SOCIAL RELIEF WORK OF THE SALVATION

ARMY IN THE UNITED STATES

CHAPTER 1.

GENESIS OF THE SALVATION ARMY

The mudpools of society possess a peculiar interest for the sociologist, be he humanitarian or statesman. Hunger amounting to positive starvation, destitution that means the actual lack of the most common necessaries of existence, misery that represents a Niagara of tears, intertangled with a ghastly profusion of blasphemy, vermin, vice and crime, constitute a dark background to what would indeed be a loathsome picture, but for the fact that it is illumined with lightning flashes of love, piety and patient endurance, whose existence might least be suspected amid such sad surroundings. Here the dividing line between earth and hell becomes so hard to locate that those who inhabit this sombre shadowland of woe ofttimes feel and seem as though they had already passed from the one to the other.

Into this desolate region the Salvation army flung itself, nay from its very vortex of misery it may be said to have originated. The international developments and multitudinous outgrowths of the movement were represented at its inception by two solitary individuals, whom Providence had first linked together, and then plunged into the midst of this maelstrom of sin and sorrow. Singlehanded, unsupported by material resources of any kind, William and Catherine Booth planted the standard of salvation as near the gates of hell as they could reach.

It was in July, 1865, on Mile End Waste, in the east end of London, amid vice, degradation and squalor probably without parallel in any corner of the globe, that they commenced their work of spiritual and social reform.

They adapted their methods to the savage hordes of semibarbarians to whom they had consecrated their lives. Their first citadels were planted in the heart of sindom and slumdom. Over the doorway of one of these was written the strange inscription: "No respectable people admitted." The sinners they were after gloried in their savagery. Their Bible was the "penny dreadful," their place of worship the saloon, their god their unbridled appetites, their prayer hideous blasphemy. No church-door was ever darkened with their shadow. They were neither expected, nor wanted. The sight of their unkempt condition would have driven away the usual worshippers.

But the dime museums and "penny gaffs," which these misfits of humanity had been accustomed to frequent, were pressed into service by this Prophet of the poor. They were quickly crowded to the doors with the rowdy element he sought to reach. Amongst the earliest converts were prize-fighters, pigeon-flyers, gamblers, drunkards, criminals, many of them notorious for their wickedness.

Each captured gun was turned against the enemy. Each prisoner of war was drilled as a recruit. His simple testimony became a powerful weapon of offense. Multitudes who would not cross the road to hear a preacher, crowded to hear the broken sentences of the champion wrestler, or lightweight boxer who had been their hero. Here they could listen to the simple vernacular to which they were themselves accustomed. The very breakdowns of the speakers were more interesting than the polished flights of the most eloquent orator. Their arguments were resistless. What they recommended they possessed. What they had gained was surely within each listener's reach, since their circumstances and surroundings were the same.

The powerful influence of woman's ministry was also introduced, and helped to sway the savage throng. Riots were quelled and bloodshed prevented by those fearless, calm-eyed women, often mere girls, who dared to cast themselves into this lion's den of humanity.

Even the music and singing were revolutionized for the purposes of this modern crusade. The popular tap-room melodies of the day were fitted to suitable words, so simple that a child could understand, often mere doggerel, it was true, and not always either rhythmical or grammatical. If they conveyed their meaning, that was the great point. Would the tune "go?" If not, however beautiful it might be, it was ruthlessly discarded as unsuited for the great end in view.

Military methods and titles were not added till the year 1879. They undoubtedly served to lend speed and strength. to the movement.

The work was commenced on purely spiritual lines. The founder, William Booth, had already attained national fame as a revivalist. Not a little of his inspiration had been drawn from the two great American evangelists, Caughey and Finney. The passionate fervor of the one, the logical precision of the other, may be traced in much of the army teachings and operations. Indeed it may be said that America was represented at the very cradle of the Salvation army.

It is not to be wondered therefore that the Salvation army had scarcely become firmly established in England, when its operations were extended to America. One of its early converts settled in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1872, and immediately commenced work. After his departure nothing further was done till 1880, when another convert settled in Philadelphia. In the following year, in answer to an urgent appeal, reinforcements were dispatched under Commissioner George S. Railton, and from that moment the work went forward apace. The present operations of the Salvation army in the United States embrace the following particulars:

Seven hundred corps and outposts; 2600 officers and employees; 160 social relief institutions for the poor; 450 officers and employees in charge of same; 7000 accommodation provided by social institutions; 11,000 open-air and