- known garb of the Chicago Visiting Nurse Association, with pencil poised, is answering questions, directing nurses, and making valuable and unique records. "Evening, home to the great house in the flooded district over which floats the American flag, around gray painted boards in the dim candle light, many nurses of the Red Cross partaking of one of black Mary's good stews. Disheartened, discouraged, depressed, out of sorts with the weather and the general discomfort ? Not at all. Tired enough, very cold, coughing more than one likes to hear, sometimes very hoarse ; but bright, cheerful, courteous, telling stories of obstacles overcome, seeing always the bright side, looking forward eagerly to re- newed service on the morrow. "A good piece of work was that done in Dayton, thoroughly good nursing work, done in such harmony of FIRE, FLOOD AND PESTILENCE 137 spirit and co-operation as is seldom seen. The attempt to help in a time of great need and suffering has brought us very near together. The weeks of hard work have been a great privilege and we venture to believe have in some sort produced a new standard of public health service for times of disaster. Remembering that such work could be duplicated by the Red Cross, if necessary, in a score of places, one can only say as did the Dayton physician with tears very near the surface, 'God bless the Red Cross nurses everywhere.' ' At the Ninth International Red Cross Conference, held in Washington in 1912, a special committee was appointed to have charge of the Nightingale Founda- tion. The duty of this Foundation, for which a special fund was donated by the different societies, is to pro- vide an appropriate medal to be awarded in recognition of great and exceptional devotion to the sick or wounded in peace or war. On one side of the medal there is a reproduction of the famous statue of Florence Nightin- gale, known as "The Lady with the Lamp." As the Foundation is commemorative of the services rendered to mankind by Florence Nightingale, who established the first modern school for the training of nurses, the medal is to be awarded only to women who have received special training as nurses. Six of these medals are available annually, and in the event of war the number may be increased to twelve. No country may propose more than one candidate yearly for this honor, and the final award is made by the International Red Cross Committee at Geneva. In the quiet efficiency of the Red Cross Nursing Service not only is suffering being alleviated, but, per- haps unconsciously, a missionary work is being accom- plished. The services of Miss Helen Scott Hay had been given by the American Red Cross to the Queen of Bul- garia for four years to organize a nurses ' training school at Sofia on American lines. The sudden breaking out 138 of the war required the postponement of this plan. At the request of the Queen of Greece, inquiries have been made as to whether the Eed Cross would aid in the establishment of a similar training school at Saloniki after the war is over. The chairman of the National Nursing Committee has been asked to supervise the training of a Greek nurse and one from the Philippines in this country. This particular line of work may be the beginning of a universal Eed Cross nursing stand- ard of a high order. Nor have we yet reached the limit of the American Eed Cross nurse's patriotic and humane work. "Of all the factors which affect the welfare and the happiness of the human race probably none is so important as good health; without a vigorous body man's efficiency, com- fort and happiness are disturbed or destroyed alto- gether/' Eealizing this truth, and following the general policy of the Eed Cross to make its different departments of daily usefulness, the nursing service has arranged for courses for women in Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick, for which a special textbook has been prepared as supplementary to the courses in first aid. These classes are taught by Eed Cross nurses. The object of the course is to instruct women in personal and household hygiene and to teach them in a simple way the care of the sick in their own homes. Every woman should realize that the hour may come when upon her will devolve the care of some invalid. This does not mean she should fit herself for professional service by years of hard study in a hospital training school, but it does mean she should learn the practical lessons taught by the Eed Cross Nursing Service. Thus in the daily life or amidst the distress and destruction of great disasters or back of the tumult of the battle line the Eed Cross nurse carries on her patriotic and humane service for her country and her fellow-men. This service must be a trained and organ- FIRE, FLOOD AND PESTILENCE 139 ized service. All the sentiment in the world is of little worth unless training and organization can give this sentiment practical helpful expression. Yet through the practical and efficiently trained organization must ever breathe the living spirit of the Red Cross. "Some day," writes Charles Wagner, "the Red Cross will triumph over the cannon. The future belongs to the nurse, to the little grey sister, to all helpful powers, however humble; for two allies are theirs, suffering humanity and the merciful God." CHAPTER IX ALWAYS SOME WORK SOMEWHERE FOR THE RED CROSS. NATURE KEEPS IT BUSY. DESTRUCTION BY FIRE AND EARTHQUAKE. SAN FRANCISCO. LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE. CHERRY MINE DISASTER. HOW THE RED CROSS BEAT JACK FROST. A PHILIPPINE POM- PEII. A CITY HOLOCAUST AND AN OCEAN WRECK. A HUNDRED FLOODED TOWNS. MR. BICKNELL, the national director of the Red Cross, once made a careful estimate of the average number of serious disasters liable to occur in a year, and came to the conclusion that there would be five or six of sufficient magnitude to require Red Cross assistance. Such assist- ance is given when the relief operations are more than the local community can itself provide, though it is not infrequently the case that the local Red Cross agency is called upon to take charge of the relief work even when the community is capable of providing the necessary aid. This was done in New York when the institutional members carried out the relief after the Triangle Waist Factory fire and the Titanic wreck, and the Eastland disaster in Chicago. Mr. Bicknell's estimate proved to be conservative. Since the winter of 1905 there have been more than seventy-five disasters, caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, cyclones, famines, epidemics, shipwrecks and mine disasters, that Nature has provided to call the Red Cross into active duty ; and as if Nature should not be allowed a monopoly of its service, man has brought about several wars to add their share of suffering and misery to the demands upon it. In the summer of 1905 a Red Cross branch, under the patronage of the Governor and prominent Filipinos, was organized at Manila. From these distant island possessions came the first appeal for help when a typhoon 140 SAN FRANCISCO 141 swept over part of Luzon, the frail native huts on their high bamboo supports collapsing by thousands in its path. One old man explained to the Relief Committee : "My house sat down like a hen and would not get up again." In tropical countries a little money goes a long way. Where food is cheap and houses can be built for ten dollars, relief is not a serious problem. In the spring of the following year came the first great disaster within our own territory after the Red Cross reorganization. From a tiny office in a business building a member of the Executive Committee and the then entire office force the Secretary had just moved the Red Cross headquarters into a pleasant room loaned by the War Department. Hardly were the desks and chairs in place when on the morning of April 18th the chief clerk of the surgeon general startled the atmosphere with the words, "There is work for the Red Cross; an earthquake at San Francisco and the city is in flames. ' ' Immediate telegrams of inquiry and offers of help brought no reply, and appeals sent from the Red Cross at San Francisco failed to get through, a fact that sur- prises no one who has been on the scene of a disaster at the time of its occurrence or shortly afterwards, but that the public, in the serenity of normal life, attributes to inexcusable carelessness on the part of someone. Calamities, as far as the people of a community are concerned, usually pursue the same general order. There is first the terror that comes from fear of danger and the loss of life, followed by a relapse into a dazed help- lessness, which later produces a sense of hopeless despair. How long each condition lasts depends upon the char- acter of the people. To the credit of San Francisco it may be said that the buoyant nature of her citizens brought them up with a fine promptness and courage to meet the work of their own rehabilitation. A motto chalked on one of the little street kitchens well describes 142 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG the spirit that prevailed: "Make the best of it. Forget the rest of it." The loss of life, compared with the extent of the dis- aster, was not serious; about five hundred were killed and a few less injured. The earthquake occurred at twelve minutes after five in the morning, and at a quarter before seven the first citizens' relief committee was organized. Pursued by the flames from building to building, it kept at its duties. From time to time it was reorganized, and finally resolved itself into the Finance Committee of Relief and Red Cross Funds. Conferences were held with General Funston, later with General Greeley, and co-operative plans adopted. Military authority was ex- tended over the entire city, which was divided into dis- tricts, both for control and relief purposes. In the ' ' San Francisco Relief Survey," made by the Russell Sage Foundation, is epitomized the order of relief. "An invisible force had pushed relief through four broad channels: food had to be supplied; then clothing, along with bed and common household necessities; then shel- ter, and last, the means to make one 's own provision for the future." For the first few days millionaires and paupers stood side by side in the bread line, waiting to obtain their daily rations. No fires were permitted in the houses that remained lest the cracked and twisted chimneys might start the conflagration afresh. As rapidly as pos- sible the abnormal bread lines were done away with. Families, after investigation, received a card with which they applied for rations or clothing at the station of their district, the date of the issuing being cancelled on the card to prevent repeating, as one energetic Italian family secured enough supplies from different stations to start a small store if its own. Free food has its temptations, but a strict adherence to army rations tends to reduce the number of applicants. > I SAN FRANCISCO 143 Calamities upset law and order, moral as well as physical. At such, a time the service that is rendered by the United States army is deserving of the highest praise. Its quiet discipline and trained personnel bring order out of chaos, protect life and property, while its stores provide rations and tents for the first immediate needs. In all the open squares and parks of the city, after the hasty blanket or quilt shelters of the first day or two were abandoned, there arose colony after colony of tents, and, thanks to the climate of San Francisco, the people throve in this out-of-door life. Later, as the tents became weather worn, several thousand small wooden houses were built to take their place. When the authorities required the parks to be vacated, many of these small dwellings were moved away as permanent homes for their occupants. Dr. Edward T. Devine, of New York, represented the Red Cross on the Relief Committee, and his trained ability was of particular value in the problem of rehabil- itation. By means of registration not only were families again brought together and long-delayed letters and tele- grams delivered, but plans for the refugees to make their own provision for the future became practicable. The sympathy of the entire country was aroused, and money by telegram, by check, by letter and by hand flowed into headquarters and to the Committee Treas- urer at San Francisco. Later a trial for dishonesty on the part of certain city officials gave rise to a wrong im- pression that some of the relief funds had been mis- appropriated. This was not the case, as these funds were never handled by the officials in question. A man in charge of the delivery of blankets for one of the camps stole a wagon-load, for which he was promptly arrested, tried and convicted. No other case of dishon- esty occurred, though it is probable that in the earlier days petty pilfering of stores occasionally took place. 144 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Carload after carload of supplies congested the rail- road yards. So fast they came space could not be found for their contents, and frequently butter, eggs and other perishable foods sadly wasted their best days mixed up with boxes of clothing and barrels of flour. A sudden wave of sympathy for the babies brought such a quantity of condensed milk that General Greeley in despair sent a hurried dispatch to Washington to the effect that there was enough on hand to last sixteen years, and fresh milk in plenty was obtainable from the surrounding country. This is an example of wasteful enthusiasm that is without suggestive control. No one thought of such a prosaic gift as soap until an urgent appeal came for the much needed article. The lack of judgment on the part of some in the sending of clothing was shown in two ways. Ball gowns and satin slippers were hardly appropriate garments for the refugees, and yet these were scattered through the miscellaneous mass of cloth- ing that poured into the city. Still worse, however, were the garments so soiled and dirty that they were not only a reflection upon their donors but a menace to the health of any recipient had the committee not dis- posed of them by prompt cremation. One indignant dame, not satisfied with a supply of plain, clean and mostly new clothing given her, sent them on with a letter to President Roosevelt as a sample of the country's gen- erosity. They were turned over to the Red Cross head- quarters and handed to the Salvation Army, which ac- cepted them gratefully. The final stage of relief, the rehabilitation of families, was so successfully accomplished that eventually not more than six hundred persons were left permanently dependent. These were cared for in the Relief Home, which was built from the funds and turned over to the city to maintain. Rehabilitation was generally secured by means of small grants of money after careful investigation and CHERRY MINE DISASTER 145 full explanation as to the use to be made of the funds, whether for house building, restocking of small stores, or the purchasing of tools or other articles useful in the earning of a livelihood. This cannot be done without some heartburnings, and one childless woman bom- barded the "Honorable Gentlemen" at headquarters for many months with vituperative complaints against the San Francisco Committee, because her neighbor, with a family of small children, had received a larger grant than she. At one time there were in the bread line over three hundred thousand persons, but the number finally which received more than this temporary assistance amounted to some twenty-seven thousand families. Not all disasters are alike in their destruction. In fires, floods and cyclones the greatest destruction is of property, whereas in mine explosions, shipwrecks, and epidemics the serious loss is that of human life. Earth- quakes and volcanic eruptions are destructive in a large measure of both life and property. In the northwestern corner of the great Illinois coal field grew up the little village of Cherry, clustering around the shafts of the mine. Mr. Bicknell described graphically the scene of the disaster and the tragedy that occurred there. ' ' Cherry is a grimy, dirty, unkempt community. It lacks water and lights and drainage. Sidewalks are mostly cinder paths. The streets are the black prairie soil which becomes dust in summer and mud in winter. The population is chiefly of young and vigorous people. Nationalities represented are many. Italians and Slavonians are most numerous. Besides, there are Americans, Germans, Austrians, Russians, Greeks, French, Belgians, Lithuanians, English and Scotch. Many are recently from the old country and ignorant of the English language." One cold grey Saturday afternoon in November the Cherry mine caught fire from a load of hay that came 10 146 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG in contact with a torch. The flames rapidly spread through the two shafts, cutting off all escape for a large number of miners. Eleven rescuers lost their lives in an heroic effort to save others. "The usual and normal processes of the village life were forgotten. All the thoughts of all the people were suddenly converted into the emotions of hope and fear, as water dropped in molten metal turns instantly to steam. All the strength of the community was dedicated to effort at rescue. Then came the suspense of waiting. In the grey of dawn women, with babies in their arms and other babies cling- ing to their skirts, gathered in silent groups about the shaft. When darkness fell they melted away to their desolate homes. They scarcely ate. They neglected their children and themselves. Occasionally some over- wrought watcher at the shaft would burst the bounds of frozen grief and shriek out her fears in wild, formless cries. But these incidents served only to accentuate the dumb, brooding, terrible silence of those who waited as the days dragged on." On Thanksgiving Day sealed caps of concrete were laid upon the mouths of both shafts to smother the fire. Had hope survived in any breast, this sealing of the mine extinguished its last spark. Governor Deneen, as president of the State Red Cross Board, announced that no aid outside was required. Temporary relief was provided for the women and chil- dren, while the Red Cross national director perfected a pension system for permanent aid. The State appropri- ation of one hundred thousand dollars, the Red Cross contribution of one hundred thousand dollars, the miners' fund of seventy thousand dollars, and thirty thousand dollars from other sources were placed in a common fund, and under the direction of a competent committee pen- sions for each woman and each child under sixteen years of age were provided. The families were kept together and the mothers required to send the children to school. FOREST FIRES 147 The Red Cross became the wage earner of the family and the guardian of the children. The mayor of Cherry later wrote, "The plan has worked like a charm." The same year a furious gulf storm at Key West wrecked the little fleet of fishing boats, the means of live- lihood of the sponge and other fishermen of the com- munity. There under the suggessions of the Red Cross representative contributions were used to buy boat ma- terials and the men paid a small wage while they were rebuilding their ships. As each was completed its owner was taken from the list of those aided, as he was back in a position to again support himself. Another governor acted promptly on a State disaster when in October, 1910, Governor Eberhardt by virtue of his position as president of the Minnesota Red Cross board, appealed to the people of his State for aid for the sufferers from a forest fire close to the Canadian border. On the banks of the Rainy River the two little villages of Beaudette and Spooner were burned almost entirely to the ground, the people taking refuge in streams, wells and root cellars to save their lives. They were honest farming and lumber folk, mainly of Scandinavian ori- gin. It was October, and in a month winter would be upon them. When the Red Cross arrived it found them sad and dejected amidst the ashes of their little homes. Fate seemed to be driving them away to add to the pauper classes of the cities of the State. But cheer came with this wonderful organization of help. Lumber, duty free, was permitted by the Treasury