December 21, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the Salvation Army's Christmas Red Kettle has been an American icon for 125 years. But for many Americans, this is all they know about the Salvation Army… until now. We’d like to thank the folks at Vision Video for giving us access to their wonderful documentary, Our People: The Story of William and Catherine Booth.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your stories. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites,
aside from Ho Ho Ho and several songs by Perry
Como and Johnny mathis. Perhaps no other sound says Christmas
(00:33):
more than the ring of a Salvation Army red kettlebell.
But from many Americans, this is all we know about
the Salvation Army. In the Empire of the Young Queen Victoria,
the story of the Salvation Army is conceived within the
heart of a young boy named William Booth. Here's Greg
Hengler with this story.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
William Booth's father Mu built houses in Nottingham, England, for
the children of the Industrial Revolution. When in eighteen forty
three his business collapsed, it was the end of his world.
Within months, Samuel was dead, leaving his family in ruin.
Thirteen year old William Booth had to drop out of
school and commenced what would be an education in poverty.
(01:22):
His primary classroom was the pawn shop, where he had
taken work as an apprentice. Here's Professor Roger Green, a
longtime member and scholar of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Pawnbroking business in England, and that day was a very
very difficult business, because pawnbroking was people brought in their
goods from their home and sold their goods to have
a little bit of money to put bread on the table.
And he knew too that many people were coming in
and selling a little bit of what they had in
their home, or pawning off a little bit of what
(01:54):
they had in their home, not in order to put
bread on the table for the children, but in order
ordered to buy more alcohol for that evening.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Handkerchiefs were pawned first, wedding rings came last. Nottingham's urban
district extends into rural Derbyshire, where Catherine Mumford was born.
From a young age, she displayed an unusually intense nature.
When she was nine years old, she saw a drunk
called through the streets to the police station, taunted by
(02:26):
a mob. She was unwilling to let him walk alone
and be humiliated, so she ran and walked beside him.
Here's Professor Pamela Walker, author of Pulling the Devil's Kingdom,
down the Salvation Army in Victorian Britain.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
She suffered from a number of different illnesses. It's hard
to know in modern terms what we would call those things,
but she had a curvature of her spine which she
suffered with her whole life, and she was sometimes bedridden
for long periods of time. So she read a lot.
She read Methodist magazines and other religious works by a
number of leading method theologians. She was reading them at
a very young age. She read the Bible every day.
(03:03):
By the time she was twelve, I think she'd read
it cover to cover eight times. And it made for
a very quiet childhood, very studious childhood, and often, I
think a very lonely one.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
In the booth household, William had heard very little about
the Bible or God until a neighbor took the fifteen
year old boy to church to hear the visiting American
minister James Cohey preach for six weeks. William was inspired.
For the next two years, he would often wander off
into the meadow and try preaching to himself. He was
(03:36):
always disappointed with the results, though the preachers he heard
were powerful and spoke with a fiery conviction. It was
obvious they believe what they were preaching with all their heart. William,
on the other hand, was not sure what he believed.
Even though he had now been going to church for
two years, William was still a spectator. That was the
(03:59):
case until the Booth strolled into his Bible class. The
teacher opened with the words a soul dies every minute.
For some reason, these words penetrated right into William's heart.
Shortly after, when a friend persuaded William to join him
in a mission in Nottingham's poorest district, William stepped right
(04:20):
into his natural space. After visiting the poor and the sick,
William would go out into the grimy streets, stand on
top of a box and preach. Poor women would bring
their own chairs. Some ignored him, others cursed him. In
eighteen forty nine, William left Nottingham for London, working more
(04:42):
than twelve hours a day, six days a week as
an apprentice at another pawnbroker's shop. It was here where
William met Catherine Mumford. A month later they were engaged.
Here Salvation Army member and historian professed Sir Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Catherine Booth was the thinker She grew up in a
home where she was self educated or home educated, and
she read a lot of theology books. William was a doer.
William was a doer all his life. William was an activist.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
At the age of twenty two, William left pawnbroking for
good to pursue what he felt was God's calling as
an evangelist. On June sixteenth of eighteen fifty five, Katherine
and William were married. Three years passed until William became
the preacher of a Methodist church, while Catherine became pregnant
(05:39):
with their third child. Feeling restless, Catherine began to visit
the families of heavy drinkers two nights a week in
the slums. It was at this time where she too
would have a life changing encounter with an American preacher.
Here again is Pamela Walker.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
In eighteen fifty nine and Phoebe Palmer, who was an
American holiness teacher and preacher, came to England and it
was a big event for Catherine. She was already well
known to Catherine's for her writing. It also occasioned a
law of debate in English press because here was this
American and a woman and she's preaching.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
William had plenty to do inside the church, but it
was the people outside, the people who never dreamed of
setting a foot inside a church, who really concerned him.
Booth's outreach had become known by the locals as the
Converting Shop. When members of his church attempted to restrict
his wider ministry, Catherine urged William to resist and become
(06:41):
an independent evangelist. At a critical moment, when a motion
to limit Booth's ministry was put, Catherine shouted from the balcony.
Never William looked around to see his wife being escorted
towards the door. William stood up, waved his hand in
the air as a salute to his wife, and walk
(07:03):
deliberately out the door. Catherine was standing on the steps.
He hooked her arm in his, and they headed down
the street together.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of William and Catherine Booth, without whom there would not
be a Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
More after these messages.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this
great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past,
know that all of our stories about American history, from
war to innovation, culture and faith are brought to us
by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where
students study all the things that are beautiful in life
and all the things that are good in life. And
if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to
(07:53):
you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to
Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we returned to
our American stories in the story of William and Catherine
(08:13):
Booth and the Story of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
William Booth's days of being a pastor were over. He
was a thirty two year old man with a wife
and now four small children to feed. He returned to
the insecure life of a traveling evangelist, preaching in rented warehouses,
ragged tents, and in the open air. He got an
occasional odd job and spent the money he earned on
(08:41):
soup bones and two day old bread to feed his family.
In July eighteen sixty five, William was in a sense
still looking for his life's work. The Booths were living
in London and now had six children. On July second,
William set out for an eight mile walk to London's
East End to preach at a tent meeting. As he walked,
(09:03):
he was shocked by what he saw.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
For liquor.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Parents neglected their children, girls sold their virtue, men became criminals.
A man could get drunk for a penny. Five year
olds were commonly seen passed out in the doorways. It
was this area that drew William Booth like a magnet.
