CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST TEN ELK LODGES.

(Schoolmaster Group.)

PHILADELPHIA LODGE, No. 2.

HE formation of Philadelphia Lodge, No. 2, B. P. O. E., the
second in the history of the order, was directly influenced
locally by the growing spirit of fraternity which marks the
social and human side of the brotherhood of man. This ele¬
ment of life is a world-famed characteristic of the residents of
the old American city of Brotherly Love. The natural desire
of mankind to congregate, to mix in friendly relation for mu¬
tual advantage, to share in each other joys and help each other
in trouble, as philanthropic social beings with protective in¬
stincts, here developed into a formal public avowal of perma¬
nent friendship. The idea came fresh from crowded Europe's
older civilization as a necessity of the times, suitable for the wants of our day
and generation, and met hearty acceptance from men of companionable sympa¬
thy in the Quaker City home of American Independence. Our first members
were the founders of the greatest order in modern society for the practical fel¬
lowship of mankind.

Charles A. Vivian originated the movement in New York and also started
it in Philadelphia, as is elsewhere related. From the convivial and unconven¬
tional Jolly Corks sprang the more serious Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks;' the convivial grew into the seriously social; the cordial good will blos¬
somed into fraternal love; the orderly drinking bout and smoker of the stage
entertainers expanded into a higher sodality with a ritual severely moral for
the living and with a beautiful ceremonial burial service for the dead.

The first Elks were minstrels, song and dance men, and musical entertain¬
ers, later called variety performers and black-face comedians, and now gener¬
ally known as vaudeville artists. There has been as great advancement in this
line of amusement since 1870 as in the progress of the Society of Elks. At
first the old legitimate actors were rather chesty toward the variety performers,
who met first as "The Jolly Corks," and then as "The Performers' Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks." But the Elks wore well. They stood acquaint¬
ance and improved with age, and the invited friends of the "social session" be¬
came members, and the "legitimate" actors gradually joined the first progressive
and charitable organization ever congenially attached to their profession. Thus
it will be seen that the B. P. O. E. was originally and practically a social organi¬
zation of the branches of the theatrical profession. But as the actor is seasonably
homeless, although everywhere at home, and is generally away from his home
lodge on professional tours in his continuous performance occupation, the lodge
organization required better business management than he then had time to con¬
tribute; hence his friends of the learned professions and the commercial world
were called into membership to regulate the business end of the lodge and ad-

343