Department to be im- ported from Canada, as there was no other near at hand. A few master carpenters were brought to the place, and building "bees" were immediately in order. There a group of men, busy with saw and hammer, raised a little house for Ole Oleson, and when this was finished next door they moved to build one for Jan Jansen. Where there had been despair and desolation there arose courage 148 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG and happiness, as they sang and whistled over their work. In a month every one in the two villages was under shel- ter. It was a race between the Red Cross and Jack Frost, and the Red Cross won. In the middle of Lake Taal, in the island of Luzon, there arises a low volcano, only a few hundred feet above the surface of the water. Little Philippine villages dot the coast of the volcanic island and the opposite shore of the lake. It was a primitive, if modern, Pompeii that was reproduced by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Taal before daybreak on the morning of January 30, 1911. In the twinkling of an eye more than thirteen hundred sleeping people were destroyed. The explosion awoke far away Manila, and shattered churches and buildings in distant towns. For a century and a half the volcano had slumbered, and the people had so lost their fear that even on its very slopes were built the grass houses of the natives. The country round about was green with rich tropical vegetation when, like a great, all-enveloping mantle, there fell upon it for many miles the mass of grey ashes. The sulphurous fumes seem to have overcome man and beast, for many of the unfortunate people were found with their faces buried in the ground in the effort to escape them. After the eruption a tidal wave swept over the lower villages, carrying into the lake many of the ruins caused by the eruption. From the Red Cross in Washington a thousand dol- lars was immediately cabled to the governor, and more aid was offered; but with an independent spirit highly to be commended, the islands declined further assistance ; and the local Red Cross received fifteen thousand dollars in contributions. No roads ran around the lake, and boats had to be drawn up by ropes from the sea through the shallow river so that the relief parties could reach the sufferers. A field hospital was established to give immediate care to the injured who had been burned by the hot ashes and who were later removed by boat to A CITY HOLOCAUST 149 other places. The native survivors uttered no complaint, gave no sign of emotion and asked for no assistance. As soon as it could be done the widows and orphans were sought out, and rice and dry fish provided them for food. The Government allotted funds to employ the men on public roads, and the contributed moneys were used to tide the people over until the next harvest. The lavish hand of Nature in the islands in a few months' time began to cover with the greenness of grass, sugar cane and bamboo the scars she herself had wrought. In mine disasters the loss of the wage earner of the family leaves many dependent, but after any destruc- tion of human life, except where only children are con- cerned, persons will be found wihose support has perished with the disaster. The Triangle Waist Factory fire, which occurred on a Saturday afternoon of March, 1911, found between four and five hundred persons entrapped on the upper floor of a large building in lower New York City. One hundred and forty-five, mainly young women, perished in this tragic disaster. Three-fourths of the families in which the deaths occurred were Jew- ish, and all save three of the remainder were Italians. In many cases the women proved to have been the main- stay of the family. According to the policy of the Red Cross, there was added to its local standing emergency committee several persons whose experience and counsel Were of special value the president of the United Hebrew Charities, the president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a repre- sentative of a large insurance company and a represent- ative of the Italian community. Immediate provision was made for the care of the injured and those who had suffered from severe nervous shock, and to aid the needi- est families in meeting the funeral expenses of the vic- tims. In cases where a lump sum could be used to advan- tage, this was given. Several families were thereby en- 150 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG abled to start small grocery or fruit stores. To others who were left helpless and disorganized a pension was provided. A certain portion of the relief funds was transmitted to Europe to aid old and dependent relatives there, and one old Italian woman who lost her daughter, her only support, was sent back to Italy, with a thousand dollars, as she desired to enter a convent there. It is not often that more can be done in relief work than to meet the actual needs created by the disaster, but in the case of the Triangle Waist Factory fire the com- mittee were able to consider the sorrow of the relatives of the unfortunate victims whose bodies were not identified and to gratify their natural desire for some remembrance by the erection in a cemetery where many were buried, of a monument typifying grief in the bowed figure of a young woman. A similar relief problem occurred after the loss of the Titanic, but with certain additional complications because of the organization of several committees, raising and administering funds, and because of the advisability of making an agreement with the English committee, which received more than two million dollars. The Red Cross worked in a co-operative way, and a satisfactory arrangement with the British committee was brought about whereby the American funds were devoted to the needs of the survivors in the Western Hemisphere. A special Red Cross agent was sent to Halifax to identify as far as possible the bodies of persons whose relatives were too poor to do this themselves. So many men were drowned that a large number of emigrant families were left without the husband and father. Others had brought with them all their worldly property, much of which went down with the steamer; and still others suffered from physical injury. Again grants were made or pen- sions provided. An old dependent father in Brazil has received a monthly pension ever since the disaster, and AN EPIDEMIC OF DISASTERS 151 several widows with children have been taken care of in the same way. A curious incident in regard to an impostor developed in this relief work. A boy of about sixteen years of age claimed assistance as a survivor. So vivid was his description of his experience during the shipwreck that it seemed impossible to doubt his statement. Later, on investigation, he was found to be of deficient mentality. The reading of the account in the papers had made such an impression on his peculiar mind that he became hon- estly convinced that he had himself endured the horrors of the shipwreck. In March, 1913, what may be termed an epidemic of disasters followed each other. On the twenty-first of the month a tornado swept across lower Alabama, wrenching and twisting great trees from their trunks like straws, raising houses bodily from their foundation and leveling them with the ground. The force of the wind in these tornadoes is almost unbelievable. At one place a house was completely destroyed and every inmate killed. Not far away another was lifted from its foundation over the head of its terrified occupants, who found themselves tumbling and rolling upon the ground without serious injury. It was marvelous that any escaped, the destruc- tion of everything in the path of the tornado was so com- plete. After the injured had been taken care of, the relief of the Red Cross took the form of aid in the rebuilding of simple houses, and in one case where the rural postman's horse had been killed another was pro- vided so that he could continue his duties and support his family. Two days later, on Easter eve the twenty-third clouds of inky blackness heralded "a funnel-shaped twister" that cut a narrow channel of awful destruc- tion through the city of Omaha. The institutional mem- bers of the Red Cross at Chicago and St. Louis were re- quested by wire to proceed to Omaha to offer Red Cross 152 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG aid and to be of any assistance desired. The National director started from Washington. He had gotten no farther than Chicago when the third disaster halted him on his journey. Since the San Francisco fire no such serious calamity had occurred in the United States until the great Ohio floods of 1913. It is a strange fact that about the same number of families required aid in these floods as in the earthquake and fire at the Golden Gate. But the problem, because of the large number of cities, towns and villages, was far more complicated. On the other hand, thanks to Governor Cox's prompt and wise decision, the relief operations were placed in the hands of the Red Cross so that there was one, and not a multi- tude of agencies in charge. As president of the State Red Cross Board, he called a meeting of its members at Columbus. This meeting was attended also by the chair- man of the National Relief Board, who reached the State capital by a roundabout journey to Knoxville and Cin- cinnati, and by the National director, after having been marooned for forty-eight hours by the floods farther west. The Army, as usual, had promptly come to the aid of the people, the Secretary of War and the chief-of -staff having gone in person to the flooded district. Almost the entire State of Ohio was involved, and many river communities in West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois ^suffered serious damage. In the bright spring sunshine of a Sunday morning only a few days after the disaster, with the rivers back again within their banks, save for the scenes of ruin and desolation on every hand, it was difficult to realize the terrifying experiences that had so lately been undergone. The agonizing hours passed by those clinging to sway- ing trees until some dropped from sheer exhaustion into the raging currents below, the strain and weariness of waiting without food or shelter on some rocking cottage roof in the cold and pitiless rain for the waters to sub- side or a rescuing boat to appear, the fear of being CHECKING EXPENDITURES 153 swept away as huge logs or parts of wreckage beat like a battering ram against the houses, trembling in the torrents of roaring water, were gone with the earlier days of the disaster. Out in the streets, in the gardens and the lawns were broken and mud-covered furniture, drying in the sun, while men and women with hoes and spades were patiently shoveling out sediment that lay inches deep over all the lower floors. The story of the relief work need not be again re- peated. Into the field the Red Cross placed over sixty experts to assist and advise the local committees that were organized. By means of its registration cards the number of families in each city, town or village who required assistance was obtained, and the appropriation for each community was based upon these records, a task that without this method would have been almost impos- sible to accomplish justly and would have led to infinite dissatisfaction. The funds were not handled by the Red Cross repre- sentatives in any save a very few small localities, but were placed to the credit of the treasurer of a local com- mittee, such committee having first to obtain the ap- proval of its personel by the Red Cross National director. In the paying out of all funds the vouchers had to receive the approval of the local Led Cross representa- tive. In this way a double check was placed upon the expenditures. As an example of certain methods in the relief work an arrangement may be cited from Dayton where about five thousand families required furniture. A grant of a certain amount was made to each accord- ing to its needs. The grant, however, was not made in money but in the form of an order for the amount on any one of some twelve furniture stores in the city that had suffered heavy losses. In this way the families were provided with what they needed and at the same time, though desiring no donations from relief funds, busi- 154 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG ness men of the city were assisted to re-establish them- selves. Tragic as disasters are, they are rarely without some touch of humor. A small place of two hundred and fourteen houses with the ambitious name of Future City near Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio enters the Mississippi River, was the scene of a lively chase on the part of its citizens. Warned of the approach of the flood, they had escaped to the levees or to high ground. One after an- other of the little frame dwellings arose from its founda- tion and floated away on the flood-waters. Beholding this desertion on the part of their property, a sudden in- spiration seized their owners. Several motor boats were secured, and, greatly to the excitement and enter- tainment of the crowds on the tops of the levees, a remarkable chase after the runaways took place. "A boat would dash alongside of a house, her crew would quickly attach a rope to some convenient projection, and the chugging motor would tow her back to Future City. Water was deep over all, and no one could determine the exact spot from which the house had come, but it would be brought back to its own neighborhood and anchored to a tree or telegraph pole. Then away would hurry the motor boat for another capture." One hundred and sixty-eight houses were caught and brought home. When the waters receded, there they lay, in their muddy beds, not one on its own foundation, many of them on their sides, and some resting even on their roofs. Here the Bed Cross came to the aid of the deserving people. The former location of each dwelling was identi- fied, and an estimate secured from contractors of the cost of returning the houses. Wherever any one of the owners could by his own labors lessen the estimated cost he was allowed the balance for the repairs after the house was again in place. By an expenditure of about twenty- two thousand dollars, Future City was entirely re-estab- ENCOURAGEMENT DISPLACES GLOOM 155 lished. "The cardinal principles of the American Red Cross clearly had been held in view. The initiative and detail had been carried by a committee of local people. The recipients of awards had been placed under obliga- tions to do as much additional for themselves as was practicable under all the conditions of the case. Encour- agement by this assistance displaced gloom, defeat and discontent in the entire community. Doubt as to the wisdom of frugality and independence was removed." Nothing more than a bird's eye view has been given in these few brief stories of some great fields of Red Cross work, but enough to illustrate generally its methods and its policies. It purposes to injure neither the self- reliance of the individual nor the community, but by means of its trained personnel and its relief methods, gained from long practical experience, to arouse confi- dence and courage, which, with such assistance, will bring about prompt rehabilitation and the return of normal conditions. CHAPTER X PUBLIC IDEAS OF RELIEF MEASURES. BREAD LINES. CLOTHING BUREAUS. REFUGEE CAMPS. MONEY. RED CROSS METHODS. REHABILITATION. "EXTRA!" shouts the shrill voice of the newsboy. "Tumble disaster. Thousands killed." The air be- comes electric with excitement. The public thrills with sensational emotion. A momentary dread sweeps over the individual that the catastrophe may have some indi- rect connection with himself, but this fear once allayed he gives himself up to the telling and hearing of some new thing. The psychological effect produced upon the public by serious disasters makes an interesting study. Not unsympathetic, yet craving the sensational, it gauges the size of the catastrophe by the number who have been killed rather than by the number who are suffering Exaggerated estimates of the fatalities fill the papers, save when some fearful earthquake or volcanic eruption destroys such appalling numbers that even the press hesi- tates before the truth. Taking into consideration the public's unit of measure, which largely influences its giving, these early exaggerations result in benefit to the survivors. Several years ago when the volcanic eruption in the Island of Martinique destroyed the town of St. Pierre, as soon as the startling new reached this country immedi- ate means were taken to secure relief funds, and over eighty thousand dollars were received before it was learned that there was only one survivor, the rest of the entire population having been instantly blotted out of existence. The individual who escaped owed his life to the fact that being a prisoner he was so closely confined even death itself was unable to reach him. This sole refugee evidently lacked the enterprise of certain others who have been known elsewhere, or a lawsuit would 156 PUBLIC IDEAS OF RELIEF MEASURES 157 have been promptly instituted on his behalf as the right- ful claimant of the funds contributed for the benefit of the survivors of the eruption. These were returned to such donors as desired, and the remainder, with the con- sent of the contributors, was given for various philan- thropic purposes. If there is little else of interest to fill the papers, the details of a calamity are more fully reported, and the story is prolonged from day to day, until the laggards in generosity are moved to give. Sometimes a serious disaster is blanketed by the occurrence of a lesser one which presents more sensational features. At the time of the Titanic loss a great flood was causing serious dan- ger, loss and suffering to many thousands of persons, but the sinking of the immense steamer, the large number of prominent persons drowned, the dramatic experience of the survivors and the tragic stories of those who per- ished overshadowed the appealing needs of the unfortu- nate people of the Mississippi Valley. The first excitement as to the immediate fatalities having died away, the public, save such as may have come in direct contact with the suffering, questions little of the injured. Those in the towns near Messina and Reggio who helped unload the flat cars of their pitiful human freight, who saw the crushed and mangled bodies and witnessed the agonies of the wretched victims can never obliterate from their memories those awful scenes of human misery. One who was at Taormina gives a vivid description of her experience. " If I wrote for hours I could not tell you of the horrors we have seen in the last three days. During the first day the long trains came in perhaps every hour with the wounded and the dying huddled together with the refugees, all with that frightened look of horror on their faces. When the officials thought the people were dying they would be taken off at our station, and we had arranged the waiting room into a place to receive them. When the tables were 158 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG all full they would have to go on the floor poor, poor people, sometimes you could hardly see for the blood that they were human beings, and they were mangled beyond words, some had both arms and legs broken, many had not eaten for days and their thirst was terrible. ' ' Often even the sufferers themselves, beholding the destruction of the butcher and the baker shops, become hysterical over the fear of famine, and frantic appeals are made to the War Department to send millions of rations to prevent starvation. Little do they realize what actual famine and starvation mean or how long the human body can retain life without food or nourishment. It is true that in floods of long duration when persons are marooned in upper stories, or in the destruction by earthquakes are entrapped for days in cellars and unable to obtain food, much suffering results; but even then hardly ever actual starvation. The entire neighborhood surrounding the scene of a disaster, with bewildering generosity loads wagons, car- riages and automobiles with all the available food sup- plies upon which it can lay its hands. When the forests on the steep slopes of Mount Tamalpias burst