Management Of The Boys' School.

of the question remains as it was . But the point which was of the most importance , has happily been settled , and henceforth we hope the course of the School will progress without further disturbance . We can hardly find words to express the pleasure we feel at a result so satisfactory . We do not doubt for one

moment that the views so strenuously urged by Bros . Tew and Perrott were urged bond fide , in the firm belief that the office expenditure was excessive , and that the accounts presented to the public did not appear , perhaps , as clear to the minds of the uninformed as they might have been . But

it cannot be other than a matter for the heartiest congratulation to learn that the powers that be have done'their duty honourably . It would have been a great blow to the Craft had any irregularities been brought home to those charged with preparing the accounts , and , we repeat , we cannot find

words to express our pleasure at the result of the late rigid investigation . Now that this unpleasant subject is at an end , we trust the career of the School may be altogether unchequered . Bro . Binckes may be , occasionally , over-zealous in his anxiety

to promote the welfare of the School . He is , no doubt , a little impetuous—we trust he will pardon us for saying so—in his mode of argument , but none have ever doubted his marvellous activity in furthering the good cause . We need only compare the proceeds of each festival before he was Secretary

with what was realised this yearm order to gauge the measure of his zeal and its results . Accordingly , we congratulate him most heartily on the result , and we trust that Bros . Tew and Perrott , finding the charges advanced by them

have no basis of fact to rest upon , will , as the men of honour and gentlemen we know them to be , drop any further antagonism , and heartily co-operate with the rest of the Masonic world in promoting the interests of this important charity .

Buried Alive.

BURIED ALIVE .

Eitoit THE Keystone . "j \/| "Y case is not without precedent . Others have been buried alive JL T JL before me , and by good fortune , exhibited evidences of consciousness in time to secure a rescue . Bat I presume that I am the first Freemason ever subjected to this discipline . Will the readers of the Keystone listen to my story ? My health from boyhood lias been feeble . I am not scholar enough

to describe , or even name my peculiar ailment ; but I was always hard to wake from sleep , sometimes had fainting fits , suffered much from swimming in the head , and the like . I became a Mason at the age of twenty-four , and found the association , in all respects , pleasing and nseful . The Lodge worked carefully and well . No erring brother stood a chance of being overlooked until his sin grew chronic within

him . We had no disreputable brethren among ns . Yet wo were social , and had high jinks whenever tho Craft was " called from labour to refreshment . " We sung the Masonic songs well and freely . Twice a year a bounteous banquet was spread , which , with the attendant joybailities , was always anticipated by the members with rare relish . In brief , ours was more than an ordinary Lodge .

One afternoon I had gone into the woods to select a piece of timber for a particular work—I am a wagon maker by trade—and finding a suitable tree , I began to cut it down . While doing so a large snake came suddenly out from a hollow place near the ground , and passed directly between my feet . I always had an antipathy to snakes , and the suddenness of its appearance threw me into a fit .

I fell backward to the ground as if dead . The woodchopper who was with me took mo on his shoulder—I am a very light weight—aud carried me directly to my boarding-house , summoning a physician , whose office we passed , to wait upon me . All efforts to resuscitate me , however , failed . Applications of all sorts , even the most pungent vivisections , the hot bath , electricity itself ,

was tried upon me ; but my appearance was that of a dead man , and at last the medical practitioner declared that " life was extinct .. " It was about this time that my dormant senses returned to me ; at least I cannot remember with distinctness anything which occurred bofore I heard—and , oh ! how distinctly the voice fell upon my ears , " He is dead ! " Some one remarking upon my florid appearance , aud the

warmth of my flesh , I heard the doctor explain , with quite a display of erudition , that " such phenomena were not rare in persons of my peculiar temperament ; but that these were not appearances of vitality . " He advised , however , that no steps should bo taken for my burial until the plainest evidences of death were apparent . Then I heard the doctor leave the room , and the conversation of the two or three

persons around me , expressing surprise ( no one gave utterance to grief ) at my sudden death . Then my body was laid out in the usual manner , bat with what I thought to be unnecessary coarseness and indelicacy , and I was left , nude and alone , in a dark room . At this time , I confess , my feelings were of rather a ludicrous

nature , mingled with some indignation , than of fear . I felt so confident of reviving in a few hours that the thought of how droll would bo the scene of my unexpected resuscitation was uppermost in my mind . I had that indistinct perception of passing objects common to a state of coma , yet could concentrate my ideas upon a single point with considerable force . Tho lines , " Solemn strikes the funeral chimes , " rang in my mind . The job on which I had been engaged occupied

Buried Alive.

