The Approaching Election For The Boys' School.

Having , as usual , summarised the various cases on the list under the heads of "last " and " parentless , " we leave the remainder , in the hope that their several friends will do all that lies in their power to bring the claims of each before the Craft , with the view of . w . V _ - „ J .. _„ . . , ,

securing the election of the most deserving . In these days of voting organisations , the elections are not nearly the open matters they were some few years back , when much more could be done by open canvass than is now possible , when nearly every vote is pledged to one or other of the Provincial or Local Associations . In

many respects this combination is most beneficial , but , like everything else of its kind , it has drawbacks , which have been made painfully apparent to many , whose candidates have not happened to be the particular ones selected for the support of the combination . After all it is perhaps best to leave the selection of candidates to men who are on the spot , and know many features in connection with each case that cannot be made apparent to the world at large .

Knights, New And Old.

KNIGHTS , NEW AND OLD .

rilHERE have been in Chicago during the present week - *¦ some twenty thousand Knights of the Templar variety . The modern Knight Templar has never yet been able to ascertain whether , when two or more of him are

gathered together , they should he called Knight Templars , Knights Templar , or Knights Templars , and in order to spare his feelings , a sympathising press ought clearly to

shirk the question , and to describe the Chicago Knights in terms that cannot come in conflict with any possible grammatical rule .

We all know who the original Templars were , for the biography of Eminent Sir Wilfrid Ivanhoe , of York Commandery , New York , is a mine of information on the subject . The Templar was a person who wore a

variegated night-gown ( whence , perhaps , the word Knight ) in the day-time , and took a series of iron-clad oaths . He bound himself never to marry , a vow that did not put him to much inconvenience , but which must have signally failed to meet tho views of his wife and children . He also

swore to live in a state of poverty , a vow which he liberally interpreted \ o mean that he should earn nothing , but should live on the confiscated property of other people . He took an oath of obedience to hia Grand

Master , and undertook to go to the Holy Land to deliver Jerusalem from the Saracens . The latter obligation had its manifest advantages . Occasionally the Knight Templar did go to the Holy Land and fight , but to a much

greater extent he stayed at borne . He was , however , always on the point of talcing tbe 8 " 30 p . m . express for Joppa , and consequently always had an excuse for declining to do anything that did not please him . If his

children wanted shoes , he always remarked that as he expected to depart immediately for the Holy Land , he really needed all his available money wherewith to pay his passage , and could not possibly buy shoes until his return . If his rent was due and the landlord notified

him that he must pay at once , he immediately wrote him a note , saying that he had just received orders to start for Jerusalem , and that as it was qnito out of the question for him to call on his bankers before leaving , he would be

compelled to postpone that little matter of the rent until his return . Thus the Templar who was always going to the Holy Land , bat who never went , was the envy of less fortunate men who had no ready-made excuses to meet

every difficulty . It appears from the life of Eminent Sir Wilfrid Ivanhoe that the Knight Templar frequently took part in frpe circus entertainments , most of which were , doubtless , designed for the benefit of Sunday schools . In

these entertainments the Knights were often badly hurt , and there is good reason to believe that they were occasionally happily killed . In the absence of any steady employment , the Knights did a good deal of miscellaneous

fighting with any available neighbours , and Most Eminent Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert , of Jackson Commandery , No . 27 , was in this respect a fair specimen of tho fighting Knicht .

Knights, New And Old.

The modern American Knight Templar is not at all like his illustrious predecessor . Instead of a white night-gown with a red cross , he wears a black frock-coat , a cocked hat , and shoulder-straps—a uniform that makes him resemble a Chaplain in the Navy who has pawned his regulation blue

coat and been compelled to transfer his shoulder-straps to a borrowed black coat . He does not take vows of chastity , poverty and obedience , and rarely—if wo may credit the reports of the recent Chicago conclave—takes even tho total abstinence pledge . For Jerusalem he cares nothing , and never makes tbe slightest pretence of going there . His

holy places are Chicago , St . Louis , or San Francisco , in one of which cities ho gathers himself together once every three year ? , and marches in a solemn procession , sweltering in his close-bnttoned coat and cocked hat , and exciting the

wonder of the beholding foreigner . At these triennial conclaves he always gives a public exhibition of Templar tactic ? , which consist in a series of semi-military evolutions of

great intricacy and total lack of purpose . To the small boy ho is an object of mingled amazement and mirth , and tho public , which regard him as a sort of hybrid between the Militia soldier and the circus performer , fails to

comprehend why he exists and fatigues himself with tiresome and expensive triennial conclaves . Though the American Templar likes to fancy that he is in some way a lineal descendant of the Knights of tho Temple , he is in his secret heart well aware that he was

invented by an ingenious peddler called Thomas Webb , and that he is a purely American invention . There are , to be sure , French and English varieties of Knights of the Temple , but they have no connection with the American

Knights , and being products of the pauper labour of Europe , could not be imported into this country except upon tho payment of a heavy duty . What the American Knight Templar does in the secrecy of his Lodge-room is ,

of course , a mystery to the outside world . People who are immediately below a room in which the Knights are accustomed to gather hear noises which lead them to believe that the Knights make a practice of falling over a

large amount of furniture , a theory which is apparently confirmed by the fact that they issue from their meetings in a very heated and extremely thirsty state . Still , it seems intrinsically improbable that men should go to large

expense in point of uniforms and horse-collars merely to meet together and fall over furniture , and we must assume that a meeting of Templars has some other and worthier objects—perhaps of the nature of poker or even marbles .

There was a time when many intelligent men , including John Quincy Adams and Thurlow Weed , believed that the Knight Templars Society was a dangerous thing , chiefly because it takes its members exclusively from the Masonic

Fraternity . In these days no one views the Templars with alarm . A more innocuous gathering never took place than that which has just delighted the Chicago hotel keeper ? . The Knights are nob as picturesque as the old

Templars , but they behave themselves much better , and as between the ancient Knight in the act of torturing a Jew and the modern Knight peacefully nodding through a long sermon in a Methodist meeting house , it is very easy to make a choice . —Boston Exchange .

It is a pleasing feature in Masonry that when any brother falls out of the ranks , there is another who is at onco prepared to take his place . For many years our lamented Comp . Bnmstead was the centre from whence the R . A . ritual was disseminated in South London . Now

that he has passed away , his pupils , Companions Hilton P . Z . and Grummant P . Z ., are able to carry on the work with equal zeal and energy . They obtained from him , in tho Pythagorean Chapter of Instruction , that which ho

took such delight in imparting , and now in turn arc giving similar tuition in the Star Chapter of Instruction ( wherein Companion Hilton is Preceptor ) , which

meets at the Stirling Castle , Camberwell , every Friday evening . There not ouly ia tho ceremony of exaltation regularly rehearsed in it 3 entirety , but also each week ono of the ceremonies of installation is taken . So far thia

season there has been a good attendance of Principals and Past Principals , and all have been delighted with tho precision and accuracy with which the work is performed .

Ar00202

i FUNERALS properly carried out and personally attended in " jondon and Country , by Bro . G . A . HUTTON , 17 Newcastle ; Streot , Strand , W . C . Monuments erected . Valuations made .