and late, never leaving for a day, striving with tender heart that
all should go well.

And when the first greetings were over, the full chorus of manly
voices--"Home Again," "Sweet Land of Liberty," "Nearer My God to
Thee"--that rolled out through the open windows of the Red Cross
headquarters in Constantinople fell on the listening ears of Christian
and Moslem alike, and though the tones were new and strange, all felt
that to some one, somewhere, they meant more than the mere notes of
music.

VIII

CUBA

1898

On our return to "civilization" we were rejoiced to find that as a
result of our three months' labors, the former tumult of Armenia had
died away into a peaceful echo, but a new murmur fast growing to clamor
had taken its place. Cuba had entered the ceaseless arena of American,
gladiatorial, humanitarian contest. The cruelties of the reconcentrado
system of warfare had become apparent, and methods of relief were
uppermost in the minds of all persons.

These methods were twofold and might well be classed under two distinct
heads: those who for mere pity's sake sought simple relief; those who
with a further forecast sought the removal of a cause as well as its
effect, and "Cuba Libre" was its muffled cry. They asked money for arms
as well as bread, and the struggle between the two held the country in
a state of perplexed contradiction for months running into years.

Our great-hearted President asked simple aid and was distressed at the
doubtful response. At length he suggested and we proffered the aid of
the Red Cross on a call to the country, and the establishment of the
"Central Cuban Relief Committee" in New York, within three days, was the
result.

The activity and success of that committee are too fresh in the minds of
all our people to require the smallest description from me. Too much
praise can not be given to our Auxiliary Societies from the Atlantic to
the Pacific for the splendid work in the camps at home, in Cuba, Porto
Rico, and in the care of our soldiers in transit to the Philippines.
Their full and complete reports show the great work accomplished. The
memory of the work of the busy men and tireless women who joined heart
and hand in this Heaven-sent task still brings tears to the eyes of a
nation at its recall.

The service assigned me by our anxious President, and gladly accepted,
was the distribution on the pitiful fields of Cuba. These scenes I
would not recall. The starvin