into flames one July day, strenuous were the efforts of five thousand men to extinguish the fires. To the rescue of this vali- ant army went the San Francisco Bed Cross, with such a supply of ''eatables, drinkables and smokeables" that the fire-fighters were reported as vanquishing the fire with one hand and the sandwiches with the other, while the smoke of many pounds of tobacco joined with that of the forests. Following the lead or the nearer neighborhood, the more distant parts of the country fill to overflowing freight cars and hurry them off to the unfortunate com- munity. Railroad companies in spite often of serious losses themselves, give free transportation for relief sup- plies, while telegraph and telephone companies transmit Red Cross Messages without charge. Tlie War Depart- BREAD LINES 159 ment, on urgent appeals, rushes rations by the thousands to the scene, so that it is doubtful if in any of our na- tional disasters the victims have ever suffered long from hunger. In fact, there have been occasions when the sight seeing crowds attracted to the spot have had to be fed upon donations, as there was no other way of ap- peasing their needs. This generosity is not to be discour- aged. Its promptness prevents much suffering, and saves the relief funds for the assistance that only money can provide. One of the most familiar sights connected with relief is the bread line. A motley throng of men, women and children straggle down the street, around a corner and a block or two away. Card in hand and basket on arm, patiently they stand, advancing slowly to their goal. The supply station may be in some large armory, down the length of which stretches an interminable counter, sepa- rating pyramids of comestibles from the waiting refu- gees. At the entrance the cards giving the name of the applicant and the number in the family are scrutinized by an inspector, who passes on their owners or turns them back should suspicion be aroused. Down the long counter moves the line. Into the waiting baskets are stowed here a loaf of bread, there a package of tea, until the rations for each are completed. Mrs. McGinnis may stumble over small, black-eyed Guiseppi in her anxiety to see if Mrs. Rosenbaum has a larger package of cod- fish than she; and Madame Martine may protest in broken English that she should have more sugar for her numerous offspring, yet it is generally a silent, orderly procession, that accepts without thanks or comment what is given. It is difficult at first to keep fraudulent applicants out of the bread line, for in the earlier days one must go on the principle "better let a hundred impostors be fed than one honest man go hungry." For this reason, and for a still stronger one, bread lines should be done away 160 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG with as soon as possible. They are a constant reminder of an abnormal condition and tend to prolong the de- pendency of the people. When material aid must be given, orders on local tradespeople for food supplies should be substituted, thus turning the relief work into a more normal channel and at the same time helping to restore the busines of the community. This is the policy of the Red Cross. The needs of the inner man having been duly at- tended to, the next consideration involves the clothing problem. In this, both at the source of the contribution and at its distribution human nature manifests itself in many ways. There are some among the donors who evi- dently consider disasters a Providential opportunity pro- vided for the clearing out of long accumulated attic rub- bish ; but these are the exception, far the greater number pour out their gifts with a wealth of generous spirit where often there is little wealth beside. There is the sympathetic old lady, unmindful of next winter's need, who brings her soft, warm shawl "for some poor soul who may be glad to have it, ' ' or the laboring man who stops at some collecting station in a distant town to leave his overcoat with an "I don't need it, as spring will soon be here. ' ' Sometimes the black-garbed mother, with tear- ful eyes, lays beside the packer's box a bundle of babies' clothes that her child no longer needs. The liveried footman from the luxurious motor brings a great box of newly purchased garments, while the street urchin drops on the floor in a corner to take off his shoes, "Be- cause I don 't mind going barefoot, lady, and maybe some other boy'd catch cold without any shoes." The touch of sorrow makes the whole world kin. At the bureau of distribution great wagons dump boxes, bales and barrels of clothing. Into the unpack- ing room they go, where busy women sort them out men's, women's and children's coats, and dresses, hats and underwear, shoes and stockings, .each having their CLOTHING BUREAUS 161 particular pile upon which requisitions can be made. What a metamorphosis a large school building presents when used for a clothing station. Here, where belong the books and papers the desks are covered with shoes, some new, some old, the little ones on the front row and the larger ones at the back. The seats are filled with women and children, busily trying on shoes, with half an eye glued to all the new ones in the vicinity. From the cloak room nails hang coats and cloaks as many hued as the rainbow and all-embracing as to styles. Escorted by one of the clothing committee, a refugee family makes its rounds. What is becoming to Mary is long considered. Shall Tommy, who looks with covet- ous eyes on long trousers, be advanced to such a dig- nity ? Shall mother accept a coat or a shawl as best suited to her figure ? All these are problems that the committee member helps to solve. Many a criticism is passed upon the fashion of the garments, but what matter if there is a look into the gift horse 's mouth. Poor souls, how many of them have lost the simple treasures of a lifetime that no money can replace. There are always a few to whom a disaster proves a bonanza. They belong to that social strata who have owned little, lived in cheap lodging houses, and who prac- tically lost nothing because they had nothing to lose. Ashes tell no tales, and who can gainsay their stories of lost property. They must share together, the just and the unjust, and one hardly begrudges them the small stroke of good fortune. It is an ill wind that blows no- body good. Among the household necessities the stove occupies an especially honorable position. "Oh, Miss, won't you please help me get a stove. Here am I, a real born American, and all these furriners are getting ahead of me," pleads an elderly and respectably arrayed dame. "Perhaps you think me rich because I have got on this black silk dress. But, mercy, no. I just put on my best 11 162 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG clothes to save them when I saw the fire comin' our way. You may think me fat. Bless you, dear ; I have got one dress on top of the other for I don 't like to leave either of them in the place we have got. There are some folks would steal even a poor body 's clothes off their back. I haven't had a bit of help, and there's that Mrs. Krasno- koutski, a shiftless creature with a dozen children, got a lot of furniture when she never owned so much as a kitchen chair before the fire. Some people have all the luck. My poor old man, he is over eighty, been in bed with rheumatics ever since that awful night; well nigh killed him and I haven't even a stove to cook his din- ner. It comes mighty hard when you are seventy-five years old to be asking for charity. There is that Eyetal- ian fruit-man that cheated me last week going off with a bundle of clothing big enough for a boarding house, and me, that was born in this very town, ain't got so much as a single stove." And the tears rolled down the cheeks of the poor old lady. "Never mind," say you of the committee, "this is not charity, this is the Bed Cross." And the tears on the wrinkled cheeks are brushed away with a sense of comforted and re-estab- lished respectability. It is true that after you have seated the ancient American refugee on a comfortable bench and with some indignation approached a table, back of which is seated a business-like young man or woman, to inquire why Mrs. Jeremiah Allen, of 23 Trimble Street, has not been provided with anything, not even a stove, you may be a bit chagrined to learn by the registration cards that chairs, food, clothing and various other articles have been bestowed upon Mrs. J. Allen at the same address. The old lady's anxiety to obtain the stove led her somewhat away from the nar- row path of truth. When you finally return triumphant with the stove order in hand you find her happy with a ten-dollar bill that she announces "the minister over to $he First Congregational Church where I go once in a CLOTHING BUREAUS 163 while, gave me. Now I guess I will go out and do a little shopping, dearie." Should there be offered to each refugee in place of food, clothing and household articles, half of their value in money there would be a prompt acceptance on the part of ninety per cent., but the practical results of such assistance would prove far from satisfactory. Two sis- ters in Ohio who had lived in a small rented apartment complained bitterly that only thirty dollars had been allotted to them for furniture. On inquiry being made as to what was purchased with this amount, they acknowledged that for weeks before the flood they had cast longing eyes on six dining room chairs that were valued at forty-eight dollars. These had been slightly damaged by water, and were marked down to thirty dol- lars. The grant just filled the bargain. How could they resist ! The policy of the Red Cross regarding money grants is to secure beforehand, as far as possible, a definite understanding with the recipient as to the use to which such funds are to be applied. Several years ago in Colo- rado after a serious mine accident an appropriation was made by the State legislature for the benefit of the widows. Each of these women who received several hun- dred dollars, had probably never before had more than ten dollars at a time in her possession. Here was to them untold wealth, and immediately they became the prey of unscrupulous individuals, into whose pockets much of the State appropriation soon found its way. One vam- pire robbed these luckless creatures by securing an order from nearly every widow for a portrait of her unfortu- nate husband. In this case had the Red Cross been in charge the women would have been safeguarded, the system used after the Cherry mine disaster would have been carried out, pensions provided, and the State funds would not have become the property of men worthy the name of criminals. Efforts have been made by so-called 164 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG benefit societies or associations of refugees to secure by means of law the moneys contributed to the Bed Cross for relief work, but fortunately without success. Mr. Cannon, when Speaker of the House of Represen- tatives, once expressed to an officer of the Red Cross his conviction that all Government appropriations for relief purposes should be placed in the hands of the Red Cross for administration. This would tend toward the concen- tration of all funds under expert management, prevent duplicating efforts, insure better economic results, lessen the expense of administration, and also the political pres- sure. In both Ohio and Illinois such an arrangement was fully justified by results. In the former case out of the State appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for flood relief, only one hundred thousand was expended; and in Illinois the one hundred thousand dollars appropriated for the Cherry miners' families became part of the combined pension fund. Life in a refugee camp for many of its occupants is rather a pleasant experience in summer weather, for vacation funds in many cities send mothers and children for a restful week into camp life in the country. Mili- tary discipline and strict sanitary regulations must be maintained, but these are not a hardship, and many of the tired mothers of large families revel in the recess from the kitchen stove and the washing tub. Three times a day all that they have to do is to marshal their tent- holds into line, arm them with tin table utensils, and march them down to the big dinner tent, passing the open-air kitchen, where well-cooked meals are ladled into the outstretched dishes to be carried to the com- munity tables. No food is permitted in the other tents, and loud voiced protests are occasionaly heard when Red Cross nurses and Camp orderlies confiscate green apples, stale cake or the more objectionable bottles, fished out from under a hospitable tent floor. If the camp is a large one, at its entrance will be found the post-office REFUGEE CAMPS 165 and the information registry, for the camp population is a fluctuating one. Families try other quarters for a while, and then drift back to its friendly shelter. Men who have secured work and are without families are not permitted its assistance. On a knoll at one side a little group of tents, over which floats a Red Cross flag, form the doctors' and nurses' station. A watchful eye is kept over the large family in their care. Here is the milk tent, with bottles scalding in hot water, where the babies' food is prepared with a care never before known to mother and child. Round cheeked and rosy grow the puny youngsters, who have before lived upon prepared infant food, or even tea and coffee. There is the bathing tent, with its oil stove and array of soap and clean towels around the little tubs. Great excitement was created one day when an immigrant father permitted his two-year-old boy to receive his first bath, and his irate mother, discovering the performance after it had begun, shrieked aloud over the inhuman treatment of her offspring. A healthful life is this at a refugee camp, but one not to be too long tolerated, for idleness is a habit easily acquired and difficult to overcome. Frequent were the disapprovals of the California housewives over the atti- tude of Maggie, who preferred the social life of a refu- gee camp at San Francisco to the joys of domestic ser- vice in the country round about. The final stage in relief work and one of the most important, though it interests the general public the least, is that of rehabilitation. This is the end the Bed Cross always has in view. Each one of its institutional members throughout the country is provided with a box like a dress suit case. This box contains a Red Cross flag to mark a relief station, voucher forms, telegraph blanks, pencil, paper, and a thousand or more registra- tion cards. These cards have been prepared to meet all sorts and kinds of disasters. The minute the call comes 166 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG for aid the institutional member, his relief case in hand, is ready to start the work of rehabilitation by an immedi- ate registration of the families. Each man's name with those of his family are set down. Who, if any, have been disabled. Next follow his debit and credit disaster ac- count. What has he lost his house, furniture and cloth- ing, business building, stock and equipment, farming implements, barns and live stock and what is their esti- mated value? Has he lost his employment? On the credit side of the ledger : What are his material resources, insurance, real estate, savings and undestroyed property, against which there may be mortgages or other debts to be noted. Then comes his occupational resources has he a permanent occupation ? What are his wages ? Who are his present employers, and what was his for- mer employment ? Among his social resources there are labor unions, clubs, or benefit societies to which he may belong and from which he may obtain assistance; or relatives who may lend a helping hand. Finally comes the family 's plans for the future and the suggestions the Red Cross agent has to make, with a few lines as to what action is eventually taken for permanent rehabilitation. This is the real proof of successful relief operations, for although temporary aid may be all that is necessary in some cases, the great majority of the victims of a catastro- phe need the assistance of experienced persons to open up a new future before them and to place them again on the self-supporting basis they occupied before misfortune overtook them. A time comes when the Red Cross and disaster relief committees, for the good of the entire com- munity, must relinquish such duties so that the normal local agencies shall reassume their responsibilities. In a letter of instructions issued by the National director of the Red Cross to the Ohio Flood Committee is most ably summed up the Red Cross methods. It has been called a classic in relief literature: "And now comes the true test of our efficiency. Our RED CROSS METHODS 167 work is only fairly begun. It must go forward without the inspiration of early days. Family by family we must calmly and sympathetically consider the right thing to be done for each. We are dealing with individual problems, complex, various, infinite. We cannot restore losses. Our relief fund is not an insurance fund. The amount of a family's losses is not an index to the relief which may be afforded it. The only guide for us is the extent of each family's need and its inability to re- establish itself. We must do what is necessary to help the hardest hit family to its feet and start it forward in self-support. Only that. Our funds will not permit more. Thus our work becomes a matter of learning the essential facts. Sympathy and actual knowledge must go hand in hand. In no other way can we discover and perform the particular service for each family which is necessary to give it the right start. And remember that common sense our own accumulated experience with our fellows in our own lives is the key which unlocks many perplexities. "Emergency relief should by this time be closed or reduced to its fag ends. Closing relief stations and stop- ping the general issue of supplies does not imply that no more food or clothing will be available. Individual families can still be supplied. Closing relief stations however, has two very important results : ' ' It removes the public, visible sign of relief distribu- tion, which is always abnormal and demoralizing and is a standing temptation and inducement to dependence. "It clears the slate and allows you to make a new start on a new basis. The routine is broken. Each fam- ily which makes application for help after the relief sta- tion is closed may be taken up anew and must justify its application by a showing of facts. Many will not reapply. "In every step and process relief operation must be positive and progressive. 