The Builder Magazine

June 1926 - Volume XII - Number 6

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Great Frederick or the God of the Fable - By ALBERT LANTOINE--Translated by A. L. KRESS

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

THE APRON BY BRO. R.J. MEEKREN

The Craft in the 18th Century The "Moderns," 1717, and the "Antients," 1751 By BRO. ARTHUR HEIRON, England - (Continued)

The Hiramic Legend and the Medieval Stage - By BRO. ERNEST E. THIEMEYER, Missouri - PART III--THE LEGEND AND THE DRAMA

FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY

Facts About T. B.

Making Masons at Sight - By BRO. N. W. J. HAYDON, Associate Editor, Canada

 

EDITORIAL

DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

ORGANIZATION

WHAT CAN BE DONE

HOW ANYONE CAN HELP

 

The Form of the Lodge - By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN

 

THE LIBRARY

THE APOCALYPSE OF FREEMASONRY

FREEMASONRY, ITS DERIVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

HOMES OF FAMOUS AMERICANS (Vol. 1)

A NEW STANDARD MONITOR

 

THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE

IS THE NEED EXAGGERATED?

AN EXPERT OPINION

A PRACTICAL RESPONSE

THE RITUAL OF SALT

LEE S. SMITH

BOOKS WANTED AND FOR SALE

 

YE EDITOR'S CORNER

 

----o----

 

The Great Frederick or the God of the Fable

 

By ALBERT LANTOINE--Translated by A. L. KRESS

 

AT various times articles have appeared in THE BUILDER dealing with Frederick the Great and his supposed connection with the Scottish Rite. I have translated the following chapter from Albert Lantoine's Histoire de La Franc-Masonnerie Francaise (History of French Freemasonry), 1925, pages 245 254, for two reasons. First of all, the chapter is important as presenting the negative side. And secondly to call attention to Bro. Lantoine's excellent work itself. All Masonic scholarship is by no means confined to England and America. This book itself is a witness to the fact. It is unfortunate indeed for both the cause of Masonic research and of Masonic universality that English-speaking Masons cannot become familiar with such current foreign Masonic work as Lantoine has produced. Speaking from no little acquaintance with original French Masonic literature, the best advice I can give those who wish to quote from any of it is to forget Thory, forget Clavel, Ragon and a score more, and see what Albert Lantoine, official historiographer of the Grand Orient of France, has to say in this work.

 

In one or two places I have kept the French word "Ecossaism" or "Ecossais", which literally mean Scottish, as better designating the scattered High Grades before the advent of the Scottish Rite.

 

FREDERICK AND THE HIGH DEGREES

 

Frederick of Prussia! What has Frederick the Second of Prussia to do with this affair? Again we demand it. The High Grades made use of the mysterious Superiors; Charles-Edward had excused himself, but Frederick could do so no more: he was dead! It is quite difficult to imagine today the motives which decided the ascription of such a patronage. Were the Americans deceived by Etienne Morin who, aware of Frederick's initiation before his departure, played it up before the New World to interest it in this Masonic line? Or did these Americans, in their democratic respect for the great ones of the earth consider that such a king could not tarry with the others in the "Middle Chamber," and that a "Sublime Apartment" was better suited to the loftiness of his position and character? Or again, to avoid the innovations of imaginative inventors, and this scattering abroad of Ecossaism which had marked the 18th century, was it deemed necessary to call to the rescue one of those men who were not to be disobeyed to put each grade into its place again? We do not know. But behold, after Charles-Edward, Frederick introduced into the history of the High Grades. Shall we expel him--the one as we have the other ? Alas ! we cannot do otherwise; we have no proof whatever of his collaboration on the new statutes of Ecossaism, and on the contrary we have almost too much that contradicts it.

 

It is not through a comparison of the sentimental order, we say it at once, that we have connected Frederick the Second with the Pretender Charles Edward; this connection the Ecossais have made to enter the domain of reality. The Bro. Pyron addressed to Napoleon First an historic note (!) in which he asked him as "Sovereign of sovereigns" to support an Institution which had passed from the family of the Stuarts into the hands of the Great Frederick. This idea was accepted with enthusiasm by the Supreme Council which embodied it with ultra fantastic details in its Encyclical letter of March 5, 1813:

 

Charles-Edward, last scion of the Stuarts, was the chief of Ancient and Modern Masonry. He nominated Grand Master Frederick II to succeed him. Frederick accorded to Masonry a careful attention, it was the object of his constant solicitude. At this period the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite comprised but twenty-five grades, of which Prince of the Royal Secret was the highest. Certain new projects, certain discords which unexpectedly arose in Germany in 1782, inspired him with fear lest Masonry become the prey of anarchy and the victim of those who, under the name of Masons, might be tempted to let it fall into decay or annihilate it. When in 1786 Frederick saw his life had almost run its course, he decided to transmit the sovereign powers with which he was clothed to a Council of Grand Inspectors General who after his death would take over the direction of High Masonry, conformably to the Constitution and Statutes. On May 1, 1786, he increased to thirty-three the number of the grades of the hierarchy of the Scottish Rite, which till then had counted but twenty-five, and assigned to the thirty third the designation of Puissant and Sovereign Grand Commander General. The powers conferred under this degree, for the government and direction of the Rite, were concentrated in a Sovereign Chapter called the Supreme Council, etc. On May 1, 1786, Frederick established the Constitution and Regulations for the Grand Inspectors General, of which article VIII provided that after the death of Frederick the Supreme Councils would be the Sovereigns of Masonry.

 

A tiny glimmer of truth is at the bottom of this legend. In distinction to the Scottish Pretender, Frederick had actually been initiated. It will be outside our task to repeat here, from Baron de Bielfeld, (1) the details of this initiation, which took place when Frederick was only prince and heir-apparent.

 

FREDERICK AS A FREEMASON

 

This title of Freemason would not seem displeasing to a critical youth who took no part in religion and who entered the Order at a time when every secret society touched by the breath of liberty which had then begun to blow over Europe, had less and less honor and sanctity. On becoming King, he did not at once lose interest in the Institution, and he continued for a long time to receive with fraternal courtesy the homage addressed to him by the National Grand Lodge at the Three Globes and other Prussian Masonic organizations. At the beginning of his reign, he still amused himself in his Masonic capacity, and he had not forgotten those hazardous escapades he had perpetrated incognito in his realm--as for example when on the right bank of the Rhine, he levelled a pistol at an abbe traveling in a post-chaise and cried with a savage air "Become a Freemason or die." Dieudonne Thiebault (2) who relates this prank, adds that the King allowed the poor frightened abbe to go, telling him his fear made him unworthy of being a "brother"--which shows at least some esteem for the Masons.

 

Even if Frederick patronized Freemasonry, even if he founded The Three Globes, he was never Grand Master--or at least he was never a Grand Master in partibus ("never having particularly occupied himself with organization and legislation") as that function is recognized and understood. His Masonic activity (and this word activity should not be given the meaning of assiduity) lasted not much more than seven years from the date of his initiation, that is from 1738-1744. But the participation of Frederick II in the work and development of the Order has been very fully investigated by German authors--there is an extensive bibliography on the question-but all of them, even though they disagree on certain points, are unanimous in exonerating his memory from the creation of the high grades. Circumstantial details regarding this are to be found in Lenning's Masonic Encyclopedia. Doctor Adolph Kohut in Die Hohenzollern und die Freimaurerei (Berlin, 1909) tells us that "he was disgusted with the grotesque practices and hazy doctrines of the Strict Observance and that he spared no sarcasm in speaking of it. He thought Freemasonry should have no other end save the perfection of human society and he disapproved any act which might demean the high standard of such precepts." He even went so far on Nov. 13, 1780, as to blame the lodge Royal York for having organized a charitable concert, which seemed to him beneath the character of the Institution. Treutel in his Vie de Frederic II roi de Prusse (Strassburg, 1787) gives us some Masonic details of our hero. appears that during the early days of his reign, summoned a lodge, where, in the capacity of Master in the chair, he received Prince William, Margrave Schwedt and Duke of Holstein.

 

Although Frederick was a Freemason, he did not wish the usages of Masonry to be extended outside the lodge. Some Masons having sent him a petition during the war of succession in Bavaria took it into their heads to append to their signatures their titles and grades in the Order. The King at once sent the petition to the Lieutenant of Police and forbade them to further use these titles.

 

An upholsterer who was working one day in the King's apartments tried to make himself recognized as a Freemason; but Frederick turned his back on him and withdrew.

 

Lord Dover, author of History of the Private, Political and Military Life of Frederick II King of Prussia, which seems admirably documented, writes:

 

Although having become a member of the Fraternity, Frederick was not very kind to the Freemasons during his reign; he seems even to have discouraged them. Shortly after the death of his father, he presided over one of their assemblies and in the capacity of Grand Master initiated his brother, Prince William, Margrave of Schwedt and Duke of Holstein, there is no evidence that he took any further interest in the actions of this society.

 

We read in the third volume of La Monarchie Prussiene by Mirabeau:

 

It is unfortunate that Frederick II did not have sufficient zeal even to become Grand Master of all the German lodges, or at least of the Prussian lodges; his power might have acquired a considerable growth . . . and even some military enterprises might have taken another turn if he had never fallen out with the leaders of this society.

 

One might object that all these arguments are of a psychological nature, so to say, and that the secret of the relations of Frederick with his brethren may have been religiously, or better, Masonically guarded. But even if we accept this improbable hypothesis, we come now against a material impossibility. Here once more Mirabeau furnishes us with evidence. It is to be found in the Histoire secrete de la cour de Berlin, ou Correspondance d'un Voyageur Francais depuis le 5 Ju 1786, jusqu'au 19 Janvier 1787:

 

His (Frederick's) malady, which would have killed ten men had lasted eleven months without interruption and almost without respite, since the first attack of suffocating apoplexy from which he recovered through an emetic, and uttering with an imperious gesture as his first sound these two words: "Be quiet . . ." [Letter XXVIII dated from Dresden, Sept. 24, 1786.]

 

This information carries weight as coming from a witness who was there and who saw for himself. We have proof of it in the preamble with which he saw fit to preface his Lettre remise a Guillaume Frederic II roi regnant de Prusse . . . where these lines may be found:

 

Frederick II summoned me before him voluntarily when I hesitated to importune his last moments with my natural desire of seeing so great a man, and of obviating the regret of having been his contemporary without knowing him. He deigned to welcome me, to distinguish me, even though a stranger such as I had not been admitted to his conversation

 

Frederick II died Aug. 17, 1786--he would have revised the Constitutions May 1, 1786, that is to say three months and a half before his death. Now how can anyone believe that this man, who according to Mirabeau suffered for eleven months "without interruption," could apply himself to a task so foreign from all his habitual activities and duties under the constant anxieties that the charges of royalty imposed upon him? From January, 1786, he was condemned, and he himself, according to his family, had not the slightest illusion about the fatal outcome of his malady.

 

DISCREPANCIES IN THE STORY

 

 The fabricators of novels of adventure are not accustomed to consult sources and their imagination never considers anachronisms . . . The pamphleteers of the High Grades had not the benefit of being corrected by an informed editor. For not only is the date more than open to suspicion but even the city where the generous deed was done, Berlin. Here again the larger history refuses to confirm the little history. Frederick II lived at Potsdam, and he died there, at his chateau Sans-Souci, without having set foot in Berlin after his last visit of Sept. 9-10, 1785, when his movements . . . have been carefully reported by his biographers. Now a sentimental argument which deserves consideration because it upholds the other, is this--why did not Frederick II give his compatriots some share in the harvest of the High Grades? Why was not his lodge The Three Globes given some part in their distribution? And even were it a case of an exclusion prompted by some resentment or other, would not his subjects have hastened eagerly to adopt a reform extolled by their king?

 

What a bizarre idea, moreover, for this fanatic Prussian, so zealous for the glory of his own nation to do this -and for what a reason! To transmit his famous powers to certain Americans instead of simply delegating them to his eldest son and heir Frederick William!

 

THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTIONS LOST

 

As for these Constitutions, where are they? Vanished in air! As attestation for their authenticity we have almost nothing; only the discourses of Dalcho to which we have referred, where among other equally fantastic allegations we find this:

 

In 1762 the Grand Masonic Constitutions were expressly ratified by the government of all lodges of Perfect and Sublime Masonry.

 

There is also the formal affirmation of Pyron in his Abrege historique de l'organisation en France, jusqu'a l'epoque du ler Mars 1814, des trente-trois degrees du rit Ecossais ancien et accepte . . . where he says:

 

At the same time in 1786, Frederick II, King of Prussia, Sovereign of Sovereigns of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and Grand Master, successor of the Kings of England and Scotland, wished to weld together forever the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for which he had a special affection. He wished to invest it, in every State and Empire where it might practiced, with the necessary power to free it from any obstacles which it might meet with on the part of this crude ignorance which misrepresented everything, etc....

 

Consequently, Frederick II presiding in person [these words are italicized by Pyron himseif. Tr.] over the Supreme Council by the aid of which he ruled and governed the Order, on May 1, 1786, raised to thirty-three degrees the hierarchy of twenty-five degrees sanctioned by the Grand Constitutions of 1762.

 

 Later General Albert Pike repeated this affirmation on his own account; but this citizen of free America has every interest in making us believe it an affirmation which at the same time legalized the Council at Charleston, which had only been created, it seems, on May 21, 1802, while the patent of de Grasse-Tilly was dated Feb. 21 of the same year. We prefer the text, but the High Grades are pursued by an improbable misfortune. It is with the Constitutions of Frederick as with the Bull of Charles-Edward installing the Chapter at Arras, as with the Charter of the Templars, as with the patent of Dr. Gerbier, as with so many other documents by which so many fables have been supported: the original is lost. What a loss! Albert Pike in his Memoirs to be of service to the history of Freemasonry in France, which the New Age published, tries to calm our anxiety:

 

We possess, writes he, the copy of the Constitutions of Frederick the Great, and I certify that it conforms with the original which, through misfortune, has disappeared and on which the august signature had been effaced by the water of the sea.

 

The sea respects nothing. Misfortunes never come singly; behold, after the august signature, even the document itself disappears. So the ambassador who carried so precious a document lost it! And we do not even know the name of this wretch, who not only exposed the manuscript to the spray but who also let it be borne away by the wind! No not by the wind at large --for the statement would seem too suspect. No! Some fine fellows have seen the marvelous paper, and they cite the names of other signatories, hardly decipherable, but decipherable just the same. Bro. Jottrand wrote in 1888: (3)

 

According to the description of the authentic copy submitted in 1834 to the Supreme Council of France with the names of those who had constituted at Berlin the first Supreme Council of 33d only four are legible; in the fifth the initial D is still legible; the others, so runs the descriptive process, verbal, are illegible owing to rubbing or to the water of the sea to which, written on parchment, they have accidentally been exposed several times. The initial D is certainly that of the Italian Denina, professor at the University of Tusin, author of a history of Italian and Greek Revolutions, whom Frederick had called to join his Academy. The legible names are those of Stark, Woellner Willelm and d'Esterno.

 

But the archives left behind by Woellner, who was at this period Supreme Scots Master, have been searched and nothing found relating to this so important consultation with Frederick. Stark lived at Wismar, and in his Justification, published in 1787 at Leipzig and Frankfort-on-Main, he confessed the small part taken by him since 1777 in the work of the Freemasons and even (an avowed sin is easily pardoned) his indifference to the work. So far as Denina is concerned he was not only the author of a history of the Revolution of Greece and Italy as Bro. Jottrand says, but he wrote an Essai sur la vie et regne de Frederic II, roi de Prusse (Berlin, 1788), where he describes in a few words his initiation into Freemasonry "a society recognized today which begins to make some noise in the world" (pages 36-37), and (page 453) he devotes these few words to the Freemasons:

 

The Freemasons into which society Frederick had been received ten years before he ascended the throne, did not meet with any marked favor, as perhaps they had hoped. But while they were persecuted in Italy, Bavaria and other countries, they enjoyed complete freedom in Prussia. If the King did not do any more for them, it was because he feared to favor them too much lest they meet the end of the religious and holy fraternities of the Middle Ages. However, assured of his protection by a letter of July 16, 1774, the Freemasons counted in Berlin five lodges under different names, and they had a large enough number in the provinces.

 

If Denina had collaborated with Frederick at the elaboration of the Grand Constitutions would there not be an allusion or at least would he not have spoken of the Masonic Order with a more apparent interest?

 

The vexatious thing, however, is that all the authors who uphold this belief have forgotten to agree among themselves. It was in 1887 that Albert Pike announced the crime of lese majeste committed by the water of the sea, and in 1818 one named Marguerite asserted that the Constitutions were in the hands of a Scottish Knight and that they were signed in the very hand of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.

 

INCONSISTENCIES IN THE TRADITION

 

Search has been made everywhere, even where it seemed most likely proofs might be found, namely in Prussia. Wasted effort ! The National Mother Grand Lodge of the Three Terrestrial Globes at Berlin, questioned in a letter from Bro. De Marconnay dated at New York, May 26, 1833, made a reply which Findel saw and of which he records this passage: (4)

 

The National Mother-Grand Lodge of the Three Terrestrial Globes was founded Sept. 13, 1740, under the authority of Frederick the Great, who was also its first Grand Master. This monarch did not, however, occupy himself particularly with organization and legislation. None of the assertions concerning his own acts or those of the supreme Masonic Senate that he may have founded in 1785 . . . have the least historical basis.

 

It is even today necessary to prove what The Three Globes affirmed, because "this great falsehood of the Order," using the words of George Kloss, (5) has even been repeated in our own time by the Very Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Scottish Council, Bro. J. M. Raymond, who says in his Resume historique de l'organisation des travanx du Supreme Conseil du Rite Ecossais ancien et accepte pour la France et ses dependances: ( Paris, 1908)

 

On May 1, 1786, Frederick II, King of Prussia, in his Masonic capacity as Sovereign of Sovereigns, definitely established the Constitutions, Statutes, and Regulations of the Scottish Masonic Order.

 

How can such a legend help but gain credit among Freemasons when it finds itself still propagated by their very "luminaries" ?

 

NOTES

 

(1) de Bielfeld--Lettres Familieres et autris . . . 1763. (2) Thiebault--Souvenirs de vingt ans de sefour a Berlin. (3) Jottrand--Sur le Constitutions de 1786 du Rite E. A. et A. 1888. (4) Findel--Histoire--p. 486-487. (5) Kloss--Geschichte der Freimaurerei in Frankreich, etc. 1852-3.

