The Builder Magazine 

November 1925 - Volume XI - Number 11 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Palmyra and the Palmyraines - By BRO. MAJOR JOHN W. SHUMAN, M. D., 
California 

Brother Colonel Ceran St. Vrain: A Study of the Life of a Masonic Pioneer of the 
Southwest - By BRO. F. T. CHEETHAM, New Mexico 

The Walum Olum or Painted Record - by Charles F. Irwin 

The Claims of the Modern Operatives - BY BRO. R.J. MEEKREN 

Know Thyself - By BRO. GILBERT W. DAYNES 

Three Dates in Vermont Masonry - By BRO. HERBERT H. HINES, Vermont 
THE DUTIES OF THE STEWARDS 

Great Men Who Were Masons - Francis Asbury Roe - By BRO. GEORGE W. 
BAIRD, P. G. M., District of Columbia 


EDITORIAL 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
INSTRUCTION IN MASONRY 


The Masonic Teaching 



THE STUDY CLUB - The Symbolism of Medieval Architecture - By BRO. R. J. 
MEEKREN 


SORROW - By BRO. Emerson Esterling, Oregon 


A MASONIC CREED 

THE LIBRARY 
WHAT IS DOGMA? 

THE VISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE. "THE MAELSTROM.” 

THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE 

ETIQUETTE FOR GRAND OFFICERS - AND OTHERS 

THE RELIGION OF PRESIDENT HAYES 

MARK TWAIN 

STEPHEN MORIN 

MASONRY AND THE HOLY BIBLE 

BOOKS WANTED AND FOR SALE 


YE EDITOR'S CORNER 



O 


Palmyra and the Palmyraines 


By BRO. MAJOR JOHN W. SHUMAN, M. D., California 


THIS is an exceedingly interesting account, the chief defect of which is its brevity, of 
a visit to "Tadmor in the Wilderness." The author was formerly (1922-23) Professor 
of Medicine in the American University of Beirut, Syria, known for short as A.U.B. 


IN February, 1923, Captain Douglas C. Cruickshank, then the Professor of 
Pathology, American University of Beirut, late of the Canadian Army Medical Corps 
and a Mason, inveigled the writer into taking advantage of the Medical School's five- 
day-mid-year vacation and visit the ruins of Palmyra. (This is the French name; in 
Arabic it is Tudmor.) He insisted that we should look over at close range what 
remained of that wonderful city "in the wilderness" (Note 1), built hundreds of years 
ago by King Solomon the Great Builder and successfully sacked by the Romans long 
afterwards. As a sight-seeing place of Asia Minor it easily ranks third, with Jerusalem 
and Petri rivals for first place; although to the Mason Jerusalem stands first, for here 
Solomon, the wise one, built the first Temple and many other things. 


From Beirut to Damascus, the most ancient thriving city in the world, across the two 
Lebanon mountain ranges, with the Wady Broca between, is seventy-five miles; we 
made it by auto without mishap and spent the night at the Victoria Hotel, famous as 
General Allenby's headquarters during his late campaign against the Turks. On such a 
journey as we were undertaking one usually goes armed on account of possible 
encounter with Cheeties (brigands); in a country whose chief product for centuries 
has been war, and whose by-products have been reported as massacre, rapine and 
pillage, we expected to meet trouble; but in this we were disappointed, we met only 
kind and courteous treatment. 



From Damascus to Palmyra is about one hundred and sixty- five miles on the 
Mediterranean— Bagdad Camel- Automobile route; and there are no gas stations! So 
we loaded in the necessary amount of petrol to motor us there and back. There are 
two roads, the high, a bit longer, and the low, a bit shorter, leading to Karratyne, a 
village situated about half way between Palmyra and Damascus. And thereby hangs a 
tale. 


A party of Beiruters had preceded us to Palmyra by the high road. We took the low 
one and arrived at Karratyne at a little before eleven o'clock, when we called to pay a 
visit at the Sheikh's house (which is the custom) and were made most welcome. He 
was a Christian and had a son in the Collegiate Department of the A.U.B. (American 
University of Beirut). Our interpreter Zarhan, first year medical student, knew this 
lad, and made father and mother delighted with "news". A bounteous repast was soon 
spread, to which we did full justice as only hungry, healthy men would do when 
"called from labor to refreshment." 


The kind old man offered a letter to the Mohammedan Sheikh of Palmyra, stating 
"there is no hotel in that place," and we could do nothing but graciously accept. That 
sealed letter was surely "the-magic-password." Thirty minutes after we had driven the 
car into the courtyard where Sheikh Mohammed stood, a freshly killed, dressed, and 
cooked sheep was served in the guestroom, through the door at his back in the 
accompanying illustration (Cut 1). He said: "Gentlemen, 1 beseech you to partake of 
our meagre repast; if you have wine bring it forth, for although we Moslems are 
forbidden to use it, that is no reason for our Christian guests to abstain." Just compare 
that with the hospitality of a U. S. prohibitionist! 


Here it may be stated that if your digestion and sleep are disturbed by coffee and 
smoking tobacco do not go visiting in Asia Minor. For no business is transacted, no 
social or official call is complete and no meeting, however casual, is ever entered into 
or terminated without coffee and tobacco. The coffee in Beirut is like the Turkish, 
thick, black and sweet. As we went on into the interior of Syria the coffee seemed to 
get more bitter. In Palmyra it is the typical Arabic coffee, served hot as the hinges of 
Hades, an ounce at a time in the bottom of a big cup and quite bitter. After five or ten 
of these drinks you will understand why the Moslems don't have to drink alcohol! An 
ancient hubble-bubble (narghieh) was put at my disposal; and a large iron key to our 



room was given us, which I promptly threw on the ground. We felt that we were 
among brethren and our trust was not misplaced for all the time we were there not a 
thing of ours was molested; we ate, slept, moved, and had our being in this one-story 
mud (adobe) walled room of the Sheikh's when not on the hike; strangers in every 
sense of the word except for that bond of fellowship which binds mankind- 
brotherhood. 


To the right of his father stands Sheikh Abdullah (Cut 2) detailed by his father to 
show us around and comfort us. It was just about this time (6:00 P. M.) that the two 
automobile loads of Beirut folks arrived, the acting President of A.U.B. in charge, 
accusing us of having eaten up their luncheon in Karratyne, and wanting to know 
where we intended to sleep. We replied, "Ask the Sheikh." Sheikh Mohammed, like 
the Karratyne Sheikh, had mistaken us for the "President" and his party (the letter said 
so) and he did not change his mind. I suppose our old army uniforms had more 
prestige than "white collars". At any rate we slept much warmer than we would have 
under a tent. 


The ruins of the Great Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, with many bits of ornate 
sculpture about it, cornices, capitals, and curved ceilings, stand as majestic symbols 
of great craftsmen and things that were in the ages of long ago. What remains stands 
there still fighting for existence against the elements, to welcome the modernist and 
make him marvel. One column which still remains bears an inscription with the name 
of Queen Zenobia, who once ruled from Egypt to Babylon, and later graced the 
Roman Triumph of the Emperor Aurelian. 


The illustrations numbered 2 and 3 show the Sheikh and four of his sons, and his 
guests. He was then sixty six years of age and looked after 2,500 souls, the "modern 
Palmyraines." They are the desert Bedouins, speak the pure Arabic language, and 
raise sheep and camels. Palmyra is now but an oasis in the wilderness. Water is 
secured from subterranean channels, which were cut there aeons ago by the hand of 
man. The aqueduct system flourished in that country many years ago and when a 
besieging army cut off the water supply of the forces they were attacking, it was not 
long before the flag of truce was flying. No. 3 shows the official photographer 
(Doctor C.), the "short soldier," third from the left. The French Arabian soldier is 
from the French garrison, located in Palmyra (the French mandate Syria now, the 



Turks used to) who had come to invite the Bogus-President and his party to the 
Commandant's mess that evening. He said that he would send an escort for us and the 
Sheikh. We waited until 7:30 P.M. and then escorted ourselves over to find that the 
real President and his crowd had "beaten us to it," so the tables were turned! We 
returned to our house. The Sheikh was indignant. He had prepared for us a real 
banquet which we were enjoying immensely when the Commandant with his aides 
burst in upon us with beaucoup apologies, a quart of Scotch, and-that was that ! (Note 
2.) 


It will be noted that there are hints of foreign (Frangi) civilization out there in the 
manner of dress. Note that top coat, also the two overcoats worn instead of the native 
Abba. The smallest son was the songster, and sang for us many songs in Arabic in the 
usual nasal falsetto key, which sounded nothing like the "sweet songs of Araby," or 
"I'm the Sheikh," yet they were far more pleasant to the ear than "Yes, We Have No 
Bananas," "No One Can Love Me Like My Old Tomato Can," etc. 


Another touch of the foreign was noted in the Sheikh's own bedroom; an idle, iron 
bedstead, which brought forth the story that when he was much younger and less 
wise, a young woman, the daughter of a prominent and wealthy French family, visited 
Palmyra, fell in love with the Sheikh, married him and took him to Paris to live. After 
four months the sands of the desert called him and she went back with him. They 
shipped that iron bed to Palmyra from Marsailles. But Palmyra as a steady diet for her 
was too tame; the bright lights of "Gay Paree" called her, and she went back home 
alone. 


The Sheikh's father had one hundred descendants; our host had fourteen sons, the 
youngest a husky infant in arms. Three of his four young wives expected soon to 
present him with sons, for daughters don't count for much in the Orient. His eldest 
son was missing. He was in South America, I was told, to be married to a lady there, 
which grieved his father greatly for she was not of "the Faith." But, then, "like father, 
like son." 



Abdullah was quite anxious to show us everything there was to be seen, more 
especially the Crusader Castle (see cuts 4, 5 and 6), which is a story in itself. I 
marveled how that Order of Knights Templar several centuries ago set out to conquer 
the world (especially Christianity's fountain Syria and Palestine) with the sword— and 
failed— just as Emperor William failed! 


It was on a Friday, the Moslem Sunday, that Abdullah asked us if we wanted to swim. 
I said, "Yes, where is the tin cup ?" for I had no idea that there was anything bigger to 
take a bath in. He took us for a swim in a subterranean warm sulphur river, artificial, 
a part of the aqueduct system, where we frolicked for two hours, having for 
companions the Cadi (judge) and Sheikh Beni Khallid, owner of 3,000 camels, the 
same number that Job had. Before going into the water I gave Abdullah my wrist 
watch to hold, and when I got out I noticed that it was on his wrist. I said, "Keep it for 
a souvenir, [ carried it through America's part in the World War in France and am 
really tired of it, and I am just looking for a chance to get rid of it." He accepted. It is 
difficult to tip these folks; in fact, it is taken as an insult unless adroitly managed. 

That evening in the dark he slipped into my hand a bit of paper with a hard object in 
it, saying, "Just a little souvenir, but very old." After he was gone, and by the light of 
a tallow dip I discovered myself to be the possessor of an exquisite cameo of 
Zenobia's Dynasty. 


The young men of the village love to play football of the European style. The ball 
they had was flat and the only thing they requested from us was "send us a bladder 
from Shem (Damascus)." We sent them one by the French Air-Post. 


The Sheikh's second son had only two wives. He said he was "not rich enough to 
afford more as yet." He did ask, "Doctor, why does a big man like you only have one 
wife?" I answered, "Effendi, you have never seen my wife." I crushed him, however, 
when I remarked, "I have three children and you have only two ! " They have no 
doctor in Palmyra and disease cuts them down young. Infant mortality is great there. 
A walk through the modem graveyard tells the story; the numerous little tombstones 
marking graves of babies. "On the square," the Sheikh would welcome a good, 
conscientious, well-trained, practical medical man. That man might not become rich 
in money but he would live and give and in the years to come he would have happy 



memories. We held a clinic while there, thereby attempting to return, in a measure, 
the kindness we had received. 


All were interested in our telling, through our interpreter, of the A.U.B. and its work, 
and the Sheikh promised that before long Palmyra would be represented at the 
University. Last year, so Dr. Cruickshank writes, the Sheikh's second son visited 
Beirut and was quite chagrined at not being able to visit the "Pseudo-President." On 
this trip we had endured some discomforts, and hard ships, met with extremes of heat 
and cold, a snow blizzard, equal to any I ever experienced in northwest Iowa, when 
crossing over the Lebanons, and had been mired in the mud; but we had been 
received kindly, were not allowed to go hungry, and had slept in warm beds. A 
broken front spring and a ruptured tire were all the scars we could claim. 


NOTES 


Note 1. 1 Kings, Chap. 9, verse 18, "and he built, . . . Tadmor in the wilderness in the 
land." II Chronicles, Chap. 8, verse 4, "and he built Tadmor in the wilderness." 

Note 2. D. C. just forwarded these photos to me, March 1, 1925. In Syria, "time 
doesn't really matter." One of their proverbs out there is "Tomorrow, Effendi, is also a 
day." 


— o — 


Brother Colonel Ceran St. Vrain: A Study of the Life of a Masonic Pioneer of the 
Southwest 


By BRO. F. T. CHEETHAM, New Mexico 



AS noted in the introduction to one of his former contributions to The Builder, Bro. 
Cheetham has in hand the preparation of a history of the Southwest to show the 
influence of Freemasonry in the development of that great American empire. This 
study of Bro. St. Vrain will serve as a chapter in that work. Its interest will be 
enhanced if it is read in conjunction with Bro. Cheetham's previous essays: "Kit 
Carson A Mason of the Frontier," The Builder, December, 1922, page 366and 
"Governor Bent, a Masonic Martyr of New Mexico," The Builder, December, 1923, 
page 358. Bro. Cheetham, who may be addressed at Taos, New Mexico, will 
appreciate receiving any additional Masonic data bearing on his studies. 


WHILE we inherited from the English our language and that great system of 
jurisprudence, known as the common law, we are largely indebted to the French for 
our liberty. They gave lavishly of their blood and treasure that we might become a 
free and independent nation. The name of the Marquis de Lafayette has throughout 
the days of our life as a nation been a household word among our people. Nor did the 
fostering care of our French godfathers end at Yorktown. From the day when 
Napoleon Bonaparte held his fastest frigate forty-eight hours, while our Minister, 
Robert Livingston, a brother Mason, penned that famous dispatch which culminated 
in the purchase of Louisiana, we were destined to become a great nation. Nor was this 
all, for while they aided us, for almost a nominal consideration, to acquire title to this 
vast stretch of country, they rendered most potent assistance in winning the Far West 
from all opposing contenders. 


When our frontier soldiers, under the masterful leadership of George Rodgers Clark, 
wrested the Northwest, as it was then called, from the British, we acquired, as 
appurtenant thereto, the achievements of the intrepid French explorers and traders. 
Following closely upon the heels of the Revolution there sprang up along the waters 
of the great Mississippi and its tributaries a thriving trade with the outlying Indian 
tribes, which soon crept into that portion of the domain of the Spanish crown, known 
as Mexico. This trade was handled almost entirely by the descendants of La Belle 
France. As a natural consequence of this trade there soon sprang up such trading posts 
or centers as Kaskaskie, St. Genevieve and St. Louis. 


These French traders purchased the greater portion of their goods at Philadelphia and 
while in that city they met and associated with members of the French lodges of 



Freemasons of that city, established by Bro. Lafayette and his men during the War for 
American Independence. These merchants in turn obtained dispensations and 
established Masonic lodges in western trading posts. These lodges were in their order 
as follows: Western Star Lodge, No. 107, established at Kaskaskia in 1806; Louisiana 
Lodge, No. 108, at St. Genevieve in 1807; and St. Louis Lodge, No. 3, in 1808. 
Among the membership of these lodges we find in Louisiana Lodge, No. 109, at St. 
Genevieve such names as Pierre Chouteau and Bartholomew Berthold, the founders 
of the great American Fur Company, and Stephen F. Austin, the "father" of Texas; in 
St. Louis Lodge, No. 3, we note among the members the names of Meriweather 
Lewis, former private secretary of President Jefferson, and Gen. William Clarke, the 
explorers. Such indeed is the background of our sketch. 


Col. St. Vrain, the hero of this sketch, was bom near the city of St. Louis about the 
year 1797. His father and uncle had fled from France during that dark period of the 
French Revolution, the uncle having been an heir apparent of French nobility. The 
father of Ceran St. Vrain settled on the Bellefontaine Road, just out of what was then 
St. Louis, and erected a fort, which was then, and until after Ceran's birth, on Spanish 
territory. Of his early years little is known. It is altogether probable that while a mere 
boy he ventured out into the plains and the wilderness with the fur traders of his time. 


HE BECOMES A TRAPPER 


In 1 826 we find him a captain of a party of trappers leading an expedition down 
through New Mexico as far as the river Gila. It was on this expedition that Bro. Kit 
Carson made his maiden trip beyond the frontier. At this time St. Vrain was probably 
associated with William Bent, who, about 1824, had erected a stockade on the bank 
of the Arkansas near where Pueblo now is. Soon afterwards the Bents and St. Vrain 
erected another stockade near the junction of the Purgatoire River with the Arkansas. 
In 1828 St. Vrain, associated with William and Charles Bent, commenced the 
erection of a formidable fort, afterwards known as Bent's Fort or Fort William, on the 
north bank of the Arkansas River, a few miles east of the present city of Las Animas, 
Colorado. Due credit has never been given the founders of this citadel of peace, for 
the part it and they played in the winning of the Great Southwest.— 



It will be remembered that, arising out of the Louisiana Purchase, the territorial 
claims of the United States covered the entire watershed of the Red and Arkansas 
Rivers, which extended to within about fifteen miles of Taos, New Mexico; that by 
the treaty of Feb. 22, 1819, between the United States and His Catholic Majesty the 
King of Spain, in return for concessions in Florida the United States moved its 
western boundary backward some three hundred miles; that by this treaty the 
hundredth meridian was fixed as the west boundary of the United States, north to the 
Arkansas River, thence along the south bank of that stream to its source. This 
boundary was afterwards ratified by the infant republic, Mexico, which almost 
immediately had wrested its independence from Spain, by a treaty signed in Mexico 
City on Jan. 28, 1828. 


It will therefore be plainly seen how quickly the Bents and St. Vrain saw and grasped 
the strategic importance of the site, so well chosen by them, on the international 
boundary, for a large and strongly fortified trading post, destined to do more than all 
the country's soldiers in the winning of the Far West. The greater proportion of the 
inhabitants of the country immediately south of the border was made up of roving 
tribes of unconquered savages, who were eager to trade their peltries and robes for the 
trinkets, firearms and other goods of the white man. 


The policy of Spain had been to exclude almost altogether any American trade with 
its dominions in the Western Hemisphere. Mexico cherished the same hope and laid 
its duties with a view to making the American trade prohibitive and of creating a 
monopoly in favor of its central states. The result was that there soon arose in 
California and other outlying territories a great system of smuggling. But the founders 
of this great trading post proposed to keep within their legitimate rights; they planted 
their fort on the border so that the Comanches, Arapahoes, Utes and Apaches could 
migrate from their favorite hunting grounds, camp on the Arkansas near the fort, and 
exchange their products of the chase for the manufactured goods of the traders. If 
Mexico had any charges against the Indians for duty on goods carried by them across 
the border, it was up to it to collect from them. The fort was completed in 1832. 
Speaking of its appearance, Capt. P. St. George Cooke, who visited it in 1843, says: 


"Over a smooth, gravelly second bank prairie we caught sight at several miles 
distance the national flag floating amid picturesque foliage and river scenery, over a 



low dark wall, which had a very military semblance. Very gradually and tediously we 
approached and then we were more surprised at the fine appearance and strength of 
the trading post. An extensive square with high adobe walls and two large towers at 
opposite angles and all properly loopholed. Our near approach was saluted by three 
discharges from a swivel gun, the walls being well 'manned.' The Colonel and suite 
were most hospitably greeted at the sally port by Messrs. St. Vrain and C (harles) 
Bent. The regiment marched on and encamped at the first grassy meadow a mile or 
two lower down. A number of officers partook of a good dinner at the post." 


THEIR BUSINESS PROSPERED The "Chinese Wall" erected by Spain and fostered 
by Mexico soon began to crumble before the pressure of this stronghold of 
commerce. Mexico soon discovered that if it did not let the traders in, its people 
would go across the border to trade. Before the fort was really completed St. Vrain 
and the Bents were able to make their way to Santa Fe with goods, as will appear 
from a letter written by St. Vrain to Bernard Pratte & Co. from that place on Sept. 14, 
1830, as follows: 


"San Fernando del Taos, Sept. 14, 1830. 


