Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-03
same noble work.


Order, or of the Manchester Unity
branch of it: "When | reflect tina
two hundred and sixty thousand mer
are now, in this age of profit,of enter
prise and personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
associated fer such a high and hol,
purpose; when I reflect that the re-
lief given is so great, the beneVolence
so extensive; and when | reflect also
on the vast aud increasing numbers Of
the society, and on the small number
convicted of crime (only twenty-nine
out of two hundred and sixty thous
and being expelled in the year fol
bad conduct), / feel that it will be 9
happy day in this country when, fol
similar objects and associations, not
only two hundred aud sixty thousand
but the whole twenty-six millions Of
the population are united together.
We may add here with reference
to Odd Fellowship in our
own land, that while it substantially
embodies the same leading prin-
ciples and purposes, it perhaps
is more wisely organized, and in
its work and laws may justly claim to
be i'll advance of the parent institu-
ton. 1t has extended itself more
broadly, gathered very many more
within the embrace of its widely ey-
tended arms, contributed as freely of
its vast treasures for the relief of suf-
fering and sorrow, and therefor given
quite as full proof of its blessed min
istry amid the selfishness, and wrong,
and injustice of the world. We need
not stop. therefore, to inquire how
ancient it is, nor whether it had some
distinguished man for its founder; it
is sufficient to know that everywhere
it makes good its claims to be a
great-hearted institution, and that it
never fails to honor the drafts of the
least and lowest of its members.
But it is vastly more than mere
beneficial institution, or an organiza-
ton for purposes Of mutual support
and protection. 1t has an object be-
you'd this and looks forward to far
nobler end. 1t emboaies a large
measure of the philanthropic elemeb',
and speaks words OF sympathy and en-
enlargement to those outside its com.
munion. Having no affinity for sect
or party, it seeks to do good to all
without regard to country or creed.
know it is said that Odd Fellow
ship does not make good its claims, in
that while it processes to inculcate a
broader charity, and to incite its dis
ciples to earnest efforts for the re-
moval of unnatural distinctions and
the widening of the sphere of social
intercourse it directly tends to mar
row down the sympathies, and to con-
fine traternal feeling and interest to
clannish limits.
In reply to this very cheerfully
concede. that in all alliances-social,
political, and religious-there is pre-
sented strong temptation to what is
called close communion. If man
has any social sympathies, if his ma
ture is not absolutely icy, he will find
himself strongly attached to his party,
and his party friends will seem nearer
to him than do others. In all organi.
cations, in all traternities. open or
secret, especially those founded upon
the principle OF mutual protection and
relief, men will come to prefer the
"brethren." This is natural and right.
The wrong thing, which sometimes
grows out of social and fraternal re-
lations, and out of religious and other
alliances, is seen in heartless in
difference to all without the narrow
circle in petty clannish ness, and
mean, jealous rivalries-ln selfish
and unprincipled patriotism, aggres-
siye on the rights of other nations-in
the subordination of truth and right
to the assumed interests ofthe brother.
hood-these are seen in families, in
neighborhoods, in States, in Churches,
in associations and Orders of men
of whatever kind, these are what are
wrong But the cause of this wrong
| or of these evils, is not in the family
in the neighborhood, in the State, in
the Church-it is in human nature
in the social wants and tendencies o.
the race. As we'll might you say
therefore, that the family, the neigh
borhood, the State, the Church, as or
CARNATIONS should be swept away be
cause of the perversion of social wants
and tendencies, as that Odd Fellow
ship, or Masonry,if you please, should
be repudiated and abandoned for The
same reason. These wants and ten
denotes are what bring men togethe
and unite them in fraternities for tn,
prosecution of some reform, or fo
mutual protection and relief; and it i
nothing against these traternities
nothing against their character, o
object. or aims, that through imper
lection, ignorance, or sel6shness, real
" good things are prevented iron
| their legitimate uses and so made tn
means of evil.
want to say now of Odd Fellow
ship, that more than any other inst
tuition Of the kind, it is reform inst
tuition, and in quiet way,-by the us'
of its peculiar methods, is adm!
most powerfully to cause this earth @
ours to swing nearer heaven than eve
before. But when J speak of it as
reform institution, perhaps | ought t
define, for there is great deal in thi
day of humbuggery and humbugglnI
called reform that might better b
called almost anything else. 1t re
minds one of the bill of the Irish fan
mer: "Mr. , DIR. To curin
your horse until he died, So" 1t
a process of curing by killing, Xix
7 cutting off sick mans head in order
bleed him. A great many so-ca!led re
formers are not reformers at all, and
great deal that passes under the nam
, of reform is little more than surfac
agitation, or but the merest rubbis
concea,ing the real thing from view.
/ am reminded here of the story c
, the fellow who lost his shirt. 1t VS.
a very dirty shirt, too; but the onl
one he had, and he hunted for it ds
and night, high and low. Finally b
want INTO hath and after he ha