LXXXVIII
Clara Barton is Clara Barton.Dr. Samuel Woodward.
Clara Barton went to Russia, in 1892, to carry food to the famine sufferers there;—the most widely known American of today.
Central Christian Advocate.
Central Christian Advocate.
Central Christian Advocate.
Central Christian Advocate.
The total value of contributions from America to Russia in 1892 was estimated at about $800,000. Through all sources, here and in Europe, upwards of 35,000 people were saved from starvation.
Percy H. Epler, Author.
Percy H. Epler, Author.
Percy H. Epler, Author.
Percy H. Epler, Author.
Clara Barton gave to the world a greater influence than Catherine of Russia with her millions of subjects—her name will be remembered when that of Catherine shall have been forgotten.
Parsons (Kan.)Sunday.
Parsons (Kan.)Sunday.
Parsons (Kan.)Sunday.
Parsons (Kan.)Sunday.
The sign of the Red Cross, in crimson red, had come nearer its true significance under Clara Barton’s direction than it ever did before, whether by Constantine, named, or borne by crusader bands in assaults upon the Crescent. Worcester (Mass.)Telegram.
When stricken Armenia called for help in 1896, it was Clara Barton who led the relief corps of salvation and sustenance.
Grand Rapids (Mich.)Herald.
Grand Rapids (Mich.)Herald.
Grand Rapids (Mich.)Herald.
Grand Rapids (Mich.)Herald.
Resolved, That we regard Miss Barton the highest representative and purest embodiment of the Christian humanitarian spirit in America. The Church of Martyrs (Armenian Congregational Church). Worcester, Mass.
They knew, in Turkey, we had taken our lives in our hands to come to them, with no thought of ourselves.Clara Barton.
No American will hereafter in foreign lands feel any less security since the American National Red Cross has been before them in Russia and Armenia.Clara Barton.
When the cry came from Turkey, what man was there in all this land brave enough to lead where Clara Barton went, like an Angel of Mercy? The boundless love of that woman’s heart! God bless Clara Barton!Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey.
When the wail of the Armenians and downtrodden of the Oriental World was heard, Clara Barton was among the first to raise the banner of the Red Cross, like the crusader of old and push forward to the scenes of anguish and carnage.
Mrs. Gen. John A. Logan.
Mrs. Gen. John A. Logan.
Mrs. Gen. John A. Logan.
Mrs. Gen. John A. Logan.
The work Clara Barton did in Asia Minor, and which Col. Hinton designated as the Statesmanship of Philanthropy, was similar to the work along this line she did at the Sea Islands flood, in the Carolinas.The Author.
Clara Barton, in Asia Minor, has done a splendid work, sensibly and economically managed.Henry C. Dwight, D.D., American Board of Foreign Missions at Constantinople.
The difficulties of the work in Asia Minor, the perils and discomforts would surely have appalled a less courageous heart than Clara Barton’s.Jos. K. Greene, Resident Missionary in Armenia.
To Turkey and Armenia—a mission so difficult and perilous that all the world wondered, watched, waited, hoped and prayed for her success, and her safe return to her native land.W. H. Sears.
To us who have seen so much and worked so long and so hard, it would seem that the Red Cross movement has some “significance”—some connection with philanthropy.Clara Barton.
The Red Cross flag has no Christian sense that many suppose. It is broader than Christianity itself, because it has neither prejudice nor bounds; Christian, Mohammedan and pagan are the same in the eyes of the Red Cross.Clara Barton.
The principal nations of earth are bound together by the bands of the highest international law that must make war in the future less barbarous than it has been in the past.Clara Barton.
Bakashish is the substitute for our “tip” system. To make any headway in Turkey with a hoard of beggars, two words must be mastered: “Yok”—No; and “Hide-git”—Be off with you.
George H. Pullman, Secretary to Clara Barton in Turkey.
George H. Pullman, Secretary to Clara Barton in Turkey.
George H. Pullman, Secretary to Clara Barton in Turkey.
George H. Pullman, Secretary to Clara Barton in Turkey.
The moral support given in Asia Minor was far beyond any valuation. At such a money valuation then, the aggregate value of the relief distribution is nearly $350,000.Geo. H. Pullman.
