This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1913. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CLARA BARTON EVERY year at Christmas the United States mail is full of letters, packages and boxes to which Red Cross stamps have been affixed; from the sale of the stamps, money is derived for the prevention of tuberculosis. Their presence is largely due to the influence of a woman named Clara Barton. She was born on Christmas day, she founded the Red Cross in America; and whatever disease or misfortune beset her people, it was her enemy, and she led in the fight against it. Clara Barton was born near Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts, in 1821. Her father had fought under Mad Anthony, and still possessed a store of military tales; but to Clara he was known only as a hero long retired, and the present owner of a lean hill farm. The girl's early experience was that of an ordinary American farm child. She never played with dolls, but, from the first with living animals--ducks, dogs, and horses. She was an outdoor child, healthy and athletic. In summer she scampered free through the woods and meadows and in winter coasted on her toboggan down the snowy hillsides. As early as her fifth year, her brother David would fling her astride of a tall, barebacked horse, leap on another himself and, leading her mount, dash away at a mad gallop through the pasture, while she hung onto the mane for dear life. The exercise was to good purpose, for she wrote long afterward, as a woman of seventy-seven, ' To this day my seat on a saddle or on the back of a horse is as secure and tireless as in a rocking chair, and far more pleasurable." Clara was just as precocious at country / work as she was at country play*. The youngest, by a dozen years, of a family of two boys and two girls, many duties, too small for stronger muscles, were shifted upon her shoulders. She brought home ...