Clara Barton

“ A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality. The picture of Maltese Tommie, painted by Antoinette Margot, is still one of the historic art-treasures on the walls of the Clara Barton Glen Echo home.
Those who think of Clara Barton only as the “war woman” within the battle smoke, or on the rostrum addressing literary audiences, or on state occasions as the cynosure of all eyes, or as the guest of honor among the crowned heads of Europe—as masculine and not feminine—have not seen the daily life-picture of Clara Barton. ”

“ The present is ours to possess, ours to enjoy. It’s not that the millions can do something for Clara Barton; instead, the Clara Barton spirit can do something for the millions. The plotter may revile the Red Cross Mother; the Red Cross Artist may picture the cross of red on the breast of a fictitious “Greatest Mother in the World;” the self-constituted autocrat in Red Cross literature may suppress, and belie, truth; but the spirit of Clara Barton is the Mother-Spirit still, the real spirit of the American Red Cross, the Red Cross spirit in all Christendom. ”

“ Percy H. Epler. Clara Barton slept on the ground, wrapped in a blanket like a soldier, but her zeal was in no way diminished by hardship.
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. Clara Barton gave a lifetime of glorious service to humanity—a ministering angel like a benediction of her God amid the desolate, the stricken, the hungry and despairing. Los Angeles Examiner.
Sickness, confusion and death—these are inseparable from every conflict. Clara Barton. ”

“ Elizabeth accepted maidenhood rather than motherhood that she might exclusively serve her subjects; Maria Theresa reproached herself for the time she spent in sleep, as so much robbed of her people; Clara Barton, with but a few hours of sleep daily, served not her people but strangers. Wherever locating, Clara Barton was the directing spirit of a swarm of workers where were permitted no drones, and among whom she was the queen. She adopted as her rule of conduct, “hard work and low fare,” sacrificed health without complaint, risked life without hope of reward. ”

“ Its adoption and signature were the merest formality. Clara Barton was at liberty to go on with her work with the full approval of the President and his Cabinet, and wait for the adoption of the treaty which was certain to follow.
It did follow; but before it was adopted the heart of Clara Barton was well-nigh broken. She had learned the weariness and pain of working alone; she was now to learn the keener sorrow which emerges when one undertakes to work with others. ”

“ Under the spell of Miss Barton’s presence, “Knocks” was omitted from the program and “Boosts” resulted in a symposium of tributes,—in an ovation given to Miss Barton “such as few mortals receive.”
Since her death her autograph has become very valuable. Even then it was highly prized, and she was not permitted to leave the hall until every delegate present had her autograph. At the close of the meeting a delegation of Southern women waited on Clara Barton to thank her for what she did for the “boys in Gray” during the Civil War. ”

“ To an audience of women in Boston, another self-sacrificing woman who would serve the human race, said: “Clara Barton is an epitome in her life and character of all that is best in woman; she is what we would all like to be.” ”

“ From much observation, I am convinced that Clara Barton never makes the least report of what she does, unless, for some cause, she considers it to be absolutely indispensable, and then, in a form so plain and business-like that one would read, and turn the paper, little dreaming of all the sentiment, strength, heart, poetry, and labor that lay hidden beneath that unpretending exterior. ”

“ Clara Barton has given us a constant lesson in thrift; a worker from infancy, taking neither vacation nor recreation.
ALICE HUBBARD
The greatest woman of all times. The people of the United States admire, revere and devotedly love Clara Barton. ”

“ All the members of Clara Barton’s household became her teachers, except her mother, who looked with interest, and not always with approval, on the methods of instruction practiced by the others. Captain Barton was teaching her military tactics, David was teaching her to ride horseback, Sally, and later Dorothy, established a kind of school at home and practiced on their younger sister, and Stephen contributed his share in characteristic fashion. Sarah Stone alone attempted nothing until the little daughter should be old enough to learn to do housework. ”

