The Builder Magazine 

December 1926 - Volume XII - Number 12 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Political Anti-Masonry, 1827-1843 - By BRO. ERIK MCKINLEY ERIKSSON, 
PH.D. 

Old Convivial Craft Customs By BRO. WILLIAM L. BOYDEN, Washington, D. C. 

The Comacines and the Traveling Gilds - By BRO. W. RAVENSCROFT, England 

The Gild and the Lodge - By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN 

FURTHER NOTES ON THE GILD - By Bro. W. RAVENSCROFT 

The Background of Masonic History in the 18th Century By PROF. E. E. 
BOOTHROYD, Canada 

EDITORIAL 
MISUNDERSTANDING 
WALTER CLIFFORD BURRELL 

THE NORTHEAST CORNER - Bulletin of the National Masonic Tuberculosis 
Sanatoria Association 


The Precious Jewels - By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN - (Continued) 


THE WOMEN ARE INTERESTED 



"HOW SOON CAN I BE GIVEN TREATMENT?" 


THE LIBRARY 

THE LIFE OF HENRY HOWARD MOLYNEUX HERBERT, FOURTH EARL OF 
CARNARVON, 1831-1890 

DEBITS AND CREDITS 

THE MAN NOBODY KNOWS 

THE BOOK NOBODY KNOWS 

THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE 
THE YOUNG MAN WITH GREAT POSSESSIONS 
MORGAN AND THE OBLIGATION 
THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN AT JERUSALEM 
THE COMPASSES 

THE POSITION OF THE LESSER LIGHTS 
REQUEST FOR BACK NUMBERS 


— o — 


Political Anti-Masonry, 1827-1843 



By BRO. ERIK MCKINLEY ERIKSSON, PH. D. 


WHETHER viewed in its cultural, economic, social, religious or political aspects, 
there is no period in American history more fascinating than is the Jacksonian period. 
It was an era characterized by change and controversy in every field. It was a period 
of triumphant democracy in which the fight for free public schools was first 
successfully waged. American literature reached a high plane and some of the greatest 
American writers of all time flourished during the epoch. Canals, roads and railroads 
were rapidly developed, inventions multiplied, agriculture flourished, trade and 
commerce rapidly expanded, and improvements on an unprecedented scale were 
projected, only to be stopped by the panic of 1837. 


The period saw the beginning of the organized labor movement, the launching of the 
real movement for the abolition of slavery, the rise of the woman's rights movements, 
the development of an organized movement against intoxicating liquors, and progress 
towards abolition of imprisonment for debts. Improvement was brought about in the 
care of the insane and advancement was made in prison reform. The organized peace 
movement was definitely projected during this era. Communistic experiments were 
made on a large scale, though more after 1840 than before. It was a period of 
religious readjustment and change. Especially in the newer sections of the country the 
evangelical churches made great gains. Unitarianism assumed an organized form and 
took its stand beside Universalism in the fight between liberalism and orthodoxy in 
religion. The year 1830 saw the organization in New York of the Mormon Church. It 
was, in fact, a period of "isms"— and this should not be overlooked in explaining why 
it was possible to organize, during the period, such a fanatical party as was the Anti- 
Masonic. 


Even surpassing all these things in interest was the political history of the period. 
Space does not permit a discussion of the heated controversies which raged over such 
matters as the civil service, the Second Bank of the United states, internal 
improvements, the removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi River, foreign 
relations, the specie circular and the distribution of the surplus. Rather, attention must 
be focused on the political party development of the period, especially on the abortive 
attempt to build a great national party on the basis of opposition to the Masonic 
Institution. 



Viewed from the standpoint of national history the Anti-Masonic party would be of 
little importance were it not for the fact that during its short life it contributed to our 
national political system the national nominating convention and at least the "germ" 
of the national platform. From the Masonic viewpoint, the Anti-Masonic party is a 
subject that cannot be lightly dismissed for it developed into the most highly 
organized and powerful foe that Masonry has ever had in the United states. Promoted 
by unscrupulous opportunists seeking political power and even aiming at the 
presidency of the United states, it almost succeeded in exterminating Freemasonry in 
some of the states. In view, then, of its contributions to national political practices and 
its baneful influence on the Masonic Institution, it should be of greatest interest to 
trace the origin, development and decline of the Anti-Masonic party. 


POLITICAL ORIGIN OF ANTI-MASONRY 


In seeking an explanation of the origin of the Anti-Masonic party it is not enough, as 
Charles McCarthy, the leading historian of the party, pointed out years ago, to say 
that it was started by the Morgan affair. Had not the political, social and religious 
conditions at the time been favorable for the formation of a new party it is highly 
improbable that any political developments would have followed the mysterious 
disappearance of William Morgan. That incident was merely the match which served 
to ignite the combustibles already prepared. 


Assuredly, the political situation, both in the country as a whole, and in New York, 
was ripe for the appearance of a new party. In 1816, the decadent Federalist party had 
for the last time participated in a presidential election, and thereafter the old 
Republican party was without a rival. The Federalist disintegration proceeded rapidly, 
so that when the Republican President, James Monroe, shortly after his inauguration, 
made a tour of the old Federalist stronghold of New England, he was received with 
such cordiality that the expression "Era of Good Feelings" was applied to his 
administration. 



But, while the surface of the political water appeared to be calm, underneath there 
was a great and increasing turmoil. After Monroe's second election, various 
individuals openly exhibited themselves as candidates for the presidential succession. 
The number of aspirants, at first about a score, dwindled until the election of 1 824 
saw four rivals in the field, John Quincy is Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of 
Kentucky, William H. Crawford of Georgia and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. The 
regular election proved indecisive, though Jackson received a plurality of the electoral 
votes. In accordance with Constitutional provision, the election was then settled in the 
House of Representatives in favor of Adams. 


