The Right Hand Of Fellowship.

room of a lodge in a large city , and sends in his card . The Master finds some trouble in getting a committee to examine him , because no interest is manifested in receiving visitors , and many invited to undertake the job are too lazy to perform this little act of courtesy . At last the

Kaster selects a committee , and they retire . ] S ow this committee is always composed of about three experts , who seem to make that their business . They have the Avork of the lodge exactly as tho parrot perched on its cage has the language . They salute the visitor gruffly , and try to make him nervous and ill at ease . In this Avay they

succeed m getting only a small portion ot what he knows , and the visitor is chagrined to find he . passes so poor an examination . The committee have no knoAvledge of the work or ritual outside of their own lodge , ancl the vdsifcor from a distant State is charged with not being proficientwhen he

, gives the exact language as used in his OATO jurisdiction . The committe are ignorant of Masonry abroad , and believe the sun rises and sets in their lodge . It is difficult to convince the committee that the visitor is really a Mason ; and they deliberate on the

question , whether to kick him clown stairs as an impostor or admit him . Although he could not give the obligations verbatim as the committee required , still they introduce the visitor Avithout ceremony , and he feels as though he had escaped from some band of Modoc Indians . He is introduced

to no one ; ancl he sits all the evening as stiff as a frozen codfish standing on its tail , and sees men around him who look at him and froAvn ; and he imagines each man a small iceburg , just escaped from Captain Hall ' s Arctic Expedition . The visitor leaA'es the lodge-room

without knoAving a single brother , and says if that is Masonry , he wants no more of it . He cannot be convinced that these men are not representatives of Masonry . He grOAVs cold in his zeal , and soon becomes suspended for non-payment of dues ; and in that way drops out of the back door of Masonrv .

Tf city lodges wish to turn their lodgeroonis into mercenary institutions , to make money t > y conferring degrees , let them S 1 "iply say that they do not Avant to bother ) nth visitors . But do not cast the chilling jidiuence over tho Order all over the globe , y the farce enacted in examining visitors

The Right Hand Of Fellowship.

and pretending to entertain them . They may be " entertaining angels miaAvares , " and . the poor angels Avould not be accustomed to this kind of a reception . Do not alloiv angels to be frozen stiff by the cold reception .

A little of the " milk of human kindness " might be used Avith excellent effect . Instead of having over the door of every city lodge , " hope enters not here , " put up the cheering sign to visitors , " Welcome the coining , speed the parting guest . "Mackey ' s National Freemason .

Illustrations Of The History Of The Craft.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY OF THE CRAFT .

BY A MASONIC STUDENT . CHAPTER IV . Whether or no the Roman guilds , were so arranged by Numa Pompilius , or Servius Tnlliusmatters very littlebut there is no

, , doubt that , from a very early epoch , the artificers of Rome Avere formed into guilds , or corporations— " collegia , sodalitate " One statement of the historians deserves our notice : that the original members of the Building Collegia Avere Greeks .

Indeed , Ave can take up no Roman History AAuthout being made aAvare of the existence among the Romans , just as among the Greeks , ancl probably among the Etruscans previously of the Craft Sodalities ; especially the Collegium of architects and of builders . That they Avere entirely akin to

modern Freemasonry , Ave cannot indeed affirm in the absence of direct evidence on the subject , but from the nature of the case , as it is said , the knoAvn amount of positive similarity , and the large margin of indirect evidence of relationship , Ave are Avarranted in saying this

muchthat not only is there no " a jjriori" objection to the continuation and connexion , but that the presumption is entirely in favour of our affirmative { imposition . Indeed , so peculiar is the resemblance of the system of the Roman building colleges

, and Socialities apparently with Freemasonry still , that , some able writers , have treated it as an historical fact Avhich admits of tittle dispute , that the early Roman guild Masons , Avere the forerunners of the Mediajval guild Masons , ancl that the latter