The morning times., 1896-01-06
0fHSkADEblhYMls0Ns
He Did a Wholesale Business in
Establishing Lodges.
HAS HAD A STRANGE CAREER
Worked His Game Ten Y ears in Many
CitieS-poiu@ Quick Work on u Cash
sis Forming Lodges as Fast
as He Could Count Them With
Members Of High Degi ee.

dealer in Masonic degrees, lodge
charters, rites and general para
phernalia, VINO was arrested in Chicago
at tne instance of the District Attorneys
Office of TINS city, under an indictmen;
charging him with swindling an aspirant
for Masonic honors, Marcus Paschkes, out
OF SIPS.
jacques Ochs has been csta blisbing Ma
sonic lodges wherever he found it profit
able since he arrived in this country.
penniless, in April, 1858. 1t is estimated
that III the ten years intervening he has
secured about $5U, 900 from guliiblc indi-
viuals all over the United States, and
FROM 1881 to 1894, during which period
lodge business was brisk, his income is said
to have averaged $4,000 a year. The
Herald exposed his operations in 1894.
ana since mat tune Jacques Ochs' success
as fake Mas has gradually dwin-
died. until ne has lately been forced to
earn livelihood by selling cigarettes for
a small manufacturer in Bieecker street.
OCHS' ARRIVAL IN THIS COUNTRY.
Ochs is a Rouma nian by birth, about fifty
years old. n excellent ling uist, ana fluent
and convincing tinker He landed IN this
country as an inning rant in 1885, He ap-
paaled to Col. E. Nj. Ehlers, secretary OF
the Grand Lodge OF Masons of the State, in
the Masonic Temple at Twenty third street
and Sixth avenue. The documents he pro-
duced showed apparently that he was SOME
thing of Mason, hut not OF good enough
standing to DE received with open arms.
He was financially assisted and an effort
was made to get him work. Finally the
board OF relief decided he was fraud and
cast him Off
Soon Ochs blossoIned as Grand Delegate
and General Representative of North Amer
lea Il nj the Dominion of Canada of the ORR
entail rite of Iberia of Free and Accepted
Masons," with headquarters in Madrid,
Spain. He started prospecting among the
poor Hebrews of the cast side, to whom he
represented that his order was Il legitimate
connection of the regular Masons, and a
membership, in it would be- of great advan-
tagc in a business way.
SCALE OF PRICES.
He had Z, sliding scale of prices which
he adapted 10 the means of the applicant
limitations cost from SO To S25 and
diplomas from So TO So. The degrees
man might take were only limited by
his purse. Although the thirty-third
degree is the last and highest degree in
Legitimate Masonry, and is only con-
.erred as an exceptional honor, Mr.. Ochs
had rapid transit method OF boosting
man into the sixiicth degree in Il brief
half hour if he had money enough 10 pay
for it. when imprnbahiities OF this kind
were chilled To his attention he silenoed
criticism by Announcing that as sole rep
resen-ative of the order in North America
he was omnipotent
The first lodge he started he named
Acacia Lodge, No. 80. 1t met in rooms
over the Germa mia Bank, at No. Rivine-
ton street. Fifty men Joined it, all of
whom paid SO to SEQ each TO Ochs. He
also collected The rent. The lodge got
In arrears aud was cvic;cd. 1t was.soon
reorga nized again by ochs, under the
name OF acacia Lodge, No. 100, with Head
quarters in Florence Hall, at the corner Of
First street and Second avenue. Here
Ocifs- nar he lodge ruoms fitted up in
elaborate and imposing style. Banners
decorated with various CabalistiC symbols
adorned the walls. huge snlcmn-luoking
rJstrum and dias stood at one end OF the
room. flankcd by censors and tripods in
which rickered GhUs,ly blue flames.
HE ENLARGES HIS BUSINESS.
sacred goat to every additional lodge that
he formed, until they were occupied every
night In the week. One or these lodges he
named Cosmos, No. 80, and another Liberty.
No. lie. In the meantime he interested n
large number of South Brooklyn Germans
and in the fall of 1898 organized Socra ties
Lodge No. ITO. Eventually lie succeeded in
forming thirteen lodges in this city and
Brooklyn, every member Of which, to the
number of 500 or 900, paid him from $40
to S25 for initiation, degrees and parapher-
MALTA.
When matters began to get warm for him
here Ochs went to Newark N. j., and organ
lied lodge. The members were initiatedin
Florence Hall, in tbisc city. Among them was
justice OF the peace named Feldman. Ochs
took himinto a dark hall, rubbed phosphorus
on his hands and made the Justice thirty
third degree Mason in 1irry. He charged
$l25 for his services. The justice became
suspicious after some weeks and started an
investigation, which resulted in the arrest
agents.
Ochs, in the meantime had gone to Phil
adelpbla, where he organized Progress,
Americus and Christopher Columbus
lodges, and then, after making his collec-
tIons, continued westward to Chicago,
where he organized five lodges named as
follows: Memphis No. IL, Isis No. 119,
Hiram No. 100, Delta No. 121. and Osiris
No. 122. 1t was during his Chicago career
that the Herald exposed him, with the
result that a DR.. B. Pinsch, whom Ochs
made gram master of the State of Illinois
wrote to Isidro Villarino, who. according
to the, charters. was general secretary of
the order, stationed in Madrid. reply
was received over the signature of VII
larino promising an investigation. but moth
Ing ever came of it.
PASCHKES CAUSED HIS ARREST.
Ochs' arrest is made on the complaint of
Marcus Pascbkes of Tuckahoe, N. Y, who
was made Mason at Florence Hall in
1894. ochs suggested to him that he
organize a lodge in Yonkers, where he
then lived, ard offered to delegate the
authority to him for the sum OF $125.
Paschkes paid the money. he SAYS, and
received his credentials on a letter head
decorated with AsAtese crosses and seals,
which reads as follows:
o.. ....... .-....................o
/: "AD UNIVERSE TERRARUM ORBIS SUNNI
!: ARCHITECT GLORlAM"
: The Oriental Rite of Iberia Of Free
{: and Accepted Mnsona
[: To All Regular Nasons Of Both Hemis-
I: pheres:
I: Liberty. Equality, Fraternity.
(: Jacques Ochs 50 :. 20 =. 90 =. VI
{: Grand Delegate and General Represents