The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-28
WHAT THEY DO.

Self-contained and sensible folks are all
the Salvation Army and it's grotesque
street parades. The most charitable view
which prevails among good people re-
garding the soldiers in their forbidding
uniforms and the sisters in their poke
bonnets is that they are mistaken en-
thusiasts on the verge of religious frenzy,
or so many partial outcasts who choose
this line of activity in order to find an
outlet for an inherited faint Of vagrancy
Even among the submerged tenth they
find but little liberation. Yet their Work
decree, and If effective at all Is so In
directions in which organized charity Is
of but little avail.
Take the salvage brigade, as an Illus
tration of what these devoted people do
or try to do. Such brigade has been
in operation IN different cities in the
country for some few years past, and IS
well known in English cities There is no
reason in the world why its institution
should be called a brigade. save alone
that the body under whose guidance 1t Is
maintained is called an army. 1t Is really
nothing more than depot maintained In
the slums of a city, where homeless and
INDECENT men are lodged and fed while
they carry on some crude industry or
other, founded by the army. such, for
instance, as the collection of scraps OF
iron, old clothes, papers, etc. Here these
unfortunate men are boarded and lodged
until, through the agency Of the army
labor bureau, employment of some kind
is found for them Many a poor wretch
who finds the doors of decent people
apparently forever closed upon him gets
here the aid which perhaps he has not
strength of will enough to avail himself
of for his salvation or which may lift
him to whatever social plane he may
have occupied before he became the VIC
tim of strong drink or yielded to the
demoralizing effects Of misfortune or
disease.
Thus it is that poverty which is appar-
emily chronic is possible Of being reached
and If not removed at least alleviated
This is the class Of society of which the
Rev. Washington GLADDEN. recently wrote:
my contention is that there are con-
siderable portions Of the class that Is
sinking into penury which must be sep
arated from society. and forcibly, rdetain-
ed In places where they will be compelled
to work and trained for self-support and
atories. from which the penal element
shall be as far as possible eliminated,
but which shall rather partake Of the
character of SOCIAL hospitals. in which
the inmates shall be put under a treat
ment that shall wake up their manhood.
and stimulate their ambition, and disci-
pline their powers of body and mind, a
certain percentage of those who have
come to be chronic dependents will have
to be treated.
While society is slowly getting around
to establishing such places of refuge and
rescue the work remains undone, save
by the devoted followers Of Booth. They
do not always do their work well or
wisely; but they do as best they can, and
at least they essay to do that which Dr.
GLADDEN. says each one Of us ought to
undertake by assuming charge of at least
one or one family of such outcasts, which,
Of course. we never do.
Here, after all, is represented the
gravest problem of urban poverty; and
those of US who do what we ought to
do in relieving ordinary want can afford
q Of Cd fraf nd
for the humble men and women of the
Salvation Army who go down into the
hotbeds of vice and crime In a fond en-
deavor to lift their fellow creatures out
of the mire of their own helplessness and
sin.