Excerpt from Fraternity: A Collection of Poems and Sketches With a Purpose

The author, in submitting this book to the Sir Knights of the Maccabees, members of other Fraternal Orders and the pub lic, desires to state that his object is not to add to, or to take from, the instructive and beneficial principles of Fraternity. Nor does he pretend to have discovered anything new in it, or out of it, which has not been under the cognizance of every one. But he hopes he has presented the true principle of Fraternity in a way that may make it clearer and dearer to the reader. He has ear nestly endeavored to write something that will aid in the develop ment of that principle as a faculty of the mind, without which the man's highest character is impossible, and which, once developed, gives pleasure and contentment not to be attained from any' other attribute.

Whether this effort has been successful, the reader must judge. Of the earnest purpose the author will admit no dispute. It may be this purpose has outrun his ability. He has not always conformed to the established rules of meter, endeavoring, rather, to find Words to best express his meanings than to find meanings to fit his words. There is such a thing as poetry which is not metrical and there may be meter without rhyme or reason. The author hopes he has been reasonable at the least, that he rhymes occasionally without detriment to the thought, and that he will be forgiven any departure he may have made from exact measure.

If this book shall be the means of awakening in any heart that true spirit of Fraternity which guides the helping hand; which drives selfishness from the soul, and which devotes itself to making the pathway of life more cheerful for all who come in contact with it, the author will feel well repaid for his labor and happy in the consciousness of having helped his fellowman.

One man who is truly Fraternal makes the whole world bet ter, because his aim is to be helpful to others, and in that he finds his happiness. In this spirit the following pages were written.

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