THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
march 1922
volume 8 - number 3
In the Interests of the
Brethren"
BY BRO. RUDYARD KIPLING, ENGLAND
I WAS buying a canary in a bird shop when he first spoke to
me and suggested that I should take a less highly coloured bird. "Colour's all
in the feeding," said he. "Unless you know how to feed 'em, it goes. You'll
excuse me, but canaries are one of my hobbies."
He passed out before I could thank him. He was a
middle-aged man with gray hair and a short dark beard, rather like a Sealyham
terrier in silver spectacles. For some reason his face and his voice stayed in
my mind so distinctly that, months later, when I jostled against him on a
platform crowded with an Angling Club going to the Thames, I recognized, turned
and nodded.
"I took your advice about the canary," I said.
"Did you? Good!" he replied heartily over the rod-case on
his shoulder, and was parted from me by the crowd.
A YEAR ago I turned into a tobacconist's to have a badly
stopped pipe cleaned out.
"Well! Well! And how did the canary do?" said the man
behind the counter. We shook hands, and "What's your name?" we both asked
together.
His name was Lewis Holroyd Burges, of "Burges and Son," as
I might have seen above the door - but Son had been killed in Egypt. His beard
was blacker and his hair whiter than it had been, and the eyes were sunk a
little.
"Well! Well! To think," said he, "of one man in all these
millions turning up in this curious way, when there's so many who don't turn up
at all-eh?" (It was then he told me of Son Lewis's death and why the boy had
been christened Lewis.) "There's not much left for middle-aged people just at
present. Even one's hobbies-" he broke off for a breath. "We used to fish
together. And the same with canaries! We used to breed 'em for colour-deep
orange was our specialty. That's why I spoke to you, if you remember, but I've
sold all my birds. Well! Well! And now we must locate your trouble."
He bent over my erring pipe and dealt with it skilfully as
a surgeon. A soldier came in, said something in an undertone, received a reply,
and went out.
"Many of my clients are soldiers nowadays, and a number of
'em belong to the Craft," said Mr. Burges. "It breaks my heart to give them the
tobaccos they ask for. On the other hand, not one man in five thousand has a
tobacco palate. Preference, yes. Palate, no. Here's your pipe. It deserves
better treatment than it's had. There's a procedure, a ritual, in all things.
Any time you're passing by again, I assure you, you will be most welcome. I've
one or two odds and ends that may interest you."
I left the shop with me rarest of all feelings on me - that
sensation which is only youth's right - that I had made a friend. A little
distance from the door I was accosted by a wounded man who asked for "Burgess."
The place seemed to be known in the neighbourhood.
I found my way to it again, and often after that, but it
was not till my third visit that I discovered Mr. Burges held a half interest in
Ackman and Permit's, the great cigar importers, which had come to him through an
uncle whose children now lived almost in the Cromwell Road, and said that uncle
had been on the Stock Exchange.
"I'm a shopkeeper by instinct," said Mr. Burges. "I like
the ritual of handling things. The shop has always done us well. I like to do
well by the shop."
It had been established by his grandfather in 1827, but the
fittings and appointments were at least half a century older. The brown and red
tobacco and snuff jars, with Crowns, Garters, and names of forgotten mixtures in
gold leaf, the polished "Oronoque" tobacco barrels on which favoured customers
sat, the cherry-black mahogany counter, the delicately moulded shelves, the
reeded cigar-cabinets, the German-silver mounted scales, and the Dutch brass
roll and cake-cutter were things to covet.
"They aren't so bad," he admitted. "That large Bristol jar
hasn't any duplicate to my knowledge. Those eight snuff-jars on the third shelf
- they're Dollin's ware; he used to work for Wimble in Seventeen-Forty - they're
absolutely unique. Is there any one in the trade now could tell you what
Romano's Hollande' was? Or 'Scholten's,' or 'John's Lane'? Here's a snuff-mull
of George the First's time; and here's a Louis Quinze - what am I talking of?
Treize, Treize, of course - grater for making bran-snuff. They were regular
tools of the shop in my grandfather's day. And who on earth to leave 'em to
outside the British Museum now, I can't think!"
His pipes - I wish this were a tale for virtuosi - his
amazing pipes were kept in the parlour, and this gave me the privilege of making
his wife's acquaintance. One morning, as I was looking covetously at a
jaracanda-wood "cigarro" - not cigar - cabinet with silver lock-plates and
drawer-knobs of Spanish work, a wounded Canadian came into the shop and
disturbed our happy little committee.
"Say," he began loudly, "are you the right place?"
"Who sent you?" Mr. Burges demanded.
"A man from Messines. But that ain't the point! I've got no
certificates, nor papers-nothin', you understand. I left Lodge owin' 'em
seventeen dollars back dues. But this man at Messities told me it wouldn't make
any odds here."
"It doesn't," said Mr. Burges. "We meet tonight at 7 p.m."
The man's face fell a yard. "Hell!" said he. "But I'm in
hospital - I can't get leave."
"And Tuesdays and Fridays at 3 p.m.," Mr. Burges added
promptly. "You'll have to be proved, of course."
"Guess I can get by that, all right," was the cheery
reply. "Toosday, then."
He limped off, beaming.
"Who might that be?" I asked.
"I don't know any more than you do - except he must be a
Brother. London's full of Masons now. Well! Well! We must all do what we can
these days. If you come to tea this evening, I'll take you on to Lodge
afterward. It's a Lodge of Instruction."
"Delighted. Which is your Lodge?" I said, for up till then
he had not given me its name.
"'Faith and Works 5837' - the third Saturday of every
month. Our Lodge of Instruction meets nominally every Thursday, but we sit
oftener than that now because there are so many Visiting Brethren in town." Here
another customer entered, and I went away much interested in the range of
Brother Burgess hobbies.
At tea-time he was dressed as for Church, and with gold
pince-nez in lieu of the silver spectacles. I blessed my stars that I had
thought to change into decent clothes.
"Yes, we owe that much to the Craft," he assented. "All
Ritual is fortifying. Ritual's a natural necessity for mankind. The more
things are upset, the more they fly to it. I abhor slovenly Ritual anywhere.
By the way, would you mind assisting at the examinations, if there are many
Visiting Brothers tonight? You'll find some of 'em very rusty but - it's the
Spirit, not the Letter, that giveth life. The question of Visiting Brethren is
an important one. There are so many of them in London now, you see; and so few
places where they can meet."
"You dear thing!" said Mrs. Burges, and handed him his
locket and initialed apron-case.
"Our Lodge is only just round the corner," he went on.
"You mustn't be too critical of our appurtenances. The place was a garage
once."
As far as I could make out in the humiliating darkness, we
wandered up a mews and into a courtyard. Mr. Burges piloted me, murmuring
apologies for everything in advance.
"You mustn't expect-" he was still saying when we stumbled
up a porch and entered a carefully decorated anteroom hung round with masonic
prints. I noticed Peter Gilkes and Barton Wilson, fathers of "Emulation"
working, in the place of honour; Kneller's Christopher Wren; Dunkerley, with his
own Fitz-George book-plate below and the bend sinister on the Royal Arms;
Hogarth's caricature of Wilkes, also his disreputable "Night," and a beautifully
framed set of Grand Masters, from Anthony Sayer down.
"Are these another of your hobbies?" I asked.
