Glasgow Appeal for the National Relief Fund

From the Glasgow Herald, 16th November 1914. 

GLASGOW IN 1914

Changes the War Has Made

Listen to the Financial Call

To realise the difference in the spirit which pervades Glasgow as compared with the earlier years of the century one has only to dip into that very racy little volume, "Glasgow in 1901."  If a leisured class exists in Glasgow, say the authors, "it contains only nine-and-twenty persons, and these are not professors at all, but infantry officers stationed at Maryhill Barracks.  And this is why the military man, whom of a Saturday afternoon you recognise by his flannels, his straw hat, and his fox terrier, has an air so wearied and listless . . . .  Think of it!  Alone of 750,000 people, he of the straw hat and flannels has no 'job.' "

In Glasgow in 1914 one of the men who has more jobs than he can very well overtake is the military man.  If you live near a drill hall in the city you may hear bugles and words of command practically all day long.  And if you were on the streets of Glasgow on Saturday afternoon you would hear the tread of the young city men who have given their services to Kitchener's Army and who hope soon to be in the trenches fighting for the safety of their native land.  Everywhere every day you may see recruits who have given up everything in response the the call for men.  "I want more men," says Lord Kitchener, and Glasgow is giving them. 

If you cannot answer Lord Kitchener's appeal you may answer ours.  We want more money, and the more men Lord Kitchener gets the more money we shall need.  The spirit of Glasgow in 1914 is vastly different from that of 1901.  There is great generosity, great consciousness of the fact that we live in an epoch-making time.  Let the financial response to the calls of the hour be at last as noble as the personal one.  Keep up your subscriptions!

Although our week-end collection is not up to the average, it has to be remembered that this is a time at which many demands are made upon the pockets of all classes.  It is therefore very creditable to the many works staff who have consistently subscribed to the Fund that their weekly contributions continue "as usual." From Constantinople we have received a contribution of 100 shillings from Mr A. S. Duncan, a Scot in the service of the Telephone Company of the Turkish capital.  We acknowledge to-day £132 2s, which brings the total since the opening of our Branch of the Prince's Fund to £33,371 1s 3d. 

All Subscriptions should be addressed to

THE GLASGOW HERALD

(National Relief Fund),

Buchanan Street,
 Glasgow.

[This is just one in a long series of appeals for the National Relief Fund published in the Glasgow Herald - an earlier one appears here.  The writer  has a lively style and is endlessly inventive in thinking of new ways to ask for money.]