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THE MASONIC JOURNAL
THE MA.S0HIC JOHMAL
GREENSBORO, N. C.
Tuesday, Aug. 8, 1876.
E, A, WILSON, Editor & Proprietor,
TERMS :
1 copy One Year - - - $ 2 00
1 copy Six Montlis ... ] OO
No club rates,“®a
Any person sending us 5 or more year
ly subscriptions, with the cash, will re
ceive the paper one year free of charge
Unless renewed, all papers will be
promptly shypped at the expiration of the
term of subscriptioii-, of which doe notice
will be (jiven.
CorTcsiiondents cle-siriui? a reply raitst enclose a
Stamp for return Postage, and a 11 matter desix*ed to be
seen only by the Editor should be marked “Private’’
on the lower left-hand corner of tliecuvcloiie.
The Masonic Jouknal wliicli is published
at Greensboro is worthy of our support. It
is ably edited, possesses a high degree of mer
it and contains, besides Masonic Literature,
■well selected matter which is calculated to
make its visits desirable ard instructive,
Thos. S Kenan,
Grand High Priest.
Tile enterprise ought to succeed. We need
a means whereby a more general Masonic com-
ramiicatioa may be had : a means for the more
general diffirsion of .Masonic intelligence.
I hope eveiy Mason will take the JounsAE
—every Lodge endorse it, and at once make
it the Organ of Masonry in North Carolina.
IVith such eiicoiiragemeut ,md support I am
satislied you can make it of incalculable worth
to the Fraternity. Geo. W. Blount,
Grand Master.
All of which is endorsed by
the Grand Lodge and Grand“®a
Chapter.
Work.
Wanted.—We want active, reliable
Agents in every county in the South to
canvass for the Jouenal, to whom a
liberal commission will be paid. An en
dorsement as to reliability, under seal of
the Lodge, is desired. An immediate
application will secure choice of territorv.
Send stamp for reply.
Change.—For the convenience of
many of our subsoribeis living off the
lines of Railroads, we have decided to
change our day of publication from FH~
day TO Tuesday. This of course makes
this number three days later in reaching
our readers this time, but in the future
it will reach all on time, and aiford us
some advantage also.
The Corner Stone of the United
States Court House and Post office at
Covington Ky., was laid by the Grand
Lodge of that State, on the 4th of July.
Our Kentucky Brethren are justly
proud of their Masonic Home for the
indigent widows and orphans of deceased
Brethren of that State. It is, indeed, a
noble charity, and from their reports,
nobly sustained.
This is and always has been the great
agitator of the Masonic body politic.
Work 18 the leading characteristics of the
order, and to fulfill the mission Masonic,
good work, true work, square work—such
as is proper tor the building of the Tem
ple—is what is what is demanded of ns.
And yet how diversified are the various
specimens which are daily exhibited for
inspection.
Here in North Carolina we claim to
have the true work—^the Ancient Work
of Masonry—as taught by Stevenson, and
yet when the Craftsmen are assembled to
exhibit specimens cf their skill a perfect
Babel of confusion is the result, and it is
utterly impossible to decide who, if any,
have the “true work.” This statement is
more than verified by personal observa
tion among many of the Lodges in vari
ous sections of the State. As the mat
ter now stands we don’t claim to know
what the true work is, but we do know
that there are almost as many versions
of it as there are Lodges in the State.
This is a great evil, but we believe there
is a remedy.
Unfortunately for Masonry in North
Carolina, there has been too much of a
disposition to change in matters of form
and language, and so prevalent is this
that the same Lecturers have been re
quired to change their teachings every
year or two; and even now they are far
from teaching what they did two years
ago. This, too, is evidenced by going
among the Lodges and oonveising with
the brightest Masons.
