Reports Of Meetings.

were good examples to follow . In conclusion he assured his auditors that they might expect the work to go on as satisfactorily as before , for he could rely upon his Officers in any emergency . Other toasts followed .

Royal Arch.

EOYAL AECH

ALL SAINTS CHAPTER , No . 422 . AT the annual meeting held at Gainsborough , on Tuesday , 20 th inst ., the Officers for the year were elected as follow : —Comps . Fanner lst Principal , Sowby 2 nd , Constable 3 rd , Liversidge Principal Sojourner and Treasurer , R . G . Pearson Scribe E ., Adland Scribe N ., and Scott Janitor .

Here And There.

HERE AND THERE .

I AM much obliged to Brother W . J . Hughan P . G . D . for the immediate response which he made to my inquiry regarding the " Blue Blanket , " which interesting account appeared in your columns last week . In your next issue I hope to give another version , which has just reached me from a correspondent ac a distance .

Here is a literal copy of a play bill issued by tho manager of the Theatre Royal , Kilkenny , in the year 1793 : — " Kilkenny Theatre Royal , by His Majesty ' s company of comedians . On Saturday , 14 th May 1793 , will be performed by command of several respectable people in this learned metropolish , for the benefit of Mr . Kearns , the tragedy of ' Hamlet I '

Originally written and composed by the celebrated Dan Hays , of Limerick , and insarted in Shakspere ' s works . Hamlet by Mr . Kearns ( being his first appearance in that character ) , who , between the acts will perform several solos on the patent bag-pipes , which play two tunes at the same time . Ophelia by Mrs . Prior , who will introduce several favourite airs in character ,

particularly ' The Lass of Richmond Hill , ' and ' We'll all be unhappy together , ' from the Reverend Mr . Dibdin's ' Oddities . ' Tho parts of the King and Queen , by direction of the Reverend Father O'Callagan , will be omitted , as too immoral for any stage . Polonius , the comical politician , by a young gentleman , being his first appearance in public . The Ghost , the

Gravedigger , and Laertes , by Mr . Sampson , the great London comedian . The characters to be dressed in Roman shapes . To which will be added an interlude , in which will be introduced several sleight-of-hand tricks hy the celebrated surveyor Hunt . The whole to conclude with the farce of ' Mahomet the Impostor . ' Mahomet by Mr . Kearns . Tickets to be had of

Mr . Kearns , at the sign of the Goat ' s Beard , in Castle Street . The value of the tickets , as usual , will be taken ( if required ) in candles , bacon , butter , cheese , soap , & c , as Mr . Kearns wishes , in every particular , to accommodate the public . No person shall be admitted into the boxes without shoes or stockings . "

I heard a good retort tho other day which is quite original . A male and female acquaintance of mine were engaged in a very lively discussion , when the former said , " By the bye , your sparkling witticisms remind me that the ancient Greeks applied to an unmarried lady the term' Anecdote , ' which

really signified ' anything not yet given forth . '" The fair disputant answered as follows : — " I daresay you are quite right , and in the same sense the ancient Greeks would probably have described many unmarried men as * Romances , inelegantly bound in calf . '"

Another friend of mine , who has just returned from Paris , was relating to me some sad experiences which he met with while staying in the Rue St . Honore . This recital of his reminded me of an incident which took place shortly before my first visit to the gay city some years ago , and which was told to me while passing through this identical suburb on my way to the

Jardin des Plantes . A Savoyard , whose only means of subsistence seemed to be what he gained by playing a hurdy-gurdy , was passing the window of a printseller ' s shop in the Rue St . Honore , when he fell down in a faint , exclaiming at the same time , " My mother ! " Upon being restored to consciousness , he was questioned as to the cause of his sudden indisposition ,

and explained that a painting in the shop window to which he pointed—that of a Savoyard ' s cot with a woman and children—was his own home depicted with portraits of his mother , brothers , and sister , a subject which had attrar-ted the notice of some passing artist . The bystanders of the scene were

so struck by the remarkable coincidence , that in their sympathy with the Savoyard they made a very substantial collection in money , which enabled the object of their solicitude to revisit his home shortly afterwards . A gentleman who was present purchased the picture for a sum of thirty francs , and magnanimously presented it to the lad .

An incident which happened in the Rue de Rivoli , a street adjoining the St . Honore , illustrates one of the many devices of the Parisian swindler . A dandy was walking under the arcades of tbe Rue de Rivoli , holding in his hand a gold-headed cane of splendid workmanship . A man supported by two crutches , came up , aud asked for alms in a pitiful tone . The dandy , moved

to compassion , gave the beggar a small silver coin . At the same time a person near him suddenly exclaimed , " How can you , sir , allow this rogue to deceive you ? Please to lend me your cane , and I will show you that the rascal runs better than I can . " The dandy , without reflecting , lent his cane . The beggar , the moment he perceived it in his detractor ' s

hand , threw away his crutches and took to his heels , being followed by the man with the cane , whilst the spectators , ancl thc dandy particularly , remained in convulsions of laughter at the sight , ancl exclaiming alternately , "Oh , he will be caught ! " "No , he will not be caught ! " But both the racing heroes disappeared at the next turning of the street , and their victim remained waiting for his splendid cane , which cost five hundred francs . 0 0 0 This is what a non-Masonic paper once said of us : — "It seems that everything which occurs in Masonic Lodges is not always known to the out-

