Injuries from Secret Society Initiations
By Editor
For three years a young dentist of Port Byron, Ill., has been hovering between life and death as a result of a wicked initiatory ceremony performed upon him at the time of his initiation into the order of Fraternal Tribunes. During that time his suit against the order for $50,000 damages has been pending; but on October 16 Judge Gest, in the Circuit Court at Rock Island, instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. The dentist alleged that he was permanently disabled by the ceremony; but the court held that the plaintiff was a willing participant in the ceremony, and that there was no intention on the part of the lodge officials to injure him. Many suits have been brought against secret orders within recent years for damages on account of injuries received in such ceremonies, and in some of these we believe the plaintiff has been awarded damages. But this decision of the Circuit Court of that district establishes a precedent behind which the wicked folly of cruel initiatory ceremonies will go on unhindered and unpunished. It opens the door for any kind of cruelty which a mischievous mind may conceive to practise upon the persons of those who are foolish enough or ignorant enough to join a secret society. Because a person submits to being initiated, this decision clears the initiators from any blame in any harm that may come to him. The dentist referred to was given such heavy shocks from an electric battery that he will be a life-long sufferer from paralysis and frequently recurring epileptic spasms. The society has disabled him and refuses to hold itself responsible. Certainly such doings as these coupled with such a decision as this should go a long way toward deterring sensible men from joining such institutions. The really sensible will hardly be found doing it.