Grand Commandery of Kentucky, at Danville, in that State. In addition to the large number of offices he has ably filled in this city and in the State, he has given much time to Masonic literature, through which source he has achieved a national reputation. Besides, the records of the various Grand Masonic bodies of Iowa are full of the honorable evidences of his connection with the legislation of the Order.

***

GRAND COMMANDERY OF OHIO.

The Grand Commandery of Ohio held its Forty-fifth Annual Conclave at Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 11th and 12th, 1887, R. E. Gr. Commander LaFayette Lyttle presiding. After the usual preliminary proceedings, the R. E Grand Commander delivered his annual address. In it he devotes three and a-half pages to the technical farce in regard to the appeal of Rev. Sir Henry D. Moore to the Grand Encampment, depriving him of his right of appeal Templar law, it is stated, gives thirty days to give notice of appeal, and ten days to appeal. As notice of appeal was given immediately, the thirty days' time was construed as having expired, and the running of the ten days began, so that the appeal not being made before the expiration of ten days, was declared null, and all rights lost.

The case or appeal of Bro. Ernst H. Franz was also treated to a brief history as not being a proper subject to be entertained.

Six decisions were rendered on various matters.

The obliteration of Newark Commandery of ninety-three swords receives the attention to the extent of three pages.

He then devotes nine pages to the reiteration of the case of Em. Sir Henry L. Stanton, in which he opens by saying that "It is not pleasant to be obliged to report that one has been even the intended victim of a confidence game," and characterizes as a "conspiracy" to entrap him the episode of the expulsion of Rt. Em. Sir John S. Lyle, the Grand Commander of K. T. of Kentucky, by stating that he "can only account for his acts, by the demoralizing effects generally, that are produced by running after strange gods, be it in strange Masonry, strange women, or strange anything else.” Charity would lead us to infer that at least this portion of the address, on account of its vulgarity and suggestive obscenity, was not written by the Grand Commander. It has too much the ring and odor of Cincinnati. The correspondence in regard to the affair is then given with various and sundry remarks.

The address then cites the case of the enforced retirement of the Grand Sword Bearer from Cincinnati Commandery, upon objection (he not being a member of the Commandery and not having any official business with the Commandery), and the resultant charges, etc.

The following is the letter of the Right Em. Grand Commander to Sir H. L. Stanton upon this topic :

GRAND COMMANDERY KNIGHTS TEMPLAR OF OHIO.
OFFICE OF GRAND COMMANDER,
TOLEDO, O., August 3, 1887.

Sir H. L. Stanton, Em. Com. Cincinnati Commandery, No. 3, K. T.,
Cincinnati, O.:

}

EM. SIR AND FRATER-In the matter of the charges preferred against you by Em. Sir W. B. Melish, I have selected a Commission to take testimony and investigate and decide upon the charge and specifications, etc., the following Eminent Sir Knights: Gabriel B. Harmon, P. E. C. Reed Commandery, No. 6, Dayton, O.; W. K. Boone, P.E.C. of Shawnee Commandery, No. 14, Lima, O., and E. M. Colver, P. E. C. of Erie Commandery, No. 33, Sandusky, O.

This committee will be directed to report to the Grand Commandery at its conclave in October next, at which time the trial will be had.

If you have objections to either of the Sir Knights above selected, I will give such objections proper consideration.

I desire only a fair and impartial hearing of the case.

Fraternally yours,

LAFAYETTE LYTTLE, Grand Commander.

He then recites about a conference with certain officers of the Grand Commandery on August 19th, and how the complainant "desired to withdraw the formal charges against Em. Sir Stanton," and gives the letter of the complainant, apparently written during the conference. He then kindly devotes a short paragraph or two to what he is pleased to term the "so-called MASONIC REVIEW."

The Right Em Grand Commander entirely omits any notice of the possibility of the complainant having any knowledge of the matters that he had under consideration, and of the blatant boastings over convivial cups of the "better thing" they had for Sir Stanton, and hence withdrawal of the charges," a week before the suspension of Sir Stanton. But, then, this was a all a part of the programme. Of course, the complainant is sainted, but forcibly brings to mind the couplet attributed to St. Dunstan, which says:

"The Devil got sick,

The Devil a Monk would be.

The Devil got well,

And a Devil of a Monk was he."

This chapter ends with a report of the suspension of Sir Stanton. Then nine pages follow in regard to extinguishing Cyprus Commandery, No. 10, of Zanesville, in which saintly characters cut a prominent figure.