 

----o----

 

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

 

To explain to themselves the existence of Evil and Suffering, the Ancient Persians imagined that there were two Principles or Deities in the Universe, the one of Good and the other of Evil, constantly in conflict with each other in struggle for the mastery, and alternately overcoming and overcome. Over both, for the Sages, was the One Supreme, and for them Light was in the end to prevail over Darkness, the Good over the Evil, and even Ahriman and his Demons to part with their wicked and vicious natures and share the universal Salvation. It did not occur to them that the existence of the Evil Principle, by the consent of the Omnipotent Supreme, presented the same difficulty, and left the existence of Evil as unexplained as before. The human mind is always content, if it can remove a difficulty a step further off. It cannot believe that the world rests on nothing, but is devoutly content when taught that it is borne on the back of an immense elephant, who himself stands on the back of a tortoise. Given the tortoise, Faith is always satisfied; and it has been a great source of happiness to multitudes that they could believe in a Devil who could relieve God of the odium of being the Author of Sin.--Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike.

 

----o----

 

THE APRON

 

BY BRO. R.J. MEEKREN

 

 MANY readers of THE BUILDER will have seen or heard certain "lectures" of recent origin on the badge of a Mason in which a parallel is drawn with the fig leaves of the garden of Eden, and the lesson of innocence, if not restricted to at least emphasized in one particular department of life. This is but popularizing the speculations of certain writers on Masonic symbolism who dwell almost lovingly on what is euphemistically called the "phallic" side of that abstruse subject. This is done in many ways more or less direct. Direct when the apron is equated with primitive loin cloths and kilts, and indirect as where, in its modern form with the flap up it is regarded as the outline of the obscure "broached thurnal" of 18th century documents and this itself taken as representing the Egyptian obelisks, and these as being the same kind of thing as the pillars of the porch, which are supposed to be just conventional "phalloi"--a word which is, by the way, by no means a euphemism in Greek. An example of this kind of explanation is to be found in THE BUILDER for 1917 in a short article by Bro. H. A. Kingsbury, though by no means in the extreme form to which other more visionary writers are inclined to push it.

 

In a work published a good many years ago, in 1880, to be precise, The Obelisk and Freemasonry, there are a number of illustrations taken from Egyptian mural paintings, and at page 36 he shows a group of two, one an Ibis headed deity and the other a king, the latter of whom has a gorgeously decorated garment about his waist, which the author, John A. Weisse, took to be an apron. He gives a cut of it, which represents it as triangular shaped with the apex upward. Egypt used to be the happy hunting ground of uncritical brethren seeking for parallels and origins to Freemasonry. In this case Bro. Weisse was deceived by the artistic convention of Egyptian painters, which represented the human figure partly in profile and partly as seen in front. The head is nearly invariably in profile except the eye, which is drawn as in full face. The shoulders appear as if seen from the front, but the hips and legs are in profile--but the loin cloth, the principal masculine garment then (as today in many parts of the world) is inconsistently shown as from the front, just as the full face eye in the profile head. Actually what Weisse took to be an apron was the embroidered end of a cloth or wide sash wound round the body in rather complicated folds.

 

MASONRY AND THE MAYAS

 

Today, a certain school of Masonic authors are very much inclined to draw on the representations of figures and scenes found in the remains of the ancient Maya people. The pioneer prospector in this vein was the enthusiastic and indefatigable but uncritical Dr. Le Plongeon. A reproduction is here given of a cut in his book, Sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and Quiches, which represents a fragment of a statue, of a priest he supposes. From this it would appear that the individual was represented as wearing over his loin cloth a small rectangular apron of about the same shape and size as the elaborate bead apron which forms the full dress of Zulu women in South Africa where they have not taken to more civilized modes.

 

At first sight it certainly seems as if it was intended to represent an apron in this case. But familiarity with Maya work leads us to hesitate. The Maya had strong instinct for the decorative. He did not, like the Egyptian painter or Assyrian sculptor, find any difficulty either in representing a true profile, or a full face view, his ability was quite equal showing things as he saw them without introducing details he knew were there but which could not be seen from his point of view, but he was inclined to conventionalize his representations and turn them into grotesque patterns.

 

In the accompanying illustrations, which are from photographs taken by the archeological expedition headed by Dr. Franz Blom of Tulane University, we have two mutilated statues and a relief modeled in plaster on a wall. The statues are stiff and conventional and each shows an apron-like appendage hanging down in front, in the case of the standing figure it apparently depends from a broad belt or girdle. In the group we have a very naturalistic representation of three men. It is hard to escape the impression that they are portraits and one would hazard a guess that they were very good likenesses. The position of the man on the right is far from being an easy one to represent in low relief, and is far beyond anything attempted by Egyptian or Babylonian artists. The point, however, that interests us in the present connection is the very clear way in which the loin cloth is depicted. It is evidently put on like a highlander's kilt, or a Chinese apron-skirt. A cloth with an ornamental border is wound three or four times around the body. At one end a narrower strip is attached which is passed round again and the end tucked in. The narrow strip hanging below the kilt undoubtedly represents the end of this fastening string or girdle. This is a very simple and natural form for this primitive and widely used garment to take. In the cruder representation of the two statues the apron part is to be interpreted in the same way.

 

THE MASONIC APRON AND ITS ANALOGUES

 

When we compare Le Plongeon's drawing with the photograph of the kneeling figure the conclusion is obvious that it was taken from a similar representation and that in all probability what there appears as an apron was intended for one end of the cloth brought up underneath and allowed to hang down. A reference to the Hopi ceremonial dress shown the accompanying illustration will make the method adopted. In fact a comparison of this with the relief shown on the first page of this article leads almost irresistibly to the conclusion that the Maya dress was identical with that still employed by the Hopi Indians for ceremonial purposes, though they now ordinarily wear garments adopted from the whites. An examination of a series of such illustrations as may be found in works on the subject, as for example those in the Anthropological Series of the Field Columbian Museum Publications, which may be found in most Public Libraries of any size with the conventional representations of the Mayas and ancient Mexicans is practically conclusive upon the subject.

 

The Masonic Apron, if it had any analogy at all among ancient Egyptians and others, is rather to be seen in the animal skins worn cloak wise, than in the loin cloth. It was a purely practical garment to prote the rest of the clothing. In view of the constant recurrence of misleading speculations it may not be amiss to respect once more that it was just a sheep skin, with the end trimmed away, a leather loop to go round the neck and two leather strings to fasten it round the waist. It was not peculiar to masons, but was used by other trades as well, only in the case of masons it would not get black and greasy but would be distinctively white from lime and stone dust.

 

The present form of apron is very modern, and is probably entirely due to the convenience of the manufacturers of Masonic regalia. When aprons came to be made in quantity from fabric it was easier, and there was less waste, to cut them in squares with triangular flaps--also they would be easier to hem or bind.

 

There is no objection to this modern form being symbolized. Symbolism is a living thing, and those who can appreciate an old symbol are those who can develop new meanings, or assign interpretations to new forms. Only there should be no attempt to pass these off as ancient. The girdles, loin cloths and aprons of primitive peoples can be adduced as curious coincidences but it is misleading to leave the uninstructed to infer that there is a real connection between such forms and our present ritual badge, and where the difference in origin is not made quite clear we have a right to object in the name of sound scholarship.

 

That the civilizations of Central America were developed from a culture analogous to, if not identical with that of the Indians of the Southwest is further indicated by the rough stone building. The stair here shown might easily be taken for one of those built by the cliff dwellers, but for the abundant vegetation seen in the background. We have only to suppose a much thicker population in a more fertile area where there would be more leisure for the development of the arts and the more permanent structures would be fully accounted for without any outside influence.

 

----o----

 

The Craft in the 18th Century The "Moderns," 1717, and the "Antients," 1751 By BRO. ARTHUR HEIRON, England

 

(Continued)

 

THE members of Dundee Lodge, No. 18, or No. 9, as it stood on the Register of the "Moderns," purchased in 1763 the freehold of a Warehouse in Red Lyon Street, Wapping, and letting out the ground floor and basement--at first for a school and later on as a general store--utilized two rooms on the first floor for the purpose of Lodge meetings, the smaller one being used as a Making Room and the larger one being used as the formal Lodge Room, which rooms when not required for Masonic work were often let for the purpose of public dances--to such an extent was this the practice that they became known locally as the Wapping Assembly Rooms. The Lodge Room was spacious and well adapted for a ball, being 44 feet long by 25 feet wide and 15 feet high. The author of Multa Paucis describes the building as Dundee Masons' Hall, Wapping, thus the Dundee Lodge, No. 9, must have had quite a vogue in those days and been well known in that neighborhood. The Lodge Room was always well furnished, for in 1754 the paraphernalia was insured from loss by fire in the Union Fire Office for 200 pounds -which was increased to 300 pounds in 1777--whilst the Freehold building in Red Lyon Street was insured for 800 pounds in 1763 in "Hand-in-Hand" Fire Office, and in 1810 the building and contents belonging to the 'Dundee' Lodge, No. 9 at Wapping were insured for no less than 2,000 pounds in the Sun Fire Office. By way of contrast the late Henry Sadler informs us that the only paraphernalia possessed by the Grand Lodge of the Moderns in 1766 was a sword, possibly a Bible, a jewel or two and two books of records; but that it had neither regular furniture, jewels nor habitation; thus it was scarcely worth while insuring these from fire! In 1763 two oil-lamps were purchased to illuminate the entrance to the Lodge Room and on dark winter nights--especially when a public ball was in progress--the building must have been very conspicuous, and it is obvious from his own statements that Bro. Laurence Dermott was well acquainted not only with the exterior of the building in which the Dundee Lodge met from 1763, but also was well informed as to certain private features of the Ritual gained either from personal experience or else from stories received from visitors to the Lodge.

 

"HEARTY COCKS" AND "GOOD FELLOWS"

 

These were the jovial expressions by which Dermott described his opponents the Moderns when writing about their Masonic doings in 1764. In his capacity of Grand Secretary of the 'Antients,' he apparently felt that he was quite entitled to try and enhance the prestige and fortunes of that society by deriding and attempting to depreciate his rivals. It would almost appear, however, that he felt some little compunction in the matter and was rather uneasy as to whether his statements were too severe and might be considered unfraternal and not evincing a truly brotherly spirit--at any rate he adopted a very apologetic tone when he first opened fire upon those who were (after all) only conducting their Masonic life under the express authority and sanction of the Mother Grand Lodge of the world. The following is how he commences what he considered was his exposure:

 

"AHIMAN REZON [1764]

 

In the 2nd Edition of this book on p. xxiv, Dermott in his "Address to the Reader" states:

 

"Gentlemen and Brethren:--

 

"Several eminent Craftsmen residing in Scotland, Ireland, America, and other parts both abroad and at home, have greatly importuned me to give them some account of what is called modern masonry in London," and then says

 

"I cannot be displeased with such importunities because I had the like curiostly myself about 16 or 17 years ago [the 1800 Edition says "in 1748"] when I was first introduced into that Society."

 

[Note.--Dermott here tells us that--though Made a Mason in Ireland-he himself joined a Modern Lodge on his arrival in London, consequently he was well able to discuss the differences in their Ritual as compared with that of the Antients.] To show, however, that he had no real ill feeling in the matter, he then proceeded to say:--

 

"However, before I proceed any farther concerning the difference between antient and modern, I think it my duty to declare solemnly before God and man that I have not the least antipathy against the gentlemen members of the modern society, but on the contrary, love and respect them, because I have found the generality of them to be hearty cocks and good fellows (as the bacchanalian phrase is) and many of them I believe to be worthy of receiving every blessing that good men can ask or heaven bestow, I hope that this declaration will acquit me of any desire of giving offence, especially if the following queries and answers be rightly considered."

 

After which followed certain "Questions" and "Answers" seeking to prove that Masonry as practised by the Antients was more correct and genuine than that favoured by the 'Moderns.'

 

GENTLEMEN OF AMERICA [1764]

 

It is very interesting to note that Dermott states that he gives his information "to satisfy the importunities of my good Brethren (particularly the Right Worshipful and very worthy Gentlemen of America) who for their charitable disposition, prudent choice of members and good conduct in general deserve the unanimous thanks of the masonical world." The Grand Secretary of the 'Antients' appears therefore to have had some excellent friends amongst the brethren who were then practising Freemasonry in the Lodges working in the American colonies. Please note that in any quotations in this article taken from 'Ahiman Rezon' the italics have been inserted by the present writer.

 

Dermott then proceeds to explain to his readers a matter that only those who were in the habit of attending the Dundee Lodge could possibly be familiar with, for he actually refers to a very prominent feature of their ceremonies. On page xxxii of the same Ahiman Rezon, Dermott states:

 

"I have the greatest veneration for such implements as are truly emblematical or useful in refining our moral notions, and I am well convinced that the custom and use of them in lodges are both antient and instructive, but at the same time I abhor and detest the unconstitutional fopperies of cunning avaricious tradesmen, invented and introduced amongst the Moderns with no other design but to extract large sums of money, which ought to be applied to more noble and charitable uses."

 

He then proceeds to tell his audience that the item that offended his Masonic taste--and which he consequently "abhors and detests"-is none other than the symbol of the "Master's authority to Rule his Lodge", for he says, referring to the "Sword of State":

 

"There is now in my neighborhood" [that means, near Tower Hill, London, E.,--where he carried on the business of a Wine Merchant--, but in his 3rd Edition of 1778 he is more explicit for he there says "There is now in Wapping," [meaning thereby "There is now in the Dundee Lodge, No. 9, at Wapping"] "a large piece of iron scrole work, ornamented with foliage, &c. painted and gilt (the whole at an incredible expense) and placed before the Master's chair, with a gigantic sword fixed therein, during the communication of the members, a thing contrary to all the private and public rules of Masonry; all implements of war and bloodshed being confined to the lodge door, from the day that the flaming sword was placed in the East of the garden of Eden, to the day that the sagacious modern placed his grand sword of State in the midst of his Lodge."

 

The following extracts furnish ample proof that this "Gigantic Sword" that so offended the Masonic principles of Laurence Dermott in 1778 [and also as far back as 1764] belonged to the Dundee Lodge, No. 9.

 

EXTRACTS FROM TREASURER'S CASH BOOK

 

1761, June 26. "By Cash pd. Bro. Gretton--

 

for Repairing Ye Sword, etc." -    10. 19. 0 Aug. 13. "Paid Bro. Stevens his Bill-for Ye Iron for Ye Sword"  -    15. 15. 0 do "Paid Bro. Noy's Bill Painting do"  3. 10. 0                     30. 4. 0

 

Now, Bro. Henry Gretton, a jeweler was our R. W. M. in 1760 (he was referred to in the Minutes of G. L. of 28th Jan., 1767, see later on), whilst Bro. Thomas Noy, a painter, was Master in 1765.

 

The suggestion of Bro. Laurence Dermott is that these two "cunning avaricious tradesmen" had compelled their Mother Lodge to purchase this sword and iron stand and have it gaily painted merely to extract monies from their brethren that should have been devoted to charity; but as we had 59 members and the total income of the Lodge in 1761 was 114 pounds the brethren were well able to bear the expense--although it must be admitted that 30 pounds was a large sum in those days. However, in order to rebut Dermott's suggestion that this money was wasted and could have been better applied in charity, it may be here stated that the annals of the Dundee Lodge give ample proof that "Relief" was constantly voted at "Lodge Nights" in sums varying from 1 1s. Od. to 5 5s. Od. in many cases to applicants who were not even members of the Lodge. The brethren also granted donations towards the funerals of their poorer members, whilst certain brethren--who became incarcerated in prison for debt-were also relieved; a few items by way of illustration are here mentioned.

 

EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS OF LODGE, NO. 9

 

1759, Dec. 27. "Paid into the hands of Sir Joseph Hankey & Co. [Bankers] for the Widows and Orphans of those slain at Minden and Quebec," "Paid towards Clothing the French Prisoners," "Pd. Advertising the 2 last Donations,"

 

[The above incident refers--inter alia--to the capture of Quebec from the French by Major-Genera James Wolfe on the 13th Sept., 1759, when--in the moment of victory--he fell mortally wounded on the heights of Abraham. The surrender of Montreal soon followed and with it all the Province of Canada. There must have been some special need here for assistance for Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1760--to help the cause -wrote an "Introduction to the Proceedings of the Committee for Clothing the French Prisoners."]

 

1762. "Pd. Br. Harrison for his Trouble to get Br. Bride into Greenwich Hospital";       2. 2. 0 1762, Mar. 11. "Recd. Cash of Bro. Halley Borwick, his Donation for the Benefit of Poor Brothers of this Lodge,"             2. 2. 0 1766, Feb. 10. "Pd. as a gift to Jos. Hankey & Co. for the sufferers at the Great Fire in Barbadoes,"                   30

 

[A subscription list was opened in the Lodge, 30 members subscribing this 30 pounds; we do not read of similar generous gifts on the part of the Antients !]

 

1767. "Br. Croke having been previously helped, was Relieved with 1. 1. 0 on his promise of never troubling this Lodge again."

 

do. Mch. 26. "2. 2. 0 to be sent to the Quarterly Comm. the Master to have the Use of the Jewels." 1774, Nov. 24. "Bro. Peter Batson now a Prisoner in the Marshalsea relieved with 2 guineas." 1783, Feb. 27. "Br. Sandwell being now a Prisoner in the King's Bench was relieved from this Lodge with 2. 2. 0." 1807, Feb. 12. "A Petition was read from Br. Cathro, confined in H.M. Goal of Newgate for Debt from Misfortunes in trade to be Relieved with 2 guineas."

 

A MASONIC SYMBOL

 

But the real answer to Bro. Dermott's accusation, however, is that our Sword of State thus exhibited in open Lodge--fixed by its hilt in a massive wrought Iron Stand which was suitably painted and decorated with foliage in gilt--was merely used by our Brethren as a symbol of the absolute authority of the R.W.M. to Rule over his Lodge. This Sword--still extant--is a handsome weapon, double-handed with blade 38in. long, the hilt 10in., while the guard is 9 1/2 in. wide. The identity is absolute--No. 9 was then the premier, practically the only Modern Lodge at Wapping--an on one side of the blade, near the hilt, are the words "Dundee Arms Lodge, Wapping, No. 9." [Note.--In 1761 when this sword was bought and renovated, the Lodge met at the Dundee Arms Tavern.] The symbols marked on the blade are chiefly of a martial character, consisting of swords and flags:--in several places the initials "G.R." appear on the flags, and as the sword was damascened in 1761 these clearly refer to King George III. [It was thanks chiefly to assistance kindly rendered by Bro. W. J. Songhurst, P.G.D. (the erudite Secretary of the 'Quatuor Coronati' Lodge) that the writer was enabled in 1918 to identify this interesting relic of our Masonic past; Bro. Songhurst was also the first student to draw my attention to some of the weird statements in Ahiman Rezon which thereby led to the preparation of this paper.] This sword--which was used as a tyler's sword from 1835 to 1918--is now kept for better preservation in a mahogany box, presented on 4th Nov., 1919, jointly by the writer of these notes and by another P.M. of the Lodge. This rare Masonic curio is therefore a direct connecting link with the inner life of an old Modern Lodge, thus severely criticized by Bro. Laurence Dermott in 1764 and 1778.

