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Provincial .
( Mr . and Mrs . Whittaker ) , nofc only for the very excellent manner in which they had catered during the banquet , but for the care and attention which they had bestowed upon fche room and its surroundings . The toast was replied to by Mr . Whittaker , who promised that he would not relax any efforts which might conduce to the future comfort of the members of the Faith Lodge , or indeed of any Lodge which might hold its meetings on his premises .
Besides those already mentioned there were present Bros ., Wm . Whyfca McLeod P . M . 1166 Prov . G . Supt . of Wks ., Walter Newton P . M . 1322 , & c , P . P . G . D . ( Mayor of Ashton-under-Lyne ) , John Jee P . M . 1459 , W . Gregg P . M . 2144 , Geo . T . Lenard P . M . 117 T , Geo . W . Davies P . M . 1459 , Thomas Chorlton 1166 , and others .
LONDESBOROUGH LODGE , No . 734 . ONE of the most successful events in the annals of this Lodge took place on Tuesday , 3 rd inst ., when Bro . Chas . Nicholson , who has served the office of Senior Warden of the Lodge during the past year , was installed as
Worshipful Master for the ensuing year . The esteem in which Bro . Nicholson is held , not only in his own Lodge , but also by ihe Brethren of other Lodges in the Province , was evinced by the very larg « attendance afc the installation , which took place at the Masonic Hall , St . John ' s Avenue , Bridlington .
The Lodge was opened by the out-going Master Bro . Thomas Hunter , who has had a mosfc successful year of office , and has fulfilled his duties as W . M . of the Lodge to the entire satisfaction of the Brethren . The ceremony of installation was most admirably and efficiently performed by Bro . F .
Creaser P . M . P . P . G . St . B ., who has gained a well deserved repution for his ability in this branch of the Craft , and who has performed the ceremony to the admiration of the Brethren for about twenty years , not only in the Londesborough , but in other Lodges in the Province of North and East Yorks .
The Lodge having been closed in ancient form , the Brethren proceeded to the Station Hotel , where the installation banquet was held , the company numbering between forty and fifty .
PRUDENCE LODGE , No . 1550 . THE members of this Lodge held their annual banquet on Saturday evening , 7 th inst ., at fche Freemasons' Hall , Plymouth , . when about sixty were present , including a large number of visiting Brethren . Bro . Pryor W . M . presided .
The speeches were commendably short , but special reference was made to the admirable manner in which Bro . Pryor had discharged his duties during the time he had filled the W . M . ' s chair , and to the gratifying progress the Lodge was making under his guidance . Bro . Philp mentioned that he
had . been Treasurer of the Lodge for sixteen years , and he was glad to say that it was never more prosperous than at the present moment . Bro . Selleck Secretary gave similar testimony . They were , he said , nofc only adding to their numbers , but the new members they were introducing were of the right class , and likely to uphold the best traditions of Freemasonry .
WOLSELEY LODGE , No . 1993 . THE regular meeting was held at the Freemasons' Hall , Manchester , on Monday , 2 nd inst ., Bro . George Hargreaves W . M . ¦ Although this day was practically considered as the New Year ' s holiday , and the members had been summoned for the early hour of 10 . 30 a . m ., there was an attendance of nearly forty .
Two ceremonies had been announced , but one , tbat of raising Bro . C . H . Ramsbottom to the third degree , was deferred . Successful ballots were taken for Bro . Frederick George Anton Ballantiue , Longsight Lodge , No . 2464 , and Mr . George Beaman , Salesman , Patricroft , the former as a joining member , and the latter as an initiate , the ceremony being performed by Bro . Wm . Harris P . M . P . P . G . A . D . C .
MARISTOW LODGE , No . 2726 . THE first meeting since the consecration was held on fche 4 th inst ., at . Yelverton . Mr . Y . B . Lopes , M . P . for Grantham , and Mr . W . H . Mitchell were initiated .. . ¦ . ; vr After-ftvvery impressive delivery of the lecture on the tracing board by Bro . Lord , and the receipt of several proposals , the Lodge was closed , and the Brethren adjourned to the Yelverton Hotel for supper .
