Subordinate Order Ritual. Published by the National Order Anti-Horse Thief Association

St. Paul, Ks: The News Printery, 1905. Very good.. 17pp. Original plain orange wrappers, stapled. Minor wear and soiling, contemporary pencil notation to wrappers. Some light soiling to contents, manuscript notation at end of text. Pamphlet published by the Anti-Horse Thief Association in St. Paul, Kansas, a tiny town about a hundred miles due east of Wichita. The Anti-Horse Thief Association was a long-standing vigilance committee in Kansas, established in the 1850s, presented here similar to a masonic organization. The present work provides the order for their ceremonies and rituals, including initiations, installing officers, and the funeral ceremony. Inside the front cover is a manuscript list of names recording the investigation and pursuing committees for 1904; the rear cover has the ownership inscription of Robert Leer of Vincennes, Iowa, and a date noting the last meeting he attended. While there are several early 20th-century editions in OCLC, we locate only one copy of this 1905 edition, at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. Rare and interesting.