The newspaper., 1909-04-09
CONTINUED from page three ]

movement OF their initiation. you
will be a changed man-and any
change in you must necessarily be
for the better. l say this because 1
love you and because 1 glory in your
prospective regeneration.
Do not misunderstand me. You
have nothing to fear. The boys
mean well. II they kill you, it will
be purely accidental.
1t is truly delight to have you
turn to me in this your hour OF peril.
1t is easy to understand that you
have belittled lodges in the past
simply because you were afraid to
join, you rank old coward! You
have been, and are, justly apprehen-
sive that you may make a spectacle
OF yourself. Frankly, think you
will. When a man has lived apart
from his fellows-has kept apart
from the heart throbs and hilarities
of the human race, as you have-for
half a century, he gets 80 full OF the
tanbark OF false dignity that his
heart becomes cowhide, and he gets
a leather diaphragm.
Come out of 1t: shed your crouch:
revise your calendar; get into the
game; be human, 1t will come hard
at first. / know; but IL VIII be easier
the longer you practise 1t. or course.
you are "A good fellow according to
your own benighted standards; but
you need a new set Of microbes to
gnaw the rust on your heartstrings.
You don't know the names Of ten
per cent. of your townsmen. In the
lodge you will get acquainted with
them. and you may grasp the fact
that they have feelings and brains
and souls.
When you walk into u lodge room
les as Most Excellent Potentate, and
humbly ask permission to lie seated
In his august presence. the fact will
ooze through your cuticle that
things other than cash balances
have n place in determining the value
OF men on this planet. The lodge is
N lamp that 10 smuggling the wings of
the spirit Of caste in this country.
Although your wings happen to he
OF the ingrowing variety. n little
smuggling will do them whole
world Of good.
The lodge In the playground OF
men, and the rules that obtained on
the old playground. when you and
were boys mt school,-the scale OF
natural justice that awarded each
boy his proper standing among his
fellows.-are the rules that viii
govern your standing In the lodge.
You remember how the wnshwo.
mans kid used to whale you? Well
he had some qualities that you
lacked. You were rich: but he was
respected. Today. some OF the men
that you could buy and sell thou
sand times over enjoy the same com
parative distinction. You win rub
elbows with some Of these. This
should civilize you considerably, and
1t won't hurt them much.
devote this letter to n dIscussion
OF general principles, because I am
persuaded that you need them;
moreover, am not member OF the
Ancient League Of Royal High Jinks
to which you refer. have never
heard anything detrimental TO the
order. except, perhaps, that you
have been invited To join It: and even
this might have been worse-they
might have invited me.
belong to enough, goodness
knows! My pockets bulge with re-
ceipts for dues that have paid, and
with duns for other dues that have
not paid: for dues. my dear Gubby,
are among the most touching cere-
monies Of lodgedom. Yet don't re-
gret n cent OF IL. In the last score of
years, the secret orders OF this coun-
try have spent billion dollars to re-
lieve suffering. / am only an atom
I'm an army OF more than five million
contributory liners. We claim the
privilege Of doing good unostenta-
tiously. Maybe you wouldn't Ike
this; but we do. We are at war with
none. We hail churches, schools and
hospitals as comrades. They some
times fail to return the salutatIon;