Curious Wagers.
CURIOUS WAGERS .
ONE of tbe earliest instances of a wager is recorded in Judges xiv , 12 , 13 . ¦' . Samson propounds a riddle to his thirty companions , at the same time proposing . a wager ' : — " I will now put forth a riddle unto you . If ye can certainly declare it me .... and find it out , I will ' give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments . But if ye cannot declare it me , then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments . "
This incident proves at least that the time of the ancients was not entirely taken up : with war , and by the absorptions of study , but that they could i enjoy a joke with the zest of a modern . King Solomon was of this class , and seems to have possessed a wonderful faculty forsolving difficult problems and emblematical sayings . Josephus , the Jewish historian ( Antiq . Book 8 , Chap . 5 , Par . 3 ) relates how Hiram , King of Tyre , and . the son of David , once engaged in a riddle contest , when Solomon won a large sum of
money , but on the authority of Dius , he subsequently lost it to Abdemon , a Tyrian—in fact one of Hiram's subjects . " Solomon , who was then King of Jerusalem , sent , riddles to Hiram , and desired to receive the like from him ; but that he " who could not solve them should pay money to them that did solve them ; and that Hiram accepted the conditions ; and when he was not able
to solve the riddles ( proposed by Solomon ) , he paid a great deal of money for his fine ; but that he afterward did solve the proposed riddles b y means of Abdemon , a man of Tyre , and that Hiram proposed other riddles , which when Solomon could not solve , he paid back a great deal of money to Hiram . "
Wagering his _ Repufcation . —Asclepiades , of Bithynia , the most famous physician of his time ( B . C . 90 ) , who founded a sect in physic , displayed one bupreme act of foolishness . Relying so much upon his own skill , he
Curious Wagers.
wagered against Fortune , that he would never be sick during his life , under penalty of forfeiting the brilliant reputation which he had acquired in Borne . The amount of the wager is not stated , but whatever it was he won it , for he lived to a very advanced age , his death being caused at last by a fall . Slavery , versus Freedom . —Gaming was introduced into England by the
Saxons ; the loser in most cases being made a slave to the winner , and sold In traffic like other merchandise . This we have on the evidence of Camden and Stow . The etymology of the word wager has been traced to gager , or gage , proving that something must be deposited . Still it is rather hard when a man ' s freedom is the thing staked .
In Evelyn ' s Journal ( 21 st Oot . 1644 ) is the following : — " Ligorne . Here , especially in this Piazza , is such a concourse of slaves , Turks , Mores , and other nations , that the confusion is prodigious . ..... Here was a tent where any idle fellow might stake his liberty against a few crowns at dice or other hazard ; and if he lost , he was immediatly chayn'd and led away to the gallys , where he was to serve a tearm of yeares , but from whence they seldom returned . Many sottish persons in a drunken bravado would try their fortunes in this way . "
Jacob Grimm , in his " Deutsohes Rechts Alterthiimer , " gives an instance where Moroif , playing at chess with the queen , staked his head against her stake of thirty golden marks , and there is an instance of a wager in Shakspeare ' s " Hamlet" ( Act 5 , Scene 2 ) . The courtier Osrio announces to the prince that Claudius , King of Denmark , has laid a wager on his ( Hamlet's ) head— " six Barbarv horses against six French swords . "
Cleopatra ' s Wager with Mark Anthony . —The following is an account of the celebrated wager of Cleopatra with Mark Anthony . During her stay at Tarsus , Cleopatra , Queen of Egypt , invited Anthony , the Boman Triumvir , to supper , and wagered that she would swallow , at one meal , a sum equal to £ 80 , 729 3 s 4 d . Anthony during the symposium observed nothing extraodinary , and " began to rally the queen on the frugality of her table .
