The Society news. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-18??, 1883-10-13

scorChed with fever. And this IS NOT all,
neither does the work end here, for If the /
husband and father is striken by the King
of Terrors, Tie widow aph orphan then be- !
orders there is fund especially set apart for |
their benefit. Surely this Ia u noble work !
and one in accordance with the teachings OF
Him who, when ON earth, went about doing
good. The teachings at the initiation in all
secret societies are that The human family is
one common brotherhood with God as the
father of all, and that it is the bounden
duty of each to assist the other to the extent
of his ability. On these principles Masonry
has been built until it is power in the land,
and Odd Fellowship and other like orders
number their members by the hundreds OF
thousands.
The Grand Army, as is well known, is
composed exclusively of honorably dis
charged soldiers and sailors of the late war.
The order was formed in Illinois in 1866,
and after hard struggle to overcome the
prejudice that it was political organiza-
tion, commenced to grow, and the member
ship throughout the United States is now
about one hundred and sevenSy-five thous-
and. According to the laws of nature there
must be some alteration in the qualifications
for membership, or the order Will ere many
years cease to exist, as the men, who with
buoyant STEP answered the call of their
country from 1861 to '65, are now becoming
old and stopped, and are rapidly answering
the last roll call of the Great Commander.
The objects of the order are embodied in it's
motto of Charity, Loyalty and Fraternity,
| and all honorably discharged soldiers or
sailors OF the Union army are gladly well
coined to It's ranks. There are number of
| Posts throughout this State, three of which
| are in this city, as follows; Smyth Post,
4 Nh 4 In tbo AIayns pntiJ nm,
| Monday night; DUPONT Post, No. 2, meet
| ing on Thursday evening in the McClary
| Building, and Sumner Post, No. 4, meeting
| Monday night. The last named is a colored
| post. The order is now prosperous, and a
new post was formed at New Castle two
weeks ago.
Wonderful are the calculations and argR-
| ments of some of the wonderful pamphlets
and leaves which are deluging cities. They
| show to cipher or unit that beneficiary
| orders cannot last or even exist upon their
own plans, and as clearly prove that the
giant stock insurance companies with re-
serves nearly us large as the national debt
ale sure and solid as the mountain ribs of
mother earth. Well beneficiary orders per-
sist in living, and growing and multiplying
despite the figures and the prophets, and
great giants with paper reserve funds that
blackeD pages of printed Statements" are
'mortal as other men" One of England's
greatest engineers declared and proved that
steamships never could cross the ocean. II
was demonstrated beyond denial that every
man who would dare to hazard the tril
would lose his lie anu tiie fOoiisn UN licrt
would lose their investment in ship and
, machinery and cargo. For all that, steam.
ers by the thousands did and do cross anG
; recross. They just did it and showed it
And so our beneficiary orders, despite paid
percentage agents, are just doing the thing
that these prophets of evil say can not b(
, done. They are paying widows and orphans
7 and mothers and fathers, and sisters ant
: brothers, many hundreds of thousand
5 every year, and only insurance compan!
r agents are the serious losers. Hence thes
= tears. We prefer to save for ourselves tn
: enormous salaries of some insurance prime
: presidents and the immense aggregates o
s commissions pocketed by agents. The vol
g said the meat was poisoned because h
l wanted the dog 10 scare and the meat t
i swallow. 1t all means that people are un
: willing to be always fleeced. Some ca
J, afford it, but many can do better.
! The Fraterndl Record gives the followin
u membership OF the various mutual benevC
lent societies in the United States, which W
+ take the liberty to copy with some &C
q ditiOns