Angel of Battlefield

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 10

Angel of Battlefield

Who: CLARA BARTON Where: The United States. When: Nineteenth •to twentieth centuries. Why famous: An■ American fiumauitarian. Coming of sturdy New England parents, born on a farm, she was somewhat incongruously chnstenod Cianssa Harlowe, after the heroine of Samuel Richardson's eighteenth century romance. But the simple Clara proved more practical, the middle name being dropped altogether. As a child she was filled with fear for herself; yet she was accustomed to activity of mind aud of body and, where the welfare of others was concerned, could move quickly and courageously. For a time she taught in New Jersey, “a tuaelier dyed in the wool” as she said of herself. Later, as she had been a pioneer in public school work, so she was a pioneer among women government employees at tho Patent Office in Washington. Then, at about 40, her real work began. Clara Barton was a born nurse. During the first year of tho Civil War sho remained in Washington, ministering to tho wounded who were brought there. W'lien finally she resolved to go to the front, it was no easy tasK. to procure the necessary pass; out she succeeded iu the summer of 186:1. By her deeds of mercy toward the ■

throughout innumerable campaigns, sieges and battles, she won for ficrself the titie, ‘ ‘ Angel of the Battlefield.''

Like Florence Nightingale, wliose contemporary she was but whom sho never knew, Clara Barton manifested astonishing powers in her task. Having observed at first hand the functioning of the Red Cross (society during the Franco-Prussian War, she was instrumental in inaugurating the movement in America. For ffil years she, as president of tho American Red Cross,, directed its activities. On two ’ continents she herself ministered to suffering humanity, not in warfare only, but likewise iu various catastrophes.