She made no reply , but detached from her ears two pearls of great price , one of which she threw into a liquor prepared for the purpose . The pearl was speedily dissolved , and she swallowed it in the presence of Munatius Plaucus , the chosen arbiter of the wager . " She was preparing in like manner to melt the other , when Plaucus snatched it away , acknowledging at the same time that she had already won the wager . The pearl was afterwards carried to
Rome by Augustus , and being by his order cut in two , served for pendants to the Venus of the Julian family . Like a number of other good stories this one lacks the principal element for inspiring confidence in its tfuthfulness . It is quite unlikely that Cleopatra ' s colliquative knowledge was superior to that of scientists of the present day , who are unacquainted with any non deleterious liquor or acid which would so quickly dissolve a pearl of such size , for it must have been large to have represented the value here stated .
Wager by King Henry the Eighth . —A very disgraceful transaction is related of Henry 8 th , who was addicted to deep play . The story goes that once playing high with a Sir Miles Partridge , and having a run of ill luck , and also being at a loss for another venture , he wagered Jesus bells , as they were termed ( the stake consisting of four bells hanging in one of the towers
of Old St . Paul ' s Church ) , which were lost by the dice cast turning up m favour of his luckly adversary . An old author makes the following remark on Sir Miles's winning the bells , that though by such unworthy means he did cause the bells to ring in Us pocket , yet he could not prevent the ropes twisting about his neck , " for he was afterwards hanged for malpractices in the reign of Edward the Sixth .
Queen Elizabeth's Wager . —A wager is said to have been won by Sir Walter Baleigh from the Virgin Queen , on the question of how much smoke is contained in a pound of tobacco . " A pound of the article in question was weighed , burned , and then weighed again in ashes . The question was held to be satisfactorily settled by determining the weight of the smoke as
exactly that of the tobacco before being burned , minus the residuum of ashes . The fact of the ashes having received an additional weight by combination with the oxygen of the atmosphere , and also the circumstance of numerous imperceptible gases being evolved by the process of combustion , were alike unthought of by Elizabeth and her knight . "
A Diver ' s Foolishness . —The very climax of recklessness is attained when an individual allows himself to embark on a desperate venture for the sake of an amount which practically means a bet against his own life . A person named Day perished in a diving-bell or diving boat , of his own construction , at Plymouth , in June 1774 , in whioh he was to have continued for a wager twelve hours , one hundred feet deep in water . Possibly he lost his life through not possessing all the hydrostatic knowledge that was necessary for such a perilous undertaking .
Selwyn and Dodsley at Fault . —The following proves the unwisdom of relying upon one ' s memory for faots , especially where very particular interests are at stake . The well-known lines " For he that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day , "
have been generally attributed to Butler , and nine out of ten critics would tell you that they occur in " Hudibras . " " So confident have even scholars been on the subject that in 1784 a wager was made at Bootle , of twenty to one , that they were to be found in thafc celebrated poem . Dodsley was referred to as the arbiter , when he ridiculed the idea of consulting him on fche subject , saying , " Every fool knows they are in Hudibras . " George Selwyn , who was present , said to Dodsley , " Pray , sir , will you be good enough , then ,
to inform an old fool , who is , at the same time , your wise worship's very humble servant , in what canto they are to be found . " Dodsley took down the volume , but he could not find the passage ; the next day passed over with no better success , and tbe sage bibliopole was obliged to confess , that a man might be ignorant of the author of this well-known couplet , without being absolutely a fool . Butler has , indeed , two or three passages somewhat similar : the one that comes nearest is the following , in Hudibras , book iii , canto iii . verse 243 : —
For those that fly may fight again , Which he can never do that's slain . ' The fact , however , is , that the couplet , thus erroneously ascribed to the author of Hudibras , occurs in a small volume of miscellaneous poems , by Sir John Mennes , written in the reign of Charles the Second .
Betting on the Durance of Life . —In the early part of the present century , men were fond of betting on the duration of the lives of celebrities . It is related that at a dinner party in 1809 , Sir Mark Sykes offered to pay anyone who would give him a hundred guineas down a guinea a day so long as Napoleon lived . The offer was taken by a clergyman present , and for threo years Sir Mark paid him three hundred and sixty five guineas per annum .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Provincial .
