"[2] Its "catechism" said "Owls do good, speak kindly, shake hands warmly, and respect and honor their women.
[11] In 1911 the Order claimed over 300,000 members in the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere.
"[10] In 1912, it was reported[19] that the Owls' motto, penned by Frank Dunbar at the initial 1904 meeting, was: There's so much bad in the best of us And so much good in the worst of us It hardly behooves any of us To speak ill of the rest of us.
The same article goes on to state: The Owls in their mottoes have gone the Hoo-Hoos one better in the rescue of a good old but sadly abused Latin derivative.
Out of deference to non-members we will use the customary dash in the one quoted, which is offered in evidence of fact that the Owls, while going about in a serious way to sandpaper the splinters of the helter-skelter of life, are firm believers in the play spirit.
"[20] They elsewhere stated that their Order was "a secret society of good fellows, who believe in love, laughter and the Kingdom of Heaven ON EARTH.
[6] Later, when a Catholic pastor had warned his congregation against the Owls, Talbot wrote him back on Dec. 13, 1910 saying that it had come to his attention that he had a copy of the ritual and was making parts of it known; Talbot protested that the ritual was property of the Home Nest, which was the supreme organization of the order, and "amply protected in a legal manner" and threatened legal action, but nothing came of the matter.
In 1914 the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a split decision allowing the Afro-American Order of Owls to continue using the name, but not the initials "A.A.O.O.O."
[29] Some supposed Nests operated into the early 21st century in such places as Duluth, Minnesota,[32] Perkasie, Pennsylvania[33] and Parkersburg, West Virginia.
[36] John W. Talbot, of South Bend, national president of the order of Owls, pleaded not guilty today when arraigned before United States Judge A.B.
Pearl Spangler, head nurse of the Owl hospital in South Bend, indicted with Talbot on the Mann act charge, also pleaded not guilty.
She told the grand jury, which indicted Talbot recently at Indianapolis, that she was held virtually a prisoner by the Owl president but at last escaped and sought the protection of the South Bend police.
She declared that Talbot, for whom her father, William F. Bagley, formerly did organization work in Kansas, wrote and asked her to come to South Bend on her vacation.