Holiday Arrangements.

On the Bank Holiday cheap trains will be run to Reading , Swindon , Gloucester , Cheltenham , Bath , Bristol , & c , and on Whit Tuesday an express half-day excursion will be run to Oxford , Leamington and Stratford-on-Avon . * Excursions will be run to London from most of the principal stations , and cross country trips have also been arranged .

Cheap tickets are issued daily from London and many suburban stations to Staines , Windsor , Taplow , Maidenhead , Burnham Beeches , Henley , Goring , Wallingford , and other riverside resorts . These tickets-can be obtained throughout tho Whitsuntide holidays , and in fact during the whole of the summer months . The train service to and from the riverside stations has also been considerably improved .

To meet the expected additional traffic by the ordinary trains on Saturday , 5 th June , the Company will run in duplicate the 11 . 45 a . m ., 3 . 0 , 5 . 45 and 9 . 0 p . m . trains from London to the West of England , the 1 . 30 , 4 . 45 and 6 . 50 p . m . trains to the north ; and the 12 . 0 noon ; and 9 . 15 p . m . trains to Weymouth , Hereford and South Wales . The first portion

of the 11 . 45 a . m ., 3 . 0 p . m . and 9 . 0 p . m . trains will leave Paddington at 11 . 40 a . m ., 2 . 55 p . m . and 8 . 55 p . m . respectively , but the first parts of the other trains will leave at the advertised times , and the second a few minutes afterwards , tho long distance passengers being as far as possible taken in the first portion , but with a few exceptions both trains will stop at the advertised stations to take up and set down passengers .

Ordinary and excursion tickets are issued at the Company ' s City and West End Offices , viz .: —193 and 407 Oxford Street , 181 Tottenham Court Road , W ., 23 New Oxford Street ; Gloucester Mansions , Cambridge Circus , Shaftesbury Avenue , W . C . ; "The Piazza , " Covent Garden ; 269 Strand , 26 Regent Street , S . W ., 29 Charing Cross , 17 Brompton Road , 4 Holborn Circus ,

Nag ' s Head Yard , 137 Borough High Street , S . E . ; Minories ( opposite Goodman ' s Yard ) , 5 Arthur Street East , London Bridge , E . C . ; 82 Queen Victoria Street , 67 Gresham Street . 4 Cheapside , and at the L . B . & S . C . Company ' s Excursion Office ( under Grand Hotel ) , Trafalgar Square . Tickets can also be obtained at Victoria ( L . C . & D . Railway ) , Kensington ( Addison Road ) Uxbridge Road , Hammersmith , and other stations .

, The booking offices at the Paddington Station will be open all day on 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , and 5 th June , so that passengers wishing to obtain tickets for any destination on the Great Western Railway can do so at their convenience . Ordinary tickets will be dated to suit the convenience of passengers .

MIDLAND RAILWAY . CHEAP Excursion Trains will be run from London to Dublin , Cork , Killarney , & c , for 16 days , via Liverpool , and via Morecambe ; also to Belfast , Londonderry , and Portrush for Giant ' s Causeway via Barrow , via Stranraer and Lame , and via Liverpool , on Friday 4 th June ; and to Londonderry , via Liverpool , or via Morecambe , on Saturday , 5 th June , to return within sixteen days as per bill of sailing ; to Leicester , Nottingham ,

Newark , Lincoln , Birmingham , Walsall , Wolverhampton , Burton , Derby , Manchester , Liverpool , Preston , Wigan , Blackpool , Blackburn , Bolton , Oldham , Sheffield , Leeds , Bradford , Scarboro ' , Newcastle , the Furness District , Carlisle , & c , & c , on Saturday , 5 th June , returning the following Monday , Thursday , or Saturday , and to Douglas ( Isle of Man ) for 10 days ; to Carlisle , Castle Douglas , Dumfries , Helensburgh , Edinburgh , Greenock , Glasgow , Stirling , Perth , Dundee , Aberdeen , Inverness , Ballater , & c , on Friday night , 4 th June , returning the following Tuesday or Saturday , by

which Third Class Return Tickets at a Single Ordinary fare for the double journey will also be issued , available for returning on any day within 16 days : On Whit-Monday , 7 th June , to St . Albans , Harpenden , Luton , Bedford , Kettering , Leicester , and Birmingham , for one day ; and to Manchester , for the Races , on Thursday ( Midnight ) , 10 th June , returning Saturday , 12 th June . Tickets for these Trains for starting from St . Pancras Station can be obtained on the two previous days to the running of the Trains , at the Company's City and West End Booking Officers . Cheap daily and week-end excursions to Southend-on-Sea , as announced in Time Tables and Bills .