"Messrs. B. Pratte & Co. 


"Gentlemen: It is with pleasure that I inform you of my last arrival at Santa Fe which 
was the 4th of August. We were met at Red River by General Biscara the 
customhouse officer and a few soldiers, the object in coming out so far to meet us 
was to prevent smuggling and it had the desired effect; there was a guard placed 
around our wagons until we entered Santa Fe. We had to pay full dutys which 
amounts to about 60 per cent on cost. I was the first that put goods in the 
Customhouse and I opened immediately, but goods sold very slow, so slow that it was 
discouraging. I found that it was impossible to meet my payments, if I continued 
retailing. I therefore thought it was best to hole saile. I have done so. I send you by 
Mr. Andru Carson and Lavoise Ruel one wagon, eleven mules, one horse and 653 
skins of Beaver, 961 lbs. (nine hundred and sixty-one pounds), which you will have 



sold for my account. 1 do not wish the mules sold unless they sell for a good price. I 
am with much respect, 


"Your obdt. servant, 


"Ceran St. Vrain." 


Soon after the completion of Bent's Fort this firm established a branch post at Taos, 
New Mexico, and later on at Santa Fe, both of which were maintained until the firm 
was dissolved by the death of Governor Bent, in 1847. In 1838 they erected a fort on 
the South Platte north of the site of Denver. This fort was called St. Vrain's Fort. Gen. 
Fremont speaks of visiting this fort on his first expedition to the Rocky Mountains. It 
was at the confluence of the Cache le Poudre River with the South Platte. Francis 
Parkman, who visited it in 1 846, found it abandoned. 


By this time the fur trade had suffered a great decline, the price of beaver having 
suffered a great slump on account of the discovery of a new way of making hats. The 
American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company found their trade 
unprofitable. The latter company went out of business entirely. Jedediah S. Smith, its 
most daring captain, had quit the northwest fur trade and engaged in the Santa Fe 
trade when he lost his life while blazing a new trail on the Cimarron. But the business 
of Bent &; St. Vrain had been established with a view of working both ways. They 
worked as far north as Fort Lookout on the Missouri, and held the key to the 
Southwest. They later erected a fort on the Canadian River in northern Texas, known 
as the Adobe Fort. 


THEIR TRADING POSTS BECAME A RENDEZVOUS FOR EXPLORERS 


These trading posts became the rendezvous of the daring mountain men, trappers and 
explorers who penetrated the mountain forests, scaled the snow-capped peaks, blazed 



their trails through seemingly inaccessible passes, encountered both savage and 
foreign foes, and planted the American flag on the Pacific. A trading post of Bent & 
St. Vrain was like a safe haven in the midst of the trackless storm-tossed sea. When 
Marcus Whitman and A. Lawrence Lovejoy made their famous ride in the winter of 
1842-3 in an effort to save Oregon to the United States, they availed themselves of 
the hospitality of several of these posts and it fell to the lot of Ceran St. Vrain to 
render substantial aid to Whitman in getting across the plains, for he, on learning of 
Whitman's desire to proceed across the plains, sent an express from Bent's Fort to 
their caravan at the Big Cottonwood and held it until Whitman could arrive. 


In 1843, Ceran St. Vrain, believing that the course of empire was westward, 
associated with him one Comelio Vigil, a progressive resident of Taos, New Mexico, 
and for invaluable and meritorious service to the Mexican Government in maintaining 
peace with the Indians on the frontier, made application to the Governor for a grant of 
land for colonization purposes, the petition for which, being translated, is in part as 
follows: 


"That, desiring to encourage the agriculture of the country to such a degree as to 
establish its flourishing condition, and finding ourselves with but little land to 
accomplish the object, we have examined and registered, with great care, the land 
embracing the Huerfano, Pisipa and Cucheras Rivers, to their junction with the 
Arkansas and the Animas, and, finding sufficient for cultivation, and abundance of 
pasture and water, and all that is required for a flourishing establishment, and for 
raising cattle and sheep, being satisfied therewith, and certain that it is public land, we 
have not hesitated to apply to Your Excellency, praying you to be pleased, by an act 
of justice, to grant to each one of us a tract of land in the above mentioned locality." 


The grant was accordingly made and the intent and purpose thereof is probably best 
shown by a deed made in 1844 to St. Vrain's partner, Charles Bent, which is as 
follows: 


[TRANSLATION] 



"DEED OF CONVEYANCE TO CHARLES BENT. 


"The undersigned owners and possessers of the lands included from the waters of the 
Rio de las Animas and of the Huerfano, within the boundaries designated in the act of 
possession, for the purpose of effecting and procuring means to settle those lands, for 
which purpose we have solicited and obtained the concession of the Government; and 
of our own free will, we cede to M. Charles Bent, and to his successors, the one-sixth 
part of the land contained in our possession at said place, to which we hereby 
renounce all our rights, hereby obligating ourselves not to prescribe him in that which 
we hereby grant unto him; it being our voluntary act and deed, it being understood 
that we are to give to such families as may transport themselves to said place, lands 
free of charge, subject to the guarantees and benefits to each party, as may be agreed 
upon in order to protect the settlements to be formed; and by this extra-judicial 
document, which we execute on this common paper (there being none of the 
corresponding seal), we, thus, as our entire voluntary act, covenant; and this indenture 
shall be as valid as if it was duly authenticated; and by the same we may be 
compelled to observe and comply therewith; and in testimony whereof, we sign this 
in Taos, on the 1 1th day of March, 1844. 


WAR WAS DECLARED Within about two years thereafter, the diplomatic relations 
between the United States and Mexico, long strained, reached a breaking point and 
war was declared between the two countries. The Army of the West was organized 
and placed under the command of Col., afterwards Gen. Kearney. It proceeded, in 
several columns, to march from the Missouri River to Bent's Fort, which was 
established as a rendezvous. There the little expeditionary force rested a few days, 
preparatory to the invasion of the enemy's country. We find that the men who had 
been forerunners of the flag stood ready to render any service in their power. Charles 
Bent served as chief intelligence officer and Ceran St. Vrain hastened to St. Louis to 
procure supplies and provisions soon to be needed. When the soldiers crossed the 
frontier, they found that the traders had accomplished by the arts of peace what they 
had expected to achieve by the shedding of blood. 


Ceran St. Vrain left St. Louis on the 1st of September, 1846, with a cargo of goods 
for New Mexico. He was accompanied, among others, by a young lad of seventeen 
years, Lewis H. Garrard, who left behind a narrative of his thrilling experiences, 



published in 1850 under the title of Wah-To-Yah, or, The Taos Trail, which he 
dedicated to the hero of our story in token of the many acts of kindness by the latter. 
St. Vrain left Garrard at the fort and proceeded on to Santa Fe with his goods where 
they would be most needed. Soon after his arrival at that place the Taos Insurrection 
broke out and Gov. Chas. Bent was assassinated, under circumstances narrated in a 
former sketch. [THE BUILDER, December, 1923, P.358.] St. Vrain, on learning that 
his friend and partner had been slain, enlisted the services of about sixty mountain 
men at Santa Fe and tendered his little command to Col. Price, who immediately 
proceeded with such force as was available to Taos to avenge the death of the 
Governor and other countrymen. St. Vrain was given a commission as captain and 
rendered gallant and meritorious service at La Canada, Embudo, and at the Taos 
Pueblo. At the latter place he came near to losing his own life in a personal encounter 
with the Indians. He served as court interpreter in the trials of the conspirators and 
was afterwards tendered the office of governor of the territory, which he declined. 


ST. VRAIN SETTLED AT TAOS After the restoration of order, Capt. St. Vrain 
settled down in Taos, New Mexico, known then as Don Fernando de Taos, where he 
had a store on the south side of the plaza in his business as a trader. In 1849 he was 
elected to, and served as a member of, the Constitutional Convention, convened at 
Santa Fe on Sept. 24 of that year. 


During the years 1 854, 5 and 6 the Ute and Apache Indians had given the people of 
New Mexico deal of trouble, waging constant war on the unprotected settlements and 
even came near annihilating a couple of companies of the First United States 
Dragoons in a fight in the Embudo Mountains near Taos. The civil and military 
authorities in Santa Fe decided to put an end to these troubles. Volunteers were 
accordingly asked for. Col. De Witte C. Peters, in his Life of Kit Carson, published in 
1858, in speaking of this affair, says: 


"The organization of the Mexican volunteers was made complete by the Governor of 
the Territory, who selected as their leader Mr. Ceran St. Vrain of Taos. This 
gentleman, although he had much important business which called his attention 
elsewhere, immediately expressed his willingness to accept the responsible position 
which, without solicitation, had been conferred upon him. The commission received 
by St. Vrain gave him the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Without delay he set about the 



difficult and important work that lay before him, bringing to bear upon the details that 
sound judgment, gentlemanly bearing and ready zeal which had long characterized 
the man. He had the good fortune to secure the services of Lieutenant Creigg of the 
regular army, whom he appointed as one of his aides-de-camp. Having completed his 
staff and other arrangements to place his force upon a military basis, he was ready to 
take the field. 


"The appointment of St. Vrain as commander of the Volunteers, was hailed with 
delight throughout the territory. His great experience in the mountains, his knowledge 
of the Indian mode of warfare, and the respect which the people he was called upon to 
command invariably paid him, seemed to convince every thinking mind that 
something more than usual was to be accomplished. They felt that the wrongs of their 
country would be certainly redressed. The sequel will prove that the people were not 
doomed to disappointment." 


Lieut.-Col. St. Vrain thereupon reported to Col. T. T. Fauntleroy who forthwith 
launched an expedition against the warlike savages. The command proceeded to Ft. 
Massachusetts, near the station of Garland, in Colorado; thence they pursued a 
westerly course to the head waters of the Rio Grande; from thence they crossed the 
Saguache Pass where they found the Indians encamped in a large village. They gave 
them battle and put them to flight with heavy loss. Col. Fauntleroy then divided his 
command, sending Col. St. Vrain with his command to the eastward across the main 
range where he again encountered the fleeing fugitives and inflicted upon them a 
terrible loss. Kit Carson, who accompanied this expedition as a scout, referring to it 
afterwards in his personal narrative dictated to Col. Peters, the MS. of which is now 
in the Newbury Library in Chicago, in substance said, that if the operations of this 
voluntary organization had continued a few months longer under Col. St. Vrain's 
direction, there would never again have been any need for soldiers in the Southwest. 


The term of service of this organization having expired they were mustered out and 
Col. St. Vrain returned to his business at Taos. He erected and operated extensive 
flour mills and extended his business operations in all directions. In the first issue of 
the Rocky Mountain News, published at Cherry Creek [now Denver], Kansas 
Territory, in 1859, we find an item announcing that Col. St. Vrain had lately arrived 
at that place with a train load of flour from Taos. 



ST. VRAIN ENTERED THE CIVIL WAR When the Civil War broke out Col. St. 
Vrain, like Bro. Kit Carson, joined hands with the North and very promptly tendered 
his services to his country. When the call for volunteers came he helped to organize 
the First New Mexico Cavalry and was elected its first Colonel. Kit Carson was 
elected lieutenant-colonel. He was soon obliged, owing to poor health, to relinquish 
his command to the latter, with the consolation, however, that it would render a good 
account of itself. In this he was not disappointed. He continued to render valuable 
service to his country by keeping his mills grinding and supplying the various 
military posts of the Southwest with flour and other articles of subsistence. 


Col. St. Vrain, like many other sturdy men of the frontier, was long prepared in his 
heart to become a Freemason, before he had had an opportunity to knock at the door 
of a lodge. He had been intimately acquainted and more or less associated with men 
like Charles Bent, Dr. Dayid Waldo, James Kennedy, and Col. Dodge, who had long 
been members of the Order. He therefore presented himself for initiation March 22, 
1853; was passed April 16, 1853; and raised Jan. 28, 1855, receiving his degrees in 
Montezuma Lodge, No. 109, of the jurisdiction of Missouri, at Santa Fe. He demitted 
therefrom April 7, 1860, and together with Bros. Kit Carson, Peter Joseph, Ferdinand 
Maxwell, John M. Francisco, A. S. Ferris, and others he formed a lodge at Taos, 
under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Missouri, issued on the 1st day of June, 
1860. This lodge was known as Bent Lodge, No. 204. 


About the close of the Civil War, in order to better conduct his business for furnishing 
supplies to the Government, Col. St. Vrain moved to Mora, which was near Ft. 

Union, the principal military base of the Southwest. Col. James F. Meline, who 
visited New Mexico, in 1866, in his book entitled Two Thousand Miles on 
Horseback, in speaking of the Colonel, says: 


"Mora is the residence of Lieutenant-Colonel Ceran St. Vrain one of the most 
distinguished of the band of early pioneer traders and trappers— Bent, Kit Carson, 
Bridger, Maxwell-who survives. Colonel St. Vrain's wealth in land is very great, and 
he owns under a Spanish grant, one tract of land a hundred miles square, bounded by 
the Snowy Range, the Rio de las Animas and the Arkansas. St. Vrain was, with Kit 



Carson found on the side of his country in the hour of trouble, and threw the influence 
of his high personal character, great popularity, and immense wealth, in the scale of 
freedom against slavery." (pp. 109-110.) 


Here he spent the most of his declining years. We learn from Albert D. Richardson, in 
his Beyond the Mississippi that, "after accumulating an ample fortune (he) went to 
New York City with a determination of spending his days. But he found life there 
insupportable, and soon returned to New Mexico, vowing he would never leave it 
again." 


HE DIED IN 1870 He was gathered to his fathers Oct. 28, 1870. Speaking of his 
passing the Daily New Mexican, under date of Oct. 29, 1870, said: 


"DEATH OF CERAN ST. VRAIN 


"We received this morning, by telegraph, from Fort Union the painful intelligence, 
that Col. Ceran St. Vrain of Mora departed this life at six o'clock last night. 


"Col. St. Vrain came to New Mexico more than forty years ago and has been one of 
its most highly and respected and influential citizens ever since. Possessed of good 
education, fine natural abilities, the highest style of courtesy and very good energy 
and enterprise, he at once engaged in merchandising and manufacturing, by the 
legitimate profits of which he has accumulated a handsome property. His upright 
dealing, fairness and courteous treatment of all with whom he came in contact won 
him hosts of friends, who will sincerely sorrow at his death. 


"Every enterprise looking to the improvement of the country received willing and 
earnest support and sympathy from him, and many hundreds of honest poor men have 
been by him furnished with the means to start again, and repair the misfortunes of the 
past. In every part of this Territory there are men who will feel that in the death of 



Col. St. Vrain, not only has the country lost one of its best citizens, but that they have 
lost one of their truest and noblest personal friends. 


"To the friends of the deceased we tender our sincerest condolence and commend his 
virtues and enterprise to the imitation of his thousands of acquaintances in the 
Territory." 


The Rocky Mountain News of Denver, under date of Oct. 31, 1870, had this to say: 


"Ft. Union, Oct. 31, 1870. 


"Col. St. Vrain, the oldest pioneer of the Rocky Mountains died at his residence in 
Mora at six o'clock the 28th. The funeral took place on Sunday the 30th and was 
attended by Gen. Gregg and nearly all the officers of Ft. Union. Col. Starr of the 8th 
Cavalry with his troop acted as escort and the General and his staff as pall bearers. 
The regimental band furnished the music. He was buried by the Masons and as Col. 
of Volunteers with Military honor. Over 2,000 people were present. The Services 
were highly impressive." 


A monument was erected over his grave with Masonic emblems— square and 
compasses— but the writer has been informed by Bro. Z. S. Lonquevan, who for many 
years resided at Mora, that the Masonic emblems have been defaced. 


Freemasons should take pride in paying a tribute of respect and love to the memory of 
this worthy brother, who was bom a Spanish subject, of French extraction, and yet 
whose loyalty to the country which adopted him was the admiration of all who knew 
him. 



O 


The Walum Olum or Painted Record 


by Bro. Charles F. Irwin, Associate Editor, Pennsylvania 


THE beliefs and customs of the Red man are matters of deep interest to a great many 
American Masons, though the older and uncritical theories that a primeval form of 
Freemasonry existed among them is quite untenable. Bro. Irwin has drawn on the 
great store of material buried in forgotten books, and we hope that he may have 
something more to tell us later on. 


IN recent years there have appeared in the issues of THE BUILDER a number of 
articles upon the American Indian. This is a department of American Research which 
appeals to me as a field to be carefully investigated, seeing that it belongs to the soil 
of this great continent, and there is one department of such a study which presents to 
the student a fascinating path along which to travel. It is the legends of the prehistoric 
wanderings of the various stocks of Indian. And in these legends there is ever to be 
the possibility of clues to the still more remote and fascinating mystery: the races of 
prehistoric Americans known as the MOUND BUILDERS whose traces abide to this 
day in earthern mounds, circles, and in fortifications, together with animal and bird 
effigies. 


Generally speaking, there were four stocks of Indians in the United States: 


1. THE ALGONKIN FAMILY - They were a widespread family found stretching 
from Labrador in the northeast of the continent, westward through Canada to the 
Rockies and thence southward into the United States, thence eastward to the Atlantic 
seaboard from Maine to Florida. 



2. THE IROQUOIS FAMILY - They were found surrounding the Erie and Huron 
Lakes and through New York State, and eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. 


3. THE CREEK FAMILY - Under this general name were embraced in a general way 
all the Indians in southern United States, such as the Muskogees, Seminoles, Creeks, 
Chocktaws, etc. 


4. THE CHEROKEES - This family presents some unique features and should be 
studied apart from all the others. They were found in the states of Tennessee, 
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and later across the Father of Waters in Indian 
Territory and Oklahoma. 


In each of these four main groups there grew up a body of tradition and lore in the 
form of legends and rituals that all point back to prehistoric migrations. In some 
particulars these traditions overlap and wherever this occurs we are provided with 
points at which to make critical comparisons. They make it imperative to accept as 
fact that great movements of aborigines took place in the dim past over large stretches 
of the continental area. 


WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERINDIAN ? 


Accepting as fact that such tribal and national movements did take place, we are led 
at once to this consideration: whence did they come ? From what remote places did 
they depart and what were the routes they pursued in their migrations ? Did they meet 
with other peoples who were still earlier, that they found dwelling upon the soil of our 
country? If so, who were these peoples and whence did they spring ? We are 
restricted to narrow limits in conjecturing on these points. But by no means has the 
argument been mild. There have been two principal theories, first, that man is 
indigenous to the American soil and like Topsy "he just grew" here. That man 
emerged from the brute order into intelligence upon the western continent just as he 



did on the eastern hemisphere; and second, that man was not indigenous to the 
western soil but entered from other lands. 


The former theory has not had serious consideration by archaeologists while the latter 
has given rise to some interesting groups of ideas. For example, we find among a 
large group of French and Spanish writers the theory that migrations took place from 
Phoenicia via Africa and the lost continent of Atlantis, arriving on the shores of South 
America and in time spreading up through Central America into the northern 
continent. The adherents of this theory hold as one of their prime reasons that the 
remains of the prehistoric peoples show a higher state of development in Central 
America than they do in the United States, and that this indicates that the genius of 
the ancient peoples for some reason had deteriorated as time elapsed and their 
migrations carried them farther from the sources of their original culture. 


However, the theory that has appealed to the Nordic American supposes that in the 
dim past migrations took place from northern Europe via Iceland and Greenland, and 
that these Nordics took root in Labrador and northeastern America and in time spread 
to the west and south. An interesting offshoot of this theory has it that one chieftain of 
the Welsh, one Madoc, in the year 1 100 A. D. left the shores of Britain and landed on 
the eastern American coast, and proceeded gradually to the westward where in the 
18th and 19th Centuries their descendants, known as White or Welsh Indians, were to 
be found in the general territory of Oklahoma and Arkansas. There was heated 
controversy early in the 19th Century in the American press over this theory. It was, 
however, never seriously considered by American scholars. 


THE MIGRATION WAS FROM ASIA 


There remains but one more possible theory and that is that migrations took place at a 
remote time across the Behring Sea, or possibly on solid ground prior to some 
cataclysmic rupture of contact with Asia. Thence that they proceeded down the 
Pacific coast into American territory and grew strong in the Columbia River regions, 
whence the legendary migrations of the Indians proceeded. 



