SALTS
1668
SALVATION ARMY
nitrate is found abundantly on the surface of the soil in Chile and Peru in the form of cube-like crystals, and so is often called cubic niter. Besides its use in the manufacture of saltpeter, it is a valuable fertilizer. In 1905 1,688,976 tons of this nitrate or Chilean saltpeter, as it is called, were shipped from Chilean ports. See W. H. Russell's Visit to the Nitrate Fields of Tarapacd.
Salts make a very important class of substances in chemistry, of which common salt or sea-salt is the most familiar example. Epsom salts, saltpeter and Rochelle salts are other well-known salts. Common salt was known from the earliest times, and the name was given to other substances from the greater or smaller likeness of these to common salt in appearance, taste, solubility etc. But many substances, which have entirely different physical properties, are now called salts by chemists, and it is not necessary, from a chemical standpoint, that a salt should be white, soluble in water or have a salty taste. By a salt is ordinarily meant a substance that may be got from an acid by replacing part or all of the hydrogen of the acid by a metal, or a substance capable of playing the part of a metal, as ammonium. For example, when nitric acid and oxide of lead act upon each other, the acid loses its hydrogen, the place of which is taken by the lead, thus forming lead-nitrate, while the hydrogen of the acid and the oxygen of the lead-oxide combine to form water. In neutral or normal salts the hydrogen of an acid has been wholly replaced by a metal; in acid salts only partially replaced; and in basic salts more than replaced, there being more atoms of metal in the salt than there were atoms of hydrogen in the acid.
Salvador (sdl'va-ddr'), the smallest but most thickly populated of the Central American republics, is 140 miles long and on an average 60 miles wide. It covers 7,225 square miles, and is about as large as New Jersey. The bulk of Salvador is a level plain, 2,000 feet high, cut by rivers and broken by many volcanic peaks from 4,900 to 6,900 feet high. Some of these volcanoes are still active, and Izalco has been in eruption for over a hundred years. On the northern frontier is a portion of the Central American Cordillera. The chief rivers, all of which flow to the Pacific, are the Lempa, which receives the waters of Laguna de Ctdja, a large lake on the borders of Salvador and Guatemala, and the San Miguel. The well-watered and rich soil is divided into small farms, which will yield four crops p/ corn a year. The main products are coffee, indigo and balsam; the balsam grows only on one part of the seaboard, called the balsam-coast. Gold, silver, coal and iron are fcund, but the metal yield is not great. The bulk of trade is with the United States and Great Britain. The whites number only aotooo, most of the people being Indians or
of mixed race. The Indians are Aztecs, speak Spanish and are Roman Catholics. A president, chosen for four years, a cabinet of four secretaries and a congress elected once a year carry on the government. Education is free and compulsory. The army numbers 3,000 men, besides 18,000 militia. A railroad connects the capital, San Salvador (population 60,000), and the chief port, Acajutla. Another road is planned to run from La Union, the best harbor, to San Miguel and thence to San Salvador. Salvador's first name was Cuscatlan. Pedro de Alvarado had great trouble in conquering it in 1525-6. The country freed itself from Spain in 1821, and two years later joined the Central American Confederacy. Since 1853 & nas been an independent republic; it has been without foreign wars since 1864, with the exception of the short war with Guatemala in 1890. This war ended the proposed treaty of union between the five Central American states. Population 1,116,253, an average of 154 to the square mile. See Bates' Central America.
Salva'tion Army, a religious body which was founded in England in 1865 ^7 ^ne Rgv. William Booth. The Salvationists' beliefs do not differ greatly from those of other Christians, but their methods are entirely new. Mr. Booth's idea was to reach the poorer classes of London by means of a military organization, and in this work he was ably seconded by his wife. The name of Salvation Army was adopted in 1878, and its head was thereafter known as General Booth. Its growth has been wonderful, there now being 7,316 posts, with 20,054 officers, in fifty-one countries in every part of the world. A country is mapped out into districts, each under the care of a major. Every large town in a district is occupied by one or more corps under a captain, with lieutenants to assist him. Their work is to carry on daily services indoors and out of doors, care for recruits and work in every way for the salvation of souls, and they are supported by the army. Services are held in the streets, with processions, accompanied by banners, drums and tambourines. All are bound to abstain from liquor and to lead unselfish lives- One who can hardly read is as welcome as the cultured, and women as well as men are enlisted and can hold any position. The army is supported by offerings, gifts and the profits of their press, of which The War-Cry is the best-known. The army periodicals, issued in 24 foreign languages, have a circulation of 1,207,000 weekly copies. Counting books, song-books etc., their publications have a circulation of nearly 4,000,000 a month. In 1890 a scheme for uplifting the out-of-work and homeless multitudes, set forth in General Booth's book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, attracted wide attention, and funds were collected to enable him to carry out his plan. By this plan out-
