American National Red Cross; Red Cross and Red Crescent
The spirit shown by these people, after they had been instructed in the
demoralizing effect of free and plenteous distribution, was remarkable:
they did not beg for food, they asked for work, and the Red Cross made
work for them.
The relief supply was received at three points: the railroad station,
about one and a quarter miles from headquarters, the steamer "Pilot
Boy," bringing goods from Charleston, and the "Alpha," bringing a few
goods from Savannah. Freight was brought to headquarters in small carts
drawn by horses or cattle of any kind, and it was always an interesting
sight to the stranger: the animals were driven with a bit, with ropes
for harness, and in most instances the bend of a tree had been sawed out
and used as saddles, on which were ropes or wire holding up the shafts,
with burlap or crudely made cushions to protect the animal's back--all
indications of the primitive condition of a people who were to be the
wards of the Red Cross for a year, but who were also to be given an
object lesson in practical life which was more to them, more to the
country, than the little allowance of grits and meat to which they must
add something more to support their families. "They must not eat the
bread of idleness," said our president. "We must not leave a race of
beggars, but teach them the manliness of self-support, and methods of
self-dependence."
The distributing was done through sub-committee men, representing
anywhere from five people into the hundreds. They were the appointees of
the local relief committee and retained to the end of the field, with
but few exceptions. They came weekly, tri-monthly and monthly; those who
came thirty and forty miles in crude boats were given supplies enough to
last a month, for it was a long and sometimes difficult journey.
Each sub-committee man presented himself at headquarters and was
referred, in his turn, to the main office, where an order was issued for
whatever the notes of the investigating committee called for--grits,
meat, nails, hatchets, saws, lumber and clothing the most frequent.
These orders were brought to the shipping room, where they were filled,
marked with name of sub-committee man, his address and a Red Greek
Cross, the insignia which would entitle it to protection and many times
free transport to its destination. A complete record of this was made in
the shipping room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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