PARADE TO GLORY THE STORY OF THE SHRINERS
AND THEIR HOSPITALS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN
By Fred Van Deventer
NEW YORK, 1959 WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY
For Florence Copyright 1 1959 by Fred Van Deventer
All rights reserved.
Published simultaneously in the Dominion of Canada by George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 59‑5505
Table of Contents Preface‑Es Selamu Aleikum in I Apostles of Good Cheer i II From All of These q III "Better Than They Knew" 21 IV The Legend of Araby 3 2 V In Death a Mystery 5 3 VI Hard Times‑and Growth 63 VII Fleming Says Farewell 71 VIII The Wells of Zemzem 83 IX The Power of the Throne 91 X End of an Era 112 XI Presidential Approval 120 XII With Charity for All i 2 q XIII The New Century 136 XIV To Faraway Places 152 XV "Our Lives, Our Fortunes" 164 XVI The Wells of Zemzem Run Dry 172 XVII The "Bubbles" Speech x‑78 XVIII Temples of Baby Smiles 191 XIX Unto the Least of These 204 XX Guests at the White House 209 XXI Dreams of Grandeur 217 XXII International Good Will 224 v XXIII The Great Depression 231 XXIV The Second World War 24‑7 XXV The Right to Go to Lodge 256 Appendix Rank of Temples According to Dates of Charters 277 Derivation and Significance of Temple Names 282 Cities with Temples 285 Past Imperial Potentates 288 Past Imperial Treasurers 292 Past Imperial Recorders 293 Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children, Directory 293 Index 29'7
Preface
Es Selamu A leikum
There is a story on how Parade to Glory came to be written.
Several years ago, when Florence Rinard (Mrs. Van Deventer) and I appeared on the television show "Twenty Questions," we took a short vacation in the southland. On our return, we were fortunate enough to meet on the Norfolk‑Cape Charles, Va., ferry, Mr. and Mrs. John Willey, who also had been vacationing. Mr. Willey is the editor of William Morrow & Co., the publishers of this book.
In the course of time, Mr. Willey and I had lunch together in New York, and at that luncheon I explained to him that ever since I had become a member of Crescent Temple, I had hoped someday to write the story of the Shriners and their hospitals. Mr. Willey expressed interest, and at his suggestion I approached Mr. George E. Stringfellow, who was then the Imperial Chief Rabban and also a member of Crescent. We had first come to know each other through my broadcasting of the news and also through the "Twenty Questions" program.
Imperial Sir George, without whose help, guidance and friendship this book could never have been written, presented the idea to the Imperial Divan, then headed by Imperial Sir Gerald Crary. More
vii Vila PREFACE
interest was expressed, further meetings were held, and the Imperial Divan approved the project in Minneapolis. Imperial Sir Thomas W. Melham, who had been elected in Minneapolis, signed the official documents that had been prepared by Legal Counsel Robert P. Smith.
There followed many thousands of miles of travel, seeking information wherever it might be found. I spent well over a year gathering information and photographs before ever one line was put to paper. They came from libraries from Maine to California and from Florida to the far northwest, from Recorders of all the temples, from emeritus members of the Imperial Council, from Past Imperial Potentates, from Arabic scholars, from the Shrine rooms in the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, from the late Noble Charles Bender of Mahi Temple, who had spent untold years and treasure collecting Shrine information.
There had been other histories of the Shrine written, the last one before the hospitals were really established, and there had been the legendary histories created by some of the early leaders of this great fraternal Order. But there never had been a story written about the glamour of the Shrine, the charity of the Shrine as well as the laws and the administration of the Shrine. This, then, is that story‑not a history in the exhaustive sense, for there are thousands upon thousands of anecdotes that could be told that are not included here.
For all who have helped, including my wife Florence and my daughter Nancy, I am indeed grateful. The book has made me a better Shriner and a better Mason. I hope it will you too.
FRED VAN DEVENTER
Princeton, N. J. January 1959
Selamu Es Aleikum
IMPERIAL POTENTATE 75 PROSPECT STREET EAST ORANGE, N.J.
Mr. Fred Van Deventer, Princeton, N.J.
Pursuant to a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Imperial Council, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, you were commissioned to write a comprehensive history of that Order.
Imperial Sir George E. Stringfellow was selected as chairman of a committee of the Imperial Council to approve your manuscript, with power to select the other members of that committee. Other members selected were Deputy Imperial Potentate Clayton F. Andrews, Imperial Recorder George M. Saunders, Past Imperial Potentate Galloway Calhoun and Past Imperial Potentate Harold M. Lloyd.
The undersigned members of that committee have read your manuscript. We concur that it is a work worthy of the Shrine, that it gives a true and authentic picture of the Shrine from its inception to the present time. We commend it to every Shriner and to every Mason, all of whom have the opportunity to become a member of our fraternity.
We feel that "Parade to Glory" is a story that is typically American and we take pleasure in approving it in its entirety.
MEMBER CRESCENT TEMPLE NO. CLINTON AVE.& WALL STREET TRENTON, NEW JERSEY January 28,1959 George Inermate
PARADE T0 GLORY
Chapter I
Apostles of Good Cheer
IN THE spring and summer of 1870, the "13" craze swept New York City and among its more ardent devotees were Walter Millard Fleming, M.D.; William J. Florence, actor; Charles T. McClenachan, lawyer; William S. Paterson, paper merchant; George Millar, printer; and William Fowler, restaurateur and wine merchant. As much as anything else, the craze over "13" could be attributed to the aftermath of the War between the States, a flouting of all omens of ill‑luck in an effort to forget. There were those who insisted on sitting down to their luncheons at exactly 1z:13 at tables set for thirteen. Games were invented in which "13" played the dominant role, and attempts were made not infrequently to have thirteen persons at social affairs.
Among the luncheon tables set for thirteen guests was one on the second floor of Knickerbocker Cottage located at 426 Sixth Avenue, a popular bistro operated by Fowler and patronized largely by members of the Masonic fraternity, which was about to erect a new temple on nearby Twenty‑third Street. The fraternity had survived the political chicanery of the thirties that had produced an anti‑Mason political party, largely supported by Thurlow Weed in an effort to defeat Andrew Jackson, who was a Mason. But by the late thirties, the anti‑Masons had been maneuvered ‑by Weed and William H. Seward into the Whig party, where they promptly lost their identity.
APOSTLES OF GOOD CHEER 3
Now, thirty years later, Masonry was prosperous. There were many lodges of the first three degrees. The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite was growing rapidly; and if the Knights Templar were a bit slower, it could be attributed to the cost of uniforms that every member must own.
There were thousands of Masons in the New York of 1870, many of them with businesses and offices that abounded in the vicinity of Twenty‑third Street. Banded together as they were in the spirit of fraternalism, it was quite natural and customary that they should carry that spirit outside their lodge rooms, and many of them made it a habit to visit Knickerbocker Cottage, which was housed in the old Varian Homestead, a large white house in the Dutch style, erected at Twentyeighth Street when that area was on the outskirts of the city. Its rooms were large and charming. The food was good and Knickerbocker Cottage had attained a certain notoriety because of both the size and the quality of its cellars.
There were several Masonic luncheon tables in Fowler's place, mostly made up of the same groups, day after day. Fowler promoted the idea of little cliques and was a member, or an honorary member, of most of them, for he was a popular host. But the most popular of all of the luncheon tables was the one on the second floor in a room that overlooked Sixth Avenue, a table set for thirteen. Faces at the large round table might vary from day to day, and there were occasions when its thirteen chairs were not filled, but no matter how many sat down at 12: 13, nor who attended on a given day, this table was one for fun. Perhaps the jokes were better. Perhaps there was more natural wit. Perhaps the select coterie was composed of the more natural extroverts who welcomed only those who could contribute to the merriment.
Dr. Fleming was an accepted member of that table for thirteen, and so were Florence, McClenachan, Paterson, Millar and others; and Fowler himself spent more time in the "13" room than elsewhere for here was the gayest of all gay company. For Dr. Fleming to be admitted to this select group was something of an achievement. It testi‑
4 PARADE TO GLORY
fied to his personal charm and his developing practice as a physician, for Dr. Fleming had hung out his shingle on Twenty‑eighth Street less than a year before.
Always, except in an emergency, Dr. Fleming made it a point to complete his morning rounds at nearby St. Elizabeth's Hospital and his morning calls at the homes of his patients before I 1: 45. Then, with his Homburg at a jaunty angle, he walked from his office to Fowler's in time to sit down with his cronies at exactly 12:13. He was just thirty‑two years old, but already he had begun to develop an expanding waistline, across which dangled a heavy gold chain, attached to an equally heavy gold watch. He sported long, flowing sideburns that dropped below his massive jowls; and even in a day when the cleanshaven man was a rarity, they attracted attention. His clothing was of the very best and, all in all, he radiated strength and character. He was exuberant and effervescent, but nevertheless he appeared to have a certain majesty about him. He was a large man, some five feet, nine inches tall and inclined to corpulence. The result was that he walked with a certain ponderousness, which belied his inner self.
Dr. Fleming was also a determined man. He had left a successful and lucrative practice in Rochester, New York, to become a part of this great city that was developing at the mouth of the Hudson and that even then‑five years after Appomattox‑was still celebrating the end of the bloodiest war in history. Parts of the Confederacy were still prostrate and sometimes starving, but in New York the only problem was to find new worlds to conquer. The French Empire was about to crumble before Bismarck and Victor Emmanuel would soon take over Rome and, in effect, restrict the temporal power of the Papacy to the Vatican grounds. But neither event would interrupt the flow of the finest wines and brandies to a city that was literally "living up" the preservation of the Union.
New York boasted of more than a million people, 900,000 of them on Manhattan Island, and was still growing. Factories sprang up almost overnight, and so did the splendid but architecturally grotesque mansions of the city's growing number of millionaires. The handsome, APOSTLES OF GOOD CHEER S silver‑mounted carriages of the new‑rich were drawn by matched pairs of whites, grays, bays and blacks over cobblestoned Broadway and Fifth Avenue, carrying ostrich‑plumed ladies to their milliners or to their favorite theaters, of which there were many. Show business was booming, and names still mentioned with awe in the history of the theater were just coming into full prominence.
Labor was scarce, but money was free and easy. When Fisk and Gould almost (but not quite) cornered the nation's gold supply in 1869 and thereby precipitated "Black Friday" on the New York Stock Exchange, the city staggered momentarily and then resumed its swagger. The golden spike had just been driven at Promontory, Utah, and now the millionaries could ride swiftly, if not comfortably, from New York to San Francisco. They wouldn't even worry about the Indians, for wasn't General George Custer, the dashing, flamboyant and perhaps inept hero of the Civil War, on guard? The scandals of Grant's administration were yet to come and if anyone at all gave the matter a thought, he could not have conceived of the panic of 1873. There was poverty, of course, and plenty of it, but even the poor had their beer, delivered by lumbering wagons and drunk as often as not under the gaslights of the neighborhood saloon.
It was indeed a time to be alive. The past was gone and best forgotten. The present was for living, and Fleming, Florence, McClenachan, Paterson and all the rest believed in living it to the fullest. But for Fleming there was also the future; and so it was that, sometime in the spring of 1870, there came to him while he sat at the table for thirteen at Fowler's an idea which developed through various vicissitudes (including use of the figure 13) into the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America.
No one knows the exact date when the idea came to the popular doctor. No one knows what germ of thought, what gem of wisdom, or what casual story by one of his comrades gave the doctor his in spiration. Still, the time is clear, and so are a few other essential facts, some of them contained in the Ritual of the Order, which now lies in glory and splendor in the Shrine rooms of the George Washing‑
6 PARADE TO GLORY
ton National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. Hand‑lettered in flowing design and illuminated with a now fading red ink, is the title page. It reads:
The First Complete. Ritual of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine Written for the establishment of the Order in the Western Hemisphere by Walter M. Fleming, M.D. of New York The Ritual undoubtedly is in Dr. Fleming's handwriting. It bears many corrections and, despite official changes, is in essence the same Ritual used in later years. The lodge room setting remains unchanged. There was succor then and now f or weary Sons of the Desert. The robes and other paraphernalia follow the chart today as they were laid down by the versatile doctor, and even the ceremony and most of the words are little removed from the original.
APOSTLES OF GOOD CHEER In 1950, when the Shrine rooms in the George Washington National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, were created, Mecca Temple of New York City (the first in America) generously contributed the original Ritual along with other memorabilia belonging to Dr. Fleming and William J. Florence, one of America's truly great actors and comedians, who was credited by Dr. Fleming and others with being a co‑founder of the Shrine. On the inside cover of the Ritual, there is a notation, handwritten and signed by Dr. Saram R. Ellison, the second Recorder of Mecca Temple, which says: "In the latter part of 1901, Noble George W. Millar and I visited Dr. Walter M. Fleming, at the Imperial Hotel, his wife being sick at the time. He presented us with this Ritual, having found it in an unused trunk. He said it was the first complete Ritual of the Order. I had it mounted and bound, and it has been in our safe ever since." These and no more are the incontrovertible facts of the origin and founding of the Shrine. The remainder is partly fact, partly legend, partly fancy, partly fiction. But out of the welter of fact, fancy, legend and fiction has sprung the most colorful of all fraternal organizations. The Shriners have played and marched their way into a glory of fraternalism hitherto unknown in the world. And yet, considering its weird beginnings, its playfulness, its arguments (even with basic Masonry) it is perhaps amazing that the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine continued to exist at all.
Many leaders of the Shrine, in the years since Dr. Fleming wrote his Ritual, have tried to describe just what the organization is. One of the best of these descriptions came from the pen of the late Dr. Hubert M. Poteat, a professor at Wake Forest College and a Past Imperial Potentate. He wrote: The Shrine appeals to the strong manhood of North America for a variety of reasons. In the first place, the oriental pageantry and the magnificence of costumes and regalia appeal to men who may be old in years but who are still young in spirit. Little boys play cops and robbers; Shriners play Moslems and infidels.
In the second place, the Shrine provides opportunity for fun and 7 8 PARADE TO GLORY play and mirth on a truly magnificent scale. Shriners are apostles of good cheer and happiness and as such are performing a very vital function in this tragic modern world of ours. Indeed it may be said that we have been "called into the Kingdom for such a time as this." A further important principle of the Shrine is toleration in the field of religious opinion. One of the most tragic phenomena of our times is the endless warfare among the people of different faiths and beliefs. In other words we expend most of our energies fighting one another instead of the devil. The Shrine will have none of it and instructs its initiates that they are to recognize the right of every human being to worship God as he sees fit, without interference or even criticism from any man who walks this planet.
If there is one thing our harassed world needs more than another today, it is brotherly love. This can be found nowhere in a finer or truer form than in the Mystic Shrine. This does not mean for a moment that all 'Shriners are the perfect embodiment of this quality. However, Shriners in general do live by this principle.
Such is the weak and fallible nature of man that he needs all the spiritual strengthening he can get; and the Shrine teaches its initiates as all Masonic bodies do, that God IS and that it is our duty to worship and to obey Him, to esteem Him as the chief good and to fight with all our power against atheism.
The story of the Shrine, then, is the story of men with reverent minds and merry hearts, men from every walk of life‑presidents, prime ministers, actors, judges, musicians, generals, admirals, mechan ics, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs and no doubt a thief or two. And it is a story worth the telling.
Chaipfer2 From All of These S HRINERS play Moslems and infidels with reverent minds and merry hearts. Indeed! But Shriners are more than little boys grown tall. With all their fun, they have not forgotten charity. With all the splendor of their parades, they do not and cannot forget that first of all they are Master Masons with all of the humility they are taught by the craft. For most of the more than eight hundred thousand Shriners in North America, it is a matter of considerable pride that they wear the scimitar and crescent in their buttonholes as they go about their daily lives. It is with equal pride that they don the red fez with black tassel for more formal ceremonial occasions. But all of the fun, splendor and charity had to have a beginning, and this beginning must have come at some meeting in either 1869 or 187o between Dr. Fleming and Billy Florence.
There is no record of that first meeting, but it is more than likely that it came about when the handsome, gay, devil‑may‑care actor called on Dr. Fleming for treatment of some minor ailment, which in itself was something of a plume in the hat of a doctor new to New York. Billy Florence in 1869 was established as the toast of the theatrical world. It might be said that he was the George M. Cohan or Jack Benny of his day. He lived in the better hotels that lined Fifth Avenue, 9 10 PARADE TO GLORY and Dr. Fleming's house was just around the corner from the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Both were Master Masons and while Florence did not work at the craft with the same zeal as Dr. Fleming, he had, at that time, attained higher degrees. Once the business of medicine was out of the way, there was probably an inquiry about basic lodge, and after that an invitation to lunch and perhaps a bottle of wine. Thus are friendships born, and in truth Fleming and Florence were kindred souls, each with an insatiable zest for life and a gorgeous thirst. There was perhaps also some sort of adoration on the part of the young doctor for the handsome and popular star, for in reality Walter Fleming was a frustrated actor, whose life had been channeled by a doting father into the world of healing.
There were others too, in 1870, who undoubtedly contributed in some measure to the beginning of the Shrine, but just who contributed what is still subject to considerable controversy. Fifty years after the founding of the Shrine, James McGee, who became the twenty‑eighth member of Mecca Temple, and was the last survivor of an original thirty, wrote from memory his history of the organization, but it was labeled by Louis N. Donnatin, a Recorder of Mecca Temple, as "the ravings of a diseased mind." McGee carried his argument to the floor of the Imperial Council in 192o and in the light of subsequent revelations, it is more than likely that his story is nearer the truth than any other. All versions of the early and formative years of the Shrine are agreed, however, that four men carried the burden, with an assist from a fifth. These men were Fleming, Florence, McClenachan, Paterson and Fowler. Their backgrounds in life and in Masonry are important in the light of their contributions.
Walter M. Fleming was born in Portland, Maine, June 13, 1838, the younger of two sons of Dr. L. D. Fleming, who soon moved to Rochester, New York, and established a lucrative practice in a house on St. Paul Street in the heart of the thriving town. Both boys attended nearby Canandaigua Academy, and both boys matriculated at Albany Medical College.
FROM ALL OF THESE 11 The exact date when Walter entered Albany College is not known, for all of the early records of that institution have been destroyed by fire, but it must have been during the years when Webster and Clay were trying to save the Union and avoid the inevitable conflict between the North and the South. The best guess is that he enrolled in 1857, for the record shows that, without even having been graduated, he was named surgeon of the First Cavalry of the New York National Guard in 1858. In 1861, he served as surgeon to the Nineteenth Regiment of the same organization with the rank of lieutenant or ensign.
The records of the Adjutant General's office show that Fleming was "discharged in N.E.Va. dated August 3, 186 1 on tender of resignation in consequence of physical disability." The nature of the dis ability was not explained and Fleming himself never mentioned it, though in 1907 he applied for a pension. Undoubtedly his injuries were incident to the first movement of Northern forces into Virginia, which began on May 24 and continued until after the Union disaster at Bull Run in late July.
After his discharge, Fleming returned to the Albany Medical College and received his degree in 1862. Dr. Fleming then hung out his shingle in the same house with his father on St. Paul Street in Rochester, and it is apparent that in the ensuing years he developed quite a following and an extensive circle of convivial friends. In 1867 he was chosen by the city council in a competitive election with other doctors as one of two city physicians.
In that same year, his father died and Dr. Walter assumed the entire practice, but life in Rochester grew boring. Mrs. Mellan Lucas of Del Ray Beach, Florida, Dr. Fleming's granddaughter, recalls that in his later years he was an inveterate reader, so perhaps out of the daily press or the periodicals of the time, there came to him the desire to travel and participate in some of the glamour of which he read. In any event, the Rochester Union and Advertiser on April 3, 1869, revealed that the doctor had sold his practice in order to‑ remove to New York City. Two days later the same newspaper reported a farewell 12 PARADE TO GLORY party given for the doctor. The paper said: "It having been announced that Dr. W. M. Fleming was about to leave Rochester and take up his residence in New York, a considerable number of his friends decided to give a complimentary entertainment and invite him to accept the honor. . . . The party having gone through the courses of a splendid supper, moistened with sparkling wine, the feast of reason and flow of soul followed . . . and the evening was protracted until well toward midnight when the party separated." And so the doctor cut his ties in Rochester and moved toward his destiny with the Shrine.
When Dr. Fleming arrived in New York in 1869, he had just received his symbolic Masonic degrees from Rochester Lodge No. 660. He was initiated an Entered Apprentice December 14, 1868, passed to Fellowcraft the following day and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason January i i, 1869; and it is apparent that from that time, Masonry more and more dominated his life. It is possible that his interest in fraternalism caused the estrangement of his wife and certainly it alienated the wife of one of his two sons, Dr. Walter S. Fleming.
"My mother opposed my entering the Masons," said the third Walter Fleming, a grandson now living in New York City. "I think she f elt that my grandfather had dissipated a f ortune in the various orders he served." Perhaps he did, for he died virtually penniless though certainly he had an active and lucrative practice in New York for almost forty years. At the 1902 meeting of Albany's class of 1862, Dr. Fleming reported that he had become a qualified examiner in insanity in the Supreme Court of the City of New York, that he was a member of the New York County Medical Society, the Medical‑Legal Society and the Physicians' Mutual Aid. In addition, of course, he practiced extensively among the members of the theatrical profession and was one of the first physicians to be attached to the Actors Fund of America. He wrote extensively on insanity and related subjects, including drug habits and dipsomania. Strangely enough, the only medical paper FROM ALL OF THESE 13 written by him still on file in New York's extensive medical library concerns diseases of the chest, including asthma, for which he believed snuff was not a suitable treatment.
Dr. Fleming's growth in Masonry is almost unbelievable, and most of it can be traced to his interest in and his love of his own Masonic child, the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. For example, it is notable that at its official birth, the founders of the Shrine decreed that it would be available only to those Masons who had attained the 320 in the Scottish Rite or the Knight Templar degree in the York Rite. Yet, when he wrote the original Ritual, Dr. Fleming had received only his first three basic Masonic degrees.
There can be little doubt that private and informal agreements on the prerequisites for Shrine membership were made among the men who sat at the table for thirteen in Fowler's restaurant and that formal creation of the fun organization would be delayed until Dr. Fleming had obtained them. Accordingly, he received the 4th to 32nd degrees in Brooklyn's Aurora Grata Consistory on May 31, 18 Two weeks later, June 16, 1871, the initial meeting of the founders of the Shrine was held officially in New York's Masonic Hall. On March i q, 1872, Fleming signed the bylaws of Columbian Commandery No. i, thus completing all of the Masonic degrees prior to the official founding of Mecca Temple on September 26, 1872.
Indicating his zeal for Masonry is Fleming's own account, written for the one‑hundredth anniversary conclave in 19 1 o, when he was the oldest living past commander and too ill to attend, of how he literally saved Columbian Commandery from extinction in 1873.
The Commandery was at a low ebb, largely in debt and scantily attended. The proposition of my acceptance of the office of Commander was an astounding surprise. However, through the influence of my offi cial comrades in arms and their persistent insistence, I acceded to their wishes to rescue the oldest Commandery in the state. . . . These ambassadors and advisory council comprised several enthusiastic members of both Commandery and the several bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. I was at this time an enthusiastic worker in all of the grades of Scottish Rite Masonry, and became enthused with the same spirit of 14 PARADE TO GLORY perseverance and success in the Order of Knighthood. I at once proceeded to resuscitate Columbian. Had a "calling of the clans" from all the departments, and supported it to the full with both my counsel and my purse and with renewed zeal devoted all my energies to newly equip the Commandery, increase the roll of membership, arouse a new interest that would defy the angry waves of time and the storm of persecution. . . .
I then proceeded to make the paraphernalia and the work interesting and attractive. I then personally assumed the responsibility of all the monetary requirements. I resumed the usual banquets which had been long abandoned because of lack of funds required to sustain that interesting part of the ceremony. I then proceeded to equip the entire official corps in a full coat of mail armor, helmets, swords, staves, spears, hawbucks, leggings and gauntlets, all of which was strictly authentic and produced by the best costumers in the City of New York. Popularity and success following on the new regime, both officers and members seemed at once to take a new and splendid interest.
Fleming then goes on to relate that he equipped Columbian with a superb silver service and that he spared no expense to obtain the finest in every kind of equipment to make Columbian the acknowl edged leader. At the same time he continued to work in the Scottish Rite, and for the three consecutive years that he served as Commander of C'olumbian was responsible for Knights becoming Scottish Rite Masons and vice versa with the result, as he puts it, that "two separate series of rites or orders ultimately became almost a united family." With all of this, he said, "I found it rather an arduous task to keep pace with all of the requirements in all the complicated ritualistic renditions, official and subordinate, for the several years during which I struggled to equip myself commendably in somewhere near a dozen prominent official positions, including at the same time instituting and fathering of the Order of the Mystic Shrine, the formation of Mecca Temple, first in the City of New York, and many temples following, also the Imperial Council of the Order for the entire jurisdiction of the United States and adjacent territories." The fact is, of course, that Fleming needed Columbian and the Scottish Rite in order to get his own brain child in operation.
FROM ALL OF THESE 15 The second of the four men who created the Shrine was William Jermyn Florence, who was never much more than a so‑so Mason, even after the Shrine came into existence. But he was a real personality. He romped and played across most of America and Europe from the time he first became smitten with the stage. Actor, producer, writer, poet, tune‑smith, comedian, monologuist, playwright‑he was everything in the theater. He loved it and the people loved him.
He was a roly‑poly man‑at least in his later years. He was described by one of his contemporaries as being about five and a half feet tall, and weighing perhaps two hundred pounds. His voice was gentle and musical and his eyes constantly twinkled with mirth. He was an ardent fisherman and made annual pilgrimages to Canada for the salmon.
Florence was born William J. Conlin on July 26, 1831, in Albany, New York, one of a large brood produced by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Conlin, who had migrated from Ireland. The record of his early life is at the least confusing. Not until he achieved success on the stage did that record attain anything resembling clarity.
Most of the reports of Florence's early life reveal that the C'onlins moved to New York City from Albany about 1845, principally because of better economic opportunities. Eventually most of Florence's brothers obtained employment with the city government, as did many others of Irish descent in those days. One brother, Peter, eventually became a police inspector. Another worked in the street department. But young Billy Conlin would have none of it. At the time of his death in 189 r the New York Times reported that he worked at a mechanical trade, earning enough to help support the family and to provide tickets for the theaters and music halls that abounded. Another story of those years is contained in a book called Songs o f the Florences published by Dick and Fitzgerald in 186o. This story undoubtedly had Florence's approval, and it revealed that "the popular delineator of Irish character was educated at Princeton, N. J., and assumed the active duties of life as a bookkeeper in a well known mercantile house in Burling Slip, New York City." But even though this 16 PARADE TO GLORY revelation may have been approved by Florence, it is to be doubted. There are no records in Princeton that he ever attended any school there and indications are that the family was too poor to afford a private‑school education even for so talented a youngster as Billy Conlin.
During the years from 1845 to 1849 young Conlin began building up for himself something of a reputation for Irish dialect and finally he joined the Murdoch Dramatic Association, a sort of touring stock company, and as Peter in The Stranger he made his first stage appearance in the Richmond Theater in Richmond, Virginia, on December 6, 1849. He was just eighteen years old. And thus began one of the most fabulous careers in all the history of the American stage.
At the close of the 1849 season, Conlin was transferred to New York. He appeared under the management of Brougham and Chippendale at Niblo's theater, Brougham's Lyceum, the Broadway and other theaters of the day, largely in Irish dialect parts, among them that of Dolley in Rob Roy. Sometime during this period, he changed his name to William Jermyn Florence, Florence being his mother's maiden name. Whether he changed his name legally or simply adopted it, was never revealed by Billy himself, but it was as Florence that he lived for the rest of his life, and it was as William J. Florence that he married Malvina Pray on January i, 18 Malvina Pray was a pretty little thing, and was recognized even then as the premiere danseuse of the New York stage. She had first appeared as one of the Pray sisters, but when her sister married Barney Williams, another luminary of the New York theater, Malvina continued alone. It is likely that Florence and Malvina met while they appeared on the same program at Niblo's theater. The marriage resulted in the formation of one of the most famous of all married teams in the theater, comparable today to Lunt and Fontanne. They created The Irish Boy and the Yankee Girl, with which they toured America and Europe for years, and it was while on such a tour that Florence first became a Mason in Philadelphia. The records of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. ░15 5 show that William J. Florence was initiated, passed and raised by virtue of a special dispensation at a special meeting of the lodge on October 12, 185 3. For youngsters, FROM ALL OF THESE 17 Mr. and Mrs. William J. Florence were doing all right. Their biography reports that on this same triumphal tour they received complimentary benefits and services of silver in Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans and Charleston. Pittsburgh also must have been on the itinerary, for on the following June io, 1854, he received his Mark Master degree in Zerubbabel Chapter No. 162. He received his Royal Arch degree two days later. He is listed on the minutes of the chapter as a comedian and classified a sojourner. It was not until December 5, 1855, that he was admitted to Pittsburgh Commandery No. i.
It is obvious from the record of Mt. Moriah Lodge that his interest in Masonry lagged in the ensuing years. He was suspended December 22, 1857, for failure to pay his dues, but was restored to good standing February 24, 1863. He was again suspended December 22, 1868, for failing to pay his dues, but once again paid up on December 26, 1871. It is notable that this restoration came after the first meeting of the original thirteen members of the Shrine and during that period when Dr. Fleming was equipping himself with advanced Masonic degrees. These dates are important in the light of later developments.
Professionally, success followed success for the Florences until, individually and as a team, they became the toasts of the theatrical world, both in the United States and in Europe. They made their first European appearance in London in 1856, playing at the Royal and Drury Lane, and their biographers report that they were frequently visited by the Queen and the royal family. Certainly the Florences received one and perhaps more gifts from the then Prince of Wales.
At home, even during the war years, their success continued, and thus in 186‑7 when it was announced that the Florences again would tour Europe, C. T. McClenachan conceived the idea of making the young actor an ambassador of good will to the Scottish Rite bodies of England. After an agreement with the actor, McClenachan and two other inspectors general of the Scottish Rite in New York conferred the degrees on him at the old Metropolitan Hotel on April 21, under special dispensation. Florence was accredited to Aurora Grata Con‑ 18 PARADE TO GLORY sistory in Brooklyn, with the notation that the actor was about to travel abroad.
What, if anything, Florence ever did for the Scottish Rite is not known, but it was on that trip in 1867 that he set the stage for the famous lawsuit over Caste, a play by an English writer named Robertson. Florence himself related that he was so impressed with it that he visited the theater where it was playing four times, and during those four performances succeeded in memorizing the entire play.
Robertson had sold the American rights to the play to Lester Wallach, owner of Wallach's theater and from time to time Florence's producer and manager, but Florence returned to New York and succeeded in producing the play before Wallach could get it on the boards. Wallach brought suit for damages in a case that Florence eventually won by a Supreme Court decision, which hinged on the fact that there was no international copyright convention. Having won the suit, Florence in a condescending letter to Robertson sent the author a check for fifty pounds, not because he owed it, but because he wanted to be fair. Robertson returned the check with a scathing retort. By and large the New York press thought Florence had perpetrated a rather scurvy affair, but even that failed to dim his popularity‑nor was it ever dimmed.
Charles T. McClenachan, the third important Mason to participate in establishing the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, was a lawyer of some repute. He had been born in Washing ton, April 13, 1829, but had established his practice in New York, and it was there that he became known as one of the outstanding Masonic ritualists in America. He was an active participant in all branches of the fraternity, and was the active Deputy for the State of New York in the Scottish Rite.
Perhaps more important in the eventual scheme of the Shrine than he was ever given credit for was the fourth important Mason‑William Sleigh Paterson, destined to become the first Recorder of Mecca Temple and of the Imperial Council when it was formed in 1876. Paterson
Charles T. McClenachan was born at Haddington, Scotland, March 6, 1844, and thus was the youngest of all those Masons actively associated with the formation of the Shrine.
Paterson's family migrated to the United States in 1847 where he received his education, which included mastering the French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek and Arabic languages, all of which he used as a proofreader in a rather large printing establishment. He received all of his Masonic degrees in New York. He served as secretary of the Scottish Rite bodies of New York from 1872 to 1889. Because of their intimate association over the years, Paterson perhaps knew 20 PARADE TO GLORY Fleming better than anyone else and, because of his knowledge of Arabic, helped more than anyone else in creating the legends of the Shrine.
The fifth man who assisted in the founding of the Shrine was undoubtedly William Fowler the restaurateur, who was not one of the original "13" but rather carried card No. 24 of Mecca Temple. Fowler loved fun and the Shrine was created for fun. William Fowler, Jr., who succeeded to ownership of the famous restaurant, recalled in 1914 in a letter to Saram R. Ellison, Recorder of Mecca Temple, that "from about 18']O to i 88o when my father was proprietor of Knickerbocker Cottage, we had there the Masonic Club. The membership consisted of those prominent in the Scottish Rite, and the first duty of one joining the club was to send his picture to be hung upon the walls of the club room, and we finally had a very valuable collection of pictures. At this time, Dr. Fleming was in the height of his popularity‑as was supported by Charley McClenachan, Henry Banks, George Millar, Bill May, Genl. Roome, D. Northrup and many others of note.
"I distinctly remember on a certain Sunday afternoon, my father coming downstairs and telling me that they were hatching, up in the club, a new order to be called the Mystic Shrine and that in his opin ion unless they got rid of some of the `barnacles,' they would find trouble in starting.
"I know my father was one of the original organizers of the Shrine and it was natural for all hands to meet at his place and `talk it over.' " Of course, after f orty‑four years, young Fowler's memory might leave something to accuracy. Dr. Fleming was new in New York, and he could not possibly have been at the height of his popularity. But there seems to be no doubt that it was at Knickerbocker Cottage that the Shrine was "hatched" and that it was around that table for thirteen that preliminary discussions were held until finally a formal meeting was held on June 16, 1871, at the old Masonic Hall on Thirteenth Street, a meeting at which they could not possibly have foreseen the glorious future of that which they were about to create.
Chapter 3 . . . Better khan they Knew F ANY of the founders of the Shrine could have foreseen in 1871 that the organization eventually would grow to its present astounding size and importance, they would undoubtedly have kept better records. But they didn't and even those records that are available are subject to a certain amount of skepticism. For that reason, much is left to the imagination and a true picture of those early years can be drawn only by deduction from a few facts.
It is young Fowler's letter that really sets the stage for the story of the original "13" meeting around the table in his father's restaurant. It was there, then, that the first discussions must have been held con cerning the new Ritual that Dr. Fleming says‑in his own handwriting ‑he wrote in August of 187 o. How many times they discussed it, how many actual persons read the Ritual, how many were considered to be a part of the inner circle or even the nature of the discussions can only be left to speculation. But there appears to be no question that the first formal meeting of thirteen was held June 16, 187 1. Fleming said so, and so did Paterson. The trouble is that their statements do not dovetail, and if any records of the affair were kept, they have been lost.
In his early history of the meeting, Paterson recalled that it was 21
... BETTER THAN THEY KNEW
23
on that evening that it was decided to confine membership in the Shrine to men who had received advanced Masonic degrees, in either the York or Scottish Rite. On the other hand, Fleming reported to the second annual meeting of the Shrine's Imperial Council in 1877 that it was at the 18‑7 r meeting that the Order was conferred on the thirteen Nobles, including Florence and himself. But at that time, Fleming was not a member of any of the Scottish or York Rite bodies, and it must be assumed that formal organization was delayed until he could acquire the higher degrees. That took something over a year to accomplish, and it was not until September 26, 1872, that Fleming called the original thirteen together again. Invitations were extended to Billy Florence, Sherwood C. Campbell, James S. Chappell, Oswald Merle d'Aubigne, Edward Eddy, Charles T. McClenachan, George W. Millar, John A. Moore, Albert P. Moriarty, William S. Paterson, Daniel Sickels, and John W. Simons. Of these thirteen, who according to Fleming had had the Shrine degree conferred on them at the first meeting in 187 r, only eleven showed up. Florence was presumably on tour, but no reason is given for the absence of Sherwood Campbell.
The i 8 7 2 meeting, like the original one in 18‑71, was held at the old Masonic Hall on Thirteenth Street, and it was there that Mecca Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, was organized. Finally, at long last, Fleming's dream had come true. And even though vicissitudes of fortune might lie ahead, Fleming was so sure of success that minutes were kept in an old "order" book, still preserved in the Shrine Rooms of the George Washington National Masonic Memorial. These minutes are in Dr. Fleming's handwriting, but are signed by Paterson, who was elected Recorder (secretary) of the infant fraternity.
Strangely enough, the first thirteen sheets of the "order" book in which the minutes were kept have been cut out. There are some who believe those thirteen sheets represented minutes or notations of the 1871 meeting and that, because Fleming was not a member of the higher Masonic orders at that time, he destroyed all records of the session. There are others who believe that the "order" book was sim‑ 24 PARADE TO GLORY ply one that had been used for some entirely different purpose and was used to avoid buying another one.
It was Fleming's Ritual and he called the boys together and thus he presided at the 1872 session. The object, he formally told them, was to form a temple to be known as Mecca, and he started the meeting by reading a letter of advice and instruction from Florence. Unfortunately, that letter or its contents have not been preserved‑nor were its contents inserted into the minutes. If they had been, some of the controversy in later years might have been avoided. Of course the fact is that if such a letter ever existed, Fleming may simply have forgotten it when he wrote the minutes and turned them over to Paterson.
Eight of the eleven members present on September 26, 1872, were elected as officers of Mecca Temple. Fleming, of course, became the Grand Potentate, and it is likely that he had a slate of the other officers prepared that was steam‑rollered through. As the minutes show, those elected were: Charles T. McClenachan, Chief Rabban; John A. Moore, Assistant Rabban; William S. Paterson, Recorder; Edward Eddy, High Priest; James S. Chappell, Treasurer; George W. Millar, Oriental Guide; and Oswald M. d'Aubigne, Captain of the Guard.
The minutes record that the other offices were left vacant until a subsequent meeting "and there being no further business, the Temple was closed in harmony, subject to the call of the Grand Potentate." Dr. Fleming now had his new Order underway. He must have gone home that evening with a sense of pride and fulfillment. But it was not to be easy sailing. Reporting to the Imperial Session in 187 7., Fleming said that after that 1872 organizational meeting "the order remained quiet and inactive until within the past year or more, when on the return of Brother Florence from Europe, where he had witnessed the work exemplified in the most impressive form, he was exceedingly enthusiastic to promote the promulgation of the Order." When Dr. Fleming reported that the Shrine had been quiet and inactive after its formation, he meant just that. The minutes of the meetings of Mecca Temple are quite revealing. The second session of . . BETTER THAN THEY KNEW 25 the temple was not held until January 12, 1874, a year and a half after it was constituted. Again the meeting was held at Masonic Hall on Thirteenth Street, when McClenachan moved that a committee be appointed to revise and perfect the Ritual and to facilitate the exemplification of the Order. The third session was called for December 13, 1875, at the new Masonic Temple on Twenty‑third Street, but a quorum failed to show up, according to the minutes, and so the meeting resolved itself into an informal discussion of matters relative to the Order and "the session closed in harmony." From these minutes and Fleming's own statement that the Order had remained inactive until 1875, it might be presumed that the doctor was too busy with his private practice and his duties in the Colum bian Commandery and Scottish Rite to give much attention to his own brain child. But this is not exactly true. According to James McGee, No. 2 8 in the Mecca Temple roster, Fleming was constantly busy creating new members. In a letter to Saram R. Ellison, Recorder of Mecca Temple, in c q 14, McGee wrote that the Shrine "became general anteroom talk at all Scottish Rite and Commandery gatherings. Fleming kept tab at many of these occasions on scraps of paper, putting them down as regular meetings and in later years styling them as first and second meetings at Masonic Hall, 1 14 East Thirteenth Street. This was where the Scottish Rite held their meetings. . . . These crude memorandums were all in the handwriting of Noble Fleming and were passed over to Noble Paterson, who became Recorder, to dress up with some degree of regularity and arrange as best he could to make a creditable showing. . . . The same looseness prevailed in keeping a record of those on whom Noble Fleming had conferred the Order. The slips or memorandums, same as the so‑called meetings, were handed to Paterson and he collated them the best he could to show connecting links. No f ees were charged. . . . It was natural that errors should creep in, but no one complained, forgetting there was a hereafter." Nevertheless, in the first report of membership, which was not rendered until September of 1876, there were only forty‑three Nobles,
... BETTER THAN THEY KNEW 27 all but six of them in New York City. Furthermore, Fleming reported on the lack of activity in the Shrine during the first four years of Mecca Temple, from the scene and at the time, while McGee wrote from memory when he already was an old man. McGee's letters to Ellison are important because they also reflect on the controversy which developed in later years on the true history of the Shrine. In any event, Fleming called a fourth meeting of Mecca Temple to be held June 6, 1876, at the Masonic Temple in New York, and it was at that meeting that the Imperial Grand Council came into existence. In the light of his own statement of lack of activity and the "exceeding enthusiasm" of Florence to promote the promulgation of the Order, it is to be presumed that Florence called on Fleming after his return from a European tour and said, in effect, "Hey, what gives? Let's get going or drop the whole idea." Fleming got going.
The proceedings of that meeting of Mecca Temple and the formation of the Imperial Grand Council are intact and are rewarding in the light of later developments. These proceedings record that: "Pursuant to a call of the Past Potentates and legally constituted Nobles of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the following named Nobles of the Order assembled at Masonic Hall, corner of Sixth Avenue and Twenty‑third Street, in the City of New York, N. Y., on Nahar et Talata, the sixteenth day of the fifth Arabic Month, Jamaz ul Awwal, [sic] 1293 A.x., answering to Tuesday, June 6, 1876 A.D., at two o'clock P.M., for the purpose of organizing the Imperial Grand Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for the United States of America." This was the first occasion in the four years since its formation that the Shrine had used any Arabic nomenclature except in the Ritual itself, and even in the Ritual some of the words, phrases and titles that were supposed to give connotations of the Orient were in fact Hebrew rather than Arabic. For example, the titles of Chief and Assistant Rabbans, the second and third highest offices, have no Arabic translation, but in the Hebrew tongue refer to teachers.
Only twenty Nobles (all from Mecca Temple) attended that 2 8 PARADE TO GLORY first session of the Imperial Grand Council. They were Fleming, Paterson, and McClenachan, of course; and, in addition, George W. Millar, John A. Moore, William V. Alexander, John E. Bendix, Edwin Du Laurens, Edward M. L. Ehlers, Peter Forrester, William Fowler, William D. May, Sidney P. Nichols, Aaron L. Northrop, James A. Reed, W. Wallace Walker, J. H. Hobart Ward, all of New York City; George F. Loder, Grand Potentate of Damascus Temple, Rochester, New York; Samuel R. Carter, also of Damascus Temple; and George Scott of Paterson, New Jersey. Mecca members absent at the first Imperial meeting were (according to the proceedings) William J. Florence, Bensen Sherwood, Philip F. Lenhart, Charles P. Marratt, and Angelo Noziglia.
Conspicuous by its absence from the list of those either present or absent is the name of James McGee; for according to the records of Mecca Temple, McGee was just as much a member at that time as any of the rest and around this very point hinges some of the controversy that was to develop in later years. In any event, McGee held card No. 2 8. Marratt held card No. 29, and William D. May, card No. 3o. Also conspicuous by its absence from either list is the name of William T. Hardenbrook, who carried card No. 2 5 and who was the editor of a Masonic newspaper and participated with McGee and others in the controversy over the history of the Shrine.
The official proceedings of the first session of the Imperial Council then report: "A Temple was opened in due form, Illustrious Walter M. Fleming, Grand Potentate of Mecca Temple presiding." Fleming announced the deaths of Sherwood Campbell, James S. Chappell, Oswald d'Aubigne and Edward Eddy, after which "The Imperial Grand Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for the United States of America was then duly organized." Yet that organization just possibly might have been premature. Officially, the only members of the Shrine present were from Mecca Temple and on the face of it there was no real need for a national organization. But Fleming was prepared for any objections that might . . BETTER THAN THEY KNEW 29 arise. He had created Nobles in several other cities, and had given them titles of "Past Potentates" so that they might create their own temples in other cities. And with that in mind, he submitted his slate of candidates for Imperial Grand officers. Those elected were: Walter Al. Fleming, Imperial Grand Potentate; George F. Loder of Rochester, Deputy Grand Potentate; Philip F. Lenhart of Brooklyn, Grand Chief Rabban; Edward M. L. Ehlers, New York, Grand Assistant Rabban; William H. Whiting, Rochester, New York, Grand High Priest and Prophet; Samuel R. Carter, Rochester, New York, Grand Oriental Guide; Aaron L. Northrop, New York, New York, Grand Treasurer; William S. Paterson, New York, New York, Grand Recorder; Albert P. Moriarty, New York, New York, Grand Financial Secretary; John L. Stettimus, Cincinnati, Ohio, Grand First Ceremonial Master; Bensen Sherwood, New York, New York, Grand Second Ceremonial Master; Samuel Harper, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grand Marshal; Frank H. Bascom, Montpelier, Vermont, Grand Captain of the Guard; and George Scott, Paterson, New Jersey, Grand Outer Guard.
The first meeting of the Imperial Council didn't last long, but there was certain groundwork to be done, and the nobility got right to the task. The officers, or those who were present, were installed by McClenachan, the ritualist, who didn't take an office, presumably because he was too busy with other affairs.
The meeting then took care of the following business: Established New York City as the Grand Orient, or headquarters of the Imperial Council; Approved a plan to create five Past Potentates in each subordinate temple in order that they could be made honorary members of the Imperial Council; Created a committee to write statutes and regulations for the government of the Imperial Council and its subordinate temples, whereupon Fleming appointed McClenachan, Ehlers and Ward to that task; Established fifty dollars as the f ee f or a charter for a new tem‑ 3 0 PARADE TO GLORY ple, ten dollars as the annual temple tax to the Imperial Council, and ten dollars as the minimum initiation fee for each new member; Passed a resolution making it official throughout the United States that all Shriners must be members in good standing of either the Scottish Rite or Knights Templar.
Business completed, the boys dispensed with the reading of the proceedings, closed their session and presumably retired for some of the fun they all expected to have when they became Shriners.
Thus was born an organization which, over the years, though not Masonic, would become the playground and the showcase of Masonry. Trials and tribulations lay ahead. There were days and even years of discouragement for Fleming, for in the infancy of the Shrine, he carried the burden almost alone. There was no exemplification of rites. There was no money, except what Fleming and a few others contributed from their pockets. There were no insignia by which Shriners could be designated. Very simply, Fleming and his associates didn't have much of an inducement for prospective members. Mostly, new members were obtained by personal contact where Fleming's magnetic personality would become the motivating force. But this was too slow. The Shrine would never become great under those circumstances.
Something new was needed, something that would attract prospective Nobles by its glamour and its promise for the future. Thus it was that sometime during the fall and winter of 1876, Fleming began to devise a plan and‑perhaps with the help of Florence, Paterson, McClenachan and others‑to create a legend. He surrounded the Shrine with mysticism as thrilling as the Ritual itself. It was real cloak‑anddagger stuff. And though the stories he told were to be challenged in later years and called figments of his own fertile imagination, they did attract members. Even Fleming changed his stories from time to time, and he made greater use of the great name of Billy Florenceoriginally for the single purpose of promoting the growth of the Shrine. But, since Fleming told his stories with such sincerity, there were many who accepted them as historic fact. Others did not.
... BETTER THAN THEY KNEW 31 Even as late as 1892 when controversy over the legend reached its height, Charles T. McClenachan declared it made no real difference whether the stories might be true and that the Shrine Ritual contained no more myth or fiction than Blue Lodge Masonry, the Chapter, the Commandery or even the Christian religion. McClenachan, who was an authority, held that no ritual need be strictly the truth and that few ever were. But there are always those who insist on absolute truth. They are the ones who say George Washington never chopped down the cherry tree or threw a dollar over the Rappahannock; they are probably right, but history was not damaged by such legends, and if they placed a halo of honesty and strength about the head of Washington, which would reflect itself in the eyes of American youth for generations to come, who is to say the creation of the myth was wrong? Chapter 4 T1te Legend of Arab HE legend of the origin of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine begins with the second annual session of the Imperial Grand Council, held at the Masonic Temple in Albany, New York, February 6, 1877. The legend was given voice by Dr. Fleming in his first annual address, reporting on his activities. The circumstances of how he arrived at the content of the speech delivered that cold winter day, climatically so different from the hot sands of the strange Islamic world of the Arabs, are lost, if they were ever known, but it was the first effort to surround the new American order with authentic antiquity.
"It is some five years," Dr. Fleming said, "since I came into possession of detached and mutilated sections of the translation of the Ritual of the Arabic and Egyptian Order of the Mystic Shrine, brought to America by one of the foreign members and representatives, through the hands of Brother Oswald Merle D'Aubigne, 32░. It was exceedingly imperfect and incomplete and to a great extent badly translated and filled with unintelligible symbolisms. Another portion was brought from Oriental Europe by 111. Brother William J. Florence, 320 and some of the vague history and Ritualistic sections were brought from Cairo, Egypt, by Ill. Brother Sherwood C. 32 THE LEGEND OF ARABY 3 3 Campbell, 320. Those portions in the possession of Brother Florence were marked, and referred to certain sections of the Koran for notes and allusions, which greatly facilitated the compiling and revising of the Ritual to its present completion.
"This was a task of no small magnitude, and was undertaken and completed through the efforts of Brother Florence and myself, aided by a professional linguist and Arabic scholar." Just whom Fleming meant in his reference to a professional linguist and Arabic scholar is not known. It might have been Paterson, who did know some Arabic; but as it later developed, it probably was Albert L. Rawson, an artist who had illustrated several books dealing with early Mediterranean religions. Rawson was not a Shriner at the time but became one later and participated actively with Fleming in publicizing the Order.
Fleming, in his address, went on to relate the circumstances and dates of the founding of Mecca Temple and the formation of the Imperial Council, and then he said: "The original plate engravings, for the production of Dispensations, Charters and Diplomas of the Imperial Grand Council, were executed in Paris, France, and the designs were taken from the arches and gateways of the Egyptian Temple of the Sun. The printing and colored transfers were perfected in the City of New York, where also the Statutes and Ritual were printed and the Grand Seal procured." Only a few copies of the original charters are still in existence. Some of them have been destroyed by fire, and others have been lost. Those extant are really works of art, and may well have been the product of Rawson, some of whose art work, illustrating a volume on the Eleusinian theory of esoteric religion, is similar in style to the original charters.
Fleming also reported in 1877 on more earthy problems. He said that the work since the formation of Mecca Temple had involved both a large expenditure and accruing indebtedness; but, he said, a few hundred dollars would place the Imperial Grand Council out of 3 4 PARADE TO GLORY debt f or the obligations of the past. It is noteworthy that Fleming contributed most of the expenses of the formation of the Order, and that he was not to be repaid the advances for a number of years.
But the Shrine was growing, Fleming reported. The second temple to be formed was Damascus at Rochester, but dispensations also had been granted to Al Koran in Cleveland, Syrian in Cincinnati, Mount 'Sinai in Montpelier, Vermont, and Naja and Cyprus in Albany.
The good doctor may or may not have been slightly embarrassed by some of the report he had to make. He said, for example: "All who have received the Order are evidently exceedingly well pleased with the impressiveness of the Ritualistic work and the sublime tenets of the Order. It could no doubt be made a most powerful Order, devoted to the welfare of Masonry in this country.
"Mecca Temple," Dr. Fleming said, "is not exemplifying the work at present, as the matter was left entirely to one or two others and myself, and my time has been so fully occupied with the duties of Most Illustrious Grand Potentate, in promoting the establishment of temples, and the various requirements of the Imperial Grand Council, that it was impossible for me to carry on the work at home in a subordinate temple." Dr. Fleming also explained that he thought the Shrine should be exclusive.
"It has been the desire," he said, "of the Grand Council as well as the membership subordinate to make it a select Order, uncontaminated with discordant elements and unworthy membership. There should be at least one branch of Ancient Craftsmen, select and free of the inappreciative and the unworthy. We trust, therefore, that, as it is a consummation most devoutly to be wished for, all will proceed with care, caution and judgment, in regard to whom they honor with admission." By and large, it was the most successful meeting of the Shrine to that time. It had taken Fleming six long years to bring the infant Order thus far, but he could return to his medical practice in New THE LEGEND OF ARABY 35 York, confident that the new fraternity was on its way. It was to grow beyond the wildest imaginations of its founders, who "builded better than they knew" in the early days. Certainly one of the factors of that building was the aura of Oriental mysticism that Fleming had injected at the Albany session.
A half‑century later, McGee declared that Fleming eventually regretted having mentioned the story of the Ancient Arabic manuscripts; but upon his return to New York from Albany he wrote or with Paterson helped to write the "origin and history" of the Order, which was included in a brochure obviously designed to spread and build it. It contained the statutes and regulations which had been adopted in Albany and full particulars on how new temples could be established. But the important part of the brochure was the embellishment of the legend. This 1877 brochure, which was found among the Paterson papers, reports: The Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was established in Mecca, Arabia, and became an acknowledged power in the year 5459, equivalent to the year of Our Lord 1698.
The Ritual was compiled and arranged at Aleppo, Arabia, and issued by Louis Marracci, the great Latin translator of Mohammed's Al Koran. This mysterious Order continued to thrive in Arabia from that date to the present time. It was revised and instituted at Cairo, Egypt, in 5598, equivalent to June 14, 1837.
The Order was primarily instituted for the purpose of promoting the organization and perfection of Arabic and Egyptian inquisitions, to dispense justice, and execute punishment of criminals whom the tardy laws did not reach to the measure of their crimes. Being designed to embrace the entire pale of the law, and composed of sterling and determined men who would upon a valid accusation fearlessly try, judge, and if convicted, execute the criminal within the hour‑leaving no trace of their acts behind. . . .
More recent history informs us that Oriental Europe is permeated with secret organizations, comprising a selection of the highest and best educated classes of the Mussulman nations; their ostensible object being "the strife of Islam or Mohammedanism against the infidels"; and among the latter are supposed to be included Christians, Israelites, Mussulman 3 6 PARADE TO GLORY princes and potentates, who are suspected, together with the Khedive of Egypt, of being favorable to Christian institutions.
The most prominent and powerful of these orders is the Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Its offshoots and satellites are the Darkawy, Khowan, Ab Del Kader El Bagdadi, and the Issawiye, similar in obligation and purpose. These are not altogether politico‑religious societies as generally supposed by the outside world. Although ostensibly appearing as such there is a deep and hidden meaning beneath the exposed superficial exterior, as promulgated to the profane.
These orders are closely allied to the famous "Illuminati," which fraternity exercised such vigilant power during the reign of King Frederick William of Prussia.
The real object of all of these Orders is to gain all possible power of reign and rule; to exercise these powers for the best welfare of country or land; and to fearlessly purify it of all base and sordid element of whatever nature, independent of creed, sect or nationality; their foundation being the acknowledgment of Deity or one ever‑loving and true God....
The Bektashy, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, as it is known in America, is of necessity divested of its inconsistent Islam dogmas and its ritual adapted to the consistencies of Christian institutions and American laws, and is destined to become a powerful order here in America.
Its jewel of membership, or the insignia of the order worn by its disciples, is the Crescent, formed by the claws of a tiger, united at the bases and bound with gold, bearing the additional emblems of the head of a female Sphinx, on one side and a pyramid, urn, and star upon the other, also bearing the date of the reception of the order and the Latin motto "Robur et Furor"‑signifying strength and fury.
This particular history then includes considerable detail concerning the origin of the Crescent as a symbol of power and authority, and it goes on to say: In i 8o i the Sultan Selim 111, having previously presented Lord Nelson with a crescent richly adorned with diamonds, founded the Order of the Crescent, which, as Mohammedans are not allowed to carry such marks of distinction, has been conferred on Christians alone.
Temples of the Order of the Crescent, or Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, were instituted in various cities of Europe many years ago, and now, although possessing all the powers, material and paraphernalia of THE LEGEND OF ARABY 3 7 the Inquisition, if required, still continue to thrive as social and charitable organizations, impressing on its disciples its purifying tenets and attributes, while always on the alert to arouse into executive action should an emergency arise.
In 1871 the Ritual was brought to America by one of the transient foreign members and representatives with instructions to place it only in the hands of prominent high‑grade Masons for establishment and exemplification as had been done in Europe. Owing to the fact of Masons being regarded as a choice of the best men in the land, and having already passed the ordeal of obligation, the Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine would be regarded as safer with them than with the unobligated masses, and make it, if necessity required, a deliberating and executive body of inquisitorial nature, as when originally inaugurated.
The 1877 history is similar in content, but not in style or spelling, to a history of the Order printed in 1893 which had been "compiled and collated" by Fleming and Paterson, and it is this latter "or igin of the Order" which over the years has been most quoted. In 1902, Fleming wrote a letter to George L. Root of Mohammed Temple, Peoria, Illinois, authorizing him to use the later version in a book he was preparing. Fleming wrote: "I am in receipt of yours of the 13th inst. relative to using my `History of the Shrine.' Personally I have no objections, especially if for distribution to the Nobles of the Order. I do not think Noble Paterson would object either if credited to its authors." The legend of the Shrine became permanent with the publication of this later history. It probably was written in 1883 while Fleming was still the Imperial Potentate, for it is mentioned in the official proceedings of that year, but the first known publication came in a pamphlet issued by Imperial Recorder Frank Luce, who had succeeded Paterson. It is dated 1893.