Reticent, constant and efficient, Clara Barton has won the confidence of every government under whose flag she has labored—as in the land of the Crescent and Scimitar—and has done honor to her native land.B. H. Warner.
No matter how far from home, how lone and desolate, the soldier knows the Red Cross for his own; the glazing eye can discern it and next to God or “Allah” it is his Saviour, the American Annie Laurie of the wounded soldier.Clara Barton.
There is, we are happy to believe, a warmth and an appreciation of the Red Cross that brings added honor to the country.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
“Alone, bereft, forsaken, sick and heartbroken, without food, raiment or shelter, on the snow-piled mountain sides and along the smiling valleys they wander and linger and perish. By scores, by hundreds, they die; no help, no medicine, no skill, little food and, as if common woes were not enough, the Angel of Disease flaps his black wings like a pall.” Such the condition, says Clara Barton, in Asia Minor in 1896; and “Help or we perish,” the cry of the people.
DR. G. PASDERMADJIANTHE DEMOCRACY OF ARMENIAArmenian Legation,January 17, 1922.After the great massacre of 1895, thanks to the personal testimony of Clara Barton, we came to learn of another Christian Power, a nation dedicated to the lofty principles of our common religion, a champion of liberty and justice, and a helpful friend to all oppressed and suffering peoples. We are indebted to Clara Barton in the sense that she was the first among other Americans to inspire us with this faith.Dr. G. Pasdermadjian,Minister from Armenia to United States.
DR. G. PASDERMADJIANTHE DEMOCRACY OF ARMENIAArmenian Legation,January 17, 1922.After the great massacre of 1895, thanks to the personal testimony of Clara Barton, we came to learn of another Christian Power, a nation dedicated to the lofty principles of our common religion, a champion of liberty and justice, and a helpful friend to all oppressed and suffering peoples. We are indebted to Clara Barton in the sense that she was the first among other Americans to inspire us with this faith.Dr. G. Pasdermadjian,Minister from Armenia to United States.
DR. G. PASDERMADJIANTHE DEMOCRACY OF ARMENIAArmenian Legation,January 17, 1922.After the great massacre of 1895, thanks to the personal testimony of Clara Barton, we came to learn of another Christian Power, a nation dedicated to the lofty principles of our common religion, a champion of liberty and justice, and a helpful friend to all oppressed and suffering peoples. We are indebted to Clara Barton in the sense that she was the first among other Americans to inspire us with this faith.Dr. G. Pasdermadjian,Minister from Armenia to United States.
I. H. R. PRINCE GUY DE LUSIGNANLast of the Royal LineTHE ROYALTY OF ARMENIAThe Armenian DecorationI have received a decoration, officially described as follows:Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in 1186, by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly prized by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its beauty. This decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.—Clara Barton.See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 22.
I. H. R. PRINCE GUY DE LUSIGNANLast of the Royal LineTHE ROYALTY OF ARMENIAThe Armenian DecorationI have received a decoration, officially described as follows:Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in 1186, by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly prized by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its beauty. This decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.—Clara Barton.See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 22.
I. H. R. PRINCE GUY DE LUSIGNANLast of the Royal LineTHE ROYALTY OF ARMENIAThe Armenian DecorationI have received a decoration, officially described as follows:Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in 1186, by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly prized by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its beauty. This decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.—Clara Barton.See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 22.
To enter Turkey at this time was an undertakingtoo greatfor man; this must be the work of woman. There was one woman equal to the emergency, and she seventy-five years of age. All eyes were turned toward that woman. She was chosen unanimously. Her assistants were to be men but she stood sponsor for man’s conduct, a responsibility the greatest in life woman ever assumes. The deference paid to this woman—Mirabile dictu—was some years before a woman was regarded even capable of sitting as member of the American House of Representatives or as Member in the English House of Commons. Did she accept? Nothing too hazardous for her to undertake; she ever was seeking for something to do that no one else would do, no one else could do.
Florence Nightingale sailed for Crimea “under the strong support of England’s military head and England’s gracious Queen;” Clara Barton set sail for Turkey, “prohibited, unsustained either by governmental or other authority,”—destined to a port five thousand miles away, from approach to which even the powers of the world shrank in fear. As Clara Barton, with her four assistants, left New York City, on the S. S.New York, “crowded were the piers, wild the hurrahs, white the scene with the parting salutes, hearts beating with exultation and expectation;” longing the anxious eyes that followed far out to sea that band of five fearless American crusaders, on humanity’s mission.
