Masonic Journalism.

a very AA'ise man AVIIO believed that if a man Avere permitted to make all the ballads , he need not - care AVIIO should make the laws of a nation . So , too , AA'C mig ht say , ' ' that if a man Avere allowed to Avrite or suggest the editorial articles of all the leading political newspapers

of a country , he Avould be sure to mould the direction of its public policy . Such too is the influence exerted by Masonic journals . Thousands of the craft read little else in Masonry than the magazine to Avhich they have been

persuaded to subscribe . Its opinions are adopted by them without any doubt as to their correctness . Each subscriber , or each reader—for , unfortunately , all its readers are not its subscribers—has in the course

of the year some dozen or twenty questions to propose in reference to the literature , the jurisprudence , or the ritualism of the Order , and it is taken for granted that the editor is an accomplished ( Edipus , Avho has a solution at hand for every difficulty . Accepting him thus as- their " guide ,

philosopher and friend , " his errors , if lie make any , are perpetuated in the circle , large or small , of his patrons ; his mistakes are undetected and adopted as axioms not to be controverted , Hence it Avould seem that to make a good and safe

Masonic editor requires the preliminary possession of some amount of brains . The editor AVIIO is without them is as bad as the AVill-o ' the-Avisp , Avhose false li ght is used only to lead benighted travellers into pitfalls and morasses .

The ancients said that a statue of Mercury could not be made out of any kind of wood . It was a proverb by Avhich they meant to indicate that there should be some sort of congruity between the character of the god and the material which Avas to represent him . The Avorthless fimiht

g g serve for the statue of alazy , garden Priapus , but " the Avinged messenger of heaven " demanded a more costly Avood . It Avas a long time before the significance of this thought , applied to Masonic editorship , began to be understood . The saying

has almost become a proverb that there are two things Avhich every man thinks he can do : namely , drive a gig and edit a paper . But unfortunately many find themselves throAvn out behind a fractious horse , and many also throAvn over by a resentful public . Thus it is that some have ascended the

sacred tripod in whom there Avas no inspiration of a seer . Here noAv lie before us the " Freemason ' s Magazine " published in England at the close of the last century , and a Avork Avith the same title printed in this country about the beginning of this

century ; compared Avith some of the Masonic Magazines Avhich are issued in the present day , they are scarcely Avorth the binding Avhich encloses their utterly valueless contents , so far as Masonic science or literature is interested .

Long before these the Masonic periodical literature of Germany and France had been developed in Magazines worthy to be read and to be preserved ; but it Avas not until the appearance of the " Freemason ' s Quarterly RevieAv , " in London , in 1834 ,

conducted by Dr . Orncefix , and the " Freemason ' s Monthly Magazine , " in Boston , in 1842 , edited by Charles W . Moore , that English-speaking Masons Avere enabled to obtain from the journalism of their Order anything that was Avorthy of their respect .

Since then there has been a steady progress of improvement in our periodical literature . Entering the field ourselves iu 1 S 50 , we haA'e , during the more than tAvo decades that haA'e passed , Avitnessed with much pride and satisfaction the increasing

usefulness and elevated tone of the Masonic Magazines of this country . If there are some , the editors of Avhich would be more usefully employed in some other and less intellectual vocation , the exceptions are too few to affect the general character of the class .

The third qualification of independence remains to be considered . Independent journalism is often spoken of in tho political world as something greatly needed but not ahvays found . The mercenary greed for gain , the influence of patronage , and the

snobbish veneration of wealth and power sometimes combine to make that most contemptible of all si ghts —a neAvspaper Avithout independence , whose editor lives in the serfdom of political clientship . He is the mere echo of the vieAvs of his masters , aud

not , as he should be , the exponent of public opinion and the maintainor of ri ght and truth . Fortunately in Masonry there is neither the patronage of power nor the ambition for office to present temptations for editorial subseiwiency , and hence the Masonic press has ahvays been iudepeuden t . There have been Masonic journals Avhich