| Show RED BED CROSS SOCIETY at an enthusiastic meeting of ladies at templeton hotel last night wednesday may 26 a branch of the red ked cross society was formed in this city the general public will undoubtedly be interested in some information regarding the object and methods of this philanthropic society its origin may be traced to the battle of solferino june 27 1859 A swiss gentleman monsieur henri dunant witnessed that engagement and was deeply impressed with the scenes of horror he saw wounded and dying were left on the field of carnage for days without medical attendance en this led him to consider the necessity of uniting civilized nations in a compact for the purpose of rendering warfare less barbai ous J ais suggestions were eagerly c by the society of public utility in switzerland and by the aid of th the swiss federal council a conference cor core nee of ft representatives of various na ains inawise in awis w s beld in geneva in 1863 ii WAS f fa J lowed by another in 1864 at wini win ai ill the so called geneva treaty was va f 01 initiated the idea slowly batain bt ain I 1 a i foothold among the different nations only sixteen at first sigre sh r 1 1 ille hie treaty but gradually its powers were adopted dop ted by others sn n l at ii ir i r sent nt there axe are at least forty nations in the compact the united states entered into the agreement in 1882 by an act of f congress and a proclamation procla mati on abt by president arthur A red cross on white ground is the emblem of the as the resolutions of the geneva conference provide that there shall be in wery every treaty country one committee and aad only one whose duty it shall be to operate cooperate co in time of war by all ail means in its power with the medical and add sanitary tary service of the army and this t is committee shall place itself in communication with the government of its own country in order that its offers of assistance in case of need may be accepted in the event of war the committee of belligerent nations shall furnish relief to their respective spec tive armies in proportion to their respective resources and if need be they shall solicit assistance of committees of neutral nations within the treaty with the concurrence of the military authorities they shall upon request place nurses upon the battlefields but only under tinder the direction of the mill military commanders the interchange of communications the several national committees to Is made through the swiss committee which bears the title of the comate international internal onal As early as an am it had been indirectly Y p proposed e d that the committee might mis hit increase ea s e their usefulness by relief work in cases vt at calamities other than war but the th rie met with no favor it was not until the formation of the united states I 1 in 1881 that such a feature to the earnest advocacy of the thel measure ure by miss clara barton took practical form and thereby broadened the scope of the humane worlo the was laid before the international committee which ably seconded miss pitons Zi tons efforts by that committee it was submitted to the treaty countries mid and finally unanimous sanction was obtained efte change or addition to td the original intention of the society la Is i known as an the american amendment sufferers from floods cyclones and other calamities have received aid aad as a consequence of this amendment the american red cross headquarters is located at washington this is the first time that the services of the american society have been required in aid of the count rys defenders and now its members hasten from all parts of the republic to fulfill their mission of love miss barton the president of the red cross society is a massachusetts woman about 60 years of age she started as a school teacher and in 1861 was engaged as a clerk in the patent office at washington the breaking out of the war gave her the great opportunity of her life which she embraced by resigning her clerkship and devoting herself to hospital work among the wounded soldiers of both union and confederate armies she was present at the battlefields of cedar mountain antietam fredericksburg falmouth the siege of charleston and other scenes of carnage where the prompt ministrations of herself and her band of trained nurses saved many lives she also adso served in the franco pr prussian war and did all in her power to alleviate the sufferings of the armenians Armen ians in the massacres of more recent date |
