Morning journal and courier., 1886-12-13
and she Knights of La
bOY. TFroun the Chjcaro Mail

"The late Uriah H. Stephens, one of the founders of the Knights of Labor, and at the time of his death general master work man, was believer in spiritualism," said g prominent member of the order to Phila- delphia News man, "and the first ritual known ts Knights as the stold A. K.' Ste phens wrote. He frequently said his ideas there expressed were due to interviews with spirits through mediums in this city. Ste phens was at first what is termed free thinker, but being of an inquiring mind he attended spiritualistic seancss as an investi- gator, and was finally fully converted to the belief that the spirits of the departed dead could communicate with inhabitants of the earth. He not only attended meetings of the spiritualists, but often delivered address es at those meetings. He was unquestiona- ply the brightest mind and deepest thinker Labor, and at once took the place where he belonged, at the head of the order.
 q was also one of the first score of mem- bers, and my connection with the order has not been severed since few weeks after it's inception. Stephens often talked to myself and others of the manner in which the old ritual was written He said that, though 8 spiritualist medium, he was convinced that the order was destined to become @ great power in the land politically, an well as of great advantage to the workingmen of the United States. He told several of one night that within two years the seal of per feet secrecy would be raised and that the ex- istence of the order, as we'll as it's aims and purposes, could be made known to the world without fear of retarding the work under way We differed with him, because at that time had our employers known that we were organizing, every one of us would have been discharged on sight.
 Ss ,, sy,~ ,-~,r rfrr ,to% I tell you being true,' he said, because the source from which my knowledge comes is infallible.' We then knew that he had been consulting the spirits and silently acquiesced in his opinion. Later he said, since the or der was destined to be great and powerful, it should have ritual. Stephens was selected to prepare it and the old A. K.' was the re- suit. Its beauty and force is acknowledged by all who have seen it. The paragraph ex- plaining the object of the order and the charges to the candidates, as we'll as the form of opening and closing the local assemblies, expressed the most in the fewest and choicest words. The manner of initiation was also reported by Stephens, and the few members of the order accepted it without changing a word. He said at the time that each idea and line expressing the thoughts came to him from the spirit land, and that he per sonally deserved credit for no more than the mere physical labor.
 l work at that time when informed that even the existence of such society was secret, and that new members were taken in with out having the slightest knowledge of what they were joining If Stephens really got inspiration from disembodied spirits they gave it to him straight. His every prophecy of the history of the order has been fulfilled thus far, and from the present aspects politi cal influence at which we all dissented is not far in the future. doubt, however, if Ste phens had lived that he would have kept pace with the order. Nearly all of the few remaining original members have been out stripped by younger men, and we arc only too glad to stand by and look on at their good work I'm now prepared to believe al- most anything in the range of possibility as a future of the Knights of Labor, but have always been skeptical so far as the order originating with the inhabitants of the spirit land is concerned"
 "I have heard old members of the order say that Stephens got his ideas from the spir- it's, replied an officer of district assembly when asked about it, ''but doubt it very much. Frank Horan, the long haired dele gate from district assembly 4o, of New York, to the Richmond general assembly, who was a warm personal friend of Stephens, told me that not only did the old A. K.' come from spirits, but that the conception of the order was due to spiritualistic influences. have made some inquiries and am told that Stephens really got his ideas from George I.ippard, the founder of the Brotherhood of the Union. It is known that Stephens was member of that order, and it is also general ly known that many of the best things in the old ritual have striking resemblance to the ritual which Lppard had prepared years be. fore for the Brotherhood of the Union. believe that Stephens got his ideas from something more tangible than the shades of the departed