This "Dictionary" was compiled at the request of the publisher from materials accumulated by the undersigned during a thirty-three years' career as an editor. It is intended for the information of Catholics, especially the reverend clergy, among whom there has long been a demand for a reliable reference work on the subject of secret and other societies into which Catholics are liable to be drawn. For obvious reasons all specifically Catholic societies, as well as, societies consisting exclusively of Catholics and having the ecclesiastical approbation, have been excluded. On the other hand it has not been deemed wise to draw the lines too narrowly, but for the sake of completeness a large number of organizations have been included which are neither secret nor even quasi-secret, but purely beneficial, civic, patriotic, and so forth. The difference in the length of the various articles is not always owing to reasons of larger or smaller importance, but to the amount of information obtainable. While the compiler has circularized all the societies listed in this book, so far as he was able to ascertain their addresses, not all of the respective officers have responded to his questionnaire, and among those that did, not all gave the information desired.