"Not this time," Mr. Burges smiled. "We have to thank
Brother Lemming for them." He introduced me to the senior partner of Lemming and
Orton, whose dirty little shop is hard to find, but whose words and cheques in
the matter of prints are widely circulated.
"The frames are the best part of said Brother Lemming after
my compliments. "There are some more in the Lodge Room. Come and look. We've
got the big Desaguliers there that neatly went to Iowa."
I had never seen a Lodge Room better fitted. From
mosaicked floor to appropriate ceiling, from curtain to pillar, implements to
seats, seats to lights, and little carved music-loft at one end, every detail
was perfect in particular kind and general design. I said what I thought many
times over.
"I told you I was a Ritualist," said Mr. Burges. "Look at
those carved corn-sheaves and grapes on the back of these Warden's chairs.
That's the old tradition-before Masonic furnishers spoiled it. I picked up that
pair in Stepney ten years ago-the same time I got the gavel." It was of old,
yellowed ivory, cut all in one piece out of some tremendous tusk. "That came
from the Cold Coast," he said. "It belonged to a Military Lodge there in 1794.
You can see the inscription."
"If it's a fair question-" I began, how much---"
"It stood us," said Brother Lemming, his thumbs in his
waistcoat pockets, "an appreciable sum of money when we built it in 1906, even
with what Brother Anstruther-he was our contractor - cheated himself out of. By
the way, that block there is pure Carrara, he tells me. I don't understand
marbles myself. Since the war I expect we've put in - oh, quite another little
sum. Now we'll go to the examination-room and take on the Brethren."
He led me back, not to the anteroom, but a convenient
chamber flanked with what looked like confessional-boxes (I found out later that
was what they had been when first picked up for a song near Oswestry). A few
men in uniform were waiting at the far end. "That's only the head of the
procession. The rest are in the anteroom," said an officer of the Lodge.
Brother Burges assigned me my discreet box, saying: "Don't
be surprised. They come all shapes."
"Shaped' was not a bad description, for my first penitent
was all head-bandages-escaped from an Officers' Hospital, Pentonville way. He
asked me in profane Scots how I expected a man with only six teeth and half a
lower lip to speak to any purpose, and we compromised on signs. The next - a New
Zealander from Taranaki - reversed the process, for he was one-armed, and that
in a sling. I mistrusted an enormous Sergeant-Major of Heavy Artillery, who
struck me as much too glib, so I sent him on to Brother Lemming in the next box,
who discovered he was a Past District Grand Officer. My last man nearly broke
me down altogether. Everything seemed to have gone from him.
"I don't blame yer," he gulped at last. "I wouldn't pass
my own self on my answers, but I give yer my word that so far as I've had any
religion, it's been all the religion I've had. For God's sake, let me sit in
Lodge again, Brother."
When the examinations were ended, a Lodge Officer came
round with our aprons - no tinsel or silver-gilt confections, but heavily-corded
silk with tassels and - where a man could prove he was entitled to them -
levels, of decent plate. Some one in front of me tightened the belt on a
stiffly silent person in civil clothes with discharge badge. "'Strewth! This is
comfort again," I heard him say. The companion nodded. The man went on
suddenly: "Here! What're you doing? Leave off! You promised not to! Chuck it!"
and dabbed at his companion's streaming eyes.
"Let him leak," said an Australian signaler. "Can't you
see how happy the beggar is?"
It appeared that the silent Brother was a "shell-shocker"
whom Brother Lemming had passed, on the guarantee of his friend and - what moved
Lemming more - the threat that, were he refused, he would have fits from pure
disappointment. So the "shocker" wept happily and silently among Brethren
evidently accustomed to these displays.
We fell in, two by two, according to tradition, fifty of us
at least, and we played into Lodge by the harmonium, which I discovered was in
reality an organ of repute. It took time to settle us down, for ten or twelve
were cripples and had to be helped into long and easy-chairs. I sat between a
one-footed R.A.M.C. Corporal and a Captain of Territorials, who, he told me, had
"had a brawl" with a bomb, which had bent him in two directions. "But that's
first-class Bach the organist is giving us now," he said delightedly. "I'd like
to know him. I used to be a piano-thumper of sorts."
"I'll introduce you after Lodge," said one of the regular
Brethren behind us - a fat, torpedo-bearded man, who turned out to be the local
Doctor. "After all, there's nobody to touch Bach, is there?" Those two plunged
at once into musical talk, which to outsiders is as fascinating as trigonometry.
"Now a Lodge of Instruction is mainly a parade-ground for
Ritual. It cannot initiate or confer degrees, but is limited to rehearsals and
lectures. Worshipful Brother Burges, resplendent in Solomon's Chair (I found out
later where that, too, had been picked up), briefly told the Visiting Brethren
how welcome they were and always would be, and asked them to vote what ceremony
should be rendered for their instruction.
When the decision was announced he wanted to know whether
any Visiting Brothers would take the duties of any Lodge Officers. They
protested bashfully that they were too rusty. "The very reason why," said
Brother Burges, while the organ Bached softly. My musical Captain sighed and
wriggled in his chair.
"One moment, Worshipful Sir." The fat Doctor rose. "We have
here a musician for whom place and opportunity are needed. Only," he went on
colloquially, "those organ-loft steps are a bit steep."
"How much," said Brother Burges, with the solemnity of an
initiation, "does our Brother weigh?"
"Very little over eight stone," said the Brother. "'Weighed
this momin', sir."
The Past District Grand Officer, who was also Battery
Sergeant-Major, waddled across, lifted the slight weight in his arms and bore it
to the loft, where, the regular organist pumping, it played joyouly as a soul
caught up to Heaven by surprise.
When the visitors had been coaxed to supply the necessary
officers, a ceremony was rehearsed. Brother Burges forbade the regular members
to prompt. The visitors had to work entirely by themselves, but, on the Battery
Sergeant-Major taking a hand, he was ruled out as of too exalted rank. They
floundered badly after that support was withdrawn.
The one-footed R.A.M.C. on my right chuckled.
"D'you like it?" said the Doctor to him.
"Do I? It's Heaven to me, sittin' in Lodge again. It's all
comin' back now, watching their mistakes. I haven't much religion, but all I had
I learned in Lodge." Recognizing me, he flushied a little as one does when one
says a thing twice over in another's hearing. "Yes, 'veiled in all'gory and
illustrated by symbols' - the Fatherhood of God, an' the Brotherhood of Man, an'
what more in Hell do you want? ... Look at 'em!" He broke off, giggling. "See!
See! They've tied the whole thing into knots. I could ha' done better myself -
my one foot in France. Yes, I should think they ought to do it over again!"
The new organist covered the little confusion that had
arisen with what sounded like the wings of angels.
WHEN the amateurs, rather red and hot, had finished, they
demanded an exhibition-working of their bungled ceremony by Regular Brethren of
the Lodge. Then I realized for the first time what word-and-gesture-perfect
Ritual can be brought to mean. We all applauded, the one-footed Corporal most
of all. It was a revelation.
"We are rather proud of our working, and this is an
audience worth playing up to," the Doctor said.
Next the Master delivered a little lecture on the meanings
of some pictured symbols and diagrams. His theme was a well-worn one, but his
deep holding voice made it fresh.
"Marvellous how these old copybook headings persist," the
Doctor said.
