The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-26
SALVATION ARMY DENIALS
STORIES REGARDING INSULTS AT
CHICAGO STRONGLY DENOUNCED.
Omcers of the Army Say They Are Not
Responsible for Mrs. darlington
Booths Broken Heart.

Booths condition. The patient passed a
quiet day and is favorably responding to
treatment. 1t is hoped now that her health
viii be fully restored but it is not believed
she will be able to leave the Presbyterian
Hospital, where she is being cared for, for a
long time.
The charges made by officers of the Vol
unteers that her trouble is due to persecu-
ton by the Salvationsts the rival army, is
denied by leaders of the latter organization.
They disclaim all responsibility for her
broken heart, and say she was not insulted.
The Volunteers, however, are firm in their
statements that Mrs. Ballington Booth was
insulted, both publicly and through anony-
nous letters. and that grief over the cruel
treatment she has received was the direct
cause of her illness.
The Journal says Mrs. Darlington Booths
heart was broken, literally, after she had
read a line in a letter inhexible as fate,
written from London by her elder sister,
saying: At shall never soil ink again by
using it in writing to you.' Mrs. Balling-
ton Booth might have shrugged her shout
Gers at this if she had been less sensitive
Sensitive as she is, the amazing phrase
might have grieved her only intensely, but
it came after a long series of heart-rending
cruelty, borne by her with such angelic
resignation. that it's torture was like that
of the heated iron crucifx on the lips of
the martyr. She could not resist it. At
Chicago Salvation Army men, led by prin-
cipal officers, disturbed one of her meet
ings until she was compelled to rebulSe them
by name, an appeal to them in general hav-
wing had no other effect than their jeering
with renewed insolence. At London, in the
Training Home, girls receiving instructions
for a trip to New York were told to avoid
Mrs. Darlington Booth as a woman of lost
reputation, in terms of contumely so out
rageous that Capt. Minnie Turner cast of
her Salvation Army uniform and came here
TO enlist among the Volunteers. At Mont
clair. n. j., in the Ghlldren IIl Home, was
An officer of the Salvation Army wrote TO
this girl letter disgraceful in its refer
ences to Mrs BaliingtOn Booth that the
matron suppressed it. She wrote to the girl
guardian: IF your ward should read this
letter we could not keep her here
Anonymous letters, full of absurd charges
against Mrs Ballington Booth filled her
mail every day. They were written, evil
IDENTIFY, by persons who believed they We're
serving God by insulting her. The sincerity
of the sentiments amazed her. The num-
Der of letters increased as the success. or
the Volunteers increased. Commander Bal
lington Booth received, from leaders OF the
Salvation Army, persistent appeals to leave
his wife accusing her of an infinity of de-
fects catalogued in part with rare lngenu-
ity. Mrs, Ballington Booth was ostracised
by the Booth family, by friends whom she
admired, by acquaintanceS whom she eS-
teemed, by persons in whom she had con-
iidence Her crime YVES irreparable, unpar-
donable. She had quilted the Salvation
Army. af
The maiden name of Mrs. Booth was
Maud Elizabeth CharIesworth. Her father,
the Rev. Dr. Samuel B. Charlesworth, was
pastor Of Limehouse Parish, London, an
Episcopal minister like his father, whom
the people of Ipswich, in Suffolk, admired
ardently.
The family has an ancient record of
scholarship. Miss NJ. Charlesworth, the
Volunteers aunt, is the author of Minis
tering Children" Professor Colwell, the
Volunteers uncle, is professor of Sanskrit
in Cambridge University; the Volunteers
elder sisters, Anna and Florence are wives
of Church of England clergymen. The Vol
unteer was always a Volunteer.
Her vocation came to her partially from
her mother, but ii was consciously devei-
oped by herself. In her girlhood she de-
voted her leisure to the poor, the children,
the old people and the intirm of her fathers
with true charity.
1t was her beautiful patrician hands that
made the beds of the miserable. She did
not send her aims by a messenger but dis
tributed them herself. Contemptuous then
perhaps, of those who mediate and pray in
solitude for others. she preferred already
acts of charity rather than any other ex-
preston of love for humanity. She was
graduated, and her father took her to
Paris for a voyage in which she might
practice among strangers her perfect
knowledge of French
She was sixteen years of age and she had
read Les MiSerableS'' of Victor Hugo.
She was certain then, in her admiration for
this work, that she would do something
some day, for convicts like Hugo's hero
Efnaf haRn ut nr~ owl III
Paris then.
Commander Ballngton Booths sister was
exhorting the destitute and the abandoned
in that terrible district of Paris, the Car
rieres dAmerique," which impresses one as
region of another age. 1t was the fashion
among students to go to the meetings of the
narily picturesque meetings. Daudet the
novelist. attended one at the urgent request
of pupils of the College de France, and
wrote IL Evangeliste'' from the impression
which it produced upon him.
In its pages~fs a charming description of
a young woman whose large, limpid eyes
subdued the toughest attendants, whom her
voice afterwards conquered. The original
of this slight sketch was Maud Elizabeth
Charlesworth- She spoke in French with
an amazing accuracy, and her accent was
faultless, though not at ali Partisan. One
would have imagined she was educated in
Touraine. Her converts were collegians as
we'll as vagabonds of the Carriers
dAmerique" district of Paris.
She went to Switzerland, where the fed
eral government as we'll as the popular
prejudice opposed the Salvation Army saw
agely. But her knowledge of French, she
said, her personal charm, undoubtedly
made her success in Switzerland superb.
She was famous as a SalVationist when she
returned to England.
Commander Ballington Booth admired her
without an idea that she thought of him;
she said that his speeches had inspired her
to become a Salvationist, and he did not
know it; but they met on the same plat
form one day. and they acknowledged that
they had been in love with each other for a
long time.
At their wedding, in London. four thou
, sand persons were present. He was the
most popular speaker among the Salvation
lists in England; she was the most success
full in attracting affection and confidence
General Booth appointed them to direct the
Salvation Army in the United States.
The Salvation Army's work here. ten
years ago, was misunderstood because it
was not well explained. abused because it
was badly done. prosecuted because it was
obnoxious. Several Salvationst meetings
were disorganized without popular protest,
several SalVattoniStS were sent to jail
Commander and Mrs. Darlington Booth
cafatvated public opinion, she charming 1t
of science the skeptics, the most indifferent
recognized that the army was doing good.
Mrs Ballington Booth placed in the slums
thirty workers who labored admirably.
She was admitted to the drawing rooms.
Fashionable society protected her with the
wealthy. The building on Fourteenth street
was obtained at cost of 100000. The sue
eess OF the Salvation Army in America was
known and celebrated everywhere.