She said they were active in the societies for the prevention of cruelty to children and to animals.

They fed armies of tramps out of sheer pity; even the debauched drunkard was the object of their tenderest care and their earnest prayers.

They held out a friendly hand to the prisoners in the jails and sent them flowers and Bibles; they pitied and cheered the outcast with kind words.

They offered themselves as missionaries for foreign lands to convert the heathen and bring them to Christ.

They soothed the sick and made easy the last days of the dying.
On the battlefield, when blood was flowing and cannon smoking, my grandmother had seen the Red Cross women like angels of mercy binding up the gaping wounds and gently closing the glazed eyes of the expiring soldier.