THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
January 1923
volume 9 - number 1
“LET THERE BE LIGHT”
FREEMASONRY IN CHILE
By Bro. George Lanzarotti, Chile
OUR NEW HEADQUARTERS
By The Editor
WAS DR. JOHNSON A FREEMASON?
By Bro. Arthur Heiron, England
THE AMEX-MASONIC CLUB
By Bro. Aubrey O. Bray, Arizona
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
THE NATIONAL MASONIC RESEARCH SOCETY
ANAMOSA, IOWA .
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THE NATIONAL MASONIC RESEARCH SOCIETY
The National Masonic Research Society was founded in 1914
at Anamosa, Iowa, under authority of the Grand Lodge of Iowa to serve as a
national association for the dissemination of Masonic knowledge and for kindred
activities. It is strictly non-commercial in its nature and aims only at the
largest possible usefulness to Freemasonry. Its record thus far fulfills the
prophecies of its founders, and justifies an ever larger hope for its future.
GENERAL OBJECTS
The encouragement of every form of Masonic reading, study,
research, and authorship.
The collection and preservation of materials of value for
Masonic study.
The publication of a journal devoted to the interpretation
of the history, nature, and present day activities of all the Rites, Order and
Degrees of Freemasonry.
The promotion and supervision of meetings for Masonic
discussion and study.
The organization of Masonic Study Clubs and the publication
of courses of study.
The publication and distribution of Masonic books.
The encouragement of individuals and groups devoted to
private Masonic research.
Cooperation with all possible agencies in the creation of
an adequate Masonic literature, and in the development of a competent Masonic
leadership.
Service Grand Lodges and other sovereign Masonic bodies and
responsible agencies in special surveys, reports, and investigations.
Assistance to lodges and other bodies in the formation of
Masonic libraries, reading rooms, book clubs, etc.
For eight years and more the Society has been successfully
carrying on the activities described in the above list, which is typical and not
exhaustive. In so doing it has been assisted by Masonic officials, leaders,
scholars, authors, and students in every state in the Union and in every country
of the world, all of whom by this activity have been drawn closer to that which
is the dream of every intelligent Mason - the Republic of Masonic thought and
letters.
THE BUILDER
THE BUILDER is the official monthly journal of the Society
which goes to each member as one of the privileges of his membership, and is not
offered for sale to the general public, nor is it in the competitive commercial
field. It is edited in the interests of sound, constructive policies and aims at
creating among Masons a more heartfelt appreciation of Freemasonry, and at
making the spirit and principles of Freemasonry prevail in the world. Every
member of the Society is requested to cooperate with the board of editors by
contributions and by constructive criticism.
MEMBERSHIP
Any Master Mason in good standing in any part of the world
becomes eligible for membership upon signing the Society's application form, a
copy of which will be furnished upon request. Each member is entitled to THE
BUILDER, and to all other privileges of membership, among which are the
following:
Questions about Freemasonry are answered, and any kind of
Masonic information is furnished.
Study Clubs or other groups for Masonic study; or Masonic
book clubs, or for special research, are organized and encouraged.
Addresses, or materials for addresses are furnished.
New or secondhand Masonic books are secured, sold, loaned,
or purchased.
Architectural advice on the erection of Masonic edifices,
or on the remodeling, decorating, or furnishing of lodge rooms is given.
Any Mason can be put in touch with any other Mason or group
of Masons anywhere in the world.
Selected lists of Masonic books are recommended to
individuals or to lodges.
FORMS OF MEMBERSIIIP
There is no joining fee, and all members receive THE
BUILDER free.
1. Membership dues $2.50 per year. Membership may begin at
any time.
2. Life members may commute dues for life by paying $50.00
at one time.
3. Fellows (engaged in actual research), $10.00 on notice
of election.
4 Patrons, being Masons who shall have contributed $1000 or
more to the objects of the Society, and shall be entitled to all its privileges
for life.
For members in the United States, Canada, Cuba,
Newfoundland, Mexico, Philippine Islands and Porto Rico, the dues are $2.50 per
year; elsewhere $3.00 per year.
BOARD OF EDITORS
Editor-in-Chief - H.L.Haywood
Associate Editors
Louis Block, Iowa.
Robert I. Clegg Ohio.
Charles F. Irwin, Ohio.
Joseph Fort Newton, New York.
Alanson B. Skinner, Wisconsin.
Jacob Hugo Tatsch, California.
Dudley Wright, England.
Address all communications to
The National Masonic Research Society,
2920 First Avenue East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
ALI, ARTICLES IN THIS MAGAZINE COPYRIGHTED, 1923,
BY
THE NATIONAL MASONIC RESEARCH SOCIETY
Entered as second-class matter January 2, 1915, at the post
office at Anamosa, Iowa, under the Act of August 21, 1912. Application for
transfer to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, pending.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided
for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on June 29th, 1918.
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January 1923
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRONTISPIECE - H.L. Haywood
OUR NEW HEADQUARTERS - By The Editor
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PLUMB LINE - By Bro. Channing
Gordon Lawrence, New Brunswick
ST. LOUIS LODGE TRAVELS TO ALEXANDRIA, VA., TO CONFER
MASTER'S DEGREE - Capital News Service
BROTHER SIR CHARLES WARREN, P.G.D., PAST DISTRICT GRAND
MASTER, EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO - By Bro. Dudley Wright, England
FREEMASONRY IN CHILE - By Bro. George Lanzarotti, Chile
THE TRESTLE BOARD - By Bro. H.L. Haywood, Iowa
WAS DR. JOHNSON A FREEMASON? SOME PHASES OF HIS LIFE - By
Bro. Arthur Heiron, England
GOVERNMENT TO ASSIST IN SHRINE MEET IN JUNE - Capital News
Service
A BUILDER – Poem - Selected
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - WILLIAM PINKNEY -
By Bro. G. W. Baird, P. G. M., District of Columbia
THE AMEX-MASONIC CLUB - By Bro. Aubrey O. Bray, Arizona
WE BUILD! – Poem - George Sanford Holmes
FREEMASONRY’S RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF FORT BAYARD - By
Bro. Francis E. Lester, P. G. M., New Mexico
THE STUDY CLUB - The Teachings of Masonry - Part XVII,
Brotherly Aid - By Bro. H. L. Haywood, Iowa - Supplemental References - Our
Study Club Plan
EDITORIAL
The Larger Meaning of the Thomson Trial
Masons and Schools
Illegal Wearing of Lodge Emblems
THE LIBRARY
A Unique Book on Freemasonry
Information Concerning "Ancient Freemasonry and the Old
Dundee Lodge No. 18 – 1722-1920"
Two New Books on Freemasonry
"Le Livre du Maitre"
A Sociological Study of the Negro, with a Note on "Negro
Masonry"
The Period of the Wars of the Roses
PUBLICATIONS WANTED, FOR SALE, AND EXCHANGE
THE QUESTION BOX
John Adams Not a Mason
The Comenius Society
Wants Truth About Templars
Why does THE BUILDER Copyright Its Articles?
How to Order Books from Publishers
Old Age and Freemasonry
Articles in THE BUILDER on King Solomon's Temple
Origin of "Shibboleth"
The Masonic Connections of President James Buchanan
Anent Negro Masonry
CORRESPONDENCE
An Old Masonic Pitcher
Governor Wise of Virginia
AN ANTI-MASONIC RESEARCH GROUP
YE EDITOR'S CORNER
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A Journal For The Masonic Student
Published Monthly by the National Masonic Research Society
VOLUME IX
NUMBER 1
January, 1923
TWO DOLLARS FIFTY CENTS THE YEAR
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS THE COPY
Our New Headquarters
BY THE EDITOR
BY THE time these words reach the reader we shall have
moved into our new headquarters building at 2920 First Avenue East, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, where, under ideal conditions and with a complete outlay of the
most modern equipment, we shall undertake anew the tasks to which this Society
was dedicated nine years ago, and which it formally undertook in January, 1915.
Immediately behind the headquarters building stands an ideally equipped plant in
which THE BUILDER will be printed and books published. In the headquarters
building itself we shall have every imaginable convenience by way of offices,
staff rooms, library, cafe, radio room, book room, stock room, mailing room,
vaults, archives and everything else needed for the carrying on of our work.
Members and their friends hereby are extended an urgent invitation to drop into
the reception room for a visit over the headquarters building, of which we are
sure they will feel very proud.
The Society will profit in many ways by this removal. It
will now be near the postal center of the country and thereby have ideal mailing
convenience. It will be in a railway center with easy access to trunk lines. And
above all it will have as a near neighbor the Iowa Masonic Library, one of the
greatest collections of Masonic books anywhere in existence, and manned by a
staff of librarians always ready to lend their assistance to any enterprise of
Masonic reading, study, or information whatsoever.
Meanwhile we are enlarging our own staffs and facilities to
care for the rapidly expanding volume of our activities. Never before was the
Society so healthy, its outlook so inspiring, or its friends so ready to con
operate. Unless an accident intervenes - which God forfend - one or two more
years should bring to complete fulfillment the dreams of its founders who, many
years ago, foresaw its place and its possibilities.
Of the new developments within the Society during the past
year two stand out as deserving especial notice. One is the successful outcome
of an experiment of a new type of research by means of private groups,
cooperating through the mails under the leadership of a group chairman, all the
members of each group being bound together by their ability and their interest
in some phase or problem of Masonry. Undertaken as an experiment two years ago
this venture has proved so successful that three of these groups are now ready
to publish books, and others will be similarly ready in six months or another
year. The other outstanding development is of a piece with this, and makes
possible its fulfillment. Through the instrumentality of the Society certain of
the big publishers of the country are now preparing to issue a very extended
program of Masonic books, a thing so sadly needed these many years. This means
that in the course of time the Fraternity will have a literature worthy of it
and adequate to its needs, and that the leaders of the Craft will have placed at
their disposal the guidance and the information they have so long desired.
While writing these lines there has come to ye editor's
desk a great sheaf of letters from members of the Society written in reply to a
circular letter recently mailed out by Brother Wildey E. Atchison, who has
labored so indefatigably and to such good purpose these past six years as our
Assistant Secretary. It is a remarkable fact that of all these responses, while
many contain constructive criticisms and suggestions, only one contains a real
"knock": and as for the good will expressed by them all it has served to give
every member of the staff of editors a new inspiration for the future. The
majority who offer constructive criticisms ask that as much as possible all
articles be not too long and written in a style not above the head of the
average. This is good advice, and hereby respectfully passed on to our
contributors.
It is a matter worthy of comment that a few of these
brethren have written as if they were mere subscribers to a magazine and not
members of a Society. This is their loss, because we are in strict truth a
Society and have many things to give to our members in addition to THE BUILDER.
A reader can learn what are all the prerogatives of membership by addressing an
inquiry to headquarters. It is also worthy of comment that so many of these
correspondents expressed approval of THE BUILDER for refusing to mix in
controversies and for never publishing anything out of bitterness or ill will.
Surely! what is Masonry for if it is not to teach men to subdue their passions,
to live in the spirit of toleration, and to speak the truth with kindness! These
letters also showed that THE BUILDER is being read by women of the household,
and by many who are not in any way connected with the Fraternity. May the same
continue! It should continue, and that not only with THE BUILDER but with all
other Masonic periodicals and with the Fraternity as a whole, because men
everywhere are in need of Masonry and of what it has to give to a world so
sorely struggling.
Because of all these developments those members of the
Society who labor at headquarters are in a happy mood and cheerful at the
beginning of 1923, and wish for every member of the National Masonic Research
Society family a God speed! for the New Year.
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AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PLUMB LINE
BY BROTHER CHANNING GORDON LAWRENCE, NEW BRUNSWICK
Here is a reading of the lesson of the plumb line that
shows spiritual insight. Brother Lawrence is Grand Chaplain of New Brunswick;
Worshipful Master of The Corinthians, No. 13; member of Royal Arch Chapter and
of A. and A. S. R., etc.
Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall
made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I
said, A plumb line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the
midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more. -Amos VII,
7-8.
AMOS was one of the Prophets of Israel. We are accustomed
to think of a prophet as one who predicts the course of events. Among the
Hebrews the Prophet did occasionally predict, or foretell, the consequences that
might be expected to follow upon evil living; or he foretold at times the help
comfort that God would provide for His faithful people; but the characteristic
function of the Prophet was not to foretell, but to tell forth. He told forth
truths about God. The teaching of the prophet Amos has been preserved nearly
three thousand years while myriads of other books have perished because it
contains lessons that are of real worth and that are always of appropriate
application.
Nearly all successful teachers have taught by means of
illustration. They have used signs and symbols that were selected to impress
upon the mind wise and serious truths. Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and
teaching have profoundly influenced the whole trend of civilization, illustrated
his lessons by means of parables. The parable was a short story drawn from
everyday life. To many of the hearers it was no doubt a well-told story and
nothing more. But in every parable a principle of morality or a spiritual truth
was exemplified. The story partly concealed the truth from unworthy or
unfriendly hearers; and it partly revealed it to those who had ears to hear or,
in other words, to those who desired light on heavenly things.
The parable, as a means of illustration, was a development
of later Hebrew thought. In the days of the Prophets teaching was frequently
illustrated by means of the Vision.
The vision differed from a parable in that it represented
the lesson taught as having been revealed directly to the prophet by God
Himself. Thus when the prophet was convinced of the truth of a sufficiently
important lesson and was certain of its divine character, he introduced it with
such words as, "I saw the Lord standing beside a wall," or "I heard the Lord
saying unto me," and so forth. We cannot suppose that wherever in the ancient
writings the Prophets use such language they have been permitted with natural
eyes to look upon God, or that with mortal ears they heard in audible tones the
voice of God: they used these expressions "I saw," and "I heard," to make their
teaching impressive.
But in this the prophets were in no sense guilty of
deception or of misrepresentation. They told the truth just as you do when you
often unconsciously follow their example. One day a peculiarly profound thought
occurs to you, so unlike your usual trend of thought that it seems to have come
to you from without; and you say, "I have had an inspiration." But what does
that mean? Inspiration is literally a "breathing in." There has been breathed
into your mind an idea, a thought, a suggestion from the great Spirit of
Wisdom. You heard no audible voice but yet, it may be, God spoke to you as
truly as He spoke to Amos or Hosea or Isaiah; as He speaks every day to men who
keep their minds in harmony with God. The wireless telegraph was perfected in
our time but the principle of its operation has been in use between earth and
heaven since the Creation. Messages have always been coming from God to men and
we call it inspiration. And messages go back from man to God and we call it
prayer.
THE WALL
So the vision of Amos contains a lesson of profound
importance which the prophet wished to communicate in a striking and impressive
way. First we shall consider The Wall.
You see its successive layers, each stone hewn, and shaped
and placed by the hands of a builder, each separate stone and each layer of
stones all cemented together with mortar applied with a trowel. Its angles are
right angles, its layers are horizontal, its sides perpendicular. And how did
it come to be so? These are evidences of a Mind wise enough to design and to
measure and lay out work. And beside the Wisdom that designed, there has been
Strength sufficient to divest those blocks of their superfluous parts and lift
them to their proper position. And deeper still we perceive the Beauty of manly
courage and godlike faith that dared to attempt such an enterprise and trusted
in the laws of Nature that the effort would not be in Vain.
In our speculative capacity let us think of that wall as
representing the result of human endeavour, something that man designs and
attempts and finishes, something that he builds, in imitation of the Creator
whose image he bears. While we might with profit consider our great Fraternity,
built up by our predecessors in the Craft so that now it is known and respected
the world over, yet I prefer that we should at this time consider that wall as
representing human character, mine or yours.
For character is the result of human effort continued from
day to day. That which you most desire in the depths of your inmost heart is
the plan by which you govern your building. Set your affection on things which
are base and dark and unworthy and your character becomes a wall of unlovely
type. Set your affection on things above, on the unseen values of eternity, on
truth and light and justice, and the built-up wall of your character will
proceed along lines that please the eye of the Master. The stones which enter
into that wall are acts and words and thoughts. As a wise and skilful builder
rejects some of the stones that are brought to him as unfit to have a place in
his building, so you ought often to reject many a thought that is suggested, to
refrain from repeating much that is told you and to abstain from many deeds
which by the thoughtless and profane, are performed to our knowledge every day.
A wall of masonry is not just a chance accumulation of
stones and mortar. It is a studied and carefully planned arrangement executed
with attention to every detail. And just so, good character in man is not a
wild and natural growth but is only developed under careful discipline, The
standard of righteousness is as unvarying as the Plumb, Virtue is as exact as
the angle of the Square, and our determination to be and true must be as
continuous and unbroken as the level line which stretches far beyond the bounds
space into the realms of eternity. Let no one suppose that it does not matter
what he thinks, or how speaks, or what he does, for thoughts, words, and deeds
are the building material of his character.
THE OVERSEER
So much for the wall. We note next that it was being
inspected. "Behold the Lord standing beside a wall." Amos reminds us that He
who made the worlds is interested in the work of His creatures. He comes having
authority to examine and inspect the work which we present. Those of you who
did military service in the memorable days of the Great War, remember how novel
a thing to us the inspections of the army were. We were inspected in every
conceivable way, our bearing and deportment, our dress, our sleeping apartments,
our bodies, our food, and our correspondence. There seemed to be nothing that
the army did not in some way look into. And he was a dull soldier who did not
at least dimly guess that somewhere, not far away, is One who similarly looks
into and sees the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Lord stands beside every wall and though our thoughts,
words and actions may be hidden from the eyes of man yet that All-seeing Eye
whom the sun, moon and stars obey, pervades the inmost recesses of the human
heart. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He who allows himself
to think lightly of God, who neglects to pay to T.G.A.O.T. the reverence and the
adoration due to His Holy Name, is lacking in that wisdom which is needed to
plan direct any truly great work. Look up, my brothers, into the starry sky,
the canopy of heaven, and behold the myriads of planets all in motion and yet
moving as they have for untold ages without collision or confusion. Study the
order and the beauty apparent there. Think of the wisdom which carefully
planned all their nice exactness. Think you that such a Master will be
satisfied with careless, sloth or indifferent service?
His work as revealed in Nature alone necessitated an awful
knowledge of the intricate relations of curved lines intersecting, of the laws
of moving bodies, of the principles of ornamentation and of many a science and
art that we may not even imagine. But our simple building is a matter of the
relation of only two straight lines, one perpendicular and one horizontal: Yet
it is a building that He will look into. Take heed that we build aright!
THE PLUMB LINE
There remains for our consideration the instrument by which
the test was made. "Behold, the stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a
plumb line in his hand."
From any given point an incalculable number straight lines
may be drawn in any number of planes. They may extend east or west or north or
south, or up or down, or they may lean in a thousand variations of each of these
several directions: an immeasurable number of lines from that one point and
every one of them is straight. But only one out of the thousands can be plumb! A
great many are nearly plumb, but one, and only one, is strictly so. According
to that one upright straight line will our work be tried.
When a wall gets out of the plumb it leans either out or
in. And when it leans seams begin to show on the opposite side. And the seam is
the visible sign to all who pass by that the wall is not so well built as it
might have been. It may be still a very useful wall affording support, or
shelter, or defense, but because it is not plumb it is not so good as it might
have been. For a wall ought to stand according to the plumb. And the wall that
leans ever so little is a reproach to the builder who ought to have kept it
plumb.
In the wall of our character we are inclined to lean out or
in. Inward in the way of selfishness, personal interest, love of gain and
pride. Think too much of self and your wall begins to lean and the seams open
on the outer side. And the tendency to please the world, rather than to please
God, will draw your character away from the plumb in the other direction. One
does not like to displease his neighbour and to avoid doing so he leans away
from uprightness. Or he finds it trying and unpleasant to tell the truth when a
little concession to popular fancy will bring popularity; a little flattery or
praise. But lean ever so little and the seams come and grow. And men say that
"So-and-so would be upright but for this or that; he is of perfect character
only for this one flaw," - and so forth. And alas, you have not built Plumb.