 

OTHER SWORDS OF STATE

 

Various other old Lodges also owned swords and stands which were used in a similar manner. An old Yorkshire Lodge [Const. 1793] still possesses and makes use of a 'Flaming Sword'--fixed in a wooden stand placed on the right side of the W.M.'s Pedestal,-which remains with its naked blade uplifted during the whole time the Lodge is at Masonic labor. Bro. Welsford, P.A.G.St.B. informs me that in 1923, two 'Flaming Swords' [also with naked blades fixed upright side-by-side on a stand] were placed near to the Master's chair during the working of the ceremonies in two old Lodges in the North of England; clearly relics from the days of old.--It is really difficult to understand the merit of Dermott's objection to the use of a sword in Lodge in 1761. It was the continuance of a well known custom, for we are told that at the Grand Lodge Feast held at Merchant Taylor's Hall on 24th June, 1724:-"In the Procession round the Table, there preceded the Grand Master The Sword carried by the Master of the Lodge, to which the Sword belonged."

 

In 1731, the Grand Master [the Duke of Norfolk] presented Grand Lodge "with the old Trusty Sword of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, which was ordered to be the Grand Master's Sword of State for the Future"; and this sword is still borne by the Grand Sword-bearer before the Grand Master, or his representative at all meetings of Grand Lodge, and during the entire proceedings it is laid--in its scabbard--on the altar before the Grand Master.

 

The Lord Mayor when attending the city churches in his official capacity, used also to be attended by his Sword-bearer, carrying the civic Sword of State, which was fixed by the side of his pew (in special sword rests) during divine service. This old custom is still observed provided the sword-rests are extant; the blade, however, is now safely ensconced in its scabbard.

 

Bro. Dermott's criticism on this point seems therefore to be idle and captious for it can be safely asserted that the brethren of the Dundee Lodge committed no breach of Masonic law or custom when they thus symbolically used their 'Sword of State' in 1764.

 

"DRAWING THE LODGE ON THE FLOOR" [1764]

 

Immediately following his reference to our 'Sword of State' Dermott proceeds to cast ridicule on another old custom [viz., that of 'Drawing the Lodge on the Floor, in chalk and charcoal'] which had been practiced by the Moderns certainly since 1726--doubtless earlier still--and was a regular feature of the Ritual in the Dundee Lodge from 1748 to 1812. In 1764--when Dermott wrote his remarks--the tyler, on the Lodge nights when a candidate was made a Mason (previous to the ceremony) invariably drew the Lodge on the floor in chalk and charcoal, receiving for such work a special fee of 2s. 2d. for each making, so Dermott's statement that the tyler sometimes received "ten or twelve shillings" for thus "Drawing the Lodge" when four or more candidates were made at a time is substantially correct. To the writer, however, the sarcastic way in which this portion of the ceremony was referred to by Dermott seems rather like "playing to the gallery," his object clearly being to bring the Moderns and their Ritual into ridicule; his remark as to the "two sign posts" thus 'Drawn upon the floor' of course alludes to the emblems of the two Masonic columns, marked and described as "J" and "B" in accordance with instructions received from the Grand Lodge of the Moderns.

 

"JAMAICA RUM AND "BARBADOES RUM

 

The following are Dermott's own words in his Ahiman Rezon [2nd Edition, 1764] p. xxxii:-

 

"Nor is it uncommon for a tyler to receive ten or twelve shillings for drawing two sign posts with chalk &c and writing Jamaica (rum) upon one, and Barbadoes (rum) upon the other, and all this (I suppose) for no other use than to distinguish where these Liquors are to be placed in the Lodge."

 

Such an ironical statement--especially proceeding from a wine merchant--seems not only in bad taste but rather overdrawn, and it makes one wonder as to whether at this period the Antients in their Assemblies --when they made a Mason--used themselves to draw the Lodge in chalk and charcoal or did they instead instruct their candidates as to the symbols of the Craft by means of the actual working tools of the Craft or by emblems depicted on a floor cloth, or did they leave them still in ignorance on such vital and important matters ?

 

A few extracts from the Cash Books of No. 9

 

1749. "Pd Tyler and Drawer"... ... ............... 2. 0 1764. "Pd Cash to the Tyler" ... ............... . 2. 2 1795, Apl. 9. "Pd Tyler's Fees for 4 Makings" ....10. 0 1799, Aug. 8. "Pd. Br. Mills ,'[Tyler] for Form ing 6 Lodges"                   15. 0

 

A LITTLE LEWIS AND CAPSTAN

 

Dermott in the same Ahiman Rezon [p. xxxii] again seems to try and invent an excuse to poke fun at his opponents, for he dilates as follows:

 

"And it is pleasant enough to see sixty or seventy able men about a little Lewis and Capstan etc, erected upon a mahogany platform (purchased at an extravagant price) all employed in raising a little square piece of marble, which the weakest man in the company could take between his finger and thumb and throw it over the house."

 

Here Dermott is ridiculing the practice the Moderns had of exhibiting the Perpend or Perfect Ashlar on a tripod placed on the S.W.'s pedestal. It is interesting to note that the following extracts taken from the records of Lodge, No. 9, show that in 1746 our Brethren possessed one of these items that so aroused the satire of the Grand Secretary of the Antients. This appears from a list of paraphernalia;

 

1746. "1 Triangle with Blocks, Lewis, Crabb, etc, 2 Stones, and 1 Marble Block."

 

The 'Old Dundee' Lodge, No. 18, still possesses and uses regularly at its Lodge Meetings a very old and similar tripod (made of brass) erected on a mahogany platform, perhaps the original that was purchased in 1746. It may even possibly be the actual article that so offended Dermott in 1764 ! Bro. Songhurst in 'A.Q.C.,' Vol. xxxv, p. 82, also calls attention to the fact that Dermott ridicules the 'Moderns' for using such apparatus.

 

1754, Apl. 11. Resolved that "A New Pel pend Ashler Inlaid with Devices of Masonry valued at 2. 12. 6 be purchased."

 

It is perfectly clear that the Lodge "at Wapping" referred to in 1764 by Laurence Dermott was the 'Dundee' Lodge, No. 9, for it met there from 1739 to 1820 (a period of 80 years) and was practically the only Lodge in that neighborhood at that date.

 

"APRONS ' [CIRCA 1717?]

 

Dermott in the same book, p. xxxi, has now a far more serious charge to make against the Moderns for he there says (speaking of the period soon after the Grand Lodge of 1717 was Constituted):

 

"It was proposed" [i.e., by the Moderns] "that no brother (for the future) should wear an apron. This proposal was rejected by the oldest members, who declared, that the aprons were all the signs of masonry then remaining amongst them and for that reason they would keep and wear them." [Dermott here suggests that the motive of the Moderns was that they objected to appearing as Mechanics or as Operative Masons; he adds, however, the following statement] "It was then proposed, that (as they were resolved to wear aprons) they should be turned upside down in order to avoid appearing mechanical. This proposal took place and answered the design, for that which was formerly the lower part was now fastened round the Abdomen, and the bib and strings hung downwards, dangling in such a manner as might convince the spectators, that there was not a working Mason amongst them. Agreeable as this alteration might seem to the gentlemen, nevertheless it was attended with an ugly circumstance; for in traversing the lodge, the brethren were subject to tread upon the strings, which often caused them to fall with great violence, so that it was thought necessary, to invent several methods of walking, in order to avoid treading upon the strings."

 

The third edition of Ahiman Rezon [1778] contains the following foot note:

 

"After many years observations on those ingenious methods of walking up to a brother &c, I conclude, that the first was invented by a Man grievously afflicted with the Sciatica. The second by a Sailor, much accustomed to the rolling of a Ship. And the third by a man, who for recreation or through excess of strong liquors, was wont to dance the drunken Peasant."

 

Are we to take Dermott seriously ? If so, it may well have been that a few Lodges--or perhaps only a few members of such Lodges-consisting of men of exalted rank or dignified professors in art and literature, might have--at first--declined to wear a garment that (even although only intended as a symbol) might affect their pride, in that they should even be asked temporarily to wear an apron--often soiled by stains of 'porter' or 'punch'--in such a way that in daily life would only be used by an Operative Mason; they may have fairly argued that being merely Speculatives they ought to be absolved from what to them may have appeared an indignity. However, we have no certain knowledge on this point but such a custom certainly was not prevalent and it is clear that the Dundee Lodge,--consisting of many tradesmen engaged in nearly every description of business life--was not one of the offenders, if so, we should expect that Dermott would again have singled it out by way of example as he certainly did concerning two or three of his other objections. The records of the Dundee Lodge contain many items proving that aprons were constantly bought for the use of its members and also that the Lodge itself--when required--was often "New Cloathed" with fresh aprons at the cost of the Lodge funds. This is evidence that our ancient brethren wore their aprons seriously and in accordance' with the custom of the old Operatives; a few illustrations are here given.

 

Extracts from the Minutes of No. 9

 

1750, Sept. 13. Bro. Lane proposed "That the Box in which we formerly put our Aprons in should be given to the Maid Servant of this House [i.e. The Dundee Arms Tavern, Wapping], 2nd by Bro. Banson, 3rd, 4th and 5th." 1752, Dec. 14. Bro. Lane's proposal for "New Cloathing the Lodge carried in the Affirmative."

 

Dec. 28. "That Ye Past Masters' and Ye Secretary's Aprons be lined."

 

1755, Apl. 10. "That a convenient Nest of Boxes be provided to hold the Aprons in an Alphabetical Order and that the Master and Wardens procure the same."

 

1764, Nov. 22. Resolved "That this Lodge be new Cloathed with Aprons"; "That the Past Master of this Lodge have Aprons bound with the same Ribbon as they wore their Meddals." Extracts from the Cash Books

 

1755. "Paid for 2 Doz . Aprons" [1s. 4d. each] ...   1. 12. 0

 

1764. "Pd. for Gold Fringe for the Steward's Apron" . ... ... ........ ....... ........     2. 6

 

(To be concluded)

 

----o----

 

The Hiramic Legend and the Medieval Stage

 

By BRO. ERNEST E. THIEMEYER, Missouri

 

PART III--THE LEGEND AND THE DRAMA

 

THE dramatic features of the Legend of Hiram are apparent immediately; but why is the Legend a drama? Why not just plain narrative? If some of the modern presentations of the story were viewed by students of drama, they might be inclined to the opinion that the story possessed dramatic possibilities, but they would hardly make the positive statement that it was drama. The type of work presented in the British Isles tends to eliminate the mimetic features, while the usual American working lays much stress on them. What accounts for this variation ? The answer to that question would be interesting, but it is not essential so far as this discussion is concerned and no more is actually necessary than an agreement on the question of whether the essentials of drama are present or lacking. If there is no drama in the Legend, there is no support either for the present argument or the assumption on which it is based. If, on the other hand, dramatic characteristics do exist it is not such a simple matter to trace them to their source as Bro. Race's theory would indicate.

 

Sufficient grounds were presented in the foregoing section of this discussion to permit the acceptance of the hypothesis that the Legend is an evolutionary product, and this conclusion makes the dramatic elements of the Legend differ materially from the generally accepted opinion of what they are. The investigation of these features will lead us far from the period of mystery and miracle plays and it will be found that these plays are only survivals of a culture which, in point of time, antedates Miracle plays by centuries. If there is any basis for the assumption that the Legend of Hiram is a ritual myth, proof must be offered that the myth-making type of mind survived at least to a date equivalent to the time when the Masonic ritual was sufficiently developed to require an explanation of certain features therein contained. Undoubtedly this stage of ritual growth was reached by the 14th or 15th century, possibly much earlier.

 

While on this subject of miracle and mystery plays, it might be well to digress somewhat from the general trend of the discussion. The views advanced by Bro. Robert Race in his expression on the origin of the Legend are not entirely new, although it is probable that he is responsible for much of the discussion on the subject that has arisen in recent years. Bro. E. Conder in speaking before Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1894 makes a similar statement, though there is some reason to believe that his idea and that of Bro. Race are not entirely in accord. To quote:

 

For myself, the ritual of the third degree takes me back in imagination to the pre-reformation "miracles" and I personally have little doubt that our modern third degree was built up in the early 18th century from the ruins of a very early trade mystery. (1)

 

There is, in this opinion, at least one statement with which many scholars of today disagree; namely, that the third degree was built up in the 18th century. But there is more than just that, evidently Bro. Conder is confused in his terms. If he uses the word "miracle" as synonymous with "mystery" he pronounces much the same idea as that promulgated by Bro. Race some quarter of a century later. If, on the other hand, the two terms are used in the sense common to modern students, there is a decided contradiction and one is at a loss to understand exactly what is meant. "Miracle" from the content would seem to mean "miracle play" in which case it is similar to the plays to which Bro. Race has reference. "Mystery" carries with it a hint of secrecy that is not implied in "miracle". The distinction that "miracle" was a play in a church and "mystery" one performed outside enters into the question. Possibly "miracle" is a synonym for "mystery", in which event Bro. Conder's statement is almost in accord with the views herein expressed. We seem to be barred from accepting such an interpretation, however, by the reference to the pre-reformation "miracles". Whatever the ultimate conclusion, it can have little bearing on the question at hand, and merely serves as an illustration of the time-worn expression that "there is nothing new under the sun" and that the germ of an idea so fruitful in the case of Bro. Race, was entirely neglected when advanced at an earlier date.

 

Returning to the subject at hand, if any valid conclusions on the dramatic nature of the Legend are to be reached, it is essential to prove not only that the myth-making type of mind survived to the Middle Ages, but also that drama is a product of this same mentality. If this can be done, the battle is won. I will be very easy to trace the survival of mentality through the drama, but not quite so simple if drama is eliminated, although the wealth of folk-custom surviving throughout Continental Europe and England would not make the task an impossible one. It appears that drama, ritual and myth go almost hand in hand. Myth and ritual are contemporaneous in their development, and the term need not be varied when drama is added to form the trilogy. For the most part primitive rituals were dramatic; and myths, that is primitive ritual myths, were only explanations or accompaniments of dramatic rituals. The three are so closely connected that it is almost beyond possibility to separate them.

 

The search for evidence leads far from the recognized paths of Masonic research and throughout one is reminded of the opening lines of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha":

 

Should you ask me, whence these stories?

Whence these legends and traditions,

With the odors of the forest,

With the dew and damp of meadows,

with the curling smoke of wigwams,

With the rushing of great rivers

With their frequent repetitions,

And their wild reverberations,

As of thunder in the mountains?

I should answer, I should tell you:

"From the forests and the prairies

From the Great Lakes of the Northland,

From the land of the Ojibways,

From the land of the Dakotahs,

From the mountains, moors and fen-lands,

Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,

Feeds among the reeds and rushes."

 

It is even farther afield, in the wide open spaces and the vastness of savage empires that one finds the evidence necessary to substantiate such an hypothesis as the advocated here. To clearly understand the argument to follow, an elementary conception of the thought processes of primitives is essential. M. Lucien Levy-Bruhl has termed the primitive mind "pre-logical" and a better term does not present itself. It is in all of its ramifications a mind lacking in what modern civilization calls logic and reasoning. This is a stage earlier in mental development than the one producing myth, ritual and drama. This type of mind is made up of "collective representations" and these can be recognized by the following signs:

 

They are common to the members of a given social group, they are transmitted from one generation to another within it; they impress themselves upon its individual members and awaken in them sentiments of respect, fear, adoration, and so on, according to the circumstances of the case. This is not because they imply a collective entity apart from the individuals composing the social group, but because they present themselves in aspects which cannot be accounted for by considering individuals merely as such. (2)

 

These representations are collective in a sense somewhat different from the usual application of the term. They may be the ideas of one individual, but they include both the effect and the mystic force, call it what you will, mana, wa-kon-da, emanating from it. In other words,

 

The primitive makes no distinction between this world and the other, between what is actually present and what is beyond. He actually dwells with the invisible spirits and intangible forces. (3)

 

It is necessary in dealing with mentalities of primitive peoples to formulate an entirely new code of judgment--they cannot be measured by the standards commonly used. With these ideas in hand it is not difficult to understand that pre-logical not only means before logic, but without logic. The effect is attributed to a mystic force without any effort.

 

At the very moment when he perceives what is presented to his senses, the primitive represents to himself the mystic force which is manifesting itself thus. He does not "infer" the one from the other, any more than we "infer" the meaning of a word from its sound in our ears. According to Berkeley's shrewd observation, we really do understand the meaning at the time we hear the word, just as we read sympathy or anger in a person's face without first needing to see the signs of such emotions in order to interpret them. It is not a process accomplished in two succeeding moments, it takes place all at once. In this sense, then, pre-connections amount to intuitions. (4)

 

There is, then, according to at least one scholar, a pre-conceived connection between the effect and the mystic force which, to the primitive, is responsible for it. In this respect, primitive mentality differs only in one major respect from our own. Modern civilized mentalities, assisted as they are by logical processes and secondary causes, eventually reach a point in reasoning where things can no longer be attributed to natural causes and the supernatural comes into play. The essential difference, then, is only in the insertion of a chain of secondary causes. An illustration of this point may be cited from experience in New Guinea:

 

Natives never believe in being sick from anything but spiritual causes, and think that death, unless by murder, can take place from nothing but the wrath of the sprits. Where there is sickness in a family, all the relatives begin to wonder what it means. The sick person getting no better, they conclude something must be done. A present is given; perhaps food is taken and placed on the sacred place, then removed and divided amongst friends. The invalid still being no better, a pig is taken to the sacred place and there speared and presented to the spirits. (5)

 

This illustration while stating that the illness is attributed to spiritual or mystic forces does not attempt to trace the reasoning of the native. In the light of what has gone before we would be safe in assuming that the mystic relation becomes immediately apparent. What is the general practice in civilized communities? A doctor would be called in, certainly, but that has nothing to do with the reasoning processes. It merely shows that moderns look for someone to do their reasoning for them; someone who is specially equipped to locate natural causes. What is this reasoning process and to what end does it lead if carried to its natural conclusion? First, perhaps, some organ is out of order, that is the immediate cause of the illness, and civilized reasoning rarely goes beyond that stage. But what caused this organic disorder? Something the patient had eaten, possibly. So through various stages: What caused this substance to disagree with the patient ? Poison; what put the poison in the food? A normal plant function, perhaps. What caused the plant to behave in this manner ? Environment, maybe. And what caused the environment ? The chain might be carried on indefinitely, but regardless of that, a point is finally reached when there seems to be no natural cause and the question can be answered only by attributing the last stage to some super-natural power. Generally, moderns call this power God. Thus the same point is reached by a long and circuitous path at which the primitive arrived in one direct and immediate thought process. The essential variation between modern mentalities and primitive ones is, then, to be found in the utter lack of logic among savages, the omission of secondary causes in their mental functions.

