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THE
UNITED STATES SANITARY
COMMISSION.
THE United States Sanitary
Commission, originated in that spirit of sympathy with the army which has so
embellished with bright deeds the darkest pages of our sad conflict with
rebellion, was never more necessary, as an ameliorating agency, than at this
time, when all along the lines preparations are making for active hostilities,
which will probably involve greater suffering and loss than any previous
campaign. It is the appreciation, no doubt, of this possibility that is now
impelling the people, every where, to unprecedented efforts in aid of its funds.
The entire money receipts of the Commission, since its organization, probably
exceed $2,000,000, while the money value of the supplies
poured in by the women of the
country can not be less than $9,000,000. The management of the Commission has
been, from the start, most economical and efficient. Rev. Dr. BELLOWS, who is at
its head, and whose portrait we give on this page, has given himself to this
work with an industry and zealous self-sacrifice which the whole country will
applaud long after the tumult and the sufferings of war have ceased from the
land. Dr. BELLOWS is about to proceed to California for the purpose of laboring
there in aid of the Commission, in place of the late Rev. THOMAS STARR KING,
whose death left it without any special agent in that rich field.
THE METROPOLITAN FAIR.
The Metropolitan Fair, in aid of
this Commission, will undoubtedly surpass, in the magnitude of its display and
the aggregate of results, all previous
efforts in a similar direction.
The preparations for the Fair have been made on the most extended scale,
exhibiting the most liberal purpose on the part of the managers, who manifestly
feel that the people will equal, in their generous giving, the largest possible
expectations. Contributions are still flowing in from all parts of the world,
Americans every where seeming to rejoice at the opportunity to show their
sympathy with the men who are defending the cause of liberty and good
government. Nor are contributions from abroad confined to Americans away from
home. Thousands of foreigners, who look to America as the beacon-light of the
nations, are sending their offerings in most liberal profusion. The steamship
Germania, which arrived from Hamburg on the 24th ult., brought many costly gifts
from the citizens of Hamburg, who, notwithstanding the excitement consequent on
the Schles-
wig-Holstein war, find time to
give practical expression to their interest in our brave soldiers. From Italy,
Switzerland, and other far lands, similar contributions have been received, and
in the Fair will appear as so many testimonies of the sincerity of foreign
sympathy with the loyal men of the nation in their struggle with barbarism.
General JOHN A. Dix, whose
portrait we give on this page, is President of the Fair Association. It is fit
that a soldier should thus head the movement of the great city of New York in
behalf of the army upon which the future of the nation so largely depends.
General Dix is now nearly sixty-six years of age, and during his life has filled
many positions of honor and trust, but in none has he proved himself a sturdier
patriot and truer man than in this contest, on the peace side of which he now
appears as the head of our Fair.
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX, PRESIDENT OF THE
METROPOLITAN FAIR.
(PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.)
REV. HENRY W. BELLOWS, D ,D., PRESIDENT UNITED
STATE SANITARY COMMISSION,
[PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY)
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