will have the solidarity of the entire Order to promote, and push on any measures for the benefit of that humanity of which each member is a part and to the glory and credit of the old fathers in Masonry who lived their lives in their own way in their own day, as we will do in our own way, in our day and generation.

MASONIC ADVANCEMENT

How often do we accept a statement, or become wedded to a notion merely because of a chance remark, unsubstantiated by evidence or analysis, and walk along with our superior heads in the clouds, congratulating ourselves that we are entitled to seats among the discriminating and wise until we stub our toe against a fact and begin to study out the reason for that fact being evident in that place and at that time. We find it has always been there. Facts, like pigs, have a faculty of always retaining their identity, no matter how we may change our conception of them; the fact is we didn't get in the way of the fact we tripped over, and facts generally have to be looked up.

The fact I tripped over the other day was an opinion of Brother Wm. P. Filmer, 33°, S. G. I. G., in North California, printed recently in the "Schedule of Degrees of the San Francisco Bodies." I have been inoculated with the virus of opposition to progress along some lines in our Masonry, especially when that progress was indicated. by large classes of men as candidates, an apparent restiveness because of their evident desire to get ahead rapidly and a wonder grew in my mind as to the outcome of this great movement into our Rite.

I had pictured the calm, deliberate, idyllic conditions of Brother Pike's time when communication was the rule; when little more headway was made than sufficient to make up for the drifting backwards owing to the advance of years and the conditions of the country at that time; but when I was awakened by the stubbed toe on

Brother Filmer's fact it occurred to me that here was "a condition and not a theory," we are living in a very different age, and half our secular time-if we wish to do business down town-is occupied in dodging automobiles lest we get run over and get all mussed up; and if we wish to exploit our Masonry and give it a place in the sun of humanity, we must live in the age in which we move. The plainest landmark, which will not probably be acknowledged as such by those who claim to know landmarks when they see them, is the statement that Masonry is a progressive institution. That progress is its heart, the great dynamic motor, whose function is to send the life stream coursing through our Masonic veins, charged with activity and health; and we are of little account if we have a weak heart, and our time is exceedingly short and useless. Masonry has adapted itself to all the varying conditions of the ages and has helped to bring about these changes.

We

We are now living in the twentieth century and our Masonry must have facility in getting into the course of events, and seeing to it that its beneficent influence becomes accepted as one of the factors which will make this century the greatest of all that have passed away. We say Masonry is a peace society; let us make it so. say it is a great civilizer; let us give it a chance to get in its work by putting it where the work is to be done. It is not that Masonry is not a peace agent, not a civilizing factor; it possesses all the elements which enable it to make good on both of these propositions and others, but we do not give it a chance; we lock it up, we isolate it, we put it in the cloisters of our lodges instead of in the busy world of fact against which I stubbed my toe; we make of it the scene and occasion of our play, convenience and sociability when we have not earned any playtime, because we have not worked along lines which would give our institution a chance to show how well it is adapted to the serious work of redeeming humanity, and when we have shown our desire to work in that direction and then

get tired. I have no objection to a playground on the site of the threshing floor of Ornan, but not until we have earned it.

The only limit to the safe number of initiates is the ballot box, the Masonic diagnosis which advises us of the healthy condition of the stock we are accepting as our coworkers, and their ability to have the larger number live up to our wholesome laws, and our facilities to teach the Scottish Rite doctrine in its purity and vigor. There is no danger if we can control these elements. We believe the reply of Brother Filmer covers the ground quite thoroughly and present it as a contribution from the "Country Masonic Press."

Complaint has been made on several occasions that objection has been raised by brethren of our Rite to advancement of newly made Master Masons to the fourth degree of the Scottish Rite, solely and entirely on the ground that the brother proposed or petitioning is advancing too rapidly, and that in some cases such objection has been to the positive injury of brethren who were inadvised and innocent of the fact that their names had been proposed for membership.

In such cases, brethren very shortly after receiving the Master Mason's degree, have been proposed for membership in our Rite, objection made to the Venerable Master, the Master does not state to the lodge the reason for the objection and thus suspicion is often engendered that perhaps other reasons obtain for the rejection of the brother, and when proposed again, later on, the previous objection, reflecting against his character, weighs against him when his name appears before the lodge for election and sometimes becomes the cause of his rejection.

