FREEMASONRY

in its present form, is of English origin, and dates from the beginning of the XVIII. cent. All the stories and traditions of an ancient f. have been investigated, and prove to be without evidence to justify belief. The old claim, that f.dates from the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, and that King Solomon was its first grand master, has been dismi ed as being entirely without proof. The a emblies or lodges of masons included in the XVI. cent. members who were not operative, but} speculative or theoretical, and earlier records of masons’ guilds are still extant. But f. proper, as it is known,|of today throughout the world, dates from the inauguration of the mother Grand Lodge on June 24, 1717, in London. On that day, four old lodges of speculative, not operative, masons set up the| Grand Lodge, which was to be governing authority over all masonic| bodies. Henceforth there was no shadow of connection between operative masons| and f., and no masonic lodge was admitted to be in the fraternity which did not acknowledge the authority of the Grand Lodge. A Grand Lodge was} pate up in Ireland one a in Dain urgh in 1736, and from these three} Grand Lodges all the lodges throughout the world are derived. The first ‘regular’ 1733; meetings had been held at] Philadelphia earlier, but without Grand Lodge authorization. The total membership of the Masons in the United States in 1923 was about 2,600,000. * llinois, county seat. It is on the Illinois Central, e Chicago and Northwestern, and pa se and on the Pec atonic a River. Its industries include manufacture of hardware, windmills, wagons and buggies. There are also railroad shops. ‘There is a public library and a hospital. Pop. 1920, 19,669. EEPORT a vill eL Island FR a village C woud Sper in Na au co., New York. is almost entirely a residential SOY, al-| - though fel g is bec he Wasi one extent, ere is & Pp g. 92 3.509 several club houses. Pop. 1920, 8,599.