“ Samuel Richardson wrote the story of “Clarissa Harlowe” in 1748, but the story still was read, and the name of the heroine was loved, in 1821.
But Clarissa Harlowe Barton did not permanently bear the incubus of so long a name. Among her friends she was always Clara, and though for years she signed her name “Clara H. Barton,” the convenience and rhythm of the shorter name won over the time-honored sentiment attached to the title of the novel, and the world knows her simply as Clara Barton. ”

“ In her hundreds of lecture engagements, made through the same literary bureau, speaking from the same platform, Clara Barton was classed with Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, John B. Gough, and Henry Ward Beecher, the greatest orators of half a century ago.
Lincoln broke the shackles of the blacks in bondage; Clara Barton broke the shackles of education in America, as Pestalozzi in Europe, and transformed “pauper schools” into public schools. She broke the shackles of her sex, and her name was placed on the payroll as the first woman in the government’s service at the nation’s capital. ”

“ Clara Barton loved a home. Although she went forth from her father’s ample and generous house while still she was a young woman, and lived as school-teacher, department clerk, and humanitarian for many years, she never failed to make a home for herself if there was opportunity. Hotel life had no charms for her, and, while she enjoyed entertainment in the homes of her friends and was a gracious and appreciative guest, she always preferred a roof of her own above her head where she could be hostess rather than guest and could minister instead of being ministered unto. ”

“ Clara Barton. The soldier is lost in the citizen. Clara Barton.
The proudest of America’s sons have struggled for the honors of a soldier’s name. Clara Barton.
Their glory, bright as it shone in war, is out-lustered by the nobleness of their lives in peace. Clara Barton.
I shall never take to myself more honesty of purpose, faithfulness of zeal, nor patriotism, than I award to another. Clara Barton.
What can be added to the glory of a nation whose citizens are its soldiers? Whose warriors, armed and mighty,—spring from its bosom in the hour of need, and peacefully retire when the need is over. ”

“ W. H. Sears, Secretary to Miss Barton. Clara Barton,—this woman’s immortal work.
Boston Transcript. Not all the noblest songs are worth one noble deed.
Alfred Austin. Clara Barton,—her work and her achievements,—wonders wrought by that noble woman of New England.
Oakland (Cal.) Tribune. Clara Barton,—no other whose achievements even approximate hers; her allegiance ran the whole race of mankind.
Sacramento (Cal.) Union. Clara Barton,—measured by any scale you may choose, was the most useful woman of her day and generation. ”

“ Clara Barton is the greatest “man” in America. Where will you find a man to equal her?—George F. Hoar, U. S. Senate, 1877–1901.
429She achieved through nature’s endowments—a head to think, a heart to feel and hands to work. From her hard-working Barton forbears she inherited the sentiment in the Roman adage—“There is no easy way to the stars from the earth”;—all things are conquered by labor. For her to labor was to worship; to her the dignity of labor was greater than queenly dignity ”

“ How shall we thank Miss Clara Barton and the Red Cross for the help they have given us? It cannot be done; and if it could, Miss Barton does not want our thanks. She has simply done her duty as she saw it and received her pay—the consciousness of a duty performed to the best of her ability. To see us upon our feet, struggling forward, helping ourselves, caring for the sick and infirm and impoverished—that is enough for Miss Barton. Her idea has been fully worked out, all her plans accomplished. What more could such a woman wish? ”

“ It was one of the happiest of occasions in her home at Dansville when Miss Barton gave away the bride,—Miss Kupfer becoming Mrs. Mons A. Golay, and the guardian spirit of the little children needing a mother’s care. The romance of two continents, which reads like a fiction resulted in a happy family, in an ideal American home.
215 LXVII Clara Barton’s monument is the gratitude of humanity.
Boston (Mass.) Record. Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great.
Motley. The grave, dread thing! Men shiver when thou’rt named; nature, appalled, shakes off her wonted firmness. ”

