is in the position to supply the necessary demand
for the material on which such schools must depend.
It has distributed over 225 collections of such products,
with photographs arranged for the study of commercial
geography, and so is intended to eventually include
within its scope schools, colleges, and universities.
Salvation Army.—It is impossible to describe in a few words the great work and the good being accomplished by the Salvation Army. Many photographs were exhibited illustrating the work being done by this noble army.
On Christmas, 1878, in London, this army of Christian workers was christened “The Salvation Army,” consisting then of about 20 workers and about as many posts, with a few hundred members, and some 3,000 souls seeking salvation during the year. To-day there are scattered through 47 countries and colonies as follows:
Fifteen thousand separated workers, entirely supported from its funds; 40,000 unpaid local officers, who support themselves and give their spare time; 16,000 brass bandsmen (unpaid); 50,000 other musicians, composing thousands of hymns and hundreds of new tunes annually; 250,000 penitents profess salvation publicly in the course of a single year; 6,000 centers have been established, where an average of fourteen to twenty meetings are held weekly, half in open air, half in buildings; 84,000 meetings weekly; 10,000,000 weekly listeners; 520,000,000 listeners in a year. To the poor the gospel is being preached everywhere.
In 1880 the first Salvation Army officers landed in New York. The Salvation Army struck root in its new soil from the outset. The work has gone on steadily forward, and it is noted throughout the world for the wonderful spirit of humility and devotion among its workers, who came to be increasingly widely recognized. They made rapid strides in America. They founded homes for the homeless; work for the workless; establishments for labor bureaus and social-relief institutions; establishment of industrial homes; workingmen’s hotels; working women’s homes and hotels; the establishment of the beautiful Floral Home, Los Angeles; Benedict Hotel for Young Women, Boston, and a number of cheaper-class hotels for women in New York, Chicago, and Boston; these all supply a clean, comfortable bed, with good moral surroundings, kindly sympathy, and religious services. In New York and other large cities day nurseries have been opened in connection with some slum posts; here mothers bring their children to be cared for during the day, while they are out at work earning the wages upon which the family depend for existence. There are more than 100 rescue homes located in leading cities of the world, and more than 7,000 fallen women were taken care of during the last year.
Farm colonies have also been
established, and fresh-air camps
are organized for summer outings.
In the summer ice is furnished
to the needy of the tenements;
in winter, coal.