American National Red Cross

“ We all know that a large portion of the public does not realize the significance of the Red Cross, even in time of the most important functions. Confused by the many claims on its attention, this portion of the people hesitates as to the advisable course to take and ends by waiting for fuller information. It was, therefore, of the greatest assistance to the cause of practical relief that the President of the United States, in his proclamation [67] of the disaster, should point out the Red Cross as the proper depository for popular contributions. ”

“ With pleasure I express to you, gentlemen, and to all the expedition of the American Red Cross, embarked on board the S. S. Bayern, the heartiest thanks of the population of Catania and of the refugees and wounded who have found here a shelter, for your generous offer of medicines, clothes, food, etc.
The relief brought by you will be effective to lessen the sufferings of so many wretched people, who have been deprived in a few moments of their relatives, of their beloved native town, and of every possession. ”

“ The hospital ships which departed for Naples, Genoa or Catania were no longer crowded to over-flowing. The people actually living in Messina were comparatively comfortable. But every improvement in organization brought out more clearly the needs which confusion had obscured. Inside the city and out, no one had any clothes except what he had been able to snatch from his house on the morning of the 28th; and not two miles from the Municipio, in all directions, ran the hunger line—beyond which lay the region of actual famine. ”

“ Far from being jealous of direct donations to the subordinate or independent institutions, they welcomed anyone who would investigate the various needs, and give help when help was most wanted. It appeared to us that the best way to dispose of American money was to entrust it to an agent on the spot, who should travel up and down the coasts of Sicily and encourage every well-directed movement by immediate money gifts. In time such movements would no doubt receive help from Rome; but in the meantime ready cash from unofficial sources might make the difference between success and failure. ”

“ A hundred and fifty refugees were in the hospital of Taormina and three hundred and eighty in the little fishing village of Giardini at the foot of the cliff. Our countrymen were working night and day to help them, giving them food and clothing; and instead of complaining of the heavy burden of so many patients, they begged us to send more. One or two of them met every train from Messina, to distribute bread to the hungry passengers. The ladies devoted themselves chiefly to the hospitals, where they worked with unremitting energy. ”

“ I asked him what articles of food, clothing and medical supplies were most needed, and how the American money accumulating in Rome could be spent with most profit to Messina. He told me that medical stores of all kinds were sadly wanted, and that there was still a lack of food, bread, macaroni, olive oil, butter, and especially milk—for the women and children—and also underclothes and shirts. The milk should be sterilized, not condensed, because the ignorant peasant women could not be induced to give their children an unaccustomed food, especially if it had to be prepared or mixed. ”

“ Our second duty was to find and succor Americans. Among the survivors at Messina, besides Dr. Lupton and Agresta, we found only one family, a naturalized American with the six small children of one of his brothers who lived in Brooklyn. These we sent back to the United States. But, what Americans had been killed? This question we had no means of solving. We had brought with us long lists of Americans known to be in Sicily, whose relatives were inquiring anxiously about their fate. Something must be attempted in order to put an end to the agonized suspense of so many families. ”

“ Americans, then, need have no misgivings about the administration of their donations. Italy cannot repair in a day the effects of so vast, so overwhelming a calamity as the Messina earthquake; the wound is too deep to heal quickly. Those only who have seen the misery which bows down the inhabitants of Sicily and Calabria can realize the tragic helplessness of all human succor. ”

“ As for those who lived through the earthquake and escaped, the mental fear and physical agony they had undergone left their minds dazed and blank. When some realization of the truth dawned upon the world a wave of sympathy was awakened everywhere. It is especially for such times of disaster that the Red Cross has its being, and the call for help was immediately issued from headquarters at Washington. The President and Governors of States were notified that our National Society was ready to receive and transmit the contributions our people were glad to make for suffering Italy. ”

“ APPRECIATION OF ITALIAN OFFICIALS.
Premier Giolitti, in speaking of the American people’s generosity, said:
“What the United States has done on this occasion is magnificent, and shall not be forgotten. The United States stands first, outdistancing all others in sympathy and generosity.
“Our gratitude is so great that we cannot find words in which to express it. Besides, appreciation on our part is heightened by the fact that so many of our compatriots have found hospitality in America. ”

“ During the first the long trains came in perhaps every hour with the wounded and the dying, huddled together with the refugees, all with that frightened look of horror in their faces. When they thought the people were dying they would be taken off at our station and we had arranged the waiting room into a place to receive them. When the tables were all full they would have to go on the floor—poor, poor people, sometimes you could hardly see for the blood that they were human beings, and they were mangled beyond words. ”

