“When at last we reached the farm, it was to be met with the announcement that Mr. ——­ had left there the previous day, and was believed now to be about twenty-six miles (three hours nearly) further on.

“I was soaked to the skin, as hungry as a hunter, and dead beat into the bargain.  The farm manager insisted that I must stay the night—­it was imposible to go on in that storm—­and go on in the morning.

“This is a little world.  Mr. ——­ had mentioned my name in speaking to him of The General’s visit to Johannesburg, and he had remembered it as that of the only Salvation Army Officer from whom he had ever received a letter.  Ten years ago or more he had addressed some inquiry or other to Headquarters, and I had written him in reply.

“The next morning I drove on to -----, and found Mr. ----in his
orchard.  He had not received The General’s wire saying I was coming
for the simple reason that, not wanting to be bothered with mails
or telegrams for a couple of days, he had instructed the post
office people to forward all his dispatches to a place which he did
not intend to go until the next day!”

If public receptions at railway stations, speeches and addresses by Governors, Mayors, and Ministers, and Press eulogies could have satisfied him, The General could not but have been delighted with South Africa, as the following extracts may show.  In The Ladysmith Gazette we read:—­

“General Booth has flashed past Ladysmith like a meteor, but I am inclined to think he has left a trail of light behind him.  It is fifteen years since I last saw the Leader of The Salvation Army.  Those fifteen years have made but little alteration in the man.  There is the same old Saxon profile, the same storm-defying, weather-beaten, almost eagle-eyed features, and the same slightly rasping, but intensely interesting in its earnestness, voice.

“There is plenty of strength still in that patriarchal figure, and with the exception of a slight stoop The General is as vigorous as he was fifteen years ago.  In appearance, The General reminded myself of Canon Kingsley.  They have the same Anglo-Saxon, falcon-like features, and the same indomitable energy and courage.  Canon Kingsley was not so well provided with hair as The General; but, on the contrary, he could boast of a more prominent nasal organ.  Both men had flashing eyes, deeply-set and overhanging eyebrows, giving force and determination to the face.

“Both the late Canon and General Booth were equally sturdy specimens of Saxon descent, and both worked for the masses.  Canon Kingsley, as he would admit to-day, was before his time, and in aiding the Chartist movement made a fatal mistake.  Canon Kingsley, as shown in Alton Locke, endeavoured to raise the masses to heights attainable only by men of education and men of thought, and to-day the recoil of that pernicious doctrine is being felt.

     “General Booth places a man in the position God intended him to
     occupy, and if the man can raise himself higher by strenuous effort
     then well and good.