Buildings as well as people she commandeered into service. A little chapel was turned into a dressmaker’s establishment and here the women were set to work making clothes. Somewhere else shoe-makers were gathered together, busily making shoes for the bare-footed fugitives. Other men were set to work at road making; one of their constructions is still known as the Davis Road. Red Cross aid arrived and Dr. Davis was made chief dispenser of it. In the first six weeks, she spent $15,000, but she did not pauperize the people; instead she encouraged them to help themselves, set them to work and paid them off regularly every week. It was that wisely directed, properly compensated work, that saved those poor people and gave them a new grip on life. All sorts of people needed assistance. The Archbishop of Syracuse gave up his palace for a hospital and a convalescent home was established for those of the upper classes. The men, many of them, were so shaken by the calamity that they would frequently give way to fits of hysterics, and more than once on such an occasion, Dr. Davis took a man by the shoulders and shook him into self-control. At one time a basket, full of rescued babies, was brought in to her--twelve in all--but the bottom one was dead. For her splendid work at this time, Dr. Davis was much honored. The King of Italy gave her a medal. The Pope of his own accord summoned her to an interview, and gave her his blessing. The Italian Red Cross Society bestowed a medal upon her, as did the American Red Cross, through President Taft. When the Sicilian earthquake victims were in a position to help themselves, Dr. Davis returned home, and quietly resumed her duties as mother, confidant and friend of the inmates of the Bedford reformatory. She has proved herself to be an all-around friend to those in her charge and has entered heartily into all sorts of activities, in pleasures as well as in work; she has been known to get up plays, drill the actors, paint the scenery, train the orchestra, then go out and receive the guests and make a speech. During the thirteen years of her service there, she has lost but two days by illness, and that was a sore throat. The International Prison Congress at its meeting in 1910 elected Dr. Davis the chief of a section. In a space of twenty years, she was the only woman appointed to such a position; she was also the first woman to preside over the public meeting. She was also appointed a member of the Committee which showed the Congress over this country. Vassar, too, has been delighted to honor this graduate who has lived up so wonderfully to the ideals of her alma mater, and the four thousand alumnae have chosen her as one of the twelve members of the Provisional Alumnae Council.