So much for these explanations of the Indian and his ancestry. There is one point in 
all these theories, and that is that sooner or later the migrations became a progress 
"toward the east". 


However the Indian entered the western world they were a migratory people 
compelled by economic, domestic, or political pressure to remove from one area to 
another and it was not until historic times that the bounds of the American Indians 
became fixed. And it is moreover true that there were certain national movements 
steadily to the eastward, or rising sun. The traditions of the Indians within continental 
United States all agree upon this point. There is one notable exception to this. The 
Cree Indians of Canada in their legend state that their forefathers came westward 
from Labrador - southwestward and westward. This series of legends stands out in 
bold contrast with the Algonkin and Iroquois and Cherokee legends. And this 
becomes more significant when you consider that the Cree and Chippeways belong to 
the Algonkin Family Stock. In fact, the language of the Crees is accepted by 
American archaeologists as the purest linguistic dialect of their parent stock. 


THE SCOPE OF THE ARTICLE DEFINED 


This study confines itself to the second of the four great Indian Stocks, namely, the 
Algonkin. This family was widespread: In Canada we find the Crees, Chippeways 
and Montagnais. In the United States, the Pottawottomies, Miami, Peoria, Pea, 
Piankashaw, Kaskaskia, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kicjapoo, Abnaki, Mogegan, 
Massachusetts, Shawnee, Minsi, Unami, Unalachtigo, Nanticoke, Powhatan, 
Blackfeet, Gros Ventres, and Cheyennes. In all these general groups we find certain 
linguistic, traditional and internal indications pointing to a common origin. 


Our means of information are several. 


1. The early Missionaries, such as Heckewelder and Loskiel of the Moravians; 
Brainerd of the New England Puritans; and the Jesuits of the Roman Church, rank 
among the first. 



2. The first explorers, traders, interpreters, and government agents. 


3. The records of conferences and treaties between Whites and the Redmen, at which 
time the Indians often referred to historical matters in arguing their claims to certain 
sections of the country, and in order to settle rank and precedence among the 
representatives of various Indian nations. 


Among the later archeologists, especially of the early 19th Century, there appears a 
man whose career and whose personality present some of the strangest aspects to be 
found among American scholars. I refer to Prof. G. S. Rafmesque. This interesting 
character was born in Galata of French parentage, Oct. 22, 1783. His father died 
while Rafmesque was quite young and consequently the responsibility of his training 
fell upon his mother. She permitted him very largely to work out his own career. In 
1802 Rafmesque came to the United States where he remained two years. In 1804 he 
sailed to Europe and settled in Sicily. Here he married and maintained an unhappy 
domicle until 1815, when he returned to the United States to make it his home, 
leaving his family behind him. He made Philadelphia his home, where, except for a 
short experience as Professor of History in Transylvania University in Kentucky, he 
pursued his erratic course until his death in 1 840 amid squalor, poverty and misery. 


Rafmesque early turned his attention to botany and became an expert in that science. 
His attainments, however, reached out into other departments of learning. He was a 
Latin and Greek scholar of parts, he was master of several modern languages, he was 
interested in the science of the time, and for a period posed as a medical practitioner. 


He accumulated a mass of manuscripts on diverse subjects, for he was an 
indefatigable worker. Many of these were lost in a shipwreck during his second ocean 
voyage to America, and after his death his remaining manuscripts were scattered and 
most of them lost. He seems to have been shunned by most of our leading scientists 
of the day, although he belonged to a number of their societies; however, Asa Gray 
took cognizance of some of his botanical papers and prepared a criticism of them. 



BAFINESQUE FIRST PUBLISHED THE PAINTED RECORD 


Now during the period that Rafmesque was on the staff of the University in 
Kentucky, he claims to have secured, in 1820, from a "Dr. Ward of Indiana" access to 
a number of wooden symbols or ideographs together with a manuscript on which 
were certain legends of the Lenni Lenape Indians. He seems to have done little with 
these discoveries until 1833, when he published what he called a translation of the 
ideographs and the Chants. He arranged these in three column series somewhat 
similar to the manner on the Rosseti Stone. He called his translation the "WALUM 
OLUM" or Painted Record of the Lenni Lenape Indians. 


This document consists, as has been said, of three columns. The first is a series of 
pictographs, the second of dialectic chants, and the third his own translation of the 
two into literal English. It purports to be a metrical legend of the migrations of these 
Indians in prehistoric times and of their contacts with other nations which are thus 
brought into view. It did not receive consideration to any considerable degree on the 
part of contemporaneous scholars until Squier secured possession of the original 
manuscripts and produced an independent copy of the pictographs, chants and 
translations which he incorporated in a paper he read before the New York Historical 
Society in 1849. Brinton, into whose hands the original manuscript had come 
subsequent to the death of Rafinesque, and who loaned them to Squier, has stated that 
Squier's copy of the symbols is very careless and in a number of places is inaccurate; 
also that his Indian chants wander from the original manuscript in several places. My 
own conclusion after close study of this point is that Brinton is the safest translator 
for the student to follow. 


I give at this time a brief example from each of the Cantos, producing the ideograph, 
metrical chant and literal English translation of the same. 


CANTO I 



This Canto deals with the Creation. There is considerable similarity to the Biblical 
record in this Canto. The surmise is made by several scholars that this is a proof of 
the recent origin of the legend and indicates the influence of the missionaries on the 
Indians. In rebuttal the widespread appearance of this legend wherever the Algonkin 
stock existed refutes this claim; in divergent form this legend existed in each of the 
subdivisions of the family. Moreover, Heckewelder gives us an enlarged version of 
the legend and this version corroborates the WALUM OLUM in most of its 
statements. In reply to this it is fair to state that charges are made that Rafmesque 
borrowed freely from the manuscripts of Heckewelder. Brinton seems inclined to 
believe that the legend is genuine although it may contain some influences of the 
missionaries. 


1 . Say ewitalli wemiguma wekgetaki. 


At the first-all- see water above land. 


2. Hackung kwelik owanaku wakyutali kitaneto-witessop. 


On the earth, an extended fog, and there the great Manito was. 


3. Sayewis hallemiwis nolemiwi elemamik kitanitewit essop. 


At, forever, lost in space, everywhere, the great Manito was. 


4. Sohalawak kwelik hakik owak awasagamak. 



He made the extended land and the sky. 


CANTO II 


From the II Canto, The Deluge: 


1 . Wulamo maskanako anup lennowak makowini esso-pak. 


Long ago there was a mighty snake and brings evil to men. 


2. Maskanako shingalusit nigini essopak shawelendamep eken shingalan. 


This mighty snake hated those who were there greatly disquieted those whom he 
hated. 


3. Nishawi palliton, nishawi machiton, nishawi matte lungundowin. 


They both did harm, they both injured each other, both were not at peace. 


4. Mattapewi wiki nihanlowit mekwazoan. 


The mighty snake firmly resolved to harm the men. 



CANTO III 


1. Pehella wtenk lennapewi tulapewini psakwiken woliwikignu wittank talli. 


After the rushing waters (had subsided) the Lenape of the turtle were close together in 
hollow houses, living together there. 


2. Topan-akpinep, winen-akpinep, kshakanakpinep, thupin akpinep. 


It freezes where they abode, it snows where they abode, it storms where they abode, it 
is cold where they abode. 


3. Lowankwamikek wulaton wtakan tihill kelik meshautang sill ewak. 


At the northern place, they speak favorably of mild,, cool, (lands) with many deer and 
buffaloes. 


4. Chintanes-sin powalessin peyachik wikhichik pok-wihil. 


As they journeyed, some being strong, some rich, they separated into housebuilders 
and hunters. 


CANTO IV 



1 . Wulamo linapioken manup shinaking. 


Long ago the fathers of the Lenape were at the land of spruce pines. 


2. Wapallenewa sittamaganat yukepechi wemima. 


Hitherto the Bald Eagle band had been the pipe-bearer. 


3. Akhomenis michihaki welaki kundokanup. 


While they were searching for the Snake Island, that great and fine land. 


4. Angomelchik elowichik elmusichik menalting. 


They having died, the hunters, about to depart, met together. 


CANTO V 


1. Wemilangundo wulamo talk talegaking. 


All was peaceful, long ago, there at the Talega land. 



2. Tamaganend sakimanep wapalaneng. 


The Pipe-Bearer was chief at the White River. 


59. Wonwihil lowashawa wapayachik. 


At this time, from the north and south the whites came. 


60. Langomuwak kitohatewa ewenikiktit. 


They are peaceful, they have great things who are they? 


From these fragments the reader will discover that we have a very important 
document that reaches back beyond the discovery of America by Europeans and that 
touches very closely upon the era of that mysterious people who inhabited the 
American continent in primeval days. 


The WALUM OLUM frequently refers to a race, as the "Tellegwi". According to the 
account, this people occupied the central portion of the continent - where now the 
states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are found. They also stretched well into 
Pennsylvania. 


The remains of their name is found in the Allegheny Mountains aid River. The 
Tellegwi were a warlike race, possessing considerable civilization, cultivating their 
fields, with highways and walled cities. Scientific investigations carried on by the 



Ohio Archaeological Society have recovered to us considerable of the domestic and 
cultural life of this lost people. The Lenape legend ascribed to them these qualities 
and declares that the Iroquois nation and themselves joined hands and for years 
fought bitterly with the Tellegwi and at last expelled them from their homes and 
country and drove them southward down the Ohio Valley. There are reasons for 
believing that the Cherokee Indians are the lineal descendants of these Tellegwi, and 
if so, are the genuine First Families of America. 


The Walum Olum supplies the American archeologist with a text which, 
supplemented by other aboriginal documents, furnishes us with considerable 
information as to the beliefs of the ancient American Algonkin stock. 


The Indian of that day had a trinity of objects of worship: Light, Winds, Totemic 
Animals. 


LIGHT WAS WORSHIPPED 


They worshipped the Light. They did this under three forms: the Sun, Fire, and the 
Hare. 


Brainerd, "Life and Journal," says "Others imagined the sun to be the only deity, and 
that all things were made by him." 


Among their festivals, the fifth was held in honor of "fire." They personified fire and 
called it "the grandfather of all Indian Nations." They assigned to it twelve divine 
assistants, represented by so many actors in the ceremony. This has very clear 
reference to the twelve moons or months of the year, the fire being a type of the 
heavenly blaze - the sun. [See Loskiel, Geschichte, etc.] Both sun and fire were 
material emblems of the mystery of Light. Out in the Fair Grounds at Newark, Ohio, 
is found one of the remarkable enclosures of the Mound Builders. It has but one 



opening. In the center of the immense enclosure is the dirt effigy of some great 
winged creature. It is flying straight toward this one opening. In the summer of 1917 
my family gypsied with our auto through southern Ohio and we encamped in this 
enclosure over night. At daybreak my children stood on the top of the effigy and 
looked across its body toward that one opening and discovered they were gazing 
straight at the sun as it rose over the eastern hills. 


The son and fire became the body or fountain of deity [Brainerd], Something "all 
light," a being in whom the earth and all things in it may be seen, a "great man, 
clothed with the day, yea, with the brightest day, a day of many years, a day of 
everlasting continuance." Light was also worshipped under the symbol of the Hare. 
[Brinton.] The Delawares applied to the Hare the appellation "Grandfather of the 
Indians." [Loskiel.] Like the fire, the hare was considered their ancestor, in both Light 
was meant, their word for "hare" was identical with their word for “brightness and 
light.” Now the “Light” worship among the Delaware Indians has an immediate 
bearing on several points in the Walum Olum. No compounds are more frequent in 
that document than those with the root signifying "light", "brightness". 


WORSHIP GIVEN TO THE FOUR CARDINAL WINDS 


The Indians worshipped the four cardinal points. This worship was parallel with that 
of Light and very probably was a part of it. These four cardinal points appear as the 
four winds, they bring the rain and sunshine, they rule over the weather. Brainerd 
observes "after the strictest inquiry respecting their notions of the Deity, I find that in 
ancient times before the coming of the white people, some supposed there were four 
invisible powers who presided over the four corners of the earth." 


BELIEF HELD IN THE SOUL IMMORTALITY 


They had a general belief in a soul, spirit, or immaterial part of man. Their words for 
soul were: 



tschipey - root - to be separate or apart, 
tschitschank - root - the shadow. 


After death the soul went south. It enjoyed here a happy life for a certain term of 
years, then could return and be born again into the world. In certain ecstasies this soul 
had power to recall its former existences, both mundane and purgatorial. 


Thus we learn that the Aboriginal American, especially of the Algonkin stock, had 
dim memories of an exceedingly ancient lineage, extending over vast reaches of land 
and sea; he had developed a religious cult that found place for the invisible forces of 
the spiritual world. God had a meaning to him and he found in himself a spiritual 
nature. Moreover, he projected life beyond the limits of the physical world and 
discovered certain great virtues inherent in his cosmogony. As time stretches out, the 
origins of man on the American continents will appeal increasingly to the 
archaeologist. Trend of opinion is assigning to him more ancient epochs than was 
formerly granted. Meanwhile, the student of American life will find it profitable to 
investigate the legends of these Lenape Indians and their observations recorded by 
early whites who lived among them. 


Squier's paraphrase of the Walum Olum, as found in Drake's Aboriginal Races of 
North America, is given here at length. 


CANTO I. The Creation 


1 . At the first there were great waters above all the land. 

2. And above the waters were thick clouds, and there was God the Creator. 

3. The first being, eternal, omnipotent, invisible, was God the Creator. 



4. He created vast waters, great lands, and much air and heaven; 

5. He created the sun the moon, and the stars; 

6. He caused them all to move well 

7. By His power He made the winds to blow, purifying, and the deep waters to run 
off. 

8. All was made bright and the islands were brought into being 

9. Then again God the Creator made the great Spirits, 

10. He made also the first beings, angels and souls 

1 1 . Then made He a man being, the father of men 

12. He gave him the first mother, the mother of the early bom 

13. Fishes gave He him, turtles, beasts and birds. 

14. But the Evil Spirit created evil beings, snakes and monsters 

15. He created vermin and annoying insects. 

16. Then were all beings friends. 

17. There being a good God, all spirits were good - 

18. The beings, the first men, mothers, wives, little spirits also. 

19. Fat fruits were the food of the beings and the little spirits: 

20. All were then happy, easy in mind, and pleased. 

2 1 . But then came secretly on earth the snake (evil) god, the snake-priest and snake 
worship. 

22. Came wickedness, came unhappiness, 

23 . Came then bad weather, disease and death. 

24. This was all very long ago, at our early home. 



CANTO II. The Deluge 


1. Long ago came the powerful serpent (maskanako), when men had become evil. 

2. The strong serpent was the foe of the beings, and they became embroiled, hating 
each other. 

3. Then they fought and despoiled each other, and were not peaceful. 

4. And the small men (mattapewi) fought with the keeper of the dead. 

5. Then the strong serpent resolved all men and beings to destroy immediately. 

6. The black serpent, monster, brought the snake-water rushing, everywhere 
destroying. 

7. The wide waters rushing, wide to the hills, everywhere spreading, everywhere 
destroying. 

8. At the island of the turtle (Tula) was Manabozho, of men and beings the 
grandfather - 

9. Being born creeping, at turtle land he is ready to move and dwell. 

10. Men and beings all go forth on the flood of waters, moving 18 afloat everyway 
seeking the back of the turtle (tulapin). 

1 1 . The monsters of the sea were many, and destroyed some of them. 

12. Then the daughter of a spirit helped them in a boat and all joined, saying, come 
help! 

13. Manabozho, of all beings, of men and turtles, the grandfather! 

14. All together on the turtle then, the men then, were all together. 

15. Much frightened, Manabozho prayed to the turtle that he would make all well 
again. 



16. Then the waters ran off, it was dry on mountain and plain and the great evil went 
elsewhere by the path of the cave. 


CANTO III. Migrations 


1. After the flood the true men (lennapwi) were with the turtle in the cave house. 

2. It was then cold, it froze and stormed, and 

3. From the northern plain, they went to possess milder lands, abounding in game. 

4. That they might be strong and rich, the newcomers divided the lands between the 
hunters and tillers (wickhichik, elowichik ) . 

5. The hunters were the strongest, the best, the greatest. 

6. They spread north, east, south, and west. 

7. In the white, or snow country (lumowaki), the north country, the turtle land and the 
hunting country, were the turtle men, or Linapiwi. 

8. The Snake (evil) people being afraid in their cabins, the snake priest (Nakopowaj 
said to them, let us go away. 

9. Then they went to the east, the snake land sorrowfully leaving. 

10. Thus escaped the snake people, but the trembling and burned land to their strong 
island (Akomenaki). 

1 1 . Free from oppressors, and without trouble, the Northlings (Lowaniwi) all went 
forth separating in the land of snow ( Winiaken ) . 

12. By the waters of the open sea, the sea of fish, tarried the fathers of the white-eagle 
(tribe?) and the white wolf. 

13. Our fathers were rich; constantly sailing in their boats, they discovered to the 
eastward the Snake island. 



14. Then said the Head-beaver (Wihlamok) and the Greatbird, let us go to the Snake 
land. 

15. All responded, let us go and annihilate the snakes. 

16. All agreed, the northlings, the easterlings, to pass the frozen waters. 

17. Wonderful! They all went over the waters of the hard, stony sea, to the open snake 
waters. 

18. In vast numbers, in a single night, they went to the eastern or Snake island; all of 
them marching by night in the darkness. 

19. The northlings, the easterlings, the southerlings ( Shawanapi), the Beaver-men 
(Tamakwapis), the Wolf men, the Hunters or best men, the priests (Powatapi), the 
wiliwapi, with their wives and daughters and their dogs. 

20. They all arrived at the land of Firs (Shinaking), where they tarried, but the 
western men (Wunkenapi) hesitating, desired to return to the old turtle land 
(Tulpaking). 


CANTO IV. Chronicle 


1. Long ago, our fathers were at Shinaki, or Fir land. 


2. The White Eagle (Wapalanewa) was the path leader of all to this place. 


3. They searched the great and fine land, the island of the snakes. 


4. The hardy hunters and the friendly spirits met in council. 



5. And all said to Kalawil (Beautiful Head): be thou chief ( sakima ) here. 


6. Being chief he commanded they should go against the snakes. 


7. But the Snakes were weak and hid themselves at the Bear Hills. 


8. After Kalawil, Wapagokhas (White Owl) was sakima at Fir land. 


9. After him Jantowit (Maker) was chief. 


10. And after him Chilili (Snowbird) was sakima. The south, he said - 


1 1. To our fathers, they were able, spreading, to possess. 


12. To the south went Chilili; to the east went Tamakwi. 


13. The Southland (Shawanaki) was beautiful, shoreland abounding in tall firs. 


14. The East Land (Wapanaki) abounded in fish, it was the lake and buffalo land. 


15. After Chilili, Agamek (Great Warrior) was chief. 



16. Then our fathers warred against the robbers, Snakes, bad men, and strong men, 
Chikonapi, Akhonapi, Makatopi, Assinapi. 


17. After Agamek came ten chiefs and then were many wars south, east, and west. 


18. After them was Langundowi (the Peaceful) sakima, at the Aholaking (Beautiful 
land). 


19. Following him Tasukamend (Never bad), who was a good and just man. 


20. The chief after him was Pemaholend (Ever beloved), who did good. 


21. Then Matemik (Town builder) and Pilwihalen. 


22. And after these in succession, Gunokeni, who was father long, and Mangipetak 
(Big Teeth). 


23 . Then followed Olumapi (Bundle of sticks), who taught them pictures (records) 


24. Came then Takwachi (Who shivers with cold), who went southward to the Corn 
land (Minihaking). 


25. Next was Huminiend (Corn eater), who caused corn to be planted. 



26. Then Alko-ohit (The Preserver), who was useful. 


27. Then Shiwpowi (Salt man) and afterwards Penkwonowi (The Thirsty) when 


28. There was no rain, and no com, and he went to the east far from the great river or 
shore. 


29. Passing over a hollow mountain (Oligonunk) they at last found food at 
Shililaking, the plains of the buffalo-land. 


30. After Penkwonowi, came Mekwoehella (the Weary), and Chingalsawi (the Stiff). 


3 1 . After him, Kwitikwund (the Reprover), who was disliked and not willingly 
endured. 


