The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-04-27
WOMEN FREEMASOxS.
Many Instances in Europe in Which Women
Have Been Admitted.


Many Instances in Europe in Which Women
Have Been Admitted.
New York Herald.
When IT was announced q few weeks
ago that Mary L. Lease, the woman
politician of Kansas, was a Freema-
son and in possession OF the ritual,
signs and passwords of the craft, the
statement was received with many
expressions of incredulity from men
in the order and out it. Some de-
clared that II she knew the secrets of
Masonry she had learned them by
stealth or by fraud, but the common
est assertion was that the claim was
absurd-that women were ineligible
to the order, and that the idea that
Mrs. Lease or any other woman had
penetrated its circles was preposter-
Gus.
All talk of this sort is based upon a
superficial and inadequate knowledge
of the extent to which women, espe-
cially in Europe, have been identified
with Masonic affairs. That the Sc
crets of the ancient order have not
always been exclusively monopolized
by men will be evident to everybody
who cares to take even casual glance
at the history of the craft.
Nine. Maria Deraismes, whose
death has just taken place at Paris,
was renowned not only as one of the
most successful leaders in the struggle
for the emancipation of her sex, but
for her revival of the female lodges of
the Masonic craft. Several European
and American newspapers described
her as having been the first woman
ever deliberately admitted into the
mysteries Of the order, while Others
cited the well known instance of Lord
Doneraile's daughter as being the
only other instance Of lady having
been initiated.
This is altogether wrong. For in the
past century there were large num-
Der of ladies of rang who were Free
masons, and at the present moment
female Masonic Lodges abound in
Spain, the principal feminine digni-
tary of the craft being Princess Maria
Bourbon, daughter Of the Infant Don
Enrique, who was sOlemnly initiated
by the Ell Taller lodge of Salamanca.
WOMEN MAsoNs IN FRANCE.
1t was in 1880 that we first heard OF
feminine lodges being constituted In
France, and, although they may he
said to have existed alongside of the
masculine Freemasonry rather than
forming part and parcel of it, yet they
were definitely recognized as belong
ing to the craft by degree Of the grand
orient of France dated April 10,
l774. Feminine Masonry in those
days was restricted almost exclusively
to ladies of royal and noble rank.
Thus we find the duchess Of Chartres
as mistress OF one lodge and the
duchess OF Bourbon of another, both OF
these princesses being addressed as
honorable and worshipful" in the
official communications dispatched to
them by the grand orient of France.
Maria Antionette's friend, the love-
ly Princesse dc Lamballa, who was
massacred during the reign Of terror,
and whose head was carried on pike
through the streets OF Paris, was the
misti les of the social contract lodge,
and a short time before the overthrow
of royalty, served for time as grand
mistress Of the order.
In 1905 the Empress Josephine was
present at a meeting of duly consti-
tuted feminine Masonic lodge at
Strasburg, and again, in 1910, VIC hear
Of the celebrated Marquise dc Vallette
presiding at the institution Of a new
Masonic lodge. In short, feminine
Masons abounded in France up to the
year 1863, when the decree of Pope
Plus IN, denouncing Freemasonry as
Incompatible with membership In
the Church OF Rome, caused the aban-
donmcnt of Freemasonry by women
and the practical, II not Official, disso-
lutlon OF the various lodges through
out the country.
1t was not until 1882 that any at
tempt was made to revive them. In
January of that year Nine. Deraismes
was solcmnIy initiated by the mascu.
line lodge "Les Libres Pcnseurs" 1.-THE
Free Thinkers), ut LepecQ, near Paris.
The grand orient Of France, however,
declined to Mtify the selection, and
even went so far AS to Ofiiclally dis.
solve the lodge that had been
guilty OF unauthorized revival Of y
practice which had become obsolete,