A hard, hard thing it is to keep to that unerring line. We
cast our eye down its length to see how often our work has varied from the
plumb, and with much humility and many tears we look up to the Great Master and
we trust that He, in His wisdom, knows that we desire to please Him. We can say
truly that above all other lines we desire and prefer the plumb.
May God forgive me if I am wrong in this, but I believe
that although our work shows many flaws, our walls far from perfect and the
seams show on every side, yet the Great Master will know that we have tried to
build aright. And may it not be that in another world with choicer stone to
quarry and finer tools to work with and brighter Light to lead us, may not the
Apprentice of this life be advanced to a higher degree of service?
There have been times in the history of philosophy as in
the history of religion, when men have gone to an extreme in emphasizing the
seriousness of life. But few, if any, are guilty of that fault today. We are
rather in the way of becoming a materialistic and superficial people. Our
grandfathers read through tremendous volumes of Shakespeare and Thackeray and
Macaulay with interest and profit. We tire ourselves with the short stories of
the magazine. They patronized and enjoyed the three-hour plays and operas of
real worth. We troop in thousands afternoon and evening to the pictures and are
content. We hustle frantically and nervously through the day in machines of the
highest gear, along roads that are built for speed, leaving ourselves so little
leisure for study or reflection that there is danger of "the attentive ear" and
"the instructive tongue" becoming only figurative expressions and memories of
the past. But as builders who serve a heavenly Master, we must not allow
ourselves to be seduced by the ease-loving spirit of the age. There rests upon
every Freemason a great responsibility. We, in our generation, guard certain
great traditions of the past: we hold in trust sacred mysteries that we must
pass on unchanged to those who are yet to come. And to keep ourselves worthy of
this honourable duty we must adhere to the plumb in our several stations before
God and man.
Above all things in our truly Masonic work we must avoid
haste and carelessness, and in all our ceremonies and operations prepare
ourselves thoroughly, proceed regularly, and continue persistently while the
Light lasts, carrying out each detail with precision and giving to each the
dignity and honour due to it as part of the plan of a Great Architect.
----o----
ST. LOUIS LODGE TRAVELS TO ALEXANDRIA, VA., TO CONFER
MASTER'S DEGREE
In the presence of a throng of Masons, who filled the lodge
room of Alexandria-Washington Lodge, No. 22, of Alexandria, Va., the Worshipful
Master and officers of George Washington Lodge, No. 9, of St. Louis, conferred
the Master Mason's degree upon a member of their lodge. Thirty members of George
Washington Lodge came to Alexandria for the purpose, and were the guests of the
Alexandrians for a day, after which they returned home.
The world needs sentiment. Living as we do a life of hard,
practical reality, with the daily chase for the daily meal the outstanding need
of us all, we need those institutions which cherish and preserve sentiment.
And here is sentiment at its purest and best. When thirty
men take a long journey for the sake of a revered name; when a lodge in St.
Louis will travel to Alexandria, because the name of their lodge is George
Washington, and George Washington the man was Master of Washington-Alexandria
Lodge, they have moved, spiritually, a far greater distance, than actually, in
the flesh. It is a fair example of the power of the Masonic Order over men's
hearts; it is because Masonry has kept alive the sentiment and the beauty of an
idea, rather than of a practical reality, that it has lived and grown and
thrived.
The Masonic Order is not eleemosynary in character, though
it practices charity; it is no mutual benefit organization, although it is
mutually beneficial to its members; it is not a life assurance organization; it
offers little if any material, practical assets to its membership. That it is of
the greatest use to its members, and a high influence for good in all
communities where Freemasons are (a fact which can not well be disputed), comes
from its hold upon the hearts and minds of men; as in this instance of its power
to make men take a long journey, in reverence and love for the traditions which
cluster about the First President of the Union. - Capital News Service.
----o----
On you, who Masonry despise,
This counsel I bestow;
Don't ridicule, if you are wise,
A secret you don't know;
Yourselves you banter, but not it;
You show your spleen but not your wit.
----o----
BROTHER SIR CHARLES WARREN, P.G.D.
PAST DISTRICT GRAND MASTER, EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO
BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ENGLAND
This paper eras written for THE BUILDER at our own request,
in order that our readers might be made acquainted with one of the most
illustrious names in modern Freemasonry. Bro. Warren's career, along with his
unabated zeal for the Craft, furnishes us with one of the secrets of the great
power of Freemasonry m Britain, where it is rightly considered an enterprise
entitled to the guidance and support of the greatest in the realm.
BROTHER Sir Charles Warren, F.R.S., the first Master of the
Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, was born at Bangor, Wales, on 7th February,
1840, the son of Major-General Sir Charles Warren; and was educated at
Bridgnorth, Cheltenham College, Sandhurst, and Woolwich. He entered the Royal
Engineers as a Lieutenant when he was seventeen years of age, being gazetted as
a Captain in 1869. He conducted the explorations in Palestine from 1867 to 1870,
and in Our Work in Palestine, published in 1875, by the Palestine Exploration
Society, the following tribute is paid to him:
"Let us finally bear witness to the untiring perseverance,
courage, and ability of Captain Warren. Those of us who know best the nature of
the difficulties he had to work against can tell with what courage and patience
they were met and overcome. Physical suffering and long endurance of heat, cold,
and danger were as nothing. So long as the interest in the history of modern
Jerusalem remains, so long as people are concerned to know how sacred sites have
been found out, so long will the name of Captain Warren survive."
Captain Warren had more or less a free hand for his
important work in the Holy Land, his instructions being merely to keep as nearly
as possible to the sacred area of the temple, outside, but not within, where he
was permitted by a vizierial letter, to dig. Among other discoveries which he
made was that of the underground passage connecting the palace at Jerusalem with
the Haram area, while he also made explorations in the Tyropean valley among the
remains of Solomon's bridge, by which the monarch crossed the valley from his
palace on Zion to the temple on Moriah. In 1876 Brother Warren published his
work on Underground Jerusalem, followed four years later by The Temple or The
Tomb, and, in 1884, in conjunction with Captain Conder, he published Jerusalem.
In 1876, Brother Warren was appointed Special Commissioner
to settle the boundary line of the Orange Free State and, in 1877, to perform
the like service with regard to Griqualand West, for which he was thanked by the
Government for his services and awarded the C.M.C. The following year, 1878, saw
him engaged in the Griqua-Kaffir war, when he was wounded, awarded a medal,
thanked by the Imperial Government and the Provincial Legislature, and made a
Major and Lieutenant-General. He was in charge of the Diamond Field Force and
afterwards of the Field Force in Bechuanaland. During the Zulu War he organized
a volunteer force for the assistance of the Transvaal and Natal, acting in the
capacity of Commander-in-Chief, becoming, in 1879, Administrator of Griqualand
West. In 1880, he returned to England, and, in 1881, was appointed Instructor of
Surveying at Chatham. In 1882 he returned to Egypt, when he served under Arabi,
and was engaged in the special duty of restoring in the desert the authority of
the Khedive, and in bringing to justice the murderers of Professor Palmer and
his companions, whose bodies he recovered in 1882. For this purpose he entered
the Arabian deserts without escort, accompanied by Lieutenants Burton and
Haynes. In the same year he was appointed to a Colonelcy, being also awarded a
medal and Medjidie third class. In 1883 he was made K.C.M.G., and, in 1884, he
again proceeded to South Africa in command of the Bechuanaland expedition, and,
for his services there, he was, in the following year, created G.C.M.G. On his
return, in 1886, he was placed in command of the forces at Suakim, but was
recalled in the same year to reorganize the London police force as Chief
Commissioner, from which position he retired in 1888, being awarded the K. C. B.
for his services. From 1889 to 1894 he commanded the troops in the Straits
Settlements and, from 1895 to 1898, he was in command of the troops in the
Thames district. His last appointment was in 1899 and 1900, when he was
Lieutenant-General in command of the South African Field Force, when he was
mentioned in despatches.
Brother Sir Charles Warren was initiated into Freemasonry
in the Royal Lodge of Friendship, No. 278, Gibraltar, and was already a Past
Master and Past First Principal of a Royal Arch Chapter when he undertook the
Palestine Exploration. He was also a Past Master of the Charles Warren Lodge,
No. 1832, Kimberley, South Africa, but he is best known to English speaking
Freemasons as the first Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076. The
warrant for this lodge was granted on 28th November, 1884, but after the
application for the charter had been sent in, Brother Warren received his
command to repair to Bechuanaland. He asked his cofounders to make another
selection from among their number, but they did him the signal honor of
preferring to await his return to England, with the result that the lodge was
not consecrated until 12th January, 1886. He was appointed to the rank of Past
Grand Deacon of England in 1887 and from 1891 to 1894 he was District Grand
Master of the Eastern Archipelago.
----o----
FREEMASONRY IN CHILE
BY BROTHER GEORGE LANZAROTTI, CHILE
Here is an article of greater interest than most. Would we
had more like it! Aside from the contribution it makes to our knowledge of
Freemasonry in South America it is a reminder, gentle but firm, of the fact that
one should carefully consider the source of whatever he reads about Freemasonry
in Central and South America. Brother Lanzarotti will be very glad to
communicate with any Mason desiring further light on the subject. Address him
care THE BUILDER.
MANY American Masons I have met have such mistaken ideas
concerning Freemasonry in Chile that I have been moved to write these lines to
correct, if possible, these wrong impressions.
Among some American brethren the opinion is prevalent that
the Grand Lodge of Chile is based on the same principles as that of the Grand
Orient of France. This statement has some foundation due to the fact that up to
the year 1852 the native lodges existing in this country were under the
jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Bordeaux; but since 1852, when the Grand
Lodge of Chile was established, we have had no other connection with French
Masonry than of being on friendly relations, the same as maintained with all the
duly recognized Masonic powers of the world.
These brethren also believe that we have removed the Holy
Bible from our altar, and that our organization is composed mostly, if not
wholly, of atheists. This is far from the truth. We maintain the Holy Bible on
the altar, and every candidate has to accept the principle of the S.G.A.O.T.U.
before being accepted as a brother. There are many protestant pastors among the
members of the Chilean lodges who no doubt would have retired if they had found
in our meetings or rituals any inclination towards atheism. All the sessions in
our lodges are opened and closed to the Glory of the S.G.A.O.T.U.
Another charge against our Institution is that it is
believed to mix in politics; to this charge I will reply that our Constitution
strictly prohibits our Fraternity from dealing in either political or religious
matters! but as the majority of the Chilean Masons are also Chilean citizens, it
is not to be wondered at that they will back up, as good citizens, the political
parties that are more in harmony with their Masonic ideals.
To realize what has been performed by the Masons here,
towards the uplift of the moral and physical condition of the Chilean people, it
would be necessary to analyze the last six decades of the history of this
country: one would then discover that the promoters of many enterprises that had
the welfare of the nation in view were members of the Fraternity.
Regarding the spirit which prevails among the members, let
me give you the following case. There is a lodge located in an isolated village;
all its members are scattered around the country; the lodge meets twice a month;
some of the members live as far as forty miles away from the Temple and have no
other means to reach it than on horseback! and yet the attendance is never below
eighty-five per cent of its total membership!
The Grand Lodge of Chile has jurisdiction over fifty-eight
lodges; fifty-five of these are in Chilean territory and the other three on
Bolivian soil. There are also ten Triangles, or Lodges of Instruction, which are
expected to become duly constituted lodges within a short time. The principal
work carried on by these bodies is the promoting of universal education, and
although the obstacles to overcome are great, due to superstition and fanaticism
on the part of the bulk of the people, this work is steadily carried forward,
and the first ode of the Hymn of Victory will not be sung until illiteracy has
disappeared in this young republic.
So I pray you not to be the echo of our eternal enemy, but
please believe that the Fraternity at this end of the world is doing its best
and as much, if not more, than in some other countries.
----o----
Hail, Masonry! to thee we raise
The song of triumph, and of praise.
The Sun which shines supreme on high,
The Stars that glisten in the sky,
The Moon that yields her silver light,
And vivifies the lonely night,
Must by the course of Nature fade away,
And all the Earth alike in time decay;
But while they last shall Masonry endure,
Built on such Pillars solid and secure;
And at the last triumphantly shall rise
In Brotherly affection to the skies.
----o----
THE TRESTLE BOARD
BY BROTHER H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA
IN THE French town of Caudebec, which stands on the Seine
River, is the grave of one "Guillaume Letellier, master mason of the church, who
had the conduct of the works for thirty years and more, and erected the choir
and chapels." On the grave stone of this long forgotten Masonic brother who was
once a master builder is an inscribed drawing the plan of a building. It was
the custom of builder in those days to have their tools engraved on their grave
stones, just as knights and lords made use their heraldic devices. Brother
Letellier chose to be remembered as one who made designs for buildings and
therefore selected a building plan for his own during remembrances.
We do not need to be told how important in the work of
Operative Masons was the making of a plan for a building. "What has the Master
on his trestle board?" was a question often asked with keenest interest by the
workman. And because of this importance the trestle board, which represented
the whole labour of making plans, came to be used as a symbol, just as we found
Brother Letellier using it as a symbol his own life's work. When Masons ceased
to be Operative Masons, and turned their attention to the building of men in
fraternal life, they retained the trestle board as a symbol.
The trestle board in Speculative Masonry is a symbol of
that which we call an ideal. One should not be frightened by the use of this
word. It does not refer to something visionary, or far away, or, as our slang
expression has it, "highbrow." Quite the contrary!
Before we go on a journey we plan our travels, our railway
connections, our stop-overs, and our destination. Before we undertake to erect
a building we are so careful to have a plan that often we pay an expert to make
one for us. It would be equally wise if each of us were to have a plan
similarly for his own life. A plan for one's life is what we mean by an ideal.
It is a plan for doing things.
Also, an ideal is a plan for improving actual conditions.
If our lodge room were too small, or is badly ventilated, or inadequately
lighted, or the members quarrel among themselves we might feel very unhappy
because of such conditions: and some of us might put our heads together in an
effort to better conditions. We would say, "Let us do this, and that, and the
other thing, so that we can be happier in our lodge work." Such a plan for
bettering unsatisfactory conditions would be an ideal. It is something that we
would draw, to speak figuratively, on the trestle board of our lodge. Such an
effort to better actual conditions would not be "high brow"; on the contrary it
would recommend itself to men of sense and sagacity.
We Masons believe that condition could be improved in our
human world. We are too busy to dream impossible dreams about mankind: we are
too practical to wish to waste time and energy on unattainable aims. We do not
try the fantastical. But we know there are some things to be improved by plain
common sense efforts, and we are leagued together and solemnly sworn to assist
in such endeavors. This program for improving conditions among men is what we
mean by the Masonic ideal; it is what the Fraternity has drawn upon its trestle
board.
For instance, we Masons believe that much of the
unhappiness in the world is due to ignorance, and we believe that if all men
were well educated they would be happier than they are. We Masons, therefore,
wish to do all we can to uphold and improve the whole public school system, and
to try to make it possible for all the children of all the people to have all
the enlightenment that is possible under the circumstances. Brethren, let us
each one as individual Masons put that down on our own private trestle board.
Another example. Those of us who are acquainted with any
community know that men and women very seldomly live as happily with each other
as well as might be. We are all bound up together. We are compelled to live in
neighbourhoods. We must live together whether we choose it or not. Is it not
wise, then, for us to learn how to live happily together? The effort to bring
men and women into harmony with each other is the great aim of Brotherhood, and
this practical, common sense, hard-headed effort to organize human
neighbourhoods into human happiness, that is one of the great purposes of our
Fraternity. It is on our trestle board.
A final example. Nations, like individuals and families,
are also compelled to live together: there is no escape from that! But
unfortunately, nations have not as yet learned how to live happily together.
Ever so often they go to war, and then men and women suffer the most terrible
unhappiness known to our race. How can we eliminate war and do away with
national antagonisms is a difficult problem; the ways and means cannot be
discussed here. But we men, we Masons, know that it can be done, and we are
dedicated to the effort to do it. How to bring nations to live happily
together, that also is on our trestle board.
None of these things are impossible dreams. The more
experience and wisdom and common sense a man has, the more hard-headed he is,
the more will he wish these things to be. They, and the other plans we have for
improving conditions, will give us more prosperity, more money, more health, and
more happiness. It is to such an ideal that Masonry is dedicated. Brethren,
let us ourselves become dedicated also. Let us make such an ideal the symbol of
our lives, just as did the good Master Mason, Brother Letellier, long ago!
----o----
WAS DR. JOHNSON A FREEMASON?
SOME PHASES OF HIS LIFE
BY BROTHER ARTHUR HEIRON, ENGLAND
Dr. Samuel Johnson, the most picturesque figure in the
history of English literature, and the hero of the world's greatest, biography,
found the craft of writing English prose in the gutter, a profession for scamps
like rag picking, and by his own character and ability lifted it to the dignity
and power of a national art. His writings may sound pompous and unreal to us
now but in their own day were a marvel and they wrought miracles in English, so
that after these two hundred years one cannot move near him without coming under
his spell. His place in history is ample warrant for the exhaustive and patient
thoroughness with which Brother Heiron has undertaken to ascertain if he could
have been a member of the Fraternity. As one reads this remarkable essay he
finds Dr. Johnson growing very real and very human.
At the same time, and as a matter of even greater interest
to the readers of these pages, Brother Reiron's study brings out into vivid
colour a picture of the Craft as it was in the London of the early eighteenth
century, at which period Speculative Freemasonry was as yet in its swaddling
clothes. Brother Heiron is the author of "Ancient Freemasonry, and Old Dundee
Lodge. 18 - 1722 - 1920," a review of which was contributed by ye editor to page
243 of THE BUILDER for Sep. 1921.
THE ABOVE query has often exercised the minds of thoughtful
students, for there are so many ponderous phrases and involved sentences in our
ritual more especially in the Masonic lectures) that bear the impress of the
Johnsonian School, that even though we may not be able definitely to decide this
question, it does seem fairly certain that at some time or other - Dr. Johnson
(1709-1784) was a member of the Craft, it being quite clear now that several of
his most intimate friends and associates were themselves Freemasons.
Although on various occasions brethren in England and the
United States have asserted that he was a Craftsman, yet up to know no lodge has
definitely claimed him as a member, but the records of the "Old Dundee" Lodge,
No. 18 (English Constitutions) - which was No. 9 in 1755 and therefore one of
the oldest lodges in the world, Constituted 1722-23 - prove that in 1767, a
candidate named "Samuel Johnson" was "Made a Mason" and afterwards "Raised a
Master" in their lodge room situate on the first floor of a building in Red Lion
Street, Wapping, London, E., the freehold of which our ancient brethren had
purchased in 1763.
Now, as it was not customary until 1784 for the addresses
or descriptions of candidates to be written in the minute books or other records
of the lodge, there is no certain proof at present as to who this man was, but
the circumstances surrounding Dr. Johnson's life and habits at this period of
1767 are so strange and complex that many brethren believe the identity of this
candidate with the author of the "Dictionary of the English language" to admit
of but little doubt, and unless and until a satisfactory and complete "alibi"
can be proved to the contrary, the evidence seems in favour of this suggestion.
The full story is told in detail in Chapter XIV of a
History of Freemasonry in the 18th Century, published by Kenning & Son, London,
in 1921 entitled "Ancient Freemasonry, and the Old Dundee Lodge No. 18 - 1722 -
1920" to which further reference may be made.
In order to appreciate this story one must try and
understand the real man himself; it will therefore now be necessary to recall to
memory various incidents in the life of Dr. Johnson that make manifest his
bohemian disposition and the lighter side of his life that are not often
investigated or discussed, for when he is quoted in these present days the
motive seems chiefly an attempt to impress the reader with some witty or
apposite saying of the learned sage.
But there is obviously another side of his character and
disposition that deserves attention and this phase is very apparent in the Story
of his life written by his devoted friend - one night almost say "slave" - , to
wit, "James Boswell."