“ The Commander-in-Chief, we ascertained at last, could be found on the Duca di Genova, a steamer of the merchant marine anchored at the southern end of the harbor. Our struggle through the crowds to the landing stage; our fruitless efforts to get a boat; our final success, through the help of a friendly Italian officer; our visits to one ship and another, to authorities military and civil; our vain attempts to extract even the simplest information, such as the situation of our consulate and the fate of our consul ”

“ Lloyd Griscom, the American Ambassador at Rome. It cannot too strongly express its appreciation of all that he has accomplished in the line of careful and prompt use of the money it has sent. What our Red Cross has accomplished has been done with a sincere desire to be of help, with a deep appreciation of the complex and difficult problem Italy has had and still has to face, and with the hope that the wounds of this beautiful country, so recently devastated by this terrible calamity, may soon be healed and the people re-established in a happy and prosperous life. ”

“ THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS
WAR’S AFTERMATH. Improvised hospitals were organized in every straggling village, but by far the largest number of wounded were brought to Castiglione. There was an almost interminable procession of wagons, packed with officers and soldiers—cavalrymen, infantry, artillery—all battered and bleeding, covered with dirt and dust and blood, each jolt of the carts adding to their suffering. Many died on the way, their bodies being transferred from the wagons to the roadside, and left there for others to bury. ”

“ What it means to any community devastated by some terrible calamity, and what it means to the sick and wounded in time of war to know that a great, strong, sympathetic organization stands ready and prepared to bring them instant help, only those who have taken part in active relief work can fully understand, but everyone can have some realization of the uplift and encouragements the Red Cross can bring in the terrible days of suffering and depression that follow disaster. ”

“ The distrust of the Sicilians, traditional in upper Italy, may have increased the tendency to send supplies rather than money, and to give all orders from a single central source. In the third place, the temporary feeding and clothing of the destitute was a very small part of the total relief problem. The end which the contributions must ultimately subserve was to restore the refugee population to some kind of normal life, not merely to keep them alive for a few months. But how to effect their rehabilitation was a question which could not be answered until many things were known ”

“ What a surprise it was to find in this interesting pamphlet the origin of the “Charity Stamp,” as it is called, and still more of a surprise—a welcome surprise—to discover that its invention is due to our own “Sanitary Commission”—that precursor of the Red Cross. The Swedish report says: “The honor of having invented the Charity Stamp must be given to America—that land of inventions.” In the year 1862 the first Charity Stamps were sold at a great charity festival in Boston. ”

“ On board Bayern, Reggio, Calabria.
With our hearts still vibrating with gratitude and admiration for the work of fraternal solidarity and beneficience accomplished by you, Mr. Commandant, together with your representatives of the American Red Cross, we again repeat to you all, in the name of the Province and the King’s Government, our heartfelt thanks. To all the gentlemen on board the Bayern we send good wishes and greetings. ”

“ I am sending down a young Italian doctor to establish a little hospital and keep the place sanitary. We work through the military authorities, who supply the carpenters and laborers except when we employ people for the sake of giving them work. The rehabilitation is to go on while the houses go up and the young Italians, with Mr. Chanler, are especially to do this work. They are to search out the most deserving merchants and give them a start. I sincerely hope this project of mine will appeal to the Red Cross as it does to the Italian people. ”

“ The world, though stunned by its magnitude, was yet to learn that no pen could describe the horrors of a disaster unparalleled in modern history, and that only those who saw the scene of devastation soon after the catastrophe have any realization of its terrible results. ”

“ As transports, store ships, refugees’ hospitals, telegraph stations they had been invaluable: but it was as rescuers of the living that they were pre-eminent. The Russian sailor was a revelation to those who did not know the quiet common sense, the tactful sympathy and the unassuming heroism of the moujik. The Russians were the only people who always had everything on the spot. The saying got about that they had ordered the earthquake and fitted out a fleet beforehand for the purpose of relief. ”

“ A priest with the Red Cross badge got into a compartment on the train and told us.
“Yesterday and today a Russian and an English warship have brought here six hundred of the wounded and more are expected tomorrow. It is like what it must be after a battle. Many of them are horribly mutilated. There are no hospital accommodations, and you cannot buy a ready-made garment in the town. There is only one trained nurse in town—an English girl, who escaped in her night dress from Messina. She is a heroine and is working day and night assisting with the amputations. ”

“ Helpless childhood appeals strongly to everyone, and the Red Cross, which after great calamities [12] aims when the first temporary aid is over, to rehabilitate and place again upon their feet the victims of the disasters, was ready to accept the suggestion of the Italian Government that some of the funds entrusted to its administration by the American people should be devoted to the maintenance of an agricultural colony in Sicily or Calabria for the care of a hundred or more of the orphaned children. ”

