I am glad that it has been given to me to tell you the story of one of the most beautiful things that ever happened in Switzerland--the founding of the Red Cross.

You will remember it with greater interest, I am sure, because, while I talk, the cross of the Swiss flag floats over us, and it was here in this old town of Geneva the merciful work had its beginning." Lloyd settled herself to listen, still stroking Hero's back with her slipper toe.
"He was my friend, Henri Durant, and in the old days of chivalry they would have made him knight for the noble thought that sprang to flower in his heart and to fruitage in so worthy a deed.

He was travelling in Italy years ago, and happening to be near the place where the battle of Solferino was fought, he was so touched by the sufferings of the wounded that he stopped to help care for them in the hospitals.

The sights he saw there were horrible.

The wounded men could not be cared for properly.
They died by the hundreds, because there were not enough nurses and surgeons and food.
"It moved him to write a book which was translated into several languages.
People of many countries became interested and were aroused to a desire to do something to relieve the deadly consequences of war.