Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1881 — A Queer Society. [ARTICLE]

A Queer Society.

Says a New York correspondent: “Twelve members of the York Masonic Lodge of this city organized last year a society which they styled ' ‘The Mortal Twelve of York.’ Its members are: Frank J. Griffith, Assistant Superintendent of the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad; William Scott, Freight Agent of the New York and New Haven Steamboat Company; Col. J. B. Montgomery, Thomas Keating, Harry Gurley, Edward Ganong, Robert Wharton, Lewis W. Walton, Edwin A. Quick, J. J. Shay, J. Hunt, and Fred Kline. The initiatory fee is $5, and the annual dues are sl. No otiier members can be admitted, and no person not a member can attend any of the meetings. “There is to be a regular meeting of the society every year on the evening of the second Wednesday of October, at which a dinner is to be served. On the death of any member, according to the by-laws, a special meeting must be called, and the sole object shall be to discuss the virtues of the deceased member, be they many or few. Should they be few, then each virtue is to be discussed so much the more thoroughly, for his shortcomings are not to be mentioned. A rosewood case, divided into twelve compartments, with a cut glass bottle in each compartment, containing a quart of sherry, and on the outside the owner’s name, has been deposited in the vault of a safe deposit company, to be taken out only when some member of the society dies. On that occasion the case is to be opened in the meeting, and the wine in the bottle bearing the name of the departed member is to be drank by the others in silence. Then the bottle is to be returned to the case, together with the date of the owner’s death and other information concerning him.

“On each succeeding similar occasion all of the bottles, the full and the empty, are to be set before the surviving members, and the contents of the one bearing the name of the member last deceased drunk in silence. It is provided in the by-laws that the last surviving member, on the death of his solitary associate, should discuss by himself the virtues of the departed man, and drink of the wine in the bottle bearing his name, ‘and he shall thereafter each succeeding year, on the date set apart for the annual meeting, have the box and contents placed before him, and then and there shall partake of the remaining bottle or bottles as far as his judgment allows or dictates, until the same shall, if possible, be disposed of.’ “The twelfth man is enjoined, before his death, to bequeathe the case, its contents, a copy of the society’s by-laws, and a synopsis of its history, to his heir, or any other person as he may feel disposed, enjoining him to guard and hand down the same to succeeding generations.”