A DICTIONARY OF

SECRET AND
OTHER SOCIETIES

Comprising Masonic Rites, Lodges, and Clubs; Concordant, Clandestine, and
Spurious Masonic Bodies; Non-Masonic Organizations to Which Only
Freemasons are Admitted; Mystical and Occult Societies; Fraternal,
Benevolent and Beneficiary Societies; Political, Patriotic, and Civic
Brotherhoods; Greek Letter Fraternities and Sororities; Mili-
tary and Ancestral Orders; Revolutionary Brotherhoods,
and many Other Organizations

COMPILED BY

ARTHUR PREUSS

EDITOR OF THE Fortnightly Review

ST. LOUIS, Mo.

B. HERDER BOOK CO.

17 SOUTH BROADWAY, ST. LOUIS, MO.
AND

68 GREAT RUSSELL ST., LONDON, W. C.

HS
12

194

NIHIL OBSTAT

Sti. Ludovici, die 26. Feb. 1924.

F. G. Holweck,

Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR

Sti. Ludovici, die 27. Feb. 1924.

Joannes J. Glennon,

Archiepiscopus

Sti. Ludovici

Copyright, 1924,
by

B. Herder Book Co.

All rights reserved

Printed in U. S. A.

VAIL BALLOU PRESS, INC.
BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK-

G.L.
Dir.

Stechert
7.19.55
93853

PREFACE

This "Dictionary" was compiled at the request of the publisher from materials accumulated by the undersigned during a thirty-three years' career as an editor. It is intended for the information of Catholics, especially the reverend clergy, among whom there has long been a demand for a reliable reference work on the subject of secret and other societies into which Catholics are liable to be drawn.

For obvious reasons all specifically Catholic societies, as well as societies consisting exclusively of Catholics and having the ecclesiastical approbation, have been excluded. On the other hand it has not been deemed wise to draw the lines too narrowly, but for the sake of completeness a large number of organizations have been included which are neither secret nor even quasi-secret, but purely beneficial, civic, patriotic, and so forth. The difference in the length of the various articles is not always owing to reasons of larger or smaller importance, but to the amount of information obtainable. While the compiler has circularized all the societies listed in this book, so far as he was able to ascertain their addresses, not all of the respective officers have responded to his questionnaire, and among those that did, not all gave the information desired.

The editor is well aware of the deficiencies of his work and expressly mentions them here in order to have an opportunity to ask those who will make use of this "Dictionary" to favor him with corrections and such additonal information as they may happen to possess about the societies here treated and others which they think should be included. No plates have been made