What the exact remedy is, perhaps we
are not prepared to say, but we do think
that if we had a different system of main
taining the purity of the work, and a
largely increased corps of efficient in
structors—all speaking identically the
same language~it would be far better
than at present. In fact the field is so
invitingly large and the needs of the
Lodges so great that every inducement
should be held out to those who would
prepare themselves to teach the one
work as adopted by the Grand Lodge.
Another suggestion is that the Grand
Lodge should decide what shall be their
work and then appoint a Board of three
Custodians, one of whom shall be elected
for three years, one for two years and
one for one year, to be kept full by annu
al election, whose duty it should be to
keep the one work of the Grand Lodge
pure and unimpaired. Then let the
Grand Master commission as many Lec
turers as will annually go before this
Board and learn and teach this one work,
that all the Lodges may have the benefit
of learning, and with the assurance that
there will be no change. In all this let
the action and decision of the Grand
Lodge be deliberate and conclusive and
as unalterable as the laws of the Medes
and Persians.
Lodges of Instruction.
Our English Brethren have a way of
doing some things that very much pleases
us. In oonnect.on with many Lodges of
the Kingdom they have what they call
“Lodges of Instruction” for the two-fold
benefit of their members. These Lodges
have their By-Laws and Rules, and usu
ally have a Preceptor or Master, a Treas
urer and Seoretarj'. To make the Lodges
of practical avail they have libraries of
standard and valuable works—on Masons
ry and other subjects, and these are read
and discussed at these InsIruction meet
ings for the benefit of all present. In
thi.s way much general information is
gained, as well as valuable Masonic
knowledge.
Then they also drill in the lectures
pertaining to the degrees, so that no one
has any excuse for being “rusty” in the
work or dull in matters pertaining to Ma-
.sonic lore, of course Masonry is thus
made entertaining to our English Breth
ren, and with them it is oniy necessary
to appoint a meeting to have it well at
tended.
Would it not be well for our American
Lodges to adopt the same coarse ? Many
of them have good libraries, bur, which
are of comparatively little use. True a
few of the more earnest BrMhren now and
then take a book and read it, but the
Lodge gains nothing from them in return.
Then, again, there are so few among us
who are really skilled in the lectures that
from sheei ignorance the many are de
terred from attending the regular Lodge
meetings.
Soon the long even egs will be here
again, and we hope every Lodge that
possibly can will organize these Lodges
of Instruction for social culture and thor
ough drill iu the work of the Lodge.
Then to make them more effective, let
Brethren be selected to preside over the
meei-ings interchangably, so that the
Brethren will not only be drilled in the
work, but also in the important duties of
presiding over and governing the Lodge.
In this way the Lodge can be brought to
the highest standard of excellence and
usefulness, and Masonry at once to as
sume its proper high standard in every
community. So mote it be.
lied have not ooioperated with us in build
ing up the paper. Their pens and their
active efforts should be fully given to in
crease its interest and its subscription
lists. There are many who caw write
for us, and with great acceptabilit-
while all can work for us both in and
out of the Lodges; and if all would do so
we would soon have the largest circula
tion of any paper in the State. True
our list is growing all the while, and is
nearly double what it was two montbs
ago, but so slow and expensive is this in
crease that the end barely justifies the
means.
Now, will not each individual Brother
who reads this go at once and make the
honest effort to get us at least one more
subscriber? This will cost you bnta
few minutes of time, and do you good,
while it will save us the heavy expense
incident to canvassing. The paper has
been sufficiently long before the uublic
for all to judge of its merits, and that
there is great need for just such an or
gan for the instruction of ourselves and
our families none can doubt; and we
earne.stly appeal to all to come at once
to our aid and let us make it a grand
success intelleotually, morally and finan
cially.
We desire to enlist the personal co:op-
eration of every Master, Warden, Secre
tary and active member of the Lodges in
the State, and appeal to them to do all
they can for their Organ—and at once.
