QUEER SOCIETIES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18303, 10 February 1925, Page 3

QUEER SOCIETIES.

It has been said that if a handful of Anglo-Saxons were cast, away on a desert island, their first concern would be tho formation of a society—one with an "anti" in it for preference, remarks a writer in "John o' London's Weekly." A recent census revealed the existence of some three thousand societies in London alone, many of them almost totally unknown outside tho circles of their supporters. Correct oatmg, justico to animals, moral hygiene, equal clothing rights for both sexes, protection for bookmakers, raw meat meals, and the restoration of the King's prerogative are only a few of the widely diverse objects held by societies existing at the present time. Faith-healing has of late been much in the news, but tho Panacea Society is in a category of its own. It' claims to have cured many cases of illness by means of certain waters, which are sent through the post to its adherents. The Society for Spreading the Knowledge of True Prayer advances the singular theory that life and death are an illusion, and that illness does not exist and never did exist. Comparatively little known is the Vacant Land Society, founded 17 years ago by the late Joseph Fels, for the purpose -of obtaining "from public authorities and private owners, free of cost, for allotment, workers, the loan, of building sites and other unused land." The Antliroposopliical Society seeks tho "cultivation of all branches of human endeavour on the basis of a scientific knowledge. of the spiritual world.'' The title of the London Playing Fields Society is more- or less selfexplanatory. Two societies of interest to women are tho Fine Needlework Association and the. London Institute for the. Advancement of Plain Needlework. Tho Simplified Spelling- Sosieti, as its members, would have-us write it, still maintains an active propaganda, while the Society for the-Prevention of Premature Burial continues its grimly humane work;-' : .

What must surely rank as one of the most of thesp virious bodies; is the Confraternity of tli.c KiKbo - J£if t; a society wfyicli recently,...Heidi a. camp. in mid-Sussex, where -weird rftes,' include ing a form of ancestor worship,. Were indulged in. Tho Kibbo Kift Kindred, venerate in particular the famous Piltdown skull, believing that the age in which the Piltdown man lived marked the beginning of man's evolution here on earth. The members wear the garb of ancient. Britons, .and aye known by names quaintly .reminiscent of- those distant times. , Some striking. studies in ..contrasts are afforded by the many brass plates to be noted in one's walks in certain London districts, Bloomsbury in particular. Tho after-care ■of • inebriates, the recognition of the Divine Right of kings, tho breeding of large black pips, the promotion of. Hellenic Studies, thfl abolition of slavery, the, care of aborigines, the. preservation; : of footpaths, rational living—these' represent the aims of but a tithe of? jtho littleltnown organisations that have sprung up in recent years. Their numbers are being augmented almost every day.'