It will also be very essential to refer to his
"constitutional melancholy" which Johnson said was the "curse of his life" and
accounts for much of the irregular conduct so often alluded to by his
biographer.
A Freemason of considerable repute and standing stated
recently that he could not believe that a mam of Dr. Johnson's steady character
and deep religious principles would have so lowered himself as to frequent a
rough neighbourhood as Wapping undoubtedly was in 1767; he admitted however that
he had not studied the details of Johnson's life and that his knowledge was
merely confined to his literary work. To contradict this erroneous view this
article has been written, in order partly to demonstrate that one who was so
humorous and full of fun, so fond of club life, such a frequenter of taverns as
Johnson was, is singled out just the type of man who could have loved to join a
Freemasons' lodge, for in those far-off days a lodge much resembled a social
Masonic club.
The full responsibility for the discussion of this subject
however really rests with Dr. Johnson himself, for if he had not told the world
in 1783 (through Boswell) that Johnson - was intimately acquainted with Wapping
(then the Port of London) this story would never have seen the light of day; it
certainly would not have originated from the musings of an innocent and unknown
writer.
It is desired however at the outset most emphatically to
state that in reproducing some of these episodes in Johnson's life, there is not
the slightest desire to say anything that might wound the feelings of those who
hold his memory in reverence nor any intention to derogate from the high
position he holds in the general estimation as a teacher of moral truth and
virtue. Great allowance has also to be made for the atmosphere in which Dr.
Johnson lived: it was a coarse and rough age indeed and things happened then
that would seem incredible in the London of 1922.
BOSWELL'S DIFFIDENCE
Boswell at one time felt doubtful as to publishing all he
knew, and in 1768 he actually asked Johnson if he objected to his letters being
published after his death. His answer was, "Nay, Sir, when I am dead, do as you
will." Boswell further says: "When I delineate him without reserve, I do what he
(Johnson) himself recommended both by his precept and example." Dr. Johnson
himself said in 1777: "If a man professes to write a life, he must represent it
really as it was"; and further, "that a man's intimate friend should mention his
faults, if he writes his life."
Boswell in dedicating his immortal work to Sir Joshua
Reynolds says in 1791: "I have therefore in this Work been more reserved, and
though I tell nothing but the truth, I have still kept in my mind that the whole
truth is not always to be exposed": and lastly on this point "Bozzy" wrote: "I
will not make my tiger a cat to please anybody."
And now for the information of those who have had no
opportunity to study the career of Johnson, a short sketch of his early history
is now given; this may save some effort to the reader, for Boswell's "Life of
Johnson" is a lengthy work, the popular edition two volumes containing nearly
1,300 pages of small print.
A FEW DETAILS OF JOHNSON'S PRIVATE LIFE
Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield in Staffordshire in
1709, his father, Michael Johnson, being bookseller in that city.
Now Samuel possessed robust body and active mind but
unfortunately also inherited a tendency to scrofula, which affected his eye
sight, and still worse "a melancholy" which had much to do with his physical
mental and sufferings so often referred to by Boswell; we are also told that
when an infant only about two years old, he was taken to London and "touched by
Queen Anne for the evil"; it is said that this was perhaps the last instance of
the exercise of such Royal condescension.
His early education was received at two grammar schools;
then in his nineteenth year he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, but after a
residence of about three years left the University without taking a degree. His
father dying in very poor circumstances in 1731, Johnson remarked, "I must now
make my own fortune," and then commenced a hard struggle for existence.
HIS MARRIAGE
In 1735 (when only twenty-six years old) he married Mrs.
Elizabeth Porter, the widow of a Birmingham mercer: she was nearly forty-seven
(twenty years older than Johnson) but as he was almost penniless and she brought
him a dowry of 800 pounds, this may perhaps have influenced his mind, for his
lifelong friend, David Garrick, described this good lady as "very fat with a
bosom of more than ordinary protuberance with swelled cheeks of a florid red,
produced by thick painting and increased by the liberal use of cordials -
flaming and fantastic in her dress and affected both her speech and general
behaviour." There were no children born of this ill-assorted marriage but on the
whole the quaint pair seemed to have been fairly happy for when she died in
1752, Johnson was much distress and on the anniversaries of her death it was his
custom to remember her in prayer.
HIS SCHOOL
With the assistance of his wife's dowry he started a small
school, for in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1736 there appeared the following
advertisement: "At Edial, near Lichfield in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are
boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages by Samuel Johnson."
According to Boswell, he only had about three pupils, the
chief one being the celebrated "David Garrick" (1716-1779). His scholars were
not very dutiful, for we are told "the young rogues used to listen at the door
of his bedchamber and peep through the keyhole that they might turn into
ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson," whom he used to
call "Tetty" a pet name for Elizabeth.
The school soon proved a failure and in 1737 Johnson (aged
twenty-eight) started out for London accompanied by his pupil, David Garrick,
both impecunious, each to try his fortune in the great metropolis. Garrick
became the world famed actor, whilst Samuel Johnson raised himself by industry
and ability to the foremost rank of authors and, thanks to Boswell, (wherever
the English language is spoken) his name will now never die. Later in life
Johnson referred to their mutual poverty at this period with these words: "when
I came to London (in 1737) with two pence half-penny in my pocket, and thou,
Davy, with three-half pence in thine." The above was virtually the only serious
love affair in Johnson's life. Left a widower in 1752 (when only forty-three
years old) he never essayed matrimony again but seemed content to live the
solitary life of a single man, so that when our story from Wapping commences in
1767 he had been a widower for fifteen years. Johnson's views as regards the
advantages or the reverse of married life were rather mixed; once he said of
another: "He has done a very foolish thing, Sir, he has married a widow, when he
might have had a maid"; and yet, he had married a widow himself! Boswell tells
us that, "A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately
after his wife died. Johnson remarked 'it was the triumph of hope over
experience!'"
JOHNSON AND SAVAGE
Johnson (aged twenty-nine) now commences life in London but
unfortunately before long became friendly with one "Richard Savage," a
dissipated and profligate man, well acquainted with the lower life of London,
and who doubtless introduced Johnson to the frivolities of Wapping. They were
both poor and Boswell says, "they (Savage and Johnson) were sometimes in such
extreme indigence that they could not pay for a lodging, so that they have
wandered together whole nights in the streets."
The following dates are here given:-
1709. Samuel Johnson born at Lichfield.
1755. "Dictionary of the English Language," by Samuel
Johnson, A. M. (now first published).
1756. Johnson arrested for debt.
1762. An annual pension of 300 pounds granted to Johnson
by the Tory Government under Lord Bute.
1763. Boswell (aged 23) first introduced to Johnson (aged
54), a forerunner of about 270 subsequent meetings.
1784. Dr. Johnsons death and burial in Westminster Abbey.
1791. Boswell's "Life of Johnson" published.
We now come to the story that hails from Wapping.
Extracts from Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
Dr. Johnson's Advice to Boswell (1783).
EXPLORE WAPPING
1783, April 12. Saturday. "I (James Boswell) visited him in
company with Mr. Windham of Norfolk. He (Dr. Johnson) talked today a good deal
of the wonderful extent and variety of London, and observed that men of curious
inquiry might see in it such modes of life as very few could even imagine. He
in particular recommended us to 'Explore Wapping,' which we resolved to do, and
certainly shall."
BOSWELL AND WINDHAM VISIT WAPPING (1792)
Note. The first edition of Boswell was published in 1791
and contains the above last three words "and certainly shall," but in the second
edition of 1793 these three words are omitted, and instead we have the following
addendum, viz:
A footnote by Boswell states: "We accordingly carried our
Scheme into execution in October 1792, but whether from that uniformity which
has in modern times to a great degree spread throughout every part of the
Metropolis or from our want of sufficient exertion we were disappointed."
Note the astonishment of Boswell. Evidently the learned
Doctor had never before in their previous conversations referred to Wapping; it
was clearly some private experience that Johnson had carefully kept to himself
and now leaked out by accident for the first time. (It is obvious that he did
not tell all his secrets to Boswell, thirty-one years his junior. Why should
he?) Now Johnson died the next year (1784) but Boswell was so much impressed
that he could not forget those words, and so in 1792 (nine years after this
strange advise and eight years after Dr. Johnson's death) determined to
investigate the matter for himself. He therefore made a special journey to
Wapping with his friend Windham - doubtless in the day time - but without
success.
Now at this period Wapping, situate not far below London
Bridge, was the Port of London, many sailing vessels of from two to four hundred
tons burthen laying at anchor there in the "Pool" in the River Thames. There
were also about forty taverns in the neighbourhood ready to supply refreshment
and amusements (dancing, bear-baiting, dog fights, cock-fighting, female
pugilists, etc., etc.) for the large number of British and foreign sailors who
were often detained in the Port for several weeks waiting for a return cargo to
distant shores. It is however more than probable that if Boswell had penetrated
at night - in charge of a suitable guide - into the purlieus of the place, he
would have fully realized what Dr. Johnson referred to when he advised his two
friends to "Explore Wapping" and also said, "that men of curious inquiry might
see in it (Wapping) such modes of life as very few could even imagine." In more
modern days Ratcliffe Highway, which adjoined Wapping, also had a very dangerous
and unsavoury reputation.
[Note. The "Windham" above referred to was the Rt. Hon.
William Windham, D.C.L. (1750-1810.) He was a distinguished statesman and
scholar and in 1782 was elected M.P. for Norwich; and in 1794 under Mr. Pitt was
appointed Secretary at War. He was an intimate and valued friend of Dr.
Johnson, and was in close attendance on him during his last illness in 1784.
Boswell tells us: "Mr. Windham having placed a pillow
conveniently to support him, he (Johnson) thanked him for his kindness and said,
'That will do, - all that a pillow can do.'" Windham was also present at the
funeral of Dr. Johnson in Westminster Abbey, acting as one of the pallbearers.
This same James Boswell, who thus accompanied Windham on
their visit of exploration to Wapping in 1792, was a Mason of high degree,
having attained the rank of Deputy Grand Master of Scotland in 1776 and 1777.]
A "SAML. JOHNSON" MADE IN 1767 - EXTRACTS FROM MINUTE BOOKS
OF "OLD DUNDEE"
1767, May 14. "Lodge Night. Bro. Dormer proposed Mr. Samuel
Johnson ... to be made a Mason in this Lodge next Lodge Night, 2nd. and
deposited 10s. 6d. [Brother Dormer was an old Past Master, I. 1746, and a
pipemaker.]
May 28. "Lodge Night. Mr. Samuel Johnson was Accepted."
June 11. "Lodge Night. Agreeable to the proposal of Bro.
Dormer, Mr. Saml. Johnson was Made a Mason for which Honour he paid Two pounds
two." "Likewise Bro. Dormer proposed Bro. Johnson to be Raised a Master Mason
next Lodge Night, 2nd. and Deposited 2s. 6d"
July 9. "Lodge Night. Agreeable to proposal of last Lodge
Night, Bro. Johnson was Raised a Master, for which Honour he paid Five
Shillings." [Note. Mr. Saml. Johnson is now a Master Mason and a member of the
"Dundee Lodge," No. 9 (now No. 18) meeting at their own freehold in Red Lion
Street, Wapping: it was not customary in 1767 for the addresses or description
of candidates to be inserted in the lodge's books, and it is very doubtful if
they were even mentioned in open lodge, the recommendation of an old Past Master
being quite sufficient. If the candidate was respectable they were glad to have
him, the extra fees meant that the supply of liquid refreshment would be
increased, a dominant factor in those days.]
BRO. SAML. JOHNSON ATTENDED TWENTY-ONE TIMES
According to the Secretary's entries in the minute book,
Bro. Samuel Johnson (whoever he was) made twenty-one attendances at the "Dundee
Lodge" at Wapping, and was a member for three-and-a-half years; he paid his
"Dues" and then ceased his membership Christmas 1770.
His twenty-one recorded visits were on the following dates,
viz:
1767. June 11, June 25, July 9, December 2 (Feast Day).
1768. June 23, July 14, August 11, August 25 October 27,
December 8, December 22.
1769. January 26, February 10, March 23, April 13, April
17, April 27, May 11.
1770. September 13, November 8, December 13.
These twenty-one dates have been careful checked as far as
possible with the recorded movements of Dr. Johnson, and it seems clear to the
writer that he could have been present at Wapping on the days referred to if it
had been his desire so to do. On various occasions in 1768 and 1769 when Dr.
Johnson was undoubtedly at Oxford or at Brightelmstone (Brighton) his presence
at Wapping is not recorded in the lodge books; this may only be negative
evidence but rather leads one to think that our member, "Samuel Johnson," was
really identical with the learned Doctor himself. Of all this more anon.
(To be continued)
----o----
GOVERNMENT TO ASSIST IN SHRINE MEET IN JUNE
Washington, D.C. - The Imperial Council Session of the
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North America, which will
occur in Washington in June, 1923, is expected to bring to the Capital City the
largest crowd of sightseers which has ever invaded it. It is predicted, from
requests for parking space for railroad ears, and reservations made in hotels,
that more than three hundred thousand visitors will crowd Washington dung Shrine
week.
Provisions for the comfort and safety is made in a joint
resolution introduced n the Senate by Chairman Ball, of the Senate District
Committee. This resolution appropriates $25,000 or so much of that sum as may be
necessary for the maintenance of public order, the safety of the public, etc.,
during the annual session of the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine.
The convention will be held from June 3 to June 7,
inclusive, but the appropriation covers the period from May 25 to June 10.
The resolution also appropriates funds for the erection of
temporary public convenience stations, information booths, etc. The
commissioners are to be authorized to make special police regulations for the
occasion, to fix passenger fares, and otherwise control the public utilities
that would be called into service. - Capital News Service.
----o----
A BUILDER
Beneath his hand the tiered marble grew;
By day he wrought and night;
He reared the glistening white
In many-columned grandeur, strong and true,
To meet glad heaven's down-bending arch of blue.
But just when with delight
The craft began with might
To shape his dreams, he turned to structures new
The thronging, anxious workmen sought in vain
Their master everywhere;
His trestle-board was bare
Of all the high designs of heart and brain.
In dust, Time that unfinished labor rolls
Not stones, alas, but souls.
- Selected.
----o----
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS -
WILLIAM PINKNEY
BY BRO. G. W. BAIRD. P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WILLIAM PINKNEY, who was a member of Amanda Lodge, of
Annapolis, Md., was Jiborn in that city in 1774. His parents were English and
Loyalists but the boy, like so many other youths in similar circumstances,
became staunchly patriot.
He commenced the study of law in the office of Samuel Chase
in 1786, began his own practice in Harford County two years later, and became in
time a remarkably able lawyer and orator of the old school. He was elected to be
representative in the Maryland House of Delegates, and at the same period was
made a state delegate to revise the Constitutions of the United States.
He married Miss Rodgers, at Havre-de-Grace, the sister of
the famous Common core John Rodgers of the Navy. A large family was born of this
union, and their descendants are much in evidence in the state of Maryland
today. In person Mr. Pinkney was a handsome man, with "complexion fair, and
light brown hair," and it is said that he had a pleasant voice, so pleasant that
it materially assisted him in winning his hearers to his side.
While a member of the Maryland House of Delegates he
attracted much attention through his able advocacy of the right of slave owners
to manumit their own slaves. Until 1795 he served as a member of the Maryland
Executive Council. Later he went as a delegate from Arundel County to the state
legislature.
General Washington appointed Mr. Pinkney in 1796 a
commissioner to England in accordance with the seventh article of Jay's treaty
in order to settle with the British Government claims made by merchants of the
United States for damages occurring through "irregular or illegal captures or
condemnations"; and during this same period succeeded in establishing in the
British courts the claim of the State of Maryland to own certain stock in the
Bank of England.
Throughout these official labors in London a number of
important questions came up concerning international law, such as the practices
of prize courts, the laws of contraband, domicile, blockade, etc.; on these
questions Mr. Pinkney submitted written opinions
which are to this day accepted as models of powerful
rgument and judicial eloquence.
Soon after his return to the United States in 1804 he
removed his residence from Annapolis to Baltimore, and in 1805 was appointed
Attorney General of the state. In 1806 he was made commissioner with James
Monroe, then minister to England, to treat with the British Government
concerning the capture of neutral ships in time of war; these negotiations were
partly responsible for the War of 1812. Mr. Pinkney was eminently successful in
his share of the conduct of these negotiations and did not return home until
1811, when he was recalled at his own solicitation.
Upon his return he was elected to the senate of Maryland,
but in the following December was appointed Attorney General of the United
States. He took a prominent part in the demonstrations growing out of the War of
1812 and himself commanded a batallion which he raised for the defense of
Baltimore. He was wounded severely in the Battle of Blandensburg.
In 1816 he served in the United States Congress as
Representative and in 1816 - 1818 was made minister plenipotentiary to Russia
and a special minister to Naples, at which latter place he undertook to secure
indemnity for American merchants who had property confiscated: but in this
mission he met with no success. Upon his return to the United States he was
elected to the Senate and held that place until he died at Washington in 1822,
at the comparatively early age of fifty-eight.
He was buried in Congressional Cemetery at Washington,
which was the property of Christ Church (Episcopal). In this it was the custom
at the time to erect little inexpensive slaloms of stone whenever a member of
Congress died. On one of these little stones we may read:
"In memory of the Honorable William Pinkney, Senator of
Maryland in the Congress of the United States. Died February 25th, 1822."
Time has so nearly obliterated the letters that this
inscription is now very difficult to read. The writer would invite the attention
of the Fraternity and of Patriotic Societies to the fading of these precious
records, the very existence of which may soon be disputed by treasonous
hyphenated foreigners who are already trying to re-write American history in
their own interests.
The writer would also call attention to another point made
clear in these memoirs. In the early days of the Republic, and in spite of
constant friction with Great Britain, our envoys met with less friction and
obstruction in England than in any other land.
----o----
THE AMEX-MASONIC CLUB
BY BROTHER AUBREY O. BRAY, ARIZONA
Brother A. O. Bray, the author of the present article, has
presented to us an interesting account of the formation of one of our Overseas
Masonic Clubs. His recital reproduces so vividly the obstacles that presented
themselves to so many of our clubs that what he says for the Amex Club will
stand with minor modifications for many of the others. The Amex Club was one of
our most vigorous and helpful clubs and ministered to scores of the Craftsmen.
On page 166 of THE BUILDER for last June I made an
announcement concerning an effort being made by the National Masonic Research
Society to secure and collate all possible data concerning Freemasonry in the
World War. This work, the direction of which has been entrusted to me, is
progressing rapidly. Every brother who possesses such information as that
contained in the splendid article below should send the same to me.
Brother Bray is now an attorney in Tucson, Arizona. His
affiliations are numerous: John El. Felts Lodge No. 29, Norwood, Georgia; Hubert
Chapter No. 120 R.A.M., Warrenton, Georgia; Plantagenet Commandery No. 12,
Milledgeville, Gal; Al-Sihah Temple, Macon, Gal; Square and Compass Club,
College of Law, University of Southern California. Phi Alpha Mu (Masonic)
Fraternity, University of Southern California; Corresponding Member, Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, London. For further reference to the Amex Club see THE BUILDER,
January 1922, page 5; April 1922, page 159.
Charles F. Irwin, Associate Editor.
SOON AFTER my return to the States and discharge from the
army there came to me the idea of writing up some of my experiences in which
Masonry had a part while I was in the army. The ones of most interest to the
Craft in general would, of course, be those which occurred in connection with
the Amex-Masonic Club, at Camp De Souge, France, which it was my good fortune to
assist in organizing. On account of subsequent injuries, and nearly four months
in the hospitals, my memory was somewhat dulled and I was unable to call to mind
the names of many brothers who took an active part in both the formation of the
club and its work. Also I had not heard anything from the club since the date of
leaving Camp De Souge for the front. I immediately began efforts to secure the
records of the club so as to refresh my memory and get the subsequent activities
in which it engaged. But unfortunately it has proved difficult to dig up the
facts. I followed up every clew without any success. Brother William G. Prime of
New York, a member of the Masonic Overseas Mission, was also consulted, as he
had visited the club while in France. So far I have been unable to locate them.