Booth burst into the house, swept Catherine into a hug
(09:27):
and shouted, Kate, I've found my destiny. Here's the great
grandson of William and Catherine Booth, Colonel Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
When my grandfather was twelve or thirteen, William took him
out one evening to the East end of London where
he was working, and took him into some of the
public houses that lined the roads. They came in and
found the people with a many of them drunkked. Women
(09:59):
were with their little babies, and the situation was really
very sad. Of course, these men were out of work,
they were poor, they were uneducated and in desperate need.
And as they looked at them, William turned to Bramwell.
William Bramwell his name was, and he said, Willie These
(10:22):
are our people. These are the people I want you
to live for and to bring to Christ.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The work was hard, and the funds for the operation
were near nonexistent. Workers were poor, but there were men
and women of influence and wealthy philanthropists who came staunchly
to the rescue. Checks were written and buildings were loaned
free of cost for Booth to preach in or operate
soup kitchens. Once inside, crowds of idle and disolute characters
(10:55):
filled the building, but William held their attention eighty of
the most popular tunes of the time and changed the
lyrics to reflect a gospel centered message. Booth said, why
should the devil have all the best tunes? Both William
and Catherine would preach each usually an hour to an
(11:16):
hour and a half. Here again is Roger Green and
Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
The preaching styles were a bit different. William Booth was
tended to roam on the platform and tended to move
on the platform and so forth.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
He was a very dramatic preacher. Of course, you could
see the people drowning, You could see the people reaching
their hands above the waves.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Catherine Booth, on the other hand, had a very different
style of preaching. Catherine tended to preach like a lawyer.
Catherine tended to argue her point and make her point
very clearly. In fact, the story goes that there was
a gentleman who heard Catherine Booth preach, and at the
end of the sermon, he turned to his son, a
(12:00):
future Archbishop of Canterbury, and he said to his son,
if I am ever in trouble with the law, don't
get me a lawyer. Get me that woman.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
When the Christian Mission began, those involved wanted to adopt
committees in order to enact strict government protocol. Here's doctor
Glenn Horidge, author of the Salvation Army origins. In early
days and Roger Green.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
William B was getting very, very frustrated by the constant
talking and the fact that many people wanted to formulate
rules about how things should be done rather than actually
doing it. And he felt this was this had been
a problem of many of the other organizations that were
trying to do good work.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Needless to say, William and Catherine Booth were not people
who favored committees. They were both quite autocratic by nature.
As you come to eighteen seventy seven, some very important
decisions were made, and the primarily curtin decision that was
made was to have William Booth totally in charge of
the Christian Mission.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
When their eighteen seventy eight report was drafted, it said
the Christian Mission, under the superintendence of the Reverend William Booth,
is a volunteer army. The report was shown to William
and his son Bramwell.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
And Bramwell said, here, I'm not a volunteer, I'm a
regular soldier. And William took the pen in his hand,
crossed off the word volunteer and wrote in instead, the
Christian Mission is a Salvation army. And so the ranks
he came in, and little by little the milluteless toructure
(13:42):
of the Salvation ARMI developed.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Here's Pamela Walker, Glenn Horidge and UCLA professor Diane Winston,
author of the engrossing study Red Hot and Righteous, the
Urban Religion of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
In the eighteen eighties, brass bands were very popular in England.
A lot of trade unions had the brass band, and
workplaces had a brass band, so lots of people knew
how to play brass instruments. It was quite a common
pastime in Salisbury.
Speaker 8 (14:10):
The Salvation Army officer decided to use a local Methodist
family to play their instruments to drown out the rowdies.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
The Fry family were the first people to do this,
and they found it very effective. If they would the
rowdies started getting too loud, they just bring up their
brass brand instruments and start playing and just bring up
the tune and bring up the sound of the music,
and that would just drown up the crowd and they
became very popular and it became very much a part
of the Salvation Army's appeal. And the brass band would
stand on the corner, they'd do a testimony, they'd play
(14:38):
some music, they'd sing some songs, and that would also
just help to draw an audience.
Speaker 9 (14:43):
William Booth was a man ahead of his time because
he really appreciated the value of good publicity. He could
have been a great pr man had he gone in
a different direction. His credo was attract attention, and he
told his soldiers and officers to do anything possible to
get that attention. Really had a sense of marketing and
of branding, and he made sure that people knew who
(15:07):
the army was and the uniform was one of the
ways to do this.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
By far.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The majority of the Army's officers were very young, in
at least half were women. Here again is Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
William Booth always said, you know, my best men are women,
and in the eighteen eighties, for example, almost fifty percent
and sometimes more than fifty percent of the officers were women.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Here's Salvation Army Major Christine Parkin.
Speaker 10 (15:38):
Really, Booth had a rare genius for understanding the needs
of young people. He also had this gift for being
able to use people in a ray that made them
feel that they were in charge, they were responsible, they
(16:02):
were challenged to do something really good for the Kingdom
of plant.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Here's William Booth's granddaughter, Commissioner Catherine Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 11 (16:14):
He was very interested in what we did in the
little call that you might call it to little church,
the group to which we belonged to see. So if
he was at home, it was important to tell him
how it had been unsun Well, how did you get on?
And I said that there, yes, yes, Grandpa, I sang
(16:36):
a solo.
Speaker 10 (16:36):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (16:37):
He said, how did you get on?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Well?
Speaker 11 (16:39):
I said, well, I did my best and then he
suddenly seemed to be angry with me. Raw at mean,
he could you know, he could shout and he had
a splendid voice. Well, he shouted at me that day,
you see, I was all with shiver, And he said,
(17:00):
your best?
Speaker 12 (17:02):
What's the good of that?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Catherine?
Speaker 11 (17:05):
You'll never be any good to me in the army
if that's all you can do.
Speaker 12 (17:09):
Well, I felt trip.
Speaker 11 (17:12):
And then he suddenly stopped and changed, did you see,
dear child, when we believe in God and God helps us,
we can do better than our best? And then he
opened up all that idea of God being within reach
(17:33):
and understanding how we felt, Oh.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
My goodness, what words. When we believe in God and
God helps us, we can do better than our best.
We're following the story of William and Catherine Booth. The
story of William and Catherine Booth. The story of the
Salvation Army continues after these messages, and we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of William and
Catherine Booth.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
And the story of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And every once in a while, though the show is
entitled Our American Stories, you'll sometimes hear some British voices
and that's because as we look back in time, so
many of the important organizations, so many of the important
events that happened here in this country, were shaped by
some of the things that happened across the pond, so
to speak. And so we continue with the story of
(18:38):
William and Catherine Booth.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Among the thousands of recruits the army, especially prized men
and women whose lives had been radically transformed. William Booth
told his officers, when you go into a town, search
for the worst alcoholic, go after the woman at the
end of a rope. He would rather his meetings were
crowded with such people than churchgoers who are not broken
(19:02):
by their sin. One of his mottos was go for
souls and go for the worst. Here's Christine Parkin and
a couple testimonies of the time.
