needed for the proper enlightenment of the Craft. A well informed Masonic judgment will restrict reports to the minimum.

The second point relates to a custom, said to have grown up in some localities, of receiving applications for the orders between the meetings, and causing the records of the previous meeting to conform thereto. Such a practice is alike unmasonic and impolitic. In many cases it may do no harm, but in other instances will cause trouble and confusion. In the opinion of the Committee, the following is the only just and safe rule of procedure: Every candidate for the orders of Knighthood must be proposed in open Commandery, and the committee of investigation must be then and there appointed.

No report on Foreign Correspondence.

Grand Recorder Chapman presents a full and comprehensive table of statistics, not only interesting, but instructive. Sir William H. Kent of Charlestown, was re-elected R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir Alfred F. Chapman of Boston, whose address is 223 Washington Street, was re-elected E. Grand Recorder.

X

MINNESOTA.

The Sixteenth Annual Conclave was held in the city of Stillwater, commencing June 24, A.D. 1881, A.O. 763.

Sir William C. Williston, R. E. Grand Commander.
Sir A. T. C. Pierson, E. Grand Recorder.

Eleven subordinate Commanderies were represented, and five Past Grand Commanders were present.

The Grand Commander, in opening his address, welcomes the Sir Knights as follows:

I bid you one and all a hearty welcome to this the Sixteenth Annual Conclave of this Grand Body. While we congratulate ourselves upon the prosperity of this Order within our own jurisdiction - that the sickle of the Great Reaper has not, during the past year been thrust in to gather any sheaves from this Body - that no strife, domestic or foreign, has vexed our country, but that peace, with the bles

sings attendant in her train, has ruled and guided our land, and prosperity smiled upon our own loved State, let us not forget reverently and heartily to render thanks to Him from whom all good is derived for the bounties and benefits thus bestowed. As members of this Christian Order of Knighthood, for these and all other mercies we can do no less than with heart and soul to join in praising Him from whom all blessings flow, and humbly petition that in the future as in the past, we may be made the recipients of his goodness and bounty.

In referring to the Grand Encampment, and those who were present from his jurisdiction, he appropriately alludes to that Prince of Knights, Sir A. T. C. Pierson :

There was also present as a Past General Grand Captain General and member of that Body, one from this jurisdiction whom we all respect and love, and to whom we have long been accustomed to look for counsel and advice, as children to a father, our Eminent Grand Recorder, of whom it may well be said, that

Age sits with decent grace upon his visage,

And worthily becomes his silver locks;

He wears the marks of many years well spent,
Of virtue, truth well-tried, and wise experience."

A compliment worthily bestowed on one who not only has the kindest wishes of Minnesota Knights, but of all who know him, including the writer, who for these many years has esteemed it a pleasure to be classed among his friends. May it be long, very long, ere the shades of life close upon "so good a man and Mason."

Listen to the "taffy" Sir Williston gives "his boys;" although rather sweet, yet not more than they deserve, he says:

As a citizen of this State as well as a member of this Order as one who takes pride and pleasure in anything that displays the energy or reflects credit upon the citizens of this commonwealth, or the Sir Knights of Minnesota, I can, without flattery or deviation in the least from the truth, compliment the Templars of this State upon the fact that no sister State was represented at Chicago by a more soldierly appearing, or physically or morally superior body of men, nor did any State, except perhaps Illinois, contribute a larger proportion of its Sir Knights to.the ranks of the procession of August 17th. It is a matter of congratulation to us that upon that occasion to one of our own number was assigned an important command, and that the duties devolving upon him were performed in a manner honorable to himself and creditable to this Grand Commandery.

And then he says of the General Grand Conclave:

That the Triennial Conclaves are not the proper occasions for these national gatherings and displays, is, judging from the experience of the past, a proposition which needs no argument in its support. If the Grand Encampment is to be that for which it was created, a useful indispensible Body, one worthy of respect, not only capable of being, but in fact being of great good to the Order, it must disassociate itself from these displays; must assert its dignity and refuse longer to be an adjunct to the drum major's, or a side-show for the larger display.

A Committee was appointed to revise the Ritual now in use, and report at the next session.

Grand Recorder Pierson submitted the report on Foreign Correspondence. Standing as he does in the front ranks of the corps reportorial, it is needless to say that the report is both instructive and entertaining.

Twenty-seven sister Grand Commanderies, including Michigan, are reviewed by the Committee.

Sir Robert Laird McCormick of Waseca, was elected R. E. Grand Commander.

Sir A. T. C. Pierson of St. Paul, was re-elected E. Grand Recorder, and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence.

MISSISSIPPI.

