GENERAL BOOTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20786, 3 August 1929, Page 12

GENERAL BOOTH.

* 4 ‘ THE FUNERAL PAGEANT. “A SERVANT OF ALL.” 10,000 PEOPLE AT THE GRAVESIDE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) „ LONDON) June 28. Thousands of people lined the streets of London on Monday to pay a silent tribute to the late General Bramwell Booth. At 11 o’clock the Embankment and Queen Victoria street were packed, but still the thousands came, and the Salvationists themselves had difficulty in forming the funeral procession, which eventually . reached from Blackfnars Bridge almost to Westminster Bridge. It was a “ white ” procession., Stretching down the Embankment was a great line of: men nmU women, each with a white armlet. The banners were hung with white ribbons, and the family mourners wore white sashes. The corps of the Army were on parade early. The silk flags of all’nations were at ’their head. Officers from distant lands and from all. parts of the country took their place beside the leaders of the Army in united homage. Prom Belfast came an old man who has seen more than 40 years’ service in the Salvation Army. This . was Ser-geant-major Hopkins, who was one of the bearers at the funeral of the founder. On Monday he performed a similar office. THROUGH THE STREETS. Music accompanied the coffin throughout its long journey; not fhnercal music, but rather the tunes of favourite hymns, so that now the thousands of movin# feet kept time with the strains of “Jesu, Lover of my soul,” and now with-those of “ Rock of Ages, cleft for me." Band followed baud through the narrow streets of the city, past the Royal Exchange, and through the very heart of. commercial London, and thence northward out into the less prosperous highway that leads to Kingsland High street. The business of the City oif Loudon was suspended while the procession wont by. An extraordinary calm filled it-for the 40 minutes which the passing of the pageant occupied. From time to time the music died down, and then, at an hour when'generally the streets are most congested with traffic.and foot passengers and when conversation .to, be audible must be shouted, there was heard nothing but the sound of marching feet, Tt ,was well for those who. made the pilgrimage that the day was cool, for many of them were old people, some even had spent a lifetime in the-Army,-and the - way was long and hard. Still denser-' crowds gathered in North London, where the Salvation Army numbers its, adherents in thousands, and where, so much: of its beneficial work has been done; Right on through Stoke-Newington High street the procession' went, led by its fluttering banners and marching to music which the bauds of .the Army have made dear to’ hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. , ■ ' “A SERVANT OF ALL.”

The funeral ear was driven by Adjutant Pritchard, who was chauffeur to : General Bramwell Booth on many of his tours. The car was mantled in the red and blue colours of.-the Army. Inscribed in largo white letters on the covering shroud were the'words: “In : action faithful, in honour clear.” On the back ,of the car was a shield, a replica of the breastplate on the coffin. It. bore the same inscription, ■-•which; included .the-' .words “A servant of a 11.,” : ■ It had .been arranged ' .that; the .General’s widow, \vho joined the procession at"the headquarters ,in Queen Victoria street, should’.ride behind the Vicr, but she insisted on walking'at-least a parh of the. dj.stance,' She joined .the procession alone.-. - Behind her" walked her'sons and ; daughters and’ her 'sisters-in-1aw.... Thbn, in motbr caps, camfc other relatives,-' and/behind "them was- General Higgins, the iiew‘chief of the Salvation Army, '; with Cpmriiissioner ’ Mapp, : the chief of staff, and other loading commissioners;. " , In- this formation the . procession marched to the cemetery. • ■; v SPIRIT OF JOY. , The scene at , Abney Park cemetery will live in the history of the Salvation Army. Some 10,000 people were present., Tlie spirit of ( real joy throughout the service made it' stand out as 'something unique. The procession approached the graveside to the time of joyous hymns. A platform bedecked With bright colours had been erected over the grave itself, and loud speakers carried the voices'of the speakers-to the ends of the vast cemetery. The standardbearers 1 iir the procession made a great circle round the grave, raising their banners high. Above the heads of the people was a..fluttering'forest of white ribbons, which hung' from the flagpoles. ■ " • At the. graveside stood an officer with the banner which the- General ■ carried with him in. many parts of the world, and at the moment, wjien the General’s daughter (Commissioner Catherine Booth) reached the final words of the committal service a strong breeze' caught the. banner, so that it spread out over the. grave. Speaker after speaker addressed the; mighty army before them. They told of their love for their .General and of the greatness of his work!' The-.first-address was given by Commissioner Mrs Bootb-liellberg, ' who spoke of the General as a man who was old before'he was young, having, in his youth helped to carry the burden of the Army with his father, the founder. . ' INSPIRATION AND; HERO.. , After the singing of a hymn- Licut.Colonel Bernard Booth, the oldest sou of the General, paid a tribute to his father, and referred to a symbolic act which followed the lying-in-state. .On Saturday night, he said, he took the ring from hia father’s finger, and placed it on his mother’s in ■ token of the fact that he had taken his father’s place in carrying out hia vow to love and cherish her. He said that the General was hia “ inspiration and hero.” .> Mrs Bramwell Booth followed, and expressed her confidence that that was not. the end of the- story.-\ Finally, Commissioner Catherine Booth read a passage from the Bible, and made an appeal to those around the graveside to come forward and dedicate their lives to the cause her father had served. She pronounced the final words of, the coriimital service over the "rave and the service ended with the siurnn" of When the Roll is Called Yonder,” led. by Staff-Captain Wycliffe Booth, the youngest soil of the late General.