New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-17
THE NEW MASONIC TEMPLs.
View of the Foundations.

same energies they apply to the pursuit OF
pleasure, the human race would develop
into angels, guile would be unknown, and
millenial goodness reign. Think OF the
pains and agonies we all experience in
| drinking and eating, travelling in simmer
time, ball going and amusement-seeklng.
Think of the sleepless nights, the anxious
and nervous days, the fretted souls and be-
| deviled gloom that are all the result of de-
| voting time to the pursuit of what is called
pleasure. In celebrations, ceremonies,
commencements and cornerstone layings,
| usually called auspicous occasions, often
alluded to as important and interesting
events, the annoyances are especially nu-
| merOus. The chief Inconvenience consists
in the freezing forms which are down in the
bills, and must be consummated. 1t is ad-
mitted that these forms are indispensa BILE.
But all these events are alluded to as re-
joicings, when to fill the measure and re-
| iOice in proper way absolutely requires
more suffering OF the hidden spirit, greater
| disbursement of patience, more controlling
of the nerves than is necessary to stand
| d
the gout, visitation OF neuralgia, or a
| broken limb
| To assist at the laying of a corner stone is
regarded by the Masons as duty where the
| stone is to be the first in a new temple. Ii
| is looked upon as an occasion of rejoicing by
| everybody else, and is down in the bills as a
happy event, bile 1t is our proposition that
| the tedium of such a commemoraton is
something awful, but is borne heroically
simply because it is called rejoicing, and be-
cause it is high treason for any one of the
participants to murmur. The history of the
late ceremony is already an old story; but
| there being no marching around the walls
three times by the high priests of the order
to AFFORD opportunity to inspect the actual
site of the building and the material of
which it is to be made, which form was reg
ularly enacted iii the laying of Jewish,
| Egyptian, Grecian and Roman temples, it is
here proposed 20 give an account of the site
| as it is.
| AT present the site is in all the pains OF
excavation. Heaps of earth, newly thrown
up, litter its surface. ani the four walls
already appear as they are intended at the
base. The wall that runs parallel with
CalEope street bricklayers have recently
| begun to found. the excavation being
twelve feet wide at the base, and the
foundation wall the same width at the
bottom, intending to BE four feet on the top
and eight feet in height. The wall running
parallel to st. Charles avenue is now ready
for the commencement of the actual build
| ing walls, and is one hundred and forty fee,
| In length. The rear foundation wall run
ming in the same direction is not yet laid
only the excavation being complete. The
line parallel with Delord street is finished
from the corner stone out, and the begin
ming of cross walls that separate the stores
on the ground door will be constructed as
soon as the lateral digging is done. BY
standing on the raised platform and over
looking the grounds one can readily form q
conjecture OF the immense size OF the pro
posed ediice, and the feature It viii chi
out in the vicinr-v.
The neighborhood does not look encourlg
ing. Directly opposite the site is a row
OF small houses which have a forlorn look
as if, while in The ye!T act OF developing
into four story iron tronted stores, they
had been suddenly cut of in the prime O.
| life and dwarted into inferior shanties, or
namented with show cases, wooden avn
| ings and box steps. The Ames Chapel
nearly opposite On the corner of Calliopt
and St. Charles, tends to relieve tho
squatty appearance Of the neigh boring
small roofs. dead wa..s and reeking yards
Uttered with the sloughings of poverty
! striken families. The site, of itself wa;
once occupied by small and low rooted shan
ties, either torn down or destroyed by tirt
some time ago, ard the remains Of which
the foundation d.ggers are continualy J
! casting up The primitive sidewalks and
! foundation boards Of this city, hatboat
''gunnels,'' are met II the process of dig
| ging out, they once serving as basis for
| old eye-sores to the people which, it is not a
| source of much so-rou 10 feel. have pass
| ed away forever.
| The vicinity OF the new temple will change
rs the demands Of Improvement require,
/ and it will not be long after the institution
| IS IN full blast before al! those disagreeable
! houses will crumhle away before the narch h
of improvement. Were the handsome imi-
-brown-stone residence on the corner
| Of st. Charles street taken out of the
periphery of Tis oil circle, not single hand
some building would remain, the others be-
ing old and dccrep;t where they are not
shabby; and shabby where they are not old,
some of them not having a coat of paint
since they rose Under the hands OF the
builders.
In the icar of tle temple site the new
Jewish Synagogue is seen, and is rapidly
approaching completion. 1t is understood
that several new buildings will be erected
within this square of ground, that will ele-
vate the neighborhood from the dregs in
which it is now stepped.
The grand stand on which the Grand
Lodge rested and supervised the ceremo-
nies was yesterday down-its several pieces
strewn over the space. The stone itself was
found boxed up to prevent the depredations
of relic hunters, who, anxious for memen-
toes, if unrestrained would carry it off piece
meal and distribute its seven thousand
pounds over very wide space. The raised
platform has not yet been torn down, and
the sight Of it brings to mind the discom-
fort experienced during the progress of the
jubilee, the heat of the blazing sun and the
Inconvenience Of keeping stock still.
AS the building rises it will meet with
only good wishes from the thousands who
daily mass TO and fro before its gates Il