 

MAGIC NOT PRIOR TO RELIGION

 

Sir J. G. Frazer, interested as he is in primitive religions, seems to have missed the point when he finds that the Age of Magic has everywhere preceded the Age of Religion. Magic seems a later development, and while it undoubtedly preceded the classical types of religion, it is not the absolute basis upon which religion rests. There was religion before there was magic and sorcery forms the first, or at least a very early step in the endeavors of man to understand religion. The preconnections and group representations of primitive peoples form the basis of religion. Before people could possibly attempt to influence the omnipotent forces guiding the universe, they must have recognized the existence of such forces, and had a belief in them. It is here that religion begins. The magical ceremonies are merely attempts on the part of the savages to secure divine assistance in the solving of their particular problems, and so far as intent is concerned, magic and prayer are identical. What moderns endeavor to accomplish by means of prayer, primitives hoped to attain by means of conciliatory ceremonies and magic. The magical ceremonies and the pseudoscience of magic are probably the first efforts of man to interpret the forces surrounding him. It is with magical ceremonies that the particular interest of this discussion is concerned.

 

There are probably three forces which had great influence in the development of mimetic art. It is generally agreed that Greek drama is an offspring of religious ritual, but in dealing with primitive drama, the religious ritual has not been developed until later stages. The growth of language, the development of magic, and the imitative faculty which seems to be inherent in all animals must be considered in their relation to drama. The last of the trilogy is probably the most important because basically it underlies the other two.

 

THE PSYCHOLOGIC ROOTS OF DRAMA

 

This idea of drama among savage peoples is rather new. It is not so very long ago that it was thought useless to even make an effort to trace drama beyond the Greeks. This sentiment may still have the stamp of truth if investigation is limited to the conscious drama, but when unconscious drama is considered ethnography has extended the field of research materially and it is now an acknowledged fact that if the true foundation of a social institution is to be found the search must be carried on among peoples who are on a much lower cultural plane than that occupied by classical civilizations. This ethnographical factor has led to the finding of mimetic characteristics in animals where mental capacity is much less than that of man. For example:

 

 A tiny kitten creeps from its nest, still blind, but as soon as even one eye is open, it toys with every rolling, running, sliding or fluttering object within its reach. If a cat keeps running after such a ball, in time a sort of role consciousness comes to her, something like that which accompanies human actions that are intentionally make-believe. When the ball stops rolling, the kitten starts it up again by a gentle tap with her paw in order to begin the game again.... This seams like a conscious self-deception, involving some of the most subtle psychological elements of the pleasure that play gives. (6)

 

If Miss Harrison's definition of dromenon can taken as including ritual, and this is not an unwarranted conclusion, it is quite easy to see even here a primitive, very primitive, form of ritual. She says:

 

The dromenon in its sacral sense is, not merely a thing done, but a thing re-done or pre-done with magical intent. (7)

 

Later, in elaborating this theme:

 

It is a thing re-done or pre-done, a thing enacted or represented. It is sometimes re-done commemorative, sometimes pre-done, anticipatory, and both elements seem to go to its religiousness. When a tribe comes back from war or from hunting, or even from a journey, from any experience in fact that from novelty or intensity causes strong emotion, the men will, if successful, recount and dance their experiences to the women and children at home. Such a dance we should perhaps scarely call religious, but when the doings of dead chiefs in the past or ancestors are commemorated, when the dance is made public and social, and causes strong emotion, it takes on a religious color. The important point to note is that the hunting, fighting, or what not, the thing done, is never religious; the thing re-done with heightened emotion is on the way to become so . . . In all religion, as in all art, there is this element of make-believe. Not the attempt to deceive, but a desire to re-live, to re-present. (8)

 

So it is with the kitten, the religious element must be omitted, but the repeated action tends to the ritualistic in much the same way that the recounted hunt tends to become religious and ritualistic. In the italicized phrase in the quotation the non-religious aspect is stressed. The idea of make-believe is equivalent to the conscious self-deception practiced by the animal. It is impossible in the early stages of dramatic representation to separate drama and religion, because most of the dramatic performances were religious in character. The two are closely connected and so far as ceremony is concerned might be considered synonymous.

 

This imitative faculty is to be seen in children as well as in animals. A child is continually imitating everything he sees or hears. Who, in his lifetime, has not heard a tiny tot pick up the language father used when the misdirected hammer missed the nail and came into forcible contact with a finger?

 

During a long and complicated play he will be a doorpost, a tree, a seat, a wagon, and a locomotive, and endeavor by his motions and carriage to support these bold illusions. (9)

 

Savage man has been likened to a child in many respects, and before the invention of conscious drama with its well-defined plot there was a time when the expression of these desires to imitate was very crude.

 

They appeared the world over, in the religious rites and ceremonies of people who were living on a very low stage of civilization. In other words, the savage man gratified his desire, which today among civilized peoples is satisfied by the well-developed plays of the theatre, by acting in his rough and awkward way the stories of his every-day life and the myths and legends which had been passed on to him by his forefathers. (10)

 

Here is met, in the unconscious drama of the savage, just those predecessors of religion mentioned by Miss Harrison in the quotation cited above. But still it is only on the way to religion and at this stage it serves two-fold purpose. It offers a pleasurable sensation and forms a language by which man can convey his impressions to others. This stage of dramatic development seems to have even preceded the collective representations of M. Levy-Bruhl. It is not, however, illustrative of the type of mentality which caused the development of ritual myth. Legendary myth and traditional myth abounds. The Divine Mauri and the New Zealand type, mentioned previously, but not that later class of which the Masonic Legend is an example. Before this stage can be reached ceremonies of a traditional character must be developed and ample evidence is to be found supporting the evolution of such ceremonies.

 

THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE ON DRAMA

 

Before that phase of the question can be discussed, some consideration must be given to the influence of language. It is possible that in the development of language the immediate predecessor of drama is found. The imitative faculty seems to have produced language and also, basically speaking, drama. One of the first means of communication adopted by man was gesture, at first simple and direct, whereby a person could make his thoughts known to those about him. W. D. Whitney, in "Language and the Study of Language," says:

 

It is past all reasonable question that, in the earliest communication between human beings, gesture long played a considerable, if not the principal part. (11)

 

Thus it came about that in the early history of the race, imitation appeared and was used to express those ideas which could not be conveyed by any other means at the command of the savage mind. (12) And so, among savages, hunts, battles, etc., are recounted by means of imitation of what actually happened. The next step,

 

When the men return from war, the hunt, the journey, and re-enact their doings, they are at first undoubtedly representing a particular action that actually has taken place. Their drama is history or at least narrative; they say in effect, such and such a thing did happen in the past. Everything with the savage begins in this particular way. But, it is easy to see that, if the dramatic commemoration be often repeated, the action tends to cut itself loose from the particular in which it arose and become generalized, abstracted as it were. The particular hunt, journey battle, is, in the lapse of time forgotten or supplanted by a succession of similar hunts, journeys, battles, and the dance comes to commemorate and embody hunting, journeying, fighting. Like children they play not at a funeral, but at "funerals", births battles, what not. To put it grammatically, the singular comes first, but the singular gets you no further. The plural detaches you from the single concrete fact; and all the world over, the plural, the neuter plural as we call it, begets the abstract. Moreover, the time is no longer particular, it is undefined, not what happened, but what happens. Such a dance generalized, universalized, is material for the next stage, the dance pre-done. (13)

 

It is probably in the dance pre-done that the religious element is most strikingly presented. The drama of the initial re-enacting of a hunt, fight, journey is not religious, but it is essentially dramatic. The continued repetition of this re-enactment is still dramatic and on the way to become religious. It is in the precipitated desire and discharge of pent-up emotion of the pre-done dance that the religious zeal finds its outlet. The thought cannot find expression in the act, but it grows and accumulates until finally it breaks out into mimetic, anticipatory action. (14) Magic finds its inception in ceremonies of this class. Even to this stage the pre-logical character of mentality must be evident. Man has not reached that stage of mental development where it is possible for him to conceive of natural causes in their relation to the effect. The mystic forces still predominate his thoughts and he lives in constant fear of inciting their displeasure.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF CEREMONIAL

 

The next step is imperceptible and is the natural outgrowth of pre-performed ceremonials. The word "ceremonial" is hardly a satisfactory one because the pre-enactment has not yet reached the stage of ceremony. It is nothing more than the effect of a spontaneous explosion of pent-up emotions and has no ceremonial aspect. When it has developed into a full grown ceremony it is magical in intent, but before this stage it is no more than the nucleus from which both magic and pre-enacted ceremony arise. To effectually analyze the mental processes undergone is not difficult. The savage in his emotional excitement performs a drama of what he hopes will be the result of his venture, be it battle or hunt. Later, when the venture is actually undertaken it proves successful. A compilation of these successes leads him to believe the powers are on his side. It is not the general rule for savages to think back and recall what has taken place unless something compels such recollection, but probably in unsuccessful voyages someone recalls that the trip was not pre-enacted. The idea takes root and other ventures are remembered, some successful, others the reverse. It is a known psychological fact that the human mind, in recalling past events, is inclined to review them in a manner which favors the proposition in hand. Consequently the conclusion is not unwarranted that those unsuccessful attempts which are remembered are found to have been those in which the pre-enacting did not take place. The savage immediately draws the conclusion that the pre-enactment of the event had an important bearing on the success or failure of an expedition and what had previously been performed merely as an explosion of emotion becomes ceremonial in character and is pre-done with magical intent.

 

The question of magical intent, then, simmers down to an attempt on the part of man to conciliate and influence those mystic forces which he believes to be responsible for any event. Those forces may be the mystic powers of the primitives, the hero-gods of classical periods, or the one Supreme Being of the moderns. So far as this discussion is concerned magic and prayer are identical in purpose. No man today can safely conclude that prayer is the consummation of all conciliatory ceremonies. We may be just as far from the right method as we believe the primitive to have been. (To be concluded)

 

NOTES

 

(1) A.Q.C., Vol. VII, p. 68.

(2) Levy-Bruhl, Primitive Mentality, p. 6.

(3) Ibid, p. 32.

(4) Ibid, p. 60.

(5) Rev. J. Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, pp. 329-30; cf. ibid, pp. 40-41.

(6) Groos, Play of Animals, pp. 130, 132, XIX; cf. Havemeyer, Drama of Savage Peoples, p. 7.

(7) J.E. Harrison, Themis, p. XI.

(8) Ibid, p. 43.

(9) Groos, Play of Man, p. 301; cf. Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 11.

(10) Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 13.

(11) Ibid, p. 14, Note 1.

(12) Ibid, p. 18, Note 1. "Major-General H. L. Scott, an eminent authority on sign language, in answer to the question, 'Was the drama an outgrowth of this early gesture language?' said, 'This pantomime was the effort to express thought and convey meaning by the Imitation of Actions, Qualities, or Attributes by gesture movements, and there is no doubt whatever in my mind that this was the beginning of drama.' "

(13) J.E. Harrison, op. cit., p. 44.

(14) Ibid, pp. 44-45.

 

----o----

 

FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY

 

Faith! What uncounted comforts lie hidden in that little word! A shield for the unprotected, strength for the feeble, and joy to the care-worn and grief-stricken. Let thy saving and cheering influence descend upon every soul.

 

Hope! Thou has a throne in every bosom, a shrine in every heart. What were the joys of earth without thy cheering light? Beneath thy brilliant beams, the frowns flit away from the brow of despair. Who could contentedly dwell upon the arid wastes of life's desert, did not thy torch-gleams point the way to a happier state ? When sorrow plows up the heart with deep furrows, and the ties of life are sundered one by one, thou speakest. peace to all within.

 

Charity! Greatest of ali--the crowned queen among the virtues, and the brightest handmaid of religion and love. May thy steps never wax feeble, nor thy heart grow cold. Let us mark thy presence by the mourner's couch, and in every heart made desolate. Teach us to throw thy mantle of compassion over the ignorant, the erring and the guilty. Let thy influence soften every obdurate heart and reclaim every vicious mind.

 

----o----

 

Facts About T. B.

 

THE National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association has suggested that The Builder give publicity to the following facts and figures as a sequel to the article by the M.W. Grand Master of New Mexico, Bro. Herbert B. Holt, which appeared in our pages in May. The information has been furnished by the National Tuberculosis Association, the headquarters of which are in New York. This latter organization has been doing for the whole country what the N.M.T.S.A. would do for the Craft in particular. Masons should be interested in both the particular and the general aspects of the problem.

 

THE Great White Plague has been the scourge of all civilized people. Long before the Christian era it flourished. The Chinese recognized it as far back as the middle of the sixth century, B. C.; scientists tell us that their studies of mummies disclose the fact that tuberculosis was carrying on its deadly work in Egypt in the year 1600 B.C.; Greek medical writers, without knowing its cause, wrote of tuberculosis in its various forms, and in the writings of Hippocrates are described such conditions as empyema, pneumo-thorax, and hemorrhage. Down through the centuries, the Great White Plague has claimed its victims-men, women and children, rich and poor, high and low, cultured and ignorant. For name and position mean nothing to this enemy. In every land it has taken wide toll: an English Keats, a German Schiller, a French Moliere, a Russian Chekhov, and of Americans a John Paul Jones, a Thoreau, a Christy Mathewson.

 

Tuberculosis is caused by a germ, the tubercle bacillus, which was discovered in 1881 by Dr. Robert Koch, a German physician. Since the discovery of the cause of the disease, efforts of medical men and scientists in laboratories throughout the United States and other countries have been devoted to studying this tiny, all-powerful, micro-organism. Much has been discovered about its characteristics, how it is transmitted from one person to another, how it may be overcome once it has found an abiding place for itself in the human body.

 

INFECTION

 

The tubercle germs or bacilli are found in the sputum of persons who have the disease. Occasionally they are present in the pus discharges from various organs of the body affected by the disease.

 

Tuberculosis of the lungs, sometimes called consumption, is the most usual form of tuberculosis. Whenever a consumptive fails to exercise care in covering his mouth when coughing or sneezing, he endangers someone else. Especially is this true in crowded shops, cars, and places where crowds assemble. The tiny droplets which accompany the cough or sneeze carry from the diseased lung the dangerous tubercle bacilli. The careless consumptive, who, despite laws and ordinances, spits on the sidewalks and elsewhere, is providing another means of infecting his neighbor. Sputum that has become dried and ground up may be inhaled and occasionally cause infection. Young children are especially susceptible to tuberculosis. If a child plays. on the floor or sidewalk with objects that have become contaminated by sputum, he may easily carry germs to his mouth.

 

Bovine Infection. Most tuberculosis is of human origin but the germs from cattle infected with tuberculosis also cause tuberculosis in humans. It is estimated that about 6 to 10 per cent of all kinds of tuberculosis is due to bovine infection. Most of the disease caused by the bovine bacillus is of the surgical type and occurs in young children, particularly in children under five years of age. This infection is caused not only by the milk from tuberculous cows but from butter and cheese made from such milk. With greater insistence upon the tuberculin testing of cattle and the pasteurization of milk, the amount of tuberculosis developing from these sources can be considerably reduced. Much has been done in this direction, but in 1923 in the United States more than 5,000 children under five years of age died of tuberculosis.

 

Not Hereditary. Tuberculosis is not considered an hereditary disease. Records show practically no infection at birth. At the age of two, 10 per cent show signs of tuberculous infection; at four, 25 to 30 per cent; from five to ten years, about 50 per cent, and at the age of fifteen, between 60 and 75 per cent. It is the conclusion of many students of the subject that nine out of ten adults in this country have been infected with tuberculosis. The vast majority of the number never become diseased.

 

Infection and Disease. Between infection and disease there is a very definite distinction. Tuberculous infection means that tubercle bacilli are present in the body, without giving any manifestation of the disease. Tuberculous disease means that the bacilli have found a chance to grow in the body, to produce poisons, to destroy the tissues of the lungs or other parts, thus frequently producing well-known symptoms. Tests show that most adult persons are infected with tuberculosis but as a rule not more than two in every hundred develop tuberculosis as a disease.

 

RESISTANCE

 

Everyone has a normal wall of resistance against disease, and especially against tuberculosis. When the tubercle bacilli enter the body of a person, the natural defenses of the body become engaged in walling off the intruding germs, this preventing them from causing evidence of disease. The person is said to be infected, and whether he ever becomes diseased depends entirely on whether this defence wall holds. Imprisoned behind the wall the germs are usually harmless, and may remain so for years. But the tubercle bacillus itself has peculiar powers of resistance and if the wall breaks, it seizes its chance.

 

Breakdown of Resistance. The breakdown of the resisting wall is due to two sets of causes-environmental and personal. Among the environmental causes are bad housing and living conditions, bad working conditions, including long hours and low wages; insanitary surroundings; lack of recreational facilities, lack of medical and hospital facilities. Such conditions as these are often beyond the immediate control of the individual.

 

The personal causes that break down resistance include contributing diseases such as influenza, measles, or scarlet fever, lack of proper food, self-indulgence, overwork, worry, faulty habits of cleanliness, diet and exercise.

 

Some persons start life with better physical equipment than others. For those who have inherited a weakened constitution there is greater difficulty in resisting tuberculosis.

 

SYMPTOMS OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS

 

Symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis are of two kinds, local and constitutional. Local symptoms are due to definite changes in the lung tissues caused by the growth of the bacilli. Constitutional symptoms are due to the entrance into the blood stream of products from the diseased area. Cough and expectoration, a continued tired feeling, hoarseness, fever, rapid pulse, chills, loss of strength, of weight and of appetite-all these are warning signals. The patient who has "just a cough" frequently fails to consult his physician because his trouble seems to him to be nothing more than a bronchial cold. To be on the safe side a physician should be consulted whenever a cold has lasted six weeks or more. In most cases hemorrhage occurs only after the disease has been present for several months, although it may be the first symptom. It is such a definite sign of danger that even the person most neglectful of his health seldom fails to take warning when it occurs.

 

TREATMENT AND CURE

 

Tuberculosis is a curable disease. The earlier the diagnosis, and the sooner treatment is started, the better the chance for cure or for "arresting" the disease process. To effect a cure the tissues which have been destroyed by the tubercle bacilli must be given a chance to heal. This healing is brought about by putting the patient at rest in the fresh air and supplying him with wholesome nourishing food.

 

The modern sanatorium treatment of tuberculosis was begun in Germany seventy-five years ago, and popularized in this country with the opening in 1885 of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. Today there are over 600 institutions for the care of tuberculous patients. Every year hundreds are under treatment in these sanatoria and additional hundreds are following the sanatorium regimen at home. The patient who seriously sets out to do so can take the cure at home if he has the combination of fresh air, rest and good food, and if he is under the guidance of a well-trained physician.

 

The hope of discovering a vaccine to prevent tuberculosis or a drug to cure it has brought forth fantastic schemes and worthless cures from unscrupulous fakers. It has also led to constant experiment by honest research workers. Time and again the goal has seemed to be within reach, but as yet none of the much-heralded methods of cure by drugs and serums has stood the test. Thousands of dollars are being spent each year in scientific research, and scientists continue their work in the hope of finding a real cure. Such work is slow. In France, Calmette is carrying on a series of experiments with a new vaccine with apparent success, but ten more years will be required before the definite results of his work can be determined.

