GOING TO LODGE WITH ONES GREAT-GREAT GRANDFATHER: THE EDITOR
The American
Freemason - September 1913
One has need to be in the company of ghosts for some time, as I found, and
during the hours of more serious occupation, before rightly entering into the
spirit of their relaxed moments. Sundry interruptions during progress of the
Lodge meeting to which the shade of my great-great grandfather invited me, had
prepared me in a measure to expect the period of diversion which followed,
according to the ancient custom of the Craft. I was, however, surprised and
amused to note how dexterously the evidences of Masonic labor were whisked
aside. Benches, chairs and tables were speedily put into place, that so the
refreshment consequent to labor might proceed to the liking, the comfort and the
custom of our ancient brothers. Whether the clumsy furniture of the inn, which
appeared to me as of very solid oak and iron, did indeed possess any qualities
of weight and substance; is beyond my telling. It is most likely that they were
but shadows of wood and metal, as best befitting their uses. But the ponderability of ghosts, and their domestic and other conveniences was not then,
nor is it now, a matter of great concern. I was chiefly interested to note how
the accoutrements of cheer were so quickly disposed, as being the chief business
that had called these to "revisit the pale glimpses of the moon.
"Egad, sir," said one of the truculent individuals before mentioned, but whom
I found, upon acquaintance, to be mild-mannered as the most timid could wish;
"egad, sir, it is to be hoped that our host has more than cold ale such as we
drank here a fortnight agone. By my faith, but I came near to expiring a second
time because of the chill and windiness of that same. A ghost of right taste and
touchy vitals, and he but drank thrice of such brew, might come to a lightness
of constitution that even mortal air would prove a coarse intoxicant - which may
the Fates forefend! In days of earth it took good body and zest of wine to stir
me from a devilish melancholy humor to a proper mood. As for the raw spirits, or
even Nantes of proof, they are fit only for new-fledged ghosts; we who are
seasoned with a century or two of use, look with discernment on the bottle or
the cask. But pray thee, brother," thus he continued, "in thy own Lodge of
mortal place and time dost drink wines that are well ripened and chosen with
care, and is the ale of thy ordinary cheer of such quality and strength as
befits the drinking by brothers of our ancient fraternity"?
So here had I started to tell this inquisitive shade that the age had greatly
changed, bringing other sentiments and changes even into the Craft of
Freemasonry; that brothers could no longer bring refreshments, within his
meaning, into their places of gathering. I rather plumed myself, as I now
recall, on the sobriety and decorum of our solemn feasts, making comparison
somewhat to the discredit of that other age. But all my moralizing was lost upon
this poor ghost, who appealed on the spot to his fellows whether they could
indeed be Masons who refused at any time, and especially after Lodge, their
proper food and drink. And these, having been men accounted wise in their own
time, held to the unanswerable force of his arguments, and were of accord that
no other years could improve upon the settled and satisfactory habits of their
own generation. Very like you and me, again, in cocksureness as to the
superiority of their own ways and the impossibility of betterment.
I am glad, brother," quoth a lean ghost, sliding up unperceived, "to know
that the godlessness of our time has not continued to your own. I am so informed
by sundry pious ghosts who make shift to know the latest news of earthly life,
and what our descendants are doing in London and even beyond the seas. You are,
as I take it, and all your fellows in the colonies, strong for the Protestant
succession, the crucifying of the flesh and the coming of the kingdom? The blood
in thy veins is of a righteous sort, for though this grandfather of thine here
present is light-minded, his father was a stern and godly man."
But here was I immensely relieved to avoid answer, as a roisterer came
shoving in to declare that the tables were prepared, and that the Master Mason
was ready to start in with the round of toasts and songs. For it might easily
have happed, in my ignorance, to have stirred rancor even upon the edge of
conviviality. "The last of the Fifth Monarchy men," I fancied that my ancestor
whispered, as he passed me with beckoning finger and a gesture of warning.
