It was that year that Miss Emily Bissell, a little woman of Delaware, did what Jacob Riis suggested. He suggested that Americans adopt the plan already begun in Norway and Sweden. This was to sell the Red Cross stamps to aid in raising money for the great fight against tuberculosis.
So the first real seal for this purpose was issued in 1908, and since that time I have brought to this cause over a million dollars. One little seal, on which shines a red cross of Greece, for one little penny, has grown and grown, until with the seals and pennies I have made over a million dollars to help suffering human beings.
Now, let me tell you how it has been done. I am printed about six weeks before Christmas. After I am printed, with my red crosses and holly wreaths, and "Merry Christmas," agents advertise me in every nook and corner of the country. I go to every little village—especially where there are women interested in doing good for others.
I am sold to seal packages to go to far-away countries; I am used to paste on the back of letters; I go everywhere carrying the message of "Peace and good will to men."
In every place that I go some one is talking and writing about how to prevent tuberculosis, the "great white plague," as Oliver Wendell Holmes called it—the terrible disease that has killed so many people—more than all the wars of the world. Seventy-five to ninety per cent. of all the money I bring is used in the community in which I am sold.
The money I bring is used to hire nurses to go down into the crowded city districts to care for the poor consumptives crowded in the tenement houses. It may help to send a poor little cripple, with tuberculosis of the hip-joint, to the "Fresh Air Home" in the mountains, where she has a chance to get well. It often aids in sending a tired, sick mother to the seashore in summer, where she finds rest and health. It aids in sending some one to the schools to teach the gospel of fresh air, good food, and pure water for the children.
So you see my mission has always been one of mercy, hope and health. Yet I am such a little thing—just a bit of paper, bearing a little red cross on a white shield, worth only a penny. "Great oaks from little acorns grow," you know.
QUESTIONS
1. When were the first stamps used to make money for charitable purposes?
2. Who first suggested using such stamps to aid the fight on tuberculosis?