THE REAL CHARACTER OF THE ORDER. 153 



closely-masked, scarlet-clad persons, in whose hands are the 

 life and death, goods and chattels, of its members ; that these 

 head centres are entitled to require, and do require, neo 

 phytes to prove their fitness to join the Order by some deed 

 of blood; that, at a sign of hesitancy, &quot;Off with his head&quot; 

 is the command, and straightway the unfortunate trembler 

 is minus his caput. In short, the general impression abroad 

 is, that the Order of Patrons of Husbandry is a concatenation 

 Of masked meetings, grips, passwords, dark lanterns, stilet 

 toes, poisoned chalices, skulls and crossbones, drowning in 

 sacks, anonymous denunciations, and mysterious disappear 

 ances. And all this because it chooses to exclude out 

 siders from its business deliberation, and not to let their ene 

 mies know their every move. 



The real state of the case (and, though not a member of 

 the Order, I know it to be so which is itself a proof that the 

 secrecy required is not very rigorous) is, that this feature of 

 the Grange is of the mildest character, and in very rare 

 cases is it vigorously enforced. The wonderful spread of 

 the Order is a guarantee that its principles are such as a 

 good citizen may conscientiously subscribe to. In fact, the 

 secrecy feature has been one of the greatest reasons for the 

 marvelous success of the Order perhaps the greatest, 

 except the vigor which the leaders of the movement have 

 shown in developing it. 







THE REAL CHARACTER OF THE ORDER. 



The real character and aims of the Order of Patrons of 

 Husbandry were thus detailed to the writer by Col. A. B. 

 Smedley, Master of the State Grange of Iowa : 



It has no politics of a partisan character, yet it could 

 hardly be expected that those consecrated to the work of 