( Mr . and Mrs . Whittaker ) , nofc only for the very excellent manner in which they had catered during the banquet , but for the care and attention which they had bestowed upon fche room and its surroundings . The toast was replied to by Mr . Whittaker , who promised that he would not relax any efforts which might conduce to the future comfort of the members of the Faith Lodge , or indeed of any Lodge which might hold its meetings on his premises .
Besides those already mentioned there were present Bros ., Wm . Whyfca McLeod P . M . 1166 Prov . G . Supt . of Wks ., Walter Newton P . M . 1322 , & c , P . P . G . D . ( Mayor of Ashton-under-Lyne ) , John Jee P . M . 1459 , W . Gregg P . M . 2144 , Geo . T . Lenard P . M . 117 T , Geo . W . Davies P . M . 1459 , Thomas Chorlton 1166 , and others .
LONDESBOROUGH LODGE , No . 734 . ONE of the most successful events in the annals of this Lodge took place on Tuesday , 3 rd inst ., when Bro . Chas . Nicholson , who has served the office of Senior Warden of the Lodge during the past year , was installed as
Worshipful Master for the ensuing year . The esteem in which Bro . Nicholson is held , not only in his own Lodge , but also by ihe Brethren of other Lodges in the Province , was evinced by the very larg « attendance afc the installation , which took place at the Masonic Hall , St . John ' s Avenue , Bridlington .
The Lodge was opened by the out-going Master Bro . Thomas Hunter , who has had a mosfc successful year of office , and has fulfilled his duties as W . M . of the Lodge to the entire satisfaction of the Brethren . The ceremony of installation was most admirably and efficiently performed by Bro . F .
Creaser P . M . P . P . G . St . B ., who has gained a well deserved repution for his ability in this branch of the Craft , and who has performed the ceremony to the admiration of the Brethren for about twenty years , not only in the Londesborough , but in other Lodges in the Province of North and East Yorks .
The Lodge having been closed in ancient form , the Brethren proceeded to the Station Hotel , where the installation banquet was held , the company numbering between forty and fifty .
PRUDENCE LODGE , No . 1550 . THE members of this Lodge held their annual banquet on Saturday evening , 7 th inst ., at fche Freemasons' Hall , Plymouth , . when about sixty were present , including a large number of visiting Brethren . Bro . Pryor W . M . presided .
The speeches were commendably short , but special reference was made to the admirable manner in which Bro . Pryor had discharged his duties during the time he had filled the W . M . ' s chair , and to the gratifying progress the Lodge was making under his guidance . Bro . Philp mentioned that he
had . been Treasurer of the Lodge for sixteen years , and he was glad to say that it was never more prosperous than at the present moment . Bro . Selleck Secretary gave similar testimony . They were , he said , nofc only adding to their numbers , but the new members they were introducing were of the right class , and likely to uphold the best traditions of Freemasonry .
WOLSELEY LODGE , No . 1993 . THE regular meeting was held at the Freemasons' Hall , Manchester , on Monday , 2 nd inst ., Bro . George Hargreaves W . M . ¦ Although this day was practically considered as the New Year ' s holiday , and the members had been summoned for the early hour of 10 . 30 a . m ., there was an attendance of nearly forty .
Two ceremonies had been announced , but one , tbat of raising Bro . C . H . Ramsbottom to the third degree , was deferred . Successful ballots were taken for Bro . Frederick George Anton Ballantiue , Longsight Lodge , No . 2464 , and Mr . George Beaman , Salesman , Patricroft , the former as a joining member , and the latter as an initiate , the ceremony being performed by Bro . Wm . Harris P . M . P . P . G . A . D . C .
MARISTOW LODGE , No . 2726 . THE first meeting since the consecration was held on fche 4 th inst ., at . Yelverton . Mr . Y . B . Lopes , M . P . for Grantham , and Mr . W . H . Mitchell were initiated .. . ¦ . ; vr After-ftvvery impressive delivery of the lecture on the tracing board by Bro . Lord , and the receipt of several proposals , the Lodge was closed , and the Brethren adjourned to the Yelverton Hotel for supper .
