John Lumea, of the Emperor's Bridge Campaign, interprets several organizations failure to acknowledge, or properly respect the passing of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico.
"When death shall put a stop to the deranged mental machinery," the Masonic Mirror wrote, "they will lay him away as carefully as if he was a real Emperor." And so they did. Were it not for Joseph Eastland, one of "Brother Norton's" fellow charter members of the Occidental Lodge, Emperor Norton would have been consigned to a pauper's casket and a pauper's grave when he died in January 1880. Eastland was an executive and co-owner of two of the gas lighting companies that later merged to form the company now known as PG&E; he also was, in addition to being a Mason, president of an even more exclusive men's fraternity, the Pacific Club, which, following an 1889 merger with the Union Club, became the present-day Pacific-Union Club. In other words, Joseph Eastland had plenty of money — and plenty of close friends with money.
