THE DIRTY TRICK
Old Tiler,
what would you do about Jones?" "Give him what he needs, of
course."
The New Brother sat down beside the Old
Tiler in the anteroom. "Of course, he's a Mason, and all that, but -- but I
don't like him. He did me a dirty, trick once. I don't mean I want to get even
with him, but I don't think he's a good enough Mason to get relief from this
lodge."
"Is he under
charges? Suspended? Expelled?" asked the Old Tiler.
"No-o-o-o, but . . . "
"But
nothing!" The Old Tiler was emphatic. "A man is innocent until proved
guilty. If he is good enough for the lodge to accept his dues when he is
prosperous, he is good enough for us to relieve when he is in hard luck."
"But it was a filthy trick he
played on me . . . "
"When I was a very
little boy," interrupted the Old Tiler, "some fifteen years after the
war between the States, my parents moved to a small town in the north. They
brought with them a lot of Confederate money. Confederate notes were of no value
after the war. My parents gave me some to play with. I thought it was real
money, and no Midas had anything on me when I looked at my ten dollar bill!
"I trotted down to
the country store and bought the biggest, most red and whitish stick of
peppermint candy which ever delighted any small child's heart. The storekeeper
wrapped it up for me, unsmiling. I handed him my ten dollar bill. He looked at
it a moment, and then took from my hand the candy. He told me the money was no
good and I couldn't have the candy.
"It was the
greatest financial lesson I ever had. I didn't understand; I was terribly
disappointed.
"Only when I grew
up did I come to know that I had met a peculiarly mean specimen of he-thing -- a
man who would hurt a baby for the sake of one cent. I grew up feeling rather
contemptuous of that storekeeper. He was within his rights, but I didn't have
much of an opinion of him.
"In later years I
met him, a much older man. He was glad to see me. We chatted a while, and then
he recalled my youth. So I told him I hadn't liked him for many years, and why.
'You tell me what you think of a chap who would take a stick of candy from a
child for the sake of a penny.'
"He flushed. 'I
was just mean,' he said. 'Will you forgive me?' Of course I did, and thought no
more about it. But I still didn't like him.
"Several years
later his wife appealed to me for aid. He was down and out. He had been so sharp
a business man that people didn't like him, any more than I did. And he had
failed. They were destitute."
"What did you
do?" inquired the New Brother, as the Old Tiler paused.
"All I could, of
course," answered the Old Tiler. "He was a brother of the Mystic
Tie."
The New Brother sat silent for a
minute.
"Something tells
me I have been properly spanked!" he said at last. ''Of course I have no
right to consider a personal matter in connection with a brotherly appeal to the
lodge for relief. I shall vote for it. And I'll see if I can't do something
personally. I still don't like him and I never will, but -- "
"But you have come
to a Masonic viewpoint! -- interrupted the Old Tiler. "That's one of the
hardest lessons to learn -- that there are two viewpoints. A man is a man, a
neighbor, a friend or an enemy. But he is also a brother. When he appeals to us
for that brotherly aid and assistance we have all sworn to render, we have to
remember only the brotherhood and not the man. I have never liked the man who
took my stick of candy. The incident gave me in opinion of his character which I
found unpleasant. But I couldn't vote against him in my, lodge because of it,
and I couldn't deny him the relief the lodge should have given him, because of
it. Jones may have done you an unbrotherly trick -- but that's no reason for you
not to act like a brother to him."
"It is not, and I
am going to, but I wish Masons wouldn't do dirty tricks!"
"So do I. But if
all men were perfect, there would be no need of Masonry!" grinned the Old
Tiler.
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