Here And There.

side world . For this popular ignorance Masons themselves are partly to blame . If they were to invite local reporters to attend and report tho secret meetings of the Lodges , and wero to treat the reporters with civility and beer or both , no doubt they would reciprocate by giving the Lodge a good writeup . In fact , there is no occasion for the Masons to subsidise the reporter if they desire to have their proceedings made public . All that is necessary for such a purpose would be for the Masons to inform their wives confident . in . llv

under the promise of secresy , what goes on in the Lodge-room , and in an incredibly short time the secrets of Masonry would be a thing of the past . As it is , however , outsiders manage to find out a good deal about Masonry Masonic wives , or rather the wives of Masons , say , that after their husband ' s ' return from the Lodge , they do not bring the same breath back with them which they took away , but an entirely different aroma , which is redolent of whiskey and cigars , mitigated by ineffectual cloves .

Another open Masonic secret is that the Masons help each other outi and wonderful stories are told of Masons caught in tight places winking at other Masons , and being relieved at once . There was a story published in a newspaper about how a man , during the American War , got out of an annoying difficulty by being a Mason . It seems that General Sheridan hung some of Mosby ' s men , and Mosby returned the courtesy by hanging some Federal

prisoners . The great Virginia guerilla selected seven Union prisoners , and told some of his officers to escort them near to General Sheridan ' s line , and hang them . The Confederate officer who had charge of the hanging happened to be a Mason , and so also was one of the doomed Union prisoners . The consequence was that the Masonic prisoner was not utilised , and one who had intended to "jine , " but neglected to do so , was allowed to take the Mason's placo , and was duly hanged .

It is also said that the signals men make to keepers of soda-water fountains are Masonic signals . And so are those which other men make to the bar-keeper to " hang them up " on the slate . Still another Masonic secret is that persons who have been maimed by railway , or any other accident , and who , like King Richard , are " shorn of

their fair proportions , " or who may be doubled up by rheumatism , are not allowed to become members of the Order . The reason for this exclusion is said to be the liability of applicants to fall oE Jacob ' s ladder while being initiated , and smash some unlucky Masonic Brother who might be standing underneath .

But , jesting aside , liberty and civilisation owe a great debt to Masonry , and it will be a dark day for the world when Masonry is extinguished , of which , however , there is no possible danger . There is room for everybody in this world , if nobody tries to crowd anybody else . STREBO .

Masonic Celebrations.

MASONIC CELEBRATIONS .

TTIREEMASONRY , though professedly a secret and not a proselytising J- Order , comes before the public tolerably often . To some extent even this antient institution , adhering loyally as it does to the landmarks erected centuries ago , is influenced by the spirit of the age . The justification for a

degree of publicity that would perhaps have been regarded as scarcely proper in the earlier days of the Craft is doubtless to be found , at least in part , in the attacks to which Freemasonry is periodically subjected . A society against which Papal Bulls are launched is bound to defend itself to the best of its ability , and , to give them their due , its champions have little difficulty

in establishing that , however it may bo with Continental Masonry , the charge of favouring naturalism in religion and of fostering revolutionism in politics will not lie against the well-conducted Lodges of the English-speaking race The vigorous vindication of the Order and its principles by the Rev . F . W . Samwell last year , and by the Rev . Canon Poole on Monday evening

correctly and sufficiently answers such serious accusations . Nor is their reply merely a negative of the damaging theories advanced ; it contains positive testimony alike to the essentially religious , moral , and societycommenting aims of the Masonic institution . Nevertheless a good many of the uninitiated , and , for that matter , not a few even of its members themselves , may be indisposed to take Freemasonry quite so seriously .

It is rather a misfortune for the Order that when publicly in evidence ifc is usually on " full-dress parade , " a circumstance which tends naturally to beget an impression that there is less in it of substance than of show . The gorgeous regalia and the grandiose titles may well suggest enquiry whether there is an adequate reality behind them , -while the apparent prominence

given to the element of conviviality , at the same time that the rites and ceremonies preceding these festal re-unions are jealously withheld from view , supp lies the uncharitable cynic with his opportunity for jeering . After all , however , is it not true that the English find no celebration fittingly perfected without a dinner , and may not Masons , too , have their innocent

merrymakings without offence ? That the " knife-and-fork degree" is not absolutely dominant is well enough attested by the magnitude of both private and organised Masonic charity , showing that the principles of" brotherly love and relief" are by no means virtues of which there is incessant preaching without very considerable practice .

Obscure as still is the genesis of Freemasonry , the pretensions of the mystical school of writers who claimed for it an antiquity going back at least as far as Solomon ' s Temple are no longer seriously put forward .. The similar exaggerations of its secret teachings , as though not merely in form but in matter they stood wholly apart from the general body of human knowledge ,

may be with as little hesitation brushed aside . It has seemed to some critics a theme for wonderment that an enduring system could ever have been built upon , or rather around , the central legend or mythus of the Craft , not merely

because of its intrinsic character , but because at best it is traditionary and unverifiable . The founders of the scheme , however , whoever they may have been , had the profound sagacity to perceive as well the adaptability of symbol and allegory to effective exposition of religious and moral Jiruths as