"That's all right!" the one-footed man spoke cautiously out
of the side of his mouth like a boy in form. "But they're the kind of copybook
headin's we shall find burnin' round our bunk in Hell. Believe me-ee! I've
broke enough of 'em to know Now, h'sh!" He leaned forward, drinking it all in.
Presently Brother Burges touched on a point which had given
rise to some diversity of Ritual. He asked for information. "Well, in Jamaica,
Worshipful Sir," a Visiting Brother began, and explained how they worked that
detail in his parts. Another and another joined in from different quarters of
the Lodge (and the world), and when they were warmed the Doctor sidled softly
round the walls and, over our shoulders, passed us cigarettes.
"A shocking innovation," he said as he returned to the
captain-musician's vacant seat on my left. "But men can't really talk without
tobacco, and we're only a Lodge of Instruction."
"An' I've learned more in one evenin' here than ten years.'
The one-footed man turned round for an instant from a dark sour-looking Yeoman
in spurs who was laying down the law on Dutch Ritual. The blue haze and the
talk increased, while the organ from the loft blessed us all.
"But this is delightful," said I to the Doctor. "How did
it all happen?"
"Brother Burges started it. He used to talk to the men who
dropped into his shop when the war began. He told us sleepy old chaps in Lodge
that what men wanted more than anything else was Lodges where they could
sit-just sit and be happy like we are now. He was right, too. He generally
is. We're learning things in the War. A man's lodge means move to him than
people imagine. As our friend on your right said just now, very often Masonry's
the only practical creed we've ever listened to since we were children.
Platitudes or no platitudes, it squares with what everybody knows ought to be
done." He sighed. "And if this war hasn't brought home the Brotherhood of Man
to us all, I'm a-a Hun!"
"How did you get your visitors?" I went on.
"Oh I told a few fellows in hospital near here, at Burges's
suggestion, that we had a Lodge of Instruction and they'd be welcome. And they
came, And they told their friends. And they came! That was two years ago - and
now we've Lodge of Instruction two nights a week, and a matinee nearly every
Tuesday and Friday for the men who can't get evening-leave. Yes, it's all very
curious. I'd no notion what the Craft meant - and means - till this war."
"Nor I till this evening," I replied.
"Yet it's quite natural if you think. Here's London - all
England - packed with the Craft from all over the world, and nowhere for them to
go. Why, our weekly visiting attendance for the last four months averaged just
under a hundred and forty. Divide by four - call it thirty-five Visiting
Brethren a time. Our record's seventy-one, but we have packed in as many as
eighty-four at banquets. You can see for yourself what a potty little hole we
are!"
"Banquets, too!" I cried. "It must cost like all sin. May
the Visiting Brethren-"
The Doctor laughed. "No, a Visiting Brother may not."
"But when a man has had an evening like this he wants to-"
"That's what they all say. That makes our difficulty. They
do exactly what you were going to suggest, and they're offended if we don't take
it."
"Don't you?" I asked.
"My dear man - what does it come to? They can't all stay to
banquet. Say one hundred suppers a week - fifteen quid - sixty a month - seven
hundred and twenty a year. How much are Lemming and Orton worth? And Ellis and
McKnight - that long thin man over yonder - the provision dealers? How much
d'you suppose could Burges write a cheque for and not feel? 'Tisn't as if he had
to save for any one now. And the same with Anstruther. I assure you we have no
scruple in calling on the Visiting Brethren when we want anything. We couldn't
do the work otherwise. Have you noticed how the Lodge is kept- brasswork,
jewels, furniture and so on?"
"I have indeed," I said. "It's like a ship. You could eat
your dinner off the floor."
"Well, come here on a by-day and you'll often find half a
dozen Brethren, with eight legs between 'em, polishing and ronuking and sweeping
everything they can get at. I cured a shell-shocker this spring by giving him
our jewels to look after. He pretty well polished the numbers off them, but -
it kept him from fighting the Huns in his sleep. And when we need Masters to
take our duties - two matinees a week is rather a tax - we've the choice of
P.M.'s from all over the world. The Dominions are much keener on Ritual than an
average English Lodge. Besides that- Oh, we're going to adjourn. Listen to the
greetings. They'll be interesting."
THE crack of the great gavel brought us to our feet, after
some surging and plunging among the cripples. Then the Battery Sergeant-Major,
in a trained voice, delivered hearty and fraternal greetings to "Faith and
Works" from his tropical District and Lodge. The others followed, without order,
in every tone between a grunt and a squeak. I heard "Hauraki," "Inyan-ga-Umbezi,"
"Aloha," "Southern Lights" (from somewhere Puntas Arenas way), "Lodge of Rough
Ashlars" (and that Newfoundland Brother looked it), two or three "Stars" of
something or other, half a dozen cardinal virtues, variously arranged, hailing
from Klondyke to Kalgoorlie, one Military Lodge on one of the fronts, thrown in
with a severe Scots burr by my friend of the head-bandages, and the rest as
mixed as the Empire itself. Just at the end there was a little stir. The
silent Brother had begun to make noises; his companion tried to soothe him.
"Let him be! Let him be!" the Doctor called
professionally. The man jerked and mouthed, and at last mumbled something
unintelligible even to his friend, but a small, dark P.M. pushed forward
importantly.
"It is all right," he said. "He wants to say," he spat out
some yard-long Welsh name, adding, "That means Pembroke Docks, Worshipful Sir.
We haf good Masons in Wales, too." The silent man nodded approval.
"Yes," said the Doctor, quite unmoved. "It happens that way
sometimes. Hespere panta fereis, isn't it? The Star brings 'em all home. I must
get a note of that fellow's case after Lodge. I know you don't care for music,"
he went on, "but I'm afraid you'll have to put up with a little more. It's a
paraphrase from Micah. Our organist arranged it. We sing it antiphonally, as a
sort of dismissal."
Even I could appreciate what followed. The singing seemed
confined to half a dozen trained voices answering each other till the last line,
when the full Lodge came in. I give it as I heard it:
"We have showed thee, O Man,
What is good.
What doth the Lord require of us?
Or Consciences' self desire of us?
But to do justly
And to love mercy
And to walk humbly with our God
As every Mason should."
Then we were played and sung out to the quaint tune of the
"Entered Apprentices' Song." I noticed that the regular Brethren of the Lodge
did not begin to take off their regalia till the lines:
"Great Kings, Dukes and Lords
Have laid down their swords."
They moved into the anteroom, now set for the banquet, on
the verse:
"Antiquity's pride
We have on our side,
Which maketh men just in their station."
The Brother (a big-boned clergyman) that I found myself
next to at table told me the custom was "a fond thing vainly invented" on the
strength of some old legend. He laid down that Masonry should be regarded as an
"intellectual abstraction." An Officer of Engineers disagreed with him, and told
us how in Flanders, a year before, some ten or twelve Brethren held Lodge in
what was left of a Church. Save for the Emblems of Mortality and plenty of
rough ashlars, there was no furniture.
"I warrant yu weren't a bit the worse for that," said the
clergyman. "The idea should be enough without trappings."
"But it wasn't," said the other. "We took a lot of trouble
to make our regalia out of camouflage-stuff that we'd pinched, and we
manufactured our jewels from old metal. I've got the set now. It kept us happy
for weeks."
"Ye were aabsolutely irregular an' unauthorised. Whaur was
your warrant?" said the Brother from the Military Lodge. "Grand Lodge ought to
take steps against---"
"If Grand Lodge had any sense," a private three places up
our table broke in, "it 'ud warrant travelling Lodges at the front and attach
first-class lecturers to 'em."
