The Forrest City times., 1891-02-27

| at night and tells his wife with grave,
 decorous face that he has .bcen to the | lodge" and that there was "a good deal
 of extra work going on" the fond soul | thinks her husband has been engaged in
 some important though necessarily secret business connected with the manage. | ment of tho benevolent society to which | he belongs. and that without his pres-
 cnce at the meetings the society would | go to the bad.
 Instead of that he has been helping to put some confiding victim through
 course of involuntary gymnastics that 1t would make graven image of John Calvin laugh to see
 There IS Q certain lodge of good brethren that holds it's sessions on a third floor not a thousand miles from | the corner of State and Madison streets, says the Chicago Tribune. the date of meeting being uot a thousand years re. mote from the frs, Saturday evening of each month. These brethren are not always as careful as they should be in closing the blinds that keep the prying eve ot the "cownu and eavesdropper" from seeing what goes on inside the | lodgeroom. and on certain evening some months ago several young men who had nothing better 10 do. and who happened to find themselves in com , mqnding location. watched the process | of initiating candidate into the mys- | teries of the order They could not see | the whole performance. but they saw all 1 its principal features, and their account l of Il IS faithfully given below.
 The candidate, about whose eyes . | bandage had been tied, was marched around the room several times and led | up in front of the official at the further 1 end presumably the Wee Some thin 2. or Other, where he appeared to take an | obligation of some kind. He raised his | right arm and extended it upward to its | fell length. He held it there SO long | that It began to get tired and il dropped \ little. A watchful brother stepped up | behind him and pushed the arm up He held IL straight up again for little while and again il began to droop. 1 Then Il was pushed up again. and every l time tho noor fellow let his arm down ever so lig,le somebody showed it up.
 At last he couldn't stand il any longer and dropped his arm 10 his side His tormeutors then led him to some part of 1 the lodge room out of the range of the watchers vision
 When next he came iC sight. a few minutes later. he was attired in his shirt,
 drawers. aud socks. All his outer gar
 ments had been removed. in this airy
 uniform he was led. still blindfolded, into the majestic presence of thc same official | that had administered the obligation to | him. Tnis worthy rose up. and tho two 1 confronted each other for about ten | minutes. the time being occupied. seem | insly. in the delivery of long charge | or lecture. Tho candidate shifted un- | easily from one foot to the other. as If | impatient to have 1t over. If he had
 known what was coming he might not have been in such hurry. But this part or the ceremony came to an end at last. His conductors turned blm about and he seemed to fall on his knees. The brethren gathered round him so
 thickly that the watchers could not see
 what they were doing with him. but it | was certain they were not putting any more clothes on him. for when he was permitted to rise he WAS seen to be in ! the same deml.tole as before.
 He was next conducted around the
 room. brother holding him by each
 arm, X blanket or rug had been brought out from some mysterious recess in tho
 lodge room. and as he walked along this
 was spread out on the floor in front of
 him Whenever he stepped on il in the course of his rambles 1t was jerkcd vio- lently out from under him and down he went. being saved from sitting hard on the floor by the brethren who had hold
 of his arms They jerked him up again. This performance was repeated half dozen times or more, the brethren who were not otherwise engaged in making 1t pleasant for the candidate amusing themselves as he walked by