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CONTENTS . LBADBR— PAGE Next Week ' s Festival ... ... ... •••- i ° 7 The Lodge Room ... ... ... ... ¦•••¦¦ > ° 7 Consecration of the Dungarvan Council , No . 25 , Royal and Select Masters ... 10 S Bro . Canon and Mrs . Tristram ' s Golden Wedding ... ... « - ... ico Craft Masonry ... ... ¦•••¦•••••••"'« Science , Art and the Drama ... ... ... ... •••i "

MASONIC NOTESAnnual Festival of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement ... ... 113 Bro . Richards ' s Transvaal Relief Fund ... ... ... ... 113 Golden Wedding of Bro . Rev . Canon and Mrs . Tristram ... ... 113 Forward Lodge , No . 11 S 0 , Birmingham ... ... ... ... 113 Correspondence ... ... ... ... ••••••114

General Committee of Grand Lodge and Board of Benevolence ... ... 114 Dedication of a Masonic Temple at Ilfracombe ... ... ... 114 Craft Masonry ... ... ... ... ... ... " 5 Instruction ... ... ... ... ... ... •» 117 Ancient and Accepted Rite ... ... ... •¦••••117 Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 120

Next Week's Festival.

NEXT WEEK'S FESTIVAL .

At no previous Festival in behalf of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution have the prospects—so far as the Board of Stewards may be taken as a criterion—appeared so encouraging as for that which will be celebrated at Freemasons' Tavern

on Tuesday , the 27 th instant , under the presidency of Lord ADDINGTON , Provincial Grand Master of Buckinghamshire . We mentioned in our " Notes " of last week , that the number of ladies and brethren whose services as Stewards Bro . TttRRY had

succeeded in enlisting was in excess of 500 . Since then many additions have been made to ( lie list and the number , roughly speaking , may now be set down as about 560 or 570 . Last year , when a special effort was made in behalf of the Girls' School

and the Old People , whose returns in 1 S 98 had been of necessity unfavourably affected by the Boys' Centenary , tlie Board of Stewards at the Benevolent Festival mustered in all 4 8 3

ladies and brethren . Then there was anxiety as to the relations that might prevail in the future between this country and tlie Transvaal , but no war . Now , and for several months past , there has been waging a tremendous struggle not only with ( he Transvaal , but . likewise with the Orange Free State , in which it has been found necessary to dispatch to South Africa a larger British army than has ever previously left our shores .

This and the serious nature of the contest in which we arc engaged has resulted in the establishment ol all kinds of War Funds and Refugees Relief and other Funds , and yet in spite of all these various claims that have been made upon the

benevolence of the brethren , a Board of Stewards of tlie strength we have mentioned has been organised for the first of the three great anniversary gatherings of the present year . It would appear as if the Craft had made up its mind that , notwithstanding

the generous response made by lodges and brethren to these war Funds , the claims of its own Institutions should not be allowed to suffer , if , in the case of the Old People , a larger body of willing helpers than has ever before worked for any one of its

ordinary Festivals could prevent it . Bro . TERRY and his staff are to be congratulated on the success which has attended them in this essential part of the arrangements lor Tuesday next .

1 he additional amount of help that has been forthcoming must not be taken to indicate that the donations and subscriptions will be proportionately increased . They may , and we and everybody else must hope they will , be . People cannot s "bscribe as liberally to the Charitable Institutions which look

Next Week's Festival.

to them regularly every year for support , when calls are being made upon them which as loyal Englishmen they are eager to meet . But the more numerous the Board of Stewards , the greater are the chances of a big total , and if any inducement is

needed to make the sum as large as possible—over and above the natural claims of the Institution upon the Craft—we think it will be found in the resolution taken by the Committee , of Management at its meeting on the 14 th instant , when without

waiting to hear the result of next Tuesday ' s gathering at the Freemasons' Tavern , it determined to increase the number of annuitants on the Male Fund from 207 to 210 , and the number

on the Widows' Fund from 248 to 256 . We sincerely hope this confidence in the generosity of the brethren will meet with the return it deserves .

The Lodge Room.

THE LODGE ROOM .

VII . —MASONIC CLOTHING . [ COMMUNICATED ] , Up to a very recent date there scarcel y seemed to be any place or any occasion where , subject to an easily procured dispensation , it was not fit and proper to appear clothed as a Freemason . What with Masonic funerals , church parades ,

foundation-stone layings , banquets , and balls , Masonic clothing and jewels were , becoming quite common spectacles to the profane . A wise edict of the Most Worshipful Grand Master lias , however , stopped all this , and it is entirely owing to the recent enactment that we are justified in considering Masonic

clothing as an exclusive property of the lodge room The fact that the abuse had attained such dimensions as to call for special legislation was not altogether the fault of the rank and file however . The rulers of the Craft had gradually acquired the habit of using far too liberally the powers with which they

were entrusted . If it was understood that dispensations for all the purposes above quoted might be had for the asking , private lodges could not be blamed for profiting by such laxity . That laxity existed can be inferred from the fact that the writer has before him a set of the by-laws of a District Grand Lodge—duly

approved by the Most Worshipful Grand Master—in which it is laid down that in the case of a Masonic funeral occurring at a distance too great from headquarters to permit of the dispensation being received in lime , the required permission to appear in clothing might be taken for granted . In tlie District in

question , it ought to be added , climatic considerations compelled very hasty burial . If Masonic funerals be permitted at all , the provision in the by-laws was , of course , a very reasonable one , and it is only quoted to show that public appearances in Masonic clothing used to be regarded almost as matters of

course . All that is now altered , and we may be allowed to hope that the Freemason will now be chiefly conspicuous in the eyes of the profane , not b y reason of the brilliance of his apparel , but by his exhibition of those moral and social virtues which

Freemasonry alone ' exists to illustrate and upon which it is founded . Masonic clothing , according to ancient history , comprises aprons and gloves . The latter may be left out as it is probable that the reference to them in the legend of the Third Degree , is an interpolation . We are thus reduced to the primitive covering

of our common ancestors . Let us then commence by looking at the apron , the first gift of Freemasonry to the initiate . lit bestowing it the Senior Warden describes it as the badge of innocence and the bond of friendship , and he usually goes on to

say that if the candidate never disgraces it , it will never disgrace him . This statement is open to criticism as the inference is that under certain circumstances , it is possible for the badge to disgrace him . A man may disgrace the badge , but under no