The report of the Grand Recorder, Em. Sir John N. Bell, shows that "In accordance with the Statutes and Regulations, I have issued certificates of good standing to eight (8) members of Newark Commandery, No. 34, now extinct, they paying dues amounting to $27." *** The "membership, August 1, 1886, 5,487 ; created, 456; admitted, 136; reinstated, 17; making total, 6,096. Withdrawn, 236; died, 69; dropped for non-payment of dues, 46; suspended for un-Masonic conduct, 3; expelled, 6; Newark Commandery, No. 34, extinct, 93; total, 453; leaving present membership, 5,643, showing a net increase of 156 during the year.

The total Grand dues collected are $3,536.25.

The Grand Treasurer reports cash in hand, August 20, 1887, to be $12,382.40.

Cleveland was selected as the place for the next meeting, commencing the last Tuesday in August.

Charters were granted to Salem Commandery, Rose Commandery, of Gallipolis; Trinity Commandery, Cincinnati, and a dispensation for a Commandery at Ironton.

The following officers were elected and installed: Right Eminent Grand Commander, F. H. Rehwinkel, Chillicothe; Very Eminent Deputy Grand Commander, Wm. T. Walker, Toledo; Eminent Grand Generalissimo, O. A. B. Senter, Columbus; Eminent Grand Captain General, Henry Perkins, Akron; Eminent Grand Prelate, Lafayette Van Cleve, Cincinnati; Eminent Grand Senior Warden, Calvin Halliday, Lima; Eminent Grand Junior Warden, Huntington Brown, Mansfield; Eminent Grand Treasurer, J. Burton Parsons, Cleveland; Eminent Grand Recorder, John N. Bell, Dayton; Eminent Grand Standard Bearer, Wm. B. Melish, Cincinnati; Eminent Grand Sword Bearer, Wm. M Meek, Hills. boro; Eminent Grand Warden, E. M. Colver, Sandusky; Eminent Grand Captain of the Guard, Jacob Randall, Waynesville.

**

FIRE!

We have suffered a great loss by fire in the business office and Library-room of the MASONIC REVIEW. All our Masonic Library, including three complete sets of the REVIEW, and all back numbers, together with other valuable books, are destroyed. We also lost a very valuable historical, scientific and statistical Library, including many rare volumes that cannot be replaced, together with all old account books and office furniture. Our good Hall's Safe preserved our Ledger, Subscription List, and other valuable business books and papers, without any injury whatever. The confusion, incident to this occurrence, has delayed a little beyond the usual time the October issue. It will be found, however, to contain many things that cannot fail to interest the brethren.

The Printing Office proper was uninjured, and we are as well prepared for work as heretofore.

We have been promised, and our readers can rely upon having, a Christmas story in the December number, from the ever-welcome pen of ADNA H. Lightner.

CORRESPONDENCE.

BALTIMORE, Oct 17th, 1887.

To the Editor of the " MASONIC REview":

DEAR SIR AND BROTHER: -Under the date of July 23d, 1887, I received a letter from Enoch T. Carson, who, I unerstand, was at one time Chief of Police of Cincinnati, in which he complainnd bitterly of the publication of a letter in the Louisville Times, of July 22d, 1887, written by him to the writer, dated Sept. 16th, 1881, in which he denounced the so-called Scottish Rite Body presided over by Albert Pike, and known as the Southern Jurisdiction, as "oppressive and fraudulent," and advised the Scottish Rite Masons of Maryland to "start your own " Scottlsh Rite Body.

I replied to Bro. Carson, stating that his letter of the 23d of July, 1887, was the first intimation I had of the publication of his Sept. 16th, 1881, letter in the Times, and that it had been done without my knowledge or consent. I also stated to Bro. Carson, that in consequence of certain false statements made in Frankfort, Ky., previous to the appearance in print of the Carson letter, by certain members of the Pike Body from Louisville, who had vainly interfered to prevent the organization of the Frankfort Consistory, I had shown his letter to several Kentucky brethren, for the purpose of refuting the false statements referred to, and to show the opinions enteriained by a number of Masons concerning Albert Pike's oppressive acts towards the Grand Consistory of Maryland, then of his obedience, and which caused the voluntary and unanimous surrender of its charter to Pike.

No letter I have ever received from Bro. Carson, contains the words "private" or "confidential"; hence, I contend, that I have a perfect right to show his letters addressed to me, to whomsoever I choose. Had I intended to publish the Carson letters I should not have waited until the present time; and now that they have been published without my knowledge or consent, and in defense of what I consider a just cause, I have no complaint to make against those who were instrumental in their publication.

On the 6th of the present month, October, I received another and a very insulting letter from Bro. Carson, in which he again bitterly complains of the publication in the September No. of the MASONIC REVIEW (which he calls "a scurrilous publication "), of the same letter referred to above, and also another dated Feb. 28, 1882, using