THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE SALVATION ARMY.

Colonist, Volume L, Issue 12161, 8 February 1908, Page 1

THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE SALVATION ARMY.

i There has just been published a remarkable- little book called "Selected Papers of the social work of the Salvation Army." With the exception" of a preface by General Booth, it ;s nvt written by those who are professionally employed in "'the ! Army" or actively working for that great institution of social service. The papers nre reprinted from 1 aiticles written in the London press by literary men and women who have been inspired to study certain phases ■of life in the lowe3t strata of English civilisation, and who have in that way come in touch with the organisation of the Salvation A: my. Among the contributors are Miss Hilda Kriedrichs, Mr Clarence Kook, MiJ-s Olive Chrjstian Malvery, JVlf Harold Begbie, Mr Philip Hibbs.Mr F. A. M'Kenzie, and Mr Kayrn rid blathwayt. The book is well worth rdad:ng, not only hy those interested in the Sajvarinn Army, htil ' - H s» f » cents of modem humanity. It reveals with a terrible impressionism tbe wreckage and waste of hfo iv Loi don, the grim tragedies of poverty, the crime tLat is not usually the fault of the cii:nmals. It is a grave n dictraent of what we are pleased t call civilisation, and throughout his book there runs a thread of j,old — 'the work of men and women eager 10 [save and help. Tbe starving out-ot woil*, the fallen women, the old criminal fa" r.d banes stretched out to help them, and the astonisbJDg thing is, as some of th~e writers io tbis bock show, that from the worst luiateiial in the world tbe Salvation Arniy makes decent men and women' and honest citizens. General Bootb,in his briff preface, ra^ntiois some new metbeds fi>r tbe j redemption of the social outcasts and j failures. "The. Anti-Suicide League' 1 ' be says, ''has been organised up and down* the world with startling success. . . . Tbe 'Happy Home f.pague' has been invented for tenching fch« hotter <v >»»nagement t.i children and innuloafcion of thrift aad; frugality and cleanliness in tin I )wm?9 of the poor, M T^ere are als

plans for .relieving the 'aamploreil by emigration tj uur colonies, rescuing poor lost woukui, reclaiming tbe drunkards, the crimi-> ( nals, and the like."