14 THE CHURCH: OFFICERS” GAZETTE Then came the Civil War, At once Miss Dix volunteered her ‘services, Immediately she was appointed superintendent of women nurses, and in this capacity she served throughout the war. Not one day’s rest did she take; very often when meal- time came she had to he reminded to eat. From her own re- sources she rented two large houses to store the supplies sent her, and to use as resthomes for the nurses. Also at her own expense she bought a detachment of ambulances to supplement the Government service; she employed two seeretaries, and she ‘traveled hundreds of miles from one battlefield to another. The war ended, but not Migs Dix’s work. For eighteen months Jonger she earried on correspondenee in behalf of the men who ‘had come under her care; for the disahled and sick she procured pensions; to the families of those who had died she sent their dying messages, At the age of sixty-five she again took up her work for the insane. During the next fifteen years she founded or emlargod thirty-two hospitals in her own country, and influenced the erection of two in Japan, “ She had built homes for the homeless, but she had provided none for herself.” At eighty years of age she accepted an urgent invitation to go to live at the asylum at Trenton, N, J, the first one whieh had heen built as the direet outcome of her. ‘work. Here ghe lived until July 17, 1887. Her worn-out body lies in Mount Auburn in company with a host of other illus- trious dead. * Thus was laid to rest the most useful woman America hak yet produced.”— Great-hearted Women,” by Mabel L Ansley Murphy. TET ree Clara Barton, a Girl Who Saved Others Nor so was she named when she eame into the world. on Christmas Day, 1821. The inmates.of the old Massachusetts farmhouse named the tiny baby Clarissa Harlowe, and so well ‘did she live up to the nhune that she started to school at three, able to spell words of as many syllables. as she” numbered her years. But she was shy, so shy. that she could answer mo. question in schol, . Only ona horse did she forget-herself. Her hig brother, David, who was her hero, taught her to ride hy telling her, . ¢ Just .feel the horse a part of yourself, the big half of you for the time being.” Many a mad gallop together they had, up and down the roeky pastures. So, by riding half-tamed colts Clara yeceived the training. that engbled her later, in life, to ride strange horses on -all-night rgees to safety. . When she was only eloven years old, David fell from a barn roof, and for two years was an invalid. Clara was his devoted nurse, With him she left the wild, free outdoor life they both loved, and lived within the four walls of the sieck-room. Not one half- -day was she absent, and the doetors, as well as the neighbors, said, “ Clara’s a born nurse.” But she grew ever shyer and more sensitive. Her family were puzzled to know how io help her until a wise ‘friend. suggested that she be given some work for others outside of her home, So, as Clara at fifteen was fay.ahepd.of all other pupils in. her, studies, she took a country sehool, After a time her voice gave out, so she went to worl in the Patent office in Washingtofi. Here she was when the Civilk War began. , The Massachusetts men who, hurriedly answered Lin- colnts wall for volnnteers were attacked in Baltimore, on. April 19,.-a8 they were hurrying to the front. . Their train finally reached Washington with, many‘ wounded .on board. Clara ‘Barton with many other women met the train and: dressed the men’s wounds, Here she found: her real life-work, : + &rom- that day tothe end of her lifer noven-again.had whe ime. #40 be self-conselous. For. weeks she, amet the: Potomae 3 transports, filled with wounded soldiers, as they docked ab Washington, Only too often had the men lain so long uncared for that her ministrations were of no avail, So she determined to go to the front and give to the men immediately after they were wounded what is now known as “first aid.” But ‘days passed info weeks, and still those in authority turned a deaf ear to her plea. At last, however, Assistant Quartermaster-General Rucker gave her a pass, and from that day until the war closed, Clara Barton was an angel of mercy on the firing line. On sixteen battlefields she worked. Through the siege of Charleston and the Wilderness campaign she served, and into the Richmond hospitals she went with the men. Yet, loyal as she was to her own “ boys,” no Confederate who needed her eare was ever passed by. At Antietam ghe took the cornmeal packed about bottles and from it she made hot gruel. At Fredericksburg the wounded suffered greatly from the cold. Clara Barton had them all brought to one place and great fires started. Still the men shivered. An old chimney stood near, * Tear it down, heat the bricks, and plaee them about the boys,” Clara Barton commanded. At last the war ended, but sixty thousand men were “miss- ing!” President Lincoln asked Migs Barton Lo help to locate these men and to answer the letters of their anxious parents. For four years she worked, and in that time she laid out the National Cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., and identified nearly thirteen thousand graves. And to the homes that would know their sons 10 more she gent definite word of thirty thousand men. But although the war was over, Clara Barton found other fields of service. She served over on the battlefields of Europe. Here she. learned about that great organization, “The Red Cress,” under whose badge workers can minister to the suffering whether on an enemy’s ground er not. It was Clara Barton that influenced the United States to join with the other rations in making the Red Cross help to save life in our country. She worked hard, aid wherever there was suffering, there Clara Barton was sure to go. When she was eighty years of age she went to Galveston’s aid, and President MeKinley sent her to help in distributing food to the starving Cubans.’ _ She lived to be eighty-sevén years old, happy and honored by-all nations. Something she said should be treasured by each boy and girl, for it is the secret of a useful life; it is: “I have no mission. I have never had a mission. But I always had more work than I eould do lying. around my feat. I try hard to get it out of the way so as to go on and do the next duty. ? -~ Adapted from the Story of Clara Barton in.“ Great-hearted Women,” by Mabel Ansley Murphy. Bret. 8 Devotional Miceting fe or ‘May 22 X Senior Tovic: “ God's Witnesses.” oe "+ 1. Opening Exereises. Ce ~ Ug, Standard of Attainment Drill ~~ - : 3. Band Report. ] ’ 4. Repeat Pgalms 19. oe ’ "5. Qohg: “ Hymns and Tunes,” No.’ 80. 6. Recitation: * Nature's Lessons.” 7. Talk: “God's Witnesses.” 8. Recitation: “An Outdoor Man’ 8 Prayer. ” ‘9; For Answer. 10. Song: * The Spacious Fiimament. n 11! Close with Silent Prayer. ’ " Junior Topic: “ God’s Book.” nw EN Standard of Attainmetit Drill,” “8. Band R ports, ‘3, Repeat. Palms, 19 togéther, ~~ + . "4. Song: “Goa Made Them ” (No, 426, “ Christ in og ”). "5, Leader's Talk: “ The Mighty Arciuivs,” 6, Recitation: “ Nature’s Lessons.” "7, Talk ‘or Reading: “Do You Read Both Books?” ” or 8. Symposiuri : “ Somé Questions.” . 9. Recitation: “ An 'Outdoor Man’s Prager. » 36, Gloss by repeating Mizpeh. to Notes to Leaders - Ai through {he ages our, heavenly Father has been’ trying to shay. us. the grestness ok Hig, love. Through | sin our’ eonheeption of Him, has been warped, . “J chug “caine tq reveal the’ light’ of hl 0