Relief for the Sufferers from the Fever in the South.

I received from the M. W. Grand Master and the Grand Patriarch of Mississippi a request, that I should appeal to the brotherhood at large in behalf of their suffering and afflicted brethren and people, their widows and orphans, for aid in the hour of their need, which should more properly have been sent to the Grand Masters of the different jurisdictions.

Being familiar with the liberality and promptness with which our Lodges and Encampments have responded upon all such occasions, (for they have never yet been found wanting when the cry of distress has gone forth,) and remembering the experience of Memphis and Shreveport in 1873 when their voluntary contributions amounted to nearly thirty thousand dollars more than was needed, a circumstance which called for the passage of a law by the G. L. of U. S. in 1875 upon the subjects of "Charity and Relief," to be found in vol. 8, Jour. G. L. of U. S., pp. 6577-8, and as this was the first instance since the passage of that law in which the necessity has arisen for an appeal to the Order at large, now numbering over eight thousand Lodges and Encampments, I deemed it proper to call the attention of the Grand Authorities of that jurisdiction to its provisions, and to refer to the subject here that the special attention of the Order may be called to the existence of a law that I submit was greatly needed and eminently proper if we desire to keep the hearts of our members under the influence of that "Charity which giveth liberally and up-braideth not;" for under this law they have the assurance where more than is necessary is contributed, the surplus is to be securely invested and held by the Grand Treasurer of the G. L. of U. S. in trust for such purposes of special relief in the future as may be needed to alleviate the suffering of other calamities, and thus avoid so many special appeals.