Speaker 10 (19:14):
They were able to see. It happened before their eyes.
Really they saw the little homes transformed because the father
of the Householme, brought a joy to meet home and
Assassinyn instead of spending all his money at the pub,
and the children starting to go to school because there
was money.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
It used to be starvation before they came.
Speaker 13 (19:39):
Now he brings his wages home to me instead of
taking them to the public house.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
If you want to know what God has done for me,
go and ask my poor wife, whom I've beaten in
my mad and fury until I've endangered their life and
smashed everything I could lay my hands upon.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Hear the words of Catherine Booth, Glenn Horridge and Bram Booth.
Speaker 14 (20:01):
We teach that a man cannot be right with God
while he is doing wrong to men. In short, decide
that holiness means being saved from sin and filled with
love to God and man.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So important was the message of holiness that in eighteen
seventy at the Conference of the Christian Mission, William Booth said,
holiness is to us a fundamental truth. It stands to
the forefront of our doctrines.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
The first Albashlami flag was presented in eighteen seventy eight,
and Catherine often explained when she presented flags later on
that the red stood for the blood of Jesus Christ,
which purifies from sin, the blue stands for purity of holiness,
and the fire of the star was the fire of
(20:53):
the Holy Spirit, which actively leads his people.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The flag and its soldier were encountering intense opposition. In
his play Major Barbara, Committed socialist master wordsmith and playwright
George Bernard Shaw criticized the Salvation Army for using tainted
money to do its work. To this, Booth answered, we
will wash it in the tears of the widows and
(21:20):
the orphans and lay it on the altar of humanity.
The media hated the Salvation Army too, and continually wrote
fictional stories that were successful in inflaming public opinion against them.
Booth would tell his very upset son Bramwell, fifty years
from now, it will matter very little how these people
(21:41):
treated us. It will matter a great deal how we
dealt with the work of God. I don't care what
they say about me, as long as they say something
and announce where I'm preaching. Even Queen Victoria objected to
the Salvation Army and the grounds that she should have
the only army in England and that all generals should
(22:02):
belong to the British Empire. The authorities offered little if
no protection, and in many cases they charged the Salvationists
with disturbing the peace. In fact, the British Home Secretary
pushed a peace at any price policy, and this meant
that the results of any legal Salvation Army activity that
(22:24):
hooligans turned into a riot were blamed on the Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
The Home Secretary's.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Logic went thus, if the Salvation Army had not been
there in the first place, the peace would not have
been disturbed. Here again is Gordon Moles.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
And when they were charged and sent to jail, they
had the option of a fine or say ten days
in jail. And you know what they always chose. They
chose the ten days in jail, and they would go
to jail for the ten days, and at the end
of the ten days, the Salvation Army Corps, the whole
battalion would line up, marched to the jail, bring out
(23:03):
the jail bird, and leave that jail bird dressed in
the uniform of a jailbird, marched them back to the
citadel and they would have a great meeting where the
person would testify and talk about it and so on.
And of course it got publicized in all the newspapers.
All the newspapers.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Loved it because they now knew they could get away
with it. Schools of angry and restless young men organized
into a group whose stated aim was to destroy the
Salvation Army. They called themselves the Skeleton Army. The Skeleton
Army didn't confine the harassment just to the streets. They
went to and attacked the homes of anyone who sympathized
(23:45):
with the organization, smashing windows and hurling dead cats and rats, bricks, stones, tar,
rotten vegetables, and sticks into their windows. One Army officer
named Elijah had his nose broke, token and face bloodied
while the riot was going on around him. William Booth
asked the bloodied Elijah how the officers were. Elijah replied,
(24:10):
the officers will be all right, dead or alive. In
the midst of all this, William received the news that
one of his first converts, Susanna Batty, had been killed.
She had been pelted with rotten fish and rocks. One
of the rocks knocked her off her feet, and as
she lay in the street, a thug kicked her heart
(24:31):
in the stomach, and she died of internal injuries. The
Skeleton Army was financially and politically supported by breweries, pub owners,
and politicians outraged by the army's unorthodox approached. This led
to a strange alliance among politicians, hoodlums, and brewery owners,
all of whom wanted the Salvation Army to march right
(24:54):
out of sight. Here again is Glenn Horridge.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Anything that seemed to be deviating from norm has often
been ridiculed and attacked. They set themselves up to be different,
and so what better on a Friday night or a
Saturday then to jeer at the Salvation Army.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
During eighteen eighty two, six hundred and sixty nine Salvation
Army soldiers were assaulted.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
One third of.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Them were women, including twenty three children. Sixty Salvation Army
buildings were seriously damaged. William wrote many letters to Parliament
and the police urging them to set aside the peace
at any price policy, but it failed to move them. Eventually,
four thousand angry young men from the Skeleton Army descended
(25:41):
on a small band of Salvation Army soldiers, helding them
with rocks and tar. When a few officers arrived on
the scene, the leader of this Skeleton Army assaulted one
of the officers. The man was immediately arrested, and as
their leader was dragged away, the Skeleton Army began throwing
rocks into the police station and taunting the officers to
(26:03):
come out. Finally the police saw the truth of the matter.
It was impossible to ignore the rights of one group
of people and allow thugs to roam the streets without
putting everyone's liberty at risk.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And what a story we're hearing, by the way, and
I just love the beginning where Booth's admonition was to
search for the worst alcoholic and the woman at the
end of her rope, go for souls, he said, souls
at the end of their rope. These stories are important stories. Again,
the story about England and America, this is one that's
(26:40):
inextrictably intertwined. You can't imagine the Salvation Army without Christmas,
or Christmas without the Salvation Army. They become a part
of the DNA of this country. And by the way,
they serve so many families in need, and that's families
of every kind, every gender, every religion, non religion, and
of course folks of every sexual orientation too. They don't
(27:04):
ask for any of these things when you walk in
to the door of the Salvation Army. So give whenever
you get a chance to this great organization. More on
the story of William and Catherine Booth. The Salvation Army
story here on our American stories. And we continue here
(27:39):
with our American stories and the story of William and
Catherine Booth. Let's return to our final installment in this
great hour long story.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
The persecution of the Salvation Army brought about a new protocol.
The Army began to station officers at prison gates as
disheveled men came out. Salvationists would offer help with accommodation
and legitimate work. Here's Roger Green.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
There was a Salvation Army family by the name of
the Shirley family who in eighteen seventy nine went over
to the United States. Their daughter was a captain in
the Salvation Army. They decided that they were going to
begin the work of the Salvation Army, albeit unofficially in Philadelphia.
