Gossip Of An Old Mason.

had proceeded it . I reviewed the proceedings of twenty sister Grand Lodges , nearly all that were then in correspondence with us . Among these was not the Grand Lodge of England , neither of Scotland , Ireland , France , or , perhaps , any foreign organisation . My report concludes with the assertion that " the tone of the publications before me is uniformly cheering . It indicates high prosperity in the respective jurisdictions for which they emanate . They

are replete with sound moral , often with profound religious , sentiments worthy the Order whose basis is the Word of God . In this respect they will bear comparison with anything the year has produced . To those who doubt or criminally deny the morality of Masonry , we may triumphantly hold up all these publications as testimonies that cannot be refuted . For all the period untill my term of Grand MastershibeganI was retained

p , to prepare annual reports upon foreign correspondence for my Grand Lodge ( Kentucky ) , as I am at the present time . From 1850 to 1858 , I was living in the western portion of the State , near the Mississippi river . More than one of your readers will recall his visit to me in my " Old Kentucky Home " at Lodgeton . The clays were those of slavery , and there was nothing more curious to an English traveller in our ante-bellum times than to observe the relations

between master and servant . I will not shock yonr sensibilities by praising the institution of slavery . It has disappeared as well from the American Republic as the British Empire . But I am free to say I have witnessed ( and so have your readers ) many worse things in this evil life than the mild form of slavery

that existed around my Kentucky residence thirty years since . But where is my gossip leading me ? It was my custom in those days , as now , to take the summer months to the preparation of "Reports upon Foreign Correspondence , " and the other papers entrusted to me by Grand Lodge . Shall I ever forget those happy days , that happy employment ? The weather was too sultry for much movement . My

little table set its legs firml y in the rich alluvium in the deep shadow of the beech tree , and tempted me to its side . Was the classical allusion wanting ? Had I not " the Mantnan Bard " ( Virgil . Delph . ) , withh is sub tequimefagi ? The great poplar tree of Southern Kentuck y ( Liriodendron tuli pifera ) , which is our magnolia , throws its lofty shade upon the lower beech tops , and added a coolness to the same . M y little children played around me , or enjoyed their siesta .

near by , or opened the pages for me , occasionally reading aloud , or even copying a passage here and there as wanted . It was then that those three boys resolved " to grow up and be good boys , so that we may be good men and become Masons . " Poor fellows ! they have found life a hard and stony way , yet they were good boys , and they are good men , hard-working and faithful to a trustand they are good Masons . Something then of good has out of

, grown those summer days at Lodgeton . There were seven of the children , six of them yet living , and the heads of families , and I have only to look over the family register to count fifteen of a new generation who call me " grandfather . " And here conies the noisest of the lot , and I know from his clamour that I shall not get rid of him until I have replenished his little purse with coins .

As I went on with my reports my Masonic neighbours would come in b y ones and twos , utterly unemployed at that hot season , and anxious to inflict their tediousness upon me . Good fellows ! They have disappeared to the last man . The civil war swallowed up many ; the scythe of the Destroyer reaped the rest . To them I read my notes while they smoked the strong Kentucky tobacco , and wondered that " one little head contained so much Freemasonry " ( Cowper altered ) . Isly neatest passagesmy sharpest thrusts keenest

re-, , my torts have never excited so much approbation as from those favourable critics . Truth to say , we had not much talent employed in that line . The witt y Corson had not fleshed his maiden sword then ; the beaming Drummond had not brought his battery of logic and humour to bear in this direction ; the cordial Frank Goulley ( alas , for what a fate he was reserved—the death by fire !) was