"Courtesies of the East" - a phrase uttered by the Master at least once at every meeting during the year! I often wonder, indeed, if the phrase if not so often used as to lose its significance in the mind of the one employing it.

The question arises because the Spirit of the phrase is too frequently departed from, not so much in the matter of welcoming Worshipful, and Right Worshipfuls to the East, but in the entire business of making welcome, in the Lodge, Brethren who come to render the Lodge a definite service which they have been asked to perform.

As I go about the State I frequently discover cases of what amounts to down-right incivility - due without any doubt to thoughtlessness. One recent instance came to me of a Brother who journeyed twenty-five miles to give an address at a meeting of the Lodge. Not only was he not invited to come early and be the guest of the Master, or the Lodge, at dinner; not only was an offer not made to pay his expenses, but, reporting at the suggested hour of nine, he was kept in the ante-room until ten o'clock, when, after a perfunctory expression of thanks, the following statement was made: that undoubtedly, owing to the lateness of the hour, he would probably want to be getting home, and therefore could feel free to curtail his remarks.

Happily this instance is not representative of a condition existing universally among our Lodges, but it is a condition that is far too prevalent, and should not exist in any Lodge. Any man who has served in the chairs of his Lodge, who has Spent several years in training for the East, somewhere along the line should have become sensitive to those amenities by which instinctively a visitor, whether paid for his service or not, should be made happy for the giving of his effort.

Another instance in my cue-book has to do with a busy clergyman who took time out to travel twenty miles one evening to deliver an address in a Lodge, only to be met by an examining committee who "put him through the paces." Questions were asked that had no possible bearing on the man's admissibility into a Masonic Lodge, and when the visitor was given permission to ask some Masonic questions on his own part, question which the committee did not answer, he was introduced into the Lodge with statements that attempted to hold him up to ridicule. It was pointed out that the committee did not know he was the visiting speaker, but instead of being an extenuating fact this only emphasizes my point that every visitor, as even the humblest member of a Lodge, should expect, and receive, every possible courtesy from the East. In this particular case, also, no suggestion was made that he be compensated for expenses involved in getting to and from the Lodge.

Still another kind of case was that of a Brother - in very considerable demand as a speaker - who, asked to give one of his addresses, remained in town for the occasion, ate alone - have received no invitation to dinner - and showed up at the Lodge-room at the appointed hour of nine o'clock. He was received in the Lodge-room and entered by saluting the Senior Warden, sitting on the sidelines until after eleven o'clock, when, a long session of business completed, the Master announced: "And now, Brethren, Brother ……………… has a message that he wants to deliver to us." That constituted his presentation to his audience. Likewise, this particular night a soloist had been asked to come and render two or three members, and, although singing was his vocation, yet he was permitted to come to town, also buy his own dinner - even be permitted, with the speaker, to withdraw at the conclusion of the address, and also afterwards, with the speaker, to receive not so much as a line of appreciation for his efforts.

I could relate many similar cases, but these are sufficient to indicate how extraordinarily lacking, in the simplest amenities of life, some Worshipful Masters are. It is not enough to assume that, since all are Masons and Brothers together, the ordinary courtesies of human relationships need not be observed. It is an ancient joke that members of families can ride roughshod over the
sensibilities of one another. In the best of families it is not done, and if a Lodge considers itself a family the Master should at least conduct the affairs of the Lodge on the assumption that it is a fine family.

A few simple principles, which obviously should not have to be stated, may be laid down on the governing of such cases. In the first place, whether a speaker, entertainer, or otherwise, is engaged directly by the Master, through a committee, or through an outside source, to be paid for his service or not, should receive a letter expressing the Master's appreciation. The letter should over all arrangements; should contain an invitation to dinner, giving the hour and place, and an offer of conveyance to and from the meeting. Whether dye, is to be formal or business clothes, should be made dear the place in the evening's program that the visitor is to occupy should be covered, and an offer made for the covering, by the Lodge, of the visitor's expenses. If the speaker does not accept the invitation to dinner, but is to show up at the Lodge at a certain hour, full instructions should be left with the Tiler that the Master or the committee be notified immediately upon his arrival. If he is not to be brought directly into the Lodge he should not be allowed to cool his heels alone in the anti room, but a committee member be sent out to greet him and remain with him until entrance into the Lodge.

Nor should the visitor be permitted to enter the Lodge-room alone, but should be given the consideration of an escort, with a fitting presentation, and, taken to the East he should be presented to the Lodge In a courteous and kindly manner. Greetings by the Master do not have to be fulsome, but they can be sufficiently cordial to make the visitor feel at home and welcome. It
costs nothing to be friendly. Often the manner in which a visiting speaker is received spells the difference between a good address and an indifferent one. In other words, a speaker in coming to a Lodge should be made to feel that he is the attraction, as he undoubtedly should be, of the evening.

I repeat, one must regret that a statement of simple principle of courtesy should be necessary. In the olden days the Operative Mason: spent an apprenticeship of seven year in order to learn the principles of his Craft; today, Speculative Masons spend a lifetime in perfecting this human temple through the development of character and personality. Training in such points as the above, is not to be achieved, I suppose, in a year, or two years, but it is an ideal to be pursued, and I know of no place in a Mason's career that affords a so perfect a training school as the Mastership, and the Master who fails to make the most of his office as a school, among other things of deportment, misses vastly more than be can afford to miss.

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