Would she reach Constantinople? The Turkish Minister, resident at Washington, forbade her and herRed Cross band to enter the land of the Moslem. Her Christian presence there was not desired; would not be permitted. Unperturbed, she proceeded on her way. She arrived at Constantinople. She stopped at Pera Palace hotel. She asked for an audience with Tewfik Pasha, Minister of State. She explained; she begged the privilege of self-sacrifice. The High Official listened attentively, then said: We know you, Miss Barton; have long known you and your work. And you shall have it. We know your position, and your wishes shall be respected. Such aid and protection as we are able to render, we will cheerfully render you. I speak for my government. I extend to you my cordial good wishes in your work among our distressed people.
At the interview Clara Barton thus assured Tewfik Pasha: “We have no newspaper correspondent, and I promise you I will not write a book on Turkey. What we see and hear will be confidential—not repeated.” But she didn’t keep faith with the Government—she reported on the dogs. Dogs in Constantinople are held sacred, but not because decorated with a brassard they serve in Red Cross work or otherwise are useful. The streets and plazas day and night are filled with dogs, colonies of dogs. Fond of dogs, she enjoyed telling this story. About to be overpowered by other dogs the Turkish dog flops over on his back, his feet in air to serve as the dog’s Red Cross flag, over a hospital. In the “hospital” he remains until there is an opportunity of escape when, without so much as “by your leave,” he invalids himself home.
The British Legation had a blooded rat terrier, alsosacred. By chance the terrier slipped out of the yard.Unsuspecting he was “ambushed” and, not knowing Turkish dog strategy, was foully slain. The secretary, in righteous wrath, forthwith imported from England “Bull Brindle,” of a famous fighting breed. The British “warrior” also strolled out on the plaza,but not by chance. A colony of several hundred dogs, with confused noises as terrifying as of a “pack of coyotes” hunting prey, massed an attack on the lone “Britisher.” Victory this time was not with the largest battalions. Bull terrier was killing mongrels without mercy or shame, and with as much ease as the terrier had killed rats, and so continuing until four score or more lay dead on the field.
As rangedAchilles in his fury through the fieldFrom side to side, and everywhere o’ertookHis victims, and earth was dark with blood.
As rangedAchilles in his fury through the fieldFrom side to side, and everywhere o’ertookHis victims, and earth was dark with blood.
As rangedAchilles in his fury through the fieldFrom side to side, and everywhere o’ertookHis victims, and earth was dark with blood.
As ranged
Achilles in his fury through the field
From side to side, and everywhere o’ertook
His victims, and earth was dark with blood.
By chance, through an opening in the walled fence of the embassy, the secretary was an eye-witness. The natives in numbers, aroused, watched the uneven contest but no one dared to lay hands on the “achilles.” Alarmed over the possible consequences to himself, the secretary rushed to the scene, grabbed Brindle by the collar, led him to the embassy, chained him. A diplomat, the secretary returned to the plaza—explained—expressed regrets—almostheartbroken, apologized, but to Miss Barton he confidentially said: “That’s one time I got even with the unspeakable Turk.”
Aghast and horrified had stood the world over the news of the then recent terrible massacres; of the contagious diseases that windswept Asia Minor, leaving thousands and tens of thousands dead and dying in its wake. But proud was America. Her heroine was atthe Moslem Capital, the foreign representative of the one country there on guard for humanity. This, her picture of the trip to Killis, the scene of one of the many terrible massacres: “Our security, the official order, ‘Go and we protect,’—camels heavy-laden not with ivory and jewels, gold in the ingots and silk in the bales, but food and raiment for the starving, the sick, the dying. Onward toward dread Killis—the wild tribes’ knives before, the Moslem troops behind—till at length the spires of Aintab rise in view. Weary the camels and weary the men.” In fear that the means might not be at hand to do all she would, in anguish of soul Clara Barton writes to her friend Frances Willard: “My heart would grow faint and words fail to tell the people of the woes here and the needs. In the name of your God and my God, tell them not to be discouraged in the good work they have undertaken.”
