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important object,but rather one of "the chief keys of the concern. He now begins to realise the fruition of his golden dreams in joining the Order. He goes to work, in good earnest, at making free masons, as well as retailing Julips-and every "blind candidate" that he leads to the altar, adds one to his Julip customers!

Thus the young and heedless villager is first lured to the door, whose steps lead down to the gates of hell!-industrious mechanics are seduced from their workshops-the farmer, in the vicinity, is taught to think more of prying into the secrets of the lodge, than of ploughing his land-wives are deserted by their husbands, at a time when their society is most expected at the domestic fire-side-and children are left to go ragged, and without sustenance or education-that our Grand Village Necromancer, our wholesale and retail dealer in Mystery, Moonshine and Mixed Liquors, may revel and wax fat, and flourish upon all this folly and wickedness of his own creation: And thus, when compared with the truly useful and indispensable village church, the old saw is completely realised:

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,

"The Devil comes, and builds a temple there."

Our hero is now in the full tide of successful experiment; and the sun, moon, and twinkling stars on his sign-board, are but faint emblems of his aspiring hopes. With a troop of Noodles at his heels, he emerges from the bar room to the bench, as a Justice of the Peace, or a County Judge; or leaps over the head of many a better man into the halls of legislation, as a law-giver to the people! Well may he put on

a solemn face, as Cromwell did when stooping to find his cork-screw, he made his fanatical intruders believe he was kneeling to pray; well, I say, may our hero, when surrounded by his dupes in the garret, sing with all needful gravity and grimace:

"Hail Masonry divine;
Glory of ages shine,

Long mayst thou reign:
Where'er thy lodges stand,
May they have great command,
And always grace the land,

Thou ART divine!""

This is a brief, but pretty fair history of the rise and progress of perhaps nine tenths of our country temples of fatuity: motives of a similar nature, bearing, in many cases, upon different objects, both political and mercenary, have no doubt given rise to all the city Lodges, from the GRAND FOCUS, to the most insignificant retreat of midnight mystery and moral turpitude.

For example, let us take a glance at the ALBANY LODGE, some thirty years ago.

In the olden time of purity and simplicity, when the population of Albany was composed wholly of a strictly industrious, moral and religious people, so silly and so wicked a thing as Free Masonry, I presume, was not thought of among them. Our ancient Burghers had too much good sense to be attracted by such a contemptible illusion; and too much of good old · Netherland honesty and piety to think of speculating in so vile a commodity. There was indeed between the stern virtue of the Pilgrims, who first landed on Plymouth Rock, and the spirit of the early settlers of Albany, so strong

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a resemblance-that deeply is it to be regretted, that their posterity have not all imbibed and cherished the love of truth, the undefiled integrity, the sober, moral and industrious habits, and the unaffected piety, which animated and sustained, through so many perils and privations, those early and intrepid visitants to the shores of a barbarous and benighted region. It is probable, however-I have not time at present to ascertain the fact precisely-that during the war of '56, or some other military epoch, Free Masonry may have slyly crept in among the Albanians, through the agency of the epaulette : for it has been one of the successful artifices of the Craft, to teach young soldiers, that they would derive advantage in the hour of peril or extremity from its due-gards and grips. In fact, when they find appeals to the curiosity and credulity useless, they can stoop to alarm the cowardice of those whom they wish to ensnare.

The GRAND LODGE of the state, it appears, received its first charter from the Duke of Athol, dated London, 5th September, A. L. (year of Light) 5781.* To have said A. D. (year of our Lord) 1781, would not have comported with the Ducal, the Royal origin of an Institution, which soars above the humble, though heavenborn religion of our Redeemer. But be this as it may, Free Masonry, I believe, made no figure in Albany till after the close of the rev olution. Nobody heard of it-nobody thought of it-nobody would have thought of it-had it not been for a clever Dutch Lawyer, who wanted to multiply his clients, and a shrewd yankey tavernkeeper, willing to increase his bar-room circle: these sage calculators put their heads together;

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and having themselves learned the " art, trade and mystery" of the Craft, they soon persuaded a few simple and credulous men, that they could open their eyes to a marvellous light, which they had under a bushel, in a certain garret.Thus the revival commenced.

Shortly after, there came along-(in 1791–292) -a very ingenious brother Yankey of mine, with whom I had been slightly acquainted before he settled here, who worked in leather and pasteboard on some occasions; at paper-staining on others; and like many of our sun-rising brethren, knew how to make an honest penny at the same time in several other ingenious but lawful pursuits. To do him justice, he had a versatility of talent; and nature had bountifully endowed him with sagacity and foresight. He had read Jachin and Boaz, honest Samuel Pritchard's Masonry Dissected, the Three Distinct Knocks, and several other luminous treatises, and none the more luminous for being true portraits of Free Masonry! He perceived, at a single glance, that those who could believe, for a moment, in the utility of such trash and mummery, must be fit subjects for him to speculate upon: hence he was not long in making up his mind to join the aforesaid Lawyer and Publican, that a trio might be formed who could very adroitly aid each other's views. The coalition was no sooner conceived than it was consummated, and our hero was elevated (being a rare genius) in the twinkling of an eye, to the highest, or one of the highest niches in the Temple of Wisdom. He now commenced in earnest the plan he had formed, before he exchanged the mysterious grip with his new associates. My brother Yankey,

as I said before, was an ingenious workman in leather and lambskins; and as every new-born babe in Masonry would want a bib, or apron, the more "blind candidates," he ushered into the marvellous light of Brother * * * * * 's mysterious garret, the more aprons he sold. He employed at one time half the young seamstresses in the city, at stitching on the borders, and finishing off these bibs for the babes and sucklings of the mystic tie; but this was not the only source of emolument which my sun-rising brother found in the pleasant walks of the fraternity: he was, the reader will bear in mind, a paper-stainer, as well as a dresser of lamb-skins, and consequently the more lodges that were chartered, the more of his coloured paper was called for to decorate their altars and their walls! What universal charity! What expanded benevolence! The Shylock of Shakspeare was a simpleton to this speculator in masonic decorations, signals and symbols!

It is the property, if not the peculiar property of such charity and benevolence, to spread rapidly; it meets with too much congeniality of feeling in the human breast; and so it happened at this time. There was a very ingenious painter, also one of my sun-rising brethren, who then inhabited a gloomy retreat, in a narrow lane, where he enjoyed scarce light enough by which to mix his colours; and where, like Shakspeare's apothecary, between whom and my friend there was a striking resemblance, he would languish, almost without hope, if not in absolute despair, week after week, if not month after month, without having his dark hole, though it was the retreat of genius, illumined by the smile of an

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