New York Dispatch

To The Masonic Editor Of N. Y. Dispatch.-

Dear Sir: Can a charity committee afford to pay three hundred dollars, yearly, for a name, to which is attached considerable notoriety, in consequence of being purchased with "all books and papers" in its owner's possession, by the Grand Lodge of which John L. Lewis was Grand Master, for one thousand dollars?-the said books and papers originally belonging to a certain faction, of which this person was a leader. How they became the private property of the name, we know not.

The present owner of the name is six feet of humanity, and has repeated the story of his exalted genealogy so often, that the merest tyro in Masonry is perfectly familiar with my father's history as he relates it. Yet this six feet of dignified garrulity (if such a thing really can exist as a "dignified garrulity" condescends to accept from the charity fund of the Masonic fraternity of this city, five hundred dollars yearly for services worth about two hundred dollars. Such condescension has no parallel,if we except the aged actor who agreed to play for one thousand dollars per night and three-thirds of the nightly receipts.

Perhaps the salary of this individual is not of so much importance as to require special notice. but he is one of a class of barnacles who cling like grim death to "our institution." This class (one of which is a familiar little whiffit flattered by his friends with the sobriquet of lawyer) gather all the scandal of the fraternity. They can give you the name of the Master who was so ignorant of their immensity as to confer a degree with their assistance, in doing which he omitted a single word of the Lex non Scripta of our order. They know where a candidate sneezed during initiation. They have (like the gentleman in Tristram Shandy) arranged in alphabetical order the sins of omission and commission of all probable candidates for office, from Grand Master to Grand Pursuivant, and make themselves a patron to all young and inexperienced Masters.

No matter how long they have served in law making for us. they have never as yet discovered any beauties in our constitution. but any number of flaws. forgetting the fact of their being head and front in the mal. practice. They with the gentlemen who indulge in bad segars and profanity at our lodge room doors. make the attendance small. and limits frequent.

Now my genial old friend, whom first I saw as a Doric pillar, make your facile pen construct an article from this tirade which I would not be allowed to deliver where gavels are in use; but it is nevertheless true; deduct the personalities if you please, but give your readers the substance in a rousing article, and oblige

Yours fraternally,

M.