To think of sitting here through an “investigation” by the country I have tried to serve--“in the interest of harmony” they say, when I have never spoken a discordant word in my life, meaningly, but have worked on in _silence_ under the fire of the entire press of the United States for twelve months,--forgiven all, offered friendship,--and still am to be “investigated” for “inharmony,” “unbusinesslike methods,” and “too many years”--all of these I cannot help. I am still unanimously bidden to work on for “life,” bear the burden of an organization--meet its costs myself--and am now threatened with the expense of the “investigation.” Can you wonder that I ask a bridle track? And that some other country might look inviting to me? Mr. Young, this unhappy letter is a poor return to make for your friendly courtesy, but _so long_ my dark thoughts have turned to you that I cannot find myself with the privilege of communicating with you, without expressing them. I cannot think where I have found the courage to do it, but I _have_. I know how unwise a thing it seems, but if the pressure is too great the bands may break; that may be my case, and fearing that my better judgment might bid me put these sheets in the fire--I send them without once glancing over. You need not forget, but kindly _remember_, rather, that they are the wail of an aching heart and that is all. Nature has provided a sure and final rest for all the heartaches that mortals are called to endure. If you are in the East again, and I am here, I pray you to come to me. Receive again my thanks and permit me to remain, Your friend CLARA BARTON In conversation she said: “The Government which I thought I loved, and loyally tried to serve, has shut every door in my face and stared at me insultingly through its windows. What wonder I want to leave?” In another conversation, referring to the abandonment of her dream of going to Mexico, she said: “There were but two countries where the Red Cross did not exist, China and Mexico. I did not want to go to China, but did want to go to Mexico, and fully intended to go. My friends finally dissuaded me and perhaps it was for the best, for if I had gone I probably would not have been alive now.”