Evening star., 1901-09-07

spends bounteously to the touch of water.
There are ready markets for all the prod
ucts OF labor, and even the inexperienced
have begun to find themselves and see op
portunities for becoming independent in the
near future.
Stan Captain Benjamin Talks.
The advantages which presented them
selves TO cOlOnists were equally desirable
as surroundings for a home for city waits
The Salvation Army will perhaps maintain
retaining stations in the east, but eventual
ly all the children whom it is decided
adopt will be sent to Colorado. Staff Cap
tain Benjamin. a woman who, though
young in years. is old in the slum work
of the army. has charge of this department
of the work In the new Cherry Tree
Homo she will have her staff of assistants,
but with her wonderful energy. physical
endurance and knowledge of the people
with whom she has to deal, upon her shoul-
ders will fall the responsibility for the sue
cess of the Institution
We take only the children coming from
the most depraved strata of human life,
those who have been exposed TO the lowest
forms of vice; We save them from the re-
form school No child is thoroughly or
hopeleSSly bad By a new environment
and the influences with which We surround
them We wash their souls we do their
bodies We take these children from early
infancy up to twelve or thirteen years,
though rarely old that. In our eXpe-
rience we have taken children to raise who,
at the age of eight or nine years, were
habitUal criminals, drunkards and thor
oughly acquainted with every form of vice.
Sometimes we fail with such as these, but
more often we make good citizens of them
Il have visited many of the homes for
children in different parts of the country
and have been pleased to see the little
ones taken care of. A fatal mistake is
made in many of these institutions, how
ever for they give the children no employ
ment. We teach them to work and to earn
money from the very beginning, and that
is one of the reasons why we have moved
the home to this place in Colorado. Here
the colonists raise many hundreds of acres
of sugar beets, and in the beet fields all of
our children can find labor suited to their
strength. We rarely are forced to give the
children corporal punishment, matter
how bad they may be. One thing will
not tolerate for a moment, however. is
uncleanliness of thought or action. Any
development of that kind is treated Sc
verely.
The money for the support of the home
is raised entirely by Salvation Army work
1t costs about 500 to take care of one
child for year. The field in which we
operate is unlimited, and what we can do
Is only circumscribed by the amount of
money we are able to secure. l have great
hopes for the development of the Cherry
tree Home under the new conditions with
which We are now surrounded"
The Farm Colony Idea.
Three years ago Commander Booth
Tucker of the Salvation Army foated $780,
Oo0 In bonds for the purpose of carrying
into effect in the United States the farm
colony idea, which has been in operation
In Europe for some time past. The public
quite generally has the idea that these
colonies are for the purpose of taking the
d.praved and degraded from the city slums
and establishing them upon farms This
GntirpiV RrrnnPnliS mo. yhn
cures an allotment of land on a Salvation
Army farm colony and who is assisted
financially by the army to farm this land
until his returns begin to come in must
come well recommended. He may be in alb
ject poverty. he may be in despair as to
the prospect of feeding and housing his
wife and children from day to day, and it
Will count nothing against him. If he cam
not prove, however that he is q religious
man, that he is honest Industrious, tenn
perate and otherwise entirely worthy of be-
ing assisted to make a start in the
world, his application will receive no con-
sideration from the army.
To give hope to the hopeless is the pur
pose of Salvation Army colony, to give
the man who Is a victim of circumstances
a chance to start anew, and under favor
able conditions; in brief to take the worthy
poor from under the iron heel of a cruel
fate is the intention of this philanthropic
enterprise. 1t is looked upon entirely as a
business proposition by those who give and
those who receive in the transaction.
There are three Salvation Army colonies
In the United States, one near Cleveland
Ohio, with $50 acres of ground called Fort
Herrick, which Is more place of refuge
than anything else Another at Fort
Romie, Cal, with $50 acres of land which
In time will be sold to the settlers. The
principal and most successful colony how
ever is the one here at Amity This col
ony now has l,7S0 acres of ground. The
army has invested between $50, coo and s90-
600 In improvements. A townste has been
laid off, post office established and sew
eral of the minor industries which are COM
mon to every settlement have already made