The Grand President.

When the members of Hazel Lodge, of Peoria, Ill., said "Good-bye" to their beloved Grand President, who had served them so long and so faithfully as worthy President, she promised that she would visit them soon.

Impatiently they waited. Every meeting day, some sister would say, "Perhaps she will be with us for our next meeting." April 1st, she came : lovingly was she greeted; and loath were the sisters to let her go again; but others were waiting, even as the sisters of Hazel Lodge

had waited.

Monday April 6th, she left for Clinton, Ill., to be present at the regular meeting of L. S. 158-while there, she will attend a Joint Meeting. From Clinton she will go to Freeport, Ill., where she will meet with Glendora Lodge 9-then to Chicago to visit Virginia, and Eloysia lodges. She will go to Boone, Iowa, and on her return trip to Chicago she will stop at Garret, Ind., to greet the sisters of Garfield Lodge 8.

Before coming to Peoria she had visited L. S. 112, at West Philadelphia, Pa., and she expressed much satisfaction over the meeting held with the sisters of this lodge, also, over the Joint Meeting held in the evening. She had also visited L. S. 41, at South Cumberland, Md. Here she found loyal, progressive sisters and brothers; thirty of the brothers were present at the Joint Meeting held at this place.

At Brunswick, Md., she was cordially received by the sisters of No. 52, and met twenty-five of the brothers at a very pleasant Joint Meeting.

The sisters of No. 61, of Hinton, W. Va., would have been delighted could they have heard their Grand President tell of

the good work that they are doing, under the guidance of their "little energetic President." These sisters not only furnished transportation for the Grand President to Hinton, but secured transportation for her and twenty sisters to Charleston, the capital of the State. The Grand President is very enthusiastic over this trip, the beautiful scenery, the merry band of sisters and the one chivalrous, thoughtful brother.

To Hazel Lodge she spoke words of advice, of comfort and encouragement. She urged them to be up and doing if they would keep up with the procession. Not to forget their financial obligations. She

said:

"Pay your assessment, it is to protect your own, why should you be delinquent? "Don't impose upon your Collector. The Collector is our best friend.

"Our insurance is the cheapest there is. "Our Society should be the largest of its kind in the world-for, not only are the wives of firemen eligible to membership, but their mothers, their daughters and their sisters as well.

"In every lodge I want peacemakers. 'Tis the peacemaker who smoothes over the little disagreeable incident that occurs-when we are so tired; and by her gentle intercession serious trouble is often avoided, for from little boulders huge mountains come."

She instructed them to begin their meetings on time, if five members are present, then the meeting can be closed early and the mother will be home when the little ones come from school.

She told them that "the promise, 'I will never say aught against a sister' is binding for all time." To say nothing when they could not say a kind thing.

She reminded them of their obligation taken "In the presence of Almighty God," and asked if they remembered it when they stayed at home without a good excuse. She specified sickness and neededat-home as good excuses.

She advised them not to neglect home duties; but to make every effort to attend all lodge meetings, adding "Never mind what they say you come to lodge for; we know what we come to lodge for. We have a duty to perform and we are going to do it.

Railroad Men and Their Needs.*

I thank you for this opportunity to pay, in the name of the Ladies' Society of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, a tribute to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

It has deserved well of all mankind. It is the grandest, noblest, most far-reaching, most unselfish organization of women in the world.

I thank you for the privilege of meeting with you today-to tell you something of the railroad men, and their needs, as we, of the Ladies' Society, meet them in our work.

First, I will tell you of some things that the railroad men, that we meet in our work, do not need. They need neither civilizing nor christianizing. They are not subjects for reformation.

Their civilization began before they were born, for as a rule, they come of good families. They come from the grand

middle class-the class from which came

Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley -the class that has furnished, and will continue to furnish, to the world its brain and its brawn.

We strive to reform the dishonest man, the depraved and the drunkard. Railroad companies do not give their property into the keeping of dishonest men, neither are the lives of their patrons placed at the mercy of the depraved or the drunkard.

Our firemen need not christianizing, they are already christian. Perhaps you do not see them in church as often as you would like, but railroad companies, when arranging their schedules, do not consult their employes as to the hour of their

church service.

Out in the world, you will meet our boys. From the nature of their work

* Extract from an address given by Josephine C. Watts, Editor of the Ladies' Department, at the annual meeting of Peoria's W. C. T. U., held at Peoria, in the interest of Railroad Work, March 26, 1903.

they will be far from home, far from mother, far from the influences that restrain and refine, and you may do them a world of good; but we ask you when you meet them, when you classify and pigeon-hole them for future reference (you know we all do that, that is a part of our business nature), do not put our boys with the depraved, the drunkard or the "devil-may-care;" he belongs with none of them. You will find him, as a rule, well informed; you will always find him intelligent and possessed of ability. There is no place on the payroll for the name of a man who is not intelligent or who has not ability.

Possibly you will meet these boys again, perhaps not as firemen, but filling positions, not more honorable, but positions where, supplemented by quickened intuitions, a respect for details, and a knowledge of the importance of obeying orders promptly, their intelligence and ability receives speedier recognition and

more adequate reimbursement.

To be eligible to membership in the B. of L. F., a man must have seen active

service, firing a locomotive; thus you see that every officer, every member of our Brotherhood was at one time a fireman.

When Theodore Roosevelt was admitted to honorary membership in the B. of L. F. at Chattanooga, Tenn., he was made a member by men who were his equal. He was administered the obligation by, then, Grand Master Frank P. Sargent, Commissioner-General of Immigration of United States, one of the grandest, noblest, God-directed men in the country today. His wife, who is a fitting companion for her husband, honors the Ladies' Society by being its Grand President. The motion "that the President be made an honorary member of the B. of L. F." was made by the Hon. John F. McNamee, member of the Ohio Legislature, who is one brainy politician. Assisting in the initiation was John J. Hannahan, the present Grand Master, as strenuous a worker as the President himself. The record of the President's membership was made by a man with a future, of which Peoria will yet be more than proud, Frank W. Arnold, Grand Secretary and Treasurer. Among those who welcomed the President as "brother" after his initiation were editors; one of them, W. S. Carter, Editor and Manager of the Firemen's Magazine, is said to be by those who are competent to judge in such matters, the finest technical editor in the United States. There were doctors and lawyers, high in their professions; suc