“ Much has been written of the many beautiful and historic spots around Washington, but one which is a revelation to all who visit it, is the new Washington Sanitarium, located at Takoma Park, on an elevation of 300 feet. The Washington Sanitarium has only been in operation a little over a year. It already has a splendid patronage; it is undoubtedly destined to become well known not only for its beauty and delightful surroundings, but as a health resort. During the fall and winter the climate is almost ideal; the summer climate is good—no mosquitoes or other pests are to be found. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the German Red Cross hospital at Syracuse was an organization of this kind and it aroused nothing but enthusiasm. A hospital, however, is not like a distributing agency. What the Italians would have objected to, and rightly, would have been any attempt on the part of foreigners to decide Italian questions; how a given body of men should be employed, where certain orphans should be sent, what families should first be assisted ”

“ Government by martial law means that nothing can be done or given except by permission of the military chief, and an order [32] for stores cannot be obtained in a minute. This was why the hospitals, the Red Cross stations and relief agencies of all kinds were so frequently short of supplies. Requisitions of particular articles which had run out, such as brandy or antiseptics or milk, required too great an expense of time; the workers were everywhere fewer than the needs: they could not be spared. ”

“ We knew that we were about to have one of the greatest impressions of our life, to see a panorama of desolation and destruction such as the world has rarely presented in the history of man. Amid that desolation we were to live for days and weeks, and to perform trying duties; new sensations would soon crowd upon us ”

“ We have four thousand refugees, one thousand of whom are seriously wounded. The German Red Cross, of Berlin, and the Italian, from Brescia, got here on Monday of this week, the 11th. They have taken over the barracks hospital, the worst of all, and such a transformation! They are doing fine work, with splendid fellows in charge. It was unspeakably horrible until they came. After the first few days in the hospitals I found I could do better work in helping the refugees to help themselves, and soon started the women from Messina to making clothing. ”

“ Thus we find the Sanitary Fair Stamps were a source of innocent amusement to the young people, while they turned in considerable cash for the benefit of our wounded heroes, and left behind fragments of history to be gathered up by the Bancrofts of the future, to say nothing of the pleasure they have afforded to a generation of stamp collectors. ”

“ Frequent demands were made to have the Red Cross take even a more active part in raising funds than it had assumed. Several proposals to issue relief stamps in imitation of the Christmas stamps were not adopted for the reason that public interest in the Italian disaster was felt to be already so high that no devices to stimulate it further were deemed practicable or necessary. Contributions were being received many times the amount which any stamp issues could possibly produce. Several offers were made to turn over theatres and public halls for the purpose of arranging benefit performances. ”

“ HOW NEW YORK RAISED FUNDS FOR ITALY The experience of the New York State Branch in raising relief funds for a considerable number of disasters shows that several simple but indispensable things must be done in order to ensure adequate contributions—adequate, that is to say, to the emergency needs, and, as it will no doubt interest many Red Cross members to know what these things are and how they have been done, a brief description of the last appeal is offered. ”

“ On January 6th the German Red Cross dispatched for Southern Italy a number of physicians, trained nurses and relief corps men with the equipment of a field hospital. The party proceeded from Naples first to Catania, where the Austrians were rendering efficient assistance and where a number of Greek ships, flying the Red Cross flag, were acting as hospital ships, so it continued directly on to Syracuse, and was there put in charge of a hospital established in a large barracks. In the same barracks the Red Cross of Brescia was in charge of a hospital and another was under a Florentine personnel. ”

“ In Miss Davis’ home at Syracuse the moral health of the inmates was never forgotten. Before the home had been opened a fortnight the women among the inmates were busy making clothes, voluntarily and without pay, for less fortunate refugees. Every scheme of Miss Davis served a double end—practical utility and moral rehabilitation.
Upon my return to Catania I found the Bayern ready to start for Reggio. During her stay she had not only dispensed relief to Catania and the environs, but had also supplied the wants of the Taormina and Giardini hospitals. ”

“ On the steps of an altar, which were covered with straw, lay an African Chasseur, wounded in the thigh, leg and shoulder. For three days he had had nothing to eat. He was covered with dried mud and blood, his clothing was in rags. After M. Dunant had bathed his wounds, given him some bouillon and placed a blanket over him the poor fellow lifted his benefactor’s hands to his lips with an expression of infinite gratitude. At the entrance of the church was a Hungarian who kept crying aloud for a doctor. ”

“ THE AMERICAN RED CROSS ORPHANAGE
Queen Helena.
Hundreds of little children were left fatherless and motherless amidst the ruins of Messina and Calabria. Scores of them were even too young to be able to give any information in regard to themselves or their families. For years these must be cared for, and having been left without property or relatives, must be so educated that, after reaching mature years, they will be able to support themselves. ”