An oddly-assorted company, truly! So I thought as those about me pushed their
knees beneath the tables. Yet there they sat, cheek by jowl, as if never a
dividing interest in life had kept them erstwhile apart in all but the bond of
Masonic brotherhood. What else could there have been in common to the mortality
of yon sedate citizen, exchanging gossip as to the lading of ships that had
foundered or rotted at the wharfs many years ago with another of his kind, and
this nearer one who would have died more happily on a stricken field than in his
bed, could he but have given blows to the enemies of an exiled king! Yet, after
all, not so greatly different from our own meetings and the diverse individuals
that come together in them for an hour's fraternizing, going thence to do and to
be done, even by each other.
Very excellent ghosts, too, so far as a mere mortal might presume to judge of
ghostly company. With some petty notions and a few prejudices wore deeply
engrained, perhaps, because of long disseverance from the changing flesh, though
at bottom not so much unlike ourselves. And, as showing in themselves the
changes in common thought that Time had effected, these jovial shades were for
the time more interesting and amusing to me than any gathering of living men
could possibly have been.
Our forbears of the eighteenth century, if we have been rightly informed, and
as was now proven to me by example of their doings, needed but small excuse for
their potations. A toast or a song of any sort seemed to be provocative of an
instant thirst. And as for these toasts, I could not but notice they were
carefully arranged and recited in order to stir loyalty to the reigning house
and to pledge support to those in power. Yet I caught some sly glances
exchanged, indicative of mental evasion, and that the "king over the water" was
substituted in the minds of a few for "Farmer George," in their time upon the
throne of England. But so long as the drink was to all their likings it was not
wise for one to question his neighbor as to unexpressed subterfuges, nor to
quarrel 'with sentiments that gave such frequent occasion for acquaintance of
lips and pewter mugs. As for the songs, for the most part they went to
rollicking airs, and what more was to be asked. The words were as negligible as
those strung together in Masonic poetry of our own times, though perhaps some of
our own verses might take the more readily if hitched to tunes that could hide
the lack of ideas and the rude measure of the lines.
Are ghosts concupiscent? I would have thought before that with the laying off
of flesh there was thenceforth a freedom from the carnalities. But here were the
shadows of men exchanging witticisms, that may have passed muster in another
time, the sole point of which for the telling was some vulgar situation or
intrigue. Just such jests, unwholesome in words and suggestion, have I heard
when a knot of men, salaciously-minded, gathered in a remote corner of the
Tyler's room of our own days and Lodges. And, as I noted, they had the selfsame
stories then as are now in currency. Tradition holds best, apparently, to the
worst rather than the best.
What subtle stimulating essence was in this their drink would, as I imagine,
defy any earthly analysis to detect. But it sufficed to put into these shadows
at least the semblance of a great hilarity. Perhaps this was the sole event
worth mentioning in their colorless existence, and for the next fortnight it is
likely that they hail but the memories of their thin potations. Be that as it
may I failed altogether to note the passing of time - if indeed there be any
time for men disembodied - until the antique Tyler proposed the famous closing
toast, "to all poor, distressed and wandering brothers, whithersoever dispersed
on sea or land. May they have speedy relief and a safe return to home and
friends."
How, after this, those present slipped away, or perhaps just faded from my
sight, I cannot say. My great-great grandfather alone remained, and with him I
went through the shadowy hall, past the wide stairs that ran up to guest
chambers never occupied, unless by some ghost the worse for his liquor, and back
for a moment to the ancient chimney corner seat.
"It is time for thee now to be gone, for the hospitality of my inn goes not
to beds for those of flesh and blood." So spake this respectable ancestor, and
then he added, as in a tone of a final farewell: "Thou art altogether too
unchancy in humor and speech to mix rightly, and to my credit, with decent and
God-fearing ghosts. Yet am I glad that thou hast been to our Lodge, and I would
wish thee and all thy brothers well."
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