Necessity urged the experiment. The first woman chosen for this purpose
was Annie Davis, who later, as Mrs. Commissioner Ridsdel, after most
distinguished service as a soul-winner, was promoted to glory. A quiet
girl from a village, she had been converted in the old hall used by the
Mission under the Railway Arch at Bethnal Green. From the first it was
evident that the power of God rested upon her.

Annie Davis was placed in charge of the small Christian Mission Society
in Barking. At the end of her term of office she left a flourishing work.
She had managed her committee, successfully led her people, paid her way,
and left a balance in hand.

The fact had been demonstrated that a woman was as capable of filling the
position of an evangelist as a man. Kate Watts (now Mrs. Colonel Josiah
Taylor) was then sent in charge of the Mission Work at Merthyr, in Wales,
where she was used by God in the salvation of hundreds of souls--and Mrs.
Reynolds 'opened fire' at Coventry. To Captain Reynolds was presented, on
behalf of the Coventry Corps, the first Flag of The Salvation Army.

The Hallelujah Lass became an indispensable part of The Salvation Army.
No effort was made to set these women in one common mould and turn them
out replicas of the first. Indeed their naturalness, the very differences
in disposition and method added to their usefulness.

In great contrast to the women already mentioned, was the type of whom
'Happy Eliza' was a specimen. Rough and ready and entirely fearless, she
knew how to capture the most indifferent crowds. At one corps where
ordinary methods had failed to secure the people, she marched through the
streets with streamers floating from her hair, and on her back a placard
bearing the words 'I'm Happy Eliza.' The denizens of public-houses and