That history says: The Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was instituted by the Mohammedan Kalif Alee (whose name be praised!), the cousin‑german and son‑in‑law of the Prophet Mohammed (God favor and preserve him!), in the year of the Hegira 25 (A.D. 644) at Mecca in Arabia, as an inquisition, or Vigilance Committee, to dispense justice and execute punish‑ 3 8 PARADE TO GLORY ment upon criminals who escaped their just deserts through the tardiness of the courts, and also to promote religious tolerance among cultured men of all nations. The original intention was to form a band of men of sterling worth who would, without fear or favor, upon a valid accusation, try, judge, and execute, if need be, within the hour, having taken precautions as to secrecy and security.
The "Nobles" perfected their organization, and did such prompt and efficient work that they excited alarm and even consternation in the hearts of evildoers in all countries under the Star and Crescent.
The Order is yet one of the most highly favored among the many secret societies which abound in Oriental countries, and gathers around its shrines a select few of the best educated and cultured classes. Their ostensible object is to increase the faith and fidelity of all true believers in Allah (whose name be exalted!). The secret and real purpose can only be made known to those who have encircled the Mystic Shrine according to instructions in "The Book of the Constitution and the Regulations of the Imperial Council." Its membership in all countries includes Christians, Israelites, Moslems and men in high positions of learning and power. One of the most noted patrons of the Order was the late Khedive of Egypt (whose name be revered!) whose inclination toward Christians is well known.
The Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was sometimes mistaken for a certain order of the dervishes, such as those known as the Hanafeeyeh, Rufaeeyeh, Sadireeyeh, and others, either howling, whirling, dancing or barking; but this is an error. The only connection that the Order ever had with any sect of dervishes was with that called the Bektash. This warlike sect undertook to favor and protect the Nobles in a time of great peril, and have ever since been counted among its most honored patrons.
The famous Arab known as Bektash, from a peculiar high white hat or cap which he made from a sleeve of his gown, the founder of the sect named in his honor, was an imam in the army of the Sultan Amu rath 1, the first Mohammedan who led an army into Europe, A.D. 136o (in the year of the Hegira, 761). This Sultan was the founder of the military order of the Janizaries (so called because they were freed captives who were adopted into the faith and the army), although his father Orkham began the work. Bektash adopted a white robe and cap, and instituted the ceremony of kissing the sleeve.
The Buktasheeyeh's representative at Mecca is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, is the chief officer of the Alee Temple of Nobles, and in 187'7 was the chief of the Order in Arabia. The chief must reside either at THE LEGEND OF ARABY 39 Mecca or Medinah, and, in either case must be present in person or by deputy during the month of pilgrimage.
The character of the Order as it appears to the uninitiated is that of a politico‑religious society. It is really more than such a society could be; and there are hidden meanings in its simplest symbols that take hold on the profoundest depths of the heart.
Among the modern promoters of the principles of the Order in Europe, one of the most noted was Herr Adam Weishaupt, a Rosicrucian (Rose Cross Mystic), and professor of law in the University of Ingol stadt, in Bavaria, who revived the Order in that city on May 1, 1776. Its members exercised a profound influence before and during the French Revolution, when they were known as the Illuminati, and they professed to be teachers of philosophy. From the central society at Ingolstadt, branches spread through all Europe. Among the members, there are recorded the names of Frederick the Great, Mirabeau, a Duke of Orleans, many members of royal families, literary, scientific and professional men, including the illustrious Goethe, Spinoza, Kant, Lord Bacon, and a long list besides, whose works enlarge and free the mind from the influence of dogma and prejudice.
Frequent revolutions in Arabia, Persia and Turkey have obscured the Order from time to time, as appears from the many breaks in the continuity of the records at Mecca, but it has often been revived. Some of the most noted revivals are those at Mecca and Aleppo in A.D. 1698 (A.x. i i io) and at Cairo in 1837 (A.x. 1z53), the latter under the protection of the Khedive of Egypt, who recognized the Order as a powerful means of civilization.
In the year A.D. 804, during a warlike expedition against the Byzantine emperor Nikephorous, the most famous Arabian Kalif, Haroon alRasheed, deputed a renowned scholar, Abd el‑Kader el‑Bagdadee, to proceed to Aleppo, Syria and found a college there for the propagation of the religion of the Prophet Mohammed (God favor and preserve him!). The work and college arose and the Order of Nobles was revived there as a part of the means of civilization.
The Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in America does not advocate Mohammedanism as a sect, but inculcates the same respect to Deity here as in Arabia and elsewhere, and hence the secret of its profound grasp on the intellect and the heart of all cultured people.
The Ritual now in use is a translation from the original Arabic, found preserved in the archives of the Order at Aleppo, Syria, whence it was brought in 186o, to London, England, by Rizk Allah Hassoon 40 PARADE TO GLORY Effendi, who was the author of several works in Arabic, one of which was a metrical version of the Book of Job. His "History of Islam" offended the Turkish government because of its humanitarian principles, and he was forced to leave his native country.
In the year 1698, the learned Orientalist, Luigi Marracci, who was then just completing his great works, "The Koran in Latin and Arabic with notes," and "The Bible in Arabic" at Padua, Italy, was initiated into our Order of Nobles, and found time to translate the Ritual into Italian. The initiated will be able to see how deeply significant this fact is when the history of the Italian society of "Carbonari" is recalled. The very existence of Italian unity and liberty depended largely on the "Nobles" who were represented by Count Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi and the king, Victor Emmanuel.
Although Marracci was confessor to his Holiness, Pope Innocent XI, for several years, yet he was censored by the College of the Propaganda at Rome for having aided and abetted the work of a secret society, and the book was condemned to be burnt. A few copies were saved and one is still preserved in the library of the Synagogue, which stands just inside the ancient Roman gate of the City of Babloon, called by the Arabs Fostat, in the Middle Ages, and now known as Old Cairo.
In making the present version, the translator has had the benefit of the work of Alnasafi, of Marracci and of Hassoon. The rendering is literal where the idiom permitted, except where a local reference required the substitution of American for Oriental names of cities.
The work was perfected in August, 1870, under the supervision of Dr. Walter M. Fleming, 33', Sovereign Grand Inspector General, A.A.S. Rite, and past Eminent Commander of Columbian Commandery No. i, Knights Templar, New York, who received his instructions and authority from Rizk Allah Hassoon Effendee, who had competent jurisdiction for America.
The Ritual is known in Arabia as "The Pillar of Society," which is an honorary title given only to persons of very great distinction in the service of truth, justice and mercy, and the support of learning and culture, and was by courtesy attached to this work as originally written by the renowned Alnasafi Hafiz, the Persian poet.
The salutation of distinction among the faithful is: "Es Selamu Aleikum!" (Peace be with you!), to which is returned the gracious wish, "Aleikum es Selamu!" (With you be peace!).
The jewel of the Order is a crescent, formed of any substance. The most valued materials are the claws of a Royal Bengal tiger, united at THE LEGEND OF ARABY 41 their bases in a gold setting which includes their tips, and bears on one side of the center the head of a sphinx, and on the other a pyramid, urn and star, with the date of the wearer's reception of the Order, and the motto: Arabic‑"Kuwat wa Ghadab." Latin‑"Robur et Furor." English‑"Strength and fury." The constitutional authority for promulgation of the principles and practice of the Order was confided to Dr. Walter M. Fleming, 33░, and his associates, William J. Florence, 32'; Edward Eddy, 33'; John W. Simons, 33░; Sherwood C. Campbell, 3z░; Oswald Merle d'Aubigne, 3z░; James S. Chappell, 32'; John A. Moore, 32' (the last seven have since entered the unseen temple) ; Charles T. McClenachan, 33'; Albert P. Moriarty, 33'; Daniel Sickels, 33'; George W. Millar, 33'; and William S. Paterson, 33'; together with Albert R. Rawson, 32' (the Arabic translator), all prominent Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons and Knights Templar of New York, N. Y., who instituted the first temple of the Order in that city under the title of "Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine," on Sept. 26, 1872.
111. Walter M. Fleming, 33░, was chosen its presiding officer, who is also called "The Shayk, or the Ancient," and also the Illustrious Potentate. He is known in the Persian temples as "The Shayk Alee," that is to say, the supreme Shayk. Ill. William S. Paterson, 33' was elected the Recorder.
On June 6, 1876, "The Imperial Council for North America" was formed, and the first officers elected (as in Arabia) for the term of three years. 111. Walter M. Fleming became Imperial Potentate, and Ill. W. S. Paterson, Imperial Recorder.
The prerequisite for membership in Europe, Asia, Africa and America is the 3z░ A.A.S. Rite (z8 in England), or a Knight Templar in good standing.
The generous proposition to make the Order of Nobles an organization for the exercise of charity, the improvement of the mind, and an ally of the Fraternity of Free Masonry in the United States, was primarily adopted by the Imperial Council.
This then was the history prepared by Fleming and Paterson. Fact? Well, hardly. Noted Arabic scholars in the United States in 1958 could find little if any fact in Fleming's report. Fancy, fiction, 42 PARADE TO GLORY myth, legend? All of these. But what difference? The Shrine was formed as an organization where Masons might seclude themselves from the cares of the world and as Masons enjoy each other's company in good fun.
This then was the cloak‑and‑dagger stuff, but it is to be noted that in this rendition of the history of the Shrine, Billy Florence played a comparatively inconspicuous part. Yet Florence (with Flem ing's help) had tried to get in the act a year earlier. In 1882 Florence wrote a letter for publication in the official proceedings of 1883: . . . I have long promised myself the task of writing a brief account of the first glimpses I had of the working of our Order, while on a tour in Europe some years since, and now give a portion thereof.
In September, 1870, I was in the city of Marseilles, France, and having occasion to call on Duncan, Sherman & Co., Bankers, I was told by one of the gentlemanly clerks that there was to be a ceremony of an unusually attractive character, at a hall near the Grand Hotel de 1'Univers, and knowing me to be a Mason, invited me to be present, offering to be my guide and voucher. My curiosity was excited by his glowing hints as to the Oriental wonders to be seen there, and I really cannot say whether I ate any dinner or not that evening, so anxious was I to keep the appointment.
Having been introduced to the anteroom of the hall, in which the Mystic Shrine was concealed, I found a number of distinguished persons in animated conversation on the subject of our visit. One of these men was the British Consul at that port, another the Austrian Vice‑Consul, and there were dukes and counts, bankers and merchants, scholars and artists, musicians and other professionals, all of whom seemed absorbed in the question of how the French of Marseilles had succeeded in getting possession of such interesting secrets.
The Illustrious Grand Potentate of the evening was the celebrated Yusef Churi Bey, and the Temple was called Bokhara Shrine.
Shayk Yusef had visited Bokhara, where he was made a member of the Mystic Shrine in that famous city of the Persians, and brought away a hastily written sketch of the Ritual and Laws of the Order. It would be impossible to give a complete narrative of the ceremonies of that Communication of the Nobles of Bokhara Shrine, and I must content myself with a mere outline.
The costumes were exact duplicates of Oriental patterns brought from THE LEGEND OF ARABY 43 Persia by Yusef Bey. In his long service as an attache of the Persian Consulate, he had seen many countries, and profited by studies and observations in each, and was therefore well fitted to conduct such an institution.
The furniture of the Temple was the most peculiar I ever saw, and must have been gotten up by some one well skilled in stage scenery, for there were very well contrived dramatic effects, representing the sandy seashore, the rough, rocky hillside, the gloomy cavern, the solemn tomb, and a transformation scene which was at first a cemetery, full of tombs and monuments inscribed with the names of the departed, with epitaphs on their virtues and worth, when in an instant, the lights having been lowered, the scene changed to a sumptuous banqueting hall, with small tables for groups of 3, 5, 7, and q.
I need not describe the work of the Temple any further than to say, that the intention is to enact a drama very much like our own, which had for its object the same lesson; and there can be no better or more zealous workers in a good cause than those French brothers who celebrated the Mysteries at Marseilles on that evening.
My duties prevented a sufficiently long stay in Marseilles to witness a second performance, and I therefore begged Yusef Bey to allow me to have a copy of the Ritual and Laws, which I received on the day I sailed for Algiers.
In Algiers the Shrine of the Mogribins was in full operation, meeting each week, on Friday evening. Abu Mohammed Baki was the Shayk, and among the members were nearly every one of the many consuls, vice‑consuls, and other diplomats of the port, many of the most noted merchants and bankers, and not a few of the learned and gifted Mohammedans, who are passionately fond of perpetuating ancient customs which increase their social pleasures.
The Shrine is referred to by the Moslems generally as "The Order of the Unwritten Law," in distinction from the "Written Law," which is the Koran.
The costumes and furniture of the Shrine in Algiers were gorgeous in silk, wool, and fine linen, decorated with embroidery in gold, silver and colors; and the swords, spears, and other articles used by the guards and officers in the work were genuine steel, many of which had been in actual service in the field of battle. . . .
There were many more letters in the same vein and as often as not in similar language. There was one addressed to Fleming from 44 PARADE TO GLORY Abd‑el‑Makri, writing for the Shayk Mohammed Baki of the Shrine at Algiers, reporting that "during the past three months, many of the most wealthy and famous men of this province, including nearly every officer of the government" had become members. And quite modestly Florence reported that he had been made an honorary member of both the Shrine of the Mogribins in Algiers and the Bokhara Shrine in Marseilles.
Also printed in the official proceedings of the Shrine of North America for the year 1882 were letters, addressed to Fleming, reporting on Shrine activities in Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Damascus. And such reports revealed as much as anything else that not only in North America, but throughout the Islamic world there was a revival of the Shrine as originally created by the Kalif All.
"It is a pleasure to be able to inform you," said the letter from Cairo, "of the reestablishment of our order generally throughout the Eastern world, nearly every kingdom or sovereignty being now rep resented at the General Assembly of Nobles, which meets once in three years at Mecca." And there was one rather down‑to‑earth notation that "the banquets during the year have been catered by Ismail Tibneen, chef de cuisine, to His Highness the Khedive." Fleming learned from the letter that the Shrine at Alexandria held its meetings in the ancient palace of the Ptolemies.
Oh, there was more. Much more. And every word was designed to convince American Masons of high degree that membership in the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was of consider able importance. The translations printed in the Proceedings presumably were by Rawson the artist, but if the originals were ever preserved, they have not been discovered.
Between 1882 and 1892, there also appeared in the official Proceedings of the Imperial Council letters from John Worthington, a member of Mecca Temple and the United States Consul on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. As it later developed Worthington was quite a personage and, perhaps inadvertently, the cause of much
of the furor that was to come over the myths and legends that were being created.
Worthington's letters reported on visitations made to Shrine Temples throughout the Mediterranean area. They also reported expenses for the entertainment of visiting Nobles who stopped briefly at the Island of Malta to obtain a pass which would gain them entrance to the various Shrines in that part of the world. For his work in entertaining the visiting Nobles and for visiting the various temples of the East on behalf of Fleming, and as his deputy, Worthington was paid five hundred dollars a year from the Imperial Treasury. But alas and clack, Worthington failed to report just which Nobles were entertained, and in so far as the record shows, there was but
one. Furthermore, in the light of later developments, the pass wasn't much to start with. Today's Arabic scholars declare its inscriptions are better as art work than as grammar and that they probably were made by some Algerian sailor who stopped off in Malta. Today's Arabic scholars go further. After reading the translations printed in the Proceedings, they state unequivocally that there is no historic fact THE LEGEND OF ARABY 47 to support any of the statements, places or names contained in all of the various letters. And perhaps most important of all is the fact that none of the Arabic originals has ever been found.
After Sam Briggs of Al Koran Temple in Cleveland succeeded Fleming as Imperial Potentate in 1886, he continued these reports from the East and continued to pay Worthington his five hundred dollars a year; but when William B. Melish of Syrian Temple of Cincinnati succeeded Briggs in 1892, he indicated forthwith that he was tired of all the "rot and rubbish" and intended to put an end to it, perhaps even going so far as to issue an official pronouncement proclaiming as false all matters that had pertained to the Oriental origin of the Shrine.
Augustus Peters, who had succeeded Fleming as Potentate of Mecca Temple, was upset, and to prevent any such action by Melish he sent Charles T. McClenachan and George W. Millar to Cincin nati to interview him. McClenachan penned the report of that interview.
"It appears," he wrote, "that the Imperial Potentate desires to make the organization of the Shrine a gentlemen's club on a Sunday School plan, which is entirely at variance with the views of your committee, and, as they believe, of the great majority of the Order. We believe we are in touch with the originators of the subordinate temples in this country, that the Oriental myth is one of the most essential portions of the institution, that to eliminate the myth is to emasculate the Order to such an extent that its progress would not only be stopped but that the society would fail and die out. Whatever there is of truth as well as whatever there is of myth, must be retained." McClenachan said it was against all expediency to tell our youth that William Tell never shot the apple off the head of his son or that George Washington never chopped down the cherry tree, and that it was just as expedient to eliminate the myth of the Shrine.
Melish was unimpressed. He told his visitors that he understood and believed that Noble Florence and three or four others, sitting 48 PARADE TO GLORY around a table in New York, had in a jolly way concocted the Ritual and started the Society. He asked McClenachan if he knew of a Ritual that Florence had brought to this country or if he believed Florence had ever been initiated in Beyrouth. Yes, indeed, said McClenachan. He firmly believed that Florence had been initiated in Beyrouth or somewhere else, and that he had brought a Ritual to this country.
Still unimpressed, Melish told the Mecca Committee that "all this Oriental and Eastern stuff was humbug and rot," that there were no Eastern temples, and in his opinion Worthington should be stopped from writing his rubbish; that we had better come down to a gentlemen's society and stop talking Oriental nonsense. He said Sam Briggs had told him that whenever a Potentate asked about the myth of the Shrine he always replied that there was no truth to the story.
McClenachan and Millar were generally unhappy about the interview with Imperial Potentate Melish and frankly said that the impression left on the committee was that Melish was not a Shrine enthusiast. Certainly there were to be repercussions of the visit at the Imperial Council session held in Cincinnati in 1893, when Mecca Temple and others joined hands to defeat Melish for reelection.
Amazingly enough, no mention is made in McClenachan's report of Dr. Fleming, who had only recently retired as Potentate of Mecca Temple. It would have been logical to assume that McClenachan and Millar, who had been so intimately associated with the founder of the Order, might at least have mentioned him in their conversations with Imperial Potentate Melish. But it was not to be. As a matter of fact, after Fleming had turned over the power in the Shrine to Sam Briggs in 1886, he attended only one imperial session of the Shrine. That was in 1893 when he helped to organize the opposition to Melish.
After the death of Dr. Fleming in 1913, the battle over the truth or falsity of the Fleming‑Florence tradition raged on. Dr. Saram Ellison, revered Recorder of Mecca Temple, and Louis N. Donnatin, who succeeded Ellison, acquired extensive collections in an attempt to prove that Florence was initiated into some Oriental mystery and conveyed that idea to Fleming. At the same time James McGee fought
THE LEGEND OF ARABY 49
all the way to the floor of the Imperial Council in an attempt to disprove it. He even wrote his own history of the Shrine and on the back of one copy Donnatin wrote that it was the product of a diseased mind. But was it? In essence, McGee simply contended that Fleming and Fleming alone created the Shrine, that Florence's only significant contribution was the use of his name and that eventually Fleming regretted hav ing introduced the Oriental myths and legends concerning its origin. And some years later McGee was given concrete support by Charles P. Fleming, one of the doctor's two sons. But Fleming himself never publicly admitted that his history was fiction. As late as i qoo, with considerable embellishment, he reiterated the ancient Arabic origin of the Order.
The battle continued privately and on the floor of the Imperial Council. At times it was bitter and personal. Louis Donnatin and Cyprian C. Hunt, the Potentate of Mecca Temple, even obtained statements from contemporaries of McGee to disprove his allegations. One of these was William Ten Eyck Hardenbrook, who carried Mecca's card No. 25, three ahead of McGee's No. 28.
Hardenbrook was a Masonic journalist, perhaps the earliest in New York, but like McGee, he was far along in years when his opinion was sought. But he was positive in his statement. "I hereby refute," he wrote to Potentate Hunt, "any statement made by any member of the Order to the effect that (it) is not founded upon a somewhat similar Arabian Order of ancient origin and existing at the time of the formation of Mecca Temple. . . . It was through the efforts and instrumentality of William J. Florence who brought the original Arabic manuscript Ritual and its English translation to this country that the Order owes its institution and foundation in the United States. This document was on several occasions the subject of discussion and debate with the view of adapting its provisions to Masonic customs and usages prevailing at that time. I often had the Ritual in my possession for the purpose of study and suggestion for such arrangement as would make it useful and adaptable for the initiatory work of Mecca Temple. As the pioneer Masonic journalist 50 PARADE TO GLORY in New York, being the owner and editor of the Masonic Newspaper, this work was naturally referred to me. The adoption of the insignia, jewels and paraphernalia of the Order was also a matter of frequent consideration and the jewel, consisting of the pyramid, Sphinx head, Star of Bethlehem upon the keystone uniting two claws of the royal Bengal tiger in the form of the crescent was finally adopted upon my recommendation and from a design which I furnished Dr. Fleming." That was a pretty definite statement, and by most rules of evidence would have been considered final. After all, he said, he had had the original manuscript in his hands, but since it never could be found, there existed some doubt. An ancient Arabic manuscript, even if it were shredded and in a bad state of disrepair, would be an invaluable addition to any museum and would have been treasured and guarded.
And so, the argument continued and on occasion took on the tones of attempting to prove that the founding of the Shrine in the United States was centered in either the Scottish or York Rites. It was not until 1927 that anything like a final statement was made, and that came from Charles P. Fleming, one of the doctor's two sons. Melish had implied in an article printed in the New York Herald Tribune that the origin of the Shrine was still shrouded in mystery. Apparently he was misquoted, but it came to Charles Fleming's attention and he immediately issued a long statement which appeared in the Bridgeport, Connecticut Star. Fleming also transmitted a clipping of his statement to Recorder Donnatin at Mecca Temple. In his letter, Fleming said that "at the time the article by Brother Melish was published in the Herald Tribune, an old friend of mine in Bridgeport urged me to make a statement as to the true facts of the Shrine's origin. I demurred at first, but finally consented. My decision to do so was grounded on the fact that several times in his last years, my father said he regretted the necessity of so much mystery regarding the founding of the Order, but he deemed it essential at the time to gain the interest of the public, and it soon got out of hand, and the
THE LEGEND OF ARABY 51 true facts were known but to a few. The statements I have given herewith in the article enclosed I heard my father make many times to old friends and associates, so there is naught contained therein that he would object to my making were he still with us. I have heard my father say that he could not recall more than two or three occasions that Florence even attended ceremonies of the Shrine. He did nothing whatever concerning it beyond lending the use of his name in connection therewith to his old friend, my father." He declared that in the Shrine there was never any Oriental connection whatever and that "the conception of the idea was my father's alone and that he received his greatest and most valuable aid from Bro. Charles Thompson McClenachan, who was considered an authority on all matters Masonic and who was conceded to be one of the best ritualists in the country." Young Fleming concluded: My father frequently stated that without the assistance of McClenachan in the construction of the Order, it would have been "Love's Labor Lost." Wm. Jermyn Florence, 32░ and the third factor in the Shrinal history whose name is more generally linked and known throughout the land in connection with it than any other had nothing whatever to do with the work of establishing the Order, beyond permitting the use of his popular name in abetting and getting the Mystic Shrine into the limelight of public attention and favor in the seventies and eighties.
At the inception of the Order, to give it emphasis and to add to its impressiveness it was said to have emanated from "The Order of the Crescent" under the "Throne of the Bektash." This however was purely a figment of Dr. Fleming's imagination. The announcement of a visit of Brother Florence to this Order in continental Europe, thereby imbibing the original idea, was purely garnishment for the purpose of propagating the new Order.
The Order was inaugurated in 187o at the Knickerbocker Cottage, 28th St. and 6th Ave., later and more recently Moquin's restaurant. Its object, the exercise of charity, the improvement of the mind, and an ally of the Fraternity of Freemasonry of the United States.
I have the original charter, granting my father the authority to confer the Order throughout the United States and Western Hemisphere. It was supposed to come from Mecca, Arabia and is dated August 13, 52 PARADE TO GLORY 187o. Actually it was conceived by my father, and drawn and made by Bro. Benjamin F. Brady, whose office at that time was in Barclay Street, just back of the old Astor House.
All the words and ceremonials were conceived and compiled by my father. The charge was taken from a poem by Francis Saltus, to be found in his book of poems published posthumously under the title of Honey and Gall and slightly altered to fit the requirements.
I possess a copy of this book. The costumes were designed under my father's suggestion, and in fact the entire onus of the early days fell upon his shoulders, with the above stated able assistance of Bro. McClenachan.
He was not made a 33rd until September i q, 1872, over two years later, so the yarn of Florence being but 32nd, turning over the promulgation of the idea to my father because of his being a 33rd is exploded.
The statement by Charles P. Fleming should have ended all of the discussion, but it didn't. As late as 1941 Louis Donnatin compiled massive data designed to prove that the records were essentially correct and that when Fleming and Paterson wrote their histories they must have known what they were talking about and were telling the truth.
Unfortunately, however, the facts as Fleming and Florence related them do not stand up to the test of other facts. Arabic scholars have been consulted in the preparation of this book and they never heard of a Shrine or anything like it existing in all of the Middle East. The Bektash order of dervishes is Turkish, not Arabic; and the Bektash cannot trace their origin to the Caliph All (or Alee) as many of the dervish orders do. Weishaupt's Illuminati were barred many years before the advent of the Shrine, and according to the best historians never achieved a membership of more than two thousand in all of Europe.
But what difference? Fact, fancy, legend, myth. Perhaps all of these. But principally the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine is a fraternal romance. It is composed of more than 8oo,ooo boys grown tall, who maintain reverent _minds and merry hearts; who contribute generously of their time and purse for the betterment of mankind.
Chapter 5 In Death a Mystery HE name of William J. Florence is so intimately associated with the history of the Shrine that he cannot be ignored by the simple expedient of saying that he participated in the crea tion of a fiction, or that he did little more than permit the use of his name in promoting an infant fraternity. But it is possible that his death contributed more to the Order than his life.
There is no record that he ever attended an Imperial Session of the Order and on only a few occasions is he known to have attended meetings of individual temples. He apparently was present at the meet ing of the original thirteen in 1871. He once attended a meeting of Lu Lu Temple in Philadelphia. He obligated Sam Briggs, who was to become the second Imperial Potentate, at a theater in Cleveland. And at least once he attended a meeting of Mecca Temple in New York. There are unconfirmed statements that he visited Moslem and Damascus temples. Frequently the Shriners appeared at a theater where he was playing, and always he greeted them as a Shriner.
Much has been made of Florence's visit to Mecca Temple by those who have supported the theory that Florence actually was the founder of the Order in America, but here again there are differing versions of the same story. The official minutes of the meeting on 53 54 PARADE TO GLORY September 29, 1882, report that 111. Wm. J. Florence was "announced and introduced by 111. J. F. Collins in an eloquent speech that touched on all the noble qualities and high deeds of one who merited the title of `Father of the Order' in America. The Grand Potentate [Fleming] cordially welcomed the illustrious Noble and tendered him the hospitalities of Mecca Temple. Illustrious Noble W. J. Florence accepted the welcome in a brief speech and said that when he assisted in introducing the Order in this country he never expected to behold the magnificence of ritual and ceremony which surrounded him, and the large numbers who took such unalloyed pleasure in pursuing the unwritten teachings, laws and ceremonies and participating in the celebrations observed by the order. At Algiers, Cairo and Marseilles he was very much impressed with the Arabian mysteries which he had then beheld for the first time and it resulted in bringing before those found worthy in the U.S. an order whose teachings were profitable. After the ceremonies of the evening, the Illustrious Noble expressed his unbounded delight at the beauty and magnificence with which Mecca Temple had imbued the weird Arabic ceremony and that he had never witnessed such an exemplification in all of his travels." Those are the official minutes of the meeting, but McGee gives a slightly different version of Florence's appearance. He sets the date as December iq, 1884, on the occasion of the first ladies' night ever held by Mecca Temple. If that date is correct then he must have made two visits, for it is difficult to dispute the official minutes of a meeting. McGee records that Fleming learned that Florence was in the city unexpectedly and personally went to his quarters in the Fifth Avenue Hotel and "refusing to take `no' for an answer personally escorted him to Masonic Hall at Twenty‑third Street and Sixth Avenue." McGee then recalls that Fleming greeted the actor with "one of his characteristic and inimitable `welcomes' for which the doctor was long famous and concluded his reception with a presentation to Florence of a Fez and an expensively gold‑mounted pair of tiger claws. The visiting Noble [Florence] accepted the same and after a hand‑ IN DEATH A MYSTERY S S shake with all of the professional entertainers, preceded by a social bite and sip of the menu in evidence, the widely known author, dramatist, actor and bon vivant took his departure and in so doing remarked to this `chronicler' that said visit was the very first time that he had ever been a participant in any sense at a Mystic Shrine function." Strangely enough both dates and both visits may be correct. Certainly it must be assumed that the minutes of the meeting in 1882 are correct, and tending to confirm McGee's story is the jewel itself which was presented to Alecca Temple by Mrs. Florence after Billy's death. The jewel has this inscription on it: Amir ul Umra William J. Florence August 1870 From Mecca Temple, Mystic Shrine N. Y. Dec. 1884 This jewel and others belonging to Florence were given to the Shrine Rooms in the George Washington National Masonic Memorial and are now on display there. Among those jewels is also one that Florence gave to Mecca Temple. In a letter dated September q, 1891, only a few weeks before his death, Florence wrote to Fleming: "Ills. Sir‑Will you please accept for Mecca Temple the enclosed jewelit is the first ever worn by a Christian. With it take the earnest wish that our beautiful work will spread from world to world till we are gathered to the sacred Shrine promised to the faithful by our Father Mamoud. Yours in the bonds of fire, William J. Florence." It was the last communication Fleming was to receive from his friend. Billy was sixty years old and still as popular with audiences all over America as he was in the days when he romped across the boards with his wife Malvina. She had retired and was living in England, but Billy had formed an association with Joseph Jefferson, and they began a tour of the country from which Billy never returned.
In his death, there is one of the most unusual stories in American Masonic history.
56 PARADE TO GLORY Florence and Jefferson began their tour in Philadelphia in November of 1891, appearing in Heir at Law. During the week of November q, Florence contracted a slight cold, but continued to per form each evening. On Friday, November 13, he was feverish and consulted a physician who advised him to remain indoors. But Florence insisted on continuing on Saturday, the 14th (the show must go on), and after the play that night gave a dinner for Mr. and Mrs. Kendal at the Continental Hotel, where he had his quarters. Florence, however, left the table before the conclusion of the supper and took to his bed. Sunday, the 15th, he was much worse and several consulting physicians were called in. According to the treatment in those days, Florence was "bled" to relieve his suffering, but he continued to grow worse and the newspapers report that he spent Tuesday and Wednesday "in a comatose condition." The Philadelphia Press of Wednesday morning, November 18, reported that "the actor's life had been despaired of" and that Mrs. Florence "had been cabled for." "Those inquiring persons," said the Press, "who slipped into the corridors of the Continental Hotel as late as one or two o'clock yesterday [Tuesday, November 171 morning learned that Mr. Florence's condition was just the same‑`a trifle better than the day before.' But suddenly both the relatives and Dr. Dunnellen in Mr. Florence's apartment grew nervous and then hurriedly exchanged a f ew whispers. The great actor was breathing with great difficulty. The clock showed that it was within a few minutes of three o'clock. Father Flannagan of St. Mary's church was sent for by Mrs. Williams. [Mrs. Williams was Mrs. Florence's sister and a devout Roman Catholic.] This, however, was without Mr. Florence's knowledge or, when he afterwards learned of it, without his consent as to the necessity of it. He did not at any time believe that he was in extremeness." However, the Press reported that the clergyman must have had a different view and "apparently thought that the comedian was close to the shadow of death and he administered to him the last rites of religion." The Press also reported that Father Prat of New York "who IN DEATH A MYSTERY 57 was a warm friend of the distinguished actor assisted in the administration of the extreme unction." On Wednesday, November 18, Florence slept most of the day under the influence of morphine which had been administered to relieve pains caused by sciatica, but the Philadelphia Public Ledger said that when he was awake, he chided his friends for their anxiety about him, that he had a pretty strong case of sickness, but that he would come out all right.
Peter Conlin, Florence's brother and a New York police inspector, was so cheered that he left Philadelphia to return to his work, but shortly after nine o'clock that night, November i q, i 8q i, Billy Florence took a sudden turn for the worse and died. His death occurred a comparatively few steps from where he had been made a Master Mason in 1853.
Shortly after his death, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Norman Wiard, Florence's own sister, cabled Mrs. Florence in London: "Dearest Sister‑With unutterable and profound grief we send you the terrible tidings that our beloved one suddenly became worse and at 8:30 this [Thursday] evening passed away quietly, peacefully and painlessly. His last thoughts and his constant words were in tenderness for you. Telegraph dearest whatever suggestion you wish to guide us. Everything has been done and all will be done as we feel you would have it to be." Mrs. Florence replied in a long cablegram which was never made public, but which the newspapers reported requested that funeral services for the great actor be held in St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Church on Forty‑third Street just off Lexington Avenue, in New York. The Philadelphia Press said that "the great actor has given a great deal of money to this church and helped materially to found it by a contribution of $15,000. Mr. Florence has been a very benevolent man to the church of his faith‑the Roman Catholic‑and has given thousands of dollars to charity." The announcement that Florence's funeral would be held in a Roman Catholic church caused something of a furor in New York, 58 PARADE TO GLORY where the newspapers raised the question of how a Master Mason could also be a member of the Roman Catholic church. The New York Sun reported in connection with the funeral arrangements: "For many years Mr. Florence had been a Freemason and it was thought that the Catholic authorities might object at having the funeral services at a Catholic church. The law of the Catholic church is that a man who has been a Mason and who dies without renouncing the Order cannot receive Catholic burial. Dr. Brant, pastor of St. Agnes' Church said yesterday that he had proved that Mr. Florence received the church's last sacrament and had, therefore, renounced Freemasonry." "A few days before his death," Dr. Brant told a Sun reporter, "Father Prat of this city, one of the most eminent friends, went to Philadelphia to see him. Father Prat brought a priest from St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia [Father Flanagan] to Mr. Florence's bedside. He heard Mr. Florence's confession and gave him absolution. That proves that Mr. Florence renounced Freemasonry for he could not have obtained absolution if he had not. Mr. Florence was a good Catholic at heart. He and his wife were among the best friends of St. Agnes' Church. He was intimately acquainted with my predecessor, the late Father McDowell. A few years ago he presented to the church a lamp that he obtained from the Shrine of St. Agnes in Rome. Other tokens of his esteem of Father McDowell, and his respect for the church, are in the place from which ever appropriately his funeral is to take place. He had many friends among the Catholic clergy. Once he told a priest that whenever he heard the gong on an ambulance, he always said a prayer for the unfortunate who had been killed or injured. Billy Florence was a noble man, and I am sure that when he became a Mason he did not do so with the idea of being contrary to his church." Another New York newspaper inquired from Father Shean, an assistant priest at St. Agnes' Church, about the matter and was told that no attempt had been or would be made to inquire into the cir cumstances of Florence's receiving the last sacrament in Philadelphia.
IN DEATH A MYSTERY 59 "We are bound to believe," said Father Shean, "that the priest who administered the last sacrament to the dying man was convinced that Mr. Florence had renounced Freemasonry and was, therefore, en titled to the blessing. Of course, if we knew that Mr. Florence had not renounced Masonry before his death and had not repented, only one course would be open to us. The law of the church is perfectly clear and explicit. No member of any secret organization can be buried from a Catholic church or have the last rites administered to him. Our position in the matter is very simple. It is not necessary for us to go behind the action of the priest in Philadelphia, as we are bound to believe that he took all proper precautions." At the same time, Edward M. L. Ehlers, Grand Secretary of the Masonic Lodges of New York, announced that Florence would receive no Masonic honors since he had received the last sacraments of the Catholic church. And also at the same time Father Brant announced that no Masonic order would be admitted to the church for the service, but that Masons would be admitted as individuals if they appeared without uniforms. There is no evidence that any of them actually attended the services, but the New York Times reported that there were two floral pieces probably never seen in a Catholic church before. One was from the Actors' Order of Friendship and the other from the Mystic Shrine. Both contained the Masonic Square and Compass.
After the funeral, the body was taken to a mausoleum in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn to await the arrival of Mrs. Florence; and when she arrived some days later, the mortal remains of Billy Florence were taken to a grave in the same cemetery, a burial plot that Florence himself had purchased, and over which was raised a monument declaring that he was one of the founders of the Shrine in North America.
There are some rather strange circumstances in connection with the Catholic burial of Billy Florence. First of all, and perhaps most important, is the question whether he ever was a member of the Ro man Catholic Church. Records of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church IN DEATH A MYSTERY 61 in Albany,
which was the only Catholic church in that city at the time of Florence's birth, do not reveal his baptism. It is to be doubted that he was a member of that faith in 1853 when he received his Masonic degrees in Philadelphia or when he participated in the founding of the Shrine in 187 1. He continued to pay his dues each year in all of the Masonic bodies until his death, excepting the two occasions when he was suspended prior to 1871.
There is no record of his marriage to Malvina Pray. Marriage licenses were not required in New York at that time; and while some of the clergy occasionally reported their weddings, Florence's was not one of them. Newspapers of January i, 1851, made no mention of the wedding and subsequent biographies failed to mention where the wedding was held and by whom they were married. Mrs. Florence and Mrs. Williams, it is known, were devout Catholics, but when Mrs. Norman Wiard (Florence's sister) died in 1927 in Tacoma, Washington, her funeral was conducted by a Unitarian minister, her body was cremated, and the ashes were buried in the Conlin plot in Greenwood Cemetery. Catholic law does not permit cremation since it contravenes the Catholic teaching of the resurrection of the body. That portion of Greenwood Cemetery in which the Florence‑Conlin burial plot is located is unconsecrated by the church. Furthermore, records in the archives in Washington show that when Peter Conlin, Florence's brother, was married, the wedding was held in a Methodist church.
So, strange indeed were the circumstances of Billy Florence's death and burial. Masons in general, and Shriners in particular, have never believed that he renounced Masonry on his deathbed; that when priests administered the last sacrament, it was done at the request of Mrs. Williams alone and that Florence, already in a coma, had no knowledge of what was taking place.
Sam Briggs of Al Koran Temple in Cleveland was the Imperial Potentate when Billy died and waxed eloquent in his eulogy.
Though the Catholic church and the Freemasons behaved with rare and admirable tact, now that Billy Florence's wholesome jovial body is under the turf and his great generous soul rests in perpetual peace which 62 PARADE TO GLORY at last awaits well‑doers of all creeds and no creed at all, the truth of the matter begins to break like a morning futilely hid by window blinds. William Conlin Florence, no matter what his fondness for the good priests he knew and for the beneficence and beauty of the creed they preached, was a Freemason who loved Freemasonry, who believed in its nobility, who practiced its charity, who was true to its obligations and who never, even on his deathbed, renounced it. He stood high up in its roll. He was proud of the honors it bestowed upon him and none of its craftsmen ever failed to receive at his hands the fullest exemplifications of its precepts. To impute against him that the last moment of his life would reverse the thoughts and beliefs of a lifetime is to asperse with insult the new grave in Greenwood.
Kings, statesmen, journalists, financiers all courted the genial Billy. Nobody was the worse for knowing him. And, ah, the good dinners he ate! The good wine he drank, and good stories he told and the good deeds he performed. Billy Florence was an accessory to the existence of this Order which will stand as a lasting monument, exemplary of his very life.
And Dr. Fleming also had a last word. He told a New York Tunes reporter that "of course Florence was a member of the Shrine at the time of his death. No secret was made of it at the time. I is sued the proclamation of his death which was printed in the Tunes and other newspapers. The story that he renounced the Order on his deathbed is false. He was not accountable for anything he may have said to the Philadelphia priest. And of course we have no positive assurance that he did say anything like a renunciation." F DR. FLEMING exuded a confidence not entirely justified by fact when he delivered his first annual address to the second meeting of the Imperial Council in 1877, he may be excused on the ground of his inherent enthusiasm and optimism and that indeed his words were prophetic. Only once since he wrote it had the Ritual been performed, and even that performance, like much of the early history of the Shrine, is shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, occasioned by lost or destroyed records and bad memories.
There seems to be little question that the first full initiatory ceremonial was given by Damascus Temple in Rochester, New York, but there are differing reports of the number of candidates and the date on which it was held.
One of the earliest members of the infant Order was George F. Loder of Rochester, and while there is no evidence that there had been a previous association between him and Dr. Fleming during the years the physician practiced in the upstate New York city, it must be considered likely. Loder, in later years, when the controversy over the origin of the Shrine was at its height, declared that he had been obligated by Florence in Dr. Fleming's office in June of 1872, but Loder was depending on his memory since his certificate had been 63 64 PARADE TO GLORY destroyed by fire and Mecca Temple had not even been organized. Paterson in his recollection of those early years reported that Loder and seven other Rochester Masons had been obligated on January 4, 1875. And just to confuse the matter still further, a card was found in the records of Mecca Temple, signed by both Fleming and Paterson, dating Loder's certificate as June 26, 1875, but with the notation that "it ought to date from June 26, 1872." Oh, well! The boys cared little about records. What they wanted was fun.
Loder was a costumer with headquarters in Rochester, serving churches, lodges, military schools and theatrical societies, and after becoming a Shriner he returned to Rochester and organized Genesee Temple No. 2 of the Mystic Shrine. There was no charter, for there was no Imperial Council. But as a created Past Potentate, he had authority to organize and he had a copy of the Ritual. By 1875, he had obligated more than 135 members in Rochester, all of them with the advanced Masonic degrees as prerequisites. And because Fleming wanted it that way, Loder abandoned the Indian name of Genesee and established Damascus Temple, conforming to what was to become a standard practice of naming temples with some Moslem connotation. The Damascus charter actually is dated June 6, 1875, a full year before the establishment of the Imperial Council.
It was at about this time that Loder determined to perform the Ritual. From his extensive costume wardrobes, he outfitted the brethren and rehearsed them diligently and finally set the date of October 12, 1875. According to his own statement and the records of Damascus Temple, Billy Florence was playing in Rochester at the time and was present for the ceremonial. In addition, Loder invited Fleming and Paterson to attend, which they did, and watched for the first time the performance of the Ritual. There was one candidate‑J. Clinton Hall, a stock actor and the manager of the Rochester opera house. He was the first Shrine initiate in North America.
To that point, Fleming and Mecca Temple had never performed the Ritual, and it was to be many more ‑years before Fleming would have the opportunity to preside as Potentate over the Ritual he had written.
HARD TIMES‑AND GROWTH 6 5 He explained to the Imperial Council in 1877 that his duties as Imperial Potentate had made it impossible for him to give time and attention to Mecca Temple and its ceremonials, but actually there is a suspicion that it was a lack of money which delayed activities in New York. After all, the nation had been through a severe financial panic, beginning in 1873, and though there had been some improvement in general economic conditions by 1876, the improvement was not sufficient to help many of the fraternal orders. Well‑established lodges, Commanderies and Consistories were feeling the pinch as members failed to pay dues, and a new Order such as the Shrine was in a much worse condition. But, against almost insurmountable odds, Fleming and Paterson persevered even though at the start of 1878 it was touch and go whether the infant Order would survive. The formal session of the Imperial Council, scheduled for Albany in February of 1878, was called off, and an informal session was held in New York City. Fleming told the temples outside of New York City that there was so little to report that the formal session would not justify the expenses which would have to be borne by the individual delegates. It is likely that Fleming knew that delegates would not attend the Albany session and to avoid embarrassment to the new Order, he decided to call it off.
Nonetheless, about thirty of the boys in Mecca Temple got together in the New York Masonic Temple at eight o'clock on the evening of February 6, 1878, and went through the procedure of an annual Imperial Session, but it was brief and adjourned early. Fleming could report that he had granted a charter to Oriental Temple in Troy, New York, which he said was in a "flourishing condition." He also reported that he had granted dispensations for the establishment of Mohammed Temple in New Haven, Connecticut, Pyramid Temple in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Syria Temple in Pittsburgh, and Ziyara Temple in Utica, New York. The proceedings also record, as they did in 1877, that inquiries were being received and that "prospects are favorable for its prosperity." This was not quite true. If there was any hope for the new Order at all, it rested in the heart and soul of Fleming and a few of his closest 6 6 PARADE TO GLORY associates. The new temples were supposed to send in some money to help carry on the work, but they were remiss; and when the annual session was held at Albany in February of 1879, Fleming declared that little had been accomplished even then "in our financial status or the perfection of the work." "Still," the doctor said, "however embarrassed it may now appear, we should not despair, as it is the universal and inevitable result of the calamitous apathy of all branches of business, even where men devote almost their entire time to promote its prosperity and success. The crisis of the almost paralyzed commerce of the world, we trust, has passed . . . and we have every reason to believe that the success and advancement of the Order of the Shrine will be numbered among the first to make rapid strides toward perfect position, and there stand second to none in the country." After all, Fleming could point to the fact that the Shrine on December 31, 1878, had 425 members in thirteen temples, the largest of which was Damascus at Rochester. And true to his prediction, the business panic was ending and the year 1879 saw a turn in the fortunes of the new Order. Actually only thirteen (note that mysterious figure again) new members were created during the year; but when the fifth annual session was held in Albany on February 4, 188o, Fleming was able to report that "although many of the subordinate temples still remain inactive, and confer the three sections of the Order by communication, some, far more energetic and active than their sister temples, are fully and completely equipped with costumes, regalia, paraphernalia, and all the requisite mechanism for the full exemplification of the ceremonies in all of their details, and are conferring the Order in commendable and impressive form, which, with the appropriate music, impress all who have witnessed it most favorably, and the liveliest interest is manifested, and the roll of applications for membership comprises a list of such magnitude, as to palpably attest the favor with which it is received." Fleming gave full credit in his report to Al Koran Temple of Cleveland for a fine new exemplification of the work, and he pointed HARD TIMES‑AND GROWTH 67 to Sam Briggs in particular, the Potentate of Al Koran. The pat on the back eventually led to Briggs' election as Grand Assistant Rabban at the 18 8o session, his first step toward his election six years later as the Imperial Potentate to succeed Fleming. Briggs was not even present at that meeting.
Actually, the work that Briggs and Al Koran Temple had done during the past year in creating a Ritualistic team and exemplifying the Ritual of the Shrine acted as a tonic to the entire Grand Council. Fleming could report that he and Mecca Temple also had followed the lead of Al Koran and that in January of 18 8o had initiated more than a hundred candidates in full form. Furthermore, for the first time, Fleming felt confident enough of the future of the Shrine to suggest that it was time for the Grand Council to crack the whip over the temples and Nobles who were not complying with the rules and regulations.
As much as any words he ever uttered, Fleming's report to the 18 8o session revealed the trials he had endured. He said: I have personally assumed the duties of answering all inquiries, and transmitted to the apparently interested, copies of both the history and the Statutes and Regulations. And I have found it no trivial task to com ply with all the demands made upon my time, and the individual assumption of many of the obligations incurred in behalf of the Institution; and with the exception of the personal aid of two or three of our members, accessible in the City of New York, who have kindly assisted me, as far as was possible for them to do, the duties, both mental and pecuniary, have devolved almost entirely on your humble servant. Still, I have not wearied or yielded to discouragement; but to the full measure of my ability, I have endeavored to surmount all obstacles, and striven for the success, prosperity, and advancement of the Order. I only ask in return the aid and support of my constituents, in any capacity which I may assume in the deliberations of the Council. I have no personal ambitions beyond the sincere interest in the welfare of the Order, to which I have devoted so much time and toil, and, I regret to say, not always encouraged by a like interest on the part of others. . . .
Fleming was wordy and his text occasionally became involved, but he nevertheless made his position quite clear. He thought if the 68 PARADE TO GLORY boys wanted the Order at all, they ought to pitch in and help. By unanimous consent, he was reelected Imperial Potentate for another three‑year term and, of course, he accepted. There was no one else with the zeal and determination not only to promote the Shrine but to hold it together. It had been ten years since Fleming created the Ritual, and perhaps he was growing a little tired despite his avowal that he had never yielded to discouragement. He would soon be fortytwo years old, was growing a little paunchy from the rich food and wine that he could afford as a result of his growing medical practice. His interest also was developing in the treatment of mental disorders, particularly dipsomania, and he was becoming a bit disconcerted by the time, effort and money necessary to the development of the Shrine, especially if the boys weren't interested enough to help him.
It's a good thing Fleming didn't yield to discouragement and that he assumed the leadership for another three years, for 188o was a crucial year. The annual meeting was changed, as Fleming suggested, from a winter session in conjunction with the Royal Arch grand session in Albany to a summer session in conjunction with Grand Lodge meeting in New York City. What Fleming called the Sixth Session of the Imperial Council was held just four months later on June z, and it was this second session in the same year which led to some confusion among the nobility as to the exact age of the Shrine. The number of sessions is always one greater than the number of years the Shrine has been in existence.
There was little to report at the June session, but Fleming did, once again, bring up the matter of money, of which there was a continuing shortage.
A year later, at the 1881 session, Fleming was able to report a total membership of 587, a gain of 149 during the year, but once more also had to report that "expenditures exceed receipts." Apparently, however, Fleming was now getting some financial assistance from Florence. At least, at the meeting in 1882, he told the delegates that for eleven years the burden of expense "has fallen almost entirely on your presiding officer and no insignificant amount upon our Illustrious HARD TIMES‑AND GROWTH 69 Noble and Deputy, and, I may say, instigator of the project, William J. Florence. A vote of thanks, therefore, is eminently due Noble Florence for his interest in, tenacity to and sacrifices for the Mystic Shrine, being first to bring it to available disposal." Reacting to the recommendation for a vote of thanks, the Committee on Transactions of Grand Officers reported: "Your committee in considering the commendations contained in the address as applied to one whom we might almost deem the founder of the Order, at least in this country, Noble William J. Florence, join in great sincerity in wishing to pay just homage. Your committee cannot but think, in the matter of the introduction of this Order, Noble Florence built much better than he knew." That the Shrine was building, there could be no question. At the ninth annual session held in the Masonic Temple in New York in June, 1883, Fleming boasted that Mecca Temple, of which he was still the Potentate, had nearly five hundred members. Seven temples‑Mecca, Cyprus, Damascus, Moslem, Oriental, Pyramid, and Syrianwere represented when the session got underway, the most since the organization of the Shrine in 1876. Once again Fleming was reelected Imperial Potentate for his fourth‑and last‑three‑year term. Loder, Ehlers and Briggs were again elected as Deputy Potentate, Chief and Assistant Rabbans, but there was one new officer who was destined to play a dominant part in the affairs of the Shrine for the next forty years. He was William B. Melish of Syrian Temple, Cincinnati, who became the Second Ceremonial Master. It was also at this session that Florence and A. L. Rawson were elected emeritus members of the Imperial Council. The election of Florence to this status is entirely understandable, but the election of Rawson, as much as anything else, indicates the power Fleming exercised over the Imperial Council. Rawson is a rather fleeting character in the history of the Shrine. His position was never exactly clear. On one occasion, Fleming described him as an Arabic scholar. There were statements at one time or another that he actually had made a pilgrimage to the forbidden city of Mecca, but authoritative historians fail to include his name among the 70 PARADE TO GLORY infidels who have successfully traversed the sandy road to Mohammed's holy city. The New York City directories of the time list Albert Leighton Rawson as an artist, and certainly he did do the pen‑and‑ink drawings for a work on esoteric religions of the Mediterranean.
In retrospect, it is possible to say that the 1883 meeting was the real turning point in the life of the Shrine. From that moment it appears to have found its place in the sun as evidenced by the activity of the nobility in their respective temples.
"The principal part of the laborious work which characterizes the inauguration of all newly formed institutions has been accomplished," Fleming reported in his annual address. "The Oriental Ritual istic work has been perfected; the dispensations, charters and diplomas are complete; the history and Statutes and Regulations are in your hands and eminently worthy of your praise and approbation. Our Proceedings have finally appeared, a compilation formidable but complete with authentic information concerning the Order, together with detailed recapitulation of the transactions of this Imperial Council since its organization. The exemplification of the Work has been brought to perfection and everything appertaining to the Order is now upon the high‑road to an unprecedented success, and no obstacle now remains to a rapid advancement of strength, power and superiority." Fleming would serve three more years, three years in which would be established some of the traditions that were to make the Shrine famous and a few other traditions that would bring down the wrath of some Grand Masters and the prerequisite Masonic bodies. Fleming may have completed, as he said, the laborious work of starting a new Order, but the craft was not to have smooth sailing. There were still stormy seas ahead.
Cha fer 7 Fleming Says Farewell N JUNE 14, 1886, the triennial conclave of the Knights Templar was held in Cleveland and it was quite an affair. For two weeks, the Cleveland newspapers had been filled with news of the impending event. The city was decorated as never before. The City Hall was bedecked with great festoons of red, white and blue cambric, and evergreens stretched across the front, weaving a great sign of welcome. The county buildings also had been made beautiful in anticipation of the great event, and on the day the Knights gave their big parade one newspaper required six full columns to recount the activities.
There were fifty‑seven bands in the line of march, leading four thousand men, their white plumes waving in the breezes that swept in off Lake Erie. The Plain Dealer said that these magnificent parades are "pleasing to the eye and have their proper place and appropriate use, but there is something in the Order of Knights Templar more to be admired than gorgeous pageantry, something transcending in importance all mere physical display such as its noble efforts in the cause of benevolence. The fame of the Order is not measured by military display, nor by the number and grandeur of its temples; its usefulness is measured not by its age and wealth, nor the number and respectabil71 72 PARADE TO GLORY ity of its members, but by the bread it has fed to the hungry, the clothing it has bestowed upon the poor, the destitute widows it has aided and supported and orphans it has maintained and educated, and the human wrecks it has rescued and restored to the sunlight of happiness." Yes, all Cleveland paid its tribute to the Knights who enjoyed the hospitality of the city. But theirs was by no means the only Masonic event held in Cleveland on the same days. In a gaily bedecked hall on Superior Street, nearly opposite Bank Street, Al Koran Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine had made arrangements to entertain the twelfth annual session and the fourth triennial conclave of the Imperial Council, the last time the Shrine deliberately scheduled its annual affair with that of another Masonic body. The thousands of Knights in Cleveland couldn't possibly miss the place. Inside, a well of Zemzem had been set up and there was a bountiful supply of camel's milk, available to Shriners and to Knights who exhibited the slightest interest in the fun organization. Red‑fezzed Shriners stood outside the hall, beer mugs in hand, and let all know that there was still time for fun.
Reporting on the affair, the Plain Dealer said, "A business meeting of the Shriners was held in the Asylum of Holyrood Commandery and at q o'clock began the festivities of a banquet which were pro longed far toward sunrise. There was nothing mystical about the banquet, but the lack of mystery was fully compensated by the conviviality of the feast, washed down by good fellowship and the best of Mumm's extra‑dry. Mr. Sam Briggs was toastmaster and the various features of the evening were intermingled with the songs of the Arion quartet and an overture of bells, given by a select band of the Nobles, was received with great enthusiasm and applause. . . ." There had been other such affairs, but this was the first time that the public prints had been quite so plain in describing the conviviality of the Shriners and how they entertained themselves. There had been a rather large banquet in Detroit in March of 1882 when Fleming, Briggs and twenty‑four other Nobles from‑Mecca and Al Koran Temples had exemplified the Ritual for a number of new candidates in
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Invitation to a Shrine Ceremonial‑typical of the period 74 PARADE TO GLORY Moslem Temple. And there had been pilgrimages, principally by Mecca Nobles, to Oriental Temple in Troy, New York, and to Pyramid Temple in Bridgeport, Connecticut. But there had never been anything like the party that Sam Briggs gave, even the one Mecca Temple had when "Tony" Pastor, the great theatrical producer, and a few others were initiated in due form at New York's Masonic Temple in a late night ceremonial.
Recorder William Paterson included that event in his history, written in 1893. "On November 30, 1883," Paterson wrote, "a midnight session, in addition to the regular one, was held for the benefit of Nobles G. B. Claflin, Gus Williams [famous actor] and `Tony' Pastor, who were unable to receive the order at an early hour on account of their theatrical engagements. They were created Nobles in full form, and the temple was closed at one o'clock. The next morning the public and the fraternity were startled by the report that the top floor and roof had been burned out. This caused the loss of everything on that floor, costumes, paraphernalia, etc., valued at $2,750. . . . The fire always has been regarded as mysterious and the press throughout the country gave the Nobles many adverse comments. The fire marshal, however, reported the fire had been caused by a defective flue." Then there had been a pleasurable pilgrimage to Medinah Temple in Chicago, April 16 to 21, 1884. Mecca's history records that "for the nonce the pilgrims became boys again with all kinds of old‑time games and tricks. . . . The soul of mischief pervaded the party. At every stage, the platform was filled with spectators who quaintly inquired who these fez‑bedecked Arabs were. . . . With them were a dozen dusky darkies, arrayed in Arab costumes and supplied with liquid delight which they gave the weary and thirsty pilgrims. . . ." Oh, those were great times for the infant organization. Mecca even had a band, although it wasn't called a Shrine band. It was a private musical organization conducted by the famous cornet soloist Liberati, who was a member of Mecca. Liberati's band played at Troy, New York, Bridgeport and New Haven and on any other pilgrimage
76 PARADE TO GLORY Mecca Temple happened to make. But the first real Shrine parade of which there is record, the first of thousands of parades all over North America, the first of the parades that were to become more gorgeous and resplendent with each passing year, the first of the parades that were later to make the Shrine the showcase of Masonry, even though it was not Masonic, was held in Baltimore on June 7, 1884. The occasion was the investiture of Boumi Temple by Lu Lu Temple of Philadelphia. The representative of the Imperial Council was James McGee.
