Knights of Pythias

a charitable fraternity. It was organized at Washington, D. C., February 19, 1864, by five clerks in the government office. It was designed at first to confine the fraternity to members of this description. The published principles of the order are: Toleration in religion, obedience to law, and loyalty to government. The feature of the organization which has made it extremely popular is the plan of life insurance. The members not only have a good time, but they secure insurance in case of death or sickness at actual cost. There are over half a million members and about 7,000 subordinate lodges. In 1905 the amount of relief distributed was not far from $1,500,000.