The Portland daily press., 1897-10-20
GRAND MASTERS REPORT.

| The membership of the Subordinate
and Rebekah branches of the Order, Jan
uary 1, 1897, as shown by the reports of
the several lodges, was as follows:
Number of members as per
last report, 20,747
Net gain in membership dur
ing the year, 1872
Total Subordinate member.
Number SaaR' of members as per last S0'''
report, S,304
Net gain in membership during
the year. 1888
Total Rebekah membership, 9,697
Total amount paid for relief, SO, 123. SO
Seventeen hundred and nineteen broth
ers and fifty eight widowed families were
relieved during the year, to whom the
above amount was paid. Invested funds,
real estate and hall property, $60l ,269. 25,
which shows an addition of S81 600. 90 the
past year. According to the reports of
the Deputies, showing the condition Of
the lodges August LIST, 1897 the proper
| ton of gain, both numerically and fnan-
cially, has been fully maintained. Since
January LIST six new lodges have been in
stituted, one Subordinate and five Re
bekah, making at present one hundred
and thirty-eight Subordinate and eighty.
two Rebekah lodges, or total of the
two com bined of two hundred and TWEEN
ty lodges. This in itself means a vast
amount of correspondence and detail
work to the executive officer Of the Grand
Lodge, which has required the past year
the writing and sending out of over six
teen hundred personal letters and COM
1 munications, aside from the regular
printed circulars.
New Subordinate lodges have been in
lctit fad foil
Eel lodge. OF Rebekah lodges new ones
have been instituted at Houlton, Water
boro, Lincoln, Castine and Fort Fairfield
New halls have been dedicated at Brook
lin. Turner, Portland (where the rooms
are spoken of as the finest in New Eng
land), and Union.
In closing Grand Master Lovejoy says
"Today we shall close and seal another
volume ofsour Grand Lodge history. The
| past will be In memory, a shadow that ia
frightened by the sweet recollections of
solemn obligations faithfully discharged,
of constant unfolding on our part of the
divinity within us, and of the aspirations
of our hearts which have brought US in
to closer relationship and sympathy with
humanity.
''Blest is the man whose softening heart
| Feels all another's pain,
| To whom the duplicating eye
| Is never turned in vain"
Amid the splendid progress which the
world is making toward a higher and
brighter civilization, we welcome the
| birth Of the months and the years, with
their new and thrilling development of
science, art, mind, heart and manhood,
| until on any marked occasion, when the
old ends and the new formally begins, our
hearts are filled with joy and anticipa-
ton. But while we meet on anniversary
~ aain Ia wit
and the future before us, glad that we
have reached new milestone, proud of
every noble achievement that has entered
into our history, remembering with graft
tude every flower that has bloomed un-
der our touch, every SUD beam thas we
| have sent smiling and quivering through
the clouds, the record in it's entirety, with
Its failures as we'll as it's successes, its
midnights as we'll as its mornings, its
storms as well as it's oalms, its ugliness
as well as it's beauty, should hang before
US for our study and contemplation.
And as we close the volume OF our
years history today. which trust in
question comes, pealing like the loud
mouthed bell at midnight: And thenS
Before every brother there Is ever blazing,
like flame in the darkness. the word
duty, and on every conscience the letter
OF the word culver and burn increasingly.
| GRAND SECRETARY'S REPORT.
Grand Secretary Joshua Davis begins
his annual report as follows:
1t Is with pleasure that l submit to
this Grand Lodge the fifty annual
report, covering the business OF the Grand
Secretary's office for the current year.
| The duties have been greater than ever
before, owing to the legislation OF the
Sovereign Grand Lodge enacted at Its
session of 1896, viz. the issuing to Sub
ordinate and Rebekah lodges the official
certificate for dues, and the exchange OF
all rituals
The Grand Secretary construed the leg
islation in regard to the official certificate
as meaning that they were the only legal
receipt for dues and should be given
whenever member paid, whether once