GENERAL BOOTH'S BURIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 123, 11 October 1912, Page 6

GENERAL BOOTH'S BURIAL.

DRAMATIC SCENES THEREAT.

The mortal remains of the founder of the Salvation Army were 'buried on August 29 beside those of his wife in the old cemetery of Abney Park—in the heart of the East End of London—;vhere the great evangelist began the work that spread over the entire world. No such-gathering of the populace at a funeral procession has been witnessed except those at the time of the death of Queen Victoria and King Edward. Several thousand Salvationists, the men and women composing the 48 divisions of the Army from the London provinces, carrying their banners of '\Blood and Fire," and keeping in step with well-known Salvationist tunes, played by 40 bands, marched over the five miles from the Army headquarters in Queen Victoria street to the burial ground, through muddy streets, after being drenched by ,a downpour of rain. It was more in the nature of a triumphal progress than' a procession of mourning, over the same streets, where, only a few years ago, not a few of those who joined in the march had been mobbed and jeered at, THOUSANDS GATHERED EVERY-

WHERE, j No one could estimate the numbers > who had assembled everywhere, gathered to witness the passing* of the funeral of the late eommander-in-chief. All the streets and the windows along the march were crowded, and even the house-tops were jambed. -AH along the route dropped rain-soaked flags at half-mast, and many business houses were closed. The multitude in and about the cemetery numbered not less than 50,000. The new commander (Mr. Bramweil Booth) himself pronounced a long eulogy and ■read the committal service when his father's body was lowered into the grfrve. As Mr. Bramwell Booth was approaching the grave, his brother Herbert, dressed i in civilian clothes, stepped forward.and kissed the new general on' the cheek. The Mayor of Stoke-Newington and the Mayor of Hackney, in their robes of office, were seated on the .platform with the Booth family. Mrs. Catherine BoothClibborn, the late general's eldest-daugh-ter, who for years had been estranged from the Army, with Ker husband.and tieir 12 children, sat among the ers. MISS BOOTH BREAKS DOWN! Miss Eva Booth, coiimiaMer'of'-'ibe Army in the United States, wlio arrived in London just in time to'walk behind' her father's coffin, broke down and! fatigue. Mrs. Booth-Helborg begged'the audience to excuse ljer.6ist.er, from speaking, but the Army, were, i ous to hear the American and she came forward, Bramwell Booth aniJ'Mrs.j Helborg supporting her. • Miss- ; Bpot.h.l •aid!: '".".. " ""'"' " '

.1 am. worn out with, travel and with | grief, but I must deliver message from the Army across the*watiV.'"My . beloved father never .. lost the hold ... which he'established there so long ago, and we feel his losjsasJfeMjry-iafl-ihe English corps. He j&gked forward with so much joy to the y,isj,fcj he had planned to. make-to America this year, But God is Wj/tb...us, .and the work will j« •■. '""' ''■'"* .•"•_ With the exclamation, "Oh, my beloved father!" Miss Booth broke was' assisted to her seat. ,MANY. FAINT IN THFCMIETERY.

Vforn. .out..by the march,..^aii | y,'Saly,a- j tion'ists were ready * to. drop. reached the cemetery. J monies were going on> the.spaceJinji!r'ori£' of the platform began, fcp a. Tjattleficld with, the fainting v soldje.rs dropping on all sides. WMe..,u-n£formed. nurses of the Army ambul^acgI {i corpsJ treated .more, than. 100-cases., -sufferers were in' a' and one was removed from among the crowd on a funeral :C.ar. third of the programme service consumed two hours.- „ Then it "was* discovered that a special nec.ess.iry for a continuance of the cere-' ■moiry, as burials after 4 ; prohibited. The presence of the Mayor of' Stoke-Xewington, who panted the permit, solved the difficulty.-, j; Kr . > ;v ,j