The funeral of Mrs. Booth, wife of General Booth, of
the Salvation Army, was made on Tuesday the occasion of a re- markable display. Five thousand " officers " of that sect followed the coffin in procession through London, from Blackfriars to the cemetery in Abney Park, where the body was buried with a service made up of hymns and addresses. The coffin, which was borne on a sort of gun. carriage, or hearse made to resemble that slightly un-Christian implement of war, the fifteen battalions of "officers," and the presence among them of a contingent of Cingalese Salva- tionists in their native costume, attracted an enormous crowd, which threatened as it passed the Mansion House to stop business altogether. The sight is described to us by one witness as "impressive," and by another as a "grotesque advertisement," and we have little doubt that it was both. It is impossible for reflective men to approve, or, indeed, wholly to pardon, such an exhibition ; but General Booth has some key to the feelings of the emotional section of the British public. Those five thousand office-bearers did not see the grotesque side of the ceremonial at all, but were both impressed and sad.
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