Clay, who had run fourth in the race and was therefore eliminated from the House 
election, used his influence for Adams, and after the latter assumed the presidency, 
received the coveted office of Secretary of state. This led to the famous charge that a 
"corrupt bargain" had been entered into by Adams and Clay. The charge, though 
never satisfactorily substantiated, was believed by many, including Jackson, who was 
changed from an indifferent contestant to an eager aspirant for the presidency. In the 
fall of 1825 he was nominated for that office by the Tennessee legislature and began 
an aggressive campaign to defeat Adams in 1828. The bitter rivalry thus engendered 
between Adams and Jackson divided the Republican party into factions, which were 
destined to develop into new political parties. Just what the emerging parties would 
be called no one at that time could tell. The fact remains that both the Adams and 
Jackson groups claimed the name "Republican" until after the election of 1828. 


CLINTON AND VAN BUREN 


The political situation in New York was even more favorable to the formation of new 
parties. There had been a long struggle in the state over the building of the Erie Canal, 
and the animosities developed by this struggle did not subside when the canal was 
completed in 1825. De Witt Clinton had led the canal forces and Martin Van Buren, 
the chief of the "Bucktails," had been the leader in opposition to the building of the 
canal. After Adams and Jackson became avowed rival candidates for the presidency 
in the election of 1828, it was necessary for Clinton and Van Buren, just as it was for 
other politicians throughout the country, to choose between them. Van Buren, 
previously a Crawford supporter, early took a stand in favor of Jackson. After 
considerable deliberation, Clinton also announced himself as a Jackson supporter. 



This produced consternation among his followers, many of whom preferred Adams to 
Jackson. 


Not least among those who were followers and admirers of Clinton was Thurlow 
Weed, then an aspiring newspaper editor in Rochester. He, and many other Clinton 
adherents, had supported Adams for the presidency in 1 824 and wished to do so 
again. To Weed and the other Adams men who were seeking to counteract the 
influence of Clinton's action, the Morgan affair must have appeared as a rainbow of 
hope. 


To one familiar with Weed's long subsequent career as a shrewd political manipulator 
there is danger of giving him credit for more foresight than he actually possessed. 
Nevertheless, retracing the development of the Anti-Masonic party from a local party 
in Western New York to a national party contending for the presidency of the United 
states, the guiding hand of Weed is clearly discernible at all stages. 


WEED AND THE MORGAN COMMITTEES 


Through the activities of the "Morgan committees," including that of Monroe County 
of which Weed was a leading member, and inspired by Weed's newly established 
"Anti-Masonic Enquirer" and similar newspapers which soon cropped out, there was 
developed in Western New York, within a short period after Morgan's disappearance, 
a frenzied outburst against Freemasonry. To bring about this result, charges that 
Masons were interfering with and hindering the investigations were coupled with 
appeals to the religious prejudices of the people. 


The Anti-Masonic writers on the subject have been wont to say that the popular 
indignation of the people led to a "spontaneous" resort to the ballot to bar Masons 
from political offices. But viewing the evidence in hand it is apparent that the 
"spontaneous" outburst was in reality the result of carefully conducted manuevers on 
the part of Weed and his associates. Anti-Masonic tickets were placed in the field in 
various town elections in Genesee and Monroe Counties in the spring of 1827 with a 



result most encouraging to the Anti-Masons. It is significant that Weed, in his 
Autobiography, begins his chapter on political Anti-Masonry by relating how he and 
others at the time counselled against political action and then in the same paragraph 
says: 


Rochester had already become the centre of Anti-Masonry. From that point the 
movements, whether of a judicial or legislative character, emanated. 


As Weed was the chief of the Anti-Masons in Rochester, it is clear that he was 
promoting political Anti-Masonry while professing to discourage it! 


Animated by the success of. their first venture into politics, the Anti-Masonic leaders 
threw their full energies into the work of perfecting a party organization, promoting 
conventions and securing suitable candidates to run in the approaching elections. 

They also continued their propaganda designed to win converts to their cause. The 
influence of the alleged finding of Morgan's body on Oct. 7, 1827, must have been 
great, for it supported the claims that Morgan had been drowned by the Masons. The 
decision that the body was Monroe's and not Morgan's was not reached until Oct. 29. 
As the election began on the following Monday, Nov. 5, it was too late, in view of the 
poor communication facilities of the time, to re-act on the voters. Therefore, the body 
was "a good enough Morgan until after the election", whether or not Weed actually 
made the remark. In disseminating their propaganda, the Anti-Masons did not omit to 
point out that Governor Clinton, a high Mason, had gone over to the political camp of 
Jackson, also a prominent Mason. (1) They also spread false reports that Clinton had 
approved of the Morgan abduction. 


As a result, in the fall of 1827, Timothy Childs was elected to the state assembly from 
Monroe county on an Anti-Masonic ticket, and fourteen others claimed as Anti- 
Masons were also elected to the same body, much to the gratification of Weed and 
company. The new party was gaining momentum and numerous conventions were got 
up in 1828, for the purpose of further crystallizing sentiment. These included a 
convention of seceding Masons at Le Roy, Feb. 19 and 20, 1828, followed by a 
second convention of seceding Masons also at Le Roy, on July 4, 1828. This 



convention drew up a "Declaration of Independence" from the Masonic Institution, in 
imitation of the national Declaration, and the document was signed by one hundred 
and three seceding Masons, varying from an Entered Apprentice to the possessor of 
twenty-one degrees. Conspicuously heading the list is the name of Solomon 
Southwick. The only other persons in the list who attained any prominence as Anti- 
Masons were David Bernard, author of Light On Masonry, John G. steams, Edward 
Giddins, Samuel D. Greene, and David C. Miller. 


THE ANTI-MASONIC TICKET 


Meanwhile an open Anti-Masonic convention had been held at Le Roy, March 6 and 
7, with twelve counties represented. A set of twenty Anti-Masonic resolutions was 
drawn up and an address to the people was issued. On Aug. 4, 5 and 6, 1828, the 
Anti-Masons held a convention at Utica for the purpose of nominating a state ticket 
for the fall election. Francis Granger was nominated for governorship, but after 
several weeks declined the nomination, as he preferred to mn for the office of 
Lieutenant Governor on the ticket of the Adams Republicans. Temporarily, Thurlow 
Weed lost control, for the radical Anti-Masons met at Le Roy, on Sept. 7, and 
nominated Southwick for the office of Governor. In the ensuing election, which 
resulted in the selection of the Jacksonian candidate, Martin Van Buren, Southwick 
ran a poor third. However, the Anti-Masons succeeded in electing seventeen 
assemblymen and four state senators, including William H. Maynard. In this election 
the Anti-Masons cast their votes for Adams for President since his statement had been 
spread abroad that he was not, never was, and never should be a Mason. 


