XXIII
Clara Barton deserves first place in the living memory of the world today, and of generations to come.
Jacksonville (Florida) Times-Union.
She bore herself with a poise that lost for her no friends.
Utica (N. Y.) Observer.
She had a faculty for seeing what needed to be done, and how to do it. New York Examiner.
She accomplished what crowned heads failed in.
Unity, Chicago.
Things came to me as if ordered by a world-controlling power.
Clara Barton.
Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.
Athenæus.
O God! that bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap.
Hood.
The greatest attribute of Heaven is mercy;
And ’tis the crown of justice, and the glory,
Where it may kill with right and save with pity.
J. Fletcher.
Tact is born with some people.
William Makepeace Thayer.
Tact is not a single faculty, but a combination of faculties.
W. M. Thayer.
What men call “shrewdness” and “Common Sense” usually signify no more than tact. W. M. Thayer.
The Enemy, Starving — Tact — The White Ox
To know is power, but the power may be latent. Tact is skill, ever alert. Tact knows what to do, when and how to do it. Queen Elizabeth had tact, unerring. Her long reign was a series of tactful events. Tact was the basis of the supremacy of the Elizabethan Age.
Clara Barton had tact, unerring. Tact gave her position among rulers of nations, and likewise won for her the esteem of the lowly. Tact attracted to her unpaid Red Cross assistants, who cheerfully shared her privations. Through tact she retained her friends, made new friends, and to an extent unprecedented.
Clara Barton was with the Army of the Blue, but nearby was a hospital in which were the wounded Gray, starving. The surgeons from within were begging for food. The Federal Quartermaster had refused supplies, giving as a valid excuse that he was a bonded officer and responsible for the property under his charge.
A “bunch” of cattle were seen passing. Clara Barton said to the officer: “I know you are bonded, but I am neither bonded nor responsible.” The officer taking the “cue” was soon out of sight. Clara Barton then gave orders to her men, at the same time pointing to the large unsuspecting white ox that had strayed from the “bunch.” The men appreciated the delicate situation; the ox somehow strayed over to the enemy, and later received a hearty reception among the starving wounded inside the hospital.
REPRESENTATIVE OF TWO WARS