'Marking time' is losing time. 168 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG A passive policy means failure. Keep things moving. If we wait for those who are receiving aid, voluntarily to announce that they have enough, we'll never get done. A good many will stop coming, but many will hang on. They have suffered and are discouraged and the relief fund cannot restore their losses. So they will remain hoping and growing more helpless every day. They must be carried forward to independence in spite of themselves. "All were self-supporting before the disaster. Act on the presumption that all will be self-supporting again and at once. If in occasional instances this cannot be, give such instances kindly consideration and help with a view to hastening independence and stimulating new courage. "A final residuum of the helpless will remain; those who, from age or ill health or loss of the family wage- earner, may not be able to regain their feet or at best can do so only after months or years of effort. These must be given such kindly temporary help as is possible, but their problems must be left, for final solution, to the regular and ordinary helpful agencies of the com- munity. It is hoped and believed that this residuum will be small. The steady progress of relief operations toward completion, involving, as it does, the future welfare of a large number of sturdy, useful citizens must not be retarded by the effort to restore that smaller, pathetic number of those who cannot respond to the stimulating movement toward a new life. "The relief movement should be a resistless current carrying all before it, so far as is humanly possible, back to normal existence. The atmosphere should be electric with new energy, new hope and a sense of better days at hand. The distribution of food and the provision of shel- ter and clothes -are necessary, but the inculcation of cour- age and hope and determination is the secret of perma- nent success." : CHAPTER XI THE CHRISTMAS SEAL. ITS ANCESTORS, THE SANITARY FAIR STAMPS. ITS FOREIGN RELATIONS, THE EURO- PEAN CHARITY STAMPS. HOW THE SEALS ARE SOLD. A DAVID AGAINST GOLIATH. THE DOUBLE CROSS. WHEN the American delegates to the Eighth Interna- tional Red Gross Conference returned from London, in 1907, they were somewhat puzzled as to how the Ameri- can Red Cross should carry out the agreement made by the societies to take some part in the campaign against tuberculosis. In those countries, where large numbers of young men are required yearly to do military service, many are rejected because of tuberculosis, or are discharged because it develops shortly after they have entered the army. The aid given to such men, and the safeguard- ing of their families from infection becomes a patriotic duty that is undertaken by several of the foreign socie- ties. But with us, our army is so small that the relatively few who develop the disease are taken care of by the government and require no Red Cross assistance. The problem was still unsolved at the time of the an- nual meeting that year, when, quite unaware of the inter- national resolution, Miss Emily Bissell, secretary of the Delaware Red Cross, appeared before the Central Com- mittee with a little stamp bearing a Red Cross and the words ' ' Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, ' ' which that chapter desired to sell for the benefit of anti-tuber- culosis work. Whence came the idea, and what was its origin ? The little stamp was considered an emigrant and not until some years later was the fact discovered, by means of a Swedish report, that the famous charity stamp was a native of our own land of inventions. We 169 170 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG have already seen how much we owe to the Sanitary Com- mission, but that the charity stamp should prove another inheritance, which, after wandering far afield, returned to us again, was a most unexpected discovery. In 1862 the first charity stamps were sold at a sanitary fair in Boston. Who was the author of their being is unknown, but that their mission was to raise funds for the aid of the sick and wounded in war made an appro- priate, if strange, coincidence that the revival in America was due to the successor of the Sanitary Commission, their originator. An interesting account of these "Stamps of the United States Sanitary Fairs" is given by Mr. J. "W. Scott, in the American Journal of Philately. Mr. Scott calls "attention to a neglected series of United States stamps that commemorate national events, and in that respect are not one whit behind their venerable com- petitors, coins." A stamp that was used in a Brooklyn fair had for its design the American eagle. The vener- able bird grasps three arrows in his right claw, and in has left an olive branch. The stamp bears the words, "Brooklyn Sanitary Fair Postage," but its value is not given, and the omission may have been intentional. The printing is in green, on white paper. "The stamp it- self," to quote Mr. Scott, "speaks volumes and cannot fail to recall the time when our country was torn by internecine strife. Three years of war had filled our homes with mourning, our hospitals with maimed and crippled soldiers, and exhausted the resources of the na- tional government to relieve their sufferings. It was then that the ladies of the North organized fairs in the different cities to raise money to supply the wounded with comfort and delicacies; to send the convalescents to their homes, and to care for the widows and orphans of the same." At this Brooklyn fair a modern post- office was established. Here a letter could be posted to any part of the world provided it bore upon it, besides SANITARY FAIR STAMPS 171 the regular government stamps, one of these little labels of the fair. Letters written behind the scenes were to be had by anyone who paid for the fair postage. For the New York Sanitary Fair a stamp beautiful in design and printing was provided. In the centre was an eagle with, upraised wings and neck outstretched. He stands upon the United States shield, with a background of flags and stars. These stamps were printed in different colors, according to their value ; the blue were ten cents ; green twenty cents, and black thirty cents. It is doubtful if any other fair ever proved such a financial success as this great New York Sanitary Fair, which netted $1,200,000 for the commission's relief work. Gavit, a well-known Albany engraver, designed a stamp used for a fair in that city. This is the only one of these stamps, as far as known, that was counterfeited. While the stamps used in New York all had the eagle as a design, those issued in New England had for their emblem the figures of soldiers or sailors. One of these is oval in shape, printed in green and white, and repre- senting a sailor with a wooden leg, carrying a flag in his hand. The "Stamford" stamp, in brown, pictures a sentry at his post of duty ; and a stamp which bears the name of the celebrated engraver Chubbuck, used at Springfield, shows a polite officer raising his hat to two ladies and apparently welcoming them to the fair. The success of these "sanitary fair" stamps led to their adoption by other charities. One stamp carrying the design of a balloon, is marked "balloon postage." For many years after the civil war the idea of the charity stamp was lost. As far as we know, it was again brought to light by the issuing of such stamps in Portu- gal for the benefit of the Red Cross in that country. From there it spread rapidly to other countries of Europe, where it has been sold mainly for the support of anti-tuberculosis institutions. Some of the Swedish charity stamps are quite elaborate in character. On one 172 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG are pictures of the king and queen; on another St. George is represented slaying the dragon; and the de- sign of a third appears to be JEsculapius grasping a young girl by the hand. A Danish stamp shows a child- dren 's sanatorium which is maintained by the sale of the stamp. Lately the British Red Cross has issued a series of large shilling stamps illustrating scenes of its assist- ance of the wounded, which are sold for the benefit of its relief work. By what path did our little truant stamp^ return to its native land ? One day near Christmas time in 1906, Mr. Jacob Riis received a letter from his old home in Den- mark, which, besides the regular postage, was almost cov- ered with new and, to him, mysterious, stamps. Mr. Riis was not the man to let this mystery go unsolved, and It did not take long for him to discover that these stamps were sold to help the Danish people battle against the great white plague. When he was a boy consumption, as tuberculosis was then called, was supposed to be an in- herited disease, the touch of whose skeleton hand sealed the fate of its unfortunate victim. One after another, six brothers of Mr. Riis had died, a sacrifice to the ignor- ance of those early days. He evidently owed his escape to the fact that while still a boy he was sent to America and thus taken out of dangerously infected surroundings. What a deep interest he felt in the overcoming of tuber- culosis can well be imagined. In the Outlook he wrote of the little stamp "The Christmas stamp is not good for postage every other way it is good for the man who buys it and puts it on his letter ; for the clerk who cancels it with a glad thought for the little waifs with every whack ; for the postman that delivers the letter with a smile as good and bright as Christmas itself. The proof that they like it is this : that they refuse to a man to take anything for their work. They all wanted to help. The thought itself with this power of setting everybody to thinking of a great wrong that can only be righted through every- EUROPEAN CHARITY STAMPS 173 body's thinking of it, deserves a place. What else is the tuberculosis scourge than such a wrong. Nothing in all the world is better proven to-day than that it is a preventable disease, and therefore needless. And yet in our own country it goes on year after year killing an army of one hundred and fifty thousand persons, and desolating countless homes in which half a million men and women are always wearily dragging themselves to graves dug by this single enemy. What I want to know is why we cannot here borrow a leaf from Santa Glaus' Danish year book and do as they have done ? I am plead- ing for the half million poor souls all over the land whose faces are set to-day towards an inevitable grave, because of ignorance, needless ignorance, and for the friends who grieve with and for them." This article of Mr. Riis' fell into Miss Bissell's hands, and Delaware needed funds for its anti-tuberculosis work. From the Danish stamp on Mr. Riis' letter, the need in Delaware, and Miss Bissell's initiative sprang our Red Cross Christmas Seal. For the first few years it was called a "stamp." In spite of Shakespeare's query, "What's in a name?", there is a great deal in a name 's influence on the popular mind. The word "stamp" unfortunately led many persons to suppose the little messengers of good-will were sufficient for postage on letters. The Post-office Depart- ment had given the small stamps a courteous welcome, but it positively declined to allow them to take the place of its own revenue producers. As a consequence, not a few additional letters and parcels decorated with the Red Cross emblem, but minus Uncle Sam 's stamps, found their way to the dead letter office ; this led to official regu- lations that all Christmas stamps must be placed on the back of letters and packages. Some one's happy in- spiration changed the name from "stamp" to "seal," to insure the proper location of the offending little mes- senger. 174 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG The charter of the American Ked Cross places the duty upon it of mitigating the sufferings caused by pesti- lence and the devising of measures to prevent the same. No more dangerous and insidious pestilence exists than that which is called the great white plague. It invades the palace as well as the hovel. It deforms the child as well as slays the man, and no country or nation is free from its ravages. A century past our ancestors wrote of it as the ''wasting sickness;" half a century ago men called it consumption; and to-day we give it the more scientific name of tuberculosis. But call it what we will it is ever the same dread disease, so widely scattered and so slow in the consummation of its results that it requires not only the skill of specialists to combat it, but the earnest co-operation of the entire nation, rich and poor, young and old. It is in the unexpected role of educator that the Red Cross seal has played a most important part. Public in- terest in it was first aroused by competitions held for the selection of an appropriate design. Competitors by hun- dreds sent their productions to the Red Cross. These were of all possible kinds, some from the brush of the artist, some from the pen of the skilled draughtsman, some from the untaught hands of children, and some the crude products of paper, paste and scissors. After a weeding-out process the best were selected and exhib- ited at the Corcoran Art Gallery, at Washington. Such artists as Frank Miller and Paul Bartlett gave their ser- vices as members of the jury on awards. It was interest- ing to note that the purity of the conventional design appealed more to the artist than to the popular fancy. The public likes better the seal which arouses its imagin- ation by the face of a merry Santa Glaus, or the laden boughs of a Christmas tree. The earlier stamp designs were composed of the Red Cross surrounded by holly in conventional form. But the seals of the last few years THE CHRISTMAS SEAL 175 have depended upon the benevolent face or form of Santa Glaus to enhance their popularity. To increase its educational value children in the schools have been encouraged to copy its design, or to write essays on its purpose. This education, radiated out from school-room into the homes, so that inquiry as to the disease to be combated followed the interest aroused by the seal and added to its usefulness in extending knowl- edge. Its astonishing success in the raising of funds led to imitation, and stamps and seals of many varieties were launched upon communities only to meet with fail- ure, or but small success. To design a seal and put it on the market is one thing; to sell it quite another. Organization machinery and advertising are as neces- sary in the sale of the seal as in the successful sale of any article of commerce. Fortunately, throughout the country an active interest in anti-tuberculosis work was being aroused. Innumerable state and local committees already existed; and the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis an excellent society with a regrettably long name was stimulating this interest and increasing local associations. There was, therefore, an organization already in existence, and by means of this organization the sales have been car- ried on. Probably no other national charity has ever received such an amount of gratuitous advertising. Clever cartoonists of great daily papers pictured the gaunt skeleton of tuberculosis stalking, with death-deal- ing steps, through city or town, while toward the combat advanced the valiant Bed Cross knight, from whose at- tacking spear floated the Christmas seal; or jolly old Santa Claus himself appeared, every parcel in his pack labeled with his own kindly face, while he utters the admonition, "Don't forget the Christmas Seal on every gift." Poets burst into song and verse to praise its virtues. Periodicals gave pages to explain its purpose 176 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG and increase its sale. Billboards displayed large repro- ductions in Christmas colors. Motors with, banners and pretty girls paraded the streets to advertise its goodly work. Schools have been awarded prizes for the largest sale. In Ohio the twelve communities which sold the greatest number per capita were each awarded a visiting nurse for a month, by the State Committee. Moving- picture films were pressed into service, a romantic story woven around the seal, and an unsuspected lesson taught. There can be few to-day among our many millions of people who do not know the little seal and understand its object. Great banks and commercial houses send it out on their holiday mail, while the little newsboy hands out his penny and is happy because he has a chance given him to help. Everybody helps. Old "Scrooge" himself, had he been here, could not have kept out of the spirit of it all, for was not "Tiny Tim" a victim of this cruel plague? Is it to be wondered, then, that during the last seven years over two hundred and thirty million seals have been sold, and over $2,300,000 thereby raised for active work, not counting the indirect aid of such an immense circulation in spreading knowledge of the campaign and arousing public interest. Ninety per cent of the profits on the sale of the seals belongs to the community in which they are sold. The remaining ten per cent goes to the Red Cross to pay for the printing of a yearly issue of more than one hundred million seals, hundreds of thousands of posters and other advertising matter. Any profit that may remain of this ten per cent after the expenses are paid is divided between the Red Cross and the National Association for the Study and Pre- vention of Tuberculosis. State associations by means of the seal have been called into existence and maintained ; others which were moribund have been revived by its aid and taken on new life and activities. Scores of day camps, on the roofs THE CHRISTMAS SEAL 177 of hospitals in large cities, or on remodeled ferry-boats, or formed of tents in pleasant groves, are carried on by means of the little seal, and bring back health and hap- piness to multitudes of men, women and children. San- itaria, dispensaries, open-air schools, educational exhib- its, visiting nurses, and countless other means for com- bating the white plague, owe their existence to the penny seal with its emblem of the Bed Cross. A tiny David, with but a simple sling, is fighting the battle against this powerful and horrible Goliath of destruction. That sometimes the purpose of the seal is not fully understood is shown by a letter that found its way to tho Red Cross office, addressed to the "Red Cross Seal": "While looking over a paper i found an advertise- ment of the red Cross Seel staiting that it was Good for Consumption and other deseases i wish that you would please send me a bottle and also the price so in case i Need more i Will No What to send send me the meder- son i will see that you get the money if i Know what it Cost i cud send the money at once please dont fail to send it at once please let me hear from you at once." Even if this was aid the Red Cross could not give, the letter carried a pathetic appeal to an organization that stands for the mitigating of such suffering as it indicated and the prevention of its cause. The German Red Cross, which has accomplished more for the anti-tuberculosis campaign than any of the other societies, first used for this department of its peace activ- ities the emblem of the double cross, which is generally accepted as the special symbol of anti-tuberculosis organ- izations. An emblem that is necessarily associated with disease, even if it means an effort to suppress the evil, is not as attractive a symbol for the Christmas messenger as one which throughout the world is recognized as the insignia of helpful humanity and good will towards man. For this reason it is the Red Cross, and not the double cross, that is used upon our seal. 12 178 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG The American Red Cross owes a patriotic duty to the country to help to fight and overcome any pestilence that endangers the health and happiness of the people. The pure democracy of the Red Cross enables the waters of great tributaries to flow in unison with those of the smallest spring through the broad channel of the little Christmas seal. None are too rich to give; none too poor. For in this all-embracing service every hand may be outstretched to do its share. CHAPTER XII THE SICK IN SMALL COMMUNITIES. THE KOENIGSBERG SYSTEM. BEGINNINGS OF A GREAT NATIONAL WORK. HUMOR AND PATHOS IN THE TOWN AND COUNTRY NURSING LIFE. A SUGGESTION. AN English bishop once said, "You cannot teach >nen about heaven until you make earth more like heaven." This effort to make earth more like heaven is a marked feature of man's present-day labors for his fellow-men. No longer are the efforts to mitigate the sufferings of the sick confined within hospital walls, or to the ministrations of the private nurse. Visiting nurse organizations by the hundreds have been established in our cities, and in some of the towns and villages. Even more than the people of the cities, those of our small communities need the service of the visiting nurse. With- out hospitals or dispensaries near at hand, forced to rely for trained aid upon the infrequent calls of a busy or remote country doctor, there is untold suffering, and doubtless many deaths, that the ministrations of the trained nurse would prevent. The ignorance of unin- structed mothers often means years of suffering for the children, and possibly the continuation of ill-health through future generations. In Germany there has been some interesting co-opera- tive work carried on by the working man 's insurance and the Red Cross. Country conditions are very different from those of the cities. The countryman is naturally narrower in his views than his city brother. He distrusts innovations, fears new expenses, or that he may be de- ceived. Who was there to convince the laborer in the poor rural village of the advantages of the insurance law ? He paid his taxes to insure against