Sairey Visits the Salvation Army.

Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 14, 3 February 1894, Page 16

Sairey Visits the Salvation Army.

Seein’ a advertisement in Saturday’s Evenin' Post announsin’ spechel meetins at the Salvashun Army BarracKs, wich was to be conducted by some Indian ossifers of the Army, consistin’ of a Majer, too Captins, a Leftenant, an’ a Hen-

sine, whose names I couldn’t for the life of

me pernounse or spell (tnougn you Know, Mr. Heditor, as I am a good speller.) So thinkin’ as I’d like to go on Sunday evenin’ I says to my hushing : “ Snodgins,” I says, “will you come to the Salvashun Army, as there is some Indians goin’ to address the meetin’. I don’t know whether they is red Indians or not,’’ I says, “ but should think as it would be.highly interestin’,’’ I says. “ I don’t serpose as they is red Indians, Sairey,” he says, “but I thinks I would rather not go, as I don’t care for the Army as is too nisey, an’,’’ he added, laffin’, “I’d advise you to stay away, for you know they may find it hard to resist such a dainty supper as you’d make for them, Sairey,” he says. “ Tark sence, Sam’el Snodgins,' if you can,” I says, “ an’ your not goin’, wont defer me from goin’ “ I says, curt. So off I goes all alone. At the door stud too men with boxes inter which I dropped my. two three-penny bits, an’, was showed to a seet neer the front, by a nice kind man as I thinks was the Captain of the Wellington core. After I had been seeted a few minutes, Kernal Bayley got hup an’ announced to the vast ordience (I forgot to say as the barracks was packed to the doors) as Leftenant Sager or some such name, would sing a so-low. Well, the Leftenant got hup an’ sang an hymn-.to the toone of Robin Hadair, a old favrite of mine, an’ sang it. well, an’ the ordience jined in, includin’ your humble servant, Mr. Heditor. Then the Leftenan’ told us how he had been a “ berry wicked man,” an’ got drunk, an’ did all sorts of horful things, an’ how he broke the drum belongin’ to the Army, on the evenin’ as he was converted. Then the Hensine got hup an’ asked us if “ poor Sager was worth savin’, “to which we all corresponded “Yes.” After another hymn the Majer got hup an’ made a most heloquent address, a address as would put to shame, both for' its delivery an’ its hernestness, many ministers of all denomernashuns. When he had finished his rather long discoarse, as was the only fait it had, as the people was hot an’ tired, Kernal Bayley asked us to fire a volley, wick made me feel rather nervus, as I do hate guns, but he only ment cheers for the visiters, an’ then the kerleckshun box went round, an’ I could not help thinkin’ as it is very kind an’ unselfish of Kernal Bayley to help these strangers so hartily by askin’ the people to make the kerlecsnun’ a good one, as lie must suffer by

havin’ poor kerlecshuns for a time, but wich shows us there is a unity atween them, without wich they could never 'ave been so successful, an’ growed inter such a big Army. Then the Kernal told us as the foundashun-stone of the new Rescue Home, in Cuba-street, would be lade the next day (Monday) at 3 p.m. I there an’ then decided to go, for if there is anythink I hadmire it is this branch of the Army’s work. So Monday afternoon a frend an’ I started towards Cuba-street, an’ just as we got there the clouds grew black, an’ the rane commenced to come down. Howsomever we both had humbrellers an’ clokes, an’ so was reddy to brave the helements. In a few minits Kernal Bayley opened the perceedin’s with a hymn an’ then told us how the Army had started the Rescue work some years ago in Wellington when they started a home in Marjorybanks Street, an’ wich ’as grown so as to make it quite inhadiquate to the present needs. He then asked Mrs. Bayley to say a few words, an’ this lady gave a very touchin’ address, in wich she gave the Farasees of the different churches some well-de-served nocks for there religious respecterbility and neglect of this noble work. Yes noble, for these good creatures go inter the slums an’ alleys to find the errin’ ones 7 an’ make them decent members of sassiety, an’ I, Sairey Snodgins, honor them with all my soul for there good, unselfish work. Then a poor girl, ’as had been helped by these rescue workers got hup, and by a narrative of her own case and that of others, brought teers of simpathy to the eyes of many there. An’ she asked one questshun, wich ’as persented itself to my mind often, an’ that was “if she and other poor creaturs like her were sinners, what were the men who kept them in their sin ? Men whom she declared went to church on Sunday with a big bible under there arm, what of these ? Ay, what of these ? Well might this poor creatur ask, an’ say that when she saw these things she became hardened in her sin, and felt she was as good as them —and so she was, an’ better, a grate deal better —for she was what she appeared, while our respecterable citizen, our churchgoin’ man, our decent member of sassiety, who dares to shake the hand of honest men an’ pure women, is—what ? A hipocrite, a liar, a deceiver, a sham, an’ has beside earned egsackly the name wich his poor unfortunate victim is branded with: and yet the difference in there posishuns in sassiety I It is enuff to make a honest woman’s blood bile. An’ when this poor girl ended her address by asking “ God to bless the Salvasl ur Army” I echoed, “ Yes, God bless the tialvashun Army, or any other people who may band themselves together to engage in this noble work, and God bless Mrs. Bayley, and the. deer little captun of the Rescue Home in Wellington, an’ all the others engaged in this unselfish, selfsacrificin’ labor—a ‘labor of love.’ ’’ “Let he who is without sin be the; first to cast a, stone.” If we only remembered those words; an' applied them to our own lives,

how much more kindness there would be in the world, but, — “ klas, for the rarity Of Christian charity, as Tom Hood sang. There are Christians an’ Christians, but I believe these rescue workers of the Salvashun Army are Christians in the truest sense of the word, and I hopes as they won’t despise the honest, harty goou wishes, for the success of thtir good work, of

Yours trooly,