32. Being angry, some went to the eastward, and some went secretly afar off. 


33. The wise tarried, and made Makaholend (the Beloved) chief. 


34. By the Wisawana (Yellow River) they built towns, and raised corn on the great 
meadows. 


35. All being friends, Tamenend (the Amiable) lit beaverlike, became the first chief. 



36. The best of all, then or since, was Tamenend, and all men were his friends. 


37. After him was the good chief, Wapikicholen (White Crane). 


38. And then Wingenund (the Mindful or Wary), who made feasts. 


39. After him came Lapawin (the White) and Wallama (the Painted ) and 


40. Waptiwapit (White Bird), when there was war again, north and south. 


41. Then was Tamaskan (Strong Wolf) chief, who was wise in council, and 


42. Who made war on all, and killed Maskensini (Great Stone). 


43. Messissuwi (the Whole) was next chief, and made war on the Snakes (Akowini). 


44. Chitanwulit (Strong and Good) followed, and made war on the northern enemies 
(Lowanuski). 


45. Alkouwi (the Lean) was next chief, and made war on the Father-snakes 
(Towakon). 


46. Opekasit (East Looking) being next chief, was sad because of so much warfare. 



47. Said, let us go to the sunrising (Wapagishek), and many went east together. 


48. The great river (Missussipi) divided the land, and being tired, they tarried there 


49. Yagawanend (Hut Maker) was next sakima, and then the Tallegwi were found 
possessing the east. 


50. Followed Chitanitis (Strong Friend), who longed for the rich eastland. 


51. Some went to the east, but the Tallegwi killed a portion. 


52. Then all of one mind exclaimed, war! war! 


53. The Talmaton (Not of Themselves) and the Nitilowan all go united (to the war). 


54. Kinnehopend (Sharp Looking) was their leader, and they went over the river. 


55. And they took all that was there, and despoiled and slew the Tallegwi. 


56. Pimokhasuwi (Stirring About) was next chief, and then the Tallegwi were much 
too strong. 



57. Teuchekensit (Open Path) followed, and many towns were given up to him. 


58. Paganchihilla was chief and the Tallegwi all went southward. 


59. Hattanwulaton (the Possessor) was sakima, and all the people were pleased. 


60. South of the lakes they settled their council fire, and north of the lakes were their 
friends the Talamaton (Huron?). 


61. They were not always friends, but conspired when Gunitakan was chief. 


62. Next was Linniwolamen who made war of the Talamaton. 


63. Shakagapewi followed, and then the Talamatons trembled. 


CANTO V 


1. All were peaceful long ago, at the land of the Tallegwi. 


2. Then was Tamaganenu (weaver Leader) chief at the White River. 


3. Wapushuwi (White Lynx) followed and much corn was planted. 



4. After came Walichinik, and the people became very numerous. 


5. Next was Lekhitin, and made many records (Walum Olum) or painted sticks. 


6. Followed Kolachnisen (Blue Bird), at the place of much fruit or food. 


7. Pematalli was chief over many towns. 


8. And Pepomahemen (Paddler), at many waters (or the great waters). 


9. And Tankawon (Little Cloud) was chief, and many went away. 


10. The Nentegos and the Shawanis went to the southward 


1 1 . Kichitamak (Big Beaver) was chief at the White Lick. 


12. The Good Prophet (Onowatok) went to the west. 


13. He visited those who were abandoned there and at the southwest. 


14. Pawanami (Water Turtle) was chief at the Talegahonah ( Ohio ) river. 



15. Lakwelend (Walker) was next chief, and there was much warfare. 


16. Against the Towako (Father Snakes), against the Sinako (Stone or Mountain 
Snakes), and against the I,owako (North Snakes). 


17. Then was Mokolmokoni (Grandfather-of-boats) chief, and he warred against the 
snakes in boats. 


18. Winelowich (Snow Hunter) was the chief at the north land. 


19. And Likwekinuk (Sharp Seer) was chief at the Allegheny Mountains 
(Talegachukang). 


20. And Wapalawikwon (East Settler) was chief east of the Tallegwi land. 


2 1 . Large and long was the east land; 


22. It had no enemies (snakes) and was a rich and good land. 


23. And Gikenopolat (Great Warrior) was chief towards the north. 


24. And Hanaholend (Stream Lover) at the branching stream (Saswihanang, or 
Susquehanna). 



25. And Gattawisi (the Fat) was sakima at the Sassafras land. 


26. All were hunters from the big Salt Water (Goshikshapipek), to the again sea. 


27. Maklinawip (Red Arrow) was chief at tide- water. 


28. And Wolomenap was chief at the strong falls. 


29. And the Wapanend and the Tumewand were to the north. 


30. Walitpollot (Good Fighter) was chief, and set out against the north. 


3 1 . Then trembled the Mahongwi (The Iroquois) and the Pungelika (Lynx-like or 
Eries). 


32. Then the second Tamenend (Beaver) was chief and he made peace with all 


33. And all were friends, all united under this great chief 


34. After him was Kichitamak (Great-good-beaver) chief in the Sassafras land. 



35. Wapahaky (White Body) was chief at the seashore. 


36. Elangonel (the Friendly) was chief, and much good was done. 


37. And Pitemunen was chief, and people came from somewhere. 


38. At this time from the east came that which was white (vessels?). 


39. Makelomuch was chief and made all happy. 


40. Wulakeningus was next chief, and was a warrior at the south. 


4 1 . He made war on the Otaliwako (Cherokee snakes or enemies) and upon the 
Akowetako (Coweta snakes). 


42. Wapagamoski (White Otter) was next chief, and made the Talamatons friends. 


43. Wapashum followed and visited the land of Tallegwi at the west. 


44. There were the Hiliniki (Illinois?), the Shawani, and the Kenowiki. 


45. Nitispayat was also chief and went to the great lakes. 



46. And he visited the Wemiamik (Beaver Children, or Miamis) and made them 
friends. 


47. Then came Rackimitzin (Cranberry-eater), who made the Tawa (Ottawas) friends. 


48. Lowaponska was chief and visited the Noisy place 


49. And Tashawinso was chief at the seashore 


50. Then the children divided into three parts, the Unamini (Turtle tribe), the 
Minsimini (Wolf tribe), the Chikimini (Turkey tribe). 


5 1 . Epallahohund was chief, and fought the Mahongwim, but failed. 


52. Laugomuwi was chief, and the Mahongwi trembled. 


53. Waugomend was chief, yonder between 


54. The Otawili and Wasiotowi were his enemies 


55. Wapachikis (White Crab) was chief, and a friend of the shore people. 



56 Nenachipat was chief towards the sea. 


57 Now from the north and south came the Wapagachik (White comers). 


58. Professing to be friends, in big birds (ships), who are they? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BRINTON: Lenave and Their Legends. 


BRINTON: Library of Aboriginal American Literature. Vol. 5. 1885. Phila. 


BEACH: Indian Migrations in his "Indian Miscellany." 


Halo: Indian Migrations as Evidenced by Language. 1883. Chicago. 


LACOMBE: Dictionnaire de la langue des Cries. 1874. Montreal. 


HOWSE: A Grammar of the Cree Language. 1842. London. 


SHEA: Province of Maryland. George Alsop. 



SHEA: American Historical Magazine. Vol. 2. 


Guss: Early Indian History on the Susquehanna. 1883. Harrisburg. 


HECKEWELDER: History of Indian Nations. 


JONES: History of Objibway Nation. 


JONES: Relation des Jesuits 1637. 


HAYWOOD: Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee. 1823. Nashville. 


LOSKIEL: Geschichte des Missions. 


ETTWEIN: Traditions and Language of the Indian Nations. 1788. 


DRUMMOND: Articles in American Philosophical Association. 1872. 


DRUMMOND: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 


BRUNNER: The Indians of Berks Co., Penna. 1881. Reading. 



RICHARDSON: John Richardson's Diary. 1844. London. 


SCHOOLCRAFT: History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes. 


DE SCHWEINTZ: Life of Zeisberger. 


WILLIAMS: Key Into the Language of America. 


ADAIR. History of the Indians 


BRINTON: Myths of the New World. 


BRAINERD: Life and Journal. 


BRAINERD: Pennsylvania Historical Society Bulletins. 1848. 


HARRISON: A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio. 1838. 


GALLATIN: Transactions American Antiquity. 


DRAKE: Aboriginal Races of North America. 



O 


The Claims of the Modern Operatives 


BY BRO. R.J. MEEKREN 


THIS article was partly written two years ago at the request of Bro. Haywood, while 
the author was in England where he had the privilege of seeing and hearing a good 
deal at first hand on the subject. It has been completed with a view to presenting the 
other side of the case so ably advocated by Bro. Springett in his article that appeared 
in the August and September numbers of The Builder, Bro. Wonnacott very kindly 
furnishing additional information for this purpose, and permission to use his name. 


SOME time within the first decade of the present century, I put it thus indefinitely for 
so far I have not been able to leam exactly when or how the first announcement was 
made, the members of the Craft in England were intrigued by statements that lodges 
of Operative Masons were still in existence, and working the original initiatory rites 
as handed down from a remote past. 


Clement Stretton, a north of England Civil Engineer, claimed to be one of the three 
chief masters of this organization. Dr. Carr became one of his disciples, and wrote his 
descriptive pamphlet, The Ritual of the Operative Freemasons, and later Dr. Merz in 
this country published Guild Masonry in the Making, while John Yarker acted in 
support by various statements and references in certain of his works. The claims made 
by these brethren were naturally heard with mingled feelings by Masonic scholars. It 
is not easy to mentally adjust oneself to facts that appear to undermine the very 
presuppositions of all one's previous work. An analogous case in science was the 
discovery of radio-activity, which necessitated an entire revision of the accepted 
physical hypotheses and an abandonment of the older theory of indestructible and 
inert atoms as the substratum of matter. 



The first impulse, and a perfectly normal and sane one, is to doubt such alleged 
discovery, and to put it to the most searching tests. This Masonic students did with 
the claims of the "Operative" Masons: yet on the other hand they showed a perfect 
willingness to be convinced, and many of them took a great deal of trouble, and were 
willing to agree to any possible conditions that might be laid down for an examination 
of the records said to be in the possession of the Operative Society. In short, it cannot 
be said that these claims met with an intolerant or prejudiced examination; and if the 
weight of Masonic scholarship has finally rejected them it is due to a continued 
refusal, or inability, to produce any tangible evidence. It is certainly curious that not 
only have the ritual secrets of the Guild been communicated freely to Speculative 
Masons, but in the works of the brethren above mentioned they have been published 
to the world at large, so far as it may be interested; while inspection of minute books 
and accounts has been consistently refused on various pretexts. 


THE CLAIMS MADE BY THE OPERATIVES 


It may be as well to recapitulate the more or less official statements and claims of the 
modern Operative or Guild Masons, the full title of whose society is "The Worshipful 
Society of Freemasons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviors, Plaisterers and 
Bricklayers." 


It may be noted, by the way, that while the name of the society indicates that it 
includes all these occupations connected with building yet apparently only the stone 
masons are actually admitted into the lodges, though Carr does say that a Fellow will 
exchange the apprentice grip with a bricklayer, but will go no further. The operative 
craft, according to the accounts given, is divided into two, the arch and square 
masons, and a man must belong to one or other exclusively, except that the masters 
are free of both, and form the link that unites the two branches into one organization, 
for the lodges of the lower degrees are separate for each. The Apprentice is not 
considered a member of the society, though obligated and entrusted with certain ritual 
secrets. When he has served his time he becomes a Fellow, from which degree he 
may advance to Super-Fellow, and from that to Super-Fellow Erector. Then he may 
become a Superintendent and after that a Passed Master. From the Passed Masters on 
is annually chosen to be one (the junior) of the three Masters who rule the society. 



This position is filled annually, the second and third Masters holding office for life or 
until they retire. 


The ceremonies of the first grade correspond to those of Entered Apprentice in 
Speculative Masonry, and Fellow to the Fellow Craft. Super-Fellow and Erector 
parallel Speculative Mark Masonry, while the degree of Master Mason is said to be 
an imitation of the annual ceremonies connected with the election and installation of 
the Third Master, who is said to represent H.A.B., only the ceremony is used to retire 
the occupant of the office at the end of his term and give an occasion to install his 
successor, instead of being an initiation into a higher grade. From the accounts given 
us there is one idea specially worked out in the ritual of each of the first four grades, 
which is that the candidate is made to emblematically represent the stone, in its rough 
and polished states and as marked and set in its place in the building. 


The Operatives give a very detailed account of the origin of present day Speculative 
Masonry. They lay all the blame on Dr. Anderson, who it would seem, poor man, has 
still another set of sins to answer for in addition to those that have been laid at his 
door by modern scholars, of unreliability in his historical accounts and his liberalizing 
tendencies in religion. By this account he was Chaplain to the old Fodge of St. Paul's 
(this same account, by the way, is the authority that there was such a lodge) and that 
he irregularly admitted sundry gentlemen as honorary members of the Craft. For this 
he was expelled, and in consequence proceeded to set up a Speculative lodge in 
conjunction with those whom he had irregularly introduced (who included, it is said, 
Dr. Desaguliers, Sayer and George Payne) and from this clandestine Speculative 
lodge the Grand Fodge of 1717 shortly after arose. Dr. Carr says: 


"In 1717, under the influence of Dr. Anderson and his friends, some Operative 
Freemasons with some of these non-Operative, Accepted or Speculative Freemasons, 
belonging to four lodges in Fondon, met and formed the first Grand Fodge, a 
combination in which Speculative Masonry instead of Operative Masonry was the 
primary consideration. Architecture and Operative tools became symbolical, but the 
ritual was based on the Ritual of the old Operative Society, of which, indeed, it was 
largely a reproduction. 



"The Apprentice Degree and the Fellow Craft Degree were founded on the 
corresponding degrees of the Operative System. 


"Later on, when a Master's Degree— not a Master of a lodge, but a Master Mason— was 
added, Anderson and his friends invented a ceremony based on the Operatives' 

Annual Festival of Oct. 2, commemorating the slaying of Hiram Abiff at the building 
of King Solomon's Temple. 


"The real Secrets and real Ritual of the Operative Master's Degree could not be given, 
as but few knew them, namely, only those who had actually been one of the three 
Masters, Seventh Degree, by whom the Operatives were ruled, and Anderson had 
certainly not been one of these; his function having been that of Chaplain, although it 
is quite possible he had been admitted an Accepted member of the Craft some years 
previously in Scotland." 


Now of course if Operative Masonry did consist of a two-branched seven-degree 
organization, and if Sir Christopher Wren was chief Master of the lodge that built St. 
Paul's Cathedral when Anderson was Chaplain, then this account might be accepted; 
but as this complicated organization of the Craft is one of the very points at issue it 
must be held in doubt till the matter is decided. 


THE OPERATIVE CONTENTIONS CRITICIZED 


There are three lines of criticism which may be followed. The strictly historical is 
one. The time and occasion when modern Operative Masonry was first heard of, the 
development of its claims, the attempts of qualified students to find out more about it, 
the constant evasions of Bro. Stretton, and his refusal to meet direct, straightforward 
inquiries concerning the alleged continuous records. There is in the possession of Bro. 
Wonnacott, Grand Librarian of the United Grand Lodge of England, a collection of 
letters from Stretton to a prominent member of the Craft now deceased, covering a 
period of about five years. In these letters one can see a gradual evolution of the 
claims and characteristics of the Guild organization; to use Bro. Wonnacott' s own 



phrase, one "can almost see it grow"; and by comparing dates, it is even possible to 
see what books Stretton had been reading. In one important point he flatly 
contradicted himself. One of the earlier letters gives a long, circumstantial, half- 
jocular, account of the initiation of the landlady of a public house where the meetings 
were held, into the first degree, so that she could be free to enter the lodge with 
refreshments when required. As the Operative ritual requires the candidate to be 
stripped naked this was somewhat embarrassing, as Stretton was at pains to explain. 
Some years later he repudiates the idea that ever under any circumstances could a 
woman be admitted. Masonic students in England are personally aware of all these 
circumstances and so far it has not seemed to them worth while to actually collect the 
facts concerning these claims. But for the coming generation, and for those at a 
distance it would be well if some qualified brother should take this task in hand. 


Another line of approach is through a criticism of the Operative ritual itself in the 
light of all the facts known about the Speculative ritual forms, and a third would be a 
consideration from a technical point of view of the alleged Operative trade secrets and 
methods of planning and laying out buildings. To deal with these two aspects of the 
question we need no more evidence than is furnished by the writings of the partizans 
of the Operative claims. 


We may start with the title itself. We have already pointed out the contradiction 
between a Society of Rough Masons, Plasterers, Bricklayers and others that does not 
admit any man of these trades to more than a first degree, which is expressly stated to 
be exterior (that is, the apprentice is not a member of the Society) so that though the 
Slater or Pavior may be given the apprentice grip and word he does not really belong. 
Bro. Merz in his Guild Masonry in the Making alludes to a number of instances of 
Guilds or Companies composed of a group of crafts including masons. He also gives 
in full the charter given by the Bishop of Durham to a Guild in that city in 1638. The 
curious thing in this (it is not a charter of constitution, but of confirmation) is that in 
the preamble it speaks of the Society having formerly existed under the name of 
Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaytors, Pavers, Playsterers and Bricklayers— the title is 
mentioned twice, the second time to say that "from henceforth and hereafter" it is to 
be "in deed and name one body politiq ppetuall and incorporate by the name of the 
Company society and fellowship of freemasons, roughmasons, wallers, etc." That is 
the freemasons are from thenceforward to be a part of this civic corporation. How this 
can be evidence of any esoteric organization is hard to see. All such guilds and 
companies composed of like (and in some cases unlike) occupations were formed for 



purely local and sectional reasons, to make rules for the occupations concerned, to 
inspect work done and, especially, to prevent the employment of "furriners," men 
without the freedom of the city. Again all the old MS. Constitutions insist that there 
must be no consorting with roughmasons or layers— probably much the same class of 
workmen as wallers, yet according to the modem Guild rules they are allowed to 
enter as apprentices. Yet the old "Charges" are claimed as being really Guild 
documents ! They certainly are operative documents, but the assumption of the term 
operative by a modern organization gives the latter no claim on them except by 
confusion of thought. 


WERE THERE SEVEN DEGREES? 


The next point is the hierarchy of seven grades or degrees. We must all heartily agree 
with Bro. Merz that the medieval Masons could have devised and worked a seven 
degree ritual, but the question is not whether they had the ability but whether they 
actually did so. If the modem Operatives did not appeal to the Old Charges and the 
other records of the Craft we could have little to say, for it is hard to prove a negative. 
Such an organization might have existed, might have been perpetuated, but it would 
be something quite other than the organization that we know did exist. But if they 
bring the records of this last as evidence for their claims it seems they can only be 
disallowed, for the Mason craft of which we have documentary knowledge possessed 
three ranks and two grades, or if not two then only one. This last is to some extent 
still an open question— but the bearing is the same, however decided. There were three 
ranks known— the Masters, employing other men, the Fellows and the Apprentices. In 
degree, either all ranks were included in one esoteric grade or the Apprentice grade 
was one step and Master or Fellow another. 


DEGREE TITLES SOUND MODERN 


The titles of the seven Operative degrees give the impression of modernity rather than 
antiquity. SuperFellow and Super-Fellow Erector are very clumsy titles— not such as 
would stand the wear and tear of centuries. A "banker" or "setter", a "layer", "cutter", 
or "carver" are terms that could be and have been used. But the prefix "super" applied 



to fellow is not easy to say, it does not run smoothly. It also suggests some forgotten 
side degrees of the middle eighteenth century Speculatives, such as Super-excellent 
Master, a much more euphonious title, by the way, than Superfellow, though it has 
been practically discarded for the more sonorous Most-excellent. The sixth grade is 
called Passed Master, which composes the body of Harodim. Passed or Past Master is 
a simple, smooth sounding phrase that might be of any age, only there is no evidence 
in any documentary record that it was actually used until after the crucial year of 1 7 1 7 
and the formation of the Speculative organization. So far as can be gathered it meant 
(however spelled) either one whom we would call a Past Master, or what we intend 
when we say one has been raised a Master. The terms pass and raise were at first used 
indiscriminately for either or both the Speculative degrees of Fellowcraft and Master 
Mason. Harodim is again a curious term. It is not impossible, of course, that it might 
have been used in medieval times, but it is quite certain that we first hear of it in 
connection with Speculative Masonry. It sounds very much like a bit of the learned 
pedantry that marked the period in which the latter was organized. Until some record 
of its previous use can be adduced it rather points to modern invention than 
immemorial usage. 


