Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
R^
shall he ^ ' abolish ^ must be retained for a time , devoted to the use of the members to whorii they belong . The Masons have , strangely enough , worked themselves into a most anomalous position . When , a century ago , they first possessed themselves of a portion , of the property in Great Qiieeri-street , the system
of supplying the members with refreshment by their own co-operation was not unci erst ood , White ' s , Brookes ' s , the Cocoa Tree , and other west-eiid c ^ luhs being mi der the nianagemeM on to our own days . The Masonic body had , therefore , a tenderness of engaging in trade , and under the notion that they should be more secure , and obtain a return from their investments for the funds of their charities
by rental , they let but the building as a tavern . In the meantime the modern club system , has been established , and works perfectly well ; arid the Masonic fraternity find themselves , iri their own building , the customers of their own tenants m company with strangers ; they have their hall and rooms knocked about , and they are un when , as We have said- tte
The consequences of such a ^ ^ s muhity receive a rental of about £ 800 a year , and have the taxes arid ^^^ of the repairs paid ; but they have torn unsuccessful tenants , and to decorate ^ rent out of their own ^^ b year , and leave the tenants to get their own maintenance and a profit , where they are prudent , out of the chance customers . Some nights the grand hall is the scene of operations of a common hopy or of the half-crown supper of
an op erative benefit society , with a number of cheap dirty waiters about and the owners of the premises have to make their way to their own rooms through this rabble , and at all times they are expected to give the tenants the convenience of using the hall for a public dinner or celebration . Just according to circumstances , and the good management of the tenants , or their ill management , the tavern is the crack west end tavern of the day , with good culinary resources ; and at other times it is under the shade of the London Tavern , and with little better pretensions than the White
Conduit or Highbury Barn , whose customers are abstracted . It is for no real profit and for small comfort that the Masonic body encounters the reproach of keeping a tavern or public house , when the exercise of common sense would enfranchise them . It requires no great inspiration to see that there is all the difference between going through a tavern lobby among second-hand waiters , and the comfort and luxury of the approaches of the Reform or Conservative Clubs , and having all theresources of such establishments at command . The members have one of the
most valuable freeholds in London , in an admirable situation ; and they can not only have the room they want for their own purposes , but they can set by the rent , if they like , for the General Purposes Fund , by levying it as table money on the refreshments supplied to their own members , besides receiving rents for Lodge and Chapter rooms . To suppose that such a its officialand
body as the Grand Lodge , including among s rhembers many of the Houses of Peers and Commons—and for that matter the leading contributors to most of the clubs of London-t—cannot provide for the management of refresbirients as they do at the Conservative or Army and Navy , is quite absurd . To club men the thing speaks for itself ; but some of the lower members have set up the bugbear that such arrangements cannot he
made by a committee , because , according to their own notions , a committee must job , and thereby the funds would be subjected to loss . They also imagine there is no analogy between the arrangements of Freemasons $ all
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
R^
shall he ^ ' abolish ^ must be retained for a time , devoted to the use of the members to whorii they belong . The Masons have , strangely enough , worked themselves into a most anomalous position . When , a century ago , they first possessed themselves of a portion , of the property in Great Qiieeri-street , the system
of supplying the members with refreshment by their own co-operation was not unci erst ood , White ' s , Brookes ' s , the Cocoa Tree , and other west-eiid c ^ luhs being mi der the nianagemeM on to our own days . The Masonic body had , therefore , a tenderness of engaging in trade , and under the notion that they should be more secure , and obtain a return from their investments for the funds of their charities
by rental , they let but the building as a tavern . In the meantime the modern club system , has been established , and works perfectly well ; arid the Masonic fraternity find themselves , iri their own building , the customers of their own tenants m company with strangers ; they have their hall and rooms knocked about , and they are un when , as We have said- tte
The consequences of such a ^ ^ s muhity receive a rental of about £ 800 a year , and have the taxes arid ^^^ of the repairs paid ; but they have torn unsuccessful tenants , and to decorate ^ rent out of their own ^^ b year , and leave the tenants to get their own maintenance and a profit , where they are prudent , out of the chance customers . Some nights the grand hall is the scene of operations of a common hopy or of the half-crown supper of
an op erative benefit society , with a number of cheap dirty waiters about and the owners of the premises have to make their way to their own rooms through this rabble , and at all times they are expected to give the tenants the convenience of using the hall for a public dinner or celebration . Just according to circumstances , and the good management of the tenants , or their ill management , the tavern is the crack west end tavern of the day , with good culinary resources ; and at other times it is under the shade of the London Tavern , and with little better pretensions than the White
Conduit or Highbury Barn , whose customers are abstracted . It is for no real profit and for small comfort that the Masonic body encounters the reproach of keeping a tavern or public house , when the exercise of common sense would enfranchise them . It requires no great inspiration to see that there is all the difference between going through a tavern lobby among second-hand waiters , and the comfort and luxury of the approaches of the Reform or Conservative Clubs , and having all theresources of such establishments at command . The members have one of the
most valuable freeholds in London , in an admirable situation ; and they can not only have the room they want for their own purposes , but they can set by the rent , if they like , for the General Purposes Fund , by levying it as table money on the refreshments supplied to their own members , besides receiving rents for Lodge and Chapter rooms . To suppose that such a its officialand
body as the Grand Lodge , including among s rhembers many of the Houses of Peers and Commons—and for that matter the leading contributors to most of the clubs of London-t—cannot provide for the management of refresbirients as they do at the Conservative or Army and Navy , is quite absurd . To club men the thing speaks for itself ; but some of the lower members have set up the bugbear that such arrangements cannot he
made by a committee , because , according to their own notions , a committee must job , and thereby the funds would be subjected to loss . They also imagine there is no analogy between the arrangements of Freemasons $ all