ing to the front his rare power of oratory, added to its popularity. When he retired there were 80,701 Masons on the roll and there were 704 Lodges in the State, of which 697 had made their returns and "squared up" with the Grand Secretary, a fact which of itself was significant of the prosperity of the institution. We have spoken of Thorne's ability as an orator. Several examples of this will be given in another place, but here we cannot refrain from presenting the words with which he called the Grand Lodge to order on June 7, 1876:

ELLWOOD E. THORNE.

Brethren:-We are about to open the ninetyfifth annual communication of the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of the State of New York, and the memories of this year of national jubilee remind us how soon we shall be called to celebrate the hundredth year of our own existence as an independent Grand Lodge, and call upon us to reflect how marked has been the superintending care of the Father of all mercies through all the varying seasons that have passed away forever.

At the meeting of January 23, 1781, five Lodges were represented by twenty-nine Masters and Past

Masters. At this meeting over seven hundred Lodges are represented by the goodly array of brothers here present-with a constituency much more numerous than any Grand Lodge on this continent. I cannot now detain you with a history of all these long years, but in them you will find the proof of the fact that our institution was not born to die, for though, at one time its forward movement was suddenly arrested, and its good name tarnished by such slanders as the world has rarely known, yet, out of the impending danger the Great Architect plucked for us the flower of safety, and to-day we meet as the representatives of over ninety thousand craftsmen, spread abroad throughout the Empire State, willing and eager to uphold the banner of Masonry, and to vie with each other in the prosecution of the task committed to the "Sons of Light," while our enemies appeal in vain to an enlightened public opinion which approves our acts and cheers us in our labors. We are reminded, too, that in the earlier struggles of our infant republic, those who bore the heat and burden of the day, who were foremost and wisest in council, and most valiant and earnest in the field-who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors, and placed themselves in fore-front of battle, that our country and its free government might be established, that we and our descendants forever might enjoy the priceless blessings of liberty, were members and exemplars of our fraternity. I need not mention their names, for, as men and Masons, they are familiar to you as household words; and you, in common with our fellow citizens, will soon consecrate them anew, as in this Centennial year you renew your pledge of fealty to the land in which you live. So, too, brethren, remembering that, as craftsmen, you are custodians of the legacy descended to us from the fathers, upheld and maintained for us through evil days and much tribulation, and now shedding its genial influence, not only throughout our own commonwealth, but wherever civilization is known for the nation that has no welcome for Freemasonry lacks an essential element of civilization-remembering, I repeat, the great and important trust committed to you, will you not, here and now, renew your pledge of fidelity to its beneficent laws and requirements, and retemper your zeal in every good work? so that it may, in truth, be said of you: "Behold, how pleasant and how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

Remembering, too, the infinite source of all mercies and blessings vouchsafed to us, let us lift up our voices in praise of our Heavenly Father, in whom we live, move, and have our being.

Soon after his retirement from the chair Ellwood E. Thorne was waited on at his home in New York by a committee, headed by James E. Morrison, on behalf of members of the Grand Lodge and presented with a very beautiful silver tea service as a memorial of the labors he had undertaken on behalf of the

craft and of the appreciation in which they were held. He died at Shelter Island Jan. 2, 1891, the result of an accident he received while on a visit to Washington, and his remains were sent to Hamilton, Ohio, for interment.

W

E must now detail several matters which took place during the administrations of the leaders whose names we have just recorded. Few of them were of any great moment, but all had a more or less direct influence upon the trend of Masonic sentiment and are therefore not only worthy of being considered, but are necessary to a complete story of the history of Freemasonry in New York.

In 1862 Henry T. Walden, District Deputy for the Third District, in visiting the rooms of Montauk Lodge, No. 286, Brooklyn, noticed that a triangle was suspended over the Master's chair instead of the letter G. He communicated his discovery to Grand Master Finlay M. King, who decided that such an innovation was not proper and directed the District Deputy to have it removed. The latter wrote on Feb. 15, 1862, to the Master of Montauk Lodge to that effect. The subject created a good deal of discussion in the craft, and, as the discussion waxed warm, the interest in it became more general. The brethren of Montauk Lodge, it seems, had fitted up rooms which they had leased with the view of renting them out as a meeting-place for other Lodges and the brethren of the Chapter. They expended considerable money on this, fitting them up with considerable luxuriousness for those days. The decorations. included a few Masonic emblems. The triangle was an afterthought and was mainly intended to light up the end of the room in which the presiding officer sat, and it was se

lected because it was deemed to be an emblem at once universal in its application and in every way appropriate. Like good Masons, the brethren at once obeyed the behest of the Grand Master and removed the offending symbol. But they believed they were right and that he was wrong, and like good Masons, they submitted the case for final decision to their brethren in the Grand Lodge. From a printed history of Montauk Lodge we extract the following notice of the later progress of the controversy:

