iecework on my farm (at the moment of writing he and his son are
hoeing mangolds) for two or three days a week; at any rate, for a
great part of the year. He is a type of what I may call the natural
small holder, and I believe does fairly well. The question is, can the
artificially created small holder, who must pay a rent of L4 the acre,
attain to a like result?
Again, I say I hope so most sincerely, for if not in England 'back to
the land' will prove but an empty catchword. At any rate, the country
should be most grateful to the late Mr. Herring, who provided the
funds for this intensely interesting experiment, and to the Salvation
Army which is carrying it out in the interests of the landless poor.
IMPRESSIONS OF GENERAL BOOTH
It has occurred to the writer that a few words descriptive of William
Booth, the creator and first General of the Salvation Army, set down
by a contemporary who has enjoyed a good many opportunities of
observing him during the past ten years, may possibly have a future if
not a present value.
Of the greatness of this man, to my mind, there can be no doubt. When
the point of time whereon we stand and play our separate parts has
receded, and those who follow us look back into the grey mist which
veils the past; when that mist has hidden the glitter of the
decorations and deadened the echoes of the high-sounding titles of
to-day; when our political tumults, our town-bred excitements, and
many of the very names that are household words to us, are forgotten,
or discoverable only in the pages of history; when, perhaps, the
Salvation Army itself has fulfilled its mission and gone its road, I
am certain that the figure of William Booth will abide clearly visible
in those shadows, and that the influences of his work will remain, if
not still felt, at least remembered and honoured. He will be one of
the few, of the very few enduring figures of our day; and even if our
civilization should be destined to undergo eclipse for a period, as
seems possible, when the light returns, by it he will still be seen.
For truly this work of his is fine, and one that appeals to the
imagination, although we are so near to it that few of us appreciate
its real proportions. Also, in fact, it is the work that should be
admired rather than the man, who, after all, is nothing but the
instrument appointed to shape it from the clay of circumstance. The
clay lay ready to be shaped, then appeared the moulder an
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