nt furniture and enameled ironware;
Titusville, Pa., with a population of ten thousand, sent ten thousand
dollars' worth of its well-made bedsteads, springs, extension-tables,
chairs, stands and rockers; and the well-known New York newspaper, The
Mail and Express, sent a large lot of mattresses, feather pillows,
bedclothing, sheets, and pillow-slips by the thousand and cooking
utensils by the ten thousands. Six large teams were in constant service
delivering these goods.

When the contributions slackened or ceased, and more material was
needed, we purchased of the same firms which had contributed, keeping
our stock good until all applications were filled. The record on our
books showed that over twenty-five thousand persons had been directly
served by us. They had received our help independently and without
begging. No child has learned to beg at the doors of the Red Cross.

It is to be borne in mind that the fury of the deluge had swept almost
entirely the homes of the wealthy, the elegant, the cultured leaders of
society, and the fathers of the town. This class who were spared were
more painfully homeless than the indigent poor, who could still huddle
in together. They could not go away, for the suffering and demoralized
town needed their care and oversight more than ever before. There was no
home for them, nowhere to get a meal of food or to sleep. Still they
must work on, and the stranger coming to town on business must go
unfed, with no shelter at night, if he would sleep, or, indeed, escape
being picked up by the military guard.

To meet these necessities, and being apprehensive that some good lives
might go out under the existing luck of accommodations, it was decided
to erect a building similar to our warehouse. The use of the former site
of the Episcopal Church was generously tendered us by the Bishop early
in June, for any purpose we might desire. This house, which was soon
erected, was known as the "Locust Street Red Cross Hotel"; it stood some
fifty rods from our warehouse, and was fifty by one hundred and sixteen
feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with lantern roof, built of
hemlock, single siding, papered inside with heavy building paper, and
heated by natural gas, as all our buildings were. It consisted of
thirty-four rooms, besides kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms with hot and
cold water, and one main dining-hall and sitting-room through the
center, sixteen feet in width by one hundred in length.