Brother Irwin, who is laboring so hard in this field, has
been insisting that I go ahead and write up what I remember, leaving the rest,
and subsequent events, to be written up when the records are discovered. If any
brother who had an active part in the work of the Club during the time of which
I write is not mentioned by name, he will please understand that it is not an
intentional slight, but a failure of memory.
About the middle of July, 1918, I was taken with an attack
of "flu," then just beginning its start in our army, and sent to the camp
hospital at De Souge. I soon discovered that the man in the bed next to me was
Scottish Rite Mason, Corporal Chambers of Battery A, 342 F. A. As our beds
almost touched we began to hold brotherly conversation before either of us was
able to sit up. As soon as we were able to get out of bed and walk around, we
found several other Masons in the same ward. Just about this time the wounded
men from the front began to arrive at our hospital. We found several who had not
been paid for some time, and consequently were absolutely penniless. Also many
of them had not had an opportunity to converse with brethren many months. Some
were very downhearted as a result of the hardships which they had suffered, and
the inadequate medical attention they had received. It was a great relief to
them to again have an opportunity to talk with brethren.
It was while convalescent in this hospital, and as a result
of seeing these men, that there came to me the idea of some kind of Masonic
organization at the camp to get the brethren together, and to relieve some of
the sufferings and hardships incident to the service, and especially of those in
the hospital.
On rejoining my regiment, I found that the same idea had
already been discussed among the brethren there. Some time during the first week
in August several of the brethren, among whom were Sergeant Rhinehold, Supply
Sergeant of Battery C, 340 F. A., Sergeant Dick Schuster, Battery C, Jay N.
Christman of the Medical detachment, and myself, were in the supply room of
Battery C one afternoon after retreat, discussing the question of an
organization. We decided that the organization should embrace the entire camp.
We set an afternoon for the formal organization and resolved to pass the word
around to all the brethren with whom we came into contact in the meantime,
asking them to pass it along likewise.
The meeting was to be held in the same room, Battery C
supply room, and long before the hour set the room was crowded to overflowing.
Just across the parade ground was a large pit from which gravel for making roads
through the camp was taken. We decided to emulate the custom of our ancient
brothers of meeting on the highest hills and in the lowest vales, and
consequently adjourned to the gravel pit.
The sun was just disappearing in one of those beautiful red
sunsets in a cloudless sky which defies all description, when we reached the
rendezvous. In the twilight - which is much longer in that latitude than hero
between sunset and dark a permanent organization was formed. Brother Warren D.
Vincent, affectionately known as "Dad," of Hoisington Lodge No. 331, Hoisington,
Kansas, Supply Sergeant of the 314th Ammunition Train, was elected president.
The writer was elected secretary and treasurer, and accepted upon the condition
that brother Montgomery of the Ammunition Train be appointed assistant, which
was done. Brother Max A. Payne, Zion Lodge No. 1, Detroit, was elected
corresponding secretary. There were other officers elected but I cannot recall
them. I will pause here long enough to say that brother Montgomery kept the
books for the secretary-treasurer, and to extend my appreciation to him for the
efficiency with which he kept them, and the work he relieved me of. Brother Will
Hetherington, Nebraska Lodge No. 1, Omaha, Neb., also rendered appreciated
assistance in preparing the minutes from my notes, as he wrote a legible hand,
which I did not, and had more time. Brother Montgomery was also appointed
chairman of the hospital visitation committee.
MEET IN A "Y" BUILDING
It was decided to hold the next meeting one week later at
the Y.M.C.A. building nearest brigade area. Permission for the use of a room was
secured, notices posted in all the Y.M.C.A. buildings in camp, and all brethren
asked to pass the word at every opportunity. We thought that the room at the "Y"
would be large enough to accommodate all who would wish to attend, but soon it
was too crowded to carry on business, and a large crowd gathered outside. Again
we were forced to resort to the customs of our ancient brethren, and adjourned
to the top of a small sand hill just west of the "Y" building. To use the words
of "Dad" Vincent, "we adjourned to the top of Mount Moriah."
At this meeting the constitution prepared by the
constitutional committee was adopted, and the prior election of officers was
confirmed. The name of "Amex-Masonic Club" was adopted for the organization.
This meeting lasted for some time after dark. There had been about forty
brethren at the meeting in the gravel pit, but there were over two hundred at
this meeting. That will give you some idea of how the club grew, and of the work
of the secretary-treasurer at this meeting. Some of the brethren produced a
couple of candles for the secretary's use when it grew dark, and one of the
writer's most vivid recollections is of lying sprawled out in the sand upon his
stomach while he collected the five-franc registration fee and scribbled down
the names and lodges of the new members by the light of these candles.
The purposes of the club were to bring the brethren in the
various organizations in camp into communication and thereby promote Masonic
fellowship; to further the application of Masonic principles to the daily lives
of the brethren; and to relieve in every way possible the hardships incident to
the service, especially of the brethren in the camp hospital.
To provide the necessary funds a registration fee of five
francs, about eighty cents at that time, was charged. As all the organizations
at camp, except the regular camp forces, were there just temporarily for
training before going to the front, it was believed that the brethren in the
incoming organizations would about equal in number the brethren in the outgoing
organizations. As there was a brigade leaving and one entering camp almost every
day, our membership would be kept at about the same number and a sufficient
income would be produced from the registration fees of the new members. These
surmises proved correct. After reaching a membership of about 350 at the third
meeting, it remained around that figure as long as I was at camp, with a steady
income from new registrations. The club prospered financially as will be shown
later on.
It is easy to be seen from the foregoing that the problem
of an adequate place to meet was a very pressing one at this time. There was
only one building large enough for our needs in our brigade area: that was the
mess hall of the 314th Ammunition Train. "Dad," the president, secured
permission from the commanding officer of the Train to use this hall for our
meetings. The problem of lighting then confronted us. There were no lights in
any of the barracks or mess halls in our area. On account of the "daylight
saving" craze Was then at its height, breakfast was the only meal at which
lights were needed. The Government seemed to think that we could eat breakfast
in the dark, and that we should be in bed by dark anyway. By the time the
Ammunition Train finished the evening mess it was too dark in the hall to carry
on business. Brother Vance, Sergeant in the Camp Engineers, used a pull with the
camp electrician and got the hall wired and furnished with globes for us.
We were now in position to hold some real meetings. The
first meeting in the mess hall, which was the third held by the club, almost
filled the hall to capacity. According to a notation made in my field memorandum
book, Lieutenant Weatherwax, of St. Charles Lodge No. 141, Charles City, Iowa,
was registered as a member at this meeting, and was the first commissioned
officer to enter the club. Other officers soon came in, Captain W. H. Mick, of
Nebraska Lodge No. 1, Omaha, Nebraska, finally becoming president of the club.
While I am speaking of officers, I will relate this incident. At one of our
meetings in the mess hall a major made a talk in which he said that he had known
many Masons in the army, from the highest officers to the "buck" private, in all
branches of the service, and that he had never seen one shirk his duty in the
least.
FORAGING FOR REFRESHMENTS
In the interim between the meeting on the sand hill and the
first meeting in the mess hall, the executive committee decided that we should
have some refreshments at the meeting. This policy was approved. the club and
became a fixed custom. One of the first decisions in regard to refreshments was
that we would not have anything to drink, as we felt that the boys were getting
enough of that on the outside. It was very difficult to get anything suitable in
sufficient quantities for such a large number on account of the food situation
in France at that time. Of course, anything which necessitated cooking was out
of the question, as such refreshments were impossible under the conditions.
There seemed to be a good supply of grapes Old nuts at the French stands set up
along the roads leading into the camp and just outside the camp gates. We could
get tobacco and cigarettes from the quartermaster, and occasionally a box of
cigars. It proved harder to get sufficient quantities of grapes and nuts than it
first seemed. I went out among the French stands "well heeled" with club funds,
but the French would not sell any large quantities, even at higher prices than
they were charging (and they severe charging enough). I even offered to buy the
entire stock but they all turned me down. Returning into camp greatly
disappointed, I met Mess Sergeant Charlie Murphy, of Battery E, 340th
F.A. a devout Roman Catholic and Knight of Columbus, just going out on a ration
expedition himself. I knew that Murphy was the best rustler of rations in the
army, as I was in Battery E for the first ten months I was in the service. Also,
I knew Murphy well personally. We lived in the same little Arizona town, and
went to camp together at the first call. I knew that if anybody could get what
we wanted, Murphy could. I told him my troubles in full. A bargain was
immediately made, whereby a Knight of Columbus became purchasing agent for a
Masonic club. Nobody could have filled the bill better. As long as Murphy and
myself remained at camp we were well supplied. It was a matter of great personal
sorrow to me to learn that after the armistice, Murphy died of pneumonia in
Germany.
While I am on the subject of the refreshments I shall tell
a little incident on "Dad," our president, which was the cause of many good
natured jokes at his expense. Dad was going up to Bordeaux on a quartermaster
truck one day and suggested that he buy up a supply of refreshments for the next
meeting while he was in Bordeaux and have them brought back on the truck. This
met with hearty approval, as we were sure he could get up a fine layout in the
big city. Dad returned in a touring car with an officer and the truck came on
later, but without Dad's purchases! Dad had bought a lot of stuff and had it all
collected in one French store for the truck to call and bring to camp. The truck
never succeeded in getting it. Whether Dad, a stranger in Bordeaux was unable to
give the truck driver correct directions; whether the truck driver was unable to
follow Dad's directions; whether the shrewd Frenchman saw a chance to grab the
stuff; or whether the truck driver got it and disposed of it to his own profit,
we were unable to learn.
The hospital committee under brother Montgomery did great
work among the brethren in the hospital. After every meeting of the club there
were always some smokes, grapes, and nuts left over. These were turned over to
the hospital committee for distribution among the sick and wounded in addition
to the regular hospital appropriation. One of the men on duty in the receiving
ward of the hospital was a brother, and assisted in locating sick and wounded
brothers in the wards. Several times a week brother Montgomery and his committee
went through the hospital distributing fruits, smokes, etc., to the wounded
brethren. Messages from and to the sick brothers in the hospital were carried by
the committee to and from friends and brothers on the outside. Many of the men
in the hospital were in low spirits, and it was a source of great cheer to them
to see and talk with the committee, and to know that the Great Fraternity to
which they belonged had not forgotten them, even though our Government, or
perhaps I should say the Secretary of War, apparently discriminated against it
and would not allow it to engage in any organized effort on behalf of the
soldiers in our armies. * Each brother felt himself a committee of one,
representing his lodge, and Masonry in general, charged with the duty of
assisting the brethren, extending charity and relief to all his fellow men, and
exemplifying Masonic principles and traditions in his daily relations with his
fellow men. Of the work done by individual Masons in combating Bolsheviki ideas
among the troops after the armistice, I may speak in a later article. It was
worth all of our efforts in behalf of the sick brethren to see the changes in
their faces, and observe the new tenor of their conversation after a few minutes
of talk with the committee. Brother Montgomery reported one man in the hospital
who had been elected to take his degrees in a Pennsylvania lodge, but before
having an opportunity to take them, had been sent overseas. In the fighting at
Chateau-Thierry he had a leg shot off. The Club instructed the committee to
treat him as a brother. I have often wondered if he ever got his degrees.
TO THE FRONT
Near the first of September there came a rumor that orders
had been issued for our Brigade to move toward the front. Consequently at the
next meeting an election was held to replace the club officers who were in our
Brigade. Brother Vance, whose first name and lodge I do not remember, of the
Camp Engineers, was elected president, and a Corporal in the Camp Quartermaster
Corps was elected secretary. There were other changes, but being unable to
recollect them and having no records I am unable to give them.
I will ask the reader to pardon me while I relate a
personal incident which illustrates some of the fortunes of war. The day before
we left camp, about September 10, 1918, our regiment was paid, which was the
last pay day I had until I reached Newport News, Va., December 30th, 1918.
Everybody knew that we were leaving immediately for somewhere on the front, and
that it would in all probability be the last pay day we would have in many
months, if indeed we were ever to get another one before returning to the
States. A1though having unlimited funds in France, the paymaster's machinery was
completely "bogged down." I had in my purse about a thousand francs which
belonged to the club, and about four hundred francs of my own, mostly saved up
while I was sick and unable to spend it. After every meeting of the Club I would
bring the money I received from the registration fees, mostly five-franc notes,
to the barracks and trade in the small notes among the men for large ones so as
to reduce the bulk of the roll. Knowing that everybody in the barracks had seen
me with this unusual roll of money, I always slept in my shirt with my purse
buttoned up in my shirt pocket. Getting a few minutes off from the work of
preparing for departure, I went over to the quarters of Sergeant Vance, the
newly-elected president, took all the books, with the treasurer's book balanced,
and settled with him in full, paying him about a thousand francs. In my hurry to
get back, after settling with him, I put my purse in my blouse pocket instead of
my shirt pocket. Passing through the barracks on my way to work, I removed my
blouse and threw it on my bunk, forgetting that my purse was in it. When I
returned somebody had stolen the purse. They made a pretty good haul as it was,
but I have an idea that they were disappointed in not getting the club funds
also. Had they been ten minutes sooner, they would have put me in a very
embarrassing position with the brethren as I would not have been able to replace
the money at that time. No doubt my explanation would have been accepted without
question, but I would never have felt right about it. In this instance "Lady
Luck" was both with me and against me.
My lodge card and all my identification papers were in the
purse. I soon realized that to locate the thief was impossible, I posted notices
that if my lodge card and papers were placed where I would find them, I would
forget about the money and ask no questions, but they were never returned.
I was now about to begin the journey to the front, facing
the possibility of not getting another pay day, and getting wounded, with months
in the hospitals without a cent (which actually happened), or of being captured
and having no funds with which to better my condition. The brethren in my
company, among whom were brothers Will Hetherington, Nebraska Lodge No. 1,
Omaha, Jesse Sollenberger, Pelton, Geil, and others, whose names I do not
remember, each contributed a loan of five francs. This came in very handy, and I
made it go as far as possible during the three months I was in the hospitals
after getting gassed at Thiacourt on October 4th.
THE CLUB PROSPERS
It will be seen that the club was in a growing condition,
and prosperous financially when I left. It must have continued to prosper, for I
have a letter from Dr. (formerly Captain) W. H. Mick, Nebraska Lodge No. 1,
Omaha, saying that upon his return to the States in January 1919, he deposited
with the Grand Master of New York one thousand francs, the property of the club,
and that he later received acknowledgment of receipt from brother Boaz, the
subsequent president of the club. Brother flick was president of the club when
ordered to the States, and did not have time to account with his successor in
office.
Brother William C. Prime, of New York, in his report to the
Masonic Service Association, mentions visiting this club in April 1919. ** It
must have been active up until the time the camp was finally abandoned. The
information I have at present indicates that Brother Boas was the last president
of the club, but I have been unable to ascertain his lodge or his address. Both
Captain Hick and myself have exhausted every lead we could get, but without
success. If any brother reading this can assist in locating him, please
communicate with me at once.
Any brother having information of the activities of the
club subsequent to September 10th, 1918, or of anything previous to that time
not mentioned herein, will do a great favor by communicating with me. I consider
this just the beginning of the history of the club, which I hope to revise and
complete at a later date when time and diligent search reveal the records.
* On this subject see THE BUILDER, Vol. V, 1919, pages 59,
87, 115.
** See THE BUILDER, December, 1920, page 324.
----o----
WE BUILD!
We Build!
It matters not the stuff or stock we use,
The hours of labor or the tools we choose,
If out each soaring plan be drawn aright,
If but our course be ever toward the light;
Nor need we haggle o'er the day's reward,
Whose toil is honest in the eyes of God.
We Build!
It matters not the how, the when, the where,
If men can see that all our works are fair:
No greater he who wields the captain's sway
Than he who learns to serve and to obey:
Whate’er the fabric we would fain erect,
Some must bear burdens and some must direct.
We Build!
It matters not the end we have in view
If but each workman to himself be true:
He builds on sand, tho he may win acclaim,
Who builds not character to buttress fame;
The Golden Rule must shape the builder's will,
The temple, lacking soul, is empty still.
We Build!
It matters not if impious hands would drag
Thru license, lust and lawlessness, that flag
Which stands for consecrated blood, far spilt
To save those sacred things our fathers built:
We shall defend them, too, and failing - then
We'll vow by God, to build them up again!
- George Sanford Holmes.
----o----
Who does the best his circumstance allows, does well, acts
nobly; anger could do no snore.—Young.
----o----
FREEMASONRY’S RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF FORT BAYARD
BY BROTHER FRANCIS E. LESTER, P.G.M., NEW MEXICO
IN THE January, 1922, issue of THE BUILDER there was
published a statement under my name setting forth the conditions at Fort Bayard,
New Mexico, the largest Government Tuberculosis Hospital in the country, where
something over 1100 tubercular war veterans are patients. In that statement I
explained the challenge to Masonry that existed by reason of the fact that the
two hundred or more Masons in that Government Hospital were receiving from
Masonry few or no measures of relief.
The article referred to produced remarkable results.
Supplemented by an appeal to the various Grand Lodges of the United States, it
led many of them to send in contributions, none less than $500, for the needed
relief. The Grand Lodge of New Mexico at its February communication definitely
endorsed, and pledged itself to this undertaking, and although it represents
less than 6,000 Freemasons, a contribution of $1000 for the building fund and
$100 per month for relief purposes was made in addition to liberal contributions
from the constituent Blue Lodges, the Scottish Rite and the Shrine of New
Mexico. A Freemason of San Antonio, Texas, Brother Robert J. Newton, became so
impressed with the merits of the Fort Bayard situation that in personal
conference he brought it to the attention of Brother Leon M. Abbott, Grand
Commander of the Northern Scottish Rite Jurisdiction, with the ultimate result
that that Body has contributed the sum of $25,000 which it is estimated will
cover the cost of a building to be erected for relief purposes at Fort Bayard
for the Masonic organization known as the Sojourners' Club, and the plans for
the building are now completed and its construction is about to be undertaken.
There remains the question of properly financing the maintenance and relief fund
for this work.
Many Blue Lodges throughout our country and individual
Masons in various parts of the country have responded to the appeal appearing in
the January BUILDER. Among these is the case of a Freemason in a far eastern
state who, reading this appeal, gave up an anticipated trip to his home lodge in
a nearby town for the purpose of witnessing the installation of his lodge
officers, and remitted the cost of that trip to the Fort Bayard relief fund. The
amount was small, but the spirit of sacrifice was large. That same Brother Mason
on numerous occasions has secured from one source or another a considerable
number of contributions, and has remitted them for this relief project.
The funds already available have resulted in a complete
change in Masonic conditions at Fort Bayard. These changed conditions have
renewed the energies of the faithful workers of the Sojourners' Club, and have
inspired and cheered our afflicted brother Masons, many of them helpless, at
Fort Bayard. Whereas it was previously a common saying there that if a man was a
Mason, "nobody cared," it is now recognized that a Mason has behind him an
organization whose conception of relief is something more than a subject for
ritualistic lip-service.
The relief funds of the Sojourners' Club at Fort Bayard are
carefully administered in a business-like manner. Its Treasurer is under bond
and detailed monthly reports are rendered. All remittances should be sent to R.
W. Brother A. A. Keen, Grand Secretary, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This statement is made in the belief that it will cheer the
hearts of Masons everywhere to know that something definite and worthy is being
accomplished at Fort Bayard in the name of Masonry, and that the big work just
started there promises large accomplishments.