So at fourth in Oxford, the Shirley family, with Captain
(28:32):
Eliza Shirley, just a young woman at the time, began
to work as Salvationists and open the work of the
Salvation Army in the United States. However, this was not
an official opening, and the Shirleys wrote back to William
Booth and asked if William Booth would send reinforcements to
help to establish the work of the Salvation Army in America.
(28:56):
And so William Booth chose George Scott Railton and seven
young women for this task. And on March tenth of
eighteen eighty George Scott Railton and the seven young women,
these seven hallelujulasses, walked down the gangplank of their ship
to the base of the Manhattan and they opened the
(29:18):
work of the Salvation Army officially.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
By the end of eighteen eighty three, the Salvation Army
was operating in twelve countries, and everywhere it fought an
evangelistic war. We are a salvation people, said Booth. That
is our specialty. On September twenty third, eighteen eighty six,
fifty seven year old William Booth stepped onto New York's
(29:43):
Cunard Pier. By now the Salvation Army boasted one hundred
corp in America, manned by three hundred officers and over
five thousand soldiers and cadets. On this two and a
half month visit, over two hundred thousand Americans flocked to
hear him. At his core, William Booth was an evangelist,
(30:05):
but he was also intensely practical.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
The Social Ministry of the Salvation Army usually did not
begin at the instigation of William Booth. Social ministry began
as officers and soldiers were working in their own local
situations with people, and as they had compassion for these
people and wanted to aid them and assist them. And so,
for example, in eighteen eighty six, the Salvation Army opened
(30:31):
up a home for alcoholic women. They're again not at
the instigation of William Booth, but because there were local
officers and soldiers in that situation who saw a need
and they wanted to meet that need.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
What Booth did was support these ventures with personnel and funds.
Here again is Diane Winston and Colonel Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 9 (30:54):
William Booth, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not particularly
interested in the big issues of the day. Booth only
cared about saving people. The Army was a religion of action.
Speaker 7 (31:06):
One evening on a cold winter's night, William Booth was
coming home over a bridge and realized that men were
sleeping out in the cold underneath the bridge, finding what
shelter they could. And when he first saw my grandfather Bramwell,
he said to him, Bramwell, did you know that men
(31:26):
were sleeping under the bridges in this in this weather.
And Bramwell answered, well, I thought everyone knew that, General.
And William then said Bramwell, go and do something. Find
a warehouse, put some mathosis on the floor, get a
coke stove, uh.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
And look after him a little bit.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
But mind no codling.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Here's Roger Green and a quote from William Booth.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
William Booth was very moved by the compassionate ministry of
his officers and soldiers, and in eighteen eighty nine he
wrote one of his most important articles. That article was
called Salvation for both Worlds. William Booth says very clearly
that he has to fight not only against the sin
of this world, but he has to fight also against
(32:17):
the prevailing evils of poverty and idleness, and prostitution, and
alcoholism and so forth in this world.
Speaker 13 (32:26):
If these people are to believe in Jesus Christ, become
the servants of God and escape the miseries of the
wrath to come, they must be helped out of their
present social misress.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
In eighteen eighty eight, Catherine had discovered she had terminal
breast cancer. She would continue to write and preach, but
after two years she was confined to bed. Finally, on
October fourth, eighteen ninety at sixty one years of age,
Catherine Booth in Salvation Army terminology was promoted to glory
(33:04):
the following year. In December eighteen ninety one, Captain Joseph McPhee,
an energetic Salvation Army officer in San Francisco, had a
goal of providing a free Christmas dinner to anyone who
was in need. McPhee borrowed a large crab pot from
the Oakland Ferry landing and hung it from a tripod
(33:25):
at the foot of Market Street and posted a sign
that said fill the pot for the poor, free dinner
on Christmas Day. He collected enough to feed one thousand
people and thus began the now iconic Salvation Army Christmas
Red Kettle campaign. The sounds of bells ringing throughout America
(33:48):
has become a very important part of the holiday season.
Americans contribute some one hundred million to the Army's Christmas
Kettle campaign that provides Christmas cheer to the less fortunate.
Kettle donations remain in local communities, supporting year round services,
and the USA Christmas Kettle tradition was too good to
(34:08):
remain exclusive, and in recent years has become exported to
other nations in which the army serves. William now handed
much of the day to day running of the army
to his son Bramwell, and returned to his first love.
William began to travel the globe preaching the gospel.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
There's a story of him sitting on a railway carriage
with Cecil Rhoades, the great South African colossus, the great imperialist,
and he says to Cecil, how's your soul? And Rhodes
says not very well. William Booth puts his hands on
his shoulders, bends him over, get on the floor of
the carriage and the train, and prays with him. And
(34:51):
he would pray with everybody. He would ask everybody, how's
your soul? Are you saved?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
When he was in the presence of the king, he
was asked to sign guest book, and on that guest
book he wrote this, some men's ambition is gold, some
men's ambition is fame. My ambition is the souls of men.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Into his eighties, William Booth would still preach. At one
of his last meetings, the old soldier gave his final
call to battle.
Speaker 12 (35:24):
While women weep as they do now. I'll fight will
children go hungry as they do now. I'll fight while
men go to prison in and out, in and out
as they do now. I'll fight while there is a
(35:48):
drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon
the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the
light of God. I'll fight. I'll fight to the very end.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
At the age of eighty three, On August twentieth, nineteen twelve,
the old general who commanded a worldwide army for fifty
three years, was promoted to glory. The Salvation Army announced
that General has laid down his sword. For weeks after
William was buried, the rumors spread that Queen Alexander had
(36:26):
come to the funeral in disguise. No one could prove
whether the rumor was true or not, but in one sense,
it did not matter. What mattered was that no one
thought it strange or unbelievable that a queen might have
been standing shoulder to shoulder with the most gaudy and
destitute of the attendees. Today, the Salvation Army spans the globe,
(36:48):
reaching out to others with the love of God. The
courage of their convictions and the discipline of good soldiers,
raising more than one billion annually. The Salvation Army is
now established in eighty countries with sixteen thousand evangelical centers
and operates more than three thousand social welfare institutions, hospitals, schools, orphanages,
(37:14):
homeless shelters and social service agencies. I'm Greg Hengler and
this is our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And great job is always to Greg Hengler. And what
a story, the story of William and Catherine Booth and
the story of the Salvation Army. One billion dollars a year,
three thousand separate organizations. It's really unbelievable, and not a
stitch from the government. This is just the generosity of
(37:45):
people around the world giving to a great cause. A
special thanks, by the way to the folks at Vision
Video for giving us access to their great documentary Our People,
the story of William and Katherine Booth.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
The Asian Army story. Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your stories. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites,
aside from Ho Ho Ho and several songs by Perry
Como and Johnny mathis. Perhaps no other sound says Christmas
(00:33):
more than the ring of a Salvation Army red kettlebell.