She was then on the site of Ancient Byzantium whose history reaches back six hundred years before the Christian Era, a city with its successor Constantinople, the rival of Athens and Rome and Jerusalem, in service to civilization. She might have said, as did the proud Roman General, “I have come, I have seen, I have conquered.” But no word then,—neither before nor since—escaped her lips. She was there, having taken her life in her hands, not thinking of self, knowing no race, no creed, no religion, no nationality; there to distribute to the needy in such a way as an American President said she only knew how.
Permission D. Appleton & Co.ABDUL-HAMID1876–1899Some months after returning home I received through our State Department at Washington, the Sultan’s decoration of Shefacat and its accompanying diploma in Turkish. The translation is here given: “As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am pleased, therefore, to accord to her the second class of my decorations of Shefacat.”Clara Barton(in 1897).See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 12.
Permission D. Appleton & Co.ABDUL-HAMID1876–1899Some months after returning home I received through our State Department at Washington, the Sultan’s decoration of Shefacat and its accompanying diploma in Turkish. The translation is here given: “As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am pleased, therefore, to accord to her the second class of my decorations of Shefacat.”Clara Barton(in 1897).See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 12.
Permission D. Appleton & Co.ABDUL-HAMID1876–1899Some months after returning home I received through our State Department at Washington, the Sultan’s decoration of Shefacat and its accompanying diploma in Turkish. The translation is here given: “As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am pleased, therefore, to accord to her the second class of my decorations of Shefacat.”Clara Barton(in 1897).See pages between 326–7; decoration No. 12.
Strange and startling must have been the sensation to the Moslem as, on an eventful reunion of the Crusaders, through the open windows of[10]Red Cross headquarters there came from his foreign benefactors, in chorus, strains of sweetest music: “Home, Sweet Home,” of which the native was merely dreaming; “Sweet Land of Liberty,” of which he had only read; “Nearer My God to Thee,” which was wholly foreign to his religious teachings. It was on the patriotic Fourth at Constantinople, at the time of her carrying a message to the Turkish people, that in a poem entitled “Marmora,” of her own country Clara Barton sung:
10. Red Cross work in Turkey is under the name of Red Crescent.
10. Red Cross work in Turkey is under the name of Red Crescent.
It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea,A thousand in the onward march of human liberty,Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled,Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong,And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light;The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea,A thousand in the onward march of human liberty,Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled,Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong,And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light;The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea,A thousand in the onward march of human liberty,Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled,Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.
It was twenty and a hundred years, oh blue and rolling sea,
A thousand in the onward march of human liberty,
Since on its sunlit bosom, wind tossed and sails unfurled,
Atlantic’s mighty billows bore a message to the world.
And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong,And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light;The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
And weary eyes grew brighter then, and fainting hearts grew strong,
And hope was mingled in the cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”
The seething millions turn and stir and struggle towards the light;
The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
Four expeditions through Turkey, Armenia and other parts of Asia Minor were planned and successfully carried out. Coasting boats were used to reach the interior, as were caravans of camels over the deserts and other almost waste places—the expeditions supplying the destitute with food, medicine, clothing, seed and farming implements. For this, the greatest undertaking of its kind in history, she was decorated by the Sultan of Turkey, by the Prince of Armenia, and fromeach of these rulers also she received a Diploma of Merit.
She was then in the hey-day of her popularity. Abdul-Hamid was on the throne of Turkey. Twelve years later the Sultan was dethroned and by his people put into prison. Oh! the irony of fate! About that time she draws this picture: “The Sultan was locked in and I locked out, but my whole country seemed my prison and I struggled to free myself of it.” Unfair the comparison! The “Young Turks” (a political party), representing the people, had dethroned, then imprisoned, Abdul-Hamid. Not so Clara Barton, by her people.
She was dethroned by methods that would shame a Turkish brigand; her prison-keeper was not the people, but
Man, proud man!Drest in a little brief authority.
Man, proud man!Drest in a little brief authority.
Man, proud man!Drest in a little brief authority.
Man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority.
On her return from Turkey Clara Barton was accorded a most wonderful reception at the nation’s Capital, and was acclaimed a world-heroine by the whole American people.