Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-08-10


| pie recognize the vice of s1andering an
| individual, but many do not see the sin
of slandering an organization. There
are old secret societies in this and
| other countries, some of them CEN
turies old, which have been widely de-
nounced as immoral and damaging in
| their influence, yet I have hundreds
of personal friends who belong to them
friends who are consecrated to God,
! pillars in the church, faithful in all re-
| lations of life, examples of virtue and
piety. They are the kind of friends
whom 1 would have for my executors
at the time of decease, and they are
the men whom I would have carry me
out to the last sleep when 1 am dead
You cannot make me believe that they
would belong to bad institutions. They
are the men who would stamp on any
thing ubiquitous, and 1 would certain
ly rather take their testimony in re-
gard to such societies than the testi-
mony OF those who, having been sworn
in as members, by their assault upon
them confess themselves perjurers.
One of these secret societies gave
for the relief of the sick in 1873 in this
country, $1,49O,274. Some of these So
cieties have poured a very heaven of
sunshine and benediction into the
home Of suffering. Several of them
are founded on fidelity to good citizen
ship and the Bible. 1 have never tax
en- one of their degrees. They might
give me the grip thousand times and
l would not recognize it. l am ignor-
ant of their passwords, and 1 must
judge entirely from the outside. But
Christ has given us rule by which we
may judge not only all individuals, but
all societies, secret and open. by
their fruits ye shall know them" Bad
societies make bad men. Good socie-
ties make good men. A bad man will
not stay in a good society. A good
man will not stay in a bad society.
Then try all secret societies by two
or three rules.
Influence Home fe.
Test the first: Their influence on
home, if you have home. That wife
soon loses her influence over her hus-
band who nervously and foolishly
looks upon all evening absence as an
assault on domesticity. How are the
great enterprises OF reform and art
and literature and beneficence and
public veal to be carried on if every
one side by his front doorstep and on
the other side by his back window,
knowing nothing higher than his own
attic or lower than his own cellar?
That wife who becomes jealous of her
husbands attention to art or literature
or religion or charity is breaking her
own scepter of coniugal power.
know an instance where a wife
thought that her husband was giving
too many nights to Christian service,
to charitable service, to prayer meet
ings and to religious convocation. She
systematically decoyed him away until
now he attends no church, waits upon
no charitable Institution and is on a
rapid way to destruction, his morals
gone, his money gone and, fear, his
soul gone.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when
her husband consecrates evenings to
the service of humanity and of God
Or anything elevating, but let no man
sacrifice home life to secret society
life, as many do. can point out to you
great many names of men who are
guilty of this sacrilege. They are as
genial as angels at the society room
and as ugly as sin at home. They are
pers. yachts and fast horses, but they
are stingy about the wives dresses
and the children's shoes. That man
has made that which might be
healthful influence usurper of his af-
lection and he has married it, and he
is guilty of moral bigamy. Under this
process his wife, whatever her fea-
lures. becomes uninteresting and
homely. He becomes critical of her,
does not like the dress, does not like
the way she arranges her hair, is
amazed that he ever was so unroman-
tic as to offer her hand and heart
There are secret societies wnere mem
bership always involves domestic ship
wreck Tell me that man has Joined
a certain kind and tell me nothing
more about him for ten years, and I
will write his history if ne be still
alive. The man is wine guzzler, his
wife broken hearted or prematurely
old, his fortune gone and his home
mere name in the directory
Evils of had Associations.
The doctor coming in will at a
glance see it is not only present dis
| ease he must fight, but years of fast
| living. The clergyman. for the sake
of the feelings of the family on the
| funeral day will only talk in religious
| generalities- The men who got his
yacht in the eternal rapids will not be
at the obsequies. They have pressing
engagements that day. They will send
| flowers to the coffin, viii send their
| wives to utter words of sympathy. but