| Show MASONIC MATTERS OurParis Correspondent Sends a Dissertation on the Subject Some Interesting Facts and Figures for Masons and the Public The Grand Orient of France and its Subordinate Lodges I France and Tonkin Madame BlavatskyOther Points and Paragraphs Special correspondence of TIn HES LD PARIS APRIL 24TH It was with something akin to a painful surprise that the Encyclical onslaught against Free Masonry has been received by those who have been the most fervent admirers of the tact lucidity and moderation of Leo XIII in the difficult position made for his theooratio ideas of government in this realistic age where thought writing speech and reunions are so free To attribute to those Satanic workmen the Free Masons the authorship of the equalizing or leveling tendencies of the times is on the part of His Holiness to ignore what are really the acting forces and where originate the currents of that influence which mpels i modern society and people There was a time when Free Masonry Mason-ry played a political role That was the epoch when freedom of action and of speech did not exist and then be lodges became a refuge for the advocates of such liberties Today nothing is concealed forjpublicity as for the sapeur nothing is sacred Allis All-is concocted in the open day Socialistic Social-istic revolutionary anarchic and dynamitic advocates have no greater unrelenting opponents than the FreeMasons Free-Masons Only last week these stormy petrels of our civilization were denounced de-nounced by the Masonic lodge of the SaoneebLoira in scathing and vigorous vigor-ous terms so much so that Leo XIIL himself might have signed that anathema an-athema And the revolutionists who have an hereditary a Shylook hate against the masons are also the most incompromiaing foes of every church and every creed His Holmes in signaling out FreeMasonry Free-Masonry as the disturbing agent of the evolutions of society unconsciously unconsci-ously imparts to it an importance to whcih it can lay no claim Its history since its birth reallyjabout lone hand erd and fifty years agoprovea its cosmopolitan cosmo-politan nonpolitical and non eectars ian character The late Pope Piu IX was when simply young Mas tai brother of the mystic tie monarchs mon-archs princes dignitaries of tbe church even did not disdain to tie on their Masonic aprons The royal families of England Prussia and the Netherlands have ever contributed contribut-ed members to the craft Louis XVI Louis XVIIL Charles IX the Napoleons Nap-oleons I and III Louis Philippe I Leopold I of Belgium and Abdel Kader were Free and Accepted Masons Ma-sons And tbe unexlpusive character of Masonry may be judged horn the following samples of membership Prince Charles Edward Stewart who founded a lodge atjArraaWashington Berryer Franklin the Lafayettes Laplace Voltaire Gambetta Jules Ferry the Abbe Sieves Paul Jones Hqnhe Nelson Meyerbeer Tom Paine Humboldt Mirabeau JDr Guillotine Guil-lotine who did not invent but recommended recom-mended the adoption of that instrument instru-ment Ganbriba Jules Favre Marsha Camobert Danton MasSaina Ber nadotte Marshal Saxe p Such personages represent opinions as diverse as their social standing Fauverly said Free MaOl nary was a universal religion it would be more ascurate to describe it a cosmopolitan cosmopoli-tan club where night good fellows meet for conrivial end supplemented supplement-ed Iby jobaitable works songs thai would delight Goethe or Burns stories and occasionally the discussion of social questions replace carda and billiardb Free Masonry whether philosophical or philanthropic open or secret has penetrated into all countries of the globe with the spirit of progresajand liberty of theeighteea th century It has for aim the metal and material amelioration of man for principles the laws of human progress for ideas toleration fraternity fratern-ity end liberty without distinction of religious iaiths political creeds nationalities or social distinctions It is the friend of the rich and poor only exacting that they be vhtu OU3 The Grand Orient which is the grand lodge of France has had a chequered carper Its foundation was laid in 1725 oy Lord Derwentwater but the first lodge in Franceand which was at the same time the first on the continent was organized at Dunkirk in 1721 by the same nobleman noble-man Indeed Free Masonry is an essentially English institution and was propagated throughout the world by the British nobility The Grand Orient excluded no candidate on account ac-count of his creed so that Helvetia the materialist and Lalande the atheist could accept the formulas Imitating Plato the divinity way called call-ed the Grand Architect leaving to each to interpret thatjappellation following fol-lowing his church or his philosophy 1 The Grand Orient is now essentially democratic and since a score of years secular that is to say it does not exact ex-act belief in a personal God as a test of membership Toe council of the Grand Orient consists of fifty members it connects with three hundred and fifty lodges There are about ten thousand FreeMason Free-Mason lodges in the world possessing ten millions of membrs There are very Jew rites and ceremonies in French lodges such being considered infantile and fewergradea There are no more legendd Tbe story of Adam and Eve being the first impossible im-possible to go further back Masons and the garden of Eden the first lodge of Noah being the founder after the Deluge then Moses Ziroas ter I8a Ceres Proaprine Iao3huf etoare for intelligent masons nursery nurse-ry tales In the same categoiy maybe may-be placed Hiram the architect of Solomons temple Hiram was not an architect at all but a metal worker work-er whose services only came into play when the building was erected All these myths are only destined to M heighten the lustre of the rder by an illustrious genealogy or allegories and to feed tue imagination while beeping warm the enthusiasm of apprentices Similarly wi h secret and signs Tnere were no secret societies in