In the actual ceremonies themselves as they have been described to us there are many 
minor points that seem to indicate an evolution from the Speculative ritual used in 
England at the present time. Some of these points indeed are even used by the 
supporters of the "Guild" claims as evidence for their contention. The mere fact of 
resemblance proves nothing one way or the other, nor does it follow that the more 
developed is necessarily the original, it may be an evolution from the simpler form. 
For instance, Bro. Carr in a paper read before the Author's Lodge (1) makes a point of 
the fact that in an Operative masters lodge three mountains intimately connected with 
Hebrew history are referred to, Moriah, Tabor and Sinai. Then he observes that in the 
special form of opening the lodge in the English Grand and Provincial Grand Lodges 
the Grand Wardens are said to have their stations on Tabor and Sinai respectively. 

The argument is that because the Speculative ritual does not go on to place the Grand 
Master on Moriah this ceremony is an imperfect reflection of the Operative form. So 
it might be if there were nothing else to consider. But when we remember that this 
Tabor, Sinai form is peculiar to England, and that it is restricted to Grand Lodge, we 
have to hesitate, because to fully appraise the problem we must remember that other 
Speculative ritual traditions are of equal value to the post Union ritual of England, if 
indeed they are not of even greater weight, when we are trying to work back to early 
eighteenth century forms. Briefly we know that the oldest catechisms referred to high 
hills and to the Valley of Jehosaphat. This was quite sufficient to have been the germ 
of the Grand Lodge formula and the Operative addition could have well been a still 



further evolution, put in conjunction with their method of placing the officers in just 
the opposite positions to those they have in Speculative Masonry, that is WestEast- 
North instead of East- West- South. But all the earliest ritual evidence, which must 
almost certainly take us behind the supposed Andersonian innovations, goes to show 
that the Master's place was always East and the Warden's (for at first there seems, at 
least in some places, only to have been one) in the West. 


OTHER POINTS CRITICIZED 


In the Operative system a great deal is made of the great secret of the 3-4-5 sided 
triangle, and each of the three Masters has a rod of proportionate length, so that with 
the three such a triangle can be made. This Operative grade is equated with the Royal 
Arch. In the English form of this degree each of the three principal officers bears a 
scepter, and at a certain point in the ceremonies a triangle is formed with them, an 
equilateral triangle. Here again just from these facts alone the derivation might have 
been one way or the other. The Operative theory is that the Speculative ritual framers 
had a vague inkling of the formation of a triangle but did not know its significance. 
But we know, curiously enough through Bro. Yarker himself who laboriously made a 
beautifully written copy for the Library of the Grand Lodge of England and another 
for Quatuor Coronati Lodge, that a form of lectures used by Speculatives at the end of 
the eighteenth century contained this great Operative secret, so that it was quite well 
known to the Speculative Craft late in the eighteenth century. An argument based on 
this being unknown to them must fall to the ground in the light of this evidence. (2) 


Another point is made of the length and complexity of the Operative ceremonies, and 
the references to technicalities and trade secrets. But inherently this would seem to 
point rather to invention than to tradition. A ceremony is no place for practical 
instruction. The apprentice was not taught in a class but as he worked. At the end of 
his apprenticeship he was a master of his craft, he knew all the trade secrets and 
operations and had the manual skill to employ them. 


A ceremony is described of stretching a cord between the stations of the three 
principal officers so as to make a triangle, and then the measurement of the three 



angles together must make three right angles. The three angles of any triangle must 
always equal two right angles, though to measure the angle made by a stretched cord 
would be difficult enough to do with any accuracy— and as useless as difficult. 


The symbolism of the Pole Star and the Swastika again sounds very like a borrowing 
from modern researches; one would guess that the framer of these rituals had read 
Bro. Simpson's work on the Buddhist Prayer Wheel, and other works of like content 
that were published in the late nineties of last century or the first years of the present 
one; that he was acquainted with the various theories advanced by Masonic scholars, 
such as the old one that the Royal Arch was originally part of the third degree— a 
hypothesis that seems the less tenable the more closely it is considered in the light of 
known facts; or the opinion that the "Lodge" is derived from the "Guild," which 
brings many unnecessary difficulties in its train; or the very common supposition that 
Craft ceremonies are ultimately of Hebrew origin, which has led to so much learned 
darkening of counsel by multitudes of words. 


These points we have been considering are not of course conclusive, but taken 
together in the light of the constant refusal to submit any of the documentary evidence 
which is said to be in the possession of the Operative Society they certainly make a 
strong case for rejection of the claims made for its continuous existence, in its present 
form, from time immemorial. It is difficult to get over the extraordinary facility with 
which esoteric and ritual secrets have been published while such commonplace things 
as minutes and books of account have been withheld. The story that they are in a 
secret vault that only the Masters can enter, and from which they cannot be removed, 
is not very convincing. Bro. Carr is of the Master's Grade, yet he has apparently never 
seen them, at least he has never said so publicly, nor has he ever dwelt on the point, 
although it has always been the first one to be raised by every serious student when 
confronted by the Operative claims. 


— o — 


Know Thyself 



By BRO. GILBERT W. DAYNES 


IN the course of the ceremony of raising a Mason to the Sublime Degree of a Master 
Mason, as practiced in England, the attention of the candidate is drawn to certain 
emblems [of mortality] which it is hoped will guide his reflections to that most 
interesting of all human studies, the knowledge of himself The maxim, "Know 
thyself," was no new maxim when the ritual of our Masonic ceremonies was 
expanded and perfected , during the eighteenth century. We know that, far back in the 
dim distant past, the heather oracles made use of it. Its origin has been ascribed to one 
who has been universally recognized as the founder of Greek geometry, astronomy 
and philosophy— Thales of Miletus— who flourished during the sixth century B. C., 
and was the chief of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Chilon of Sparta— another of the 
seven-makes use of the maxim in his writings, and the saying was also inscribed over 
the entrance of Apollo's Temple at Delphi. Right down the ages this axiom has been 
quoted and its eternal verity demonstrated. Christian sages have held it in the highest 
esteem, and we find many passages in the V.S.L. which point out, in clear and 
unmistakable terms, its sterling worth. For instance, are we not told in Chapter XVII 
of St. Luke, verse 21, that "the kingdom of God is within you?" There can be no surer 
way to that haven of eternal happiness and peace than by learning to "Know thyself ." 


Coming down to more recent times we find Alexander Pope clothing this maxim in 
poetic language thus: 


"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 
The proper study of mankind is man." 


Later on, in the same poem, the maxim is again brought into focus, and we read: 


"That virtue only makes our bliss below, 

And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know." 



It is not surprising, therefore, that Freemasonry, in its system of morality should point 
out the desirability for its members to acquire such a knowledge. Many may say that 
the principle enunciated is self evident, and that it is therefore not necessary to lay 
stress upon it. It may be true that the advantage of knowing yourself is obvious; but, 
as the acquisition of that knowledge is by no means easy, and the search after it 
neglected in so many cases, is it not well that we as Masons should have this truth 
brought continually to our notice as we listen to the ceremony of the Third Degree? It 
is to our profit that we should be made to realize the help and guidance that a 
knowledge of one's self can give, for, as William Hazlitt so truly tells us, "There is 
nothing that helps a man in his conduct through life more than a knowledge of his 
own characteristic weaknesses which, guarded against, become his strength." It is for 
want of such knowledge that men go astray, and utilize their faculties for ignoble 
ends. There must be no straying into bypaths from the Road of Conscience and 
Reason; and the precept, "Know thyself," is the best and surest guide, or signpost, to 
the true road to follow. 


Nor is it surprising that this maxim should find its place in the ceremony of the Third 
Degree, in which are gathered together the fruits of those Degrees which precede it. 
The Master Mason should consider this charge to "Know thyself," a standing rule of 
conduct of life, and strive diligently to perfect himself in the necessary knowledge. 

By the study of ourselves --the sum of wisdom— those tenets which form the basis of 
Freemasonry can be observed. By a searching knowledge of ourselves we may hope 
to steer the bark of this life over the seas of passion without quitting the helm of 
rectitude, and so subdue our passions and prejudices that they may coincide with the 
just line of our conduct. As Francis Bacon correctly has it, "knowledge is power." Just 
as knowledge of outside matters will give to the man who acquires it a power over his 
more ignorant fellowmen, so also will knowledge of one's self give us a power over 
those unworthy feelings which tend to be uppermost in most human beings. It is by 
means of such knowledge that man realizes that he does not live merely for himself, 
but is part of one vast humanity. 


There is no better method of grasping and taking to heart those great Masonic 
principles, which the brotherhood would instill into all its members, than by 
following the maxim, "Know thyself." Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth will become 
real factors in a Mason's life. The spirit of Love, as defined in the V.S.L., becomes a 



standard for attainment; Charity, in its fullest sense, wells up and fills the heart; and 
Truth comes to the front, thrusting falsehood and dishonor into the abyss. By 
acquiring knowledge of yourself the shackles of ignorance and prejudice may be 
struck off, and the garments of goodness and humility donned. Fortified by such a 
knowledge all matters are put to the highest test, and only the good retained; also, the 
voice of conscience becomes strengthened and more audible to declare the true way. 
In short, it cannot be too strongly brought home to every Mason that it is by 
introspection that the mind is guided into the right channels; and that by a thorough 
knowledge of one's self the Mason is given strength and courage to practice, outside 
in the world, those beautiful principles and tenets he is taught within the lodge. The 
truth of the maxim is brought home by its practice, and thus we are made to feel that 
more wisdom cannot well be crowded into less room than in those two short words, 
"Know thyself." The immortal Shakespeare must have understood the true inwardness 
of this precept, for, in Hamlet, when Polonius is expounding certain principles of 
character to Laertes, he concludes thus: 


"This above all— to thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 


— o — 


Three Dates in Vermont Masonry 


By BRO. HERBERT H. HINES, Vermont 


NORMAN WILLIAMS 1791-1868 



Registrar of Probate, Secretary of State for Vermont, State Senator, Clerk of Windsor 
County Courts, Master of Warren Lodge, Woodstock, Vt., at the time of its 
dissolution. Was made an honorary Mason in 1856 for fidelity throughout the Anti- 
Masonic period. 


JACOB COLLAMER 1791-1865 


Lawyer, Congressman, Postmaster General under President Taylor; Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of Vermont. United States Senator. Made an honorary Mason in 
1856 because he "would not and did not desert" Freemasonry when it was "assailed 
the fiercest, and when weak-minded and faint-hearted brethren were swept away 
before the blast." (Records of Woodstock Lodge, No. 31.) 


YOUNGER Masons often find themselves governed by curiosity. They have not yet 
learned the answers to all the questions, and very often face the symbolism of the 
ancient landmarks with a great deal of bewilderment. It very often seems that a 
strange, solemn voice is asking, "In your present blind condition, what do you most 
desire ?" No answer comes until a familiar voice whispers, "Further light in 
Masonry." As long as further light in Masonry is the desire, curiosity leads in many 
directions. The following account may be taken as a sample of some of the results of 
investigation on the part of one whose Masonic experience is still so limited that he 
feels uncomfortable outside the northeast comer. It may also be a warning that not 
enough of the older brothers assisted in bringing him to Masonic light. 


There are three questions that come to one before he has gone very far into the history 
of the Vermont lodges: (1) Why did the old lodges disband ? (2) Why were they 
reorganized? (3) What does it mean today ? The first question is the most difficult to 
answer; the second is largely left to our imaginations; while the third is answered in 
the spirit of the Craft today. It might be thought as centering around three dates: 1832, 
1850 and 1925. It takes us back to one of the most unstudied periods in American 
history. Yet to us, interested in preserving the ancient landmarks that anti-Masonry 
more nearly defeated than we like to think, the years from 1826-1845 are of unusual 
interest. 



HOW ANTI-MASONRY BEGAN 


When we turn to our most reliable information we read that a dissolute, shiftless 
bricklayer in Batavia, New York, a man who had "failed in everything else . . . 
thought to make money by betraying the secrets of an order which his presence 
polluted." That he was foolishly arrested on a trumped-up charge and afterwards 
taken by a few Masons, with or without his consent, who "got him out of the country, 
and apparently paid him to stay out." There should have been no attention paid to 
him. But "rumors of abduction started." It was said that he had been "thrown into 
Niagara," or otherwise killed. There is "no proof that he was ever killed." The 
Governor of New York made every effort to detect and punish any possible murderer. 
The wild rumors, however, soon reached Vermont and quickly penetrated to every 
village and hamlet within its borders. 


In the future historian's unprejudiced analysis of the causes of anti-Masonry, the part 
played by William Morgan will be as insignificant as that of the killing of an already 
unknown man in a forgotten city of Central Europe in the real causes of the Great 
War. Today we know how it was seized for political propaganda by Thurlow Weed 
and his "pack of unscrupulous politicians"; of Weed's statement: "It's a good enough 
Morgan until after election," and how it spread like a prairie fire, and about as 
disastrously. Politically it centered in the election of 1 832 in which the Democrats 
renominated Andrew Jackson (at the convention which first inaugurated the two- 
thirds rule); the National Republicans nominated Henry Clay, while the anti-Masons, 
the first in the field, presented a former United States Attorney-General, William 
Wirt. In his speech of acceptance, Mr. Wirt said that he had not been in a Masonic 
lodge for many years; that he had never taken the Third Degree, and that he had not 
known that anything was wrong with Masonry until he had read certain pamphlets 
printed in New York. The party, aided by the pen of Horace Greely and popular 
frenzy, was particularly powerful in Western New York and Vermont, where Mr. 
Wirt was heralded as the Moses who would lead the country through the Red Sea of 
Masonry. 



The results of the election were that Henry Clay, a Mason, was defeated; Andrew 
Jackson, another Mason, was elected, while the only state of the twenty one to give its 
electoral vote for William Wirt was Vermont. It is rather hard to explain why the 
supposedly conservative state of Vermont was so carried away with the movement, 
but the center of the excitement for New England was in Central Vermont. For 
several years almost all local and state officers were non-Masons, for it was the 
election issue that it was the duty to keep Masons out of office. At several state 
elections no governor was chosen. The elections in the legislature went to thirty or 
forty ballots, and on one occasion no governor could be elected. 


WHAT THE MOVEMENT EFFECTED 


From old diaries, and from older men who heard the story from the generation before 
them, we learn how the excitement rose to white heat, affecting business, dividing 
towns, splitting families and churches. Masons were not allowed to serve in courts, 
not even on the jury. The demand was that they should not be allowed to vote. 
Masonic clergymen were forced out of churches by dramatic methods. At funerals, 
Masonic relatives would sit in one room and the anti-Masonic relatives in the other, 
and at the grave the factions would stand on opposite sides. Lodges speedily 
surrendered their charters. The Grand Lodge was declared by the Masons themselves 
to be unnecessary. Morgan's book was sold on the trains and in stores for twenty- five 
cents a copy. Caravans traveled from town to town giving exhibitions of the degrees. 
One day, in the Windsor County court house, 300 received the Third Degree by 
proxy. 


There had been in the shire town of Windsor County a certain Joe Burnham who had 
disappeared and had been pronounced dead. Later he returned to the town in perfect 
health. The anti-Masons said that he had really died but that he had been raised to life 
in Masonry. A five-act play was presented in a large hall entitled, "The Tragic 
Raising of Joe Burnham," and the newspaper of that week says it was accompanied 
by broken heads, black eyes and bloody noses." Local people who had been named in 
the play brought suit for slander, which went through several courts before it was 
finally settled. A copy of this play sold not long ago for $750 to a book dealer who 
again sold it at a considerable profit. 



Everything was done to make Masonry ridiculous. Stones were thrown through 
church windows at ministers; anti-Masonic almanacs were distributed; conventions 
were held in churches of almost all denominations. At church services ministers 
asked, not for converts to religion, but for men to renounce Masonry. There is one 
record of a man acquitted for a serious crime on the grounds that being a Mason he 
was not a responsible citizen. Masonry was held to be a "secret combination at war 
with free government," to contain "illegal oaths," to "shield criminals from 
punishment," while such epitaphs as "kidnappers" were among the mildest sort used 
The result was that by 1833 the Vermont Legislature reported with satisfaction the 
very small number of lodges and the diminishing ranks of Masonry. 


BIGOTED HOSTILITY DEVELOPED 


In the beginning, some newspapers, as the Vermont Courier, were very tolerant, and 
committed the heresy of suggesting that the anti-Masons were without "good sense, 
reason or sound prudence," and that Masons seemed to be qualified for public office. 
The chief opposition in Central Vermont came from a paper called "The American 
Whig, Vermont Luminary and Equal Rights, published by the Windsor County 
AntiMasonic Committee." In the files of this paper is the record of one of the most 
unreasonable and intolerant attacks ever made by one body of citizens against 
another, and printed at the very center of this "bitter and baseless persecution." 
Certainly in Vermont history there is nothing to compare with it since the land grant 
struggle of the early pioneers. Among the signed articles are numerous "withdrawals" 
from Masonry. The following is a sample, from the issue of Jan. 7, 1832: 


"Feeling conscious of my accountability to God, and duty to my country and 
posterity I cannot (consistently) any longer forbear stating to the public my former 
and present views of the Masonic Institution. I was made a Mason in Faithful Lodge, 
Charlestown, N.H., about the year 1809 or 1810, and was raised to the Sublime 
Degree of a Master Mason. At that time, being in an atheistical state of mind, I 
expected to find light which would be of great service to me, but being disappointed 
in each step, I was told that the light was in the higher degrees. You must go further 
to obtain the desired object. During this time, while undetermined about going 



further, in the higher degrees, our agent returned from a visit to the Grand Lodge of 
the state. Among other things our agent told us that there was a brother under trial for 
un-Masonic conduct and would probably be expelled from the lodge, simply for the 
crime of stating that the degrees in Masonry above the third were merely nominal. As 
I was convinced that the first three degrees were such, it struck my mind forcibly that 
the man told the truth. Therefore I concluded not to follow the phantom any further 
but determined to search for light from some other source. Soon after this I was led to 
examine the Bible (for I had hitherto much neglected it) — I found a glorious light- 
viewing Masonry by this light I found it to be total darkness and I could no longer 
have any fellowship with it. I could not rest. Whenever I heard of Masonry I became 
excited. I rejoiced at Morgan's exposition— the snare of Masonry was now broken— it 
was the handmaid of infidelityits oaths and obligations are profane. Therefore I 
renounce it as dangerous to civil and religious rights and privileges." 


The same paper one week published a list of Masons living in a nearby town. The 
next week there was a communication from one of the men mentioned who said that 
while he had been a Mason he had not attended lodge for six years; had not in that 
time spoken to a Mason, and would not do so. Another denial of Masonry has this 
paragraph: 


"1 believe Freemasonry is a moral, charitable, benevolent and literary institution. But 
its morals are heathenish, its benevolence selfish, its humanity cruel, its literature 
childish, its religion anti-Christian, destructive and anti-republican. It is said that 
Masonry is of divine origin, that it descended from Heaven. Here I believe is some 
mistake. It came from the other place and I guess 'twill go there again." 


A sample of how anti-Masonry perverted every possible representation of the Order is 
seen in the following poem. It was written by a Prof. Dean, and very widely 
circulated under the title "The Freemason's Dream." The last verse read: 


"My heart in devotion, it swells to an ocean 
To see all Freemasons in union agree; 



We will meet them in glory, and there tell the story, 
Where troubles and triais forever shall flee." 

This was changed to read: 

"My heart in dejection, it swells to reflection 

To see the corruption of Freemasonry 

Could I meet them in glory, I'd there tell the story, 

And warn the Freemasons from its thraldom to flee." 


But the warning was hardly necessary to the few lodges and members that were left in 
this part of the state. In most towns a faithful few had hidden the records and working 
tools, sometimes in a hole on a hillside, or under the floor of a barn where it would be 
accidentally discovered years later. 


