The Chequered Floor-Cloth.

I look in vain for Wm ; Perkin , No more John Lee lays down the law ; Our Treasurer has got the gout , Wanting is Brother Shaw , And hushed are well known voices , Absent the laughing friend , Those pleasantest of meetings , Have long since had an end .

And time has changed us all so sadly , As we have old and older grown , As one by one our roll call lessens , As life has gone , and years have flown , Few now are there who used to gather In all of fervour and of truth , And like as in this life of changes . Old age has given way to youth .

Yet newer members , newer faces , Assemble in that goodly hall , And younger voices olt repeating The same old words , which never pall , Still , still are heard , as round them gather The brethren in their bright array , Telling of those who used to meet there In a glad season past away .

Ah , yes ! my memory wanders back , To meetings held in " Auld lang syne , " To brethren who in love assembled , Mid many a Mystic sign , Who met in all the loyal friendship Of Masonry's all binding chain , Who parted full of kindly feeling , Trusting , to meet soon there again !

And so to-night , old chequered floor-cloth , You take me to another scene , To many a pleasant hour of gathering , To happy lodges which have been , And from this gay and friendly gathering , Amid the splendour which I see , To vanished labours , parted brethren , To an old lodge most dear to me . A . F . A . AV ,

Ar01701

—— " While journeying by rail , " says a traveller , " I Avitnessed the folio wing incident . One night , just after I had scrambled into my sleeping-berth , I heard loud and angry voices proceeding from the rear of the car . ' I tell you this is a

sleepino-car , and you can't come in Avithout a ticket' ' Begorra , I had a ticket' ' Where is it ? ' 'I have lost it' ' If you really had the misfortune to lose your ticket , perhaps you can remember your berth . ' There A 7 as an interval of silencePaddevidentl

, y y employing his thinking powers . ' Oeh , be jabers ! ' he exclaimed at length , ' I was born on the twenty-sixth day of October 1838 . '"

Light For The Blind.

LIGHT FOR THE BLIND .

BY AV . MOON , LL . D . We have perused with much interest , and Ave hope sympathetic appreciation , this most striking pubheationwhich , under its

, very appropriate title is , we trust , likely to be Avidely read , and as Avarmly approved ! For in truth , Dr . Moon ' s Avork comes to us accompanied with , so to say , a twofold claim upon our countenance and commendation . It is , in the first plaee , the effort

of a most industrious labourer , in a good cause , himself suffering . from the deprivation of sight ; and it is a most praise-Avorthy endeavour to aid and elevate many thousands of similarly afflicted persons , in all countries , and of all languages ,

and to afford them the inexpressible advantages of intellectual improvement , and the priceless blessings of religious instruction and study . It has been Avell and truly said , that all the greatest AVorks in the Avorld have been effected by individual toil and individual example , rather than by any aggregate action of the community , and most certain

is this theory true of the persevering and praiseworthy labours of Dr . Moon , Avho has so zealously striven in the purest spirit of philanthropic and religious zeal , to advance the temporal comfort , and to promote , Ave say it reverently , the eternal welfare of othersespecially those who

, like himself , are sidfering in the good Providence of God , from one of the greatest afflictions to Avhich mortal man is subject . He has been supported by many Avarm friends in his arduous struggles ; but by no one more zealously or liberally than b

y Sir Charles LoAvther , Bart ., of SAvillington House , Leeds , Avho , hrheriting the name and family seat of distinguished ancestors , has been ever foremost in advancing the temporal and religious happiness of others , and in various Ways , especially of those

Avho , like himself , have most patiently submitted to a similar bereavement , —of the great blessing of sight . It has been already 'well pointed out , that Dr . Moon's most interesting work , "Light for the Blind , " relates concisely hoAV men of benevolence and zeal struggled