The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1912-08-28
SALVATION ARMY
FOUNDER is DEAD
General William Booth SuC-
CumbS TO Grim Reaper
REMARKABLE CAREER ENDED
Prosecuted at First the Salvation
Army Leader Lived to See His Or
ganizaton Prosper Wonderfully.

ganization Prosper Wonderfully.
General William Booth, founder and
chief of the Salvation Army, died in
London last Tuesday. He had been
failing since last May when an opera
tion for cataract was performed on his
left eye. General Booth was uncon-
scious for forty-eight hours preceding
death.
During his last conscious moments
the general referred to the promises
of God, saying more than once with
much energy: They are sure; they
are sure if you will only believe
Bramwell Booth, son of the late
general, was designated by the lat.
ter as his successor in a sealed docu-
ment which was opened in London.
Bramwell accepted the position.
William Booth was born in Noting
ham, England, April 10, 1929. His
father was a carpenter, who had little
but a consuming religious zeal to sup
port him. BY dint of economy the
carpenter managed to give his son a
fair education and to send him to a
private theological school in the
Methodist ministry.
At twenty-three the young minister
took his first church, a small chapel in
Nottingham. 1t is said that Rev.
Booth was not magnetic speaker, but
into that work he plunged with tre-
mendOus zeal shortly after his admis-
sion to the ministry of the church.
During his travels over England on
preaching tours he met Catherine
Mumford and after long engagement
they were married in 1856.
For five years after their marriage
Booth and his wife lived the pre-
carious existence of revivalists. He
laid a plan Of campaign before the
conference of the Methodist New
church. 1t was radical; they would
have none of it.
Then it was that the zealot cut
loose from orthodoxy as it was con-
strued by his superiors and went down
to preach to the people of the mean
streets in his own way. The flock he
chose to lead was not only of the very
poor but the very criminal, the lowest
dregs of a great city.
Before 1873, when the Salvation
Army Lad its inception, Booth had
learned the bitterness OF the work that
he had selected for himself. When
noise of this sensational evangelizing
reached the ears of the clergy of the
Westend congregations they rose in
wrath and denounced the vulgar SEN
sationalism" and the 'irreverent
trumpery' of this Salvation Army.
The Booths persisted in their work.
Before a year had passed there were
127 officers in its ranks and eighty-one
corps had been established throughout
England. Before the Salvation Army
was organized the Booths began the
long series of social reforms and
charities which are monument today
as enduring as the army itself.
Recognition of General Booths
work came in startling manner and
just at the time that the storm of
persecution was at its height. This
was the message that he received one
day in 1884: Her majesty the queen
learns with much satisfaction that you
have, with many others, been success
full in your efforts TO win many
thousands to the ways of temperance,
virtue and religion" After that Gen
eral Booths movement spread fast
With the growth of the Salvation
Army came the development of its
generals insistence upon a des-
potism more military than any other
attribute OF the army. Through that
very insistence rose the breach be-
tween himself and his son Ballington,
which resulted In the organization of
the body known as the Volunteers of
America. Balington did not see his
father from the time of his secession
until the day OF his fathers death.