EDITOR'S ADDENDUM
After the foregoing had been set in type a letter was
received from Brother Arthur Harris, welfare worker in the Sojourners' Club at
Fort Bayard, who forwarded a clipping from the El Paso Times, of issue September
2, 1922. This newspaper account is of such interest that, with Brother Lester's
consent, it is here added to his own account of one of the most genuinely
Masonic undertakings ever attempted.
Fort Bayard, N.M., Sept. 2. - The first social service
building ever put into a hospital by a fraternal organization, other than the K.
C. huts of the Knights of Columbus war time activities' branch, will be the
handsome building of the Sojourners' Club, which will be built at Fort Bayard by
the Masonic Order. Bids hat asked for and ground will be broken for the
foundations by October 1. Plans for the building were drawn by Forrester &
McCullough, architects, of Washington. Scottish Rite Masons of the Northern
Jurisdiction have raised the $20,000 to $30,000 it is estimated the building
will cost.
The Sojourners' Club is an organization of all Masons at
Fort Bayard, including officers, employee and patients. They announce as their
ideal the service of all mankind, regardless of whether he belongs to their
Order, and especially to interest themselves in relieving the condition of
gassed and sick soldiers unable to secure compensation from the government, due
to their inability to trace their disability to military service.
The club was organized in January, 1919. It was
discontinued from June to November, 1920, due to loss of members caused by
departure of personnel at the time the hospital was transferred from the army to
the public health service. It now has a membership of 200.
Plans for the club building provide for a two-story
building of either stucco or finished lumber. On the first floor will be an
auditorium with a seating capacity of 500 and a modern stage, also a billiard
room, ladies' rest room, a kitchen and a lounging room. The second floor will
contain the club rooms, a secretary's office, and several guest rooms. There
will be handsome porches for both floors 50 feet long and 10 feet wide.
Arthur Harris, formerly an employee in the registrar's
office, has been employed by the club as welfare worker and assumed his duties
Friday.
A number of the medical staff states that Fort Bayard is
the foremost experiment in America of the evolution of hospitalization. The
conception of a hospital as a place where the patient may be nursed back to
health with full mental power as well as full physical power, and without living
in the discomfort of usual hospital life, is entertained by all at Fort Bayard.
It is due to this conception of hospitalization that the Sojourners' Club is
building its handsome new club. The American Legion is also following out this
general idea, and as an experiment, has placed a salaried liaison officer here.
This is the first hospital in which either the Legion or Masonry has tried this
experiment.
----o----
THE STUDY CLUB
THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY
BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD
The following paper is one of a series of articles on
"Philosophical Masonry," or “The Teachings of Masonry," by Brother Haywood, to
be used for reading and discussion in lodges and study clubs. From the questions
following each section of the paper the study club leader should select such as
he may desire to use in bringing out particular points for discussion. To go
into a lengthy discussion on each individual question presented might possibly
consume more time than the lodge or study club may be able to devote to the
study club meeting.
In conducting the study club meetings the leader should
endeavor to hold the discussions closely to the text of the paper and not permit
the members to speak too long at one time or to stray onto another subject.
Whenever it becomes evident that the discussion is turning from the original
subject the leader should request the members to make notes of the particular
points or phases of the matter they may wish to discuss or inquire into and
bring them up after the last section of the paper is disposed of.
The meetings should be closed with a "Question Box" period,
when such questions as may have come up during the meeting and laid over until
this time should be entered into and discussed Should any questions arise that
cannot be answered by the study club leader or some other brother present, these
questions may be submitted to us and we will endeavor to answer them for you In
time for your next meeting.
Supplemental references on the subjects treated in this
paper will be found at the end of the article.
PART XVII - BROTHERLY AID
I
IT IS ONE of the principal uses of history that it
enables us better to understand the present. We are ourselves so intimately
related to our world as it now is, and this world is so complicated, that often
it is quite impossible for us to form a true conception of it. But after a few
decades have passed, and our own period detaches itself and becomes a unity, so
that it can be viewed as a whole and as a thing by itself, it becomes greatly
simplified; multitudes of bewildering details drop away, and it stands forth in
its essentials, so that the historian can grasp it in its true proportions and
relations. In this wise it often happens that in a certain true sense no age is
understood until it has taken its place in history. This fact itself in turn
can be brought about to enable one to view his own period as if it were a thing
past, for it often happens that we discover some earlier period to be so like
our own that to learn to understand that past period is to enable one's self to
understand one's own. All this, which seems so remote from the theme of this
paper, is written to explain why I shall begin the study of Brotherly Aid by a
rapid sketch of a condition that developed itself among the Roman people many
centuries ago. That condition, I believe, was the same in essentials as the
condition in which we now live, so that by viewing it as a whole we can the
better understand the social world in which we find ourselves.
In the early days of the Republic Roman life was a very
stable thing, and Roman customs were almost stationary. A man grew up in the
house in which he was born; when he married he brought his wife to live with him
under the paternal roof; and when he died he left his own sons abiding in the
same place. Neighbouring families were similarly stable, and all these groups,
owing to this perpetual neighbourliness and to intermarriage, became so inwoven
with each other that in a community there would be not one stranger. A man's
life took root in such a community like a tree and grew there permanently. The
individual was not left to his own private resources: he was surrounded by
others who were ever at hand to aid him in misfortune, nurse him in illness, and
mourn him in death. He was strong with the strength of his family and of his
neighbourhood, and this no doubt accounts for the sturdy manhood and womanhood
of the early Romans.
* * *
What are the principal uses of history? Why is it
difficult for us to understand our own time? How does history help to learn the
present by means of the past? Describe conditions under which the early Romans
lived. In what way did this make for a healthy manhood? How did these
conditions protect a man from physical and moral bankruptcy? How does the
history of Freemasonry help you to understand Freemasonry as it now is? Did you
live in childhood under conditions similar to those described?
II
But there came a time when the long enduring stability
of Roman life was broken up. By gradual degrees the Romans conquered adjoining
territory. A great military system was organized. Whole nations were brought
into the Roman system. Alien peoples flocked into Italy, and new religions
established their headquarters in Rome. The Republic gave way to the Empire,
and the Senate succumbed to the Emperor. Great cities arose; travel was made
possible; and a feverish restlessness took the place of the old stability. The
old calm neighbourhood life was destroyed and in its place there grew up a
fermenting life in town and city. A man no longer lived and died in the place
of his birth, but moved about from community to community, so that men became
human tumbleweeds evermore shifting about from place to place as the windy
currents of chance might carry them. It came to pass that a man lived a
stranger in his own neighbourhood, so that he scarce knew the other persons
living under the same roof. He was thrown back on his own unaided individual
resources in misfortune and in death. In the unequal struggle he often became
morally bankrupt and the constant strain undermined his health. It was for such
causes that Rome ultimately fell.
In this situation men set out about the creating of a
bond that would take the place of the lost neighbourhood ties. They organized
themselves into Collegia. These groups were formed of men engaged in the same
trade and they usually, in the early days of their history, were principally
devoted to securing for a man a becoming burial service, the lack of which so
filled a Roman with dread. But in the course of time these organizations - we
could justly call them lodges - assumed more and more functions until at last a
man found in them charities, social life, business aid, religious influences,
friendship, and such other features of general protection as caused him to call
his own group "My Mother Collegium." To live a stranger in a city was not longer
a thing to dread to a man who could find in such a fellowship the same
friendship and support that his forefather had secured in the old-time
neighbourhood.
* * *
What broke up the stability of ancient Roman life? Did
the Romans come to have cities, factories, tenements, etc? What was Rome's
"immigration problem"? Was it like ours? What cause led to the breakdown of
Roman character? What were Collegia? How were they organized and what purposes
did they serve?
III
It would be easy to compare with the rise and
development of the Collegia the rise and development of the Church in the Middle
Ages, for the latter came into existence to serve similar purposes; but there is
no need of this, because the idea has already been made sufficiently clear. So
is it also clear, I trust, that we men of today are living under just such
conditions as brought the Collegia into existence, which is the one point of
this historical excursion. The great majority of us are living in towns and
cities; and almost all of us are subject to the unsettling conditions that
shuttle us about from place to place, and from condition to condition, so that
life has lost its firmness and security. We live in streets where our next door
neighbour is a stranger to us; or in an apartment house or tenement where with
dwellers on the same floor we have no ties at all. Our industrial system is
such that vast numbers of us are ever moving about from one job to another,
which fact is true also even of the farmers, the majority of whom are tenants,
and therefore migratory. In the midst of such conditions the individual is
often thrown wholly upon his own resources which is such an unnatural thing that
many break under it. The restlessness and the ache of modern life are
undoubtedly due in large measure to these facts.
But it is here that the lodge comes in, for the lodge,
from this present point of view, is nothing other than a substitute for the
old-fashioned small community life wherein neighbour was so tied to neighbour
that there was no need of associated charities, social centers, or employment
bureaus. In a lodge a man need no longer be a stranger: he finds there other
men who, like himself, are eager to establish friendships, engage in social
intercourse, and pool the resources of all in behalf of the needs of each. The
fraternal tie redeems a man from loneliness and from his old pitiable sense of
helplessness, and atones for a hundred other ills of city conditions. In his
fraternal circle is the warmth and security which a man needs if he is not to
succumb to the pressure of modern life. Little wonder is it that men so often
think secretly of their lodge as "my mother" and cherish for it until death a
deep regard that no profane can ever comprehend!
* * *
What purposes were served by the Church in the Middle
Ages? Have you experienced the loneliness of city life? Does moving about make
for happiness? Why are so many families migratory? What are the effects on
health, happiness, morality? What function is performed by the lodge in modern
life? Have you found the lodge to be a circle of friendship? If not, why not?
IV
In the ample framework of these facts one can see at a
glance what Brotherly Aid really is. It is the substitution of the friend for
the stranger. It is a spirit which throws round a man the comforts and
securities of love. When "a worthy brother in distress" is helped it is not as
a pauper, as in the necessarily cold fashion of public charity, but the kindly
help which one neighbour is always so glad to lend to another. Masonic charity
is strong, kindly, beautiful and tender, and not charity at all in the narrow
grudging sense of the word. Nay, it does not wait until a brother is in distress
but throws about him in his strength and prosperity the affectionate arm of
friendship without which life is cold and harsh. Friendship, fraternity,
fellowship - this is the soul of Freemasonry of which charity is but one gesture
with a thousand meanings.
* * *
What is meant by, "Brotherly Aid"? How does Your lodge
assist a "worthy brother in distress? Could you improve on the Masonic methods
of charity? What is the difference between Masonic charity and public charity?
What is the Bible's teaching concerning "charity"? (See I Cor. xiii.)
----o----
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
THE BUILDER:
Vol. I (1915) - Masonry at Work, p. 64; Problems in
Masonic Charity, p. 88
Vol II (1916) - History and Charity, p. 31; Washington,
the Man and Mason, p. 43; Charity Never Faileth, p. 154; Masonic Homes -I, p.
75; Masonic Homes - II, p. 116; Masonic Social Service, p. 99; The Iowa Plan, p.
126; Masonic Social Service - A Hospital for Crippled Children, p. 263; Every
Lodge a School, p. 308; "Unto the Least of These," p. 319; The Fame of the
Craft, p. 384
Vol. III (1917) - What an Entered Apprentice Ought to
Know, April C.C.B., p. 7; The Masonic Relief Association, p. 270; Physical
Qualifications of a Candidate, p. 310; Fraternal Forum, p. 195; Golden Rule
Lodge, p. 220.
Vol IV (1918) - Louisiana Relief Lodge No. 1, p. 243;
Relief Work in World War, p. 201; Stop, Look, Listen, p. 305; Masonic War Work
in England, p. 315; "What is Masonry Doing in This War as a Fraternity?" p. 89;
Has Masonry a Duty in the War? p. 330.
Vol V (1919) - Masonic Relief Association of the United
States and Canada, p. 217.
Vol VI (1920) - Active Charity, p. 97; The Vital Parts
of the
Breast, April C.C.B, p. 3.
Vol VII (1921) - Masonic Charities in the British Isles,
p. 88; Practical Brotherhood, p. 102; Everlasting Necessity for Brotherhood, p.
317; Fraternal Side of Old Guilds, p. 174.
Mackey's Encyclopedia-(Revised Edition);
Charity, p. 143; Collegia Artificum, p. 158; Freemason,
p. 282; Freemasonry, p. 283; Lodge, pp. 449-451; Middle Ages, p. 483; Roman
Colleges of Artificers, pp. 630 - 634; Stonemasons of the Middle Ages, pp.
718-722; Travelling Masons, pp. 792-795.
----o----
OUR STUDY CLUB PLAN
Our Masonic Study Club
Course, of which the foregoing paper by Brother Haywood is a part, was begun in
THE BUILDER early in 1917. Previous to the beginning of the present series on
"Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of Masonry," as we have titled it,
were published some forty-three papers covering in detail "Ceremonial Masonry"
and "Symbolical Masonry" under the following several divisions: "The Work of a
Lodge," "The Lodge and the Candidate," "First Steps," "Second Steps," and "Third
Steps." A complete set of these papers up to January 1st, 1922, are obtainable
in the bound volumes of THE BUILDER for 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921.
Following is an
outline of the subjects covered by the current series of study club papers by
Brother Haywood:
THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY
1. - General Introduction.
2. - The Masonic Conception of Human Nature.
3. - The Idea of Truth in Freemasonry.
4. - The Masonic Conception of Education.
5. - Ritualism and Symbolism.
6. - Initiation and Secrecy.
7. - Masonic Ethics.
8. - Equality.
9. - Liberty.
10. - Democracy.
11. - Masonry and
Industry.
12. - The Brotherhood
of Man.
13. - Freemasonry and
Religion.
14. - Universality
15. - The Fatherhood
of God.
16. - Endless Life.
17. - Brotherly Aid.
18. - Schools of
Masonic Philosophy.
This systematic course
of Masonic study has been taken up
and carried out in monthly and semi-monthly meetings of lodges and study clubs
all over the United States and Canada, and in several instances in lodges
overseas.
The course of study
has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information, THE BUILDER and
Mackey's Encyclopedia.
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND CONDUCT STUDY CLUB MEETINGS
Study clubs may be
organized separate from the lodge, or as a part of the work of the lodge. In the
latter case the lodge should select a committee, preferably of three "live"
members who shall have charge of the study club meetings. The study club
meetings should be held at least once a month (excepting during July and August,
when the study club papers are discontinued in THE BUILDER), either at a special
communication of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular communication
at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted,all
possible time to be devoted to study club purposes.
After the lodge has
been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the
lodge over to the chairman of the study club committee. The committee should be
fully prepared in advance on the subject to be discussed at the meeting. All
members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be
prepared with their material, and should also have a comprehensive grasp of
Brother Haywood's paper by a previous reading and study of it.
PROGRAM FOR STUDY CLUB MEETINGS
1. Reading of any
supplemental papers on the subject for the evening which may have been prepared
by brethren assigned such duties by the chairman of the study club committee.
2. Reading of the
first section of Brother Haywood's paper.
3. Discussion of this
section, using the questions following this section to bring out points for
discussion.
4. The subsequent
sections of the paper should then be taken up and disposed of in the same
manner.
5. Question Box.
Invite questions on any subject in Masonry, from any and all brethren present.
Let the brethren understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit
and enlightenment and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they
may be able to think of. If at the time these questions are propounded no one
can answer them, send them in to us and we will endeavor to supply answers to
them in time for your next study club meetmg.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The foregoing
information should enable study club committees to conduct their meetings
without difficulty. However, if we can be of assistance to such committees, or
any individual member of lodges and study clubs at any time such brethren are
invited to feel free
to communicate with us.
----o----
EDITORIAL
THE LARGER MEANING OF THE THOMSON TRIAL
BY THIS time readers of THE BUILDER have had opportunity to
read Brother C. C. Hunt's history of the trial of The American Masonic
Federation of which the now notorious Mathew McBlain Thomson was head; and they
have learned that this case is one of interest and significance for Freemasons
the world over. The manner in which the Salt Lake City brethren and their
associates managed their end of the trial is deserving of great praise,
especially so in the scholarly way in which they prepared their brief, the
credit for which largely belongs to Brother Isaac Blair Evans, one of Salt Lake
City's brilliant lawyers. Brother Evans has published a volume on the case that
should have a circulation wherever men are interested in the history, the
structure, and the working of the Masonic institution, and it is hoped in many
quarters - in these quarters especially - that Brother Evans and his associates
will find a way to place the volume on the general market.
Clandestinism is not a thing of the past. It is probable
that it will be very much of a thing in the future because as the Fraternity
grows in power and in prestige such unscrupulous rascals as Thomson and his
confederates will be more and more tempted to find ways and means of exploiting
it. It is a matter for Masters and Grand Masters, for Secretaries and Grand
Secretaries, and for Jurisprudence Committees to think about, and learn about.
It is doubtful if one could find a more perfect specimen of clandestinism, or a
clearer revelation of the ins and outs of clandestine methods, than this
American Federation: it is like a laboratory case that possesses all the typical
attributes.
The trial of the Federation presents a feature of peculiar
interest to thorough students of Masonry. On the surface the case hung upon the
question whether or not Thomson had misused the mails, but in preparing their
prosecution Brother Evans and his associates found it necessary to go to the
roots of Masonic history, jurisprudence, and philosophy. To solve the immediate
and practical problem they were compelled to go back and solve the problems of
history. Freemasonry is so organized that it is almost always thus. What we do
today is, by virtue of the very nature of the Craft, necessarily linked to what
was done yesterday, and new departures must always be tested by the ancient
landmarks. Masonic history, Masonic study and Masonic research are not dry as
dust pursuits for a pedant in a corner, but practical everyday necessities,
without which the most modern and urgent activities will go astray.
MASONS AND SCHOOLS
It has been most interesting, and illuminating withal, to
observe the reactions to the Public School number published last August,
especially in the pages of some periodicals not always friendly to Freemasonry.
In one of these latter an editor cites that issue of THE BUILDER "as proof of
the fact that Masonry, under cover of a professed friendship for the public
schools, is trying to destroy all private and parochial schools." Nothing could
be farther from the truth so far as THE BUILDER is concerned, and, unless the
present scribe is wildly astray in his interpretation of the Masonic mind of the
country, the statement is wide of the mark in its larger applications. The rank
and file of Masons are not out to destroy private schools: they know that
educational needs are altogether too various to be satisfied by one system and
that business, music, theological, technical, correspondence, night, and many
other types of private schools will be a long time with us.
But Masons believe at least a majority of them do - that
the educational standard of private schools should be maintained on a par with
public schools in order that pupils in the former be not handicapped in the race
of life. Also, they believe that education is by its nature a thing that should
function in the interests of the whole of society and not for the sake of
private interests. It is the business of a school to turn out well trained
citizens, not to manufacture children into members of a sect or party.
* * *
ILLEGAL WEARING OF LODGE EMBLEMS
"House': Bill No. 530, By Messrs. Clark & Hilzim 2-9-22.
Judiciary 'B'. An Act to forbid the wearing of emblems by persons not authorized
so to do:
"Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of
Mississippi, That whoever not being a member of the Confederate Veterans, of the
Daughters of the Confederacy, of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of the Sons
of the American Revolution, of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of the
Colonial Dames, of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Sons of Veterans, of
the Women's Relief Corps, of the military Order of the Foreign Wars of the
United States, of the American Legion, of the American Legion Auxiliary, of the
Masons, of the Woodmen of the World, of the Knights of Pythias or of any other
patriotic or fraternal organization, shall wilfully wear the insignia,
distinctive ribbons or membership rosette or button or any imitation thereof,
shall be punished by a fine of not more than $20.00 or by imprisonment for not
more than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
"That this act shall be in force and effect from and after
the date of its passage."
The above bill was presented to the Mississippi State
Legislature some time back. Can any Mississippi brother tell us if it passed? It
is to be hoped that it did, for such a law should be on the books of every
State. While the solons are at it, they should include in their proscriptions
all fraternity members not in good standing: an expelled member, or one dropped
for N.P.D., has no more just right to wear an emblem than an uninitiated
profane.