"The election of 1828," said Weed, "imparted increased confidence, vigor and 
strength to the Anti-Masonic party." Southwick, who had for a short time occupied a 
place of leadership, was pushed aside and thenceforth Thurlow Weed, aided by such 
lieutenants as William E. Seward, Millard Fillmore, Francis Granger, John C. 
Spencer, Myron Holley, Henry Dana Ward, Frederick Whittlesey, Albert H. Tracy, 
William H. Maynard, and others, guided the destinies of the Anti-Masonic party in 
New York. A state convention was convened at Albany on Feb. 19, 1829, with 
delegates present from forty counties. This convention, says McCarthy: 



Marks a new starting point in the history of the party in New York. . . It was all the 
more effective because the political nature of it was concealed by an outward show of 
Anti-masonry with all its verbiage and proscriptive declarations. 


Though Southwick was allowed to open the convention with a long address, there 
was no question as to the Weed faction controlling the meeting. Weed, from the state 
Anti-Masonic Central Committee, presented a long report on the development and 
progress of AntiMasonry. The most significant action taken by the convention was in 
regard to a national convention. A report on the subject was submitted by a 
committee, headed by Granger and including Seward in its membership. After 
hearing the report and supporting speeches, the convention resolved to call a national 
convention to meet at Philadelphia on Sept. 11, 1830, (2) to be composed of delegates 
from each state equal in number to the electoral vote of the state. It was further stated: 


The objects of which Convention, when assembled, shall be to adopt such measures 
as to them, in their deliberate wisdom, shall appear to be the most effectual to 
annihilate the Masonic Institution, and all other secret societies which claim to be 
paramount to our Laws, and are hostile to the genius and spirit of the Constitution. 


In evaluating the significance of this resolution it must be remembered that the 
national parties styled the Democratic party and the National Republican party had 
not yet adopted those designations. There was an Adams party and a Jackson party 
but definite names were not adopted until after Jackson's inauguration as President, 
March 4, 1829. (3) In view of this, it is quite evident that Weed and his associates 
were seeking to make their party a chief national party in opposition to the 
Jacksonians. From 1829 until its demise in 1833, the Anti-Masonic party in New 
York was primarily an anti- Jackson party, and its continued attacks on Masonry were 
but "camouflage" for the real political motives of the opportunistic leaders. 


Before adjourning, the Albany Convention memorialized the state legislature for 
legislation against "extrajudicial oaths." It also decided that, while Morgan deserved 
a monument, the time was not ripe for its erection because of the doubtful 
"probability of its remaining undisturbed." It took action to raise a fund by 



subscription, to be held in trust, the income from which was to be used "for the future 
support of Mrs. Morgan, and the support and education of her two children." (4) 


PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MASONS 


After the convention, the Anti-Masons continued to use all the devices at their 
command to keep up an excitement against the Masons. They made liberal use of 
newspapers, pamphlets and "lectures." The "Morgan trials" were continued with 
renewed vigor and desperate attempts were made to secure convictions of accused 
Masons. Meanwhile, by declaring in favor of further canal building and other internal 
improvements, they attracted to their standard many of the old Clintonians and 
Adams men. 


THE "TOLERATION MOVEMENT 


In some of the towns of Western New York an attempt was made to stem the tide of 
Anti-Masonry by organizing a "Toleration and Equal Rights Party." In the local 
spring elections of 1829, "toleration" tickets were successful in a few towns. "The 
Craftsman" of April 14, 1829, which had previously exhorted the voters "to unite 
under the banner of Toleration and Equal Rights, and with becoming regard to their 
privileges, as freemen, uphold their institutions," claimed victories in seven of the 
sixteen towns of Monroe County, six of seven in Genesee County, four in Livingston 
County, and in all the towns of Cayuga and Seneca Counties. It is surprising that 
nothing more was heard of this "party" after these elections. 


In the fall elections of 1 829, the Anti-Masons showed increased strength though the 
Jacksonians easily controlled the state as a whole. (1830 was the year the Anti- 
Masons exhibited their greatest strength in New York.) On Feb. 25, 1830, a 
convention was held at Albany and thirty-six delegates were chosen to attend the 
national convention. On Aug. 11, 1830, another state Anti-Masonic convention was 
held at Utica with forty- five counties represented. Francis Granger was nominated for 
Governor and a bid for the workingmen's support was made by nominating Samuel 



Stevens of New York city for Lieutenant Governor. Fourteen resolutions were 
adopted and an address to the people was issued. In the fall election, Granger was 
defeated but he carried eighteen counties and received 120,361 votes as compared 
with 128,892 votes for Enos Throop, who was elected. It is significant that ten 
counties which had been Anti-Masonic in 1828 were carried by Throop, the 
Democrat-Republican candidate, in 1830. The Anti-Masons were admitted to have 
elected thirty three members of the Assembly, and they elected state senators in three 
districts, including Seward in the Eighth District. 


In spite of the great show of strength in 1830, Weed was disappointed. In 1831 the 
party lost ground and in 1832 again went down to defeat, not only in New York but 
nationally as well. After an even more disastrous defeat in the fall elections of 1833, 
Weed and his colleagues were ready to give up. As Weed said in his Autobiography: 


The election of 1833 demonstrated unmistakably not only that opposition to Masonry 
as a party in a political aspect had lost its hold upon the public mind, but that its 
leading object [?], namely, to awaken and perpetuate a public sentiment against secret 
societies, had signally failed. 


A meeting of leaders of the party was held late in 1833 which "resulted in a virtual 
dissolution of the Anti-Masonic party" in New York. 


