At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar.

Many of our correspondents appear to have overlooked the fact that "THE MASOXIC ILLUSTRATED" is a monthly publication , and that announcements sent to us early in the month , of meetings and occurrences about to take place , are in many cases things of the past before the number in which

they are intended to appear has seen the light . We have every desire to comply with the wishes of those brethren who so kindly furnish us with lengthy reports of lodges and other communications , but having regard to the limitation of space we can only repeat the statement made in our first

issue that we in no way desire to displace the weekly Masonic press or the more erudite productions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge . Our modest aim is simply to provide what we trust will prove to the average Mason an acceptable addition to the illustrated magazines already in existence .

_> . # . © The strong men of our Brotherhood are too soon forgotten . In the rush and tumble of our daily existence , a place , however well tilled , is quickly taken by an equally able successor , and this is as true in the Craft as in the greater

world . < # 0 < s > In this connection we were glad to notice that last year for the first time a list of the Grand Officers who had passed from amongst us , was printed both on the business

paper for Grand Lodge and in the Report of Grand Lodge proceedings , which seems to us to be a proper and desirable innovation .

«& € » « S > The Masonic attainments of W . Bro . Frank Green , the new Lord Mayor , deserve more than the passing notice given in our previous issue . He was initiated in 1872 in the Euphrates Lodge , No . 212 , and is a Founder and Past Master

of the following lodges : —the Prince Leopold , No . 1445 , the Elliott , No . 1567 , and the Alliance , No . 1827 . He was exalted in the Doric Chapter , No . 933 , and is a P . Z . of the British Chapter , No . 8 , and of the Stability Chapter , No . 219 . Bro . Green acted for some years in the capacity of

Vice-President of the Board of General Purposes , and the office of Junior Grand Deacon of England was conferred on him in 188 3 .

The composer of the C . I . V . Welcome song is Bro . W . H . Cummings , Past Grand Organist of England and Principal of the Guildhall School of Music . The Daily Mail says : — " When he can tear himself away from the services of melody he delights in fishing and boating , and in the pursuit

of both recreations he is an expert and zealous hand . The list of his musical attainments , as recorded by the offices he holds and the work he has performed , would require a tolerably sized page for their reiteration . " The words of the C . I . V . Welcome song were composed b y

V . W . Bro . Dean Hole , who is a Past Grand Chaplain of England . The Rev . Dean is well known as a writer of sacred verse , and his last composition will be read throughout our Empire .

We suppose that every tendency and temperament finds expression in one lodge or another . Is there not the Arcadian Lodge , No . 26 9 6 , for those brethren who believe neither in Jish , flesh nor fowl , but are of those yclept vegetarians ? They meet at the Hotel Cecil , and muster a goodly number of

members , and there is the King Solomon Lodge for total abstainers . There is surely no need for the novitiate to enter an uncongenial lodge however he may differ from his brethren regarding the wants of mankind . The Alfred Milner Lodge , No . 28 3 8 , to meet at Mui / .

enburg , Cape Colony , will be to us another remembrance of the Boer War of 1899-1900 . The formation of the Cecil Rhodes Lodge at Bulawayo is already comparativel y ancient news .

V . W . Bro . the Rev . C . J . Ridgway has just been appointed to the Rectory of St . Botolp h ' s , Bishopsgate . Bro . Ridgway is both a clergyman and a doctor , a rather rare combination , being both M . A . and M . D . He is a deservedly popular preacher , and is a Past Grand Chaplain of England . Bro . Sir Henry Irving is always to the front in the relief

of distress , and the latest news we have heard of him is that his assistance has been given to aid the sufferers by the recent fearful disaster at Galveston . The Provincial Grand Master of Northumberland , Bro . the

Right Hon . Sir Matthew- White Ridley , presided at the annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge at Newcastleupon-Tyne on the 30 th October . The provincial returns showed a nett increase of 194 members during the year , giving a total membership for the province of 3134 . A

satisfactory feature of the report was the statement that seven Masonic Halls , situated in different centres of the province , were now the property of the Craft , and were almost entirely free from encumberance .

The death of Bro . the Rev . Professor Shuttleworth after a long and painful illness fills us with the deepest regret , for there has gone from the ranks of Masonry a brother who can as ill be spared from the Craft as from the religious and social undertakings which were his life work . He was initiated in the Cornish Lodge in 18 90 , and subsequently

became Worshipful Master in 18 97 . He brought into Masonry all that rare magnetism , that breezy freshness of manner , which revivified all with whom he came into contact . It is not within our province here to detail the many social and literary schemes of the late Canon , but we

can say that all who have had the privilege of witnessing his working in the lodge and his presidency at the festive board , will feel that the Craft has lost , in an untimely manner , a brother of rare moral force , great ability , and of exceptionally wide sympathies .

TDK LATE J'HO FIOSS . > lt 1 ) . (' . SJJ II TTI-FWOIiTH . . ' / ...... bij II . S . Miiiilrhmhu .