Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-05-17
ORDER OF THE MYSTIC BROTHER
HOOD.

WIZ
OF all the distasteful things produced by
Kansas this Order of the Mystic Brother
hood. otherwise known as the 20. NJ. b."
is probably the worst. 1t is a secret soci-
ETY. organized for political purposes, and
for a time it had all of the political parties
of Kansas in a condition of uneasiness.
The officers of the grand lodge made claims
of enormous membership, and it was pub
lished as a fundamental principle that no
member of the order could vote for any
candidate who had not either Joined it or
openly pledged himself 10 sympathy with
its purposes. When the election rolled
around, however, it was discovered that the
claims of the grand officers were a bluff.
and that the order did rot have power
enough TO elect or defeat anybody for any
thing.
The people of Kansas had hardly ceased
grinning over this exposure, though, when
it was discovered that in one direction the
o. NJ. b. had become considerable of a
success. and that was in the maintenance
of drinking clubs or joints in which the
members might carouse to their hearts con-
tent. There is no mistake about this. for
all over the state officers of the law have
pulled these clubs and found them to be
ginmills. with all the appurtenances and
accomplishments of ginmills the world over.
In Topeka these appurtenances and ac-
compartments are now resting in the base
ment OF the county court house under war
rants of cOnfiscation, while the barkeepers
who were dispensing the liquor are in the
Jail above. awaiting trial.
During the hearing of a libel suit at To-
peka recently the entire ritual of the o.
NJ. y. was read in open court. 1t was ludi-
crous in its pomposity. its stilted phrases.
its vain attempt to be majestic and i'm
pressive. One example will suffice to dis
play the whole. When the candidate for
admission was led, blindfolded and chained,
before the grand squeegee," as Sol Miller
would designate him, the squeegee ad-
dressed himself to the trembling applicant
as follows:
Bound in chains and surrounded by
darkness. No ray OF light greets our friend
on his weary pilgrimage. Men come and
go. he heeds them not! How mournful the
spectacle, Yet. sadder still TO contemplate.
EuAA - ~ nv NCA4NAAANAA VI AhtNEdllhN ii
our fellow citizens who know il not,
Blinded by partisan prejudice upon the one
hand; deceived by the pretensions OF the
demagogue upon the other; listening with
enraptured ear to the seductive voice of
the charmer; they realize not the fact that
their liberties are gradually being taken
from them. that they who were once proud
freemen. citizens of a free land, will soon
be slaves: that their personal rights, guar
anteed them by the organic law of the
land, are being taken from them; legisla-
ton invoked and its aid received, thus in
vesting the foul wrong with a semblance
OF legality"
Further along the slaves are hidden to
strike for their rights "a ginmill on every
corner until they become "uufettered in
any way. by any authority whatever, so far
as is compatible with the public good and
the public safety Further along still it
is set forth that public good and public
safety means the right of believing and
acting pretty much as one pleases, regard
less of law or public opinion.
With this hasty sketch of the Kansas o.
NJ. Il. in mind it will not be difficult to be-
lieve the report that comes from Topeka to
the effect that the leading lodge there has
been detected in arranging for an orgy in
the nature Of the scandalous "Seeley dis
ner" which recently shocked New. York.
Men who appear TO have combined them
selves together under oaths and secret
compacts TO break n law OF the state might
be expected TO be of a class given TO all
the immoralities in the category. The
statement that the women engaged to per
form before the lodge backed down at the
last moment would seem to indicate that
they possessed a better appreciation and
understanding of the decencies than their
employers. 1t would seem. too, that they
better fathomed the moral sense OF Kan
sas and shrunk from the outburst that
would certainly have followed such a dis
graceful performance at her capital city.
While at the outset there were no doubt