Like all wide spreading movements, the causes and encouragements of anti-Masonry 
were complex and very diverse. In some parts the Morgan affair was a subterfuge, a 
political plot under a thin disguise. In other towns internal trouble in the lodge 
defeated its purpose. "Immoral conduct of the members, lack of ability to enforce 
discipline in the lodge, the brethren will not meet upon the level or part upon the 
square, obligations are disregarded," these are the reasons for the abandonment of the 
lodge in the shire town of Windsor County as early as 1827. This was not an 
exceptional case, but a sample of the pernicious purposes undermining the Craft. It is 
undoubtedly true that Vermont Masonry had flourished more than was good for itself. 
Many had become members for political influence. Many knew nothing at all about 
the Order, never had attended a meeting since they had been made members, and 
were ignorant of its principles. It could be said of the lodges as it was said of the first 
Grand Lodge in England, "It ran itself out of breath through the folly of its members." 



It was also the time of many revival movements of an emotional type that took 
Masonry as its chief point of attack. It was the time of many fanatical excitements 
such as phrenology, mind-reading, magnetism, hypnotism, and many such 
movements, most of which were half fraud. The new immigration brought social 
unrest; the spoils system caused political dissatisfaction. Anyone with a loud voice 
could get an audience. It was as true then as now: 


"The whole world loves the quiet men 
Who sit all day as still as owls; 

But 'tis needless to mention, 

It gives its attention, 

To the man who gets up and howls." 


Twenty years passed, and in 1850 in Windsor, and gradually all the other towns and 
villages of Central Vermont, little groups of a dozen or fifteen men quietly came 
together of their "own free will and accord" for the reformation of their lodges. They 
were men beyond middle age. They had no banquets, parades or public services. They 
were willing to make sacrifices, to endure hardships, to work hard, to face possible 
local criticism and personal risk. There was not a "cowan" among them. No one in 
those days talked about "watch-fob Masons." Masonry had been purged until there 
were no members who were Masons only in name. They had not come together for 
social purposes, for they could have found that in other places with less personal risk. 
There must have been some deeper purpose behind their reorganization. Sometimes it 
is only when a man takes a long journey away from home that he truly comes to 
appreciate its love and care. Often a man can judge his business best when he is away 
from it. A certain man who lived in a situation where for three years he could not 
attend church, came to a new appreciation of its necessity and worth through its 
enforced absence. Something like that moved these men of seventy years ago. 


They could only have been men who knew their work well. Through the years, the 
old truths, of which their work was but the symbol, must have haunted their minds, 
for they lived not with the monthly repetition of the work but with the ideas of what it 



meant. It must have seemed to them that they were living in the ante-room when they 
should have gone on into the lodge; that there was confusion among the workmen, 
that their column was broken and the temple incomplete. They had been spending 
their years in the North and its darkness was unnecessary. As earnest workmen they 
had set out in "friendship, morality and truth," but they had been betrayed by those 
whom they had trusted, their hopes and creative purposes had been put to death and 
thrown into an unmarked grave. Their enemies had said that Masonry was dead, but 
these few men believed that there was still something that could not be defeated, and 
which could yet be raised from the level of death to the perpendicular of life. Once 
they had known "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in 
unity." Then their society had been torn by jealousy, hatred, unkindness and 
unbrotherliness. Now they faced the problem of living together. "The only cure of 
unbrotherliness is brotherliness," was their conviction. Here in the teachings of our 
Craft were the basic principles of tolerance and charity and truth, and the cement of 
brotherly affection. And on this they built their Order anew, and we honor them 
because they came through with it. 


To us of 1925 many truths come out of these tragic experiences. Perhaps we are 
reminded to be more careful in the selection of candidates. Perhaps it means that we 
should be sure that every man of us is trained in the work, knows its meaning from 
study, and is fully acquainted with the history and the symbols. But there is a greater 
lesson, one that Vermont Masonry will never have to learn again, and it goes to the 
very heart of our fraternal purpose. If these fast fading events mean anything at all, 
they tell us in unmistakable terms that Masonry is not a search for a word. One may 
know the word and not have the spirit. Masonry is not something that can be voiced 
in a few words. Its secret is not a combination of syllables. It is true of Masonry, as of 
the highest religion we know, "not he that nameth the name, but he that doeth the 
will." Masonry cannot be exposed in a book. It is as safe and deep as character. If it 
had been false at heart it could not have lasted. It lives in its truth. 


— o — 


THE DUTIES OF THE STEWARDS 



IN the early days of Speculative Masonry lodges made much of their "feasts," and 
other gala events. Such affairs were carried on by the lodge itself, as one of its regular 
duties; and their stewards were chosen for the express purpose of superintending 
them. Nowadays it has generally come to be the custom to leave the planning for all 
forms of sociability to special committees or clubs, as if the social hour were 
something apart from, or even opposed to, the proper work of a lodge. In addition to 
this emasculation of the scope and duties of the lodge, the special committee method 
has a further defect in that it leads to extravagance, clannishness, and sometimes to 
results still less dignified. A sensible way out is for the lodge to recover control of its 
own social life by placing all responsibility for it once more in the hands of its 
stewards. 


— o — 


Great Men Who Were Masons 
Francis Asbury Roe 


By BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P. G. M., District of Columbia 


REAR ADMIRAL FRANCIS ASBURY ROE was bom in Elmira, N. Y., in 1823. Of 
his early life little is known, but at twenty-two years of age he received an 
appointment as Midshipman in the United States Navy. Five years later it is recorded 
he was raised a Master Mason in Union Lodge, No. 95, in his native town. 


Of all the officers whom 1 have met he was remarkable for a sincere and sublime 
religious faith. He believed so simply and completely in the Divine Providence that in 
times of danger he was absolutely fearless, and in this confidence would often do 
things that in another man would have been pure foolhardiness. He was a very 
reserved and reticent man, and had but few intimate friends. He was abstemious and 
rigidly moral in all his habits, so much so that his presence and example were at times 
embarrassing to many of his fellow officers. 



His first service was on board the old sloop of war John Adams, in which vessel he 
served three years on the west coast of South America, in rough water and fresh 
breezes. The John Adams was very low between decks, and the berthing space very 
cramped, and altogether the vessel was badly ventilated and uncomfortable; but in 
those days a seafaring man did not expect the comforts of home. 


His next ship was the Yorktown, on the west coast of Africa, where though still only 
Midshipman, he did the duty of lieutenant. Later he was with Commodore O. H. 
Perry at the blockade of Vera Cruz, in the sloop Boston, and was wrecked in that 
vessel in Eleutrera Sound in 1847. Next he served in the Alleghany, an experimental 
steamer, and later the same year went for a course in the Annapolis Naval Academy. 
In 1 848 he graduated, after which he was absent from active service for a period of 
eleven months. His next service seems to have been on the mail steamer Georgia, 
after which he was appointed to the famous old brig Porpoise as lieutenant and 
executive officer when she was commissioned for the Behring Sea exploring 
expedition, and later in the China Seas. It was during this cruise that the Porpoise had 
an action with a fleet of thirteen pirate junks, all heavily armed, in Koulan Bay. As a 
result of the battle six of the junks were sunk or that destroyed and the remainder 
dispersed with heavy loss. 


After this he served on another exploring expedition in the Vincennes, through the 
Sea of Japan and the Kurile Islands and along the north coast of Siberia. This 
expedition was chiefly for surveying and charting purposes for the benefit of 
navigation, as those coasts were almost unknown to geographers and seamen alike. 


During these years Roe was continuously in service, receiving some promotions, 
though frequently they were unduly retarded. The present writer first knew him as 
first lieutenant of the Pensacola in 1861, at the Washington Navy Yard. This vessel 
was another experimental steamer, but full rigged in addition to her engines. She was 
armed with a heavy smooth bore battery. Her commander was ordered to join 
Farragut's fleet off the Mississippi River Passes. To prevent her doing this the 
Confederates erected batteries at four points on the Potomac. The President was very 
anxious and visited the ship several times, encouraging everyone on board. Roe 



seemed the only one not in the least disturbed by the prospect, and in the event his 
attitude was justified. The ship ran safely by the batteries at night, and though she was 
subjected to a brisk fire from them all not a shot hit her, nor did she fire a gun in 
reply. When she reached her destination it was found that she drew so much water 
that it was impossible to get her over the bar of the Mississippi until she had been 
greatly lightened. However, she was finally floated over and Farragut was ready to go 
up the river. 


Like most officers Roe was known to his men by a nickname. He had a very dark 
skin, black eyes and a very black beard, and he was naturally called "Black Jack.” 
After the Pensacola had got by Fort Jackson which was effected with very little 
damage, she ran into a fleet of armed river boats which put up a stiff and determined 
fight. Their shells were bursting freely, doing much execution. Stationed on the 
wardroom ladder, passing up ammunition, was a coal-heaver named Eagan, and as 
"Black Jack" rushed past the hatch, trumpet in hand, shouting some order, Eagan said, 
"Howly Jaze, Oi hopes the firrst shell that burrsts over the ship will take the seat of 
the trousers off of him," and it was scarcely a minute later when the fragment of a 
shell actually did this to Roe, taking a good deal of skin and flesh besides. He fell 
forward, was picked up and taken to the sick bay, and as he was carried past, Eagan 
said, "Howly Mother, it's lucky Oi did not wish it was the head of him." 


Roe was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in July, 1862, and was 
ordered to command the Katadin after the fall of New Orleans, and was in the fight at 
Grand Gulf when the army was landed to garrison the place. Here Roe witnessed 
some pillaging on shore, by soldiers and officers, which greatly outraged his feelings, 
for if there is any one thing impressed on the mind of a young navy officer it is 
respect for civilian inhabitants and their property rights. He reported this pillaging to 
the Secretary of the Navy, knowing it would get thence to the Secretary of War and 
come back to the commanding army officer for action. This actually did occur, but 
instead of the letter going to the Division Commander it reached the Department 
Commander, Maj. Gen. B. F. Butler. The latter replied to the War Department in such 
caustic terms respecting Roe as would have made many an officer challenge him. But 
Roe, satisfied with having done a Christian act, as well as one that he regarded as his 
duty as an officer, said that to read between the lines would condemn Ben Butler in 
the estimation of any officer or honest man. 



In 1 864 Roe commanded the paddle wheel gunboat Sassacus in North Carolina 
Sound, and very promptly destroyed two blockade runners. The Confederates then 
sent out their new iron-clad Albemarle to meet the Sassacus. An engagement took 
place on May 5, 1864, which was very hotly contested. The Albermarle, iron-clad, 
had the advantage of almost complete protection for her guns and crew, while the 
Sassacus had that of speed and steam power. There were many killed on board the 
latter ship, and for a while it looked serious. However, by skilful handling Roe caught 
the iron-clad across his bow, and sending his ship ahead full speed, rammed his 
opponent, which so damaged her that she began to take in water fast and was glad 
enough to escape up the nearest river. However, with a parting shot she put a shell 
into the Sassacus' engine room and burst one of the boilers, doing much injury. 
Altogether it was one of the hottest naval duels in the Civil War. 


Roe afterwards commanded the Madawaska; and later the Michigan on the Great 
Lakes. In this last vessel he was called to quell the miners' riot in Marquette which 
saved the town. He was in command of the Tacony at Vera Cruz at the time of the 
capture and execution of Maximilian, and as senior officer prevented the 
bombardment of the city by the foreign war vessels assembled there. After this he 
was fleet captain under Admiral Rowan on the China Station. His last cruise was on 
the Lancaster off the coast of Brazil. In 1875 he was on duty at the New London 
Naval Station and on special duty at Washington from 1879 to 1880, and he was at 
about this time member of the Board of Examiners at Annapolis. In 1880 he was 
promoted to the rank of Commodore, and from 1883 to 1884 was Commander at the 
Government Naval Asylum at Philadelphia. He was retired from the service at the end 
of 1 885 with the rank of Rear Admiral. 


The writer saw a good deal of Admiral Roe in 1 896 and enjoyed many intimate 
conversations with him. He was just as serious as when a young man. He said that in 
all his service he had never had a nickname, and, while we smiled inwardly, we 
thought of Dennis Eagan and the seat of his trousers. 


Admiral Roe died in Washington on Dec. 28, 1901, and was buried in Arlington 
National Cemetery. The writer has always regarded Roe as a great man, and is happy 
to think that we may claim him as a Mason. He was a true and sincere Christain, who 
never intruded his creed on others; one who ever set a splendid example; who was as 



ready to reward a generous or righteous act as to condemn a fault; who enjoyed a 
glass of wine but detested intemperance; and who loved a generous and manly man. 
He was buried in a grave adjacent to that of his old shipmate and lifelong friend, Rear 
Admiral Earl English, and over his remains the beautiful granite monument shown in 
the engraving has been erected. 


— 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 

ANNOUNCEMENT 


CMANGE is the universal law and the theme of every age. It comes no less to THE 
BUILDER than to other established institutions, and it comes now in this 
announcement of a successorship in its editorial chair. 


Bro. R. J. Meekren, known to readers of THE BUILDER and as well to students of 
Freemasonry, is now in charge of the editorial affairs of the National Masonic 
Research Society and its official journal. 


It is, in reality, scarcely necessary to introduce Bro. Meekren to our members, for his 
pen and the results of his research have already done that. Rather is it necessary to 
give something of the occasion therefor and of the retirement of Bro. H. L. Haywood, 
who has been obliged to leave this work because of the state of his health. 


A serious illness during the summer made his physicians insistent that he reduce the 
physical demands upon him, and it was upon consideration of this advice that he 
decided to take the step of severing his active connection with the National Masonic 
Research Society. 



Bro. Haywood has been identified with THE BUILDER from its inception, assisting 
Bro. Joseph Fort Newton during his occupancy of the editorial chair and afterwards 
becoming more and more responsible for the editorial, management of THE 
BUILDER until in 1921 he was placed in complete charge. During his incumbency he 
became well known personally and by correspondence to a very large number of 
Masons in every part of the country, indeed of the world, while his literary abilities 
were patent to all. His resignation is, as already noted, because of his physical 
condition and the necessity for preserving his health by lightening his duties. 


Bro. Haywood's illness came while the August number and the September and 
October numbers as well were in preparation. Hence the absence of the formal 
announcement until the present issue. 


In selecting Bro. R. J. Meekren to take charge of the editorial duties of the Society, it 
is my firm belief, developed through intimate association with the man amid 
particularly trying circumstances, that THE BUILDER and the work of the Society 
will maintain that constant progress forward and upward which has been the record of 
the years which have passed, despite the difficulties that are inherent in such efforts as 
those to which this Society and THE BUILDER are dedicated. 


And having made this announcement, may I not add the assurance on my own behalf 
that nothing that it is possible to do with the resources at command will be left 
undone by this Society in the advancement of the cause of education in Freemasonry. 


INSTRUCTION IN MASONRY 


IT is well periodically to stop and take stock and balance our accounts, whether 
physical, commercial, mental or moral; whether as individuals or as organizations. At 
the present time the vaccination of "Education" has taken in the body corporate of 
Masonry. Most of the Grand Lodges in this country, including Canada, are doing 



something definitely in this way, either using the machinery of the Masonic Service 
Association, or through Masonic Service Committees and Educational Boards of their 
own; many of tavern making regular appropriations for carrying on the work, in some 
cases of very considerable amounts. 


This is all very much to the good. It shows at least that a need is recognized, that there 
is something lacking in the general condition of the Craft, and also a desire to find 
and apply a remedy. Yet a general survey of what is being done might lead an 
innocent bystander (which THE BUILDER, of course, is not) to suppose that the 
doctors agreed only in disagreeing, and that the patient had no more chance of 
recovery than Nature and Providence might extend. 


This however is merely in passing. There is no intension here of criticizing or even of 
making suggestions. Freemasonry in each section of the country has, to a very 
considerable extent, special characteristics, peculiar conditions and its own particular 
problems. A variety of treatment of the one we are considering is thus inevitable, and 
very largely desirable, at least in the experimental stage. What it is proposed to do 
here is to briefly review the question in its more general aspects. For this no apology 
will be needed as members of the National Masonic Research Society are naturally 
interested in the subject, both from their own personal requirements and through 
desire to be of use to their brethren. 


It may be of advantage to consider the matter under different heads, as it is so 
extensive that it really is hard to see the forest for the trees. First we may briefly ask 
what indications are there that there is a need for education, what deficiency is to be 
found in Masonry and among Masons to make it a desirable or necessary thing? The 
answer to this is very much under our notice, and there is little need to cite chapter 
and verse. The large number of members who have little or no interest in the Order, 
the questioning of the younger Masons who want to know what it is all about anyway, 
A feeling that the Institution has grown to an enormous size and is yet apparently 
without definite purpose or object. Both the instructed and the uninstructed feel that 
Masonry means something, stands for something, if only it were known what it was. 
Those we have called the instructed have worked out more or less satisfactory 
conclusions for themselves. They feel, and experience tends to show they are right, 
that only a small minority of the uninstructed will find out things for themselves, and 



they feel that there should be some machinery for teaching the others, and so prevent 
them from swelling the great class of the lapsed and indifferent. About this there is 
nothing new, the point of especial interest here is that the demand for education is not 
a "high brow" affair at all, it is not to make the members of the Craft scholars and 
students, but to make them Masons, to give them the instruction necessary to Larry 
out their Speculative vocation. Those who have it in them to become students usually 
do so in spite of difficulties and discouragements. Yet, a complete scheme of Masonic 
education must regard them as well. There is no reason for needless difficulties to be 
put in their path, and their natural use in the organization is to instruct their brethren. 
An educational system must arrange for the training of teachers. 


The second heading that we may take up is the subsidiary question whether the 
Masonic system contemplates anything of the nature of education, and if so, by what 
method was it supposed to be carried out ? 


This again is a question of which the answer is right at hand. The most superficial 
acquaintance with the ritual will indicate an affirmative answer. The lectures of the 
several degrees are obviously designed to instruct. The Entered Apprentice is 
informed in the charge given to him that in his leisure hours he is "to converse with 
well informed brethren" that he "may improve in Masonic knowledge." But the 
charge given to the newly passed Craftsman goes beyond this and "earnestly 
recommends" to his consideration the 'study of the liberal arts and sciences," showing 
that not only was the Mason expected to devote time and attention in learning about 
Masonry itself, but also to "polish and adorn his mind" with general knowledge, as 
well as to "learn to subdue his passions" and "divest his heart and conscience of all 
the vices and superfluities of life." While the machinery for this is not obscurely 
indicated; not only is the neophyte to converse with well instructed brethren as he can 
find or make opportunity, but again and again it is emphasized that it is the Master's 
place to afford light and knowledge to the uninformed and give his lodge good and 
wholesome instruction. But it is not all thrown on -the Master of the lodge, it is the 
duty of every Master Mason "to correct the errors and irregularities" of the 
uninstructed. How are the Masters to teach unless they are first instructed 
themselves? The word "Master" with us implies primarily the idea of control, of 
authority, but as it came into Craft usage in mediaeval times it first of all connoted 
that of teaching and instruction. The Master directed and controlled by virtue of his 
ability to teach. It follows then that the organization of Masonry fully provided for 
instruction, for the education of those who entered it. But Master with us has come to 



be but a formal title, all Masons receive it after a few short weeks, while yet in fact 
they are but very newly Entered Apprentices, and the Masters of lodges being chosen 
from such a class it is no wonder that in general they are little qualified to instruct. It 
would be something if they could be made to realize that it is their duty to do so, and 
if not qualified personally, to arrange that competent brethren should take their place 
in this respect. 


Having thus seen that the original Institution both contemplated education and 
provided means to put it into effect, we may next ask what should be the position of 
Grand Lodge Committees, Research Societies, Study Clubs and other like 
organizations ? That is, should we acquiesce in the present state of things, scrap the 
old machinery and provide new, or should we seek to return to the old ways and use 
the newer methods to supplement and strengthen the old? Here again to ask the 
question is in the minds of most Masons to answer it. The old machinery is perfectly 
good and fully adequate were it used. The unit organization in the Craft is the lodge, 
and everything should be done in and through the lodge. Educational Committees 
should direct their efforts to this end, Study Clubs should be regarded as stop gaps 
and not as permanently desirable institutions, or at least as supplementing and not as 
supplanting the functions of the lodge in this regard. 