Meanwhile, Anti-Masonry had been making headway in other states. In Pennsylvania 
conditions were also favorable for the introduction of Anti-Masonry. Long before the 
Morgan affair, as early as 1821, there had been manifested hostility on the part of 
some Presbyterians towards Masonry, and in 1823 the Methodists, of the state had 
shown an unfriendly attitude towards the Fraternity. Other religious sects in the state 
were also fertile ground for the seeds of Anti-Masonry brought in from New York as 
early as 1827. Furthermore, as in New York, there was a quarrel of long standing over 
internal improvements which favored the organization of a new party. 



Political Anti-Masonry made its first appearance in the fall of 1828, but did not make 
much headway until the following year. On June 25, 1829, a convention of Anti- 
Masons from eleven counties met at Harrisburg and nominated Joseph Ritner for 
Governor. In the fall election the Anti-Masons polled a considerable vote and, while 
Ritner was defeated, elected fifteen members of the House and one member of the 
Senate of the state legislature. On Feb. 26, 1830, practically all the counties of 
Pennsylvania were represented in an Anti-Masonic convention at Harrisburg, called 
to choose delegates to the national convention. In this convention, Thaddeus Stevens 
began his career as the leading Anti-Mason of Pennsylvania. 


In the fall elections, 1830, the Anti-Masons succeeded in electing six Congressmen, 
four members of the state Senate and twenty-seven members of the state House of 
Representatives. In May, 1831, another state convention was held to choose delegates 
to the Baltimore national convention, but was poorly attended. That fall the Anti- 
Masons elected six state senators and twenty members of the House. On Feb. 22, 
1832, a fourth state convention met at Harrisburg and for a second time nominated 
Ritner for Governor. That fall he ran a very close second to George Wolf, the 
Democratic candidate. For a time thereafter Anti-Masonry declined in Pennsylvania, 
but was kept alive through the activity of Stevens and his chief lieutenant, Ritner. 
Finally, in 1835, by a coalition of Anti-Masons and Whigs, Ritner was elected 
Governor. During his three year regime every possible effort was made to legislate 
Masonry out of existence, but without success. With Ritner's defeat in 1838, political 
Anti-Masonry practically disappeared in Pennsylvania, though Stevens attempted to 
revive it as late as 1843. 


THE RESULTS IN VERMONT 


In no state were the Anti-Masons so completely successful as in Vermont. Political 
Anti-Masonry really began there in 1829, when on Aug. 5 a state convention was held 
at Montpelier. That fall the Anti-Masons elected thirty-three out of the two hundred 
and fourteen members of the state legislature. In 1830, the Anti-Masons showed 
increased strength. By 1831 they were strong enough to secure a plurality in the 
popular election for their gubernatorial candidate, William A. Palmer, and then secure 
his election at the hands of the legislature. They also elected one hundred and 
fourteen members of the state legislature. In 1832, they again elected Palmer as 



Governor and also elected three members of Congress. In 1833 and 1834, Palmer was 
re-elected but thereafter lost his popularity, and as a result of a deadlock in the 
legislature in 1835, Silas H. Jennison, elected by the Anti-Masons as Lieutenant 
Governor, became the Governor. In 1836, the Anti-Masons joined with the Whigs 
and disappeared as a distinct party in Vermont. 


THE RESULT IN MASSACHUSETTS 


The Anti-Masons made a determined but futile effort to control the political situation 
in Massachusetts. Political Anti-Masonry began in the state in 1828, but it was not 
until the notorious "Suffolk Committee" was organized at a meeting of Anti-Masons 
at Boston, Aug. 27, 1 829, that headway was made. The first state Anti-Masonic 
convention met in Faneuil Hall, at Boston, on Dec. 30 and 31, 1829, and Jan. 1, 1830. 
Resolutions were adopted and a long address to the people of the state, drawn up by a 
committee headed by Moses Thacher, was issued. This convention also elected 
delegates to the Philadelphia national convention. The members of the "Suffolk 
Committee" were designated to serve as a state Anti-Masonic committee. In 1830, the 
Anti-Masons elected three state senators and between twenty and twenty-five 
members of the lower house of the legislature. 


On May 19 and 20, 1831, a second state Anti-Masonic convention was held in 
Boston. Various reports were made and Anti-Masonic resolutions were adopted. Later 
in the year, the Anti-Masons nominated Samuel Lathrop for Governor but he was 
defeated in the election. In 1832, the Anti-Masons put an electoral as well as a state 
ticket in the field, the latter again headed by Lathrop, but the National Republicans 
won the election. The convention of that year adopted a reply to the "Declaration" of 
the Masons of Boston, this reply having been drawn up by the state Anti-Masonic 
committee and including thirty-eight "Allegations Against Freemasonry." Letters 
were then addressed to the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of the state challenging 
them to sue the Anti-Masonic committee for libel, so that a trial could be held to 
determine whether the Anti-Masons were justified in their charges against Masonry, 
or the Masons were right in declaring the charges false. Nothing came of these 
challenges. 



In 1833, against his wishes, John Quincy Adams was nominated by the Anti-Masonic 
convention for the governorship, but failed of election. In 1834 the Anti-Masons 
succeeded in getting the legislature to investigate Masonry but nothing came of the 
investigation. That year the state convention nominated John Bailey for Governor but 
he ran a poor third in the election. In 1835, most of the Anti-Masons of Massachusetts 
joined the Whigs, and the merger was completed in 1836. 


RHODE ISLAND AND CONNECTICUT 


Rhode Island was another of the New England states where political Anti-Masonry 
exhibited considerable strength. Anti-Masonry appeared in the state in 1 829, and was 
given form by a convention held the next year. In 1831, the Anti-Masons 
memorialized the state legislature to investigate Freemasonry, which was done, 
though the investigation was "fruitless." In 1832, the legislature passed an act 
forbidding extra judicial oaths. A very unusual situation occurred in Rhode Island in 
1832 when a coalition was formed between the Anti-Masons and the Democrats. As a 
result, William Sprague, an Anti-Mason, was elected Speaker of the lower house of 
the state legislature. Beginning with 1833, the Anti-Masons, for five successive years, 
elected their candidate, John Brown Francis, to the governorship. It was not until 
1838 that political Anti-Masonry in Rhode Island disappeared. 


