SECRET Societies in U.S.A

are used for getting their members posts of honour and titles of office. According to Mr. W. S. Harwood, the membership of the secret fraternal orders of the United States in the month of December, 1896, was, in round numbers, 5,400,000. Taking the adult male population of the nation at the present time to be nineteen millions, and allowing that some men belong to more than one order, it will be seen that, broadly speaking, every fifth, or po ibly every eighth, man you meet is identified with some fraternal organization, for the preservation of whose secrets he has given a solemn oath, a pledge more binding in its nature than perhaps any other known among men. In this vast number have* not been included the many you sands who are members of the various labour organizations, tliougn they, to a greater or le er extent, are knit together by secret threads; rcr about 500,000 members of the secret military orders, as the G. A. R. nor has any account been taken of the many other you sands who are identified with the fraternities of the colleges. Auxiliary to and a part of these orders are military branches, having at the present time about two hundred and fifty you sand members in the prime of life, who are trained in military tactics. It is perhaps quite within bounds to say that these orders are increasing in membership in the United States at the rate of between two hundred and fifty and three hundred you sand members annually.