The daily sentinel., 1905-08-17
Growth of EAGLES

How the order of Eagles came to
be founded in 1S9S at Seattle is an
extraordinary story. Past Worthy
Grand President Del Cary Smith.
who was a charter member of the
second lodge. that founded at Spo-
kane, takes a great deal OF pride in
telling the story and in describing
the marvellous growth Of the order
says the Denver Times.
The original name OF the organi-
zation.' said Mr.. Smith today, was
The Order of Good Things. 1t all
started because the proprietors and
managers of some Seattle theaters
had trouble with their musicians The
latter formed union and made
trouble and so as to protect their in
terests the theatrical men formed a
club. When IL began there was no
conception OF what that little club
would lead to in the near future.
Gradually the theatre men took
in some other good fellows into their
circle and they began to hold regular
meetings purely for the sake of hav-
ing a good time Members got into
the habit of taking their friends to
one side and telling them of the fine
new club The victim would express
wish to become a member and
would be luEEed off to headquarters
and made to buy for the whole crowd.
Then he was initiated, and i'm turn
would start out for new victim.
'lt was not long until the club
had a large following. Then serious
idea came and it was decided to or
ganize that crowd of good fellows
into "A regular club. John Cort was
the first president of the club At
meeting held one night in a lodge
room the matter of fixing on a name
for the organization came up. Cort
happened to look up at the wall of
the lodge room and he saw big
stuffed eagle there on a pedestal II
was an Inspiration. He at once saw
the the possibilities in the name
Eagles and suggested it, It caught
on Immediately and the name was
unanimously adopted.
Next the idea came that ii would
be a good plan to start a lodge at
Spokane. This was done and the
Spokane lodge was a great success.
was one of the charter members.
Our first grand worthy president and
lecturer, II. II. Thompson, after the
idea of the founding of an order had
been put into effect. was delegated
to draw up the principles of the
order. Incidentally these still stand
today just as he wrote them. Broth
er Thompson also changed the name
of the branches from lodges to aeries
So Thompson name will 90 down in
the history of the order.
Our growth has been marvellous.
II is astounding. Once we got to-
gether the paraphernalia. stationery
and blanks necessary to carry on
the business of a national order, we
we received many applications for
charters and our enthusiastic organ
iZers did the rest. The Eagles rusheS
over the land. | attribute our great
growth largely to our name, to our
splendid principles and to the enthus-
iasm of our members. Men of
wealth, prominence and high stand
ing, are just as enthusiastic over the
order as are the less wealthy mem
bers.
the names of men who are known the
breadth of the land. A large percen-
our membership rolls contain
tage of the congressional delegation
at Washington are members. We
have many senators among our
number. and large number of state
governors Every state officer in
California. for instance. is an Eagle,
including Governor George c. Par
dee, President Roosevelt is mem
Der.
You would be astonished to know
what a great army we are. We have
more than 100000 members in the
United States, a larger membership
than that of any other order except
ing that of the Masons. Some of
the insurance orders may have more
members, but they cannot be dass-
ed as fraternal orders, strictly.