The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-02-18

On the evening of February 20
 Bridgeport lodge No. 36, B. F. O. E. | will celebrate three big events, thu
 annual visitation of Grand Exalted
 Ruler William w. Mountain and his staff of grand officers; the 54th ami
 versary of the forming of the Elks | organization; and the 36th birthday l of the local lodge.
 For each of these. elaborate prepa-
 rations are being made. but espec1-
 ally for the first. J. c. lvers IS | chairman of the general committed
 and with Edward McManus. secre-
 Guirk. and Emil ziebold. is making | final preparations for the affair. I of James o [. McGoVern. P. E. R.
 chairman; R. c. Pearson. P. E. R.;
 Charles H. Hinman. P. E. R.; Louis | Brock, P. E. R.; H. H. Jennings
 P. E. R.; John McCarty, P. P. R.:
 Judge. P. E. R.; E. F. Nevins. PIE.
 R.; William H. Doyle. P. B. R.;
 William H. Brown, P; E. R.; J. C.
 Ivers, P. p. R.; Archibald McNeil.
 J. I. Flint, P. E. R.; P. J. McLaugh-
 lin. P. E. R.; J. F. McDonough, F.
 E. R.; D. J. Clifford, P. E. R.; B. T.
 GilIigan, P. E.. R.; P. F. Bellew. P. T. Kelley. P. E. R.; J. F. Keeley. Edward Daly. Edward McManus, Michael Healy. J A. Byrnes, Hugo Fischer, Charles Willer, and William P. Kirk.
 William Lounsbury. chairman; J.. L. Hickey, George Higgins. Charles Keith, S. B. Flotktn. Henry Green stein, James Fitzpatrick, J. Lee, Jo- seph Onkey, Joseph Neisner. Charles Bierbaum. Leo Whalen, E. F. Buck ingham. H. Lavery, H. Dove, o. Leh- man, B. B. Brady, s. Ginsburg, H. Quinn, William Keough, William An ming, James Grady and William Mo Levy.
 The plans for the banquet which will take place at o'clock, are un- der the direction of the club man ager, Peter F. Callahan.
 And the following is the story of
 February 16. 1922. marks an an- ntversary of keen interest to nearly 100000 American men.
 f5fty-four years ago-on Feb. 16. "a little group of fourteen men sat In a stuffy room in New York city. Twice they voted on a matter they had been debating for weeks. On the second ballot, the now almost-for- Corks'' was disbanded. And the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks was born.
 The first membership report in the archives of the Elks is dated Dec. 27, 1868. New York lodge No. 1, the Mother Lodge Of the Order. was then it's only lodge There were 7s mem l oers on the rolls.
 The fifty-fourth anniversary of the Orders birth shows 6 membership of | more than S1S,000 Elks in more than 1, 400 lodges that dot the United States of America. At Anch orage, Alaska, | the farthest north Elk lodge stands amid almost polar ice and snow. Elk lodges rise at Brownsville, Texas. and Key West, Florida-farthest southern points of the continental United States. Our Canal Zone has its lodge | 1t the Balboa Heights. Our island | possessions are starred with Elk It Honolulu and Hilo in Hawaii. at Guam. and at San Juan in Porto Rico. And the Elks of America are working to initiate their rnillionth | 9rand Lodge meets at Atlantic City.
 The founder of this organization hat is today Americas greatest fra ernal order? He was a StrOllng lnow how well he and his little group If brother-actors had builded.
 His body rests today in Mount Hope cemetery. Boston. beneath a great with the inscription:
 Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian. Founder of the Order of Elks. Died darch 20, 1880. Aged S4 years. A reat Order and in so doing wrought much good"
 Vivian, who was the presiding Jolly c0rk at the mo momentous te,s, meet, 1 oted to organic under the name Of Elks," died in Leadville. Colorado, fter a life of theatrical vtc1ssftudes hat ranged from touring in aff1uence eing stranded penniless in Denver: here in LeadvilIe his body rested. his rave marked only by g. weather tained pine board on which l1.,, an ao1,e 1ne harp instrument, until on April 2S. Ss g, Boston Lodge, No 10, B. P. O. sIks exhumed the body. took it to ] oston. and buried 1t there with with o1endtd cerem onial. Il
 Only in E1kdoms archives ana the memories of the few surviving old mers' is the history of the Jolly orks held intact ,,fdn1, Ana oaiX s1i1, s11r Uns ves He is "Joe" Noreross of New ' ork. The "Jo1y corks." aetor-folE ,sa.s all; H. ' aet in nt those S rrdas days of fRe Nev es Yer m leatrical district. The cork tr1cK ras their initiation ceremony. A V roup of Corks would bring in can t idate, who was assessed DO cents nd entered in a pocket memoran- um book Each "Jolly Cork'' pro- T uced a champagne cork from his b ocket. c
  ate with a new cork. The men a ned up in front of the now-extinct T bar. Each man placed his ,rk in front of him on the bar To T "a candidate it was explained that
 the signal ''Threei" of the T wo-threeI' called by the !. lling Cork. the last man to lift his II ,1,lx from the bar was stuck for u e drinks" te The signal would be called. The . ,Ily Corks, all initiates, would sim : V cup their hands over their corks I'd leave the corks on the bar, The Lndidate, with a swift swoop, always - ', ould be the first man to lift his 'rk. He would also be the last n an to lift his cork. For he would Q the only man to lift his cork. He 2 ought -he drinks. U One other law the Corks obeyed- = ny Jolly Cork meeting another a. ,lly Cork, was at liberty to chaI- w nge his brother 10 producing his VII cork from his pocket. If the al 1O-