 

PREVENTION

 

Any community can help to prevent tuberculosis if it will make use of certain well recognized measures. These measures are of three kinds, curative, preventive and educational, and are carried out through a variety of agencies. Most important are sanatoria and hospitals for the treatment of the disease, dispensaries where it may be detected in its early stages, tuberculosis nurses for the instruction and care of patients in their homes, preventoria and open-air schools for under-par children who without such are likely to develop the disease.

 

Educational measures must extend beyond the patient to the members of his family and to every individual in the community. If tuberculosis is to be prevented certain facts must be made common knowledge. Everyone must be taught (1) the danger of careless spitting, coughing and sneezing; (2) the necessity for plenty of fresh air, for open windows day and night; (3) the value of good food and the proper care of the body; (4) the need of an annual physical examination. Good health means proper living, that is following ordinary common sense rules of rest, work, exercise, recreation and diet.

 

Periodic Physical Examinations. Every apparently well person should consult a physician at least once a year for a physical examination. Such examinations often result in startling discoveries. Of the men who enlisted or were called for service in the U. S. during the World War, 47 per cent were found to be defective.

 

Tuberculosis clinics give free advice to those who are unable to pay a doctor. The State Tuberculosis or Public Health Association will furnish information as to the location of these clinics.

 

TUBERCULOSIS AS A CAUSE OF SICKNESS

 

The tubercle bacillus attacks almost any part of the body. In death statistics, however, about 88 per cent of tuberculosis is classified as pulmonary tuberculosis. Tuberculous meningitis is the next most important form of tuberculosis, so far as mortality is concerned. As a cause of sickness, however, tuberculosis of the glands is prominent, with tuberculosis of the bones, abdominal tuberculosis and tuberculosis of the skin following in the order given.

 

Statistics of the prevalence of tuberculosis as a cause of sickness are few. The findings of the Health and Tuberculosis Demonstration carried on in Framingham (Mass.) have shown that for every annual death from tuberculosis there exist nine active cases and nine arrested cases. That this ratio holds good elsewhere has been demonstrated in several other communities where intensive efforts have been made to find the cases.

 

The testimony of army examinations and U. S. Public Health Service reports furnish added proof of the unsuspected extent of sickness caused by tuberculosis.

 

THE DEATH RATE

 

The tuberculosis death rate in the U. S. Registration Area for 1924 was 90.6. This is a drop of three points in one year, the rate for 1923 being 93.6. Nebraska showed the lowest rate, 35.5 per 100,000; Colorado the highest rate, 163.1. Other states showing low tuberculosis mortality are Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Colorado's high rate is largely due to the influx of tuberculosis patients. California's rate is unfavorable for the same reason. Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware and almost all the southern states have high rates due in part to their large colored population. Tuberculosis mortality statistics for counties, cities and villages may be obtained by writing to the several state health departments.

 

DEATHS ACCORDING TO SEX

 

Tuberculosis death rates for males exceed those for females. In the U. S. Registration Area the reports for 1922 show the death rate for males to be 101 per 100,000 population while that for females was 92. Between the ages of 10 and 25 in the United States the mortality rate for females is considerably higher than that for males. This may be due to the influx of women into industry, since the phenomenon dates from the war when there was a marked increase in the number of women in industry. Again it must be remembered this includes the "jazz" age. Recent English statistics have called attention to a similar condition in that country, and the figures of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company show that adolescent girls constitute the only group in their statistics in which the tuberculosis death rate has not declined. According to insurance figures, white males show a death rate about one-third higher than females.

 

DEATHS ACCORDING TO AGE

 

Tuberculosis is very prominent as a cause of death between the ages of 15 and 44. In the year 1923 there occurred in the U. S. Registration Area (comprising 87.6 per cent of the total population) 90,732 deaths from tuberculosis. Of this number 56,657 were of persons between the ages of 15 and 44. In other words, nearly two-thirds of all deaths from tuberculosis occur during that period of life when a person is of greatest economic value. In spite of the continued fall in the general death rate from tuberculosis in the United States it is still the most destructive and fatal disease in the most productive period of the lives of men and women. Of the deaths that occur from all causes in this age group (15-44) about one out of every four is due to tuberculosis.

 

DEATHS ACCORDING TO OCCUPATIONS

 

Certain occupations are more conducive to the development of tuberculosis than others. Industries where dust is a necessary accompaniment of the work, such as potteries, textile factories, mines and quarries, are more injurious than other occupations.

 

Dust containing sharp-pointed mineral particles, such as that thrown off in marble quarries, irritates the tissues in the air passages of the lungs. These embed themselves in the tissues, often cause inflammation, and make it easier for the tuberculosis germs, already present in most men and women, to develop active disease.

 

Other industries that throw off particles of irritating dusts and show high tuberculosis mortalities are grinding, tool-making, printing, weaving, spinning, garment and woolen-working and the fur trades.

 

Tuberculosis is prevalent among plumbers, printers, marble-cutters and clerks. Among I granite cutters in Barre, Vt., for the years 1915 to 1918, the mortality from tuberculosis reached 1,065 per 100,000, or ten times the death rate for the total population of the country. Bankers and brokers apparently suffer least. Farmers, clergymen, physicians and manufacturers are also fortunate in this respect.

 

Deaths According to Race and Color. Native-born of native parents show low death rates from tuberculosis. The rates are high for German males, and the Irish rates, both male and female, are over twice the rates of the native born. The rate for Russians, including Jews, is even lower than for native born, and Italian males also show very low rates. Italian females show a high rate, however. The rate for Negroes in any locality is from two and one-half to three times that of the white population.

 

ECONOMIC COST OF TUBERCULOSIS

 

Tuberculosis is one of the most costly diseases. The long period of illness caused by tuberculosis is costly in treatment and in the money lost because of sickness.

 

In 1924 there were 101,500 deaths from tuberculosis in the United States and, according to Framingham experience, there were about 913,000 cases; that is, for every death there were probably nine active cases of the disease.

 

Tuberculosis cuts off two and one-half years from the complete expectation of life of every individual under present mortality conditions. If each individual were to add only $100 to the community wealth per year, tuberculosis would cost the community $250 per person. Among the one hundred and ten million persons in the United States this loss is over 27 1/2 billion dollars.

 

It has been estimated that a tuberculosis patient is under care for an average of two and one-third years. Probably for at least one year he is unable to earn. Considering all occupations, we can place the average annual earnings of a person at $1,000. Among the 913,000 tuberculous cases, 913 million dollars were thus lost through sickness.

 

The usual length of stay in a sanatorium is about six months. The cost of this is about $500. While it is not possible, nor perhaps necessary, to give each patient six months' sanatorium treatment, the cost of caring for tuberculous patients must be met, whether in a sanatorium or not. If all the 913,000 cases could receive either sanatorium care or other adequate treatment, which would cost at least as much, about $456,500,000 would be the estimated cost of caring for tuberculosis.

 

These estimates of the cost of tuberculosis in the United States, namely, 271/2 billion dollars, due to loss of life from tuberculosis, 913 million dollars lost in wages and 4561/2 million dollars for the expense of caring for tuberculous patients, total approximately 29 billion dollars.

 

Yet health may be purchased. From the Framingham experiment, and from the experience of other demonstrations, it is believed that an adequate expenditure to carry on a general health program would be approximately $2.50 to $3.00 per person in any American community.

 

For the entire population this would cost about 11 billion dollars in a period of 35 years, as contrasted with a loss of approximately 29 billion dollars from tuberculosis alone.

 

The 101,500 lives wasted each year must be saved; 101,500 is about the population of Canton, Ohio; El Paso, Tex.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Schenectady, N. Y.; Somerville, Mass.

 

CONCENTRATING EFFORT ON THE CHILD

 

Children have been the greatest gainers from the anti-tuberculosis campaign. Drolet points out that in New York City the death rate from tuberculosis among infants in 1923 is one-sixth the rate of twenty-five years ago. Further striking evidence is found in the figures from the U. S. Census Bureau. For the ten year period 1913-1923 the tuberculosis death rate for the country as a whole declined 36 per cent while the rate for children under 5 declined 51 per cent.

 

It has come to be very generally recognized that the amount of adult tuberculosis can be considerably reduced by concentrating effort on the child. The State of Massachusetts has recently undertaken a ten-year program for the prevention of tuberculosis among children, which is being carried on under the direction of the State Department of Health on a state-wide basis. Special examinations for tuberculosis are made of children in the schools who are under par and it is estimated that there are 110,000 children in Massachusetts between the ages of 5 and 12 who need to be examined and for whom appropriate treatment will be provided whenever necessary.

 

Throughout the United States similar efforts on a smaller scale are being made to guard the health of children and each year sees an increase in the number of schools, nutrition classes, preventoria and summer health camps where special care is provided for malnourished and under-par children and those who have been exposed to tuberculosis.

 

If, as census figures indicate, there are 4,000 children of school age dying each year from tuberculosis, the community is losing. in the aggregate over 200,000 years of life. The life expectancy at birth is at the present time about 55 years, and this remains about the same through the school ages, or at least until the age of 14.

 

If the cost to the country of educating a child averages $100 a year and 4,000 children of school age die yearly, the loss to the country is over a million dollars annually if we assume that each child has had three years of schooling. This is a direct loss in addition to the loss in life expectancy and productivity.

 

Intensive studies made among school children have shown that about 10 per cent of all school children, under high school age, are underweight. This means that their resistance to all diseases as well as tuberculosis is lessened. If the community would spend in prenatal and postnatal care, in school nurses and physicians, in health education work, in play-grounds and recreation even a quarter the amount which is now spent for education of these children, at least one-half of the tuberculosis deaths could be prevented.

 

THE DECLINE IN DEATH'RATE

 

The tuberculosis death rate in the United States Registration Area has declined almost yearly since 1900. In 1924 the death rate was 90.6. In 1904, when the National Tuberculosis Association was formed, it was 200, or over twice as high as the 1924 rate. The death rate has been more than cut in half, which means a saving at the present time of approximately 120,000 lives a year.

 

These facts demonstrate the possibility of successfully combating the evil, and so point out to us a definite line of duty, as well as giving us encouragement that whatever effort. we make will be crowned with the most gratifying results.

 

----o----

 

Making Masons at Sight

 

By BRO. N. W. J. HAYDON, Associate Editor, Canada

 

READERS of THE BUILDER will remember that in the February number last year there was a symposium of opinions on this much debated question. Bro. Sir Alfred Robbins made some further comment on he subject in the July number (page 204) from which it would appear that no such custom has ever been current in England. Recently I have come across the following article by the late Bro. Chetwode-Crawley which seems to throw some additional light on the subject. None of the writers who contributed to the symposium, or who have mentioned the subject since made any reference to the origin of the tradition by way of finding therein an explanation of its origin. We all deal with it as affecting the Craft under present conditions, and although several have quoted Dermott they do not indicate the source from whence he derived the idea. Even those who quote Gould do not touch on this point.

 

The following extract is from an article on "Wheeler's Lodge," which had its inception in a question asked by a correspondent to A.Q.C. relative to an allusion in an old Masonic song. Bro. Crawley found that "Wheeler's Lodge" was really the One Tun Lodge, No. 9, in the roll of the Grand Lodge of the Moderns. It survived by a process of amalgamating with other lodges until it finally became the "personal and private lodge" of H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex and met at Kensington Palace under the Grand Master's own roof. "When the Alpha and the Royal Lodges coalesced, in 1824, a combination of their titles was adopted, and the resulting body of Freemasons became known as

 

THE ROYAL ALPHA LODGE, NO. 16,

 

renowned among English-speaking Freemasons as the lodge wherein His Majesty King Edward VII. discharged the duties of Worshipful Master, 'Not thinking it any lessening to his Imperial Dignity to level himself with his brethren in Masonry, and to act as they did.'

 

"Thus far the story of the Royal Alpha Lodge has had to do with historical events duly chronicled, in one form or another, in the scattered records of the Craft. But the circumstance which, in the first instance, drew the present writer's attention to the history of this famous lodge, was a personal anecdote told him by the late Right Hon. Judge Townshend, who stood for sixty years in the front rank of the Freemasons of Ireland, and who had the story directly from the lips of His Grace the Duke of Leinster, for sixty-one years Grand Master of Ireland. More than one generation has passed since then, and it is well the episode should be put on record.

 

"The Anecdote relates to the time when H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex took the lodge under his personal protection, and caused it to hold its meeting in his Royal Palace at Kensington. The mode in which the idea of a private lodge, under the direct Mastership of the Grand Master, suggested itself to His Royal Highness, needs a little preliminary explanation. The Grand Lodge of Ireland, and therefore, the Grand Lodge of the Antients and all the other English speaking Grand Lodges in union with it, held, from what is vaguely styled Time Immemorial, that it is a prerogative of the Grand Master to make Masons at sight. This does not mean that the Grand Master suddenly says to the man in the street, 'Be thou a Freemason!' and that the man instantly becomes covered with stars and triangles. It means that the Grand Master can dispense with certain formalities otherwise necessary as conditions precedent to lawful initiation.

 

MAKING AT SIGHT

 

"So much controversial misconception has been begotten by the exercise of this prerogative, in Jurisdictions where the Grand Master's tenure of office is peculiarly transient, that it cannot be out of place to reproduce the exact words in which Lau. Dermott embodied the doctrine of prerogative as he had learned it in Ireland. The passage occurs in a note or gloss on Old Regulation, xiii, 1, in the third edition of the Ahiman Rezon of the Antients.

 

" . . . However, the Right Worshipful Grand Master has full power and authority to make (or cause to be made, in his Worship's presence) free and accepted Masons at sight, and such making is good. But they cannot be made out of his Worship's presence, without a written dispensation for that purpose. Nor can his Worship oblige any Warranted Lodge to receive the persons so made, if the members should declare against him or them; but, in such case, the Right Worshipful Grand Master may grant them a warrant and form them into a new lodge."--Ahiman Rezon, 1778, P. 72.

 

"The exercise of this prerogative by the Grand Master of Ireland was carried into practice by the institution in 1749, of the Grand Master's Lodge, of which the members were to be the Grand Officers and other personal friends of the Grand Master, and all candidates had to be nominated, or expressly approved by him. When the United Grand Lodge of England was formed by the Union of 1813, the "alterations" which had been admittedly introduced by the Premier Grand Lodge of England--thence styled the Moderns--were explicitly acknowledged and abandoned.

 

THE UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND

 

"The newly-formed United Grand Lodge modified its Work so as to be in conformity with the Work perpetuated by the Grand Lodge of the Antients and recognized as the only true Work by the Grand Lodges in unison with it. As a consequence, the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland sent delegates to an International Conference held in London in 1814, for the avowed object of making sure that the Ritual of the United Grand Lodge had been brought back to the Traditional Work of the Antients, and with the fraternal desire of removing the objections which had hitherto prevented the recognition of the Grand Lodge of the Moderns by the great majority of English speaking Freemasons. Of course, the Work was satisfactory; how could it be otherwise, seeing that the Grand Lodge of the Moderns had given up all points? The Conference resulted in the International Compact of 1814, which formally recognized the United Grand Lodge. The International Compact was duly entered on the minutes of the Grand Lodges concerned, and has ever since formed the basis of their fraternal relations. But this is another story, and has lately bee narrated elsewhere (The Freemason; Diamond Jubilee Number: London, 1897).

 

THE GRAND MASTER'S LODGE

 

"In the course of this somewhat protracted Conference, His Royal Highness, the Grand Master of England, was necessarily brought into close Masonic intercourse with His Grace the Duke of Leinster, Grand Master of Ireland, and learned from him the status of the Grand Master's Lodge as it then existed in Ireland His Royal Highness was much impressed by the convenience of having a lodge composed of personal friends and agreeable associates. The idea commended itself to him, but there were difficulties in the way of carrying it out exactly after the Duke of Leinster's pattern. True, there was a Grand Master's Lodge England, for Lau. Dermott had faithfully reproduced in the system of the Antients every characteristic the Grand Lodge of Ireland. But this lodge was exclusively made up of the Antients, and the members had no claim to be regarded as associates of His Royal Highness. It was necessary, therefore, to select a lodge other than the Grand Master's, and the choice fell on The Well-disposed Lodge at Waltham Abbey. Its membership had been reduced almost to the vanishing point, and would produce no undue admixture among the class from which the new set of members would be recruited. The idea of erecting an entirely lodge did not apparently commend itself to the Duke of Sussex, possibly because the authorities had been in the habit of reviving old warrants rather than issuing of new ones, owing to a widespread interpretation, or, rather, misinterpretation of a clause in the Secret Societies Act of 1799. Besides, such a lodge would have lacked seniority. In the economy of the lodge thus revived, the Irish precedent was followed. There was an understanding that no member should be admitted except on the nomination and with the express approval of the Grand Master. This understanding was subsequently made a by-law. On the death of the Duke of Sussex, the Mastership of the lodge was taken over by his successor in the chair of Grand Lodge, the Earl of Zetland. From that day to this the M. W. Grand Master of England for the time being has been also W. M. of the Royal Alpha Lodge, just as the M.W. Grand Master of Ireland has been W. M. of the Grand Master's Lodge without a break for the last hundred and fifty years."

 

HOW TO MAKE A MASON AT SIGHT

 

Were you ever present at the "making a Mason at sight?" This is the way it is done in South Carolina:

 

At an Occasional Lodge holden in the Masonic Temple in the City of Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday, the 21st day of November, 1924, at 3 o'clock p. m.

 

Announcement was made by the Grand Master that he had convened this Occasional Lodge for the purpose of conferring the Three Degrees of Masonry upon Dr. Robert Wilson, Dean of the Medical College.

 

A lodge of Master Masons was closed in short form and opened in like manner on the E. A. Degree. Dr. Robert Wilson was then regularly initiated as an Entered Apprentice Mason.

 

A lodge of Entered Apprentice Masons was closed in short form and a lodge of Fellow Craft Masons opened in like manner. Dr. Wilson was passed to the Degree of a Fellow Craft.

 

A lodge of Fellow Craft Masons was then closed and a Lodge reopened on the Master's Degree.

 

The lodge was called from labor to refreshment until 8 o'clock.

 

A beautiful banquet was then served the Grand Lodge officers and other distinguished guests at the Francis Marion Hotel.

 

At 8 o'clock the lodge was called from refreshment to labor on the Third Degree and Dr. Robert Wilson was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason.

 

It seems that this brother is one of the most distinguished men of the state, and one whom all desired to honor. We are told that, since he was of course in the same status as a dimitted Mason, he could be received by a lodge on affiliation. It is said that a certain Charleston lodge was given a dispensation to receive his petition for affiliation on dimit, and to ballot on same without the customary wait, at a special communication to be held on the spot, and that he was then and there elected to membership in the said lodge.