Even though Lu Lu Temple itself was only four months old, it was intensely active and determined to make the Baltimore pilgrimage one to be remembered. Seventy‑seven Nobles of Lu Lu and the St. Alban's Commandery band made the trip to Baltimore by special train and, escorted by the charter members of Boumi, marched from the station to the Carrollton Hotel. A newspaper report of the day said the Nobles "attracted much attention, not only on account of their fine appearance, but by the red fez that rested on their heads, giving them somewhat the appearance of Turks." After dinner at the hotel, headed by their band, the Lu Lu Nobles again paraded, this time to the Masonic Temple, where in "magnificent costumes and with gorgeous paraphernalia costing over fifteen hundred dollars which Lu Lu had brought with them," the Ritual of the Order was enacted.
And so it was with this background of fun and accomplishment that Fleming and his Imperial Divan arrived in Cleveland for the Imperial Session of 1886. In fifteen years he had come a long way with his Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. From the original thirteen who had met at Masonic Hall in New York and agreed to organize a temple, the Order had grown to more than three thousand members. Already there were nineteen temples in operation and eight more were to be created at the Cleveland session.
It was destined to be the last but one Imperial Session Fleming ever attended. Whether he stepped down as Imperial Potentate from choice is not recorded in the Proceedings. They simply say that on ballot Sam Briggs of Al Koran Temple was elected Imperial Potentate for the ensuing three years. Fleming never explained why he lost in‑ FLEMING SAYS FAREWELL 77 terest in the Imperial Council. As Past Imperial Potentate he had full rights and voting privileges for life; and besides he continued to serve as Potentate of Mecca Temple for another two years. On occasion, he did send his regrets by mail, but mostly there was no response‑from 1886 to 1g13‑when his name was called on the session floor. It is likely that Fleming simply wanted to retire from the national picture to devote more of his time to Mecca Temple, which was growing with phenomenal speed and was engaging frequently in social functions and pilgrimages.
Fleming was forty‑eight years old. He had spent vast sums of his own f unds and perhaps too much time in cultivating the Shrine. He was having some difficulties at home, which eventually were to lead to divorce. But in his annual address in Cleveland there was no evidence of bitterness.
"And now, illustrious Nobles," he concluded, "after twelve years of official service and the many honors of which I have been the recipient at your hands, I am about to retire from the throne of the Im perial body of the Shrine and submit its destinies to the tender cares of others not less earnest and loyal than myself, others whose zeal and constancy entitle them to the recognition of your suffrage and your confidence. . . . Although I most willingly yield up the scepter and power, I cannot say it is without pain. No official, it matters not how arduous his duties nor how imperative the exactions on his time or attention may have been, can yield up his position without a realization of something like a throe of regret. . . ." William Melish then moved that a committee draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the Imperial Council for the services of Walter Millard Fleming and providing that a suitable testimonial be procured for him. With that Dr. Fleming made his adieu. The infancy of the Shrine was over. For the present at least, it would follow a course set by Sam Briggs of Cleveland, and Briggs was a character who might have stepped out of the Arabian Nights.
As energetic as Fleming, he was at the same‑ time more dynamic and more openly convivial with Shriners wherever he might find them.
78 PARADE TO GLORY In his first annual address to the Imperial Council session in Indianapolis on June zo, 1887, Briggs told the temple representatives that "in your sessions, I desire that the cultivation of the social features be encouraged and that every effort be put forth to promote harmonious relations among the nobility else our title is a misnomer. Increased membership is of secondary import to the necessity of inculcating the intimate acquaintance and fellowship of those already in possession of the attributes of our Order, to the end that, with the opportunities afforded by our institution, it may exist in favorable contrast with other organizations, and that soon may be realized to the fullest extent the desire of the Prophet that‑`Ye shall sit on seats facing one another; all grudges shall be taken away out of your hearts.' " Briggs had a reputation as a tippler of no mean proportions. One story is told about him which illustrates the way he ran Al Koran Temple, which almost literally was his temple for the twenty‑five years he served as its Potentate. Once or twice each year, he would approach his treasurer and inquire as to the extent and availability of funds, whereupon there would be a "traditional" feast and the proportions of the feast were limited only by the extent of the funds. There was never anything left over from one year to the next. An associate and former captain of the Al Koran patrol recalled long after Briggs' death that "there always was one or more jugs of booze at Shrine meetings and occasionally they became something just short of riotous." Briggs always served as toastmaster at the feasts, and when the hubbub reached such proportions that he could not get attention, he would start breaking dishes.
A lot of the fun of being a Shriner in those years derived from the pilgrimages of one temple to another. The most extensive journeys were organized by Mecca Temple, no doubt instigated by Fleming, but managed by James McGee. Two of these pilgrimages stand out because important "firsts" were achieved.
In September of 18 86, Iq.s Nobles from Mecca Temple chartered a train to take them to St. Louis, where they would participate in the activities incident to the creation of Moolah Temple. Actually, Medi‑ FLEMING SAYS FAREWELL 79 nah Temple of Chicago considered Moolah her baby and ran the show. After weeks of preparation, the Chicago nobility took their costumes and paraphernalia to St. Louis, rented a building and set up a headquarters, where refreshments were constantly available. Medinah's quartet sang at any time, and then on Wednesday evening there was a magnificent procession of two thousand Nobles, some in evening dress, others in costume. Among those in costume were twenty‑four of Medinah's well‑drilled Nobles who, according to a Mecca report, "carried scimitars and executed intricate movements en route, such as stars and crescents with bands of music interspersed." It made a very impressive sight and may well have been the first appearance of an Arab patrol.
On January Zo, 1887, Mecca chartered another train and, joined by some Nobles from Lu Lu in Philadelphia and Boumi in Baltimore, visited Almas Temple in Washington. The Washington depot was alive with Nobles when the Mecca train arrived; and to furnish music for the occasion the United States Marine Band was present under the direction of John Philip Sousa, who was to become one of the most illustrious Nobles of Almas Temple. The entire nobility marched through the streets of Washington to Willard's Hotel and that night held a ceremonial. The following day, again led by Sousa and his Marine band, the Nobles paraded along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Treasury steps, where they had a picture taken. Again on the march, the Meccans paraded through the arch at the White House before going onto their train for another visit with Acca Temple at Richmond.
As much as anything else, these pilgrimages prompted members of the nobility who were not actually members of or representatives to the Imperial Council to attend the Imperial Sessions. The practice that was to build the Shrine conventions to mammoth size began June zo, 1887, when the Imperial Council was the guest of Murat Temple in Indianapolis.
Most of the Shriners were housed at the Dennison House, the leading hotel of that time in Indianapolis. After an informal reception 8 0 PARADE TO GLORY the visiting delegates and other members of the nobility escorted Sam Briggs from the hotel to the Scottish Rite temple. They were togged out in full evening dress and wore their fezzes. It was more of a procession than a parade, but it attracted attention, particularly the banquet that followed the ceremonial during which fifteen initiates crossed the hot sands of the desert. James McGee described that banquet as "perfect and without flaw, performed as it was by one hundred Nubians (actual full count)." Murat Temple, he said, had forgotten nothing in an effort to set a pattern and incentive for other convention cities to live up to. Three hundred Nobles attended the banquet that the Indianapolis News said was the most elaborate ever laid in Indiana. Twenty toasts were drunk that night. And when the festivities were over, Sam Briggs could think back on his first year as Imperial Potentate and find it pleasing. He could report almost five thousand members in a total of thirty‑seven temples. And there was money in the bank so that travel expenses of the temple representatives could be paid.
And so it went. With each successive year, there was some innovation. On June 25, 18 88, the first Imperial Session outside the United States was held at Toronto, Ontario, where Rameses Temple was the host, and although the Canadian oasis was only a year old‑having been chartered in Indianapolis‑the Shriners there attempted to outdo the boys from Murat, and perhaps they did. For this convention, the ladies were invited, and they arrived in the Canadian city by the hundreds. Mecca Temple‑and others‑had chartered special trains, and Rameses Temple chartered the Lake steamer Cibola for a moonlight cruise on Lake Erie not only for Shriners but, significantly in the light of later developments, for their lady friends.
Equally important to the festivities of the Imperial Session in Toronto was the serious side of the meeting. Recorder Paterson reported that 3,299 Nobles had been created during the year and that the total in good standing at the start of the year was 7,2 io. There were forty‑eight temples, thirty‑two of them under charter and the remainder under dispensation, but in connection with the creation of new temples, Briggs was perturbed. Some of the newer temples, he
FLEMING SAYS FAREWELL 81 said, had failed to evidence the prosperity hoped for, and because of their failure he had hesitated to grant dispensations for still more new temples. On the other hand, when applications were received, the enthusiasm was so great, he said, that he hesitated to deny the request. He therefore suggested that some guarantee be made to the Imperial Council that cities requiring new temples would be able to support them.
Briggs didn't always live up to his recommendations, and, as it developed, it was a good thing he didn't. A case in point is that of Morocco Temple of Jacksonville, Florida, which was chartered at the Toronto session. The granting of that charter had been a touch‑and‑go affair. In a letter still in the possession of Morocco Temple, Chief Rabban James H. Thompson of Chicago wrote to Henry S. Ely, one of the Jacksonville organizers, that he had better move swiftly. "Pardon me for not replying earlier, but Sam Briggs was over from Cleveland and I didn't get home until 5 A.M. He approves of your temple name and will give you Georgia and Alabama (in addition to Florida) but you must be expeditious as a person in Macon, Georgia, has been to New Orleans and received the degree preparatory to starting a temple there." The dispensation was issued as promptly as Thompson had promised, but when the boys in Morocco got together for their first meeting, they found they had only six members, when seven were required. A hurried message to Briggs brought a telegraphic response that they might include at their original ceremony Thad M. Chapman of Montpelier, Vermont, to join Morocco.
Six months later when the yellow fever epidemic laid Jacksonville waste, Morocco Temple and the Jacksonville Knights Templar were leaders in the fight against the plague, which struck a fourth of the city. Dr. Baldwin, the Recorder of Morocco, was himself a victim of the fever. Jacksonville was a city of 20,000 in August of 1888 when the epidemic struck. Almost five thousand persons were affected and 42'7 died before freezing weather reached the city in November and destroyed the virus. The city was panic‑stricken after the eighth of 82 PARADE TO GLORY August when the epidemic was announced. Trains and boats out of the city were loaded with those who sought to flee, but when they arrived at other ports and stations, they were turned back.
Among those who worked hardest against the fever was Dr. Joseph Y. Porter, later to become Florida's first state health officer, who carried card No. 17 in Morocco Temple. Altogether various temples, Commanderies and lodges of Masons contributed more than ten thousand dollars to assuage the suffering in Jacksonville; and when the Imperial Session of the Shrine met in Chicago on June 17, 1889, Briggs reported: "The tokened pestilence, where death is sure, has made sad inroads on the community where was located the youngest of our chartered temples, Morocco, at Jacksonville, Florida, and a history of the sad matter is the most doleful chronicle of the year 1888. . . . The officers and members of Morocco Temple, aided by associate Knights Templar, organized themselves into a relief corps, and full knightly with their armor on, displayed the beauties of fraternal love and affection to all the suffering, irrespective of race, creed or affiliation." This was the first major charity ever undertaken by the Shrine. Only a few months later temples from all over the United States contributed thousands of dollars for the relief of victims of the Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889. In the years that followed, every Imperial Potentate urged Shriners everywhere to carry on works of charity; and the record is replete with the results of these pleas, culminating in the glory of the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children.
It was at the 1889 session of the Imperial Council that the last of the original thirteen members of the Shrine bade farewell to the national organization. William S. Paterson retired as Imperial Recorder and was succeeded by Frank M. Luce, who was to become one of the most controversial officials in all the history of the fraternity.
Briggs was reelected for another three‑year term as Imperial Potentate, and William B. Melish of Cincinnati was advanced to the office of Chief Rabban. ‑ It was the end of an era.
Chapfer 8 the Wells of Zemzem AMES McGEE said the Shrine was formed as a "relax" where Masons might escape the cares of the day and the serious formality of Masonic fraternalism, yet meet together as brothers who had been tried in the Faith and found true. Certainly when Fleming wrote his original Ritual he had something of the sort in mind; for he divided it into three sections, the first and third containing moralistic teachings, couched in the terminology of the desert, the Islamic faith of Omar and the Oriental pageantry and splendor of the Arabic Nabob. But in the second section Fleming let his imagination run riot, creating‑as it were‑fun for both the novitiate and the obligated believer.
It was inevitable that under such circumstances, feasting should become as much a part of Shrine affairs as it was a part of tribal ceremonies in ancient Araby. Masons were famous for the banquets served on occasion, but early there appeared on Shrinal banquet tables the wines and liquors never seen at purely Masonic feasts.
It is possible and even probable that Fleming himself introduced the custom. Certainly he had participated happily in the feast prepared in his honor when he left Rochester, where the wine had flowed freely. It is even possible that his whole idea of the Shrine developed from his 83
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THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM 8 5 reading of the second version of FitzGerald's second translation of the Rubgiyat of Omar Khayyam, which was published in 1868, just two years before Fleming wrote his ritual. The Rubaiyat is indeed filled with terminologies that have found their way into the Shrine. The word divan, name of the officer group in the Shrine, has three Oriental meanings‑a book of philosophical poems, the ruling power, and the room or banquet hall from which the power emanates. Frequently Omar mentions the Sultani, the Temple, the Alchemist, Naishapur and Babylon, Mahi, Mahmud‑but all through his writings, Omar refers most to the grape, and thus it is quite possible that Fleming should instill some of Omar's philosophy (and his own) into the activities incident to ceremonial feasts. In any event wine did appear at the earliest Shrine feasts, and it was inevitable that it would create problems.
Even as early as the fire that destroyed the upper floors of New York's Masonic Hall following a Shrine function for Tony Pastor, there was criticism of the nobility, as Paterson himself mentioned. But with the advent of Briggs the situation took a more serious turn. Announcements of Shrine meetings referred either openly or covertly to the bibulous evening that would lie ahead. One invitation to representatives attending an Imperial Council session in Cleveland showed a bottle being opened at the Oasis of Al Koran. Newspapers began to mention "the debauchery of Shrine meetings," and the still infant Order was both condemned and defended in Masonic periodicals.
Briggs was a drinker of copious proportions and his own temple was one of the chief offenders; but as the pressure grew greater to curb the activities of some of the temples, he was forced to bring the matter to the attention of the Imperial Council at its session in Pittsburgh beginning May 6, 18go.
"Allusion is deemed necessary," he said, "to communications making justifiable complaint as to unworthy meeting notices and also newspaper comment as to the conduct of such sessions. It is hardly necessary to refer to the fact that the Imperial Council has frequently disapproved of the discreditable levity recorded first in the `notices,' and 86 PARADE TO GLORY afterward observed at the meetings. I submit the same to your attention without further comment." A committee was assigned to look into the various practices and came back with a resolution, which was adopted. It said that the "Imperial Council emphatically condemns all such immoral and vulgar practices and declares that repetition of such proceedings shall be sufficient cause for the revocation of the charter of any such temple." The resolution further held the Potentate of each temple responsible for stopping the offenses on the penalty of expulsion.
But the resolution didn't succeed in its purpose. In 1895, the Scottish Rite bodies of Ohio took official notice of the problem. Illustrious Aena T. Carson, 3 3 ░, Deputy for Ohio said: "It is well known to you [that is, the Scottish Rite] that there is an organization called the Mystic Shrine of which very many of you are members. One of its rules is that none can become members except Scottish Rite Masons or Knights Templar. This organization has been meeting in rooms occupied by the Scottish Rite and therefore the profane world looks on it as a Masonic Rite, and we are giving that charge some color from the fact that the so‑called Masonic periodicals are publishing in their journals news and meetings, et cetera. Now, I wish to call to your attention the character of some of the circulars that have been issued by some of these Shrine bodies that hold their meetings in lodge rooms, owned or operated by Scottish Rite Masons. Some of these circulars are infamous, vulgar, obscene and coarse and I have no doubt that had the attention of the Post Office officials been called, as it should have been, to some of these circulars, the authors and senders of them would have been arrested for abuse of the privilege of the United States mails.
"These obscene circulars are a disgrace to the organization that permits them to be sent out and are certainly a disgrace to any Masonic body that allows any organization to meet in their rooms that sends out such coarse and obscene literature." Carson then said that, if he saw any more of these circulars, he would suspend the charter of the offending organization. Imperial Potentate Melish, who was serving his second term in that office, was equally indignant: THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM 8 7 Wholesome criticism, and even unkind or unjustified comment can do no harm if the temples of the Order are properly conducted and kept within their proper sphere. If the conduct of Shriners is such as to make them unfit tenants of a Masonic Temple or Templar Asylum, then let the Mystic Shrine be expelled from such quarters. But it is claimed the Shriners control matters in such instances, and that to oppose them makes discord in Masonic bodies. The government in the matter should be the Imperial Council, it being the duty of that body to uphold the dignity of the Order.
I hold that no man has a right to commit acts in his capacity as a Shriner which would reflect upon his character or subject him to discipline as a 32' Mason or Knight Templar. That the temples in some few locali ties are a disgrace is undoubtedly true. I believe it is confined to less than ten per cent of the temples. When examples of riotous drunkenness, given by officials of high rank, have gone unrebuked by the Imperial Council, it is small wonder that some temples have permitted excesses of this nature. Turning a Shrine meeting into a drunken debauch seems to be the sole idea of a few Potentates and a few temples. Some of the notices issued make the drinking feature more prominent than the work.
Newspaper accounts have reached me which indicate that the impression made on the public is that a Shrine meeting, in that locality at least, means a hilarious drunk. In one very prominent temple, the Poten tate permits and encourages the assembling of a large number of his Nobles on each Sunday morning; provides beer, whisky, cigars, etc., in unlimited quantities, and does it openly and defiantly. Is it any wonder that such a gathering is disgraced by scenes which are indescribable? Is it any wonder that hundreds of Nobles of that temple never go near its meetings, but quietly "let things go" rather than oppose a popular but unprincipled man? I am not one of those who decry the use of wine. I believe in the creed with which I closed my annual address to you in 1893: "Pleasure without intemperance, hospitality without rudeness and jollity without coarseness should here prevail among all of the true Faith." As a result of the criticism, the Imperial Council again prepared and adopted a resolution which prohibited all coarse and obscene literature in the Shrine and gave the Imperial Potentate the power to decide whether the literature might be in violation and suspend any and all who might have prepared it.
The second resolution did no more good than the first one. If anything
it complicated the situation even more, for while many of the notices were eliminated and some wild parties in the lodge rooms were abandoned, the offenders simply went into the open. As one Shriner put it, "The Shrine was formed as a drinking society, and it still is." Particularly at national conventions were the red‑fezzed Shriners on a glorious toot. Many if not most of the boys drank long and frequently from the holy well of Zemzem, a watering place near the Kaaba in Mecca. Others supplied themselves and their friends with large quantities of camel's milk. Texans called it tarantula juice, and in 1897 they had enough of the stuff that they influenced the dele‑ THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM 89 gates to select Dallas for the 1898 meeting, implying, of course, that there would be more of the same at the next session.
Augustus Peters, Potentate of Mecca Temple, was quoted in 1897 by the Detroit News. He said, "Of course we have business to transact. This is a great organization. This talk about no prosperity is bosh. If there is no prosperity there would be no Shriners. If there were no Shriners, life would be one long hollow blank. We are going to adopt resolutions at the convention that will show this conclusively and all the citizens of the country will believe it. The Dallas people want the next meeting of the Imperial Council. We will have to see what inducement they have to offer. Their tarantula juice is very fine. It takes hold of a fellow's internal economy. It warms the alimentary tract and makes one have visions of the gates of paradise.
"We expect to have three hundred bottles at the meeting. Each representative will take two bottles and go to one side with his face to the wall and drink and ponder. If when the two bottles are gone the members see views of Dallas that are sufficiently inviting, then the next meeting will be there. If there is anyone who does not get through the two bottles by noon, he will be taken by the neck and the seat of his bloomers and ousted from the hall and disgraced forever." Obviously Peters was kidding. He and most of the other Shriners didn't care what the papers printed about them, and they printed plenty. But all of this, and more, gave the Shriners a bad reputation. And since almost everyone looked on the Shriners as "high‑up" Masons, the various Grand Masters about the nation began to express themselves in no uncertain terms. More resolutions were passed. The Imperial Potentates cautioned the boys again.
As late as 193o Grand Master O. C. Hagmeier of Oregon leveled a blast at the Shrine based on reports that Al Kader Temple of Portland had procured some excellent whisky as a gift for the Imperial Potentate when he visited the temple. Prohibition was still in effect and the procuring of the liquor and the acceptance of it was a violation. It was a sharp attack. Hagmeier said he could foresee in the not too distant future a resolution by the Grand Lodge of Oregon 9 0 PARADE TO GLORY that would automatically deprive a man of his Masonic standing if he should become a member of the Shrine. But no action was ever taken. All through prohibition the Shriners had their liquor, and the stories they tell of those days indicate the fun they had. For example, El Maida Temple of El Paso, Texas, sent their justly famous drum corps to the Imperial Session in Toronto in 193o and brought back several hundreds of bottles of good Canadian whisky. It was not difficult to get the stuff through Customs, either. They simply took the heads off their drums, stuffed the drums with the whisky, replaced the heads, stored the drums carefully in their own private baggage car and rolled homeward.
But as pressure increased from the Masonic bodies, and under the goading power of successive Imperial Potentates, the liquor problem in the Shrine subsided. Many Shrine temples occupy quarters in Ma sonic temples, where liquor is strictly forbidden. Temples which occupy their own mosques have abandoned for the most part the use of liquor within the temple. The few which still permit it keep it confined to club rooms, and it never graces the banquet tables of the nobility; which does not mean, however, that liquor no longer plays a part in Shrine functions. It does. But it is usually to be found only in private parties.
Strangely enough, the elimination of liquor as an integral part of Shrine functions didn't come about as the result of either Imperial or Masonic edicts. Rather, with the advent and development of the Shrin ers' Hospitals for Crippled Children as one of the world's great charities, the Shrine and the Shriners suddenly grew up. Whatever drinking was done, was for the most part in the privacy of hotel rooms. They spent money, time and effort to create fun for themselves and for the public; and in the process they created exactly what Fleming and Briggs had sought‑a fraternal order of the highest merit, composed of gentlemen of quality. With that development, the Shrine grew beyond the wildest dreams of its founders.
i‑apfer 9 The Power of the throne HEN Sam Briggs retired in 1892 after six years as the Imperial Potentate, he could boast of considerable accomplishment. He had created thirty new temples and the membership had jumped from three thousand to more than twentytwo thousand Nobles. Yet Briggs had done more than just develop the Order in size. He also had established important precedents and changes. He had brought about one revision of the Ritual and had set the stage for still another one. But more than anything else, he had created a continental asmosphere in the Shrine. It was no longer dominated by Mecca Temple and its Orient was no longer New York. Beginning with the Imperial Session in Cleveland in 1886, the representatives had held successive sessions in Indianapolis, Toronto, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Niagara Falls; and now, in 1892, at the western cow town of Omaha, Nebraska, the Shriners held their first national parade.
During Briggs' six‑year tenure as Imperial Potentate, he had encouraged the attendance at the Imperial Sessions of the rank and file of the nobility, but not until 1892 did the attendance reach such pro portions that the Shrine could command certain dispensations from the cities where it might choose to hold its conventions. Many ladies had 91 92 PARADE TO GLORY attended the Imperial Session in Toronto in 1888, and even more had appeared at the scenic wonder of Niagara Falls in i 8q i, but there appeared to be a mass of them in Omaha.
The Omaha World‑Herald reported (possibly with tongue in cheek) the arrival of the Shriners at the Paxton Hotel on August 15. It was hot, of course, but the only dampening of the spirits of the Shriners was internal. More than 850 Shriners had registered at the tents of the Paxtonite tribe by that Sunday evening. The Nobles of Tangier Temple (Omaha) were the hosts and they had prepared well. The next day, the World‑Herald said in its leading story that there was a concert in the Paxton Tent "and skillful men played upon instruments of silver and brass and the music they made was most pleasing to the ear for it was like the soft sighing of the winds as they sway the branches of the palm trees in a green oasis and it fell upon the ears of the pilgrims that heard it as welcome as the sound of the lapping waters to the thirsty Sons of the Desert. The music was by a band called the 3rd Infantry from a place called Fort Snelling in the land of Minnesota and they were brought here by the tribe of Zuhrah from that same place and there was also with the Temple of Zuhrah a quartet of sweet singers who filled the whole air with their harmony and lo, they did go out from the tents of the Arabs and even into the tents of the Philistines, which is across the street, even into the tents of the World‑Herald and they did most sweetly sing to the staff. And now when it came time that Allah (may His name be ever adored) had set aside for his children to rest, they retired to their tents and all was silent in Arabia." After the big night parade, the Omaha World‑Herald was forced to abandon its Oriental style of writing of the Shriners and their exploits. It was too big, too startling‑too everything‑to be couched in the flowing melodic wordiness of Omar and Hafiz. The Omaha reporters switched, rather, to the breezy, descriptive style of the West: Noise! Shriners! Fezzes! Shriners! Dress suits! Noise! Red Fire! Shriners! Sky rockets! Camels! Elephants! More noise! More dress suits! More Fezzes! And that was the grand parade of the Nobles of the Mystic THE POWER OF THE THRONE 9 3 Shrine last evening and it was one of the most unique sights that has been seen in Omaha in years. There were i,6oo Shriners in the line, marching twelve abreast and they made a fine display in their dress suits and red fezzes. . . .
Chief of Police Seavey headed the parade with a squad of policemen. Following this was the 2nd Infantry band and behind this was the Thurston Zouave drum corps. Noble France, chief of parade, and his aides, Nobles Potter, Williams, Anderson, Smith and Horton on prancing steeds of Arabia, headed the first division of the Shriners. There were forty platoons, twelve Shriners to a platoon. The 3rd Infantry band headed the second division of Shriners, numbering 26 platoons. Then came 22 more platoons. Then came the elephant of which so much has been written and so many tall stories told. It was not a very big elephant, but it was a work of genius. The elephant was of mechanical construction and was made for Moslem Temple in Detroit. It is about four feet high and a perfect imitation of the two‑tailed beast. And when his trunk is gently pulled, he trumpets "Shriner Welcome." . . .
The elephant was mounted on a wagon drawn by six horses and had a coal‑black slave at his side to make him talk, and at the cry of "play ball" from the faithful followers behind him, he would scream most loudly. Then came 7o Nobles of Moslem dressed in tunic, Zouave trousers and fezzes. They were a sight for the gods and attracted a great deal of attention.
Then at last came the camels that have been talked of so much. There was no imitation about them. They breathed and wobbled their frightened riders about like a school in a Kansas cyclone. To Tangier had been given the honor of guarding the camels. They were preceded by 6o of the Nobles on foot, and on each side of them walked ten Nobles dressed in wild, weird costumes of blue trousers and blouses and each was armed with a big wood saber about six sizes too big for him. . . .
From start to finish, the parade was one glittering pageant. Red and blue fire lighted up the scene with a spectral glare and skyrockets and Roman candles added their showers of fire to the general combustion. Imperial Potentate Sam Briggs reviewed the parade from the veranda of the Paxton Hotel and as each temple passed, they raised aloft their voices in their Shrine yells and waved their handkerchiefs and made sure they were seen.
Moslem Temple made the great hit here as they came before the reviewing stand. They deployed right and left and executed several intricate maneuvers that brought out considerable enthusiasm from the spec‑ 94 PARADE TO GLORY tators. The teams drawing the Michigan elephant were frightened at i 6th Street and Capital Avenue and turned out of the parade and into the crowd. Detective Vizzard grabbed the leaders by the bit and stopped them. His bravery and presence of mind averted a panic and also loss of life. Moslem had the Great Western Band of Detroit with them and the Detroit Commandery gave several fine drills while marching.
And such was the impartial report of the first big parade the Shrine ever held at an Imperial Session. Here was the first pageantry with the mechanical elephant and the camels. Here were the first cos tumes. Here were the red fire and the fireworks, and perhaps even the first patrol, although it was unofficial and was not called a patrol. Still, the boys from Moslem did march and execute intricate steps.
The first official Shrine patrol is claimed by Zuhrah Temple of Minneapolis and did not make its appearance in an Imperial parade until two years later in Denver. There they were dressed in white trousers and blue coats and wore a sort of yachting cap, and emanated, as most Masonic marching units did in those days, from the Commandery. The first official Zouave patrol dressed in Arabic costume is claimed by Medinah Temple of Chicago and appeared at an Imperial Session sometime later, although it had made an appearance in St. Louis when Moolah was instituted in 1886.
But who arranged for such a parade as that in Omaha? The boys from Tangier Temple? Certainly they had made elaborate preparations for holding the finest Imperial Session since the organization of the Shrine twenty years before, and they proved to be fine hosts. Briggs? Or perhaps William B. Melish, who succeeded him? Details are buried somewhere in the musty, dust‑covered archives.
And no matter, except that the Shriners did have a good time in Omaha. "The Shriners have a right royal style of enjoying themselves," said the World‑Herald. "Good fellowship reigns supreme. Every Shriner is a good fellow and so is his neighbor. The hotel rotundas are filled with the music of bands, cheering the Nobles on to renewed attacks upon the punch bowl. Then at intervals, all the merrymakers at one headquarters form a line and, led by the band, will march THE POWER OF THE THRONE 9 5 through the streets to other headquarters and there they are royally entertained. Then they go on to pay their respects to other temples. Good feeling is everywhere and there is nothing else." There was sorrow, however, in the official session of the representatives held in the Masonic Hall. There Briggs announced the death of Billy Florence and eulogized him, and he also announced the death of David Kalakaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 3 3 ░, and a member of Islam Temple of San Francisco.
It was under these conditions that Briggs passed from the Imperial picture. He had been a colorful, romantic, dashing figure‑the exact fellow for the job in the six years he held it. But, as thousands of names were added to the rolls, there had been resentment that one man should hold the power for so long. In i 8qo, a resolution had been adopted, and it had been confirmed in 18q i, abolishing the triennial term of office, effective with the end of the second Briggs term.
As Briggs delivered his annual address, he saw a great future ahead: "The Shrine is now so well founded and in addition to the mere social features, so much real dignity pervades the whole, it looks as though the Shrine has come to stay, and we trust it will, for it certainly fills a department in the cabinet of secret organizations long desired and yearned for. So hail to the Shrine. May it ride on in power, in glory and usefulness and prove a refreshing Oasis as we wander over the weary desert of life. May all the Shriners guard it with jealous care and permit none to join its caravan or to become influential in its courts who through thoughtlessness or viciousness pervert its beautiful work and thereby bring it into contempt." With these words of caution for the future, Sam Briggs was succeeded by William Bromwell Melish, of Cincinnati, one of the most controversial and one of the most powerful figures in the long history of the Shrine. From the day of his election as Imperial Potentate in 1892 until his death in 1927, it could well be said that he was Mr. Shriner. Both Fleming and Briggs served longer officially as Imperial Potentate, but neither of them could match the vast power Melish wielded for so long.
9 6 PARADE TO GLORY Melish was a big man both physically and mentally, and‑what is perhaps more important‑he was an indefatigable worker in business, in civic life and in Masonry. From the time he entered the Bromwell Brush and Wire Goods Company, in 1871, he was a natural leader and a born salesman. He organized the Convention League of Cincinnati and later merged it with the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, of which he became president. He headed the Knights Templar Masonic Mutual Aid Association, and during the first World War he headed the Masonic War Relief Association. From 1896 to i goo he served as senior aide‑de‑camp on the staff of Governor Asa G. Bushnell of Ohio and from 1897 to igo8 was an active member of the Cincinnati Waterworks Commission.
Melish first became a member of the Imperial Divan in 1883 when he was elected Imperial Second Ceremonial Master under Walter Fleming, and he held various posts in the Shrine under Briggs. He should have been aware of the internal politics of the organization, but Melish was never one to play politics. To him, right was right and wrong was wrong and there was no middle ground. The result was that his first year as Imperial Potentate was not a particularly happy one; and when the Imperial Council assembled June 13, 1893, in Cincinnati, he faced defeat on three major decisions he had made during the year. Eventually the defeat was to be engineered by Imperial Recorder Frank M. Luce, who had been suspended by Melish, and by a group from Mecca Temple, headed by McClenachan and Millar, who were upset by Melish's refusal to pay a small bill for advertising in a New York Arabic newspaper. The incidents were entirely unrelated and were reflected only in the political opportunism necessary to bring about Melish's defeat.
Syrian Temple and the city of Cincinnati had outdone itself in preparations for the Imperial Session. Eleven thousand tricolored gaslights had been installed on each side of Fourth Street, down which the parade was to pass. The Cincinnati Enquirer records that "it was a sight worthy of the noble Order whose ‑festivities transformed the city into a Mecca for the nobility." Just as the parade was about to
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THE POWER OF THE THRONE 97 get under way to escort the Imperial Potentate from the Grand Hotel to the Scottish Rite Cathedral, there was a burst of fireworks and red light was touched off along the entire line of march, making the greatest display ever witnessed in the Queen City by the Ohio. The parade itself lasted only a half‑hour, but it included four bands, an elephant, two camels and a corps of bicycle couriers, dressed in Arabic costume.
But the gaudy glamour of lights and the garlands of Shrine banners that hung from the buildings could not forestall the unhappy session of the Imperial Council in store for Imperial Potentate Melish. Repercussions from it were to be heard until the 1894 session in Denver, in fact.
The trouble was that Melish failed to fit into the mold that had been created for the Imperial Potentate by both Fleming and Briggs. When Melish assumed office in Omaha, there were already rumblings of the financial depression and panic that was to follow in 1893. Farmers were unhappy with the Silver Purchase Act of the government. Railroads were beginning to feel the pinch that was to bankrupt many of them, and the Shrine's financial condition was not good, even though more temples were being created and the membership had risen to more than 2 7,ooo Nobles.
Melish had inherited as his Imperial Recorder Frank M. Luce of Medinah Temple in Chicago, who, like Briggs, was a railroad man, and who had first taken over the office in 1889 when Paterson retired. Briggs had left all of the business affairs of the Shrine to Luce. He couldn't be bothered with detail. Because of his business sense, Melish began to have trouble with Luce shortly after taking office. He discovered, he said, that Luce was not paying over promptly to the Imperial Treasurer the monies which he received from the several temples. He discovered that the postage bills were enormous; and when he questioned Briggs about some of the huge postal expenses from the previous year, he was told, "'Oh, that was for fifteen bottles of champagne." Melish didn't approve of such goings‑on, and there were other financial affairs that also violated his sense of good business. He 9 8 PARADE TO GLORY thought the appropriation in Omaha for a $2,500 gift for Sam Briggs was all wrong and that the annual payment of $5oo a year to John Worthington for his services as representative of the Shrine in the East was all nonsense and that he wouldn't pay it.
"Under our Constitution and in its government of the Order as at present established," Melish told the Imperial Council in his annual address, "there is no authority for the creation of foreign representa tives, or `Representative to Temples in the East,' etc., etc. . . . While I do not question the antiquity of the Arabic Orders from which we inherit our mystic rites, and do not decry the lessons, symbols, rites and customs held in such high esteem by those who practiced them centuries ago, yet in the conduct of the business of this Imperial Council for North America, we certainly ought to make alliances only with our own and await overtures from them, or else ask for recognition at their hands through recognized channels of communication." Furthermore, he refused to pay for the advertisement inserted in an Arabic newspaper called Kawkab, printed in New York.
"Soon after the close of the Imperial Council session of 1892," Melish told the Imperial Council, "the Imperial Recorder drew a voucher on the treasury in the sum of $213.10 in favor of the Oriental Publishing Company for advertising in a paper called Kawkab.
"No contract for advertising accompanied the bill, and finding that the contract was claimed to have been made prior to our last session and was to run a year, I declined to approve the payment of the bill until the matter could be investigated. No mention is made in our proceedings of 1892 of this bill, and consequently it did not have the approval of the Imperial Council. Since rejecting the bill, I wrote the Oriental Publishing Company, asking for their authority to advertise a list of the Officers of the Imperial Council, and ordering a discontinuance of the advertisement if no contract is in force. I have heard nothing from them and have neither seen nor heard of their publication." But these difficulties were unimportant, in comparison with the trouble with Recorder Luce. Their dispute not only concerned de‑ THE POWER OF THE THRONE 99 tail, but rested equally on basic rules as to where the real power in the Shrine might lie. Melish had taken the position that he was the head man of the Shrine and that every official of the Imperial Council, every temple, every temple official and in fact every Noble was subordinate to the Imperial Potentate. Recorder Luce thought otherwise. He believed that he had been elected to run the office of the Shrine and intended to do it. He believed further that in these affairs the Imperial Potentate should not and dared not interfere. The fact is that Briggs and Luce had built a rather powerful political machine in the Shrine, which they didn't intend to have disturbed.
After several letters had crossed between them, Luce on September 6, 1892, just three weeks after the Omaha session, had written to Melish: "Don't try to run me; I am not built that way." And on September 15, he had made his position more explicit. He wrote to Melish: "We might as well understand each other from the start. I will attend to my business strictly and not interfere with you in the least, and on the other hand I want you to keep your hands off of me. There are certain things you have the right to advise me about, but I think you are going beyond the limit when you endeavor to lay down rules to me, as you started in to do. I will get the printing of this office done wherever I please and it is none of your business what printers I patronize; and on the other hand you can get your printing done in Japan if you so desire. I do not care. I expected that this year would be smooth and pleasant; that you and I could get along well together, but if you keep up the same racket that you have commenced, I am afraid you have run up against a snag." To this rather remarkable letter challenging the authority of the Imperial Potentate, Melish had made haste to reply. "I am surprised," he wrote to Luce, "at the disrespectful and defiant tenor of your letter. The Imperial Potentate is the executive head of the Order, and all officers of the Imperial Council, as well as all temples and all Nobles, are under his direction and control. He has the right to do all such acts as in his judgment the interests of the Order may require." 100 PARADE TO GLORY Melish frankly told the Recorder that his letter was offensive and that such insubordination would not be tolerated. But there was more. When Melish had called Luce to task for not paying over to the Imperial Treasurer such funds as came into his hands in the proper manner, Luce again defied the Imperial Potentate. "If you think you can suspend me from office," he wrote to Melish, "try it." Melish had bided his time, even though the controversy continued. Then, in January, when Luce had printed what Melish considered to be an incorrect list of temple officials, Melish advised all Potentates and Recorders not to use the Luce list if received, and he specifically forbade Luce to issue it. Luce ignored Melish, and at this point Melish issued an order suspending him. He appointed William H. Mayo of St. Louis as Acting Imperial Recorder until the meeting of the Imperial Council in Cincinnati.
Of course, the entire dispute had to go before the Imperial Council when it met in Cincinnati in 1893. In his annual address, Melish, as we have seen, detailed what had happened and gave his reasons for the action he had taken. When Luce was called on for a report, he submitted what facts and figures were necessary and then said that his defense to the charges that had been brought against him would be given by a committee. Actually, his defense was never submitted because of a parliamentary maneuver inside the Imperial Council.
Following established custom, the actions of the Imperial Potentate were turned over to various committees, which then would report back to the Imperial Council with recommendations for approval or disapproval. The action regarding the Imperial Recorder went to the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee, composed of J. L. Dobbin, Harrison Dingman, Bun F. Price, George H. Burnham and Lawrence M. Knepfly. After holding hearings, the committee reported to the Imperial Council: That they have carefully examined the law and the facts pertaining to said case, and, after duly considering the same, believe that the Imperial Potentate was fully justified by law and precedent in the course adopted by him. Your committee are of the unanimous opinion that during the THE POWER OF THE THRONE 101 interim of the sessions of the Imperial Council, the Imperial Potentate is by the constitution of this body endowed with the same powers as those of the Council itself. If this be not true, then there is no authority whatever in the Order except when the Imperial Council is in session.
Upon careful investigation, we find it to be the universal law in all Grand Secret Society bodies, Masonic and otherwise, that the presiding officer of the Grand Body is the absolute and only authority when the Grand Body is not itself in session, and when the Constitution of a Body fails to clearly express the authority of a presiding officer, precedent, custom and usage must govern in determining the extent of his authority.
If it be granted that the Imperial Potentate has the same powers that the Imperial Council has during the interim between sessions, except when they are specially limited by the Constitution itself, then the matter is clear. The Constitution, Sec. 3, gives the Imperial Council the right to try, discipline, suspend, or expel its members for violation and disobedience of its Constitution, regulations and edicts.
Your committee believes the Imperial Potentate has the same right, subject of course to an appeal to the Imperial Council.
If no such power is inherent in the office of Imperial Potentate during the interim of sessions of the Imperial Council, then an officer occupying a position of trust and confidence could deliberately rob the body, squan der its funds, obstruct and set at defiance its laws, and for a period of three hundred and sixty‑five days in the year, say to the presiding officer, "What are you going to do about it?" Common sense must certainly dictate that the presiding officer has some power in the premises to protect the interest of the Order over which he presides and whose interest he is to protect. . . .
Your committee are of the opinion that if an Imperial Potentate can suspend the work of a chartered temple, he can certainly suspend an officer from office for cause, even if he be elective. A charter for life is cer tainly as important as the election to an office for one year; both are subject to good behavior and can be corrected by competent authority. Imperial Potentate Briggs . . . quoted Sec. 4, Art. 5 which reads: "During the recess of the Imperial Council, he (the Imperial Potentate) is invested with a general supervision of the Order throughout the jurisdiction." Your committee are of the opinion that this clause of the Constitution gives the Imperial Potentate the power to supervise, correct, and remove any officer if the good of the Order demands it. The Imperial Council endorsed the acts of Imperial Potentate Briggs in the fullest sense.
102 PARADE TO GLORY The committee then called attention to an order issued by Grand Master Dean of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, specifically ordering Grand Recorder Parvin not to distribute a number of circulars which were held to be calculated to bring disrespect and disgrace on the Grand Encampment, and pointed out that the actions of the Grand Master had been upheld by the Grand Encampment.
In conclusion, your committee desire to state that they are of the unanimous opinion that the act of the Imperial Potentate in suspending Noble Frank Luce from the office of Imperial Recorder is in accordance with the law and should be approved.
The logic was sound, of course, and eventually would be enacted into Shrine law, but such questions are not always decided by logic, either in secret societies or in any other human endeavor. Melish's opponents had prepared well for the eventual showdown.
After his suspension, Luce had contacted the officials of Mecca Temple, who by that time had become bitterly opposed to Melish and his policies. With the added power of Briggs behind them, Mecca Temple and Luce had formed a committee to fight the reelection of Melish in Cincinnati and to bring about the restoration of Luce to power.
When the nobility began to arrive in Cincinnati for the Imperial Session, they were greeted at the station with invitations to attend a meeting on Monday evening to confer on matters that were to be presented to the Council session. The invitations were signed by George W. Millar, Charles L. Field, Frank Locke, Walter M. Fleming, Joseph S. Wright, William A. Stiles, A. B. McGaffey, H. H. McGaffey, Sam Briggs, E. F. Allen and Charles W. Cushman. Of those who signed the call, three were officers in the Imperial line and two were former Imperial Potentates.
The meeting was held, and the waters of Zemzem flowed freely. Briggs was present with all his charm. So was Walter Fleming, but he apparently played a lesser part. It is easy enough to form a pic ture of the event. The Imperial Potentate ‑was painted as a high‑handed dictator who wanted to make the Shrine into a Sunday School pic‑ THE POWER OF THE THRONE 103 nic, who wanted to destroy the traditions so laboriously built since 1872, and who had been so manifestly unfair to Recorder Luce, who had served faithfully under dear old Sam Briggs.
All of this had reached the Cincinnati press and the anticipated debate was watched with interest by the citizenry. It was under these conditions that the debate began on the resolution presented by the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee supporting and approving the action of the Imperial Potentate in removing the Imperial Recorder from office.
Lawrence M. Knepfly of Hella Temple in Dallas and Noble Allen Andrews of Hamilton, Ohio, a member of Syrian Temple, spoke on behalf of the resolution. Opposed to the resolution were John W. Smith of Medinah Temple in Chicago and Curtis H. Winsor of El Riad Temple of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. John W. Smith, it developed, was the only Noble ever officially listed as a guest of John W. Worthington at Malta. He had been traveling in the Mediterranean and incurred an illness which required his sojourn on the island over a period of weeks. Since Worthington was the American consul, it was not only natural, but obligatory, that he be contacted. That both men were Shriners only added to their association. But, as it was later pointed out, Smith was well able to pay his own way at Malta, and did, which was one of the reasons why Melish declined to pay Worthington the five hundred dollars he had been voted.
Smith was present by specific arrangement with Medinah Temple and obviously to defend Luce. Shortly before the convening of the Imperial Council, Representative John A. May had resigned, and at a special election, Smith had been named to replace him as one of the four Medinah representatives.
In the course of the debate, Smith attempted to show that Melish's actions were not only illegal but heartless. He presented a letter from Luce to Melish in which Luce explained that he had been de layed in his office affairs because of the illness of his wife and the death of his baby girl. The letter as presented by Smith was dated January 6. Actually, Melish answered the charge by saying that Luce 104 PARADE TO GLORY had changed the date of his letter from January q to January 6 and offered in support the letter itself.
Far from being heartless, Melish actually had written Luce: "It is with the deepest regret that I learn of the sad affliction to yourself and wife in the death of your little girl. I hope that Mrs. Luce may have a rapid recovery to health, and that the burden of sorrow may be lifted as speedily as human hearts can heal, although it takes a long time." Luce denied that he ever received the letter of condolence, but again Melish was ready and submitted a letter from Luce in which he said, "I do not care to have any letter from you stating that you are sorry for anything." At one point in his debate, Smith argued that there is no authority for a presiding officer to suspend an elected officer in any secret society, but again the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee was ready with a defense. They pointed out that Smith had served as Grand Master of the Grand Commandery of the State of Illinois and that in its Constitution, it was expressly provided that the Grand Master "may suspend from the functions of his office any officer of the Grand or subordinate Commanderies or arrest the charter or dispensation of a Commandery." As it turned out, the debate had little real effect on the outcome of the issue. That had been decided at the caucus on Monday evening. Furthermore, the delegates who had pledged themselves were put on the spot when Sam Briggs moved, when the debate was concluded, that a roll‑call vote be taken on the issue. The final vote was seventy‑five to forty‑seven, with ten representatives not voting. Fifteen were absent. Neither Luce nor Mecca Temple had presented one iota of evidence, but they had won.
Melish declared that, as a result of the vote, Luce was entitled to all books and papers of the Imperial Council, and Imperial Recorder Mayo immediately handed them over. But the drama was not ended. Melish was to suffer three more defeats in his home city. The Council, by virtually the same vote recorded in the principal issue, THE POWER OF THE THRONE 105 ordered the $500 paid to Worthington, and the $213 advertising bill for the Arabic paper Kawkab also was approved. But the severest blow of all came at the election of officers when, again by almost the same vote, Melish was defeated for reelection as Imperial Potentate and in his place went Thomas J. Hudson of Syria Temple in Pittsburgh.
Perhaps the crowning insult so far as Melish was concerned came later when the official proceedings were printed and distributed. In these proceedings, at the proper point, Luce had inserted above his own signature this statement: "The presentation of the differences between the Imperial Potentate and the Imperial Recorder by Noble J. W. Smith and Noble Curtis H. Winsor, being so fair, and the vote of the Nobles of the Imperial Council such a complete vindication of the Imperial Recorder, all letters and papers that might have been here inserted are withheld as no further defense is necessary." It was the position of Syrian Temple that neither Luce nor his representatives had made such a statement in the Council session and that, therefore, the statement could not properly be recorded in the official proceedings. Perhaps they were right. In any event, Melish, who was still the Potentate of Syrian Temple, resolved to play the game differently when the Imperial Council assembled in Denver in 1894.
From June of 1893 to July 24 of 1894, the economy of the country grew progressively worse. Railroads, banks, retail and manufacturing businesses failed. Farmers were in despair through failure of the corn crop. The government itself resorted to borrowing, principally from the House of Morgan, and then borrowing again to pay off the first loan. Labor disputes were rife. Just after the Cincinnati session, the famous Homestead, Colorado, steel and iron strike and its pitched battle occurred; and, just before the Denver convention of 1894, Eugene V. Debs led the Pullman strike in Chicago, which was broken when federal troops were ordered out by President Cleveland. On the very day the Shriners arrived in Denver the Chinese‑ 106 PARADE TO GLORY Japanese war broke out. But all of these things were secondary to Melish and Syrian Temple.
During the year, Syrian Temple had prepared an open letter to Shriners everywhere detailing the Melish‑Luce affair. This had been mailed in advance to all of the representatives, and when the remainder of the nobility arrived in Denver they were handed copies of the pamphlet. Melish's fight to vindicate his actions and his administration was common knowledge and was reported prominently in all of the Denver papers. Syrian Temple brought a delegation of ninetyfour Nobles, and though Mecca Temple continued to display animosity toward Melish, it was mostly verbal. There was no organized opposition, and when Luce presented his annual report, he announced that for personal reasons he would not accept reelection under any circumstances. One report in a Denver paper said that he had been forbidden to run by Medinah Temple. Luce told the nobility: "You will pardon me if in closing this report I repeat what I said one year ago, `that owing to other and important duties, I would not for any consideration be a candidate for reelection.' ' At the election of officers, Melish defeated Charles L. Field of Islam Temple, San Francisco, to resume his office as Imperial Potentate and the long bitter feud was ended. Melish and Syrian Temple felt they had been vindicated at last, and for the more than thirty years that followed, Melish was ever to be a power in the Order. Because of the financial condition of the country, only about one thousand Nobles were present in Denver, but they made a good showing in the parade, appearing in full dress with their red fezzes. And they had a good time. Zemzem wells were set up in all of the hotels by various temples and there was a great deal of marching back and forth to drink freely of the cooling waters. Sixty weary Sons of the Desert were initiated at a ceremonial function. The ladies gazed in awe at Mt. Evans and the Denver citizenry enjoyed the pranks, especially the appearance of James A. Fox, Potentate of Aleppo Temple of Boston, who looked like President ‑Grover Cleveland and was frequently introduced as such.
108 PARADE TO GLORY There were four bands in the parade, and the Zuhrah patrol from Zuhrah Temple of Minneapolis created quite a sensation. Forty Nobles had been organized into a marching unit. They wore white flan nel trousers, white shirts, blue coats, brilliant flowing red neckties and yachting caps. Their intricate maneuvers while marching attracted the attention of everyone. This was the patrol under Captain John Shuey that is claimed to be the first in Shrine history.
Denverites laughed at the appearance of ex‑mayor Wolfson astride a camel, and they laughed even louder when it was announced that the wild Arabian asses that had been kept in one of the Denver parks would not be able to participate in the parade. The asses had grown so fat they couldn't get into the cars provided for their transportation.
Officially the Denver session was important beyond the vindication of Melish. A resolution was presented officially delineating the power of the Imperial Potentate to suspend in any year until the next meeting of the Imperial Council any officer of that Council. But there was one matter of perhaps even more importance.
Imperial Potentate Hudson in his annual address reported: "Doubtless many, if not all of you, are aware of the fact that there exists in the states of Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Texas and perhaps other western states, organizations composed of our colored fellow citizens, who have pirated our title almost verbatim, and for this and other various reasons, after conference with a number of the officers of this Council, it was deemed advisable to have our body duly incorporated not only that we might hold our present style and title exclusively, but that should it become necessary to own property, we would be able to hold same as a Body with a legal status." Corporate entity actually had been obtained from the state of New York, but the matter had been referred to a committee for one year, and the action of the Imperial Potentate in initiating the program was not approved.
The right to full title in the name of the Order and its emblems THE POWER OF THE THRONE 109 was to plague the Imperial Council for more than a score of years to come.
Also at the Denver Session, the Committee for the revision of the Ritual that had been working at its task for several years made its report, and the new Ritual was adopted unanimously.
Now, Melish assumed again the office of Imperial Potentate, and the Imperial Recorder's office was placed in the hands of Ben Rowell of Boston, who was to serve in that capacity for many years. And when they began to examine the books, they made the startling discovery that the Imperial Council was broke. Melish used the word "bankrupt" to describe the condition of the treasury when he reported to the next session of the Imperial Council, held at Nantasket Beach, a summer resort near Boston.
In some respects the meeting in 1895 was unique. For the first time the Imperial Potentate, Imperial Recorder and Imperial Treasurer were housed in the same hotel, which incidentally provided "room and eats on the good old American plan for $3.so a day." And for the first time the Imperial Council began operation on the basis of a fiscal year in an attempt to clear up deficits and live within its income. Thus, reports of all descriptions from the various temples were based for that one year on a span of time beginning January 1, 1894, and ending on April 30, 1895.
In his annual report, Melish declared that because of the bankrupt condition of the treasury following the meeting in Denver, he had ordained that expenses be held to a minimum. As a result, he said, he had made only two visitations during the entire year. One was to Aladdin Temple in Columbus, Ohio, which was near his home in Cincinnati, and the other was to Louisville, where Kosair Temple became the first to portray the new and revised Ritual that had been approved at Denver. Melish had also presided both as Potentate of Syrian and as the Imperial Potentate at a ceremonial in his own temple on February z 2, 1895, when 219 candidates received the Mystic Rites, the largest class to that time in the history of the Shrine. And 110 PARADE TO GLORY the Shrine was growing rapidly. More than 7,ooo new members were initiated by all of the various temples from January 1, 1894, to January 1, 1895, making a total of 37,348. The estimated worth of the seventy‑one temples in forty‑three states was placed at $348,928.85, a sizable amount for a fraternal organization that was not yet twentyfive years old.
Aleppo Temple of Boston had become the largest in Shrinedom. It boasted 2,573 members. Mecca was still second with 2,378, Lu Lu of Philadelphia was third with 2,315, Medinah of Chicago was fourth with 2,107, and Syrian was fifth with 1,25 5. By and large they were a happy group of men, but once again in 1895 as he had in 1893, Melish realized that jollity, camaraderie and hospitality were not enough.
During his first term as Imperial Potentate, Melish had challenged the various temples to develop some local charity. Some had responded and others had not, but during his second term he put the pressure on the temple Potentates in a letter to each of them, urging them in some manner to undertake a philanthropic enterprise. This time most of the temples responded. Some collected money from the members which was turned into baskets of groceries and clothing at Christmastime for the unfortunates, whether they were Shriners (even Masons) or not. Most of the charity was showered on non‑Shriners, of course, since most Shriners didn't need it. But there were a few who had found themselves in straitened circumstances, and for them Mecca Temple set up its own employment agency to help the Shriners help themselves. Over the years these charitable enterprises were to grow until eventually there would be created what has been called the "world's greatest philanthropy," the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children.
Also at this session, Melish won his point with respect to the power of the Imperial Potentate. A resolution was adopted which said: "The Imperial Potentate is the executive officer of the Order within the Jurisdiction of this Imperial Council. He may suspend until the next session of the Imperial Council, or for a less time, any THE POWER OF THE THRONE 111 official of the Imperial Council, or any temple or officer thereof, for violation or disobedience of the Constitution, Regulations, or Edicts of the Imperial Council." Melish was largely instrumental also in having the Imperial Council officially decline the Charter which had been obtained by Hudson and Luce in the previous year from the state of New York. Incorporation, the Council said, is "neither desirable nor necessary." So, Melish left office, the last Imperial Potentate ever to serve more than one year. For him, it had been a triumphant year, for he had managed to institute some reforms that were necessary if the Shrine was to continue. Principal among these was a more businesslike way of conducting the fraternity's affairs. There was still much to be desired, for Rowell as the Imperial Recorder and the various temple Recorders didn't care too much about records. Nevertheless there were signs that the Shrine was reaching maturity; and even if he were not in authority, Melish was to make it a point to be around to challenge constantly the Imperial Council to do better. Under his whiplash, they did so in the years ahead.
Chapfer 10 End of an Era N 1886, when the Shrine had held its first convention in Cleveland, it could boast of 3,039 members. Ten years later, when the Imperial Session again was held in Cleveland with Al Koran Tem ple as the host, the Shrine had grown to 41,502 members. It was almost unbelievable, even to the Imperial officials. But there it was in official figures, and it became plain to harassed Officers that with growth there naturally would be problems. It was for this reason that in Cleveland, the Imperial Council declined to change the annual meetings of the Imperial Session to triennial affairs, the plan followed by the Knights Templar.
"Our Order is young," said the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee in declining to sanction the change, "and some of its features, not to say principles, are evolutionary, and some of the measures adopted for its government are still experimental. . . . [But] as we understand it, the only argument made against the position we maintain grows out of financial considerations." Actually the panic of 1893 was over and there was prosperity on every hand. And if the world generally was in a turmoil, it didn't appear to affect either the Shrine or the‑ United States. The Ethio pians had slaughtered 4,6oo Italian troops and 3,ooo natives under 112 END OF AN ERA 113 Italian command in a surprise attack at Adowa on February 2 8, but it meant little or nothing to the Shriners. Nor, for that matter, did the slaughter of S,ooo Armenians in Constantinople by the Turks in late August, just a month after the Cleveland meeting. Three weeks before the session convened on June 23, Britain had granted a wireless patent to Marconi, but the Shriners had never heard of it, and it was to be many years before a parade would be broadcast. H. A. Becquerel discovered in that year the radioactivity of uranium, but it would be a half‑century before its destructive force would be utilized by man.
