This edited article about Joseph Wolff originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 683 published on 15 February 1975.

Scene in Bokhara in Turkistan

The old Turkestan dervish laid his hand on his visitor’s shoulder. “My friend,” he said, “if you value your life, do not go to the evil city of Bokhara!”

Dr Joseph Wolff thanked him for his advice and pressed on with his journey, as he had not the slightest intention of turning back. He was fully aware of the dangers of Central Asia. In the first quarter of the 19th century the wild lands to the north of India could be very hard indeed on Europeans, as Wolff had already found out to his cost. On his last visit to those regions he had been robbed, sold into slavery, been poisoned, flogged and almost stung to death by wasps. Yet here he was, doing the same thing all over again.

The truth was that Joseph Wolff had never liked doing things the easy way. He had been born in Bavaria in 1795, the son of a Jewish Rabbi and almost as soon as he could read had shown a deep interest in religion. By the age of seven he was already questioning the faith he had been born into, and within the next ten years he had explored, and discarded, the beliefs of the Lutheran Church. By eighteen he was a Catholic monk, and by twenty-one had been expelled from Rome for arguing with the Cardinals. Finally, at the age of twenty-four, he had arrived in England and enrolled as a missionary.

He must have been one of the most globe trotting missionaries of all time. India, Abyssinia, North America, Russia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, the tireless Bavarian roamed them all. He had an extraordinary gift for languages and a knack of being able to make friends with wildly different kinds of people, which is probably why he returned from his trips alive. But in 1843 he was back in England with urgent news from the back of beyond. Colonel Charles Stoddard, of the Royal Staff Corps, and Captain Arthur Conolly of the Bengal Lancers were prisoners of the Emir of Bokhara. Unless they were rescued immediately they were almost certain to lose their lives.

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This edited article about Africa originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 674 published on 14 December 1974.

Dr Livingstone seeing the Victoria Falls by Alberto Salinas

Nowhere else could there have been such harsh and almost impossible conditions as those the early explorers of the African continent had to contend with. They encountered dense forests, tropical heat, vast deserts, diseases, wild animals, reptiles, man-killing insects, hostile tribes and cannibals.

The Egyptians were the first of the African explorers, but they were not the only ancient people to found civilised states in Northern Africa. The Phoenicians, famous as navigators and traders, along with the Carthaginians and Greeks, all played a part in the history of North Africa. In Roman times, an expedition was sent out by the Emperor Nero into the Sudan with orders to trace the source of the Nile.

The Arabs have always been noted for their interest in travel and geography and, in about 1324, Ibn Battua, who was born in Tangier, and is probably the most celebrated Arab traveller, not only visited Palestine, Egypt and Mecca, but, starting from Fez in Morocco, crossed the Sahara Desert to Timbuktu.

Later much of Africa was opened up by missionaries and traders. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the possibilities of Africa below the Sahara, and started by buying ivory, pepper and gold dust from the West African coastal tribes.

Prince Henry, known as The Navigator, the son of the King of Portugal, inspired and encouraged his sailors to learn the sciences of navigation and geography so that Portugal could extend her empire. Portuguese ships reached Cape Verde and the Senegal River by 1445. In 1448, Diego Cam discovered the mouth of the River Congo (now the River Zaire) and explored fourteen hundred miles of coastline. Then, in 1487, another Portuguese explorer, Bartholomew Dias, went up the estuary of the Congo River, and later he rounded the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, Vasco da Gama opened up a new route to India by way of the west coast of Africa, where a number of trading posts were established.

When Portuguese power began to wane, French, Dutch and English sailors started trading with the natives, and before long the notorious slave trade was in operation. As the hunt for slaves continued on a vast scale, the Europeans at the same time began to explore the interior of this part of Africa. They soon found that as most of Africa’s rivers were unnavigable because of rapids, cataracts and swamps, the only way to reach the interior was on foot. Their pack animals died from the tse-tse fly and other disease-bearing insects. The men died from the terrible heat or malaria, or were killed by hostile natives. It is, therefore, not surprising that for many years most of Africa remained an unknown part of the world.

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This edited article about Zaire originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 673 published on 7 December 1974.

Henry Morton Stanley explored the Congo and with King Leopold II of the Belgians  he largely invented the country known as the Belgian Congo. Picture by C L Doughty

During the last two decades, many regions of Africa have gained their independence, and Britain, who had a large part of her empire in this continent, gave back the power of self-government peacefully to many states.