But from many Americans, this is all we know about
the Salvation Army. In the Empire of the Young Queen Victoria,
the story of the Salvation Army is conceived within the
heart of a young boy named William Booth. Here's Greg
Hengler with this story.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
William Booth's father Mu built houses in Nottingham, England, for
the children of the Industrial Revolution. When in eighteen forty
three his business collapsed, it was the end of his world.
Within months, Samuel was dead, leaving his family in ruin.
Thirteen year old William Booth had to drop out of
school and commenced what would be an education in poverty.
(01:22):
His primary classroom was the pawn shop, where he had
taken work as an apprentice. Here's Professor Roger Green, a
longtime member and scholar of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Pawnbroking business in England, and that day was a very
very difficult business, because pawnbroking was people brought in their
goods from their home and sold their goods to have
a little bit of money to put bread on the table.
And he knew too that many people were coming in
and selling a little bit of what they had in
their home, or pawning off a little bit of what
(01:54):
they had in their home, not in order to put
bread on the table for the children, but in order
ordered to buy more alcohol for that evening.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Handkerchiefs were pawned first, wedding rings came last. Nottingham's urban
district extends into rural Derbyshire, where Catherine Mumford was born.
From a young age, she displayed an unusually intense nature.
When she was nine years old, she saw a drunk
called through the streets to the police station, taunted by
(02:26):
a mob. She was unwilling to let him walk alone
and be humiliated, so she ran and walked beside him.
Here's Professor Pamela Walker, author of Pulling the Devil's Kingdom,
down the Salvation Army in Victorian Britain.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
She suffered from a number of different illnesses. It's hard
to know in modern terms what we would call those things,
but she had a curvature of her spine which she
suffered with her whole life, and she was sometimes bedridden
for long periods of time. So she read a lot.
She read Methodist magazines and other religious works by a
number of leading method theologians. She was reading them at
a very young age. She read the Bible every day.
(03:03):
By the time she was twelve, I think she'd read
it cover to cover eight times. And it made for
a very quiet childhood, very studious childhood, and often, I
think a very lonely one.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
In the booth household, William had heard very little about
the Bible or God until a neighbor took the fifteen
year old boy to church to hear the visiting American
minister James Cohey preach for six weeks. William was inspired.
For the next two years, he would often wander off
into the meadow and try preaching to himself. He was
(03:36):
always disappointed with the results, though the preachers he heard
were powerful and spoke with a fiery conviction. It was
obvious they believe what they were preaching with all their heart. William,
on the other hand, was not sure what he believed.
Even though he had now been going to church for
two years, William was still a spectator. That was the
(03:59):
case until the Booth strolled into his Bible class. The
teacher opened with the words a soul dies every minute.
For some reason, these words penetrated right into William's heart.
Shortly after, when a friend persuaded William to join him
in a mission in Nottingham's poorest district, William stepped right
(04:20):
into his natural space. After visiting the poor and the sick,
William would go out into the grimy streets, stand on
top of a box and preach. Poor women would bring
their own chairs. Some ignored him, others cursed him. In
eighteen forty nine, William left Nottingham for London, working more
(04:42):
than twelve hours a day, six days a week as
an apprentice at another pawnbroker's shop. It was here where
William met Catherine Mumford. A month later they were engaged.
Here Salvation Army member and historian professed Sir Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Catherine Booth was the thinker She grew up in a
home where she was self educated or home educated, and
she read a lot of theology books. William was a doer.
William was a doer all his life. William was an activist.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
At the age of twenty two, William left pawnbroking for
good to pursue what he felt was God's calling as
an evangelist. On June sixteenth of eighteen fifty five, Katherine
and William were married. Three years passed until William became
the preacher of a Methodist church, while Catherine became pregnant
(05:39):
with their third child. Feeling restless, Catherine began to visit
the families of heavy drinkers two nights a week in
the slums. It was at this time where she too
would have a life changing encounter with an American preacher.
Here again is Pamela Walker.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
In eighteen fifty nine and Phoebe Palmer, who was an
American holiness teacher and preacher, came to England and it
was a big event for Catherine. She was already well
known to Catherine's for her writing. It also occasioned a
law of debate in English press because here was this
American and a woman and she's preaching.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
William had plenty to do inside the church, but it
was the people outside, the people who never dreamed of
setting a foot inside a church, who really concerned him.
Booth's outreach had become known by the locals as the
Converting Shop. When members of his church attempted to restrict
his wider ministry, Catherine urged William to resist and become
(06:41):
an independent evangelist. At a critical moment, when a motion
to limit Booth's ministry was put, Catherine shouted from the balcony.
Never William looked around to see his wife being escorted
towards the door. William stood up, waved his hand in
the air as a salute to his wife, and walk
(07:03):
deliberately out the door. Catherine was standing on the steps.
He hooked her arm in his, and they headed down
the street together.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And when we come back, we'll continue with the story
of William and Catherine Booth, without whom there would not
be a Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
More after these messages.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this
great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past,
know that all of our stories about American history, from
war to innovation, culture and faith are brought to us
by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where
students study all the things that are beautiful in life
and all the things that are good in life. And
if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to
(07:53):
you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to
Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we returned to
our American stories in the story of William and Catherine
(08:13):
Booth and the Story of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
William Booth's days of being a pastor were over. He
was a thirty two year old man with a wife
and now four small children to feed. He returned to
the insecure life of a traveling evangelist, preaching in rented warehouses,
ragged tents, and in the open air. He got an
occasional odd job and spent the money he earned on
(08:41):
soup bones and two day old bread to feed his family.
In July eighteen sixty five, William was in a sense
still looking for his life's work. The Booths were living
in London and now had six children. On July second,
William set out for an eight mile walk to London's
East End to preach at a tent meeting. As he walked,
(09:03):
he was shocked by what he saw.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
For liquor.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Parents neglected their children, girls sold their virtue, men became criminals.
A man could get drunk for a penny. Five year
olds were commonly seen passed out in the doorways. It
was this area that drew William Booth like a magnet.
Booth burst into the house, swept Catherine into a hug
(09:27):
and shouted, Kate, I've found my destiny. Here's the great
grandson of William and Catherine Booth, Colonel Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
When my grandfather was twelve or thirteen, William took him
out one evening to the East end of London where
he was working, and took him into some of the
public houses that lined the roads. They came in and
found the people with a many of them drunkked. Women
(09:59):
were with their little babies, and the situation was really
very sad. Of course, these men were out of work,
they were poor, they were uneducated and in desperate need.
