Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-10-14


women of the Salvation Army.
Things that are unbelievable: The
temptations of the new freedom
among children: the surging waves
of immortality everywhere; appalling
conditions of living among the desti-
tutc poor Almost every one OF
them involving some responsibility
for the whole community-a re-
sponsibility for each one of US
either of prevention or of cure.
Succession after succession of cross
roads. all with possible wrong turn
ings leading to misery and de-
struction,
incredible Stories of Fact
Girls at the crossroads, Read
these rapid notes of the stories of
seven of them:
The phone rings in the office of
Salvation Army Corps late one sat
urday afternoon. A social agency
asks if a girl can be cared for over
the week end. She had come for
work, they said, but did not appear
well. She was at once received and
a doctor called. She met his state
ment that she was about to become
a mother with vehement denial she
was sullen and morose. Her parents
would have nothing to do with her.
She was transferred to the Rescue
Home and within three days she
gave birth to a child. 1t took long
persuasion to get her to so much as
look at her baby. But she gradually
learned to love it and a great change
came over her-so great change
Gn411V 1h1a TO
place her with a childless couple.
who were delighted to have baby
in their home and a helper for the
domestic duties.
The pathos of this: The morning
paper carries the story of a father
arrested on the charge of maltreat-
ing his two daughters, one of them
in consequences girl of fourteen
about to become a mother. Botn
girls are taken into custody. too.
The Salvation Army intervenes, ask
ing that they be released in Its
care. Immediately they are taken
to the Rescue Home, where they re-
ceiye months of tender. watchful
help and training. Finally both are
fitted to be placed in good homes.
Both now have 1.-The chance" they so
earnestly begged.
The Local Corps to the Rescue!
It's often emergency protective
work, done entirely by the officers OF
the local Corps. The most I'M
promising are frequently so helped
that they stand the test of years:
1t was a filthy and disordered
home. Father, mother and twelve
children. The father an habitual
drunkard. The mother didn't care. :.
The table was a rough board shelf,
running along the wall. There were
only two beds for the fourteen or
them. Clothing in rags. The father
would bring his drunken companions
home with him, where they would
lie on the floor and sleep Off their
stupor. Two of the children We're
girls in their teens. The Salvation
Army brought the situation to the
attention of the authorities, and ask
ed to be given charge of the two
girls. They were placed in the
homes of two of the members of the
ARMY. where they speedily became
clean. industrious. ambitious. They
were sent to school. Both had
musical talent, and both became
music teachers. Both are now mar
ried, with happy families. 1t was
ten years ago.
Or take these two, from a single
report to Portland Headquarters,
from the same Army Corps:
A slip of a girl, only fourteen, fol-
lowed the open air meeting to the
Army Hall, ITO rest" she said. She
was desperately sick. and finally
broke down and confessed that she
had taken poison. The Captains
wife and the doctor worked until
midnight saving her life. And this
was her story: Her mother had
died, and her father had taken for
houseleeper a dissolute woman, who
abused her Suffering, living IN
quarrels and uproar, discouraged,
she decided on suicide. The father
was summoned, and his housekeeper
given the alternative of leaving the
house or going to Jail. The father
was brought back to his duty, and
the little girl is now completing her