The Congo, now called The Republic of Zaire, has had a turbulent and violent history. Henry Morton Stanley was the first man to explore the main Congo River, and after his great journey, the Congo Free State was founded in 1879 by King Leopold II of Belgium. King Leopold II and Stanley literally created the Belgian Congo. These two men were both similar in character, ambitious, with great tenacity and boundless energy.

Leopold became one of the richest men in the world through the exploitation of the country’s wealth, particularly its vast resources of rubber and ivory which were then the main exports. He ruled with a rod of iron and during his reign, it has been estimated that between five and eight million Congolese lost their lives or were killed, either in the plantations or hunting elephant. If an African did not satisfy his boss, often his foot or arm sometimes both, were cut off.

The Congo was plunged into anarchy when the army mutinied just after receiving its independence from Belgium in 1960. Before the mutiny, the then Belgian Congo was turned into a blood bath when the Congolese butchered many of their Belgian ‘white masters’. For several years the native population had been plotting and planning to overthrow the foreign domination of their country. Right through this mainly dense forest area of Africa, which covers 905,000 square miles, the various tribes sent messages to each other by their bush telegraph, (the talking drum). Each village had their tribesmen signallers who passed information backwards and forwards through this hostile land.

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This edited article about Dr Barnardo originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 670 published on 16 November 1974.

‘Nowhere to live’ – a homeless boy inspired the compassion and deeds of Dr Barnardo

Like most great men, Thomas Barnardo was both loved and despised. No one could feel indifference towards such a complex character who believed emphatically, and with good reason, that he was a man of destiny.

Nearly all who worked with him, found Barnardo’s relentless drive, energy and enthusiasm infectious, but there were a few who resented his frankness, his impatience, and even his stringent sense of humour. And while most people followed him with undying devotion and loyalty, there were some who wanted nothing better than to see Barnardo fall.

It is a sad fact that many of these ill-wishers were men and women who were carrying out their own work for the poor. But the noble spirit which urged them to do good did not, unfortunately, extend to lack of jealousy and resentment of Barnardo’s success.

In 1874 all those who opposed Barnardo joined together, and under a Baptist minister, the Rev. George Reynolds, they launched a most irresponsible and lamentable attack on the doctor and his work. This culminated in the publication of a booklet in which Reynolds accused Barnardo of all kinds of wrongdoing and misdemeanours in the running of his homes. It was not until Reynolds put the Barnardo Homes on his “cautionary list,” warning the public not to support them, that the doctor decided to defend himself against such an outrageous attack. The matter was submitted to a court of arbitration where Barnardo was fully acquitted of all the charges made by Reynolds. Much to his dismay, the Baptist minister soon found that, far from doing Barnardo harm, the affair had succeeded in making him a national figure with the result that more and more people felt urged to support his homes.

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This edited article about Africa originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 670 published on 16 November 1974.

Phoenician traders in Africa by Angus McBride

Africa, the second largest continent, is almost one-fifth of the entire land surface of the globe, and covers an area of approximately eleven million, five hundred thousand square miles which is as big as the United States of America, India, China and Western Europe put together. The people of Africa are very varied, among them being Zulus, Pygmies, Berbers, Hottentots, Bushmen, Bantus, Arabs, and, of course, the white settlers. The population, approaching three hundred and fifty million, speak something like seven hundred different languages which are spread among a considerable number of tribes.

The land mass of Africa rises out of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Of all the continents, Africa is perhaps the most impregnable and therefore the least developed. Progress has been slow, mainly because of its geography and climate. There are few natural harbours, and practically no gulfs or bays. This made landing hazardous. The widely contrasting terrain created great problems for the early explorers. In the north, the Sahara Desert, one of the harshest, driest and hottest deserts in the world and nearly a thousand miles wide, acts as a formidable barrier. This desolate and arid landscape eventually gives way to the dense heavy rain forests, swamps, brittle grassland and the mountainous country close to the equator.

The rivers of Africa are treacherous and in many places unnavigable, and explorers found they could only cover the vast areas on foot, often trekking hundreds of miles through almost impenetrable country. Countless white men died from the heat and tropical diseases and many were slaughtered by hostile natives.

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This edited article about Dr Barnardo originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 669 published on 9 November 1974.