And as they looked at them, William turned to Bramwell.
William Bramwell his name was, and he said, Willie These
(10:22):
are our people. These are the people I want you
to live for and to bring to Christ.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The work was hard, and the funds for the operation
were near nonexistent. Workers were poor, but there were men
and women of influence and wealthy philanthropists who came staunchly
to the rescue. Checks were written and buildings were loaned
free of cost for Booth to preach in or operate
soup kitchens. Once inside, crowds of idle and disolute characters
(10:55):
filled the building, but William held their attention eighty of
the most popular tunes of the time and changed the
lyrics to reflect a gospel centered message. Booth said, why
should the devil have all the best tunes? Both William
and Catherine would preach each usually an hour to an
(11:16):
hour and a half. Here again is Roger Green and
Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
The preaching styles were a bit different. William Booth was
tended to roam on the platform and tended to move
on the platform and so forth.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
He was a very dramatic preacher. Of course, you could
see the people drowning, You could see the people reaching
their hands above the waves.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Catherine Booth, on the other hand, had a very different
style of preaching. Catherine tended to preach like a lawyer.
Catherine tended to argue her point and make her point
very clearly. In fact, the story goes that there was
a gentleman who heard Catherine Booth preach, and at the
end of the sermon, he turned to his son, a
(12:00):
future Archbishop of Canterbury, and he said to his son,
if I am ever in trouble with the law, don't
get me a lawyer. Get me that woman.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
When the Christian Mission began, those involved wanted to adopt
committees in order to enact strict government protocol. Here's doctor
Glenn Horidge, author of the Salvation Army origins. In early
days and Roger Green.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
William B was getting very, very frustrated by the constant
talking and the fact that many people wanted to formulate
rules about how things should be done rather than actually
doing it. And he felt this was this had been
a problem of many of the other organizations that were
trying to do good work.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Needless to say, William and Catherine Booth were not people
who favored committees. They were both quite autocratic by nature.
As you come to eighteen seventy seven, some very important
decisions were made, and the primarily curtin decision that was
made was to have William Booth totally in charge of
the Christian Mission.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
When their eighteen seventy eight report was drafted, it said
the Christian Mission, under the superintendence of the Reverend William Booth,
is a volunteer army. The report was shown to William
and his son Bramwell.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
And Bramwell said, here, I'm not a volunteer, I'm a
regular soldier. And William took the pen in his hand,
crossed off the word volunteer and wrote in instead, the
Christian Mission is a Salvation army. And so the ranks
he came in, and little by little the milluteless toructure
(13:42):
of the Salvation ARMI developed.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Here's Pamela Walker, Glenn Horidge and UCLA professor Diane Winston,
author of the engrossing study Red Hot and Righteous, the
Urban Religion of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
In the eighteen eighties, brass bands were very popular in England.
A lot of trade unions had the brass band, and
workplaces had a brass band, so lots of people knew
how to play brass instruments. It was quite a common
pastime in Salisbury.
Speaker 8 (14:10):
The Salvation Army officer decided to use a local Methodist
family to play their instruments to drown out the rowdies.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
The Fry family were the first people to do this,
and they found it very effective. If they would the
rowdies started getting too loud, they just bring up their
brass brand instruments and start playing and just bring up
the tune and bring up the sound of the music,
and that would just drown up the crowd and they
became very popular and it became very much a part
of the Salvation Army's appeal. And the brass band would
stand on the corner, they'd do a testimony, they'd play
(14:38):
some music, they'd sing some songs, and that would also
just help to draw an audience.
Speaker 9 (14:43):
William Booth was a man ahead of his time because
he really appreciated the value of good publicity. He could
have been a great pr man had he gone in
a different direction. His credo was attract attention, and he
told his soldiers and officers to do anything possible to
get that attention. Really had a sense of marketing and
of branding, and he made sure that people knew who
(15:07):
the army was and the uniform was one of the
ways to do this.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
By far.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
The majority of the Army's officers were very young, in
at least half were women. Here again is Gordon Moyles.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
William Booth always said, you know, my best men are women,
and in the eighteen eighties, for example, almost fifty percent
and sometimes more than fifty percent of the officers were women.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Here's Salvation Army Major Christine Parkin.
Speaker 10 (15:38):
Really, Booth had a rare genius for understanding the needs
of young people. He also had this gift for being
able to use people in a ray that made them
feel that they were in charge, they were responsible, they
(16:02):
were challenged to do something really good for the Kingdom
of plant.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Here's William Booth's granddaughter, Commissioner Catherine Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 11 (16:14):
He was very interested in what we did in the
little call that you might call it to little church,
the group to which we belonged to see. So if
he was at home, it was important to tell him
how it had been unsun Well, how did you get on?
And I said that there, yes, yes, Grandpa, I sang
(16:36):
a solo.
Speaker 10 (16:36):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (16:37):
He said, how did you get on?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Well?
Speaker 11 (16:39):
I said, well, I did my best and then he
suddenly seemed to be angry with me. Raw at mean,
he could you know, he could shout and he had
a splendid voice. Well, he shouted at me that day,
you see, I was all with shiver, And he said,
(17:00):
your best?
Speaker 12 (17:02):
What's the good of that?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Catherine?
Speaker 11 (17:05):
You'll never be any good to me in the army
if that's all you can do.
Speaker 12 (17:09):
Well, I felt trip.
Speaker 11 (17:12):
And then he suddenly stopped and changed, did you see,
dear child, when we believe in God and God helps us,
we can do better than our best? And then he
opened up all that idea of God being within reach
(17:33):
and understanding how we felt, Oh.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
My goodness, what words. When we believe in God and
God helps us, we can do better than our best.
We're following the story of William and Catherine Booth. The
story of William and Catherine Booth. The story of the
Salvation Army continues after these messages, and we continue here
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of William and
Catherine Booth.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
And the story of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And every once in a while, though the show is
entitled Our American Stories, you'll sometimes hear some British voices
and that's because as we look back in time, so
many of the important organizations, so many of the important
events that happened here in this country, were shaped by
some of the things that happened across the pond, so
to speak. And so we continue with the story of
(18:38):
William and Catherine Booth.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Among the thousands of recruits the army, especially prized men
and women whose lives had been radically transformed. William Booth
told his officers, when you go into a town, search
for the worst alcoholic, go after the woman at the
end of a rope. He would rather his meetings were
crowded with such people than churchgoers who are not broken
(19:02):
by their sin. One of his mottos was go for
souls and go for the worst. Here's Christine Parkin and
a couple testimonies of the time.