----o----
THE LIBRARY
A UNIQUE BOOK ON FREEMASONRY
"The Gospel of Freemasonry," by "Uncle Silas." Published by
the Clarke Publishing Company, Madison, Wisconsin. Copies obtainable through the
National Masonic Research Society, 2920 First Avenue East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Price $1.00 per copy, postpaid.
TO GET the right perspective upon this work it is desirable
to know something about the author. "B. B.," as he is affectionately known among
his friends, is not only a typical American in his citizenship, but is a man who
practices in his Personal relations the virtues that such citizenship suggests.
He started out in life under circumstances that might well have discouraged him,
for he was left an orphan at an early age, and was soon thrown upon his own
resources. This is doubtless the key to his broad understanding of his fellow
men. His is not an academic knowledge of temptation, human frailities and of the
inspiration in the "noble and mysterious triumphs, which no eye sees, which no
renown rewards, which no flourish of trumpets salutes." He is the publisher of
one of the greatest papers in the country devoted to farmers and farming, but
despite his business responsibilities and activities, he has taken time to
devote himself to the needs of the destitute and of the suffering with keen and
compassionate understanding. His charity is of the kind in which the personal
equation enters - not the cold and casual giving to organizations entwined in a
maze of red tape. He gives and works personally, as a follower of the Gentle
Nazarene.
It is typical of Bascom B. Clarke that the profits from the
sale of "The Gospel of Freemasonry" have been set aside for charity; and this is
in itself so novel a thing in this materialistic age that it holds the
attention, and leads the reader to wonder what other novel thing such a man may
do or say. And his book is quite in character, filled as it is with a homely and
quaintly expressed philosophy and illustrative incidents of his Masonic
experiences. Of course he tells us a great deal that we have long known; but he
tells it in a way to bring truisms home to us afresh.
"Freemasonry, Ezra, consists of more than signs and
passwords and mystery," he says.... "Freemasonry doesn't advertise its business
on bulletin boards along the railway track and in elevated stations excepting as
the acts of its votaries tell of its helpfulness to man."
With this as the foundation of his conclusions, Uncle Silas
not only awakens concurrence in the minds of his readers, but entertains them
with telling comment throughout, having frequent recourse to scripture (which
few laymen have read more assiduously) and incidentally giving an interesting
account of how he first became interested in Freemasonry. "In grandmother's
God," he replied, when asked the question, "In whom do you put your trust?" His
grandmother was a Methodist. Uncle Silas says: "The gospel of Freemasonry, Ezra,
consists in being ready and willing to strain a point, if necessary, to help
those in distress. It beats all how much you can do after you think you've done
all you can do. Just enter into your closet before going to bed, or if you are
too tired to pray in a musty closet, why just lie down in bed - it doesn't make
much difference to the Grand Architect whether you pray like a Presbyterian,
standing up, or shouting like a Methodist like you thought the Lord was deaf, or
whether you pray like the Arab, lying on your belly, just so as to pray and mean
it, old chap - and before you begin to saw gourds for the night, sorter make a
digest of the day's work and ask God to forgive you for the crooked paths and to
help you plow straighter furrows next day."
How can one read this sort of passage without saying, as I
did, "Dear, old, hard-boiled Uncle Silas!"
George C. Nuesse.
* * *
INFORMATION CONCERNING "ANCIENT FREE MASONRY AND THE OLD
DUNDEE LODGE, No. 18 – 1722-1920."
"Ancient Freemasonry, and the Old Dundee Lodge No. 18 –
1722-1920," by Arthur Heiron. Published by Kenning Son, 16 Great Queen St.,
London, England. Copies obtainable through the National Masonic Research
Society, 2920 First Avenue East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Price $5.00, postpaid.
In its issue of September, 1921, THE BUILDER published an
article in review of "Ancient Freemasonry and the Old Dundee Lodge, No. 18" by
Brother Arthur Heiron, of England, in which it heartily recommended to Masons
everywhere this very excellent work. Since that time the book has been received
with such favor that the publishers are now arranging to issue a new edition.
Meanwhile the author has prepared for circulation among such brethren as may be
interested a circular containing a descriptive synopsis of the work, along with
a number of appraisals that have been trade by competent Masonic critics. Also,
and this is of greater importance, he has prepared an index which is to be
incorporated in the second edition but which may now be procured, in booklet
form, by those who possess or will purchase copies of the first edition. THE
BUILDER will furnish either of these to brethren who request them. By reading
the circular and the index a brother can gain a clear knowledge of the book
itself, and will not risk spending his money "sight unseen."
* * *
TWO NEW BOOKS ON FREEMASONRY
"Masonry and Citizenship"; “The Master Mason; Speculative
Masonry"; both written by Rev. Frederick J. Lanier, of Fredericksburg, Virginia,
and published by the author at that address, to whom orders should be sent. One
dollar each, net.
Down in the Old Dominion Masons are hearing more and more
about Brother The Rev. Frederick J. Lanier, long an active member of George
Washington's old lodge at Fredericksburg, Va., and Rector of St. George's Church
in that place. Brother Lanier has lately informed THE BUILDER that he has
resigned his rectorship in order to devote his whole time to Freemasonry, which
is good news indeed, for he will most certainly find a warm welcome and a wide
place in his new field.
Thus far Brother Lanier has published two little books,
named above. The former of the two is a compilation of brief chapters drawn from
such various sources as will appear in the list here given along with three
chapters original with the author-editor. Chapter I is a brief speech by
President Harding; II is an "Address to a Newly Made Mason," compiled from
various sources; III and IV are drawn from "The Builders" by Bro. Dr. Joseph
Fort Newton; V is "What Makes a Man a Mason," from Maurice Penfield Fikes and
others; VII, "Masonry and Citizenship," by Roosevelt; VIII, "Applied Masonry,"
by Eminent Sir W. D. Carter; IX, "The Blacksmith," taken from Rabbinical
sources; X, "Masonry and the American Federation of Labor," by Brother Samuel
Gompers; XI, "Industrialism To-Day," by Judge Elbert Gary, (is Judge Gary a
Mason?); XII, "The Future of America," by Harding and others; XIII and XIV, by
the author, are on "The Duty of Masons in the Present Crisis," and "How Prayer
Makes the World What It Is."
"The Master Mason," published also during last year (1921)
is, though not quite so large in bulk, the more ambitious of the two in that it
is comprised almost wholly of the author's own writings. According to the
preface the book "does for those who have been initiated, passed, and raised to
the sublime degree of a Master Mason what 'Morals and Dogma' does for Scottish
Rite Masonry. It supplements the lectures that are given in the several degrees,
and will be of great assistance to Masters of lodges."
To compare this little volume with "Morals and Dogma" is
loading it down with a needless handicap. It is unlike Pike's magnum opus in
every respect. But for all that it is interesting to read, and helpful, too, to
a Mason who enjoys speculation. If one is to find fault at all with Brother
Lanier it is that he has resorted too much to his own inner consciousness in
interpreting Masonic principles and symbols, and too little to the
interpretations already furnished us by the Craft itself, in its ritual, its
history, and its jurisprudence.
The treatment of the Masonic Apron is an example of the
evils of this subjective method of symbological interpretation. On page 9 the
author gives "the form of the apron" as an equilateral triangle, a square, and a
circle combined. The circle is supposed to be the string, and this is explained
as being a "symbol of spirit"; the triangle represents the flap, and is
described as teaching the "threefold personal revelation of God"; the square is
made to represent the material universe. The Apron is also explained as teaching
the threefold nature of man, who is said to be body, soul and spirit.
The Masonic Apron is none of these things. It is not a
circle, plus a square, plus a triangle; it is an apron. It is a piece of
lambskin or of cloth of no official shape or size, attached to the human body by
a string of like material, and having a flap. Among Operative Masons it was in
use for the obvious and very necessary purpose of protecting the clothing.
Custom made of it an emblem representing labor, and the dignity thereof. To
interpret the meaning of the Masonic Apron one must stick to the history of it,
and to the interpretation already given, times without number, by the Fraternity
itself. To go far afield, and to treat it as though it were a geometrical
design, is not to treat it as a Masonic emblem at all.
Symbology is one of the most difficult of all undertakings
in the Masonic field, and its difficulties are increased over and over when it
is made subjective and personal, and detached from history. To resolve our
embeds and symbols into geometrical diagrams, and then to fill them in with
theories of our own, is no proper way to precede: but, as Robert Freke Gould
said so well once and for all, "the study of our history and of our symbolism
must be proceeded with conjointly." Only then can we keep the solid ground under
our feet, and avoid the vagaries of our own private fancies.
This is not to say that "The Master Mason" is full of
vagaries and private fancies; far from it! Brother Lanier is a well-read man who
has thought much, and who has discovered the unsearchable riches of the Masonic
ritual. Once he has built under himself a firm groundwork by thoroughly
mastering the classics of Masonic symbology and history he will give US some
valuable books.
* * *
"LE LIVRE DU MAITRE"
"Le Lime Du Maitre," published in France, and in the French
language, 221 pages, paper covers. Orders should be sent to the Librairie du
Symbolism, Square Rapp 4, Paris 7e, France.
A plan of education for making Freemasonry clear to the
brethren was worked out in Paris as long ago as 1888 within a Masonic group
studying initiation. The Apprentice Manual (Livre de l'Appenti) was at once
begun but did not appear in print until 1892 under the auspices of the Lodge
Travail et Vrais Amis Fideles, and bore no individual signature. A like work for
the benefit of the Fellow Craft (Livre du Compagnon) was published in 1911 and
was edited in a much larger measure under the personal responsibility of Past
Master Oswald Wirth. This accomplished brother has now brought out the Master
Mason's Book (Livre du Maitre) for the use of brethren of the Third Degree. He
says in his preface to this work:
"There is no doubt that for the recovery of the lost Word I
must have recourse to the light of most instructive brethren. These are such as
Joseph Silbermann and the Brother Hubert, manager of the Chaine d' Union, who
have verbally stimulated my meditations, also Ragon, Eliphaz Levi, Albert Pike,
and, above all, Goethe, have instructed me by their writings.
"But it suffices not in these matters that one digests the
thought of others. To tie together the broken threads of neglected traditions it
is necessary to revive the past by an intense and preserving personal effort.
One must himself actively live anew in ancient times, self-absorbed in the study
of significant monuments which we today have forsaken. Ruins, superstitions,
discredited philosophical doctrines, alien religions, all merit examination with
care; but nothing is known more revealing than poems and myths.
"Poets whose imagination is enlightened are in Initiation
more instructive than cool reasoners. The Chaldean epic poem of the heroic
Gilgamesh and the compositions of a high initiatory bearing, carry us back more
than five thousand years.
“The tale of the death of Osiris and many other fables form
by images and symbols precepts of the most profound wisdom. The Bible itself is
precious for him who knows the meaning. The seduction of Eve by the serpent
makes pertinent allusion to fundamental principles of initiation, the same as
with an abundance of more recent accounts.
"Generations transmit to one another fantasms frivolous in
appearance though the thinker ought not to scorn them. Such are these glowing on
the panes of that window of the West which the Initiate, setting out in the morn
from the East, approaches at night, after having at noon examined all things in
the full light of day.
"At daybreak his reason awakes watchful near the East
window for the first rays of light summoned to penetrate the soul. That
illumination too suddenly received may dazzle and render him presumptuous. Full
of ardor the intelligence thus surprised believes itself strong against all
error: it sees only everywhere prejudices to fight and phantoms to put to
flight. That is the age of hasty judgments, holding no account of any received
authority and carrying condemnation without reserve on all which accords not
with the independent opinion too hurriedly acquired.
"That childish exuberance calms down about middle life. It
is then that daylight mercilessly falls nearly vertically through the window of
noon. Objects then project a minimum of shadow and reveal themselves in all
their reality. This is the time suitable for a critical observation of things
and permits one to investigate them under all aspects. Judgment ought then to be
circumspect and to remain poised willingly in suspense. An accurate
understanding refuses to condemn because with forbearance the circumstances may
be explained when all the factors involved are fairly considered.
"Full light leads to tolerance which characterizes the
Wisdom of Initiates. It becomes necessary to arrive where all is judged with
serenity in order to obtain the right of opening the western window of the
Sanctuary of Thought. The Sun is then setting; the turmoil of the day calms and
the peace of night spreads gradually o'er the land. Details become erased in the
deepening shadows setting forth the glory of the Evening Star before which all
others pale. That Star is not the proud Lucifer, inspirer of boasting and
mutiny: it is the hearth of serene splendor yielding a vision evoking the
intellectual. Henceforth the night may be veiled in gloom yet darkness outdoors
prevails not over the light within. When the living are silent, the dead are
disposed to speak. The hour comes then to draw forth from those retainers the
secrets borne by them within the tomb. They are the True Masters from whom we
are able to bring back understanding when we conform to the prescribed rites.
"But ascribe not to ceremonies only a sacramental value.
Hiram is not resurrected inwardly because we have outwardly played that part.
Nothing counts as Initiation beyond what is inwardly accomplished.
"Strive ye then, Symbolic Masters, to transform symbol into
reality. Nominal holders of diplomas and wearers of insignia transform
yourselves into Thinkers participating in an imperishable Thought.
"May the Book of the Master guide you in the accomplishment
of this great work!"
The book is divided into chapters on "Historical Notes
relative to the Master's Degree"; "Ritualism of the Master's Degree";
"Philosophic Conceptions pertaining to the Master's Degree"; "Duties of a Master
Mason"; "Interpretative Catechism of the Master's Degree"; "Notes on the
Philosophy of Initiation relative to the Master's Degree"; "Prerogatives of
Mastership"; and "Bibliography for the Use of Master Masons."
The above chapters are divided again into sections: for
example, the chapter on Bibliography deals in turn with "Religion" the first two
books recommended to Master Masons on that subject being, by the way, editions
of the Bible, "Symbolism," "Hermeticism, Alchemy and Occultism," and
"Freemasonry," all the books in the lists being, of course, in the French
language.
The chapter on an "Interpretative Catechism" has a Dumber
of replies of much interest to us. Among them we find the following questions
and answers relative to the story of the fate of Hiram:
"This is a symbolic fiction, profoundly true because of the
education gained thereby."
"What is that teaching?
"The pure Masonic tradition, personified by the architect
of Solomon's Temple and who is constantly in peril through the ignorance,
fanaticism and ambition of Masons who know not Freemasonry nor devote themselves
to this sublime work."
* * *
"What signifies this verdant branch [acacia]""
“It represents the survival of energies that the "rare
cannot destroy."
* * *
The candidate is further aspect why he receives the acacia,
and he replies:
"In accepting the acacia l bind myself to all which
survives of the Masonic tradition. I thus promise to study Freemasonry with
fervor in all that remains of its past, in its rites, its customs, and its
practices, without allowing my" self to be turned backward by an archaism
contrary to the spirit of the times."
"How severe you received as Master Mason?"
"In passing from the Square to the Compass"
"The Compass is then more especially reserved for Master
Masons?"
"Yes, for only they understand the handling of this
instrument with profit."
"What use do they make of the Compass?"
"They measure all things in taking account of their ret
rations to each other. Their reason, fixed as the head of the Compass, reports
on objects according to the span of the Compass points which bind them. The
judgment of an Initiate inspires him not according to the rigid graduations of
the Rule but by the farsight based on a rigorous adaption of logic to reality:'
“What is the insignia of Master Masons?"
"The Square united with the Compass."
“What signifies the reunion of these instruments""
"The Square controls the work of the Master Mason who ought
to act in everything with rectitude and inspiring all with the most scrupulous
equity. The Compass directs that activity for betterment to the end that it
finds an application the more judicious and fruitful."
“If a Master Mason was lost, where would you find him?"
"Between the Square and the Compass."
"How do you interpret that reply?"
"The Master Mason seeks to be distinguished by the morality
of his actions and by the just practice of his reasoning. It is from this point
of view that he holds himself between the Square and the Compass."
“What do Master Masons seek?"
"The Lost Word."
“What is that word?"
“The key of the Masonic secret, or in other words, the
comprehension of that which remains unintelligible to the profane and to the
imperfectly initiated."
* * *
"How do Master Masons travel?"
"From East to West, and from North to South, on all the
surface of the earth."
“Why?"
"For the diffusion of light and to rather that which is
scattered. In other words. to learn that they may know and understand that of
which they are ignorant. and to contribute moreover in bringing about the reign
of harmony and fraternity among men."
"On what do Master Masons work?"
"On the trestle-board."
"Do they then lay out the plans that others shall execute?"
"Master Masons prepare for the future which they forsee by
building on the experience of the past."
“What use do Master Masons make of the Trowel?"
"It binds them to cover up the imperfections in the work of
Apprentices and Fellow Crafts."
"Of what is it the emblem?"
"These sentiments of kindliness which animate the man
enlightened in regard to all the weaknesses of which he discerns the cause."
* * *
“What is from that time the object of Mastership?"
"To search for that Master Mason which in us is the state
of an inanimate corpse, to bring that death to life, to the end that we bestir
ourselves accordingly."
But the temptation to quote from this handy and suggestive
philosophical manual of French Freemasonry extends these comments unduly and we
must bring these random free translations to a halt.
The book of 221 – 4 3/4, x 7 3/8 inch pages, paper covers,
is sold by the Librairie du Symbolism, Square Rapp 4, Paris 7e, France. - R. I.
Clegg.
* * *
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE NEGRO, WITH A NOTE ON "NEGRO
MASONRY"
"A Social History of the American Negro, Being a History of
the Negro Problem in the United States, Including a History and Study of the
Republic of Liberia," by Benjamin Brawley; Published, 1921, by The Macmillan
Company, Near York, and Chicago (to whom orders should be sent).
This is the most complete sociological study of the Negro
by a Negro, probably, that has yet been published, and deserves a careful
examination; but for our purposes here it will be sufficient to quote a passage
that deals with "Negro Masonry"; it will be found on page 70ff.:
"After the church the strongest organization among Negroes
has undoubtedly been that of secret societies commonly known as lodges. The
benefit societies were not necessarily secret and call for separate
consideration. On March 6, 1775, an army attached to one of the regiments
stationed under General Gage in or near Boston initiated Prince Hall and
fourteen other colored men into the mysteries of Freemasonry. These fifteen men
on March 2, 1784, applied to the Grand Lodge of England for a warrant. This was
issued to African Lodge, No. 459, with Prince Hall as Master, September 29,
1784. Various delays and misadventures befell the warrant, however, so that it
was not actually received before April 29th, 1787. The lodge was then duly
organized May 6th. From this beginning developed the idea of Masonry among the
Negroes of America. As early as 1792 Hall was formally styled Grand Master, and
in 1797 he issued a license to thirteen Negro to assemble and work as a lodge in
Philadelphia; and there was also at this time a lodge in Providence. Thus
developed in 1808 the African Grand Lodge of Boston, afterwards known as Prince
Hall Lodge of Massachusetts; the second Grand Lodge, called the First
Independent African Grand Lodge of North America in and for the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, organized in 1815; and the Hiram Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania."
* * *
THE PERIOD OF THE WARS OF THE ROSES
“England Under the Yorkists, 1460-1485, Illustrated from
Contemporary Sources," by Isobel D. Thornley: No. 2 in the University of London
Intermediate Source-Books of History. Published by Longmans, Green and Co.,
Fourth Avenue and 30th St., New York, N. Y., to whom orders should be sent.
Price $3.25.
