Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-02-13
THE SECRET CONCLAVE.
How the I. o. of q. T. Was Re-
sponsible for It's Formation.
Juvenile Deviltry Practiced by the Bad
Boys of the village The Apple
Robbery-Playing a Joke on
Themselves.

j was SlttlnR at DaSe-Dall Same OHe
day last summer and saw number of
boys up on the electric-light towers,
some of them hundred feet above the
ground. They were watching the game.
How little their respective parents
knew about their whereabouts at that
moment. If the doting mother knew
that her boy was hundred feet up on
an iron tower with practically nothing
but thin iron rod between him and the
ground, all for the pleasure of the dan
ger of the thing, and of seeing base
ball game, she would have been fright
ened into fits. The poem "Where Is
My Wandering Boy Tonight" is very
pathetic, and the chances are that the
wandering boy is in mischief some
where. But the trouble we get into in
our older days is as nothing compared to
what we 60 through when our fond
parents think they have us practically
under their eye. Little did the parents
of our village know of the whereabouts
of their boys when our secret conclave
was inaugurated. They were themselves
W DldLu6 lOI bHlS ScCTcb COuCldfC, dnu
this is how it happened.
There came across our village wild
wave of temperance, which engulfed
the whole community. About this time
was started the Independent Order of
Good Templars, who were sworn never
to touch liquor in any shape, not even
cider. This body was Familiarity known
by the letters 81. o. of G. r." and was
called in derision by its enemies 1.-THE
Good Tipplers." The grand lodge had
in its employ certain lecturers whom it
sent out to establish subordinate lodges,
and one day one of these lecturers came
TO our village, and his lecture, which
was free, was announced to take place
in the school-house on a certain even
ing.
remember him we'll. He was a sort
of provincial John b. Cough. In fact it
seems to me, looking back on both Mr..
Cough and him, as l heard Cough many
years afterwards, that he was much the
more eloquent of the two and told much
better stories, and showed us all the
awfulness of intemperance more elo-
quently than ever the famous lecturer
did. 1t is true that in our village there
wasn't any great need of a temperance
revival. There was only one tavern in
the place, and the tavern-keeper was a
good fellow, who was friends with every
body, and there was very little drinking
done in the village. This tavern was a
great convenience for travellers, but as
a center of drunkenness it was not al
all the kind of perdition that tenn
perance lecturers liked to picture
tavern. 1t was more of social
club, in the bar-rocm of which the
villagers, who all knew one another
met in the evenings and discussed the
weighty affairs of the Nation, with prob
ably as much ability as the same affairs
are discussed in the legislative halls Of
the country. Nevertheless, this tenn
perance revival was tremendous affair
and it swept every body into the tenn.
perance lodge, excepting, of course, the
tavern-keeper. A lodge was started
called 1.-THE Noah's Ark Lodge, /. o. Of
G. t. and all our fathers and mothers
Joined the organization. We boys were
greatly in favor of the movement be
cause it was something fresh and excit
ing and the making of regalia and thai
sort of thing was big event The re-
gala was made of silk and velvet, of the
most vivid colors, blue and crimson pre-
dominating, and these ornamental
articles of costume were constructed a
sort of quilting bees that were held a
different houses in the village. 1t wa
o great picnic for us boys, because thu
feeding at this time was exceedingl,
good, and we got the remnants withou
any of the drawbacks. among whicl
may be mentioned the seeing of tn,
girls home in the evening, which we a
that time considered one of the creates
misfortunes that could fall on a younI
man, although my remembrance of tn,
thing is that quite number of youni
men of the village did not seem to en-
terrain the same opinion. However
our idea of the temperance question
underwent great revolution when W,
learned that boys under fourteen
years Of age were not allowed to joil
the lodge. Up to that time we had sup
posed that the meetings of the |. o. 2
g. I. were to be open to all of US, al
that we were going to have sort
weekly singing-school that would
perpetual OF course, in winter w
ways had singing-school, but this
was to meet every Wednesday mig
the year, and we had counted Or
lots of fun. But, alas. the
year clause barred us out
we were barred out of the
lodge. we speedily recoverl
blow and organized lodge
OF course We had great
this. because our lodge met
time as the other lodge. az