In Connecticut political Anti-Masonry began late in 1828. On Feb. 11, 1829, a state 
convention was held at Hartford. In 1832, the Anti-Masons showed their greatest 
strength in Connecticut when, by a coalition with the National Republicans, they 
elected eight state senators, sixty-seven members of the state House of 
Representatives, and one United States Senator. The strength of the party soon 
dwindled, and in 1835 the Anti-Masons were practically absorbed by the Whigs. 


Political Anti-Masonry made little headway in states other than those already 
mentioned. In Maine, a state convention was held at Augusta, July 4, 1832. The party 
had a candidate for the Governor, Thomas A. Hill, in the elections of 1832, 1833 and 
1834, but his strength was negligible. At least two conventions were held in New 



Hampshire, one on June 1, 1831, and another on Feb. 6, 1833, but no political 
successes were achieved by the Anti-Masons. 


THE RESULTS ELSEWHERE 


In other states political Anti-Masonry was nothing more than a "local infection." It 
made some headway in New Jersey where at least one convention was held -that at 
New Brunswick on Aug. 24, 1830. In Ohio, Anti-Masonry exhibited its chief strength 
in the northeastern part. At least three conventions were held in this state, the first 
convening at Canton on July 21, 1830, with twelve counties represented, the second 
at Columbus on Jan. 11, 1831, and the third also at Columbus, on June 12, 1832. 
Anti-Masons in Indiana were a factor in only a few local elections. There is record of 
a convention held in the state in March, 1830. At least one Anti-Masonic convention 
was held in Kentucky, at Carthage, on Jan. 22, 1829. In Michigan Territory the Anti- 
Masons held a convention in June, 1 829, and that year were strong enough to elect 
John Biddle as Territorial Delegate to Congress. Local outbreaks of political Anti- 
Masonry occurred in Marengo and Tuscaloosa Counties in Alabama, in Mecklenburg 
County, North Carolina, and in Boonsboro district, Maryland. There is no other 
evidence available to show that political Anti-Masonry made any headway in the 
South. The fact that Delaware had one delegate present at each of the Anti-Masonic 
national conventions is evidence that that state was also slightly tainted with political 
Anti-Masonry. 


THE COLLAPSE OF THE MOVEMENT 


An account of political Anti-Masonry would not be complete without a consideration 
of the ephemeral career of the national Anti-Masonic party. As has been suggested, 
Weed and others early conceived the project of making the Anti-Masonic party a 
leading national party in opposition to the Jacksonians, and with this in view secured 
the calling of a national convention to meet at Philadelphia. At the time of the calling 
of the convention little was definitely known as to the actual strength of the Anti- 
Masons outside of New York. It must have been disappointing to the leaders when 
there appeared at Philadelphia, on Sept. 11, 1830, delegates from only ten of the 



twenty-four states and from one territory. While a total of one hundred and eleven 
delegates attended, it should be noted that thirty-three were from New York, twenty 
eight from Pennsylvania and seventeen from Massachusetts. Connecticut sent eight 
delegates, New Jersey seven, Ohio seven, Vermont six and Rhode Island two, while 
Delaware, Maryland and the Territory of Michigan each sent one delegate. 


The convention organized with Francis Granger of New York as President. During 
the five days the convention was in session the time was spent mainly in formulating 
and listening to reports. On the first day fourteen different committees were 
appointed, to report on such matters as "the pretensions of freemasonry," "the true 
nature of Masonic oaths and obligations," "the truth of the disclosures" of Masonry, 
"the abduction and murder of William Morgan," "the effects of Freemasonry on the 
Christian religion," "the nature and spirit of anti-masonry," and "measures ... to 
effectuate the extinction of Freemasonry." The various reports were the subject of 
extended debate which on occasion grew heated. It is apparent that some of the 
delegates were anxious to air their views and took full advantage of their opportunity 
to do so. 


Among the matters of interest which came before the convention was the proposal of 
a New York delegate that a committee be appointed "to inquire into the pecuniary 
circumstances and situation of the family of Capt. William Morgan, and to report 
what measures, if any, should be adopted for their support." After some discussion the 
proposal was rejected. Thaddeus Stevens was most active in opposing the resolution, 
and, as his expressions show how little some of the leaders connected the Morgan 
affair with the AntiMasonic party, the record of the debates containing his objections 
may be quoted, as follows: 


Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, thought that this convention, as such, had nothing to do 
with the family of Capt. Morgan. The abduction and murder of that individual, did 
not constitute the basis of anti-masonry. That was perhaps a providential 
circumstance in its favour. The investigation and proceedings of the convention in 
regard to free-masonry should be coolly and dispassionately conducted. The 
resolution would be looked upon as intended to inflame the feelings and passions, 
rather than to appeal to the judgment; to excite the sympathies, rather than open the 
eyes, of the people, on the subject of masonry. 



It was apparent that the time was not ripe for putting a presidential candidate in the 
field, but the matter was referred to a committee. After the committee's report had 
been debated with considerable heat, it was 


Resolved, That it is recommended to the people of the United states, opposed to 
secret societies, to meet in convention, on Monday, the twenty-sixth day of 
September, 1831, at the city of Baltimore, by delegates equal in number to their 
representatives in both houses of congress, to make nominations of suitable 
candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, to be supported at the next 
election; and for the transaction of such other business as the cause of Anti-Masonry 
may require. 


A long address to the people, prepared by Myron Holley, was adopted and signed by 
all the delegates in attendance. It was chiefly a denunciation of Masonry and an 
appeal to the people to use the ballot against the Institution. This address is important 
since, if it was not the first national party platform, it was at least the "germ" of such a 
platform. If a platform is a declaration of a party's principles and policies, this address 
fulfilled the requirements of a platform. 


