The Gaiety Restaurant.

ments—the buffets themselves and their fittings , the marble tables , the morocco settees , Ac , & c ., aro excellent . On the floor below is the Grill room , not so lofty , but otherwise of the same dimensions as the Buffet room , and less elaborately decorated ; below thi 3 again are the cellars and other offices , on a scale which may bo better imagined than described : for example , the large beer cellar

alone contains two hundred hogsheads . Above tho Buffet room is the Gaiety Table d'Hote , furnished like an ordinary dining room , in good taste and well carpeted . Here the public may dine at the same rate a 3 at tho famous Criterion Table d'Hote , that is , for threo and sixpence , tho menu including soups , fish , entrees , joints , sweets , & c , & c . Ladies' cloak rooms aro within convenient reach , and hats ,

umbrellas , & c , & c , aro taken iu charge by the attendant in the lobby provided for their reception . Abovo is the Smoking and Coffee room , both this and the Table d'Hote being of tho same superficial areaone hundred feet by thirty-throo feet—as the Buffet room , and therefore capable of accommodating a very large gathering of people . Abovo them , on the top floor of all , aro the kitchens and other offices required in tho culinary department . In short tho arrangements of tho Gaiety

Restaurant must bo prouounced as being a 3 perfect as modern skill and science , backed by enterprise and money , can mako them . That snch an establishment , in such a thoroughfare as the Strand and under such management , will provo an inestimable benefit to the public is certain . That Messrs . Spiers and Pond may reap the full reward of thoir generous energy is the smallest of the good wishes we feel called upon to offer them !

Pyramid Masonry.

PYRAMID MASONRY .

EltOM TIIE " KEYSTONE . " THE received traditions of Freemasonry place the origin of the Fraternity at the building of King Solomon's Temple , and notwithstsnding the fact that literal archaeologists and iconoclasts deride this as pure fiction , others have not been deterred from finding even an earlier origin for the Craft , viz : at the building of the Great Pyramid of Egypt . Not a few modern savants would persuade us , that

this wonderful structure was erected for divers weig hty reasons , suoh as , for example , to monument a divine standard of weights and measures . Bro . William Rowbottom is the latest interpreter of the meaning of the Pyramid , and he finds it to be a chronological monument , indicating events both past and future , aud erected by the first organized Fraternity of Freemasons . He has stated his views ,

somewhat briefly , in a well-written work just published , entitled " The Mystery of tho Bible Dates solved by the Great Pyramid . " * ( ' According to Sir John Hcrschel , and other received authorities , the Great Pyramid was bnilt four thousand and forty-eight years ago , in other words in B . C . 2170 . Bro . Rowbottom accepts this date , and alleges that the architect and builder of the ryramid was no other

than Melcmzedec , King of Salem , whom he identifies with Shem as an inspired architect , tho great work of whose life was intended to be a prophecy in stone of the world ' s history . We will state Bro . Rowbottom ' s theory : The Pyramid dates are obtained by measuring backwards from commencement of the Grand Gallery , which is assumed to represent

the year 1 of the present dispensation—in other words , the birth ot Christ . The first ascending passage from its junction with tho entrance passage to the commencement of the Grand Gallery , measures 1542 inches , aud sinco a Pyramid inch is taken to represent a year , this distance signifies 1542 years . Now 1542 years B . C ., Moses was born—hence this measurement , we arc told , monuments that historical

fact . But the first descending passage is 98 G inches from the entrance to the commencement of the first ascending passage . This being added to the previous 1542 inches , makes 2528 inches , or years , and therefore represents the B . C . 2528 , which was the date of the Flood . Other measurements give the year B . C . 2170 , tho date of the birth of Abraham , and also of the erection of the Great Pyramid ; and the year A . D . 1882 , which we are led to believe may be the

year of tho consummation of all things . We confess we should be more inclined to place some confidence in this scheme of chronology if we saw any basis for the assumption of its starting point . Bro . Rowbottom does not enlighten ns as to how he arrives at this corner-stone of his assumption ; we suppose , however , that he fixes it solely on the hypothesis that it falls in , in the line of the other coincidences , with the dates of leading Biblical events .

Bro . Rowbottom next considers the evidence of Freemasonry ' s identification with tho building of the Great P yramid . We will quote a few passages from his book iu this connection : " It is not necessary that Freemasonry shall have always existed as at prescut constituted , nor that in all ages and climes that it shall have presented identical features . It the rather appears to me that

the claims of Lho UrJer to antiquity should rest on the preservation of certain knowledge from remote periods , and that if it has any veal connection with Suerod History , that it should have retained tho power of securing its record from loss or irreparable mutilation ; in fact , that it shonld possess the means of keepiug the

recordtsquare . Some might call it a fancy , aud yet to me it is a belief as certain as kuuwlciigc , that Freemasonry has somo such or equal !} important mission , lor 1 do not ihink it credible that such an institut . ou could have retained its influence over men of keen intellect , and oftentimes of great piety , had it been nothing more than a cnuniugij devised fable . ' Ueuuiue Freemasonry would thus consist iu every a"i

Pyramid Masonry.

of the preservation of knowledge among the faithful , and this view wonld explain its original title of Light . ' That Masonry cannot be opposed to , or detract from , the authority of the Scriptures , is evident from tho fact that their study is inculcated as the duty of every true Mason , and that the open Bible occupies a prominent placo in every properly furnished Lodge .

