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^^ - ^^^¦^ JLiL ^^ iSL g ^^^^ ^^^^ SATUBDAY , 11 TH APEIL 1891 .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

Wo do not hold ourselves responsible for the opiaiotia ot our Correspondents . All Letters must boar the name and address of the Writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS . To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —The optimistic exaggeration of what is , aud the pessimistic exaggeration of what teas , as displayed in the first of the two letters in yonr last number , calls for more lengthened notice than time will , at present , permit . Protest must , however , be at once made against the sweeping assertion that " pupils were sent

to their homes carrying filthy contagion , and suffering from neglected festering sores ; " the former meaning , if I remember aright , an obstinate case of ringworm , brought to the Institution ; the latter , a case of chilblains , to which , ic is notorious , many children are constitutionally subject to , as I can testify from early crucial experience , iu spite of the application of every conceivable remedy

I further maintain , no matter what may have been reported to the contrary , thab there never was a time during the last 30 years when the boys were not well provided for , well fed , well housed and well oared for . Daring that period something like 800 boys passed through the Institution . What is their record , physical and educational P With rare exceptions they have achieved oareers more or less

successful , many of them eminently BO . Severe outbreaks of epidemic have been met , and successfully encountered . The deaths during that long number of years did not exceed six , all of which may be satisfactorily accounted for . In the vaunted results of the Cambridge Examination of December last , I fail to find any pass in Honours , tho number " successful " mainly consisting of those who " satisfied

the Examiners ; a market ] contrast to previous results . The second letter deals with questions of account , and deserves , and may receive , all due attention . The new system , however , of which so much U said in praise , is one of " theoretical accountancy , " anil may be left for the consideration of those who are satisfied with vouchers for tho expenditure of each of tho twenty shillings

constituting a sovereign , as supplied by the Audit Cotnmittse previous to 1889 , and as is still the case in similar Institutions . I do not seek controversy , but defamation is hard to bear . I have endured in silence , and regret tho necessity , from my point of view , of advocacy of the cause of the old administrative and executive bodies , but they have been , and are , regarded aa mon who " any

shape of goodness could not take , boing capable of all ill , " and with the experience I possess it in impossible to tamely *< ubmib to continued misrepresentation . Of the personal hostility to myself , and of tho springs of action by the exercise of which my retirement was determined on , I am fully aware and thoroughly acquainted with , and

of these more may be said anon . With referonce to the " Report , " whioh I forbear to characterise , I will only remark , on behalf of the late Committee and myself , that while we did uot desire " a coat of varnisb , " we did , and do , object to layers of mud . 'Regretting want of opportunity for a moro exhaustive reply .

I am , Dear Sir and Brother , Yours fraternally , FREDERICK BINCKES . 7 th April 1891 .

To the Editor of ths FBEEV aox ' s Cnri . v \ ' * ci , F , DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —I -r .-ri ni ., r .-, i . bdr-d r ,. y . v ; ' /• ¦ - lVviHi-c * my letter umlo ** ; id »' . ir-a n . ( :. ' ,-cd ., l-o i ..- , •» , ••¦ i-. ' . ^ -jro-A C- HV . . A ou the point- re •¦ * . >(] . I it , M ,. !* . , ¦„ ubu >\] , ' . ' , : ? .-... Cd s . i ' , u- Ms , H , Iregrot t'rw . I l-a-vu c . iu ! in- t , i mo mu w . « . | . . , > ,. Vl idn - hHi- hi '/) Y h * . Subject , b : it with your Lvr ' . i . ia .-j . ui * -. vil ; es ! j : i ; - : i- 'iya' - ! t -iiier - ,, ,

Tonrs fr . itor- ' . it ' . ' ij' , i A . \ OLL' Ili-aiii * :. o : i \ v- Caito . v ^ 'L ** . ; ABOUT THE . \ : ASO : S ! W OIAZS iron Y , ^ . n < r ; -. i-l . I ^ GuEidN

T , me S-- ?! irj > r , < . " . t ! V .:,: ; : M . i <;*) . : d-, Uddicyrrr . *; . j DEAR SIR VO ¦ . > . < vrv . * . * - .- ! ... iw- * - v ,,-, i , my , niri 5 -s- ^ . y 7 th March th ** .-, -,, , *; . „; » .,. „ . „ ; . * .,,, \ „ „ , , , .., - , ,. ... ; . , , transformed ir . io s . ,- . ,-: ; ,- , J ¦• id ,,.-, ... ; - . | - , - „ - then learned that *~ \ wri . „ .,,, ,,.,., ' . Tn ^ ' . V K ^ ' i , , ^ ., 7 ^ . ' . /^; " -Won in Boston , } •;•<* , j . ; = 1 i -0 „ --i ; , i ??**?* ..- .-, r . ¦ .. ..- ,. ,- . ' ., ; ' . I Review contains san . '; ov ; i - r , e-v . -.-¦¦¦ . ¦ .. - . «• , .. ¦ . ;

Correspondence.

