The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-06-08

THAT AWFUL SECRET.

When people band together in secret con-
clave to plot against the life of the govern
ment; or when taking the law into their
own hands they destroy human life as q
sheir organization, we may well d%enonnce
such secret societies. When Senators of
the United States, the paid servants of the
people, hold secret sessions to transact
public business, its policy may well be
questioned. But when an organization,
whose purpose is well known to be the
elevation of mankind, chooses to hold a
part of it's meetings with closed doors, the
case is quite different.
The Good Templar Lodge is in no object
tionablc sense a secret society. Some of
their meetings arc and should be private,
members only being admitted; just as some
of the meetings of the family and church
should be private. Meetings for family,
church or Lodge discipline should for OBJ
vious reasons be confined to the members.
Any meeting Of the Lodge is liable to con-
slider matters of discipline or other business
which concerns only members of the order.
One great source of strength to the Order
is the privilege accorded to the member of
one Subordinate Lodge to visit any other
in the world; hence the most convenient
test of membership is the password changed
quarterly and spoken in the English Ian
guage throughout all the grand divisions
of the earth.
At a small temperance gathering the
other evening a good pious temperance
woman's countenance changed to a look Of
black despair and holy horror at the mere
mention of a password. Surely there are
causes more worthy of frowns and distort-
ed looks thar the whispering of temper
ance maxims to the door-keeper on enter
ing the Ledge room Doubtless some peo-
pie are too sccretive for their own and
others welfare, but the tendency of the age
seems to be in the other direction. Men
and women often delight in circulating
stories of the short comings of members OF
their own families and these stories once
let loose travel with almost lightning speed.
1t were well to discriminate and the Lodge
would not be in vain if it merely taught
that a brothers faults are not proper
themes for the entertainment of our neigh
bors.
As a general rule the MAJ who objects to
joining the Lodge because it is a ''seeret
society INDUCES in a secret glass. There
are others however, who, failing to dis
criminate, are unable to exercise the power
they should, because of their blind opposi-
ton to some imaginary bugbear.
"Thero is nothing so successful as sue
cess" The great secret of the ORDERS
success is that it is adapted to the needs of
mankind. Around its affairs are gath
cred old age, youth and childhood, repre-
sentatives of the homes which the Order is
built up to protect, and blessings of gray
haired veterans arc bestowed upon those
who are being trained to their places in the
work for humanity. The best reason for
the Orders existence is, that without ques-
tionablc methods it has pledged more peo-
pie to the temperance eanse and now holds
a larger membership than any other tenn
perance organization in the world. Though
many of its meetings are private, it holds
more public temperance meetings thar any
other society. No ASSOCIATION appreciates
more fully the vastness of fields for labor
yet unoccupied and none gives warmer
greetings to Other temperance organiza-
tions.