"Wad ye conferr degrees promiscuously?" said the
scandalised Scot.
"Every time a man asked, of course. You'd have half the
Army in."
The speaker played with the idea for a little while, and
proved that on the lowest scale of fees Grand Lodge would get huge revenues.
"I believe," said the Engineer Officer thoughtfully, "I
could design a complete travelling Lodge outfit under forty pounds weight."
"Ye're wrong. I'll prove it. We've tried ourselves," said
the Military Lodge man; and they went at it together across the table, each with
his own note-book.
The "banquet" was simplicity itself. Many of us ate in
haste so as to get back to barracks or hospitals, but now and again a Brother
came in from the outer darkness to fill a chair and empty a plate. These were
Brethren who had been there before and needed no examination.
One man lurched in - helmet, Flanders mud, accoutrements
and all - fresh from the leave-train.
"'Got two hours to wait for my train," he explained. "I
remembered your night, though. My God, this is good!"
"What is your train and from which station?" said the
clergyman, precisely. "Very well. What will you have to eat?"
"Anything. Everything. I've thrown up a month's feed off
Folkestone."
He stoked himself for ten minutes without a word. Then,
without a word, his face fell forward. The clergyman had him by one already limp
arm and steered him to a couch, where he dropped and snored. No one took the
trouble to turn round.
"Is that usual too?" I asked.
"Why not?" said the clergyman. "I'm on duty tonight to wake
them for their trains. They do not respect the cloth on those occasions." He
turned his broad back on me and continued his discussion with a Brother from
Aberdeen by way of Mitylene where, in the intervals of mine-sweeping, he had
evolved a complete theory of the Revelations of St. John the Divine in the
Island of Patmos.
I fell into the hands of a Sergeant-Instructor of Machine
Guns - by profession a designer of ladies' dresses. He told me that
Englishwomen as a class "lose on their corsets what they make on their clothes,"
and that "Satan himself can't save a woman who wears thirty-shilling corsets,
under a thirty-guinea costume." Here, to my grief, he was buttonholed by an
earnest Lieutenant of his own branch, and became a Sergeant again all in one
click.
I DRIFTED back and forth, studying the prints on the walls
I and the Masonic collections in the cases, while I listened to the
inconceivable talk all round me. Little by little the company thinned, till at
last there were only a dozen or so of us left. We gathered at the end of a
table by the fire, the night-bird from Flanders trumpeting lustily into the
hollow of his helmet, which someone bad tipped over his face.
"And how did it go with you?" said the Doctor.
"It was like a new world," I answered.
"That's what it is really." Brother Burges returned the
gold pince-nez to their case and reshipped his silver spectacles. "Or
that's what it might be made with a little trouble. When I
think of the possibilities of he Craft at this juncture I wonder--" He stared
into the fire.
"I wonder, too," said the Sergeant-Major slowly, "but - on
the whole - I'm inclined to agree with you. We could do much with Masonry."
"As an aid - as an aid - not as a substitute for Religion,"
the clergyman snapped.
"Oh, Lord! Can't we give Religion a rest for a bit," the
Doctor muttered. "It hasn't done so - I beg your pardon all round."
The clergyman was bristling. "Kamerad!" the wise
Sergeant-Major went on, both hands up. "Certainly not as a substitute for a
creed, but as an average plan of life. What I've seen at the front makes me
sure of it."
Brother Burges came out of his muse. "There ought to be
dozen - twenty - other Lodges in London every night; conferring degrees too, as
well as instruction, Why shouldn't the young men join? They practice what we're
always preaching. Well! Well! We must all do what we can. What's the use of old
Masons if they can't give a little help along their own lines?"
"Exactly," said the Sergeant-Major, turning on the Doctor.
"And what's the darn use of a Brother if he isn't allowed to help?"
"Have it your own way then," said the Doctor testily. He
had evidently been approached before. He took something the Sergeant-Major
handed to him and pocketed it with a nod. "I was wrong," he said to me, "when I
boasted of our independence. They get round us sometimes. This," he slapped his
pocket, "will give a banquet on Tuesday. We don't usually feed at matinees. It
will be a surprise. By the way, try another sandwich. The ham are best." He
pushed me a plate.
"They are," I said. "I've only had five or six. I've been
looking for them."
"Glad you like them," said Brother Lemming. "Fed him
myself, cured him myself - at my little place in Berkshire. His name was
Charlemagne. By the way, Doc, am I to keep another one for next month?"
"Of course," said the Doctor, with his mouth full. "A
little fatter than this chap, please. And don't forget your promise about the
pickled nasturtiums. They're appreciated." Brother Lemming nodded above the
pipe he had lit as we began a second supper. Suddenly the clergyman, after a
glance at the clock, scooped up half a dozen sandwiches from under my nose, put
them into an oiled-paper bag, and advanced cautiously towards the sleeper on the
couch.
"They wake rough sometimes," said the Doctor. "Nerves,
y'know." The clergyman tiptoed directly behind the man's head, and at arm's
length rapped on the dome of the helmet. The man woke in one vivid streak, as
the clergyman stepped back, and grabbed for a rifle that was not there.
"You've barely half an hour to catch your train." The
clergyman passed him the sandwiches. "Come along."
"You're uncommonly kind and I'm very grateful," said the
man, wriggling into his stiff straps. He followed his guide into the darkness
after saluting.
"Who's that?" said Lemming.
"Can't say," the Doctor returned indifferently. "He's been
here before. He's evidently a P.M. of sorts."
"Well! Well!" said Brother Burges, whose eyelids were
drooping. "We must all do what we can. Isn't it almost time to lock up?"
"I wonder," said I, as we helped each other into our coats,
"what would happen if Grand Lodge knew about all this."
"About what?" Lemming turned on me quickly.
"A Lodge of Instruction open three nights and two
afternoons a week - and running a lodging-house as well. It's all very nice,
but it doesn't strike me somehow as regulation."
"The point hasn't been raised yet," said Lemming. "We'll
settle it after the war. Meantime we shall go on."
"There ought to be scores of them," Brother Burges repeated
as we went out of the door. "All London's full of the Craft, and no places for
them to meet in. Think of the possibilities of it! Think what could have been
done by Masonry through Masonry for all the world. I hope I'm not censorious,
but it sometimes crosses my mind that Grand Lodge may have thrown away its
chance in the war almost as much as the Church has."
"Lucky for you Brother Tamworth is taking that chap to
King's Cross," said Brother Lemming, "or he'd be down your throat. What really
troubles Tamworth is our legal position under Masonic Law. I think he'll inform
on us one of these days. Well, good night all." The Doctor and Lemming turned
off together.
"Yes," said Brother Burges, slipping his arm into mine.
"Almost as much as the Church has. But perhaps I'm too much of a Ritualist."
I said nothing. I was speculating how soon I could steal a
march on Brother Tamworth and inform against "Faith and Works No. 5837 E. C."
----o----
AMERICAN INDIANS IN FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. ARTHUR C. PARKER, NEW YORK
THE INQUIRY- of Brother O. B. Slane, of Illinois, in the
January number of THE BUILDER, relative to Indian Masons brings an interesting
subject to the foreground it is this:
To what extent has Freemasonry contributed to the
civilization of the American Indian?
