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Rh matters of principle and standards of Americanism Mr. and Mrs. Booth disagreed with the headquarters office of the Salvation Army in England. In the interchange of correspondence demands were made to which the American leaders could not accede without grave injustice to their subordinates and the endangering of the standing of the organization in America. Realizing at last that it was impossible to bring about a mutual agreement they tendered their resignation and in the year 1895 stepped out of the Salvation Army and retired to the seclusion of their home. In the meantime an interested American public had followed the story of the difficulty through the medium of the press and, although some of the reports were badly garbled, enough of the truth was revealed to arouse a strong sentiment in favor of the stand which Mr. and Mrs. Booth had taken. As a result they were approached by friends who urged that they start a new religious movement, thoroughly American in principle and entirely democratic in government. After much prayerful consideration they decided to yield to this new call of opportunity and organized the Volunteers of America, later being elected co-Presidents of the field council.

Some little time before Mrs. Booth had visited the great state prison at San Quentin, California, and as she considered the opening of the new work, the memory of this visit was fresh in her mind.

"Never shall I forget," she said, "the sea of upturned faces, many of them so plainly bearing the marring imprint of sorrow and sin — despair and misery — yet behind the scars and shadows there was such an eager longing — such a hungry appeal for a sight of hope's bright star, that one could but feel an intense inspiration while delivering the message. Never before had I seen the stripes, never heard the clang behind me of the iron gates, nor had I realized the hopelessness that enshrouds the prisoner. . . I did not attempt to preach. As far as possible in that brief hour I tried to carry them away from prison. . . The response I read in their faces — the grateful letters that reached me afterwards in the mail, and the constant memory of that scene as I witnessed it,