The Growlers (February 1883)

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   12 February 1883, THE WASHINGTON STAR (DC), pg. 4, col. 2:
      _The Growlers._
A NEW ORDER IMPORTED INTO WASHINGTON FROM
   GOTHAM--THE CEREMONY OF INSTITUTING THE
   LODGE AND THE FESTIVITIES ATTENDING IT.
   Washington Lodge, No. 2, of the order of "The Growlers," was instituted
with due ceremony yeasterday afternoon at St. George's hall, the following
officer installed: Chief growler, W. F. Wolfe; unlimited growler, A. J. Sanderson;
limited growler, S. W. Knevals; lst past chief growler, Frank Clifford;
recording growler, C. F. Eldridge; trustees, Fred W. Pilling, H. C. Bowers, Dr. J.
Walter; financial growler, J. V. D. Kelly; senior growler, Thomas D. Ward;
senior conducting growler, W. H. Dowe; junior growler, H. Gans; junior conducting
growler, W. H. DeShields; orderly growler, K. E. Hurt; pious growler, Richard
Kenyon; musical growler, Frank Clifford.  The new lodge beings its career with
twenty-eight members.  Fifty-three members of the parent lodge in New York
came here to take part in the ceremony of institution.  Among the visitors were
John H. Conway, grand chief growler; Aldermen Alex. B. Smith and H. W. Jaehne;
John W. Marshall, Dr. T. O. Morrison, Assemblyman James F. Higgins; Frank
Lawrence, of the New York custom-house; Capt. J. McElwain, of the sixteenth
police precinct, and F. A. Merriman, of the New York _Sun_.  In the evening a
social session and dinner was given at Abner's, and conducted by the New York
Growlers after the fashion of the social suppers in New York.  After the dinner was
over, the wine was cleared away, and the Growlers, according to the law of
the order, confined their bibulous achievements to beer.  Mr. Merriman presided,
his chief duty as presiding officer being to appoint a beer committee
whenever glasses needed refilling.  The Growler Glee Club rendered several songs,
Messrs. Lang and Myers, of New York, sang solos, and Messrs. Patterson and
O'Neill, of New York, and Andrews, of Washington, gave fine recitations.  At the
close of the festivities a dispatch of greeting was sent to the New York lodge.
The Growlers then fraternized with the Washington lodge of Elks, who held a
social session in the same hall after the Growlers were through.  "The Growlers"
were organized in New York about three years ago by ten gentlemen who had
been in the habit of meeting socially.  The order now numbers in that city over
two hundred members.  No attempt was ever made before to extend the
organization outside of that city.  Some of the Growlers, however, having moved to this
city, and desiring to keep up here the pleasant customs of the Growlers, it was
decided to institute Washington Lodge No. 2.  The object of the order is
entirely social, and it is a temperance order, in the German sense, no liquor
stronger than beer being tolerated at the social gatherings, and penalties being
imposed on any Growler who might disgrace the order by becoming inebriated.
The motto of the order informs the world that the members never growl, which
makes the name of the order a contradiction, the members being supposed to
breathe and exist in the mountain atmosphere of philosophic contentment.  One of the
customs of the order which keeps their obligations constantly before the
growlers is that they shall never drink with their right hand.  The members of the
Washington lodge other than the officers are James Cunningham, General Anson
G. McCook, Edward Abner, Henry Alschwce, Colonel J. H. Jenks, Professor LeRoy
J. Boggs, George W. Aires, Frank H. Hood, WIlliam Kent, Willis Merritt, E. R.
Marcoe and Charles O. Browne.


(The New York SUN of 1883 probably has more information--ed.)