The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-03
SALVATION ARMY WOMEN.
They Work I'm the Siums and Reach N
Class That No Others Can.
Harpers Weekly.

E1d .
How dark is the gloom. how oppressive
The atmosphere of crime and misery. none
can understand who go slunming" as
sight-seers, or who dabble for a time in
slum work as an experiment.
To know all. to understand the needs, and
20 be able to grasp the awfulness of the
existing state OF things, you must live and
work in the slums as neighbo to the peo-
pie. sharing their poverty, dwelling in their
homes, and dressing In as poor a garb as
they. that you may be brought to their
level sufficiently to benefit them, while you
turn your back on all the comforts. ease
and refinements OF home as completely as
IL you were a missionary In Central Africa
or China
These poor outcasts" have their feel
ings, are sensitive. suspicious, and some
times proud. They do not care to be looked
II as phenomena, patroEized and pitied by
and they will rebuff those who come as
spies or strangers into their midst.
IL Is with love and constant kindly deeds
that the slum workers of the Salvation
Army have won their way from cellar TO
garnet, from dive to saloon. making them
selves necessary to their ~neighbors, show
Ing them that real Christianity is disinter-
ested. Intensely practical, and believes sin
cerely in the fatherhood of God and the
In New York. Chicago. Brooklyn. Boston,
Philadelphia and Buffalo, day and night.
summer and winter, patiently and lovingly,
young women, without salary or worldly
fecompense. are passing In and out of the
most wretched homes and haunts of sin.
@&G's NN'
most debaSed and most hopeless. and. by
their patient toll. winning them back 70 life,
and hope. and goodness. Fearlessly they
visit from saloon 10 saloon, talking and
praying with the rough. drunken crowds
who. gathered therein, are drinking and
Disappearing, their pure, earnest faces car
rying conviction of the truth of their words.
They have no male escort with them 10
protect them; their own goodness and purity
are about them like a wall OF fire, silencing
and impreSSing the very lowest and most
degraded. and arousing in the hearts of the
men to whom they so with their loving mes
sage the dormant sparks of chivalry that
still exist away beneath the hardened coat
ing created by their tough lives and many
sins.
BY the side OF the hopeless fallen wom-
an in the lowest dives you would find them
talking OF the possible purity and bright
or death from the future. You could see
many a poor painted face wet with tears
amid the coarse laughter. the fetid fumes,
and noisy dance Of those night revels rs
the girl has been drawn aside and lovingly
talked to Of Jesus and the loving message
he has sent Of pardon. hope. and restora-
ton, with 4. tender reminder of mother
and home IN the now faraway past.
Down into cellars Gods messengers have
CROPPED their way. and found there human
beings sleeping on the damp ground I'm
places where light was dim, and where
rats ran around and scampered over them,
and the bitter cold crept in 10 start fatal
maladies in their worn and hungry bodies.
To these in the darkness and poverty and
sickness. as messengers of light. these
brave, true-hearted girls have gone. and
have brought help and comfort. Not there
alone, but away up in the garrets. where
drapings OF soot-laden cobwebs their faces
have brought sunlight brighter than that
which dirt and old rags have effectualiy
kept out OF the window.