Rogues Living On Masonic Charity.

ROGUES LIVING ON MASONIC CHARITY .

IF there is one form of charity more abused than another , , it is that administered by friendly societies to men perambulating the country . The Oddfellows , the Foresters , the Druids , and similar organisations are all grossly imposed upon by individuals who , although roadsters , would be insulted by the name of tramp . But the body which suffers

most from the operations of these gentry is unquestionably the Masons . That Order can easily be " worked , " and it suffers accordingly . It is maintaining a number of impostors who go from town to town calling upon Masonic Treasurers and living a life of leisured ease at the expense of the Order .

Chatting the other day with a gentleman holding an official position in connection with the Freemasons , the writer gathered a number of remarkable facts about such swindlers . At the present time something like two hundred known tricksters subsist on the charity of the Order . They have

no card to show that they have a claim upon the Benevolent Fund , this system not being in force in the case of the Masons ; few of them carry their certificate , though in some cases this is taken about the country for years ; but all of them have at some time or other been members of the

l . iasonic Fraternity . For the most part , they are men who have fallen upon evil days . Arrived in a town , they call upon the Almoner for that town or for the district , who , after " testing them , " almost invariably assists them . Sometimes they subsequently visit

a few local Masons with a view of obtaining further relief , in which they may be successful ; but members are under no sort of obligation to help the necessitous privately . Each contributes so much to the Benevolent Fund , which is

administered by the Almoner , and he is supposed to refer applicants for charity to that official . In this way the impostors work a round systematically , adopting precisely the same procedure in every district , but visiting one particular town only about twice in twelve months .

Some of the professional " unfortunates" keep going at this game for years . Tackled not long ago by an Almoner , a certain member of the species denied that he had seen that gentleman before . To this the Mason rejoined

that he was confident that -he had previously relieved the man , only in another name . He , however , gave him some money , and then asked him to sign a book kept for that purpose . The roadster did so , slowly , labouriously , and with infinite care .

But he could not disguise his hand , try as he would . On comparing the signature with that which the Almoner took to be the fellow ' s real sign manual , he found so many points of similarity that he gave his visitor into custod y . Still the swindler persisted that the Mason was mistaken , and kept on

persisting with increasing volubility , till the police station was reached , when he confessed : that he had been using three different names . He had made a virtue of necessity , for papers found in his possession " gave away" his case completely .

When another man was bowled out he had in his pockets some eye-opening evidence , of his duplicity . He professed to be a member of several Lodges . Finding that his statements on this point were untrue , a certain Almoner had him arrested . The usual search then brought tp light a diary ,

which had been kept in a remarkably metholical manner . From this incriminating book it was made clear that the owner had been obtaining money by false pretences from , Masonic Treasurers for twenty-seven years . In 1899 , it was further learned , he had tramped exactly 1 , 737 miles . The

diarist had also entered in his book the amount of relief he had received in every case—altogether , a fine round sum . Splendidly audacious as were the operations of this Napoleonic cadger , they have been surpassed , and in several instances , too . One roving free-booter laid under contribution the Masonic funds of the whole civilised world .

Scorning to confining himself to England , he visited America , Canada , Australia , South Africa , and many other countries . And when at last he was tripped up he was not a little bit ashamed of his long career of fraud . He gloried in having

had a good time , told the magistrate that he had lived for years by one of the simplest of frauds , and remarked—here , indeed , he sighed and looked thoughtful—that he would now have to discover some other means of raising the wind . It may strike many people as incredible that such a man

Rogues Living On Masonic Charity.

as this could live for year after year by gulling Masonic Treasurers . If there is any scepticism on this point , it can soon be dispelled . The fact is that until recently the charity of the Order was distributed very loosely . Little system as there is now , there was formerly still less . When , too , a

case of fraud was discovered , ( the perpetrator was never punished ; he was merely told to take himself off and not to try to play the same game again . He was never prosecuted , and even at the present moment many of the older Masons are strongly opposed to taking such a course ,

no matter how clear may be the evidence against a man and how gross may be the swindle he has committed . They dislike any publicity whatever being given to their affairs . It is this policy which has made it so simple to draw systematically upon Benevolent Funds .

Now the Masons are getting a little stricter . Some Almoners , acting on their own initiative , make a point of warning their Brethren in neighbouring towns that a swindler is in the district , giving at the same time a full description of him . These personal details are in some

instances singularly minute and accurate . Only the other day—to take a case in point—a Treasurer was told to be on his guard against an adventurer dressed in a certain way

and "' with a habit of carrying a glove in one hand . " Sure enough , he turned up wearing only one glove and carrying the other . Instantly the Mason set eyes on him , therefore , he knew that here was his man .

In this manner tricksters are sometimes checkmated . When , too , one is fairly caught napping , he is usually prosecuted . So that the Masonic field is not the happy hunting ground it was . There is , in fact , yet another profession—that of the quasi- " Brother " ¦—going steadily to the dogs . — " Cassell's Saturday Journal . "

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