The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-04-27
OWLS CONTINUE
 TO FLY COOP
Jersey City Nest Enters Foresters
 in a Body.
MUCH CASH FOR HOME NEST
Insurance Authorities of Mass
 achusetts Investigates Order

1 Newspaper reports from various
 parts of the country show that the | subordinate Nests of the Order of Owls
 are restless under the remarkable gov l ernment furnished by Supreme Owl John w. Talbot. As told in a. recent issue of the Jersey City Journal, the
 Jersey City Nest has returned it's
 charter. ritual and equipment to South
 Bend and has determined to quit the Owi coop and enter the F'oresters in a body. The flight came following the report made by Past President Coun- sent to South Bend to investigate. He
 was told to make special inquiry into
 accusations made against Talbot by
 Mrs. Leona Mason. a South Bend wo-
 man who shot him and was acquitted
 after trial which lasted more than
 three weeks. In speaking of the
 Chancellor Story said:
 ''The receipt of a printed pamphlet
 containing the accusations made by
 Mrs. Mason against Talbot started the
 revolt which resulted in the with drawal of the local Owls from the par ent nest.
 let first aroused our suspicion that something was seriously anniSs. went to South Bend and quietly interviewed number Of prominent people in the town I afterwards interviewed TaI-
 bot. and discovered that-he was prae- ticaIly the whole Order of Owls. He mind to do so and at these conven-
 tions the delegates, I discovered, had To voting power that amounted to any thing important. The last convention was called two years ago, and it wound up in very stormy row and the formation of the American Order
 9sThe whole Order of Owls. I found out, is managed by Supreme Owl Tal- named George Beroth. who has an of flee with Talbot. All the money from the various Nests throughout the country is transmitted to Beroth, who in turn hands it over to Talbot. All the disbursements are made from the office of Supreme Owl Talbot. By oorporated. but simply consists of in dividua1s who are protected under a constitution drawn by Talbot Thus I found out in the course of my inves- tigation:
 Whenever a subordinate Nest of Owls is organized the organizer is al- fee of each of the first fifty members. Out of the $25O thus retained he sends Sl00 to Talbot and the latter in return sends certain supplies and a small amount of stationery which represents net cost, I was informed, of $17, thus leaving profit to Talbot of $83 lately been running off about twenty new Nests a month. In addition to this source of income Supreme Owl Talbot receives a per capita tax of 40 cents per- annun from the total mem bership of the order. I learned that Talbot's income from Owl sources aver aged $4,0O0 monthly
 "Try as we could, we could not ob- tain any satisfactory information from Talbot regarding. the total number of Nests, total membership and the f1nan- cial condition of the order. He made the claim at one time that the order consisted of 1,200 nests We made inquiries and discovered that his. esti-|
 mate was just 800 over the mark. He claimed that the order had a total membership of e6, GOO. whereas we dis covered completely to our satisfaction that the figures were padded just co.,, Dc0.''
 The Boston Globe speaking of the status of the Nests of Owls in Massa- says:
 t..W. Q. Richardson of the insurance department of this State and MT. Mar 1 shall of the attorney generals office, | agree with the attorney generals of | New Jersey and New Mex i co that the Owls have acted illegally 70 far as the insurance feature is con ,erned. Speaker Walker of the House. Senator Turtle of Pitts1eld and Repre-j sentative O'Neil of East Boston are in- crested in the matter and are striving o settle the affairs of the order.'