The Brunswick daily news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1903-1906, 1903-12-13
FORCED TO LABOR.
Count Rumford's Method of Suppress
inq Regqars.

Count Rumford'S Method OF suppress
ing Resgars.
There has been such frequent refer
ence of late in the English and Amer
lean press to Count Rumford IN con-
nection with the question of dealing
with mendicancy, suggestions being
made editorially that it would be well
both in London and in this country 10
take some leaves out of his book and
to follow his example, that a number
of letters have been received from
readers of The Tribune asking for In
formation about this nobleman. the
writer's in almost every case seem to
be ignorant of the fact that this dis
tinguished man, who fiourished at the
beginning of the 18th century. and
whose reputation remains information
al, was an American, native OF New
England, who prior to becoming Count
Rumford bore the name Of Benjamin
Thompson. They also seem unaware
that the methods which he devised for
dealing with mendicancy in Bavaria
are somewhat similar to those en-
ployed by the Salvation Army today In
its industrial branches, with this dis
tinction, that where Count Rumford,
by virtue of the powers invested in
him by the Bavarian crown, was able
to use cOmpulsion, the Salvation Army
can only employ persuasion. With
this exception, Count Rumford may be
said to have been the originator OF
the Salvation Army's industrial ideas.
The counts story is indeed q
strange one. He was born Woburn,
Mass, in 1853; was errand boy to a
storekeeper at Salem, salesman in a
store in Boston, school teacher at
Bradford-on-the Merrimack, and at 1S
married a rich widow, a Mrs. Rolfe,
daughter CT minister of the name OF
Walker, and was the first settler at
Rumford, now called Concord, In New
Hampshire. Governor Wentworth OF
that state made him major of militia,
and sent him in 1776. on the evacua-
ton of Boston by the royal troops, to
carry dispatches to England. There
Lord George Germaine, secretary OF
state, took fancy to him, gave him
an appointment, and four years later
made him under secretary Of state. In
1873 he was elected fellow of the
Royal Society. Toward the close OF
the War for Independence he was NOM
mated to a cavalry command in Amer
lea, but in 1888 quilted the British
army with the rank and half pay OF
lieutenant-colonel.
Travelling en- the Continent with
Gibbon, he was introduced by the lat
ter to the Elector of Bavaria, who in
vited him to enter the civil and mill
tary seSvice of that state. Having OBJ
tanned the leave of the British govern
ment TO accept the princes offer, and
after having been knighted by King
Georgs Ill, he remained for IL years
at Munich as Minister of war, minister
OF police and grand chamberlain. He
reorganized the Bavarian army, and
suppressed mendicity by much the
same means now employed by the Sal
walton army in its industrial branches.
In one day he caused no fewer than
5000 beggars in Munich and its sub
rubs alone to be arrested by military
patrols and transferred to an indus
trial settlement prepared for their re-
ception, where they were both housed
and fed, and forced not only to support
themselves by their labors, but were
also used for the benefit of the cleo
tOral revenues.
In 1891 he was created count OF
the Holy Roman Empire, and chose
his title of Rumford from the name of
the American township of which his
first wife's family belonged. Toward
the close of the 18th century he re-
turned to England to live, and founded
the Royal institution, which received
its charter of royal incorporation from
King George III. in 1900. In 1904 he
transferred his abode to France, and
there married as his second wife tho
wealthy widow of Lavoisier, the cele-
brated chemist. He died suddenly in
Paris in 1914, and his name is COM
memorated in this country, among
other things, by the Rumford profess
sorship Of Harvard university.