Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1895 — ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS.

International Snpreine Dodge Holds Its Biennial Session in Boston. The biennial sessions of the international supreme lodge of the Order of Good Templars was held in Boston last

week with a large attendance, at least 5,000 delegates being present The Good Templars organization hr by far the largest temperance organisation now in existence, having a total membership of 700,000, of whom 450,000 belong to the adult branch of the order. Origi-

nating in Oneida County, New York, in 1851, with a band of young men, among whom'was ex-Postmaster General James, the movement had a marvelous growth. It has since extended to Africa, Asia and even Australia, where some of the best lodges of the order now exist. At the last international grand lodge, held in Des Moines, there was a spirited contest for the honorofthe grand lodge this year between Sydney and Boston. There are now established no less than eighty-five grand lodges, with over 13,000 subordinote lodges and temples, and the international, supreme lodge is composed-of representatives! from these bodies.' The rjtuals have been translated into sixteen different languages, and its strength is shown by a membership of 246,346 adults and 52,747 juveniles in the United States alone, while England, by the last reports, has 297,196 adults and 108,744 members of the juvenile branch, and British North America, a membership of 36,039. Even in frigid Iceland it has secured a foothold, with over twenty lodges. The pledge of the order is that a mem-

ber will not take, buy, sell,- furnish or cause to be furnished to others as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or eider, and in all honorable ways will discountenance the use thereof in society. The doors of the lodges are open to persons of all races and nationalities, and the members are in

effect banded together for mutual protection ancUco-operation in total abstinence work. The ritual is largely made up from Scriptural texts and has been translated into eleven different languages. The Good Templars’ organization was the first of all temperance bodies to recognize woman as fully nie equal of man in the work of the order, and there is not the slightest doubt that it is largely due to this that its growth was so immediate and, has been so constant. One of the most interesting of all Good Templars is Dir. Oronhyatekha, the Canadian Indian, who for some years was the world’s Good Templar, and was succeeded at the last grand lodge by Dr. Delos H. Mann, of Brooklyn, present incumbent of that high office.

DR. D. H. MANN.

DR. ORONHYATEKHA