This brings us to the last aspect of our general problem - of what should the Masonic 
curriculum consist ? Masonry is not a school such as our schools are today, but rather 
more like one of the old European universities where instruction was given, but the 
students pleased themselves as to what they took and when they took it. We cannot 
force members, if they lack interest, to learn more than the bare rudiments of the 
lectures. Instruction must be given in such wise that it will invite interest and 
encourage discussion and study, and only so can it be successful. A scheme of 
Masonic education must be based on the elementary instruction in the ritual, 
beginning with acquiring the bare forms, in the teaching of which the lodge 
machinery is still functioning. After these are learned the next step is obviously 
explaining their surface meaning. There is so much that is archaic in our formularies 
that there is need for a considerable amount of what we may call "textual 
commentary," the explanation of obsolete words and phrases, the pointing out that the 
ritual does actually mean something. From this would naturally spring instruction in 
the duties of the individual Mason, explanations of what Masonry should mean in his 
own life, and what he should make it mean to the world at large. That is the ethical 
and sociological side. With this is closely connected the symbolism of the Craft, for 



this is chiefly intended to teach and emphasize the moral side. After this would come 
history. Much of the preceding cannot be fully understood without knowing how it 
came to be, that is, its history. History when thus taught is intensely interesting, 
though when handed out in heavy indigestible chunks nothing is more calculated to 
dampen and extinguish any interest the enquirer may have had. These then it would 
appear are the lines which general Masonic instruction should follow. The "higher" 
education, the instruction of the instructors is another matter altogether. If the 
majority of Masons had the elements it is probable that there would be no problem at 
all, for the way would be open for those capable to go on and qualify themselves to be 
Master Masons in the original sense of the term, and fully competent to teach and 
guide their less well informed brethren. 


— o — 


The Masonic Teaching 


Masonry teaches man to practice charity and benevolence, to protect chastity, to 
respect the ties of blood and friendship, to adopt the principles and revere the 
ordinances of religion, to assist the feeble, guide the blind, raise up the downtrodden, 
shelter the orphan, guard the altar, support the Government, inculcate morality, 
promote learning, love man, fear God, implore His mercy and hope for happiness. 


— o — 


"Loyalty to one's country is an essential qualification in Freemasonry, and those only 
are acceptable who cheerfully conform to every lawful authority. Disloyalty in any 
form is abhorrent to a Freemason, and is regarded as a serious Masonic offense.” 


— o — 



THE STUDY CLUB 


The Symbolism of Medieval Architecture 


By BRO. R. J. MEEKREN 


ONE point about the Masonic Institution will be assented to by all students, that there 
is a real organic connection between the Speculative fraternity of today and the 
Operative organization of the past— but regarding the question how much of Operative 
usage and tradition has survived there have been, and still are, wide differences of 
opinion. At the least during the period of transition (say from 1680 to 1730, more or 
less) the old must have been mingled with new material, the new expanding and the 
old fading out until it was all gone-except the name, and some technicalities much 
changed in meaning; while at the highest we may suppose the essentials of the old 
were all retained and only changed in detail and by the addition of formal Speculative 
explanations. Between, these two extremes must lie the opinions of everyone at all 
conversant with the facts. It follows, therefore, that our present symbolism must 
either be derived from the medieval craft of Masonry or else have been borrowed 
from other and extraneous sources during the period of transition just mentioned, or 
even later still. 


Of course the present system (or aggregation) that we possess may be of mixed origin 
in any proportion of the two elements, original and borrowed, and as the matter is too 
complex to deal with except one step at a time we will now confine our attention to 
the tangible symbolism in the architectural monuments erected with such loving care 
and patience by our Operative predecessors. 


The supposition that medieval Masons recorded hidden doctrines in the symbols they 
carved in stone is incredible on the face of it. Any such teaching that the Craft may 
have possessed was quite easily and safely transmissible through the organization of 



the lodge, there would be no need to record it publicly, even if under a veil. As a 
matter of fact we find that the emblems and devices actually used were such as were 
either commonly or traditionally known and employed, or else such as might easily 
be understood by obvious allusion. For instance, the fox preaching from a pulpit is as 
plain a denunciation of clerical rapacity as the bishop being dragged down to hell in a 
fresco of the last judgment still existing in an old church at Salisbury is a reminder 
that high position, even in the church, is no passport to salvation. 


It has often been asserted that the old churches of Europe are full of symbolism, 
books written in stone for those able to read. That they are full of significance is 
undoubtedly true, and it may also be the fact that people today have generally lost the 
key to understanding them, but it does not follow that because we need special study 
to interpret the meaning that it was so when they were built. An inscription in Greek 
is unintelligible to most among ourselves today —to the citizen of old Athens it was as 
clear as the headlines of a newspaper. Among the people of Europe, in the thirteenth 
century say, there was perhaps no larger percentage who could read at all than among 
us who can read Greek or Latin, and to them generally written inscriptions would be 
as unintelligible as their emblematic and symbolic representations are apt to be to us. 
But when we go back and laboriously attempt to interpret these last we are faced with 
an added complexity that did not exist when they were newly carved. Most of these 
devices were conventional, at least to the extent that they were generally recognized 
and understood. Such a device stood for such an idea, as to us the symbol + means 
"add" or % means "percent." We do not think when we see these and like characters 
of what they may have meant in the first place, or how they came to mean what they 
do to us, we glance at them and take their face value and pass on. But in deciphering 
the symbols of a forgotten language it is quite different, to get at any meaning at all 
we must dig into their history and when we have found that we really know too much 
to easily realize their content at any given time. 


SYMBOLS BECOME ORNAMENTAL 


The key pattern, honeysuckle, etc., may once have been symbols, but became 
decoration merely. There were many emblems and motifs carried over into church 
decoration from non-Christian sources through folk tradition, but these were either 
given new meanings, or their meaning was forgotten. The maze, or labyrinth, from 



being probably the ground laid out for a heathen ritual dance, became a means of a 
minor form of penance. On the other hand the medieval Mason had a sense of humor, 
and frequently indulged in mystification, and sometimes concealed his meaning. The 
architect of the Pharos, the great lighthouse of Alexandria, is said to have carved his 
own name on a great stone in the base and then covered it with cement in which was 
cut the name of the King— expecting the cement eventually to disintegrate when his 
name would remain. The story is doubtful but the Mason who carved a grotesque and 
evil looking dragon set in the gable end of a building at Glastonbury, which when 
seen oerom the side appears as the profile portrait of the Abbot of the time, certainly 
recorded his opinion of his employer— but he played safe for it is impossible to see the 
carving from the side except by climbing a ladder, or getting on the roof of another 
building, where an abbot would be hardly likely to go. 


Recent investigation into the habits and customs of the so-called white Indians of 
Central America show that they have a highly developed picture writing, but that also 
certain individuals draw or paint pictures with no symbolic import, but from pure 
artistic impulse. Certain individuals among the Esquimaux have also been found who 
drew or carved most realistically animals in groups or singly, with no ulterior purpose 
but the pleasure of delineation. Pre-historic men, or at least certain pre-historic races, 
notably that called after the hamlet of Cro-Magnon in the south of France where their 
remains were first discovered in any quantity, seemed to have had the artistic instinct 
abnormally developed, almost comparably with the classical Greek or his Mycenaean 
predecessors. Yet it is possible these drawings and carvings had a magical purpose. 
That at least is the accepted theory. But such care and skill was not necessary for 
magic, cruder work would have served. We may suppose that this was the purpose 
but that the magician lost himself in the artist— just as the Greek sculptor carved 
statues of the gods, but made them ideal human beings. 


Other races, however, such as the Azilians, showed little depictive ability— and went 
in for geometrical patterns. The purpose of their inscribed and painted pebbles is most 
obscure. Perhaps it was no more than a semi-serious play on the part of child-men. It 
is hard to say. But if one takes pebbles and a paint brush and undertakes to mark them 
with dots and lines and circles, or if one takes wet clay and a piece of pointed stick 
and attempts some kind of simple decoration it will be found how easily certain forms 
supposed to be symbols can be formed, how they will come of themselves practically, 
circles with dots in them, triangles, parallel lines, crosses and so on. The 
combinations of simple lines that give any effect as a pattern motif are not so many 



but that almost any child will hit on most of them. It is for this reason that it is so 
impossible to say whether the origin of a given device was in a pattern or ornament, 
or was a symbolic representation. The cross is an example. Found practically 
everywhere and at all times, it seems almost everywhere to have been venerated as a 
very sacred, or at least significant, symbol. Yet no combination of lines is simpler or 
more obvious, a geometrical pattern can hardly be designed without the cross 
appearing in it somewhere, openly or concealed, and the original association which 
made of it a most sacred symbol is even yet not agreed upon by those most competent 
to judge. 


Returning now to Christian Churches, we must, to begin with, clearly grasp why they 
were in the first place built at all. Every religion has sacred or holy places, most have 
sacred buildings, and these have varied in character according to the religion. A 
mosque is primarily a place where individual worshippers can pray, and secondarily 
where the Koran can be read and expounded. A Greek temple was the house or 
shelter of the cult image of some deity-the ritual all took place outside. Churches 
were first built as places where the sacrament of the Eucharist could be celebrated; 
and until the Reformation we may generally say that this was always the fundamental 
idea underlying the planning of churches. The evolution of the cathedral from the 
simplest form of basilica reflects the evolution of sacramental doctrine, though very 
likely the growing complexity of structure may have had an obscure, unconscious, 
reaction and stimulated the very advance in dogma by which it was caused. However, 
to trace this out in detail would take us too far afield and into controversial subjects 
besides; but in order to understand the Medieval churches and cathedrals this much 
must be borne in mind, that both priests and people, employers and builders, believed 
quite simply and literally that the sacred edifice would shelter the very presence of 
God, not spiritually only but in a sense physically, not only sacramentally but bodily. 
That every day, at the altar, the sacrifice of the cross would be symbolically yet really 
re-enacted, and that the bread and wine would become daily the flesh and blood of 
Christ. Believing this a number of things naturally and inevitably followed. Perhaps 
the very first would be the arrangements whereby the congregation of the faithful 
could see and worship, but with this would follow also that nothing could be too good 
for such a place. The costliest materials, the most skilful craftsmanship, the richest 
ornaments. But though the artist is always making new combinations, and going to 
nature for new elements of design, yet always (at least in the earlier schools) he starts 
with something traditional. Sometimes old symbols can be pressed into use, 
sometimes they have lost all meaning as we have seen and are simply pattern 
elements, but whichever it was it beautified and glorified the House of God. Thus we 



find that one of the first types used to represent the Lord was the old mythological 
figure of Orpheus. 


Orpheus it has been fabled descended to hades and by the power of his music 
obtained the release of his dead wife Eurydice; so he was taken to represent the Christ 
who saves men from death and hell. Another pagan figure adopted was Apollo, in the 
guise of the good shepherd, that is as carrying a lamb. Here we have an example of 
the inextricably tangled strands that go to the making of a symbol. Both the shepherd 
and the lamb represented the Saviour as taken directly from scriptural parable and 
metaphor. But Apollo had been regarded as a Saviour god, he represented the sun, 
and thus was equated with the sun of righteousness, and in addition the ram was an 
animal sacred to the sun, the stories of the golden fleece, or the purple lamb of Atreus, 
are in part sun myths. So that in this symbolic figure were many lines of association 
which made it full of significance to the converts to the new faith to whom these tales 
were as familiar as Bible stories are to us— or should we say to our grandfathers and 
grandmothers? There was the added advantage, during the first centuries, that such 
symbols were noncommittal— the unbeliever would see in them nothing to cause 
comment or remark. In the Christian sense they were secret symbols; later when it 
was quite safe to be a Christian newer devices took their place, and these earlier ones 
were modified in form and emphasis and gradually fell into the background. 


In the mosaic design from North Africa, here reproduced from Mr. Lethaby's work on 
Medieval Art, we have probably part of the floor of a very early church. From the 
colors it is evident that the arches springing from the vases are intended for fountains, 
the wavy border being also a conventional representation of water. The deer drinking 
at the two streams of water springing from the holy mount refer to the Psalmist's 
verse, "As the hart panteth after the water brookx so panteth my soul after Thee, O 
God." The peacocks strangely enough were an early Christian symbol of the 
Resurrection, from a supposed fact of natural science (as then understood) which no 
one ever troubled to verify, that the peacock's flesh was incorruptible. It may be 
conjectured that this very beautiful bird when first introduced from the East was 
thought of as representing, or being like, the fabled Phoenix. The stories about the 
latter and its rebirth in fire show that originally it was the sun represented as a bird. 
The spreading tail of the peacock again and its many "eyes" was possibly connected 
with "thousand-eyed Argus" who was a personification of the starry sky. These two 
associations would have been enough to account for what was believed about the 
peacock in an unscientific age, which held also that the terrible unicorn was tame and 



docile in the presence of a virgin, and that the pelican pierced its own breast to feed 
its young. 


Again the streams of water at which the two deer are drinking, the fountains and the 
wavy border, all have undoubtedly a reference to baptism; the border may also have 
reference to the four rivers of Paradise, while the two streams flowing from the mount 
would remind the believer of the rock in the wilderness that Moses struck to give 
water to the people. The rock or mountain was constantly referred to Jehovah himself 
in the Old Testament; "The Lord is my rock and my fortress," "O Lord, my rock," "Be 
thou my strong rock," are but a few instances from the Psalms, while the sacred 
mountains, Sinai, Horeb, Zion, and later the Mount of Olives and the Mount of 
Transfiguration would also be brought to mind. But the associations or meanings of 
the symbol are even yet not exhausted. The two streams would recall inevitably the 
mingled water and blood that flowed from the Saviour's side when pierced by the 
centurion's spear, a detail even yet dwelt on in many popular hymns. 


In the first centuries the cross does not seem to have been much used as a symbol by 
the Christians, and when used at all it was more frequently in the form of the Greek 
letter "Chi"— that is X, the St. Andrew's Cross. This was the first letter of the word 
"Christos and was most frequently used in the still familiar "Chi Rho" monogram. 
There was a natural reason for not emphasizing it, for it was still a common and 
peculiarly dishonorable mode of execution, reserved for slaves and especially 
atrocious criminals. But in Western Europe it was different. The late Baring Gould 
collected evidence to show that all the peoples of Western Europe, Celt and Teuton 
alike, used the cross as a sacred symbol, and he showed also that it is probable that its 
use in the church spread from West to East. That is, in the West it formed a link 
between the new and the old faiths. It does not mean that heathen ideas were 
necessarily carried over, but that the symbol being familiar and sacred, and being 
capable of a purely Christian meaning, was naturally employed, just as in preaching 
to the unconverted it was necessary to use their own terms for God, heaven and so on, 
in order to be intelligible to the hearers. With symbols as with words the form persists 
but the meaning changes. 


When we come to the churches of the great period of the Middle Ages, in the full 
development of Gothic architecture, we find that they are filled in every available part 



with sculptured and painted symbolism of this kind. To enter a church, to walk 
around it, was to pass in review the representations of every fundamental point of 
Christian faith, and much else besides. On the facade, above the main entrances, the 
Last Judgment was often depicted, as a warning to both those in and out of the 
Church's fold. In the porch, or in the west end of the nave, would be types of the 
initiatory rite of baptism, such as the Ark, the Israelites passing through the Red Sea, 
the baptism of our Lord, St. Peter sinking in the sea. On the screen separating nave 
from chancel was the crucifix; over the high Altar, the Ascension, or the Lord in glory 
surrounded by angels. The Annunciation, the Nativity, would be depicted, the Wise 
Men from the East. The genealogy of the Lord in a "Jesse Tree," and everywhere the 
representations of saints and angels, martyrs, confessors, those who had defined or 
supported the faith, with many allusions to their stories. Virtues and vices 
allegorically and symbolically represented, the seasons of the year, and the 
characteristic occupations carried on in each— the whole of life and of history as 
known to the builders was set forth in such wise that the simple and unlearned could 
understand. 


But the question arises, who devised all this? The only answer that seems possible is 
that it must have been those who had the churches built. Here again we must 
remember that whether priest and congregation, bishop or noble, all were at one on 
the matter. And the builders, the masons, were not a caste apart so far as religion was 
concerned, they had the same faith, and the same ideas about religion as their 
employers. Those who provided the funds, knew, as those today who consult an 
architect, something of what they wanted. They knew which saint they wished to 
dedicate the church to, they had an idea of the size they could afford, they doubtless 
referred to other churches as having this or that point they would like included. Then 
with these indications the master would sketch a design. The final plans would be a 
result of consultation and discussion between all parties concerned. When it came to 
details the same process seems to have been gone through. We will say that a 
doorway is in question. It has been decided between the Master and his employees 
that a certain subject shall be treated, let us suppose the "Last Supper", or as it would 
then have been thought of, the "Institution of the Holy Eucharist." The Master would 
depict this to one of the craftsmen, who in his turn would make sketches and discuss 
them with the Master, and then after the general outline had been decided on he 
would proceed to do the work. Over the doorway might be a relief showing Christ 
and the Twelve sitting at table. Or it might be arranged as a series of separate statues, 
the Lord in the central position, with the chalice and paten, the statues of the Apostles 
on each side, each with his distinguishing attribute. Over each there would be a 
canopy, while under the brackets supporting each statue might be some allegorical or 



symbolic device worked into the design, that would have some reference to the 
person represented. Here if anywhere would be found the expression of individual 
ideas. But whatever these were they would be in accord with the general scheme 
outlined. In certain places, as in mouldings, the carvings on the misereres, or in the 
gargoyles, the craftsman might let himself go, and introduce satyrical or humorous 
subjects-but these would in general be as obvious in intention as are comic 
supplements or political cartoons to us. Sometimes again frankly pre-Christian 
devices with the old pagan intent were inserted, but these would be in the nature of 
traditional survivals of which there are so many examples in all the higher religions as 
well as in traditional Christianity. This will be touched on in a succeeding article. 


The conclusion the evidence thus far examined has led to is that the medieval church 
builders systematically employed symbolism, of a specifically didactic character. It 
ranged from bare conventional signs to the highest flights of artistic representation in 
sculpture and painting, and it was designed with the conscious purpose of recalling 
the tenets of the Christian faith, and of other points regarded as interesting or edifying 
to the worshippers, and lastly, that there was nothing secret about it, that it was 
intended to be, and doubtless was, as obvious in meaning as the advertisements on 
our billboards. 


REFERENCES 


For a general view Medieval Architecture by A. Kingsley Porter is one of the best 
works on the subject. A smaller, but most excellent work, is W. R. Lethaby's 
Medieval Art, from which the illustrations in the article have been taken. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


What was the real character of the symbolism found in the churches built in the 
Middle Ages? Was there any esoteric meaning attached to the symbols employed? If 
there were such hidden meanings by whom were they intended and for what purpose? 



How much of the original meaning clung to old pagan symbols when used with a 
Christian reference? 


— o — 


SORROW 


By BRO. Emerson Esterling, Oregon 


To many of us the pursuit of happiness, and the escape from sorrow, is the 
desideratum of our mortal existence. Our great national institution of government 
makes mention of this in our worthy Constitution. Blindly seeking after this coveted 
condition, we only too quickly find that with it comes, to our way of thinking, that 
opposable state, sorrow. 


But the philosopher, seeking not pleasure nor happiness, perhaps receives fully his 
lot; for he takes in hand and peruses the garment of Hertha, spun from the spindle of 
the Fates, the cloak of ideas, woven from the black and white threads of eternity, and 
finds that one lends to the other, and that without the blinding light and abject 
blackness we would know nothing of the gray of our consciousness. 


Seeking, and partially reaching the heights of joy and happiness, eschewing, but 
overtaken by the depths of sorrow, we come to know. 


Albert Pike writes, in his Morals and Dogma: "All the true Initiates have recognized 
the usefulness of toil and sorrow. 'Sorrow,' says a German poet, 'is the dog of that 
unknown shepherd who guides the flock of men.'" 



We who have taken the degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and who have 
taken it for more than the form and pretense of ritual, know it to be verily a Lodge of 
Sorrow, for to the true philosopher life itself is a sorrow, for with his vision he can 
see ahead, behind, beyond, and in the range of his vision looms up "what might have 
been," "what might be," and all around he sees only what is— and it is no wonder that 
many saw Christ weep, but none saw Him smile. No wonder that the great Abraham 
Lincoln carried the woe of a nation on his shoulders and the sorrow and suffering of 
humanity in his face— he saw! 


