People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1894 — MRS. LEASE A MASON. [ARTICLE]

MRS. LEASE A MASON.

Kays She Knows AJI Secrets and Will In- < it in to Other Women. Topeka, Kan., Feb. 20.— Mrs. M. E. i Lease announces that she is a mason in good Knight Templar and i a member of ilugh de Payne com- j mandery of Fort Scott. She wears in i a conspicuous place a Knight Templar ; charm with the keystone and other in- ; signia of the order and declares she is as much entitled to display it as any i male member of the order. She has j talked with a number of masons to 1 whom she has demonstrated that she knows all the signs, grips and pass- j words of the blue lodge and chapter, and she claims that she came into poses- ! sion of them in a legitimate manner. Speaking of her membership in the or- I der she said: * “If masonry is good for mon It is better for women, as we aro more in need of protection than men. Once by giving a sign of the order I was saved from personal violence, and from that moment I resolved to give to all ] deserving women the advantage of masonry i that I enjoy. 1 have other plans for my future aside from politics and the lecture field. X propose to devote a large share of my time to initating women into the secrets of masonry. As lam thoroughl/informed in the details of masonic work to a high degree, it will not be ! necessary for me to obtain • the permission of I any masonic body before beginning work i in this field, and if the men decline to recognize j my converts to masonry wo can act inde- j pendently of them and time will force them to j cooperate with us.” While Mrs. Lease admits it is con-! trary to the laws of masons to initiate j women into its mysteries, she insists j that she became a mason in a strictly | legitimate waj’, but declines to give particulars of the manner in which she acquired the secrets of the order. Mrs. ! Lease challenges any mason to test her i knowledge of the secret work of the I order. The masons, of course, deny i her claims and say that she is not a mason, and that If she has obtained the ; secrets of the order it was by undue ; means.