General Booth's new buck, In Darkest evident from the home papers that England," is engaging " vast amount of Ttis described as setting forth a scheme for the deliverance of the destitute as being a "serious practical attempt to deal with the question of unemployed labour, and the amelioration of the conditions of life among the poor." The interest awakened bids fair to eclipse that taken in its prototype; already it seems to have thrown into the shade "In Darkest Africa."
The Editor of the Keciew ut Keviercs had avees to the manuscript, and, in the number lately arrived, devotes many pages to discussing the work, and to considerations arising out of it. Mr. Stead is not the man to whom a suber and sensible person in search of a sober and sensible opinion would naturally go; and I therefore am not surprised to find that he calls it an epoel i lightot gospel dawn of anew and happier era in the li man. He begins at the beginning of things and gives a sympathetic and comprehensive account of the tion Army " from the time it was born twenty-five years ago down to the recent birth of General Booth's great idea." "Twenty-five years ago" he says the Salvation Army consisted of one man and his wife, without money, without influential friends, without even a place of worship. To-day the Salvation Army, built up out of the poorest members of the community, has 9,000 officers working at 2,864 centres of population all over the world, who raise every year for carrying on the Salvation War no less a sun than £750,000." This at 44, as he points out, represents an endowment of over eighteen millions. 'A tolerably substantial miracle, compared with which that of the loaves and fishes was but a small affair."
Certainly few more wonderful things thai the growth of this movement have happened Joseph Smith and the Mormons at, any rate. in the memory of living man. Not' since
Its success is a striking proof of the power of persistent aggressive advertising, auf an extraordinary tribute to the ability of William Booth as a leader and organise of men. It is interesting to learn how his title of "General " and the name Salvation Army" arose, Itappears that he wad oni "General Superintendent of the Christian Mission" and naturally had to abbreviate that mouthful when signing his fame. He used to do so by simply writing the first word of the name of his office and gradually came to be known best by it. The name Salvation Army" arose also by chance while a proof sheet was being corrected. Booth described hitnself and his followers in that way, and it struck several who were present as a happy title, and it was promptly adopted. Not till''then occurred to hint the Hen of organising followers upon the model of the army," what effect the whole world knows: At home his following is enormous, and" his emissaries are abroad in all lands,' Tu Europe, if you go to Germany or Fratice or Belgium or Norway or Sweden, they are there, and in America and Canadi, Enda and Australia, you will find them also. Their unrivalled eccentricities have brought, them under the eye of the whole world' anything but a favourable light, but would be foolish to blind oneself to the merits of their work because their methods are peculiar.
At first most people were simply seal dalised at what looked like mere profanity Not unnaturally, quiet peace-loving folk conceived a powerful prejudice against the "army" and learned to look upon it merely asa public nuisance, All they knew was that their Sunday's rest was hideously disturbed by persistent blowing of trumpets and overmuch banging of drums. But. even from the start there were not wanting thoughtful persons who maintained that it could not reasonably by passed by on the other side. And soon it came to be soon that. it appealed by these very methods, so distasteful to the decent qu people, to x large class of persons to whom the ordinary recognised means of grace appealed altogether in vain, That it worked with them only by manifesting itself in the ost objectionable forma of hysterical citement is unfortunately true, but many think that even hysterical religious excitement accompanied by reformation of cha-acter is better than the slough of vice and sin in which the lowest stratum of society is sunk. Be thatas it may, thoughtful pér-sons, once this became manifest, were slow to condemn the "army" and all its ways and works as merely a public nuisance. Allalo~g too there seemed reason for hoping that after the first hysterical excitement had spent itself, the movement would take a practical turn, Signs of this showed themselves ere long in the establishment of homes and shelters of various kinds and deseripytions, and mowat last it would appear that' the organisation en hive is to be used for practical philanthropic purposes. Therefore it seems probable that much good may be done, while to the Editor of the Heview of Reviews the horizon of the future is "bright with a new hope," and he waxes eloquent over the "dawn of a new era".
Stead of course writes as @ partisan. He tells us that not seldom has he been tempted to join the ranks of the "army" that at one time it possessed so great an attraction for him that it was with difficulty he persuaded himself to remain faithful to his own calling. On the whole we are glad he did not enlist.' He would have een a distinct loss to journalism. His writing is always so readable and suggestive as to make us regret his fantastic views on politics and religion, Of course his views are fantastic, and if he had been the only well-known man who had
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.