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Article COLOURED LODGES IN AMERICA. Page 1 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Coloured Lodges In America.
COLOURED LODOES IN AMERICA .
A promenade through the lively streets of New York suffices to bring before the eye of the stranger the descendants of all races of men , in their peculiarities and manifold varieties . The Caucasian race has here gained the dominion over the different coloured branches of the first human couple . The black imported sons from
Africa , the yellow inhabitants of eastern Asia , and the natives of America , move in a subdued position . Here and there the handsome face of the mulatto , with fiery eyes , is distinguished amongst the crowd . Everybody hurries along as if he had to accomplish temporal and eternal felicity on that very day . There is scarcely time to
wish a passing friend " good morning . " The brown driver endeavours to lead his over-burdened horse and cart through a crowd of lighter vehicles ; then a Chinaman in peaked shoes , and neatly braided hair , offers cigars and sweetmeats ; here an old Indian woman steps slowly along the street , enveloped in a great blanket , covered with a round black hat , and carrying purses and other nicknacks
made of beads , all her own handiwork . Every one is thrown by the anxiety for daily bread and riches into the crowd of the day , and desires to profit by those surrounding him . The love of gold and the egotism of the man of business equally possess the white and the black , the rich and the poor . It is scarcely possible that this chaos of egotistical activity should bring at once before the eye of the beholder the fact ,
that all this leads by an uninterrupted chain of cause and effect to a great and universal result . The manifold mixture of races is a means of ameliorating the condition and increasing the propagation of the human family . This idea of the equal destination of all men to an ultimate perfection has doubtless been in the minds of the founders of the Masonic union , since they designated it as an union and means of intercourse for persons who would otherwise have remained at a
perpetual distance . It is the aim of Freemasonry to unite and reconcile all the separating differences of religion , nationality , and politics . Let us now come to our task , —to examine a race of men which has often been considered as more akin to the brute creation than to man . The negroes who have been imported to the United States from Africa are either slaves or free coloured people ; and it is well known that a portion of these states is legally authorised to keep
slaves for domestic , rural , and other purposes . Among these free coloured men there exist in most states of the union Freemasons ' and Odd-fellows' Lodges , and others of so-called secret societies ; they give now and then traces of their existence by a public procession , or by a Masonic funeral—or by a black brother Mason being seen hurrying past with a breast-pin showing the square and compasses . No one will grudge them having followed the example of their white Brethren , in erecting Lodges for charitable purposes ; but their difficulty consisted herein—that such Lodges of coloured people could
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Coloured Lodges In America.
COLOURED LODOES IN AMERICA .
A promenade through the lively streets of New York suffices to bring before the eye of the stranger the descendants of all races of men , in their peculiarities and manifold varieties . The Caucasian race has here gained the dominion over the different coloured branches of the first human couple . The black imported sons from
Africa , the yellow inhabitants of eastern Asia , and the natives of America , move in a subdued position . Here and there the handsome face of the mulatto , with fiery eyes , is distinguished amongst the crowd . Everybody hurries along as if he had to accomplish temporal and eternal felicity on that very day . There is scarcely time to
wish a passing friend " good morning . " The brown driver endeavours to lead his over-burdened horse and cart through a crowd of lighter vehicles ; then a Chinaman in peaked shoes , and neatly braided hair , offers cigars and sweetmeats ; here an old Indian woman steps slowly along the street , enveloped in a great blanket , covered with a round black hat , and carrying purses and other nicknacks
made of beads , all her own handiwork . Every one is thrown by the anxiety for daily bread and riches into the crowd of the day , and desires to profit by those surrounding him . The love of gold and the egotism of the man of business equally possess the white and the black , the rich and the poor . It is scarcely possible that this chaos of egotistical activity should bring at once before the eye of the beholder the fact ,
that all this leads by an uninterrupted chain of cause and effect to a great and universal result . The manifold mixture of races is a means of ameliorating the condition and increasing the propagation of the human family . This idea of the equal destination of all men to an ultimate perfection has doubtless been in the minds of the founders of the Masonic union , since they designated it as an union and means of intercourse for persons who would otherwise have remained at a
perpetual distance . It is the aim of Freemasonry to unite and reconcile all the separating differences of religion , nationality , and politics . Let us now come to our task , —to examine a race of men which has often been considered as more akin to the brute creation than to man . The negroes who have been imported to the United States from Africa are either slaves or free coloured people ; and it is well known that a portion of these states is legally authorised to keep
slaves for domestic , rural , and other purposes . Among these free coloured men there exist in most states of the union Freemasons ' and Odd-fellows' Lodges , and others of so-called secret societies ; they give now and then traces of their existence by a public procession , or by a Masonic funeral—or by a black brother Mason being seen hurrying past with a breast-pin showing the square and compasses . No one will grudge them having followed the example of their white Brethren , in erecting Lodges for charitable purposes ; but their difficulty consisted herein—that such Lodges of coloured people could