Bro. C. Christian Silberbauer.

Bro . C . Christian Silberbauer .

BRO . C . Christian Silberbauer , yvhose portrait yve reproduce , is on a brief visit to the old country . He is a member of the Cape Legislature , representing the large and important territory of Tembuland in the House of Assembly . Bro . Silberbauer first became associated yvith the Craft as a

member of the Lodge De Goede Hoop , yvhich yvas established in the east of Cape Toyvn as far back as 1772 , No . 12 on the roll of the Netherlands , and the mother lodge of

BRO . V . CHRISTIAN SILBERBAUER . South Africa . He is also a founder of St . George ' s Lodge , Cape Toyvn ( English Constitution ) , and of the Alfred Milner Lodge , Muizenberg , a charming seaside resort in the

Cape Peninsula , well known to South Africans as the " Brighton of the Cape . " Bro . Silberbauer is District Grand Master for South Africa for the high Degrees of our Order under the Constitution of the Netherlands , its colonies , and other countries . He is a Past Master of the Lodge De Goede

Hoop ; a life member of the General Masonic Education Fund for all South African Provinces ; a Companion of the British Royal Arch Chapter ; and a P . M . W . S . of the Rose Croix Chapter of De Goede Hoop . It is interesting to note that one of Bro . Silberbauer ' s ancestors , Abraham de Smidt , landed at the Cape as a young

lieutenant of a Dutch yvarship , which , in order to avoid capture by the British , was run ashore at Saldanha Bay . Subsequently Lieutenant de Smidt settled in the Cape district , and became the founder of one of the most respected Dutch families in South Africa , yvhose name is a household

word from the Zambesi to Table Bay . This ancestor of our illustrious brother yvas initiated in the Lodge De Goede Hoop shortly after its formation , and ultimately occupied the chair of Worshipful Master in the earliest years of the last century , a position yvhich in those days yvas equivalent to that of District Grand Master .

Bro . Silberbauer is exceedingly hopeful of the benignant inlluences of Freemasonry in South Africa , and points yvith pride and gratification to the fact that , amidst all the

bitterness and turmoil of the war , racial and political dillerences yvere unknown within the temples of the Fraternity . In the small up-country toyvns of Cape Colony Freemasonry is undoubtedly nourishing , and the lodges in Tembuland are efficiently worked , the territory- being under the jurisdiction of Bro . Egan , District Grand Master for the Eastern Division ,

yvhose name is agreeably familiar in connection with all matters of the technical and Masonic Orient of Cape Colony . It yvill be remembered by many of our readers that the late Bro . Cecil Rhodes yvas a member of the Apollo Lodge , Oxford . Bro . Silberbauer has in his possession a Masonic apron , yvhich , by permission of the great South African

stateman ' s relatives , yvas placed upon the coffin at the memorable obsequies in Cape Town as a token of sorrow from the Apollo Lodge . The relatives of the late Right Hon . Cecil Rhodes also permitted Bro . Frederick Silberbauer ( brother of the subject of this sketch ) to pay the last Masonic honours to the distinguished colonist before the coffin yvas

finall y sealed for its journey to the lonely Mattoppo Hills in far Rhodesia . We understand it is Bro . C . C . Silberbauer ' s intention to present this apron to the Apollo Lodge as a memento of one of England ' s sons yvhose name is yvrit large in South African history , as a member of our Order who , by his munificent testamentary benefactions , has rendered so priceless a service to the cause of education .

An Oration To The Members Of The Whitsan Lodge.

An Oration to the Members of the Whitsan Lodge .

AT the consecration of the Whitsan Lodge at Bristol recently the Provincial Grand Chaplain delivered an eloquent oration on the nature and principles of the Institution . He pointed out that the lodge bore the name of one of Bristol ' s great philanthropists . They did not profess to be a religious

brotherhood , but Masonry yvas of a distinctly religious character . Within the four yvalls of the lodge they kneyv nothing of political or religious difficulties , of inequalities arising from race or colour , or mere distinctions of rank and wealth . Their one great watchword yvas Charity , not in the

narroyv restricted sense of bestowing money on the poor and distressed , but Charity in its first and truest sense of Brotherly Love . No society more consistently , more unobtrusively , more effectively , carried out in practice this greatest of all virtues than Freemasonry . It fed the hungry , clothed the naked , relieved the poor and distressed , and

educated thousands of boys and girls in its great schools , sending them forth fitted to play their part in the rough battle of life as faithful servants , good and loyal subjects of the

King , and useful citizens of the country . It had cheered and brightened the declining days of thousands of their poorer brethren yvho , through no fault of their own , had drunk deeply of the cup of adversity . This briefly yvas the splendid yvork yvhich had been and was being done b y the

great Masonic body . They must not forged , hoyvever , that a body consisted of many parts and many members , and that the generally healthy condition of the several parts mainl y depended upon the yvell-being and usefulness of the whole . They commonly spoke of a great society like Freemasonry

as a personal being with a personal existence , yvith a real , not a metaphorical soul , but , after all , yvhat yvas such a society but a collection of individuals , all bound by certain fixed rules and regulations , and all in their corporate capacity acting together . The greatest of human institutions might

in time pass ayvay , but the units yvhich composed it , and whose good useful work made it famous , yvere never forgotten—their names became household yvords .