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The Major's Call

HE telephone rang.

The leader of the Salvation Army social forces in Northern New Jersey, Major Wallace Winchell, was just donning his uniform coat and cap to supervise a free ride for Jersey City's poor children in his big sightseeing

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Major," said his secretary, "Colonel Parker, National Headquarters, is on the wire.”

Then, from the telephone, came this message: "You'll faint when you hear what I have to tell you, Major. Are you ready for a new appointment ?"

Ten long years in Jersey City had endeared Major Winchell and his good wife to all the people. The suggestion of a new appointment was a poser indeed.

"Where?" asked the Major. "Near New York?"

"Not very near," came the answer. "It's Belgium. London wants a native American trained officer to distribute a relief fund among the people of Belgium and you are the man they have chosen." "I decline," was the prompt rejoinder. ""Tis

not for me to meet a submarine or a bomb or a bayonet charge, or to be shot as a spy. Jersey City is good enough for me. Please find some one who has no family.'

"Well, think it over; pray about it," replied the Colonel. "You are the man for whom they have cabled."

Immediately the Major called up his wife who had fought Salvation battles at his side for the twentyfive years of their married life. This was the first thought of a parting. Mrs. Winchell, from the age of sixteen when she first enlisted in the Salvation Army, had been taught: "The Kingdom firstpersonal interests secondarily." It was a hardship but, heroically, she made no opposition. Moreover she volunteered and successfully managed the Major's work in Jersey City during his absence.

A fortnight passed and then came the tidings that International Headquarters in London had cabled imperatively that Major Winchell alone would serve the purpose and that he must sail within the week. Already the need of poor Belgium, with its cities in heaps of ruin, its starving millions, its weeping, helpless fathers, mothers and little children, was very present in its mute appeal to the mind of the Major. Hence the second call came not unheeded.

Preparations for the trip were made with the Major fully realizing that he would be confronted by all sorts of difficulties in getting through the fortified frontiers. A visit to Washington secured

a passport signed by the Secretary of State and a personal letter from Hon. Joseph Tumulty, secretary to President Wilson, a townsman of the Major's. Feeling that other testimonials would be of more help in his mission than so many battleships, the Major secured such from prominent men who knew him and his work in Jersey City and elsewhere-Governor Fielder of New Jersey, President Austen Colgate of the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce, of which the Major is a member; Mayor Mark M. Fagan and Frank Hague, Director of Public Safety of Jersey City; various members of Congress and others armed the Major for his conquest of European forces as a military man representing the Army of the Lord.

October 9, 1915, Major Winchell sailed on S. S. New York of the American Line for Liverpool and London to report at Salvation Army International Headquarters for orders. There was hardly another American passenger, the ship's company comprising chiefly wives and children from the Land of the Maple Leaf on their way to be near loyal Canadian husbands and fathers who had volunteered to the king's colors. Posting of wireless bulletins provided the principal excitement of the voyage, particularly on October 14th, when came the news of a Zeppelin raid on London itself, sixty persons having been killed.

The passengers had knowledge that the ship was laden with a part of the big loan of American bankers to the Allies and heavily provisioned with

foodstuffs for their troops. Thus, when the New York entered upon the waters where the Lusitania and the Arabic had been sunk only a few weeks before by deadly torpedoes, there were many anxious hearts on board. Passing through St. George's Channel, during the last night out, not a few passengers remained on deck with life-belts fastened about them. Next morning it was said that a submarine had appeared alongside in the small watches of early morning but, sighting the New York's illuminated Stars and Stripes, had respectfully stolen away.

Railroading from Liverpool to London, many men were seen in the khaki uniform of His Majesty's service. On arrival in the capital, thousands more were to be seen at every turn, countless numbers of whom, wounded at the front and recovered in hospital, heard again the call of their country and rallied once more to the flag. London streets seemed as in other days; men went their ways without apparent apprehension, yet who could tell what horrors might be hiding behind the sombre clouds overhead, who could say when a daring Zeppelin might drop a bomb upon the peaceful scene? Philosophically, the Major mused that more than an umbrella would be required to ward off bombs and that, as no one knew where they might fall, one might as well remain content wherever one happened to be. People, he was told, had acquired the habit of rushing frantically down into the "tuppenny tube" or subway when