"I have just received your letter of the 30th of July, and it has cheered my heart to know you take an interest in a poor Belgian prisoner of war.
"Since I wrote to you last we have been changed to another camp; the one we are now in is quite a nice camp, with lots of flowers, and we are allowed more freedom, but it is very bad regarding food. We have so very little to eat, it is a pity we can"t eat flowers! We rise up hungry and go to bed hungry, and all day long we are trying to still the craving for food. So you will understand the longing there is in our hearts to once again be free--to be able to go to work and earn our daily bread! But the one great comfort that I find is since I learned to know Jesus as my Saviour and Friend I can better endure the trials and even rejoice that I am called to suffer for His sake, and while around me I see many who are in despair--some even cursing G.o.d for all the misery in which we are surrounded, some trying to be brave, some giving up altogether--yet to a number of us has come the Gospel message, brought by the Salvation Army, and I am so glad that I, for one, listened and surrendered my life to this Jesus! Now I have real peace, and He walks with me and gives me grace to conquer the evil.
"When I lived in Belgium I was very worldly and sinful--I lived for pleasure and drink and sin. I did not then know of One who said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
I did not know anything about living a Christian life, but now it is all changed and I am so thankful! Salvation Army officers visit us and bring words of cheer and blessing and comfort. You will be glad to know that I have applied to our Commissioner to become a Salvation Army officer when the war is over. I want to go to my poor little stricken country and tell my people of this wonderful Saviour that can save from all sin!
"On behalf of my comrades and myself, I want to thank the American nation for all they have done, and are still doing, for my people. May G.o.d bless you all for it, and may He grant that before long there will be peace on earth!
"I remain, faithfully yours,
"REMY MEERSMAN."
THE "STARS AND STRIPES" SPEAKS FROM FRANCE FOR THE SALVATION ARMY.
A copy of the "Stars and Stripes," the official publication of the American Expeditionary Forces published in Prance by the American soldiers themselves, just received in Chicago, contains the following:
"Perhaps in the old days when war and your home town seemed as far apart as Paris, France, and Paris, Ill., you were a superior person who used to snicker when you pa.s.sed a street corner where a small Salvation Army band was holding forth. Perhaps--Heaven forgive you--you even sneered a little when you heard the bespectacled sister in the poke-bonnet bang her tambourine and raise a shrill voice to the strains of "Oh death, where is thy sting-a-ling." Probably--unless you yourself had known the bitterness of one who finds himself alone, hungry and homeless in a big city--you did not know much about the Salvation Army.
Well, we are all homeless over here and every American soldier will take back with him a new affection and a new respect for the Salvation Army.
Many will carry with them the memories of a cheering word and a friendly cruller received in one of the huts nearest of all to the trenches. There the old slogan of "Soup and Salvation" has given way to "Pies and Piety."
It might be "Doughnuts and Doughboys." These huts pitched within the shock of the German guns, are ramshackle and bare and few, for no organization can grow rich on the pennies and nickels that are tossed into the tambourines at the street-corners of the world. But they are doing a work that the soldiers themselves will never forget, and it is an especial pleasure to say so here, because the Salvation Army, being much too simple and old-fashioned to know the uses of advertis.e.m.e.nt, have never asked us to. You, however, can testify for them. Perhaps you do in your letters home. And surely when you are back there and you pa.s.s once more a "meeting" at the curb, you will not snicker. You will tarry awhile--and take off your hat."
We have received a letter from Mr. Lewis Strauss, Secretary to Mr. Herbert Hoover, who has just returned from France, and he says that Mr. Hoover"s time while in Europe was spent almost wholly in London and Paris, and that he had no opportunity for observing our War Relief Work at the front. The concluding paragraph of the letter, however, is as follows:
"Mr. Hoover has frequently heard the most complimentary reports of the invaluable work which your organization is performing in invariably the most perilous localities, and he is filled with admiration for those who are conducting it at the front."
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE (MAY 17, 1918), QUOTING FROM THE ABOVE, ALSO SPEAKS EDITORIALLY.
The acid test of any service done for our soldiers in France is the value the men themselves place upon it. No matter how excellent our intentions, we cannot be satisfied with the result if the soldiers are not satisfied.
Without suggesting any invidious distinctions among organizations that are working at the front, it is nevertheless a pleasure to record that the Salvation Army stands very high in the regard of American soldiers.
The evidence of the Salvation Army"s excellent work comes from many sources.
APPENDIX.
A Few Facts about the Salvation Army
It has been truly said that within four days after the German Army entered Belgium, another Army entered also--the Salvation Army! One came to destroy, the other to relieve distress and minister to the wounded and dying.
The British Salvation Army furnished a number of Red Cross Ambulances, manned by Salvationists when the Red Cross was in great need of such. When these arrived in France and people first saw the big cars with the "Salvation Army" label it attracted a good deal of attention. The drivers wore the Red Cross uniform, and were under its military rules, but wore on their caps the red band with the words, "Salvation Army."
