154 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



The St. George's Society is a very ancient institu- 

 tion, claiming to have been founded as far back 

 as 1772. It consists of about a hundred weahhy 

 men, and its funds are devoted to relieving cases 

 of British distress in Philadelphia. Though asso- 

 ciated with, it must not be confounded with the 

 ** Order of the Sons of St. George," which comprises 

 thousands of members in every State of the Union. 

 It is composed of working men exclusively 

 English by birth or descent. It was started in 

 1870, when three Englishmen were brutally mur- 

 dered in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Two of 

 the known murderers and their families were quietly 

 spirited off from the processes of the law. It was 

 in the days of the well-remembered '* Mollie 

 Maguires," an organisation of assassins, said to be 

 a wing of the '^Ancient Order of Hibernians," for the 

 extinguishing of which both the civil courts and 

 the State militia were forced to adopt summary 

 measures. The Order of the Sons of St. George 

 grew rapidly, extending from State to State wherever 

 English working men congregated : there is a " sick 

 benefit " of from 12s, to 20s. per week during sick- 

 ness, and a funeral allowance of from 3(^10 to j£20 for 

 a member, and half that sum for the funeral of a 

 member's wife. The weekly dues of membership are 



