The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1871-03-10
wiz II he Enforced


Grand Master of kasons In Ohis,
which the Grand Lodge of Ohio, ut
Its meeting in Spri yield, October
18th, 1870, made i. his duty to is-
sue - the Subordinate Lodges Of
ihe State against intenpsranes,
gambling, licsntiousness, dc. Thus
sdict bssrs date Of Jan. 9th, 1871,
and We supposs il has been receiv.
ed by the Subordinate Lodges in
this vicinity, and We wonder now
il measures have been taken to en-
force 1t, or If it has ealy been form.
ally read to these Lodges and LAID
away a. 9 o much waste paper
The Grand Lodge of Ohio, in
waking up TO the injuries that in
temperance, licentiousncss, DC, in
members Of the Order, are working
to Masonry, is discovering, ~ the
Grand Master intimates, the most
powerful weapons used sgainst She
Order by Its enemies. Persons out
side the Order are very apt to
Judge il by its members and their
characters. II ths Lodge located
in . community is composed Of
good men, outsiders look upon Ma
sonry as . commepdabls institu-
ton II bad men, on she other
hand. compose its membership or
any considerable part thereof, out
hidsrs look. upon it ss decidedly
Questionable in its moral iniusncs,
10 SAY the least of it. Hence, we
say that the Grand Lodge has
found the nam cause Of all oppose
ton to Masonry in the vices of rte
adhsrsnts, and NE r glad that it
has instituted measures TO purify
ITS body of the generous sores that
are making il . stencil in many com
munrties. The only query now is,
will these measures be carried out ?
Here IN NcConnelsyille, our Ma
sonic and Odd Fellow Lodges, (we
shall speak Of both these Orders IN
the remainder of this article,) have
amongst their members some ofthe
worst characters IN the conmuni-
ty ; and is is asserted, and even adj
mitted by Axsons and Odd Fellows,
that drinking men, and those who
think IT no harm % drink, have the
controlling influence IN these Lodg-
e., 20 say nothing ofthe other vices
that some of the members are noto-
rious for indulging IN. Within the
past three months we have been
spoken to relative to this matter by
MasoDs and Odd Fellows time and
again, and the complaint has al
ways been that temperance and
moral men are far IN the minority.
Quite recently a member of one
Of these Orders told us that if q
good, moral nan made application
for admission 70 membership IN the
Order he belonged TO, that the
chances were that ONE scalIawas
would black-bsIi him /; brt that if
q nan Of questionable character
applied, an opportunity would be
watched for when The best men of
the Order were absent, and thea he
would be voted In. "By such ma
neuverlng rs this," he said, "the
Lodge is being prostitu.sd- to igno.
ole ends"
In order 70 show the uses some
men, N this vicinity. make of their
Masonry and Odd Fellowship, we
will relate q little circumstances that
occurred quite recently in tha VII
lage, and which came to our sars
through one who wss present. On
a certain Sunday, four or five men
were in company, and al sill had
been on . drunken spree and were
out Of liquor, the question was how
10 get more TO qusnch their xpps-
tites. All but one spoke up and
said they did not know how to get
is, when the remaining individual
responded, II have the advantage
Of the rest Of you, am. an Odd Fell
low and ear buy Whisky any,
time r. 80 he WAS sent AVER the
liquor, and bought il Of one who is
both an Odd Fellow and MASON.
We might relate many more cir
cumssancss Of . similar kind to the
above, were il necessary for our
Purpose, and we might instance
other vices that are common and
notorious amongst some of the
members Of these Orders, but If our
object can be accomplished without
90 dong, we will refrain.
Although neither Q Mason nor an
Odd Fellow, jet We have always
believed these institutions to be
promoters of the moral welfare Of
any people amongst whom they
exist whom their true teachings are
observed, and all good citizens can
nor but bewsil the time when their
principles are prostltuted. CoEse-
quently, We hail with exultatlon
the efforts Of the Grand Lodge Of
Mssons Of Ohio to purify its body,
BY 6rst sndeavorIng TO reform Its
members, and second by cutting on
those that win noi reform.