Chapter 20
XX. Its origin is unknown, but it is very ancient. It has been traced to the Knights Templars, to the Crusaders, and others. It is said that the workmen upon Solomon's Temple were masons, and that masonry was the original trade union or protective association for workmen, each workman by signs being able to prove that he had reached a certain stage of proficiency.
But this has not been substantiated. Some authorities state that masonry was introduced into England in 674 A.D. The first record of the establishment of a grand lodge was at York in 926. Freemasonry was introduced into France in 1725 and into America in 1730. Freemasons are found throughout the entire world, there being more than a million of
them in the United States and Canada. Other fraternal or mystic orders, known as Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Red Men, etc., are on purpose similar to masons, and most of them were founded upon masonry, masonry antedating all of them. French Academy.
Founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, it has a membership of forty, known as the forty immortals. Its principal object is to prepare a dictionary of the French language, and to keep the Gaelic tongue pure and capable of treating the arts and sciences. The first dictionary appeared in 1694.
The Academy has been very severely criticized, especially in the selection of its members. Many well-known men of letters having failed to be elected. Gold in California. John W. Marshall, in 1848, in connection with a man named Sutter, maintained a mill in California. Accidentally he picked up a small piece of metal which he discovered to be gold, and
immediately the gold fever became epidemic and California was overrun with gold miners. Government. The Constitution of the United States is the basic law of the country, and all other laws and statutes are framed in a similar manner, each state, county, town, and city having its own laws or statutes.
Government, including that of the United States, is divided into three distinctive departments, executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive head is known as president, governor, mayor, etc., and it is his duty to execute the laws. The legislative department is usually subdivided into two bodies, a senate or upper house,
and a house of representatives, or lower house. State governments are formed similar to that of the national government. The upper house being known as the senate, and the lower house as the house of representatives, or assembly. Most bills are presented to the lower house and do not become laws until they pass both
the upper and lower houses. The legislative authority of a city is usually vested in a board of aldermen and a council or common council, but occasionally there is only one legislative body, known as a council. The commission form of government is becoming somewhat prevalent. It consists of a committee elected by the citizens who have absolute control of the
government, and this body is both executive and judicial. The judicial department consists of several courts, first the supreme court and a lower court, usually known as the superior court, and district or police courts. Ordinary cases are tried by the police or district courts and may be appealed to the superior court and even to the supreme court.
Besides these courts, there are several courts known as probate court, court of equity, etc. The supreme court as a rule deals only with questions at law, and few cases reach it which have not been appealed from the lower courts. Grain industry.
There was raised in the United States during last year over 3 billion bushels of Indian corn, about 730 million bushels of wheat, 1 billion 500 million bushels of oats, about 224 million bushels of barley, about 36 million bushels of rye, and about 19 million bushels of buckwheat. End of section 20.
