deals with the evil in a curative way so successfully, and
on such a scale, as does the Rescue Department of the Army. One
difficulty of the work is that, while so many departments of the Army
work are self-supporting, this work cannot be made so. Another
difficulty is the lack of those who are willing to sacrifice their lives
to such noble effort. Mrs. Catherine Higgins, former Secretary for this
department, in her report, said that she had a great need of 100 more
workers, and that she could use many times that number in the
furtherance of the work.

While it is rather the part of society to strike at the very causes of
this social evil and root it out entirely, still, such successful
combating with the evil itself, right on the battle-field of flagrant
vice, should receive the hearty support of all.

FOOTNOTES:

[88] Mentioned in Josiah Strong's Social Progress, 1906, p. 243.

[89] In Great Britain in 1903, the proportion of re-admissions in the
Rescue Homes was about one in seven. In that year, about one-sixth of
the new cases were unsatisfactory. (The S. A. and the Public, p. 131.)

[90] "Social Service in the Salvation Army," p. 71.

[91] Pamphlet "S. A. in the U. S."

[92] _Ibid._, p. 26.

CHAPTER VI.

SOME MINOR FEATURES OF THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL WORK.

There are a number of features of the Salvation Army Social Work, which
for the sake of brevity we shall group together in one final chapter.
These are, (1): Christmas dinners, (2): prison work, (3): the employment
bureau, and (4): work among the children. Taking up the subject of
Christmas dinners, we find here what seems to be an advertising scheme
more than a systematic form of relief. Sentiment, doubtless, has its
place, even with the masses, and yet, in this great winter feast, there
is more sentiment than there is real practical good accomplished. To the
quiet, calculating student the question arises whether it would not be
far better to utilize the vast amount of energy and financial outlay,
which it gives to gorging the multitude for one day, in a better and
more lasting way; the question whether there is not, in these Christmas
feasts, a likeness to the old time feast of pagan Rome. In every city of
any size throughout the country the pots and kettles on the street
corner are familiar objects. At each Corps or other location of the
Army, tickets are given out entitling the bearer to a Christmas dinner,
or, in certain cases, to a