Red Masonry; Or, Masonry Among The Indians.

smoking the pipe of peace in the Menominee wigwam , with plenty to eat . His comrades were buried to keep their bodies from the voracious wolves . Bertrand explained to his host that he ivas no invading spy from the north , as was at first supposed , but a peaceful explorer of the great lake . All his wants were supplied ; he hunted with them through the winter , often attended their Lodgesand in the spring he ivas supplied with a guidewho

con-, , ducted him safely along the lake to Mackinaw ' , where he arrived in June , having been absent one year . From our aged Bro . Bertrand I learned many things in regard to Red Masonry , or JIasonry among the Indians . In all their Lodges is placed a square stone , ivhich corresponds to our altar . Upon this altar reposes a scroll , corresponding to our sacred writings . This is the record of the Great Spirit . It ivas a parchment of deerskin

- , on which ivere paintings of various colours . Ihe sun , moon , seven stars , the dipper , and other groups of stars and comets are there . On the top was the All-seeing eye of the Great Spirit , encompassed in clouds . Beneath this was the thunder storm , with flashes of forked li ghtning . On the margin were representations of mountains , hills , and dales , lakes and rivers , forests and prairies . Iu the centre was drawn a circular

figure representing the seasons of the year , not , hoivever , as divided into four distinct parts , but as gliding from one into another . The white , corresponding to winter , revealed a field of snow , with forest trees bending beneath their chilly burdens , this part graduall y and jnggedly passes into pale greenish spots , with flowers . It then changes into deep green , with forests clothed with leaves , like spring passing into summer . Next it

changes into yellow , then brown , with naked forests ; then spotted with white , like falling flakes of snow , and at last into entire white . These were explained to be the mark of the Great Spirit . It was their word . Masonry among the red men is fast fading away , if not already extinct . I know not whether Bro . Bertrand ' still lives , or whether he has gone on that long journey " from ivliencc no traveller returns . "

Increase Of Masonry In America.

INCREASE OF MASONRY IN AMERICA .

\ V i : copy the following from the address of Bro . Winsloiv Lewis , delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts on the ~ » lc ; December last , after his installation as Grand Master : — - ihe accession of members has been so unprecedented that the necessary labours ofthe Lodge have left no intervals for the improvement of members in the lectures , or to allow of such social communion as is necessary to form the primary acquaintance which

, among us , should i-i pen into intimate friendship . Thus even prosperity has its evils . Our institution is now- under the fostering approbation of public opinion , and with this prestige great numbers arc seeking admission . Is there a remedy needed for this plethora ? Is it a diseased condition , requiring a remedy ? I api not prepared to say that there is any indication to that effect . It IS not in our to prevent lications

power app . Any man , provided he possesses the prercquisitions , can present himself as a candidate for reception . Our portals are not barred to any such . W found worthy thoy arc , or should be , received . Now , what should _ constitute that worth ? Thafc is the great question to determine , and it is at least questionable whether that standard has _ been of a sufficientl y elevated character . Too many tire received onqualifications wholl y negative . Committees report

_ nothing against the applicant ; his moral character is unblemished , he is honest y temperate , truthful , & c , & c . All this alloived , shall such be received V Certainly not . Cannot each one of you here assembled call up some , within the sphere of your acquaintance , ivho , with all the requisites thus detailed , are deficient in the heart ' s best feelings , the heart ' s best actions—and , in addition , fhe mind ' cultivation whose

s ; hands grasp the sordid pelf without ever opening to the pica of charity and benevolence , whose minds are as barren as their hearts ; men whose souls soar not above their pockets . Of such you may call Masons by name , but their nature is earthl y , and earthl y it ivill remain . They arc nothingarians m Masonry— "Stantnoniinis umbra . " Prefer ' thc charitable , uneducated solicitor for your suffrages , to the accomplished but pernicious seeker for admission . 1

On the subject of admission there is one more remark which I feel compelled to make , ivhich I do with pain . 'There is a difficulty as to the reception of some who ivould add increased dignity and respectability to the Order , but whose social position m life , strange to assert , ivould be the cause ot their rejection ; for no man , for instance , placed in a high official station , can fail to have his enemies ; no man who has made himself conspicuous b y the advocacy of sentiments calculated to affect t-ic community , can make himself acceptable to all . Therefore he

