Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-10-22
BOOTHS SON WELL FITTED To
GARRY ON SALVATION ARMY WORK

SeID0rne, or OF MS great scholars WHO
graYitated from the universities TO
the deaneries in the stately cathedral
closes. Nor we're they much more
/ likely to appeal to the evangelist of
the Nonconformist sects, animated by
liberalism more rightly conserva-
tive, in it's own way, than that Of the
church Readers who learned how a
certain laboring man went out, one
Sunday morning, into his garden, to
cut a cabbage and found God, were
contemptuous OF such methods of pro-
!, paganda, whilst the crude confes-
sions of the penitent form, made
them shudder almost as violently as
! the substitution of the tambourine
and the trombone for the harmonium
and the organ.
/ General Booth knew human nature
! in the form of the human flotsam
! and jetsam of the great cities, bet
j ter, perhaps, than all the incumbents
| from John O'Groats Of Lands End.
In his native Cornwall, he had met
the descendant of those Puritan
! miners, whose sympathie the FAM
Gus vicar of Morwenstow echoes in
the redoubtable ballad of 'Trela-
whey"
He Knew Human Nature. .~.
Later on, in the slums of London,
he came upon human nature in every
form of debasement, and he brought
the conviction of the Cornish evan
gelist to bear on the sodden con-
seriousness of humanity's failures, and
there arose from the crucible the
red-jerseyed, blue-coated soldiers,
commanded by the Major Barbaras''
| of both sexes
Yet, in spite of his genius for in
spring the downcast and the down
trodden, it is doubtful IL General
Booth would have succeeded in his
great mission If it had not been for
his wife. To her magnificent courage
and devotion. to her extraordinary
love and capacity for diffusing it,
the army owed no little part of its
success. And there was a depth of
meaning, easily understood by every
one who ever met her, though per
haps not so evident to the casual
reader, in the words in which the
new general declared that he accept
ed the command of the army all the
more readily because, when the en-
veiope was broken, he learned, for
the first time, that the appointment
had been made during the lifetime
of his mother
When first knew General Booth,
the army, though very far from its
earliest dayn, was yetfin those early
days of growth when 1t was fashiona-
bel to sheer at it and to jeer at its
leaders. Neither General Booth nor
Mrs. Booth troubled about such
things They had not time, and they
certainly had not the inclination.
Criticism Ignored.
Whilst their critics had no better
solution of the problem of the sub
merged tenth than criticism of those
who were endeavoring Ito do sonle.
thing they were working day and
night to achieve what had been deem
ed the impossible. Even then, thou
sands upon thousands of people had
been rescued from the gutter. But
the Salvation meeting was still, to
many of US, simply an interesting ex-
perience, like night in "Cogers' Hall,
or morning in CoVent Garden Market.
Ilremember in those early days, sit |
ting beside Mrs. Booth, on the plat
form, at Exeter Halls whilst the gen.
eral was addressing the dense crowd |
of the army below. There fas nothing |
fashionable in the attendance Of a
meeting in those days. Summing, in
deed, had just gone out of fashion, and |
tie army was still anathema to culture |
To a person like myself. who cared |
nothing for religion, and to whom the |
army was only social experiment |
tie occasion was full of interest.
That day, speaking to thousands |
who, only a few weeks, months, or |
years, before had been outcasts in the |
towns or on the countryside, the gen.
eral suddenly gave the order that they |
should hoist their colors, and in few |
minutes, some thousands of white |
handkerehiefs were futtering from |
the hands of those present. ....
"Yes!" he said, dryly, as he saw |
the action, "but year or so ago you |
had not a handkerchief between the !
lot of YOU" The Salvationists answer |
was a great roar of approved satisfac- |
ton. -...
Acquaintance Renewed.
Many years after those days l met |
him again on the deck of an Atlantic |
liner. He was on one of his great
missions of propaganda, preaching the
holy war like some Peter the Hermit.
but with much greater wisdom ,and
for much more valuable purpose.
The weather was not good, and the |
general was not particularly good |
sailor. Most of the time he spent in