' General' Booth in the novel role of a pawnbroker is the latest development in Salvation Army movements. According to London cables the blood-and-fire General intends to begin ' pawnbrokerage on the Parisian system.' Whether this departure is to relievo the financial necessities of the bankrupt Army, or to asiust in alleviating the distress of the sub merged tenth, is not stated, but 1 presume it is to work a litble in both directions. I can imagine tho joy with which the comic illustrated papers will hail the announee menb of the General's ' 'version' to the ranks of Hebrew pawnbrokers and money-lenders and tho many other varieties which tho species usuror develops. The hook-nosed Salvation orator, with his flowing Semitic beard and his venerable Mosaic appearance generally, drumsticks in one hand and money-bags in the other, will henceforth figure in the pages of tho funny journals for months to come, under tho cos mopolitan symbol of the three golden balls. ' Pawnbroker Booth ' will, as likely as nob, be the alias, as ib were, by which the General will be known for all time. Not that I decry the now enterprise on which Mr Booth has entered. If ib does any genuine good to the suffering ' masses ' and those whom the Army aids in the slums of bhe great cities of the "Old World, 1 will hail it 0,8 another evidence of tho useful work which the Array is carrying on in tho dark places of the earth. But there is, all tho same, something comical about the idea of the great Army founder turning pawnbroker.