The period covered by this volume was full of life, color,
and dramatic surprises in Britain and on the Continent. In 1460 Nicholas of Cusa
took the decisive step in scholarship that ushered in the Renaissance and
signalized the passing of the Middle Ages. In 1479 Castile and Aragon were
united under Ferdinand and Isabella, except for which they would not have been
prepared to sponsor Columbus in 1492. The most Holy Inquisition began to add its
splash of crimson to the picture of the times in 1840. Mathias Corvinus took
Vienna in 1485. The Russians overthrew the Mongols, and the Ottoman Empire made
war on Vienna, much to the interest of the popes of the times, who, of the
Borgia or Medici variety, were as good at gold getting and bloodletting as any
of their compeers. Colorful days they were indeed! Old Piero set up the house of
the Medici in Florence and Lorenzo followed him in such wise as to earn his
title, "The Magnificent." Florence was made over into "Europe's Athens" - at
least such was the attempt - and Ficinio was set up in the Academy to teach the
blooded youth how to make charms out of frog's liver. At the same time the prey
cocious Pico della Mirandola, famous as the discoverer and friend of Savonarola,
went about like a shining comet, spouting thirteen languages; while Leonardo da
Vinci tried to build flying machines.
England was in terrible straits. It is true that trade
flourished in the towns and that wages reached unparalleled heights - "the
golden age of English labor," it came to be described - ; it is true that Caxton
set up his printing press in 1477; that the times made possible the pretty
commercial romance of Sir Richard Whittington who had the distinction of
becoming a hero in Mother Goose, a thing that will probably never happen again;
but in spite of a modicum of industrial advance in prosperity England rocked and
shook, and burned and bled, and groaned through such a sea of anarchy for a
generation as Sovietism itself almost pales beside. The whole period falls
inside the terrible Wars of the Roses.
The Wars of the Roses began with the Battle of St. Albans
in 1455: it did not burn itself out until that unscrupulous fiend, Richard III,
dramatized in Shakespeare's play, was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in
1485. During those thirty years twelve pitched battles were fought and the
hatred among the factions was so intense that almost all of the English nobility
were slain, a national disaster in those times. The Wars were named after the
Roses because of the general custom of partisans or dependents wearing
distinctive badges: the badge of the Lancastrians was the Red Rose, that of the
Yorkists the White. The trouble began when Henry VI lost England's French
possessions: it did not end until all parties were exhausted, and the Tudors had
stepped to the front.
Readers of Masonic history have a peculiar interest in
Henry VI, the last of the Lancastrian Kings. Some of our writers, Preston I
think was one of them, gave currency to a story that this monarch was himself a
Mason, and there is a fragment of an old catechism extant to that effect, still
accepted as gospel by the unwary. Henry VI was demented and helpless. But he was
very pious and it was long reported that miracles occurred at his tomb. An
attempt was made to have him canonized a saint but the popes asked too big a
price. There isn't the slightest evidence that he was ever a Mason or that he so
much as knew of the existence of the Craft.
In his history of this troubled time Hume complains of the
paucity of available records, and explains the lack by the holocausts of
destruction which rolled like crimson waves across the land. Since Hume much new
data has been unearthed. It so happens that one of the English savants to whom
much of this new knowledge is due is an illustrious English Mason, Brother E. H.
Dring, who was elected Worshipful Master of the Lodge Quatuor Coronati in 1912,
and who has contributed to the Transactions of that learned body a mass of
valuable erudition. He had the good fortune to discover The Great Chronicle of
London, a document quoted by John Stow, but afterwards lost: it is now regarded
as "the most important MS. yet published relating to the History of the City."
In her introductory treatise the author expresses her indebtedness to Brother
Dring and to his MS.
"England Under the Yorkists" is not a narrative in itself
but comprises a collection of original sources. Book I is composed of
contemporary accounts of the rise of the York faction and its attainment to the
crown; Book II gives one a vivid outlook upon the legal, criminal, and political
customs; Book III has to do with the Church; and Book IV, the portion of
greatest value to us, furnishes much material on trade, industry, education,
laboring conditions, etc. On page 218 is an extract from regulations made by the
Craft of Brewers in London and approved by the Mayor and Aldermen. It is
followed by examples showing the manner in which guilds controlled their
members. There is an "Ordinance concerning the Passion Play at Leicester"; "The
Foundation of a Guild," by Richard III; and there is an account of a guild
school, and other such matters.
On page 245 is an extract from "The Babees Book" which was
a standard of good manners for servants in great households, beginners in which
service were probably made to learn it by rote. A stanza of it will be quoted
here as showing how like it is to our own Regius MS., which seems like doggerel
to us, but was not at all in its own time, when chronicles (history proper did
not begin until Thomas More had written his "History of Richard III") and other
learned works were often composed in rhyme, as had been a universal custom in
olden times.
"Now must I telle in shorts, for I muste so,
Youre observaunce that ye shalle done at none;
Whenne that ye se youre lorde to mete shalle goo,
Be redy to feeche him water sone,
Summe belle [clear] water; summe horde to he hathe done
To clothe to him, and from him yee net pace
Whils he be sette, and have herde sayde the grace."
It is becoming more and more the custom in colleges and
universities to study original sources rather than the elaborated accounts of
the literary historians who inevitably mix up much rhetoric with the facts. It
would be a good custom to establish among students of Masonic history. At any
rate, every Masonic student should have all the original Masonic sources on his
shelves. "England Under the Yorkists" is one of the volumes to be included in
such a list.
H.L. Haywood,
----o----
PUBLICATIONS WANTED, FOR SALE, AND EXCHANGE
We are constantly receiving inquiries from readers as to
where they may obtain publications on Freemasonry and kindred subjects which are
not offered in our Monthly Book List printed on the inside back cover of THE
BUILDER.
Titles which cannot be readily procured through our
American and European connections will be printed in this column, thus enabling
readers having copies to dispose of them if they so desire. Inquirers are
requested to state what prices they are willing to pay, for we are frequently
able to obtain books at reasonable prices which might be sold out if we were
first obliged to have the price approved by the prospective purchaser. Such
figures will be considered confidential and will not be published.
It is also hoped - and expected - that readers possessing
very old or rare Masonic works will communicate the fact to THE BUILDER for the
benefit of Masonic students.
Postoflice addresses are here given in order that those
buying and selling may communicate directly with each other. Brethren are asked
to cancel notices as soon as their wants are supplied.
In no case does THE BUILDER assume any responsibility
whatsoever for publications thus bought, sold, exchanged or borrowed.
WANTED
By Bro. D. D. Berolzheimer, 334 Fourth Ave., New York, N.
Y.: "Records of the Hole Craft and Felawship of Masons," E. Conder, 1894;
"Masonic Bibliography," E. T. Carson, 1876; "Masonic Review" (of Cincinnati),
volumes 43, 44, 45, 1873-4; Kenning's "Masonic Cyclopedia," 1878; St. John's
Card, A.Q.C., 1892; any Proceedings or Books of Constitutions prior to 1840; any
miscellaneous publications, St. Johns Grand Lodge, New York; any miscellaneous
publications, Phillips Grand Lodge, New York; Lodge of Research No. 2429,
Leicester, England, Transactions, volumes 1 to 10, inclusive, 1892-1902.
By Bro. G. Alfred Lawrence, 142 West 86th Street, New York,
N. Y.: Proceedings of the Scottish Rite Body founded by Joseph Cerneau in New
York City in 1808, of which De Witt Clinton was the first Grand Commander, and
which body became united, in 1867, with the Supreme Council of the Northern
Masonic Jurisdiction, A. & A. S. R. Also Proceedings of the Supreme Council
founded in New York by De La Motta, in 1813, by authority of the Southern
Supreme Council, of which he was Grand Treasurer-General, these Proceedings from
1813 to 1860.
By Bro. George A. Lanzarotti, Casilla 126, Rancagua, Chile:
All Kinds of Masonic literature in Spanish. Write first quoting prices.
By Bro. Silas H. Shepherd, Hartland, Wisconsin: "Catalogue
of the Masonic Library of Samuel Lawrence"; Second edition of Preston's
"Illustrations of Masonry"; "The Source of Measures," by J. Ralston Skinner,
1876, or second edition, 1894; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," volumes 1 to 11,
inclusive.
By Bro. Ernest E. Ford, 305 South Wilson Avenue, Alhambra,
California: "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," volumes 3 and 7, with St. John's Cards;
St. John's Cards for volumes 4 and 5, A.Q.C.; "Masonic Review," volumes 1, 2, 7,
31, 32, and 43 to 60, inclusive; "Voice of Masonry," volumes 2 to 12, inclusive,
and volume 15; Transactions Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction, for the years
1882 and 1886; Original Proceedings of the General Grand Encampment Knights
Templar for the years 1826 and 1835.
By Bro. Frank R. Johnson, 306 East 10th Street, Kansas
City, Mo.: "The Year Book," published by the Masonic Constellations, containing
the history of the Grand Council, R. & S. M., of Missouri.
By Bro. L. Rask, 14 Alvey St., Schenectady, N. Y.: "Remarks
upon Alchemy and the Alchemists," by E. A. Hitchcock, Janesville, N. Y., about
1865; "The Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries," by C. W. Heckethorn;
"Lost Language of Symbolism," by Harold Bayley, published by Lippincott; "Sacred
Hermeneutics," by Davidson, Edinburgh, 1843; "Solar System of the Ancients
Discovered," by J. Wilson, published by Longmans Co., London, 1856; "The
Alphabet," by Isaac Taylor, Began, Paul, Trench & Co., 1883, or the edition of
1899, published by Scribners, New York; "Anacalypsis," by Godfrey Higgins, 1836,
published by Longmans, Green & Co., London; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," any
volume or volumes.
By Bro. N. W. J. Haydon, 564 Pape Avenue, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada: "The Beautiful Necessity," and "Architecture and Democracy," by Claude
Bragdon.
By the National Masonic Research Society, 2920 First Avenue
East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: "Discourses upon Architecture," by Dallaway, published
in 1833; any or all volumes of "The American Freemasons' Magazine," published by
J. F. Brennan, about 1860.
FOR SALE
By Bro. A. A. Burnand, 690 South Bronson Ave., Los Angeles,
California: "Thomas Dunckerley," by Sadler; "History of Freemasonry," by Robert
Freke Gould, 4 volumes, full morocco binding, very fine condition; "History of
Freemasonry and Concordant Orders," Hughan and Stillson.
By the National Masonic Research Society, 2920 First Avenue
East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: See itemized list on inside back cover.
----o----
THE QUESTION BOX
THE BUILDER is an open forum for free and fraternal
discussion. Each of its contributors writes under his own name, and is
responsible for his own opinions. Believing that a unity of spirit is better
than a uniformity of opinion, the Research Society, as such, does not champion
any one school of Masonic thought as over against another, but offers to all
alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, leaving each to stand or fall by
its own merits.
The Question Box and Correspondence Column are open to all
members of the Society at all times. Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects
are earnestly invited from our members, particularly those connected with lodges
or study clubs which are following our Study Club course. When requested,
questions will be answered promptly by mail before publication in this
department.
JOHN ADAMS NOT A MASON
Can you please tell me when and where President John Adams
was made a Mason ? While you are at it you might tell me whether John Quincy
Adams was a Mason.
L.T.D., New Hampshire.
Both of your questions are fully covered in a note on the
subject by Brother Dr. Frederick Hamilton, Grand Secretary of Massachusetts, and
published in the Massachusetts Proceedings for 1921, page 193. It would appear
to ye editor that this definitely settles the question. Dr. Hamilton's note is
here given in full:
"The question is frequently raised as to whether or not
John Adams and John Quincy Adams were members of the Masonic Fraternity, and the
statement that one or the other of them was a Mason is not infrequently made. It
seems worth while that a statement should be made on this point, which shall, if
possible, definitely settle the.
"The case of John Quincy Adams was dealt with in a manner
which appears to be conclusive in a statement which may be found on page 298 of
the Massachusetts Proceedings for 1918. [He was not a Mason.]
"I have made a very careful investigation of the case of
John Adams, and I think we may regard it as definitely settled that he was not a
member of the Fraternity. On page 134 of the second volume of Massachusetts
reprints will be found a letter from President Adams which ought to be
conclusive. Shortly after Mr. Adams' election to the Presidency, a loyal address
was sent him by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The letter just referred to is
a very courteous reply to that communication in which President Adams
acknowledges the loyalty of the Fraternity, expresses his appreciation of it,
and refers to the fact that President Washington and many of the writer's
friends were members of it, but makes the statement that he himself is not a
member of it. Apparently in order to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the
President makes this statement in two forms. He says that he is not a member of
the Fraternity, and elsewhere in the letter says that he was never initiated.
"This ought to be conclusive, but the natural desire to
associate President Adams with the Fraternity with which so many of his
distinguished colleagues were connected, coupled with the fact that the name
John Adams appears in a considerable number of places in the records of our
Grand Lodge and of particular lodges, have led to the tradition that John Adams
was a member of the Craft.
"I have carefully examined our index cards, records of our
local lodges, and records of the Grand Lodge, and have endeavored to analyze
evidence obtained therefrom, with the following results:
"Our lodge records show that there were three men by the
name of John Adams who were members of Boston lodges.
"I. John Adams took his degrees in the First Lodge in
Boston, now St. John's Lodge, in 1750, and died in 1795. The dates prove that
this was not the President.
"II. John Adams took his degrees in St. Andrew's Lodge in
1778. This could not have been the President as he was in France during the
whole of that year.
"III. John Adams took his degrees in Columbian Lodge in
1800, in February, and April. This could not have been the President as the
dates were in the middle of his Presidential term when he was busy in Washington
and neither the records nor the history of the lodge claim him as President. The
President was at this time 65 years old.
"The records of the Grand Lodge show that a John Adams was
present at the Feast of St. John on January 31, 1757. This was a very
distinguished gathering, and our lists give the names of all of those present,
ninety-five in number, including the Earl of Loudon and the Governor of Halifax.
This was probably John Adams of the First Lodge in Boston. The President was at
this time a young law student in Worcester.
"A Captain Adams is reported as being present at the Feast
of St. John, September 28, 1778, and again September 21, 1779. This could not
have been the President as he held no military rank, and at least on one of
those occasions was in Paris.
"A Brother Adams, Christian name omitted, is reported as
being present at the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, June 24, 1782. This could
not have been the President as it is hardly probable that so distinguished a man
as a future President had already become could have been recorded in the
official minutes of the Grand Lodge as simply Brother Adams.
"I think it may be said with as much certainty as is
possible in any historic statement that John Adams was not a Freemason."
In addition to the above consult THE BUILDER, Vol. II, page
351; Vol. V, pages 166, 334 for reference on John Adams. On John Quincy Adams
see Vol. II, page 351; Vol. III, page 62, 256; Vol. IV, page 347; Vol. V, page
209, 336.
* * *
THE COMENIUS SOCIETY
I have received a letter from a brother of mine in Germany
- he also is a Mason - asking me to contribute a bit toward what he calls The
Comenius Society. Before sending him any cast I want to know what I am helping.
Can you tell me anything about this Comenius Society ? L. D. von K. L., New
York.
The Comenius Society was organized in 1891. It was named
for Johan Amos Comenius (often used in the form Eomensky) the last Bishop of the
Moravians, and a famous educator, born in Moravia in 1592. Two hundred and
forty-six men signed the call for organization, among them being Kuno Fischer,
Eucken, Deussen, and Paulsen. The purpose of the Society was to foster
idealistic education, especially among the masses, and it has organized a number
of schools, university extension courses, and that sort of thing; and it has
lent its influence to reform movements designed to check the abusive use of
alcoholic liquors, tobacco, and slushy literature. It publishes a monthly which
before the war was called "Monatschefte": since the war the name has been
changed to "Geisterkultur and Volksbildung," or, "Mindculture and Popular
Education." The Society claims at present to number in its membership some three
hundred Masonic lodges and these lodges are now helping it to launch a drive for
financial support, a thing made necessary by the devastations of the Great War.
Your brother, no doubt, is helping on with this drive. As to what extent the
Society is worthy of financial support THE BUILDER cannot say; neither does it
know how reliable are the claims the Society makes for itself. We would welcome
information from any quarter.
* * *
WANTS TRUTH ABOUT TEMPLARS
Can I accept with any degree of truth the writings of that
classic authority on Freemasonry who is accepted and quoted the world over from
his writings upon that subject - Albert G. Mackey, M. D., author of "Lexicon of
Freemasonry" in which he states:
"Notwithstanding the efforts of King and Pope the Order of
Templars was not entirely extinguished. In France it still exists and ranks
among its members some of the most influential Noblemen of the Kingdom. In
England the Encampment of Baldwin which was established at Bristol by the
Templars who returned with Richard I from Palestine still (1852) continues to
hold its regular meetings and is believed to have preserved the ancient costume
and ceremonies of the order. This encampment with another one at Bath and a
third at York constituted the three original encampments in England. From these
have emanated the existing encampments in the British Islands and United States
so that the order as it now exists in Britain and America is a lineal descendant
of the ancient order."
Albert G. Mackey, M. D., also in the "Lexicon of
Freemasonry" gives a completed list of Grand Masters of the Templar Order from
French sources, from Hugh de Payens 1118 down through continuously with date of
year each one served unto that of. Sir Sidney Smith 1838. If these writings of
the author are wrong and incorrect like the productions of many of our
extemporaneous writers and speakers and officers who do sometimes admit that
they are not speaking from the results of research, why does the Fraternity as a
whole officially not ask that whichever one is erroneous be expunged from our
libraries and publications ? C. D. P., New York.
Your query, Brother Proper, is in all strictness a
challenge to the literati of the Craft, and we prefer to let it stand as such.
Ye editor is now organizing a group of special researches for the purpose of
ventilating the whole vexed question of Templar origins.
* * *
WHY DOES "THE BUILDER" COPYRIGHT ITS ARTICLES?
Would I be considered impertinent if I were to inquire why
THE BUILDER copyrights all its articles? It would seem to me a better plan to
let the whole Fraternity have the use of them. A. M. K., Ohio.
Your question is not impertinent and your point is well
taken. The National Masonic Research Society copyrights all articles published
in THE BUILDER in order that it can publish in serial form forthcoming books. It
is obvious that an author cannot publish a book in serial form unless he is so
protected. Other Masonic journals can republish articles from THE BUILDER by
making the usual request.
* * *
HOW TO ORDER BOOKS FROM PUBLISHERS
Living in a little town without a book store or even a
library I am at a loss to know how to get books I need. Isn't there some agency,
or something of that kind that I can use to get books for me ? M. D. S., Idaho.
Your best bet is to order direct from the publisher. If you
do not have the name of the publisher of the book you want, or have his name but
not his address, write to the Secretary of the State Library Board of your
state: if you have no such secretary write to the librarian of the nearest
public library. Once you have the publisher's name and address direct your
letter accordingly and be sure to give correct title, date, and full name of
author. The publisher will then give you the postpaid retail price of the book,
you can remit by money order, and the book will be promptly mailed to you. In
case a publisher cannot sell a book direct he will always give you, at your
request, the name of the nearest dealer. Buying books is not more difficult or
mysterious than buying bread, or coal, or a Ford automobile. If you try it a few
times you will quickly get the hang of it. It is a good thing to try. A house
without books is like a man without a head.
* * *
OLD AGE AND FREEMASONRY
I have been requested to deliver the address when our lodge
presents a medal to one of its charter members. Will you give me some
suggestions in that line? I know that this request may be somewhat out of the
ordinary, but I do not know where elsewhere to look. W. E. M., Florida.
In such an address you will very naturally have much to say
concerning old age. There are a number of books on that subject, among which may
be mentioned Campbell's "Grow Old Along With Me," and "Over the Tea Cups," by O.
