Gossip Of An Old Mason.

not even a Mason . ( I conferred the Third Degree upon him myself in 1857 ) . O'Snllivan was working to make his calling and election sure as Grand Secretary of Missouri . Albert Pike , then a resident of New Orleans , was beginning to be heard of in Masonry , having taking a distant start towards it as an Oddfellow , and another as Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masonry . M y contemporaries in the work were such " good pens " as Mellenof Mississippi ;

, Philip C . Tucker , of Vermont ( facile princeps ) ; B . B . French , of Washington City ; Finlay M . King , of New York ; and Wilkins Tannehill , of Tennessee . Of this last a fact is recorded worthy of note . A few ardent souls at Nashville used to write an annual " Report on Foreign Correspondence , " put his name to it , and procure an appropriation of 500 dollars from the Grand Lodge for his benefit . He was blind and poor . But few of his acquaintances knew of this

circumstance , but supposed that the report was prepared by his dictation . I have overlooked , purposely , Bro . J . S . Parvin , of Java , who was then , as now , one of the best writers upon Masonic themes , of which our literature can boast . His reports would bear republication to-day as a good history of American Masonry for thirty years . It is a heartrending comment upon the above paragraph that every one of the names given as my contemporariessave Parvin

, , has passed the boundary that separates earthly darkness from promised li ght . And now to come down to the work laid out for the present year . M y Grand Lodge meets in October . In time for that my report must be finished and printed , that a copy may be placed in the hand of each delegate , ' 600 in number . It will be about 250 pages in length , set up in small type , and musttreat of all the variety of subjects suggested bthe documents placed in my

keepy ing . Here they are , a huge mass , indeed ! Beginning with the Grand Lodges of this Continent , fifty-four in number , the bulk comprises 12 , 000 printed pages . Then here are circulars , charges , replications , bulletins , official serials , letters in manuscript , etc ., enough to turn the brain of one whose moderate supply of brain material has not become indurated by so much experience .

In alphabetical order , commencing with "Alabama , Arkansas , British Columbia , etc , " I have laid out the piles , some eighty-five in number . Jupiter , what a mass and a mess ! "The Orient" is printed in Bohemian . Other papers appear in Greek , Spanish , Italian , German , French—what not . Some of the works before me , as California , Illinois , New York , etc , run up to 600 pages each . To cull from each all that is novel were easy enough , for I have so long made study of these matters as to be able to sniff an innovation afar

off , but to cull only such novelties as will interest Kentuck y readers is not so easy . We Masons of " the dark and bloody ground " abhor innovations . Only call anything an " innovation " here and toss it away . The Grand Lodge will not abide it . We never can understand how " The United Grand Lodge of England " could innovate upon its ancient Constitutions at the tremendous rate they have done it . Was it a sudden or a gradual ? Was there no

process protest ? Wh y , I have tried here for nearly thirty years to introduce the system of District Deput y Grand Masters , but in vain . It is an innovation . I wish your erudite contributors would show me how to introduce some of those radical changes which I observe in comparing your Constitutions of 1881 with those of 1722 .

But I am making this paper much too long . It is the weakness of gossip that there is no ( natural ) end to it . " Men may come and men may go , " but the old chatterbox talks on and writes on until his night cometh . However , I will wait to see whether you publish the present article , and if I find it in print will follow it up with a second batch , describing the subjects to be particularl y considered in my report on forei correspondence for 1881 We have a

gn . number of controversies on the tapis , quite a number of things settled every year for thirt y years have to be settled again . Some grand new jokes are to be published . Many lamentable deaths are to be mourned . In brief , our reports for 1881 may be worth the reading . D