SECOND NATIONAL CONVENTION 


The party leaders hoped, by holding a second national convention in 1 83 1 , to have a 
more representative gathering, but in this they were to be disappointed. There 
assembled at Baltimore, on the appointed date, only one hundred and fourteen 
delegates from twelve states, including thirty-seven from New York, twenty eight 
from Pennsylvania, fourteen from Massachusetts, nine from Ohio, six from New 
Jersey, five from Vermont, six from Connecticut, four from Rhode Island, two from 
Maine, and one each from New Hampshire, Delaware and Maryland. 



After the convention had been organized with John C. Spencer of New York as 
President, the rules and orders of the Philadelphia convention were adopted, various 
committees were appointed, and the work of the convention was got under way. 
Special reports by Henry Dana Ward for the "National Committee of 
Correspondence," Benjamin F. Hallett of Rhode Island "On the Construction of 
Masonic Penalties," and John C. Spencer "On History of Judicial Proceedings" in the 
"Morgan cases" regaled the convention while the matter of candidates was being 
considered. 


Before the convention various individuals had been mentioned as possible Anti- 
Masonic presidential candidates. John C. Calhoun would have received favorable 
attention had it not been for his known connection with the movement in South 
Carolina to nullify the Federal tariff laws. Richard Rush of Pennsylvania had been 
mentioned and may have entertained hope of receiving the nomination. John Quincy 
Adams of Massachusetts was supported by New Englanders but had expressed 
himself as not wishing to be nominated. Then, too, there were many who felt that his 
name would not attract voters to the party. Henry Clay might easily have received the 
nomination, but he was a Mason and refused to renounce the Fraternity. (5) He had 
come dangerously close to it when he wrote, Jan. 23, 1831: 


I have been urged, entreated, importuned, to make some declaration short of 
renunciation of Masonry, which would satisfy the Antis. But I have hitherto declined 
all interference on that subject. While I do not, and never did care about Masonry [?], 
I shall abstain from making myself any party to that strife. I tell them that Masonry 
and Anti-masonry has legitimately in my opinion nothing to do with politics; that I 
never acted, in public or private life, under any Masonic influence; that I have long 
since ceased to be a member of any lodge; that I voted for Mr. Adams, no Mason, 
against General Jackson, a Mason. 


Thaddeus Stevens and perhaps other Anti-Masonic leaders went to the Baltimore 
convention with the intention of securing the nomination of John McLean of Ohio, a 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court and ex-Postmaster General of the United 
states. He had privately expressed a willingness to accept the nomination if it were 
assured that he would be the sole candidate in opposition to Jackson. But by the 
summer of 1 83 1 it was very evident that the National Republicans would name a 



candidate of their own, and the indications were that Clay would be the candidate. In 
fact he had already been put forward as a candidate by various National Republican 
gatherings throughout the country. Therefore McLean wrote, under date of Nashville, 
Sept. 7, 1831, declining "to distract still more the public mind," by allowing himself 
to be named as an additional candidate. 


WIRT AS ANTI-MASONIC CANDIDATE 


Distracted by this frustration of their hopes, a delegation of Anti-Masons called on 
William Wirt, an ex-Attorney General of the United States, then residing in 
Baltimore, and persuaded him to accept the party's nomination for the presidency. 
Wirt, who early in life had taken the Entered Apprentice Degree, and whose 
conversion to Anti-Masonry coincided with the assembling of the convention, 
reluctantly agreed to accept the nomination. He, and probably some of the real Anti- 
Masonic leaders, hoped that the National Republicans would concur in the 
nomination when their national convention should assemble in December, 1831. 
Having secured at least a nominal candidate for the presidency, the Anti-Masons 
named Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania for the vice-presidency, drew up Anti- 
Masonic resolutions, adopted a platform in the form of an address to the people and 
adjourned to await the developments of the campaign. 


Were it not for the fact that the address contained the usual denunciations of 
Masonry, it might have been a platform drawn up by a convention of National 
Republicans— in fact it was clearly designed to attract voters of that party. There could 
no longer be any doubt that the Anti-Masonic party, in spite of its pretensions, had 
become essentially an anti-Jackson party. The events of the campaign were ample 
justification for such a conclusion. 


After the National Republicans, in their national convention at Baltimore, in 
December, 1831, formally nominated Clay, Wirt, aged and sickly, became thoroughly 
disheartened and, after the party leaders refused to allow him to withdraw, refused to 
lift a finger to promote his own election. In private correspondence he expressed the 
hope that Clay would win. 



THE INSINCERITY OF THE LEADERS 


The active Anti-Masonic leaders showed how insincere all their pratings against 
Masonry since 1826 had been, when they entered into coalitions with the National 
Republicans in various states. The Jackson official organ, the Washington "Globe," 
frequently called attention to these coalitions and denounced them in that vehement 
language which made its editor, Francis Preston Blair, the outstanding political editor 
of the period. It was the intention of the National Republican and Anti-Masonic 
leaders, especially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, to manipulate the electoral 
vote so as to give it to either Clay or Wirt, whichever appeared to have the best 
prospect of being elected. Clay entered into the arrangement wholeheartedly, as a 
letter written to Weed, dated Washington, April 14, 1832, plainly indicates. He said, 
in part: 


I received your favor of the 9th inst., as I did the previous ones, communicating the 
progress of measures to produce cooperation between the Anti-Masons and the 
National Republicans in the state of New York. I most earnestly hope that such 
cooperation may be cordially produced, to the satisfaction of both parties. 


The cooperation referred to was brought about, for the two parties united on the same 
state and electoral ticket. This gave the Democrats an opportunity to ridicule their 
opponents as the "Siamese Twin Party." 