W. Holmes. There are numberless essays and chapters. See especially "The
Patriarchs" by Bro. J. F. Newton, published in THE BUILDER for March 1916, page
67. See article "On Growing Old" in The Atlantic Monthly, for June 1915;
Montaigne's essay "Of Age"; Bacon's essay "Of Youth and Age"; Emerson's chapter
"Old Age" in his "Society and Solitude"; Stevenson's "Crabbed Age and Youth" in
his "Virginibus Puerisque"; Lamb's essay "The Superannuated Man" in his "Last
Essays of Ella"; and see Benson's "From a College Window," page 28. A very
excellent poem, appropriate for your use, was published in THE BUILDER, April
1916, page 101: it is entitled "When Old Age Comes" and was written by Burges
Johnson. If you have access to it you would enjoy to read Cicero's "De
Senectute," the most famous book, perhaps, ever written on the theme. As to long
service in Freemasonry what could be better than this, a sentence from one of
the pages of Albert Pike: "There is nothing which will so well remunerate a man,
when the days of his life are shortening to the winter solstice, as faithful
service in the true interest of Masonry."
* * *
ARTICLES IN "THE BUILDER" ON KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
In any of the volumes of the magazine prior to 1918 can
there be found any discussion or papers relating to the plan of King Solomon's
Temple, and how to reconcile the differences found in the various descriptions
of the same recorded in the Old Testament? N. L. T., Colorado.
In THE BUILDER for March, 1916, Brother George W. Warvelle
discusses the "Legends of King Solomon" and touches briefly upon the comparative
historicity of the Biblical accounts. In the number for April, 1916, Brother
Asahel W. Gage places the accounts from Kings and Chronicles alongside each
other for convenient comparison. On page 64 of the issue for February of the
same year you will find an instructive letter from Jos. W. Eggleston who tries
to solve one of the problems concerning the Temple. Through the issues for
April, May, and June of 1917 the late Brother Wm. A. Paine contributed an
exceptionally able series of articles on Masonry and King Solomon's Temple in
which you will find a number of items concerning your own particular problems.
But the articles that may throw the most light on those problems will doubtless
be the series on "The Pillars of the Porch" by the late Brother John W. Barry,
which began in THE BUILDER for June 1917.
If you desire to go into the matter at length look up the
volumes on Kings and Chronicles in The International Critical Commentary of the
Bible.
* * *
ORIGIN OF "SHIBBOLETH"
One of the things that seem very curious to me is the word
"shibboleth" and the explanation that is given to it. What is the origin of the
word? l am not where l can get hold of books very easily so I am asking you to
help me out a little bit, and oblige. J. J. B., Montana.
"Shibboleth" has come to be the synonym for a password
through the narrative found in the Bible, Judges 12:1-6. Because the tribesmen
of Ephraim refused to assist him at a critical juncture in his quarrel with the
Ammonites, Jephthah, after he had defeated the latter, turned on the Ephraimites
to punish them for what he deemed their treachery. Jephthah was chieftan of the
tribesmen of Gilead. "And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against
the Ephraimites. And it was so, that, when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said,
Let me go over, the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite?" The
two tribes were closely related in appearance so that it was difficult to
distinguish between them, just as one cannot always tell whether a man be an
Englishman or a Scotchman, but, as in the latter case, there were certain
differences of speech that no artifice could conceal. "If he said, Nay; then
said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he could not
frame to pronounce it right; then they laid hold an him and slew him at the
fords of the Jordan." It is curious to note that this is not the only instance
in history where such a thing has occurred. During the awful days of the
Sicilian Vespers a suspect was similarly tried. The name of dried peas among the
Sicilians was "ciceri": if the man pronounced the "c" with a "chee" sound he was
allowed to pass as being a Sicilian; but if he gave it an "s" sound, he was
captured as being a Frenchman. During a battle between the Danes and Saxons on
St. Bryce's Day in 1002, if tradition is to be trusted, the words "Chichester
Church" were employed as a like test.
* * *
THE MASONIC CONNECTIONS OF PRESIDENT JAMES BUCHANAN
As a member of the Society, I write to ask for some
information. Was President James Buchanan a Mason? I have heard that he was and
again that he wasn't.
J. T. M., North Carolina.
Brother J. Fred Fisher, Secretary of Lodge No. 43, F. & A.
M., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has given us the following information:
"President James Buchanan was made a Mason in Lodge No. 43,
Lancaster, Pa. on December 11, 1816. He was entered by W. M. Bro. John Reynolds,
and was passed and raised by W. M. Bro. George Whitaken on January 24, 1817. He
was elected Junior Warden, December 13, 1820, and Worshipful Master December 23,
1822. At the expiration of his term of office, he was appointed the first
District Deputy Grand Master of this district. He was elected an honorary member
of the lodge March 10, 1868.
"He was also a member of Royal Arch Chapter, No. 43."
* * *
ANENT NEGRO MASONRY
From whence did Negro Masonry arise? H.A.S., Washington, D.
C.
Prince Hall and thirteen other Negroes were made Masons at
Boston, March 6, 1776, in a military lodge, and when this army lodge was
discontinued these men applied to the Grand Lodge of England (the so-called
"Modern") for a charter. The charter was issued September 20th, 1784, but, owing
to we know not what delays, was not received by Prince Hall and his fellows
until 1787, at which time they formally organized themselves into a lodge
registered on the rolls of the Grand Lodge of England as "African Lodge, No.
429." After a variety of vicissitudes, about which there is still a deal of
controversy, this lodge became dormant, was erased from the Grand Lodge roll,
and then, after a few years, was revived, this time as an independent body. From
this lodge grew the "Prince Hall Grand Lodge," and from that Grand Lodge the
great bulk of so-called Negro Masonry has descended. The subject has been the
occasion for ceaseless debate, much of it unfortunately acrimonious, and there
is no need here to enter into all the questions as to legality, and all that. If
you care to go into the matter thoroughly write to the Grand Secretary of the
Grand Lodge of Washington for a copy of Grand Lodge Proceedings containing their
famous Negro Masonry report. This was written by Brother W. H. Upton, P. G. M.
of Washington, was published in book form, and remains the locus classicus on
the subject.
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE
AN OLD MASONIC PITCHER
The accompanying photographs were contributed by Brother A.
E. Harris, B. D. No. 1, Box 189, Sherwood, Oregon, who is in possession of the
pitcher. In a letter he has given the family tradition as to this relic which
will be not without interest to our readers:
"According to family tradition the pitcher was made with
five others about five hundred years ago. It is said to have been brought to
this country from Scotland by John McDonald. His birth is not known. He was
married to Freelove Bucklin of Cumberland, R. I., March 6, 1732. He was made a
freeman (citizen entitled to vote) May 6, 1735. He died November 14, 1744, at
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Then comes some confusion in the tradition. One
story is that he died while there on Masonic duty, which is very possible for
there were Masons there at that time. The other is that he was one of the first
of the Rhode Island volunteers who went to the siege of Louisburg. His wife and
family resided at Johnstone, R. I., at that time. The estate was settled April
16, 1747. (Book 4, pages 179 and 208, Providence, R. I., Records of Probate.)
"According to tradition the pitcher became the possession
of the oldest son who became a Mason. After the Revolutionary War the sons went
west and the pitcher became the property of Sarah McDonald when she began
housekeeping in 1812. She was my great grandmother. "There are no stamps or
marks on the bottom of the pitcher or elsewhere - so the maker is not known. On
pp. 111-13 of 'The Old China Book' by N. Hudson Moore there are pictures and
descriptions of jugs something like ours."
The verse on one side of the pitcher is the second stanza
of the famous old "Apprentice's Song" which was written (so it is supposed) by
the actor, Matthew Birkhead, and first published by him in Read's "Weekly
Journal," December 1, 1722. It was later published in the 1723 edition of
Anderson's Constitutions. This stanza makes it impossible for the jug to have
been made earlier than 1722.
----o----
GOVERNOR WISE OF VIRGINIA
In the September issue of THE BUILDER, page 292, a
correspondent invites the writer to confirm his statement in relation to the
Wises of Virginia. He is correct in all save the name of one political party.
Henry A. Wise was Governor of the State when the Civil war broke out. He did
advise "fighting it out in the Union," and opposed secession. The legislature
twice defeated the ordinance of secession, but when it was represented that
unless the State did secede it would be obliged to fight against the rest of the
South, the State seceded. The writer's mother had three cousins in the
legislature at the time, who voted against secession. There were exactly as many
emancipation societies south of the Mason and Dixon line as north of it, and men
were frequently liberating their slaves in their wills. Washington himself did
so. The war was to settle a point in the Constitution as to whether or not a
State had the right to secede, and the negro was but an incident. Henry A. Wise
was elected Governor on the Democratic ticket. There never was a "Know Nothing"
party: it was the American Party, and was nicknamed "Know Nothing" by its
enemies.
John S. Wise was elected to Congress in 1882 on the
Republican ticket. He was defeated two years before, on the Democratic ticket I
believe. He afterwards practiced law in New York City and very successfully. He
served in the Confederate Army. G. W. Baird, District of Columbia.
----o----
AN ANTI-MASONIC RESEARCH GROUP
The National Masonic Research Society, under direction of
J. H. Tatsch, associate editor THE BUILDER, is engaged in special research work
on the subject of Anti-Masonry. Brethren interested in this fascinating field of
Masonic history are requested to communicate with Brother Tatsch, indicating in
which one or more of the following classifications they wish to participate:
1. Anti-Masonry in Great Britain prior to 1717.
2. Anti-Masonry in Great Britain since 1717.
3. Anti-Masonry in America prior to 1826.
4. The Morgan Excitement and the Anti-Masonic Party,
1826-1840.
5. Anti-Masonry in America 1840 to 1883.
6. Anti-Masonry in America since 1886.
7. Anti-Masonry in Continental Europe prior to 1788.
8. Anti-Masonry elsewhere than America and Europe.
9. Exposes of the 18th Century (any language).
10. Exposes of the 19th Century.
11. Engravings and illustrations applicable to any of the
foregoing sub-divisions.
All communications on this subject should be addressed to
J. H. Tatsch, 2920 First Avenue East, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
----o----
YE EDITOR'S CORNER
Can you write short stories or novels? Publishers are
offering a big opportunity in Masonic fiction.
* * *
I have been traveling about over the country during the
past two months, and have found the Fraternity in a flourishing condition
everywhere. The usual complaint is, - We are growing too fast.
* * *
Have you any second-hand Masonic books to sell? Let us know
if you have. Perhaps we can help you dispose of them.
* * *
Brother J. F. Newton's "The Builders" is outselling any
other Masonic book. It has appeared in an English edition: also it has been
translated into Dutch, and will be translated into French and German. A brother
in Damascus, Syria, is preparing to translate it into Persian.
----o----
JANUARY BOOK LIST
"The Religion of Freemasonry”, by, Henry Josiah Whymper,
with an introduction by William James Hughan. Edited by George William Speth. We
have purchased the only remaining copies of this classic. (See THE BUILDER for
September, 1922, page 282.) Slightly shopworn but unused. Paper covers, 260
pages. When the few copies in stock become exhausted the work will be entirely
out of print. $2.15
"The Builders - A Story and Study of Masonry," by Brother
Joseph Fort Newton, former Editor-in-Chief of THE BUILDER, is now the fastest
selling Masonic book in the world. It is being translated into several
languages. (Special price in lots of twelve or more copies.) Bound in
substantial blue cloth: beautifully printed. Single copies $1.75
"Questions on The Builders." Compiled by the Cincinnati
Masonic Study Club to be used in connect/on with "The Builders," by Joseph Fort
Newton. Paper, 13 pages, closely printed $ .15
"The Story of the Craft," Lionel Vibert. One of the best of
brief histories of Masonry. Cloth binding; 86 pages. (Reviewed in THE BUILDER,
April 1922, page 120) $1.35
"Freemasonry Before the Existence of Grand Lodges'" Lionel
Vibert. Embodies findings of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research on Masonic
history prior to 1717. A standard. Cloth binding, 164 pages. (Reviewed in THE
BUILDER, October 1917, page 314.). $1.75
"A Concise History of Freemasonry:' Robert Freke Gould.
Revised by Fred J. W. Crowe. Absolutely indispensable. Cloth binding. 349 pages.
(See THE BUILDER, January 1922, page 23: June 1922, page 183.) $5.00
"Ancient Freemasonry and the Old Dundee Lodge No. 18 –
1722-1920," Arthur Heiron. Very readable. In one year it has established itself
as a standard work. Index supplied. Description on request. Cloth binding, 303
pages. (Reviewed in THE BUILDER September 1921, page 243.) $5.00
"Masons as Makers of America," Madison C. Peters. Gives
account of all prominent Revolutionary heroes who were Masons. Has gone through
several editions. Cloth binding, 60 pages $1.00
"Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods," J.S.M. Ward. Opens up a
new field. Full of curious information. Cloth binding. 360 pages. (Reviewed four
times in THE BUILDER: March 1922, page 89; May 1922, page 151.) $7.50
"Collected Essays on Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould.
Important treatises by the master Masonic historian. Large size, beautifully
printed. Cloth binding, 300 pages. (Reviewed in THE BUILDER, March 1918, page
93.) $7.00
"Symbolism of Freemasonry," Albert G. Mackey. New edition
of a Masonic classic, revised by Robert I. Clegg. De Lure fabrikoid binding, 311
pages. (Old edition reviewed in THE BUILDER, August 1920, page 226. New edition
reviewed in the December 1922 issue.) $3.65
"Masonic Jurisprudence," Albert G. Mackey. Indispensable to
Masters, Wardens and lodge workers. Cloth binding, 570 pages $3.15
"Military Lodges," Robert Freke Gould. Concludes with a
chapter on Masonic beginnings in America. Cloth binding, 232 pages $2.15
"Notes on Laurence Dermott and His Work," W.M. Bywater.
Necessary to an understanding of history of English Grand Lodges. Cloth binding,
54 pages.$.75
"Medieval Architecture," Arthur Kingsley Porter, Harvard
University. Two volumes of 500 pages each. Full of information of great value to
students of the history of Freemasonry. Recommended by the editor of THE
BUILDER. Abundantly illustrated. Complete indexes and bibliographies. $13.00
"The Meaning of Freemasonry," W.L. Wilmshurst. Lectures
delivered in English lodges on the symbolism and philosophy of Freemasonry;
accounts of ancient systems of mysteries, initiations, etc. New. Cloth binding,
216 pages $3.25
"The Arcane Schools," John Yarker. A famous book.
Especially interesting to students of the occult. Cloth binding, 535 pages $5.00
"The Kabbalah, Its Doctrines, Development and Literature,"
Christian D. Ginsberg. For many years the standard. A new reprint. Cloth
binding, 232 pages $2.35
"Mormonism and Masonry," S.H. Goodwin, Grand Secretary of
Utah. Printed for the Society by the Grand Lodge of Utah. A fascinating story of
a little known chapter in the history of American Masonry. Paper binding, 38
pages $.25
"The Atholl Lodges - Their Authentic History. Being a
Memorial of the Grand Lodge of England 'According to the Old Constitutions'
Compiled from Official Sources," by Robert Freke Gould. Cloth binding, 192
pages. $1.10
"Things a Freemason Should Know," by Fred J. W. Crowe.
Eight chapters of compact information about English Freemasonry. Cloth binding,
86 pages. $1.25
"The Gospel of Freemasonry," by "Uncle Silas" A very
rapidly selling book written in a new vein. Third edition. Cloth binding, 60
pages $1.00
"The Evolution of Freemasonry - An Authentic Story of
Freemasonry. Profusely Illustrated with Portraits of Distinguished Freemasons
and Views of Memorable Relics and Places of Singular Masonic Interest " by
Delmar Duane Darrah. Very substantially bound in green buckram. Calendered paper
422 pages $5.00
"1722 Constitutions" (reproduced by Photographic plates
from an original copy in the archives of the Iowa Masonic Library. Cedar
Rapids.) Edition limited $2.00
"Philosophy of Freemasonry," Roscoe Pound $1.26
"Lectures on Masonic Jurisprudence," Roscoe Pound $1.50.
"The Story of Old Glory, The Oldest Flag,” Bro. I.W. Barry,
P.G.M., Iowa, paper covers, illustrated. A story of the Flag and Masonry $.50
"The Comacines, Their Predecessors and Their Successors,"
and "Further Notes on the Comacine Masters," W. Ravenscroft. The two works in
one binding, paper covers, illustrated. $1.00
"Further Notes on the Comacine Masters," by W. Ravenscroft,
paper covers, illustrated $.50
"Symbolism of the First Degree," Gage, pamphlet $.15
"Symbolism of the Third Degree," Ball, pamphlet $.15
"Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism," Waite, pamphlet $.15
"Report of the Masonic Overseas Mission." A special Number
of THE BUILDER containing the full Report of the Masonic Overseas Mission on
Their Efforts to Secure Governmental Permission to Engage in Independent War
Relief Work Abroad. $.35
"Military Lodges," G. Alfred Lawrence. Paper covers $.35
"Freemasonry in America Prior to 1750," Melvin M. Johnson,
P.G.M., Massachusetts $1.35
"A Vest Pocket History of Freemasonry," by Brother H.L.
Haywood (Special Prices on lot orders for 25 or more copies for presentation
purposes.) Single copies $.25
"What an Entered Apprentice Ought to Know," Hal Riviere.
(Special prices on lot orders for 25 or more copies for presentation purposes.)
Pamphlet, paper covers. Single copies $.15
BOOKS BY DUDLEY WRIGHT
"Robert Burns and Freemasonry." Contains chapter by Dr.
Joseph Fort Newton. Cloth binding, 113 pages. (Reviewed in THE BUILDER, August
1921, page 235.) $1.75
"Masonic Legends and Traditions." Cloth binding 152 pages.
(Reviewed in THE BUILDER, February 1922, page 57. Review by A. E. Waite
reprinted in THE BUILDER, July 1922, page 221.) $1.50
"The Eleusinian Mysteries and Rites." One of the best
accounts of one of the most influential of the Ancient Mysteries. Cloth binding,
108 pages. $1.50
"Woman and Freemasonry." Especially valuable for students
of the Order of the Eastern Star. Cloth binding, 184 pages $1.90
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A MASONIC LIBRARY
Mackey's "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," latest revised
edition. Two large volumes with total of 943 pages. Second volume includes a
large descriptive bibliography of Masonic books, also a long glossary to explain
Masonic words and phrases. De Luxe fabrikoid binding. $16.00
Mackey's "Revised History of Freemasonry," by Robert I.
Clegg. Seven large volumes with total of 2376 pages. Complete index covering all
volumes. Illustrated. De Luxe fabrikoid binding $56.00
1915 bound volume of THE BUILDER, 312 pages $3.75
1916 bound volume of THE BUILDER, 384 pages $3.75
1917 bound volume of TIIE BUILDER, 384 pages $3.75
1918 bound volume of THE BUILDER, 366 pages $3.75
1919 bound volume of THE BUILDER, 336 pages $3.75
1920 bound volume of THE BUILDER. 344 pages $3.75
1921 bound volume of THE BUILDER, 368 pages $3.75
1922 bound volume THE BUILDER, 388 pagers $3.76
The above volumes bound in Goldenrod buckram.
A very limited number of bound volumes for each of the
above years, in three-quarter morocco binding $4.76
1915-1916 bound volumes of THE BUILDER, (two years in one
cover), Goldenrod buckram binding, 696 pages. $6.00
These bound volumes may be purchased separately or as a
set. They comprise the most interesting and complete Masonic reference library
in existence.
Consolidated Five Year Index to THE BUILDER (for the years
1915 to 1919, inclusive), paper covers $1.25
* * *
We carry these books in stock solely for the accommodation
of our members. Profits are returned to the treasury of the Society, to be used
to enlarge its services.
This list embraces the standard works on Masonry and allied
subjects that we are able to keep in stock. It is being augmented as rapidly as
possible. Many of the best known and older books are out of print and Impossible
to obtain: of new titles only the better class are selected.
The reader is urged to order from the Book List published
In the current issue of THE BUILDER because the supply of many titles is very
limited.
Since publishers are constantly revising their prices to us
the above prices are subject to change without notice. The prices shown include
postage.
Address all orders to
NATIONAL MASONIC RESEARCH SOCIETY, 2920 First Avenue East.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA.
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