Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-03-05
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.

Juvenile Deviltry Practiced by the Bad
Boys of the village The Apple
Robbery-Playing a Joke on
Themselves.
was sitting at baseball game one
day last summer and l saw a 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 hts. 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 go 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
to blame for this secret conclave, and
this is how it happened.
There came across our village a wild
wave of temperance, which engalfed
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 familiarly known
by the letters '1. o. of g. T." and was
called in derision by its enemies 'sThe
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 sort
of provincial John B. Cough. In fact it
| seems to me, looking back on both Mr.
Cough and him, as 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 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 at
all the kind of perdition that tenn
perance lecturers liked to picture
tavern. 1t was more of social
club, in the bar-room 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 a 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 1t was something fresh and excit-
Ing and the making of regalia and that
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 at
sort of quilting bees that were held at
different houses in the village 1t was
q r1i0n 10 fOr
feeding at this time was exceedingly
good, and we got the remnants without
any of the drawbacks, among which
may be mentioned the seeing of the
girls home in the evening, which we at
that time considered one of the greatest
misfortuneS that could fall on a young
man, although my remembrance of the
thing is that quite number of Young
men of the village did not seem to en-
tertain the same opinion, However,
our idea OF the temperance question
underwenta a great revolution when we
learned that boys under fourteen
years OF age were not allowed to join
| the lodge. Up to that time we had sup
posed that the meetings of the !. o. of
y. l. were to be open to all of US, and
that we were going to have a sort of
weekly singing-school that would be
perpetual. OF course, in winter We al.
ways had singing-school, but this lodge
was to meet every Wednesday night of
the year, and we had counted on having
lots of fun. But, alas. the fourteen
year clause barred US out. If, however.
we were barred out of the temperance
lodge, we speedily recovered from the
blow and organized lodge of our own.
OF course we had great facilities for
this, because our lodge met at the same
time as the other lodge. and, as our fa-
tners and mothers were all absent at the
real lodge, we had no difficulty in carry.
Ing on dozen different kinds of yillainy
unmolested during the absence of our
respected parents.
shall not give in detail all the
idiotic things we did during the meet
Ing OF the secret conclave 1 remember
one frightfully cold winter night when
some lunatic proposed that we should
have foot race, and that every one
should take of his shoes and stockings
and race barefoot in the freezing snow.
The race was to be of duration rather
than for any particular distance, and we
were to see which boy could stand it,
or run it--fhA l0n nOoGf In kha auru, ,.,;<h