The following morning, as the Adjutant was seeing a visitor off at the railway station, a gentleman accosted her cheerfully, ’Adjutant, I have some encouraging news for you,’ he said. ’A friend of mine was present at the theatre last night, and he was so impressed with what he saw and heard that he intends to give you two hundred and fifty dollars!’ ’Oh, praise the Lord!’ responded the Adjutant. When she met her soldiers with the news, and showed them how God was honouring faith and obedience, they united forthwith to wipe out the debt. In came promises of different amounts. Ten days later the debt had vanished and a glorious work of soul-saving went forward.
Kate Lee’s lieutenants have lively memories of her methods and enthusiasm in conducting the annual Self-Denial Appeals. Says one:–
The first “S.-D.” I was with her, she said to me one morning, ’Now, dear, I must get this all planned out and see my target on paper before I meet the corps. I’m going upstairs, and I don’t want to see anyone or be disturbed for anything.’ Dinner time came, and I wondered what to do, and thought I had better take her dinner to her. When I appeared at her door with the tray, she laughed heartily with and at me, carried the tray down and we had dinner together. After the scheme was launched she kept in touch with the whole corps, encouraging and holding each up to his or her share in the effort, until it finished successfully.
She had settled ideas about personal self-denial. Another of her lieutenants tells that, during one Self-Denial week, a friend, thinking that the officers might be depriving themselves of nourishing food, left a basket packed with fresh goodies on the doorstep. The Adjutant smiled, sold the goods and the basket, and put the money to the fund.
The soldiers who fought under Kate Lee revere her memory. Volumes of tributes to their love and appreciation of her spirit, her ability and service, could be given.
’What I thought she was when she came to us, I was sure she was when she left.’ A testimony from a village comrade all unconscious probably of its full significance!
’Like a specialist she was; always a queue of people waiting to see her after the meetings,’ says one of her city hall-keepers. ’What did they want? Spiritual help, guidance, advice, about all manner of things; they knew her heart was big enough to take in all the troubles they could bring, and they never thought that her body might crack up.’
Another recalls her love for the Colours, and her loyalty to the standards of her General.
’My, but she loved the Flag! Once the colour-sergeant was away, and it was suggested we should go to the open-air meeting without the Flag. “Oh, no! The General wouldn’t like to see the march without the Flag,” she said; so a sister carried it.’
The following sidelights are contributed by a sister soldier of keen observation and sweet spirit. ’When the Adjutant died, I felt I had lost a dear and close relative, though as a matter of fact I had never caught much more than glimpses of her. My husband was one of her local officers and she frequently came to our home, but she did her business and went, never remaining even for a cup of tea unless it were poured out and she could take it without waiting. The most time I spent with her was once when she returned to conduct some special services here, and was billetted with us.