Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-03

OMV " quiet spirit.
Yet there is another side to it, and when,
with winning face and persuasive voice,
Mrs. Ballington Booth presents that other
side in the rcctory parIors of the Episcopal
churches and in the fashionable parlors OF
the Fifth avenue, it is not difficult to hear
through all the blare of bugle and beat of
drum the still small voice of human re-
sponsibility, human conscience, human
reason-the voice of God in the soul of man.
With all the good which the Episcopal
Church has wrought, with all her dignity
of attitude and the decorum Of her cere-
monial, she adds never more worthily to her
dignity and decorum than in lending an ear
to this woman of the slums, whose professed
mission is that of Apostle to the Lowliest
cannot think that DR.. Rainsford's parlors
were ever devoted to more sacred festival;
1 cannot'think that the honored name of
Courtlandt or De Peyster ever gathered or
gave purer radiance than when they lent
the shield of ecclesiasticism and the coun-
tenance of fashion to movement for the
uplifting of lower stratum of humanity.
MRS. BOOTHS WORK.
1t was not indorsing the Salvation Army,
but it was giving the Salvation Army an
opportunity to present its argument and
| show itself worthy of being Endorsed. The
professed work of the Salvation Army is in
q field SO remote, so low, so impossible to
most of US, yet so threatening to all, that 1t
| is of the first importance not to discourage
| any who are willing to enter it, and to en-
courage and sustain and strengthen espe-
cially those who are already in and are eager
to continue and to work.
The introduction of the Salvation Army
into ranks of fashion may be only fashion
able caprice, The output from that army
of a young and pretty woman into the
haunts of the Four Hundred may be because
she was young and pretty; but can youth
and beauty be better employed than in
bridging the awful chasm between society
and the slums? If the power outside our
selves has so made ourselves that truth is
more winning from curved and rosy lips
than from hard and harsh or even from un-
couth and ugly ones, why not avail our
selves of it and bid truth win, even thus,
her votaries? If society will take up Mrs
Ballington Booth because of her simple
charm, let us look scrutinizingly at what
Mrs. Ballngton Booth is trying to do before
we utterly frown down this social whim.
What says the young woman in the poke
bonnet.
For one thing, that she is going to put the
Salvation Army on different footing from
that which it has hitherto held-as needs
| must, if she is the gentle lady her bearing
| indicates; and on the other hand she does
propose to continue some of the methods
which have made it to society not only OBJ
| jectionable but impossible. Yet on these
points she is not stubborn, but argumenta-
| tive She speaks from observation and ex-
perience. She admits that the Army is
theatrical, but pleads that they must be
/ theatricsl to secure their followers. 1t is
the old al yument of the fishers of the mere;
the harmless and the conclusive Pauline
argument to become all things to all men
in order that some men may be won.
LIVERY OF RELIGION.
She looks at her poke bonnet not as a
thing of beauty but of service She would
| like to throw it away, but it is useful. This
is the argument for benefcent uniform, time
out of mind. We know of old what protec-
ton is afforded by the nuns costume both
in the Catholic and the Protestant Churches
1t cannot be gainsaid, and it is the tribute
of the greedy, selfish. war-loving element of
humanity to the power of love. The Saliva
ton Army may plead the same right to its
protecting red and blue as have the Sisters
Of Charity to their protecting black and
white. They have the same right as have
the other guilds of the Church Benefcent-
| and also always militant-to whatever pc
| culiarity of form or fashion best beseems
their judgment and their mission, their
safety and their success. I
1t the poke fitly frames in the youthful
face and raven curls-who has not seen the
nuns fresh color, the Quaker's placid brow,
shining more brilliantly from the quaint
purity of the sectarian garb than it could
have done under never so much ingenuity
| of the French milliner's skill?
And alasl the gentle young hand touches
deeper chord, and 1 think touches it
truly. Mrs. Booth lived amid the hopeless,
dreadful misery of the world. She grew up
where she held in sight community, not
so much brutalized as stupefed with
wretchedness. It is the decline of common
sense that while religion is the root Of the
work there must be a great deal beside re-
ligion to make the work profitable. First,
it is necessary to get the attention of these
almost but never quite dehumanized human
| creatures.
Mrs. Booth tells us that she has entered
rooms where women were living who never
so much as lifted head at her entrance. or
made any sign of recognition of her pres
ence. Many and many time has she
rolled up her sleeves, tied shawl around
her head, taken mop or broom in hand, and
! as the ladies of society visit each other with
cards and carriage, broom and mop have
intercourse in her calls upon her and our
wretched fellow citizens.
AWAKENING SLUMBERING SOULS.
Often has she gone thus her dreadful round
simply helping these dumb creatures in
their hopelessness; helping to scrub floors
and scrub babies without speaking one word
of religion. But she has thus secured her
second position which is of equally vital i'm
portance to the first; viz, the friendliness of
| her benefciaries. Thus they have been
drawn toward her and have felt once more
the touch and throb and thrill of human
life.
Is it not possible that the cornet and drum
may have something to say for themselves?
If fate has gone SO hard, if living souls have
! grown so benumbed with beastIy toll that
common curiosity is dead within them. NAV
not Mrs. Booth be right in affirming that far
off church bells will ring in vain for them?
1t must be something near and clear and
loud, which they will hear. Onlv that
which shocks the ear attuned to melody can
strike the ear deadened by doom to ali but
love.
Not deadened to love, for through all the
misery and the squalor the mother love
delves on and on, as Mrs. Booth incident
ally testifes, simply to provide food for the
children for whom she can provide little