The Salvation Army on the Streets
This theater poster for the popular play On the Bowery (1894), written by theater agent Robert Neilson Stephens, shows how many Americans perceived the Salvation Army. Here, Salvation Army workers in New York City offer the organization’s newspaper, War Cry, to a man who brushes them off (rudely). The man is Steve Brodie, a celebrity who was recruited to portray himself onstage. A former East River lifesaving champion who became a saloon owner in New York’s Bowery district, Brodie had won fame in 1886 by claiming to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and survived. (It was later claimed that he faked the stunt, but “doing a Brodie” became popular slang for taking a big risk.) While many Americans admired the Salvation Army, others — particularly men of working-class origins, like Brodie — rejected its appeals. Library of Congress.