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MASONIC ITEMS.

The G. G. Chapter of the U. S. will meet in Chicago on the second Tuesday of September next. There will undoubtedly be a large attendance.

The Grand Lodge of Wisconsin held its annual meeting at Milwaukee last month. The attendance was large, and the best spirit prevailed. We shall give an account of the proceedings in our next number.

There was a celebration projected for the 24th of June at La Porte, Ind., and at Aurora, Ill. The latter place is the residence of the Grand Master.

There will be some changes made in THE ASHLAR for next year, which will be announced in the next issue.

EXPELLED.

WE have received official notice of the expulsion of JOHN HONSINGER from all the rights and benefits of Masonry, by Erie Lodge No. 237, in Milan, Ohio.

Said Honsinger is about forty years of age, five feet ten inches in height, and weighs nearly 200 pounds. He has black hair and whiskers, is slightly bald, and is well posted in the work.

We understand that this man is travelling through the West practicing deceptions on the Brethren. We trust he will be detected wherever he may appear.

Bro. Hartsock would confer a favor by keeping the Craft in Iowa informed respecting the impostor.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

Chicago at the present time is a curiosity. Its streets are torn up in almost every section in the process of grading; new buildings are rising on every street; old ones are also rising some at least eight or ten feet. In some places the sidewalk is six or eight feet higher than the street; in others the street is as much higher than the sidewalk. Hence, one is constantly going up and down stairs, and all gentlemen who happen to be so unfortunate as to carry bricks in their hats run great risk of breaking their heads. We will not attempt to enumerate the public improvements which are going on in the city. The chief one is the horse railroad, which is a perfect success.

We predict that in a few years Chicago will be one of the most beautiful cities in the Union.

We have forwarded to the Signet and Journal the back numbers of the present volume of THE ASHLAR.

We have heard of but few celebrations on the 24th of June.

This is the last number but one of the present volume of THE ASHLAR. There are several subscriptions yet unpaid. We must again call on all who are indebted to us to send the money at once to us, or pay it to an agent.

The Masons of Chicago are making preparations to entertain their Brethren who will visit them in September, in a hospitable manner.

No. 12 OF VOL. 3.-We wish to get twenty-five or thirty copies of No. 12, Vol. 3. Any one having the same, and willing to part with them, will confer a favor by informing

us.

33-VOL. IV. NO. XI.

MISCELLANIES,

Original and Selected.

THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA.

Two Italian sovereigns derive their title from the minor portion of their dominions. The King of the Two Sicilies leaves Naples in the background; and the King of Sardinia relies on Piedmont rather for a local habitation than for a name. It is as if our royal mistress were to style herself Queen of Wight and Man; or like the Scotch minister who prayed for twa Cambraes and the adjacent islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

It is a great advantage to be the possessor of a small garden, of a moderate-sized farm, of a compact estate. They are so much more easily kept in a high state of cultivation than more extensive properties. We should expect the same to be the case with kingdoms of limited territory. It is so in Holland and Belgium; although the ruler of the latter country has considerable difficulty in making his violent Catholic and his violent anti-Catholic subjects work quietly together in the same government team. The Swiss Confederation, again, is easily overseen by its respective authorities. The results, in all these cases, are a considerable amount of material prosperity, a numerous and thriving population, and cheerful prospects for the future. Of the other small states in Europe, several of the little German sovereignties have no great reason to complain of their lot; while Sicily and Naples, the States of the Church, Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, belong to the unhappy and unsatisfactory class of the MightBes.

When we observe the magnificent position which the island of Sardinia occupies in the midst of the Mediterranean; when we remark its respectable area; when we call to mind that it was a valued and productive possession first of the Carthaginians and then of the Romans, who drew from it never-failing stores-that the Spaniards liked it well, and left their language (at Alghero, almost identical with Spanish) to testify to their former presence-we naturally ask in what condition it is now; whether the ease with which it may be governed (it is torn by no religious party struggles, like Belgium, and comprises no race amongst its population

who call their governors aliens and usurpers, as in Ireland) has produced a corresponding degree of welfare. To enlighten us, we will take up an unpretending book* written by a photographic artist, who visited the island for the sake of filling his portfolio with views of the antiquities of the place. Were any other country than Sardinia in question, it might be a serious drawback from the value of our authority that his trip was made five years ago. But, in Sardinia, five years do not bring the same amount of change as five days. often do elsewhere.

