is pitiful and innocently unjust condition of affairs, the
result of ignorance of relief work, undertaken with much zeal but scant
knowledge and no experience, we sought a way to atone for the mistake,
so far as we might be able.

Immediately closing our relief rooms in Galveston I had all Red Cross
supplies shipped to Houston, and relief for the mainland opened there.
These were farming districts, and I directed intelligent inquiry to be
made as to what was most needed by the devastated farm lands and their
owners. All was swept away--sometimes as far as forty miles back into
the level country; often the soil itself was washed away, the home and
all smaller animals destroyed, and no feed for the larger ones to
subsist on. The poor farmers walked their desolated fields and wrung
their hands.

It proved that this was the strawberry section of Southern Texas, and
these were the strawberry growers that supplied the early berries to our
Northern market. For miles not a plant was left and no means to
replant. This was reported to me on the first day's investigation, and
also that if plants could be obtained and set within two weeks a half
crop could be grown this year and the industry restored. That seemed a
better occupation for these poor fellows than walking the ground and
wringing their hands. The messenger was sent back at daybreak to
ascertain how many plants would be needed to replant these lands, where
they were accustomed to procure them, and what varieties were best
adapted to their use.

That night brought again the messenger to say that a million and a half
of plants would reset the lands and that their supply came from the
nurseries in North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
Directions were sent back to Mr. Ward to order the plants to be there in
two weeks. This was done. Only thirty-eight thousand plants were injured
in transit, and those were generously resupplied by the shippers. Within
the two weeks this million and a half of strawberry plants were set. It
was estimated that fully a third of a crop was realized that year, and
it is safe to predict that one-half the readers of this little sketch
will partake of the fruits of these Red Cross relief strawberry fields
this very springtime.

Other needs to a large amount were supplied by Mr. Ward, and we left no
idle, wringing hands on the mainlands of Texas.

I had never left Galveston. Some other thoughtful reader may pitifully
ask, what became