 

----o----

 

EDITORIAL

 

R. J. MEEKREN Editor‑in‑Charge

 

BOARD OF EDITORS

 

LOUIS BLOCK, Iowa

ROBERT L. CLEGG, Ohio

GILBERT W. DAYNES, England

RAY V. DENSLOW, Missouri

GEORGE H. DERN, Utah

N.W.J. HAYDON, Canada

R.V. Harris, Canada

C. C. HUNT, Iowa

CHARLES F. IRWIN. Ohio

A.L. KRESS, Pennsylvania

F.H. LITTKLEFIELD, Missouri

JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, California

JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, New York

ARTHUR C. PARKER, New York

JESSE M. WHITED, California

DAVID E. W. WILLIAMSON, Nevada

 

DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

 

MEMORIAL DAY has come and gone once more, yet there is little use in such observances if we are to forget again as soon as it is past. A certain picture comes to mind, pathetic, and yet set far above pity, or at least the half contemptuous emotion that goes by that name. The time, some fifteen years ago, the place a rural community in Eastern Canada. Spring is late there, and the trees are seldom in leaf and there are few flowers before the thirtieth of May. The roads will be heavy from the late thaws, and the snow drifts still remain behind bushes and fence sides, shapeless and bedraggled. In this community lived an old man, alone, unmarried, his family and early friends were all dead and gone. He was regarded as eccentric, for he was poor, having been once well to do. His usual dress was a pair of overalls, a ragged coat and a shapeless felt hat. His hair was white, and he let it grow long.

 

He was of an old New Hampshire family, and though his parents had gone north into Canada a century ago, yet they had not severed their connection with the land of their birth. They were ardent abolitionists, and it was natural their son should have enlisted as a volunteer in the Republican armies to fight for the cause in which they believed. So that was done, and when it was over he returned to his home, and others, some Americans who had left their land, some Canadians who had gone south to fight in the battles of the Republic, came back with him, and they joined the Grand Army of the Republic, and year by year they observed the days that meant nothing to their friends and neighbors. Years passed, and one by one they died, and year by year there were fewer to go to the little cemetery to decorate the graves of those who had gone. And at last there was but this man left.

 

It was a cold cloudy day, a raw wind from the west kept spitting rain that seemed ready to turn to snow. The buds on the trees had started to open in some earlier warm days, but had stopped discouraged. The blades of new grass showed faintly green in the dead turf of another year. The roads were nearly impassable, and few were about that day who had no urgent business. We were therefore surprised to see someone enter the gate, still more surprised to see who it was. He was dressed in his best. An ancient frock coat, green and shiny; a still more ancient tall hat, incongruous grey woolen trousers tucked into cowhide boots. On his breast were pinned his medals and the badge of the G. A. R., and in his hands he carried a few cheap American flags such as one can buy for five cents. As he came out on to the turf he tried to straighten his bent shoulders, and walked with more than a reminiscence of a military carriage, and so he came to the first of the graves of his old comrades. He had not seen us, and without a word we withdrew, for it seemed a thing too sacred for us of another generation to watch, and so we do not know what service of remembrance he carried out alone, bareheaded, his long white hair blowing in the wind. When we returned he was gone, but on some half dozen graves stood out the brilliant scarlet and white of the little flags. One or two of them were kept and cared for, but most were without headstone and grown up with weeds and long grass-yet they were not forgotten.

 

Now he, too, lies there, in another neglected grave. Yet it is doubtless of little moment to him, or those his old comrades. The dead have their own life; remembrance is for us. This old man was not a Mason, and there were none left to mourn for him. Had he been one it might have been otherwise-or again it might not. Do Masons always remember? It seems as if too often out of sight is out of mind, and that those who make no complaint receive no relief. In any case it is little use to remember our brethren dead when we forgot them living.

 

* * *

 

ORGANIZATION

 

TWELVE years ago a movement was begun by a small group of Masons that has since spread till it has covered the whole country. Among those to whose credit this lies, some are to be found in the list of the Stewards of the National Masonic Research Society, and others are on the Board of Associate Editors of THE BUILDER. Prominent among them was the brilliant author under whose hands THE BUILDER first saw the light, and who now so ably edits the "Master Mason," the organ of the Masonic Service Association. These members of the Society who have been with it from the first are, of course, familiar with this, and of those who have come in later we ask indulgence for the bringing up of ancient history, for it is being recalled with a definite object in view.

 

The National Masonic Research Society sprang out of a project to form a Lodge of Research under the Grand Lodge of Iowa. The plans for this lodge were under way, the Grand Master was favorably disposed, influential members of the Grand Lodge were prepared to support it, when it was suggested that the scope of the project might be enlarged, that instead of confining it to the one limited jurisdiction it would be better to throw down the barriers and make it open to all Master Masons in good standing. This new plan was agreed to, but in order to overcome the manifold difficulties of conflicting jurisdiction and question of plural membership, the idea of forming a Lodge of Research had to be given up, and a Society was organized in its stead. In a sense this was a great pity, for much would have been gained through the lodge organization, and indeed it would be better, in view of the tendency of the day, to multiply orders, clubs and societies in connection with the Craft, for Masons whenever possible to both work and refresh themselves in and through the lodge. However, in this case the change was inevitable under the circumstances and so the Research Society came into being under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Iowa.

 

But this same group of Masons having thus come to think nationally, and perhaps the jurisdictional difficulties just referred to may have brought the subject to their minds, began to see how beneficial it would be if the Craft had some sort of organization for joint action. Theoretically a General Grand Lodge would seem to be the right medium, but that was obviously far outside the scope of any practical effort to secure some kind of co-ordination and cooperation in matters of national concern; and a less ambitious plan on somewhat the same lines as the Research Society suggested itself. As the latter was composed of individual Masons, so should the former associate the independent and sovereign Grand Lodges that chose to join, and the organization thus formed would carry out in the name of all and in a concerted way the policies agreed to by all. This proposal was, however, only in the stage of incubation when the United States entered the War, and was not ready to function in the time of greatest need, in the hour when the great Fraternity found itself impotent to do anything in the national emergency precisely because it lacked a national organ through which to act. The realization of this fact it was that gave the final incentive to the formation of the Masonic Service Association, but unfortunately before it was in working order this particular need had passed, the war was over, and those whom the Craft at large so much desired to serve had returned home. Nevertheless the Association found many things to its hand, of less urgency perhaps, but things that needed to be done. Of its usefulness in promoting the cause of Masonic education as a policy for our Grand Lodges there is here no need to speak, for all in touch with the national activities of the Order are well acquainted with what is being accomplished.

 

But now a new emergency has arisen of nationwide importance, or rather an old need has emerged into the consciousness of the leaders and rulers of the Craft, the need for adequate means to care for, and if possible to cure, those American Masons (and they are many) who are suffering from tuberculosis. The Masonic Service Association has had this before it since November, 1922, and has been working through official channels in its member jurisdictions to get something done. At the last annual meeting it received reports on the formation of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association, and it was decided to inaugurate a campaign to bring the facts before the Masons of the country in every possible way. With this work the leaders of the Research Society have been in touch from the first, and THE BUILDER (as our readers will remember) has from time to time brought the matter to their attention. Conditions are now ripe for an intensive campaign, not of propaganda, for that word has come to have an evil sub-meaning, but of missionary work. Between them the "Master Mason" and THE BUILDER reach probably most of the leaders of Masonic thought and action in the country; and though without authority to speak for the organ of the Service Association we believe that both publications are equally committed to the task of furthering this cause in every possible way. There is here no question of seeking for credit or personal kudos, the one thing before us all is to get this project over and "on its way." We hope that every Masonic magazine in the country will definitely take the matter up and proclaim the need in season, and out of season if it must be; yet how it can ever be out of season, from Masons to Masons, to speak of a Mason's distress is not easy to see. The Service Association will naturally do its part, according to its constitution, chiefly through the official machinery of the jurisdictions composing it. The Research Society, being unofficial, must work through the individual. By thus attacking the situation from both sides at once success should be assured, and very soon.

 

* * *

 

WHAT CAN BE DONE

 

A MASON who during the World War had very close contact with both French and English soldiers and with special opportunities for observing characteristics of the men of the two races, made the following pithy observation-he was himself British born, by the way. He said: "The Englishman will give you anything, but he will do nothing for you; the Frenchman will give you nothing but he will do anything in his power and go a long distance out of his way to assist you." So far as such sweeping generalizations can be this seems in large measure to be true-and the average American is very like the Englishman in this respect. A Frenchman will write letters of introduction for you, he will take you to people and introduce you personally, he will pull wires for you if he is in a position to do so, but he will not give you anything. The Englishman, on the other hand, will give you money to get rid of you, but he will not go a step out of his way to help you. Most Americans, we have said that in this they resemble the English, would give five dollars to a collector rather than address a letter and send a cheque for one. They would give ten dollars rather than give any time or thought to another's need, or attempt to find some way to permanently help him. In this National Tuberculosis Campaign the need at the moment is more for thought and action rather than the giving of money. Not of course by any means that money -is not needed to carry on the work of publicity, yet the need of workers, of missionaries, if you will, is greater.

 

We realize therefore that we are asking a very great deal of our members in view of the national characteristics, nevertheless we make here a plea that they will give some thought to this, that they will make themselves familiar with the facts, that they will bring the matter up in their respective lodges, in their study circles and other Masonic gatherings. That they take time to write letters about it to anyone they think might be influenced to help, that they speak of it in any lodges they may chance to visit or in any other way that circumstances may happen to afford them an opportunity. The need is urgent, our past neglect is a reproach to us. Facts to prove the urgency of the need are readily available. The National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association has only too many on record and will gladly furnish them to any inquirer, so will the Masonic Service Association, and so also will we.

 

It only requires to have the need brought home to the members of the Masonic Order at large in the country and all difficulties will vanish. It is not ill-will, it is not indifference, it is only lack of knowledge and lack of realization of what these things mean. Once it is generally known and understood the thing is done. What is a dollar a year? Yet that from every active Mason would suffice.

 

* * *

 

HOW ANYONE CAN HELP

 

IT sometimes takes, so we are told, only an incautious step to start an avalanche; a locomotive engine can be put in motion by a lever that a child can move; and it is in the power of any Mason however obscure to start something in his lodge when fraternal sentiment is there to supply the motive power. Surely there are no lodges where such action as is suggested below would not be approved if the facts were but put before it. Let every member of the Research Society consider in this regard his personal responsibility in the matter. We have already published information enough to begin with, and more will follow. Bring this matter up in your own lodge where you have a recognized standing, and a right to move. Propose that the lodge put upon record its approval of this work and that its representatives present it to the Grand Lodge. Prepare a motion beforehand, give notice of it to your Secretary' have it put on the regular notice of the meeting and get other brethren to support it. The following is merely a suggestion of the way in which such a motion might be worded:

 

That we, the members of [name and number of the lodge, etc.] believe that the care of those Masons who are suffering from tuberculosis is a matter that concerns the whole Fraternity in the United States and that the general neglect of this pressing need is a reproach to the whole Craft, and that we therefore desire to put it on record that we fully endorse the plans of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association. To this end recommend to our representatives in the Grand Lodge, the Worshipful Master and his Wardens, that they support any motion at the next session of the Grand Lodge looking towards the participation of this Jurisdiction in the work of the above Association, and that if necessary that they will themselves bring the matter to the attention of the Grand Lodge, and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Most Worshipful the Grand Master, the Deputy Grand Master and the Grand Secretary.

 

----o----

 

The Form of the Lodge

 

By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN

 

 BEFORE the material that has been collected in the two preceding installments of this article can be usefully discussed, and incidentally it must be noted that the collection is representative rather than exhaustive, it is necessary to lay down some principles by which the argument may be profitably directed. It may be said, and justly, that many of the various facts to which attention has been drawn are incongruous with each other, and have not the least connection with Freemasonry. It is therefore necessary to have a clear understanding of the scope of the comparative method of interpretation in such cases as the one before us. When we find a custom or institution existing in different places and at different times there are several possibilities, and it will depend entirely upon other and additional circumstances which should be chosen as being the most probable. The first is that one is the original and the others are derived from it. When travelers first began to bring back accounts that barbarous savage races all over the world had stories of a great flood that once destroyed most of the human race, it was not naturally supposed that these were corrupted echos of the Biblical deluge and Noah's Ark which had been derived from the teaching of Christian missionaries. When later it was found that the practice of circumcision was not peculiar to the Jews but had been and was still practiced by many different races it was again interpreted as a borrowing from old Hebrew customs. The analogies that are so striking between certain sacramental rites found by the Spanish in Mexico, and the ceremonies of later Buddhism in Japan, to the Christian Eucharist, especially in the form known as the Mass, naturally led to the theological interpretation that these peoples had been taught by the devil impious mockeries of the Christian mysteries, on exactly the same lines as the early Fathers of the Church explained the many resemblances that existed between the Old Testament sacrificial ritual and that of the heathen temples of their own day. Such explanations are obvious and most natural, the major premise of the argument, however, is implicit and not openly stated--it is that our own tradition, the one we were taught as children--must be right, must be the original, and the others merely spurious imitations or faulty derivations. Further research, and mature consideration shows that such an explanation is seldom adequate. Really we must in most cases regard all such traditions, if actually related, as being derived from a common primitive source. But they may not be related, they may have had independent origins, and the resemblance may be merely a coincidence. But such a coincidence again may be merely fortuitous and accidental, or it may be due to the natural reaction of the human mind to a similar act of exterior circumstances. As for example, the fire-drill or the bow and arrow might have been invented once, and afterwards borrowed by other people till their use had spread all over the world. Or it is equally possible that both were reinvented many times. The history of modern industrial discoveries is proof positive of the latter possibility. Where we find similar arts or institutions existing among contiguous peoples, as for example the methods of weaving and basket making among different tribes of American Indians, or the existence of peculiar social organizations, such as the many secret societies found among them, it is most probable, and in many cases certain, that organizations and technical methods were freely borrowed and exchanged between the social groups.

 

But actual proximity is not the only case where borrowing is possible. A belief, a myth, a ritual or an art may be carried from one place to another by a handful of individuals, or even by only one. A marooned sailor in the South Seas could change the social order and religion of a whole population, as actually happened in the case of the Pitcairn Islanders. The crew of a Chinese junk blown across the Pacific eight or nine hundred years ago could have conceivably altered the whole culture of the indigenous peoples of South America. Before we can come to a conclusion in any given case all the factors have to be weighed. We must consider what opportunity there has been, if any, for transmission; and then, is it the kind of thing that is easily borrowed or not; but the very first consideration of all is whether or no the two things are identical. For example, there is a kind of fly that closely resembles a wasp, but biologically the diptera are very different from the hymenoptera, to which orders the two creatures respectively belong. Or, to come nearer to our subject a certain figure in an old English dance, the "Sir Roger de Coverley," which went out of fashion with the wearing of swords, is very similar to a ceremony in the initiation ritual of the Thian Ti Hwui or "Heaven and Earth League" of China, in which the candidates are made to pass under an arch of swords; while in Australia we learn of a ceremony in which two rows of men stand on each side of the representation of a mythological character crudely modeled in earth or sand over which they form an arch with their boomerangs. Were one inclined to levity one might even compare the "Roger de Coverley" figure in which the ladies passed in single file under the crossed swords of their gallants with another Australian ceremony, part of the funeral ritual among the Warramunga tribe, where a number of men stand astride of a shallow trench down which the female mourners crawl on hands and knees !

 

For example, the accompanying illustration might appear to be, or to represent an enclosure, such as those that have been instanced earlier in this article. It is drawn upon the ground in a manner somewhat similar to the sand paintings of the Indian tribes of the American Southwest. Actually it is a conventional, or rather a diagrammatic, representation of an incident in one of the myths of an Australian tribe. The six circles are the six Mungmunga women who were sent to the east by an ancestral snake. After a while they got very tired and sat down to rest. The circles represent their bodies and the black lines their legs. The Hopi Mosaic on the other hand does appear to repreient the earth, or so much of it as the tribe is interested in. There are the four cardinal points of the compass, the clouds dropping rain, and the flowers blooming in their garden fields, while the ceremonies performed in connection with it are intended to magically increase the fertility of their cultivated land, and to ensure the crops on which the tribe depends.

 

COMPARATIVE METHOD IN MASONIC RESEARCH

 

Thus when we come to use the comparative method in our own special field of research we have always to bear in mind that Freemasonry, meaning by the term the institution as it now exists in different parts of the world, had its origin in the British Isles. Even if it be supposed that the French Compagnonnage and the German Steinmetzen were parallel institutions, or sprang with it from a common primitive original, yet it is certain that neither of them is in the same line of descent as our Freemasonry. It is even possible to admit for the sake of argument that British Operative Masonry came from Germany or France in the first place, yet the fact remains that the institution whose primitive usages we are investigating first comes into the light of history in Great Britain and Ireland. What then is the purpose of bringing material from the endi of the earth to compare with it? Exactly the sanle objection was raised by classical scholars, when this method was first introduced as a means of investigation into the origins of myths and religious rites. They complained, and not unnaturally, that what Negroes and South Sea Islanders did and believed had nothing whatever to do with the opinions and customs of the Greeks and Romans. Nevertheless the comparative method won its way. It did not, and could not profess to answer, by itself, questions of origin, but it did and does throw light on meaning, modes of transmission and lines of evolution. Its fundamental postulate is that men do not do things without some reason, and that in spite of great differences in culture, the human mind on the average reacts to a given situation in very much the same way. Specifically then in our own case, we may use material drawn from the folklore, traditions and customs of the British Isles to compare with the primitive rites and observances of Freemasonry, we can reinforce them with analogous facts from the rest of Europe, and we may use facts from sources further afield to amplify and explain what we already have. As an example makes a general statement clearer, let us take the rite of circumambulation, which appears to have been an original part of the Masonic ritual. We find that it was generally and widely spread, especially among the Celtic centers of population, though it is by no means confined to such areas. From Britain we go to Europe and find it there also. From Europe we go to Asia, where it again confronts us, especially in India and Thibet. When also we discover that it is frequently connected with a certain number of ritual steps, the conclusion that we have here a real connection is greatly reinforced. But even so we must beware of seeing Freemasonry wherever we find circumambulation, ritual steps and turning to the four cardinal points; for it must always be remembered that Freemasonry is not the genus, but the species, or even only a variety of the species. We may interpret the Masonic usage in the light of the rest of the material put not vice versa.

 

On the other hand to compare a scene depicted in an Indian manuscript from South America with the ceremonies of the Order of Rose Croix (as has been done) seems, to say the least, rather futile. The Rose Croix Degree, the seventh of the French Rite and eighteenth of the A. & A. S. R., was devised and invented about a hundred and fifty years ago. But even if it was based on certain points in primitive (that is pre-Grand Lodge) Masonry, and this would be no more than a guess in our present state of knowledge, what connection could be plausibly suggested between South America and Great Britain; for even the wildest visionary could hardly suppose that Elizabethan voyagers and adventurers brought the rites home with them, as Pythagoras is said to have taken Egyptian mysteries to Samos.

