The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-03-31

Mrs. Ballington Booth shed n new
light on the Salvation Army yesterday
evening, in her talk at The Fourth
Street Methodist church. She did not
deny tho familiar methods Of the Army,
nor did she seek to excuse them but
she boldly admitted tina. the customs
might seem absurd to those trained up
Ill the prevailing religions OF tho day,
and then showed convincingly that tho
bass drum. the %tambourinc, tho process.
slons and the street corner meetings
were but mea to an end, and for the
accomplishment Of that end were not
only useful, but even necessary, And
when this young, pretty and cultured
woman, the daughter Of. a. clergyman,
OF the Established Church OF England,
reared and brought up amid religious
surroundings even less emotional than
those to which her hearers were accus-
toned, told how by actual observation
she had been constrained to sec the
good worked by the Salvation Army
among the lowly, there was probably
no n in the immense audience who
did not abandon his ~preconceivcd pref
udiccs and adopt tho opinion OF Mrs.
Booth, that the Salvation Army, among
the class, which only it seeks to attract
and convert, is doing a great and mag
nilicent work.
Mrs. Booth spoke an hour and a half,
but rarely has 4 preacher had q more IL
t%entive congregation. and one THAI dis
played such unllaggins interest to the
end. No doubt much OF the ~atLcuti:.a
shown was due to
TIE Owe PRESEN 'ATIoE,
from an undeniably authentic SOUR OF
tho tenets and methods ofthc Salvation
Army, and the measures for the cxecu-
ton Of which it is organized, but Mrs.
Booth herself, her platform presence,
her earnest and at times eloquent de-
livery. were the greatest atIracIionI that
held the audiences intcrestohN .a;t7ar-
Mrs. Booth said that it always gave
her great pleasure to speak; she had
great confidence, not in herself but her
mission. As she had given her life to
the cause, she was always glad OF an OPP
%portunity to tell OF the Salvation Army.
Mrs. Booth herself was. al, one time "a
critic of the Army; she wa far removed
from it, as far us ecclesiastical ideas were
concerned, and she ono felt as people
now feel about it. 1t was not 60 much
the success, or the great numbers in its
ranks, but the spirit OF the Salvation
Army that Mrs. Booth wished to bring
before her hearers, the spirit ,oi those
who had cast aside all chances in life,
SO far as the world is concerned. ION
the great morning OF the resurrection"
she said, 'it will not be asked: "What
did you do?" but, Gin what spirit did
you do it?'
Scarcely anything vilcaor bad that
was said about the Salvation Army had
failed 10 come to Mrs. Booths ears;
scarcely any OF tho newspaper para
graphs written about it had failed to
reach her ears. The remarks, %fancies,
fallacles and lies served however:a good
purpose. in that it gave tho soldiers OF
the army 4 chance to stand up and re-
fntc them. She we'll knew there were
many misunderstanding about the
movement, for IN her travels Of thous-
ands OF miles she had learned to:know
this; what surprised her, however, was
that in the nineteenth century, the age
OF enlightenment and thought, so many
people would bickcr and bubble at SO
many little things.
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE ARMY,
which, after all, were only means to an
end, and not forget them in the pres
ence OF the work which had been and
was being done by the army. She told
how her opinion had been changed bv
the conversion OF the bad man OF an
English seaport town, 4 regular desper-
ado, by the efforts OF two young girls,
captains in the Salvation Army, From
that day she never listened to q word
said against the army, and always recog.
nized the good it did. Among the class
the army labored it did a work that the
church Jailed to do.
The ten years she had spent as an
officer in the Army seemed 10 her like
thirty orforty. There one sees SO much
that it makes one old, so much vice, SO
much v%llcncss, so many sorrows; it
shows tho grave problems, but also
shows their solution; it shows the
power Of infidelity, the power OF vice
and drink, but it also shows one, KEY
that will open tho human heart, it
shows a power that will transform the
vilost,-and it is obeying tho command:
$50 out into the highways and hedges"
The Salvation Army, Mrs. Booth
claimed, does not 90 into the folds to
get other peoples sheep;,it doesn't
fish in other waters, but it goes among
tho outcasts who do not know God and
evo hate religion; rs these people.
won't 20 to the army, the army must 20
to it. 1t works on difficult material,
and the work requires real effort and
very often real suffering. Tho soldiers
OF tho army go to hearts steeled; against
them, that hate religion and want,
nonc OF it, so that their friends have TO
depend on one power, the power OF liy-
ing sympathy. They find men who
seem TO have lost all respect for all that
is good; mothers who haveil lost all yes.
tige OF mother love; children who are
more like little fcnds than human be.
inGs Butin almost all hearts
THERE IS oNE wARM.sport
Though that is often hardgto find
Though Mrs. Booth has been all over
tho worst parts OF London, she Claims.
that there are places in New York that
put Darkest London" to shameas :
The Salvation army, as explained By
Mrs. Booth, goes down among the low
| est people, even into the saloons, ii