This is an excerpt from the first monthly report from the Salvation Army station here.
(Earlier in the report they describe the tremendous opposition they experienced at first, needing policemen to protect them, how they had very little success and could afford little to eat)
Praise God we are rising. We had a good week last week. sixteen souls gave their hearts to Jesus, and have come up grand. Some fine rough fellows do your heart good to see them. I call them my lions. Every night we have a procession of about a dozen or fifteen of our own converts. Glory to God! And we lead the van with my concertina. Oh, hallelujah! We could not put up with silent processions; the fellows would sing.
Our congregations are good, between two and three hundred on an average: some nights our place is filled. On Sunday we had Miss Hugill and Coombs, and we had a good day. We had twenty at the prayer meeting in the morning. There was a splendid feeling in the meeting and folks were weeping all over the place, but none came out. The Mechanics' Institute was filled both afternoon and night. At night some were standing, glory be to Jesus. Amen. There were good collections all day. They amounted to £2 3s., which has given us a lift.
Last night the Synagogue (their name for the Hall) was full, platform and all. An excellent meeting. We could not close it. Sinners kept coming out one at a time, till nine stept into liberty. When the last one got through, it was twenty minutes to eleven o'clock.
One fellow, who has been to our meetings nearly every night, was as wretched as he could be, sprang over the pew in which he was sitting, rushed up to the penitent form and fell on his face and got saved. Hallelujah. They are the sort.
From, 'The Christian Mission Magazine', October 1878, pages 265-6.
I (Major Corbridge) spent one of the happiest Sundays of my life in this place, many of the most remarkable men and women have been reclaimed and are now praying, pleading, pushing their way into full salvation.
From, 'The Salvationist', October 1879, page 265.