PREFACE.

In presenting the following history of Chicago Lodge,
No. 4, the members should understand that the general line
of work in selecting portraits and biographies in connection
with the general historical data of the lodge is based upon
two points in the selection. First, members who have served
the lodge in the past as an officer in some capacity or adminis¬
tration, either elective or appointive; and second, such members
of tlie-lodge as are connected with the theatrical profession—
the source of origin of both the lodge and the Order. . The
writer has made many requests from members for portraits,
photographs or biographical data, and has received promises
multiplied indefinitely to furnish same, but procrastination on
their part has-forced the writer to go to press without them.
This will explain why some portraits and biographies are
missing.

Owing to the loss of the early records and much of the
later records of Chicago Lodge, by carelessness, fire and water
damage, the editor has had to laboy under difficulties in many
places to endeavor to complete the chain of record. Any
lapses or apparently disconnected parts of the history -must
be construed with this understanding of the facts?

Editor.