Increase Of Masonry In America.

who is almost unknown , and even illiterate , can more readily pass our portals than the refined , the learned , the public man . I speak this ivith regret , but from the fact , and some recent instances have strengthened my convictions of its truth . In some of our largest bodies committees have reported warmly in favour of applicants , and their reports sanctioned and confirmed by nearly all present , and still one bus been found willing to place his personal pique

against tbe united wishes of all his brethren ; to place a sea ] of condemnation on one , obviously from purely selfish considerations alone . Such a one may shake the prosperity of a Lodge and undermine its prospects , would indulge his petty malice , irrespective of its wicked consequence , lost to all the considerations AA-hich should actuate the true man , more especially the true Mason . "

True Charity.

TRUE CHARITY .

[ From the A-meriaui Voice of Masonry ] . To Masons who have carefully examined the tenets of Masonry •—who have carefully weighed and examined the principles which are taught the initiate from the moment the inner door is open to him till he lays aside mortality for immortality , and assumes his seat in the celestial Lodge above , where the Supreme Grand Architect of the universe presides- —the sublime attributetrue

, charity , is placed before him ; and he is taught that one of Masonry ' s foundation stones is charity . In fact , charity is Masonry , and Masonry is charity . Divest our Order of those principles which join us as brothers , as children of one common Father—tear from our hearts the principles of brotherly love , relief , and truth—and our building , our whole edifice ivould fall to the grounda worthless rotten mass .

There-, fore it is the duty of each and every Masonic brother to hold in his hand the mantle of charity—that ivhcn he beholds approaching him a weak and falling brother he may wrap the mantle round him and exclude his faults from the gaze of an uncharitable world , and ease his patlnvay to the grave b } ' tlie exercise of that virtue ivhich Jlasons are taught to revere . We failas Masonsto live up to the teachings of our Order .

, , We arc human beings— "born of woman , of feiv days , and full of trouble "—still ire tire to blame , because wc do not strive to overcome the errors that arc born ivith us . AVe should do it . Our lives should be one long fierce struggle against passion , prejudice , and pride . Masons are equal . They meet each month upon the square , and there arc no irregularities—no chance for discrimination . The squarelike the gravelevels all distinction ; and

, , meeting each month the good and the great—coining each month in contact AA-ith principles ivhich are not onl y read to us from the history of our Orders past , but ive meet them exemplified in some brother Avorthy and well qualified—sonic brother AAIIO , like us , entered that hall ivith errors born AA-itliin him . with the stain of

earthly contact , with the sins of life upon him , still he has laboured on , listened to the teachings from the east , remembered them , gathered them up in the storehouse of his soul , that when ho went out into the cold and selfish world he had them there to use to protect himself and raise a falling brother , until his venerable head was covered with a wreath of silver , and his steps were fast approaching " that bourne from which no traveller ere returned "

—Ave meet such a brother , and wc grasp his hand , and the thrill that pervades our being makes us better men and truer Jlasons . We must , therefore—' tis our duty to five nearer a true JIasonic life . AVe must , if wc ivould Iiai-e the principles of our Order spread throughout our land , become living , walking evidences of the goodness , the purity of Masonry . Wc love to look upon aged Jlasons ; and when we see a bended

form , and wrinkled brow , and hoary head , white ivith the frosts of many winters , enter the Lodge room , wc feel as though we would like to place a window iu his breast , that ive might read , plain and distinct , the history of his JIasonic life . Our mind will wander back to the time when he first asked for "fight ; " and I would ask him now if that light Aiiiich he received then had not been as a lamp to his feet through the years that had passed oi-er

his noiv aged form ; and I knoiv he ivould say that that light was his star in the East , leading him on—on—till at last his silver cord ivould be loosed and the golden bond be broken , or the pitcher be broken at the fountain , or the wheel broken at the cistern , and he be called to " partake of joys which have been prepared for the righteous from the beginning of the world . " But , to return to our subject . Masons are often called upon to

exercise charity in their daily walk through life . They see a brother distressed and needy , it is their duty to assist him—their duty to share the loaf with him ; and it is not necessary that wc should expect or hope for a return , Wc should ever pray that