Newspapers / Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.) / Sept. 30, 1875, edition 1 / Page 4
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I -ti • i ; B-L ivl THE M A S O N 1 (' JOURNAL The Differentials of Masonry and Odd Fellowship Terrible Position of an Engin eer. Masonry is not a corporato bsnovoltsDce. It is individual in its benefactions. Each Mason IS'obliged to extend to a worthy brother, in necessity, his widow and or phans, such charity as his circumstance will allow- No one has a claim upon the lodge. It dispenses no charity upon any demand as a matter of right. When there is an oveiplus of funds the lodge may maks donations and frequently does—but the object in levying dues is to pay the current expenses and not to provide a charity fund. Nothing in the nature of mutual insurance enters into the constitu tion of Masonry. It affords relief only by obligating its members never to turn a deserving object of charity away. All other secret orders have benefits. If a member is sick he has claims on ti'.e treas ury. If he dies he is entitled to funeral benefit and his widow or orphans has cer tain demands. It is this feature which distinctively differentials, for in stance Odd Fellowship from Masonry. Many erroneously suppose that the princi pies upon which Masonry and Odd Fel lowship are organized is identical—but it will be seen for the foregoing statement that the one in the matter of benevolence rests upon the charitable disposition of its individual members, and the other upon a vested right in a common treasury in case misfortune should visit a brother or his family. Another distinguishing feat ure between the two orders is that Mason ry has an unwritten work which it trans mits by oral instructions and the other has a printed ritual, One claims to have descended unimpaired from a remote an- liquity, while the other does not deny its modern origin. One is more widely dif fused than the other. Both require mo rality ill its members and the recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the broth erhood of man. There is no conflict be tween the two and, a person without do ing violence to any principle belongs to both. There should be no jealousy be tween the two. There is an ample field in which both can amicably work. Prob ably two-thirds of the Odd Fellows are Masons, and are equally attached to both orders. The care of the sick among Ma sons is voluntary, while the Odd Fellows make regular details for watches, each brother being required to take his turn as it comes round, and either to attend an in valid in person or by acceptable proxy. ■ Masonry relies upon the principle of char ity in the breast of its members, and Odd Fellowship incorporates charity as an or ganic feature of the order, working in ils corporate capacity. The aggregate results of the beneficence of Odd Fellowship can be tabulated—that of Masonry can never be known because of its individual char acter. The Alexandria, (Va-.) SmtMel leils of an accident at Big Bend tunnel, on the Chesapeake and Ohio, railroad, by which the engineer, Mr John fJuincy Adams Wilkins, was injured. The “Big Bead” is what is known in railroad parlance as a “dirt tunnel,” being very liable to cave in and therefore the engineers are more careful to look out for “danger ahead” in passing through them, It was the ex ercise of this care that probably saved an immence loss of life, as the train had been brought down to a very slow rate of speed on approaching the tunnel, ft sterns that an end of one of the large tiiubers supporting the roof had becume detached and fallen on the track a few feet within the tunnel and the ot tiie engine striking it, the jar loosened the other tim bers and a large quantity of ea.'th and stones, and the whole mass came tumbiiig down upon the locomotive, breaking it to pieces.Tlie fireman who was standing close to Mr. Wilkins, was mashed to a jelly and could not have lived a moment, while Mr Wilkins was thrown forward in a standing position, with his throat across the reverse bar, and a large timber fell across the back of his neck, rendering it impossible to move He had a quid of to bacco in his mouth at the time, and so tightly was he raught that he could not expectorate and could only swallow with difficulty; indued he could scarcely raise his voice, above a whisper. There he re mained for six hours in the pitchy dark ness, while every second or two small pieces of dirt and gravel from the roof would fall down by his side, conveying the impre!5sion momentarily that another mass was about to fall and crush him com pletely all the time the shouts of those outside could be heard, as with shovel and ax they forced their way to his rescue which, however, seemed to him beyond ail hope. When they finally reached him he was more dead than alive, and, being completely exhausted, lost consciousness in a swoon wb;ch lasted several hours. thing that three or four epithets are to do duty for all the definatlon the female xnind has need of, and that solecisms, which would have shocked the ears of an earlier generation, pass unreproved ? California Children. Female Education. Masonry.