much of my thoughts , and I computed over and over the measure'n mts of the timber upon which I was reflecting at the moment of my attack . The night passed rapidly enough and daylight seemod as plain to me , through my closed lids , as on any -other occasion . Then I became a silent witness of a scene never to be eradicated from my

memory . A delegation from the Lodge camo to tho room , and , for a consider , able period , stood around me in consultation . Their words were tender and sympathetic . They had telegraphed , as I learned , to my widowed mother , and the funeral would proceed as soon as she arrived . At a called meeting , tho evening before , they had assumed

all the expenses of my interment , together with those for a monument , which they had already ordered . They had adopted eulogistic resolutions in my honour . They had , in brief , taken prompt steps to assure my mother , my friends , and the entire community , of their respect for my memory . Now I was laid in the coffin , and my body removed to the Masonic

Hall , where a guard of brethren was detailed to stand watch over me through the second night . It must have been one or two o ' clock in the morning that a final consultation was held over my body , to decide the solemn question of death . Tho ruddy appearance of my skin , and the high temperature of my flesh , before adverted to , had excited much surprise , and no less than four physicians , together with

the coroner , several experienced undertakers , and others , stood around me to settle the question . And now , for the first time , I began to feel some alarm . The reader will , of course , understand that my mind was not in a logical condition . In truth , it must have been in a feeble state of action , so much so , that I had not previously contemplated the possibility of

premature burial , nor realised the horrible condition in which i was placed . Bat as one after the other tests failed , when acrid substances put under my eyelids , and sharp instruments penetrating my nerves , and great charges of galvanism , throwing my muscles into spasms , failed to elicit a single evidence of real life ; when I heard the coroner

and the undertakers , one and all , declare mo dead as Julius urosar " —in fact , when the last of the experts ceased his experiments , and retired from tho Lodge-room , a horrible fear began to come over me , to which language is inadequate to give expression , a fear which con . tinned but with evor-increasinsr intentnoss until the end of the

chapter . My life was saved by tho fortuitous circumstance of a railroad accident , which prevented the arrival of my mother . This necessitated placing my body in a vault , that upon her coming she might once more look upon my face , before my remains were finally interred . In all other respects the funeral services proceeded as though I was to be placed in mother earth . The beautiful

Masonic services were performed in opening a Funeral Lodge , my coffin lying near the altar in the centre . The appointment of a Marshal , his orderly arrangements for a procession , tho beautiful prayer of the Chaplain , thoselections of pall-bearer ' s—how welll understand these details ! Every word of the Master ' s eulogy fell upon my car , and I followed him , mentally , lino by line , and as he recited that funeral poem , commencing

" Dead , but where now , ivc , It would bo spinning out this subject unnecessarily to describe tho procession and the proceedings at the Church and receiving vault . Suffice that all things were done with exceeding gravity and decorum . My body was taken first to the Methodist church , where a funeral discourse was given , in which my character was tenderly reviewed :

then to the graveyard , where I was deposited , as I have said , in one of the vaults , fortunately open to the air . At the suggestion of one of those who had retained a lurking scepticism as to the fact of my death , tho lid of the coffin immediately above my face was slightly loosened , to which circumstance I probably owe my life . The horrors of that night why should I relate ? Consciousness fully returned .

One by one my muscles yielded to my agonised will , and I moved my feet and hands , aud opened my oyeiids ; I screamed aloud . More than once I must have fainted and recovered . And when my mother , tottering into that horrible receptacle of the dead , came to look upon my face , it was bathed with a clammy perspiration , the eyes wove ripen , and an expression of horror overspread it , which was too much for her affectionate heart . She fell upon my coffin senseless , and

was long in being revived . I need not say that no time was lost in releasing me from my confined situation , and restoring me by the aid of hot baths and tenderest care , to streugth . A handsome sum of money was made up , by which I was enabled to travel for several months in the company of my mother , and until the horrible impressions of that premature interment faded from my mind .

We have to thank Messrs . Claudius , Chant and Sheppard for two very handsome presentation copies , one plain , the other coloured , of their recently published portrait of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as M . W . Grand Master of England . The pose is easy , the likeness excellent ,

and the regalia quite en regie . Considering the smallness of the cost , the plain lithograph , without frame , of course , being only sixpence on ordinary paper , and one shilling on India paper , while for the coloured one , or the aquagraphwhich is to water colours what the oleograph is to oil

paintings—the charge is but two shillings , we think the publishers ought to have a very large sale . The price of the one , with a simple gilt frame—all the more effective for

being simple—is half a guinea , and of the coloured , twelve shillings and sixpence . We should add that the frame is washable , and thus the portrait may be said , in a certain sense , to be eyerlasting .