This, of course, is entirely wrong, as it works injury to a brother unsoliciting our favors and whose character and reputation may be above reproach. It is also harmful because the fact of the rejection of the brother's name may become known to him or to his relatives and friends who may be justly resentful of the use of the brother's name without his consent or knowledge. And a wrong inflicted by brethren of our Rite upon brother Master Masons is a positive injury to the Rite itself and is also harmful to the proposition method which has been so eminently useful and successful in building up and strengthening the Rite.

But a close survey of the condition of the general Body of the Rite at the present time discloses most conclusively the fact that the Rite has suffered in very small degree indeed, and only in rare individual cases, from receiving into our midst the young Mason fresh from his Master's degree; that on the contrary

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there is every reason to believe that great good has come to us from interesting and instructing brethren when the spirit of enthusiasm, engendered by the Master's degree, is still strong in their hearts. And there is also ample evidence that Scottish Rite Masons, after receiving the instruction imparted by the splendid philosophy and symbolism of our degrees, are better enabled to comprehend the inmost meaning of the Master Mason's degree and consequently become better and more loyal and often better attending Blue Lodge Masons.

In consideration of the reasons set forth above in favor of the reception of petitions and propositions of recently made Master Masons and for the further reason that our statutes not only do not forbid such reception of petitions and propositions, but on the contrary, seem, by the absence of prohibitory law, to encourage it, I am of the opinion that objection made to the Master of a Scottish Rite Body on the sole ground of too rapid advancement is not a valid one and should not be entertained by the Master nor should brethren of the Rite make such objection either to the Master or at the ballot box.

FUNERAL OBSERVANCES

There are many things done and said in Masonry for their esoteric signification alone; many things prescribed because at one time in the early days the actions were fitting and proper, and the best way of accomplishing a desired result under the conditions then prevailing. Neither the verbiage nor the ceremonial would be advocated if compiled today, and the adherence to the old way causes confusion, extra labor, defeats its ends, and does not conduce to large attendances to take part in it.

To no custom has so great a change come as to the manner of the burial of our dead. Except in a very few instances, the simple, the private, the family observance takes the place of the ostentatious, the elaborate, or the public observance. The wailing, the lengthy sermons, the drawing of warnings from fearful examples have given place to greater real mourning, but less display; simplicity and lack of ceremonial mark the progress of the gathering of the friends; flowers take the place of crape, the music is of the encouraging kind, and the talk, if any, is bright and hopeful; the silence is not that of woe, but of sympathy with respect and reverence; if there is a preacher in

attendance he has performed his part; everything that could be said, has been said. Then a band of men in more or less soiled white linen aprons, with some rods and some other paraphernalia, surround the coffin so that it is entirely hidden from the family and attendant friends who for a long time are obliged to look at the backs of these strange men and listen to a poorly arranged, lugubrious dissertation in which the principal idea is to urge the drawing of the mantle of charity around one who, according to the discourse, needed it badly. There is not a comforting phrase in it; it was written in the Jonathan Edwards days and grates on the sensibilities and shocks the nerves.

As a rule, in Minnesota, the lodge does not accompany the body to the cemetery, just the pall bearers, if any;

the whole ceremonial is a mediaeval survival in a twentieth century setting, and not entirely creditable to our institution. I cannot find that it is any essential portion of our ritualistic ceremonies, and it has never been claimed to be even a landmark. It has been a matter of wonder to me for a very long time why some Grand Lodge does not get up an appropriate Masonic funeral observance, applicable to modern customs, and embodying the ideas of today concerning such.

I believe the brethren would turn out to a funeral with greater freedom than

at present, and in a large city, and a large lodge, the attendance problem is a very perplexing one, one which will not be solved until it is solved right and in accordance with the customs and ideas of today.

I find under "Notes and News," a compilation of paragraphical information which forms a part of the "New England Craftsman," that California has taken a step which will simplify the process without sacrificing one jot or tittle of its effectiveness or impressiveness. It is indicative of the growing idea amongst Masons to transact Masonic business in a business manner, and in this case to make its semi-public ceremonies operative in a common-sense method and conform to modern customs, by cutting off the needless portions of our ceremonies which have outgrown their usefulness or apparent meaning.

