Become a Freemason!

The world's oldest old-boys' club is looking for new recruits.

Montreal's Masonic Memorial Temple, on Sherbrooke at St-Marc, has been holding open houses for the past two weeks in an attempt to generate new interest in an aging order.

The tour of the facility being offered is vague and slow: vague because the rites and rituals of Freemasonry--which dates back to the Middle Ages--are secret; and slow because most of the tour guides are masons from the 70-and-over crowd, who have trouble walking and talking simultaneously.

The building itself is a unique piece of Montreal architecture that dates back to 1929. Its three upper floors conspicuously lack windows because each floor houses a few Mason meeting rooms. There are 40 lodges (Mason groups) who use the Montreal Temple for their secret meetings of passwords, handshakes and self-discovery. Your guided tour will bring you to these rather ugly rooms, explain to you the symbols and seating arrangements and fill you with all kinds of detailed information about Freemason get-ups.

However, your tour guide will not tell you what any of these things really signify, nor will he explain why women are only permitted to exist at the fringes of this antiquated fraternity and may not participate in the rituals.

A total of 4,000 Quebecers are Freemasons.

The open house continues Aug. 26 and 27 from 10 a.m-3:30 p.m.

--Dominique Ritter