The Season Excursions from London ( St . Pancras ) to Matlock , Buxton , Liverpool , Southport , Blackpool , Lytham , St . Anne ' s-on-Sea , the Isle of Man , Morecambe , Lancaster , the English Lake District , & c , will commence on Saturday , 5 th June . The tickets are available for passengers to return in either 3 , 8 , 10 , 15 or 17 days . Cheap Week-end tickets are now issued every Friday and Saturday from London ( St . Pancras ) and other principal Midland Stations to the chief

holiday and pleasure resorts in the " Peak " District of Derbyshire , Yorkshire , the North East Coast , and other parts . The tickets are available for return on the following Sunday ( where train service permits ) , Monday or Tuesday . Cheap excursion trains for five or eight days will also bo run to London from Carlisle , Bradford , Leeds , Sheffield , Liverpool , Manchester , Blackburn ,

Burnley , Bolton , Bury , Rochdale , Oldham , Lincoln , Newark , Burton , Derby , Nottingham , Leicester , & c , on Saturday , 5 th June ; and for 3 or 6 days on Monday , 7 th June . From Liverpool , Southport , Warrington , Manchester , Stockport , Bradford , Leeds , Barnsley , Sheffield , & c , on Saturday , 5 th June , for 3 , 5 , or 8 days * , also from Birmingham , Walsall , Wolverhampton , for 3 , 4 , 5 , or 8 days .

Passengers will be booked by these trains at cheap fares to Brighton , Hastings , St . Leonards , Eastbourne , & c . ; and to Paris and other places on the Continent , having tho privilege of returning by any ordinary train within 16 days . On Whit Monday , 7 th June , an excursion train to London for 1 or 2 days will be run from Bradford , Leeds , Barnsley , Sheffield , & c . ; and for 1 , 2 , ' 3 or 6 days from Birmingham , Wolverhampton , Walsall , & c . ; and day trips from Burton , Derby , Nottingham , Leicester , Wellingboro' , & c .

On Whit Monday , 7 th June , certain booked trains will be discontinued , of which due notice will be given by special bills at the stations . To prevent inconvenience and crowding , the booking offices at St . Pancras and Moorgate Street Stations will be open for the issue of tickets all day on Friday and Saturday , 4 th and 5 th June , and tickets to all principal Stations on the Midland Railway will also be issued beforehand , at any of their offices throughout London , the tickets obtained at these offices being available from St . Pancras Station , and issued at the same fares as charged at that Station , and dated to suit the convenience of passengers .

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY . THIS Company announces that on the night of Friday next a cheap excursion will leave London for stations in the north of England and Scotland , returning on Tuesday , 8 th , or Saturday , 12 th inst . Tickets at a single fare for the double journey will also bo issued by this excursion , available for return by one fixed train on any day within sixteen days , including days of issue and return .

On Saturday , 5 th June , cheap excursions will also be run for 3 , 6 , and 8 days from London to the principal towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire , Leicester , Derby , Nottingham , Hull , Grimsby , Lincoln , Ollerton , Edwinstowe , Chesterfield , Gainsboro ' , Lynn , Yarmouth , Norwich , Spalding ,

Holiday Arrangements.

Wishech , Cambridge , St . Ives , Ramsey , & c , while on that and each succeeding Saturday during June , July , August , and September , cheap excursions for 3 , 8 , 10 , 15 , or 17 days , will be run from Moorgate , King ' s Cross ( G . N . ) , & c , to Bridlington , Filey , Scarboro ' , Robin Hood ' s Bay , Whitby , Saltburn , Redcar , Seaton Carew , Tynemouth , Whitley , Cullercoats , Liverpool , Southport , and Douglas . In connection with these Excursions tickets will be issued at the London

suburban stations at the King ' s Cross fares , and passengers booking at these stations may travel by ordinary train to either Finsbury Park or King ' s Cross , as may be necessary in order to join the Excursion trains . Cheap excursions for 3 , 5 or 8 days will also be run to London ( King ' s Cross ) from the principal country stations . On Whit-Monday , 7 th June , cheap day excursions will be run from

Victoria ( L . C . & D . ) , Ludgate Hill , Moorgate , King's Cross , Finsbury Park , & c , to St . Albans , Hertford , Wheathampstead , Harpenden , Luton , Dunstable , Hitchin , Royston , and Cambridge . A cheap day excursion will also be run from Moorgate , King ' s Cross , Finsbury Park , & c , to Biggleswade , Sandy , St . Neots , Huntingdon , Peterboro ' , Skegness , Sutton-on-Sea , and Mablethorpe , while several cheap 1 or 2 days excursions will be run to London .