Curious Wagers.
CURIOUS WAGERS .
ONE of tbe earliest instances of a wager is recorded in Judges xiv , 12 , 13 . ¦' . Samson propounds a riddle to his thirty companions , at the same time proposing . a wager ' : — " I will now put forth a riddle unto you . If ye can certainly declare it me .... and find it out , I will ' give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments . But if ye cannot declare it me , then shall ye give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments . "
This incident proves at least that the time of the ancients was not entirely taken up : with war , and by the absorptions of study , but that they could i enjoy a joke with the zest of a modern . King Solomon was of this class , and seems to have possessed a wonderful faculty forsolving difficult problems and emblematical sayings . Josephus , the Jewish historian ( Antiq . Book 8 , Chap . 5 , Par . 3 ) relates how Hiram , King of Tyre , and . the son of David , once engaged in a riddle contest , when Solomon won a large sum of
money , but on the authority of Dius , he subsequently lost it to Abdemon , a Tyrian—in fact one of Hiram's subjects . " Solomon , who was then King of Jerusalem , sent , riddles to Hiram , and desired to receive the like from him ; but that he " who could not solve them should pay money to them that did solve them ; and that Hiram accepted the conditions ; and when he was not able
to solve the riddles ( proposed by Solomon ) , he paid a great deal of money for his fine ; but that he afterward did solve the proposed riddles b y means of Abdemon , a man of Tyre , and that Hiram proposed other riddles , which when Solomon could not solve , he paid back a great deal of money to Hiram . "
Wagering his _ Repufcation . —Asclepiades , of Bithynia , the most famous physician of his time ( B . C . 90 ) , who founded a sect in physic , displayed one bupreme act of foolishness . Relying so much upon his own skill , he
Curious Wagers.
wagered against Fortune , that he would never be sick during his life , under penalty of forfeiting the brilliant reputation which he had acquired in Borne . The amount of the wager is not stated , but whatever it was he won it , for he lived to a very advanced age , his death being caused at last by a fall . Slavery , versus Freedom . —Gaming was introduced into England by the
Saxons ; the loser in most cases being made a slave to the winner , and sold In traffic like other merchandise . This we have on the evidence of Camden and Stow . The etymology of the word wager has been traced to gager , or gage , proving that something must be deposited . Still it is rather hard when a man ' s freedom is the thing staked .
In Evelyn ' s Journal ( 21 st Oot . 1644 ) is the following : — " Ligorne . Here , especially in this Piazza , is such a concourse of slaves , Turks , Mores , and other nations , that the confusion is prodigious . ..... Here was a tent where any idle fellow might stake his liberty against a few crowns at dice or other hazard ; and if he lost , he was immediatly chayn'd and led away to the gallys , where he was to serve a tearm of yeares , but from whence they seldom returned . Many sottish persons in a drunken bravado would try their fortunes in this way . "
Jacob Grimm , in his " Deutsohes Rechts Alterthiimer , " gives an instance where Moroif , playing at chess with the queen , staked his head against her stake of thirty golden marks , and there is an instance of a wager in Shakspeare ' s " Hamlet" ( Act 5 , Scene 2 ) . The courtier Osrio announces to the prince that Claudius , King of Denmark , has laid a wager on his ( Hamlet's ) head— " six Barbarv horses against six French swords . "
Cleopatra ' s Wager with Mark Anthony . —The following is an account of the celebrated wager of Cleopatra with Mark Anthony . During her stay at Tarsus , Cleopatra , Queen of Egypt , invited Anthony , the Boman Triumvir , to supper , and wagered that she would swallow , at one meal , a sum equal to £ 80 , 729 3 s 4 d . Anthony during the symposium observed nothing extraodinary , and " began to rally the queen on the frugality of her table .