Among Masons true Art found its original home , and to them we owe our noble Gothic Cathedrals , whose harmonious proportions are so pleasing to tho eye . In those days , as in the days of ancient Rome and Grooce , artists carved and built to certain well known- ^ - thongh secretly preserved—laws of proportion . This has led sortie to regard Masonry as purely operative in its origin , but the weight

of evidence is decidedly in favour of tho equal antiquity of speculative Masonry , and that the laws governing the ancient guilds of skilled workman aro not the foundation , bnt the outcome of the principles of true Masonic government . The building of Solomon ' s Temple is evidenced as the first occasion on which operative and speculative Masonry woro united in a common object ; but many and

mighty reasons may , and have been , adduced in favor of a much earlier event , viz : tho building of the Great Pyramid . If then Masonry had its origin at the building of the Great Pyramid , and also had a contemporary existence with the sacred annals : and if the record of these two witnesses is in truth inspired , then it will follow that Masonry should be in agreement with both . I trust

that I have shown that it is so in historic import and philosophic teaching . " Bro . Rowbottom concludes his volume with the statement , that the English nation— the Anglo Saxon people , are the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel , and hence to them are all the promises of Scripture vouchsafed . Others have stated and ably argned this case ,

and we must confess there appears to be strength m the argument . This volume will interest Freemasons , and all students of the Bible . The coincidences to which it invites attention are certainly remarkable , and if they are only fancies , they are philosophic fancies , which lend a charm to the most remarkable edifice in the world , aud one which is now attracting anew the attention of scientists , scholars , and Freemasons .

The Brotherhood Of Man.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN .

FREEMASONRY has lately had a singular ally in teaching the doctrine of the brotherhood nf man—no less a one than the fearful scourge that is now devastating large seotions of our national territory . For once men ignore their politics , their religion , their

prejudices and prejudgments of all kinds , and unite in liberally contributing of their means for the relief of the sick , the dying , the bereaved , and the helpless , in the fever cities of the South . All Americans appear to be learning Freemasonry , and to be exemplifying in their actions the noble dootrine of the brotherhoood of

man . We have often thought that if tho State , the Church , and society had done their whole duty to the individuals composing them , there would have been little , if any , room for Freemasonry , and possibly the Fraternity might never have existed , or might even now come to an end . The State should labour for the welfare of all its citizens :

the Church likewise for all of its members ; and society for the smaller circle of which it , in various localities , is composed—but they each and all do not . The State is nob a nnit , but , owing to the existence of divers parties in it , is ruled in turn by factions , as one or the other for the time predominates . The church has grown rich and eminently respectable , and while still accomplishing great good ,

and acting as a civilizer ad over the world , it has practically sadly neglected the doctrine of fraternity or brotherhood , and its members are olten as far apart as the poles . Society is segregated into " sets , " as the Church is into denominations , and the State is into parties . Thus all degree in ignoring the brotherhood of man . It requires something akin to an earthquake ' s shock to awaken them to a sense

of their responsibilities . Such a shock they are now receiving , and the result is , an unqualified acknowledgment that they are their " brother ' s keeper . " Man is linked anew to man all over our landi The North and the South , the East and the West , are one . The political hatchet is buried , sectarian animosities are ignored , and the " " hard times " are even lost sight of , in view of the terribly harder

times of our stricken fellow-countrymen . These are now truly the United States of America , and may they continue so , long after the cementing cause has ceased to be the death-blood of the diseasestricken thousands who now fill the grave-yards of the South ! Freemasonry has always exemplified the doctrine of the brotherhood of man , for it is the very corner-stone of our Fraternity . No .

where , however , does the Freemason feel the fall force of this glorious doctrine so fully , as when he is associated , either in the Lodge or elsewhere , with hi » Brother Masons . He is then with those who , with him , have learned all of its meaning , and are continually exhibiting its teachings in practice . We unhesitatingly affirm that Freemasonry oftens puts the Church , the State , aud society , to tho blush , by its

whole-sonled and universal exemplification of the noble truth of brotherhood . Wo are our " brother ' s keeper , " and we glory in the thought and the fact . We adroit our responsibility most unqualifiedly—it requires no earthquake shock to wake us to it . No Freemason in good standing need suffer long from sorrow , need , sickness or any other infirmity . We care for our menu ners , and not by any specified stint or measure of obligation , but as

» re have ability , from a full heart and a ready parse . Tho American people may do well to ask themselves , whether one of the purposes of the Almighty in sending , or permitting , the Yellow Fever scourge to devastate our cities and towns , i 3 not to awaken us as individuals to a fuller apprehension of the high and holy truth of human brotherhood . It cannot be an accident ; it must be a teacher * its methods aro novel , radical suij terrifying , b , r $ ^ vrovM fcia