E. H. ADDINGTON

92 APPENDIX—REPORT OF COMMITTEE
The report on Foreign Correspondence was prepared by a Committee.
That dealing with Louisiana was written by Brother Frank Nicholas.
He quotes generously from Grand Master Thomas' Address, noting
his reporting having conferred the wife and daughters' degree, and remarking
anent it, "whatever that may be." For his information we
may state that it is one of the numerous "side degrees" of which so
many were originated in the eighteenth century and subsequently, many
of which have been taken under the care of organized bodies. This
'' degree" is we believe quite generally extinct, its place having been .
taken by the Order of the Eastern Star. The latter is quite a good
thing, and we seriously advise our Australian Brethren to consider the
advisability of its importation. It enables the wives, widows, mothers,
daughters, and sisters of Master Masons to make themselves known as
such.
He remarks that evidently the Grand Master had done all that
could reasonably be expected of him.
WEST VIRGINIA, 1910.
The Grand Master, M. W. Bro. Frank Wells Clark, reported in his
Address as follows:
'' Peace, harmony and prosperity mark the condition of Freemasonry
in West Virginia, as we come together in the City of Hinton, in this
Forty-sixth Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge. The reports
which have come up to me from the Lodges and from the officers of
the Grand Lodge have been, uniformly, of the most encouraging and
gratifying nature. Never before was Freemasonry such a great power
for righteousness in our Commonwealth as to-day."
The Grand Master rendered the following very proper decision:
"Brother C. W. Flesher, being a resident of Gassaway at the time,
signed the petition for Gassaway Lodge U. D.r and his name has been
carried as a member of the Lodge IX. D. and of Gassaway Lodge No.
133, Brother Flesher being at the time a member of a Lodge in
Tennessee and not having taken at any time his demit therefrom.
Our law quasi demitting the signer of a petition for a dispensation
for a new Lodge has force only so far as the signers of said petition
hold membership in West Virginia Lodges. It has no extra-territorial
control over members of Lodges in another Grand Jurisdiction. Brother
Flesher has never been a member of Gassaway Lodge, and any dues
paid thereto should be refunded and a bill presented to the Grand Lodge
for Grand Lodge dues paid for him.''
A Mason affiliated in another Jurisdiction should not be allowed
to sign a petition for a charter. Indeed we seriously doubt the propriety
of permitting anyone to do so who is not affiliated with the Lodge
IT. D. In saying this we do not deny the authority of the Grand Lodge
to provide otherwise; we simply question the wisdom of the law.
The Grand Master closed his Address with valuable remarks on the
Masonic character, and from it we again quote the following:
" 'Tis only a tolerable existence, we often think, when harassed and
vexed by life's problems and difficulties, but the Mason has learned