She made no reply , but detached from her ears two pearls of great price , one of which she threw into a liquor prepared for the purpose . The pearl was speedily dissolved , and she swallowed it in the presence of Munatius Plaucus , the chosen arbiter of the wager . " She was preparing in like manner to melt the other , when Plaucus snatched it away , acknowledging at the same time that she had already won the wager . The pearl was afterwards carried to
Rome by Augustus , and being by his order cut in two , served for pendants to the Venus of the Julian family . Like a number of other good stories this one lacks the principal element for inspiring confidence in its tfuthfulness . It is quite unlikely that Cleopatra ' s colliquative knowledge was superior to that of scientists of the present day , who are unacquainted with any non deleterious liquor or acid which would so quickly dissolve a pearl of such size , for it must have been large to have represented the value here stated .
Wager by King Henry the Eighth . —A very disgraceful transaction is related of Henry 8 th , who was addicted to deep play . The story goes that once playing high with a Sir Miles Partridge , and having a run of ill luck , and also being at a loss for another venture , he wagered Jesus bells , as they were termed ( the stake consisting of four bells hanging in one of the towers
of Old St . Paul ' s Church ) , which were lost by the dice cast turning up m favour of his luckly adversary . An old author makes the following remark on Sir Miles's winning the bells , that though by such unworthy means he did cause the bells to ring in Us pocket , yet he could not prevent the ropes twisting about his neck , " for he was afterwards hanged for malpractices in the reign of Edward the Sixth .
Queen Elizabeth's Wager . —A wager is said to have been won by Sir Walter Baleigh from the Virgin Queen , on the question of how much smoke is contained in a pound of tobacco . " A pound of the article in question was weighed , burned , and then weighed again in ashes . The question was held to be satisfactorily settled by determining the weight of the smoke as
exactly that of the tobacco before being burned , minus the residuum of ashes . The fact of the ashes having received an additional weight by combination with the oxygen of the atmosphere , and also the circumstance of numerous imperceptible gases being evolved by the process of combustion , were alike unthought of by Elizabeth and her knight . "
A Diver ' s Foolishness . —The very climax of recklessness is attained when an individual allows himself to embark on a desperate venture for the sake of an amount which practically means a bet against his own life . A person named Day perished in a diving-bell or diving boat , of his own construction , at Plymouth , in June 1774 , in whioh he was to have continued for a wager twelve hours , one hundred feet deep in water . Possibly he lost his life through not possessing all the hydrostatic knowledge that was necessary for such a perilous undertaking .
Selwyn and Dodsley at Fault . —The following proves the unwisdom of relying upon one ' s memory for faots , especially where very particular interests are at stake . The well-known lines " For he that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day , "
have been generally attributed to Butler , and nine out of ten critics would tell you that they occur in " Hudibras . " " So confident have even scholars been on the subject that in 1784 a wager was made at Bootle , of twenty to one , that they were to be found in thafc celebrated poem . Dodsley was referred to as the arbiter , when he ridiculed the idea of consulting him on fche subject , saying , " Every fool knows they are in Hudibras . " George Selwyn , who was present , said to Dodsley , " Pray , sir , will you be good enough , then ,
to inform an old fool , who is , at the same time , your wise worship's very humble servant , in what canto they are to be found . " Dodsley took down the volume , but he could not find the passage ; the next day passed over with no better success , and tbe sage bibliopole was obliged to confess , that a man might be ignorant of the author of this well-known couplet , without being absolutely a fool . Butler has , indeed , two or three passages somewhat similar : the one that comes nearest is the following , in Hudibras , book iii , canto iii . verse 243 : —
For those that fly may fight again , Which he can never do that's slain . ' The fact , however , is , that the couplet , thus erroneously ascribed to the author of Hudibras , occurs in a small volume of miscellaneous poems , by Sir John Mennes , written in the reign of Charles the Second .
Betting on the Durance of Life . —In the early part of the present century , men were fond of betting on the duration of the lives of celebrities . It is related that at a dinner party in 1809 , Sir Mark Sykes offered to pay anyone who would give him a hundred guineas down a guinea a day so long as Napoleon lived . The offer was taken by a clergyman present , and for threo years Sir Mark paid him three hundred and sixty five guineas per annum .