Let us first answer Brother Slane's inquiry as to what
Indians of prominence were or are Masons. He mentioned Red Jacket, but so far
as tradition goes Red Jacket was only an Entered Apprentice, as were many Masons
of the Revolutionary period. In this period we find that Chief Joseph Brant was
a Master Mason and a member of St. Patrick's Lodge, of which R.'. W.'. Sir
William Johnson was Worshipful Master. Brant was a frequent visitor of lodges
and the lodge at Hudson, N.Y., has on its walls a painting of Captain Brant, and
in its archives a story of his visitations and of his friendship for Colonel
McKinstry, whose life he had saved through the recognition of a sign of
distress.
Pennsylvania Masonic History records several Delaware
Indians who were Masons, among them John Knockapot, who impoverished himself
during the Revolution and later received Masonic aid. It is also stated that
Lieutenant Cusick, the Tuscarora, was a Mason. Cusick was an aide to La Fayette
during the Revolutionary War. During La Fayette's last visit to Washington,
early in the last century, Cusick made the journey to the Capitol to see his old
chief. He spoke so much of La Fayette's valour that someone asked him if he
ever knew the General. "Know him?" replied Cusick, "Know him? Why many a time I
threw myself between him and the bullets that came his way, while I served as
Lieutenant on his staff!"
It will be remembered that George Copway, the Ojibway, was
an ardent Mason, and that he appealed to Masonic lodges to assist him in
establishing schools for his people. It was Copway who called attention to Red
Jacket's neglected and despoiled grave and brought about a renewed interest in
that famous orator.
During the Civil War period there were hundreds of Indian
Masons, and all of them influential men in their tribes. Brother Slane has
mentioned Ely S. Parker, the Seneca Indian who was. General Grant's Military
Secretary, and who was a member of the Fraternity. General Parker's brother,
Isaac Newton Parker, was also a Mason, and did excellent work in the south- most
line as a dispatch runner. Deerfoot, America's first champion long distance
runner, was of this period. He likewise was a Mason, and an ardent one.
Deerfoot's baptismal name was Louis Bennett. It is interesting to note that all
tribal Indians of the old regime have a native name and a "substitute word," in
the way of a baptismal name.
Indians in the West became Masons as friendship and
understanding grew up between their white neighbours and themselves.
Among the Five Civilized Tribes, for example, there were
many Masons, particularly among the Cherokee. The celebrated chiefs Ross,
Bushyhead, W.B. Mayes and Pleasant Porter were members of the Fraternity.
Albert Pike had long been busy among these people In later times other Masons
had sought to interest the Indians of Oklahoma. Today literally hundreds of
prominent Oklahomans of Indian blood, either fully Indian or of a certain
degree, are Masons. One sees the Square and Compass, the Cross and Crown, and
the Double-Headed Eagle everywhere among these Indians. Such prominent Indians
as Senator Owen, Congressman Carter, and Gabe E. Parker, former Registrar of the
Treasury and now Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes, are Master Masons
and members of concordant orders.
Many an Indian in old Indian Territory has served as Master
of a lodge. The same may be said of the Indian country in Kansas, and the
Dakotas. In travelling through the Indian country the prevalence of Indian
Masons interested me. I once pointed to a Consistory charm worn by a Pawnee
Indian (a banker, by the way) and asked what it was. He replied, "Oh, that's a
sign I can't get along without down here. It's a sign a man is on the square."
To revert to the question propounded at the beginning of
this article as to what extent Freemasonry has contributed to the civilization
of the Indian, let me state that the strongest contacts made with the Indians
were those where the sentiments of brotherhood were emphasized. The mission and
the lodge were such contacts, though we must not forget the school, for the
youth, the army, and for the older men.
Many of the officers of the frontier posts were Masons, as
were many of the government officials, and some of the missionaries. Masonic
influence was gradually developed until it became a real power for constructive
good. Masons fostered missionary effort,and particularly education. They founded
schools and established hospitals. For example, Dr. Robert W. Hill, an early
official in Indian Territory, busied himself on one hand by establishing Indian
missions and schools, and in the other in Masonic work. He became the Deputy
for Oklahoma for the Commander of the Scottish Rite and a leading Knight
Templer. He tells me that the first 32 degree Mason that he made, and the first
Knight Templar, in Oklahoma, were Indians.
Masons and Masonic support have done many valuable things
for the Indian race, and the part of Masonry in the civilization of the red man
is no small one, though it is largely unrecorded, for Masons do not flaunt their
charities. It would not be an overstatement, however, to say that Masonry has
been, and is now, a tremendous power for education and enlightenment among the
Indians. Of all secular influences none gives greater support to the vital
needs of the race than Masonry. This is not done in an organized way, of
course, but it is done none the less by Masons.
As an example of organized interest, the recent Council of
the New York Indian Welfare Society at Buffalo Consistory, A. & A. S. R., may be
cited. To the beautiful Cathedral on one of Buffalo's most exclusive streets
came Indians from all parts of New York State, from both reservation and white
communities. Here they were welcomed by George Kelly Staples, 33 degree,
Commander, himself an adopted Seneca and Blackfoot. Masons gathered from far
and near to sit in council with these descendants of Brant and Red Jacket, and
to listen to their debates. George L. Tucker, 33 degree, Custodian of the
Temple, invited the Indians to visit the Indian Museum which he had founded and
endowed, and to the delight of the delegates, served the entire council and
visitors with a banquet at which distinguished Masons spoke. Both Brother
Tucker and Brother Staples frequently visit the neighbouring reservations and
attend both the churches of the Christians and the lodges of the non-Christians,
and both are members of an ancient Indian Order similar in many ways to Masonry.
It is a common thing to see Indians going in and out of the
Consistory. One of the old stand-bys is Chief Tahan, of the Kiowas, who is a
popular member of the Consistory. Recently Clifford Shongo and Arthur Doxtater,
both Seneeas of influence, have finished the Scottish Rite grades. But whether
Mason or not, Indians have been made mighty welcome here and the "chain of
friendship has brightened." Masonry seems to be solving the New York "Indian
problem" long in advance of the courts or the legislature, simply practical and
sincere friendship. It is this sort of brotherhood that makes life worth living
- for the red man at least.
----o----
Thus it is over all the earth;
That which we call the fairest,
And prize for its surpassing worth,
Is always rarest.
- J.G. Holland
----o----
It is not enough to be industrious, so are the ants. What
are you industrious about? - Thoreau
----o----
THE CLEVELAND FEDERATION OF CRAFTSMEN
BY BRO. O.N. POMEROY, OHIO
ON the 20th day of
October, 1898, the writer called on a brother engineer in his engine room -
Benjamin Dettleback was his name - and in the course of a conversation made the
remark that an organization of engineers composed entirely of Master Masons
would be an ideal thing. Brother Dettleback was so favorably impressed with the
scheme that for the next few weeks we met as often as we could to talk the
matter over. At last we decided to canvass the city to discover how many
engineers might be eligible. We worked on this until December 10th, 1899, when
we inserted a notice in one of our daily papers calling a meeting at the Forest
City House.
We met on December 22,
1899, with twenty-seven present. As a result of the conference we organized,
calling ourselves Craftsmen. Owing to the opposition encountered on the part of
those Masonic brethren who were fearful lest this might prove an unwarrantable
innovation in the Fraternity we found it uphill work. But we were very careful
not to infringe upon any of the laws and usages of the Fraternity and we kept at
it with much patience until at last the most skeptical conceded our success.
