The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-12-22
SALVATION ARMY.
Their Methods Of success Explained

u.
! An Eastern paper contains the follow
Ing pertinent comment on Salvation
Army methods;
Il was sitting In tho Office of one OF
the largest lumber concerns in the coun-
try the other day, when a woman wear
ing a Salvation Army cap came in sell
Ing War Crys. The thing that struck
me was the kindly reception the woman
met, as the hands of the big lumber
merchants went into their pockets for
the nickels to pay for the papers The
Salvation Army has been spit upon and
despitefully uesd In days gone by but its
honesty and unselhsh devotion to duty
mas won the respect Of the world and
the goodwill Of the church. But it was
not always thus. One day in the sum-
mer of 1883 the Methodist ministers OF
Chicago at their regular Monday meet
ines adopted resolution which was bit
terly denunciatory of the Salvation Army
and its methods. / was working on a
Chicago dRily then and was assigned to
get the views Of the Salvation Army on
the attack. Captain Job Trotter was at
that time In charge of the army work
In Chicago, and hi3 barracks were IN the
"ery heart of the tough district which
centers on Chicago avenue. II was the
'trst Salvation Army meeting ] had ever
attended and 1t was very interesting.
mad TO wait till II was over to see
Captain Trotter. The main feature of
that meeting was a very tough and very
inebriated citizen of that bailwick and
his main hold was singing. He wanted
the meeting to be all singing: and he
insisted on singing all the time. The
first thing l noticed at that meeting was
the infinite patience of Captain Trotter
with that man. He would never have
got into any other religious meeting /
ever saw, and If he had he would have
been thrown out. But Captain Tvotter
went on the theory that this poor wretch
had as much soul to save as ANYBODY
else, and that IL there are any degrees
of necessity in that line he needed to
have 1t saved more than anybody, so he
was kind and patient and persistent with
this disorderly drunkard, and finally, to-
ward the close of the meeting, he won
the fellow over to reasonably decent be-
havior. Finally the meeting was over
and l went up and showed Captain Trot-
ter the resolutions which the ministers
had adopted and asked him what he had
to say 1t was cruelty bitter arraign-
ment, not only of the methods of the
army, but of its personnel as well. Cap
tain Trotter read the resolutions through,
and his face never showed a trace of
feeling. Handing it back to me he said,
pleasantly:
There is nothing 1 can say to you
about this. We are so busy fighting the
devil that we have no time to fight Chris
tians."
And with that he bade me a very good
night, and went out to marshal the force
of earnest workers that was just start
ing out for night work in the slums of
that awful district, and night after 'ght
this little band of heroic women, and
some men, in the face of the scorn of
Christians and the huffeting of the un-
godly, were going out into places that
were darker morally than ever they were
physically, ard bringing back wayward
and wandering weak ones from the very
Jaws of hell itself. And / have always
respected the man who hal no disposl-
ton to let answering of calumny directed
against him and his interfere with his
mission of help for suffering humanity
That was only eight years ago, but now
all is changed, and the churches have
been won oVer-just as the drunken man
was at the Chicago avenue meeting-by
patient, persistent sincerity. And lots OF
people buy War Crys now-not so much
because they want the War Cry, as be-
cause They like to show the Salvation
Army people that they are with them
and not "ferninst" them.