Speaker 10 (19:14):
They were able to see. It happened before their eyes.
Really they saw the little homes transformed because the father
of the Householme, brought a joy to meet home and
Assassinyn instead of spending all his money at the pub,
and the children starting to go to school because there
was money.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
It used to be starvation before they came.
Speaker 13 (19:39):
Now he brings his wages home to me instead of
taking them to the public house.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
If you want to know what God has done for me,
go and ask my poor wife, whom I've beaten in
my mad and fury until I've endangered their life and
smashed everything I could lay my hands upon.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Hear the words of Catherine Booth, Glenn Horridge and Bram Booth.
Speaker 14 (20:01):
We teach that a man cannot be right with God
while he is doing wrong to men. In short, decide
that holiness means being saved from sin and filled with
love to God and man.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
So important was the message of holiness that in eighteen
seventy at the Conference of the Christian Mission, William Booth said,
holiness is to us a fundamental truth. It stands to
the forefront of our doctrines.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
The first Albashlami flag was presented in eighteen seventy eight,
and Catherine often explained when she presented flags later on
that the red stood for the blood of Jesus Christ,
which purifies from sin, the blue stands for purity of holiness,
and the fire of the star was the fire of
(20:53):
the Holy Spirit, which actively leads his people.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The flag and its soldier were encountering intense opposition. In
his play Major Barbara, Committed socialist master wordsmith and playwright
George Bernard Shaw criticized the Salvation Army for using tainted
money to do its work. To this, Booth answered, we
will wash it in the tears of the widows and
(21:20):
the orphans and lay it on the altar of humanity.
The media hated the Salvation Army too, and continually wrote
fictional stories that were successful in inflaming public opinion against them.
Booth would tell his very upset son Bramwell, fifty years
from now, it will matter very little how these people
(21:41):
treated us. It will matter a great deal how we
dealt with the work of God. I don't care what
they say about me, as long as they say something
and announce where I'm preaching. Even Queen Victoria objected to
the Salvation Army and the grounds that she should have
the only army in England and that all generals should
(22:02):
belong to the British Empire. The authorities offered little if
no protection, and in many cases they charged the Salvationists
with disturbing the peace. In fact, the British Home Secretary
pushed a peace at any price policy, and this meant
that the results of any legal Salvation Army activity that
(22:24):
hooligans turned into a riot were blamed on the Salvation Army.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
The Home Secretary's.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Logic went thus, if the Salvation Army had not been
there in the first place, the peace would not have
been disturbed. Here again is Gordon Moles.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
And when they were charged and sent to jail, they
had the option of a fine or say ten days
in jail. And you know what they always chose. They
chose the ten days in jail, and they would go
to jail for the ten days, and at the end
of the ten days, the Salvation Army Corps, the whole
battalion would line up, marched to the jail, bring out
(23:03):
the jail bird, and leave that jail bird dressed in
the uniform of a jailbird, marched them back to the
citadel and they would have a great meeting where the
person would testify and talk about it and so on.
And of course it got publicized in all the newspapers.
All the newspapers.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Loved it because they now knew they could get away
with it. Schools of angry and restless young men organized
into a group whose stated aim was to destroy the
Salvation Army. They called themselves the Skeleton Army. The Skeleton
Army didn't confine the harassment just to the streets. They
went to and attacked the homes of anyone who sympathized
(23:45):
with the organization, smashing windows and hurling dead cats and rats, bricks, stones, tar,
rotten vegetables, and sticks into their windows. One Army officer
named Elijah had his nose broke, token and face bloodied
while the riot was going on around him. William Booth
asked the bloodied Elijah how the officers were. Elijah replied,
(24:10):
the officers will be all right, dead or alive. In
the midst of all this, William received the news that
one of his first converts, Susanna Batty, had been killed.
She had been pelted with rotten fish and rocks. One
of the rocks knocked her off her feet, and as
she lay in the street, a thug kicked her heart
(24:31):
in the stomach, and she died of internal injuries. The
Skeleton Army was financially and politically supported by breweries, pub owners,
and politicians outraged by the army's unorthodox approached. This led
to a strange alliance among politicians, hoodlums, and brewery owners,
all of whom wanted the Salvation Army to march right
(24:54):
out of sight. Here again is Glenn Horridge.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Anything that seemed to be deviating from norm has often
been ridiculed and attacked. They set themselves up to be different,
and so what better on a Friday night or a
Saturday then to jeer at the Salvation Army.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
During eighteen eighty two, six hundred and sixty nine Salvation
Army soldiers were assaulted.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
One third of.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Them were women, including twenty three children. Sixty Salvation Army
buildings were seriously damaged. William wrote many letters to Parliament
and the police urging them to set aside the peace
at any price policy, but it failed to move them. Eventually,
four thousand angry young men from the Skeleton Army descended
(25:41):
on a small band of Salvation Army soldiers, helding them
with rocks and tar. When a few officers arrived on
the scene, the leader of this Skeleton Army assaulted one
of the officers. The man was immediately arrested, and as
their leader was dragged away, the Skeleton Army began throwing
rocks into the police station and taunting the officers to
(26:03):
come out. Finally the police saw the truth of the matter.
It was impossible to ignore the rights of one group
of people and allow thugs to roam the streets without
putting everyone's liberty at risk.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And what a story we're hearing, by the way, and
I just love the beginning where Booth's admonition was to
search for the worst alcoholic and the woman at the
end of her rope, go for souls, he said, souls
at the end of their rope. These stories are important stories. Again,
the story about England and America, this is one that's
(26:40):
inextrictably intertwined. You can't imagine the Salvation Army without Christmas,
or Christmas without the Salvation Army. They become a part
of the DNA of this country. And by the way,
they serve so many families in need, and that's families
of every kind, every gender, every religion, non religion, and
of course folks of every sexual orientation too. They don't
(27:04):
ask for any of these things when you walk in
to the door of the Salvation Army. So give whenever
you get a chance to this great organization. More on
the story of William and Catherine Booth. The Salvation Army
story here on our American stories. And we continue here
(27:39):
with our American stories and the story of William and
Catherine Booth. Let's return to our final installment in this
great hour long story.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
The persecution of the Salvation Army brought about a new protocol.
The Army began to station officers at prison gates as
disheveled men came out. Salvationists would offer help with accommodation
and legitimate work. Here's Roger Green.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
There was a Salvation Army family by the name of
the Shirley family who in eighteen seventy nine went over
to the United States. Their daughter was a captain in
the Salvation Army. They decided that they were going to
begin the work of the Salvation Army, albeit unofficially in Philadelphia.
