THE SALVATIONISTS AT HOME.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1020, 11 April 1883, Page 2

THE SALVATIONISTS AT HOME.

A Hostile Rival. London has been supplied .with a new sensation, and ; also wjth a Very serious source of danger to the public peace, in the conflicts between the rival Salvation and “ Skeleton ” •Armies* The appearance 1 of the latter band, with its piratical emblems and coarse* parodies df Salvation hymns, was a natural 1 result of the reaction created amongst the lower orders in the metropolis, by the scandalous -‘and painful excesses which the • religious enthusiasm of “ General ” Booth’s followers Has produced. The Skeleton Army, which was started by roughs who have an antipathy to religion in any shape, has grown to such formidable dimensions within a couple of weeks that it has compelled to abandon their Sunday processions through the street* Within the past week the headquarters of General Booth ~in the City road was the scene of an extensive riot, in the course of which members of the opposing forces, as well as some inoffensive passers-by, -jvere seriously injured by stories and bliidg^|^^while on Sunday, the 4th inst., a was only prevented by the presence of large bodies- of police. ; It pi ay, however, be hoped that the end of these scandals has f|The London Vestries have protested- against the nuisance which has arisen from the precessions of the Salvationists, and General Booth : has shown that discretioh which may in religions, as well as in secular -warfare, be, the, better part of valour, by announcing that he has given orders to his followers not to make any more openair demonstrations.