The Grand Lodge of California permits a lodge to be opened anywhere for the purpose of a Masonic burial without the necessity of a formal opening. Their law reads:

"To constitute burial with Masonic honors the funeral service authorized by the Grand Lodge must be used. The lodge may be opened in due form in the lodge room or the Master may call the members of his lodge together at the place designated for the funeral, there put on the proper regalia and conduct the funeral without the necessity of a formal opening of the lodge, in which case, the secretary will note in the minutes of the next stated meeting the fact that the funeral has been conducted by the lodge."

THE NEW GRAND MASTER OF MASONS IN MASSACHUSET TS At the Masonic Temple in Boston, on the afternoon of December 14, 1916, Brother Leon M. Abbott was elected to succeed Brother Melvin M. Johnson as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Brother Abbott is one of the most prominent Masons in the State, having served as Master of Columbian Lodge, District Deputy and Senior Grand Warden. He is a Past High Priest of St Paul's Chapter, R. A. M., and a trustee of Boston Commandery. He is also a thirty-third degree Mason and an active member of the Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction and Deputy of the same in Massachusetts. He is, moreover, the Provincial Grand Master in the United States of the Royal Order of Scotland. A REMARKABLE COMMUNICA

TION

On the evening of December 30, 1915, in Parker Lodge No. 630, F. & A. M., of Parker City, Randolph County, Ind., there was held a most remarkable communication, the like. the like of which has probably never been witnessed before in any Masonic jurisdiction in the world.

It was a special communication, called for the purpose of installing the officers of the lodge. When the hour for opening the lodge arrived, the Worshipful Master, Brother William H. Moulton, called Past Master Levi H. Karns to the East and requested him to assume the duties of Worshipful Master, and to fill all the other official positions with his six sons, all of whom were there present, assuring him that the regular officers would gladly surrender their places for that purpose.

Brother Karns thereupon appointed his sons to the vacant official positions, beginning with the oldest, as follows: As Senior Warden, Brother Past Master Otis K. Karns, of Indianapolis, Ind., a member of Richmond Lodge No. 196, of Richmond, Ind.

As Junior Warden Brother Linus L. Karns, of Rock Island, Ill., a member of the lodge at that place.

As Treasurer, Brother Isaac T. Karns, a member of Parker Lodge, and residing in Parker City.

As Secretary, Brother Asa B. Karns, a member of Parker Lodge, but residing in Santa Ana, Cal.

As Senior Deacon, Brother Sidney F. Karns, a member of Parker Lodge, but residing in Richmond, Ind.

As Junior Deacon, Brother Grant A. Karns, a member of Parker Lodge, but residing in Omaha, Nebr.

Brother Levi Karns then opened the lodge on the Master Mason's degree, installed the officers elect for 1916 with full ceremony, and closed the Lodge.

Does any one know of a case that can come anywhere near being a parallel to this? If so, kindly let us know of it. We should like to place it upon record in the columns of THE NEW AGE.

A NEW MASONIC WEEKLY The postman has laid upon our desk No. 1, Vol. 1, of the Masonic Tribune, a weekly paper, issued every Thursday by Sidney Smith and John H. Reid, editors and publishers, and of which Lura E. Brown Smith is associate and literary editor. The address of the new periodical is 4141 Fourteenth Avenue, Seattle, Wash.

We like the appearance of the new Masonic champion. It is neat in appearance, and its eight pages are filled with live matter. In its editorial salutation, among other things it has to say: "The main feature of the Tribune is that it is a Masonic newspaper and will in every issue strive to give in brief the news which will benefit and be of service to Masonry in general. Improvement will be made from issue to issue until every department and detail is perfected.

"Send us your ads., subscriptions and news and in return the publishers will print as good a newspaper as good hard work can produce."

That's the talk, brethren and sister, go on with the good work. It is an axiom that men and things never stand still-they either improve or they deteriorate and die; and if you never suffer the Masonic Tribune to fall below the