" Chicago , September 27 th ( Special ) . —Tho first Chicago Nest ot tho Order of Osvln will b . T constituted here this afternoon , and pro-n'iiiint reember .-f of f ! i ' . < M * Sonic fraternity tVom half a dozen n ?; tr-by ^ :-. ti . ! , aivi avrivirii * thi .- - uiiituiiiK frs : iii ; nn ! iv ! - > thn event by thti . " rmvoii'v . A spvei'd car tilled with 0 « 'l-. i iu-rivod from Torio Han'o this moraine . ITcailniArtirs havo b (*»> i t > p- > ii < vi •;' , t ^ i- » fS rand

Pacific Hotel , whero Dr . G . F . Potmington , of Baltimore , tho Snprftiio Sapiont Serpiolier of tho World , id beini ? heartily welcomed . Th ** Order is but thri-o yi-ars old , but has a membership iu tho United S'ates of neatly twelve tlit-usam ! , restricted generally to the lo-iding officers of tho leading Masonio Bodies in tho country . The initiation this evening will be witnessed by a large and distinguished audience ,

and after tha Nest has been brought into existence , elections will take placo to the offices of Sapient Soreecher , Sapient Bagholdor , Lord High Executioner , Tooter , Hooter , and Recording and Property Owls . " In the course of conversation with a German Brother Mason , who had road my paper in tho FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE abont the Boston

Masonic Red Men Tribe , and also , in the Masonic Review , about the Chicago Masonio Owls , as to whether there is a possibility of eradicating the mania for moro and more degrees from the Masonio fraternty ? He replied : •' ¦ The same mania existed in Germany up to abont fifty years ago , but it haa since then disappeared , and with the exception of one cranky Grand Lodge in Berlin , who claim to have

received a Christian Masonry , with a number of degrees which they call higher degrees , the craze for higher degrees bas died oat , and the Grand Lodge of Hamburg even expels members from Masonry who belong to organisations which claim to work what they call higher degrees . " And why , " aaid I , " cannot our Masonio maniacs be oared of

their craze also ? For the same remedy whioh proved efficacious there ought to produce the same effect here . " " No , not necessarily so , " said my friend , " Germans , as a rnle , love to read , and their brains oan be reached by means of the press , but Americans are too busy to read Masonio books , and all they know about Masonry they learn either from their rituals or from their

orators . Bnt our Masonio orators , as a rule , have read little or nothing , and the very few who do read are guided more by policy than truth . Hence in their orations they either ignore facts which tbey know to be such , or mis-state and pervert an opponent ' s arguments with their nsual quibbles . Indeed , there is not one out of a hundred of their St . John ' s Day orations without downright lies , and

every exploded humbug is reproduced by our luminous orators as unquestioned facts . Take , for instance , the speech made by Bro . Russel , of Kane Lodge , New York , abont the antiquity of Masonry , to whioh you called attention in a recent number of the American Tyler , and the address of P . G . M . Nickerson , of Massachusetts , ab the dedi . oation of Price ' s monument . These addresses are fair samples of

information whioh Masonio orators in America palm off npon their hearers as historic facts ; you see , therefore , that what proved successful as a remedy in Germany can do no good here . " " Bat , " said I , " is there no cure at all here for the Masonio craze ? " " Well , " said my friend , "it is possible that a cure may be effected by humouring the cranks ; that is , instead of writing and speaking

B gainst the utility of high degrees , which only serves to irritate the affected ones , let us try to magnify the importance of a multiplicity of degrees , and at the same time stimulate our manufacturers of rituals , degrees , and orders , to pile up more and more degrees , and cram their stomachs with them to such an extent as to bring on a nausea , which will not only rid them of their craving for more

degrees , but will sicken them of the degrees they have already swallowed . " My friend here noticed thafc I disapproved of his deceptive method . " Well , " said he , " you do not agree with my proposition . But you must remember that a doctor cannot apply the same remedy to an insane man as he does to a sane one , and so your doubt about the method I suggest j" said he , " I know that

gluttons and drunkards havo been cured of their cravings hy snch methods , that is , by cramming them with more than enough . Now , I want you , therefore , to urge your English correspondents to supply us with the dialogue between the ' Hell-devil' and Judas , to which Tonlmin Smith refers in his book on English Gilds . This dialogue will form a grand feature in the ceremony of the new

" Order of the Holy Rood . The other stories you have given about miraculous crosses shall all be turned into Masonic degrees , for I know Bro . Wiseacre , our American Masonic and all other kinds of degree makers , will do it , because money can be made out of it , and if you know of any more of such pretty pious stories , print them , and they shall be Masonized , and then , in the course

of a few years , our cranks for more degrees will get rid of their cravings . " A' my f'iftiil wns ¦ wiiir . ' - Butl t tritp-f . HI l . nii-f tint hi * Si-bemo VI . M b * ji'i nriti lif . H ' .: > ii . J ' i . , " i d "* "i'i- iri . ai'i , : iml a . ' 1 cdUhl nr . f ) , i- « iV () <>' . ' ' . ivoiy i \ . r , x . iirt < - * rt 3 '•'• ¦ '"' ¦' . ' . ' h" ' ili'd up a . tiioin iran , um I Oi-vriai , y- rt- ' ..-it 1 i < -r \ -, ' rlj- *! ' . ' ¦ - i . *"( iry >>• ' i' il'il ? ' , <»¦* foll'i . vd : —

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