The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- 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:
“Hello! 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 passed 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 passed
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 façade of the railway terminus which they were passing; 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 institution, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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