What bothered the Shriners in those days was the Shrine. It simply was too good a thing to let slip. One of the more controversial issues before the Cleveland meeting was that of prerequisite member ship in other Masonic bodies. What happened when for one reason or another a Shriner failed to continue his membership in either the Scottish Rite or the Knights Templar? The 1896 convention attempted to answer the question.
The Imperial Council approved the following statement, with respect to the problem, by the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee: Since good standing in Templar or Scottish Rite Masonry is the basis of membership in this Order, it is fair that suspension or expulsion by either, as held by the Imperial Potentate, should disqualify one for mem bership in this organization. It is true an applicant, in order to enter here, need not belong to both the other societies, but having rendered himself unworthy of affiliation in either he ought not to find shelter here on the ground that the other took no notice of his shortcomings. This we regard as correct interpretation of the spirit of our Order, for by this rule we hold up the highest standard of manhood, and preserve on the highest plane the friendly and fraternal relations between the Arabic Order and Templar and Scottish Rite Masonry.
But at the same time it should be set forth as a true statement of our law, that there is nothing in its provision that in any way disqualifies a Noble for continuous membership in the Temple or in any way subjects him to discipline, if, having been a member of either or both the prerequisite orders, he voluntarily and honorably withdraws_ from either or both of them and lives without offense against their laws.
114 PARADE TO GLORY But though the Imperial Council approved that statement in 1896, it was by no means a permanent interpretation of Shrine law. It just couldn't work. If advanced Masonic degrees were to be a prerequisite, they must be a permanent prerequisite. Otherwise those Masons who wanted to be Shriners and nothing else could go through the motions of becoming 3 z ░ Masons or Knights Templar and then drop them as soon as they had experienced the Shrine. A similar program also might be evolved with respect to basic Masonry itself.
In later years as disagreements developed within several of the Masonic jurisdictions, there was a movement (which died aborning) to make the Shrine entirely independent of the Masons. But the spir itual thread and the moral teachings of Masonry, the Rites and the Shrine were too closely interwoven to be raveled by those who had been rebuked for violations of the law. As a matter of fact (as will be seen) the real trend was exactly the opposite as one Imperial Potentate after another, in various forms, adopted as the theme of his year in office a closer association with Masonry and the Rites.
One other change was made in Cleveland which also was to be temporary. Following the lead of other fraternal organizations, the Imperial Council ordained that of the thirteen officers in the Im perial Divan, the last five should be appointed by the Imperial Potentate. The trial‑and‑error method of government in the Shrine was still in operation and would be for years to come.
During the year that followed, the new Imperial Potentate, Harrison Dingman of Almas Temple in Washington, experimented a bit. There were no dissensions or problems, he reported to the twenty third annual session held in Detroit, beginning June 8, 1897, but he did report that he had taken the first steps toward the possible establishment of Shrine temples outside of North America. Noble J. Lew Rake, a member of Rajah Temple in Reading, Pennsylvania, planned a business trip to England and reported to Dingman that there had been reports that a number of Masons in York, England, had expressed a desire to organize a temple there. Accordingly, Rake was appointed a special deputy of the Imperial Potentate and authorized END OF AN ERA 115 to investigate. But the whole affair ended right there. The British Masons simply were not interested in the breezy program of the American fun‑loving Shriners.
Several thousand Shriners arrived in Dallas, Texas, June 12, 1898, to be the guests of Hella Temple, but the Shrine did not make the front page of the local papers until two days later. The nation was at war. The Maine had been sunk in Santiago Harbor on February i 5. Admiral Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on May i. Just as the Shriners arrived, the Marines landed outside Santiago. Thirty transports with z 7,ooo American soldiers were afloat somewhere off Tampa, Florida, under the command of Admiral Sampson. But the Shriners were determined to have fun anyway. The Order was still growing despite the war and most of the Shriners were too old for military service anyway.
The Dallas News reported on Monday morning, June 13, that "the advance guard of the Shriners hit Dallas yesterday afternoon. They hit it hard and the jolt was felt for blocks around. In fact, ever since their arrival, they have kept up a succession of jolts that kept the church bells ringing and awoke the chickens." "The only event of importance today [Monday, June I3]," reported the News, "is the opening of the Hella cistern at the Oriental Hotel. This cistern is reported to contain nothing but Adams Ale. Every devout Shriner is requested to come and bring his fellow along." But that was only the beginning. If Detroit had been gay, Dallas was gayer, as the Hella Shriners had promised, even with a war in full swing.
The Dallas News sent its cartoonists (it was before the day of newspaper photography) to depict for the readers what the Shriners were doing. One cartoon showed a Noble astride a camel with a bot tle and glass in his hand. Another showed the fez‑topped gentlemen gathered around the Hella cistern. And the writer telling the people of Dallas of the profusion of red fezzes said, "The Shriners made the town look like it had a bad case of measles and it sounded like it was in the center of an attack on Guantanamo. . . . The average Shriner 116 PARADE TO GLORY never ventures out of doors without his fez for fear of catching cold and the only thing that can surpass his voice in volume and density is a well‑trained fog horn, skillfully handled. The Shriners are a unique class. They are made up almost exclusively of businessmen and yet during their sessions of the Imperial Council they throw all of ‑this to the winds. They are usually dignified, but on such occasions as this they relegate their dignity to the ashbarrel, give a whoop and turn things loose. They do not violate any of the laws of decency or decorum. Long experience has taught them how to have a good time without any violation." By the time the official escort parade was ready to start on Tuesday morning, June 14, the Dallas newspapers could no longer keep their story on the inside pages, war or no war. After all, one railroad president from Columbus, Ohio, had brought the boys from Aladdin Temple to Dallas in his own private car, in which his large bathtub was filled with sparkling Zemzem water. Another group of railroaders from Palestine, Texas, sent their band to march in the parade, and a professional band from Dallas also participated. There was a long line of carriages, drawn by matched black and white horses, containing all of the representatives to the Imperial Council. In the last vehicle was Imperial Potentate Albert B. McGaffey of El Jebel Temple in Denver. His equipage was drawn by two black and two white horses, each of them led by what appeared to be a Nubian slave.
There were several reasons for the selection of Buffalo as the meeting place for the 1899 Imperial Session. Most important, perhaps, was the fact that members of Ismailia Temple wanted to enter tain the Imperial dignitaries and had campaigned in Dallas for the meeting, wearing special signs on their shirts saying, "Put me off at Buffalo." Furthermore, they elected their George L. Brown as the new Oriental Guide, the lowest elective office in those days, and he wanted to show off his town and his temple. But perhaps equally important was the fact that Ismailia Temple had been in the forefront of charitable activities, which now had reached important proportions.
END OF AN ERA 117 As early as i 8qo, three years after receiving its charter, Ismailia Temple had introduced a charitable enterprise which in the years to come and in various forms was to be one of the foundations of the Order. On April q of that year Ismailia had given a Grand Ball, attended by the elite of the city, and followed it on July 18 with an outing by the shores of Lake Erie. The press reported at the time that the Nobles appeared in gorgeous regalia, the talk of which brings memories to all who attended. From the two events, Ismailia Temple raised more than $ i,8oo, all of which was applied to the Newsboys' and Bootblacks' Home. This perhaps was the first instance of a Shrine temple's raising funds through public enterprise.
Other temples raised their charitable funds through gifts of Shriners, and Imperial Potentate Ethelbert F. Allen of Ararat Temple in Kansas City, Missouri, reported in Dallas that seventy‑one of the seventy‑eight temples had that year engaged in some form of charity. For most of them, it was contributions of money or food at Christmastime. Others sent their charitable gifts to Masonic Homes in their respective states, but there was no doubt that charity, just for the sake of sweet charity, was pretty well established by the end of the century as a prime tenet of Shrine policy, although it was not yet a part of Shrine law.
Then, too, Buffalo was perhaps chosen because of its nearness to Niagara Falls, which was just coming into its own as the great haven for honeymooners and sightseers from everywhere. The con vention held at the resort city in i 8q i had attracted a fair crowd, but it was before the day of Imperial parades, and it rated only passing mention in the press. Now things were different. The parade was important, and Buffalo's extensive German population loved a parade.
Actually, when the parade was finally held on June 14, 1899, it was a rather mixed‑up affair. The event had been planned, all right, except for one thing: the parade was bigger than the Nobles of Is mailia had anticipated. Month by month, new units‑were being formed in the temples, and it seemed that most of them arrived in Buffalo 118 PARADE TO GLORY unheralded and unsung. It was too late to change the line of march, which had been arranged toward its end in a sort of circular movement. When the head of the parade reached the point where it should normally cross its own line of march, the end of the parade was still passing that corner. The front of the parade had to wait. And jammed behind the head, of course, were all the rest.
The only really important report in the entire official session was negative rather than positive. The Imperial Potentate reported he didn't think it necessary to encumber any special committee or take up the time of the Imperial Council with a program to establish temples in England, Mexico or the Sandwich Islands. He didn't even mention the Philippines, for which there had been agitation for a new temple because of the American civilian and military personnel established there following the Spanish‑American War.
Thus ended the prime effort to establish temples outside of North America. Mexico and, of course, Hawaii eventually were to have temples of their own, but under later interpretation. Hawaii was then considered to be a part of North America because it was a territorial possession of the United States.
And so ended the era of the Gay Nineties. The Shriners had shown all America that they could be the gayest of the gay, and if their parades had not yet reached the size and gorgeous military splen dor of the Knights Templar, certainly there was evidence on which to predict the future.
On January i, i qoo, the Shrine had 55,455 members. Patrols and bands of various types were forming so fast that regalia manufacturers were hard‑pressed to keep up with them, especially to make each design different from the next. The Shriners had more fun than anybody, and if there was some complaint about the ribald meetings, certainly officials at the top were attempting to control it.
Truly, it had been a glorious decade for the infant fraternity, but even then no one could really foresee the future or imagine its growth in the half‑century that was to follow. Nor could they fore see the trend or the extent of the Shrine charity that was to come.
END OF AN ERA 119 For the moment, they looked forward only to the next year and the next Imperial Session, which was to be held in Washington, D. C., where at least some of them were to meet William McKinley, a Mason but not a Shriner, who was the President of the United States.
C I hapfer Presidential Approval HERE have been many Shrine parades larger and more gorgeous in their panoply than that of i qoo, but somehow that Imperial Session in Washington, D. C., has carved for itself a place not to be usurped by bigness and splendor alone. It was perhaps like the comparatively small battles of Trenton and Princeton at the Yuletide season of 1776. As battles go, they were pretty small, but they represented a turning point in the Revolution and convinced Washington that his tatterdemalion army could win independence for colonial America.
So it was with the affair in Washington, which was already celebrating the victory over Spain and was in the mood for any jollity the Shriners could provide.
There were seventy‑nine temples under charter all across the land, and three more were under dispensation. It seemed that every member who could raise the funds wanted to attend the Imperial Session in Washington. After all, it was the capital of the nation. They would have a chance to see and perhaps shake hands with the popular William McKinley. They could see the beautiful buildings and even the Smithsonian Institution.
No records were ever kept of just how many Shriners and their families arrived in Washington for the three days of whoopee and, 120 PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL 121 of course, the more serious business of the Imperial Council Session. But there were enough. The Washington Post reported on May 2 2 that the "city is in possession of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine." Never before had Washington been decorated for an event as it was for the nobility. One of the committees from Almas Temple had offered prizes for the best decorations in downtown Washington, and the merchants and realtors had responded. The red, green and yellow colors were everywhere. Some merchants had even erected miniature mosques across the fronts of buildings and in store windows. Jewelers were offering souvenir silver spoons commemorating the occasion.
When Imperial Potentate John H. Atwood of Leavenworth, Kansas, arrived, he was greeted by a section of the Marine Band, dressed in Arabic costume for the occasion. They marched him to his headquarters in the Riggs House and then proceeded to play for hours in the lobby of the hotel, establishing the custom of bandplaying in the hotels at Imperial Sessions which has never been abandoned.
Then came the morning of May 23. The newspapers had prepared their readers for the great event when Atwood would be escorted from the Riggs House to the Columbia Theater, where the Imperial Session was to be held. Column after column in the Post had detailed the line of march, the temples that would participate, the bands (most of them hired) that were to lead each section. And the people responded. The sides of Pennsylvania Avenue were black with spectators when the mounted Washington police began to move at exactly q:00 A.M.
Behind the police came the Arabic‑costumed Marine Band, the Colors and then what was to remain in the memory of Washingtonians for years‑an Arabic horse patrol of one hundred members of Almas Temple. They had scoured the Virginia and Maryland countryside for the finest horses to be found; and while they did not ride with the precision that was to be achieved in the years ahead by many Shrine horse patrols, they were decidedly the hit of the parade. Cheers went up everywhere as they passed.
President McKinley Reviews the Shriners, Washington, 1900 After them came the patrols of various temples, headed by bands and, of course, the straggling evening‑suited Nobles. Down Pennsylvania Avenue they moved, with only an occasional deserter from the ranks who could not pass an oasis without letting his thirst get the better of him. With cheers ringing on every hand, the parade reached the Treasury Turn and then moved into the White House grounds, where they were greeted by President McKinley, who stood on the South Portico and reviewed the full three thousand who were in the line of march, every band playing "Hail to the Chief," and every Shriner shouting a greeting to him.
Imperial Potentate Atwood was the last in the parade. He sat in a gorgeous barouche, drawn by six prancing black horses in shining harness; and as he passed the President, he stood ‑and salaamed in fitting manner.
124 PARADE TO GLORY "It was impressive," the Post said, "to see the President of the United States stand to receive and to respond to the salutation of his brothers in the Mason's craft. It was impressive to see the long line that stretched in varicolored hue from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other, and it was impressive to think that all these men, so fantastic and strange, with 50,000 others, are bound together by the most solemn vows to stand for all that man can hold most dear, all that makes a nation great, all that goes to improve mankind at large." But with this parade, reviewed by the President, the festivities were only just beginning. Atwood was a great orator of the flowery persuasion. He had traveled untold thousands of miles, visiting tem ples, creating new ones and spellbinding the nobility. His speech at the opening of the Imperial Session was a masterpiece.
After receiving the welcome of Noble John W. Ross, Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and of Past Imperial Potentate Harrison Dingman on behalf of the other Masonic bodies, Atwood responded in part: "By the shore of the Gulf of California; where the green waters of the St. Lawrence lave the shores of the Thousand Isles; amid the mighty forests where rolls the Oregon; and where the tireless tide of the Atlantic forever frets the Narragansett coast; in the pineland of the north and the palm lands of the south and in the measureless pastures of the boundless west, the black tents of our many tribes cast their shadows in the setting sun; from every clime and from every corner of the continent, we, the representatives of all these many tribes, have come as Moslems to their Mecca, and as citizens and guests to the city that capitals the mightiest empire seen by the sun, or washed by the waves of any sea. There are those among us who, as subjects and citizens, owe allegiance to a different power than here is seated in incomparable splendor by the banks of the Potomac; but they will join with us, whose nation this is, in paying tribute to you, the denizens of our capital city, and they would not stay my tongue when I say that here stands the metropolis of a realm, matchless in‑ PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL 125 deed‑an empire above whose tropic islands of the sea flashes the Southern Cross, and over whose continental provinces the pale polestar stands as a steadfast sentinel. . . .
"May the walls of your homes and palaces of your great municipality prove to be made of stones from the quarries of Estherphane, and may they lift their heads high as the topless towers of Ilium, to stand forever as a symbol of liberty, as a token of freedom, until in the rush and roll of the coming years, time shall have become eternity, and earth be remanded to chaos again." But even with this tribute to Washington and the patriotism he inspired among the nobility, Atwood was by no means finished. There was still his tribute to the Shrine itself. In his flowery words, he set a pattern that the Shrine was to follow in the years ahead.
"The Shriner," he said, "proclaims the doctrine of joy‑teaches the lesson that such joy as enters unto man's life is a boon and a blessing, sent to alleviate the darker hours that must come to all. . . .
"Let us remember, too, that a smile adds beauty to the plainest countenance, while a frown can but mar the features of the most beautiful; that the light of pleasantness and peace in the eyes of man or woman, makes dark places bright, while scowls are centurions in the cohorts of darkness. . . .
"These lessons man is coming fast to learn, as is made manifest by the growth of our noble Order. For in the years of its life upon this continent, it has waxed exceedingly and grown to proportions that are magnificent indeed. From sea to sea and from Montreal to Mexico, our temples lift aloft their heads to flash back the splendors of the rising sun." Judged by the oratorical standards of a half‑century later, Atwood's remarks would have been a bit too verbose. But in i qoo the standards had been set by the then reigning prince of oratory, Wil liam Jennings Bryan, and the Imperial Potentate was wildly cheered by the nobility.
The principal work of the session was the adoption of a resolution which as much as anything else spiked the efforts of a renegade 126 PARADE TO GLORY group which had claimed exclusive jurisdiction for the Scottish Rite in the United States. Walter M. Fleming, among others, had participated in the effort to establish once and forever the supreme jurisdiction of the Northern and Southern Supreme Councils as the only authoritative voice of the Scottish Rite. This had been a sore rankling in the Masonic bodies for some time. And the action of the Shrine in Washington, confining its membership to Knights Templar and members of the two American Scottish Rite jurisdictions, as much as any other one event, eliminated the efforts of the renegades.
Otherwise, the representatives and the Imperial Divan hurried through the work they had to do in order to participate in the great night parade; and if the people of Washington had been astounded by the morning parade, they were to be dumbfounded by the night affair, even the worldly‑wise reporters for the capital newspapers. "They passed, it seemed, in unending myriads," said the Washington Post. "The music of the bands was continuous. The order was perfect. The whole scene was wonderful. Then the lights sprung up and the whole city was flooded with illumination that far surpassed anything that had ever been thought possible. The scenes were spectacular to a degree. They were in no regard below the standard the most fertile imagination could possibly have conceived. Nothing equalling their demonstration of strength upon the most historic thoroughfare in the nation's capital will ever be seen again in the history of Shrinedom until the Nobles again make their pilgrimage to this oasis. The Shriners gave Washington such a spectacle as even the capital of the nation does not often have an opportunity to see. Perhaps never before did three thousand men march down Pennsylvania Avenue, attired in evening dress to the music of a dozen bands, and lighted on their way by fires of every color." And if the Almas horse patrol and the precision marching of the Al Koran foot patrol had stolen the show in the morning, then the red‑fezzed gentlemen from Oriental Temple in Troy, New York, stole the night parade. Attached to the lapels of their evening suits, the Troy men had attached large red artificial roses, in the center of 128 PARADE TO GLORY which was a tiny electric bulb, and on the proper order, they would stop and suddenly the lights would gleam, powered by dry batteries, which was something of an innovation in those days.
The parade ended in Monument Park, where the greatest fireworks display in history was held, or at least that's what the Washington reporters said. The first fiery piece was a giant Shrine pin in red, green and yellow fire, and the last, of course, was a giant flag, which sprang to life as the Marine Band played "The Star‑Spangled Banner." The parade and the fireworks lasted so long that it was almost eleven o'clock before the representatives sat down for the Imperial banquet, held in the grand ballroom of the Riggs House. The decora tions were on the most lavish scale ever devised in Washington, according to the Post. The entire ballroom was like a conservatory, filled with pink, red and white tropical foliage.
But the crowning event of the entire three days was the reception given by the President and Mrs. McKinley, members of the Cabinet and their wives at the White House for the nobility. Like the Riggs House, the Blue and East Rooms had been decorated profusely. Two bands, including the President's own Marines, played constantly, and five thousand persons were greeted by Mr. McKinley in a space of two hours. It was McKinley's most lavish reception during his tenure in the White House. He was a devout Mason and Knight Templar, but never became a Shriner.
Following in normal line, Lou Winsor, a member of Saladin Temple in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was elected Imperial Potentate, and he was destined to make a great contribution to the traditions of the Order. At the next session in Kansas City, the Imperial Council would celebrate its silver anniversary and, like the next several sessions to come, it was to be bigger and better than ever.
apfer 12 With Charity for All
There was and is nothing so dear to the heart of a Shriner as a pilgrimage. Ever since the day of the Mecca pilgrimage through the great West, Nobles from every temple have moved from place to place, just to visit with their fraternal associates and to see the wonders of the world. There was‑and is‑no significance other than the fun they have. In playing at Moslems and infidels, they have no thought for the hot sands that must be traversed to touch the Kaaba in the holy city of Mecca by the true pilgrims of the Islamic faith. But they do have itchy feet, and for those who can afford it, there is a pilgrimage somewhere almost anytime.
Lou B. Winsor and his retinue made the great pilgrimage to Hawaii. It was the crowning event of his administration.
In the course of the nineteenth century, Hawaii had become a crossroads of the Pacific, with ships of many lands stopping there. Yet geographically, if not ethnically, the islands‑lying some two thousand miles off San Francisco‑were closer to the United States than to any other nation, and trade had been building up between the two countries. More Americans, attracted by the climate of the islands, were migrating there. The result was that the people of Hawaii, a republic since 1893, when Queen Liliuokalani was over
129 130 PARADE TO GLORY
thrown, voted to be annexed to the United States. Congress passed the necessary legislation, and the islands became a territory in 1900. Meanwhile, Masonry in Hawaii was growing. Also, a number of Masons of the higher degrees had become members of Islam Temple in San Francisco and, on their visits to the mainland, would enjoy themselves within the shelter of that Oasis. It was by no means surprising, then, that at the meeting in Washington the nobility of Honolulu asked for and received ‑ with the blessings of Mother Islam ‑ a dispensation to open a new temple in Hawaii to be known as Aloha. (If the name lacked Arabic meaning, it was sufficiently foreign to the English tongue to be used.) Shortly after he assumed office, Imperial Potentate Winsor expressed the thought that he would enjoy constituting Aloha Temple himself, and his own Saladin Temple, of which he was still the Po tentate, undertook the work of organizing the pilgrimage. Accordingly, on February 25, i qo i, the Imperial special train steamed out of the Grand Rapids station, bound for Medinah Temple in Chicago, where the traveling nobility would be entertained. In Chicago, the train grew in size, and it continued to grow until, when the caravan reached San Francisco, there were 114 Nobles and 58 ladies aboard. They visited temples all across the land and on March 14, after a long sea voyage, Aloha Temple was instituted under designation. The charter would not be granted until the i 9o i Imperial Session in Kansas City.
This was the first of many pilgrimages made to Hawaii, until now each succeeding Imperial Potentate makes the Imperial cruise to the islands. Altogether Winsor and his party traveled 7,346 miles by land and 4,000 miles by sea. And perhaps equally important to the pilgrimage itself is the fact that it was on the first cruise to the islands that Winsor and twelve of his closest associates gathered together and formed the Jesters, the first of the organizations within the Shrine.
Including the pilgrimage, Winsor was able to report to the i qo i session of the Imperial Council that he had spent nearly half his time during the past year at Shrine affairs. The Shrine, indeed, was
be‑ 8 a v V v x w O C O 4+ td v .b cd as N a A 132 PARADE TO GLORY coming a major organization. Within a few years it would be almost compulsory for an Imperial Potentate to devote his entire time to the job of administering the affairs of the fraternity.
When the Shriners arrived in Kansas City for their meeting on June i i, igoi, the Nobles of Ararat Temple had done everything they could do to make the event a joyful one. They had to try to live up to the session held in Washington, and that was to be difficult, principally because the city administration had made no arrangements for handling the crowds. But if the parade in Kansas City fell a bit short of the desired results, the parade in San Francisco in June of 1902 made up for it, even though there were travel difficulties involving Philip Shaffer, the Imperial Potentate from Lu Lu Temple in Philadelphia.
The affair began well enough and attracted considerable public attention. Special trains were popular in those days, and Shaffer and a group of Nobles from Lu Lu and Boumi in Baltimore chartered one for the joyous trip across the nation. At the same time, James McGee arranged another special train from New York in association with temples in the New England area, and before the trains reached Chicago something of a race had developed. Actually, the New York train was so long that it had to be divided into two sections. McGee said it was because the railroads didn't have water hoses long enough at some of the way stations to water the entire train. But others along the line said that was silly because the Shriners didn't need water anyway.
The Mecca trains were well ahead when they reached Denver, and Shaffer suffered a great indignity there when railroad officials put a slow train on the tracks ahead of his special. Still further along in Colorado, the engine pulling the Imperial Potentate's train broke a drive shaft. When Shaffer and his party finally arrived in San Francisco, it was just barely in time for him to participate in the parade.
He arrived to gaze upon a fairyland. The Examiner reported: "The big, sometimes prosaic city was transformed into a fairy region of beautifully blended hues. So brilliant was the night that a crescent WITH CHARITY FOR ALL 133 moon which hung in the western sky, vainly tried to win recognition among the glowing crescents that in honor of the Mystic Shriners adorned the town." Electric lights were just coming into their own and San Francisco made the most of them. The Ferry Building was a beautiful sight. And spelled out in electric letters five feet high over the City Hall, was "Es Selamu Aleikum," the traditional welcome greeting of the Shriners. But the article that attracted the eyes of the people was that in the Examiner which reported that on the least provocation the waters of Zemzem gushed forth, even on the ferry ride across the bay from Oakland when the caravans discovered that there were sands beneath the waters.
But if Zemzem and camel's milk flowed freely in San Francisco, it was by no means the only important event of that time. There was the parade, the like of which the West had never seen before. Three giant searchlights played their beams on the multicolored marching columns. Colored fire burned from a dozen stands along the line of march. Skyrockets and Roman candles were fired by the marchers at every opportunity. And the big hit of the parade was a float entered by the Masons of San Francisco. It was a giant prairie schooner, pulled by thirty oxen and containing a number of pioneer Masons of the city. The wagon was surrounded by cowboys and followed by a screeching band of Indians making periodic attacks on the wagon. Behind this group was another float representing an army camp; naturally the blue‑clad soldiers invariably saved the occupants of the schooner.
The Imperial Session itself took some notable actions that were to have a profound effect upon the Shrine and its future. In the field of fraternal government, there had been some difficulty within the Imperial Divan when temples failed to reelect as representatives those who aspired to become Imperial Potentate. Under the Shrine code it is necessary to be a member of the Imperial Council to be elected to the Imperial Divan, but no provision had been made to keep such a member in the Council. A temple could reelect_ or reject anyone as a representative, and this had been done. It was even possible that 134 PARADE TO GLORY a man who was about to be elected Imperial Potentate could be rejected by his temple, in which event he could not hold the high office.
This didn't seem quite cricket and the representatives proceeded to amend the law. As adopted, it read: "An Imperial Potentate does not become a Past Imperial Potentate until his successor in office is elected and installed. His temple should elect him as a representative to the session of the Imperial Council over which he is to preside as Imperial Potentate, but failure to re‑elect him does not deprive him of any of his official rights or prerogatives as Imperial Potentate." Meanwhile the development of Shrine charity had become ever more dear to the heart of each succeeding Imperial Potentate. After the Galveston, Texas, hurricane and tidal wave which caused six thou sand deaths, in September of i 9oo, Imperial Potentate Winsor had sent a contribution from the Shrine emergency fund. Both Winsor and Imperial Potentate Shaffer in the following year called on the temples all over the land to send as much as they could and they responded heartily. But, in addition, Shaffer once again called for Christmas charity contributions.
As they had in the past, the nobility responded with thousands of dollars that were expended for Christmas baskets for the poor of their communities. In addition, there were toys for the children and extra donations for the various Masonic homes. By and large, none of the charity was expended on Shriners or their families; but with the growth of the Shrine there was talk of a Shrine home, patterned, on a national basis, after many of the jurisdictional Masonic homes, and it was at the 1902 session of the Imperial Council that the subject came before the nobility officially.
Morocco Temple of Jacksonville, Florida, made the proposal to establish a national permanent home for indigent Shriners, and a school where the children of such Shriners and the dependent orphans of Shriners might be educated, and where the dependent widows of deceased Shriners might find employment and homes.
But the Committee on Jurisprudence and Laws could see no need WITH CHARITY FOR ALL 135 for such charity. It reported to the session that "we can see no necessity at this time for such action on the part of the Imperial Council. Under the blessings which Allah the Great has bestowed on the oases in which we have erected our temples, each member of the nobility has opportunity afforded him to care for himself and those dependent upon him. Besides, the spirit of charity, especially to those of the household of faith, is so thoroughly inculcated in the hearts of the nobility that indigence is almost unknown amongst Shriners, and, if known, it can find relief in each temple. The many homes for orphans and widows which have been established by the bodies, membership in which is prerequisite for admission to the Ancient Arabic Order, and of which homes we are advocates and supporters, precludes the necessity of establishing an eleemosynary institution under the auspices or control of the Imperial Council. We therefore recommend that the communication of Morocco Temple be printed in our proceedings and that no further consideration be given to the suggestions offered at this time." The Imperial Representatives went along with the recommendation, but there was talk among the Nobles that perhaps some national charity, instead of local effort by individual temples, might be desir able. The recommendation by Morocco Temple and the rejection of it by the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee both may well have been prophetic. With the passing of time, it became apparent to the Shrine leaders that some national charity was not only desirable but almost a necessity, though the charity was not to be for Shriners.
Chapfer 13 the New Century xE astonishing growth of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in the first decade of the twentieth century brought its problems, among which was the question of where the Imperial Council sessions should be held. Ever since Al Koran Temple had invited the Imperial Council to hold its session in Cleveland, it had become customary for the Imperial officers to await an invitation before deciding on the next meeting place, and during the following years this had been a most satisfactory arrangement. But, beginning with the i qoo session in Washington, the expense to the local temple of entertaining the Imperial Session was so great as to become embarrassing.
Almost from the time the igoo parade marched under the White House portico and cheered President McKinley, there were two distinct divisions of the Imperial Session. There was the official meet ing of the representatives and the Imperial Divan, where official business was transacted and laws enacted or amended; and there was also the business of pageantry and parade. With each passing year, as we have seen, the pageantry and parades were growing bigger and more gorgeous. Decorations were more extensive and more costly, and someone had to pay the bill. Still, it could not be denied that, if the mem136 THE NEW CENTURY 137 bership wanted to parade, it certainly had a right to do so. Reports from various temples indicated that the units were the very lifeblood of the organization. With each passing year, more temples added patrols. As early as 1889, Lu Lu Temple in Philadelphia had appropriated money to buy instruments and uniforms for an all‑Shrine band. Almas, Lu Lu and Al Chymia Temples had horse patrols, and still the Shrine was growing and more and more members wanted to participate in these activities.
From the 55,455 members on January i, igoo, the Shrine grew to 149057 members on January i, i 9 i o, and it was during this period that the problem of a meeting place became important. There were no invitations from cities with temples in 1902, and the session in 1903 was held at the summer resort village of Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1904, it was held at the seashore resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and it was there that the Imperial Council decided to take some official action with respect to a meeting place.
The Committee on Time and Place reported that the Imperial Council is a distinctive body in itself, apart from the rank and file of the great Order that creates it, and should not depend on an in vitation from a subordinate temple in order to be guided for the selection of a place to meet. Therefore, for future meetings it was the committee's opinion that the Imperial Council would be wise in selecting a place (summer resort preferred) where there was no temple.
The report was adopted by the Imperial Council, and the 1905 session was held in Niagara Falls, New York, but there were difficulties. The boys liked to dress up in their Arabic costumes and play Moslems and infidels. They liked the weekly rehearsals of band and patrol. But what was the use of rehearsing except to parade and what was the use of parading if there was no one to watch and cheer? The fact was that when the Shrine took over a summer resort, there was no one about except the Shriners and they all wanted to be in the parade.
The result was that by 1906 the Shrine conventions were back in the cities again; and except for Atlantic City and Miami, both of 138 PARADE TO GLORY which offer parade crowds, the sessions since invariably have been held in cities. After the Second World War, the Imperial Council contributed at the rate of ten cents a member to the temple which entertained the Imperial Sessions.
The first city to win an Imperial 'Session after the ukase of 1904 was Los Angeles. The Time and Place Committee, meeting in Niagara Falls in igo5 evidently had learned from the uniformed units that summer resorts might not be as desirable as had been expected. Henry A. Collins of Rameses Temple in Toronto, the first Imperial Potentate from a temple outside the United States, had been elected to that exalted office at Niagara Falls, and he put his stamp of approval on the invitation from Al Malaikah Temple. But the session never reached Los Angeles. Instead, by an edict of the Imperial Potentate, it was changed almost at the last minute to Chicago, because on April 18, 19o6, San Francisco was almost destroyed by an earthquake and fire: We are meeting today in the city of Chicago instead of in that beautiful city of Southern California. This is owing to the dreadful catastrophe that overtook San Francisco, and I will, in as few sentences as possible, give you my reasons for postponing the meeting in Los Angeles and the convening of it in Chicago.
When the dreadful news was flashed around the world that San Francisco, the beautiful, had been almost entirely obliterated, and that want, suffering and misery had predominated, the question arose in my mindwhat about the meeting of the Imperial Council? . . .
I had considerable difficulty making up my mind as to the postponement of that meeting. I was fully cognizant of the fact that the Nobles of Los Angeles had gone to considerable trouble and expense to make the Assembly of the Imperial Council what it would have been‑a pronounced success. . . . On the other hand I had to give considerable thought as to the effect our making the pilgrimage to Los Angeles would have on the Shrine body, and on the Masonic fraternity in general. I knew we would be open to the charge of heartlessness and want of proper consideration for the sufferings of others, so that in the cause of common humanity, I felt it my duty to call off the meeting in Los Angeles and assemble in the city of Chicago. . . .
THE NEW CENTURY 139 And as for the Imperial Council's assistance to fire‑ravaged San Francisco, Collins reported: I telegraphed the Imperial Treasurer to send the sum of $z5,ooo from our funds to Past Imperial Potentate Field, fully realizing the fact in so doing that the man who gives quickly gives twice. Whether I had the authority to so dispose of your funds is for you to say. However, I did so, and I take the full responsibility for the same. Correspondence with Noble Field will demonstrate to you how timely that assistance was, and I am delighted to say that many Temples have promptly come forward and by their donations have shown that they were in sympathy with the sufferings of the Nobles of Islam Temple.
Of course, the action of the Imperial Potentate was approved. Though the loss of life at San Francisco was placed at 452 (as nothing compared to the 6,ooo lives lost in the Galveston hurricane and tidal wave in i qoo) the property damage of $ 3 50,000,ooo was appalling. And just to show that the nobility realized the inconvenience done to Al Malaikah Temple, Los Angeles was chosen by acclamation for the 1907 session of the Imperial Council.
The San Francisco disaster occurred less than two months before the Imperial Council was due to assemble. The result was that only the barest of preparations could be made for the session in Chi cago, but there was no complaint of consequence. In fact, the charity extended to their fellow Nobles made the Shriners feel good. The representatives adopted a resolution which said: The organic law of our body being inadequate to cover in time the exigency that then arose, he [Collins] wisely looked to the spirit of the law, and his conclusion already has received your official approbation, and in all the glorious history of the Shrine, no pages more splendid can be found than that which proclaims the prompt action of our Imperial Potentate and the wide‑reaching charity of our Order; not so much in the dollars as in the fact that the timely gift was a tangible and material expression of the heartfelt sympathy and devotion felt for the stricken brethren of the nobility from every corner of our continent and from the far off islands of the sea; by his prompt and happy action, Noble Collins made proclamation to the world that in the minds and eyes of all Shriners the greatest of all things under the sun is Charity.
140 PARADE TO GLORY And so, once more‑and in quite forceful fashion‑the sweet name of charity resounded in the figurative tents of the American sons of Araby. The Shriners wanted to be charitable. It was all well and good to have their fun and spend fabulous sums on themselves in the process, but they wanted‑even though the want might be subconscious ‑something more tangible. Fun without sharing could pall in time and the leaders were wise enough to know it.
By the close of the annual session of i g i o, held in New Orleans, there were 120 temples, most of them with at least one parade unit and many of them with several. While most of the Nobles who wanted to participate in the unit activities probably could afford to finance themselves, there were many who could not. It soon became apparent to the temple administrations, therefore, that sending their units to all of the Shrine sessions was impossible, since frequently this represented trips all the way across the nation. Railroad fares, hotel accommodations, and meals, even at reduced rates, represented a strain on the temple finances that at times became impossible. Since it was unfair to tax the entire membership for the benefit of a few, some of the temples began to raise money for these purposes from outside activities. A number of temples resorted to raffles; others, to entertainments of one kind or another, principal among which was an indoor Shrine Circus, apparently originated in Detroit in 19o6. So successful have the circuses become that there are now more than one hundred Shrine Circuses each year. Some of them are used to support the units, others to raise money for the Shrine Hospitals, but it is almost certain that the Shrine has been responsible, more than any other organization, for preserving the circus as a part of the American way of life. In i q i o, there were scores of circuses all over the United States, performing under tents in large towns and small. There were big circuses such as Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers, Sells‑Floto, Hagenbeck and Wallace, and there were dozens of small ones. Some traveled by railroad and some in wagons and later in trucks. But by the end of the Second World War, there were only THE NEW CENTURY 141 a handful, and were it not for the Shrine Circuses, the man on the flying trapeze and the wild animal acts would be almost extinct. The largest and most successful of the Shrine Circuses undoubtedly has been that of Moslem Temple in Detroit, managed for many years by T. E. (Eddie) Stinson, Recorder of that temple. Since 1922, the Moslem Circus has earned f or the temple more than six and a half million dollars. It has grown from a one‑ring affair in i9o6 to the largest indoor circus in the world, entirely produced by the Moslem membership. Unit members operate the concessions; and frequently such distinguished members as K. T. Keller, f ormer president of the Chrysler Corporation, are to be found selling, or giving away, candy and other sweets. The Detroit circus also has produced many famous performers. Clyde Beatty got his first chance as a wildanimal man at the Moslem Circus, and Stinson was responsible for the Concellos becoming the foremost flying‑trapeze act in the business.
Temples all over North America also began to devote more and more attention to the Ritual. Costumes became more elaborate and costly. Special units were developed f or parts of the initiation. Elab orate equipment of all kinds was created, some of it invented by mechanics who were members of the special crews. Even the small temples entered the competition to have the best ritualistic team. For example, when, in 1905, George W. Millar, one of the original thirteen, was assigned by Imperial Potentate George L. Brown to visit the comparatively small Moila Temple in St. Joseph, Missouri, officially, his report to the 1905 Imperial Session was almost unbelievable: ,,When I entered the Temple," he said, "little was I prepared for the scene of Oriental splendor spread before my gaze. All the aesthetic senses were stirred to their deepest by the elaborate and magnificent ensemble which greeted my vision. . . . In the foreground the arid desert, its sterile waste stretching out into apparently illimitable distance, here and there the whitening bones of dead and gone devotees, who in their pious pilgrimages had toiled and strug‑ 142 PARADE TO GLORY gled until they had fallen by the wayside, ever with their dead eyes turned longingly toward the Kaaba in Mecca.
"But far in the east, there rose the fronded palms of a fertile oasis. Close by was the pavilion of the Potentate, with hangings of Syrian cloth of gold, its draperies of varicolored Syrian dyes. Within, a gorgeous divan and many‑cushioned lounging places, and round about the bewildering adornments of a Sultan's suite, the glittering panoply of a sheik's caravan. And there, the Illustrious Potentate of Moila Temple, Noble Alvah P. Clayton [who was to become Imperial Potentate at the 19o6 session] received your representative." Of the ceremonial itself, Millar reported that "a stately caravan entered in the far distant west to the drone of pipes and the monotonous rhythm of Moorish drums and castanets. Ungainly camels, their awkward limbs concealed by costly trappings, accompanied the cara van.
Millar praised the kaleidoscopic convolutions of the Moila Arab Patrol as one feature of the evening, but mostly he heaped praise upon the ritualistic presentation itself.
Some of the temples were becoming well‑to‑do, if not wealthy, and there were demands from the nobility that the Shriners own their own buildings and not be dependent on the various Masonic bodies for housing space. As early as 19o8, some temples erected their own mosques and built them in the fairyland designs of ancient Arabia, replete with minarets and stately domes and decorated with mosaic and murals.
New uniformed units had also been created, among them the first Oriental Band in Shrinedom. Like many other Shrine organizations, it was happenstance rather than design that brought it about.
During Chicago's great world's fair in 1893 to celebrate the city's recovery from the disastrous fire caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow, there were any number of Turkish exhibits and shows, including the beau tiful and justly famed Oriental dancers. To ballyhoo the shows, including the one which starred "Little Egypt," there appeared on
outdoor platforms the spieler and two performers, one playing a reed horn and the other a tomtom. Whether it was the horn and tomtom or the dancers that lingered in the memory of the Medinah nobles is not recorded, but in 1899 the redoubtable Frank Roundy, Potentate of Medinah and organizer of the first Arab Patrol in the Shrine, suggested that Medinah needed a band. He commissioned George J. Kurzenknabe, the temple organist, to form that band, and its initial 144 PARADE TO GLORY membership was composed of the organist and the four members of the temple quartet.
No such instruments as were used at the World's Fair could be found in Chicago, and a German instrument maker was commissioned to design one. But when it was finally completed, it cost twenty dol lars. Medinah's treasury in those days couldn't afford twenty dollars for one horn and besides it just didn't sound right. Inquiry continued, however, and in igoo, Kurzenknabe found a similar horn, which sounded just right, at the establishment of Sing Fat and Company in San Francisco. Best of all, the horn sold for one dollar.
With the arrival of the horns and tomtoms, a silver triangle and a Chinese gong, the band began rehearsals. There was just one tune, which for want of a better name was called "The Midway." Thou sands of Shriners will remember some of the words that were sung to it: "Mind what your mama says, and mind what your papa says, And don't go near that hootchie kootchie dance." The band made its first public appearance at the April ceremonial of Medinah in i qoo. By the time the September ceremonial was held, there were several more members of the band, but still just one tune, and the nobility was a bit tired of it, no matter how sensuous it might be. Word reached the band that unless new tunes were to be found, ripe tomatoes, seltzer bottles and whatnots would be brought into play. Kurzenknabe hastily dashed off some music that would fit the strange reed instruments and saved the band.
The Medinah Oriental Band made its first parade appearance at the i go i session of the Imperial Council, but the rough cobbled streets of Kansas City made it difficult to play and the Medinah Patrol, which had been marching to the strange cadences, complained. And rightly so. But two more years of rehearsal improved the technique; and when the Orientalists marched at Saratoga Springs they were such a success that they went high hat and looked down on ordinary brass bands. The fact was that as they played "The Midway" at Saratoga, many of the watchers were transformed into muscle dancers and THE NEW CENTURY 145 pseudo‑contortionists. Since then, the Oriental Band has become a standard uniformed unit of almost every temple.
And then at long last, the day came for Al Malaikah Temple to entertain the Imperial Session of 1907 in Los Angeles; but it was an ill‑starred meeting from the first. First of all, the postponement because of the San Francisco disaster had produced some hurt feelings in Al Malaikah and had caused some financial loss to the temple. Also, before the session even opened, the special train in which Lu Lu Temple of Philadelphia had traveled across the nation was wrecked just before it reached Los Angeles. There were no serious injuries, but more than 250 of the Nobles and their ladies had to be removed from the wreckage and placed on open flatcars to complete their journey. Much of the baggage was left at the scene, totally unusable.
Then, two days after the closing of the Imperial Session, occurred the worst disaster in the long history of the Shrine. On that Saturday of May II, there were a score or more of special trains carrying the Nobles and their ladies on sightseeing tours of California. Some were from a single temple; others were from a group of temples which had special cars made up into a single train. Stops were being made at various points throughout the state. Among these special trains was one carrying members of Rajah Temple of Reading, Pennsylvania, Ismailia Temple of Buffalo, Al Koran Temple of Cleveland and Kalurah Temple of Binghamton, New York. The train had left Los Angeles the preceding afternoon, May io; and after an overnight stop in Santa Barbara, it moved northward over the Southern Pacific tracks toward San Francisco, taking the shore route so that the nobility might see the wonders of the Pacific coast. Suddenly, near the town of Honda, sixty‑three miles north of Santa Barbara, on a little peninsula that juts into the ocean beyond the town of Lompoc, the engine crashed into a defective switch.
One wheel of the engine was broken, so that it jumped the track and plowed into the sandy terrain at fifty miles an hour. The baggage car buckled, fell on top of the engine, then half‑buried itself 146 PARADE TO GLORY in the sand. The dining car, which followed the baggage car in the train, buckled and became little more than splinters. A sleeping car also jumped the track, but was less damaged. The remaining two sleepers remained upright‑and fortunately, for the Nobles in those cars formed the only rescue force for hours after the accident. Altogether, thirty‑one Nobles or their ladies were killed in the wreck, most of them from Rajah Temple. They had been in the dining car having a late lunch. Twenty other Nobles were injured and they were removed to San Luis Obispo by special trains provided by the railroad. When the trains arrived at the station, they were met by a group of Masons in the town who had been hastily organized into a relief corps that moved the injured to hospitals and into private homes until arrangements could be made for their further travel.
It was a horrible affair, but as usual the Masons and the Shrine rose to the occasion to give what relief they could. The newly elected Imperial Potentate, Frank C. Roundy of Chicago, was immediately notified, and he made arrangements with banks in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo to place unlimited credit at the disposal of Past Imperial Potentate George L. Brown of Ismailia Temple for the aid of the dead and injured. And he was authorized to call on all the resources of the Imperial Council as well as the resources of Al Malaikah and Islam Temples for what might be needed.
Yet, though the Los Angeles session had an unfortunate beginning and ending, the pageant itself was magnificent, coordinated as it was with the city's own Fiesta of Light, an outstanding parade of dozens of floats, displaying thousands of multicolored roses and carrying beautiful girls just as in the Rose Parades of later years. Millions of lights decorated the streets of the city. As the papers of the day said, the scene beggared description. In fact, it was, by far, the outstanding pageant in the history of the Shrine to that time.
After Los Angeles and its "Fiesta of Light," St. Paul and Louisville entertained the continental reunion of the Shriners; and if those cities lacked the facilities for a rose parade, they certainly did every thing else to make the Shriners welcome. Each succeeding Imperial THE NEW CENTURY 147 Session was becoming larger and gaudier than the last. When George L. Street of Acca Temple delivered his annual address in New Orleans in r q 1 o, he commented that most Shriners thought nothing could ever exceed the decorations in Louisville, but that New Orleans had really outdone itself.
Still, all was not sweetness and light. With the tremendous growth of the fraternity, new problems constantly were being called to the attention of the Imperial Potentates. Frank C. Roundy, who had been one of the most popular of all the high executive officers of the Shrine, realized that growth itself was a problem because many thoughtless Shriners could be hidden in the multitude and many of their misdeeds, according to Shrine law, never brought to light. But his program was to uplift by policy and example rather than by use of the whip. In his annual address in St. Paul in 19o8 he had declared, "We stand, it seems to me, for the finer spirit of Christianity; for the spirit that says `I am my brother's keeper. What comes to him comes to me. Where he goes, there I go.' This being our spirit, the soul of this common country, the faith of all the faiths that constitute our nation, we should as Nobles strive to spread it ever wider and wider over this broad land." If Roundy seemed to refer exclusively to the United States, that was not his intention. During his term, he had sent Past Imperial Potentate Alvah P. Clayton to institute Anezeh Temple in Mexico City, and he certainly was proud of all the Canadian Temples. With the advent of Anezeh, the Shrine had become even more international in spirit, even though it was confined exclusively to the North American continent. Roundy, too, had been an assiduous worker, visiting most if not all of the temples. So great and popular had he become that the Imperial Council took the unusual step of commending him formally.
It might be said that from the time he discovered the Shrine, Roundy's whole life had been given to it. It was he, it will be recalled, who instituted Arabian dress for the Medinah patrol. He served as director of Medinah and for many years as its Potentate. His closest 148 PARADE TO GLORY associates remember that he, along with most of the other early Shriners, was a drinker of good whisky in no mean proportions. But in later years this tapered off, possibly as a result of his year as Imperial Potentate. He told the nobility in his annual address that as a result of his experiences, he could rightfully say that good fellowship depended more on what you thought than on what you drank.
But one of the knottiest and most controversial problems in the first decade of the new century was yet to be faced. Some of the Shrine leadership had seen it coming, but it was not until Louisville that it had reached such proportions that something had to be done about it. Perhaps it had really begun in Toronto in 1888, when many of the representatives took their wives with them and enjoyed the boat ride on the lake. With each passing year, more and more women attended the Imperial Sessions. Then in Los Angeles in 190'7 the "Fiesta of Light" parade included girls riding on the floats. The fact that the "Fiesta of Light" parade was held jointly with the Shrine parade in no wise made them a part of the Shrine pageant, but everyone didn't know that.
In any event, the result was that in i qoq in Louisville, women actually participated in the Shrine parade itself. There were marching units and leaders of the band. Some Shriners took their wives right onto the street with them. It might well be that they enhanced the parade and made it lovelier than it really had a right to be, but the fact was that such activity was strictly against Shrine law; and when he issued the call for the 19 1 o meeting in New Orleans, Imperial Potentate Street issued strict orders that no women were to appear in the parade under any circumstances whatever.
Actually, the parading was only a part of the problem. In Pittsburgh, f or example, wives, daughters, sisters and even mothers of Shriners had organized a Ladies' Oriental Shrine, applied to Syria Temple for the privilege of purchasing old equipment, and demanded space in the mosque for meetings, recognition by the temple and the privilege of parading at the annual sessions. And when the some 31,000 Shriners and their wives arrived in New Orleans, it was THE NEWS CENTURY 149 noticeable that there were hundreds of white f ezzes being worn by the women, some of them with the name of the Shrine temple of their home city on the fez. In the Far West, there had sprung up almost simultaneously another women's organization composed of relatives of Shriners called the "Daughters of Isis." To correct the situation, Imperial Potentate Street in his official order on the female organizations cautioned temples and their officers against giving "any encouragement or support to any organization of women or men, purporting to be an Oriental Shrine, composed of the female members of the families of Nobles of our Order and I hereby forbid any Temple of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, its officers or members, recognizing any such order of women." What had happened, of course, was that the women had begun to see just how much fun the men were having as a result of their Shrine membership, and they wanted in on the act. It was not to be.
The Shrine meeting in New Orleans is still remembered by those who attended. It was by far the largest session ever held up to that time. One hundred and twenty‑one temples were represented, most of them, it seemed, by uniformed units. Canal Street was a mass of light at night, but Bourbon Street was dim‑as many of the Shriners wanted it. Jerusalem Temple had worked for a year for the great event, and the great contribution of the city was the reproduction of the great Mardi Gras parade, with all of the many carnival clubs participating. Newspapers of the city devoted page after page to the great event, decorating their pages with half‑column cartoons of the Shriners in their baggy pantaloons, many of them smoking Turkish pipes.
Alee Temple of Savannah, Georgia, won considerable fame by publicizing its famous Chatham Artillery Punch, which the members claimed was made outside of Savannah only on the rarest and most important occasions. Only a few members were supposed to know the secret recipe dating to 1786, but astute reporters for the New Orleans papers found one Noble who gave the ingredients. He said: "Take the witchery of a southern belle, the magic of southern moon‑ 150 PARADE TO GLORY light, the melody of the mockingbird and mingle them with the dew and you have it." It was notable that the Noble did not even mention "mountain dew." The newspapers also were impressed by the fact that the Shriners almost invariably doffed their fezzes when they entered the myriad bars of the famous city. "It is because the Shriners are sworn never to wear a fez where they would not take their wife, mother, daughter or sweetheart," the paper said.
One of the most famous Shriners at the New Orleans meeting was Simon Michale of El Maida Temple of El Paso. He was the only Shriner present who had ever made the real pilgrimage to Mecca. He wore the same costume he had worn on that famous trip, and recalled that it was the hottest trip he ever made. "I stood against the sacred stone‑that is the Kaaba‑and the sun was so hot it scorched my forehead and my lips when I pressed them against the stone." In between the parades and other social activities, the representatives took official action on three of the mandates laid down by Imperial Potentate Street, all of which are still a part of the Shrine law. The Imperial Council forbade any temple or the membership of any temple to participate in any activity which might lead to the development of a female organization based on Shriner relationship, and it forbade the appearance of any but members of the Order, uniformed bands or male servants in the parade. But there was one more request Street had made, based on a standing resolution submitted at the i qoq session in Louisville. This concerned so‑called temple headquarters being established at Imperial Sessions for the dispensation of hospitality.
Over the years it had become customary for various temples to have special suites of rooms at the hotels, where special gifts were handed out along with copious quantities of Zemzem water. At New Orleans, for example, Islam Temple of San Francisco gave out packages of raisins, sips of grape juice and even wines, including champagne. Medinah Temple of Chicago gave away thousands of roses to the ladies. As a result of all these activities, there had been some THE NEWS CENTURY 151 rowdyism, and all too often some representatives had been delayed in their attendance at official council sessions. This was frowned upon and the 19 1 o session put a stop to it.
Furthermore, it was decided that liquor in any form would be forbidden in the various temple headquarters at Imperial Sessions, in effect sounding the death knell of the old custom of having hospi tality headquarters maintained by the various temples. With each succeeding year, there were fewer of these oases, until they virtually disappeared. There were other and better places to go, particularly to the private suites of Potentates and other temple officials and to the headquarters of various uniformed units.
Liquor, per se, by no means disappeared from the scene of Shrine functions, but more and more it was frowned upon. The temperance movement was gaining ground rapidly, particularly in various seg ments of the Protestant church, and most Shriners were members of the Protestant churches. Prohibition was being discussed openly, and in fact was only a few years away. But, equally important, the Shrine was becoming more complex. The very size of it made it so. With so many men, scattered over such a tremendous area, with sectional, regional and even national influences, there were bound to be differences of opinion and even jealousies (despite the universal Masonic background). These could be resolved only by law. The Imperial Council was the lawgiver, and its membership harkened to its task.
If the first decade of the new century had been one of growth, the second decade would be even more so; but the second decade would be also one of startling change, even though that change would be so subtle in its development that it would pass almost unnoticed until it burst resoundingly upon the scene in Portland, Oregon. New faces were appearing at the Imperial Sessions and reaching the Imperial Divan, among them W. Freeland Kendrick of Lu Lu Temple, whose flamboyant showmanship and almost unbelievable popularity with Shrmers everywhere were to make him one of the most powerful Potentates in the history of the Shrine. He was elected Imperial Outer Guard at the i q i o session of the Imperial Council.
ChapferN To Faraway Places HE decade that began in 191 o at New Orleans and ended June 2q., 1920, in Portland, Oregon, included what might be called the "glory years" in the history of the Shrine. They were years of fun and frolic, years of pilgrimage to far points of the world, years of growth more astounding than even the first decade of the new century, years of problems created by that growth, and, perhaps most important, years in which the Shrine was to be affected by the events of history itself.
Fred A. Hines of Al Malaikah (Los Angeles) was elected Imperial Potentate at New Orleans. At the very least, he was one of the hardest‑working executives the Shrine ever had. He served for fifteen months, one of the longest tenures, occasioned by the fact that he had been elected in April and the 1911 session in Rochester, New York, was not held until July. During that period, he visited seventyone cities in North America and the Hawaiian Islands. He was actually on the road in behalf of the Shrine for twelve full months and submitted a bill for expenses at the end of his term for $6,500, which was paid. It was an innovation and a portent of things to come, for the job of Imperial Potentate had reached such proportions that it was a full‑time task. It meant a year in which the Imperial Poten152 TO FARAWAY PLACES 153 tate would have no time for his regular business, no matter what it might be.
Out of the welter of knowledge Hines had gained in his service to the Shrine, he developed some rather novel ideas, and he proceeded to submit them to the representatives at the Rochester meet ing. He was a forceful writer and a forceful speaker. He minced no words in his annual address. The Shrine, he said, must face the fact that few cities in North America could properly handle the annual sessions of the Imperial Council. They had become too big. There was not enough hotel space. He suggested that perhaps North America should be divided into four or five jurisdictions, each headed by a deputy Imperial Potentate, each holding an annual session which could be attended by the Imperial Potentate, Imperial Recorder and Imperial Treasurer. He also suggested that the Shrine might buy five thousand or more acres of land in the upper Middle West as a national headquarters. Hotels could be built there. He would build a convention hall and sports fields, including a golf course.
"Give to each Shrine temple," he said, "ten acres of ground on which to erect its own headquarters as long as the temple obeys Shrine law. The temples could vie with one another for the beauty of their respective places. Give to each Shriner an acre of ground on condition that he build and maintain a one thousand dollar bungalow." It was Hines' thought that the settlement could be used on a yearround basis for recreational purposes, but too, he said, "It would permit us to get away from the hoodlums that are in every city, who take advantage of the occasion to make all kinds of disturbances, and for which we, as an organization, get the credit." But this was only a part of the problem. Once again, there were heard criticisms of the Shrine from members of the Masonic degrees. The criticisms were not so numerous as they had been in the past, but they were there. They came mostly from the jealous and the disgruntled, but they could not be ignored.
"The more we increase in numbers," Hines ‑told the Rochester session, "the more necessary it is that when appearing before the pub‑ 154 PARADE TO GLORY lic, as Shriners, we should not only collectively but individually maintain our proud title of gentlemen, and the time must come when the wearing of the Shrine jewel will have only that meaning. . . .