That which was begun
in Cleveland took root in other parts of the country, so that today we have
Councils of Engineers from Manitoba to Texas, San Francisco to Boston. A great
organization has come into being, known as The Universal Craftsmen Council of
Engineers. This larger organization came into existence through a conference
held in my home at Cleveland on September 14th, 1903, when there were present
besides myself nine delegates, their names being: Benjamin Dettleback, of
Cleveland; Oscar Mabie and John L. O'Brien of Chicago; John H. Leathers, of
Rochester, New York; Charles E. Davey of Detroit; and James Gillespie of
Philadelphia. This organization now numbers over sixty councils and is powerful
enough to enable Masonic engineers to hold their own in the competitive market.
In many of the large cities today they are in possession of from seventy to
ninety per cent of all the principal power plants, and in the Chicago district
alone 1300 of the most prominent plants are in the hands of Craftsmen. Also, the
organization publishes, and sends to each member, The Universal Engineer which
is everywhere conceded to be one of the best, if not the best, journal of its
kind.
To return to
Cleveland. The Masonic brothers of the city who were not engineers but who
followed similar crafts became so much interested in our work, and were so eager
to share in the benefits which we had won for ourselves, that they asked for
rights of affiliation: but the Constitution of our International made it
impossible for us to accept them, so we urged them to form similar organizations
of their own. This they did, and now we have nine crafts so organized, among
them being workers in electricity, wood, plumbing, steam-fitting, printing,
sheet-metal, building, etc. These comprise a total membership of over one
thousand, and they are altogether joined in the organization known as The
Cleveland Federation of Craftsmen.
Each of the nine
bodies has a representation on the board of control of three for the first
hundred members, and one additional for every hundred or major fraction thereof
above one hundred. The Federation meets each month to transact such business as
may call for deliberation, and at this meeting each constituent body reports the
number of men out of employment. Each council has its employment committee and
the Federation has a general employment committee composed of one member from
each council. If any reader should suppose that these are committees in name
only he has another guess coming, for they are active twenty-four hours a day.
The Federation of Craftsmen has just purchased a fine twenty-two room residence
in the heart of the city to serve as headquarters and club rooms.
----o----
We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is
the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely I she
to be his worst in our company.
Every time he talks away his own character before us, he is
signifying contempt for ours.
- Barrie
----o----
THE PILLARS OF THE PORCH
BY BRO. WILLIAM B. BRAGDON, NEW JERSEY
FROM BIBLICAL accounts we learn of two columns or pillars
that were placed in the Porch of King Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, one on the
right hand named Jachin, and one on the left named Boaz, which are given various
dimensions but which New Jersey Masons have been taught to know as eighteen
cubits in height, twelve in circumference, and four in diameter, and which were
surmounted by three kinds of ornament, namely, network, lilywork, and
pomegranates.
The origin of these pillars and their correct
representation should be of extreme interest to the Masonic student, and the
following brief analysis may be of some assistance.
Tradition plays such an important part in the study of
archaeology and the history of architecture, that it may always be taken for
granted, for every great school of art or architecture can trace its development
to the work of its predecessors, either from its own country, or from some
foreign land from which aesthetic influence was received by intercourse through
trade or from conquest by war.
To illustrate. The Ancient Greeks spent 500 years in the
development of their Doric column, each successive generation using the results
of the previous decade as a foundation for their endeavours, until the height of
perfection was attained in the Parthenon. The Spaniards continued to work in
the Moorish style for years after the Saracens had been driven out of the land
they had over-run.
So the first thing to be done in considering the Pillars
Jachin and Boaz is to look about and ascertain if possible the origin of the
influence which worked through the architect who created them.
Hiram Abif, the man selected by Hiram, King of Tyre, to
undertake this stupendous structure for Solomon, King of Israel, was, according
to Milman in his history of the Jews, "a man of Jewish extraction, who had
learned his art at Tyre"; but whether he was a Jew or a Phoenician is of little
consequence, except that he had been trained in a community celebrated for its
workers of brass and metals and for that reason most acceptable to Solomon.
The Rev. W. Shaw Caldecott in his book on the history of
the Temple, attempts to convey the impression that this building "was not
Babylonian, or Egyptian or Phoenician, or even a subtle blending of what was
best in each, but was the genuine outcome of Hebrew life and Hebrew faith," but
the facts do not substantiate this theory.
From the study of what monuments have been unearthed, we
find that the arts were never developed by the Jews to any great extent, and
that their only large work for posterity was their Temple at Jerusalem, which
had no native traditional inspiration except from the Tabernacle which directly
preceded it, and on that account as much as any, left no guiding mark for a
standard for future generations.
The great French archaeologists, Perrot and Chipiez, in
their standard work on Judea, mention the fact that "the art to which the Temple
is due, was Phoenician art, undistinguished by the power and individuality so
characteristic of Egyptian, Assyrian or Greek productions." Yet history tells us
how the Phoenicians became the leading trading people of the East, and that
commercial enterprises carried the art of Egypt to their own country and thence
to Babylonia, and even to Greece, both of which latter nations show Egyptian
influence in their decorative arts.
And so for the very reason that the Phoenicians borrowed
their forms from the Nile and the Euphrates valleys it was a poor art at best,
and became even more debased, from the architect's point of view, when
transferred to a neighbouring people who had no underlying traditions of their
own. This mixture of styles is most apparent in the Pillars of the Temple Porch,
where a confusing and unusual order was created, as we shall see, which has
baffled scholars in their many attempts at restoration.
Hiram Abif must have felt this foreign influence in the
gatherings of trained men among whom he studied and worked, for his building in
many respects was modelled from the Egyptian temple, as, to quote Milman, "it
retained the ground-plan and disposition of the Egyptian, or rather of almost
all sacred edifices of antiquity; even its measurements are singularly in unison
with some of the most ancient temples in Upper Egypt. It consisted of a
propylaeon, a temple, and a sanctuary; called respectively the Porch, the Holy
Place, and the Holy of Holies," with rising steps and darkening chambers as one
progressed, producing an element of mystery, in exact imitation of the temples
built on the Nile.
Before the Porch of Solomon's Temple stood two pillars of
brass, similar to Egyptian obelisks, Jachin and Boaz, and it was on these that
Solomon and Hiram Abif determined to lavish the former's wealth and the latter's
ability in an otherwise simple exterior, which treatment of decorative pillars
grouped about an entrance without any structural reason, was characteristic of
Phoenician art as well, for the architects of those latter countries "had no
liking for any kind of construction, and especially made slight use of the pier
and column," as Perrot and Chipiez tell us.
They also remark that "we may feel some surprise that the
Phoenicians, who were the pupils of Egypt rather than Chaldea, and had in
abundance the stone denied to the latter country, should have taken the
Mesopotamian architects as their models in this matter of the column," but I
think this can be explained from the fact that Chaldea was of the soil, so to
speak, and in closer touch with Phoenicia by land and by blood than the men of
Egypt, who lived their peaceful lives about the Nile valley, in isolation
(except by sea) from surrounding civilizations.
Also, Herodotus mentions his admiration at the sight of
"two shafts, one of pure gold - the other of emerald," which stood in places in
the shrine of Melkart at Tyre, similar to those occupied at Jerusalem by Jachin
and Boaz. In fact many other classic authors mention the tall pillars rising in
pairs before the entrances of temples.
