History Of A Crime.

were not discovered until after his dethronement , and then it cost much money to correct them , as the large volume published as the Proceedings of that Grand Lodge for 1870 , in 1871 , under the direction of the then Grand Master , now

Judge , Wm . S . Gardner , is in evidence , and wherein may be found , among other matters well worthy the reader ' s time , the report of Provincial Grand Master Heard on what he discovered in England . Bro . Jacob Norton's

examination ofthe " original records " aforesaid , with his published results in 1870 , were the beginnings of the discovery of these mistakes and expose of the late Grand Secretary ; but the principal affliction was his expression of opinion

that Henry Price was at no time possessed of a Provincial Grand Master ' s Deputation , in fact , while he was possessed of a legitimate Lodge charter , and with it organised , in

Boston , in June 1733 , the first Lodge ever legitimately founded in America , and which Lodge was for many years afterwards known as the " First Lodge . "

So daring an opinion as this , being at war with all preconceived and well-established Massachusetts belief , it naturally became intolerable , and Bro . Norton came to be regarded by even the most liberal and truth-loving

Massachusetts and other brethren as one whom it would be the correct thing to generally discountenance . Sir James Mcintosh related , as one of his experiences ii India , that when he put into the hands of a Brahmin his

valuable microscope to examine the fruit the latter was eating , and prove that so far from it being an inanimate substance , and ever had so been , it was teeming with life , after a moment ' s use the priest dashed the instrument

upon the pavement , and , with an imprecation , to Sir James said : "I was a happy man in my belief , and total abstinence from eating anything which ever had life , until your accursed instrument enlightened me !"

The reader who has kindly followed me thus far will perceive what , in 1873 , could be the motive for the crime of which I have thus far given the history . He will see that in that year the Feeemasons of Pennsylvania , and more

especially of Philadelphia , the same being completed , were about to dedicate their new and exceedingly costly Masonic Temple , the third within the life of Masonry therein ,

erected in that city , each increasing in grandeur and costliness over that of the other ; and if there ever hacl been cause or a time in which to create an extra sensation

this was the proper occasion . That sensation plainly was to follow the announcement by the orator of the claim of Philadelphia for the legitimate Mother Lodgeship of America ; and in the then condition of general historic knowledge

on the subject , as gathered from all which up to that time had been published , it only required a bold man to manufacture something that would—at least for the time being

—be undisputed as evidence of the condition then desired by the Philadelphia Masons—not the truth , possibly , but what they on such occasion wanted the truth to be .

The occasion demanded the man , and the man appeared for the occasion . As late as 12 th March 1887 , in the Philadelphia Keystone of that date , over his own proper signature of Charles E . Meyer , he has told the readers of

that paper how it was done . How an extract , so-called , from a so-called letter , and since 1873 specified when spoken of as the Henry Bell letter , this so-called extract , being so much of such so-called letter as any living man has ever

seen , was prepared and put into the hands of the orator for the dedication ceremonies , to be used by him to establish the claim of Philadelphia as the Mother City of legitimate chartered Freemasonry in America , and that it was soused ,

to the surprise of the great majority present , including the orator himself , and the delight of the remainder , as being what they desired the truth to be . That " extract " read

as follows , the same assuming or pretending to be copied from a letter written by one Henry Bell , of Lancaster , Pennsylvania , 17 th November 1754 , to Thomas Cadwallader , M . D ., of Philadelphia : —

[ EXTRACT ] . jr ^ you well know , I was one of the originators of the first Masonic Lodge in Philadelphia . A party of us used to meet at the J-uu Tavern , in Water Street , and sometimes opened a Lodge there . Unce , in the fall of 1730 , we formed a design of obtaining a Charter 'or a regnlar Lodge , and made application to the Grand Lodge of ior

, « one ; out nerore receiving it we heard that Daniel Coxe , w -New Jersey , had been appointed by thafc Grand Lodge as Prov . wand Master of New York , New Jersey and Pennsylvania . We therefore made application to him , and our request was granted . No person could desire anything more satisfactory than th is . None but the most incredulous could dispute testi-

History Of A Crime.

mony so complete as this . Nevertheless , the producer waa ill at ease , for on a demand being made for it , he could

not produce the original letter ; and although , as he saya in his story of the Henry Bell letter , he directed the man who made this extract to offer one hundred dollars for the

use of the letter long enough to have it photographed , it was positively denied in manner as he , Mr . Meyer , haa mentioned in his aforesaid account of the matter , an

account which has been stated by the lawyers who have read it could not be taken in any Court of Justice aa satisfactory , and this although he had thirteen years in which to prepare it !

In 1884 , however , something took place which diverted the minds of those who until that time had absolutely nothing but the so-called extract with which to support the Philadelphia claim . This was a Lodge Book , so-called , the

same being a book with entries of accounts of members ( in phraseology different from any Masonic Lodge Book known ) of a Lodge supposed to be that which I have mentioned , of which Franklin was W . M . in 1734 , and which continued to

exist to 1738 , when it ceased . This book , stated to be presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by George T . Ingham , of Salem , New Jersey , on 8 th November 1880 , was discovered in the library of that Society on the 27 th

February 1884 by Clifford P . MacCalla , then and now , and for several years , away back to 1873 , editor of the Keystone , a weekly Masonic and miscellaneous literary newspaper . With this " Liber B . " Lodge Book—in which , by the way ,

and much to the chagrin doubtless of the " extract" Henry Bell producer , the name of Henry Bell , nor his account found no place—as his text , and the Henry Bell Utter extract as his argument , this editor , C . P . MaeCalla ,

announced that now , beyond peradventure , it was proven that Philadelphia was the Mother City of legitimately chartered Freemasonry . Then , apparently not satisfied that his paper would give this most important matter

circulation enough , betook the types of bis Keystone , had them arranged in book pages , and published as a pamphlet of forty odd pages , in manner as in March 1887 he did by his own latest story of Daniel Coxe , and Charles E . Meyer ' s story of the Henry Bell letter .

So great an effect had this publication of 1884 upon the Freemasons of Pennsylvania , and especially those of Philadelphia in proving to them not the truth , but that which they wanted the truth to be , that in the autumn of 1885 ,

when the Washington monument , in Washington City , came to be dedicated , the delegation from Philadelphia stepped forward in answer to the Marshal's call for the representatives of the Mother City of Masonry in America .

A pause , and some confusion ensuing , the delegation was informed that Masonic history did not support their claim , but that Boston , Massachusetts , according to that history should correctly claim the position , as , according to it , the

first regularly chartered Lodge was established therein . Thereupon the Philadelphia delegation gave place to tbe Boston delegation . This was a damper , but doubtless when they referred themselves to the authority upon which they

bad depended , he privately informed them , as Caesar did publicly those who were vanquished at the battle of Pharsalia , "Ye would have it so ! " More appropriately ,

however , could he have hung , as a permanent fixture over his office desk , a sign similar to that found on the wall above the piano in the concert-room of a mining village in

Colorado : " Don't shoot the girl at the piano ; she is doing her level best to please you !" Be this as it may , his final effort of last March exhausted

his resources to establish the Daniel Coxe theory , while the disabling support at the same time afforded him by hia ablest assistant in the controversy , as the true story of the Henry Bell letter , exploded that theory so effectively , and

blew it so high that Gilderoy ' s famous kite will never reach ifc . When the early summer heats began to be felt , the author of thafc story , feeling himself badly broken up , headed a pilgrimage of Kuights Templars to England , there

possibly to endeavour to straighten his damaged character , and satisfy those literary friends who erst had believed in him as a writer honest and honourable , and also in his able assistant the Editor aforesaid , whom he left behind . * We