However, we must consider the contagious effect of personality. The chronic grouch, 
the person who has a biased view of things, and whose perverted influence is 
extended to others, is not to be confused with the man who has found wherein lies the 
true happiness, who has sounded humanity and the universe to his mental capacity, 
and who comes forth with an understanding of better things, and then accosted with 
the grim realities of this fallen race of mankind, expresses a sorrowful sympathy. 


So, we find in the woof and warp of the mantle of life both black and white threads, 
interwoven, interlinked, under and over, around and about and side by side— and, 
wearing this mantle throughout our mortal existence unto the portal of death where 
we must shed all and stand naked and alone, we must accept the texture, for the self- 
same hand that formed us out of the dust of the earth fashioned our mantle, of sorrow 
and Joy. 


— o — 


A MASONIC CREED 


The Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, by their Grand Officers 
and Representatives in Grand Lodge assembled, at an annual communication thereof, 



in accordance with existing Constitutions and Laws, do establish and promulgate the 
following 


Preamble 


As an expression of the simplest form of the faith of Masonry, not exhaustive, but 
incontrovertible and suggestive, the following is 


The Masonic Belief 


There is one God, the Father of all men. The Holy Bible is the Great Light in 
Masonry, and the Rule and Guide for faith and practice. Man is immortal. Character 
determines destiny. Love of man is, next to love of God, man's first duty. Prayer, 
communion of man with God, is helpful. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


DOGMA AND SCIENCE 


WHAT IS DOGMA? By Edouard LeRoy. Translated by Lydia G. Robinson. 
Published by the Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, III. May be purchased through 
the Book Department of the National Masonic Research Society, J950 Railway 
Exchange Bldg., St. Louis, Mo. Boards, 6x4, 89 pages. Price, postpaid, 60c. 



THIS is a remarkable little book. It goes right to the very root of the question with no 
redundant argument or superfluous illustration, while yet the author's thesis, or rather, 
as he insists, his question, is put so clearly that it seems difficult to comprehend how 
he could have been misunderstood. Yet misunderstood he was, and his little essay 
was the cause of a prolonged controversy in the French press, not only in theological 
and philosophical journals, but also in the popular magazines and newspapers. 


Mr. LeRoy is a Roman Catholic, and apparently both sincere and devout in his 
religion. But he is also a philosopher and fully abreast with scientific and literary 
culture. His question is addressed to the authorities of the Roman Church, and though 
he asks a question he apparently puts them in a dilemma - which may account for the 
hostility his article roused, and the fact that when republished, with some of the letters 
it elicited and the author's replies thereto, it was put on the Index as a book forbidden 
to the faithful. 


The reason for the question raised may be given in the author's own words. "I desire 
above all," he says, "to make better known the state of mind of these contemporaries 
who think, the nature of the questions they ask themselves, the obstacles that hinder 
them and the difficulties that perplex them . . . The experience of cultivated non- 
Christian circles (I might even say a personal experience) has demonstrated to me that 
the proofs brought forward as traditional have no effect on intellects accustomed to 
the discipline of contemporary science and philosophy." And further on he says, "Let 
no one think such a task profitless or superfluous ... we [i. e. defenders of dogmatic 
teaching] are not listened to or understood. What we say has no response and carries 
no weight. We exert ourselves in [a] silence and in a void, without even giving rise to 
any criticism or refutation." And again he says, "Today denial does not attack one 
dogma any more than another. It consists above all in a preliminary and total 
demurrer ... it is the very idea of dogma which is repugnant, which gives offense." 


By a dogma, he means a point or article of faith held and taught by the church, and 
his argument holds good of any dogma of any church, and two of the three given in 
illustration are held by all orthodox churches. He shows that understood purely and 
simply as intellectual propositions they are not only impossible to demonstrate but 
that they are positively meaningless. He then shows that historically dogma is 
negative, it is not this or that is to be believed, but such and such a thing is not to be 



believed. Only in the historical setting have the dogmas of Christianity any 
intelligible meaning from the philosophical point of view. But beyond this they have 
a practical meaning, as in one of his illustrations, "God is a person," teaches 
negatively that God is not simply a law, a hypothesis, an abstract force. But positively 
it implies that the believer must act as in a personal relation towards the mysterious 
being we call God. 


The discussion of this subject will prove of great value to thinking Masons who really 
want to know quite clearly what the "belief in God" that is a prerequisite to 
membership in the Fraternity really implies. 


The translator is to be congratulated on the successful rendering of the original into 
exceedingly clear and idiomatic English. We could wish that she had gone on and 
included some of the ensuing controversy. 


* * * 


DEMOCRACY VS. AUTOCRACY 


THE VISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE. "THE MAELSTROM." By Edgar I. 
Fuller. Revised and edited by Geo. La Dura. Published by the Maelstrom Publishing 
Co., Inc., Denver, Colo. May be purchased through the Book Department of the 
National Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, 
illustrated, 178 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.60. 


THE author was at one time Executive Secretary to Edward Young Clarke, Imperial 
Giant, Imperial Wizard Emeritus, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, but has very fully 
and completely renounced the organization. This and the title will give the reader a 
very fair inkling of what to expect. Incidentally one would remark that publisher or 
author, or whoever was responsible for the allegorical picture that comes before the 



Foreword, seems to take the Maelstrom to be a kind of cyclone, tornado or aerial 
disturbance of some kind. The word of course simply means "midstream" and was 
applied to a once famous and much dreaded whirlpool caused by tidal currents off the 
west coast of Norway. This error is perhaps trivial enough in itself, but one feels in a 
way that it may be really typical of the whole work. 


The book is in brief a very fierce and bitter accusation and denunciation of the Klan, 
its founders, its leaders and all its ways and works. If a tithe of what the author 
alleges is true his indignation would be more than justified, but the critical reader, 
failing other sources of information, would be inclined to suspect that righteous wrath 
has run to seed in rhetoric. It certainly seems that a more restrained account would 
carry greater conviction. 


The author gives us an account of the founders of the present day Klan, and the men 
who now control it, and it is no pleasant picture that he draws. There are included 
portraits of Simmons and Clarke which might be those of any ordinary prosperous 
American citizen. Certainly these illustrations would not give us by themselves the 
impression that the first showed the features of a man "characterized by physical 
laziness, mental inertia and moral insensibility from childhood," of a minister of the 
gospel "discontinued, while yet on trial because of his inefficiency and unreliability, 
with grave rumors as to his moral conduct." Nor does the other look like a confessed 
white slaver, a renegade Presbyterian church worker and habitual drunkard. Yet on 
the other hand the author alludes casually to newspaper reports that would fully bear 
out his characterizations. Into these personalities, however, it is hardly worth while to 
go. The Klan and its activities are of interest to Masons, negatively in the first place, 
because of the persistent propaganda put out to lead the public to think that there was 
some connection between the two organizations. Secondly, it is of interest to 
individual Masons as citizens of the United States, because its machinery is so 
diametrically opposed to the ideals of democracy on which the Republic is founded. 
Secret tribunals are a natural resource of a people oppressed by a despotic and 
tyrannical government, but they have no place in a free country. The Klan as a 
pretentious make-believe would be only a source of mirth, but when it tries to make 
its hidden autocracy effective it becomes a legitimate object of apprehension and 
reprobation. At the very best it is a short cut to reform that would lead still deeper into 
the quagmires of injustice and corruption. 



One of the most amusing things about the Klan is the amazing nomenclature in use, 
and the even more amazing crudity of its rituals. It is a cause of wonder how anyone 
with enough education to be able to read and write can stomach it. It evidently 
subsists on racial and religious prejudice, and its promoters find their fishing the 
better the more they can trouble the waters. We can fully recommend the book as a 
counter-irritant to anyone at all inclined to become a Klansman. 


H.C.S. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE 


ETIQUETTE FOR GRAND OFFICERS - AND OTHERS 


I read with interest an anecdote in the October BUILDER, narrating that a Grand 
Master on an official visit was seated in the East during the reading of a passage from 
the Old Testament, in the course of which he repeatedly asked a Past Master seated 
beside him, "What does that mean?" The Past Master replied irritably that he did not 
know. The moral is that Past Masters really ought to know more things than they do 
know. 


This is, I suppose, incontestable; but the anecdote calls to my mind a problem in 
politeness which is occasionally perplexing. I have not found in any of the standard 
books of etiquette directions on how to shut up a Grand Master; nor, frankly, do I 
think I would act upon the knowledge if I had it. One shrinks from the exercise of 
stupendous powers. Besides, one ought never to get irritated at a Grand Master any 
more than at an organist. Most of us could not fill either job. But just what ought you 
to do if you are visiting a lodge and some Worshipful Brother seated next to you 
persists in chattering to you during the work; or if you are entertaining a visitor and 



he converses so continually that even the candidates as they pass by cannot but hear 
him? You don't want to be a solemn ass; but conversation, when it is neither time nor 
place for it, is one of the crimes it takes two to commit; so if you talk back to your 
amiable neighbor many can see that you and he are talking and some can hear you. 


If you happen to be seated in the East when this occurs everybody can see that you 
are talking. 


My own solution of the difficulty is a compromise - no doubt a cowardly one. At 
most stages of the proceedings I do answer back, under the continual fear or perhaps 
hope - that the Master will gavel us into silence. But when the Scripture is being read, 
I would not pay attention to anybody seated beside me, were he a Grand Master or the 
best of grand good fellows. 1 don't think my regard for the Bible is superstitious or 
fanatical, but when the word of God is being read to me, I consider it up to me to pay 
attention to it and not to anything or anybody else. 


I have even noticed conversation going on during prayer. That surely is boorish as 
well as irreverent. 


Would it not be well once in a while to suggest to officers, kindly, that during the 
work they ought to sit up straight and pay attention; and might we not remind Past 
Masters, respectfully, that when seated in the East they are conspicuous and are 
setting an example? Let all the brethren remember that it is the lodge at work, not 
merely certain performers doing the work. If that were more fully realized perhaps the 
work would seem more interesting. 


There is a time for conversation, for catechism by Grand Masters, for speechmaking 
and for all that promotes sociability. The Master has power to allot the time for these 
things as he deems best; the brethren, whatever their station, should govern 
themselves accordingly. At least, that is the way it seems to me. 



C. H., New York. 


* * * 


THE RELIGION OF PRESIDENT HAYES 


The evidence as to the religion of President Hayes that would probably be regarded as 
most authentic, is his own diary, in which he wrote on May 7, 1890: "I am not a 
subscriber to any creed. I belong to no church. But in a sense satisfactory to myself 
and believed by me to be important, I try to be a Christian, or rather I want to be a 
Christian and to help do Christian work." Again, on Jan. 8, 1893, nine days before his 
death, he wrote: “I am Christian, according to my conscience, in belief, not, of course, 
in character and conduct, but in purpose and wish; not, of course, by the orthodox 
standard. But I am content and have a feeling of trust and safety." 


These extracts and many others from Hayes' diary are printed in the two- volume 
"Life," by Charles Richard Williams (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914) which was 
written at the request of General Hayes' sons and principally in the family home at 
Fremont, Ohio. Hayes' mother was a New England Congregationalist; when they 
moved to Ohio his parents united with the Presbyterian Church. Hayes went to 
Kenyon College (Episcopalian) but apparently only because it was the nearest. The 
President's wife was, as is well known, a zealous Methodist and he always went with 
her to church. His biographer, Williams, says: "His widowed mother's pride in him 
was unbounded, and she never had fault to find with him except that he did not make 
public avowal of the Christian faith and unite himself with some church. While he felt 
himself to be a Christian in all essential respects, he never united with any church. 
There were declarations of belief in the orthodox creeds that he could not 
conscientiously make." 


Similar statements, though much briefer, are found in the "Life," by William Dean 
Howells (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1876). 



Charles E. Harrison, New York. 


Referring to the statement in your October issue that President Hayes was a Baptist. 
President Hayes and his wife were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 


On retiring from the Presidency, he made his home at Fremont, Ohio, and the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Fremont is largely indebted to President and Mrs. 
Hayes for its beautiful church edifice. 


President Hayes and my father were close friends and frequently discussed religion. 
One day I overheard my father say, "Hayes, I know you belong to the Methodist 
Church, but what is your religious belief?" He replied, "I am a Christian; there are 
very few of us." Another statement he made and which I overheard, "It is not related 
that Christ ever smiled. He seems to have had no sense of humor." 


Frank H. Howe, Ohio. 


* * * 


MARK TWAIN 


I wish to call your attention to an article appearing on the Editorial page of the 
January, 19?5, issue of THE BUILDER, to the effect that Mark Twain was an atheist. 
In a publication known as "Masonic Events," whose business office is located at 186 



N. LaSalle street, Chicago. 111., I read another article which leads me to believe that 
Mark Twain was a member of Polar Star Masonic Lodge, No. 79, St. Louis, Mo. 
These two articles conflict with each other. Which is correct? 


A. F. S„ Illinois. 


The editorial in the January issue of THE BUILDER was based upon the biography 
of Mark Twain, written bit Albert Bigelow Paine, who is the authority for stating that 
Twain in his later years was an atheist. We have no other authority for the statement 
than that contained in the Paine biography. This statement, however, is not 
inconsistent with the statement that Mark Twain was a member of Polar Star Lodge, 
No. 79, St. Louis, because his membership in Polar Star Lodge was at a time prior to 
the period in which it is averred by Mr. Paine that he became an atheist. 


During this latter period of his life he was no longer a member of Polar Star Lodge; 
therefore, his religious beliefs could not be called in question. 


THE BUILDER does not accept responsibility for the statement in the Paine 
biography, but simply in its editorial saw in the distress of that great humorist 
probable confirmation of the statement made by his biographer. 


* * * 


STEPHEN MORIN 


The article by the undersigned in your September issue on "Facts About Stephen 
Morin" seems to have elicited considerable interest as shown by the receipt of a 
number of letters by him. 



The most important was one from Henry A. Alexander, a prominent attorney of 
Atlanta, Georgia, who in his letter dated Sept. 22, says: 


"Referring to your article 'Facts About Stephen Morin' in the September, 1925, 
number of THE BUILDER, in which in the third paragraph you refer to Abraham 
Alexander, the first Secretary-General of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, may 
I correct your impression that he was not a Jew. 


"The pertinent facts are that Mr. Alexander, my great-great-grandfather, was a native 
of London and a Jew. 


"Without compensation he served the Jewish congregation of the House of God of 
Charleston, South Carolina, as its minister from 1764 to 1784, and this service is still 
commemorated in the ritual of that congregation for the Day of Atonement. He is 
buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Coming Street in Charleston and his descendants 
are Jews." 


To this most interesting letter to all Scottish Rite Masons I replied, saying I was very 
much pleased to learn that there were descendants of this noted brother, Abraham 
Alexander, now living in the United States, and asked for more details of his life, as 
Albert Pike was able to find out but little concerning him save that he was employed 
in the Charleston Custom House, was an Englishman and, as his informant expressed 
it, "a fine caligraphist." I further suggested to Mr. Alexander that he give me all the 
facts concerning his illustrious ancestor that he cared to communicate for publication 
as a separate article, to which I have as yet received no reply. 


Cyrus Field Willard, California. 



MASONRY AND THE HOLY BIBLE 


I am taking the liberty of mailing you a copy of "The York Rite Trestle Board," a 
little sheet published by a few earnest and enterprising brother Masons of the City of 
Mexico in the interest of York Rite Masonry in this Republic. It is the practice of the 
Grand Master to address the Craft by a monthly letter. This second letter of our 
present M. W. Grand Master occurs to me as about as fine a statement of real 
Masonry and its purpose as I have ever seen. 


Especially apt is his statement with reference to the "Holy Bible as the nearest means 
we have of learning the Will of God, and as the best Guide, upon which to base our 
faith and our conduct." Here is a conception, upon which all honest men can agree 
whether in the lodge or out of it. 


E. S. Banks, Sec'y, 

Tampico Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. M., Tampico, Mexico. 


The paragraph from which Bro. Banks quotes, reads in full thus: 


Masonry has for its fundamental principles and tenets only those principles upon 
which all good men may agree without argument and without contention. Such is the 
belief in one Supreme Being, the Father and Creator of all things; such is the belief in 
the immortality of the soul, that part of Man which most nearly resembles the God he 
worships; such is the belief in the Holy Bible as the nearest means we have of 
learning the Will of God, and as the best guide upon which to base our faith and our 
conduct. To these great fundamentals we add the practice of benevolence, of charity 



and of tolerance, the belief in individual responsibility, in the free education of all 
men and in freedom of thought for all mankind. 


* * * 


BOOKS WANTED AND FOR SALE 


Would anyone having a copy of "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," by Piazzi 
Smyth, that they are willing to dispose of, communicate with Bro. George Meyer, 
care of the Editor? 


Bro. G. F. Winemiller has a complete set of THE BUILDER from January, 1915, to 
date, for sale. 


Mrs. Louise Todd Plum, daughter of the late Bro. Irving Todd, of Hastings, Minn., 
wishes to sell her father's Masonic library. This consists chiefly of a collection of 
proceedings of various Grand Masonic bodies which had been made very nearly 
complete. A very valuable set, which might especially interest any Masonic body 
contemplating the formation of a library. There are in addition some two hundred 
volumes of a miscellaneous character, some of them very scarce. 


Bro. O. M. Henderson has about seventy Masonic works to dispose of. A list will be 
furnished to those interested. Among these books are such items as the following: 


Lexicon of Masonry. Mackey, 1866. $2.00. 
Traditions of Freemasonry. Pierson, 1865. $2.00. 



Symbolism of Freemasonry. Mackey, 1869. $1.50. 
Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. Mackey. $4.00. 
Antiquities of Freemasonry. Oliver, 1856. $2.00. 
Illustrations of Masonry. Preston, 1856. $2.00. 
Revelations of a Square. Oliver, 1855. $1.76. 
Mnemonics. [Morris.] $2.50. 


Bro. Wm. A. Theobald would like to obtain a copy of the Scottish Rite Liturgy of the 
first Three Degrees. If any of our readers have a copy to dispose of, or know where 
such could be obtained they would be extending a fraternal favor in letting him know. 
Letters may be addressed in care of the Editor of THE BUILDER. 


— o — 


YE EDITOR'S CORNER 


Bro. Robert I. Clegg writes to point out an error that was overlooked in the September 
number of THE BUILDER, and one that is sufficiently obvious, at least when pointed 
out. The portrait illustrating his article entitled "More Patriarchs- of the Craft" is that 
of Bro. John Barker, not Harry Tipper. 


Qui s’excuse o’accuse, say the French, and Ye Editor is neither going to excuse nor 
accuse himself. The mistake occurred, it is now corrected, and that's that. 



In a little work published some time ago giving a brief outline of Biblical history 
from the Masonic point of view, together with topographical and archeological details 
of the Orient - it would perhaps be unkind to mention the exact title - occurs the 
following gem: "The Sphinx is a gigantic monument with the body of a lion and the 
bust of a woman, probably the image of an ancient king." 


However one reads this it would seem that kings were curious animals in those days. 


* * * 


And yet another correction! A friendly critic writes to point out that the poem we 
quoted last month is all wrong, and also (which under the circumstances is worse) 
that the true version appears in the first volume of THE BUILDER on page 137. Ye 
Editor will "save his face" by pointing out that this is a very good concrete example 
of how variant forms of a story, a proverbial saying, or a traditional ritual can arise. If 
such mistakes can be made when the original is on record and easily accessible, much 
more so are they likely to occur when this is not the case. 


Here is the original form of the poem: 

"The parish priest of austerity 
Climbed up in a high church steeple, 

To be nearer God so that he might hand 
His word down to the people. 

And in sermon and script he daily wrote 



What he thought was sent from heaven 
And he dropped it down on the people's heads 
Two times one day in seven. 

In his age God said, Come down and die. 

And he cried out from the steeple 
Where art Thou, Lord? And the Lord replied 
Down here among my people ! " 


The breaking up of the poem into stanzas, and the dividing of the first and every 
succeeding alternate line into two are minor details and do not affect either the 
rhythm or the sense. But note how the "austerity" of the priest has been changed into 
a geographical designation of similar sound. The most curious change, however, is 
adding "r" to the word "age" and the consequent complete change of the end of the 
line in order to produce sense. Those who wonder how discrepancies have got into 
the Masonic Ritual can see the process here in plain view. It is now the turn for some 
one else to discover neither version is right. But this will not affect the moral.