HISTORY NON-FICTION FICTION .

The Strange Empire of Louis Riel "Schultz was an ambitious meddler, western archetype of the political physician. He was ruthless and bigoted, but he was also a big man of superb physical strength, handsome, an effective speaker, intelligent and courageous." "Early in 1864 he took on another responsibility—leadership of the first Masonic lodge in the Northwest." [pp. 83-85.] "Visiting priests were astonished and delighted to find this oasis of gracious worship in what they regarded as a desert of dissent and apostasy, and it lightened somewhat their despair over the fact that most Montana communities of the time were firmly under the control of licentious atheists, Protestants, or—worst of all—Freemasons. [p. 294.] "This was particularly true in Montana, where Masonry was so firmly entrenched that for the first few decades that the Jesuits believed themselves lucky to survive at all and maintain their missions. Louis had moved from a Catholic provence and Catholic cities in the East to a Territory whose judges, public officials, businessmen and even ranchers and miners were predominately Protestant and members of the Masonic order. Even the famed Vigilantes of Virginia City, gold camp and second Territorial capital, were of Masonic origin." [p. 297.] "He [Father Eberschweiler] discovered to his horror that one of the "church trustees" who had invited him to come was "a rich Protestant", another an apostate Catholic who was now head of the local Masonic lodge...." [p. 300.] "He formed a temperance society among them after some "unaware Catholics" had carelessly joined one initiated by the plaguey Masons." [p. 300.] Joseph Kinsey Howard, The Strange Empire of Louis Riel. Toronto : Swan Publishing Co. Ltd., Second Printing 1970 [copyright 1952].

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