Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-26

llS members Ndu OCCASION 10 pIdctlCe,
n in their own lives to illustrate and
exemplify that spirit Of tolerance that has
ever been one of the distinguishing traits
of Odd Fellowship, and is today one of it's
browning glOries. 1t soon became appar-
emit to such of the citizens of Baltimore
as were sufficiently interested to investi-
gate, that the little secret society bearing
a peculiar name and composed Of a quin-
tette of foreigners confined it's energies to
the doing of good works. It's members
We're helped in times of distress, nursed
in seasons of sickness and defended when
oppressed. Nor were their ~benafactions
dispended to their own members only.
They were ready to extend a helping
hand to any who stood in need Of assist
ance BY their kindly deeds and helpful
lives they said:
I'VE seek the needy i'm distress,
The widow and the fathelless,-
And strive with all our means to bless.
And all their sorrows scothe.
The o our kindness may command,
Though stranger. from a foreign land,
For we are guided by the hand
Of Friendship, Love and Truth"
Their beneficent ministrations silenc-
ed traducers, converted doubters and
made friends among the sincere. Preju-
dice gave way and fraternity took its
place. Applications for membership in
the devoted little band We're received.
Coco faith and virtue, the characteristics
of a true Odd Fellow, had achieved a vic
tory. Since hat early day the order has
accom- plished much in allayirg the pre-
JUDGES to which men and women are so
prone to yield themselves. 1t teaches
that difference of opinion as to religious
creeds, political theories or social GUS
toms furnish no just cause for enmity or
estrangement, and has demonstrated that
men and women of the most widely di-
vergent views as to religious, political
and social problems may Tor iously
work together for the promotion of each
Others interests and for the welfare of
mankind. It has been a potent factor
in bringing about that condition, Of pub
he sentiment which makes ain civilized
nations of the present age hesitate to en-
gage in war with sister nations, and en-
couragPs the settlement of national on
troversfes by the peaceful methods of in
ternational arbitration rather than by
the clash of arms, and ait the same time
so intensifies the sentiment Of sympathy
for the unfortunate, the downtrodden
and the oppressed, as to induce a nation
of seventy million people to involve
themselves in all the horrors of interna-
tional wan in order to slccor the inhabi-
tantS of a small n~eightoring island from
a grinding and inhuman tyranny.
1T should be ours the oil and wine to
pour
Into the bleeding wounds of stricken
To take the smitten and the sick and
sore,
And bear them where a stream of bless
ing runs."
The founders of American Odd Fellow
ship were men who believed in Almighty
God as the ruler and governor Of all
things. From the inception of our order
a declaration of that belief has been the
one and only religious test Of eligibility to
membership. UGH a belief is a necessary
accompaniment to belief in the brother
hood of man. We have a common Father.
Therefore, our aims, our interests, our
hopes, our destiny are ONE. This thought
us beautifully expressed by the poet who
directing attention to the wide spreading
branches, the royal head uplifted in
grandure towards the skies and the my
Rad leaves of a mighty oak of the forest
says:
Upon that tree wave not two leaves
alike,
Yet they are all oak leaves, and all de-
rlV
From the same source, by the same
means, their food.
Each has its voice, yet, when the mighty
vino
Sweeps Ger them as a Tyre, one song is
theirs.
When hall we be like them-when under
stand
That if we grow upon the topmost
bOugh
OF the great tree-or be so lowly
placed
That we must touch the daisy at its
foot,
Ono ,r;~,, 81 -
work."
Odd Fellowship is a patriotic ~institu-
ton. 1t allies itself with no party and
insists upon no dogma of party faith,
but 1t teaches the most unSWerving 10y
atty to the system of government under
whose protection it makes it's home. The
founders of American d Fellowship
were new corners to the United States
They had been reared and educate
under a m~onarchical form of govern
ment. But they had adopted this as their
country and they took pride in becoming
loyal citizens thereof. AS an evidence of
their allegiance to the Lane of their adop-
ton and as an earnest Of their desire tC
make their identification with it most
emphatic, they gave to their lodge a
name that was" by the people Of the
United States Venerated above every
other human name as representing al,
that was highest, truest, most intensely
patriotic and best-the nameoof the father
of the new republic. They called theil
lodge Washington Lodge No. /. 1t re-
mains today as an evidence of the patri-
Otism of the founders of a society that
has eve inculcated loyalty to ones coun-
try as a cardinal principle.
Odd Fellowship is a conservative lnsti'
tuition. 1t holds tenaciously to that
which is good, however ancient it may be
AS | have before remarked, its underly-
ing principles are as old as the human
race. The sentiments of friendship, love
and truth represented in the three links