A memorial was addressed to the Grand Lodge, setting forth fully the merits of the form-a negative standpoint. The principal points urged by Montauk Lodge were: Ist. That neither this nor any other Grand body had ever made it obligatory on a Master's Lodge visibly and permanently to display any symbol or emblem in any part of its place of meeting. 2d. The ritual requires a body of Masons about to assemble to hold a legal warrant and to display the lights, and simply to allude to and explain the meaning of the letter "G" in its proper course. 3d. In the absence of legislation by the Grand Lodge or any requirement of the ritual, neither universal usage nor the ancient landmarks of the fraternity demand such a display; that such a display of the triangle is "improper or irregular" your memorialists deny. 4th. Because it is not substituted by them for the letter "G" in the explanation given in the second degree, or any portion of the ritual. 5th. It is known and recognized by every educated man the world over as one of the oldest and most perfect geometrical figures, as one of the oldest symbols of Deity, and as one of the oldest ornaments in ecclesiastical architecture. 6th. No decoration or symbol is "improper" or "irregular" provided it be not opposed to the spirit and principles of the fra

ternity, the law of the land, or social propriety. In conclusion, the memorialists asked that the official letter addressed by the District Deputy G. M. to this Lodge, dated Feb. 15, 1862, be disavowed by the Grand Lodge, and the Lodge be released from further obedience thereto.

The subject of the memorial was the occasion of much discussion in the Grand Lodge, and was finally referred to the Committee on Grievances and the Committee on the Condition of Masonry. These committees made a thorough investigation of the whole matter, and the Committee on Grievances, in concluding its report, stated that: "It is impossible for this committee to discover the right possessed by the G. M. or his deputies to issue his or their mandates relative to the ornaments to be used in Lodge rooms. We can see the appropriateness of the letter G being exhibited in the East in conferring the F. C. degree, and we would recommend all English Lodges to use the one designated by the M. W. Grand Master. German Lodges, however, should be authorized to use German text, and the Lodges of the Hebrews or other nations should be authorized to put up any letter which might serve to enlighten the candidate as to the object of his visit to the Middle Chamber.”

"Furthermore, we cannot find a Masonic precedent that makes the use of a triangle ornament irregular in a Blue Lodge. In the Lodge in which we were made, by some accident, we found the lights of the Lodge placed in the East, West, and South, in a triangular form, and our first three officers sitting in a like position; and during our attendance at this Grand Lodge we have discovered the standards of Faith, Hope and Charity placed triangularly, and kept standing in that position the whole session thus far. If it be irregular to display the Delta in a subordinate Lodge, why should it be displayed in Grand Lodge? and by what right do we display the 47th problem of Euclid in the Master's degree?"

The Committee on the Condition of Masonry, at the head of whom was the distinguished authority on Masonic law and usage, M. W. John L. Lewis, Jr., were equally emphatic in sustaining the action of Montauk Lodge.

"No one will contend," says the Committee, "that in the ornamentation of a Lodge hall the appropriate symbols of Masonry may not with propriety be exhibited, nor that there is any limit to be placed on the number or style of such decorations, except that of the taste of the brethren having direction of it. Nor will it be contended that the Triangle or Delta is not one of the most ancient and revered emblems of Masonry. The ir

regularity in this case would have been the substitution of the Delta for the emblem required by the ritual, and as this is explicitly denied there seems to be an end of the matter. In view of this explanation, your Committee recommend that the M. W. Grand Master be respectfully requested to withdraw his edict in relation to Montauk Lodge, No. 286."

The emblem was restored, and has ever since shone its light from the East in Montauk Lodge.