At all events the column about an entrance used without any
structural relation was a common form of decoration in Phoenicia, and would
naturally be the motif considered best suited for a temple porch, when designed
by a Phoenician architect.
Although the description of the Porch Pillars given in
Kings, in Chronicles, and by Jeremiah, seems to vary, if an analysis is made of
the parts described in the text we find they are substantially the same, as in
one case the shaft is meant by the pillar, and in another the entire column with
its base, capital, and the platform on which it stood. So architectural
students generally agree that Jachin and Boaz each rested upon a square base
three cubits high, had round straight shafts eighteen cubits in height, twelve
in circumference and four in diameter, were adorned with square caps five cubits
in height which were ornamented with network, lilywork and pomegranates, and
were further adorned and protected by supercaps four cubits high.
This description appears to be clear and would be simple to
understand except for the exact meaning of "network, lilywork and pomegranates."
There have been countless interpretations of these words, and many restorations
of the Pillars, but I have never seen any two alike, nor any that I consider
exactly fitting.
In all architecture the capital has been the feature of the
order reserved for decoration, and although any type can be designated by a
glance at this member, strange to say it is the cap that is the stumbling-block
in this case. Geometric patterns were common forms of surface ornamentation
with the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and criss-cross line work, or network, in
applique, was frequently used, so that we do not hesitate long here for the
meaning of "network."
There seems to be more controversy, however, over the
interpretation of pomegranates, although I do not see why there should be. The
pomegranate flower with its rose shape of petals and heart was constantly
represented in conventional form as a rosette for a means of decoration in all
the countries of Asia Minor, and was so used as embroidery on the robes of the
High Priests of the Temple. Examples at this period of pomegranate as fruit are
rare, but the flower was used in some form in nearly every fragment of
Phoenician and Mesopotamian sculpture that has been reclaimed, and always adorns
the enframements and balconies about the entrance porches of the temples and
palaces.
It has been argued that the "chains of pomegranates"
mentioned in the Bible refers to the fruit; I see no reason why it does not
suggest a garland of flowers, such as our daisy chain, for the garland or
festoon was used in all ancient art and was continued in the Roman Period and
later in the Renaissance.
If we therefore assume that rosettes of pomegranate flowers
were meant in the Biblical text, it is a question of the application of this
ornament to the cap, and in this connection the natural architectural reasoning
would be to apply cast buttons in rosette form in the spaces enclosed by the
intersections of the diagonal strands of network.
Jeremiah describes these caps at the time of the
destruction of the Temple as composed of twenty-four rosettes on each side, one
hundred all told, so that the four needed to supply the difference might have
been placed at the corners as buttons for supporting the hanging festoons of the
same flower. In this respect I agree with Mr. Caldecott, for I feel that the
drooping garlands hoped in transition from the severely plain round shaft to the
heavy cap.
To properly locate the lilywork, however, is a more
difficult problem.
In the first place this lily does not correspond with the
hothouse or Easter lily of our day, which it might suggest to the layman, but
was undoubtedly the waterlily or lotus plant of Egypt, which was
conventionalized by the Egyptian architects as one of their chief forms of
ornament, and developed into a capital of one of their early columns.
From Egypt the lotus flower and bud found its way into
Phoenicia and Chaldea, and we find many examples of this ornament used in the
temples in a running and alternating form of design, which was still later
developed by the Greeks into the celebrated and beautiful "honeysuckle"
ornament.
It was this lotus flower that was probably intended by the
term "lily," and it will be necessary to consider the purpose of the Pillars in
the Porch of Solomon's Temple in order to picture the lilywork in its position
in the capitals.
Like many objects encountered in the Temple, the Pillars
Jachin and Boaz were symbols of deeper truths which they intended to teach.
Although specialists in Hebrew do not agree as to their meaning, it is possible
that before the former the Kings of Israel were crowned, and there they were
reminded of the fact that they owed their position to the Jehovah who had
established them, while before the latter the High Priests might have been
ordained, and impressed with the importance of conducing the rituals of their
exalted office with fortitude and strength; hence Jachin denoted "establishment"
and Boaz "strength."
And for these and other ceremonies, we are told that the
consecration oil used was poured in the top of the capitals. This gives us a
clue for the lilywork, for it would not seem illogical that some such form as
the Egyptian lotus bud, which was adaptable to receptacle use, might have been
created as a crowning feature for the cap, acting both as a decorative
terminating pinnacle where there was no supporting beam above, and also serving
the practical purpose of a hidden storehouse for the oil.
The supercaps mentioned seem to have been merely screens to
hide the vessels of oil and to protect them from the vandalism of birds, which
was a common practice of the ancients, evidences of drillings for securing metal
nettings for that purpose having been discovered in the sculptures of the Greek
temple pediments. These supercaps were probably of network with pomegranate
rosette decoration similar to the capitals below, but with perforations, and of
portable material.
So we find our Pillars Jachin and Boaz with cylindrical
smooth shafts and 'square capitals, ornamented with diagonal meshes and cast
rosettes, crowned with lotus bud urns, the whole resting on square blocky bases,
and if the foregoing deductions are correct, the true Pillars were quite
different from our usual lodge room representations.
----o----
THAT GOD MAY AWAKEN ME
BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD. IOWA
From schools from books, from teachers skilled of brain
Have I blessed: and Art hath loaned her meed
Of joy through pictures, carvings, and her golden reed;
And all her powers to thrill me, or restrain:
To these hath Nature added hill, and sea, and plain,
The lighted sky, the flowers upon the mead,
The show of things, the forces, and the fiery screed
Of stars above a world of joy and pain:
O what a school! yet in it do I lie
As witless, helpless, as the frozen streams!
Wilt Thou now sow Thy fires within my heart!
May I not hear the magic of Thy sudden cry
To wake me from the stupor of my dreams
To more of life than Nature or than Art!
----o----
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - - GENERAL NICHOLAS
HERKIMER
BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD P.G.M., DlSTRICT OF COLUMBIA
GENERAL NICHOLAS
HERKIMER, a member of St. Patrick's Lodge of New York, a patriot of German
descent, was born in 1717, and died August 6, 1777, at Little Falls, New York,
where he was buried, and where the beautiful memorial was erected. He must have
become an army man rather young, for he was in the French and Indian War in
command of Fort Herkimer in 1758. (That so-called French and Indian War was the
struggle of our ancestors to defend the religious stand the Pilgrims had taken.)
At the beginning of
the Revolutionary War in 1775 Herkimer was commissioned colonel: in 1776 he was
made Brigadier and placed in command of the Militia of Tyron County, New York.
In 1777, when General St. Leger invested Fort Stanwix, afterwards called Fort
Schuyler, at the head of the Mohawk River, General Herkimer took his Militia to
the relief of Gen. Gansevoort.
At a point some six
miles from Ft. Stanwix, near Oneida Creek, General Herkimer fell into an ambush;
his horse was killed and he was badly wounded, a leg being broken. Dragging
himself to a stump he encouraged his men to the last but superior numbers were
too much for the little band, which sustained defeat with the loss of two
hundred men. This was called the battle of Oriskany.
One hundred years
afterwards the Oneida Historical Society celebrated the centennial of this
battle and raised a subscription to erect a monument to the memory of General
Herkimer. This was an obelisk of granite eighty-five feet in height. A greater
monument still was the naming of one of the richest counties in New York after
the general.