 

BIOLOGICAL EXAMPLES

 

There is another point that it may be as well to consider before returning to the discussion of the material before us, and that is to examine more particularly just what kind of results we may reasonably expect to obtain by the use of the comparative method. To put the matter briefly, the wider the field from which the data is gathered the more general the conclusions drawn from it. To take another biological example; from a collection of different varieties of insects light may be obtained on the way this class of organism has solved the fundamental problems of life, nutrition, self preservation and reproduction. The comparative anatomy of say mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes will on the other hand give us an idea of the development of vertebrate animals and the modifications of their limbs to adapt them for life in the particular element in which they live. In dealing with social phenomena we find a principle of continuity with adaptation remarkably analogous to that revealed in biology. Customs and usages are transmitted from generation to generation, but gradually changed to fit in with new circumstances. Just as the tail which is the chief organ or locomotion with the fishes tends to become a mere appendage with other vertebrates; and though birds have rediscovered its importance, and dogs seem also to have made it a means of communication, the higher anthropoids and man have lost it altogether, except for an atrophied vestige only to be discovered by dissection. Or again the gill opening of the fish has been transformed into the ear among mammals, as the swimbladder that originally had the same function as the ballast tanks of a submarine have become the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates. In quite similar manner are social customs transformed, either a new use is found for them, or they become mere survivals gradually dwindling to a mere shadow of what they once were. Freemasonry is itself an example of this. An organization of the operatives of a certain trade it was gradually decaying in a changed social environment in which no practical reason for its existence remained. But it had another aspect which proved capable of expansion and which filled a human need, and so within recent times it has passed through the stages of survival and revival into the widespread organization we know today.

 

But if it has had one such change within our certain knowledge, we may also suspect it has had previous developments of which no definite records remain. It appears first in history as a survival from the Mediaeval period. But that period was not one of stagnation, it was one of vigorous life and constant change. It was no more a period in which such ideas and usages as we are considering could have spontaneously arisen than is our own. They survived through it, as they have survived in many instances to our own times, but to find the stage at which they naturally arose we must go very low down in the level of culture, lower very likely than any existing races or tribes of mankind. It is for this reason that the comparative method is justified. By it we are enabled to reconstruct the original meaning of surviving usages in the same way as comparative anatomy clears up the origin of the troublesome vermiform appendix in the human economy by relating it to the secondary stomach of ruminating animals. It does not mean that our ancestors were once cows, any more than that Free nasonry is in the same line of descent as some West African secret society because of some analogous piece of ritual.

 

With this explanation of the kind of questions we may legitimately hope in some measure to answer in this way we may return to our subject. One thing seems to have emerged quite clearly in the discussion, and that is that the "lodge" was originally a sacred enclosure--in a primitive sense "holy ground." It does not necessarily follow that the name by which our predecessors called it was old--that was quite possibly comparatively late, but the thing itself did not spontaneously arise in a Mediaeval craft fraternity, nor is it at all likely that it was borrowed or adopted from folk customs surviving in the community at large; it was most probably inherited. And there was a peculiar fitness in the usage in connection with an organization of builders, as may become clearer in the sequel.

 

PRIMARY IDEA OF ENCLOSURE

 

The idea of an enclosure is so practical and commonplace that it is not easy for us to see any ritual significance in it at all. We enclose land for individual use either by fences, as in fields and gardens, to keep out intruders, or by walls and roofs to afford us sheltered places to work and eat and sleep. But obvious as such a thing appears, there was a time when it was not done, when the idea was new. Caves and natural rock shelters seem to have been the earliest fixed dwellings of man, and the first houses may have been conceived as artificial caves. At least pre-historic man in Europe dug holes in the ground which he roofed over, and a similar though more developed form of this method of construction was found in Alaska and among the Digger Indians of California. It is possible, however, that earlier even than this the idea of an enclosure grew up out of the undefined area of danger about some primitive sanctity. In classical times the Greek and Roman felt it unwise to approach the place where lightning had struck. Graves were always regarded as at least uncanny, and in many special cases as positively unsafe to approach. But on a spot that is avoided vegetation, trees and undergrowth will very soon spring up which eventually conceals the taboo spot itself from view. This could very easily have been a factor in developing the idea of a barrier separating the sacred from the profane. It is perhaps probable, it certainly would seem most natural, that this conception of enclosures and the sanctity and magical nature of their boundaries, including terminii and landmarks, would arise with the change from nomadic hunting and food-gathering to settled agriculture. The later form of nomadic life, that of such peoples as the Tartars, the ancient Scythians and the modern Arabs is not primitive. It is a relatively high form of culture. Such peoples depend upon domesticated animals and they move from place to place to find pasture for their flocks and herds. The primitive nomad was a hunter and a: collector of wild fruits and edible roots. Such a state is represented by the natives of Australia, the Esquimaux and various odds and ends of races usually living in inaccessible places, such as the Veddahs of Ceylon, the natives of the Andaman Islands and the dwarf races of central Africa.

 

Among the Australians we find that enclosures are made for ritual purposes, generally circular. They appear to be made usually by digging a shallow ditch the earth from which makes a low ridge or mound. Such enclosures are so sacred that no uninitiated person may come anywhere near them much less see them. But with agriculture would come a change in attitude, not an altogether new one perhaps, but more developed in certain directions. The succession of the seasons, the weather, wind, rain, thunderstorms, the four quarters of the heavens, the waxing and waning of the moon, the movement of the sun, and the apparent sequences between them, and the connection of all with the springing and growth of vegetation. The cultivation of a piece of land in itself marks it off, but the delimitation is naturally emphasized in one way or another. We would think first of a material barrier, a fence or a hedge, but with primitive men apparently a magical one came first. To this day fire is carried round the sown fields in various parts of the world, and in India a cotton thread forms an efflcient barrier against the malicious and evil powers which would make the ground infertile, or would occultly steal away the crop.

 

With agriculture men perforce come to have more permanent dwellings, and being more permanent they become more substantial. Attention is given to the earth itself, where the hunting tribes merely took it for granted. The earth becomes the great mother, lt becomes itself a sanctity that cannot be safely interfered with without preparatory ritual; and such ritual naturally takes on common features and is worked out on much the same principles whether land is to be taken for a field or garden, or as the site for a village or a house, or for the digging of a well.

 

From observances carried out with the doing of the thing itself there follows a secondary stage where it is pre-done as a preparation. Seed has to be sown in the fields but first it is planted in pots or baskets and forced into rapid growth, as in the classic gardens of Adonis made by the Syrian women. But the Hopi Indians sprout beans and corn and other vegetables in their Kivas as a preliminary to their spring ceremonies. The sacred diagrams or sand mosaics used in these obviously represent the earth--not the whole world sn much, as the part of it on which their interest centers, their fields. But with it are represented the clouds, rain, lightning, the cardinal points, and last the growing and blooming vegetation. It is noteworthy that the Navajoes, who use similar sand pictures, enclose them in a circle, they being dwellers in tepees, or hogans, while the Hopis who have stone houses, roofed with beams, make their diagrams square or oblong.

 

SANCTITY AND CONSECRATION

 

At the first an object with magical potency does not need any process of the nature of consecration, for to the primitive mind it has this power or sanctity by virtue of its existence, of its being what it is. The making of a fetish object, the drawing of a sacred diagram is at the same time its consecration and dedication. That something more needs to be done for its efficacy beyond the making of it results from a more advanced line of thought where the mysterious power is supposed to flow from spiritual personalities and not to be in the visible and tangible objects as part of their own proper nature. The primitive rites survive in the higher cults with a new interpretation and with added complexities of observance based on the newer theories, yet they remain sufficiently recognizable. To the bare enclosure are added hieroglyphic designs, originally, as in the Hopi and Navajo pictures, representing the things on which their interest is centered, and on which their life depends. The shape may become symbolic, its orientation becomes important, it may be necessary to have openings to let in the beneficent influnces of the four quarters--as in the sacred Medawiwin lodges. When entrances or gateways are made there follows in natural sequence the need for guardians, watchers of the threshold, like the cherubim of the Hebrews and the winged bulls of Mesopotamia or Janus of the Romans. The crosses, pentacles and other cabbalistic characters and signatures drawn in his magic circle by the Mediaeval magician had the same effect. Primitively the guardians were perhaps actual participants in the ritual disguised in some symbolic dress, if we may judge from the rites of existing savages.

 

We have seen that the sacred enclosure in its origin did not represent the world, but only so much of the earth as the men making it were at the moment especially concerned with or interested in. But any bit of the earth's surface has the sky overhead, has the points of the compass before and behind and on the right and the left of it. And once it is taken as representative of a larger tract there is nothing to prevent the expansion of the meaning of the symbol to take in all the earth the group concerned knows about. It can easily become, in short, to be a representation of the earth, or the world as known to them. In this regard the curious persistence right up till almost the modern period of symbolic maps or diagrammatic charts of the world is perhaps significant. The Mediaeval geographor represented the earth as enclosed in a circle and divided by a tau cross into three parts. The boundary was the ocean, the arms of the cross were formed by the Mediterranean Sea and two great rivers, of which the Nile was usually taken to be one, and the Tanais, now known as the Don in Russia, as the other. In these T-O maps, as they are called, the East is placed at the top, while the North and South are to the left and right respectively. This conception so impressed itself on the minds of Mediaeval map-makers that they frequently forced smaller areas into the same schematic form, as in the map of Jerusalem that is here reproduced. This form of map is also undoubtedly connected with one of the emblems of royalty, the orb that went with the sceptre, and is so frequently shown in pictures and statues of kings and queens. It is a golden or gilt ball, with bands upon it recalling by their position the Tau of the maps, in addition to which it is crowned as a rule by a small Greek or maltese cross. This orb was inherited from the Roman Emperors, and was originally one of the attributes of Zeus himself. The cross appears to have been a Christian addition.

 

CIRCUMAMBULATION IN CORONATION CEREMONIES

 

Coronation ceremonies were usually performed at some special sacred place. In later times in certain cathedrals, but earlier out of doors. The Kings of England are still crowned sitting upon an ancient sacred stone, though it has been built into and forms the seat of a massive oak chair. But at Kingston-onThames, near London, is still preserved in the market place a conical stone on which the Saxon Kings were crowned centuries ago. The English sovereigns are proclaimed four times towards the four points of the compass. In earlier rites Teutonic Kings were seated on a shield and borne on the shoulders of four men were taken three times around the assembly of the people. The Kings of Hungary after being crowned rode to a certain mound or tumulus up which they rode alone, the people standing all around. At the top the king turned his horse in succession to the four cardinal points and made three thrusts with his sword into the air towards each. In Asia a newly-crowned monarch took three steps to each of the four points, with the same underlying idea, the same that is embodied in the myth of Vishnu, when in three strides he took possession of the earth, the underworld and the heavens. It is at least a curious parallel that according to the Mason's Confession of 1755 the apprentice when entered to the lodge had to take three steps over three chalk lines drawn with chalk upon the floor, giving while so doing a formal greeting to those assembled. Further instances of ritual steps in connection with an enclosure or diagram upon the ground will be given next month.

 

NOTES

 

For circumambulation and ritual steps the Buddhist Prayer Wheel should be consulted if possible. It is unfortunately very difficult to procure. A. B. Cook's Zeus has a good deal of material on the subject.

 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 

1. Is the collection of ritual forms and ceremonies from among savages, folklore survivals and heathen religions of any assistance in Masonic research?

 

2. If so, does it help us to understand our own customs better, or does it principally throw light on their origin?

 

3. What is the underlying conception of consecration? How did it arise in the development of human culture?

 

4. Is there any fundamental analogy between the dedication of a building, the ordination or consecration of a priest and the coronation of a king?

 

5. Why should old maps have shown the east at the top, and why do we usually put the north at the top in our maps and plans ?

 

6. Is there any connection between the plan of the lodge regarded as the symbolical representation of the world and the diagrammatic maps of the Middle Ages?

 

----o----

 

THE LIBRARY

 

THE APOCALYPSE OF FREEMASONRY. By the Rev. F. deP. Castells. Published by A. Lewis, London. May be purchased through the Book Department of the National Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, index, 228 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.55.

 

IF it were needed this work would supply proof sufficient of the inexhaustible content of Masonic symbolism. Bro. Castells' interpretation follows in many respects a quite original line, and one we believe that will commend itself to many brethren seeking for further light. However, it is a pity that he had not either divorced it entirely from all questions of history, or else that he had gone more deeply into that side of Masonic research. As it stands there are many misleading statements from this point of view which do not really affect the general argument in any essential detail. Although antiquity has always been an element in the pride Masons had and have in the Institution to which they belong, and one well grounded in fact, yet it is not everything in Freemasonry as we have it today that is ancient. An old house may have new fittings and furniture that its builders never dreamed of. The interpretation of Masonic symbolism, although related, is quite another thin.- from its history.

 

The author assumes, though unlike another English writer he does not explicitly say so, that the reader will be familiar with the forms and phraseology of the "Emulation Working," and this will certainly prove a hindrance to a full appreciation of his argument to the thousands, or rather millions of Masons throughout the world who do not know it; which is a pity. Yet on the other hand it seems inevitable that this should be so, for few today have the power of Daniel the prophet, to both relate the dream and give the interpretation thereof. Bro. Castells could hardly explain what he had not himself received.

 

For example, a certain significance can be attached to the English form of the legend in which it is said that "fifteen trusty Fellow Crafts" formed themselves into three lodges and went out from the three gates of the Temple upon a certain mission. But in another working, of at least equal authority, it is the twelve recanting Craftsmen, who could hardly be called "trusty," who are sent out in four parties of three to the four points of the compass. This form of the story doubtless sprang from a ritual convenience in the first place, but its symbolical interpretation must to a great extent be different.

 

Again in the English rituals three ornaments of the Masters' Lodge are spoken of, the porch, the dormer and the square pavement, which are officially explained as "the entrance to the Sanctum Sanctorum," "the window that gives light to the same," while, the pavement is "for the High Priest to walk on." These seem to be peculiar to the rituals of the British Isles and those derived from them; they appear to have been added by the Moderns during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and taken over by the United Grand Lodge in 1813, and were probably in the first place only a verbal description of a detail on the "tracing boards" of the Third Degree, which showed a representation of the Sanctuary of the Temple along with other matters alluding to the story of the Master Builder. Bro. Castells is puzzled by this window because the actual inner sanctuary of the Temple was quite dark. He makes a guess that there should be three; apparently quite unaware that in late 18th century Modern rituals three were actually spoken of; the probability is that "dormer" is an echo from the much discussed "dornal" of still earlier forms, and that it got confused with the three windows that represented the "lights" in the earlier drawings of the lodge.

 

There are some statements which have not any real part in the symbolical scheme that one feels should be corrected. For instance, he quotes the tale of the lodge in the house of Mordecai Campannall in Rhode Island in 1658 and says "this evidence has all the characteristics of authenticity," and seems to blame Grand Master Doyle for rejecting it. But a previous Grand Master of Rhode Island, William S. Gardner, has also come to the same conclusion. The fact is that there was no evidence, only the bare statement of Bro. N. H. Gould, that he had found the document among some old family papers and that it was inaccessible and could not be produced. It is not that the story is in itself improbable, it is just the reverse in fact – but it is only a story.

 

On page 77 he states that the Matthew Cooke MS. speaks of three pillars set up by the ante-diluvians. He could not possibly have referred to the text as this document, like the other versions, speaks of two only, one of "lacerus" and the other of "marbylle." Nor do any of the old charges refer to Pythagoras as Peter Gower. This corruption is reserved for the dubious document usually called the Locke MS., though no MS. original has ever been found. And the equation of Hermes and Hiram is more than dubious. Hermes Trismegistus was well known in the Middle Ages, and the details of the Legend of the Craft were obviously put together out of such history as was then known to the learned. That after having been mentioned in the legend some unlearned Masons confused him with Hiram is possible, but hardly likely as the tale has moved on several stages before it comes to the Temple of Solomon.

 

Neither is it "a fact" that "a Masonic Lodge was established at Winlaton in 1690 under the name of Highrodiam which afterwards moved to Swalwell." So far as we know the origin of the old lodge of Swalwell is unknown, all that is known is that in a minute of 1746 it is noted that the fee of two shillings and sixpence was to be charged for admission to the "dignity of Highrodiam." The author seems here to be relying on Yarker, an unsafe guide.

 

On page 131 it is said that Ceres was another name for Demeter; it is true that in the syncretism of the Roman Empire the Latin goddess was identified with the Greek, but they were hardly identical. This perhaps is not very important so far as the argument is concerned, but a later reference to Dr. Stukeley is rather misleading. He was a learned man, and doubtless well versed in extant Greek and Roman authors, as most learned men of his day were, but that makes him no trustworthy authority on the ancient mysteries. Besides his remark about Freemasonry being "the remains of the mysteries of the Antients" seems to have been a guess made before he became a Mason rather than his considered opinion afterwards. It seems to be advanced in his diary as his principal reason for wishing to be initiated.

 

Having pointed out what seems to be the worst of the questionable features of the work we are glad to return to the pleasanter task of giving some account of its merits. The keynote of Masonic symbolism Bro. Castells finds in Illumination, the passing from darkness to light, and here he is we believe on very safe ground. The Blazing Star, the letter G, and the Dormer, are the key symbols of the three degrees. The latter as we have already noted is peculiar to the British Isles, but in America we have among the Master's emblems the sun, moon and other celestial bodies, though they seem rather to be thrown in than to have any very essential place in the symbolism. "Free masonry, " he says, "holds the presage of that age of -universal enlightenment which has been the dream of poets and sages in the past" and again "the resplendent sun at midsummer is a challenge, for we cannot fix our eyes upon it, the intensity of its light compelling us to turn them away therefrom. And the Hebrew mystic learned from this that no man could see God and live." And he goes on to say that to know God "we must have recourse to the minor luminaries of science and nature" which like the planets shine with reflected light; "the direct contemplation of God is impossible because our intellect is not strong enough to bear the full radiance of that mystic sun."

 

Incidentally Bro. Castells tells us that he first saw the light in a lodge in the Philippine Islands "at a time when it was a crime to be a Freemason," and he was known to his brethren by the pseudonym of Bro. Caesar, and one judges by other allusions that he has traveled extensively over the world. On the whole, we judge this to be, in its place and for its professed purpose, a very useful little book; though of course for the reasons mentioned above it will have greater appeal to English than to American Masons

 

* * *

 

FREEMASONRY, ITS DERIVATION AND DEVELOPMENT. By Robert Charles Davies. Published by A. Lewis, London. May be purchased through the Book Department of the National Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, 38 pages. Price, postpaid, $0.85.

 

ACCORDING to the preface this booklet is a condensed form of a paper read by the author before the Corn Hill Lodge, No. 1803, and was published by the desire of the members of the lodge. As abbreviation has possibly disturbed the balance of the argument one does not wish to criticise it too severely, yet in the interests of those who might read it without a groundwork of knowledge of Masonic history it seems necessary to say that it is obviously not based on original research, and that (possibly due to the condensation above referred to) it might well give a false impression regarding a number of important points, to the uninstructed reader.