Every possible means was employed by the coalition to defeat Jackson. The one 
hundred and sixty Anti-Masonic newspapers, headed by Weed's "Albany Evening 
Journal," were aided by numerous almanacs and tracts of various kinds in spreading 
the party propaganda. Jackson's staunch adherence to the Masonic Fraternity was not 
overlooked, nor did the Anti-Masons neglect to point out that four members of his 
cabinet, Edward Livingston, the Secretary of state, Lewis Cass, the Secretary of War, 
Levi Woodbury, the Secretary of the Navy, and William T. Barry, the Postmaster 
General, were prominent Masons. But all the efforts were without avail, for after the 
smoke of the battle had cleared away in the fall of 1832 it was found that Jackson had 



been easily re-elected, receiving two hundred and nineteen electoral votes. Clay 
received fortynine electoral votes, while the Anti-Masonic candidate, Wirt, received 
only the seven electoral votes of Vermont. The Anti-Masons had hoped to poll at 
least a half million votes but Clay and Wirt together received only 530,189 votes 
while Jackson received 687,502. 


The overwhelming defeat of the Anti-Masons in the election of 1832 was a blow from 
which they never recovered. The New York leaders, who had been primarily 
responsible for the origin and development of the party, were convinced that they 
could not ride to power under the aegis of an Anti-Masonic party. After they 
dissolved the party in New York it was only a matter of time until the whole political 
Anti-Masonic movement collapsed. Though it showed strength in some states, as has 
been pointed out, until 1838, and even held a national convention at Philadelphia, 
Nov. 13, 1838-with only four states, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and 
Pennsylvania represented— its doom was inevitable. The American people could not 
be fooled forever and when they saw that the issue of Anti-Masonry was being kept 
up chiefly to supply aspiring political opportunists with a vehicle in which to attempt 
to ride to power, they refused to lend enough support to keep the party alive. Thus 
there passed off the stage the first of a large number of minor parties which have 
afforded variety to American political campaigns. 


NOTES 


(1) Throughout the period the Anti-Masons sought to create the impression that 
Masons were bound to work for each other's political advancement, but the history of 
the period is full of refutations of the absurd charge. It is true that Clinton became a 
Jackson man, but there were dozens of Masons who bitterly opposed Jackson 
politically. For example, Henry Clay, P. G. M. of Kentucky, and John Marshall, 
P.G.M. of Virginia, were most bitter opponents of Jackson. Hezekiah Niles of 
Baltimore, P.G.H.P. of Maryland, was editor of Niles' Register, one of the most 
powerful anti- Jackson newspapers in the country. William Winston Seaton of 
Washington, one of the editors of the National Intelligencer, the chief organ of the 
National Republicans and later of the Whigs, did not let his Masonry diminish the 
intensity of his attacks on Jackson. 



(2) This date was the anniversary of the day on which Morgan had been taken from 
Batavia in 1826. For a time the AntiMasons sought to have the day set aside for 
special observance. 


(3) In 1829 the Adams party began calling themselves "National Republicans" while 
the Jacksonians still called themselves "Republicans" or "Democratic Republicans." It 
was not until January, 1832, that they officially used the term "Democratic" Party— 
the term then being used in their call for a national convention. In applying the temlls 
to parties before 1829, Weed and others writing years afterwards, were in error. (See 
Bibliographical Notes) 


(4) It is doubtful if Mrs. Morgan received much, if any benefit from this action as she 
married, late in 1830, a seceded Mason named George W. Harris, and evidently 
removed westward. Rob Morris cites evidence to show that Harris divorced her at 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1856. 


(5) Clay had demitted in 1824 from Lexington Lodge, No. 1, of Kentucky, but he did 
not renounce Masonry. He had previously served as Grand Master of Kentucky and 
had been chiefly instrumental in promoting, in 1822, the project for a General 
Supreme Grand Lodge of the United States. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The most complete and authoritative though not exhaustive work on the subject of 
political Anti-Masonry, the use of which is indispensable in any study of the subject, 
is Charles McCarthy's "The Antimasonic Party: A Study of Political Antimasonry in 
the United States, 1827-1840 " in the American Historical Association Annual Report 
for 1902, Vol. I, pp. 365-574. Though written by a Catholic it exhibits a 
commendable spirit of fairness. 



Brief accounts of political Anti-Masonry are [Erik McKinley Eriksson's] "The Anti- 
Masonic Party," in Masonic Service Association Bulletin No. 10, Erik McKinley 
Eriksson's "The AntiMasonic Party," in THE BUILDER, Vol. 7 (March, 1921), pp. 
71-77; Emery B. Gibbs' "The Anti-Masonic Movement," in THE BUILDER, Vol. 4 
(December, 1918), pp. 341-348; and J. Hugo Tatsch's "An American Masonic Crisis," 
in Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Vol. XXXIV (1921), pp. 196-209. 


A brief general treatment of Anti-Masonry in national politics is contained in the first 
volume of Edward Stanwood's History of the Presidency From 1788-1916' (Boston, 
1916), 2v. New York politics are vividly dealt with in De Alva Stanwood Alexander's 
Political History of the State of New York (New York, 1906-1923), 4v., and in Jabez 
D. Hammond's The History of Political Parties in the State of New York . . . (Albany, 
1 842), 2v. It should be noted that the account of Anti-Masonry in the second volume 
was written by Frederick Whittlesey, an Anti-Mason. 


Of great importance for the accounts of prominent AntiMasonic leaders are Thurlow 
Weed's Autobiography and Memoirs and William H. Seward's Autobiography. 
Biographies, memoirs and other works relating to such leaders as Thaddeus Stevens, 
John Quincy Adams, William Wirt and Millard Fillmore, not to mention a whole host 
of lesser leaders, have also been consulted. William L. Stone's Letters on Masonry 
and Anti-Masonry . . . (New York, 1832), gives much interesting material. The 
"Introductory Remarks" in [Henry Gassett' s] Catalogue of Books on the Masonic 
Institution . . . (Boston, 1852) supply the dates for some Anti-Masonic conventions 
not mentioned by McCarthy. 


In addition to newspapers hitherto cited, the following Washington newspapers were 
carefully studied: the Washington "Globe," the Jackson official organ, 1830-1837; the 
"National Intelligencer," the chief organ of the National Republicans and the "United 
States Telegraph," the ex-official organ of Jackson's administration. 


