The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
History
The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)
Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
American National Red Cross -- Biography; Barton, Clara, 1821-1912; Nurses -- United States -- Biography
To correct certain impressions and expressions which have been
circulating more or less extensively in this country, and for
the correct information of the people who through their loyal
interest deserve to know the facts, I make known my entire social
relations while residing in Turkey. Personally I did not go beyond
Constantinople. The proper conduct of our work demanded the continuous
presence of both our financial secretary and myself at headquarters.
I never saw, to communicate with personally, any member of the Turkish
Government excepting its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tewfik Pasha, as
named previously. I never spoke with the Sultan and have never seen
him excepting in his carriage on the way to his mosque.
On being informed through our Legation that the Turkish Minister at
Washington, Mavroyeni Bey, had been recalled and that his successor
was about to leave for his new position, I felt that national
courtesy required that I call upon him and, attended by a member
of our Legation, my secretary and myself crossed the Bosporusto,
a magnificent estate on the Asiatic shore, the palatial home of
Moustapha Tahsin Bey, a gentleman of culture, who had resided in New
York in some legal capacity, and who, I feel certain, will be socially
and officially acceptable to our Government.
I have received a decoration, officially described as follows:
Brevet of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Melusine, founded in
1186, by Sibylle, Queen and spouse of King Guy of Jerusalem, and
reinstituted several years since by Marie, Princess of Lusignan. The
Order is conferred for humanitarian, scientific and other services
of distinction, but especially when such services are rendered to
the House of Lusignan, and particularly to the Armenian nation. The
Order is worn by a number of reigning sovereigns, and is highly prized
by the recipients because of its rare bestowal and its beauty. This
decoration is bestowed by His Royal Highness, Guy of Lusignan, Prince
of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia.
Some months after returning home I received through our State
Department at Washington the Sultan’s decoration of Shefaket and its
accompanying diploma in Turkish, a translation of which is here given:
As Miss Barton, American citizen, possesses many great and
distinguished qualities and as recompense is due to her, I am pleased
therefore to accord to her the second class of my decorations of
Shefaket.
Such were the honors which Miss Barton received from the Turkish
Government. Her American friends in Constantinople were no less
enthusiastic. Among the foremost of American missionaries in Turkey and
those longest resident in Constantinople, the Reverend Doctors Dwight
and Greene deserve to be quoted as expressing the judgment of the
Americans as a body:
From the Reverend Doctor H. O. Dwight, one word among the many so
generously spoken:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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