The devotion of
General Herkimer to the cause of the Revolution may have been equalled but it
was never surpassed. His sitting propped against a stump, with life ebbing away,
while he used his brains and his personal magnetism to help his men, though his
own limbs were useless, is a picture of the heroism of the man. He fought and
died for a blessed heritage which we should not neglect.
What is now known as
Herkimer County was first settled by Palatine Germans among whom was one John
Jost Herkimer, father of the General. This John Jost built a stone house which,
with a few other buildings of the same type (some of which are still standing in
the village) was enclosed within a fort, which was first known by its Indian
name of Kouari, but was later named Fort Herkimer. Near this, and within the
boundaries of the village, was erected another fortress known as Fort Davton. It
was from this latter spot that General Herkimer led his forces when he went out
to the relief of Fort Schuyler, which relief expedition was brought to a sudden
halt by the ambuscade at Oriskany, already described. The present village, its
township, and the county are all named Herkimer after this illustrious family.
Oriskany is now a
village of some thousand or so population in Oneida countyo It was in a little
ravine about two miles to the west of it that the battle of Oriskany was fought.
General Herkimer had heard of the danger to Fort Schuyler, which stood near the
site of the present city of Rome, and set out to relieve it. That fort was being
besieged by British and Indians under Colonel Barry St. Leger and Joseph Brant,
the famous Indian leader who was, strangely enough, a Freemason. General
Herkimer had about 800 militiamen. About 200 men were lost on both sides. To the
colonial forces the severest loss was General Herkimer himself, who died a few
days later as the result of the clumsy amputation of a leg. The British,
overestimating the forces of the colonials, withdrew from Fort Schuyler. The
importance of this engagement lies in the fact that it cost the British General
Burgoyne the support of Colonel Barry St. Leger at the battle of Saratoga, which
was, partly on account of that fact, lost to the British to which St. Leger was
going when the Oriskany conflict occurred.
A memorial to General
Herkimer stands in the village of Herkimer. Those interested in the romantic
story of this patriot will find it worth while to read "The Herkimers and
Schuylers" by Phoebe S. Cowen.
----o----
LOUIS KOSSUTH, FREEMASON
BY BRO. ROBERT I. CLEGG, OHIO
HUNGARY, under the Roman Catholic rule of Austria, long had
her institutions, time hallowed and nationally inspired. Massacre by the
wholesale of Protestants was the ruthless process of catholicizing the
downtrodden. Thus for example do the historians estimate such periods as the
one of Leopold I (1657-1705), and that of Joseph II (1780-1790). But the latter
emperor found the national aspirations too powerful to suppress and he was
compelled to restore the ancient constitutions.
Then came at last the year of revolution in 1848. An
outbreak of intense patriotism was led by the famous Louis Kossuth, and a
desperate attempt was made to regain the former independence of Hungary. A new
constitution was adopted and for some time Kossuth was in power as the Supreme
Governor. But the Austrians had obtained the support of the Russians and a
return was forced to the former despotism which allowed neither trail by jury,
nor freedom of the press. It was not until 1867 that the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary was consolidated under the Emperor Francis Joseph.
Louis Kossuth was born in 1802 at Monok in Hungary, studied
law at the Protestant College of Sarospatak and then to some extent practised
his profession as a lawyer, but really gave his life to the cause of Hungarian
nationalism.
Four years of Kossuth's life were spent in prison at an
early age for publishing reports of debates in the National Assembly. Then he
edited from 1841 to 1844, the Pesti Hirlap, the organ of the nationalist
movement. This prominence in leadership resulted in his becoming Minister of
Finance in the Hungarian Ministry of 1848. Soon thereafter in the dispute with
Austria over the revolt of the Croats, Kossuth declared Hungary independent and
took over its government. But in 1849 he was forced to flee to Turkey where he
was imprisoned for a time. On his release he visited the United States in the
interests of Hungary and later on his return made several attacks against the
Austrian government.
Louis Kossuth died at Turin in 1894.
It is not commonly known among the Fraternity that this
great champion of human liberty was a Freemason, and an American Craftsman at
that! His petition for membership is still on file in his Mother Lodge,
Cincinnati Lodge No. 133, at Cincinnati, Ohio. This highly interesting document
is written in his own hand, and while following fairly the practice of the
present day, has sundry features in its expressions that are even now at this
later day and generation of decided piquancy and force. What he says of a
community of interests in a truly Masonic spirit among nations was evolved long
before the Hague Conference of Carnegie, the World Court of Knox, or the League
of Nations of Wilson, yet is most suggestive and inspirational.
The petition for membership of Louis Kossuth was received
by Cincinnati Lodge No. 133, F. and A. M., on February 18, 1852, and reads as
follows:
"To the Worshipful Master, Wardens and Brethren of
Cincinnati Lodge No. 133, of Free and Accepted Masons.
"The petition of the subscriber respectfully showeth that
having long entertained a favourable opinion of your ancient institution, he is
desirous of being admitted a member thereof if found worthy.
"Being an exile for liberty's sake, he has no fixed place
of residence, is now staying at Cincinnati; his age is 49 1/2 years, his
occupation is to restore his native land, Hungary, to its national independence,
and to achieve by community of action with other nations, civil and religious
liberty in Europe. (Signed) "Louis Kossuth."
The minutes of the lodge tell us that on motion the
petition was by unanimous vote made "a case of emergency," and forthwith
referred to a Committee of Investigation. With the petition of Louis Kossuth
were those of Colonel Count Gregory Bathlen, aged 38, member of the staff of
Governor Kossuth; Peter A. Nagy, aged 37, Secretary; Paul Hajnik, aged 44 years,
Treasurer of the Hungarian Fund, and Dr. Julius Utosy (Strasser), aged 42,
physician to Louis Kossuth.
The Investigating Committee reported on the same day and
the petitioners were elected to receive the Entered Apprentice Degree. The
communication was then adjourned to February 18, at 6 o'clock in the afternoon
when the candidates were initiated. Another adjournment was made to February
20, at the same hour, when the candidates were balloted upon, elected to, and
received the Fellow Craft Degree. At this meeting the Master Mason Degree was
conferred upon Brother Kossuth. An adjournment was then taken to February 21 at
6 o'clock when the other candidates received the Master's Degree. Fees of $20.00
each which had been deposited wit the lodge were ordered returned to the
newly-made brethren and at the same time diplomas and demits were given to all
of them.
Later in the month, February 28, 1852, Governor Kossuth
with several of his suite, attended a meeting of Centre Lodge No. 23, at
Indianapolis, Indiana. From an address made by him on that occasion the
following opinion of the distinguished Hungarian in regard to Freemasonry is
taken:
"The Masonic brotherhood is one which tends to better the
condition of mankind, and we are delighted to know it enlists the attention of
so many brethren around you as we find surrounding us here. Besides the great
antiquity of the Order which should endear it to all good Masons, its excellent
precepts and high moral teachings must induce all good members of the Order to
appreciate its benevolent purposes and useful works. To one like myself,
without a country or a home, dependent upon the hospitality of strangers for
life and protection, a great substitute for all my privations is I find to be
surrounded by brethren of the Masonic Order."
At another time in St. Louis, Missouri, Brother Kossuth
remarked with emphasis:
"If all men were Freemasons, Oh, what a worldwide and
glorious republic we should have!"
For these two last | 
