My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line of Grey’s elegy:
“The short and simple annals of the poor.”
A. Lincoln.
The history of philanthropy has few brighter pages to record than at the Sea Island Hurricane, and its pleasant memories will gladden the hearts long after its weary hours are forgotten.
Clara Barton.
YOU BUY IT FOR HIM
The policy of the Red Cross was to help people to true independence by enabling them to support themselves by their own work. In Galveston after the flood had produced widespread ruin, Clara Barton authorized her field agent to visit the coast towns, ascertain the needs of the people, and send in requisitions by telegraph. As the agent was leaving on this mission she said:
At the Sea Islands one day a negro came to see me. He said that we had built a little house for him, fenced in his field and garden and given him seed and plow and tools to work with. Now if he had a horse or a mule or a little bull to pull the plow he could put in his crops. I gave instructions that his need should be supplied and, as the horse or mule could not be found, a two-year-old steer was bought for him.
Now you are going to the coast country, but wherever you go in all the world if you find anybody who needs a horse or a mule or a little bull, you buy it for him.
Oh, chillun, life’s contra’wise,