A dead rat under the floor of a house soon becomes an unbearable nuisance which must be removed before his carcass becomes too rotten. The floor is torn up in various places, carpets ripped, perhaps, before the nuisance is found; but it must be done, for it has become unbearable. At last, it is removed. No more is the air of our room contaminated. So much for one rat, but think of having fifty or more dead and dying rats under your floor, in the garret, in fact, in your very midst.

Well, our Local Assembly has had, right in our midst, for the last eighteen months, dead and dying rats, and have borne with the nuisance until two months ago. We tore up the carpet, searched the garret, the cellar and coal house. We collected the carcasses and removed them where they would not poison the air inhaled by true Knights of Labor in this locality. The cause of death of these rats is various. One asked for the loan of money in the Winter to purchase bread and food to keep a dear wife and children from cold and hunger. It was granted upon his own terms. When the time for a settlement or an explanation came, this rat died. He was a slick-looking rat and liable to deceive a casual observer. Another cause of death of a rat of the same stripe, which had free access to the funds of the Local Assembly, and which was a very active rat, was being asked to return some of his appropriations. Well, he

died. A good many died because they had been used to breathing air that was impregnated with alcohol, and ornamented with tin horns gamblers' bones and dead beats; and when they undertook to be men, and associate with honest working-men in endeavors to better their condition by education, organization and temperance, their carcasses proved too frail. They were like a kite in a rain storm-there was nothing left but the skeleton. It was too much water all at once. Well, they died.

Our Local Assembly is looking into the future with bright prospects since we removed the nuisance; and we shall watch in the future and be sure that all applicants are worthy working men and not addicted to the use of alcoholic stimulants.

I would advise all other Local Assemblies to remove all nuisances of this kind immediately, and they will be the better for it.

SAGE BUSH.

L. A. 3481, Green River, Wyo. Meets every Monday evening.

L. A. 3403, Sterling, Colo., meets the second and fourth Saturday even'g's of each month. L. A. 3746, Alderdice, Montana, meets every Monday evening.

L. A. 3256, Laramie, Wyo. Meets every Thursday even'g, at 19 o'clik, in K. of L. hall.

L. A. 3261, Rawlins, Wyo. Meets every Saturday evening in Masonic hall.

L. A. 3618, Boulder, Colo. Meets on the second and fourth Thursday evenings of each month at the A. O. U. W. hall, cor. 14th and Pearl Sts.

L. A. 3914, Omaha, Neb. Meets every Tuesday, at 19.30 o'clock, in K. of L. hall, 1310 Douglass St.

L. A. 4997, Grand Island, Neb. Meets every Friday at 20 o'clock in K. of L. hall.

L. A. 3468, Carbon, Wyo. Meets every Saturday, at 19 o'clock in Odd Fellow's hall.

L. A. 3740, Grand Island, Neb. Meets every Friday at 20 o'clock, in K. of L. hall.

VOL. II.

It has grown to be an American institution second in importance only to the National Congress. There will be a national demand for daily information of the action taken by the General Assembly, and to meet this demand the great newspapers of the country and the press generally will have special reporters in Minneapolis to catch every word possible and herald it over the world.

What a contrast this is to the time when a handful of men met in Philadelphia but a few years ago and laid the foundation for the order. Did their greatest imagination ever lead them to think that such a growth was possible or probable?

Still with all these facts before us we hear and read almost daily reports of the downfall of the order, its dismemberment; but the foundations were laid too broad and its roots have spread out too far and

No. 8.

deep for any such report to prove true.

The Minneapolis Assembly will be organized under the new constitution, which was adopted in June last by a general vote of the local assemblies; this has reduced the basis of representation and will give a better opportunity to do some needed work, for there will be proportionally less of that element who only go there to demonstrate their oratorial powers, and the practical, earnest men will thus be less hampered by the wind.

The time that has been wasted heretofore at each session in the election of officers will be saved, for there will be none to elect this year, and that class who are only. looking for office or go there to caucus for another will not need to go, and probably will not desire to go, to the extent as on other years.

One of the most important of the works the delegates will have to do is to finish that commenced at Richmond, Va., the ridding of the order of that element who do not believe in its principles and who are only members of it for other objects, either to try and shape its course to meet their views, or check its progress on the line it has at present marked out. This element and their plan of working is well known and there should be no difficulty in driving out, and putting them in their proper place. of harmony should not deter anyone from doing their duty; oil and

The question

water will not mix, and there can be no harmony between those substances, neither can there be in our order when a substance enters it, which is nothing like what it is composed of, it will not harmonize and must be taken out; there is no compromise. The principles of our order have been compromised too often now for the sake of harmony. It has been too much like the tail waging the dog.

We have a regular platform of principles which are published to the world for all to read, criticise, accept or condemn; no one is compelled to do either. If one accepts them they will certainly work for the accomplishment of them, and if they do not then there is no place for them in the order; and there is apparently too many of the latter class in the order and too many of the former outside. To adjust this inequality should be the principal object of this years session.

There has been much talk in some circles of the resignation of the present General Master Workman, but it is a noticeable fact that this talk comes from a class that do not believe in the order. Anarch ists and monopolists compose this class; one talks from the inside and the other from the outside.

Some say he will be compelled to resign; others only say that he will be asked to because they do not approve of his course, or it has not suited them; so caused, evidently, because the General Master Workman has lived up to the principles of the order which this dissatisfied element do not believe in, for they cannot point to one act of his that has not been strictly in accord with those principles.

He has spoken strongly for temperance, and the member who makes the saloon his headquarters has heard the keeper thereof say how temperance would injure his business, and how much he was in sympathy with the workingman. Heard the barkeeper say how hard

he worked and that he ought to be admitted to the order; and this patron-the member-begins to think how cruel the General Master Workman is to say anything that would injure the business of such a noble friend; and also thinks he should be called on to resign.

Others who are connected with a belief directly opposite to that of the order want the General Master Workman to resign because he will not allow the order to become subordinate to another organization, and they are much hurt when he says it is not nor will it be subordinated. They grumble because he will not turn the order inside out, levy an assessment, express his opinion in favor of some of their class who have been found guilty of breaking the law and are liable to lose their necks.

Just the same as if Bismarck would send some of his minions over to America, get them to swear allegance to it and then demand that the President resign because he did not believe in Bismarck's methods, and because the principles by which America is governed and its laws and customs do not conform to Germany they should at once be changed. Such nonsense must stop and the General Assembly can do no better work than to provide means by which to do it.

Whether T. V. Powderly remains as General Master Workman or not the order must remain true to its principles, and whoever should take his place, if he does his duty, can do no different than he has done; he must live up to and advocate them pure and simple, regardless of any class, calling or ism.

Every member and those that are seeking membership should be given to understand that to be members requires the performance of certain duties on their part, and the firm belief in and the advocacy of the principles of the order. That if they cannot stand that test they