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

Our wisest friends are life’s best book. Calderon.

Poor is he, and beggar, that hath no friends at all. Gracian.

The face of an old friend is like a ray of sunshine through dark and gloomy clouds. A. Lincoln.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.

Shakespeare.

And can true friendship be tested, if not in the hour of misfortune? The Mayor of St. Petersburg to Clara Barton.

WHEN CARES GROW HEAVY AND PLEASURES LIGHT

It became incumbent upon Clara Barton to write tens of thousands of autographs, and inscriptions in books. As a philosopher, many such inscriptions are interesting and instructive. Characteristic of her is the following inscription which she wrote in a book presented to a personal friend:

My Dear General and Friend: