The Commercial Museum, with its wealth of products collected from every part of the world, is in the position to supply the necessary demand for the material on which such schools must depend. It has distributed over 225 collections of such products, with photographs arranged for the study of commercial geography, and so is intended to eventually include within its scope schools, colleges, and universities.
Salvation Army.—It is impossible to describe in a few words the great work and the good being accomplished by the Salvation Army. Many photographs were exhibited illustrating the work being done by this noble army.
On Christmas, 1878, in London, this army of Christian workers was christened "The Salvation Army," consisting then of about 20 workers and about as many posts, with a few hundred members, and some 3,000 souls seeking salvation during the year. To-day there are scattered through 47 countries and colonies as follows:
Fifteen thousand separated workers, entirely supported from its funds; 40,000 unpaid local officers, who support themselves and give their spare time; 16,000 brass bandsmen (unpaid); 50,000 other musicians, composing thousands of hymns and hundreds of new tunes annually; 250,000 penitents profess salvation publicly in the course of a single year; 6,000 centers have been established, where an average of fourteen to twenty meetings are held weekly, half in open air, half in buildings; 84,000 meetings weekly; 10,000,000 weekly listeners; 520,000,000 listeners in a year. To the poor the gospel is being preached everywhere.
In 1880 the first Salvation Army officers landed in New York. The Salvation Army struck root in its new soil from the outset. The work has gone on steadily forward, and it is noted throughout the world for the wonderful spirit of humility and devotion among its workers, who came to be increasingly widely recognized. They made rapid strides in America. They founded homes for the homeless; work for the workless; establishments for labor bureaus and social-relief institutions; establishment of industrial homes; workingmen's hotels; working women's homes and hotels; the establishment of the beautiful Floral Home, Los Angeles; Benedict Hotel for Young Women, Boston, and a number of cheaper-class hotels for women in New York, Chicago, and Boston; these all supply a clean, comfortable bed, with good moral surroundings, kindly sympathy, and religious services. In New York and other large cities day nurseries have been opened in connection with some slum posts; here mothers bring their children to be cared for during the day, while they are out at work earning the wages upon which the family depend for existence. There are more than 100 rescue homes located in leading cities of the world, and more than 7,000 fallen women were taken care of during the last year.
Farm colonies have also been established, and fresh-air camps are organized for summer outings. In the summer ice is furnished to the needy of the tenements; in winter, coal.
Who can estimate the good done by this noble army? How their efforts help to cast gleams of sunshine into the desolate hearts and homes of the needy. In civilization, religious and sociological reforms the Salvation Army is doing a magnificent work.
Philippine Island exhibit.—The insular exhibit of the Philippine Islands at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was one of the great features of the fair and deserves especial mention, although it does not come under group 129.
No other one exhibit was so widely commented upon in the press and by the public as the insular exhibit. Everybody who went to the exposition visited the Philippine village and went away full of wonder and with new ideas regarding our island possessions and our governmental policy in regard to the Filipinos and the islands.
In the Philippine village or grounds there were erected a number of typical Philippine buildings. The native villages presented the life of the Negritos, Igorrotes, and other tribes. A number of buildings displayed the native woods, and some were devoted to commerce, agricultural products, and others to educational matters.