she felt that she knew it all and was an ardent devotee
even of its principles. But she had given me more than I had given her.
Here was food for thought.

For twenty-five years I had labored to explain the principles and uses
of the Red Cross; had written enough for a modest library of what it was
and what it meant, but, lest I seem egotistical, not a page of what it
did. The child had given me an idea that I would for once put into
practice, and write a few pages of what the Red Cross had done, leaving
principles to present themselves.

I will commence even back of itself.

Forty years ago, before most of you were born, a great war had been
fought in America, in which thousands died from battle and hardship, and
thousands more still left alive were worn out in the untried and
unsystematized efforts at relief that had been made through nearly five
years of continuous war. Of these latter, many were women who dragged
out weary lives in their own homes, some went to hospitals and retreats
for rest and care, and some were sent abroad. One of these latter I knew
personally, for, as Patrick would say, "It was me-self."

To me it seemed a hard sentence that our physicians imposed. I had grown
to love the country we had so toiled for, and did not want to leave it.
Its very woes had made it dear to me. It had quiet once more, and a
peace that was not all a peace. It had its early soldier homes, its
fast-filling cemeteries, and the tender memory of a martyred President
resting over us like a pall. These had come to seem like a heritage to
me, and in my weakness I clung to them. Still, the order was obeyed and
I went.

Then followed travels in strange and foreign lands, other wars, illness
and suffering of my own, until eleven years later I came almost a
stranger again to our Government with another work, which I believed to
be for its good and the good of our people.

This time I brought the idea of the treaty of Geneva, asking our
Government, at the request of other Governments, to examine and to unite
with it, if found desirable. This effort with the Government covers five
years of hard, continuous labor, during which was sought the aid of
friends known in other years. At the end of this time, by advice of our
second martyred President and three members of his historic
cabinet--James G. Blaine, William Windom, and Robert T. Lincoln--a
national society was formed, known as the Association of the American
Red Cross, and