Las Memorias.

acquaintance , Lady Ailesbury , the Duchess of Richmond , and Lady Coventry , and after the partings were over , old Horace says , " Well , I can never see three prettier women ; no party that any one can get together will ever excel them for me , and I shall always be satisfied in thinking , that my " three Graces " kept me company here . Three such charming women are not likely to meet

here again . " So let us cherish " las Memorias' of the past . They are a pleasant " shadow hand " for us all , to which we can have recourse when wearied and oppressed with cold formalities or lying frivolity today . There , at any rate , we can be at rest and peace ; there professions mean something ; friendship is a realityand hearts are loyal and loving to the end .

, There we can be cheered and consoled when the world wearies us , or sickness depresses us , with the memories of the past , with the hopes of the future , when true friends shall meet true friends again , when the "day" shall "dawn" and the " shadows flee away . "

Gossip Of An Old Mason.

GOSSIP OF AN OLD MASON .

BY BRO . ROB MORRIS , OF KENTUCKY . IT may seem to amuse the readers of the Masonic Magazine if I offer them , in the character of "Masonic Gossip , " some recollections connected with - the preparation of the many " Reports on Foreign Correspondence " which have passed my hand . This branch of Masonic literature , though practically

American , has attained such proportions during the last thirty years that the historian cannot pass it over . These reports afford , indeed , all the materials of Masonic history . Some of them , as those of Bobbins , of Illinois ; Howry , of Mississippi ; Drummond , of Maine ; and others , are almost exhaustive in reasoning upon questions of jurisprudence and analyses of current facts . I think a collection of the American Grand Lodge Proceedings for the past twenty-five years a library calculated to make its owner proud of the industry and erudition of their compilers and the progress of the Fraternity . But to my own share in these things . I began the study of the current

history of Freemasonry in 1846 by making collections of all sorts of facts bearing upon the subject , from a newspaper clipping to a tome of many pages . A few years later , when I was first appointed Chairman of the " Committee of Foreign Correspondence , " I found this accumulation of facts ri ght in my hand . Incidents of the slightest moment , when considered separately , form valued links in a chain of history . This I particularly observed when making a series of chronological tables of Masonic events . Had la to send

copy you , Mr . Editor , you would be amazed at the number of these , picked up here and therein the desert of desultory reading and wrought together for use . In 1850 , we had no extended reports upon foreign correspondence . Chairmen of Committees to whom the subject was entrusted satisfied themselves b y hasty glances at the communications laid before them by Grand Secretaries , and generall y reported , that" there was nothing in the papers submittetl to

them that particularly called for notice . " In rare cases , indeed , like that of the serious imbroglio of New York Masonry about 1850 , the subject was deemed worthy of closer examination , and occasionally a little sparring with neighbouring Grand Lodges was indulged in , only this and nothing more . M y first " Beport upon Foreign Correspondence , " though more brief than later ones , went more full y into subjects of general interest to Masons than any that