The Edinburgh Castle was a typical East End Gin Palace

It was the largest and most infamous gin palace in the East End of London. Its name was the Edinburgh Castle, but Thomas Barnardo called it the Citadel of the Enemy, and he decided, in the summer of 1872, that he would storm this citadel of evil with one full-scale attack on its notorious trade.

But Barnardo had no army, no weapons, and no bombs. Instead, he would use words to win his battle. He bought a large tent and planted it on a piece of bare land in front of the gin palace. Then, with his two friends, Joshua and Mary Poole, Barnardo began to try to lure the gin drinkers from their favourite nightly haunt. Joshua was a fine violin player and the sound of his music encouraged one or two people to enter the tent on the first night. Within a few weeks, though, the number had grown beyond even Barnardo’s highest expectations.

“The scenes we are permitted to witness nightly,” he later wrote, “are such as I never remember beholding during any previous period of my spiritual life. Last Lord’s Day evening 25 hundred persons crowded to hear the word of life, and for hours afterwards we were occupied in dealing with anxious souls . . . .”

By the autumn of the same year 4,000 habitual drinkers had sworn never to drink again, and the Edinburgh Castle, and other public houses in the area, had lost their most valuable customers. In October the Citadel itself fell. It had been forced to close down and was now up for sale.

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This edited article about the Salvation Army originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 658 published on 24 August 1974.

An American First World War poster featuring a Salvation Army girl by George M Richar

“How wide is the girth of the world?” roared General Booth. The crowd of Salvationists that milled around him cried back, “Twenty-five thousand miles.” “Then,” bellowed Booth, triumphantly, “We must grow till our arms get right round about it!”

Within months, Booth had mobilised his Army, and the troops were setting off to war across the seas, ready to take the nations of the world by storm.

On March 10th, 1880, Commissioner Scott Railton and his soldiers landed in the United States of America. The siege of New York had begun. Two months after his first service, which was held in what one appalled minister had called “The most disreputable den in the United States,” Railton was able to report back to headquarters in London the figures for his American recruits: 16 officers, 40 cadets, 412 privates. One year later the number of converts topped 1,500. Railton travelled across the sprawling land mass of America, setting up headquarters north, south, east and west of the great continent.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Kate, Booth’s eldest daughter, had opened fire in France. In Australia, two men from England had set out by themselves to take up the Salvationist cause.

In the summer of 1882, the man who was to become part-creator of Salvationist strategy for conquest abroad, had set out for India. Frederick St. George Lautour Tucker was a Greek scholar, and knew Hindustani, Urdu and Sanskrit.

When he arrived in Bombay, a huge police force came to meet him. The authorities in India, hearing that the Salvation Army was about to ‘capture’ India, believed that this meant invasion by thousands of troops. They were relieved to find that the thousand strong army they had expected was only made up of three men and a girl but they could not have known then that Tucker and his three assistants were to create more havoc than an army of one thousand could have done.

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This edited article about the Salvation Army originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 657 published on 17 August 1974.

One of the “Food for the Millions”  shops, better known as a Salvation Army soup kitchen by Pat Nicolle

Soon after three o’clock on a dark November morning, a young boy crawled out of bed, still half-asleep, and groped for his clothes. He tiptoed out of the house in Hackney. Then, tired and shivering, he made his way towards Covent Garden, four miles away, pushing an empty barrow along the silent streets.

At the market, he begged for a few apples and oranges from the fruiterer. Together with these and some vegetables and a sack of bones stacked on to the barrow, he trudged the four miles home. Later that day, the young boy’s scraps of fresh food, carefully prepared and cooked, were given to the poor and starving of London’s East End.

It was a hard, gruelling life for Bramwell Booth, eldest son of the general of the Salvation Army. But from an early age, Bramwell had known that his life would be given to those in need.

Bramwell had already learned some hard, humiliating lessons early in his life. Deafness had made him a solitary, withdrawn child, and at school he had suffered for his faith. Scoffed at as “Holy Willie,” he had once been seized by a gang of bullies and smashed against a tree “to bang religion out of him.” Pleurisy and rheumatic fever had followed.

By the time he was thirteen Bramwell had already proved to be an efficient accounts manager for his father’s mission. He once worked 72 hours without rest or sleep, wrestling with a discrepancy in the accounts which no one else could solve.