One source of anxiety throughout the greater part of this period and a fruitful subject of discussion to this day was the necessity of the reduction of the number of Representatives in attendance at each session of the Grand Lodge. It was a delicate matter. An effort in that direction, carried through in 1849, when the Past Masters were deprived of their Grand Lodge membership, resulted, as we have seen, in a disruption, and any effort to still further reduce the number was certain to meet with opposition in the country. Still two cogent reasons were assigned in support of the policy of reduction, the first being that the body was too large for careful legislation and the second was the drain upon the resources of the Grand Lodge. The first was open to argument, but the second was backed up by figures which admitted of no argument whatever, and the Grand Lodge was compelled to pay out in the shape of pay and mileage for Representatives a sum which, if it could be reduced or saved altogether, would in a few years have swelled the Grand Lodge funds to very comfortable proportions. Grand Master King referred to the subject in his address in 1862 and mentioned several plans which had been suggested to lessen the drain. One of these was to deprive Wardens of Lodges of the right to a seat, another proposed that only half the Lodges should attend one year and the other half the next-say, the even numbers in 1864 and the odd numbers in 1865. A motion which found some favor was to divide the State into districts, five Lodges in each, and let the five send one Representative. Another more sensibly suggested that the

Grand Lodge should complete its work in three days. These are samples of the propositions discussed by the brethren. It was felt, however, that any change which might be made would be fraught with danger, and, after passing through the ordeal of consideration in committee, the matter was dropped. Incidentally it may be noted, however, that two of the recommendations were afterwards established the abolition of the Wardens' old privileges as members of Grand Lodge and the three-day limit on annual communications.

The Grand Lodge certainly at that time needed all the money it was possible to command. The Hall and Asylum fund, of course, was sacred, but the additions made to it from current income were slight. The country was unsettled, the heroic struggle then going on for the preservation of the Union had caused, as war always causes, a flood of misfortune to settle on the people, and the demands on the fraternity for charity were not only pressing and pathetic in their circumstances and requirements, but were steadily increasing. Out of $1,600 given by the Grand Lodge to the New York Board of Relief and $1,365 added by subscriptions from Lodges for the year which ended in May, 1863, nearly every cent had been spent in relieving distress and much had to be left undone which ought to have been done. That year $1,500 was appropriated for the New York Board and an equal sum for that of Brooklyn. In 1864 the New York Board got $2,000, that of Buffalo $400, Albany $400, Brooklyn $800, and $700 was specially donated. This was, of course, a serious drain upon the resources of the Grand Lodge, but it was destined to be kept up for several years to come until the idea took root that the Grand Lodge had no right to be the almoner for the craft.

The right of a member of a Lodge to demit therefrom at his option was not accorded by any rule in the constitution of the State. It was laid down that demission was a transaction in which the Lodge and the individual

brother had an equal voice. In 1863 Grand Master Crane brought the matter up for discussion, and, in accordance with his recommendation, the Grand Lodge, through a committee, declared that "demission should not be a joint action, but the act of a member at his discretion." In speaking on this subject Brother Crane uttered the following commonsense sentiments:

There is no valid reason why a brother in good standing, if not a Master or a Warden, who had discharged all of his pecuniary obligations to his Lodge, and so long as he leaves enough members to form a working Lodge, should not be permitted to demit of his own volition, and without taking any vote whatever on the subject. It is impossible to enforce the regular attendance of a member of a Lodge who has been foiled in his effort to withdraw from it, except by the service of summons upon him previously to each communication. Even that compulsory process might be evaded by a brother, if he should so choose without making him liable to the infliction of any penalty. If a brother has conscientious scruples which, if disclosed, would involve the honor of his family against associating with a member of his Lodge, or from any other cause leading to the same result, what becomes the necessary effect? The brother either suffers his name to be struck from the rolls for the nonpayment of dues, or pays dues for privileges which he cannot conscientiously enjoy and avoids attendance on his Lodge. Hence it is that the craft loses the services of a good member, and virtually puts him out of the pale of association with a Lodge which he can call his own by preventing his affiliation with one more congenial to his taste or his sense of propriety.

Equally interesting was a discussion which took place the same year upon the subject of a residence qualification for the office of Master of a Lodge. It seems that in December of the preceding year five brethren had been elected Masters of their Lodges whose place of domicile was beyond the limits of the State, and, on appeal being taken in one or more of these cases, Grand Master Crane decided that the carpet-baggers had no right to be elected or installed or permitted to preside, and the warrants were ordered to be placed in the