"The men who originated the Shrine in this country had little idea that the few who were called together were to be the nucleus of such an institution as the Mystic Shrine is proving today; if they had they would have commenced with more stringent laws and probably would not have made the success of it that they did. Be that as it may, the condition now confronts us of possessing a wonderful power, a power that can be grasped with ease now, but which allowed to go on in its pursuit of pleasure only, will dash itself against the rocks of purposeless existence and go to pieces." In the light of subsequent events, it may well be that Hines had a prophetic vision, for the purpose he sought and pleaded for was to develop a goal or a program, even though his hope for a permanent Mecca was to be dashed by the committee he appointed to investigate the prospects. The committee reported back to the 1912 session of the Imperial Council and its report was printed in the proceedings without debate. Nothing more was ever heard of the idea until 1958, when the Imperial Council authorized a permanent headquarters building in Chicago. After looking at many pieces of property, a committee headed by Imperial Potentate George E. Stringf ellow signed papers for the purchase of an entire building in the 6oo block on Michigan Boulevard, to be occupied within a year after extensive remodeling. It is notable that the entire operation‑purchasing and remodeling‑will be within the budget of $ 8oo,ooo approved by the Imperial Council.
The Shriners had a good time in Rochester despite the inadequacy of housing, and they seemed not to have a care or thought outside their own pleasure, despite the warnings from Imperial Po tentate Hines. But there were rumblings of things to come. All over the world there was discontent. China had thrown over the Manchu dynasty and Sun Yat‑sen had established a republic. There was revolution in Mexico. The Balkans were seething with unrest, and Russia TO FARAWAY PLACES 155 and Germany were taking sides in that controversy. Even in the United States, liberalism was gaining. Unionism was on the march and riots were by no means unique. Teddy Roosevelt was returning to the political wars because he disagreed with the conservatism of William Howard Taft. A new kind of life was in the making all over the world‑even for the Shriners although most of them didn't know it.
The Shriners returned to Los Angeles for their 1912 Imperial Council session and, true to the reputation established in 190'] when the great rose parade was held, the committee from Al Malaikah created another great pageant, but it was subdued. It pictured the long‑dead era of the Spanish Missions, many of which were even then decaying in picturesque ruin. It was more than a sight for the Shriners and other visitors to Los Angeles to behold. It was an historical event, a journey, as the Los Angeles Herald put it, into the land of yesterday. There was no fanfare of trumpets. There were no splashes of color to make the parade gaudy; no lively melodies to set the feet of spectators in motion. There was only the meaningful black, the virginal white, the devotional purple, the hopeful gray, and at the end of the long column as though a guard of honor, there was a single Arab patrol, marching with precision but without ostentation.
The Shriners, of course, held their own parade which was as bright and brilliant as the mission parade was somber, and the Shriners themselves were as gay as ever. Despite the warnings to eliminate souvenirs, Oleika Temple of Lexington, Kentucky, arrived in town with three thousand one‑ounce bottles of Kentucky moonshine. But the Oleika Nobles contended the bottles were really not souvenirs at all, but proof positive of a Kentucky Noble's ability to judge good whisky, about which there had been some question raised.
The greatest sensation of the entire session, however, was the escape from captivity of two black snakes that had been brought to Los Angeles by Ballut Abyad Temple of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for use in an Indian snake dance. A. M. Fitz and‑ J. J. Sheridan were the custodians of the reptiles, and Fitz admitted later that it was he 156 PARADE TO GLORY who had smuggled them into his hotel room, where he had them lodged in a box. The trouble was that he forgot to lock the box, or someone else unlocked it, for two of the snakes escaped and slithered across some of the adjoining roofs. Reporters and photographers arrived and the papers were filled with the episode, but after a good deal of scurrying around chimneys and other rooftop impedimenta, the snakes were finally captured and returned to their dens.
All in all, despite the subdued atmosphere of the pageant, the second visit of the Imperial Session to Los Angeles was full of fun and went unmarred by the disasters of 1907. There was important activity in the august chamber of representatives, too, activity that was to have a profound effect on important events of the future. Imperial Potentate John F. Treat of El Zagal Temple in Fargo, North Dakota, reported at length in his annual message on his refusal to grant a dispensation to Islam, Osman or Jerusalem temples to hold a ceremonial in the newly created locks of the Panama Canal before water was turned into them, and his refusal was sustained by the Imperial Council. His argument was that Imperial law prescribes that dispensation for visiting ceremonials could be granted only in those states and territories where no Shrine temple existed. Taking the literal meaning of the law, he said the Panama Canal Zone was neither a state nor a territory. It did not fall into the same category as dispensations granted to hold ceremonials in the Territory of Alaska. The Alaskan ceremonials have been held with great success, beginning in i qoq, by Nile Temple of Seattle, the travelingest of all temples. Including the i qoq ceremonial, Nile has visited Alaska thirtyfive times, creating Nobles in one or more cities while there. But in addition, Nile has made fifteen pilgrimages to the Orient, creating almost two thousand Nobles (including General Douglas MacArthur) in Manila, Shanghai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Okinawa and Taipei. Most of the nobility created in the Orient have been in some manner in government service, either as military or civilian personnel. (In addition to Nile, Aahmes Temple of Oakland, California; Afifi TO FARAWAY PLACES 157 of Tacoma, Washington; Al Malaikah of Los Angeles; Aloha of Honolulu; and Moslah Temple of Fort Worth, Texas, have made pilgrimages to Europe, performing ceremonials‑principally for the military‑in Paris, Heidelberg and Frankfurt.) With this example before them, there was dismay among the members of Islam, Osman and Jerusalem temples at the action of the Imperial Council in refusing the dispensation for the Panama Canal ceremonial; and there was further dismay in the months that followed, for William J. Cunningham of Boumi Temple in Baltimore, who was elected Imperial Potentate in Los Angeles, also refused the dispensation on the same grounds followed by Imperial Potentate Treat. He so reported to the Imperial Council when it met in Dallas, Texas, May 13, 1913, and again the action was upheld. Yet, within a month after his election, Cunningham had granted another dispensation for a ceremonial in Alaska.
The Dallas session is still one that is talked about by those who were there. The city had grown from the western cow town of 40,000 persons that had entertained the Imperial Session in 1898 to a metropolitan city of more than ioo,ooo. But the Shrine had grown too. From the 79 temples and So,ooo members of 1898, the Shrine had grown to 13 3 temples with almost 200,000 members, and it seemed that most of them were in Dallas. Members of Hella Temple set up a hospital and a special corps of physicians in Fair Park to handle the huge throng, estimated at between S S,ooo and 60,000, more than half the total population of the city.
Special trains began arriving on Sunday, May ii, and for the Shriners who arrived early, there was the excitement caused by the destruction by fire of the Nieman‑Marcus store, one of the biggest in the city. But it was not until Monday that the real crowds began to arrive, taxing the facilities of the railroad yards. Among the early arrivals were the members of Al Chymia Temple of Memphis, Tennessee, who wanted the 1914 session in their city. They all wore placards which called Memphis the "largest dry‑city in the United States and the wettest dry city in the world." But the Imperial Coun‑ 158 PARADE TO GLORY cil was unimpressed. It selected Atlanta, Georgia, for the next meeting.
The Dallas News reported that all day long the camels and elephants were coming. The downtown streets rocked to the rhythm of the marching bands, and the pomp and splendor and merrymak ing went on until midnight in the streets, then continued much longer at dances that were held throughout the city. The illumination was such as Arabia had never known, and the Shriners also got their first taste of Texas life.
At one of the entertainments given for band and patrol members, there was suddenly a shot from a six‑shooter held in the hands of a cowboy‑attired Texan. A Negro boy let out a wild shout. There was another shot and a wilder yell from a flying black form that overturned a table and sent dishes crashing. The Shriners fell back in amazement. Some dodged behind posts. Some ducked under the tables, and others simply threw themselves to the ground. Even some of the Dallas hosts were awed when the pistol was pointed at them. But it was all a put‑up job of entertainment. Still, one Shriner from Mecca Temple said they might as well have been shot as scared to death.
The parade on Tuesday night, May 13, brought together the largest crowd ever assembled in Texas. The Shriners paraded for an hour and a half in Oriental finery that transformed Dallas into a new Baghdad. And after it was over, the Shriners were served with a mammoth barbecue, the biggest, the Nobles of Hella Temple said, in the history of the world. It included five hundred beeves, served on six thousand feet of table, with gallons of pickles and barrels of beer.
The festivities were by no means dimmed by the reports to the Imperial Council of Shrine activities in disasters that had affected the nation during the past year. A series of storms had brought tornadoes and floods that had created havoc through much of the Middle West. On March 23, a tornado struck Omaha, Nebraska, killing 140 persons and injuring 350. Six hundred and forty‑two houses were destroyed TO FARAWAY PLACES 159 and more than a thousand damaged. More than two thousand were homeless. Tangier Temple of Omaha with the help of other temples contributed to the relief of the stricken city, and the Tangier Temple patrol voted to give up their trip to Dallas and put that money into the relief fund.
But it was in the Ohio valley that the greatest disasters occurred. On March z 3 the streams were so swollen that fear was expressed that the levees would not hold. Already there was distress up and down the Ohio from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to the Mississippi and in most of the tributaries. A Masonic Relief Committee was formed even then, but the greatest disaster was yet to come. Sometime after 5: 30 on the morning of March 25, the dam on the Miami River above Dayton burst. By ten o'clock that morning, Dayton was flooded and to a large extent destroyed. As the waters poured down on Hamilton, Ohio, and the other towns and villages near at hand, they also were affected.
As soon as word reached Cincinnati, Past Imperial Potentate William B. Melish communicated with Imperial Potentate Cunningham, who immediately authorized ten thousand dollars for relief from the Imperial treasury. The Potentate of Syrian Temple called a committee together within an hour after the news was received and the committee reached Dayton before nightfall. They found indescribable horror and called for help. Within twenty‑four hours, four carloads of foodstuffs and medical supplies were on their way, sent by Syrian Temple. Thousands of cans of food were included. And later, motorboats to distribute the food were sent from Cincinnati by motor truck. Other cities up and down the Ohio and its tributaries where there were Shrine temples‑Parkersburg, Columbus, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Evansville and Louisville‑all reported they would handle their own relief. Imperial Potentate Cunningham issued an official distress call to temples everywhere and they responded willingly with money to ease the suffering.
It was these and other events in the history of the Shrine that prompted the Dallas News to report in 1913 that the Shrine object is "to aid the distressed, comfort the afflicted, protect the innocent, har‑ 160 PARADE TO GLORY monize rank and station, obliterate intolerance and perpetuate the welfare of mankind." It was a noble object, and nearer to material fruition than the Shriners of 1913 dreamed.
Elected as Imperial Potentate at the Dallas session was William W. Irwin of Osiris Temple in Wheeling, West Virginia, and he brought a new sparkle to the task, aided and perhaps urged forward to some extent by Dr. O. W. Burdats, a Past Potentate of Osiris, who was to gain a reputation during his life as the most fun‑loving Shriner in the realm. It was Irwin who made possible three great pilgrimages in 1913 and 191 q.‑Osman and Jerusalem Temples to the Panama Canal Zone and Nile Temple to the Philippine Islands. As much as anything else, the pilgrimages reflected the expansion of the United States into a world power, the dispersion of Americans to the four corners of the earth and their insistence that their Masonic affiliations should be maintained and their Masonic life nurtured even in the strange nations they inhabited.
As early as 1911, Shriners in the Canal Zone, members of several temples in the United States, had organized themselves into a Shriners' club; and because they always seemed to have fun, other Masons with the prerequisite degrees sought affiliation. Imperial Potentates Treat and Cunningham had declined dispensation for ceremonials in the Canal Zone because, technically, these men had no Masonic residence: the Canal Zone not being included in any jurisdiction of either the Knights Templar or Scottish Rite. In 1912, however, Grand Commander William B. Melish of the Knights Templar issued a dispensation for the establishment of a Commandery in the Canal Zone and, later the same year, the Consistory of Louisiana announced it had adopted the Canal Zone into its jurisdiction.
With these obstacles removed, Imperial Potentate Irwin granted the dispensation for a ceremonial in the Canal Zone, to be held on Labor Day, September 1, 1913. That Osman Temple was chosen for the pilgrimage was largely due to the tireless‑efforts of J. Harry Lewis, Osman Potentate and editor and publisher of The Crescent, a national
(161)
162 PARADE TO GLORY magazine for Shriners, and W. O. Washburn, the Chief Rabban of Osman.
There is a story told that, when the question of making the pilgrimage first went before the Osman Divan, Lewis had wired the chairs electrically in advance so that, when he asked for a rising vote and slyly pressed a button, the entire membership of the Divan immediately arose to its feet.
St. Paul made a great holiday of the departure of the Osman party. There were ceremonies at City Hall and at the State Capitol, with messages from the mayor and the governor for other mayors and gov ernors who would be met on the trip. As the special train, carrying 165 Nobles and their ladies, including the Osman band and patrol, steamed out of the station on the night of August i q, 1913, factory whistles in the city let loose with a cacophony of "good speed." The ceremonial in the Canal Zone was held on a stage erected on the floor of Miraflores Lock in the Canal. Afterward a plaque was erected atop the lock above the exact spot where on September 1, 19 13, the only ceremonial ever held in the Panama Canal was enacted and 170 weary Sons of the Desert were created Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
The pilgrimage of Jerusalem Temple to the Canal Zone followed a convocation of the Scottish Rite, where additional Masons received the prerequisite degrees. It was held on a new pier at Colon on the night of March 28, 19 14.
The Pilgrimage of Nile Temple to the Philippines was far longer, and was less impressive only because it could be repeated at some future date. Three thousand Nobles of Nile Temple cheered the Shrine ship Minnesota as it sailed from Seattle at high noon on December 30, 1913. After tourist stops in Japan, the ship arrived in Manila on January 30; and on the night of January 31, 140 additional Sons of the Desert were rewarded for their efforts by becoming members of the Shrine. The ship then visited China and returned to Seattle on March 12, having covered 14,000 miles. Two hundred Nobles and ladies, representing twenty‑nine temples, were represented on the pilgrimage.
TO FARAWAY PLACES 163 Those were indeed halcyon days, all too soon to be shattered by the turn of world events. And if only a few Shriners and only a few temples could make the world‑wide pilgrimages, other temples could and did make lesser pilgrimages. To extinct volcanic craters, to deep caverns, to the California desert, and just to towns within their jurisdictions, the Shriners moved in their effort to have more fun themselves and to make more men Shriners so that they, too, could join in the fun.
Chapter 15 "Our Lives, Our Fortunes" T WAS during the year that William W. Irwin served as Imperial Potentate that the last two of the original "13" who formed the Shrine passed the veil into the valley from which there is no re turn. Dr. Walter M. Fleming died at the home of his son in Mount Vernon, New York, on September q, 1913, and George W. Millar died in New York March 28, 1g14, forty‑two years after the founding of the fraternity.
On January r, 194, the Imperial Recorder would report, the Shrine had passed the 200,000 mark in membership. It had been fortytwo years of fun, frolic and service to their fellowmen; forty‑two years during which the Shriners had become known everywhere as "high‑up Masons" and during which they had replaced the Knights Templar as the foremost parading organization in the world.
At the Imperial Session, which began May 12, 1914, in Atlanta, Georgia, army recruiting stations reported that they had had a flood of applications from the young men of Georgia, who were impressed by the war scares in Mexico and Europe and by the Shrine uniforms. The young men combined the two and decided that army life must indeed be wonderful.
And it was quite a show that the members of Yaarab Temple of Atlanta, the people of Atlanta, and the Shiners put on. The Atlanta 164 "OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES" 165 Journal (with perhaps exaggerated but pardonable pride) called the session the biggest convention in the history of the world and declared the city's decorations were the most stupendous ever known. There were 30,000 flags and ioo,ooo yards of bunting, all of which cost $ 3 o,ooo. Four thousand Shriners were housed in railroad trains in a railroad section that had been named Shrine Park. Streets were roped off for dances that began at eleven o'clock in the evening and continued until the bands went to sleep. For the first time in Georgia Tech history, the students were given an extra day off to watch the great parade. All the clubs in the city kept open house for the Shriners. One Shriner in a wornout police uniform arrested half the people on Peach Tree Street, and directed traffic for an hour. One group of twenty Shriners made up a Kazoo band and toured the city playing the "Hootchie‑Kootchie Dance," and required the girls to dance.
When it was over, the Atlanta Journal editorially declared it to have been the merriest and most enchanting week in the life of Atlanta. "The Shriners have proved themselves to be royal guests. Every hour of their sojourn has been glorious with color and music and brimming over with good fellowship. They came in caravans of joy, rich‑hearted pilgrims from every section of the western world and this oasis bloomed a thousand times more brightly . . ." But behind the pageantry and the fun, there was more serious business, too. With Mexico torn by revolution and the Marines already in Vera Cruz, a resolution was offered to the Imperial Council calling on all temples to render every possible service to refugee Nobles who might be expelled from Mexico and permitting the temples to call on the Imperial Council for a refund in any monies expended in behalf of the refugees. The Imperial Council never got around to acting on the proffered resolution, but there was talk about it and it was tacitly admitted that the Imperial Potentate would so act.
Then there was the resolution by David B. G. Rose of Kosair Temple in Louisville, which in essence was development of the 1902 resolution by Morocco Temple of Jacksonville, Florida, calling for the establishment of a Shrine tubercular sanitarium. Rose's resolution 166 PARADE TO GLORY called for the Imperial Potentate to appoint a committee of five to investigate the possibility of the establishment of a benevolent institution for dependent Shriners and their families "in the name of, by, and through the influence and support of the A.A.O.N.M.S." It was another step in the movement of the Shrine toward the development of a Shrine project. However, though the resolution was adopted and the committee of five appointed by the new Imperial Potentate, Frederick R. Smith of Damascus Temple of Rochester, New York, the idea failed to muster much support. The committee reported to the Imperial Council in 19 15 at Seattle, Washington, that the development of such an institution would be a benevolence worthy of the Order, but that at the present time it would be inadvisable and impracticable. The cost, the committee said, would be unwarranted; besides the Masonic Order maintained charitable and benevolent institutions in almost every jurisdiction, and since all Shriners were Masons, these institutions could be used. The extensive territorial jurisdiction of the Shrine, the location of such an institution and the selection of its guests made the whole thing almost impossible. The special committee moved to abandon the project and the Imperial Council unanimously agreed.
When the Shriners left Atlanta, they did so with merry hearts and reverent minds, but just six weeks later Gavrillo Prinzip, a Bosnian Serb terrorist, shot and killed Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Aus trian throne, an event that in itself attracted comparatively little interest among Americans but one which would precipitate other events leading to war, which officially was declared July 2 8 by Austria against Serbia. Events moved swiftly in Europe and as the winter holidays approached, all Europe was in flames. In the United States, there was interest, particularly because Canadians had answered the call of King and Empire, but there was little thought that the United States would ever be drawn into the conflict. Among Masons, however, there was a realization that fraternal brothers at some time or other might need help, and on November 28, William B. Melish organized the Masonic War Relief Association of the United States. Arthur McArthur, Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, was "OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES" 167 elected president, and Bernard G. Witt, General Grand High Priest of the Royal Arch Masons, and Imperial Potentate Frederick R. Smith served as vice president; but it was Melish, as chairman of the executive committee, who really operated the association.
Smith sent an appeal for funds to all Shrine temples. The object of the association, he said, was to aid the sufferers from the European war, and "as Masonry is universal, so too will this charity embrace the people of all the nations at war. . . ." By the time the Shrine assembled in Seattle on July 13, 1915, nearly ten thousand dollars had been raised by the temples alone for the Masonic charity. In the years that followed, the Shrine contributed thousands upon thousands more from the Imperial treasury. Individual temples and individual Shriners contributed still thousands more. Most of the money was used for the maintenance of two orphan asylums‑one in Paris, the other near London‑where the destitute victims of the conflict were treated with great understanding without regard for race, creed or national origin.
But this was only the beginning of the Shrine's part in the war. Even as the Imperial Council assembled in Seattle, the Shriners and for that matter most Americans had begun to realize that the war in Europe was no small Balkan squabble. There was horror at the starvation of the Belgians. There was even greater horror at the senseless sinking of the Lusitania in May of 1915 with a loss of American lives. Of course the Shriners paraded in Seattle as if there were no war. Times were good. American farmers were feeding the Allies. American industry was supplying much of the material of war. Still, there was an undercurrent of tension that went beyond regular Shrine affairs. Some American boys already had joined the Lafayette Escadrille. Others had joined up with Canadian forces. During the Imperial Session itself, the Liberty Bell passed through Seattle on its way to the San Francisco Exposition, and the Imperial officers and representatives went in a body to see it.
Officially, about the most important event of the three‑day meeting in Seattle was the decision to have a special ceremonial presented 168 PARADE TO GLORY in 19 16 in Buffalo to show various temple officers how to execute it. The proposal for such a ceremonial came from Charles Symmes of El Riad Temple in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, who had gained something of a reputation as a ceremonial director. As so frequently happens, since he made the proposal, he could do the work. He was named chairman of the committee and when the ceremonial was presented in Buffalo, it was quite an affair.
New York designers and decorators had prepared special stage scenery; and from all over the continent the best patrols, ceremonial producers, singers, dancers and musicians participated in the great cere monial. The officers were chosen for their individual talents, but it was to Symmes, who directed the entire affair, that the Nobles gave their applause.
At almost the same time that the Shiners: were meeting in Buffalo, the Republicans and Democrats were nominating Charles Evans Hughes and Woodrow Wilson for President, and for the three months of the campaign the people would hear "He kept us out of war." But it was a foolish hope and was not to be. Many of the Shriners knew it, for already they were being called upon for work that sometimes verged on "cloak and dagger" stuff. Henry F. Niedringhaus, Jr., of Moolah Temple was elected Imperial Potentate at Buffalo; and while he continued to make his regular visitations, even after the United States entered the war near the end of his tenure, he also devoted much time to war work.
Hardly had the convention in Buffalo closed when a bomb exploded in a Los Angeles Preparedness Day parade, resulting in the conviction and long court fight of Tom Mooney. And on July 30, there was the famous Black Tom explosion at munitions loading docks in Jersey City, New Jersey. The bloody battles of the Somme, which were being fought even as the Shriners met, continued on into August.
For three months, the nation listened to the oratory of the politicians and finally reelected Wilson, even though Hughes went to bed election night convinced he had won. But even during the stirring times, there was a noticeable trend toward patriotism. Parades were "OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES" 169 held designed to raise funds for the Red Cross and other patriotic organizations, and whenever asked, the Shriners paraded too. After all, the Shriners were not only the best parade group in every city, but were by far the most colorful.
Day by day the tensions grew. Unlimited submarine warfare was declared by the Germans, and finally on February z, 1917, the United States severed diplomatic relations with the Germans. Active prepara tions for American entry into the war were stepped up. American merchant ships were armed, and on April 6, the government declared a state of war existed with Germany.
Temples, as if they had planned it, swung into high gear. All available funds were invested in Liberty Bonds. Special Liberty Loan auctions were held. The Imperial Potentate was called in by Food Ad ministrator Herbert C. Hoover, and the Shrine curtailed its banquet operations. For the temple units, it was parade, parade, parade. And parade they did. Comparatively few of the Shriners were called into the armed services, for most of them were too old to carry a gun; but scores of them served as officers, and thousands upon thousands of Shiners watched their sons march away.
The 1917 session of the Imperial Council had been awarded to Minneapolis, and Zuhrah Temple went to considerable effort to prepare for it. But with the advent of war, there were complications. Railroad travel was difficult, and after long consultation with Charles E. Ovenshire of Zuhrah, who was to become the next Imperial Potentate, Niedringhaus told the temples not to send bands, patrols or other units. Hilarity would be out of place and the Minneapolis session would be devoted exclusively to the business of the fraternity. Many temple units which had raised funds for the trip to Minneapolis turned them over to various war relief societies.
Under the circumstances, the Minneapolis meeting was rather dull. No banquets. No parades. Just business. The representatives got it over with as quickly as possible and decided to meet in Atlantic City in 19 18, when the war might be over. But it wasn't over "over there" and in fact the Germans were just at that time bringing the war almost 170 PARADE TO GLORY to the beaches of New Jersey and New England. The Imperial officers and representatives began to arrive at the coastal resort on Sunday, June z, 1918, and that evening, just at dusk, the German submarine U37 stopped the passenger steamer Carolina i so miles southeast of Atlantic City, ordered all hands and passengers into small boats and then sank the craft with gunfire. Some of the four hundred passengers reached Lewes, Delaware, and some were picked up by a coastwise trawler and taken to New York, but one small boat with twenty‑nine passengers and sailors aboard reached the beach at Atlantic City on the morning of June 4. Shriners, some of them in "full regalia," as the New York Times put it, joined townspeople in wading into the surf to pull the craft ashore. The Lu Lu Temple band that happened to be parading near the point where the lifeboat landed struck up "The Star‑Spangled Banner," and everyone sang.
By the morning of June 5, the Shriners had contributed more than a thousand dollars for the relief of the destitute victims of the Carolina and this was formally handed to Noble Harry Bacharach, the mayor of Atlantic City, who responded with a patriotic speech. In fact, much of the Atlantic City Imperial session was flavored with patriotic fervor, and naturally so.
"In a world so full of sorrow," Imperial Potentate Charles E. Ovenshire reported, "the Mystic Shrine has added a touch of happiness with its ceremonials and afforded an opportunity of touching elbows with friends and giving to one another the moral support so much needed when civilization itself seems to be tottering, while at the same time it has cooperated with every branch of the government in every way." Ovenshire also praised the temples that had organized units of women in their families to help with the war effort. It may have been a technical violation of the rules which prohibited any organization of women in the Shrine, but no one thought about such rules in the stress of conflict. "Their [the ladies] work," Ovenshire said, "may well be an inspiration to us, their spirit one to emulate, and their accomplishments a spur to renewed effort on our part to give the boys "OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES" 171 at the front every substantial evidence that we are behind them with every dollar, all our time, all our effort and all our sincerest wishes for their speedy and successful culmination of this crime of the ages." And so it went. There were reports of temple funds that had been invested in Liberty Bonds, of the thousands of dollars given to the Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A., the Salvation Army and other organiza tions that contributed to the war. Ovenshire also reported that the membership in the Shrine had passed the quarter of a million mark with 259,113 Nobles, 11,649 of them in the service. Nearly 2,800 Nobles had been created while they were in uniform. Temple service flags had become dotted here and there with gold stars, and for them Ovenshire pronounced his benediction, "May Allah bless and protect them." Among the stunts adopted by Shriners in the war effort was one created by Salaam Temple of Newark, New Jersey, that offered a sack of flour to be auctioned to the highest bidders for Liberty Bonds. Actually the sack of flour crossed the continent several times and resulted in the purchase of more than $8o,ooo in bonds.
The Shrine, too, had been active in its own charitable way. When a munitions ship exploded in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 6, 1917, Ovenshire had sent one thousand dollars to the Potentate of little Philae Temple in that city and offered more as it was needed. A third of the city had been destroyed, and as many as 1,6oo persons killed.
Except for the overtones of war, the Atlantic City session was devoted exclusively to the business of the Shrine. There were always minute details relating to jurisdictional lines and interpretations of Shrine law that had to be dealt with, but largely it was an harmonious session. It was the last of the war meetings.
Chapter 16 the Wells of Zemzem Run Dry HE end of the war and the advent of prohibition both presented major problems to Elias J. Jacoby of Murat Temple, who was elected Imperial Potentate at the Atlantic City session. He had selected his home city of Indianapolis for the 19 19 session of the Imperial Council, but because the war did not end until November i i, 1918, he could not anticipate with any degree of reality that bands, patrols and other units could be invited. As far as he could foresee by the first of the year, the Indianapolis meeting would again be strictly a business session.
On the date the Armistice was signed, Jacoby was in New Orleans. He was awakened early by the shrieking of whistles and the ringing of bells, proclaiming peace. By midday he had arrived at Hat tiesburg, Mississippi, on his way to Meridian for an official visitation. Hattiesburg was one of the great war training centers; and all morning long there had been speeches, parades and joyous celebration at the news that the war was over. Of course the Imperial Potentate also was asked to speak from a platform at the railroad station. Again that evening, he spoke to the children in the Mississippi Masonic home in Meridian, hoping they might be spared in the future the ravages of conflict.
172 THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM RUN DRY 173 As quickly as possible, Jacoby got in touch with his committees in Indianapolis and made arrangements to expand the convention into a full‑blown, prewar affair, but it was not until February i, 19 19, that he issued a special order to all of the temples, advising them that the patrols and bands would be invited to participate. It was short notice, but they responded. They had waited three years‑since Buffalo in 19i6‑for a chance to parade. Furthermore, the Eighteenth Amendment had been approved. The Volstead Act was less than a year away and it was obvious that the wells of Zemzem were running dry.
The units and the Imperial officers and representatives began to arrive in Indianapolis on Monday, June q, r q 19, and they were greeted by as gaudy a sight as Shriners had ever witnessed. The Murat Shriners had gone all out to entertain their fraternal brothers. By Monday evening, there appeared to be a band concert on every corner and in every hotel lobby. And every temple had tried to think up something new by which they could have a good time.
J. H. Dickey of Moslah Temple in Fort Worth, Texas, brought along a lariat with a cowbell on it, and he threw it at pedestrians in true Western style. And when they were caught and well tied, Dickey demanded a contribution for the Salvation Army. He got it, too. The boys of El Mina Temple in Galveston, Texas, paraded around in horrible bathing suits, which prompted one Indianapolis resident to remark, "When I was a boy, I wouldn't act up that way out in the woods." Jerusalem Temple of New Orleans brought along five colored women who were advertised as the champion praline makers of the world, and they displayed their art on the street. New Orleans also brought along a red‑hot Negro jazz band from Lower Basin Street that entertained throughout the convention. Al Malaikah Temple had enough California fruit to invite the whole city of Indianapolis to visit their headquarters.
But the prize attraction of the three days was staged by Aladdin Temple of Columbus, Ohio. Standing in the geographic center of Indianapolis is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, on the eastern and western sides of which are pools, fed by huge fountains. The monu‑ 174 PARADE TO GLORY ment is set in a circular plaza called Monument Circle, the traffic center of the city. In i q i q, the monument was guarded and maintained by Civil War veterans, and they looked askance at any frivolity affecting their charge. Attending the session as members of the Aladdin patrol were Curt Lanimer, a female impersonator of some note, and his buddy, Bill Sherry. After the escort parade on Tuesday, Lanimer dressed up in his best dress and with Sherry proceeded to the monument. With great ceremony, he left a note saying that he was tired of life and proceeded to jump into the pool. Sherry then put on quite a show. He found the note and in a loud voice proclaimed what had happened. As a crowd gathered and at the proper moment, Sherry jumped in the pool to save the girl. Neither was ever seen again. The guards jumped up and down at what they called the desecration of their monument. But the Shriners meant no harm or disrespect. They were simply having fun.
The great night parade, the Indianapolis News said, would forever be known as "The parade." And perhaps to that time it was the greatest of all Shrine spectacles. There were five thousand Shriners in costume and another two thousand who marched in full evening dress.
After the session was over, the News said editorially: "There are conventions and conventions‑but only one Shriners' convention. It is unique, unsurpassed and unsurpassable, inimitable, incomparable, sovereign, unparalleled, supreme. Indianapolis knows. Weeks will be required for recuperation. The streets will seem temporarily a morgue." Indeed it was true. From that memorable week forward, the Shriners were to be known as the great conventioneers, the finest paraders, the most fun‑loving and fun‑provoking organization in all the Americas. On January i of i q i q, there were 288,697 of them, and a year later there were 363,744, and year by year more and more wanted to attend the Imperial Session and participate in the fun.
Despite all the hilarity, the Imperial Council itself engaged in important activities.
THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM RUN DRY 175 From time to time over the years since 18‑76, there had been demands for the revision of the Ritual, and some few had been made as skeptical Nobles raised questions which as often as not were subject to the cliche that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." There were those who couldn't find the meaning of certain words. There were those who said the Ritual as it stood didn't make much sense and still others who demanded that the Ritual must be historically correct and factually impregnable. Jacoby had finally appointed a committee to consider the complaints. It is to Jacoby's credit that he named Past Imperial Potentate Ovenshire as the chairman of that committee, which had met in Indianapolis in November of 1918 and prepared a report to be submitted to the Indianapolis session of the Imperial Council. The committee wrote: In our study of the original Ritual, written by our beloved, departed Illustrious Noble friend, Walter M. Fleming, and of the later Ritual adopted by the Imperial Council July 24, 1894, many glaring errors were discovered, particularly in the titles, terms and usages prevalent in the language of the Ritual. From an academic standpoint, our Shrine and our Ritual would be held up to ridicule by the savant, or even the progressive student of Arabic learning. Scarcely any of the alleged Arabic supports of the Ritual could stand the test of analytical examination without falling down completely. From such knowledge, your committee is led to the conclusion that Noble Fleming and his alleged twelve co‑humorists perpetrated a huge and most successful canard in the origin of the Ritual of the Mystic Shrine and to the dear old doctor's eternal credit be it said that he builded far better than he even suspected through his joke, which has become the merry and substantial foundation of the greatest, most liberal and most potent organization of friendly fellowship in the world today.
To revise the Ritual of the Shrine academically, to make it conform to Arabic nomenclature, customs, practices and ideals would be to drastically reconstruct the entire work of its ingenuous and humorous author and to deprive it of all that has made it so attractively amusing to its many thousands of admiring followers. The Ritual as it was has held its own with little or no criticism or objection for nearly forty years; on its foundation an organization of nobility numbering 3oo,ooo has been erected.
(176)
THE WELLS OF ZEMZEM RUN DRY 177 In the opinion of your committee any drastic attack on the established foundation of our organization would be a grievous mistake.
"The Mason's Playground" is a place of kindly, wholesome humor. Noble Fleming gave the Shrine such harmless humor in his conception of the Ritual. We would not mar his work through cold conformation to Arabic‑or any other‑customs.
There never again was to be an attempt directed toward a major revision of the Ritual. The committee's report was received and unanimously adopted, but it did not end the controversy over the back ground of the Shrine itself. That was to continue for years to come, even though it was academic. The Shriners who fashioned the fraternity had entered into an unseen temple, and the records they left behind for the millions who followed were fragmentary. The Shriners who investigated could not change the facts and, even if they could, would not have been permitted to do so by the hundreds of thousands of Shriners who enjoyed things as they found them. Besides, there were more important things ahead.
Elected at Indianapolis in i g i g to succeed Elias Jacoby as Imperial Potentate was W. Freeland Kendrick, the Potentate of Lu Lu Temple in Philadelphia, and his election set off a chain reaction that was to give the Shrine a soul‑a soul so big that it passeth understanding, a soul so big that in the light of thirty years of service it transformed a playground for "high‑up Masons" into a fraternity of love. It is likely that in the whole history of humankind there never has been an undertaking by any group of men that was created so suddenly or developed and perfected so quickly as the soul of the Shriners‑their Hospitals for Crippled Children.
Chapter 17 The 'Bubbles" Speech HE atomic bomb was undreamed of, except by perhaps a few scientists, when Freeland Kendrick became Imperial Potentate in i q i q, and the application of the words "chain reaction" to other than science was thirty years away. But the development of the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children was just that‑a combination of factors, events, desires, needs and hopes, extending over a half‑century of time, all pointing toward the same unnamed and perhaps unknown goal and triggered finally by a Philadelphia civic leader into an explosion of philanthropic love that would erase (or almost erase) crippled children from American streets. The concept of the Shriners' Hospitals was to have an even more far‑reaching effect in the years to come, for in less than thirty years other organizations and even units of government would enter into active competition with the Shriners' Hospitals for the privilege of treating and helping those who could not‑and cannot‑help themselves.
To Masons in general and Shriners in particular, charity is a desirable human trait, but one that is strictly personal and not an intangible thing that can be imposed. Ever since the advent of Masonry into the New World, the lodges had practiced charity of some kind; but it was done without ostentation certainly, and more often than 178 THE "BUBBLES" SPEECH 179 not in complete secrecy. Masonic fraternalism does not permit the glorification of the fortunate at the expense of the unfortunate. For most of the years of their fraternal existence, as we have seen, the Shriners had practiced charity of some kind. From the example of the first Christmas basket delivered by the members of Mecca Temple to some unnamed and now unknown family of New York back in the early eighties, the idea had spread. Eventually every temple of the Shrine had helped wherever, whenever and however it could.
Thus the idea of Shrine charity was by no means unknown when Freeland Kendrick became the Imperial Potentate. But the time had not been right or the idea hadn't quite suited when other attempts had been made to develop a goal for the Shrine beyond "the mere pursuit of pleasure." Perhaps the difference, as much as anything else, was Kendrick himself, for Kendrick‑Philadelphia tax receiver in i q i q; later, mayor of the city‑was a consummate politician, a masterful showman, a devout Shriner and egocentric enough to believe that he could and should leave a lasting memorial to himself within the fraternity. Perhaps most important of all, he was a softie when in the presence of an orphaned, destitute or crippled child.
There are hundreds of stories about Freeland Kendrick during the many years he served as Illustrious Potentate of Lu Lu Temple. There is no question that he held the temple in the palm of his hand or that he cracked the whip over the membership when it suited his purpose to do so. He was lovable and successful. He built Lu Lu into one of the top temples of Shrinedom. He gave the membership of Lu Lu something to remember as long as they lived in the ceremonials and shows he put on for them. Seldom would he walk into a temple when he could ride a charging white prancer, a camel or an elephant, and the boys loved it and him. But there are those, too, who will tell you that he also almost ruined Lu Lu Temple by failing to provide adequate trained leadership for those years when he would not serve as the undisputed leader.
Mrs. Freeland Kendrick doesn't remember the exact date when her husband first became interested in orphaned, destitute and crippled 180 PARADE TO GLORY children, but it must have been shortly after he was elected Imperial Outer Guard at New Orleans in 19 1 o, perhaps even a year or two later. In any case, Kendrick himself remembered the event. He had gone, he said, to the Home for Incurables at Forty‑eighth Street and Woodland Avenue in Philadelphia for the purpose of taking three or four of the little patients of that institution for an automobile ride. It is likely that Mrs. Kendrick enticed him there, for she was active in charitable work in Philadelphia at the time. In any event, as he recalled it later, "What I saw there, what I heard there and what I sensed there made such a profound impression on me that for days and weeks I could not drive the sad scene from before me. This visit to the incurable institution prompted the birth of the idea to inaugurate a movement among the Shriners of North America for rehabilitating orphaned, friendless and crippled children." Thus, when Kendrick went to Indianapolis, knowing he was to become the Imperial Potentate, he had a well‑thought‑out plan. He had enlisted the aid of Philip D. Gordon of Karnak Temple (Mont real), who had served for many years as chairman of the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee, and was one of the most powerful men in the Order. Privately, he had discussed his idea with other leaders of the Shrine, and found differing opinions. Being a great politician Kendrick could shrug off‑as if they were unimportant‑those who disagreed with him. But as a result of the differing opinions, he determined to tie his idea for the establishment of an institution for children to the patriotic fervor of the Shriners. The war was just over. Peace would lie ahead, and his institution could easily become a peace memorial.
Being a great showman, Kendrick had an unerring sense of timing, and so it was that his great proposal was held until the very last minute of the last day of the i g i q session of the Imperial Council. It was hot in Indianapolis. The Representatives were tired and wanted to get away. And it was at this precisely chosen moment that Gordon arose to offer a resolution. It read: Whereas it is the opinion of this Imperial Council, in this year wherein the peace of the world has been established, it would be fitting that some
Philip D. Gordon, Karnak Temple, Montreal lasting and tangible memorial be established showing to the world at large that we as a body of loyal and patriotic citizens from the various sections of the great North American continent and from which thousands of our membership have enlisted and scores have paid the supreme sacrifice in the cause of justice, liberty and democracy, for all of which our beloved order has stood so prominently, And whereas, W. Freeland Kendrick, the Imperial Potentate‑elect, has already intimated to this Imperial Council his wish that such a memorial, if possible, take the form of a home for friendless, orpharied and crip pled children, in which charitable work he has already taken such a keen interest in his home state of Pennsylvania, now be it
182 PARADE TO GLORY Resolved, that this Imperial Council place itself on record as favoring such a proposition, the memorial to be styled "The Mystic Shriners' Peace Memorial for Friendless, Orphaned and Crippled Children," and that a committee be appointed by the incoming Imperial Potentate, with a view of purchasing a suitable site for this purpose and making all other arrangements necessary, and be it further Resolved, that a special assessment of one dollar be made on each member of the Order, to be collected by the subordinate temples, in December next, from their membership in addition to the annual dues for rg2o, and remitted to the Imperial Recorder when making their annual returns for the year i y i q.
Thus Kendrick's name was attached to the hospital program from the very start, if the Imperial Council would just adopt it. But it was not to be‑at least not in Indianapolis. The resolution never came to a vote and wasn't even debated. But it did permit Kendrick to discuss his proposal wherever he went during the year he served as Imperial Potentate.
At almost the same time Kendrick visited the hospital for incurables in Philadelphia, another event of far‑reaching importance in the future of the Shriners' Hospitals was taking place in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wesley Memorial Hospital (now Emory University Hospital) had allotted two beds to little cripples who received free surgical treatment from Dr. Michael Hoke. The demand for the beds was great, but even greater was the need for a convalescent home where the children might be cared for after surgery, thus making the two hospital beds available for other cripples. Dr. Hoke was an inspired doctor and surgeon and, perhaps more important, a man with a vision. Everywhere he went he sought aid for his projects‑not for himself but to provide more beds for more crippled children. But the kind of help Dr. Hoke needed was not easy to find, until, by coincidence, it developed from two sources at almost the same time.
Coincidence? Well, perhaps it was the inscrutable workings of the Master Architect of the Universe. ‑ A railroad worker in Atlanta had been injured in falling from a THE "BUBBLES" SPEECH 183 train. It was an unusual injury, which failed to respond to normal treatment. Weeks dragged into months. The worker's funds were exhausted. His family was destitute. At that point, an appeal was made to Forrest Adair, head of the Scottish Rite bodies of Atlanta, where the worker was a member. Adair engaged Dr. Hoke to care for the worker, and in the many weeks that followed before he eventually returned to his job, Adair and Hoke met frequently. Hoke told his story of the needs of crippled children to Adair as he did to anyone else who would listen.
Simultaneously, a group of Atlanta women under the leadership of Mrs. William Clarke Wardlaw, began selling pencils on the streets of the city to equip a convalescent home‑an event which also im pressed Adair. The women raised $ i, i oo in their project, and Adair obtained $5,000 more from the Scottish Rite bodies. With this money, the combined group of women and Masons rented two cottages in the suburbs of Atlanta which on September 1, 1915, opened for patients with Dr. Hoke as chief surgeon and Miss Lillian Carter as superintendent. The hospital had twenty beds.
In the years that followed, this hospital became known as the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. It treated thousands of crippled children from all of Georgia and even the surrounding states. New buildings were built. Nurses' homes were erected. Thousands of dollars were expended, but most important of all to the future of the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children‑which were still seven years away‑were the rules and regulations drawn up by Dr. Hoke and Adair. They were simple, but definite. No patient might pay. If the patient could pay, he should be in some other hospital. The patient must be under fourteen years of age and, in the opinion of the doctors, have a reasonable chance of being helped. The hospital was for orthopedic cases only. It was not to become a home for orphaned children. It was open to all in need, no matter what their color, their religion or their nationality. The rules have never been changed. They are exactly the same rules eventually adopted for the government of the Shriners' Hospitals, and it is quite possible that without the de‑ 184 PARADE TO GLORY velopment of the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, the Shriners' Hospitals would never have been brought into being.
During the year he served as Imperial Potentate, Freeland Kendrick traveled more than 150,000 miles and managed to visit most of the temples in North America. It was a popular administration, for Kendrick was a popular man. The committee of the Imperial Council that went over his report of the year declared him to be a "pleasing and forceful speaker. His big heart has reached four hundred thousand of our nobility. He has made good to the full satisfaction and benefit of all." And everywhere he went the Imperial Potentate discussed his project which would give the Shriners a goal. Thus when he arrived in Portland, Oregon, for the forty‑seventh session of the Imperial Council, he felt certain enough of the success of his project to go considerably farther than the original resolution offered in Indianapolis. He recommended that the Imperial Council authorize a tax of five dollars (instead of one dollar) on every Shriner, effective immediately, to establish a Shriners' Home for Friendless, Orphan and Crippled Children and that a committee of seven be appointed by the incoming Imperial Potentate to select a site and arrange for immediate action in the construction of the Home.
When the committee to pass on the recommendation came in with its report, however, it went only so far as to open the matter for discussion on the floor. After discussion, the committee suggested that the project be returned to the local temples for a vote. The committee said its members believed in the idea, hoped it would be enacted, but that it felt that a matter so important should be passed on by the local temples. This report reached the Imperial Council on the morning of Wednesday, June 23, 1920.
When the report was read, there was a noticeable murmur in the meeting room, a sort of stir that Kendrick could sense. He hurriedly talked with some of his associates, including Gordon. There were fur ther discussions during the luncheon hour, with the result that when the program was called up for discussion in the afternoon of that fate‑ THE "BUBBLES" SPEECH 185 ful Wednesday, Kendrick had a substitute resolution to offer. With Deputy Imperial Potentate Ellis Garretson of Al Kader Temple (Portland) in the chair, Kendrick took the floor.
"Imperial Sir," he said, "I have changed the original recommendation somewhat, as I believe it will come nearer to meeting with your approval in the present form and will bring about the object desired.
I recommend that at this session of the Imperial Council a resolution be adopted authorizing the establishment of a hospital for crippled children to be supported by the nobility of the Mystic Shrine of North America on an annual per capita basis and to be known as the Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children." In this manner, Kendrick eliminated one of the strongest objections to his original idea. He had taken out the word home and substituted the word hospital, an institution to all intents and purposes an exact duplicate of the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta. Many of the representatives had freely expressed themselves about establishing an orphan asylum. They didn't like it. But a hospital where crooked bodies could be straightened‑well, that might be different. Then, too, Kendrick in his new resolution reduced the annual per capita tax on the Shriners from five dollars to two dollars.
As the new resolution was read, the assembled nobility of the Shrine murmured noticeably and then the venerable William Bromwell INIelish of Syrian Temple rose to his feet. Graying, and inclined at times to be peevish, he was nevertheless still the hard‑headed businessman who had guided the Shrine out of the morass of near bankruptcy in the middle nineties. He was still the respected senior Past Imperial Potentate.
"I want to present my views on this matter,:" he said, "and I do so with some reluctance, but I do so with the responsibility resting on me as representing the temple to which I belong. I think that this project is one that we ought not to go into at this time. I think it has not had enough consideration. I doubt its practicability. . . . I believe it to be a project that is not within the province of the Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine as it is contemplated, for this reason: It is pro‑ 186 PARADE TO GLORY posed that this home, if established, or number of homes, if established, shall start out to take care of every crippled child that there is in the United States, and care for them by the Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; not the crippled children of Shriners, or children of any sort that are now the wards of the several temples, but to go outside of this Order and to take every child that may be admitted under the rules that may be established, with a knowledge before us now that there would probably not be more than five per cent of them that had anything to do with the families of Shriners. I don't think that a burden of this sort ought to be put upon this Order." There was more. Melish went on for more than fifteen minutes. It was cold, simple logic. The Shrine, or the Shriners, he said, should not undertake a project involving millions of dollars without the en tire nobility having a chance to make its decision. The Imperial Council had no right to select seven men from its membership and give them carte blanche to commit the Shrine to the expenditure of untold sums.
As he sat down, there was a nodding of heads among the delegates. His argument had been sound. There was no animosity toward Kendrick. His motives had not been questioned. Then, from his seat near the front of the city auditorium, arose Forrest Adair. He was a striking man, with a heavy black mustache and thick black hair. Like Melish, he was a power in all of the Masonic circles of his home state. But unlike Melish, he was inspired. He could foresee the opportunities that would lie ahead.
"I arise, unlike my friend, Past Imperial Potentate Melish, without reluctance, but with enthusiasm," he said.
A hush fell over the auditorium as if the representatives could sense what was to come. Adair continued: "I was lying in bed yesterday morning, about four o'clock, in the Multnomah Hotel, and some poor fellow who had strayed from the rest of the band‑and he was a magnificent performer on a bari tone horn‑stood down there under the window for twenty‑five minutes playing `I am only blowing bubbles.'" There was laughter, for even though it was prohibition days,
there was still plenty of Zemzem water and camel's milk available, and the representatives could understand what had happened.
"Do you get it?" Adair asked, and there was more laughter. "And after a while, when I dropped back into peaceful sleep, I dreamed of a little crippled children's hospital, run by the Scottish Rite fraternity in Atlanta, Georgia, which has been visited by a number of members of this Imperial Council, and I thought of the wandering minstrel of the early morning, and I wondered if there were not a deep significance 188 PARADE TO GLORY in the tune that he was playing for Shriners‑`I am only blowing bubbles.' "We meet from year to year; we talk about our great Order; we read the report of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are accumulated and loaned to banks and paid us for our mileage and per diem, and on our visitations we stop in some oasis and we are taken in an automobile by a local committee, and he first drives us by and shows us; `This is our temple, our mosque. It is built of marble brought from Maine or Georgia. The lot cost fifty thousand dollars; we could have sold it for two hundred thousand before we built upon it. The building cost us a million, and it could not be put up now for two and a half million.' " `What is that wonderful hospital over there?' " `That is the hospital of the Sisters of St. Mary.' " `What big school is that in the distance?' " `That is a school erected and maintained by the Catholic church.' "And we get here and we hear the baritone. That fellow told us what we are doing." The hush over the auditorium deepened. Already, there could be no doubt that Adair was delivering an inspired message, a message that was to become known wherever Shriners gathered as the "bubbles" speech. One member who heard it was so shaken that in later years he purchased three copies of Sir John Millais' famous painting of a boy blowing bubbles, one of which now hangs in the Greenville, South Carolina, unit of the Shriners' Hospitals. But once started, Adair did not let up. There are, he said, four hundred thousand cripples in the United States "and unfortunately they are in the alms houses; they are in the homes; they are mendicants; they are paupers; and the best alms you can give is that which will render alms unnecessary.
"My Brother Melish goes back to these other resolutions which have been postponed from year to year, while we blow more bubbles and sing again `Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here.' This resolution has been changed. It does not establish, Brother Melish, a home. The THE "BUBBLES" SPEECH 189 word there is `hospital; the Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children.' I presume that any intelligent committee that may be appointed by the incoming Imperial Potentate will provide rules that, in the first place, no child be admitted unless in the opinion of the surgeons, after careful examination, its trouble can be corrected or benefited." At the Scottish Rite hospital, Adair said, no feeble‑minded were admitted. He said that the Atlanta institution had started with only eight thousand dollars in capital, but that it had had no hard time getting money‑all it wanted‑"as long as God Almighty continues to put an occasional drop of the milk of human kindness in our blood." Adair described some of the work that had been done in Atlanta, naming the names of the children whose crooked bodies had been improved. He said: This resolution merely recognizes the fact that we appreciate that the responsibility is upon us, and while we have spent money for songs, and spent money for bands‑and they mean so much to us, let us keep it up‑you cannot put your finger on a thing that I know of that has been done for humanity that can be credited to the Shrine as an organization. If this is established, these little rules and regulations that Brother Melish is so afraid of, will be taken care of by a competent committee. If they don't do it right and devote themselves too much to Catholic children, the Negro children, we can fire them and get another committee. I apprehend we will not want to restrict it to the crippled children of Shriners. We don't. The first prerequisite with us is that the child's trouble may be corrected or improved. The second prerequisite is that they shall be financially unable to pay. You could not get your child in that hospital [Atlanta] if you would pay a thousand dollars a week, because you would be depriving some little pauper of a bed.
I want to see this thing started. For God's sake, let us lay aside the soap and water and stop blowing bubbles and get down to brass tacks. . . . Let's get rid of the technical objections. Let's blow all the dust aside. And if there is a Shriner in North America, after he sees your first crippled child treated, in its condition, and object's to having paid the two dollars, I will give a check back to him for it myself.
I hope that within two, or three, or four or five years from now we will be impelled from the wonderful work that has been done, to establish more of these hospitals, in easy reach of all parts of North America, 190 PARADE TO GLORY and let it be known that while our friend, the enemy, is now about the only institution that is establishing hospitals and schools and things of that kind for the benefit of humanity, the Shrine is going to do them one better. And every argument that Brother Melish makes, every argument that Brother Melish has presented against this, is, to my mind, an argument in favor of it.
Adair sat down to thunderous applause. There was no doubt of the feeling of the session. He was followed by others‑Noble Robert Colding of Atlanta; Noble Opie of Ararat in Kansas City; Noble Charles E. Ovenshire of Zuhrah in Minneapolis; Noble Edward C. Day of Algeria in Helena; Noble Henry Lansburgh of Almas in Washington; Noble F. F. Whitcomb of Tangier in Omaha; and Noble J. Harry Lewis of Osman in St. Paul.
Then, just as Deputy Imperial Potentate Garretson was about to put the question to a vote, Kendrick offered a brief appeal.
"The time has come," he said, "when we should do something big. And what can you do as big as to furnish a hospital for a poor little crippled kid? Suppose it is black; suppose it is Catholic; God put it here on earth and it is up to us to help it. And it means Canada as well as the United States, for our jurisdiction is North America." Again there was applause and then silence as the representatives waited for a vote. Now Melish once more rose to his feet. "I want to say just one word," he said. "I think I know how this thing is going. I think the duty of us all, the duty of myself first, is that if action is to be taken today, as it is, upon this matter, that we want to go before the world showing that the vote was unanimous, and that is the way I am going to vote." And so he did. The vote was unanimous.
There is just one additional note of the Portland session at which the hospitals were approved. In later years, at least four temples claimed as their own the wandering minstrel who played, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles." Chapter 18 Temples of Babe Smiles Y ACTION of the Imperial Council at Portland, the Shriners had put themselves in the hospital business and a highly specialized hospital business at that. The committee of seven ap pointed by Imperial Potentate Ellis L. Garretson of Afifi Temple in Tacoma, Washington, knew nothing about hospitals. Only one of the seven men was a doctor. Furthermore, they had only the vaguest idea of what was expected of them; and, as it developed during the year, there was wide variation among the committee members on that point.
Garretson did not announce his appointments until nearly four months after the project was approved, and when he did there was some clucking of tongues and raising of eyebrows. Named as chair man of the committee was Sam P. Cochran of Hella Temple in Dallas, an outstanding Mason and Shriner, but also a devout Christian Scientist. There were some of the leaders in the hospital movement who thought that he might not devote himself to the hospital movement because of his faith, but they were mistaken. Cochran continued as chairman of the hospital movement in its various legal entities for twenty‑four years. He worked long and hard in that difficult period of establishment. _ Appointed with Cochran on that first committee of seven were
191 TEMPLES OF BABY SMILES 193 Philip D. Gordon of Karnak Temple, Montreal; W. Freeland Kendrick of Lu Lu Temple, Philadelphia; Bishop Frederick W. Keator of Afifi Temple, Tacoma, Washington; Oscar M. Lanstrum of Algeria Temple, Helena, Montana; John D. McGilvray of Islam Temple, San Francisco; and John A. Morison of Kismet Temple, Brooklyn.
By direction of the Imperial Potentate, the committee met in St. Louis, October 30, r92o. The problem was where to begin. The committee had been instructed to build a hospital for crippled children. But what crippled children? Where were they coming from? Where would they be treated? By whom? The one man who might have guided them‑Forrest Adair‑had not even been made a member of the committee. For two days, the seven men talked about the task they had accepted, and about the only concrete result was agreement that they should seek some advice, which they proceeded to do. A subcommittee talked with leading orthopedic surgeons at Vanderbilt, Louisville and Washington University clinics; and they talked with the great Mayo brothers at their clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. Al Chymia Temple in Memphis already was engaged in helping with the erection of a crippled children's hospital in Memphis, and the committee looked over the work being done in that city.
After six months of work and research, six of the seven members agreed that a hospital should be built somewhere in the Mississippi valley‑near a medical school‑and by the time the 1921 session of the Imperial Council was held in Des Moines, Iowa, these six were agreed on a plot of land adjacent to the Barnes Hospital and Washington University's Medical School in St. Louis. John Morison, who had been elected secretary of the committee, disagreed. If, as Adair had pointed out in Portland, there were 400,000 crippled children in the United States alone, one small hospital wouldn't help much. It was not the way the Shriners did things. It would be far better, he argued, to build no building at all, but simply allocate money to pay for surgical services for crippled children in local_ communities all over North America.
194 PARADE TO GLORY After more than four hours of debate, the members of the Imperial Council turned down the minority report and decided to erect a building. They accepted Cochran's majority report after he read a letter from Nathaniel Allison of Washington University, president of the American Orthopedic Association. "The plan you are considering," Allison wrote, "seems to me, and I am sure appeals to the great majority of our members, is one that makes it possible to take the first step toward the national solution of the problem of the cripple." But perhaps the clinching argument came in a telegram from Dr. William Mayo, himself a Shriner. He said: "I approve of the principle of the building of Shrine hospitals for the care of crip pled children. Several should be built. . . . The plan is laudable and worthy of the great body of Shriners." Well, now! Here was something new. Not one hospital, but several hospitals. Not fifty or a hundred or a thousand crippled children, but tens of thousands of crippled children. Not one hospital to which children would travel hundreds of miles for treatment, but several hospitals located in various sections of the North American continent. Somehow, this caught the fancy of the Shriners. It was big. It was worthy of them. As long as they were going to do this thing, they would do it right.
