Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-01
WEEKS NEWS OF FRATERNAL AND SECRET SOCIETIES


OF all religions. such as truth. morality
and right living The Knights Temp
lar are the display features Of the or
der, and their drills at triennial en-
campments are immensely popular
spectacles. The Ancient Order OF No
bles of the Mystic Shrine Is not regu-
lar Masonic body but only thirty-sec-
ond degree Masons are eligible to menu
Dership The Order of the Eastern
Star is an auxiliary body composed OF
wives, daughters. sisters and widows
of Masons. While the chief regular
charities are extended to widows and
| orphans of Masons, response is always
made to requests for funds for the dis
tressed outside of the order. Its recent
contribution to the San Francisco relief
fund was $4,000 Unlike most fratorH
nal orders the Masons have no insur-
ance feature.
| One OF the most notable Masons OF
America is Captain Thomas Shelby
Todd of Shelbyville, Ken, who is the
oldest past grand master now living.
Captain TODD is a son of the late
Charles s. Todd. minister to Russia,
and grandson Of Isaac Shelby, first
! governor of Kentucky. He was one of
ffty-two captains sent to the front by
Kentucky during the Mexican war, and
| he and one other are the only sur
Il
recently pensioned by congress. He
never misses meeting of his grand
lodge at Louisville. although he is in
| the eighties. The only statue ever
erected to a Mason because of his
prominence in the order is that reared
in honor of Albert Pike in Washington.
| He was grand commander OF the south
ern division of Scottish Rite Masons for
more than fifty years, and was promi-
| nent as a lawyer.
The greatest opposition ever met
| with by the Freemasons was in the
United States nearly century ago.
when William Morgan mysteriously
disappeared. Morgan was an impover-
ished Virginian, who remoFed to New
York. settled at Batavia, and beganHhe
writing of book in which he proposed
to expose" Freemasonry. He said
| that he had been Freemason Tor
| thirty years and his announcements att
| tracted no little attention, but as he
had little standing it was generally
supposed that he had merely thought
| out scheme by which to make money
He was the defendant in number Of
| suits filed by creditors and had once
been arrested for theft He was seized
| one night and never heard OF again.
| The incident naturally caused intense
excitement and high feeling against
the Masons, who were believed by many
to have been responsible for his disap-
pearance. Vigilants traced the man,
in charge of captors, to Fort Niagara.
near the mouth of Niagara river, and
there all searchers found themselves at
a loss Whether he was killed and the
body sunk in Lake Ontario was never
known.
Much interest was taken in Morgans
well advertised book, which came out
soon after his mysterious disappearance.
/ If the book exposed anything it was
chiefly the routine of ritualism. Chapters
were devoted to minute description of
how lodge meetings were conducted.
/ There were, however, few statements
! which, If they could be believed, would
put the order in bad light. Morgan said,
for instance, that the members of the
fraternity bound themselves by oath to
protect one another and to let their
oath of loyalty to the order stand before
any oath in court. Another statement
was that all Masons were bound by ter
rible oaths to wreak vengeance upon any
man who betrayed their secrets, and
many persons believed that this state
! ment was borne out by his death.
The Anti-Masonic party that sprang up
as a result of the Morgan episode was a
peculiar feature of American politics.
The national Republican party dared
not nominate Masons in 1928 and the
Anti-Masons called a state convention
and nominated Soloman Southwick for
governor, Among the candidates for NOM
4 nation were William H. Seward and
Thurlow Weed and Willard Fillmore. Mr..
| Weed was quoted afterward as saying
that body found in a river near Fort
Michigan was "a good enough Morgan
till after the election" The Anti-Masons
polled increasing strength for several
Two md o1tro w ot,aor nod he
Republican party in New York becoming
the hief opposition of the Democrats.
/ The movement took a national aspect
when the Anti-Masons held "a national
convention to force Henry Clay out of the
field and nominated William Writ of
Maryland for president. Writ got only
the electors vote of Vermont, and the
party was soon absorbed by the Wings.
Masonry has long since ceased to affect
or be affected by politics, and the order
is now as popular as any fraternal order
| in existence.
Even now it is frequently stated that no
Mason was ever hanges and that mem
bers of the order always fare well in
| courts of law. The idea is wholly erro-
neous. Few Masons are tried in criminal
courts because few of them are criminals,
| but it should be remembered that
George III, himself Mason, declined to
pardon minister of the Church of Eng
| land who was sentenced to death under
the old English law for forgery. Upon
Lone occasion when a prominent Mason
was upon the bench in Cincinnati the
discovery that defendant was a Free
mason caused him to say that man
who violated the law should be punished.
but a Mason who violated it should be
punished both for his offense against the
state and the offense to Freemasonry.
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