74 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



orderliness, industry, thrift, and temperance, ex- 

 pressed the members' ideals in more dignified and 

 pleasing language than they themselves could have 

 invented. The songs of the Grange gave an op- 

 portunity for the exercise of the musical sense of 

 people not too critical of literary quality, when 

 with "spontaneous trills on every tongue," as one 

 of the songs has it, the members varied the ritual 

 with music. 



One of the virtues especially enjoined on Grange 

 members was charity. Ceres, Pomona, and Flora, 

 offices of the Grange to be filled only by women, 

 were made to represent Faith, Hope, and Charity, 

 respectively; and in the ceremony of dedicating 

 the Grange hall these three stood always beside the 

 altar while the chaplain read the thirteenth chap- 

 ter of First Corinthians. Not only in theory but 

 in practice did the order proclaim its devotion to 

 charitable work. It was not uncommon for mem- 

 bers of a local Grange to foregather and harvest the 

 crops for a sick brother or help rebuild a house de- 

 stroyed by fire or tornado. In times of drought or 

 plague both state and national Granges were gener- 

 ous in donations for the sufferers; in 1874, when 

 the Mississippi River overflowed its banks in its 

 lower reaches, money and supplies were sent to the 