illness, or accident; but when he became ill what was he to do, and where was he to find the insurance doctor? He distrusts the 179 180 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG doctors and the hospitals in the distant town, and pre- fers to die in the only spot he knows. So many were the difficulties that were associated with sick insurance for these rural communities that the government legis- lators left to the discretion of local authorities the appli- cation of the law. The officials of the district of Koenigsberg, in East Prussia, determined that its people should profit by this sick insurance law. But to make its operation a success the assistance of the women's branch of the Red Cross was sought. This branch, of which the German Em- press is the head, has its members in all the cities, in every village, in the great and small chateaux of the country, in the homes of the manufacturer and those of the workman, of great proprietors and small labor- ers. These would know how to accomplish what officials and regulations failed to do, "to carry the benefits of these social laws to the most remote cabin and to the humblest of the poor." Supported on the one side by public-spirited officials, energetic and faithful men, and on the other by the sincere self-abnegation of the women of the Red Cross, the plan developed, and like a spider web covered the country, establishing throughout all the district its organization of aid for the sick and injured. The district of Koenigsberg includes twenty-three parishes. Each parish has a Red Cross delegate, and by her side a Red Cross "sister," as a trained nurse is called in Germany, both living in their circuit. From the parishes were formed the eleven divisions of the insurance doctors, who treat gratuitously those insured and their families. The houses of the doctors, four little hospitals, fifteen Red Cross sister stations, a small home for incurables, and a first-aid post are scattered over the district in such a manner that it is possible in a short time to bring aid to any unfortunate sufferer, or to take ihim to the nearest hospital. The geographic situation of the large city of Koenigsberg, and the numerous rail- THE KOENIGSBERG SYSTEM 181 roads and the many good roads extending from, the capital out into the country, help to make this plan a success. The insurance administration realizes the re- duction of the cost of recovery by having near at hand the doctor, the ambulance and the nurse, and the de- mands for invalid pensions decrease as the nurses dis- cover the seeds of disease in the laborer's home. Both insurer and insured profit economically by the work of the Eed Cross. All the Bed Cross nurses receive two years' training at the mother-house in connection with the large hospital of charity at Koenigsberg. There are six hundred nurses and two hundred and twenty novices in the mother-house and outside stations. These stations of the nurses are situated in the larger villages of the district, in little houses rented or loaned by charity. Each station consists of a store-room for first-aid sup- plies and the home of the nurse. Almost every station has its little carriage and horse for her tour of visits. Those who are able to do so, call at the station, while the more seriously ill the sister visits in their homes. She reports to the insurance doctor all cases of illness she discovers, teaches the household simple hygiene, brings about cleanliness and order in the home, cares for the baby and mothers the family. The nurse finds a supporter and a guardian in the lady delegate of the Red Cross, generally the wife of the pastor or some official. This delegate transmits to the sister the admin- istrative orders of the Red Cross or the mother-house, and provides for her what is necessary for the station and the poor in brief, the delegate is the representative manager of the Red Cross in the parish. In the four remote corners of the district the Red Cross established four small hospitals. It bought little farms, or separate houses, and remodeled them so as to provide space for twelve beds and lodging for the sis- ters, a store-room for supplies, a dispensary, operating room, kitchen and bathroom. Besides, each hospital has 182 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG a garden for vegetables and a stable for domestic ani- mals for the purpose of economy. The nurse at the station, with an assistant nurse and a maid, takes charge of the running of each little hospital. The Red Cross Association pays only the interest on the capital used for the purchase of these small hos- pitals or stations and for the expenses of the sisters at the mother-house The insurance bureau pays for each insured member who is ill twenty-five cents a day, and this is enough to provide funds to maintain the rest of the work. Whether or not the American Red Cross can ever effect such a system in this country is doubtful, because of the lack of sick insurance laws that have enabled the German Red Cross to accomplish this. But there can be no doubt of the great benefit of such a system to the rural community in which it is situated. Some three years ago, through Miss Lillian Wald, of the New York Henry Street Settlement, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff became deeply interested in the subject of rural nursing. He had seen the value of the daily ministra- tions of the city visiting nurse and realized the even greater need for this service in the country and small towns. In his desire to assist in bringing to these com- munities such aid, Mr. Schiff turned to the Red Cross, of whose Board of Incorporators he is a member. He realized that outside of the nurses' own associations there exists no other organization that comes in closer touch with the trained nurses of the country. Furthermore, he believed that such a work could best be carried on under the supervision of a strong national organization. He offered to the Red Cross a special endowment of $100,000, the income of which was to be devoted to the administration of a town and country nursing service, if it would undertake the work. The generous offer was accepted, and a new piece of activity of the Amer- ican Red Cross inaugurated. RURAL NURSING 183 Our small towns and rural communities are awaken- ing to the benefit of the visiting nurse work. Health is an economic asset to any community. The economic and general welfare of the individual, the community and the nation depend largely upon the prevention of disease. A close relationship exists between poverty and ill-health. Many industrial concerns have recog- nized the inefficiency caused by sickness and provide visiting nurses for their employees. Insurance com- panies who utilize these nurses have done so because such service prolongs the lives of their policyholders. The system adopted for the Town and Country Nursing Department of the Red Cross provides for a corps of graduate trained nurses who have received a special post-graduate course of four months to fit them for this service. These courses, which are given at a number of institutions, embrace lectures on social problems and work, on municipal sanitation, the application of pre- ventive medicine in nursing, food economics and the principles of public health nursing. In connection with the theoretical training the nurse receives her practical experience with some visiting nurse association. At the head of this Town and Country Nursing department is a superintendent, and with her are associated one or more supervisors. These are all nurses who have taken special courses for their particular duties. One of the corps of nurses is assigned to a community in which a local committee or organization undertakes the responsibility for her service and work and which affiliates with the Town and Country Nursing Service, accepting its regulations. The Ked Cross assumes no local financial responsibilities, but it meets the expenses of general supervision, including the visits of the super- vising nurse, provides the nurse's insignia pendant and the various record cards she uses. There are a number of advantages to local committees in such an affiliation. Specially trained nurses are 184 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG obtained, with a responsible organization back of them which is constantly studying the needs and requirements of such communities. The experience of associations thus mutually affiliated benefits all in the solution of similar problems. The nurse isolated from others of her profession receives by means of this affiliation helpful suggestions and feels an inspiration to live up to the high standards of the national organization. She wears a simple blue uniform of wash materials, and around her neck, suspended by a silver chain, the insignia of the Red Cross on a white ground, surrounded by a blue border on which appear the words, "Town and Country Nursing Service." Her uniform and the insignia she wears prove not only a protection to the nurse, but are often the means of identification because of which many acts of kindness are extended to her. Her duties are those of the city visiting nurse, but they cover a more varied field. She becomes the good angel of the com- munity, guarding its health, instructing its women and children in the simple laws of hygiene, as well as caring for its sick and injured. Patients that can afford to pay for the nurse's visits do so to the committee; but the sick poor are given her services without charge. Over forty of these Red Cross town and country nurses are now stationed in various small communities throughout the country. Village improvement associa- tions, Red Cross chapters, health leagues, corporations, industrial concerns, as well as local nursing associations, are employing these nurses. Town governments, local and county health and educational authorities are ap- propriating funds towards their salaries in increasing numbers. One of the Town and Country nurses employed by a large mining company in Pennsylvania, lives in a model town where the majority of the people are Slavs and Hungarians. Her work in their homes has so won their faith and confidence that she says, "My duties are RURAL NURSING 185 varied. I am just as liable to be called for an unfortu- nate goose or chicken as for the baby. I have already successfully mended the wings of three geese. An early morning call came a short time ago to visit a home where a baby had just arrived. I found the baby swaddled and bound with a wide red, white and blue ribbon. Upon asking for an explanation I was told the other chil- dren were born in the old country and were Slavs, but that this one being born here was an American. Hence the display of colors." "Better Baby Contests" are gotten up by this nurse; lectures in Slavic or Hungarian by physicians arranged for; camp-fire girls are taught something of the care of the sick, of symptoms and the isolation of contagious diseases, and one evening in the week is devoted by the nurse to first-aid instructions to the Co-operative Boys. This nurse's life is a happy one, as her work is carried on in an ideal welfare town, with grateful and appre- ciative patients on every side. The services of such a nurse are an economic asset to the company. An official of one of the largest corporations in the country said that the visiting nurse service extended to its employees means a saving of twenty-five dollars a day to the cor- poration. Among the town and country nurses are to be found several county school nurses, sometimes partly sup- ported by the county school board and the commissioners' court, as is one in Alabama. Her county comprises seven hundred and twenty square miles, with ninety-one school districts. Notifying the teacher or trustee of a certain district a few days in advance of her visit she asks them to announce a lecture in the school building the evening of the day. In the morning she examines the pupils, inspects the premises and gives a talk to the children. Before the school is dismissed she hands each child who shows any physical defect a note to the parents and tells the children to urge their parents to attend the lecture 186 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG as she will explain the meaning of adenoids and kindred subjects. This secures a good audience of interested persons. After a short talk on the conditions of the children she gives a simple lecture on hygiene and pre- ventable diseases. The next day there follows another talk to mothers on the care and feeding of the babies. Wherever possible she organizes a branch of the County Improvement Association, which includes work along the lines of sanitation, beautification and school improve- ment. Part of the nurse's time is given to visiting the sick of each school district and instructing the families in their care. To steal a few leaves from the diaries of one or two of these Town and Country nurses may better paint their many daily duties than the duller pages of reports. A nurse from the mountain district writes: "Yesterday I went to town to take a patient. The patient was a man with appendicitis, very poor, with five little children who had lost their mother. We got along nicely ; put him on a cot in the baggage car. Al- though the journey was two hundred miles he was not so very tired when he got there, but think of having to take people in that condition so far. This is the county seat, and should have a little hospital of its own. County and town could each give something for its support, and the mines pay so much a day for each employe cared for. At such a hospital the visiting nurses should have their office. "One thing about my staying here which seems en- couraging is that when I came everybody said this work could not be put on foot. Now everybody says if I stay I will win out. I am willing to stay. I like to do things other people say cannot be done. My fighting blood is up. The fact that I am from the mountains and a South- erner puts me in good favor. "Early this morning I was called out to a case, and then the colored doctor and I rode a mile and a half RURAL NURSING 187 over the mountains and examined thirty-five children in the school. I stopped on my way home to see two that were sick. This afternoon I picked up a little girl on the street, who had fallen and fractured the femur. We carried her to the doctor's office, set the limb, and then I went home with the child and saw that she was put properly to bed. The house was one of the poorest and dirtiest in the town, so if I can get them to clean up I will be glad. I used the extra school cards for the colored school, and need more for a private school I have also been asked to visit. "I rode over to the city last week to arrange for a trachoma clinic. I have had to take this matter up with various authorities, and I have gotten everybody here interested in the trachoma situation. We have now had the specialist and operated on thirteen cases. Next week there will be fourteen. All cases refusing treat- ment are dismissed from the school. I established a tem- porary hospital in two empty rooms that the owner kindly loaned us, and each child brought its cot and bedding. I have not done a great deal of work in the mines lately, for I have been so busy here in town ; but this month I am going to try to do more for them. The poor man I took for the operation has been sent back, as nothing could be done for him. I met the train and took him to a friend's; but he wanted to go home to his children, so last Sunday six men started over here with him on a cot and carried him four miles of the way; six other men from his little village came and met them and carried him the rest of the way. Just think of being carried nine miles on a cot in this rough country ! But there was no other way to make it except in a two-horse wagon." The busy day of one of the nurses situated in a vil- lage where no exceptional features exist gives an excel- lent description of the helpful service of such a nurse : "The telephone rang insistently The sun had a little 188 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG before brightened my room and I was already preparing for my day's work. " 'Yes! Mrs. Allen, did you say? Oh, I hope it won't prove as serious as you fear. Get Mr. Allen as comfort- ably fixed as you can, and I will be there in a few mo- ments. ' ''The early summons sent me scurrying off for my wraps and emergency kit. Out to the stable I hurried, and saddled old Dan, my ancient but faithful steed, that the children have christened 'Baby,' because he has a nurse to take care of him. Off in the frosty morning I cantered, my black bag at my side, with all that was necessary for first-aid until the doctor came. Poor old Deacon Allen! He fell on the slippery steps as he started to the barn to water the stock at sunrise; and as I entered the kitchen I found him propped up on the floor, with a broken bone in the lower leg. A few strong shingles made a temporary splint, and then, with many moans on his part, many sighs on hers, and many words of encouragement on mine, Mrs. Allen and I got him comfortably settled on a lounge to await the doctor's arrival. After a hasty breakfast, which I helped prepare, Mrs. Allen slipped into my hand twenty-five cents. 'It isn't enough/ she said, 'we are poor, but self-respecting folk. We want to pay for what we can and do not ask charity from anyone/ "At the other end of the village, two miles away, was the village school, and as this was one of my school visiting days I trotted away on Dan up the long, broad street. The first order on the program called for the tooth-brush drill, teaching the children a valuable insur- ance against dentist bills. It was amusing to see how they entered into it as if it was a sort of game. The children were expecting my visit, and faces were aglow from vigorous scrubbings, while the hair lay plastered flat on the small boys' heads, or hung in neat braids down the backs of the little girls. It took some time to teach RURAL NURSING 189 the boys that a small clean circle, with the nose as the centre of the circumference, framed by a border of un- washed surface, and a total ignoring of neck and ears, was not a satisfactory result as far as cleanliness went, and that tidy hair-brushing extended more than two inches back from the forehead; for it is hard for a boy to remember he has a neck and ears or a back to his head when the days are far too short for all he wants to do. "As the tooth-brush drill went on I noticed one of the smaller girls was very inattentive. After the class had finished I remarked on the girl's manner to the teacher. 'She has been that way all the morning and I can't do anything with her/ was the reply. I called the little one to me, felt her feverish forehead, and looked into a suspiciously red little throat. 