There is a story of a young officer in sportive mood who left a group of his companions and stepped out into the street to stop one of these ambulances:
"h.e.l.lo! Salvation Army!" he cried. "Are you taking those men to heaven?"
Amid the derisive laughter of the officers on the sidewalk the Salvationist replied pleasantly:
"I cannot say I am taking them to heaven, but I certainly am taking them away from the other place."
One of the good British Salvationists wrote of meeting our American boys in England. He said:
"Oh, these American soldiers! One meets them in twos and threes, all over the city, everlastingly asking questions, by word of mouth and by wide- open trustful eyes, and they make a bee-line for the Salvation Army uniform on sight. I pa.s.sed a company of them on the march across London, from one railroad station to another, the other, day. They were obviously interested in the sights of the city streets as they pa.s.sed through at noon, but as they drew nearer one of the boys caught sight of the red band around my cap among the hate crowning the sidewalk crowd. My! but that one man"s interest swept over the hundred odd men! Like the flame of a prairie fire, it went with a zip! They all knew at once! They had no eyes for the crowd any more; they did not stare at the facade of the railway terminus which they were pa.s.sing; they saw nothing of the famous "London Stone" set in the wall behind its grid on their right hand. What they saw was a Salvation Army man in all his familiar war-paint, and it was a sight for sore eyes! Here was something they could understand! This was an American inst.i.tution, a tried, proved and necessary part of the life of any community. All this and much more those wide-open eyes told me. It was as good to them as if I was stuck all over with stars and stripes. I belonged--that"s it--belonged to them, and so they took off the veil and showed their hearts and smiled their good glad greeting.
"So I smiled and that first file of four beamed seraphic. Two at least were of Scandinavian stock, but how should that make any difference? Again and again I noticed their counterpart in the column which followed.... It was all the same; file upon file those faces spread out in eager particular greeting; those eyes, one and all, sought mine expecting the smile I so gladly gave. And then when the last was past and I gazed upon their swaying forms from the rear I wondered why my eyes were moist and something had gone wrong with my swallowing apparatus. Great boys! Bonny boys!"
The Salvation Army was founded July 5, 1865, as a Christian Mission in East London by the Reverend William Booth, and its first Headquarters opened in Whitechapel Road, London. Three years later work was begun in Scotland.
In 1877 the name of the Christian Mission was altered to the Salvation Army, and the Reverend William Booth a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of General.
December 29, 1879, the first number of the official organ, "The War Cry,"
was issued and the first bra.s.s band formed at Consett.
In 1880 the first Training School was opened at Hackney, London, and the first contingent of the Salvation Army officers landed in the United States. The next year the Salvation Army entered Australia, and was extended to France. 1882 saw Switzerland, Sweden, India and Canada receiving their first contingent of Salvation Army officers. A London Orphan Asylum was acquired and converted into Congress Hall, which, with its large Auditorium, with a seating capacity of five thousand, still remains the Mammoth International Training School for Salvation Army officers, for missionary and home fields all over the world. The first Prison-Gate Home was opened in London in this same year.
The Army commenced in South Africa, New Zealand and Iceland in 1883.
In 1886 work was begun in Germany and the late General visited France, the United States and Canada. The First International Congress was held in London in that year.
The British Slum work was inaugurated in 1887, and Officers sent to Italy, Holland, Denmark, Zululand, and among the Kaffirs and Hottentots. The next year the Army extended to Norway, Argentine Kepublic, Finland and Belgium, and the next ten years saw work extended in succession to Uruguay, West Indies, Java, j.a.pan, British Guiana, Panama and Korea, and work commenced among the Lepers.
The growing confidence of the great of the earth was manifested by the honors that were conferred upon General Booth from time to time. In 1898 he opened the American Senate with prayer. In 1904 King Edward received him at Buckingham Palace, the freedom of the City of London and the City of Kirkcaldy were conferred upon him, as well as the degree of D. C. L. by Oxford, during 1905. The Kings of Denmark, Norway, the Queen of Sweden, and the Emperor of j.a.pan were among those who received him in private audience.
On August 20, 1912, General William Booth laid down his sword.
He lay in state in Congress Hall, London, where the number of visitors who looked upon his remains ran into the hundreds of thousands.
His son, William Bramwell Booth, the Chief of the Staff, by the appointment of the late General, succeeded to the office and came to the position with a wealth of affection and confidence on the part of the people of the nations such as few men know.
SALVATION ARMY WAR ACTIVITIES.
77 Motor ambulances manned by Salvationists.
87 Hotels for use of Soldiers and Sailors.
107 Buildings in United States placed at disposal of Government for war relief purposes.
199 Huts at Soldiers" Camps used for religious and social gatherings and for dispensing comfort to Soldiers and Sailors.