So at fourth in Oxford, the Shirley family, with Captain
(28:32):
Eliza Shirley, just a young woman at the time, began
to work as Salvationists and open the work of the
Salvation Army in the United States. However, this was not
an official opening, and the Shirleys wrote back to William
Booth and asked if William Booth would send reinforcements to
help to establish the work of the Salvation Army in America.
(28:56):
And so William Booth chose George Scott Railton and seven
young women for this task. And on March tenth of
eighteen eighty George Scott Railton and the seven young women,
these seven hallelujulasses, walked down the gangplank of their ship
to the base of the Manhattan and they opened the
(29:18):
work of the Salvation Army officially.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
By the end of eighteen eighty three, the Salvation Army
was operating in twelve countries, and everywhere it fought an
evangelistic war. We are a salvation people, said Booth. That
is our specialty. On September twenty third, eighteen eighty six,
fifty seven year old William Booth stepped onto New York's
(29:43):
Cunard Pier. By now the Salvation Army boasted one hundred
corp in America, manned by three hundred officers and over
five thousand soldiers and cadets. On this two and a
half month visit, over two hundred thousand Americans flocked to
hear him. At his core, William Booth was an evangelist,
(30:05):
but he was also intensely practical.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
The Social Ministry of the Salvation Army usually did not
begin at the instigation of William Booth. Social ministry began
as officers and soldiers were working in their own local
situations with people, and as they had compassion for these
people and wanted to aid them and assist them. And so,
for example, in eighteen eighty six, the Salvation Army opened
(30:31):
up a home for alcoholic women. They're again not at
the instigation of William Booth, but because there were local
officers and soldiers in that situation who saw a need
and they wanted to meet that need.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
What Booth did was support these ventures with personnel and funds.
Here again is Diane Winston and Colonel Bramwell Booth.
Speaker 9 (30:54):
William Booth, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not particularly
interested in the big issues of the day. Booth only
cared about saving people. The Army was a religion of action.
Speaker 7 (31:06):
One evening on a cold winter's night, William Booth was
coming home over a bridge and realized that men were
sleeping out in the cold underneath the bridge, finding what
shelter they could. And when he first saw my grandfather Bramwell,
he said to him, Bramwell, did you know that men
(31:26):
were sleeping under the bridges in this in this weather.
And Bramwell answered, well, I thought everyone knew that, General.
And William then said Bramwell, go and do something. Find
a warehouse, put some mathosis on the floor, get a
coke stove, uh.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
And look after him a little bit.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
But mind no codling.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Here's Roger Green and a quote from William Booth.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
William Booth was very moved by the compassionate ministry of
his officers and soldiers, and in eighteen eighty nine he
wrote one of his most important articles. That article was
called Salvation for both Worlds. William Booth says very clearly
that he has to fight not only against the sin
of this world, but he has to fight also against
(32:17):
the prevailing evils of poverty and idleness, and prostitution, and
alcoholism and so forth in this world.
Speaker 13 (32:26):
If these people are to believe in Jesus Christ, become
the servants of God and escape the miseries of the
wrath to come, they must be helped out of their
present social misress.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
In eighteen eighty eight, Catherine had discovered she had terminal
breast cancer. She would continue to write and preach, but
after two years she was confined to bed. Finally, on
October fourth, eighteen ninety at sixty one years of age,
Catherine Booth in Salvation Army terminology was promoted to glory
(33:04):
the following year. In December eighteen ninety one, Captain Joseph McPhee,
an energetic Salvation Army officer in San Francisco, had a
goal of providing a free Christmas dinner to anyone who
was in need. McPhee borrowed a large crab pot from
the Oakland Ferry landing and hung it from a tripod
(33:25):
at the foot of Market Street and posted a sign
that said fill the pot for the poor, free dinner
on Christmas Day. He collected enough to feed one thousand
people and thus began the now iconic Salvation Army Christmas
Red Kettle campaign. The sounds of bells ringing throughout America
(33:48):
has become a very important part of the holiday season.
Americans contribute some one hundred million to the Army's Christmas
Kettle campaign that provides Christmas cheer to the less fortunate.
Kettle donations remain in local communities, supporting year round services,
and the USA Christmas Kettle tradition was too good to
(34:08):
remain exclusive, and in recent years has become exported to
other nations in which the army serves. William now handed
much of the day to day running of the army
to his son Bramwell, and returned to his first love.
William began to travel the globe preaching the gospel.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
There's a story of him sitting on a railway carriage
with Cecil Rhoades, the great South African colossus, the great imperialist,
and he says to Cecil, how's your soul? And Rhodes
says not very well. William Booth puts his hands on
his shoulders, bends him over, get on the floor of
the carriage and the train, and prays with him. And
(34:51):
he would pray with everybody. He would ask everybody, how's
your soul? Are you saved?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
When he was in the presence of the king, he
was asked to sign guest book, and on that guest
book he wrote this, some men's ambition is gold, some
men's ambition is fame. My ambition is the souls of men.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Into his eighties, William Booth would still preach. At one
of his last meetings, the old soldier gave his final
call to battle.
Speaker 12 (35:24):
While women weep as they do now. I'll fight will
children go hungry as they do now. I'll fight while
men go to prison in and out, in and out
as they do now. I'll fight while there is a
(35:48):
drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon
the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the
light of God. I'll fight. I'll fight to the very end.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
At the age of eighty three, On August twentieth, nineteen twelve,
the old general who commanded a worldwide army for fifty
three years, was promoted to glory. The Salvation Army announced
that General has laid down his sword. For weeks after
William was buried, the rumors spread that Queen Alexander had
(36:26):
come to the funeral in disguise. No one could prove
whether the rumor was true or not, but in one sense,
it did not matter. What mattered was that no one
thought it strange or unbelievable that a queen might have
been standing shoulder to shoulder with the most gaudy and
destitute of the attendees. Today, the Salvation Army spans the globe,
(36:48):
reaching out to others with the love of God. The
courage of their convictions and the discipline of good soldiers,
raising more than one billion annually. The Salvation Army is
now established in eighty countries with sixteen thousand evangelical centers
and operates more than three thousand social welfare institutions, hospitals, schools, orphanages,
(37:14):
homeless shelters and social service agencies. I'm Greg Hengler and
this is our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And great job is always to Greg Hengler. And what
a story, the story of William and Catherine Booth and
the story of the Salvation Army. One billion dollars a year,
three thousand separate organizations. It's really unbelievable, and not a
stitch from the government. This is just the generosity of
(37:45):
people around the world giving to a great cause. A
special thanks, by the way to the folks at Vision
Video for giving us access to their great documentary Our People,
the story of William and Katherine Booth.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
The Asian Army story. Here on our American Stories.
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