The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-27
MRS. BOOTHS PLANS.
The Salvation Army Leader Talks Of
Her Work and Its Results.

There is no affectation or cant about Mrs.
Ballington Booth. She is simply sweet
young woman In army Dress one with nat
ural beauty and refinement and repose OF
manner that come but with birth and
breeding.
Even the austere garb cannot conceal her
womanly charm, any more than the en-
forced plainness of her couture can tame
the riotous waves of her bonnie brown hair
or the earnestness of her mein disguise the
racing dimples the CLEAN of perfect
teeth. When one thinks of it afterward. q
little figure in the garb of a Salvation
Army soldier has but strange setting IN .
handsome drawing room, and yet among
the marbles and bronzes and tapestries and
brocades of Mrs. William Borden's So splendid
rooms Mrs. Booth fits in like jewel In it's
proper casket. She laughs a little when
somebody drops remark about her cos-
tune. Eyes. We of the army are wonder
fully free from the tyranny of oressmakersy
our gowns last a long while and they never
go out of fashion, nor are they ever too
good to kneel down in the public streets or
TO go to the vilest slums. When they grow
dirty we just wash them with soap bark
and they are nearly as good as new, and
sleeves-oh, We can always draw our coats
over our dress sleeves without the least Bit
But Mrs. Booth has steady brain q
strong Will and fixity OF purpose. She has /.
come here to awaken interest in rescue
work, and rescue work is accordingly her
theme.
II wouldn't depreciate the methods OF any
think that the Salvation Army has oppor-
tunities for rescue work that are unap-
preached by other and different methods
to know the people, and gathers the fallen
into the homes, while most rescue homes
simply set their doors ajar and say here
a W "a m
And the girls don't come. They walt to be
brought. and it is the army soldiers which
will do a great deal to help along the work.
I'm a firm believer In the medical frater-
nifty. Many poor girl will turn to. q
physician with condolences which she never
would take to clergyman. If 1 hadn't
been what am, think should have been
surgeon-they come near to the hearts
and lives of people. In New York we have
one dear physician who attends to our res
cue home work faithfully ana well, and
for the works sake. Yes, we take. in all
grades. Poor drunkards, whom we try to
keep apart and to themselves; young be-
ginners in sin, whom we also seek to shield
from contact with the others, and even
those unfortunates who have sunken SO low
that even the vilest saloon will no longer
harbor Them Humanity speaking. I grant
you, these last seem beyond redemption.
but we of the army believe in the miracle
of changed heart and regenerate life, and
that with Christ there is nothing impos-
sible. Oh, I have seen brought into our
wrecked that it has seemed that all a we
could do for them would be to pass them
through the hospital, treat them with a
have seen these same poor creatures arise
clothed and in their right minds, praisng
God am, and living upright and honest and use
full lives in His service. A miracle? Yes.
we believe in miracles of that sort.
Chicago needs rescue home soreIy We
work go hand in hand, though managed as
strictly separate departments. Wherever
we have rescue home it is filled, and we
could fill twice as many as we have. A
feature of our work is that our matrons are
trained workers-not merely good-natured.
ly inadequate though well-meaning. 1t is a
difficult position. this of the head of a res
cue home. and the one who nils 1t must be
yet one with hard, sound. practical common
sense and strong will. No, We could never
We're WEI Isl she never so capable for a woman at
the head of a rescue home must by her life
command infinite respect. otherwise half
Palmer the officer who will be in charge of
the Chicago home, has been proved and
tried. She was in charge of the home in
Cleveland, and will be assisted here by two
three officers whom she will have in
training for the work"
and little folk had in the army Mrs. Booth
declared that that was foreign to the sub
partments of the army were very strong
and that SUM work included the establish
ment of creches and day nurseries; also
that rescue work frequently included quite
'This is terribly sad. said Mrs. Booth.
who live in the other half of the world fan
utterly to comprehend But the army work
ers find children Of the siums bred to
wife's immoral earnings and many a mother
sends out her little children to get her liv-
ing in the basest way on the streets. In
this manner all sense of right and wrong
is early lost. all sense of shame; and when
twenty five or thirty years, perhaps. who
began this horrible life in childhood you can
imagine ina how mentally morally and physie-
in them sense of shame, for they have
none; q distinction between right and
wits seem scattered. and we have to work
carefully to stir in them an intellect Yes.
and s is
of all, these little children are most p!te-
Susy slnea ganst Tiny tots tots are a
to the frst inhuman brute who chances
| fably worse than n1urder--the usual penalty
is two years! All! II women had more to do
for the world Of womenr'
do you. then, believe in universal suf-
II do not know whether I do or not I
| haven't thought the matter carefully out.
| but / believe II women could legislate in
| matters affecting the honor of women and
| children that no criminal guilty of such an
| enormity would ever be free 20 commit 1T
| again He would not be awarded a punish
| ment less than that given for sratching a
| pocket-book on the street,"
| Preventive work of this and other sorts
il something Mrs. Booth strenuously aims
| at. Her mother heart makes her especially
| yearn over the children of this bitter, half
| world. After Chicago she Is invited to at
! tend to the opening of rescue homes I'm
i Seattle, ST. Louis Minneapolis, Kansas and
! Texas as she is at the head OF the sum
and rescue departments in America Talk
ing of the United States AIRS. Booth Gays:
II am a naturaliZed either. America "a
| the only country / ever really loved
| the only one which has ever stirred within
me feeling OF patriotism. ] should not
feel sorry If I knew that ] should never
cross the Atlantic again.
Nevertheless, her accent lis sufficiently
! English to satisfy even a Bostonian.
The Infant Terrible.
| Washington Post.