“ That most noted and beloved of humanitarians, Clara Barton, is of Puritan ancestry, being born in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1830. She was the daughter of Captain Stephen and Sally Stone Barton, and was educated at Clinton, New York. When still very young she founded a seminary for girls at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Later, she became principal of the first public school in Bordentown, New Jersey, resigned through sickness and was the first woman to hold a regular clerical position under the government, afterward being appointed to the patent office at Washington, District of Columbia. ”

“ No American woman received more honor while she lived, either at home or abroad, and how worthily she bore these honors those know best who knew her best.
The time has come for the publication of a definitive biography of Clara Barton. Such a book could not earlier have been prepared. The “Life of Clara Barton,” by Percy H. Epler, published in 1915, was issued to meet the demand which rose immediately after her death for a comprehensive biography, and it was published with the full approval of Miss Barton’s relatives and of her literary executors, including the author of the present work. ”

“ He argued that if there was anything in phrenology, that man would have been deprived of a certain group of mental capabilities, but that he got on very well with only a part of a brain. Clara replied quickly, “Then there’s hope for me.” So the discussion ended in a hearty laugh.
As a school-teacher, Clara Barton was a pronounced success. We are not dependent wholly upon her own account of her years as a teacher. From many and distant places her pupils rose up and called her blessed. ”

“ Why should I let my life be spoiled by those who are now opposing me, and who take the joy out of my sunshine?
Why, indeed? She had money enough to live upon, in Dansville, or in Oxford, or for that matter in Washington; and she owned homes in each of those three places, and had income enough to live upon in any one of them or in Europe. Why should she expose herself longer to weariness, misrepresentation, and cruel disappointment?
It will be seen that Clara Barton had some reason to apprehend trouble growing out of the visit of the wife of the Senator. ”

“ The Czar and Czarina gave Clara Barton a special audience. The Dowager Empress also gave her the honor of a state dinner. Of all the delegates present Clara Barton was the most sought after personage. Not only at St. Petersburg but wherever she went throughout Europe, similar queenly honors 159were accorded Clara Barton by rulers and world-famed military officers.
When they came into her presence and were introduced, as to a queen, the greatest generals kneeled before her, and kissed her hand. They were invariably profuse in compliments and in undisguised praise of her services to humanity. ”

“ What is essential now is to know that Clara Barton did not enter upon her life-work by reason of a broken heart. Her relations with men were wholesome and enjoyable, but none of them brought her such complete assurance of a happy home as to win her from what she came to feel was her life-work. Some possibilities of matrimony gave her deep concern at the time; but she was able to tell Judge Hale in 1876, when she was fifty-five years of age, that she had never had a love affair, and did not expect to have one ”

“ Washington was still expecting to be attacked; she believed that the attack would occur shortly. It was rather a fine sentence with which her letter closed,—“If it must be, let it come; and when there is no longer a soldier’s arm to raise the Stars and Stripes above our Capitol, may God give strength to mine.”
She was still signing her formal letters Clara H. Barton [Pg 111] She was no longer Clarissa, and before very long she dropped the middle name and letter entirely, and, from the Civil War on, was simply Clara Barton. ”

“ Clara Barton, to the annoying question so often asked by the curious, answered: “I am a well disposed pagan.”
373 XCV I never had a mission and I don’t know what I should do with one, if I had it. Clara Barton.
We all tumble over opportunities for being brave and good, at every step we take. Life is just made up of such opportunities.
Clara Barton. Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.
A. Lincoln. There are other altars than that of Venus on which to light your fires—work, incessant, hard, earnest work. ”

“ On the subject of her personal affections, Clara Barton was very reticent. To the present writer she said that she chose, somewhat early in life, the course which seemed to her more fruitful of good for her than matrimony. In her girlhood she was shy, and, when she found her life vocation, as she then esteemed it, as a teacher, [Pg 77] she was so much interested in her school that she gave little thought to matrimony, and was satisfied that on the whole it would be better in her case if she lived unmarried. She had little patience, however, with women who affect to despise men. ”