Later on, when Methodist charity slackened, William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the Salvation Army (1878). In the streets of London the preaching and singing of its officers to the accompaniment of the big drum and brass instruments at first excited violence and derision. Undaunted, they went on visiting slums, pubs and prisons. They took practical steps to fight pauperism and vice in order to clear the way for evangelization. The Salvation Army has finally won the sympathy and generous support of the British at home and overseas for its work of charity and mercy.