Excerpt from Constitution, by-Laws and Rules, of Hoosack Valley Lodge: Number One Hundred Twenty-Nine, I. O. Of O. F., Instituted at South Adams, Mass The principle of association, that has wrought such wonders in this age, and in every department of society, has been adopted by our order; and we unite in social compact, for our own mutual benefit, and for the spectfic purpose of extendlng to the sick, the widow, and orphan, effic1ent and timely aid. The experience of years has proved, that, though our regular contributions to the trees ury are, in themselves, but trifling, still they aflord abun dant means for affording effectual relief to all our needy members; and we are not aware that a single instance has occured, where a lodge has not been able to meet all the demands of this kind that have been made upon its treasury. And we may safely say. That unqs'er our pres ent organization and regulations, no poor brother will want the necessaries of life - no widow will go out to beg - no orphan be left uneducated. Such things have'not been known amongst us, and they will not occur. Our means, then, are sufficient to carry out our objects. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.