And so, at Des Moines, Forrest Adair brought in a new resolution on the last day of the session. He would have that Imperial Session elect a committee of seven, clothed "with full authority to se lect and purchase sites, and to erect and maintain hospitals for the treatment of poor children afflicted with club feet, curved spines, tubercular spines and joints, infantile paralysis and such diseases and deformities that come within the scope and province of orthopedic surgery; said hospitals to admit no pay patients, but only those whose parents or guardians are financially unable to pay for such treatment. . . . These hospitals shall be located in various parts of the jurisdiction as rapidly as the funds may be available." Of course there was discussion. Some Bhriners argued that the Shrine shouldn't set up the hospitals and tax the Shriners to maintain TEMPLES OF BABY SMILES 195 them and still deny access to their services for the Shriners themselves, whether they could pay or not. But Adair argued that such a system wouldn't work. If some patients paid and others did not, he said, human nature would automatically give the paying patient better service and treatment. Other representatives, no doubt imbued with another great light, demanded that the word charity be eliminated from the resolution and that all reference to the "poor" be stricken out. And thus what was delivered at Des Moines was not the "Shriners' Charity Foundation" but "The Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children," a gift from men with merry hearts and reverent minds.
Elected to succeed Morison as a member of the committee was Forrest Adair, and in the year that followed, the accomplishments were almost unbelievable. Imperial Potentate Ernest A. Cutts of Alee Temple of Savannah, Georgia, was able to report to the 1922 Imperial Session of San Francisco that during the year he had spoken to 250,000 Shriners and that the Shriners had taken the hospital movement to their hearts. It was an inspiration to him, and he ordered the trustees to speed up their work. And they did. The committee incorporated the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children under the laws of Georgia and the Dominion of Canada. They set up rules and regulations for operation. There would be local boards to operate the various hospitals under the Imperial Board of Trustees. The hospitals would be under the direction of a staff orthopedic surgeon and a competent hospital administrator. The surgeon‑in‑chief at each hospital would be selected not by the Board of Trustees but by a board of nationally known orthopedic surgeons‑surgeons, as Cochran told the San Francisco session in 1922 "that you could not buy for money." All five of the advisory surgeons (including Dr. Hoke) assembled in San Francisco, at their own expense. Through the long history of the Shriners' Hospitals, not one member of the international Advisory Board of Surgeons has ever received one penny for his services.
The committee also set up rules and regulations for the admission of crippled children to the hospitals, and it was here that the 196 PARADE TO GLORY committee, under the tutelage of Adair, adopted in the simplest possible language the Atlanta plan: that to be admitted a child must be from a family unable to pay for the orthopedic treatment received; must be under fourteen years of age; must not be mentally incompetent; and must be, in the opinion of the surgeons, one who could be cured or improved. The hospitals were not to become asylums for indigent incurables. They were to be hospitals in the finest sense, hospitals for the curing or helping of children who otherwise would go through life saddled with their deformities and their pain.
There has never been a change in that policy. No patient at any Shriners' Hospital has ever paid one penny for any service received. The doors have been open equally to Jews, Catholics, Negroes, Mohammedans, foreigners and even an occasional child of a Shriner.
With the preliminary difficulties out of the way, the committee began the laborious task of selecting sites for the hospitals. St. Louis was still the first choice, but there were legal problems in connection with acquiring the property, and construction was delayed for several months. Thus, while the St. Louis unit was the original hospital, it was not the first hospital to get under way. That honor went to Shreveport, Louisiana, and El Karubah Temple. The cornerstone of the Shreveport unit was laid by Imperial Potentate Ernest A. Cutts on May 12, 1922, and it opened its doors to the first patient on September 16 of that year in a remodeled house adjacent to the Masonic Temple.
So hard did the committee work during the second year of its existence that it was able to report to the Imperial Shrine session in San Francisco on June 13, X922, that locations had been selected for ten hospitals and that construction was underway at most of them. Eventually, the Shrine erected seventeen hospital units in the following cities: Shreveport; St. Louis; Minneapolis‑St. Paul; Montreal; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Spokane, Washington; Salt Lake City; Philadelphia; Honolulu; Springfield, Massachusetts; Mexico City; Lexington, Kentucky; Chicago; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Greenville, South Carolina.
The San Francisco Examiner Imperial Potentate Ernest A. Cutts at laying of cornerstone of San Francisco Hospital Unit, 1922 Thousands of Shriners who arrived in San Francisco a few days before the opening of the 1922 Imperial Session on June 13, were present when the cornerstone was laid for the hospital unit there, and when the session itself opened, it was evident that there would be no debate. The Imperial Council had been "sold" on the movement, and for that matter so had much of the rest of the nation. National magazines and newspapers were keeping the public apprised of every Shrine hospital activity.
In his report to the Imperial Council in 1922, Cochran had a prophetic vision of the days ahead: "I believe that time will demonstrate that you have set an example and outlined a plan of development which will lead, in the course of time, to the institution of a great plan of humanitarian care of all those classes of people whom we find in every city and among all populations who become objects of charity or affectionate care 198 PARADE TO GLORY on the part of the people among whom they live. This work is going to practically eliminate from the streets of your cities in the course of the next generation or so the crippled child." And so it has. It has not been easy. There can be little doubt that the pioneering efforts of the Shiners. to aid the destitute crippled child has motivated other organizations, including various units of government, to give attention to the problem. Experts in the field have learned that while the crippled child has not been eliminated and probably never will be, it can be helped and is being helped.
Meanwhile, in Greenville, South Carolina, W. W. Burgiss, a philanthropist, was so impressed with the work the hospital movement was doing that he built and bequeathed an entire unit to the Imperial Board of Trustees. His gift amounted to more than $350,000, but nowhere does his name appear in the hospitals except in the "Book of Gold," a book composed of pure gold sheets, on which is inscribed the name of every donor to the hospital movement. A similar "Book of Gold" is enshrined in every hospital operated by the Shriners. Hundreds of donors have bequeathed millions of dollars, maintained as an endowment fund for the operation of the hospitals, which now costs almost seven million dollars a year. Many of the donors are Shriners, many of them are not. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, wrote to the chairman of the board of the St. Louis hospital unit about a Catholic boy from Wichita, named Jerry: "Certainly the Shriners' Hospital in St. Louis as well as the members of the Shriners' organization in Wichita are deserving of orchids and congratulations for the magnificent care of this dear little boy. It is a medical wonder that a little fellow like Jerry, born without arms and legs, can be equipped to take his normal place in his home and later on in society. I have never failed to send in my check to the Shriners when they conduct the annual circus here to raise funds for the wonderful Christlike work they are doing for handicapped children." The letter was signed by the Most Rev. Mark K. Carroll.
And in addition to the Shrine Circuses‑held all over the United States and Canada to raise funds for the hospitals, more than forty TEMPLES OF BABY SMILES 199 annual football games are played. One of the more notable ones is the Los Angeles North‑South game, played between high‑school stars from the north and the south of California, which draws more than i oo,ooo patrons. Another is the North‑South College All‑Star game in Miami. The "Oyster Bowl" is promoted by Khedive Temple of Norfolk, Virginia, and played in the Municipal Stadium in that city. In twelve years, it has earned more than $800,000 for the endowment fund. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Oasis Temple promotes a game between all‑star high‑school seniors from both North and South Carolina, and one can only surmise what the Governor of North Carolina says to the Governor of South Carolina after the game is over. The list could go on, but the most famous and the first of the Shrine games is the East‑West College All‑Star game, promoted by Islam Temple in San Francisco, a game that has been called "football's finest hour." Every year since 192 5 the best of the nation's collegiate football players assemble in San Francisco during the holiday season, giving up their vacations at home to play a game which has as its motto, "Strong legs run that weak legs may walk." During all that time, not one player has received one cent more than his expenses. Not one of the Shrine leaders who direct the game has ever received a penny. None of the coaches or officials have been paid. The entire profit of the venture originally went to the San Francisco unit of the hospital system, but in later years after the San Francisco hospital had become self‑sustaining, the funds were turned over to the general endowment fund for distribution to all hospitals, but with emphasis on the Los Angeles unit. At the time that the San Francisco hospital became self‑supporting, the chairman of the local board of trustees was John McGilvray, one of the original national trustees and in later years the vice president of that group. And like others on that first board, including Bishop Keator, Dr. Lanstrum and the others, he gave of his own treasure to make the hospitals the "world's greatest philanthropy." The game is really the by‑product of a fun festival that was 200 PARADE T O GLORY called a baseball game between the Nobles of Islam Temple and the San Francisco Elks. The earnings of that game were divided among the charities of the two fraternities. But the Shrine hospital needed something more, and Captain E. Jack Spaulding suggested that possibly a football game between the two fraternities might be arranged. Still, the human wreckage that might result when older men started committing mayhem on the gridiron was hardly to be countenanced, and as a substitute the nobility of Islam Temple created the All‑Star game, with William Coffman as director. He still is as this is written.
The Shrine East‑West game provides one of the greatest football classics in the nation. Some of the greatest stars the game has ever known have appeared. But the Shrine East‑West game is more than just a football game. It is a classic of love and sacrifice for a goal that transcends the yards gained, the passes thrown or the runners stopped. This is a game played that Joe, with two clubfeet, may walk and even run and play like other children. It is played for little Mary, who lies in a plaster cast as the curve is removed from her spine. It is played for Ralph and Ruth, Nancy and Bill, Sue and Dick‑white, black, yellow, Protestant, Jew, and Catholic‑who lie in the Shriners' Hospitals, and for others who are waiting to reach that Mansion of Mercy.
And it should be stated right here that one young man, whose deformities were corrected in the San Francisco hospital, eventually played in one East‑West game.
The procedure of the game is always the same. By the middle of October, the players have been invited, and according to their own lights have accepted or rejected the invitation. Only the Ivy League of all the nation's collegiate associations does not permit its students to participate, and this only since 1952. Arriving in San Francisco, the players of both squads are taken to the hospital to meet the little boy or little girl who has adopted him for the time of the visit to the Golden Gate. Each child has a ‑pipe‑cleaner image of a football player, dressed in the colors of the school he represents. The
Above, Bill Coffman of Islam Temple and Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, All‑American Back from Ohio State, with "Carlo" from Nicaragua Before the East‑West Game, San Francisco ...
Below, from left to right (rear) : Bob Mitchell, University of Illinois; unidentified player; Mickey Jumarki, University of West Virginia; and Jim Orweg, University of Michigan‑with Nurse June Stett and "Ross" and "Don" Photos by Haas & Associates 202 PARADE TO GLORY little patient sings the school song as best he or she can. They have a cup of tea together and become friends. And it isn't always easy. Many a strong, stalwart football star, seeing the twisted bodies, the plaster casts and the smiling faces for the first time, suddenly excuses himself, walks through the front door of the hospital and finds a place to cry. Cry unashamedly. And vow that in the game ahead ‑well, it is best illustrated by a story written by Bud Spencer, sports editor of the San Francisco News, of Joe Sullivan, twenty‑one‑yearold, crew‑haired halfback from Dartmouth, who shyly approached his hostess and said: "Hello, Princess." "Hello," she answered.
The little girl sang her song and showed Joe her miniature painted in the oak green of Dartmouth. He leaned down so that she could pin it on his lapel. And then they waited. Uncertain, bashful. But in a moment, as is a woman's way, the girl broke the stalemate by reaching under her pillow and bringing out an added gift. "Here," she said, and handed Joe a leather case.
Joe turned it over once or twice, not knowing quite what to think.
"I made it," she told him, a queer mixture of pride and shyness in her voice. "I made it just for you. I knew you were coming. I even know your name. Your name is Joe Sullivan and it's a key case." The next day, the East team moved to Santa Clara University to begin training for the New Year's Day game. After each day's scrimmage, when the big fellows had showered and had their din ners, Joe went off alone and wrote to his "princess." And Joe couldn't forget what the nurses had told him. His "princess" needed something more than science and medicine. She had been a very sick girl. Sometimes, Joe kept thinking, inspiration can do more than all the other things put together. Then Joe was hit with an idea. He knew the game was to be televised, and he knew his "princess" would be watching. So he wrote to her that on Saturday, every play he made
TEMPLES OF BABY SMILES 203 would be strictly for her. "And don't be surprised if I intercept a pass or two just for you." And he did.
All through the afternoon, his "princess" was the happiest girl in the hospital. That Joe was playing one of his greatest games just for her was a secret locked in her heart, but the nurses immediately noticed a turn for the better in her attitude. A few weeks later, they wrote to Joe that she was taking her first steps in the therapeutic pool.
Other Bowl games followed the San Francisco experiment. But San Francisco led the way. It is spectacular as the colorful Shrine parade units fill the field before a game. It is spectacular with the brilliant play of the young athletes, whose names are known by every follower of the autumn sport‑names like Johnny Lujack, of Notre Dame; Herb Joesting and Bronco Nagurski of Minnesota; Bob Waterfield of U.C.L.A.; George McAfee of Duke; Brick Muller of California. In all, more than 125 schools have contributed more than 1,6oo players to the contest, and as the New York Sun once said editorially: "There has always seemed something peculiarly fitting in the bringing together of fine young athletes in a laudable attempt to do something useful for physically handicapped boys and girls." And so it has.
Chapfer 19 Unto the Least of these 'T O ONE knows the thousands of hours, days, weeks and months that have been spent by the national and local boards to make the Shriners' Hospitals what they are. The men gave unstintingly of their time and talent. Without exception, they were men of vision and, like Dr. Hoke in 1914, were inspired by an almost fanatical zeal to be of service. As the years passed, and one after another the original board members passed into the unseen temple, new men were appointed and eventually elected by the Imperial Council. And with each passing year, there was more and more to be done by both the local and national boards. At the national level, the hospitals had become truly big business as the board appropriated and administered almost seven million dollars for operations alone. And the local boards, composed of leaders of their communities‑bankers, industrialists, lawyers, doctors, businessmen‑devoted more and more of their time to the handling of their local affairs. In many cases it was a full‑time activity. And the competition for membership on the national board became almost as keen as competition for membership on the Imperial Divan.
With the retirement of Sam P. Cochran in 1934 as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Chil204 UNTO THE LEAST OF THESE 205 dren, W. Freeland Kendrick was elected to that post. He retained it until 1949, when he, too, retired, to be succeeded by Galloway Calhoun of Tyler, Texas, the Imperial Potentate in 1948‑1949 and a member of Karem Temple in Waco, Texas. During the years, the Georgia Corporation had given way to the Colorado Corporation. The Imperial Potentate, the Deputy Imperial Potentate, the Imperial Chief Rabban, the Imperial Treasurer, and the Junior Past Imperial Potentate were made members of the governing board. But the changes in operating procedures were rare and, even then, largely to simplify the work. The children were not affected.
The first patient to be admitted back in 1922 was a little girl from the red clay country south of Shreveport, Louisiana, a tot with a club foot who had learned to walk on the top of one foot rather than the sole. The first child to be admitted in Minneapolis was a Blackfoot Indian boy, suffering from the deformities. of polio. Since that time, more than one hundred thousand children have been treated. Some of them remained for months in the various hospitals. Others received treatment in the out‑patient clinic. Many of them received surgery in techniques developed in the Shrine Hospitals and now accepted by orthopedic surgeons as standard. Thousands of the children have been fitted with arm and leg braces and artificial limbs, most of them made by expert technicians in special workrooms in the hospitals. The results have been astounding. It is almost impossible for the lay mind to conceive of the work that has been done, the results that have been achieved and the happiness that has been created.
No one knows how many million man‑hours of work have been contributed, not only by the paid staff in the various hospitals, but by Shriners and their wives who work as volunteers in many ways to contribute to the program. And from these millions of hours of work, thousands of children have been and are permitted to lead normal lives, who otherwise would have become mendicants or public charges, destined to go through life in pain and misery, wards of poor administrators, suffering in shame and defeat. Walter M. Fleming, who was himself a doctor, would have been proud to have seen the glory that came 206 PARADE TO GLORY to his Order that was organized for fun and frolic, and then paraded its way into the hearts of Americans everywhere.
From the very start, the hospitals kept accurate records of the patients, and it is to the everlasting credit of the management that not once since that September sixteenth in 1922 has there been the slightest defamatory remark made about the hospitals. There has been only praise, praise of the highest order, praise from the medical profession, praise from those who have a different religion or nationality or color from the Shriners themselves.
Since the hospital records are couched in medical terms, they do not reveal the true story behind many of the patients. They do not reveal the story that can be learned only by visiting one of the hospitals and seeing the children and talking with them. If the author may be permitted in this book just one personal note, it would be to describe these hospitals. In the many visits I have made, I have heard but one child cry, and that was a three‑year‑old tot who had just arrived for treatment and was still a trifle scared and a bit homesick for its mother. I have seen a boy of seven without either arms or legs feeding himself with a contraption manufactured in the hospital. He has learned to control it with his back muscles. I have seen a little girl lying on a plain plank board, and she had been strapped to it for three months, as each day the surgeons forced her twisted body back to normal. She would be there three more months but she was happy and smiling. I have seen boys and girls whose entire lower extremities were encased in grotesque plaster casts, but they would leave the hospitals, walking erect instead of crawling on hands and knees, which is the way they entered.
The deformities of the children are not pleasant to think about, but it's wonderful to see the children themselves. Somehow‑perhaps through some angelic power‑the staff in the hospitals is able to instill in these unfortunate children the hope for a normal life. Even while they are the guests of the hospitals, they begin to lead that normal life. They go to school. They engage in handicrafts. They play and sing. They watch movies and television and listen to the radio. Their food is better‑and there is more of it‑than in most homes in America.
UNTO THE LEAST OF THESE 207 Many of the famous stars of the stage, the movies, radio and television have visited the hospitals and entertained the children. Roy Rogers with Trigger and Red Skelton, both of whom are Shriners, visit the hospitals many times each year. There are Boy and Girl Scout troops. There are playrooms and playgrounds. There are pretty dresses and dress‑up suits for those special occasions.
Literally thousands of children have achieved success in life as a result of the work done at the hospitals. Dozens of boys have become doctors. Scores of girls have become nurses. One girl became a medical missionary in Africa. Many are priests, ministers, dentists. Others enter into the work‑a‑day life for which they are equipped. They marry and have children, and there have been several cases where the daughter of a former patient has entered a hospital, troubled with the same congenital deformity that afflicted the parent.
And frequently Shriners maintain their interest in patients after they are dismissed. For example, an American Y.M.C.A. worker from Kansas City was sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and there he encountered a poorly paid teacher, whose daughter‑a pretty little thing‑was afflicted with a congenital hip deformity. After much letter‑writing she was admitted to the Philadelphia hospital. Her father obtained a teaching job in Philadelphia and together they learned to speak English. After she was dismissed from the hospital, she returned to her home, became a dental technician and met a young dentist. They each received scholarships to the University of Rochester to complete their education. When they arrived in New York, they were met by the Shriners from Mecca Temple and entertained there. When they arrived in Rochester, Damascus Temple took over, arranged their wedding for them‑and then gave them a reception. Their whole happiness, it might be said, could be traced to the Shrine.
As the years passed, the malcontents who had resented the two dollar assessment realized they had been wrong. The Shriners not only accepted the fact that they had the hospitals, but prided them selves on it. Almost every weekend, some of the temples near the various hospitals would arrange entertainments for the children. The bands played. There never was a time when a toy was not available for one of the tots, and after every case of major surgery there was an extra toy which the child prized most of all. Many of the former patients still have as many as ten or twelve toys, representing the ten or twelve operations they endured, always smilingly.
The towns where the hospitals were located also took them to their hearts. In Greenville, South Carolina, a local barber visits the hospital every week to cut hair‑free of charge. In another hospital, the town's theater owner makes a film available and an operator to run the machines which had been contributed by the local Shrine temple. School boards provided teachers, and the local hospitals and even the Navy joined forces to provide blood and bone banks, all free.
This, then, was the "soul" the Shrine had been seeking all the years of its existence. This was the glory toward which they had been parading since that first procession from the Dennison House to the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis in 1887.
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Chapfer20 Guests at the White House JUNE of 192 3, the Shrine had come a long way from that first meeting of the original thirteen in New York on that June night in 1871 when the decision was taken to found a new Order. The Shrine could boast of a half‑million members, only one of whom had been a member for fifty years. He was the venerable James McGee, No. 2 8 on the rolls of Mecca Temple. The Shrine owned scores of temples scattered across a continent. It owned a chain of hospitals, some already in operation, others under construction and still more to come. And the Shrine prided itself that among its membership was the President of the United States. In tribute to Warren G. Harding, the forty‑ninth annual session of the Imperial Council was held in Washington, D. C., June 5‑6‑7, 1923.
Still bigger and better sessions of the Imperial Council were to come in later years as both the Shrine and the cities grew, but until 192 3, there had never been a session like that one. There are still some of the old‑time Shriners who have been attending sessions for fifty years who declare the Washington meeting was the biggest, gaudiest and most spectacular of all that have ever been held. Certainly it was among them.
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GUESTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE 211 play a part in that session‑the President, a member of Aladdin Temple in Columbus, Ohio; General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing, Army Chief of Staff, wartime commander of the allied forces, and a member of Sesostris Temple in Lincoln, Nebraska; and John Philip Sousa, most f amous of all band conductors and a member of Almas Temple in Washington.
In January of 1921, Leonard P. Steuart, later to become Imperial Potentate and Imperial Treasurer, had just been elected Assistant Rabban of Almas Temple, and with other members of the Divan of that temple he began making plans for entertaining the Imperial Session in 1923 in Washington. The invitation actually was presented to the Imperial Council at its 1921 session in Des Moines, and included as a part of that invitation was a letter from the White House. It said: "Your letter informing me that Almas Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, intends to invite the Imperial Council to meet in Washington during June of 1923 has interested me very much. Of course, being President of the entire country, it would not quite be proper for me to indicate a special preference for any particular city as a location of such a gathering, but being, during the Presidential term, a resident of Washington, I am very glad to say to you that if the Imperial Council shall determine to hold the Imperial Session in Washington, you can be assured of my great pleasure and readiness to make every possible contribution to the success of the occasion.
No action was taken on the invitation at the 1921 meeting, but it was the consensus that when the invitation was presented again in San Francisco in 1922 it would be accepted.
Scores of committees from Almas Temple went to work immediately, determined to make the affair a wing‑ding that would never be forgotten. And even before the great day arrived, it was apparent they had succeeded. The Washington Post printed a seventy‑twopage special edition, devoted entirely to the Shrine. Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House was decorated with hundreds of lighted arches. An ingenious loudspeaker system was 212 PARADE TO GLORY set up so that the million or more people who would watch the parades would know what was going on, and later could dance in the street to the music of the world's famous bands.
On the Sunday before the opening of the Imperial Session, special church services were held throughout the city; and it seemed that the entire city gathered around the Masonic Temple in the afternoon for a sermon and songs by the chanters of Zuhrah Temple. Temples as far away as Pittsburgh entertained the various pilgrimages on their way to Washington, and it appeared that Baltimore's Boumi was as popular as Washington itself.
On Saturday night before the opening of the session on Tuesday, June 5, prohibition agents made a series of spectacular raids on bootleggers and speakeasies in the city, but they confiscated only a few cases of beer and a small amount of corn whisky. As a matter of fact, the Shriners had learned that alcohol was not necessary for them to have fun. The Washington Post commented after the Shriners had been in town one day that "there was only one limitation of the extent to which the throngs went in enjoying themselves and that was the limit, or rather the abjurgation placed on them by their leadersthat their pleasures be without intemperance, the jollity without coarseness and their happiness without sin." As a result, every kind of clean pleasure ever found was to be found in Washington. Pennsylvania Avenue swarmed with Shriners and townfolk alike, and the Shriners entertained in their own local fashion. There were Indian dancers from New Mexico, cavorting next to square dancers from Missouri. The people were having so much fun that uniformed patrols could not drill and bands could not march.
The aircraft carrier L angley arrived in the Potomac River to participate in naval demonstrations, and the army air service‑attempting to gain attention‑flew two bales of cotton from Atlanta, Georgia, to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where it was manufactured into Masonic aprons and then flown back to Washington, where they were presented to Imperial Potentate "Sunny Jim" McCandless of Aloha Temple (Honolulu) for distribution as mementos of the great occasion.
GUESTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE 213 On Tuesday morning, the great escort parade was held before the amazed eyes of a million persons. The Washington Post observed that there never had been a parade like it in the history of the city, and in the reviewing stand, beside the Imperial Potentate, were President Harding, Mrs. Harding and General Pershing.
The parade was so long that McCandless sent Deputy Imperial Potentate Conrad V. Dykeman to Keith's theater to get the session under way. The opening ceremonies had been scheduled for 10:30 A.M., but McCandless, Almas Potentate Steuart and the President did not take their places on the stage until almost two o'clock. Noble Harding told the nobility: "Your exceptionally courteous patience in waiting for the Imperial Potentate and myself, you may be sure, is greatly appreciated. It was not in our hearts to keep you, but we sat in fascination watch ing the most wonderful parade it has ever been my privilege to see. . . .
"I like the atmosphere of fraternity. I rejoice in the knowledge that I am addressing a body where every heartbeat is loyally American, where every impulse is American, where every commitment and consecration are to the Republic and its free institutions. . . ." The President spoke for twenty minutes, interrupted frequently by applause, about the joys of fraternity and the blessings of Masonry in particular.
The George Washington National Masonic Memorial was under construction in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, during the time of the Imperial Council session, and the Imperial Council visited it in a body. They also went on to Mount Vernon, where McCandless laid a wreath on the tomb of Washington. McCandless and the Imperial Divan were greeted by Governor E. Lee Trinkle of Virginia who declared: "This is still the land of Washington. May I not hope that you and through you all the Shriners of the earth may be baptized with the spirit of American patriotism."
On Tuesday evening, June 5, 19 23, the President, attired in evening dress and a fez, attended the Imperial Potentate's banquet, and President and Mrs. Harding and General Pershing, Washington, 1923 afterward at his request, he toured Pennsylvania Avenue in a White House car with McCandless and Steuart. Thousands of persons had gathered in the street all the way from the Capitol to the White House for the merrymaking and the dancing. The Presidential car left the Willard Hotel at I I: 20 o'clock and proceeded slowly along "the road to Mecca" toward the peace monument, up the avenue on one side and back to the White House on the other. Whenever he was recognized ‑and it was unusual to find the President wearing a f ez‑he was given a rousing cheer. On Wednesday afternoon, the President and Mrs. Harding gave a garden party at the White House for members of all the Ohio Temples, and on Thursday he opened the White House to all the Shriners. They swarmed through the entire lower floor, making themselves at home with Noble Harding. The occasion was unprecedented in all the history of the White House. No tickets or invitations were required‑only the password of a Shriner to be a personal guest of the President.
There was a great night parade on Wednesday night, again reviewed by the President and Mrs. Harding, and on Thursday night
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216 PARADE TO GLORY there was a mammoth pageant and parade, depicting the great Masons in American history, including, of course, Washington, Paul Revere, Putnam, the Adamses and scores of others. The evening was climaxed by a ten‑thousand‑dollar fireworks display at the foot of the Washington Monument, which Noble Harding and his guests watched from the south portico of the White House.
With the last burst of shells, thousands of people swarmed out of the stands, some of which collapsed. The crowd formed a milling mob from Eleventh to Fifteenth Streets and the police were helpless to control them. At that time, a false fire alarm brought screaming engines into the street and a panic was narrowly averted. But none was hurt, and the bands struck up and dancing went on until daylight in Pennsylvania Avenue.
One of the outstanding features of the session was a massed band, performing in the American League baseball park. It was a band of chosen musicians from every Shrine band present, and it was con ducted by Sousa in the first performance of his new march, "The Shriners." The Shriners were all having so much fun that it was difficult for the Imperial representatives to get down to work, and actually not much was accomplished in the official meetings. But there was one debate, which went on for almost four hours, on the old question of whether or not the Shrine should be incorporated. The proponents felt that only by incorporation could the rights and privileges of the Shrine, its emblems, badges, Ritual and even the fez itself, be protected from the Ancient Egyptian Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a widespread Negro organization, which was incorporated. But in the end, the opponents, who argued that the Shrine was a fraternity and not a business, won out, although the subject was to come up again and again over the years.
And so the 1923 session of the Imperial Council reached its end. There would never be another one exactly like it. Noble Harding had a whale of a time for four days, and he enjoyed every minute of it. It was his first and last Imperial Council session. He died in San Francisco August 3, 1923, just two months later.
aapfer 2 1 Dreams of Grandeur T HE twenty years that followed the Washington session of the Imperial Council were years of plenty‑and then depression and war. The Shrine troubles of the thirties were brought on, to a large extent, by the plenty of the twenties.
The membership when the Shrine met in Washington was almost 55o,ooo. By 1927, it had grown to 580,000, the high‑water mark of the period. Temples were prosperous, the nation was on a binge, and the Shrine was a part of it. When the Shrine met in 1924 in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reported that the decorations were the most lavish in the history of the Order. Entire areas of the city were roped off to take care of the throngs. The Star, which had reported Shrine activities in two columns in i 9o i, now devoted almost the entire paper to the session and its activities. Sousa was on hand again to conduct the massed bands. The nobility arrived en masse. If there was Zemzem water about, it was not in physical evidence; but the gaiety was spontaneous and the Star said, "This is no time for the killjoy and the solemn face. It simply cannot be done. Such enthusiasm! Such rollicking spirits! Who could hold out against it?"
In 1925 and 1929, Al Malaikah Temple of Los Angeles entertained the Shriners in two of that city's gaudiest affairs. In 1925, the great Los Angeles Coliseum was converted into an immense Moorish
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217 Festival of light, Los Angeles Coliseum, 1929 palace, with thousands upon thousands of lights in myriad colors, the greatest lighting event in the history of the world. But, in 1925, it also rained. And it rained again. The parade had to be postponed. The Shriners swamped the sporting‑goods stores and held up traffic by fishing in the streetcar tracks and in the gutters. The most popular costume was a bathing suit. Some of the Shriners put on water wings which, according to the Times, made them look like dear little Cupids with red panties. The city of Los Angeles had erected a major railroad city, and scores of special trains arrived from all over the continent, many of them decorated in gaudy colors. Some were complete with radio and loudspeaker systems.
In 1926, the Shriners were the guests of Past Imperial Potentate Freeland Kendrick, who had become Mayor of Philadelphia and was presiding over the sesquicentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Shriners took over the staid city, and Kendrick helped them do it. The 1927 and 1928 conventions were held in Atlantic City and Miami, where there was ample playground for the Shriners and their families and also plenty of hotel space; but in 1929, as we have noted, the Shriners were back in Los Angeles again for an even bigger and gaudier affair than that of 1925.
Los Angeles Evening Herald‑Express DREAMS OF GRANDEUR 219 The great efforts at lighting in 1925 were surpassed as great searchlights moved like giant fans over the ioo,ooo persons gathered in the Coliseum. Four hundred thousand more tried to get in and couldn't. The floats were as beautiful as those in the rose parade in Pasadena and there were more of them. The movie industry participated for the first time, and among the stars prominent in the affair were Wallace Beery, himself a Shriner, who was the vice‑chairman of the affair. Others were Alonte Blue, Ann Pennington, Leo Carrillo, Bessie Love, Laura LaPlante, Conrad Nagel, Louise Fazenda, Joe E. Brown, and Jean Hersholt. Almost every temple had a bathing suit brigade, reminiscent of 19 2 5, but the weather in 1 q2 q was perfect. One group wearing bathing suits was sprinkled by a fire company when it approached the station house. Another group of Florida Shriners stood at a main intersection, stopping the streetcars, then flirting with the girls, and frequently kissing them.
It was a great fling and the boys enjoyed it, not knowing there was trouble ahead for the nation, for the temples at home, for the hospitals and for the Imperial Council.
The first real evidence that the temples were facing financial difficulties came in the 1925 report of Imperial Potentate James E. Chandler of Ararat Temple (Kansas City). "The conditions of the present day are very different," he said, "from those prevailing several years ago. I find that temples about the jurisdiction are having difficulty in maintaining themselves properly because of insufficient income. In order to bridge over these gaps the membership is being constantly asked to subscribe money, or buy tickets to various entertainments instituted for the purpose of raising funds. The name of the Shrine is being hawked about the streets and the public is being solicited in connection with money‑raising schemes. These practices should be discontinued for the reason that the Order is being criticized, not only by our own members, but outsiders as well." Chandler then recommended that legislation be enacted forbidding any promotional scheme which had connected with it a gambling device, a lottery, raffle, prize contest, or gift enterprise. Actually, most 220 PARADE TO GLORY of the fund‑raising enterprises were for the purpose of sending the uniformed units to the Imperial Council sessions, and that was getting to be an expensive proposition. The Imperial Council agreed with Chandler after a long debate and forbade the money‑raising operations. To compensate the temples for these losses, also as recommended by Chandler, the Imperial Council ordered that minimum dues in the Shrine be set at ten dollars, with an additional two dollars for the hospitals. This precipitated bitter debate. Some temples argued they didn't need the money and should not be forced to assess it under those conditions. Others argued that it was unfair to assess the entire membership to send a few of the boys in the uniformed units on a four‑ or five‑day vacation. In the end, Chandler won his point, but he had to agree that one dollar of the five‑dollar increase should be forwarded to the Imperial Council as the annual subscription price of a new national Shrine magazine, which he also recommended and which after more long debate the Imperial Council established.
There were problems in connection with the founding of the Shrine Magazine. First, there was the problem of The Crescent, a magazine devoted to the Shrine and published by J. Harry Lewis, Past Potentate of Osman Temple in St. Paul. At one time Lewis had had a circulation of about 6o,ooo copies, but when the idea of a Shrine magazine was first broached, his circulation began to fall off. In 1925 it was down to about half its top figure. Lewis felt, and the Imperial Council agreed with him, that if the Shrine was to establish its own magazine, he should be paid for his assets. The major hurdle, however, was the fact that some of the Shriners didn't see the need for such a magazine, even if the Elks, the Moose, and other fraternal organizations had found them not only eminently satisfactory but profitable. One of the opponents of the magazine argued that, if the Shrine was to assess each member a dollar a year for the magazine, it would be much better if that dollar went to the crippled children. But underlying most of the argument was the fact that the individual temples were somewhat jealous of their position and wanted no encroachment of the national organization beyond its present position. One of the DREAMS OF GRANDEUR 221 debaters argued that the position was similar to the division of authority between federal and state governments.
The debate went on for more than two hours, and after considerable parliamentary maneuvering the proposal was defeated by the representatives. But an hour later there was a motion to reconsider, and after another hour of debate the magazine was approved. Chandler was appointed chairman of the publication committee by Imperial Potentate James C. Burger of El Jebel Temple (Denver), who along with Imperial Deputy Potentate David Crosland of Alcazar Temple (Montgomery, Alabama) became a member of the committee. They hired Fred O. Wood of Kansas City as general manager. By the time the 1926 session of the Imperial Council was held in Philadelphia, the committee had two issues of the magazine off the presses. And it was a pretty good magazine. There was a short story directed toward men. There was a page of Shrine history by the venerable William B. Melish. There were news from temples, a message from the Imperial Potentate, and other features designed to meet the needs of the Shrine in the dissemination of information.
There was more grumbling and bickering, however, much of it inspired by the Recorders of some ninety‑eight temples, who felt the method of collection of the dollar‑a‑year subscription price was in volved and dangerous. But in the end, the Imperial Council went along for another year. By the time twelve more issues had been printed and distributed, the Imperial Council had little to distract it with respect to the magazine, but in 1928, at Miami, a bombshell exploded and Chandler and his committee were unprepared for it.
The printed report circulated among the representatives showed that the magazine had a profit of $113,o 13,015 for the second year of its operation, but no sooner had Chandler moved the adoption of the re port than Noble Arthur H. Diamant of Mecca Temple demanded to know where the profit might be. The Shrine, he said, had contributed $1, i oo,ooo, and if the magazine actually was showing a real profit, some of the money should be in the coffers, whereupon Imperial Potentate Clarence M. Dunbar admitted that the magazine had not shown 222 PARADE TO GLORY a real profit. Yet, what Dunbar and everyone else in the convention missed was that the money paid by Shriners to the magazine committee was not a contribution at all. It was a subscription price for the magazine. The point was that for two years a group of the nobility had objected to having the magazine forced upon them. If it was worth the money and they wanted to subscribe, that was one thing, but to be forced to subscribe was another.
This hard core of opposition had three resolutions ready when the magazine report was filed. The three resolutions came from Alcazar (Past Imperial Potentate Crosland's temple), Syrian (Past Imperial Potentate Melish's temple) and from Noble Lee Thomas of El Karubah Temple (Shreveport). All of them were designed to accomplish the same thing‑the liquidation of the magazine. This was the bombshell. Chandler and his committee did not know it was coming and they had not assembled facts and figures to combat the issue. And they couldn't get them ready in time for the debate that followed the presentation of the resolutions through the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee.
The 1928 session ordered the liquidation of the magazine. In the end, the Shrine paid several hundred thousand dollars to buy out the contracts of the personnel, the paper manufacturer and the printing firm. But the Shrine was out of the magazine business. In later years, there were many Shrine leaders who felt the 1928 session had made a grave error in eliminating the publication, but it was done, never to be revived.
The establishment of the magazine had not been the only controversial issue before the 1925 session of the Imperial Council. Imperial Potentate Dunbar during his year of service had managed to travel widely and visit almost all of the temples. He had witnessed great enthusiasm among the nobility. He had observed scores of ceremonials at which thousands of new Nobles were created, but he had also noted a net decrease in total Shrine membership of more than five thousand as temples suspended members of the nobility for non‑payment of dues and thousands more took demits. He had presided at the dedica‑ DREAMS OF GRANDEUR 223 tion of one new mosque and he had noted others in process of construction, but he also had noted severe financial difficulties for some of those temples that had overextended their financial position. He made note of the fact that the enthusiasm of many Nobles, particularly officers of temples, to create beautiful buildings was leaving those temples in dire financial distress. It was his position that, if and when those temples defaulted on their building bonds, the Shrine as a whole would be injured. He also noted that the act of the temples in assessing their membership in order to meet their contracted financial obligations was creating almost insurmountable problems, including loss of membership.
Like some other Imperial Potentates, it would appear that Dunbar was close to a prophetic vision. Even though the country was just entering its greatest era of prosperity, Dunbar could see difficulties ahead, and to prevent those difficulties he recommended the passage of a resolution, presented by Past Imperial Potentate Burger, designed to limit the authority of a temple to contract financial obligations beyond its ability to pay. Technically the resolution provided that a temple could not enter into a building or other program in which the financial obligation exceeded ten dollars per member without first obtaining the approval of a special committee of the Imperial Council.
There was great debate on the issue. The opponents contended that this was an invasion of local rights by the Imperial Council, but in the end, the resolution passed.
The high point of Shrine membership of the period came on January 1, 1927, when there were 587,133 Nobles. From that point, there followed a gradual decline to 517,827 on January 1, 1932, and a precipitate decline to 3o6,470 on January 1, 1942. But when the Shriners met in Los Angeles in 1929, there had been no evidence of the troubles ahead. Leo Youngworth of Al Malaikah Temple became the Imperial Potentate and devoted himself to his task. At the 1930 session in Toronto, Ontario, he obtained more publicity for the Shrine than it had ever had before.
Cha fer 22 International Good Will HERE was one major defect in the fabulous 1929 convention in Los Angeles. It was so stupendous, so glamorous, so beautiful, so big that there were no invitations for the 1930 meeting. No other city felt that it could prepare such an Imperial Session and that the city and the temple might suffer by comparison. But Shrinedom and other temples failed to realize the capabilities of the new Imperial Potentate, Leo V. Youngworth.
Youngworth was a fraternity man. He had worked long and diligently in most of the various degrees of Masonry. He had lived with the Hollywood show, which was in its heyday. He was a lawyer by profession and like Kendrick had more than the average share of showmanship in his makeup. The Imperial Council left to him the selection of the time and place for the 1930 session.
It was not until August 21, 1929, a little more than two months after the Los Angeles session, that he made an official visitation to Toronto. After several conferences with the officers of Rameses Tem ple while he was there, an official invitation was issued and accepted for the 1930 session, to be held June io, i i and 12. To Youngworth, the Toronto session was a challenge. Perhaps it could not emulate the glamour of Hollywood, but there were other attractions. It would 224 INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL 225 add an international flavor absent since the session of 1888, and of course there was no prohibition in Canada.
With Toronto selected as the convention city, the director general was appointed along with his various committees and Youngworth began to dream.
"I was impressed with the wonderful possibilities," he reported to the Imperial Council, "of making this session of the Imperial Council an outstanding Masonic demonstration. The fine feeling of our Canadian neighbors and their kindly attitude toward our own country prompted a desire to do something that would further develop the fine friendship which has existed between our English‑speaking peoples for so many years. The thought occurred to me that it would be a great object lesson to the world to have the Governors of the various states of the United States and the Premiers of Canada, the Grand Masters of the various states and provinces, as well as the representatives from Cuba and Mexico, assemble in Toronto and join with us in a meeting that would be outstanding in its accomplishments." With this thought in mind, he called his Divan together in Philadelphia on October z to discuss these various possibilities, and the Divan was just as enthusiastic as Youngworth himself. The stock market crash of October z q was still almost a month away. While there were some indications that the future would not be as bright and rosy as some people seemed to think, there certainly was no indication of panic. True, the farmers were suffering, but this was a periodic phenomenon and no cause for particular concern. True, the Shrine membership was shown to be declining somewhat, but again it was certainly not serious enough to worry about.
Among other ideas that Youngworth offered to his Divan at the Philadelphia meeting was one that the Shrine should create a magnificent "peace monument" to be erected along the shores of Lake Erie, eternally facing across the border to the south. The Great War was only twelve years behind the world and everyone was looking for something that would prevent another such holocaust. The peace monument would serve not only to commemorate the 150 years 226 PARADE TO GLORY of friendship between Canada and the United States, but would serve also as a memorial to the entrance of ancient Free and Accepted Masonry into the continent of North America. And what better organization could offer such a monument than the Shrine, which was the only Masonic organization with international jurisdiction? Questionnaires were sent to the several temples, and 95 per cent of them endorsed the entire program as enthusiastically as had the Divan. With this support behind him, Youngworth contracted with Noble Charles Keck, a noted sculptor and a Noble of Kismet Temple (Brooklyn) to erect a monument to cost no more than $ 5 5,ooo and to be unveiled on the last day of the Toronto session.
Youngworth worked incessantly toward the project. He conferred with President Herbert Hoover and Prime Minister Mackenzie King and won their cooperation. Finally the great session arrived. Two hundred weary Sons of the Desert were admitted into the Oasis of Rameses on Saturday, June 7. The Shriners from all over North America‑depression or no depression‑began to arrive on both Saturday and Sunday. On the Sabbath, the giant stadium at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds was filled to overflowing as the chanters of several temples participated in a giant open‑air religious service.
It was an auspicious beginning of the 1930 session of the Imperial Council. It was friendly, international, religious and fraternal. And the glamour was added on Monday, June q, when Youngworth arrived with two special trains from Al Malaikah Temple. The Globe described it: "The sight of the first rank of marching Shriners, swinging up from the Bay Street subway and turning onto the broad thoroughfare of Front Street displayed a richness of color and light. The sun came out from behind the clouds and struck the marching ranks. They reflected the beams of gold and red, glinting and shimmering like even waves of light, with Union Jacks fluttering in the breezes from ranks of spears." And the Shriners really were having a whale of a time. They had so much fun that there wasn't a single Shriner present when the Toronto police raided a gambling hall that had been set up especially INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL 227 for the convention by some thugs from the United States who had expected to make a killing. When the police arrived the gamblers were sitting around trying to think of some way of drumming up some business.
Toronto contributed immensely to the session. Seven thousand schoolchildren paraded for Imperial Potentate Youngworth, and a children's choir gave a concert in the Coliseum that the Globe called splendid. And, of course, the Shriners entertained their Canadian friends. One fat Shriner had a toy balloon that he used to play a flute. There was the proverbial six‑foot‑seven Shriner pulling a toy cannon, and occasionally shooting it off. One fezzed Potentate with a tin whistle held the crowd spellbound on Young Street as he directed traffic and flirted with the girls. Two Shriners with a combination hurdygurdy and calliope blocked Young Street traffic for a half‑hour.
On Wednesday a cold downpour of rain delayed the parade, but the Shriners continued to have fun in the hotel lobbies. Street cleaners tried in vain to sweep the wet streets and clear them of paper ribbons that floated down from the hotel rooms. Even during the rain there was one procession of Nobles, dressed in ladies' nighties, pushing babycarts. Another group fashioned a wedding party, with one Shriner serving as the blushing bride.
And then the rain ceased, and the great night parade of Wednesday moved on time. The Globe wrote: "The greatest spectacle that this city or perhaps any other city ever witnessed kept what seemed to be half the population of Toronto awake and out of bed for hours after midnight. The procession was a river of light, flowing between great human banks with the golden moon overhead scarcely visible against the display of skyrockets that fountained up streams of multicolored sparks to the sky." But it was all just a prelude to the big event on Thursday afternoon, the dedication of the peace monument. At the opening Governor Albert Ritchie of Maryland declared that "here if anywhere will dawn the peace for which the world is waiting.'‑" Youngworth in his address of presentation declared that "our hope must be that somewhere
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‑ INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL 229
and somehow these mutual understandings shall be arrived at, that war will be impossible and that universal peace will be enthroned." He called on 6oo,ooo Shriners to continue in thought, word and deed their support of world peace. This moment, he said, "symbolizes our longings for international harmony to the end that universal peace and good will may rule the thoughts of the world's peoples. Our only fight is for one God, for home and for humanity against all forms of radicalism, realism and anarchy." Prime Minister King spoke by radio from Ottawa and said: "I should like to add the thanks of the Canadian people as a whole for the inspiring monument which your Order is erecting on the shores of Lake Erie and which you are now about to dedicate in the cause of peace. It is indeed a worthy addition to the art treasures of the province of which Toronto is the capital city. It will be cherished by Canada as a national possession and by our continent as an abiding symbol of international good will." Secretary of State Stimson, speaking for President Hoover from Washington, said that "during the past year earnest efforts toward the creation of a lasting peace have been made by some of the great na tions of the earth and your influence has been powerfully asserted behind these efforts. The impressive monument you are unveiling today signifies your consecration to this cause. I am therefore happy to greet you and bear witness to the sentiments with which the government and the people of the United States accept the encouragement and the assistance of your great Order. That this meeting, composed so largely of United States citizens, should take place on Canadian soil is in itself significant. Our two nations have been offering to the world an example and practical demonstration of the benefits in the direction of lasting peace which can grow from a treaty of naval limitations." Mrs. Youngworth unveiled the statue, and in accepting it, Mayor Wemp of Toronto said: "The motto of your great order is `peace be on you,' and `on you be the peace.' This with you on this great occa sion is no mere gesture, no empty phrase. You have put your creed into your deed and have erected, dedicated and consecrated this
Turofsky Inscription, Peace Monument, Toronto
ing memorial as an altar of sacrifice and a stone of remembrance to those of our sons and daughters who passed by the path of duty to immortality in the cause of peace. Your generous gift, so nobly conceived, so worthy of the great cause, so expressive of the ideal of harmony and concord is gratefully accepted by this city as a sacred trust, as a great object lesson, unifying and vivifying, that animates all. May the life of our two nations flow in one gracious river, the confluence of many streams to the ocean and haven of peace and prosperity. And may there be no ebb to that tide of international amity which is now flowing so full and clear and strong between our two nations." I~:IIdil]jDfeII░ 23 The Great Depression T HE years of the great depression were the most difficult for the Shrine since the first ten years, when Dr. Walter M. Fleming held the struggling organization together by hard work, the strength of his own character, funds from his own purse and his indomitable will for success of his brainchild. The Imperial Potentates who carried the burdens of the Shrine during the depression were without exception equipped with the same character and will as Fleming, and that they did not contribute to the finances of the Shrine in those trying years was due only to the fact that the fraternity had grown so large that any contribution they might have made would have been insufficient.
Beginning with Clarence Dunbar (Palestine) in June of 1927 and including Thomas C. Law (Yaarab) in July of 1942, all of the Imperial Potentates devoted most of their time to assuaging the wounds of the temples, incurred in the lush days of the Roaring Twenties, and to devising ways and means of holding the Order together. Dozens of ideas were submitted, argued and debated at the Imperial Council sessions and some positive changes were made, most of them helpful. The Imperial Potentates who served following Dunbar were Frank C. Jones (Arabia), Leo V. Youngworth (Al Malaikah), Esten A. Fletcher 231 232 PARADE TO GLORY (Damascus), Thomas C. Houston (Medinah), Earl C. Mills (Za‑GaZig), John N. Sebrell (Khedive), Dana S. Williams (Kora), Leonard P. Steuart (Almas), Clyde 1. Webster (Moslem), Walter S. Sugden (Osiris), A. A. D. Rahn (Zuhrah), Walter D. Cline (Maskat), George F. Olendorf (Abou Ben Adhem), and Law.
The problems they faced were manifold, among which was the fact that the Shrine had no Masonic standing as such. True, the law of the Shrine required that all members must be members in good standing of a Blue Lodge of Masons and/or the York or Scottish Rites. But after the stock‑market crash of 1929, many members of the Shrine found they could not continue the expense of paying dues in all of the bodies requisite to the Shrine. Some of them, the Shrine liked to feel, would gladly have continued the payment of the Shrine dues if they could have dropped the others. But the Shrine would have no part of that. The result was that demits and suspensions mounted sharply. And what puzzled the Shrine officials the most was the fact that there were far more suspensions than demits. The largest number of demits in any one year was 11,200 in 1932. But suspensions reached the fantastic total of 27,000 in 1931; 33,000 in 1932; and 45,000 in 1933. That was the high mark, but still there were 33,000 suspended in 1934 The Shrine was certainly no different from other fraternal bodies. The Masons themselves lost heavily. So did the Scottish and York Rites, the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Pythias. But the fact was that the various Masonic orders were the largest and wealthiest. The Blue Lodges, the Rites and the Shrine‑sometimes individually and sometimes collectively‑had entered into stupendous building programs for temples, cathedrals and mosques. After all, in the lush days of the twenties, they could foresee sufficient income to pay off bonds and mortgages. They did not foresee the huge loss of membership incident to the depression. No organization was more affected by this loss than the Shrine; f or in addition to the mosques that had been erected, the Shrine also was committed to the support of its hospitals and, with the loss in membership, the income for the operation of the THE GREAT DEPRESSION 233 hospitals was curtailed by just about one‑third. Yet the hospitals had to be kept in operation at all costs. It is even possible that the existence of these hospitals is what held the Shrine together at all during part of the time of the depression.
And yet, despite the losses, the extravaganzas of the Imperial Sessions continued. They may not have been as large as some before and some that were to follow, but they took place just the same. The 1931 session was held in Cleveland and the escort parade lasted more than four hours. The city was decorated in fantastic colors and lights, and the night parade brought a sense of awe to the more than million persons who watched it. In 1932, the Shriners moved on to San Francisco, where Islam Temple had imported movie stars from Hollywood to add glamour to what might otherwise have been a dull affair. President Herbert Hoover sent a message to the Shriners in 1932 that he expected them to help get the nation back on its feet. The Californians proclaimed there was no depression and that the 1932 session would be the means of starting the nation back toward recovery. But it was not to be. Things were getting worse.
Time after time during the depression years efforts were made to change the Shrine law on jurisdictional lines, and each of them failed. The matter of state lines was particularly annoying. Every tem ple was fighting for every member it could possibly obtain. To do otherwise, they argued, might lead to temple bankruptcy. Syrian Temple in Cincinnati pleaded for the right to create Nobles in the Kentucky towns across the Ohio River. Wheeling wanted some jurisdiction in Ohio. Davenport, Iowa, wanted to create Nobles residing in Illinois. And so it went. But the Imperial Council turned a deaf ear to all such proposals that did not bring with them agreements between temples in adjoining states.
The Jurisdictional Lines Committee, however, was kept busy enough rearranging territory within the respective states. It was argued that, where jurisdictional lines were held absolute, it frequently developed that a prospective member of the fraternity would not join because he would be required to travel too far to reach his temple when 234 PARADE T O GLORY actually there was one closer at hand, but forbidden to him because of the exclusive jurisdiction maintained. It appeared that the officials of some temples would rather lose the prospect entirely than to sacrifice him to a sister temple. Jealousies and frictions developed, and only the tact of the Imperial officers prevented open conflict.
During all of this time, one temple after another lost its holdings. Several mosques in cities all across the nation were sacrificed to the bond or mortgage holders, and occasionally they were taken over for unpaid taxes. One temple became so involved with mosque and country club property that it surrendered its charter and immediately was granted a new one under a different name. No one suffered and the Shrine was never criticized. It was an action that had to be taken.
Debates continued year after year over whether to reduce the minimum dues required by the Imperial Council, but no action ever was taken.
If the temples were having their difficulties, so was the Imperial Council, which was supported by membership contributions collected by the local temples. Every year during the depression the reserves of the Imperial Council treasury were being depleted. The law provided that each temple must contribute fifty cents a year from each member for the support of the national organization, particularly the Imperial Sessions. And each year, as the membership decreased, there was a further reduction in the income of the Imperial Council. But the Imperial Council did not change its ways.
It was argued‑and correctly so‑that the plan of representation for the various temples was set up for times of plenty. That is, each temple had representatives according to its membership, most of them with four or more. Each representative received fifteen cents a mile, one way, to pay his railroad and Pullman fare to the session, plus an additional fifteen dollars a day for three or more days at the session. Whenever the sessions were held in the Middle West or the East, it was comparatively inexpensive, for most of the temples were in that part of the country; but when the Imperial Session was held on the West Coast, the cost doubled, because of the additional travel expense.
THE GREAT‑DEPRESSION 235 For example, the Imperial Session in San Francisco in 1932 cost more than double the expense incurred in the 1930 session in Toronto and the 19 3 r session in Cleveland. Despite statements to this effect in debate on the issue, the Imperial Council held three sessions on the West Coast during the decade of the depression‑i932 in San Francisco, 1936 in Seattle, and 1938 in Los Angeles. But the only concession the Imperial Representatives ever made was to reduce the mileage pay from fifteen cents to ten cents a mile.
In 19 3 6, the Imperial Council treasury was f urther depleted when Freeland Kendrick, who had succeeded Sam P. Cochran as chairman of the hospital board of trustees, declared that the hospitals needed financial help. The contributions had been so reduced by the reduction in temple membership that they simply could not continue to operate unless something was done. Many suggestions were made. One was to increase the hospital contribution of the remaining membership, but to this the temples cried out in horror. They would lose even more members, they said, and instead of providing more money for the hospitals, it would provide less. Another suggestion was that the representatives contribute half of their per diem pay for the Imperial Sessions. That also was turned down. In the end, the Imperial Council simply appropriated $100,000 to the hospital board from the Imperial treasury and provided no method to replenish the coffers.
Still, somehow, the Shrine managed to struggle through. Imperial headquarters cut its expenses. The Imperial Potentates didn't travel as much as some of their predecessors. When mosques, temples or cathedrals were lost, the Shriners held up their heads, stuck out their chins and fought ahead in smaller quarters. Those who maintained their membership seemed to have about as much fun as ever. Of course, the ceremonials were smaller. There were fewer candidates. The audiences were smaller because of the costs of travel. Some temples reduced their ceremonial sessions to two and even one a year‑a few had none at all.
All this occurred, of course, against a background of significant world developments. Prohibition was ended in the United States, an 236 \ PARADE TO GLORY event applauded by most Shriners. The first session where there was a legal supply of Zemzem water, camel's milk or tarantula juice since that memorable convention in Indianapolis in i 9 i 9, came in Minneapolis in 1934, and the boys made the most of it. True the manufacturers of the stuff did not have as large a supply on hand as they were to have in later years, but there was some‑and enough.
Hitler had moved into power in Germany and was creating something of a disturbance. Another man by the name of Stalin had been making his influence felt from the Kremlin in Moscow and another Shriner had become President of the United States, the first since Harding who had even been a Mason. Franklin D. Roosevelt had been made a Shriner in Cyprus Temple in Albany while he was Governor of New York, and though he did not work at the business of fraternity as Harding had done, he nevertheless was a Shriner and he let it be known. He sent Attorney General Homer S. Cummings to deliver his personal welcome to the Nobles at the Imperial Session in Washington in 1935. The President's letter said: Fellow Nobles of the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine: I take the very greatest of pleasure in extending to you a most hearty welcome on the occasion of this decennial pilgrimage to the capital of your country‑the Mecca, not only of the more than one hundred temples of your organization, but of the more than one hundred millions of our citizens, whose interest, cooperation and loyalty are vital to the successful functioning of our American Democracy.
Every genuine organization has its own merits‑its own distinct contribution to make. You Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in your devotion to the maintenance of hospitals for crippled children and to other enterprises of philanthropic endeavor are daily attaining to the lofty standards implied in the titular designation of your members. But you do not thus carry, as mere duty, your share of the social load: you appreciate that the problems of life are too serious always to be taken seriously; and you practice the belief that gaiety of spirit is a healthful reinforcement of the things that make life sane and sound.
In this spirit Washington receives you; the preparations made throughout the length and breadth of the city are the visible evidences of the warmth of its feeling for you. The capital of your country invites you
to relax in the cordiality of its welcome: that you may be fortified to renew that journey, which, as we all know, will lie through both oasis and desert, but which can never be entirely the one or the other.
Fellow Nobles, I bid you welcome to Washington. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
There was no doubt that Washington had gone "all‑out" to entertain the Nobles. The Washington Herald reported that "all the colorful Oriental pageantry, thundering drums and music and intricate marching and counter‑marching have come to town to make Washington forget the New Deal, at least until Friday." There were boat races, prize fights, golf tournaments, pageants and the Navy brought International New Photo 238 PARADE TO GLORY its ships up t~he Potomac for the nobility to see. The city was brilliantly lighted as it had been in 1923. Robert Smith, who later was to become general counsel of the Shrine, was the Potentate of Almas Temple and the director general of the convention, and Leonard P. Steuart, a former Potentate of Almas, was to be installed as Imperial Potentate. To protect the nobility, detectives were imported from cities all along the Eastern seaboard, including two hundred that Mayor La Guardia (himself a Shriner) brought from New York.
