Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-04-20

medicine, ana We passed again INTO lnt
public room. Then Mrs. Booth turned te
me with her sensitive face electrified, as
had seen it before. by passionate earnest
ness. THAT little, ignorant, dying girl,
she said, "has proved herself veritable
martyr of the Cross; she has laid dowr
her life for her friends. Tonight, maybe
her last wish will be granted, and we shall
have to let her go free.'n
followed her in silence as she led the
way to the room at the back used for &
kitchen. This was comparatively cheer
ful room, with its two large windows, it.
air of cleanly care, and its potted plants
in the window. The inmates divide the
necessary work of the establishment be
tween them, and two or three were clear
ing away the frugal evening meal of veal
tea, with the thickest bread and thinnes
butter it has ever been my lot to see.
Several of the girls came shyly forward
and stood as near to Mrs. Booth as they
could get. Whether it be the refining
effect of the Christian religion, embraced
with the simplicity of these humble re
cruits. or Mrs. Booths own gentle infu.
ence, it was impossible to help noting
with pleasure their pretty, frank, gracious
manners and their unmistakable enthusi
asm tor their work.
turned to one who stood near me
What is your particular work ?" asked
Her face lighted up with love and pride
81 am one of Captain Browns girls" she
answered. "We call her mother; she is al
the head of the slum work, and we have
to 60 wherever she sends us. Last night
sat up with dying woman, and this after.
noon am to be sent to scrub and clean q
floor in tenement house. The woman
who rents it is too sick to do it herself
and We cannot help her in other ways
until she has clean home" Yes, there
was an air of genuine content and loving
pride about the girl impossible to mistake
and it was the same with each one to
whom spoke.
This is the training school for the army
and was taken into the school-room on
the other side of the partition, where the
novices meet daily for instruction. The
red and blue scriptural texts around the
wall were pointed to with pride, and over
the entrance | noticed a large piece o
paper, with the words in rough penman
ship "Will all who enter please be as quiet
as possible? Several of the girls are very
ILL" And my imagination played shud-
derinsly with the idea of Salvation Army
gathering over the aching head of that
poor, dying girl, and l wondered if the
courteous request were considered. AS il
in answer to my thought Mrs. Booth said
cheerily: "How good the boys were over.
head last night; they generally make SC
much noise, poor fellowsw And already
sounds OF carefully mutfied voices and shut.
fling footsteps could be heard ascending to
the room where the evening meeting wa:
to be held.
1t was to be crowded meeting tha,
night, for was not the darling of their
hearts, Mrs. Ballington Booth herself, com.
ing to speak to them! And would moi
every man of them suffer torments, lei
alone taking off his shoes to go upstairs, al
her request?
Then l was graclously escorted to the
door and courteously dismissed, and as
wandered off down the squalid perspective
of Seventh avenue | was fain to acknowl
edge that, like everything else ia thi:
world, the Salvation Army is problem
with two sides to it, 1t is an exuberant
drum-beating torment to civilization, bul
it is, too, great army leading its crusade
against misery, disease and vice in the low
places of the earth.