Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian / Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of America

by Charles Sumner Young

What have kings

The privates have not, too, save ceremony?

Shakespeare.

A crown

Golden in show is but a wreath of thorns. Milton.

The crowned heads of Europe were quick to perceive the benign uses of Red Cross Associations, and bestowed upon the Central Committees of their countries money, credit and personal approbation.

Clara Barton.

Secretary of State Frelinghuysen, insisting that illness was not a good excuse, and that Clara Barton must represent the United States at the International Conference at Geneva, in 1884, said: “All the country knows what you have done and is more than satisfied. Regarding your illness—you have had too much fresh water, Miss Barton—I recommend salt and shall appoint you.”

The Author.

I saw Paris when the Commune fell; the Army of Versailles shot down its victims on the streets by the ghastly glare of blazing palaces. Clara Barton.