Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07

time to its service, and $1,000 non-commis.
stoned officers, whose work is volun-
tary. Every year this religious order,
made up entirely of the poor, raise s., ,500,-
600 for the cause of Christ. Every year it
holds 100000 open-air meetings in England
alone. 1t has 80 training garrisons making
cadets ready for leadership. 1t has 80 res
cue homes. At its three food depots in the
city of London 20, 900 meals are provided
every day. There is a complaint in some
Christian commuuions that but few offer
themselves for the work of the ministry.
Last year :, ,0Oc men offered themselves Tor
service in the Salvation Army.
HOW TO REACH THE MASSES.
every church in Christendom, which none
of us seem able 10 solve. 1t is the question:
How to reach the masses? But General
Booth can answer that question. This new
religious order is the only division of the
church militant which touches the "unde-
serving" poor. ''wherever the Army
goes" says its leader, TT gathers into its
meetings, in the first instance, a crowd ofthe
most debased, brutal, blasphemous elements
that can be found, who, if permitted, in
terrupt the services, and if they see the
slightest sign of police tolerance for their
misconduct, frequently fall upon the army
Yet a couple of officers face such an audi
ence with the absolute certainty OF recruit
ing out OF it army corps. Many thousands
of those who are now most prominent in the
ranks of the army never knew what it was
| to pray before they attepded its services;
and large numbers of them had settled into
a profound conviction that everything con-
nected with religion was utterly false. 1t
is out OF such material that God has con-
structed what is admitted to be one of the
most fervid bodies of believers ever seen on
the face of the earth"
Now, when a man like this has plan for
the uplifting of the poor it is worth while
| to hear it.
What is the plan? 1t is written in that
book which bears the significant title, "In
| Darkest England" 1t is centered about
three of the great necessities of decent liv-
ing, a supper, bed and a prayer meeting.
1t proposes to supply the homeless poor, the
men and women who walk the London
streets in a vain search for work, and VINO
sleep at night under the damp London sky
it offers to give them food, at a price level
with all but the emptiest pockets. For the
absolutely penniless it provides chance TO
earn a supper by useful labor, not the con-
vict labor which England to-day offers the
man who seeks a stay for his hunger at the
casual ward, stene-breaking and oskum-
picking, but
DECENT, sELF-REsPEcTING WORK,
which will help the man who does it and
other men, too. And alter supper a clean,
comfortable bed. And between supper and
bed, warm, well-lighted room, with some
thing to read, and for an hour a good, r0us-
ing Salvation Army meeting, with the sing
! ing of hymns and the offering of PRAYER,
and the preaching of the message of Him
who came to save the lost; trying to touch
mems hearts, trying to minister to the
strengthening o! mems wills, trying to con-
vert and reform men, and, if nothing more,
dealing with them personally, putting the
arm of honest brotherly love about them,
! making them know that they have friends.
Why, there's no end to the good that might
be done just here.
And, then. suppose that in addition to
this there is an endeavor to make use of some
OF the good things which daily go to waste
in great city. Suppose that all the richer
neigh borhoods of the town are divided into
districts, and every house provided with a
tub and bag-the tub for waste food, the
! bag for waste everything else, books, papers,
tin cans, empty bottles, broken toys, old
clothes and old shoes; and men sent on regu-
lar twice-a-week collections and all this
good waste brought together. Why, it
would be as wonderful as the miracle
OF the loaves and 6shesl Here would
be food for the homeless and. starving;
here would be work for hundreds as coliec-
tors; here would be employment for wasted
! labor, thousands OF old shoes to be mended
and made wearabIe, and old clothes to be
made over new, and tin cans to be turned
into tin soldiers, and paper to be made good
paper again. Here would be waste wealth
and waste labor brought together. Add a
vast employment bureau, and good advice
Office, and poor mans lawyer, and a poor
mans bank, and thousand other uplifting
agencies which are outlined in this book.
BOOTHS COUNTRY COLONY.
And then suppose that there is great
estate out in the country, and men and
women set to tillipg the ground and making
waste land blossom as the rose. And other
| great estates out in the colonies, where men
and women who desire to go as emigrant:
may be settled, having beforehand some
preparation for q settlers life, and being
surrounded when they get there with up.
lifting infiuencesl
This is the heart of the plan by which the
Salvation Army hopes to help the poor.
Gather up the fragments that remain, that
nothing be lost" That is what it is alter
The utilization ot waste is the principle OIL
| WHICH IL dClS. Is lueTe tue maLIel
with the principle? "The refuse which was
drug and curse to our manufacturers, >
SAYS General Booth, "when treated under
the hands OF the chemist, has been the meanl
| OF supplying us with dyes rivaling in love
illness and variety the hues OF the rainbow
Ii the alchemy OF science can extract beau
tIful colors from coal tar, cannot Divine
alchemy enable us to evolve gladness anG
brightness out of the agonlzed hearts anC
dark, dreary, loveless lives out of these
doomed mvriads?"
One OF the good things about this plan i.
that it is Immediately practicable. 1t wait
for no social revolution, and tarries for M
industrial millennium. 1t begins to-day.
This is the question:" say
the leader of this movement
"Here is John Jones, stout, stalwar
laborer in rags who has not had one sQuar,
meal for a month, who has been hunting fol
work that will enable him to ,ep body anC
soul together, and hunting in vain. Ther,
he is in his hungry raggedness, asking TO
work that he may live and not die o: shee
starvation in the midst of the wealthiest cit,
in the world.
QUESTION OF THE NOW.
"What is to be done with John Jones
The individualist tells me that the free pl y
of the natural laws governing the struggl
for existence will result in the survival o
the fittest, and that in the course of fe,
ages, more or less, a much nobler type vii
be evolved. But, meanwhile, what is to b
done with John Jones? The Socialist tell,
me that the great social revolution is loom
ing large on the horizon. In the good tim
coming, when wealth will be redistribute'
and private property abolished, all stomach
| will be filled and there will b