Like all William Booth’s soldiers, he knew that there were thousands of men and women in the world who needed him. Once, walking with his father by Blackfriars Bridge, in London, he had seen men sleeping in their only home, the cold stone steps that led down to the river. With some impatience his father had turned to him and said: “Do something.” Bramwell and the other nine children of William and Catherine Booth were to do “something” for the rest of their lives.

In 1868, Booth and his family spent the whole of Christmas Day distributing 300 Christmas dinners to the poor of London. By 1872, the Army had five “Food For The Millions” shops established where the poor could buy hot soup night and day, and a three-course dinner for sixpence. By the first month of 1879, William Booth was in command of 81 Salvation Army stations, manned by 127 full-time soldiers, one hundred of whom were converts.

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This edited article about the Salvation Army originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 656 published on 10 August 1974.

A sea captain sings a hymn to the tune of “Champagne Charlie is My Name”, by Pat Nicolle

“Come drunk or sober,” urged the handbill, and among those who accepted the invitation that night to attend a Salvation Army meeting in Bradford, Yorkshire, was a man who promptly went home to roll a barrel of beer from his house and empty its contents into the gutter.

In the Rhondda Valley 2,000 men and women were converted within six weeks, and one public house in the area which had once housed the most drunken and degraded people in South Wales, sold only three pints of beer in a whole week.

When urged to make an immediate decision to renounce sin and evil, one man in Chatham insisted on giving the Devil two weeks’ notice. After all, he told the Salvationist, he would expect the same consideration if he were an employer.

William Booth and his soldiers knew, that to the men and women they were trying to save, the Devil was a very real and formidable being. A huge poster in a small Yorkshire fishing town announced ominously WAR! IN WHITBY! THE SALVATION ARMY FIGHTING FOR GOD! The Salvationists used military tactics, military titles, and military terms. Always the enemy was the Devil, and always the Devil proved to be the hardest enemy for them to conquer.

Booth’s unorthodox techniques shocked and horrified many Victorians, who felt that he was giving Christianity a brash, vulgar image. When Salvationists began to use brass instruments to accompany their songs, the words of hymns were put to the day’s pop songs. When a converted sea captain began to sing Bless His Name to the melody of one of the day’s popular tunes, William Booth was delighted with its catchy, rhythmical tune and asked its title. “Champagne Charlie Is My Name,” was the reply. At this, Booth stood thinking for a few minutes, then turned to his eldest son, Bramwell, and said: “That has settled it. Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”

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This edited article about the Salvation Army originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 899 published on 14 April 1979.

Catherine and William Booth by John Keay

In the middle of the 19th century, people in London’s East End fought a grim battle against poverty. With jobs ill-paid and hard to come by, it was generally a losing battle, and one in which they lacked any leadership. Yet a leader was at hand.

Many poor Londoners made regular visits to the pawnbrokers, to deposit an article of clothing or some other possession as security for a small loan. In one of these shops, in Southwark, worked a young man named William Booth. It was an unlikely job for the man who was to become the champion of the poor and unfortunate.

Booth had been born in Nottingham on 10th April, 1829. His father had apprenticed him to a pawnbroker, and this brought him into contact with poverty, and all the misery it can cause. To him it seemed that the only solution was to be found in practical Christianity, and he became a lay preacher.

His apprenticeship over, he did not at first abandon pawnbroking, but obtained a post in London. He continued to practise as a lay preacher, and joined a break-away branch of the Methodist Church. In 1858 he became a minister.

He now began his campaign which was to occupy him for the rest of his life. Supported by his wife Catherine, herself an effective preacher, he toured Britain, holding open-air meetings in various parts of the country. Soon he gave up his official ministry to devote himself to his own brand of evangelism.

Establishing himself once more in London, he set out to spread the gospel among the East Enders. Through religion, he was convinced, they could be won over from drunkenness and crime.

At an early stage Booth had compared his campaign to warfare, with his followers as “Christ’s soldiers”. In 1878 he formed them into the blue-uniformed organisation which we know as the Salvation Army.

William Booth, the first “General” of the Salvation Army, knew the popular appeal of pageantry and music. So military-style parades, and bands playing stirring tunes, became a familiar part of the Army’s activities.

To begin with, Salvationists had to face up to ridicule, and even brutal violence. At one time the police even arrested them for “provoking breaches of the peace”. But gradually their dedicated work won them universal approval.

By the time General Booth died in 1912, his organisation had long since spread to North America and other lands. The Salvation Army has since gone from strength to strength, its soldiers always on the march against sin and misfortune.