GENERAL BOOTH DEAD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 494, 24 August 1912, Page 3

GENERAL BOOTH DEAD.

A REMARKABLE CAREER. London, Wednesday. General Booth, leader of the Salvation Army, died to-day in his 83rd year. The death of General Booth was not unexpected, aa hi 3 condition hag been serious ever since his recent unsuccessful operation for blindness. He was born in Sneinton, Nottingham, in 1829. He was originally a Wesleyan, but was expelled in 1849 when he was acting as a local preacher in London, for preaching in the open air. Then he was ordained in one of the Free Churches aa a Minister in 1858. Later he bade good-bye to the churches Und founded the Salvation Army. Anyone writing the history of Britain, and many of the other nations of the world in the latter part of the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, will ruin his reputation as a historian if he fails to give the Army a very large place among the social forces which have tended to swing humaniy with a mightly lift heavenwards. In almost every clime of the world it works. The languages of the world are its languages, the world's customs are its customs. White, brown, yellow, black, all tints and colours, range shoulder to shoulder beneath its flag. The roll of its drum inspires the same sentiments in the hearts of thousands of members of a score of nations, while the songs of the ransomed which the Army teaches rise from the lips of worshippers whose politics and traditions are as hopelessly diverse as could be imagined. It is impossible to give an idea of the extent of the Army's work. It has 188,000 officers in active work almost all over the world. Its charitable institutions include prison gate and rescue work, food and shelter depots, inebriates' homes, boys' and girls' homes, farm colonies, emigration, naval and military homes, slum homes, maternity homes, nursing work, Samaritan brigades, hospital and benevolent visitation police court, Indian day schools etc., etc. It has gone into business. In England elsewhere it has] printing and lithographic works, employing men and women at trades union prices. Nearly all the workers are Salvationists. This department began with the necessity for printing song books, and now it not only does that, but floods the world with literature and prints its own War Cry, which, wtih other periodicals, in a year reaches the enormous number of over 4,000,000.

It carries on its own banking in England. The necessity for this arose some years ago. Soldiers and friends pressed, the General to start the bank, which has now grown into a promising institution under the name of the "Reliance Bank" and which does all kinds of banking and exchange business.

It composes, prints and publishes its own music for its own musicians. The head of this department is a converted infidel of rare musical and poetic ability. The Army also manufactures its musical instruments, and is one of the larges manufacturers of brass instruments in London. Bandsmen are not only paid for their services, but make the repairs of their own instruments. Schemes tor the manufacture of new instruments are now undjr contract, and the amounts total £IOO,OOO. The properties of the Army are enormous. In the majority of countries where the. Army works it does evertyhing, buys plans and builds, trains its own architects and builders.