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GLASGOW . St . Enoch Hotel ( Adjoins Glasgow Terminus of the Midland and G . & S . W . F . ailways ) . The St . Knoch Hotel is one of the finest in Crral Ilrilain , and is the most conveniently situated for both pleasure and business centres . Connie . Restaurant and Grill Kooni . Good Cooking . Good Service . Electric Light . Lifts . Bedrooms : Single from 4 s . ; Double from 6 s . 6 c ? . AYR - Station Hotel . New Lounge . Electric Li ^ ht . Xew Lift . Good Cooking . DUMFRIES . Station Hotel . For Ilnrns' Country . Lovely Drives , Walks , Golf . Good Cooking Klectiic Light . Bedrooms : Single from 3 s . 6 d . ; Double from 6 s . 6 d . Xo CriAHt . K ion . vrresmxci ' . AXI > Ki . v . cnt . c LH ' . HT . For descriptive nnd interesting ttirifl ( free ) , n />/>/ v—Chief Office : — J . U . THOMAS , Manager , ST . EXOCH HOTKI ., GI . ASCOW . G . & S . W . Ky . Co . ' s Hotels .

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PERRIER = JOUET & Cos . CHAMPAGNES . FINEST VINTAGE RESERVE-CITVEES . THE FAVOURITE MASONIC BRAND . Agent—A . BOURSOT , 9 , Hart Street , Hark Lane , London .

The Masonic Vagrant.

The Masonic Vagrant .

THE M ASONIC Imama

^ TO one ever imagines that the administration of benevo-J lence can display the precision and accuracy that characterise , say , the management of a bank , and in fact it is not desirable . The quality of mercy is not strained , and it is as well , for the expense and trouble involved in

straining it , in such wise as to exclude all who are unworthy , would rob it of its most pleasing characteristics , which are spontaneity and timeliness . The expression " deserving " poor , is not so much heard as it used to be . The question invob'ed in trying to separate those who are worthy

from those who are not , litis on occasion provoked the counter question " Who are the deserving rich ? " AVhen fortunes are made and lost with the rapidity which is one of the features of modern civilization , it may well be that the man of affluence is conscious that it is but the accident of an

accident that separates him from his brother in misfortune . AVe propose , however , to discuss the individual , who uses as a lever to move the charitable , not only his misfortunes but his connection with the Order . When the prisoner in the dock pleads , as part of his defence , his prev i ous good

character , he lays himself open to having all his antecedents raked up , which would not be the case if he relied solely upon the evidence . And similarly the applicant for relief , who

displays not only a tattered garment , but a Grand Lodge Certificate as well , demands a very special treatment . He , in effect , says that having once occupied an honourable position , and having been counted worthy to be admitted a member of an ancient and honourable fraternity , his misfortunes , or even his faults , have lost him that position '

which he cannot regain without assistance . The Order can , and will assist him , but under certain conditions . To enable a man to regain a lost position is not a feat that can be accomplished without trouble and without experience . Freemasons may claim without much fear of contradiction to

be the most highly trained charitable experts in the world . We have well developed organizations , sufficiently elastic to adapt themselves to whatever needs may present themselves , and sufficiently stable and well governed to maintain the ever increasing confidence of the quarter of a million brethren

who are ranged under the banner of the Grand Lodge of England . The Masonic vagrant is not , as a rule , a brother who desires re-instatement . The position he once occupied is too remote for him to have much recollection of it or desire to

regain it . Begging has become easier than working . The regulations which govern the administration of the Benevolent Fund are worth studying . These are found in Articles 222 onwards . Article 245 is especially interesting , for it inferentially lays clown the principle which underlies the disposition of grants , that is the assistance of the applicant

in his efforts to regain a permanent footing . Perusal of these articles serves to make it clear that the Masonic vagrant seldom finds his way to the consideration of the Board of Benevolence . He sometimes manages an interview with the almoner of a private lodge , but there is

one town at least in England where the several lodges have combined to elect a common almoner , who , by some happy coincidence is also the chief constable , and the dismay of the brother on the tramp on being introduced to this official may be imagined . The practice of appointing one almoner for a

given area has many obvious advantages , and in Yorkshire and Lancashire , where lodges are thick on the ground , and where . Freemasons meet lo exchange notes more frequently than may be the case elsewhere , the Masonic loafer is a rara

avis . He flourishes exceedingly in India and the colonies . The tyler ' s toast has more meaning when it is recited by expatriated Englishmen , 5 , 000 miles away from home and civilization , than it has when drunk at the social board of a London lodge . At home , Freemasonry provides often but an accidental and imaginary community of interest , but in foreign parts it is often the strongest and most real bond of

. Now in India , a European in distress is a very pitiable object . Climate , language , custom , are all against him , and as a rule the only posts which provide suitable employment for Europeans are filled by highly trained men from home . The brother then who arrives at , say , Calicut from Natal on

his way to find work in New Zealand , and who is unfortunately just short of the amount necessary to pay his fare to Madras en route , is not often turned empty away , and in the writer ' s recollection , one brother on the tramp succeeded in levying toll from the charitable to the extent of about £ 30

during the course of one week , by means of a story of this description . This transpired at a masonic gathering held a few weeks later at which one Worshipful Master after another recited the tale of his being victimised . This tale was nearly the same in each case , and the name given was the same till

through . This incident is quoted because it supplies in itself a remedial suggestion . Possibly the original story has some truth in it . It was a case of wanting the railway fare from Madras to Bombay . The story was plausible and well backed up . Had the lirst brother applied to seen the

applicant off to his destination , with a little cash in his pocket , and sent an advice to Bombay describing the circumstance , all would have been well . But it was easier to give cash down and get rid of the applicant ' s importunity , and then seeing the case with which his need was supplied there was