'There are signs of danger here and I will take the child home. The doctor must see her immediately. Put her books out of the children's way. If diphtheria develops they must be burned and the school fumigated,' I cautioned the teacher. This school work I think is second in impor- tance only to that for the babies. Through simple talks I teach the children the basic principles of hygiene, and I keep a close watch for poor eyesight or other troubles from which children often suffer unnoticed by their eld- ers. Last week I took small Benny to town to be fitted for the glasses that opened a new world to his near- sighted eyes. Yesterday there was a sadder visit to the city to go with a poor man from the quarry, whose arm had been crushed in an accident. I stayed with him and encouraged him at the hospital where it was amputated. "Finished with my school inspection work, next came the baby clinic. My committee have fitted up two rooms for me in the centre of the village, and here twice a week the mothers who have tiny babies gather for advice and aid. The doctor also comes whenever he can. There were twenty-three mothers and as many babies 190 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG on hand this morning. The women formed into line and I went at once to the scales, undressed the babies and proceeded to the regular weighing process that tells the doctor and myself how the babies are thriving. Some of the youngsters did not enjoy the performance, and in a short time there was a chorus under way that would have done justice to a full orchestra of cubist musicians or whatever corresponds in music to the cubist in art. Mrs. Koralski was kindly called to account by the good doctor when her nine-months '-old baby tipped the scales at barely twelve pounds. After the others were gone I kept her to show her how to feed and bathe the feeble morsel of humanity. We have gained the confidence of these mothers and their thanks are very touching. They go away with babies whose chances for life have been multiplied ten-fold by these simple instructions. One of the women stopped me this morning to tell me that my work in what I call the 'Friendly Hour Club' was fine, for her daughter had 'fixed up a mustard plaster for her father almost as good as yours, miss.' "On my way home I ran across the fields to old Mammy Magruder's cottage to give her a bit of cheer and a jar of jelly one of my committee had sent her. "The afternoon work was not so heavy. There were several sick patients to visit. Tony Salvatore, poor boy, was one of them. He is slowly dying of tuberculosis, and so grateful for the little I can do, though I have made the family and the boy realize the care that must be taken against infection from the disease. On my tour of visits I noticed a series of farmhouses, one above the other on the sloping hillside. One of these houses drew its water from a well driven near the brook below. I met the owner at the gate, and in some trepidation told him that I had seen something that meant danger to him, and asked if I might talk it over with him. It proved easy to tell my story, for not long ago Tom, his eldest boy, had died of typhoid fever. I gained an ally BUBAL NUBSING 191 in the farmer, who promptly determined that he and his neighbors would look into this question of their wells and the drainage of their farms. "My day's work was nearly over, but I could not go home until I had met my boys' brigade assembled under the big elm tree in the centre of the town. Into three groups they were divided, and under each group was placed the charge of cleaning up a particular street. They went at it with enthusiasm, for this week's prize given by the committee is a regular league baseball and bat. It has been a busy day, like most of my days, for there is much work to be done; but though tired, I go to bed happy with the thought of what has been accom- plished." This new field of Red Cross activity is but in its infancy and it has possibilities of wonderful develop- ment. Though we have not the sick insurance system in this country, one of our large insurance companies pays fifty cents to the Bed Cross for each of these nurses' visits to their policyholders. It would seem as if some such system as that in Germany might be worked out in some of our progressive communities. In a village or small town that employs a Bed Cross nurse and that is remote from a hospital a Bed Cross station might be established, in charge of the nurse; such a station to consist of a small house, one room provided with a few beds and an emergency equipment ; another arranged for a little dispensary; and the rest used for the nurses' and caretakers' home. This Bed Cross station, under a local committee and with the co-operation of the local physician, would become the centre of the health activi- ties of the little community. There is much to work out in the details if such a plan is undertaken, and this is only a suggestion; but the benefits of to-day are the visions of yesterday made perfect. CHAPTER XIII ELEVATING THE NATIONAL CONSCIENCE. THE MACE- DONIAN CRY, "COME OVER AND HELP US." MESSINA AND ITS HORRORS. IN THE FAR EAST. FACING DEATH TO STAY THE PNEUMONIC PLAGUE. FAMINE PICTURES. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND INDIA. FOOD FOR MILLIONS BY DRAINAGE AND RECLAMA- TION. THE WORLD THE RED CROSS FIELD. WHY the standard set for the individual conscience is higher than that set for the national conscience is a mystery. "Thou shalt not steal" pronounces the man who thieves a criminal; but the nations may rob their fellow nations with little or no reproach. ''Thou shalt not kill" applies to man, and he who breaks the law is punished as a murderer ; but the great powers of the world slaughter men by thousands and glory in their victories. Centuries ago man recognized his duty to his fellow- man. Not only were laws enforced to protect the indi- vidual and safeguard human liberty, but the unwritten moral law of conscience makes man responsible for the welfare of his fellow-man. The countless philanthropic organizations that exist for the benefit of the sick or unfortunate, and which are maintained by private benev- olence, testify to the upward trend of man's ethical standard. But how slowly have nations advanced along the same altruistic line ? Has their attitude toward their fellow nations been that of selfish interest, or that of broad, generous sympathy? If the world in the future is to be spared the appalling conditions that exist to-day it must depend upon the awakening of a nobler con- science among the nations. It is in the elevation of the national conscience that the Ited Cross plays a remarkable role. Arbitration courts and international laws, with their promise of impartial justice, will find an easier road to the temple 192 ELEVATING THE NATIONAL CONSCIENCE 193 of universal peace where mercy has blazed the way, for "earthly power doth then show likest God's when mercy seasons justice." Through the channel of the Red Cross the nation answers the old cry, "Come over into Macedonia and help us," and in helping Mace- donia itself rises to a finer realization of the brotherhood of nations. Within the last decade more than two score times has this old cry echoed to our shores, and never once has the Red Cross failed to answer. To many of the countries of Europe, to Central and South America, to the "Lady of the Snows" on our northern border, to the Far East, and to the remote islands of the seas, have gone the help and sympathy of the American people under the flag of the Red Cross. Time marks with a blood-red finger certain days as he turns the pages of history. December 28, 1908, was one of these. A shudder of horror swept round the earth as the awful story of Messina, of Reggio and the other towns of Sicily and southern Italy became known. No pen, however graphic, can describe the appalling catastrophe. To the fair cities of the Mediterranean from every quarter of the globe there rushed a tidal wave of sympathy and help. Far and wide in our own land went the Red Cross appeal for earthquake-shattered Italy, and prompt and generous was the response. Hos- pital aid for the pitiful multitudes of crushed and man- gled victims was too remote for our active participation, but the well organized Italian Red Cross immediately established sixteen temporary hospitals and these, by a donation of over three hundred thousand dollars, the American Red Cross helped to maintain. The railroad service to the south was completely disorganized, and Sicily, moreover, was an island. These conditions led Mr. Lloyd Griscom, our American Ambassador to Italy, and a committee of prominent Americans in Rome, to decide to charter a relief ship. On the receipt of Mr. Griscom 's cable announcing this plan the American 13 194 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG Red Cross accepted the hundred thousand dollar finan- cial responsibility for the expedition. More than half this sum was expended in a few hours for medical outfit, clothing and provisions, especial attention being paid to the selection of food for little children Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Reginald R. Bel- knap, United States Naval Attache at Rome, the "Bay- ern" set sail January seventh from Civita Vecchia, flying the Red Cross flag, one of the many ships of mercy the American Red Cross has sent out to scenes of trouble and distress. The Ambassador and members of the American Com- mittee were in charge of funds and supplies. Three doctors and eighteen nurses formed the medical depart- ment. All along the stricken coast sailed the ' ' Bayern, ' ' dropping her precious cargo by the way. First, at Messina, then on to Reggio and Catonia, up into the mountain villages back of Giardini and Taormina, went American Red Cross messengers with help to the poor little communities that were at first forgotten. Palermo, though not a sufferer itself, was aided because of the throngs of refugees and injured that had flocked to that city. The doctors and nurses were landed where there was the greatest need for their services. Funds were contributed to hospitals and committees. Canvas for tents, blankets, shawls, overcoats, and other articles of clothing, were distributed by the thousands at every place. To the local authorities who expressed to the representatives of the American Red Cross the heartfelt gratitude for this aid Captain Belknap replied that it was "a privilege to the American people to relieve in some small measure the distressing needs of this beau- tiful land and its people in the time of sorrow." The "Bayern" did not go to Syracuse, but through Mr. Bay- ard Cutting, Jr., contributions of money were sent there, part of which was turned over for the good work of Miss Katherine B. Davis, who chanced to be at Syracuse, MESSINA AND ITS HORRORS 195 and who was made there the special representative of the American Red Cross. In organizing the relief work Miss Davis found herself with only a little American flag, while on the walls of the relief committee's room hung several large flags of other countries. "So," re- lates Miss Davis, ' ' I just put the little American flag in the very centre of them all." When one reads of what Miss Davis accomplished, the place of the little flag does not seem unjustified. "Yesterday and to-day a Russian and an English warship have brought here six hundred of the wounded and more are expected to-morrow. It is like what it must be after a battle. Many of them are horribly muti- lated. There are no hospital accommodations, and you cannot buy a ready-made garment in the town. There is only one trained nurse in town an English girl, who escaped in her night-dress from Messina. She is a heroine and is working day and night assisting with the amputations. I am afraid she will break down. I was with an English woman last night who had to have both legs amputated at one o'clock this morning. Her husband, two children, a brother and a sister were killed. But I cannot stop to write you to-night of the many pathetic cases I have seen. We have four thousand refugees, one thousand of whom are seriously wounded. The German Red Cross, of Berlin, and the Italian, from Brescia, got here on Monday of this week, the llth. They have taken over the barracks hospital, the worst of all, and such a transformation! They are doing fine work, with splendid fellows in charge. It was unspeakably horrible until they came. After the first few days in the hospitals I found I could do better work in helping the refugees to help themselves, and soon started the women from Messina to making clothing. * ' Fortunately, there is a sewing machine agency here, and the Mayor of the town is of the right sort. He placed a room in the Municipio at my disposal, and an alder- 196 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG man or whatever corresponds to alderman who speaks some English, selected the women for me, and I pay them a franc and a half a day. We now have sixty-eight employed, in three different places. No ready-made garments could be purchased in the town, and the need for clothing was extreme. I soon used up my own money and what I could collect from people at the hotel, but, fortunately, Bayard Cutting, Jr., came on Wednesday, and liked the work so much that he gave me $600 from the relief funds to pay wages, and has had me appointed the Red Cross representative here. "I have persuaded the Mayor to start relief work for the men, road building or what not, he to furnish the tools and oversight, and we (the American Red Cross) will pay the wages. We begin tomorrow. In short, I am organizing all I can on the good Charity Organization Society plan of making the able-bodied needy work for what they can get. "My personal impression of the situation is that the worst is yet to come, when the temporary relief ceases. "I shall never forget the horrors I have seen and heard, and I was not at Messina!" The American Red Cross turns with tender memories to the work of one of its special representatives in the field of Italian relief. Bayard Cutting, Jr., delicate in health, took no thought for himself in his devotion to the work. The morning of January second found him already at Messina, where amidst heart-rending scenes of misery he labored day after day, journeying from place to place, ever active, ever busy, accomplishing much with his fine ability and his sympathetic nature. In the spring he returned to America and to Wash- ington to render an account of his stewardship. There he was taken seriously ill, but he was not content until every portion of his report was completed and in the Red Cross archives. Whether or not this service shortened his noble life we do not know ; but this we do MESSINA AND ITS HORRORS 197 know, Bayard Cutting carried the Red Cross banner of humanity with the spirit of the old knight whose name he bore, "sans peur et sans reproche." Resisting the temptation to linger among the many features of Red Cross work in Italy, only a few more may be dwelt on briefly. When part of our Govern- ment's relief appropriations and part of our Red Cross contributions were utilized for the purchase and trans- portation of building materials for cottages, it was the American Red Cross which provided funds and sent master carpenters from the United States to direct, under Captain Belknap 's supervision, the construction of more than two thousand of these little houses, a hospital, a small hotel, school-houses, a home for the aged, and a lit- tle church in whose chancel five cottage windows filled with red glass were formed in the shape of the cross. The good bishop called this "the Church of the Holy Cross." In appreciation of funds given to an Italian rehabilita- tion committee for the purchase of tools and sewing machines a silver tablet was sent the American Red Cross bearing, in Latin, a quotation from the Roman historian, Velleius Paterculus, "Your bounty repaired the catastrophe not merely of the citizens but of entire cities." To the American Red Cross the Italian Red Cross sent a gold medal typifying the relief work and expressing its thanks for the sympathetic co-operation, and to one of the American officers a beautiful repro- duction in gold of the old civic victor's crown was pre- sented, in the name of the Government and the Italian people, by the Secretary of State, with a graceful letter of appreciation "of the highly generous work inspired and accomplished with such intelligent love." [Gifts and decorations to individuals who have taken part in relief work have since then been disapproved by the American Red Cross, which prefers to confer its own medals of merit for unremunerated service.] At Palmi there has been built with Italian gifts the 198 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG beautiful Agricultural Orphanage, endowed from relief funds by the American Red Cross to care for one hun- dred orphan boys and to teach them to be intelligent and practical self-supporting citizens of their country. As a lasting token of our sympathy for Italy in the hour of sorrow, this orphanage stands, and over its portals appear in English the words, "American Red Cross Orphanage." We must pass by earthquakes at Valparaiso, at Kingston, in Costa Rica, Turkey and Portugal; floods in France, Serbia and Mexico; fires at Colon, burning forests in Canada, sealing fleet disasters in Newfound- land, Japanese and Russian famines, Armenian mas- sacres, Balkan wars, and Nicaraguan revolutions. In all of these and many more has the American Red Cross held out a helping hand, filled with the generous and practical sympathy of our people. Remembering the funds contributed for our sick and wounded soldiers during the war with Spain, by the Portuguese Red Cross, whose sympathies must have been with its neighbor, but whose spirit was truly that of the Red Cross, it was a pleasure to receive from Lisbon after an earthquake in its vicinity a picture of a group of little homes with the inscription underneath, ' ' The houses that the American Red Cross has aided to be built by the Portuguese Red Cross." Into Manchuria let us follow our Red Cross on to a field of new activity. The pneumonic plague, a strange, unknown pestilence, far more deadly than the bubonic plague, had broken out. Corrupting the lungs, the object of its sudden attack, it brought certain death in a few short hours. China, alarmed, begged for an inter- national commission for its suppression, and the State Department turned to the Red Cross. An expert on plagues was not on its list, but an expert on plagues it would and did find. Dr. Richard P. Strong, who was in the Philippines, and who had successfully fought the THE PNEUMONIC PLAGUE 199 bubonic plague, with bis assistant, Dr. Oscar Teague, gave their services for this dangerous but most impor- tant mission. For five week before the international commission met at Mukden these courageous men studied the plague, working in costumes like Misericordia Broth- ers, and in addition with four inches of cotton wadding over mouth and nose to exclude the fatal bacilli. When the international commission met, Dr. Strong was the leading spirit. Supported by the Chinese Government, the measures proposed by the commission were put into operation and this terrible scourge suppressed. Had the coolies from Shantung, who go for the summer har- vesting up to Manchuria, brought it back to famine- stricken central China, it would have spread through the country like fire through stubble, pushed on to the Philippines, Korea and Japan, and perhaps invaded America from our western coast. Countless lives saved by the courage and by the earnest, persistent labors of these men remain unnumbered ; but this work may have stood between the world and some awful scourge like that of the "Black Death" in the fourteenth century. We shall hear of Dr. Strong again. War, of all the great disasters with which the Red Cross has had to deal, is the only one that exceeds famine in its miseries and long-drawn-out sufferings, and only then when war is so extended and so prolonged that famine and disease become its grim companions. The gaunt, awful spectre of famine creeps with stealthy steps upon a nation. Floods or drouths, or the hand of man, prepare its way. Fields of ripening grain are rotted and destroyed by overflowing rivers that broaden into vast shallow lakes, or parched and burned under hot, cloudless heavens that withhold their rains, or devastated by the hosts of war. That Florence Nightingale interested herself in famine prevention in India is not generally known, but in 1874 she completed the first proof of a volume dealing 200 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG with, irrigation for that country,' entitled "The Zemin- dar, the Sun, and the Watering Pot as Affecting Life and Death in India." This, to her later regret, was never published. She was convinced that the real rem- edy lay in the improvement of economic conditions rather than in temporary measures. The fact that Miss Nightingale, a pioneer in Red Cross work, had given such earnest thought to famine prevention shows how naturally such endeavors fall within the proper scope of Red Cross duties, though the article dealing with this work of hers in the ' ' Contemporary Review, ' ' of April, 1914, was printed several years after the American Red Cross had undertaken the study of prevention of famine in China and its officers were unaware of Miss Nightin- gale's unpublished book. Time and time again have China and India, and parts of Russia, known what famines are. China, with her immense population, is quick to feel the clutch of the fatal fingers of starvation when over the fertile valley of the Huai River, the granary of the Empire, the river and shallow lakes flood thousands of square miles of cultivated