Remember, that every name you send
now .extends the field of the Journal’s
usefulness in disseminating the principles
and infinence of Masonry in North Caro
lina and the South. We say the South
because in all the Southern States ■ there
is such a great lacking of Masonic period
ical literature, to supply which the Jour
nal is intended, and we ask the Brethren
of all these States to bring the claims of
the paper before all their Lodges. Take
us kindly by the hand and give us a strong
Masonic pull—up the hill.
State Fair.
Up The Hill.
Some one has taken the pains to make
the estimaf e, and it is ascertained that
there are twenty-four Ardi Masons in
the United States! Now, with these
arrayed in solid phalanx against the
594.000 Master Masons, what will we
do V
At the 4th of July celebration in
New York, Templar banners were pro
fusely used, producing much admiration
and inquiry. The Square office (Bro.
Anderson’s publishing house) was almost
literally covered ivith them. Many
were the speculations as to their import.
Aude, Yide, Tace,—(“Hear, see and be
silent”) is the motto that adorns the
East in all the Masonic Lodges in the
city of Memphis, Tenn. It is a good
motto, and one that might appropriately
adorn every Lodge in the land.—Hear
the words of good council, see the signs
that call to the aid of a distressed Broth
er and be silent as to all that is not prop
er to be ivritten, and especially so in
speaking of a Brother, lest some un
guarded word may prove a biting canker
tliat will work untold injury to his repu
tation, family or business.
By keeping such a motto as the guide
. of our words, thoughts and actions how
j much of untold misery might be avoided,
j and how much of happiness be added to I
our lives.
Ever since the inaugural of the Ma
SONIC Journal, nearly a year ago, it has
been up the bill with us in more ways
than one. Our experience in journalism
led us to anticipate many of the diifieul
ties incident to a new newspaper enter
prise, and to some extent to ward against
them, but there have been many other
seemingly almost insuperable barriers to
our success, and which ordinarily would
have crushed us, but realizing from the
experience of others that class journalism,
especially those Masonic, was an up-hill,
tedious clambering for success, we took
courage from the hope inspired by the
knowledge that the need for a weekly
Masonic organ in North Carolina was
(and is) an aoknow’ledged necessity. And
thus we have clambered on—up, up, step
by step, toward the goal of permanency
and success.
In all these months of toil and care oiir
efforts have been equaled by onr love for
Masonry and the desire to disseminate
its pure principles among the Brother
hood of our State. To dothisw'e have
toiled both day and night, and that, too,
unaided, except by a few noble spirits
whose kindness to ns and love for the
order have bound us to them by an indis-
Bolubie affection. But notwithstanding
all their kindness it ha.s been “np the
hill with the Journal. Many on whose
friendship and interest we confidently re-
A meeting of the Executive Committee
of the State Agricultural Society was
held in Kaleigh last week, and discussed
and arranged important matters for the
approaching Fair, Oct. 17-21 inclusive.
T. P. Devereaux ot Raleigh, was elected
Chief Marshal. The various Military
and Cadet companies of the State are to
be invited to assemble in encampment at
Raleigh during the week, and compete
for prizes at target shooting. The suc
cessful company will receive a prize flag,
and the successful man a prize plume.
We are pleased at the manifest inter
est in keeping up our State Fair, and hope
the Managers will do everything in their
power to make it a grand sncceas. As
an humble representative of public senti
ment we urge them to have more care for
the morals of the concern than hitherto,
or large numbers of the best citizens of
the State will refuse to attend. The
wholesale gambling, drinking, and the
multitudinous swindling heretofore prac
ticed on the grounds are not on y offen
sive but reprehensible, and should for
ever be abandoned. We say this in the
interest of the Fair and the good people
of the State.
Officers of Granite Lodge, No 522, Mt.
Airy, N. C.;
J. M. Bower—W. M.
W. G. Foy—S. W.
S. S. Burton—J. W.
R. R. Gallaway—-Treas.
J, W. Shej'herd—Sec.
J. W. Jackson—S. D.
A. Hines—J. I).
W. 0. T. Banner—Tiler.