Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-10-02
oDDFELLowsHIp FLoURrsHINa.
Mcswain (P. G. M.) Returns from
the Sovereign Grand Lodge.

e(Greenville News, September 26.)
j. j. McSwain, Of the local bar,
returned Tuesday from st. Paul,
Minn., where he spent last week as a
| delegate to the Sovereign Grand
Lodge meeting OF Odd Fellows. He
| stated yesterday that the meeting
| was grand success in every way,
and that the general reports show a
marvellous growth and 9 general era
OF prosperity in the ranks. The Scy-
ereign Grand Lodge includes the Uni
ted States, Canada, Denmark, Nor
way, Sweden, and Austria, with one
| Lodge in Manila, Philippine Islands,
of which the membership Is OF Ame-
ricans living there. The increase in
the year 1906, according to the read
| ing of the general report, Is that the
order obtained $4,000 new members.
| This makes total membership of
about 100000. In all, the order
has forty-six homes for orphans, and
one is being built in Australia. Dur
| ing the year the order spent over Ave
million dollars in it's charitable enter
prises.
| One meeting Of the great gather
ing was held in the immense new
hall which the citizens Of St. Paul
have recently built by popular sub
scription. The hall will seat 10000,
and by a number OF alterations of
the movable walls $4,000 persons
can be accommodated. The moving
of the walls Is effected by electric
motors. 1t is the claim of the archi-
tects Of the building that 1t will ac-
commodate 10000, but $4,000, it is
said, is a safe and conservative esti-
mate.
All the meetings were most inter-
esting, Mr.. McSwain says, and the
! city, IN many ways, responded to the
entertainment of the hundreds of del
egates. A most cordial welcome was
given the Sovereign Grand Lodge and
all who attended will recall in the
fondest manner the occasion.
One feature Of the meeting was a
speech by Judge Milton J. Durham,
of Kentucky, who has for fifty-three
consecutive years attended the Sow
ereign Grand Lodge meetings. He
Is an ex-Congressman Of his State
and has long been one Of the familiar
figures in its public life. In his early
years he became an enthusiastic Odd
Fellow, and this has increased in
stead of growing cold, with the years.
He Is now up in his eighties.
Mr.. McSwain was most profoundly
impressed with the riches of that Sec
tion of the nation: and states that
close study Of the economic conGi-
tions there are a revelation to eny
one. Wages of q common laborer arc
as high as the most skilled laborer
with us and, the negro enters but to
a small degree into this blessing.
Common sewerage hands working on
the lines about the city receive from
$3.50 to $4.00 per day. The manu-
factories of the city ere many, mag
nificent and of great variety of
kinds. Mr.. McSwain visited many Of
these. ..
"In speaking OF Cities" said Mr..
McSwain, "St. Paul is, to my mind, a
model, at least in an aestheic way.
The city has no fewer than thirty
parks of ample dimensions, and of
which the cost OF maintaining is $780,
600 per year.
Zone other piece of work which
impressed me was the placing in po~
sition of six granite columns of about
fifty feet in length in the front of the
Second National Bank building Of
that city. The columns will cost. in
total for polishing and installing
about $4,000 each. This, it seems
to me, Is being done purely for good
looks, too"
Mr.. McSwain, in referring to the
other things which were done was
revision of the ritual Of the order.
This will be of great interest to mem
bers of the order, and will go into
effect on January 1st. Other import
! ant legislation was carried through.
| also.