Just as the Shriners began to arrive in Washington, the city's taxi drivers went on strike, and although the strike was settled some thirteen hours later, it did cause considerable jamming for a time. Alto gether, some i oo,ooo Shriners invaded the city, determined to have a good time. And they did. One be‑fezzed Noble, carrying a large Shriner doll, stopped traffic as he gathered a bunch of pretty girls around him and offered to sell a Shriner for a dime. After collecting a handful of dimes, he would grab another Noble from the crowd and shout, "Here he is, girls. Have a good time." Eventually all the dimes he collected were turned over to the hospitals.
When the escort parade began to move on Tuesday morning, the crowd was somewhat smaller than had been expected, for government offices had refused to permit employees to drop their work for the event. Charles Fullaway, administrative assistant in the Bureau of the Budget, said: "President Roosevelt has not issued an order for departments to close and in the absence of such order, the offices should not close." And they didn't. The President, himself, did not see that parade, which was the biggest in Washington history, but he did review, with Mrs. Roosevelt, the night parade on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it poured rain, but President and Mrs. Roosevelt were protected by a canvas canopy, and they and others on the reviewing stand were about the only ones to see the parade, which was abbreviated by the storm. There was so much scheduled for the three days of the Imperial Session that it could not be postponed, and since this was the only event in which the President could participate, the director general could not call it off. Only nineteen temples sent their bands and patrols THE GREAT DEPRESSION 239 into the rain. Fifty‑four others failed to show up. By the time the marchers reached the reviewing stand, their brilliant uniforms were soaked, many of them ruined.
The weather turned bright and brilliant on Thursday and a third parade was held that night to escort Imperial Potentate Steuart to the pageant, but the President had left earlier in the day to attend gradua tion exercises for the cadets at West Point and only Mrs. Roosevelt was in the reviewing stand to represent the White House.
Despite the rain, it was a successful convention, and the Washington Post was inspired to say editorially: Pageants, parades and purple pants. That is an alliterative phrase that goes a long ways in describing Washington in this week of grace. Staid Washington, scarcely out of mourning for the death of the blue eagle, is throwing back its dull and heavy veil of legislative cares and learning to laugh and play, for about 6o,ooo men are here with an equal number of smiles on their faces, and there is nothing more infectious than a grin of good fellowship. . . . The colorful fanfare incumbent on bringing the mysterious East to the heart of a planned economy seems somehow to emphasize the essential Americanism of our vivacious visitors. The backbone of America is nonetheless apparent because of the rakish trappings with which it is concealed, and though carefree jollity is the password of the Shriner during this one week, constructive charity is the watchword that binds him to his brother throughout the year when they are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Two months after the meeting of the Imperial Council, Congress passed and the President signed new legislation creating the social security program, which was to have a profound effect on the manage ment of the Shrine and its hospitals. When the income tax laws had been formulated, fraternal organizations (after a considerable battle) had been exempted from paying the levies; but when Congress passed the social security law, only charitable organizations were exempted. When the Imperial Council met in Seattle in 1936, Noble Thad Landon of Ararat Temple (Kansas City), the general counsel of the Shrine, placed before the representatives a proposition that the Colorado Corporation be made into a purely charitable organization for the 240 PARADE TO GLORY
operation of the hospitals and that a new corporation be formed in the state of Iowa that would be purely fraternal. This was approved by the representatives and the two‑corporation system was set up in December of that year.
The dual‑corporation plan also served another useful purpose. As the work of the hospitals became better known to the people of the United States and Canada, hundreds of men and women (many of them neither Shriners nor Masons) began to remember the Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children with outright gifts and bequests in their wills. Since these funds were to be used exclusively for the hospitals and not for the Shrine itself, the dual corporation was a much more satisfactory operation. By 1955 the gifts, bequests, contributions from special fund‑raising programs such as the football games and the annual assessment to all Shriners had built up the endowment of the hospitals to the point where their operation would be assured, even if another major depression reduced the membership of the Shrine as it had in the thirties.
The establishment of the Colorado and Iowa Corporations was accepted and approved by the Imperial Council at its session in Detroit in 1937, when the Shriners staged their usual glittering parades despite the depression. The low point in Shrine membership because of the depression was still to be reached, but the bands and patrols turned out in full force, many of them in new uniforms, which prompted Imperial Potentate Clyde Webster to remark that this was a good sign.
Instead of presiding over the Imperial Session in Detroit, Imperial Potentate Webster had looked forward to being elected there. But it was not to be. In 1936 in Seattle, the Imperial Council had elected Hugh M. Caldwell of Nile Temple (Seattle) as the Imperial Potentate, but after having served through the Imperial "line" Caldwell had declined the office because of business and health. His action moved Webster into the office of Imperial Potentate a year ahead of his scheduled election to that office. Caldwell, incidentally, never was permitted to call himself a Past Imperial Potentate. Instead he was elected a
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member of the Imperial Council for life, even though he had not earned that right by virtue of having served as Imperial Potentate.
As Webster presided, Detroit was in a turmoil. The sit‑down strikes were at their height, and there was some dissension among the visitors and the homefolks. One newspaper commented, "The police who are ordinarily so active in suppressing any unusual merriment, and are always greatly disturbed when the townspeople are seen going home late and happy, seem to have been paralyzed by some sudden and mysterious power. They simply looked on and smiled, like the bartender in the play, who remarked reflectively when he sized up an awful jag, `How I wish I could afford to enjoy myself like that.'" In 1938, the Shrine was back in Los Angeles; and as much as anything else, the convention was a prelude to the determination of Al Malaikah Temple to present her most illustrious son as a candidate for Imperial Outer Guard. Harold Lloyd, the great comedian of the silentscreen era, had worked long and diligently as a Mason and as a Shriner to dispense cheer in a cheerless world, particularly among children.
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THE GREAT DEPRESSION 243
He had laid the groundwork for cooperation between Al Malaikah Temple and the moving‑picture industry for the use of props and equipment in ceremonials at unusual places, including the desert itself, Boulder Dam and the Carlsbad Caverns. He had participated in the Shrine conventions of 1925 and 1929, and now in 1938 as Chief Rabban of his temple, he was made Grand Marshal of the affair. Here was a celebrity of the first rank, the first showman ever to participate in Shrine affairs since Billy Florence was a member of the original thirteen. And Lloyd believed devoutly in the brotherhood of Masonry and the Shrine.
The Shrine was there with all the panoply for which it had become famous, but in addition there was the pageantry that only Hollywood could provide. Mary Pickford was named the grand marshal of the parade of floats, and her assistants, who rode in the parade, were the stars of the day‑Sonja Heme, Jane Withers, Alice Faye, Michael Whalen, Warner Baxter, the Ritz brothers, Tyrone Power, Tony Martin, Don Ameche, Irene Hervey, Myrna Loy, Eleanor Powell, May Robson, Allan Jones, George O'Brien, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, George Raft, John Barrymore, Anita Louise and many others. In floats as spectacular as any that ever appeared in the Rose Parade, Hollywood and Los Angeles put on a parade and a pageant that would last in memory until ig5o, when the most spectacular of all of them was held. The pageant in the giant Coliseum had as its master of ceremonies the ebullient and popular Jack Benny.
In 1939, at the convention in Baltimore, Lloyd's name was presented as a candidate for Outer Guard. He didn't win. He had not expected to win, but in 194o at Memphis, Tennessee, the actor was elected to the lowest rung of the Imperial Line without a vote being taken. The other two candidates, who were to be elected in later years, withdrew when they felt that Lloyd was the overwhelming choice of the convention. Here, with the membership of the Shrine still dropping, was just the man who would add another touch of glamour so vitally needed at that particular time. He seemed to have that indefinable something that would help to return to the Shrine the attractiveness
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that had built it to such stupendous proportions in the twenties. In Baltimore and in Memphis, Lloyd clowned in an old N‑lodel‑T Ford that had been rebuilt to do tricks, and the crowds loved it. In both Baltimore and Memphis, rain dampened the enthusiasm of some of the visitors and townspeople alike, but the parades and pageants went on just the same.
Elected as Imperial Potentate at the Los Angeles session in 1938 was A. A. D. Rahn of Zuhrah Temple (Minneapolis), a swashbuckling, self‑made lumberman from the north country, and perhaps he was exactly the man the Shrine needed in the hectic days that marked the end ‑of the depression and the crisis in world affairs. As he took over the administration of the Shrine, he could recall that only a few months before the Japanese had bombed the American gunboat Panay, that the Japanese were keeping up a relentless attack on the Chinese, THE GREAT DEPRESSION 245 that the Spanish Civil War was at its height and that many Americans had gone over to fight for the Loyalists, who were being supported by Moscow. Only two months bef ore the Los Angeles meeting, Hitler had taken over Austria as a prelude to the Second World War, and in the United States, German‑American Bunds were being created. Spies were everywhere and almost everyone felt that war was just around the corner. The only question was whether or not the United States would get into the conflict. It seemed almost certain that Canada would be embroiled, and there were nine Shrine temples there.
On August 25, 1938, after his election as Imperial Potentate in June, Rahn issued his third general order to the nobility. It was strictly patriotic in character. "The Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine," he wrote, "in reality lives under three flags, and the membership in consequence is divided in its allegiance. It happens that 149 of our temples owe allegiance to the Constitution and the flag of the United States. The membership of one temple owes allegiance to the A'Iexican Republic, and the membership of nine other temples are citizens of the great British Empire. The Imperial Potentate feels some concern, particularly about certain agencies in the United States which apparently are active in destroying respect for constitutional government, and are planning in its stead foreign conceptions of government which are diametrically opposed to the guarantees of freedom of thought and action which are the very foundation on which the government of this country rests. He is, therefore, suggesting the following resolution which he feels the temples of this country might be interested in adopting in full or in part and passing on to the nobility through their magazines and other channels of information." In effect, the resolution pledged every Shriner to reaffirm his loyalty to his flag and to be "alert in preventing the growth of any influence in the jurisdiction which will be derogatory to constitu tional government, and report any information obtained of activities of adverse persons or organizations to the Imperial Potentate, who, acting alone or in conjunction with other organizations of patriotic 246 PARADE TO GLORY citizens, will, to the extent of his authority, use every means in his power, and take such action as he may deem necessary, to contribute to the defense of the liberties guaranteed to our people under the Constitution and to counteract the efforts of those who would work to destroy our present form of government." To make the Americanism program of the Shrine official, Islam Temple presented a resolution which would memorialize Congress and the President to establish a "citizens" day in the United States, when certificates would be presented to all young people as they reached their twenty‑first birthday in order to impress upon them the privileges and prerogatives of citizenship. The resolution was passed, of course. And throughout Shrinedom, patriotic affairs were being staged. The largest was that of Moslah Temple of Fort Worth, Texas, which held a giant Americanism pageant in the Texas Christian University stadium as part of the Texas State Shrine Association meeting.
This was the beginning then of the part the Shrine was to play during the following decade, a decade to be climaxed by the Shrine's Diamond jubilee celebration in Chicago at which President Harry Truman, a Shriner, would make the principal speech, a speech in which he would condemn the ideological forces of the world that would beat a path to still another war.
aapfer 24 the Second World War Y THE time Walter D. Cline (Maskat) became the Imperial Potentate of the Shrine on June 29, 1939, it was apparent that the depression was over. It was just as apparent that the United States was moving inexorably into a wartime economy as it began production of materiel for Britain, France and the other allied nations. Prime Minister Chamberlain and his umbrella had been to Munich and Czecho‑Slovakia had been dissolved. Farther south, Mussolini had invaded the Moslem country of Albania and King Zog had been forced to flee. Britain and France went on a war footing and began conscription. Every thinking American knew or at least felt that war was inevitable and the only question was "when?" These problems made Cline's year as Imperial Potentate difficult, indeed. The list of new members was increasing, but they did not overcome the higher rate of demits and suspensions, and thus the over all membership continued to decline. There were several reasons why. One of them was the fact that most of the some 200,000 men who had left the Shrine by one means or another during the depression years were young men. This meant that most of the men remaining on the membership rolls were middle‑aged or older, men at least past their physical prime. And while many of these could and did par247 248 PARADE TO GLORY ticipate actively with the marching organizations of their temples, and could and did make a creditable showing in the parades, they nevertheless displayed the fact that they were older. Brutal as it might sound, the fact was that young men simply did not want to join an organization of older men for fun. They thought there were other and better ways.
Still, some seven thousand new Nobles were created during the year Cline served; and when the convention met in Memphis in June of 1940, the Shriners appeared to be just as gay, just as fun‑loving, just as noisy as ever. There were the same stunts with an occasional new one; and if the parade was not quite as large as had been held in other years, it was just as brilliant and glittering. But it cannot be denied that there was something in the air, a tension that was felt by almost everyone. Cline chose deliberately to ignore the growing war fever. In his annual address, he said: "I think as your Imperial Potentate, some word should be said about the attitude of our organization with reference to 'isms,' `ists,' `shirts,' and `fifth columns.' I shall only say what I have said to some of you in numerous places. I have not appointed a committee on Americanism because I felt, have felt all year, and feel today that if the time has come when your leader, your Imperial Potentate, conscientiously feels that it is necessary or important that he select a committee to tell you to be loyal to your government, then Masonry has failed, and I am not ready to admit that all the teachings and philosophies and obligations that you men must have assumed from the time you took your Entered Apprentice degree until you passed through the Masonic Rites, either York or Scottish, in order to entitle you to wear a fez and sit in this convention, have failed to accomplish their mission." Cline was a storyteller of some note. An oil prospector, he had made a fortune, lost it and made another. He had served during the depression years on various government boards, particularly the hous ing administration. He was "earthy" in his manner and in his speech. He liked in later years to tell how he was received in Memphis with THE SECOND WORLD WAR 249 all the pomp and ceremony to which an Imperial Potentate was entitled, but that as a Past Imperial Potentate, he carried his own bags to the train. Perhaps that is the reason he concluded his annual address by telling the representatives, "I would not sell the experience of being your Imperial Potentate for nine million dollars, and I would not give you a plugged nickel for the job again." He attended but one more Imperial Session. That was to cast a ballot for Hubert M. Poteat for the post of Imperial Outer Guard.
Even though Cline wanted to steer a course for the Shrine that would not involve it in the "isms" of the day, it nevertheless was clear to most of the Shriners that a patriotic fervor was spreading across the entire jurisdiction. The Shrine bands on frequent occasions were called into parades that were purely patriotic in character. In his annual report to the Imperial Council in Indianapolis in 1941, Imperial Potentate George F. Olendorf (Abou Ben Adhem) remarked that during his year he had urged the nobility to rededicate itself, individually and collectively, to the highest ideals of Americanism. "I am proud," he said, "of the patriotic position the Shrine has taken throughout its long and eventful history. Whatever the future may hold for us, I have every assurance that the Order of the Mystic Shrine will be uncompromising in its support of the democratic ideal and in those worthwhile things which brighten, sweeten and enrich the way of life." Actually Olendorf never appeared at the 1941 convention in Indianapolis. He was taken ill just before his arrival and was sent immediately to a hospital. Deputy Imperial Potentate Thomas C. Law (Yaarab) took over. Olendorf eventually recovered sufficiently to be removed to his home in Missouri, but he died shortly thereafter. The Indianapolis convention was a bright and splendid affair. Money once more was becoming available after the long depression and the Shriners made the most of their opportunities for fun and parading, and it was well they did. It was the last of the wondrous affairs of the Imperial Council session until after the Great War ended. Somehow, the Time and Place Committee seemed to feel that this 250 PARADE TO GLORY would be true. Invitations for the 1942 session had been received from Portland, Oregon, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, and another was expected from Boston, but the committee, "giving due consideration to the uncertainties facing the country," recommended that the decision for the next session be left to the Imperial Divan.
Thomas C. Law of Yaarab Temple (Atlanta) was elected Imperial Potentate in Indianapolis, and he let it be known from the very start that the theme of his year of administration was to be Masonic Unity. Throughout his term of office, he attended every Masonic meeting for which he had credentials in his own right and others where the privilege was extended because of his official position in the Shrine. Everywhere he went, Noble Law felt that his theme was welcomed with open arms. In his annual address at the Imperial Council session (strictly business‑no parades) in Chicago on June 29, 1942, Law declared that as a result of his efforts "it can be said without hesitation or apology that the spirit of the Shrine has assumed a trend which leads to a happy middle ground of mutual understanding (with other Masonic bodies) on which the seriousness of the craft and the relaxation of our Order can meet in a true brotherhood. Both are reaching the proper conclusion that the contentment which the principles and precepts of Masonry bring, added to the pursuit of happiness which the Shrine seeks, is true American democracy." Imperial Potentate Law never abandoned this theme even after the day of infamy that came on Sunday, December 7, 1941. All America, including the Shrine and its leadership, realized what the Japa nese attack on Pearl Harbor would mean to the nation and its people. Law and other members of the Imperial Divan were well aware that America was unprepared, either physically or mentally, for the road ahead. When the attack came, Law was halfway through his term in office as Imperial Potentate and the nation had hardly begun to recover from the blow before it was time for the annual session. Obviously, it would be unwise, improper and almost impossible to hold a full‑blown Imperial Session with all of its pomp, ceremony, parades and pageantry. In his annual call for the Imperial Session, THE SECOND WORLD WAR 251 Law said: "Due to the fact that our country is at war and due to the cost and difficulty in obtaining transportation for uniformed units, a business session only will be held." And that was confined to two days, rather than three, because of the shortage of hotel space.
Acting in the spirit of the times, the Imperial Council took steps to turn over the management of its affairs to the Imperial Divan if if should develop that, at some time during the war, even the rep resentatives proved unable to get together for their annual session. Actually, the Imperial Session was abandoned only in 1945, but the Shriners felt they must be prepared. The only power not passed on to the Imperial Divan was the authority to elect new officers at the bottom of the Imperial line. All others were to be advanced in regular rotation with the Outer Guard and any other offices to be left vacant until a meeting of the full Imperial Council could be held.
The Shrine also put itself on a war footing. George H. Rowe of Ismailia Temple (Buffalo) presented a resolution from the New York Shrine Council which would create a War Activities Commit tee, designed to assist the government and the membership in every possible way during the war emergency. Rowe was serving at the time as the Imperial Oriental Guide, and he promptly was named chairman of that committee. More than anything else, Rowe and his committee over the next four years coordinated activities in the temples and promoted new ideas which in any way might help the war effort.
Elected as Imperial Potentate was a distinguished Cleveland attorney, Albert H. Fiebach, who for many years had served on the Jurisprudence and Laws Committee of the Shrine. At the very start he let it be known that the Shrine must do everything in its power to help win the war. How much the Shrine did is revealed in the reports of the Imperial Potentates and the War Activities Committee over the next three years.
Again meeting in Chicago in 1943 with only the representatives to the Imperial Council present, Fiebach reported: "With civilization standing at the very crossroads of destiny, at a time of national crisis 252 PARADE TO GLORY and peril, men are impelled to turn to the serious philosophy of life. Moved by these impulses, they naturally seek light and refuge in Masonry and the Shrine. Here they find the most congenial forum for the profession of their belief in God and of their devotion to country and flag. Symbolic Masonry has prospered as has the York Rite, the Scottish Rite and the Shrine. Last year for the first time since 1926, our Order showed a gain." Indeed it was true. The tide had turned from the depression years. The spiritual feeling of men, particularly in scores of training camps all over the United States, had increased and with that increase had developed an apparent need for fraternalism. It was also a fact that the nation had entered into a war economy. More money was available and with more money in millions of pockets, there was a better atmosphere for the development of the Shrine and its prerequisite bodies of Masonry. Furthermore, individual temples, spared the expense of sending their marching units long distances to participate in parades, found greater activity at home. The War Activities Committee urged the local temples to participate in every patriotic parade, and they did, adding their colorful uniforms, precision marching and military music to rallies for the Red Cross, the sale of war bonds, the return of wounded troops and every other event that seemed appropriate.
In some cities, the local temple took over the management of the sale of war bonds, and in the course of four years of war, more than a billion dollars was invested by and through the Shrine in these government bonds for the conduct of the war. The Colorado Corporation (the hospitals) also invested all of their available funds in government securities as a means of furthering the war effort.
In some cities, the Shrine mosques became the center of wartime activities, both as a place of work for Red Cross volunteers and as a center for entertainment of all troops, but particularly Shriners and Masons. In those areas where training camps were near at hand, the mosques were the scenes of dances and other entertainments. Special committees were formed to make certain that every Mason was personally
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‑ 254 PARADE TO GLORY sonally invited to these affairs. Contacts were maintained with other temples. Frequently a temple in one section of the nation would write to a temple far distant, advising them that a Shriner or a Mason had been assigned to a nearby camp. Wherever possible the visiting Shriner or Mason was made to feel at home among his brethren.
It was perhaps singularly important that the Imperial Potentate elected in 1943 was Morley MacKenzie, a Canadian and a member of Rameses Temple in Toronto. Canada had been at war two years longer than the United States and had felt more of the heartaches that go with it. But it was during his year as Imperial Potentate that the tide of battle began to turn. Mussolini had been forced to resign as premier of Italy and that nation had surrendered. George Patton and his Seventh Army had invaded Europe from the south and just one month before the Imperial Council session on July 5, 6, and 7, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower had directed the invasion of France. Already Patton was on the march. Just as the Imperial Session was about to get under way, MacKenzie wrote to all of the Potentates of all of the temples that "these are hours of dedication. The crusading armies of free peoples have begun the greatest mission of rescue in world history . . . the encirclement of Germany‑the noose that must hang their tyrannical military despots and hasten Hitler's final day of reckoning‑is being drawn about the Nazis. . . . Within us all a spirit of solemn dedication, of earnest devotion, prays for Divine blessing, for protection, for courage, for fortitude." But the war was not over, even though the end was in sight. There were still sick and wounded troops to visit. There were still entertainments to give. Almost every day, at some hospital or in some training camp, the Shriners gave band concerts. They equipped recreation halls with radios and jukeboxes. They conducted blood banks. And they bought bonds. In some temples, there was a sort of secret committee which helped the FBI and other government intelligence units as a clearing house for cloak‑and‑dagger activities.
Alfred G. Arvold of El Zagal Temple (Fargo) was elected Imperial Potentate in 1944, and it fell to his lot to be the only head of THE SECOND WORLD WAR 255 the Shrine in history not to have a meeting of the Imperial Council to preside over. The session of 1945 was abandoned at the behest of the government, faced with the almost impossible task of keeping the nation's transportation system moving. Even the six hundred representatives could not be accommodated, and the 1945 session was composed of the Imperial Divan and the necessary members of the various committees of both the Iowa and Colorado Corporations.
By the time the 1945 session got under way in Chicago, the war in Europe was over. The Germans had surrendered. Hitler and Mussolini were dead. In the Pacific, Iwo Jima and Okinawa had been cap tured. The fleets were bombarding the Japanese coastline, and the first atomic bomb was only a month away. And thus it was that the big debate among the members of the Divan concerned the amount of money that was to be expended by the Shrine in the development of special display rooms in the George Washington National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.
These rooms were the dearest wish of Arvold, who had spent his lif e in show business of one kind and another. He fought for the rooms. He organized them. Mecca Temple gave her Shrine treasures for display. But some of the members of the Divan were hesitant. They wanted to know how much money the Shrine was going to spend, and for what. Arvold knew only part of the answer, but he had f aith in the future, and as a result the motion to spend $25,000 went through. Since that time, thousands more have been spent, until it is one of the real show places of the memorial‑and the lodging place of Dr. Fleming's original Ritual, his jewels and those of William J. Florence.
The 1945 meeting was the end of another era‑the war years, years in which the Shrine had distinguished itself by its service to the country as a whole and to Shriners and Masons in particular. And the membership was growing once again. From the low of 3o6,ooo in 1942, the Shrine had grown to more than 400,000. Over the next decade, it would double in size.
Cl a‑apfer 25
the Right to Go to Lodge
OMEONE once said that America fought the Second World War for the right to go to lodge meeting on Tuesday night; and KJ when the Shrine resumed its frolicsome ways in San Francisco on July 23, 1946, Governor Earl Warren touched on the point as he welcomed the Nobles to California.
William H. Woodfield of Islam Temple (San Francisco) had succeeded Imperial Potentate Arvold at the abbreviated session of the Imperial Divan in Chicago in 1945, and with the end of the war, he was determined to make the resumption of Imperial activities an affair to be remembered. It was. The San Francisco Examiner could think of no better way to report the event than to repeat the story written in 1932 about the Shrine convention in that year: "By Allah, 'tis a noble sight. Behold, ye unbelievers, an enchanted city. Sheiks of the desert smoking two‑bit cigars. Minarets and temples alight with magic fire. Baghdad and Cairo. What were they com pared to San Francisco in the grip of the Shriners. Revelry, pomp, music and marching patrols. It is all here again. Brighter, louder, filled with more excitement than in those prewar years."
San Franciscans were more excited by the advent of the Shriners than by the founding of the United Nations a year before, when most of the great diplomats of the world had congregated in the same city.
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It was a day of celebration and the Shriners made the most of it. The guest of honor was Noble General H. H. "Hap" Arnold, who had served during the war years as commanding general of the Air Force. The Shriners were proud of him and proud that he was a Shriner, as many of the commanding officers in all the services were. President Truman sent his regrets and fraternal greetings, and Governor Earl Warren (later to become Chief Justice of the United States) welcomed the Shriners as the convention opened. Warren had served as Potentate of Aahmes Temple and as Grand Master of the Masons of California. It was not surprising, then, that he touched on fraternalism in his welcome address.
"America," he said, "is a fraternal nation. It is a land of fraternities, and one of the greatest is the Shrine of North America. . . . Nations across the waters do not understand this phase of our national life. . . . I wish all the world could absorb this fraternal spirit and put it to work. It is all that is necessary to solve the most troublesome problems of our turbulent times. . . . If the world would adopt the same attitude toward the poor, the weak and the underprivileged that the Shrine has maintained toward the crippled children of North America, without regard to race, creed or color, it would dispel most of the darkness around us. There is no gloom that cannot be driven out by the sunshine of the Shrine."
And it was all so very true. The sunshine of the Shrine was spreading. In 1942, the fraternity had reached the bottom of the depression years, but by 1946 the membership had jumped an impres sive 150,000 members, and another quarter of a million were to be added by July of 1958. The Shrine leadership was not alarmed by this growth. They liked it. But there were problems. Syria Temple in Pittsburgh became the largest of all the Shrine temples, with a membership of more than 26,ooo. Al Malaikah of Los Angeles went into second place with more than 2 2,ooo and Medinah of Chicago had more than 21,000. Of the first ten temples in rank of size, Crescent of Trenton, N. J., was the smallest and it had a membership of more than i i,ooo. None of the larger mosques could seat all of the
260 PARADE TO GLORY 261 oppose an ideology that seeks to degrade human beings. We oppose any philosophy that declares the police state to be the highest human social achievement, and which would invade the sacred sanctuary of a man's conscience, where only God may enter as judge.
"Masonry and Shrinedom have flourished in this soil of freedom. Shrinedom has given me a greater appreciation of what it means to be an American. In the 'Shrine I have found myself surrounded by men full of the joy of living, men of hope and optimism and understanding. They are loyal to the principles of Masonry and of the Shrine, for they are identical with the principles of brotherhood and liberty embodied in the ideals of Americanism. They are dedicated to preserving these ideals. And they are ever vigilant against any act or deed that threatens to rob us of our great heritage of freedom. This, friends, is the Shrine. These are a few of the reasons why I wear this fez."
As Imperial Potentates changed from year to year, there were changes in the theme each sought to promulgate as his own lasting contribution to the fraternity, but with each of them, there was the constant effort to acquaint the nobility and the general public with the ravages of godless ideologies. A year before he was elected as Imperial Outer Guard at the Chicago convention of 1949, George E. Stringfellow of Crescent Temple (Trenton, New Jersey) attacked not only communism but fuzzy‑minded liberalism as well. "Trend of government," he told the Mid‑Atlantic Shrine Association after his election, "always follows informed public opinion and since free institutions thrive on sound public opinion, we as Masons should be partisan to the basic philosophies which made America great."
In 19 S 1 as Imperial Second Ceremonial Master, Stringfellow told a lodge of Masons that "we know that wherever communism takes over, Masonic lodges are closed and leaders are killed. We cannot, at one and the same time, stand with God and with Stalin. Some socalled liberals in this country would have you believe this possible. The choice today is Stalin or God. We Masons choose God." Support for the Shrine's fight against communism and other ide‑ THE RIGHT TO GO TO LODGE 261 ologies inimical to the American way of life came from one of the Shrine's most illustrious Nobles, J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a statement written especially for this book, Mr. Hoover said:
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In Reply, Please R f w File No.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
October 17, 1958 THE SHRINE VERSUS COMMUNISM For many years the Imperial Potentates, the Imperial Council and the Nobility of the Shrine of North America have led a continuing fight against communism. It is refreshing to see so great a fraternal organization as the Shrine put its full weight and power against this dangerous menace.
The canker of communism is the greatest threat to the liberty of the peoples of North America. Like chameleons, the communists change their outward characteristics according to the surroundings in which they operate.
Their propaganda is at times ludicrous, but we cannot ignore it for one moment.
Divide and conquer. Hoodwink, lie, purge‑‑anything to conquer the liberty loving peoples of the world and put them under the iron fist of communism.
Hypocrisy, guile, deceit and subversion are the hallmarks of communism, disguised of course as sincerity, forthrightness, truth and peaceful coexistence. Let each of us in the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine continue to be alert to these insidious tactics of communism and fight to our last breath to preserve the historic freedoms and liberty we now enjoy.
262 PARADE TO GLORY All through his advancement in the Imperial line of officers, Stringfellow, who had been a close associate of Thomas A. Edison, continued this fight. In 1956 as the Imperial Chief Rabban he wrote an article for American Mercury magazine called "Fraternalism Fights Communism" in which he not only attacked the Communists, but historically called to the attention of the public, as well as the Masons, the fact that the birth of this nation was inexorably bound to the order of Freemasons‑that even the Boston Tea Party was an adjourned session of St. Andrews' Lodge of Freemasons in Boston. Then he set forth his own personal creed: "I believe in God.
"I believe in this nation, under God.
"I believe in our fraternities under God.
"I believe that this nation, under God, was destined to be protector and defender of human liberty." No less a part of the Shrine in the postwar era was the effort of its leaders to achieve some form of Masonic unity. In Masonry, the Grand Lodge, and, by virtue of being head of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Master are supreme; but in North America, the authority of the Grand Lodge and the Grand Master is circumscribed by the political boundaries in which they exist. In Canada there are provincial Grand Lodges and in the United States there are state Grand Lodges, but there is no national organization. For this reason, rules and regulations differ from state to state and province to province, and in some states the Ritual takes on a slightly different form, even though the meaning remains the same.
After Blue Lodge Masonry (the first three degrees) there follow the Scottish and York Rites, but even in the Scottish Rite, there are separate jurisdictions. The Northern jurisdiction, with headquar ters in Boston, Mass., encompasses, roughly, the northeastern United States, eastward from the Mississippi and north of the Mason and Dixon line. The Southern jurisdiction, which has headquarters at the House of the Temple in Washington, takes in the remainder of the United 'States. The forms and practices of the two jurisdictions are THE RIGHT TO GO TO LODGE 263 by no means identical. The Knights Templar of the York Rite do have a national organization, but being the smaller of the two Rites, they have less power and authority over Masonry.
Thus, the most potent national and international organization of Masons is the Shrine, even though the Shrine is not a recognized part of Masonry. With the almost fantastic growth of the Shrine during and after the Second World War, some of the national Shrine leaders felt it incumbent on themselves to take the leadership in promoting Masonic unity. The reasons were twofold. First and foremost was their feeling that Masonry needed unity, which was impossible at the Blue Lodge level. Second, the Shrine had found itself in frequent, although inadvertent, conflict with Masonic laws as they varied from state to state and province to province. For example, one state forbids all Masons (including Shrine organizations) to meet as such on Sunday, no matter what the purpose may be, except to attend recognized church services. In that state, a 'Shrine band could not perform on Sunday, even for the entertainment of children at various hospitals. Other states have no such Masonic law.
Perhaps the major conflict between the Grand Masters and the Shrine, however, was brought about by the basic concepts of the two organizations. Those men who devoted their time and talents to the Blue Lodges frequently believed that the philosophies and deep meanings of Masonic teaching left no place for fun, particularly when that fun was engaged in openly by the Shriners and when the public generally believed that the Shriners were "high‑up Masons." Some Grand Masters resented the costumes, the entertainment and the frolic of the Shiners because they believed it was a reflection upon the deep seriousness and religious quality of the Blue Lodge.
From the very beginning of the Shrine, Imperial Potentates had attempted to smooth the ruffled feathers of some Grand Masters, and in 1942, as we have seen, Thomas C. Law (Yaarab) had made Ma sonic Unity the principal objective of his administration of the Shrine. In his report to the Imperial Council on June 29, 1942, Law said: "Generally it can be said without hesitation or apology that the spirit 264 PARADE TO GLORY of the Shrine has assumed a trend which leads to a happy middle ground of mutual understanding on which the seriousness of the Craft and the relaxation of our Order can meet in a true brotherhood." However, Law and the other Imperial Potentates who followed him were not quite sure just how Masonic Unity was to be established‑if it was possible at all. There was little hope by any of them that unification (as distinguished from Unity) would be possible. But they did want amity if nothing else. Galloway Calhoun sought to achieve the purpose by calling attention to the fact that both the American and Canadian governments had been built on the principles of Freemasonry and that most of the leaders of both countries were Masons. He mentioned in particular Washington, Jefferson, Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and John Marshall, and declared that "even such a rich heritage will not suffice now unless Masonry of today, through us, can meet the needs of the hour." Being a past Grand Master of Masons in Texas, Calhoun urged as a theme for the Shrine a rededication‑"that Shriners return to the altars of their Blue Lodges and rededicate themselves to the princi ples for which Masonry had ever stood‑the performance of their duty to God, to country and to their fellowmen." Frank S. Land of Ararat (Kansas City) became the Imperial Potentate in 1954. He was the founder of the Order of De Molay for boys, and had watched it grow from a nucleus in 1920 to more than a million and a half members during his year as Imperial Potentate. He also was a close personal and Masonic friend of Harry S. Truman, who had served (while still a United States Senator) as the Grand Master of Masons in Missouri. He had watched the Shrine grow, and he also had watched a growing apathy in the Blue Lodges. He had gathered statistics which tended to prove that too many Shriners had taken their Blue Lodge and advanced Masonic degrees just to become members of the Shrine. Land told the Imperial Council in 1955 that 92 per cent of Blue Lodge Masons failed to return to their own or another lodge after receiving the degrees and that 95 per cent THE RIGHT TO GO TO LODGE 265 seldom attended meetings of their Rites. He found the facts and the thought abhorrent, and pleaded with Shriners to take a more active interest in their Blue Lodges, because the Blue Lodge was the source of Shrine growth. George E. Stringfellow worked on the same theme. The fact of the matter was that during the postwar years, men everywhere wanted to forget the horrors of war, the mysteries of the atomic age and the f earsomeness of the cold war. They wanted to relax in fun and jollity and they found their desires fulfilled in the Shrine. They never forgot their Masonic teachings, but they just didn't work at them.
But because they wanted to play, the Shrine did grow‑and at an almost unbelievable and fantastic pace. When Stringfellow took over from Thomas W. Melham in 1958 as the Imperial Potentate, there were more than 8oo,ooo members, a gain of half a million since the start of the war. In every city, village, and hamlet there were men who proudly wore the scimitar and crescent and, on ceremonial occasions, their fezzes. The Imperial and regional sessions grew almost unbelievably and it seemed that almost every session was bigger and gaudier than the last.
It had been Calhoun's privilege to preside over the seventy‑fifth diamond jubilee Imperial session, held in Chicago in 1949‑ Shrine leaders from every walk of life were there to reveal, as much as any thing else, that American leaders included many members of the Shrine.
Ty Cobb led the baseball contingent. Sigmund Romberg was there from the field of music, and Edgar A. Guest was there with a new poem about the Shriners. There were Generals Clark, Doolittle, Wainwright and Hartle. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker participated, along with bishops, university presidents, great athletes, and Masonic leaders from all degrees. The highlight of the convention was a major speech on foreign policy by President Truman, also a Shriner.
President Truman went sleepless during most of his stay in Chicago. Quartered at the Stevens Hotel, he was one of the principal victims of the old Shrine trick of calling "Chloe" with a loudspeaker
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THE RIGHT TO GO TO LODGE 267 throughout the night. Always an early riser, the President arose even earlier on the morning after his speech and banquet appearance, and departed for Washington.
It was in Chicago, too, that the Shrine elected its most glamorous Imperial Potentate in Harold Lloyd, the motion‑picture star. Lloyd traveled incessantly during his year, preaching Masonry and Americanism, and when he returned to Los Angeles for the 1950 convention, the entire facilities of the motion‑picture industry as well as Al Malaikah Temple were combined to make it the biggest extravaganza in the history of the West Coast as a tribute to Lloyd.
The parade was longer, the floats larger and more expensive. And crowning it all was a huge electrical pageant in the Los Angeles Coliseum on the last night of the convention. The Los Angeles HeraldExpress reported: "Down through the years there has rarely come to humanity a spectacle of more beauty and magnificence than the shimmering jewel with which the Shriners of North America crowned their Los An geles convention last night‑the million‑dollar electrical pageant in Los Angeles Coliseum. Like a great glowing heart, the huge oval throbbed with light against the darkness of the skies above as ioo,ooo spectators within the great bowl cheered and thrilled to the sight." But that was not all. The motion‑picture stars themselves were there. Red Skelton, himself a Shriner, led a camel in the parade, bearing a sign reading, "Honest Red, the used‑camel dealer." Dan Dailey, Ruth Roman, Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl participated, and Roy Rogers, also a Shriner, put Trigger through his paces in the parade that also included units from sixty‑seven temples. There were fiftyone bands in the day escort parade. More than 200,000 Shriners and their ladies taxed the capacity of Los Angeles for the session, but they all came to say farewell to Harold Lloyd. And at night the late Cecil B. DeMille directed the Imperial Potentate's banquet.
There can be no doubt that the glamour of his presence in the office of Imperial Potentate had attracted a great ‑deal of attention to the Shrine. Wherever he went on his visitations to temples and
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THE RIGHT TO GO TO LODGE 269 in other appearances before other organizations, Lloyd drew huge crowds, and in the end the Shrine profited by increased membership and perhaps more important a new interest in both the Shrine and Masonry. They apparently were impressed by the fact that if the Shrine and Masonry were so important to so prominent an actor, there must be something in both worth investigating.
Llovd was succeeded in the office by Hubert M. Poteat of Wake Forest, North Carolina, a member of Sudan Temple of New Bern, North Carolina, a professor of classics at Wake Forest College, a musician, singer and composer of some note, and perhaps the outstanding Ritualist in the long list of Imperial Potentates. He also was a stickler for Masonic conduct and attempted to cure all the ills of the growing 'Shrine in one short administration. But a single year was not enough. The Shrine was too big, too widespread over the North American continent. Too many temples were headed by men who did not know Shrine law and cared less. They were interested in operating their own temples f or the benefit of their own Nobility and all too often became embroiled in affairs that never would have happened if they had known the law. In almost every case, it was not so much willful disobedience of Shrine law as it was ignorance of the law.
Perhaps Poteat's great achievement while in office came at the end of his administration when he insisted that the contribution of every Shriner to the hospitals should be increased from two dollars a year to five dollars a year. It had been forecast that he would run into opposition when the matter was put before the Imperial representatives, but it sailed through the legislative process with hardly a murmur. The 'Shriners themselves now were in love with their hospitals‑a fraternal love which perhaps has known no equal in the history of fraternalism.
Poteat was to have been succeeded by Roland D. Baldwin of Morocco Temple in Jacksonville, Florida, but he died a month before Poteat left office in Atlantic City. He was a popular figure in the Imperial Line and was honored at the 1951 session by being named an Honorary Imperial Potentate, the only one so created.
270 PARADE TO GLORY Stepping up to the top office was Robert G. Wilson, Jr., a Boston judge and a member of Aleppo Temple, who became interested in the legalistic problems of the Shrine, including the questions of corporate structure and the rightful jurisdiction of temples, particularly with respect to the crossing of state lines. It was Wilson, too, who granted a dispensation for a new temple in the last remaining state without one‑Delaware, jurisdiction of which had been divided between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Then in June of r q 5 2 Harvey A. Beffa of Moolah Temple (St. Louis) became the Imperial Potentate and the first of several to realize that the Shrine had grown into big business. During his admin istration, the membership passed the 700,000 mark, and Beffa, himself a big business administrator, could foresee that someday the Shrine would reach a membership of a million or more. But in the process of reaching that million, Beffa saw, better records must be kept, not only in the Iowa and Colorado Corporations, but by local temples. Beffa all too frequently did not endear himself to local temples when he found not only their membership lists but their financial records in a deplorable state. He found Recorders of temples who had no knowledge of the most rudimentary bookkeeping practices. One Recorder who was asked to bring out his daily cash journal, delivered a spindle containing penciled notations. There never was a question of the misappropriation of funds, but Beffa knew that with the increasing membership, adequate control would be a necessity and he recommended uniform accounting systems, and he ordered the Imperial office to devise them.
Remmie L. Arnold, of Acca Temple (Richmond, Virginia), Walter C. Guy of Scimitar Temple (Little Rock), Gerald D. Crary of Naja Temple (Deadwood, South Dakota) and Thomas W. Mel ham of Tripoli Temple (Milwaukee), all important business administrators in their own right, continued the effort to bring sense out of chaos and dispel the ancient Shrine philosophy, originally adopted by Fleming, that records within themselves were unimportant, that the only thing that counted was fun. After all, when George E. Stringf ellow took office in 1958, there were more than 8oo,ooo members.
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‑ 272 PARADE TO GLORY
The hospital endowments amounted to upwards of 125 millions of dollars. And in the inflationary period after the Second World War, temples were becoming immensely wealthy. It cost the local temples thousands of dollars to send their units to Imperial and regional Shrine meetings to participate in the parades and pageants. It was because of all of this that during the administration of Imperial Sir Walter C. Guy the Imperial Council ordered a uniform accounting system in all temples with uniform reports to the Imperial Recorder. But it was not until the close of the administration of Thomas W. Melham that all but a limited few of the temples had complied with the Imperial orders.
A leader in the effort to implement a businesslike structure and operation at both the temple and Imperial levels was George N4. Saunders, Recorder of Ararat Temple (Kansas City), who had been elected Imperial Recorder in 1948. He was only the sixth elected Imperial Recorder since the formation of the Imperial Council in 1876. William S. Paterson had served from 1876 to 1889, Frank A‑1. Luce from 1889 to 1894, Benjamin W. Rowell from 1894 to 1928, James H. Price from 1928 to 1943, and Everett W. Jacocks from 1943 to 1947. Frederick W. Wilken, Recorder of Almas Temple in Washington, had been appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Jacocks.
Saunders came well equipped for the task which lay ahead. He not only had put Ararat Temple's records on a businesslike basis, but he also had been an intimate associate of Thad Landon, for many years the Shrine's legal counsel. It was Landon who established the corporate system of the fraternal and hospital organizations and was responsible in no small measure for Shrine law itself. Furthermore, Saunders was a student of the history of the Shrine, and was one of the first to decry openly the legendary introduction of the Shrine into North America. In a "short history of the Shrine" that Saunders wrote, his opening remark was that the Shrine "is as American as apple pie."
It was Saunders who moved the Imperial offices of the Shrine from Richmond, Virginia, to Chicago and began to bring order to the Imperial records. Each succeeding Imperial Potentate has found
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Motorcycle Patrol, Ararat Temple, Chicago, 1958 Oscar & Associates in him a friend and advisor, with knowledge to support his opinions. The record shows that he has been a leavening influence and a carryover of authority from one Imperial Potentate to another. It was Hubert M. Poteat who said in his annual report after his year in office that "if ever a man was born for a job, that man is George M. Saunders." Saunders was ably aided and advised in his work by Robert P. Smith of Almas Temple in Washington, D. C., who succeeded Thad Landon as the chief legal counsel. He had served as Potentate of his temple and director general of the Shrine convention in Washington in 1935 at which L. P. Steuart was elected Imperial Potentate. In the years that followed his first appointment as legal counsel, it was Smith who insisted that every Shrine temple must be legally as well as fraternally on firm ground and he worked incessantly toward that end. The Jurisprudence and Laws Committee of the Shrine might rule on
274 PARADE TO GLORY
Shrine law at the Imperial Council sessions, but it was Smith who kept the leadership advised on legal matters in the world. Meanwhile, the rank and file of Shriners, unconcerned with the inner workings of either the politics or the records of their temples or of the Imperial Council, continued to have fun, and it seemed (despite the 1950 convention in Los Angeles) more and more fun. In 1951, the Shriners returned to New York City for their Imperial Session, the first meeting at the birthplace of the Order since 1886, and the meeting was so successful, and attracted so much attention in the press and on radio and television, that another session was held in New York in 1953‑ Millions lined Fifth Avenue for all the parades of both years, and for the first time became acquainted with the most glamorous of all fraternal orders.
In Miami in 1952 and in Atlantic City, Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis in the years following 1953, there was one great spectacle after another. Parades lasted for five and six hours‑both morn ing and night. True, the red fire of earlier years was replaced by flashing electric lights, powered by batteries carried by the uniformed units. The electric canes and electric brief cases that shocked those they touched had disappeared by Imperial edict. Torpedoes and firecrackers were frowned upon, but these all had been replaced by something else to entertain not only the Shriners but the townsfolk as well, for after all, the Shriners were still men with reverent minds and merry hearts, still playing at Moslems and infidels. They had acquired a soul through the operation of their hospitals that had helped thousands upon thousands of crippled children who otherwise would have been doomed to a life of helpless invalidism. But they were still dedicated, as William B. Melish put it in 1892, to: "Pleasure without intemperance, hospitality without rudeness, and jollity without coarseness."
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Appendix
Rank of Temples According to Dates of Charters (Where charter dates are identical, dispensation date applies)
TEMPLE LOCATION , DATE OF CHARTER I MECCA New York, N. Y. Sept. 26, 1872 2 DAMASCUS Rochester, N. Y. June 6, 1875 3 MOUNT SINAI Montpelier, Vt. Oct. 31, 1876 4 AL KORAN Cleveland, Ohio Jan. 22, 1877 5 CYPRUS Albany, N. Y. Feb. 6, 1877 6 SYRIAN Cincinnati, Ohio Feb. 6, 1 87 7 7 ORIENTAL Troy, N. Y. Feb. 27, 1877 8 SYRIA Pittsburgh, Pa. Feb. 6, 1878 9 PYRAMID Bridgeport, Conn. Feb. 7, 1878 io KAABA Davenport, Iowa July 1, 1878 I I ZIYARA Utica, N. Y. July I 1878 , 12 MOSLEM Detroit, Mich. June 2, 188o 13 ALEPPO Boston, Mass. June 6, 1883 14 MEDINAH Chicago, 111. June 6, 1883 15 ISLAM San Francisco, Calif. June 6, 1883 16 Lu Lu Philadelphia, Pa. June 4, 1884 17 MURAT Indianapolis, Ind. June 4, 1884 18 Boum1 Baltimore, Md. June 4, 1884 19 PALESTINE Providence, R. I. Jan. 2 8, 1886 2o KOSAIR Louisville, Ky. June 14, 1886 21 TRIPOLI Milwaukee, Wis. June 14, 1886 2 2 OSMAN St. Paul, Minn. June 14, 1886 23 ZUHRAH Minneapolis, Minn. June 14, 1886 24 ALMAS Washington, D. C. June 14, 1886 277 278 APPENDIX TEMPLE LOCATION DATE OF CHARTER 25 EL KAHIR Cedar Rapids, Iowa June 14, 18 86 26 MOOLAH St. Louis, Mo. June 14, 1886 27 SALADIN Grand Rapids, Mich. June 14, 1886 28 ACCA Richmond, Va. June 20, 1887 29 OSIRIS Wheeling, W. Va. June 20, 1887 30 ABDALLAH Kansas City, Kans. June 2O, 1887 3I Isis Salina, Kans. June 20, 188‑7 32 JERUSALEM New Orleans, La. June 25, 1888 33 RAMESES Toronto, Ont. June 25, 1888 34 HELLA Dallas, Tex. June 2 5, 18 8 8 35 SESOSTRIS Lincoln, Nebr. June 25, 1888 36 KISMET Brooklyn, N. Y. June 25, 1888 37 ISMAILIA Buffalo, N. Y. June 25, 1888 38 ARARAT Kansas City, Mo. June 25, 1888 39 EL JEBEL Denver, Colo. June 25, 1888 40 AL MALAIKAH Los Angeles, Calif. June 25, 1888 41 ALGERIA Helena, Mont. June 25, 1888 42 MOROCCO Jacksonville, Fla. June 25, 1888 43 EL RIAD Sioux Falls, S. D. June 25, 1888 44 BALLUT ABYAD Albuquerque, N. M. June 17, 1889 45 MOILA St. Joseph, Mo. June 17, 1889 46 AL KADER Portland, Ore. June 17, 1889 47 AFIFI Tacoma, Wash. June 17, 1889 48 TANGIER Omaha, Nebr. June 22, 1890 49 SAHARA Pine Bluff, Ark. June 2 3, 1890 50 ALHAMBRA Chattanooga, Tenn. June 2 3, 1890 51 EL ZAGAL Fargo, N. D. June 23, 1890 52 YAARAB Atlanta, Ga. June 23, 1890 53 EL KATIF Spokane, Wash. June 9, i891 54 ZAMORA Birmingham, Ala. June 9, 189 1 55 MEDIA Watertown, N. Y. June 9, 189 1 56 EL KALAH Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 16, 1892 57 AL CHYMIA Memphis, Tenn. Aug. 16, 1892 58 BEN HUR Austin, Tex. Aug. 16, 1892 59 KORA Lewiston, Me. Aug. 16, 1892 6o ZEM ZEM Erie, Pa. Aug. 16, 1892 61 HAMASA Meridian, Miss. June 14, 1893 APPENDIX 279 TEMPLE LOCATION DATE OF CHARTER 62 NAJA Deadwood, S. D. June 14, 1893 63 RAJAH Reading, Pa. June 14, 1893 64 MOHAMMED Peoria, 111. June 14, 1893 65 INDIA Oklahoma City, Okla. July 25, 1894 66 AHMED Marquette, Mich. July 2 5, 1894 67 ALADDIN Columbus, Ohio July 2 5, 18 94 68 TEBALA Rockford, 111. Sept. 2, 1895 69 KOREIN Rawlins, Wyo. Sept. 2, 1895 70 OASIS Charlotte, N. C. Sept. 2, 1895 71 IREM Wilkes‑Barre, Pa. Sept. 2, 1895 72 EL ZARIBAH Phoenix, Ariz. June 21, 1896 73 SPHINX Hartford, Conn. June 24, 1896 74 ALES Savannah, Ga. June 9, 1897 75 BENI KEDEM Charleston, W. Va. June 9, 1897 76 EL KORAH Boise, Idaho June 14, 1898 77 ANTIOCH Dayton, Ohio June 14, 1898 78 MELHA Springfield, Mass. June 14, 1898 79 ZENOBIA Toledo, Ohio June 15, 1899 8o KALURAH Binghamton, N. Y. May 2 3, 1900 81 KARNAK Montreal, Que. May 2 3, 1900 82 ZA‑GA‑ZIG Des Moines, Iowa May 23, 1900 83 ALOHA Honolulu, Hawaii June 12, 1901 84 EL MINA Galveston, Tex. June i i, 1902 85 GiZEH Vancouver, B. C. July 9, 1903 86 SALAAM Newark, N. J. July 9, 1903 87 LUXOR St. John, N. B. July 9, 1903 88 ABBA Mobile, Ala. July 9, 1903 89 ABOU BEN ADHEM Springfield, Mo. July 9, 1903 90 CAIRO Rutland, Vt. July 9, 1903 91 JAFFA Altoona, Pa. July 9, 1903 92 YELDUZ Aberdeen, S. D. July 14, 1904 93 ZEMBO Harrisburg, Pa. July 14, 1904 94 CRESCENT Trenton, N. J. June 21, 1905 95 KHARTUM Winnipeg, Man. June 21, 1905 96 BEKTASH Concord, N. H. June 21, 1905 97 AAD Duluth, Minn. ‑ June 12, 1906 98 EL HASA Ashland, Ky. June 12, 19o6 280 APPENDIX TEMPLE LOCATION DATE OF CHARTER 99 ELF KHURAFEH Saginaw, Mich. May 8,19o7 i oo KALIF Sheridan, Wyo. May 8, 1907 I o I ANEZEH Mexico City, Mex. May 8, 1907 102 KERAK Reno, Nev. May 8, 1907 103 OMAR Charleston, S. C. May 8, 1907 104 ABU BEKR Sioux City, Iowa July 15, 1908 105 CALAM Lewiston, Idaho July 15, 1908 I06 AL AZHAR Calgary, Alb. July 15, 19o8 107 MOCHA London, Ont. July 15, 1908 I08 OLEIKA Lexington, Ky. July 15, 1 qo8 i oq EL MAIDA El Paso, Tex. June 9, 1909 IIO HILLAH Ashland, Ore. June 9, 1 qoq III NILE Seattle, Wash. June q, 1 qoq 112 RIZPAH Madisonville, Ky. June 9, 1 qoq I 13 HADI Evansville, Ind. Apr. 13, I g I O 114 MIZPAH Fort Wayne, Ind. Apr. 13, 1910 115 ORAK Hammond, Ind. Apr. 13, 1910 116 KEM Grand Forks, N. D. Apr. 13, 1910 117 KHEDIVE Norfolk, Va. Apr. 13, 1910 118 A41DIAN Wichita, Kans. Apr. 13, 1910 I I q MIRZA Pittsburg, Kans. Apr. 13, 1910 120 ZORAH Terre Haute, Ind. Apr. 13, 1910 121 AAHMES Oakland, Calif. July 12, 1911 122 AL SIHAH Macon, Ga. July 12, 191 1 123 WA‑WA Regina, Sask. July 12, 1911 124 BAGDAD Butte, Mont. July 12, 1911 125 AKDAR Tulsa, Okla. May 7, 1912 126 BEDOUIN Muskogee, Okla. May 7, I q 12 127 WAHABI Jackson, Miss. May 7, 1912 128 PHILAE Halifax, N. S. May 13, 1913 129 AL BAHR San Diego, Calif. May 13, 1913 130 AINAD East St. Louis, Ill. May 13, 1913 131 AL MENAH Nashville, Tenn. May 13, 1913 132 NEMESIS Parkersburg, W. Va. May 13, 1913 133 EL KARUBA14 Shreveport, La. May 13, 1914 134 ALCAZAR Montgomery, Ala. May 13, 1914 135 MOSLAH Fort Worth, Tex. July 13, 1915 APPENDIX 281 TEMPLE LOCATION DATE OF CHARTER 136 ANSAR Springfield, 111. July 13, 1915 137 ARABIA Houston, Tex. July 14, 1915 138 KERBELA Knoxville, Tenn. July 14, 1915 139 ALZAFAR San Antonio, Tex. July 13, 1916 140 KAZIM Roanoke, Va. June 26, 1917 141 SUDAN New Bern, N. C. June 26, 1917 142 EGYPT Tampa, Fla. June 6, 1918 143 ABOU SAAR Panama Canal Zone June 6, 1918 144 TEHAIN‑IA Hastings, Nebr. June 6, 1918 145 HEJAZ Greenville, S. C. June 24, 1920 146 KAREM Waco, Tex. June 24, 1920 147 MASKAT Wichita Falls, Tex. June 16, 1921 148 AL KALY Pueblo, Colo. June 16, 192 I 149 KHIVA Amarillo, Tex. June 16, 1921 150 AL BEDOO Billings, Mont. June 15, 1922 151 ANAH Bangor, Me. June 15, 1922 152 MAHI Miami, Fla. June 15, 1922 153 TIGRIS Syracuse, N. Y. June 15, 1922 154 BEN ALI Sacramento, Calif. June 7, 1923 155 TADMOR Akron, Ohio June 4, 1925 156 ALI GHAN Cumberland, Md. June 3, 1926 157 ARAB Topeka, Kans. July 29, 1932 158 ZOR Madison, Wis. July 12, 1933 159 SCIAZITAR Little Rock, Ark. June 8, 1938 16o TEHRAN Fresno, Calif. July 21, 1949 161 SUEZ San Angelo, Tex. July 1', 1951 162 ' Albany, Ga. July 12, 1951 HASAN 163 KENA Alexandria, Va. June 19, 1952 164 EL BEKAL Long Beach, Calif. June 20, 1952 165 NUR Wilmington, Del. July 16, 1953 166 BAHIA Orlando, Fla. July 14, 1955
The Derivation and Significance of Names Adopted by Shrine Temples AAD Ancient tribe of men standing seven feet or more, frequently mentioned in the Koran.
AAHMES Name of two Pharaohs, the meaning of which is "the moon is born." ABBA Father (Aramaic; not Arabic). ABDALLAH Personal name meaning "servant of God." ABOU BEN ADHEM Personal name in narrative poem by Leigh Hunt. ABOU SAAD Good fortune.
ABU BEKR Name of a friend and follower of Mohammed, the meaning of which is said to be "father of the camel's foal." ACCA Port on the west coast of Palestine.
AFIFI Characteristic of a woman who is virtuous and refrains from anything crude or vulgar.