Sardinia may be roughly likened to an irregular parallelogram, whose length extends from north to south. It is separated from Corsica, to the north, by the Strait of St. Bonifaccio. From its southern extremity, in favorable weather, the coast of Africa is visible. What nature has done, in the way of climate, may be judged from a few horticultural facts. The prickly pear forms impenetrable hedges, attaining a height of twenty feet, overhanging the paths, and assuming the stature of small trees. Their plantation is effected in the simplest manner; the racket-like branches are stuck into the ground, close together, in double rows, in spring. Next year they form an effectual fence. Magnificent specimens of cork-oak are met with; in sheltered spots, the date-palm rears its graceful stem; certain gardens can boast of colossal myrtles. To see glorious olive-trees, you must go to Sardinia, where they have grown for centuries. They spread themselves out in all directions, especially courting the midday sun. They recklessly stretch their strangely-contorted arms, so that you see at once they are at their ease and breathe a genial atmosphere. They seem perfectly happy in their home; and if the wind (which is no joke in Sardinia) begins to blow, they scarcely deign to notice it. They shake their topmost and slenderest twigs for a minute or two (just for the sake of doing as other trees do) and then resume their former dignity. There are handsome olive-trees in the garden of Gethsemane, at the gate of Jerusalem; but those secular veterans, who have witnessed such stirring events in their time, seem to have lost all consciousness of personal beauty, like people who, arrived at a certain age, think themselves privileged to neglect their outward appearance. Around Sassari, on the contrary, the olive-tree seems to be full of self-esteem, and even to be not a little vain of its rich branches and its handsome fruit.

Six Semaines dans l'Ile de Sardaigne. Par Edouard Delessert.

The orange-grove of Milis has few rivals in Europe. Milis is a tract of country overgrown with nothing else but orange-trees; and the fruit on the trees is not distributed throughout the branches, interspersed amongst the verdure, with a certain sparse and economical regularity; it hangs in multitudinous bunches, dragging to the ground the unhappy branch, which is too weak to support its weight. Neither are you to imagine a mere clump of orange-trees, whose perfume you stop and sniff as a road-side treat before you proceed on your way, but you must fancy a wood, a veritable forest. As far as the eye can penetrate the balmy region, it meets with oranges in every direction: oranges in the foreground, oranges in the middle distance, and oranges upon the horizon. There is an abuse of vegetable treasure. Your foot meets with an obstacle; it is a fruit which you kick aside as if it were a stone. You want to indicate some distant object; you pick up an orange and throw it in the given direction, without the slightest scruple. You gather one to taste; good as it is, you eat a quarter, and carelessly toss the rest aside. The blossoms send forth clouds of perfume, which overpower and intoxicate your senses. It is worth while to visit this wood at the time of fruit-gathering, which is effected by the simplest of processes. A cloth is spread beneath the tree; a man, perched amidst the branches, sends the fruit tumbling down pell-mell. When piled in heaps three or four feet in height, it sends forth an inconceivable

aroma.

It took M. Delessert two hours to ride round this forest, at a good pace. He thus came into the presence of the King of the Orange-trees, whose trunk a man can scarcely embrace with his two arms. His Majesty stretches forth his branches with all the dignity of an ancient oak, and he bears an inscription which commemorates a visit paid to him by his Lord Paramount, King Charles-Albert, in eighteen hundred and twenty-nine. But orange-trees are not the sole occupants of this enchanted spot; there are glades bordered with tall poplars, which shelter their evergreen friends from violent winds; there are thickets of clematis and Virginian creeper; the ground is carpeted with violets, periwinkle, and forget-me-not. Rare is the terrestrial paradise whose beauties can rival with those of Milis Wood. So far, we have what nature has done; let us now see what man does :

In this fine island there are but four towns, such as they are; Sassari, in the north, a short distance inland from the

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