The Twenty-first Annual Conclave was held at Kosciusko, at the Asylum at Kosciusko Commandery No. 11, commencing on Wednesday April 20, A.D. 1881, A.O. 763,

Sir William G. Benbrook, R. E. Grand Commander.
Sir John L. Power, E. Grand Recorder:

Twelve subordinate Commanderies were represented, and three Past Grand Commanders were present.

The Grand Commander thus fittingly addressed the Sir Knights in his opening:

I do not consider an exhortation to the members of our Order, in the interests of a higher morality, and more purity of life among them, as inappropriate or out of place at any time, and especially on these occasions. The human heart is prone to evil, and amid the temptations to excess and over-indulgence which are the usual accompaniments of these annual reunions, it will be well for each and all of us so to regulate our appetites and conduct that the world, ever ready to judge the merits of our Order by the faults of its members, find no evidence in us upon which to condemn ours. The tendency of modern Knighthood is to banquets, parades and big shows, as that of the ancient was to war, bloodshed and chivalry. In neither is there apparent any striking indication of the pure morality, correct deportment, brotherly love and charity that are so inseparably connected with the religion of Christ, upon which, as a foundation, our Order claims to rest. You can imagine no occasion of general import, and on which it is expected the general public will attend, that some members of our Order are not in favor of applying for a dispensation to parade and make a show of themselves and their good clothes. This would be all right and very proper if our Order was simply a fancy military organization, remarkable only for its fine uniforms and the facility with which its members get their swords entangled between their legs and hack each other in their efforts to give the required cuts, but such is not the case. On the contrary, the mission we have undertaken to perform is the elevation and spiritual advancement of the human race, in conjunction with and as an auxiliary of the church of Christ. Such, at least, is indicated in the Ritual and ceremonies of the Order. If these mean nothing, and our claim to the Christian virtues as our foundation is a fraud, then the sooner we dispense with both and adopt the name, as we possess the other requisites of a fancy military organization, the sooner we will be relieved from the appearance of hypocrisy and double dealing. Happily the scarcity of our members, coupled with our poverty, has a tendency to check in our jurisdiction the fashionable desire to parade in uniform on every and all occasions.

God has been better to us than we have deserved, and in His goodness He may make good to us in the present year the losses and disappointments of the last, if we are zealous and faithful in the discharge of our duties as citizens and as soldiers of the Cross.

Of the meeting of the Grand Encampment in Chicago, the Grand Commander says:

As your Representative, I had the honor and pleasure of attending the Triennial Conclave of the Grand Encampment of the United States, which asssembled in Chicago in August last. I was accompanied by a number of Sir Knights of this jurisdiction, to each of whom I desire to express here my grateful appreciation of

the kindness and courtesy shown me by them. Myself and the Sir Knights of Rosalie No. 5, Natchez, are especially indebted to R. E. Sir A. W. Hyatt, Grand Commander of Louisiana, and his command, for a thousand kind and courteous attentions and favors bestowed upon us during our pilgrimage to Chicago. Of the doings of the Graud Encampment I know but little, from the fact that but little was done by it, possibly nothing, for the real benefit of the Order of which it is the supreme head. Much good was expected to result from this Conclave in the settlement of sundry vexed questions, but at the close the universal sentiment seemed to be: "Blessed are they that expect, nothing (from the Grand Encampment), for they shall not be disappointed."

I have heard many complaints of Chicago, the treatment there received, and of the Triennial Committee, but none from the Sir Knights of Mississippi. Personally I can and do bear willing testimony to many courtesies and attentions received; and to the further fact that so far as I was able to judge, the delegation from Mississippi had an excellent time, and no cause to find fault with anybody. Where the reverse of this was the case, the fault almost always can be, and was found to rest with the grumbler.

E. Commander John A. Webb asks for a dispensation for certain members of his Commandery to appear in uniform at a marriage to be celebrated under the Arch of Steel. The Grand Commander replied in the following sensible

manner:

I am not of those who are in favor of parading the symbols and circumstances of the Order on any and all occasions, nor do I believe in its introduction into, or assumption of any of the forms or ceremonies of the Church of Christ. Hence, I cannot endorse what is known as Templar baptism of infants, or any interference on the part of the Order, as such, with the prerogatives of the church. The request of your friend strikes me as ill-timed, and conceived in a desire for something out of the usual course, and not from any wish for the prosperity of the Order. Excuse my plainness. Hence I am compelled to deny the petition.

He feelingly notices the death of Past Grand Generalissimo Sir John Nelson, and, Past Grand Commander E. T. Henry. Of the former he says:

In all our ranks none was more zealous than he. He loved the Order and endeavored to square his life by its principles and precepts. He had been in feeble health for some months previous to his decease, and a renewal of paralysis, to which he seemed subject, terminated his life after a few days struggle. He was laid to rest on Sabbath afternoon-all classes of the community in great num