that mysterious personage was understood by
him, with the most whole-hearted and relentless zeal. He enjoined, let
it be remembered, an absolute temperance, soberness, and chastity upon
the Officers and rank and file of his motley host; and, ugly as some may
think the uniforms of Salvationists, the police and magistrates know
that they cover for the most part honest hearts. Could The General have
affected all this--or a tenth part of it--if he had not lent himself to
the eternal necessities and weaknesses of the uneducated, and given them
his drill, his banners, his drums, his prayer-volleys, his poke-bonnets,
and his military tunics? We doubt it, and in contemplating, therefore,
the enormous good this dead man did, and sought to do, and the neglected
fields of humanity which he tilled for the Common Master, we judge him
to be one of the chief and most serviceable figures of the Victorian
age; and well deserving from his own followers the ecstasy of grief and
veneration which is being manifested, and from contemporary notice the
tribute of a hearty recognition of pious and noble objects zealously
pursued, and love of God and of humanity made the passion and the
purpose of a whole unflinching life."

Daily Chronicle, _August 22, 1912_

By Harold Begbie

"Scarcely could you find a country in the whole world where men and
women are not now grieving for the death of General Booth. Among peoples
of whom we have never heard, and in languages of which we do not know
even the alphabet, this universal grief ascends to Heaven--perhaps the
most universal grief ever known in the history of mankind.

"One realises something of the old man's achievement by reflecting on
this universal grief. It will not do to dismiss him lightly. More, it
will not do to express a casual admiration of his character, an
indulgent approbation of his work. The man was unique. In some ways he
was the superman of his period. Never before has a man in his own
lifetime won so wide a measure of deep and passionate human affection.

"It will not do to say that by adopting vulgar methods and appealing to
vulgar people, General Booth established his universal kingdom of
emotional religion. Let the person inclined to think in this way dress
himself in fantastic garments, take a drum, and march through the
streets shouting 'Hallelujah.' There is no shorter cut to humility. Many
have tried to do what William Booth did. Many men as earnestly and as
tende