JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. A well kept diary is one of the most interesting productions of human industry—not the least benefit of a diary is that it produces a taste for writing. REVEREND WILLIAM SUTTON, S. J. We converse with the absent by letters, and with ourselves by diaries—many of our greatest characters in public life have left such monuments of their diurnal labors. ISAAC DISRAELI. Her unpublished diaries and letters are my chief original sources of information that the book should come forth with the force of an autobiography. _The Life of Clara Barton_, by Epler. Only two classes of people can keep diaries of unimportant things—those who never have time to do anything else and those who have stopped doing things. I have done neither. CLARA BARTON. Clara Barton’s war diaries, and diaries of her travels, if published, would be eagerly read by the people and be of great historic interest. THE AUTHOR. Clara Barton could say with Seneca: “I keep an account of my expenses; I cannot affirm that I lose nothing, but I can tell you what I lose, and why, and in what manner.” THE AUTHOR. CLARA BARTON KEPT A DIARY The diary is an important factor in literary culture, and likewise in history. Diaries in some form are probably co-existent with the history of man. Keeping diaries, however, was revived in the seventeenth century. The best known diaries are those by Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, of England. In this country, among the many well known diarists are John Quincy Adams and Henry David Thoreau. From youth continuous through her long and eventful life, Clara Barton kept a diary. The subject matter therein consists of routine daily work, travels, public functions, personal opinions of people she met, and philosophizing, which would fill volumes with interesting reading. In her diary also she discussed questions of the day, public men, the problem of life, spiritualism, religion, politics,—everything that passes through the human mind, besides keeping account of every cent expended and for what purpose. By reading her diaries, almost any friend could find Miss Barton’s opinion of himself. Before retiring for the night her custom, amounting almost to a religious one, was to write in her diary the day’s events. Pleasing, when youth is long expired, to trace The forms our pencil or our pen designed; Such was our youthful air, and shape, and face, Such the soft image of our youthful mind. Illustrating this remarkable characteristic in her life are appended two excerpts of a domestic nature from her diary in 1907, she then being eighty-seven years of age. “DOING MY WORK,” AT 87 Friday, October 18, 1907.