 

For example, it is doubtful if what he calls the "Authentic School" (presumably after Bro. J. S. M. Ward) of Masonic students would derive Freemasonry from the Roman Corporations of Craftsmen. Those whom we should naturally include under this term may of course admit such a derivation as a guess; but they surely would not go beyond the documents in the case; and the earliest of these is, as Bro. Davies himself notes, the Regius MS., which is much later than any Roman Collegia. As has often been repeated, very little is known about these organizations, but among the facts that have been collected is nothing whatever to show that any of them had initiation ceremonies or secret forms of admission.

 

The author speaks of the Modern Operative Organization without any hint as to the serious questions that have been raised about its origin. If it is of recent invention, as many suspect, its rites and ceremonies have no bearing whatever on the development of Speculative Freemasonry.

 

Bro. Davies also seems to accept the "one degree" theory and the associated doctrine that the Third Degree was devised and added to the system after 1720, though it would almost seem that the advocates of an original two degrees, the second containing the essentials of our third, have had much the best of the argument. He also repeats (apparently quite unconsciously) the exploded slander that those who formed the Grand Lodge of the Ancients seceded from the earlier ruling body. But it is hardly necessary to pick the paper to pieces in detail, and for one candid and generous statement the author is to be given every credit. Without venturing an opinion as to the rights and wrongs of the controversy it must be said that Bro. Davies is the first member of Emulation Lodge of Improvement known to the reviewer to admit that Stability Lodge of Instruction was the senior of the two.

 

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HOMES OF FAMOUS AMERICANS (Vol. 1). By Chesla C. Sherlock, editor of "Better Homes and Gardens," Des Moines, Iowa. May be purchased through the Book Department of the National Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, 311 pages; illustrated. $3.00, postpaid.

 

THE reviewer of Masonic books occasionally finds one not essentially Masonic which is yet spiritual food for the soul of a Craft bibliophile. Such a volume is the one briefly reviewed herein. It makes no pretense to be Masonic; it is not Masonic in the general sense of the term; yet as one turns its pages, the reader is not insensible to the chapters which interest the seeker for Masonic facts in the by-ways of the Masonic institution.

 

Homes of Famous Americans contains four accounts of homes in which prominent American Masons lived. They are Mount Vernon of George Washington; the Hermitage of Andrew Jackson in Tennessee; Mount Pleasant, the home of the unfortunate Benedict Arnold; that of Paul Revere in Boston; and "Waynesborough," near Valley Forge, where General Anthony Wayne, in the construction of which he gave of his brawn and skill. Ashland, the home of Clay, must not be overlooked.

 

To those who, like the author and the reviewer, have visited some of the places mentioned, a reading of the book will bring back happy memories; others, who have not been so blessed with the thrill which comes to those who reverence these old shrines of American history, will be entranced by the graphic descriptions and the almost tangible influence of the old occupants of the homes which the author has woven into the texture of his accounts. It requires no stretch of imagination to see the stately Washington at the portals of Mt. Vernon, for it truly expresses the human character of our immortal first President; one sees the virile Jackson in his tempestuous career as we read of "Old Hickory's" Tennessee home, and our hearts go out in sympathy to him as he buries his beloved wife, who died on the eve of his departure for Washington to assume with a heavy heart the burdens of the young nation; we receive a new impression of the despised and condemned Arnold, who has come down to us through schoolboy days as the Judas of the American Revolution, for without condoning the great offense of which he was guilty, the author skillfully presents a side of the man which we overlook in the flush of youth and passion; as we behold the picture of Paul Revere's home in Boston, we almost expect the door to open, and to have the Colonel himself welcome us with the grace and courtly demeanor of by-gone decades, and from personal contact with the man, to learn much that is hidden from those who know him only as an intrepid messenger. Those unfamiliar with the versatile character of Paul Revere will have their admiration for him increased by reading of his many activities as set forth in the delightful treatment by Mr. Sherlock.

 

The account of Henry Clay's home - Clay it will be remen-1bered was Grand Master of Tennessee in 1820-21 - presents a picture of the man which shows traits we do not associate with the statesmen of the early days. "Ashland," near Lexington, Kentucky, is no longer in the country; small homes crowd up to the very edge of the estate; its former occupant would no doubt be surprised could he see it today.

 

It has been claimed that all of Washington's generals but one were Masons. Whether we believe this or not-the truth is, that the assertion lacks proof acceptable to the critical student we shall nevertheless enjoy the visit to "Waynesborough," the home of "Mad Anthony" Wayne of Revolutionary fame. Again, as in other chapters of the book, the author has taken a great man of the past from his stiff and formal pedestal, and sets him down before us as real flesh and blood. One can almost hear Wayne give vent to a virile, soldierly oath, and we think none the less of him for it. Is not a man’s house his castle, and can't he use vigorous language there if he wishes? For Wayne was a leader of men who "belonged to that vanished race of soldiers who led their men to battle, who fought shoulder to shoulder with them in the thickest of the fray." And as we read of his life, within the sacred settings of his old home, our hearts warm within us in admiration for the character thus presented.

 

One is tempted to extract something from each chapter; but to do so would be to whet the appetite of the prospective reader without giving him something satisfying in return. He must read the book to appreciate it. It is a volume to which one will return again and again, for the story of home never loses interest, either to those who are domiciled within the protecting walls of a stately mansion or those whose castle is but an old log cabin nestling low midst pine clad hills of distant mountains. "Home is where the heart is;" and no one with the gregarious instinct of civilized man will fail to enjoy Homes of Famous Americans.

 

J. H. T.

 

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A NEW STANDARD MONITOR. By Henry Pirtle. Published by the Standard Printing Co., Inc., Louisville, Kentucky. Cloth, 307 pages. Can be procured through the National Masonic Research Society in either form of binding.

 

THIS new monitor is, for those interested in ritualistic studies, a very valuable addition to the present abundant crop of such works. In a general way it follows the Webb working and could be used to some advantage by all jurisdictions whose ceremonial is in accord with this style of ritual. Specifically, the reviewer does not hold to the opinion that it could be called valuable from the standpoint of any jurisdiction whose work is not very similar in character to that at present used in Kentucky. On the other hand, in those subordinate lodges whose Grand bodies permit the insertion of supplementary material, particularly in the Master's lectures, the monitor would be an almost invaluable reference work. Ambitious brethren who- are otherwise qualified to give the lectures would find material sufficient to keep their listeners awake for many meetings. In addition to the three degrees the work contains the funeral service, ritual for a lodge of sorrow, and other miscellaneous ceremonials. A most noteworthy feature is the publication in two styles of binding: One a complete manual, the other, five separate pamphlets, one for each degree, one for the funeral service and lodge of sorrow, and the last for miscellaneous material. The booklets are of convenient size for carrying in the pocket.

 

E. E. T.

 

----o----

 

THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE

 

IS THE NEED EXAGGERATED?

 

As a physician with fifteen years' residence and practice in the Southwest - though not limited as a tuberculosis specialist - I have been much interested in the articles appearing in THE BUILDER on the subject of Masonry's duty to our sick and afflicted brethren. On trips East in discussing this question with brother physicians, I have noted a tendency on their part to minimize the extent of the problem, they not being inclined to believe that we have any large number of tuberculous migrants in this part of the country. For the benefit of readers of THE BUILDER, who may entertain the same views, I wish to quote from United States Public Health Reports of April 9, 16 and 23, 1915, on the Interstate Migration of Tuberculous Persons:

 

"When it is realized that innumerable smaller towns scattered throughout this Western country have relatively a much larger tuberculous population, some idea of the large number who have flocked to that region may be gathered. Someone as stated that this section is but a vast sanatorium, a refuge for the afflicted, and whoever has an extensive acquaintance in that territory will corroborate this testimony. The populations of such towns as Kerrville, Comfort, Boerne, Alpine and San Angelo, in Texas, are largely made up of health seekers, and it is a safe statement to make that 50 per cent of the inhabitants are there, or came originally, for the health of some member of the family. In Western Texas alone there are probably 30,000 consumptives. Not all of these, however, are in an active stage of the disease, some having made complete recoveries.

 

"In the majority of New Mexican towns, outside of the mining settlements, from 20 to 60 per cent of the families have had some member who was tuberculous, barring of course the Mexican population, but in Silver City the percentage will run as high as 80. Socorro, Las Vegas, Raton, Las Cruces, and many other smaller towns are largely composed of health seekers, and the ratio of sick to well is greater even than in Texas. The total number of consumptives in New Mexico is of course unknown, but granting that the ratio for the entire state is half that of the city of Albuquerque, there would be ,over 27,000. The National Association for the Study of Tuberculosis estimates that 10 per cent of the residents of the arid region are or have some member of the family  who is, tuberculous, and that annually 10,000 consumptives who are hopelessly diseased, go West to die. There is not the slightest reason to doubt either of these statements."

 

From personal observation I know that there are many Masons among these sick migrants, and any visitor to the office of Van Oleson, Secretary of Temple Lodge, Albuquerque, would also speedily be convinced that we have a real problem and a duty to the sick Masoris of the North and East who come to the Southwest seeking health.

 

C. Leroy Brock, M. D., New Mexico.

 

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AN EXPERT OPINION

 

I am much interested in the effort to secure the establishment of Masonic Sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis. I must say that in addition to the chief reason for the establishment of general and special hospitals, the possibility of securing more systematic treatment in a well equipped and well regulated hospital than in private homes, camps and hotels, there is another urgent reason why hospitals should be established for the treatment of tuberculosis, the better control of the infectious agents in the spread of the disease.

 

For over thirty years I have been in constant contact with the tuberculosis problem, its treatment and its control. You will therefore excuse me if I express myself rather emphatically in regard to some phases of the subject. In the solution of the problem there are two things to be considered, the victim of the disease as an object of treatment with the view of restoring health and earning capacity, and the victim as an agent in the further dissemination of tuberculosis. In regard to the first proposition there can be no question of the value of properly conducted sanatoria for the purpose indicated. It is common experience that the tuberculosis patient does best when under the strictest regulation. When left largely to his own resources he is prone to take the wrong course because it is or appears to be the line of least resistance, and he plays a losing game in the great majority of cases. Iii regard to the second proposition the success of the fight against tuberculosis will depend upon the control of the victim of the disease as an agent in the infection of others. This can be accomplished only by segregating the infectious agent. In order to segregate the individual with tuberculosis and keep him from being a menace to his family and to others, there must be some place provided for this purpose. Well regulated sanatoria are a necessity for prevention as well as for treatment.

 

Many groups of people, religious bodies, industrial organizations, fraternal societies and philanthropic orders have erected sanatoria having this double purpose in mind. These bodies have recognized the existence of tuberculosis as a menace to society of which they are a part. They have further recognized the obligation resting on them to do all in their power to relieve the afflicted and prevent infection. In many parts of this country this purpose is carried into effect. The Modern Woodmen, for instance, have at Colorado Springs in operation the most complete and best conducted institution of this kind in the world. What they have done other organizations can do. Accomplishment is not the sole right of any association. The same call is made to other groups and the same obligation to join in the battle against the White Plague rests upon them.

 

I am glad to note that among these special orders the Masonic Fraternity of New Mexico has heard the call, has recognized the obligation and is now calling for action, real action.

 

As a Mason of 32 degrees I feel that I have the right to commend this action and urge its extension to every state in the Union. This Fraternity is formed of a magnificent body of men sworn to go to the aid of the afflicted brother in time of need. That the brother afflicted with tuberculosis is in need, dire need, few will dare deny. In the organization of which he is a member there are 3,000,000 men all over the age of 20 years. The great majority of them are in the most productive period of life. Educationally they represent a very high average accomplishment. Financially they are as a rule well qualified. Upon those physically well, educationally able and financially strong rests the high obligation to do and keep doing until the evil is overcome. No one who has the hand of the plague grip his family or his friend will deny the evil.

 

It is estimated that among these 3,000,000 men there are 40,000 afflicted with tuberculosis, sentenced to an average confinement and suffering of nearly three years. A sentence which to the great majority means death after a long period of physical pain and mental anguish. Even the sentence to the electric chair is less severe. And this is a continuing process. For every one that dies there are from seven to nine suffering and calling for succor. The National Tuberculosis Association is responsible for the statement that one person in every 100 has active tuberculosis and another an arrested case. For this selected body of men the ratio is higher for three-fifths of the toll exacted by tuberculosis is from those in the most productive period of life. It is also the period of growing families. How many of these 3,000,000 men have families? I do not know but I do know that tuberculosis is no respecter of persons and that whenever susceptible persons (all young people are susceptible) are exposed by close association as in the family, infection takes place. Here the contact is not only close but prolonged.

 

The family is the unit of the nation. It is also the stamping ground of the white plague, where it finds the greatest number of victims with which to recruit its vast army of devastation. The evil that strikes at the family strikes at the nation as well. We have sworn to stand by the nation and to give our lives and our all, if needed. In the wake of the army of devastation lie mothers and children, weak and bleeding. We talk much of the widows and orphans and the succor that we place at their door. But had we lifted the hand of the fellow and cared for the husbands and fathers in time the widows and orphans may have needed no succor, nor shared in the fate of the husbands and fathers. Would it not be wiser and better to meet the invaders before they have broken the family? Upon whom rests the obligation to act before it is too late? It is those who have the physical power, the intelligence and the means to do. And an organization of 3,000,000 men can act if it will.

 

Theo. Y. Hull, M. D., Texas.

 

[Dr. Hull is one of the outstanding T. B. specialists of the Southwest. His letter needs no comment. - Ed.]

 

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A PRACTICAL RESPONSE

 

I am a Mason and a subscriber to THE BUILDER, which I read with a great deal of interest.

I find on the first page of the May, 1926, number, an article describing how certain sick Masons of Fort Bayard Hospital have contributed toward the relief of Masonic brethren who are afflicted with tuberculosis.

 

Permit me to contribute a small amount for this very worthy cause, and I trust that it may do some good. I enclose herewith check for ten dollars ($10).

 

R. D. Argue.

 

We thank Bro. Argue on behalf of the N. M. T. S. A. We shall be very pleased indeed to receive any further personal contributions, or brethren may send them direct to Bro. Francis E. Lester, Mesilla Park, New Mexico as they prefer.

 

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THE RITUAL OF SALT

 

I have received a cutting from THE BUILDER of February, 1926, in which appears a letter signed F. B. M. As F. B. M. says he came from Sutton I am delighted to give him such information as I have.

 

In the ritual of the consecration of a lodge in use here, the Chaplain, during the fourth perambulation, reads the following passage of Scripture.

 

And every oblation of thy meal offerings shall thou season with salt: neither shall thou suffer the salt of the covenant of God to be lacking from thy meal offering: with all thine offerings thou shall offer salt.

 

Or the brethren may say:

 

Now o'er our work this salt we shower,

Emblem of Thy conservant power:

And may Thy presence, Lord, we pray,

Keep this our temple from decay.

 

The procession then halts in the East and the C.O. scatters salt on the floor and says:

 

I scatter salt on the lodge, the emblem of hospitality and friendship: and may prosperity and happiness attend this lodge until time shall be no more.

 

Which is followed by the general response:

"Glory be to God on high."

 

L. F. Fowle, Long Sutton, England.

 

This inquiry of F. B. M. relative to the symbolism of salt has elicited several letters. Other English correspondents also very kindly sent us the information that it was used in the consecration of a lodge in England, as well as in that of a chapter. One of these says that its meaning is Fidelity and Friendship. Both this and the variant given by Bro. Fowle, hospitality and friendship, are in line with its Oriental significance as was suggested in the earlier note.

 

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LEE S. SMITH

 

Yesterday, in this city, Lee S. Smith passed to his reward. I am enclosing a clipping from the Pittsburgh Sun of April 6, which gives a brief outline of Illustrious Bro. Smith's meritorious career. It states therein that he was a charter member of the National Masonic Research Society. I thought that the members of the Society might be interested. I would have liked to have written an appreciation of Bro. Smith, but I do not feel that I am capable, and further, I did not know him very intimately.

 

Edwin E. Gruener, Pennsylvania.

 

In the clippings sent us appears a long list of the Masonic offices and honors held by our late Bro. Smith. He was born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1844; in 1859 he went to Pittsburgh and for two years studied dentistry. He enlisted in the First Pennsylvania Artillery at the outbreak of the Civil War and served with it till peace was declared, and was retired with the rank of Major. He began his Masonic career at the age of twenty-two, joining Franklin Lodge, No. 221, F. & A. M., of Pittsburgh. He later joined all the various orders and rites connected with Masonry, including the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland. In 1887 he became Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania, and in 1916 was elected the twenty-fourth Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar. He was also an honorary 33d of the A. & A. S. R. As Bro. Gruener intimates, he was one of the original members of the National Masonic Research Society. He was a successful business man, and a leader in the civic life of Pittsburgh.

 

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BOOKS WANTED AND FOR SALE

 

For sale or exchange, volumes 20 to 35 and part of 36, of "The Voice of Masonry," published at Chicago, from 1882 to 1898. Unbound, in original covers, good condition.

 

Also "A General History of Freemasonry." by Ernmanuel Rebold, and translated from the French by J. Fletcher Brennan, 1883 Edition.

 

N. W. J. H.

 

Address all communications in care of the Editor.

 

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YE EDITOR'S CORNER

 

"lkey said to Abie, 'I understand you made $40,000 in the dry goods business last year in Chicago. Is that so? 'Vell,' Abie says, 'that is substantially correct, but,' he says, 'it was not in Chicago, it was in Cincinnati, and it was not in the clothing business, it was in the real estate business. Your story is substantially correct, but,' he says, 'it wasn't $40,000, it was $4,000, and it wasn't $4,000 profit, it was $4,000 loss, otherwise,' he says, 'your story is correct.'

 

* * *

 

This reminds us of the ancient story of the naturalist, Buffon, who was asked what he thought of a description of the crab that was to be put into a dictionary of the sciences. The description ran as follows:

 

CRAB. A small red fish that walks backwards.

 

Buffon considered it awhile and handed it back to its proud author with congratulatory warmth. "It is excellent, most excellent. Beyond one or two small details it could not be improved." Being asked what these details were, he said: "In the first place, it is not red, in the second it is not a fish, and in the third it does not walk backwards. But aside from this it is quite accurate except that it is not necessarily small."

 

* * *

 

It is very sadly that Ye Editor has to inform his many and patient correspondents that he is slowly and surely being snowed under by the continuous stream of inquiries and letters. He begs them still to have patience, and like the debtor in the parable, he will endeavor to pay all that is owing, even to the uttermost farthing.

 

* * *

 

A correspondent tells us that in his opinion the April number was the best yet-that is in the last few months. Naturally it is highly gratifying to receive such communications, but the Editor does not feel that he can take much credit to himself. The value of THE BUILDER depends almost entirely on the work of its contributors, and our readers should know how much depends on them and their painstaking labors of love. The Society is indeed fortunate to number in its ranks so many willing to devote so much of their time and often to go to great trouble and considerable expense in preparing articles for THE BUILDER. To them the credit is due.

 

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