Voices From the Past: “I am truly thankful for the institution of ghosts…”

“You perceive that my idea of ghosts is not limited to graveyards and tombs, or the tenants thereof; indeed, so far from it, the most troublesome I have ever known were at times the inmates of living and moving bodies habiting among other people, coming out only occasionally like owls and bats to frighten the weak and discourage the weary.”

—Nursing pioneer Clara Barton, in a letter to a friend, January 9, 1862.

Source: The Life of Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross (Boston, 1922), I: 141.

Image credit: Wikipedia.

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