To prevent inconvenience from crowding at the Company ' s principal terminal station , King ' s Cross , tickets , dated in advance , will be issued at King's Cross ( G . N . R . ) , Victoria ( L . C . & D . ) , Ludgate Hill , Moorgate , Aidersgate , Farringdon , and suburban stations , and at the usual ticket offices .

The Baling Lodge , No . 2662 , will be consecrated on Thursday next , 3 rd June , at the "Victoria Hall , Baling , the Grand Secretary Bro . Edward Letchworth being the presiding Officer . He will afterwards instal Bro . F . W . Jordan I . P . M . 172 as first Worshipful Master . We wish the new Lodge a successful start and a prosperous future .

The ceremony of Installation , and the Lecture on the second Tracing Board , will be rehearsed by Bro . Basil Stewart P . M . in the Israel Lodge of Instruction , No . 205 , to-morrow ( Sunday ) evening , at the Eising Sun , Globe Eoad , Bethnal Green , the proceedings commencing at 6 . 30 p . m . for Installed Masters , the

" inner working" being rehearsed before the more public ceremony , which will be started at 7 o ' clock . Brethren are cordially invited to attend , and may rely on a very pleasing experience . The Lodge is under the Preceptorship of Bro . B . DaCosta P . M . 1349 , while Bro . Henry Harris S . W . 1349 discharges the duties of Secretary .

Women In Masonry.

WOMEN IN MASONRY .

THIS subject is causing a temporary unrest in the Fraternity . An organisation called the Order of the Eastern Star has been sending circulars to Lodges in this jurisdiction , calling attention to its objects , and offering the necessary charter and other paraphernalia for organising Chapters , which , it is said , very genorally hold their meetings in Masonic apartments .

As the Masonic Fraternity , in its origin and essential characteristics , is altogether a man ' s society , I call attention to this insidious attempt to change it and make it like the innumerable other societies and orders of the day . A Fraternity , as the word means , is a society of Brethren , and Brethren are , or at least should be , men . Hence it is impossible to admit women in association with them in a Lodge Room .

Masonry is such a unique and peculiar institution that it has always kept aloof from any of the so-called progressive movements of the day ; not that , as men , we have no sympathy with them , or object to them , but because as Masons our Fraternity has always kept itself within the qualifications

originally laid down for its membership , one of the most important of which is that the applicant for Freemasonry must be a man . This law against the co-mingling of the sexes cannot be evaded by any device whatever . Lodge celebrations , under the name and guise of Lodge associations , are under the ban of the Masonic law .

The great advantages which have been derived from this important qualification of a Freemason admonish us that if we would continue to he respected in the future , as we have been in the past , we must not make any innovation by which it may be changed .

Notwithstanding the jests one may hear at social gatherings concerning persons who are not Masons being at the Lodge , when they were at some other place which they wish to conceal , it is a gratification to Freemasons to know that no scandals , arising out of the co-mingling of the sexes , can be said to have had their origin in a Lodge Room .

I know it is quite fashionable for associations calling themselves Masonic to hold mixed gatherings of the sexes , and I verily believe that the appetites created there have caused this inordinate desire to carry the connection further , so as to bring men and women together in the Lodge Room . If it be progressive to do this , let those who like such progress advocate it ; but I do not believe the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania will ever give its approval to

the use of its Lodge Room for any kind of gathering , except that of the Brethren of the Lodge and for Lodge purposes only . And I further believe that where this new idea has been permitted to obtain a foothold , it will either go on to the destruction of the Fraternity or its abandonment , and a return by the Fraternity to the ancient and simple practices established in the beginning .

The new practice of public installation of officers in other jurisdictions has fed this appetite for the union of sexes in the Lodge Room . It pleases the vanity of the persons who thus exhibit themselves , as they compete with the strolling players of the mimic stage . —From Address of Grand Master Michael Arnold , in Grand Lodge of Penn ., 27 th Dec . 1894 .

We are this week compelled to hold over several reports and general items of interest , in consequence of the pressure of other matter upon our space .