The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1872-01-13

Cause of their Organization--why
Women are Never Admitted..Mat.
rimony and Masculine Sufferers.
Origin of Odd Fellowship.
Two considerations will strike
mau who examines the subject of
secret societies. One is, that there
are SO many of them; and another
is, that the majority, in fact near
ly all Of them, are .srun" by men
NO WOMEN ADMITTED.
Why is this? Is it because wo-
men cant keep secrets2 One looks
over the enormous number Of So
cret societies, and he finds that
| it is only in the raresst Of cases
that lovely women are permitted
to share the secret. Even where
she is thus honored she is not us
ually allowed to know it ell; she is
debarred from the sanctum sane
forum. She is not admitted to the
penetralia.
Take Dlasons for instance. Wo-
men may be made Masons. after
fashion. But mark this! The great
the grand, the big, the overwhelm-
ing. the overpowering secret is not
/. told her at all A little bit Of
secret is told her. She is regard
ed as a whale that must be paci-
+, fed. So she is given little tub
| to amuae herself with. While she
sports with the little tub, the great
ship. the real secret, sails away
without her.
WHY THIS IS THUS.
Secret societies date their origin
scontcmporaneously with the be-
|. ginning of what is known as mat
rimony. Any other explanation
is humbug and a delusion. Thus
that honorable order known as
Freem asons claim to have origin
ated at the time of the building
of Solomon's Temple. Others go
back of this and assert that Mason
ry had its origin among those
gentlemen who did the brick work
at the tower of Babel. II there
had been any record Of anybody
doing anything with trowel and
plaster anterior to the time Of
Adam. Masonry would undoubted-
ly put in o claim that some of its
duly sworn and properly gripped
ancestors were engaged on it's
| work.
/. Now all this is humbug. Matt
'imony and Masonry, as well as
he real principle of secret asso-
,;iations, came into existence about
he same time. That is nearly
10. In fact. Matrimony is the
:ldest secret organization extant.
Iasonry was q sequence and an
i feet of the marriage relation.
DON'T YoU SEE IT?
Soon after men fell into habit
t marrying women there began
0 arise a class of infelici,ies which
re immortal. Anyhow they
| haven't died out yet; and there
.eems to be a reasonable prospect
hat they may exist for some time.
lVell. when these little infclicitics
;,egan to crop out from the mat
;imonial strata. husbands natural
" sought relief. They met each
stber and talked the thing over.
They compared bruises and in
| itituted competitive examinations
lrith reference to the length, sharp
ess and agility of their wives
tongues. The matter OF sulks was
| llxpatiated on and duly elaborated.
| How much they suffered, and how
lauch they regretted not having
lnarried somebody else, and how
Sften they mentioned how much
Letter they could have done; how
bitten they wore the look of Chris
| (ian martyrs; ard how often they
inade tolerable and intolcrable
i.uisances of themselves-all these
little and engaging peculiarities
Ifheaven's last best gift to man
i5ere discussed by husbands il
heir usual and other meetings.
OF course, these interviews hal
to be secret. Any man, if mar
-ied, can guess the first time try
ng Why they should be held in Sc
cret, and Why women should b.
excluded. It's just as plain Al
the nose on your face why womcr
were not sent for at these primeva
gatherings.
OPENING THE LODGE.
In time these two men. VIII,
met to compare the length ant
depth Of their.scratches, were join
ed by third, who had beel
wounded. A forth, who was sui
fering, got an intimation tha
something of the sort Was goinl
on, and he went around too. il
this way, quite little company Q
mourners got togethe. The
mingled their tears and bound u
each others wounds.
All this time no women, espe
cially Of the married persuasion
was allowed in that vicinity. Yo
bet she was MT.
It was in this way that the OF
ginal secret Lodge was formed
. When meeting it was necessary {
watch every point of :he compass