—It is always ready to as- ■sist down trodden humanity; it supports every laudable enterprise ; it affords in exhaustible aliment from which the fam ishing mind may receive nourishment ; it is a blessing to those who would infuse in its life current the virus of dissention; it is the cement of brotherly love, the bond of friendship, the support of virtue, and an invaluable blessing to all. These princi ples have given to Masonry ils vitaliiy, energy and immutability. Its industry and activity have preserved it against all etforts to break it down and sweep it from existence ; and from what it.has done in .ages past and still doing at the present, we are happy in the belief that itwid continue to enlighten and cultivate the human heart, and dis.seminate inseful knowledge among all future generations. A writer in Blackwood's says ; “The subject of female education has brought out with special force of acclamation the superiority of the present day over the pistinthe thoroughness of instruction imparted. The slipshod teaching of girls in former days, its miserable pretence and hollowness is an exhaustible theme, and indeed there is not much to be said for it. Compare the school books of the of the past with any paper or teaching addressed to the young women of the present—compare what they are expected to know, the subjects they are to be in terested in. the intricaoes of grammar and construction, which are to be at their finger-ends, with the ignorance of acci dental picking up of knowledge which was once the womans main chance of ac quirement and our expectations are not unreasonably raised. The pupils of the new school ought to be more companion able than their predecessors, they ought to talk better, more correctly, more ele, ^antly, and, as their subjects of interests become more profound, as science and art open their stories to them, their vocabul ary should meet the need at once more accurate, more copious. We put it to our world of readers—is it so? Do our young ladies talk better than their moth ers ? Do they express their meaning with greater nicety.? Nay, do they speak better gr.ammar.? Moreover, is this an aim? Are they taught to do this by their sex, who profess to portray the girlhood of our day? Is it not an understood It was only twenty-five years ago—In 1850—that the following incident occur red at Downieville, in Sierra county . The country was full of men engaged in mining, and Downieville was, to use the phrase of the times, a busy camp. There had been built for public uses a large building, sometimes used as a theatre an 1 sometimes for the purpose of a public hall. The surrounding gulches were fill ed with men rude of manners, but full of tender memories, and there was then a score ot women in the country, and not a baby, .so far as was generally known in the circuit of a hundred miles. It was the Fourth of July, and Downieville cele brated. The ifitars and Stripes floated from a peeled .uid lofty pine, and the chorus of the anvil had re echoed through the hills. The house was crowded with miners ; poet, reader and orator had per formed the’.r parts, and the recently or ganized bras.s band was giving in boister ous resonance some popular national an them, wh.in suddenly there burst out the feeble wail of an infant—first low, then swelling out in all the defiant strength of baby lungs. The band put forth its loud est strains ; the baby incited to renewed exertion, re-doubled its vigor. It was nip and tuck between band and baby. The young mother did her best to divert the child and hush him, when from the audience there uprose a brawny miner, and shaking his fi.'t at the music cried, “Hush that infernal band and give the baby a chance!’’ The band stopped its playing and never did stalwart men lis ten to sweeter music than those exiles from home and women as they drank in the tones of the wailing child. There were tears in many an eye. ihe child was hushed upon its mother s breast, and at the word there went up three cheers for the first baby of the Northern Sierras. Looking over the figures of the school census we find that there are now 280,000 children in California under fifteen years j of age, and the Downieville baby is only i tw'enty-five years old. This is a good | showing for a young State, Give the l ladies a chance, and we can get on with- j out any further Eastern emigration. Even if Europe witholds her people and the citizens oi our Atlantic States should prefer their ungenial climate and ungen erous soil, let them sUy at home, our fu ture is secure. And suoU a race of child ren was never seen elsewhere—^such limbs and lungs and phj'sioal developement, Buob heads and brains and precocious in tellects! Of course unless restrained and tutored and disciplined, they become hoodlums; but when brought under proper restraint, educated and kept in obedience, they are the best specimens of young America which the continent has yet pioduoed. We commend to our philosophers and wise men the carelul consideration of this new phase of the old problem, how' to manage our boys and j girls ; we mean such boys and girls as ! those in this peculiar climate, and with such surroundings.