of
the American amendment to the constitution of the Red Cross which provides
that the society shall distribute relief not only in war but in times of
such other calamities as famines, floods, earthquakes, cyclones, and
pestilence, and in accordance with this amended constitution, she conducted
the society's relief for sufferers from the yellow fever in Florida (1887),
the flood at Johnstown, Pennsylvania (1889), the famine in Russia (1891),
the hurricane along the coast of South Carolina (1893), the massacre in
Armenia (1896), the Spanish-American War in Cuba (1898), the hurricane at
Galveston, Texas (1900), and several other calamities. Upon her retirement
from the Red Cross she incorporated and became president of "The National
First Aid of America" for "first aid to the injured." She wrote _An
Official History of the Red Cross_ (1882), _The Red Cross in Peace and War_
(1898), _A Story of the Red Cross_ (1904), and _Story of my Childhood_
(1907).

BARTON, ELIZABETH (_c._ 1506-1534), "the maid of Kent," was, according to
her own statement, born in 1506 at Aldington, Kent. She appears to have
been a neurotic girl, subject to epilepsy, and an illness in her nineteenth
year resulted in hysteria and religious mania. She was at the time a
servant in the house of Thomas Cobb, steward of an estate near Aldington
owned by William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury. During her convalescence
she passed into trances lasting for days at a time, and in this state her
ravings were of such "marvellous holiness in rebuke of sin and vice" that
the country folk believed her to be inspired. Cobb reported the matter to
Richard Masters, the parish priest, who in turn acquainted Archbishop
Warham. The girl having recovered, and finding herself the object of local
admiration, was cunning enough, as she confessed at her trial, to feign
trances, during which she continued her prophecies. Her fame steadily
growing, the archbishop in 1526 instructed the prior of Christ Church,
Canterbury, to send two of his monks to hold an inquiry into the case. One
of these latter, Edward Bocking, obtained her admission as a nun to St
Sepulchre's convent, Canterbury. Under Bocking's instruction Barton's
prophecies became still more remarkable, and attracted many pilgrims, who
believed her to be, as she asserted, in direct communication with the
Virgin Mary. Her utterances were cunningly directed towards political
matters, and a profound and widespread sensation