ancient times and bu very little brotherhood since traveling travel-ing did not exist As for the secrets be who runs may read them in the official organs of the craft where the rules and regulations of the lodges their days of meeting their places of dining the programme of all their business is duly set forth It is not by peculiar shakes of he hand rubbing of the nose scratching of the head and treadiig on the feet that a Mason on tramp gains admission admis-sion into a French lodge or obtains help He must produce credentials I i Further during ihe reign of Louis I XV women were admitted to be Mason and the Duchesse de Bourbon Bour-bon was a grand mistress As for sashes aprons gloves jeuel Jery f eta uch pomp and circumstance circum-stance count for little here they are regarded as the outcome of human vanity ranked with the rattle which pleases the child or the plaything that delights the youth Masonry appears to have really originated from the break up of tee building guilds in Italy during the middle ages Then the workmen wandered over Europe seeking employment they had signs to recognize one another aa fellow craftsmen and so claiming if required requir-ed succor The clergy utlized these wandering artisans to erect ohurohes and even joined their fraternal corporations cor-porations the better to aid the needy Such is the history of Strasbourg Cathedral The word mason is derived from hammer or a U wall and Tiler the cerberus or lictor functionary comes from the French toilleur de piene or tone cutter More interest is given to the success of the teasing and thwating game played play-ed by the foreigners in Egypt at the expense f ex-pense of England than to Too cm or the changes in the Pekin CibinetEng lishmen here of every political shade are terribly down in the mouth at the deapicablu policy of their government govern-ment in Egypt It seems the ear to t wound the susceptibilities of France paralyzes Englands action There was a time she thought more of her own susceptibilities The loan that the Prussian credit mobilier ha negotiated nego-tiated lor Russia is viewed as cequr ine the latters gocd will in Prussias intention to sweep Holland and the Luxembourg into the commercial union There is not much of a difference dif-ference between a Zollverein and a Protectorate Possessed of the Luxembourg Lux-embourg the only badly shut door is firmly eloped to any ugly rush from the French into the Fatherland Franca commences to feel there ia i something serious in the threats of Australia to close her ports against French ships if France votes tne Recidiviste bill and which she certainly cer-tainly will This will allow tbe government gov-ernment to help itself to some groups of inlands i in the Australian Seas and tbere set loose ship loads all ready of outcasts Such new cesspools for the moral itnmondices of France Australians will not permit either to France or any other nation Every country must dispose of at home the filth it engenders in its midst No French settlement can exist near Australia in presence of an hostile Australia Now the Southern Cross muet sneak very bluntly not toj France but to the English government govern-ment that what she means to do she ia resolved to execute come weal come woe The belief prevails here that England being paralyzed by the complications in Egypt now is the time to recast the map of the world and grin ai English protests and her international soft soap If England lets down Austral ani the latter by imitfctin the coiid men of Bj ton could set Europe in a blaz and cut out the Eastern question in point of danger and tremendous consequences con-sequences A Mr Stuart Cumberland is here giving seances in thought reading fls puzzes the groundlings Is there I no enterprising newspaper to utilize II him What a capital interviewer he 1 would make Set him toses through public menBismarck and the grand 1 old man All that would be moro ins I tereating than dealing with dudes and desmiaellea I Other novelty Madam Blavat sky a American has arrived t to found a new Salvation Army U I are cbale Booth bad better look to her baton Madam Blavatskys new t dozy is called Theosophy It is not by any means new either in name or I doctrine for France It commenced I with Paracelsus at the beginning of sixteenth century and was play ed oat1 by the close of the ei1hteenth Theo ophy is not theology it is not a science leading np to but that which comes from God which is in spred by Him without being the object of positive revelation The religion has two degrees one popular popu-lar and theologic the other philosophic philo-sophic and mystic Mysticism is an undying tact in human nature manifesting mani-festing itself at all epochs under a thousand different forms The old creed revived by a Russian visitof or apostle id a mixture of enthusiasm and observation of nature tradition alchemy theology medical and metaphysics met-aphysics all this and a church in a twopair back on a fifth story in a bystreet explains why the detectives pjunced on the lady aa an arch ni ti ist t Two Invincibies have fought an illigint duel in the Boia de Boulo gne weapons swords What a pity shillelaha were not chosen that would have been quite a premiere for Parisians On3 adversary accused the other of being an incipient informer The doctors case of instruments were limit d to a top out and a battle of Mountain dew Other sensation consisted of an Invincible marriage Kathleen was given awAy to aParnellite there were two hundred guests at the wedding four however were expelled although they had on the wedding garment and contributed a few keepsakes t at were much admired to the corbeille The unfortunates were from Scotland Yard their term house is there i A journal announces the Duchess of Edinburg wdow of the Duke of Albany has been confined of a princess Proof of our mild spring a Russian Russi-an professor out of work was picked up in the Rue Lafayette having been frozen to death Visitor to house porter Q Is Mon if r T at home Yes Sir he ia dead |
