Biding the Goat

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 115, 14 March 1885, Page 2

Biding the Goat

A unique case was trjed recently before the Justice Gait at Whitby, a small village twenty miles east of this city. Richard Kinver, a chairmaker, brought suit against the Phoenix Lodge of Odd Fellows, c^Wnxtfoyy-|or injuries received at the hands of-4he mem* bars of that lodge while he was being initiated into ih& mjilei'iusvuJL'A* order. The case is the first of the kind ever brought before a^cburt b^ justice in this ft/>ji«* f iy, j»»ft JHQflLfiyiiliPfl a great deal of interest." The court room was crowded with members of the Phoenix lodge and curldua Tmt^ - eiders, anxious to ' fearu? something: of the secrets of the , brotherhood. r..r^h« plaintiff appeared in the courtleaning on crutches. .He wa« badly bruised about the face and body; ahdJsp£Bared to be suffering severe- pain. On the ' witness stand he told the stbry^of the events on the night of his initiation. '.. He was met, he said, by acommittee of the Odd FeUow's lodge, who first blindfolded him by drawing a black cap down over his face sor that he could not see tie slightest; thing, and tnen led him into the lodge room. His entry was a signal: for shouts of derision from ' the members present. He had hardly got inside the room when he was forcibly seized" froM either sido and whirled rapidly'arottndy until he became so dizzy iix&ihp lost all idea of his surroundings. Then a chain was fastened about his body and he was dragged roughly aboui the room, the cap being still down over his head. "When the brethren had tired of yanking him about at the end of a chain he was brought: up standing while a mysterious jargon was 'gone through with. Suddenly the candijlkte received a rough pusli from some one behind which threw him over upon his face. His feet tripped over something, and he fell headlong on the floor, striking, in falling; upon a stool, which cut a deep gash ja his head. He. was partly . stunned by. the fall. He was just consciona enough to hear some one ask in a deep- voice, v Brethen, shall we nave mercy ?"' an<| some one eke .replied, '* Have Then he was lifted up off the floor r by the chain, and was led about the room for a while, with the cap still on", until he had somewhat recovered front fhe effects of the fall. His initiation was not concluded owing to. his inability . to endure more. Since then the wit-> ness testified that he had been sick, so that Jxe had been unable to support his family by working at hisjvade. Physicians whom he had consulted Baid that his injuries would trftubl* him for several years, and that lie might never get over them. . The defendant Odd Fellows admitted the truth of Kinver's testimony regarding ' his experience in die lbdge-robm. They said it was the custom of the lodge to I lead candidates for initiation arrbundt ; with a view to bewildering or befogging; them, so that when the cap is removed, they cannot: find the door by which they entered the room. There is no intention of harming the candidates, and the initiation is. not rougher than a healthy man could stand. The cop-, stitution of the order requires that th» candidate should be of sound health. Medical men testified that Kinver had received internal injuries from which he might die. The case was adjourned to a higher court at Toronto.— Toronto Times. ; , r