—!San Francisco I Chronicle. The Family Hammer. Tliere is one tiling no family pretemis to tio without. That is a hammer. Ami yet tliore is nothing that goes to make up the equipment of a domestic establishment that causes one- half as much agony and profeuity as a ham mer. It is always an old hammer, with a han dle that is inclined to sliver and always bound to slip. The face is as round as a full moon and as smootli as glass. Wlien it strikes a nail full and square, which it lias been known to do, the act will be found to I'esult from a combination of pure accidents. The family hammer is one of those rare ar ticles we never prolit by. Wlien it glides off a nail liead, and mashes down a couple of An gers, we unhesitatingly deposit it in tlie yard, and observe tliat we will never use it again.— But the blood has tiardly dried on the rag be fore we are out doors in search of that ham mer and ready to make another trial. The result rarely varies, Init we never profit by it. Tlio awful weapon goes on knocking off oiir nails, and masliing whole joints, and slipping off tlie liaiidle to the confusion of mantle or naments, and cutting up an assortment of as tounding and unfortunate antics without let or hindrance. And yet we put up with it, and put the handle on again, and lay itaway wliere it won’t get lost, and do np nmtilated and smarting fingers, and yet, if tlie outrageous tiling sliould liappen to get lost, we kick up a regular Inillaliooloo until it is found again.— Talk about the tyranizing influence of a btid habit 1 It is not to be compared to tlie family tiammcr. Newspaper Bores. Tliere is not a more intolerable nuisance I upon earth than tlie newspaper bore. He c.ir- i ries off pour exeliaiigcs; insists upon reading I your proof slie-ets and then goes out and tells j wliat will be in your paper; smokes j'our pipe. ' upsets your pastepot, .and wor.sc tliau all ob trudes Ills advice upon yon. He listens keen- t ly to any private cou'-ersation you m,ay be j having about sometliing tliat don’t concern liim in the least: Turn liim loose in tlie eom- 1 posing room and lie is w-orse tlian a bull in a j china simp. We remember of liearing of onu a newly married bore, wlio, as all newly mar ried men do, thoiigiit he knew evciything, and took his fresh victim to elpiain to liertliemys teries of ttie prinling office. Ootiiiug up to the devil’s case aliout lialf full of type, lie said to ills bride: “ Tills, my dear, is wberc thoy I keep the types,” (pointing to tlie lower case,) j “ and tills, (layong liis liand upon the cap case,) j is tlie '.id tliey liaveto cover 'em up at iiiglit to i keep the rats and mice out.” Suiting the ac- ' tion to tlie word lie pulled down the “ lid ” to ; show how it worked. Was anybody mad ?— I Oh, no !—Ex. ! “ Modern Thought.” “ Forever learning and never coming to the truth,” is the motto of the worst rather tlian tbebest of men. I saw in Rome a statue ofa bt‘y extracting a thorn from his foot; I went my way, and returned in a year's time, ami thoie s.at the self-same bsy, extracting tlie in truder still. Is this to be our model? “I siiape my creed every week,” was tlie confes sion of one of tliesc divines to me Whereun- t J sliall 1 liken sucli unsettled ones ? Are they not like those birds wliicii freipient the Golden Horn, and arc to be seen near Constantinople, of which it is said tliat they are always on the wing, and never rest? No one ever saw them aliglit on the water or on the land, tliey are ] for ever poised in ,mid air. The natives call j them “lost souls,” seeking rest and finding j none. And, metiiiiiks, men wlio liave no p.T- j sonal rest in the triitli, if they are not uusaved themselves, are, at least, very unlikely' to save others. lie wliii has no assured triitli to tell must not wonder if his liearers set small store by liim. We must know tlie trutd. uudersti.iid it, and hold it with firm grip, or we cannot be of service among tlie sons of men. Bretliren, I charge yon, seek to know, and, knowing, to disorkninate: liaving discriminated, I charge you, “hold fast tliat wliicii is good.” SPUROKOX. “Why, Ichabod I thought you got mar ried more'n a year ago?” “Well Auut Jerush, it -was talked oI, but I found out 1 that the.girl and all her folks were op- j posed to it, and so I just gave ’em all the ' mitten, and let the thing drop.” Edgar Roe said : “ To villify a great manis 111C readiest way in wliich a little mar ciin himself attain gxeatness. The crab niigt* never have become a constellation but for tac courage it evinced in nibbling Hercules ontlio heel.”
Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 30, 1875, edition 1
4
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