Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-22
ECHOES FROM THE ANTE-ROOM
Items of Interest to the Members OF
the Secret orders.
TRIBUTE TO PYTHlANlsM.
Masonic Items-DoinRs OF the odd
Fellows-General Pythian News
The Foresters-The Knights
and Ladies OF Honor.

Iythlanlsn. Among other things, Mr..
Thompson says:
"Let me say TO some OF you good people.
who have almost prayed that your husband,
son or brother might talk in their sleep, or al
you have carefully folded away their gaudy
uniform. looked, IL perchance some little
clue TO what they keep from you in secrecy
might be known, no matter what they tell
you the lodge consists of, how long IL 10
needful for them to stay away once a week,
or how often, let me assure You the true
purpose of the lodge is not u cloak to cover o
multitude of sins. / don't want TO caus6
family eruption by telling YOU how soon
they might come home when they go TO the
lodge, but l do want to tell you, your hus-
band or son, if they follow out the PRINCE
pies there euioined upon them, they win be
all the better for IL,
"1f you good housewives have tired of the
response, 'oh, l have been TO the lodge"
when some of these knlghtly gentlemen have
forgotten themselves and home, and have
crept in cautiously for fear of waking you, or
disturbing the children, or hung their hat
over the face of the clock, lest its loud tick
ing should disturb you in your dreams, don't
say, ~ wish there wasn't q lodge In the
world" for 1 tell you it is u good institution,
and one i endorse next to the church, and
any true knight is because of 1t a better hus-
band and son.
"Do you ask me how much I endorse Pyth-
ianism, l reply with all the power there is in
me. If these before me are true men and
knights, they will do as best they may to help
the needy, and show me what orders does
more; the church of God fnds its grand mis-
sion in the same. Commend this order, yes,
because every such man, and there are over
200,0 600 IN this country, before he can enter
our mystical circle, sit in our halls, wear the
insignia of u knight, must claim to be o man
of good moral character and believe in the
Supreme Being.
THE GRAND LODGE knights and Ladies' OF
Honor of California met last week in San
Francisco. Since the session held last year
q large increase in the membership in this
jurisdiction is noted, while the increase in
the order ut large has been great and be-
You'd the most sanguine expectations. There
are now seventeen lodges in the state, Of
which lumber, twelve are located in San
Francisco. There are over $4,000 members
belonging to the order in general, with &c
least ] 300 subordinate lodges and fourteen
grand lodges, distributed in nearly every
state, and since the date of organization In
1873 over SO, 000, 600 has been paid as benefits
to benetciaries of deceased members.
~
TUESDAY EVENING the thirty-second degree
was conferred at Masonic hall In this city.
Colonel Hall of the army and Thomas X,
Scarborough, chief clerk of the Pacific EXl
press company We're the candidates. This
was the first time for confering Of this high
degree in Nebraska.
THE DETERMINATION of the Order of For
esters in the United States to exclude negroes
from membership, and the equal determining
IlOH VI GHe HlRH court OF Enpl11u UnnU no
such discrimination shall impair the univer-
salty of the order, is likely to bring on a
crisis, says the Baltimore Telegram. A few
colored men of Chicago have been carefully
preparing to bring the question of their eX-
clusion to an issue. OF course they expect
to be refused, for it has been expressly pro.
vided in the general laws of the order that
only white males'' shall be eligible to adj
mission. On beng refused, the applicants
will at once appeal to the high court of Eng
land. The result of such an appeal is not in
the least doubtful, for the English high
court has already considered and determined
the question of color with reference to adj
mission to the order. Probably the question
of negro membership was never brought to
the general attention of the order until the
subsidiary high court meeting at St. Louis.
in 1879. The New Light Lodge Of New Orr
leans sent u delegate to this meeting. His
credentials were attacked at once on the
ground of his color. The same opposition
was renewed at the meeting in New York,
in 1880. The sentiment against negro men,
bership has widened and deepened, until now
an open revolt Is fully determined upon as
soon as the question is forced to the issue.
THE GRAND commandery of knights TEN.
plar of Texas convened in El Paso April IS.
On the morning of the Goth the c~onclave
started on an excursion to the City Of
Mexico.
MAGNOLIA LODGE A. 8. U. W. in San Fran.
cisco has $40 members. This lodge pays q
sick benefit of SO n week, has 5000 in bank
and has paid $4,000 out of its general fund
for double assessments for its members.
IT.
JONI H. Cotton, the grand chancellor of
Pennsylvania, the suspended Pythian iuris-
diction. is yet in the land of the living. MIR,
Cotton is proceeding on his way with remark
able cheerfulness. Mr.. Cotton is now en-
deavoring to increase the membership of the
suspended jurisdiction by attracting new
members to the order. To this end Mr.. Col
ton has taken what is considered in some
quarters a bold step by issuing the following
circular:
Frequent inquiries have, of late, been made
concerning the right of dispensations TO
lodges TO set aside altogether the require
ments of their bylaws in regard to fees for
comforting ranks. The constitution of SUBJ
ordinate lodges art. XII, sec, 81 directs
that 'the fees for comforting the several
ranks of the order shall be such as are pre-
| scribed in the bylaws of the lodge, but shall
not be less than $40 for the three ranks, ex-
cept by virtue of n dIspensation duly granted.
Before the adoption of the constitution of
1854 Il dispensation could not be granted to
set aside altogether the fees for comforting
the ranks of the Order, so as to leave in OPP
tional with a lodge TO charge much, little or
nothing as the judgment of IL members
might direct.
Ordinarily, lodges still limit their requests
to dispensations to confer the three ranks for
not less than sc, which dispensations are
granted whenever duly applied for.
Formerly tIIs minimum charge was neces-
sary, because The grand lodge constitution of
1873 limited the authority of the grand cham
cellor in this respect to the granting of spe-
cial dispensationS, ''authorized by supreme
lodge law;n but in the present constitution
of the grind lodge, unanimously adopted in
August, 1854, this restriction was stricken
out, and the grand chancellor is now directed
to grant dispensations TO subordinate lodges
''to set aside temporarily any requirement of
the bylaws where the necessity of the lodge,
as represented by an official statement there
been made by a two-thirds vote of the mem
bers voting. Constitution Grand Lodge, Art.
III, Sec. ~
Upon such a request, so made, the mandate
of the constitution TO the grand chancellor
s iiuper atiye; hc 'shall grant" it.
Go and Get a Record.
Puck: He had made his declaration