AHMED One of Mohammed's names according to the Koran.
AINAD Presumably geographical name meaning "spring of Ad" or "obstinacy." AKDAR Mightier or mightiest, fates or powers.
ALADDIN Personal name, technically meaning one who has a high religious standing.
AL AZHAR The most flourishing. AL BAHR The sea.
AL BEDOO The Bedouins or those who live in the open.
ALCAZAR Spanish name meaning "castle" or "citadel." AL CHYMIA Alchemy.
ALES Perhaps "Ali," father‑in‑law of Mohammed.
ALEPPO City in Syria.
ALGERIA Province in northern Africa.
ALHAMBRA Fortress of Granada with walls of a reddish color.
ALI GHAN Personal name.
AL KADER Probably Al Kadir, the Powerful or the Mighty; one of the Koranic names for Allah.
AL KALY Turkish word for "costly rug." AL KORAN The sacred book of the Mohammedans.
AL MALAIKAH Arabic word for "the angels.
ALMAS Arabic word meaning "diamond." AL MENAH The Port.
ALOHA Probably Hawaiian, meaning "farewell," or Eloah, one of the Hebrew names for "God." AL SIHAH Moslem sect, "the perfect ones. ALZAFAR The Victory. In ancient times the capital of the Himyar kingdom; now a group of ruins in southern Yaman.
ANAH Unidentified; in Arabic "ana" is the pronoun "L" ANEZEH A very powerful tribe of Bedouins.
ANSAR The helpers; title of the believers of Medina who assisted Mohammed after the flight from Mecca. ANTIOCH Name of a city in Asia Minor; also famous city in North Syria.
ARAB Native of Arabia.
ARABIA Peninsula of southern Asia. ARARAT Mountain in Armenia where tradition says Noah's ark landed. BAGDAD A city in Iraq, meaning "the gift of God." 282 APPENDIX 283 BAHIA Beautiful.
BALLUT ABYAD White oak or white acorn.
BEDOUIN Nomadic Arabs. BEKTASH An Islamic saint, founder of a dervish order.
BEN ALI Personal name, "son of Ali." BEN HUR Personal name.
BENI KEDEM "Sons of the East," or "son of Adam." BOUMI Arabic for "owl." CAIRO Capital city of Egypt. CALAM "Speech," a system of Moslem theology; the reed pen used for writing in Arabic characters. CRESCENT Turkish emblem. CYPRUS Island in the eastern Mediterranean.
DAMASCUS City in Syria, reputed to be the oldest city in the world. EGYPT Country in northeast Africa. EL BEKAL Arabic or Moslem for "the walled town." ELF KHURAFEH Arabic, "i,ooo gathered fruits." EL HASA Name of a fortress in Arabia.
EL JEBEL The mountain.
EL KAHIR Name of Arabian Caliph; also name of the city of Cairo.
EL KALAH The fortress.
EL KARUBAH An Arabic word meaning "i,ooo female cherubs." EL KATIF Seaport on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
EL KORAH The largest river in southern Persia.
EL MAIDA The Table: title of the fifth Sura of the Koran.
EL MINA The Port: name of place in the hills of Mecca.
EL RIAD Arabic, "the luxuriant gardens." EL ZAGAL "The play" or "pleasure" or "shouts." EL ZARIBAH Hunter's paradise. GIZEH Town in Egypt.
HADI Calm or still, one of the names of Allah.
HAMASA Poems which celebrate valor in battle.
HASAN Mohammedan Caliph. HEJAZ Territory in Arabia on the Red Sea.
HELLA Site of the ancient city of Babylon.
HILLAH Biblical term, and a town in Asia.
INDIA Indian empire; country in southern Asia.
IREM Place mentioned in the Koran (Surah LXXXIX‑5).
ISIS Egyptian goddess.
ISLAM The Mohammedan religion. ISMAILIA Moslem sect.
JAFFA Port of Palestine. JERUSALEM Capital of Palestine. KAABA The sacred stone in the great Mosque of Mecca.
KALIF Supreme head of the Moslem community.
KALURAH Persian word for "gleaming corn." KAREM Generous, noble, splendid. KARNAK Name of a town in Egypt famous for its ancient palaces and temples.
KAZIM Name given by the Ottoman Turks to St. Demetrius.
KEM The black alluvial soil of the Nile valley; also the pronunciation of the Arabic interrogative "how much?" KENA Capital city of an Egyptian province, starting point of the route of the Pilgrims to Mecca.
KERAK Region east of Palestine (Trans‑Jordania); a city east of the Dead Sea.
KERBELA A place of pilgrimage west of the Euphrates.
KHARTUM The chief city of the Sudan.
284 APPENDIX KHEDIVE Title of Turkish viceroys in Egypt.
KHIVA Country in Central Asia. KISMET Signifies "portion" of one's unalterable lot in life and used in English to imply "fate." KORA An ancient town in India. KOREIN Arabic for "little horn." KOSAIR Seaport on the African coast of the Red Sea.
LU LU Pearl.
LUXOR Ancient city in upper Egypt. MAHI Turkish word of Persian derivation meaning "fish." MASKAT Seaport on the Gulf of Oman.
MECCA Sacred city of the Mohammedans, capital of Arabia.
MEDIA Town in Algeria. MEDINAH Sacred city of the Mohammedans.
MELHA Arabic, "main body of the sea." MIDIAN Biblical name of a part of northwest Arabia.
MIRZA "Sir" in Persian. MIZPAH Place name in Palestine. MOCHA Small seaport on coast of Red Sea.
MOHAMMED Founder of religion of Islam.
MOILA Elevated to higher dignity or honor.
MOOLAH Title for one learned in the teachings of the Koran. MOROCCO A part of North Africa. MOSLAH Arabic, "he was set all right." MOSLEM Member of Islamic faith. MOUNT SINAI Mountain whence the Decalogue was promulgated. MURAT Name of an Arab tribe. NAJA "Saved," or dynasty of Abyssinian Mamluks.
NEMESIS Goddess of retribution or vengeance.
NILE River in Egypt.
NUR Arabic, "heavenly light." OASIS Fertile spot in the desert. OLEIKA Problematic; conceivably the diminutive of alakah. OMAR Personal name. ORAK Perhaps Irak (Mesopotamia). ORIENTAL Pertaining to the Orient or East.
OSIRIS Chief of the Egyptian gods. OSMAN Personal name; the first Turkish conqueror.
PALESTINE Part of Asia Minor; the name means "the land of the Philistines." PHILAE Islet in the river Nile. PYRAMID Tomb for ancient Egyptian rulers.
RAJAH Title of Indian ruler or prince. RAMESES Name of several Egyptian Pharaohs.
RIZPAH Biblical name. SAHARA Desert in Africa. SALAAM Arabic salutation meaning "peace." SALADIN Name of a famous Sultan of Egypt, meaning "the good in religion." SCIMITAR A short, curved sword. SESOSTRIS Legendary conqueror of the world and the name of several Pharaohs of the Twenty‑first Dynasty.
SPHINX Fabulous monster formed by the head of a king on an animal's body.
SUDAN Area of sub‑Saharan Africa. SUEZ Name of a port city at the head of the Red Sea.
SYRIA Country in Asia.
SYRIAN Native of Syria, or pertaining to Syria.
TADMOR Ancient name of Palmyr, a desert city built by King Solomon. TANGIER City in Morocco. TEBALA‑ Place in Yaman.
TEHAMA Thought to mean "the primeval abyss."
APPENDIX 285
TEHRAN Valley between the hills. TIGRIS River flowing into the Persian Gulf.
TRIPOLI City on northern coast of Africa.
WAHABI Islamic sect founded by Mohammed.
WA‑WA Territory far south on the east bank of the Nile.
YAARAB Exclamation signifying, "Oh, Arab." YELDUZ Turkish word for "star." ZA‑GA‑ZIG City of northern Egypt in the Nile delta.
ZAMORA Town in the northwest of Spain.
ZEMBO Unidentified. ZEM ZEM Abundant water. ZENOBIA Queen of Palmyra in Syria. ZIYARA Pilgrimage to holy place of a tomb.
ZOR Eastern province of Syria. ZORAH Common meaning is "a visit," and less common is "a slave." ZUHRAH Arabic, meaning "flower."
Cities with Temples Aberdeen, South Dakota Bridgeport, Connecticut Yelduz Temple Pyramid Temple Akron, Ohio Tadmor Temple Brooklyn, New York Albany, Georgia Hasan Temple Kismet Temple Albany, New York Cyprus Temple Buffalo, New York Ismailia Temple Albuquerque, New Mexico Butte, Montana Bagdad Temple Ballut Abyad Calgary, Alberta Al Azhar Temple Temple Canal Zone Abou Saad Temple Alexandria, Virginia Cedar Rapids, Iowa El Kahir Temple Kena Temple Charleston, South Carolina Altoona, Pennsylvania Omar Temple Jaffa Temple Charleston, West Virginia Amarillo, Texas Khiva Temple Beni Kedem Temple Ashland, Kentucky El Hasa Temple Charlotte, North Carolina Ashland, Oregon Hillah Temple Oasis Temple Atlanta, Georgia Yaarab Temple Chattanooga, Tennessee Austin, Texas Ben Hur Temple Alhambra Temple Baltimore, Maryland Chicago, Illinois Medinah Temple Boumi Temple Cincinnati, Ohio Syrian Temple Bangor, Maine Anah Temple Cleveland, Ohio Al Koran Temple Billings, Montana Al Bedoo Temple Columbus, Ohio Aladdin Temple Binghamton, New York Concord, New Hampshire Kalurah Temple Bektash Temple Birmingham, Alabama Cumberland, Maryland Zamora Temple Ali Ghan Temple Boise, Idaho El Korah Temple Dallas, Texas Hella Temple Boston, Massachusetts Davenport, Iowa Kaaba Temple Aleppo Temple Dayton, Ohio Antioch Temple 286 APPENDIX Deadwood, South Dakota Lewiston, Idaho Calam Temple Naja Temple Lewiston, Maine Kora Temple Denver, Colorado El Jebel Temple Lexington, Kentucky Des Moines, Iowa Za‑Ga‑Zig Temple Oleika Temple Detroit, Michigan Moslem Temple Lincoln, Nebraska Sesostris Temple Duluth, Minnesota Aad Temple East St. Louis, Illinois Ainad Temple El Paso, Texas El Maida Temple Erie, Pennsylvania Zem Zem Temple Evansville, Indiana Hadi Temple Fargo, North Dakota El Zagal Temple Fort Wayne, Indiana Mizpah Temple Fort Worth, Texas Moslah Temple Fresno, California Tehran Temple Galveston, Texas El Mina Temple Grand Forks, North Dakota Kern Temple Grand Rapids, Michigan Saladin Temple Greenville, South Carolina Hejaz Temple Halifax, Nova Scotia
Philae Temple Hammond, Indiana Orak Temple Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Zembo Temple Hartford, Connecticut Sphinx Temple Hastings, Nebraska Tehama Temple Helena, Montana Algeria Temple Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands Aloha Temple Houston, Texas Arabia Temple Indianapolis, Indiana Murat Temple Jackson, Mississippi Wahabi Temple Jacksonville, Florida Morocco Temple Kansas City, Kansas Abdallah Temple Kansas City, Missouri Ararat Temple Knoxville, Tennessee Kerbela Temple Little Rock, Arkansas Scimitar Temple London, Ontario Mocha Temple Long Beach, California El Bekal Temple Los Angeles, California Al Malaikah Temple Louisville, Kentucky Kosair Temple Macon, Georgia Al Sihah Temple Madison, Wisconsin Zor Temple Madisonville, Kentucky Rizpah Temple Marquette, Michigan Ahmed Temple Memphis, Tennessee Al Chymia Temple Meridian, Mississippi Hamasa Temple Mexico City, Mexico Anezeh Temple Miami, Florida Mahi Temple Milwaukee, Wisconsin Tripoli Temple Minneapolis, Minnesota Zuhrah Temple Mobile, Alabama Abba Temple Montgomery, Alabama Alcazar Temple Montpelier, Vermont Mount Sinai Temple Montreal, Canada Karnak Temple Muskogee, Oklahoma Bedouin Temple Nashville, Tennessee Al Menah Temple Newark, New Jersey Salaam Temple New Bern, North Carolina Sudan Temple APPENDIX 287 New Orleans, Louisiana St. Joseph, Missouri Jerusalem Temple Moila Temple New York, New York St. Louis, Missouri Moolah Temple Mecca Temple St. Paul, Minnesota Osman Temple Norfolk, Virginia Khedive Temple Salina, Kansas Isis Temple Oakland, California Salt Lake City, Utah Aahmes Temple El Kalah Temple Oklahoma City, Oklahoma San Angelo, Texas Suez Temple India Temple San Antonio, Texas Omaha, Nebraska Tangier Temple Alzafar Temple Orlando, Florida Bahia Temple San Diego, California Parkersburg, West Virginia Al Bahr Temple Nemesis Temple San Francisco, California Peoria, Illinois Mohammed Temple Islam Temple Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Savannah, Georgia Alee Temple Lu Lu Temple Seattle, Washington Phoenix, Arizona El Zaribah Temple Nile Temple Pine Bluff, Arkansas Sheridan, Wyoming Sahara Temple Kalif Temple Pittsburg, Kansas Mirza Temple Shreveport, Louisiana Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania El Karubah Temple Syria Temple Sioux City, Iowa Abu Bekr Temple Portland, Oregon Al Kader Temple Sioux Falls, South Dakota Providence, Rhode Island El Riad Temple Palestine Temple Spokane, Washington Pueblo, Colorado Al Kaly Temple El Katif Temple Rawlins, Wyoming Springfield, Illinois Ansar Temple Korein Temple Springfield, Massachusetts Reading, Pennsylvania Melba Temple Rajah Temple Springfield, Missouri Regina, Saskatchewan Abou Ben Adhem Wa‑Wa Temple Temple Reno, Nevada Kerak Temple Syracuse, New York Richmond, Virginia Tigris Temple Acca Temple Tacoma, Washington
Roanoke, Virginia Kazim Temple Afifi Temple Tampa, Florida Egypt Temple Rochester, New York Terre Haute, Indiana Damascus Temple Zorah Temple Rockford, Illinois Tebala Temple Toledo, Ohio Zenobia Temple Rutland, Vermont Cairo Temple Topeka, Kansas Arab Temple Sacramento, California Toronto, Ontario Rameses Temple Ben Ali Temple Trenton, New Jersey Saginaw, Michigan Elf Khurafeh Crescent Temple Temple Troy, New York Oriental Temple St. John, New Brunswick Tulsa, Oklahoma Akdar Temple Luxor Temple Utica, New York Zivara Temple 288 APPENDIX Vancouver, British Columbia Gizeh Temple Waco, Texas Karem Temple Washington, District of Columbia Almas Temple Watertown, New York Media Temple Wheeling, West Virginia Osiris Temple Wichita, Kansas Midian Temple Wichita Falls, Texas Maskat Temple Wilkes‑Barre, Pennsylvania Item Temple Wilmington, Delaware Nur Temple Winnipeg, Manitoba Khartum Temple Past Imperial Potentates Date o f Election and Length o f Service as Imperial Potentate *111.'. WALTER M. FLEMING June 6, 1876, to June 14, 1886 Mecca Temple *Ill.'. SAM BRIGGS June 14, 1886, to August 16, 1892 Al Koran Temple *111.'. WILLIAM B. MELISH August 16, 1892, to June 13, 1893 Syrian Temple *Ill.'. THOMAS J. HUDSON June 13, 1893, to July 25, 1894 Syria Temple *Ill.'. WILLIAM B. MELISH July 25, 1894, to September 3, 1895 Syrian Temple *Ill.'. CHARLES L. FIELD September 3, 1895, to June 23, 1896 Islam Temple *111.'. HARRISON DINGMAN June 23, 1896, to June 9, 1897 Almas Temple *Ill.'. ALBERT B. McGAFFEY June 9, 1897, to June 15, 1898 El Jebel Temple *Ill.'. ETHELBERT F. ALLEN June 15, 1898, to June 15, 1899 Ararat Temple JOHN H. ATWOOD June 15, 1899, to May 23, 1900 Abdallah Temple * Deceased.
APPENDIX 289 "111.'. LOU B. WINSOR Saladin Temple May 23, 1900, to June 12, 1901 *111.'. PHILIP C. SHAFFER Lu Lu Temple June 12, igoi, to June 11, 1902 *111.'. HENRY C. AKIN Tangier Temple June 11, 1902, to July 9, 1903 *Ill.'. GEORGE H. GREEN Hella Temple July 9, 1903, to July 14, 1904 *111.'. GEORGE L. BROWN Ismailia Temple July 14, 1904, to June 21, 1905 *111.'. HENRY A. COLLINS Rameses Temple June 21, 1go5, to June 13, 1go6 *111.'. ALVAH P. CLAYTON Moila Temple June 13, igo6, to May 8, 1907 *Ill.'. FRANK C. ROUNDY Medinah Temple May 8, 1907, to July 15, 1908 *111.'. EDWIN I. ALDERMAN El Kahir Temple July i 5, 1908, to June g, 1909 *Ill.'. GEORGE L. STREET Acca Temple June 9, igo9, to April 12, 1910 *111.'. FRED A. HINES Al Malaikah Temple April 12, IgI0, to July 12, 1911 *Ill.'. JOHN F. TREAT El Zagal Temple July i 2, 191 I, to May 9, 1912 *111.'. WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM Boumi Temple May 9, 1912, to May 14, 1913 *111.'. WILLIAM W. IRWIN Osiris Temple May 14, 1913, to May 13, 1914 *111.'. FREDERICK R. SMITH Damascus Temple May 13, 1914, "to July 15, 1915 * Deceased.
290 APPENDIX *`Ill.'. J. PUTNAM STEVENS Kora Temple July 15, 1915, to July 13, 1916 *Ill.'. HENRY F. NIEDRINGHAUS Moolah Temple July 13, 1916, to June 27, 1917 *Ill.'. CHARLES E. OVENSHIRE Zuhrah Temple June 27, 1917, to June 6, 1918 *Ill.'. ELIAS J. JACOBY Murat Temple June 6, 1918, to June 12, 1919 *Ill.'. W. FREELAND KENDRICK Lu Lu Temple June 12, 1919, to June 24, 1920 *Ill.'. ELLIS L. GARRETSON Afifi Temple June 24, 19zo, to June 16, 1921 *Ill.'. ERNEST A. CUTTS Alee Temple June 16, 1921, to June 15, 1922 *Ill.'. JAMES S. McCANDLESS Aloha Temple June 15, 1922, to June 7, 1923 *Ill.'. CONRAD V. DYKEMAN Kismet Temple June 7, 1923, to June 5, 1924 'Ill.'. JAMES E. CHANDLER Ararat Temple June 5, 1924, to June 4, 1925 *111.'. JAMES C. BURGER El Jebel Temple June 4, 1925, to June 3, 1926 *Ill.'. DAVID W. CROSLAND Alcazar Temple June 3, 1926, to June 16, 1927 *Ill.'. CLARENCE M. DUNBAR Palestine Temple June 16, 1927, to May 3, 1928 *Ill.'. FRANK C. JONES Arabia Temple May 3, 1928, to June 6, 1929 *Ill.'. LEO V. YOUNGWORTH Al Malaikah Temple June 6, 1919, to June 12, 1930 * Deceased.
APPENDIX 291 *Ill.'. ESTEN A. FLETCHER Damascus Temple June 12, 1930, to July 16, 1931 *Ill.'. THOMAS J. HOUSTON Medinah Temple July 16, 1931, to July 27, 1932 *Ill.'. EARL C. MILLS Za‑Ga‑Zig Temple July 27, 1932, to July 13, 1933 *Ill.'. JOHN N. SEBRELL Khedive Temple . July 13, 1933, to June 21, 1934 *Ill.'. DANA S. WILLIAMS Kora Temple June 21, 1934, to June 13, 1935 Ill.'. LEONARD P. STEUART Almas Temple June 13, 1935, to July 16, 1936 *Ill.'. CLYDE I. WEBSTER Moslem Temple July 16, 1936, to June 24, 1937 *Ill.'. WALTER S. SUGDEN Osiris Temple June 24, 1937, to June 9, 1938 *Ill.'. A. A. D. RAHN Zuhrah Temple June 9, 1938, to June 29, 1939 Ill.'. WALTER D. CLINE Maskat Temple June 29, 1939, to June 13, 1940 *Ill.'. GEORGE F. OLENDORF Abou Ben Adhem Temple June 13, 1940, to June 12, 1941 Ill.'. THOMAS C. LAW Yaarab Temple June 12, 1941, to July 1, 1942 *Ill.'. ALBERT H. FIEBACH Al Koran Temple July 1, 1942, to July 8, 1943 *Ill.'. MORLEY E. MACKENZIE Rameses Temple July 8, 1943, to July 7, 1944 *111.'. ALFRED G. ARVOLD El Zagal Temple July 7, 1944, to July 11, 1945 * Deceased.
292 APPENDIX Ill.'. WM. H. WOODFIELD, JR. Islam Temple July 11, 1945, to July 25, 1946 Ill.'. GEORGE H. ROWE Ismailia Temple July 25, 1946, to May 29, 1947 *Ill.'. KARL REX HAMMERS Syria Temple May 29, 1947, to June 10, 1948 Ill.'. GALLOWAY CALHOUN Karem Temple June 10, 1948, to July 21, 1949 Ill.'. HAROLD LLOYD Al Malaikah Temple July 21, 1949, to June 22, 1950 *Ill.'. HUBERT M. POTEAT Sudan Temple June 22, 1950, to July 13, 1951 *Ill.'. ROLAND D. BALDWIN Morocco Temple Honorary Ill.'. ROBERT G. WILSON, JR. Aleppo Temple July 13, 1951, to June 20, 1952 Ill.'. HARVEY A. BEFFA Moolah Temple June 20, 1952, to July 17, 1953 Ill.'. REMMIE L. ARNOLD Acca Temple July 17, 1953, to July 2, 1954 Ill.'. FRANK S. LAND Ararat Temple July 2, 1954, to July 15, 1955 Ill.'. WALTER C. GUY Scimitar Temple July 15, 1955, to July 12, 1956 Ill.'. GERALD D. CRARY Naja Temple July 12, 1956, to July 18, 1957 Ill.'. THOMAS W. MELHAM Tripoli Temple July 18, 1957, to July 17, 1958 Past Imperial Treasurers *Ill. AARON L. NORTHROP _ Mecca Temple 1876‑1882 * Deceased.
APPENDIX 293 "Ill. JOSEPH M. LEVEY Mecca Temple 1883‑1889 *Ill. JOSEPH S. WRIGHT Lu Lu Temple 1889‑1894 *111. WILLIAM S. BROWN 1894‑1928 Syria Temple *Ill. JAMES C. BURGER El Jebel Temple 1928‑1937 Past Imperial Recorders *WILLIAM S. PATERSON Mecca Temple 1876‑1889 *FRANK M. LUCE Medinah Temple 1889‑1894 *BENJAMIN W. ROWELL Aleppo Temple 1894‑1928 *JAMES H. PRICE Acca Temple 1928‑1943 *EVERETT W. JACOCKS Aleppo Temple 1943‑1947 FREDERICK WILKEN Almas Temple 1947‑1948 Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children BOARD OF TRUSTEES GALLOWAY CALHOUN, Chairman Karem Temple Citizens National Bank Bldg., Tyler, Tex.
THOMAS C. LAW, Vice Chairman Yaarab Temple 136 Forrest Ave., N.E., Atlanta i, Ga.
LEONARD P. STEUART, Treasurer Almas Temple i44o P St., N.W., Washington 5, D. C.
WALTER G. SEEGER, Trustee ‑ Osman Temple 85o Arcade St., St. Paul 6, Minn.
* Deceased.
294 APPENDIX ROBERT GARDINER WILSON, JR., Trustee Aleppo Temple 2o Beacon St., Boston 8, Mass.
HAROLD LLOYD, Trustee Al Malaikah Temple P.O. Box 47o, Beverly Hills, Calif.
MARSHALL M. PORTER, Trustee Al Azhar Temple The Court House, Calgary, Alta., Canada HARVEY A. BEFFA, Trustee Moolah Temple Solo Oakland Ave., St. Louis io, Mo.
GEORGE E. STRINGFELLOW, Imperial Potentate Crescent Temple 75 Prospect St., East Orange, N. J.
CLAYTON F. ANDREWS, Deputy Imperial Potentate Sesostris Temple Suite 434, Stuart Bldg., Lincoln 8, Neb.
THOMAS W. MELHAM, Junior Past Imperial Potentate Tripoli Temple 123 William St., New York 58, N. Y.
GEORGE M. SAUNDERS, Secretary (Ex‑officio) Ararat Temple Suite 234, 35 E. Wacker Dr., Chicago 1, 111.
ROBERT P. SMITH, General Counsel (Ex‑officio) Almas Temple 815 Fifteenth St., N.W., Washington 5, D. C.
Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children ADMINISTRATOR ELEANOR BAIRD, R.N.
Lexington Unit, Richmond Road, Lexington, Ky.
ADVISORY BOARD OF ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS Dr. Guy A. Caldwell, Chairman, Ochsner Clinic, Prytania & Aline Sts. New Orleans 15, La. Dr. Joseph S. Barr, Boston, Mass. Dr. John L. McDonald, Toronto, Ont., Canada. Dr. James Spencer Speed, Memphis, Tenn. Dr. Carroll B. Larson, Iowa City, Ia. Consultant in Anesthesiology: Dr. John S. Lundy, Rochester, Minn.
CHICAGO UNIT 2211 N. Oak Park Ave., Chicago 35, Ill. 6o Beds. Opened March 20, 1926. Dr. Harold A. Sofield, Chief Surgeon, Mable Ramspeck, Director. Temples Affiliated: Al Koran, Elf Khurafeh, Kaaba, Medinah, Mizpah, Mohammed, Moslem, Murat, Orak, Saladin, Tebala, Tripoli, Zenobia, Zor.
APPENDIX 295 GREENVILLE UNIT Box 179, Greenville, S. C. 6o Beds. Opened September 1, 1927. Dr. Frank H. Stelling, Chief Surgeon. Luella Schloeman, Director. Temples Affiliated: Acca, Alcazar, Alee, Al Sihah, Bahia, Egypt, Hasan, Hejaz, Kazim, Kena, Kerbela, Khedive, Mahi, Morocco, Oasis, Omar, Sudan, Yaarab, Zamora.
HONOLULU UNIT 1310 Punahou Street, Honolulu 14, Hawaii. 3o Beds. Opened January z, 1923. Dr. Ivar J. Larsen, Chief Surgeon. Ethel Hensley Brown, Director. Temple Affiliated: Aloha.
INTERMOUNTAIN UNIT Fairfax Ave. at Virginia St., Salt Lake City 3, Utah. 6o Beds. Opened January 22, 1925. Dr. Sherman S. Coleman, Chief Surgeon. Anna Grace Williams, Director. Temples Affiliated: Al Kaly, El Jebel, El Kalah, El Korah, El Zaribah, Kerak, Korein.
LEXINGTON UNIT Richmond Road, Lexington, Ky. 5o Beds. Opened November 1, 1926. Dr. Thomas D. Yocum, Chief Surgeon. Mrs. Garnett Radin, Director. Temples Affiliated: Aladdin, Alhambra, Al Menah, Antioch, Beni Kedem, El Hasa, Kerbela, Kosair, Nemesis, Oleika, Rizpah, Syrian, Tadmor.
LOS ANGELES UNIT 3160 Geneva St., Los Angeles 5, Calif. 6o Beds. Opened March 1, 1952. Dr. George W. Westin, Chief Surgeon. Margaret H. Rose, Director. Temples Affiliated: Al Bahr, Al Malaikah, Ballut Abyad, El Bekal, El Zaribah.
MEXICO CITY UNIT Camelias No. 27, Colonia Altavista, Villa Obregon, Mexico City. 3o Beds. Opened March 10, 1945. Dr. Juan Farrill, Chief Surgeon. Arthur J. Elian, Secretary. Temples Affiliated: Abou Saad, Anezeh.
MONTREAL UNIT 1529 Cedar Avenue, Montreal 25, Que., Canada. 6o Beds. Opened February 18, 1925. Dr. J. Gordon Petrie, Chief Surgeon. Flora M. Lamont, Director. Temples Affiliated: Cairo, Karnak, Luxor, Media, Mocha, Mount Sinai, Philae, Rameses.
PHILADELPHIA UNIT Roosevelt Blvd. and Pennypack Pk., Philadelphia 15, Pa. ioo Beds. Opened June 24, 1926. Dr. John Royal Moore, Chief Surgeon. Theresa Younger, Director. Temples Affiliated: Ali Ghan, Almas, Beni Kedem, Boumi, Crescent, Item, Ismailia, Jaffa, Kena, Kismet, Lu Lu, Mecca, Nur, Osiris, Rajah, Salaam, Syria, Zembo, Zem Zem, Ziyara.
PORTLAND UNIT Sandy Blvd. & N.E. 82nd Ave., Portland 20, Oregon. 8o Beds. Opened January 15, 1924. Dr. Leo S. Lucas, Chief Surgeon. S. Dorothy Andrew, Director. Temples Affiliated: Afifi, Al Kader, El Korah, Gizeh, Hillah, Nile.
ST. LOUIS UNIT Kingshighway & Clayton Ave., St. Louis io, Mo. 120 Beds. Opened April 8, 1924. Dr. George E. Scheer, Chief Surgeon. Hulda Gunther, Director. Temples Affiliated: Abdallah, Abou Ben Adhem, Ainad, Akdar, Al Chymia, Ansar, Arab, Ararat, Bedouin, Hadi, India, Isis, Kaaba, Midian, Mirza, Moila, Moolah, Rizpah, Scimitar, Zorah.
SAN FRANCISCO UNIT 19th & loth Aves., Lawton & Moraga Sts., San Francisco 22, Calif. 6o Beds. Opened June 16, 1923. Dr. Frederick C. Bost, Chief Sur‑ 296 APPENDIX geon. Marguerite Peck, Director. Temples Affiliated: Aahmes, Ben Ali, Islam, Kerak, Tehran.
SHREVEPORT UNIT Kings Highway & Samford Ave., Shreveport, La. 6o Beds. Opened September 16, 19z2.. Dr. Ray E. King, Acting Chief Surgeon. Lucile Dudrey, Director. Temples Affiliated: Abba, Alzafar, Arabia, Bedouin, Ben Hur, El Karubah, El Maida, El Mina, Hamasa, Hella, Jerusalem, Karem, Khiva, Maskat, Moslah, Sahara, Scimitar, Suez, Wahabi.
SPOKANE UNIT N. 820 Summit Blvd., Spokane i r, Wash. 4o Beds. Opened November 15, 1924. Dr. Norman R. Brown, Chief Surgeon. Emma Sargent, Director. Temples Affiliated: Afifi, Al Bedoo, Algeria, Bagdad, Calam, El Katif, Gizeh, Nile.
SPRINGFIELD UNIT 516 Carew Street, Springfield 4, Mass. 6o Beds. Opened February 21, 1925. Dr. Garry deN. Hough, Jr., Chief Surgeon. Dorothy Forsythe, Director. Temples Affiliated: Aleppo, Anah, Bektash, Cairo, Cyprus, Damascus, Ismailia, Kalurah, Kora, Melha, Mount Sinai, Oriental, Palestine, Pyramid, Sphinx, Tigris, Ziyara.
TWIN CITIES UNIT 2025 E. River Road, Minneapolis 14, Minn. 6o Beds. Opened March i z, 1923. Dr. Donald R. Lannin, Chief Surgeon. Miss Marie Oling, Director. Temples Affiliated: Aad, Abu Bekr, Ahmed, El Kahir, Kaaba, El Riad, El Zagal, Kalif, Kem, Naja, Osman, Sesostris, Tangier, Tehama, Tripoli, Yelduz, ZaGa‑Zig, Zor, Zuhrah.
WINNIPEG UNIT 633 Wellington Crescent, Winnipeg, Man., Canada. 5o Beds. Opened March 16, 1925. Dr. K. C. McGibbon, Chief Surgeon. Kathryn M. McLearn, Director. Temples Affiliated: Al Azhar, Gizeh, Khartum, Wa‑Wa.
Index Aahmes Temple, 156, 257 Abou Ben Adhem Temple, 232, 249 Acca Temple, 79, 147, 270 Adair, Forrest, 183, 186‑igo, 193, 194‑196 Advisory Board of Surgeons, 195 Afifi Temple, 156, 191, 193 Aladdin Temple, 1o9, 116, 173, 211 Alaska, 156, 157 Alcazar Temple, 221, 222 Al Chymia Temple, 137, 157, 193 Alee Temple, 149, 195 Aleppo Temple, io6, 110, 270 Alexander, William V., 28 Algeria Temple, 19o, 193 Ali, Kalif, 37, 44 Al Kader Temple, 89, 185 A1 Koran Temple, 34, 47, 61, 66‑67, 72, 76, 78, 85, 112, 126, 136, 145 Allen, E. F., 102, 117 Allison, Nathaniel, 194 A1 Malaikah Temple, 138, 139, 145, 146, 152, 155, 157, 173, 217, 223, 226, 231, 241, 243, 257, 259, 267 Almas Temple, 79, 114, 121, 126, 137, 19o, 211, 213, 232, 238, 272, 273 Aloha Temple, 130, 157, 212 al‑Rasheed, Haroon, 39 Ameche, Don, 243 American Orthopedic Association, 194 Amurath 1, Sultan, 38 Andrews, Allen, 103 Anezeh Temple, 147 Arabia Temple, 231 Ararat Temple, 117, 132, 19o, 219, 264, 272 Arnold, H. H., 257 Arnold, Remmie L., 270 Arvold, Alfred G., 254‑255, 256 Atwood, John H., 121, 123‑125 Bacharach, Harry, 170 Bacon, Lord, 39 Baki, Abu Mohammed, 43, 44 Baldwin, Roland D., 81, 269 Ballut Abyad Temple, 155 Banks, Henry, 20 Barrymore, John, 243 Bascom, Frank H., 29 Baxter, Warner, 243 Beatty, Clyde, 141 Becquerel, H. A., 113 Beery, Wallace, 219 Beffa, Harvey A., 270 Bektash, 38 Bendix, John E., 28 Benny, Jack, 243 Blue, Monte, 219 Bokhara Shrine (Marseilles), "Book of Gold," 198 Boumi Temple, 76, 79, 132, 157, 212 Brady, Benjamin F., 5z 42‑43, 44 239, 297 298 INDEX Briggs, Sam, 47, 48, 53, 6o, 61, 67, 69, 72, 74, 76, 77‑78, 8o‑82, 85, 90, 91, 93‑98, 101‑104 Brown, George L., 116, 141, 146 Brown, Joe E., 219 Bryan, William Jennings, 125 Burdats, O. W., 16o Burger, James C., 221, 223 Burgiss, W. W., 198 Burnham, George H., loo Caldwell, Hugh M., 240‑241 Calhoun, Galloway, 205, 259, 264, 265 Campbell, Sherwood C., 23, 28, 32‑33, 41 Carrillo, Leo, 219 Carroll, Most Rev. Mark K., 198 Carson, Aena T., 86 Carter, Lillian, 183 Carter, Samuel R., 28, 29 Cavour, Count, 40 Chamberlain, Neville, 247 Chandler, James E., 219‑222 Chapman, Thad M., 81 Chappell, James S., 23, 24, 28, 41 Charity, 82, 110, 116‑117, 118, 134‑135, 139‑140, 166‑167, 170‑171, 178‑179 Circuses, Shrine, 140‑141, 198, 258 Claflin, G. B., 74 Clark, Mark, 265 Clayton, Alvah, 142, 147 Cleveland, Grover, 105, io6 Cline, Walter D., 232, 247‑249 Cobb, Ty, 265 Cochran, Sam P., 191, 192, 194, 195, 197, 204, 235 Coffman, William, 200, 201 Colding, Robert, i 9o Collins, Henry A., 138‑139 Collins, J. F., 54 Concellos, 141 Conlin, Peter, 57, 61 Conlin, William J., see Florence, William Jermyn Crary, Gerald D., 270 Crescent, 36, 40, 50 Crescent, The (magazine), 16o, 220 Crescent Temple, 257, 26o Crosland, David, 221, 222 Cummings, Homer S., 236 Cunningham, William J., 157, Cushman, Charles W., io2 159, 16o Custer, General George, 5 Cuffs, Ernest A., 195, 196, 197 Cyprus Temple, 34, 69, 236 Dahl, Arlene, 267 Dailey, Dan, 267 Damascus Temple, 28, 34, 53, 63, 64, 66, 69, 166, 207, 232 d'Aubigne, Oswald Merle, 23, 24, 28, 32, 41 "Daughters of Isis," 149 Day, Edward C., 19o Debs, Eugene V., io5 DeMille, Cecil B., 267 Dewey, George, 115 Diamant, Arthur H., 221 Dickey, J. H., 173 Dingman, Harrison, loo, Dobbin, J. L., loo Donnatin, Louis N., 10, 48‑49, 50, 52 Doolittle, James H., 265 Du Laurens, Edwin, 28 Dunbar, Clarence M., 221‑223, 231 114, 124 Dykeman, Conrad V., 213 Eddy, Edward, 23, 24, 28, 41 Edison, Thomas A., 262 Effendi, Rizk Allah Hassoon, 39‑40 Ehlers, Edward M. L., 28, 29, 59, 69 Eisenhower, Dwight, 254 el‑Bagdadee, Abd el‑Kader, 39 El Jebel Temple, 116, 221 El Karubah Temple, 196, 222 Ellison, Saram R., 7, 20, 25, 27, 48 El Maida Temple, 9o, 150 El Mina Temple, 173 El Riad Temple, 103, 168 Ely, Henry S., 81 El Zagal Temple, 156, 254 Emory University Hospital, 182 Faye, Alice, 243 Fazenda, Louise, 219 Ferdinand, Archduke, 166 Fiebach, Albert H., 251‑252 Field, Charles L., 102, io6 Fisk, James, 5 Fitz, A. M., 155‑156 Fleming, Charles P., 49, 50‑52 Fleming, Rhonda, 267 INDEX 299 Fleming, Walter Millard, 1, 3‑7,9‑14,17, 20, 21, 23‑25, 28‑30, 32‑35, 37, 40‑45 47‑52, 54, 55, 62, 63‑70, 72, 76‑77, 78, 83, 85, 90, 95, 96, 97, 102, 126, 164, 175, 177, 205, 231, 255, 270 Fleming, Walter S., 12 Fletcher, Esten A., 231 Florence, William Jermyn, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9Io, 15‑18, 23‑25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 41, 42‑44+ 47‑49, 51, 52, 53‑62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 95, 243, 255 Florence, Mrs. William Jermyn, I6‑17, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61 Football games, 199‑203, 258 Forrester, Peter, 28 Founding, of Shrine, 6‑7, 9‑20, 209 Fowler, William, I, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 21, 28 Fowler, William, Jr., 20, 21 Fox, James A., io6 Franklin, Benjamin, 264 Frederick the Great, 39 Fullaway, Charles, 238 Hines, Fred A., 152‑154 Hitler, Adolf, 236, 245, 254, 255 Hoke, Dr. Michael, 182‑183, 195, 204 Home for Incurables (Philadelphia), 18o Hoover, Herbert, 169, 226, 229, 233 Hoover, J. Edgar, 261‑262 Hospitals, see Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children Houston, Thomas C., 232 Hudson, Thomas J., 105, 108, 111 Hughes, Charles Evans, 168 Hunt, Cyprian C., 49 Imperial Council formed, 18, 27, 28, 33, 41 sessions 1876 (New York City), 27‑30 1877 (Albany), 23, 24, 32‑34, 63, 65 1878 (New York City), 65 1879 (Albany), 66 I 88o (Albany and New York City), 66‑67, 68 Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 40 1881 (New York City), 68 Garretson, Ellis L., 185, I9o, 191 1882 (New York City), 68 George Washington National Masonic 1883 (New York City), 69, 70 Memorial, 5‑7, 23, 55, 213, 253, 255 1886 (Cleveland), 72, 76, 77, 91, 112, Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 39 274 Gordon, Philip D., i 8o, 181, 184, 193 1887 (Indianapolis), 78, 79, 2o8 Gould, Jay, 5 1888 (Toronto), 8o, 92, 148, 225 Grant, Ulysses S., 5 1889 (Chicago), 82 Guest, Edgar A., 265 I 89o (Pittsburgh), 85, 95 Guy, Walter C., 270, 272 i89i (Niagara Falls), 92, 95, 117 1892 (Omaha), 91‑95 Hafiz, Alnasafi, 40, 92 1893 (Cincinnati), 96‑97, 100, 102 Hagmeier, O. C., 89 Hall, J. Clinton, 64 Hancock, John, 264 Hardenbrook, William T., 28, 49 Harding, Warren G., 209, 213‑214, 216, 236 Harding, Mrs. Warren G., 213, 214 Harper, Samuel, 29 Hartle, Russell, 265 Hawaii, 95, 129‑130 Headquarters, permanent, 154 Hella Temple, 103, 115, 157, 158, 191, 210 Henie, Sonja, 243 Hersholt, Jean, 219 Hervey, Irene, 243 105 1894 (Denver), Io5‑Io6, 108‑109, 175 1895 (Nantasket Beach), io9, i 1o 1896 (Cleveland), 112‑114 1897 (Detroit), 88, 114 1898 (Dallas), 89, 115 1899 (Buffalo), II6‑II8 I9oo (Washington, D. C.), I I9, 120121, 123‑128, 136 I90I (Kansas City), 128, 130, 132, 144 1902 (San Francisco), 132‑135, 137 1903 (Saratoga Springs), 137 1904 (Atlantic City), 137 19o5 (Niagara Falls), 137, 138, 141 igo6 (Chicago), 137, 138, 142 300 INDEX Imperial Council, sessions (Cont. ) 1907 (Los Angeles), 139, 145 19o8 (St. Paul), 146, 147 19oq (Louisville), 146, 147, 148, 150 igio (New Orleans), 140, 147, 148151, 152 1911 (Rochester), 152, 153 1912 (Los Angeles), 154, 155‑156 1913 (Dallas), 157‑160 (Atlanta), 157‑158, 164‑166 1915 (Seattle), 166, 167‑168 1916 (Buffalo), 168, 173 1917 (Minneapolis), 169 1918 (Atlantic City), 169‑171, 172 i919 (Indianapolis), 172‑177, 178, 180‑182, 236 1920 (Portland, Ore.), 151, 152, 184 1914 1qo, 191 1921 (Des Moines), 211 1922 (San Francisco), 211 1923 (Washington, D. C.), 209‑216 1924 (Kansas City), 217 1925 (Los Angeles), 217‑218, 219, 222 1926 (Philadelphia), 218, 221 1927 (Atlantic City), 218 1928 (Miami), 218, 222 1929 (Los Angeles), 217, 218‑219, 223, 224 1930 (Toronto), 90, 223, 224‑230, 235 1931 (Cleveland), 233, 235 1932 (San Francisco), 233, 235, 256 1934 (Minneapolis), 236 1935 (Washington, D. C.), 236‑239, 193, 194‑195, 195, 196, 197, Imperial Council, sessions (Cont.) 1950 (Los Angeles), 259, 267, 274 1951 (New York City), 274 1952 (Miami), 274 1953 (New York City), 274 Innocent XI, Pope, 40 Irwin, William W., 160, 164 Islam Temple, 95, 106, 130, 139, 146, 150, 156, 157, 193, 199, 200, 233, 246, 256 Ismailia Temple, 116‑117, 145, 146, 251, 258 Jackson, Andrew, z Jacoby, Elias J., 172‑173, 175, 177 Jacocks, Everett, W., 272 Jefferson, Joseph, 55‑56 Jefferson, Thomas, 264 Jerusalem Temple, 149, 156, 157, 160, 162, 173 Jesters, 130 Joesting, Herb, 203 Jones, Allan, 243 Jones, Frank C., 231 273 1936 (Seattle), 235, 239, 240 Kismet Temple, 193, 226 1937 (Detroit), 240, 241 Knepfly, Lawrence M., 100, 103 1938 (Los Angeles), 235, 241, 2431 Knickerbocker Cottage, 2, 3, 20, 51 244 Knights Templar, 3, 30, 71‑72, 81, 82, 86, 1939 (Baltimore), 243 112, 113, 114, 118, 126, 160, 164, 166, 1940 (Memphis), 243, 244, 248 263 1941 (Indianapolis), 249 Kora Temple, 232 1942 (Chicago), 250‑251, 263 Koran, 33, 35, 40, 43 1943 (Chicago), 251, 254 Kosair Temple, io9, 165 1944 (Milwaukee), z54 Kurzenknabe, George J., 143‑144 1945 (Chicago), 255, 256 1946 (San Francisco), 256, 258 Ladies' Oriental Shrine, 148 1949 (Chicago), 259, 260, 265, 267 La Guardia, Fiorello, 238 Kalakaua, David, 95 Kalurah Temple, 145 Kant, Immanuel, 39 Karem Temple, 205, 259 Karnak Temple, 180, 193 Keator, Bishop Frederick W., Keck, Charles, 226 Keller, K. T., 141 Kendrick, W. Freeland, 151, 176, 182, 184‑186, 190, 193, 205, 218, 235 Kendrick, Mrs. W. Freeland, 179, 180 Khedive Temple, 199, 232 KiMki ng, acenze, 22, 229 193, 199 1772249 INDEX 301 Lamour, Dorothy, 243 Land, Frank S., 264 Landon, Thad, 239, 272 Lanimer, Curt, 174 Lansburgh, Henry, I9o Lanstrum, Oscar M., 193, LaPlante, Laura, 219 Law, Thomas C., 231, 232, 249‑251, 263264 Legends, 30‑52 Lenhart, Philip F., 28, 29 Lewis, J. Harry, I6o, 162, Iqo, 220 Liberati, Alessandro, 74, 75 Liliuokalani, Queen, 129 Lloyd, Harold, 241, 243‑244, 259‑260, 267, 269 Locke, Frank, 1o2 Loder, George F., 28, 29, 63‑64, 69 Louise, Anita, 243 Love, Bessie, 219 Loy, Myrna, 243 Lucas, Mrs. Mellan, II Luce, Frank M., 37, 82, 96, 97, 98‑io6, 199 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 41, 47‑48, 51, 52, 96 McGaffey, A. B., 102, 116 McGaffey, H. H., 102 McGee, James, 10, 25, 27, 28, 35, 49, 54‑55, 76, 78, 8o, 83, 132, 209 McGilvray, John D., 193, 199 McKinley, William, 119, 120, 123, 124, 128, 136 McKinley, Mrs. William, 128 Mecca Temple, 7, 10, 13, 14, 18, 23, 25, 27‑28, 33, 34, 41, 44, 47, 48, 50, 53‑55, 64, 65, 67, 69, 72, 74, 77, 78, 79, 8o, 89, 91, 96, 102, 104, I06, 110, 132, 158, 179, 207, 209, 22 1, 255 Medinah Temple, 74, 78‑79, 94, 97, 103, I o6, 110, 130, 143‑144, 147, ISO, 232, 257 Melham, Thomas W., 265, 270, 272 Melish, William B., 47‑48, So, 69, 77, 82, 86,94,95‑111, 159, 16o, 166‑167, 185186, 188, 18q, Iqo, 221, 222, 274 45, 48 2449, 76, III, 272 Membership, Shrine, 23, 25, 30, 34, 38, Luce, Mrs. Frank M., 103‑104 41, 44, 52, 66, 68, 69, 76, 80, 91, 97, Lujack, Johnny, 203 110, 112, 113, 118, 137, 157, 164, 171, Lu Lu Temple, 53, 76, 79, 110, 132, 137, 174, 2091 217, 222‑223, 232, 240, 247 145, 151, 170, 177, 179, 193 248, 255, 257‑258, 265, 269, 270 Lusitania, 167 Michale, Simon, 150 Millais, Sir John, I88 MacArthur, Douglas, 156 Millar, George W., 1, 3, 7, 20, 23, 24, MacKenzie, Morley, 254 28, 41, 47, 48, 96, 102, 141‑142, 164 Maine, 115 Mills, Earl C., 232 Marconi, Guglielmo, 113 Mirabeau, Count de, 39 Marracci, Louis (Luigi), 35, 40 Mohammed, 35, 37, 39, 70 Marratt, Charles P., 28 Mohammed Temple, 37, 65 Marshall, John, 264 Moila Temple, I4I‑142 Martin, Tony, 243 Moolah Temple, 78‑79, 94, 168, 270 Maskat Temple, 232, 247 Mooney, Tom, 168 Masonic War Relief Association of the Moore, John A., 23, 24, 28, 41 United States, 166‑167 Moriarty, Albert P., 23, 28, 41 May, John A., 103 Morison, John A., 193, 195 May, William D., 20, 28 Morocco Temple, 81‑82, 134, 135, 165, Mayo, William H., 100, 104 269 Mayo brothers, 193, 194 Moslah Temple, 157, 173, 246 Mazzini, Giuseppe, 40 Moslem Temple, 53, 69, 74, 93‑94, 141, McAfee, George, 203 232 McArthur, Arthur, 166 Mount Sinai Temple, 34 McCandless, "Sunny Jim," 212, 213, 214 Muller, Brick, 203 McClenachan, Charles T., 1, 3, 5, 10, 17, Murat Temple, 79‑8o, 172, 173 302 INDEX Mussolini, Benito, Myths, 30‑52 Nagel, Conrad, 219 Nagurski, Bronco, 203 Naja Temple, 34, 270 Nelson, Lord, 36 New York Stock Exchange, 5 Newsboys' and Bootblacks' Home, 117 Nichols, Sidney P., 28 Niedringhaus, Henry F., Jr., 168, Nikephorous, Byzantine emperor, Nile Temple, 156, 160, 162, 240 Northrop, Aaron L., 28, 29 Northrup, D., 20 Noziglia, Angelo, 28 169 39 Oasis Temple, 199 O'Brien, George, 243 Oleika Temple, 155 Olendorf, George F., 232, Omar Khayyam, 85, 92 Opie, Noble, 190 Oriental Band, 142‑145 Oriental Temple, 65, 69, 74, 126 Origin, of Shrine, 5, 9, 32‑52 Orphan asylums, 167, 185 Osiris Temple, 160, 232 Osman Temple, 156, 157, 160, 162, 190, 220 Ovenshire, Charles E., 169, 170‑171, 175, igo Palestine Temple, 231 Panama Canal Zone, 157, 160, 161, 162 Parades, 113, 136‑137, 164, 169, 203, 208, 258, 272 1884 (Baltimore), 76 1887 (Washington, D. C.), 79 1892 (Omaha), 91, 92‑94 1893 (Cincinnati), 96‑97 1894 (Denver), io6, io8 1898 (Dallas), 116 1899 (Buffalo), 117‑118 igoo (Washington, D. C.), 120, 121, 123‑124, 126, 128, 136 Igo1 (Kansas City), 132, 144 1902 (San Francisco), 132‑133 1903 (Saratoga Springs), 144 1907 (Los Angeles), 146 igo9 (Louisville), 148 247, 254, 255 249 155 Parades (Cont.) 1912 (Los Angeles), 1913 (Dallas), 158 1914 (Atlanta), 165 1915 (Seattle), 167 igiq (Indianapolis), 173, 174 1923 (Washington, D. C.), 212, 213216 1929 (Los Angeles), 218, 219 1930 (Toronto), 227 1931 (Cleveland), 233 1935 (Washington, D. C.), 237, 238239 1937 (Detroit), 240 1938 (Los Angeles), 243 1939 (Baltimore), 244 1940 (Memphis), 244, 248 1949 (Chicago), 266 1950 (Los Angeles), 267, 271 1951 (New York City), 274 1953 (New York City), 274 Pastor, "Tony," 74, 85 Paterson, William Sleigh, 1, 3, 5, 10, 1837, 20, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 33, 41, 64, 65, 74, 8o, 82, 85, 97, Patton, George, 254 Peace Monument, 225‑230 Pennington, Ann, 219 Pershing, John J., 211, 213, 214 Peters, Augustus, 47, 89 Philae Temple, 171 Philippines, 160, 162 Pickford, Mary, 243 Porter, Joseph Y., 82 Poteat, Hubert M., 7, 249, 269, 273 Powell, Eleanor, 243 Power, Tyrone, 243 Pray, Malvina, see Florence, Mrs. William Jermyn Price, Bun F., ioo Price, James H., 272 Principles, Shrine, 7‑8, 41, 112 Prinzip, Gavrillo, 166 Putnam, Israel, 216 Pyramid Temple, 65, 69, 74 35, 272 Raft, George, 243 Rahn, A. A. D., 232, 244‑245 Rajah Temple, 114, 145, 146 Rake, J. Lew, 114 Rameses Temple, 8o, 138, 224, 226, 254 INDEX 303 Rawson, Albert L., 33, 41, 44, 69‑70 Raye, Martha, 243 Reed, James A., 28 Revere, Paul, 216, 264 Rickenbacker, Eddie, 265 Ritchie, Albert, 227 Sickels, Daniel, 23, 41 Simons, John W., 23, 41 Skelton, Red, 207, 267, 268 Smith, Frederick R., 166, 167 Smith, John W., 103‑104, 105 Smith, Robert P., 238, 273‑274 Ritual, Shrine, 6‑7, 21, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, Sousa, John Philip, 79, 211, 216, 217 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 48, 49, Spaulding, E. Jack, zoo 63, 64, 67, 68, 72, 76, 83, 85, 91, 109, Spencer, Bud, 202 141, 175, 177, 216 Spinoza, Baruch, 39 232, Ritz brothers, 243 Stalin, Joseph, 236, 26o Robson, May, 243 Stettinius, John L., 29 Rogers, Roy, 207, 267 Steuart, Leonard P., 211, 213, 214, Roman, Ruth, 267 238, 239, 273 Romberg, Sigmund, 265 Stiles, William A., 102 Roome, Genl., 20 Stimson, Henry L., 229 Roosevelt, Mrs. Eleanor, 238, 239 Stinson, T. E. (Eddie), 141 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 236‑237, 238, 239 Street, George L., 147, 148, 149, 150
Roosevelt, Theodore, 155 Stringfellow, George E., 260, 262, 265, Root, George L., 37 270 Rose, David B. G., 165 Sudan Temple, 269 Ross, John W., 124 Sugden, Walter S., 232 Roundy, Frank C., 143, 146, 147 Sullivan, Joe, 202‑203 Rowe, George H., 251, 258‑259 Sun Yat‑sen, 154 Rowell, Benjamin W., 109, 111, 272 Syria Temple, 65, 1o5, 148, 257 Rubaiyat, 85 Syrian Temple, 34, 47, 69, 96, 103, 105, 106, 1019, 110, 159, 185, 222, 233 Salaam Temple, 171 Saladin Temple, 128, 130 Taft, William Howard, 155 Saltus, Francis, 52 Tangier Temple, 92, 93, 94, 159, 190 Sampson, William, 115 Temples, see also names of temples Saunders, George M., 272 lists of, 277‑288 Scimitar Temple, 270 Thomas, Lee, 222 Scott, George, 28, 29 Thompson, James H., 81 Scottish Rite, 3, 14, 23, 25, 30, 86, 113, Tibneen, Ismail, 44 126, 16o, 162, 183, 232, 262 Treat, John F., 156, 157, 16o Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Chil Trinkle, E. Lee, 213 dren, 183‑184, 185, 187, 189 Tripoli Temple, 270 Sebrell, John N., 232 Truman, Harry S., 246, 257, 264, 265, Selim 111, Sultan, 36 266, 267 Sesostris Temple, 211 Seward, William H., 2 United States Marine Band, 79, 121, 128 Shaffer, Philip, 132, 134 Sheridan, J. J., 155 Victor Emmanuel, King, 40 Sherry, Bill, 174 Sherwood, Bensen, 28, 29 Wainwright, Jonathan, 265 Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Chil Walker, W. Wallace, 28 dren, 82, 90, 110, 177, 178‑2o8, 209, Wallach, Lester, 18 219, 220, 232‑233, 235, 238, 239, 240+ Ward, J. H. Hobart, 28, 29 252, 269, 272, 293‑296 Wardlaw, Mrs. William Clarke, 183 Sheey, John, io8 Warren, Earl, 256, 257 304 INDEX Warren, Joseph, 264 Wilson, Woodrow, 168 Washburn, W. C., 162 Winsor, Curtis H., 103, log Washington, George, 31, 47, 120, 213, Winsor, Lou B., 128, 129, 130, 134 216, 264 Withers, Jane, 243 Washington University, 193, 194 Witt, Bernard G., 167 Waterfield, Bob, 203 Wood, Fred O., 221 Webster, Clyde 1., 232, 240, 241 Woodfield, William H., 256 Weed, Thurlow, 2 Worthington, John, 44‑48, 98, 103, 105 Weishaupt, Adam, 39, 52 Wright, Joseph S., 102 Wemp, Mayor (Toronto), 229 Wesley Memorial Hospital, see Emory Yaarab Temple, 164, 231, 249, 250, 263 University Hospital York Rite, 23, 232, 262 Whalen, Michael, 243 Youngworth, Leo V., 223, 224‑229, 231 Whitcomb, F. F., igo Youngworth, Mrs. Leo V., 229 Whiting, William H., 29 Yusef Churi Bey, 42‑43 Wiard, Mrs. Norman, 57, 61 Wilken, Frederick, W., 272 Za‑Ga‑Zig Temple, 232 Williams, Dana S., 232 Ziyara Temple, 65 Williams, Gus, 74 Zuhrah Temple, 92, 94, io8, 16q, 190, Wilson, Robert G., Jr., 2'70 212, 232, 244