lands. No other words can I find to describe even faintly famine conditions than those written last year for the Red Cross Magazine: "Picture if you can, the sufferings of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Their houses sold for a little food or burned by bits for a little warmth, the farms flooded water-soaked, the unharvested, rotted grain these wretched people are driven, a pathetic pil- grimage, to the large cities. Scantily clad, with hunger written on their pallid faces, one sees the man bearing as best he can the emaciated form of some old father or mother ; the woman, her wailing baby pressed to a breast that has no nourishment to give it, and her little children clinging to her dress to help their weak and trembling steps. They stop by the way to grub from the muddy earth a few roots or tear from the trees a few handfuls DRAINAGE AND RECLAMATION 201 of bark to stay for a moment the pangs of their bitter hunger, no matter what the sufferings that may arise from food that is not food and that serves only to fill the empty, craving stomachs. Occasionally one drops by the roadside. Nature, which fights so hard for human life, gives up. Covering his face, the others leave him there alone, pushing on with weary hearts and feeble bodies, whither they hardly know. ' ' To the miseries of physical suffering must be added the mental anguish of watching those they love hunger and die. The hands of the children upstretched for food she cannot give, their hungry eyes, their trembling bodies and pitiful cries tear the mother's heart with a pain no words can describe. Moral degradation follows. Honest men become desperate, and in their desperation turn to robbery, brigandage and murder. In prison one may have food, and better far die by the swift hand of the executioner than by the slow torture of starva- tion." Since 1907 the American Red Cross has expended nearly six hundred thousand dollars for famine relief in China, and this does not include the large cargoes of food nor the contributions of missionary and other organizations. In that part of China that lies north of the Huai River, the Hungtze Lake, and the old bed of the Yellow River, and south of the present bed of the same river, lies a continent in the making, which for more than two thousand years has known little rest from flood operations. The Great Yu, before the time of Christ, undertook conservancy works in this same dis- trict. During the last few years these floods have so increased that over the entire area the farmers do not average two crops in five years, whereas if floods could be eliminated they would harvest annually two large crops. Recognizing its duty of prevention, in 1911 the Red Cross, with the approval of the State Department, of- 202 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG fered to the Chinese Government an expert engineer on river conservancy work, with a view to designing some scheme by means of which the flood level could be low- ered, the rivers properly channeled, and the swamps and shallow lakes drained and made available for agri- culture. This offer was accepted, and Mr. Charles D. Jameson, who had spent many years in China, selected for the work. The change in the Chinese Government somewhat retarded his efforts, but in 1912 he submitted a report of his preliminary survey to the Chinese Govern- ment and the American Bed Cross, showing the feasi- bility of such a design and that the land reclaimed and improved would itself pay for the necessary expendi- ture. The Chinese Government then asked the Amer- ican Red Cross to secure for it the required loan and to select the engineer to be placed in charge. At a joint meeting of the Executive Committee and International Belief Board of the Bed Cross the subject was given care- ful consideration by such members as the chairman, Gen- eral George W. Davis, Senator Elihu Boot, Mr. Frank- lin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior; Professor John Bassett Moore, then counselor of the State Department ; Mr. Seth Low, Mr. John Barrett, Mr. Henry D. Flood, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Mr. Franklin D. Boosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and a number of others. A message was drafted and sent through the State Department to Dr. Paul Beinsch, the American Minister at Peking, to be transmitted to the Chinese Government, to the effect that the American Bed Cross, being a humanitarian and philanthropic or- ganiaztion, could not extend its function to business enterprises, but that it would consent to use its good offices to aid the Chinese Government in interesting bank- ers and construction companies in the proposition, and that it would endeavor to secure the services of a com- petent engineer to be appointed by the Chinese Govern- ment in charge of the work. The necessity for a more DRAINAGE AND RECLAMATION 203 complete and thorough survey before the loan could be considered was explained, and the Chinese Government agreed to share with the Red Cross the cost of such a survey. In the summer of 1914 a board of three eminent engineers, consisting of Colonel William L. Sibert, who had just completed the Gatun lock and dam at Panama and who was allowed to undertake this Chinese survey by means of a special Act of Congress; Mr. Arthur P. Davis, chief engineer of the United States Reclamation Service; and Professor Daniel W. Mead, of the Ohio Flood Commission ; with Mr. Jameson as an adviser, and a number of assistants, was sent to China to make a thorough study of flood conditions and to prepare de- signs for river conservancy in the Huai district. The very satisfactory result of the board's work is shown by its report published by the Red Cross. These excep- tionally able and practical engineers have outlined a plan by which this great conservancy work can be car- ried out, the Huai district drained into the Yangtse River, in six years' time, at an approximate expenditure of thirty million dollars, the estimated return from the value of lands reclaimed and the increased value of lands benefited meeting the entire cost of the operation. At a meeting of the Red Cross International Relief Board presided over by Mr. Robert Lansing, the pres- ent Secretary of State, to hear Colonel Sibert 's report, Senator Root called attention to the great value of an organization such as the Red Cross, to which China, suffering from so many unfair advantages other nations had taken of her condition, could turn for aid, with complete confidence in its disinterested and altruistic motives. No sinister intent to obtain selfish gain or establish spheres of influnce lurked back of its honest desire to be of help. An amusing incident occurred during this meeting. Colonel Sibert was describing earnestly the erratic ways of the Yellow River, "China's Sorrow," the peregrina- 204 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG tions of whose channel and outlet to the sea have taken it hither and thither, many miles north and south, dur- ing a score of centuries, when he was interrupted by Senator Eoot, who asked, with a suspicion of a twinkle in his eye, "Does it carry anything else but water?" To which Colonel Sibert solemnly replied, "Yes, sir, sediment. ' ' Among the many other misfortunes caused by the present colossal war must be included the effect upon the financial world which has prevented China securing the loan necessary to carry out this important project. For the sake of the multitude of her people, whose lives depend upon its being done, and for the sake of the untold human misery in the future that it will prevent, let us hope this great work may not long be delayed. Professor Paul Reinsch, the American Minister at Peking, says of it : "At the present time a condition of distress again exists in this region ; this is added evidence of the neces- sity of the work; and such heartrending calamities will continue to dominate this most fertile region of China until radical relief is afforded, such as only the Huai River improvement can give. This condition is also an argument in favor of the immediate commencement of the engineering works. "I may state to you, as I have said to the Depart- ment of State and to the President, that there is no undertaking at present proposed in China which equals in importance and significance the Huai River improve- ment. It is not only that millions of acres of the most fertile agricultural land of China will be reclaimed to usefulness, affording assured means of livelihood to twenty million human beings, but the character of the work itself is of such a nature that its execution would have a profound influence on the future of China. The work would be a model for scientific method and organ- ization as applied throughout Chinese life. More espe- DRAINAGE AND RECLAMATION 205 cially, however, it would be the beginning of reclaiming the waste lands of China and utilizing the forces of nature, as represented in the rain-swollen streams, with the result that, according to the computations of com- petent experts, the agricultural productivity of China could be increased by nearly one hundred per cent. This is the starting point of all reform, leading to the better- ment of conditions of life in this country. That these opportunities exist is recognized by the leading rep- resentatives of all nations: the American project has therefore been given generous commendation and sup- port in the press throughout the world, such as has never fallen to any other foreign enterprise in China, without exception. "I have written so fully to you about this matter because I realize that in this enterprise lies the finest opportunity which America has ever had of bringing a great liberating influence to bear in China liberating millions of people, and eventually the entire population, from the dominance of unfavorable natural conditions. All Americans in China realize the importance of this work. Having put our hands to the improvement of famine conditions in central China, it has become a mat- ter of justifiable national pride that this great work should be carried to the successful issue which is now in sight." What our Red Cross has done for the present Euro- pean war will be left to later pages. So few of its many stories of international relief in the past, and so little of even these can be told in a single chapter to illustrate its beautiful service as the almoner of the American people. Yet I believe enough has been said to prove that through the medium of the Red Cross the best impulses of our national character find expression, and a higher, truer sense is developed of the brotherhood of nations. CHAPTER XIV WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. THE DIFFERENT FUNDS. MEMBERSHIP AND ENDOWMENT. RELIEF APPEALS. STORIES OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. THE BABIES' PEN- NIES. THE JEWISH WOMAN'S GIFT. THE GRATEFUL ITALIAN SAILOR. FROM AN IRISH REFUGEE. THE MINER'S GRATITUDE. RECIPROCITY. THE IMPOR- TANCE OF A RESERVE FUND. " WHERE does the money come from," is a question constantly asked of the Red Cross officers, after the in- quirers have listened to reports of its immense fields of work. "From voluntary public contributions," would be the simplest answer; but a more satisfactory reply can best be made by an explanation of its different funds and their purposes. The General Fund was formerly called the Admin- istrative Fund, but to avoid a large number of minor funds that had not to do strictly with administrative work the term "general" was substituted. This fund includes the administrative expenses of the central and division offices; the floating capital of the Christmas seal expenditure ; the fund for the maintenance of first- aid instructions, together with the salaries and expenses of the four physician instructors and one life-saving instructor, the caretakers of the two cars and the upkeep of these cars on which the railroad instructors live and travel ; the moneys for the purchase of supplies and text- books for the First Aid Supply Bureau, which are sold at a small profit, but sufficient to maintain this bureau ; for the Nursing Service and women's classes in home care of the sick; for the Town and Country Nursing Service ; and for the expense in connection with the Red Cross monthly magazine that every member receives. This General Fund is derived from various sources. 206 THE DIFFERENT FUNDS 207 When membership dues are received through chapters, eighty per cent, of the ten dollar sustaining membership dues and fifty per cent of the annual dollar membership dues are transmitted to the National Treasurer. The entire amount of dues of members-at-large is received by the central organization. These produce an annual income of about ten thousand dollars. The Japanese Red Cross receives from its three yen ($1.50) yearly dues a very large income, as it has a membership of over one million eight hundred thousand ; it has besides the interest on its great endowment fund. Though none of the European Red Cross societies have memberships equal to that of Japan, some have several hundred thousand members, whose dues provide large annual funds. Besides the membership dues, the interest on the American Red Cross Endowment Fund, on bank bal- ances, generous annual contributions for special pur- poses from several members, the profits from the sale of first-aid supplies, and one-half of any profit that may remain after the Christmas seal expenses are met from the ten per cent, the Red Cross receives from the net sale of the seals, complete the sources from which the General Fund is obtained. The other moiety on the Christmas seal profits is given to the National Society for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. The Endowment Fund, as its name implies, is a per- manent fund, only the income from which can be used for any or all Red Cross purposes. Although this fund is the recipient of patron and life membership dues, it mainly depends upon special contributions. During Pres- ident Taft's administration he appointed a large number of local endowment fund committees of prominent men in various cities. In his letter of appointment Mr. Taft said: ''The time has come when the American Red Cross should be placed on a permanent and efficient basis by an endowment fund whose income will enable it to be 208 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG prepared at all times to carry out the purposes for which, it has been created. It is the authorized official organi- zation of the United States for volunteer aid in time of war or great disaster." The funds received for relief work had proved the public confidence in the organiza- tion, Mr. Taf t noted, and continued : ' ' but it is of equal importance that the society should be able to maintain an organization capable of administering such large funds to the greatest advantage. The experience in relief mat- ters gained by a permanent organization is beyond ques- tion, and insures far abler and wiser expenditure of relief funds than can be secured by temporary and sud- denly created committees. . . In case of great disasters the Red Cross should have such a balance on hand as to enable it to take immediate action without being forced to wait until contributions are received. The standing of this remarkable organization throughout the world, its importance to our own country, and its beneficent influence for peace and good will in interna- tional relief work commend it to the public-spirited men and women of the United States." These local endowment fund committees were asked to raise in their respective communities an amount equal to ten cents per capita of the population. This rate made the quota of New York City, for example, with its population of four million seven hundred thousand, $470,000. The New York committee had a nest-egg in twenty-five thousand dollars, already contributed for the endowment, and went at its work with enthusiasm. Mr. J. P. Morgan, when approached by its chairman, immediately made the offer to give one hundred thou- sand as soon as four hundred thousand was secured. The donor of twenty-five thousand doubled her gift, and another prominent woman in New York gave a like amount. A legacy from an estate, and three other Red Cross members made up the second hundred thousand. Generous contributions were obtained from several men THE ENDOWMENT FUND 209 by the committee. But the fund still lacked sixty thou- sand of the amount necessary to obtain the banker's generous offer, when a single mail brought from one family in New York City seventy thousand dollars from its different members. Forty-five people in New York City gave five hundred and ten thousand dollars, not counting the special endowment of a hundred thou- sand for the Town and Country Nursing Service. Thus our largest city raised more than its share. The pretty old town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, in Massachusetts, was the first of the small towns to fulfil its duty as to the Red Cross Endowment. The popula- tion of Manchester is twenty-seven hundred. This made its quota two hundred and seventy dollars. To secure this amount some one proposed a bag sale, and the whole town entered into the plan with the broad spirit of the Red Cross that embraces all. The select-men gave the town hall without charge. The local G. A. R. loaned all their flags for decoration. The carpenter put up the booths and decorated each with red, white or blue cheesecloth given by a kindly man, as he was ' ' not gifted in the mak- ing of bags;" and the painter painted all the signs. The Congregational Church committee took the red table, with its miscellaneous bags; the Unitarian and Epis- copal summer churches united at the white table, for working, sewing and mending bags; the Baptist church had the blue table, for travelers ' bags ; the Roman Cath- olic church took charge of the ice cream and cake table ; while the Harmony Guild presided over the lemonade, and the King's Daughters sold candy in bags of various kinds. The Woman's Club had charge of decorations, and the editors of the two weekly Manchester papers constituted the publicity committee. The increase in the bag species was astonishing. New bags were invented, and old bags brought to light and reproduced. Bags came from far and wide. Even Mis- tress Pussy was not forgotten, a bag for her journeying 210 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG being sent by a charming member of Boston's old literary world, regarding which a brilliant New York Unitarian divine suggested that its furnishings be mice. As the great number of bags accumulated the question arose among the skeptical as to the equally important number of purchasers. These went beyond all expectations. The sale began at three o'clock, and by four the tables were practically denuded of every bag, and more were clamored for. Hundreds of people packed the town hall, automobiles and carriages blocked the town streets. The chief of police, who, with his assistants, was taking care of the traffic, hardly found a moment to dash in and secure the bachelor's sewing bag he had reserved earlier in the day. What of the financial results ? Man- chester had raised over two thousand dollars, nearly eight times her quota, and not a single penny of expense was incurred. Our largest city and one of our smallest towns have each patriotically completed their share of the American Red Cross endowment. Only a very few others have done the same. San Francisco nearly doubled its quota. The District of Columbia in a short time obtained more than its share, as did St. Louis. Scranton next fell into line; and fired with enthsuiasm by what Manchester had accomplished, the little nearby villages of Amesbury and Magnolia each secured double their apportionment. The always faithful Canal Zone Chap- ter, dependent upon a small American population, with- out delay sent in its share. These so far are the only communities that have fulfilled their obligation. All the important Red Cross societies of Europe are largely endowed, such endowment amounting in some countries to four or five millions of dollars, while the endowment fund of the Japanese Red Cross is thirteen million dol- lars. These funds are constantly being augmented by legacies and gifts as special tokens of the donors' patriotic devotion to the country. Special Red Cross funds will at any time be as SPECIAL RELIEF FUNDS 211 numerous as the special relief fields in which work is being carried on. Sometimes such funds have special subdivisions, as in the case of the present European war, which besides the general war relief fund has a number of funds consisting of special contributions for each country involved, for noncombatants and other particular purposes. The wishes of the donors are al- ways respected by the Bed Cross, and their contribu- tions administered according to their desires. These special relief funds are generally obtained by means of public appeals. Since the reorganization of the American Red Cross in 1905 in cases of serious dis- asters the Presidents of the United States have in their capacity as president of the Bed Cross issued specific appeals asking that funds be contributed to the Red Cross for relief purposes. These appeals have been sup- plemented by others from the Executive Committee with instructions to whom or how contributions should be sent. When the disaster is sensational in its nature, and especially where there is reported to be a large loss of life, the response is prompt and generous. But when the awful sufferings produced by famines overwhelm great numbers by slow, sure and gradual degrees, the public gives far less, not because of callous indifference, but from lack of comprehension. "How many are dying a day?" is asked with no realization of the agonies that a starving people undergoes. Nature fights against death. The battle between man and famine, allied with disease, is one of slow and horrible torture to man, the wretched victim. Only those who have witnessed it can understand it. On the other hand, a frightful earth- quake is far more dramatic. There is something awful and appalling in these sudden tragedies of nature that appeals strongly to our generosity. 