The Grand Lodge Of Massachusetts.

and over all Masons , unaffiliated , as well as affiliated , in such State or Territory . No other Grand Lodge whatever , can lawfully interfere with this jurisdiction , and can neither ostablish Lodges in such State , nor continue any authority over bodies which it might properly have exercised prior to the organization of such Grand Lodge therein . Bthe erection of a Grand Lodge in such Stateall masonic

y , powers over what is popularly called Blue Masonry are merged in it , and henceforth it exists therein supreme and sovereign over a jurisdiction which it can neither divide nor share with any other Masonic Grand Body m the world . ( To be Continued . )

Masonic Incidents.

MASONIC INCIDENTS .

We make the following extracts from the Annual Address of Grand Master English , of Arkansas , delivered at the communication of the Grand Lodge , November , 1869 : — Masonry is on the increase in Arkansas , as it is in all the American States , and as it is in all civilised countries , where ifc is not proscribed by tyrants , or denounced by a

jealous , domineering priesthood . It is the strongest and most wide-spread moral organisation on the globe . It comprehends all dialects , yet it speaks one universal language . Men of all countries , of all politics , and of all religions , agreeing upon a few cardinal principles , and leaving all else to perfect freedom of opinion , are united as a great brotherhood . The observing craftsman who travels is struck with the number of Masons he finds

everywhere among the better classes of men . Looking around him in any rail car , boat , or ship cabin , hotel , office , or church , at tho persons accidentally collected there , and the faces may be all strange and uuknown to him , yet he will hardly fail to notice symbols with which he is familiar—the cross of the Templar , the keystone of the Mark Master , the ring of the M . E . P . and ;

Sub-Knight , and the trowel or gavel of the Blue Master . Away up in Minnesota , the Father of Waters passes through a beautiful lake , from the blufF shore of which swells up a great rock , called the " Maiden ' s Leap . " Its name is taken from an Indian legend . Ear back in the dim ages of the children of the forest , the daughter of an old chief , the fairest rose of her tribewas loved b

, y two young chiefs , both of whom sought her of her father . One of them she loved , the other she did not . The father required the young men to settle the contest by a race , and promised the fair prize to him who should prove the fleeter of the two . The victor was the young chief whom the maiden did not lovo , and when the result was made known to herand he came to claim her

, band , she leaped from the great rock into the lake , and perished , and her defeated lover followed her example , and shared her sad fate . Often after , when the moan was on the lake , and the night winds moaned along the shore , the spirits of the lovers were seen hovering about the rock .

On a recent trip up the Mississippi , our boat reached the lake after dark . A party of us , strangers to each other , sat until late in the night upon the deck of the vessel , for the purpose of seeing the " Maiden ' s Leap . " A dark cloud came up over the lake , and a chilling gale springing up , we instinctively huddled together for comfort and for company . While looking at the rock , by the dim li

ght of the moon , and conversing about the legend , the cloud spread its black wing over the rock , and a vivid flash of lightening curved into an arch above it , from which shot out beneath three tongues of fire , and formed a triangle , and the arch and the triangle staying a moment in the cloud over the rock , one of the party exclaimed : " See the living royal arch of fire ! " and all the others recognised him to be a Mason , for they too were Masons ; and there upon the deck of the vessel , at midnight , we b . « ld a kind of travelling lodge

After this , on the same trip , I made out a party of nine gentlemen , from as many States , who accidentally met at tho Falls of Minneha ha . We stood in the shade of an old tree , whose brant hes had been whitened by the snows of a thousand winters perhaps , looking at the " laughing waters , " and listening to their roar , as they tumbled over the bluff , and foamed and rushed on through the gorge

to the great river . On the face of the sandstone bluff across the gorge from where we stood were many carvings , and among them the sun , the moon , and a man . One of the party said , " May be the man was a chief , and Master of an old Indian Lodge , and so there are the three lesser lights of Masonry . " Whereupon the whole party clapped their hands , and gave the grand honors to

the old Master carved in the rock . One day in August last , in the grounds of the Water Cure , near Cleveland , there was a group of men under the shade of a Norway pine , and there was another group under the shade of a poplar . An old woman , wrinkled and bent with age , came into the grounds , leading a blind Irish girl , and stopped at the first group . The

blind girl played upon a violin , and in a plaintive song appealed for alms , but received nothing . The aged mother conducted her sightless daughter to the second group , where a similar appeal filled a little basket , held out by a withered hand , with fractional currency . An observer said that the first group were of the hard-shell type , who piou ' sly denounce Masonry as a secret society ,

in league with Satan , and that the second group were of that noble Order whose hearts are always touched by the appeals of the destitute and afflicted , and whose hands are ever open to relieve their wants . By some the wearing of Masonic symbols is condemned , because , since Masonry has become popular , an impostor is occasionally detected in false colours , and now and then an unworthy Mason is seen parading the symbols of the Craf ' D about his person . But the logic that would persuade us to forego the wearing of the

beautiful symbols of our Order because bad men desecrated them , would strip us of all ornaments , and indeed of all clothing . Bad men wear all that is ornamental , as well as all that is useful , and they parade the insignia of all societies . They array themselves in the " livery of Heaven to serve the devil in . " But the innocent lamb naed not abandon his white fleece , because the sly wolf

covers his deformity with a similar , but stolen garb . Masonic symbols often serve as the means of introduction , and lead Masons to become agreeable travelling companions , who might , without them , fail to recognise each other , and remain indifferent strangers . Where the impostor is found clothed iu our symbols , the intelligent Mason discovers his cloven foot too readily to be

seriously imposed upon ; and the abandoned craftsman poorly conceals his vicious habits with a jewel . It is like a diamond in a swine ' s snout . Not long since , I went to the lodge in a great city , where 1 was a stranger and unfamiliar with the streets , The work , and a banquet which followed with speeches , lasted until the herald of Peter ' s fall clarioned the

midnight . On leaving the ball , I missed the way to my hotel , and rambled until I became conlused and bewildered in the maze of streets and houses . Taking my stand by a lamp-post , I inquired of several late streeD walkers the way to my hotel , and received for answer the name of the street and number of the house , which left me no wiser than before , because I did not know where

I was , nor the direction of the street named . Finally a gentleman came along in whose bosom I . perceived a triangle . " Sir , " said I to the stranger , "I presume from the symbol you wear in your bosom that yon can lead the blind by a way they know not . As on several previous occasions of my life , 1 need a guide . " " Where do you desire to be conducted P " said he . " To the Spencer House , " said I . Taking me by the arm , " Lome , " said he , "go with me , and I will prove that to be true which you have doubtless often heard asserted—that two are