'After that in south- ern Italy within a few days a million dollars was received. An interesting table was later compiled analyzing the 212 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG sources of this contribution in the number of mills given per capita by different States. California easily took the lead, giving over thirteen cents per capita. The District of Columbia came next, with nearly six cents per capita. Rhode Island, Nevada, New York and Con- necticut followed in the order named. There was a long drop then to the other States. In justice to some of them it may be assumed that contributions were sent through other channels, but of these there is no available record. As the American Red Cross is the only national relief organization required by law to make annually a detailed report to Congress, after its accounts are audited by the War Department, which report is printed as a public document, it is the only one by means of which perma- nent and official records of American generosity in relief work are preserved. Contributions by States were also given in the report upon the Ohio flood relief in 1913. In the list of these contributions, not including funds donated directly within the states affected, the District of Columbia, which stood second in the Italian relief, took the lead in its per capita donations, Massachusetts being a close second. It is possible that the excellent record made by the District of Columbia is due to the fact that in Wash- ington all relief contributions are sent through the single channel of the Red Cross. The largest relief contribution received from a single individual came from Mr. Adolphus Busch, of St. Louis, for a hundred thousand dollars, and thereby hangs a little story. Mr. and Mrs. Busch were in San Francisco at the time of the fire and earthquake in 1906 and es- caped all injury. On their return home Mr. Busch expressed a desire to make a donation for relief as a thank offering. He telegraphed to Mr. Taft asking to whom it should be sent, and received the reply, "To the American Red Cross." At the time of the Italian earth- quake a generous gift of twenty-five thousand dollars STORIES OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS 213 came from the same source. From an appropriation made by the New York Legislature for San Francisco one hundred thousand dollars was sent to the Red Cross, and the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars appro- priated by the Ohio Legislature for the flood relief in that State was also entrusted to Red Cross administration. But beside these generous contributions of State legis- latures and men and women of wealth, lie the gifts of the thousands who of their little give with equal sympathy and even more self-sacrifice. For Italy one morning the same mail brought a ten thousand dollar check from a man well known for both his wealth and his philan- thropy, and another from a little colored mission church for $2.89. Not only from the churches, but from the Sunday schools, does money come. The children, many of them Mexicans, of a little day school at Old Glory, with no pennies to give, more than once made small articles to sell for the Red Cross. Here and there a young boy struggles with a letter that carries his contribu- tion even when that means a sacrifice of many a pleas- ant plan. One such wrote, "My name is Sidney. I am eight years old and I send you twenty-five cents for some poor boy in the floods. My brother, Donald, who is three years old, sends you ten cents. ' ' There was a strong sus- picion at Red Cross headquartes that Baby Donald was "held up" for that ten cents, as a three-year-old's com- prehension of flood suffering is not apt to be exceedingly vivid. Ever since the Italian earthquake an Italian sailor, who was for some time in the United States Navy, has in simple ways and touching words of broken English poured out his gratitude to the American Red Cross, by a gift of embroidery of eagles, flags, and emblems such as sailors make, or a lily brought to the office at Easter time; and once it was a plaster reproduction of Thor- waldsen's "Night and Morning.'* When the European war broke out, and before even Italy was involved, he 214 UNDER THE BED CROSS FLAG came to say that he had a few hundred dollars in a bank and as long as the war lasted the interest on his little savings were to go to the Bed Cross. He asked to have the bank arrange to pay it directly to the organization, for he thought, though he received only two per cent, interest, the bank would pay three for the Bed Cross. During one of the Chinese famines there was received one day a contribution that conveyed, perhaps as none other had, the wonderful breadth of Bed Cross relation- ship. A poor Bussian Jewess, an emigrant, in an illiter- ate letter from Chicago, explained that her mother had told her children how she had suffered from famine in Bussia. The writer continued that the Jews fasting for one day knew what it meant to feel hungry, but real- ized on the morrow they could have food; but that the poor Chinese must go without bread on the morrow, and on many other days. So she sent five dollars to the Bed Cross for the suffering people. Think of it, a poor Bus- sian Jewess working woman sending from her scanty earnings to the Bed Cross for the starving people of China! "Cast thy bread upon the water and thou shalt find it after many days," is an old saying that comes very true in some of the gifts of gratitude the Bed Cross receives. One of the Irish refugees of the Belief Home built by the Bed Cross at San Francisco is given a little pay for some simple labor he does about the place. His letter is typical of a warm Irish heart. "Inclosed find five dollars. It is with tears in my eyes for the distress of those people in Indiana and Ohio, who probably con- tributed to aid us in our distress in 1906, that I have donated this little money to them. It is my last month's pay, received for, I presume, my labor. Being treated well, and having no need for it now, I cheerfully con- tribute it." From Monongah, "West Virginia, another letter tells the story of the miner's gratitude: "We have felt THE SPIRIT OF RECIPROCITY 215 greatly indebted to these United States as well as the Bed Cross for the kindness and contributions in our dis- aster of December 6, 1907, and wish to assure you that we have not forgotten and still hold the Red Cross in high esteem and confidence, and feel satisfied that what- ever help is needed you are the first to administer to their wants, and to show in part our appreciation we, the citi- zens of Monongah, herein forward New York draft to the amount of two hundred and forty dollars and ask that the same be used for the relief of flood sufferers, offer- ing no recommendations as to where it shall be used, as we realize from our past experience that you are in the best position to distribute funds." These are but a few of the many incidents that might be quoted to show where the money comes from. Such gifts as these set the heart aglow and make the Eed Cross work full of inspiration. Nor must we forget the spirit of reciprocity in the gifts that have been received from other lands. The con- tributions of the Red Cross of France, Germany, Austria and Portugal for the care of our sick and wounded soldiers in the war with Spain have already been men- tioned. The Japanese Red Cross, though hardly recov- erd from the 'heavy demands of a great war, sent to the American Red Cross one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars for the relief of San Francisco; and after the Ohio floods the Italian Red Cross offered a large contri- bution of supplies for the aid of those suffering from ill- ness or injury because of the disaster. One other Red Cross fund has yet to be explained this is the Contingent Fund. If after relief work in any particular field is completed there remains a balance of money contributed for this purpose, such funds are placed in the Contingent Fund, and never used for ad- ministrative purposes, nor for any other Red Cross activities save those of relief. From this fund the Red Cross has drawn time and time again when some 216 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG sudden call was made upon it for a limited amount of aid that would not justify a national appeal. After a small village or town suffers some disaster that would cause but little concern in a large city, but that is almost overwhelming to the little community, a limited but prompt appropriation from this fund is not only of great material aid, but brings the necessary courage to take up its own burden of rehabilitation. Again there are times and seasons when appeals for disasters in foreign lands do not seem opportune; but a gift from the Con- tingent Fund shows our sympathetic interest and good will. Since Mexico has suffered from continuous internal strife there have been many calls upon this fund, either to aid American refugees, injured and sick, or to care for the Mexican wounded that have fled across our borders. The Contingent Fund, moreover, enables the Red Cross to meet the immediate needs in the case of serious dis- asters before contributions are received. In case the mis- fortune of war should threaten us it is the only reserve upon which the organization can depend for prepara- tion for sick and wounded relief measures, as no appeal can be made until the day war is actually declared. It is necessarily a fluctuating fund, and at any time may become exhausted. Hence the great importance of pro- viding an adequate Endowment Fund for the American Red Cross. Until its Endowment Fund is of sufficient size the Contingent Fund is the only means the Red Cross has to meet these various needs. CHAPTER XV A RUSSIAN FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. DISASTER RELIEF NOT AN AMERICAN AMENDMENT. FAMINE IN THE VOLGA VALLEY. WAR IN THE FAR EAST. GIFT OF THE EMPRESS MARIE FEODOROVNA. JAPANESE TRADITIONS AND WAR STORIES. THE EXPRESSION OF PATRIOTISM. THE HOSPITAL AT TOKYO. A SHINTO CEREMONY. THE PEACE ACTIVITIES. THE EMPRESS HARU KO'S RED CROSS POEM. RUSSIA'S Florence Nightingale during the Crimean war was the Grand Duchess Helen Pavlovna, who under the leadership of the celebrated surgeon Pirogoff headed a large body of nurses called Sisters of the Exaltation. Many of these women displayed remarkable courage, ven- turing out under fire to the field of battle to rescue and bring back the wounded. Some twelve years later a per- manent relief society was formed, but it was not until 1876 that it adopted the name of the Russian Red Cross. The present Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna has been for many years its patroness, while her sister, Queen Alexandra, is the president of the British Red Cross. It has been claimed that the American Red Cross was the originator of the idea that these Red Cross societies should render relief after serious disasters, and that therefore this new field of activities was called "the American amendment." The fact is that before the American Red Cross even existed the Russian Red Cross had advocated and carried on such service. The aid it gave for the relief of sufferers from the serious famine in the valley of the Volga is typical of its success in such humanitarian lines. Not only were the starving to be fed, but those sick from scurvy and typhoid to be cared for under many difficulties. Different people, with dif- ferent languages, customs and religions, were involved, and the Moslem women could be reached only by women 217 218 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG doctors. Among the ignorant peasantry the news of the Red Cross spread fast, and wherever a relief column advanced upon a village the poor starving inhabitants rushed out with great rejoicing to receive it. In some places private individuals had opened relief stations which soon, either because of exhausted funds or ex- hausted enthusiasm, were closed at the time most needed ; and the Red Cross had to go to the rescue. In other cases small communities received contributions far in excess of their needs. One little village was sent thirty thousand dollars by a generous donor, which so em- barrassed the local relief committee that the chairman, the village priest, proposed to utilize most of it in con- structing a new church. For the traveling hordes of tattered, harassed and half -starved men seeking work up and down the Volga River immense hostelries were con- structed. Soup kitchens were opened in the schools, and into the little homes of the hungry went the Red Cross nurses to carry food and minister to the sick. The Russian Red Cross has developed into an exten- sive organization, with many departments for the divi- sions of its work. In an imposing building at Petrograd are found its headquarters. It owns and maintains a number of great hospitals, where its nurses, formed into different lay sisterhoods, are trained, and which, in time of war, are utilized as reserve hospitals for the army. In spite of royal patronage, it was not until 1876 that its invaluable service was appreciated. In the Russo-Turk- ish war, when it at once leaped into popular favor, eight million dollars were contributed for its war relief work, which enabled it to transport and care for over four hundred thousand sick and wounded men. The majority of the Red Cross organizations are supported entirely by voluntary gifts, but the Russian Red Cross is an ex- ception to the rule, as besides public contributions the government aids it by special taxes collected on theatre and railroad tickets and charges on passports. Generally THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS 219 the Red Cross is regarded as the instrument of the people for assisting their governments in time of need, and for this reason the Red Cross societies usually do not seek government support. The relationship of the Russian Red Cross to the regular army medical service is rather that of an independent organization than of a medical reserve force. In still another feature does this associa- tion differ from most of its sister societies, that is, in the utilization near the front of its personnel, even of its women nurses, some of whom were wounded during the war in Manchuria. Russia through its Red Cross has generously extended aid to many other countries involved in war. Such assist- ance was offered to the American government during our war with Spain, but this was courteously declined as it was not necessary. It is interesting to find that this society gave aid to both sides at the time of the civil war in Spain; and yet at the Ninth International Confer- ence, held at Washington in 1912, when the American Red Cross offered for discussion the subject of Red Cross aid from other countries in time of internecine strife, Russia united with the more important European powers in opposing any resolution upon the subject. Humanity demands such aid, and the discussion of the matter at Washington may lead later to some satisfactory inter- national agreement regarding such assistance. During the Russo-Japanese War, from the wonderful and picturesque old palace of the Romanoffs in the Kremlin to the little hut of the peasant in the Far East, was carried on the Red Cross work. Piled to the ceil- ing in the throne-room and great reception halls of the palace were clothing and supplies. The Grand Duchess Elizabeth herself superintended the cutting out and dis- tributing of garments to be made by the women in their homes. Russia was fighting thousands of miles from her base of supplies. It was not an easy matter to get to the front or to bring back the train loads of sick and 220 UNDER THE RED CROSS FLAG wounded. Without the hospital trains of the Bed Cross many of these men would have perished in a distant land, far away from their homes and families. Railroad service was very limited in Manchuria, so ponies were equipped with large hampers, carried on either side, filled with surgical supplies for transportation to the small temporary hospitals, or were used to draw the sledge ambulances over the cold Siberian snows. Side by side with the Russian hospitals in Manchuria was a most per- fect hospital given and maintained by the German Red Cross. It was an old friend to the United States Army surgeon at Harbin, who had known it during the Boxer troubles in China. There is a touch of pathos in such recollections. Yesterday nations were friends who to- day are enemies. What new alignment will to-morrow bring? It is doubtful if in any other country the women of the royal family take so active a part in Red Cross work as in Russia. The beautiful Empress, with her pretty daughters, donning the white cap and kerchief of the nurse, with the Red Cross, on the arm or in the Russian nurse 's fashion, upon the breast, goes about the hospitals in gentle simplicity, helping to care for the wounded men. Her heart torn with the sufferings of the soldiers, the Empress Marie Feodorovna one day conceived the idea of giving to the International Red Cross Committee a special endowment of fifty thousand dollars, the income of which should be awarded to the best inventions to miti- gate the suffering of the wounded in war. To the in- ventors of a portable X-ray machine, of patent stretchers, of surgeons' field sterilizers, and other devices these prizes were first awarded in Washington at the confer- ence in 1912. Were it not so tragic there would be some- thing comical in the way man invents machines to kill and injure, then uses his ingenuity to provide methods of repairing damages caused by his own destructive genius. In speaking of the Red Cross in Japan, Mr. Shoichi THE JAPANESE RED CROSS 221 Omori, president of the Kioto branch, said: "Whatever work of philanthropy and charity was planned by the Imperial Government the people lost no time in sharing their sympathies with it. Though the formal establish- ment of a Red Cross Society in Japan was effected after the Meiji restoration, its practical work has been going on since the beginning of Japanese history. We con- sider this the glory of our Empire. ' ' A study of some of the ancient royal edicts of Japan convinces one of the truth of Mr. Omori 's statement. At the very beginning of the fourteenth century one of the old emperors ex- pressed his sympathy as father of all the people for those "who are groaning in pain day and night on account of a dangerous disease, ' '