The present writer has prepared a study of these journals, a small part of which has 
been published under the title "Official Newspaper Organs and the Campaign of 



1828," in The Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. VIII (January, 1925), pp. 231- 
247. It was from this study that the information concerning party cognomens was 
derived. "Niles' Register," published throughout the period at Baltimore, is a mine of 
useful information. Its bias is decidedly anti-Jackson. 


Typical of the Anti-Masonic almanacs examined were the following: Edward 
Giddins' The Pennsylvania Anti-Masonic Almanac . . . 1830 (Lancaster, 1830); 
Giddins' Anti-Masonic Almanac ... 1831 (Utica 1831); Giddins' Anti-Masonic 
Almanac . . . 1832 (Utica, 1832), Avery Allyn's The Anti-Masonic Sun Almanac . . . 
1832 . . . (Philadelphia, 1832); and the New England Anti-Masonic Almanac for the 
years 1831, 1832, 1833 and 1834 (Boston). The almanacs are of interest chiefly 
because of the free use they made of cartoons and caricatures, which were, generally 
speaking, rarely employed at that period of history. 


While it has been necessary to depend on works already cited for much of the 
material on political Anti-Masonry, the following pamphlets containing convention 
proceedings have been studied at first hand: Masonic Anti-Masonic Proceedings [Le 
Roy, Feb. 19 and March 6, 1828], N.P., N.D., 16 pp.; Proceedings of the Anti- 
Masonic Convention for the State of New York Held at Utica, Aug. 11, 1830 . . . 
(Utica, 1830), 16 pp.; Proceedings of the Antimasonic State Convention of 
Connecticut Held at Hartford Feb. 3 and 4, 1830 (Hartford, 1830), 32 pp.; Brief 
Report of the Debates in the Anti-Masonic State Convention . . . Massachusetts . . . 
1829 . . . (Boston, 1830), 48 pp.; Abstract of the Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic 
State Convention of Massachusetts . . . 1829 . . . (Boston 1830), 32 pp., Abstract of 
the Proceedings of the Antimasonic State Convention of Massachusetts ... 1 83 1 
(Boston, 1831), 78 pp.; Anti-masonic Republican Convention of Massachusetts . . . 

1832 . . . (Boston, 1832), 55 pp.; Anti-Masonic Convention of Massachusetts . . . 

1833 . . . (Boston, 1833) 48 pp.; Antimasonic Republican Convention for 
Massachusetts . . . 1834 . . . (Boston, 1834), 40 pp.; The Proceedings of the United 
States Anti-Masonic Convention, Held at Philadelphia Sept. 11, 1830. Embracing the 
Journal of Proceedings, the Reports, the Debates and the Address to the People 
(Philadelphia 1830), 164 pp.; and The Proceedings of the Second United States Anti- 
Masonic Convention, Held at Baltimore, September, 1831; Journal and Reports . . . 
Resolutions, and the Address to the People (Boston, 1832), 88 pp. 



The following pamphlets are useful in giving an insight to various political activities 
of the Anti-Masons: A Legislative Investigation Into Masonry [Rhode Island] . . . 
(Boston, 1832), 85 pp.; Report of the Committee Appointed by the General Assembly 
of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, to Investigate the Charges in 
Circulation Against Freemasonry and Masons in Said State . . . (Providence 1832), 

149 pp.; An Investigation Into Free Masonry by a Joint Committee of the Legislature 
of Massachusetts . . . 1834 (Boston, 1834), 76 pp.; The Petition to the Legislature of 
the State of Connecticut, Against Extra-Judicial Oaths [1833] . . . (Hartford, 1834), 8 
pp.; Address of the Anti-Masonic State Convention Held at Augusta, July 4, 1832 . . . 
N. P., N. D., 8 pp., John Clarke's Address to the People of Pennsylvania Read to the 
Anti-Masonic Convention Held at Harrisburg, Feb. 25, 1830 . . . (Lancaster, 1830), 

34 pp.; Report of a Committee to the New York Senate, Together With Extracts From 
Other Authentic Documents. Illustrating the Character and Principles of Free 
Masonry . . . (New Haven, 1829), 24 pp.; Report of the Select Committee on That 
Part of the Governor's Message Relating to the Abduction of William Morgan. Made 
to the [New York] Assembly, Feb. 16, 1829 (Albany, 1829), 68 pp.; Report of the 
Committee on the Abduction of William. Morgan Made to the [New York] Senate, 
Feb. 14, 1829 (Albany, 1829), 27 pp.; Report of the Special Counsel on the Subject of 
the Abduction of William Morgan to the [New York] Senate (Albany, 1830), 35 pp., 
Appeal to the "Original Antimasons" of New York by the Editor of the Boston Daily 
Advocate [Benjamin F. Hallett] (Published as "Extra" "Boston Daily Advocate," July, 
1834), 32 pp., Report on Secret Societies and Monopolies by a Joint Committee of 
the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1836 (Boston, 1836), 48 pp.; and Resolutions 
Adopted by the Antimasonic Members of the Legislature of Massachusetts and Other 
citizens . . . Opposed to the Nomination of Martin Van Buren . . . (Boston, 1836), 24 

pp. 


— o 


Old Convivial Craft Customs By BRO. WILLIAM L. BOYDEN, Washington, D. C. 


A PEEP into the past, disclosing from actual records many quaint and curious 
customs of the Fraternity in regard to refreshment. In an age when a strong head, 
ability to drink and not be drunken, was considered an admirable quality in a man, 



temperance still had its original meaning of reasonable use, without abuse of any of 
the pleasures of life. 


CRITICISMS have often been made in times gone by, charging that the Masonic 
institution was responsible for a great deal of intemperance. In the olden days 
refreshments, both solid and liquid, were items of legitimate expense, regularly 
charged and regularly charged and regularly paid for at the old time inns. Although 
this usage has been radically changed and the bibulous features of Masonic gatherings 
have long since been discontinued, unwarranted conclusions are still drawn from the 
curiosities of the old books of account and books of record. In this particular, 

Masonic usages a hundred years ago cannot be fairly tested by current standards of 
Masonic conduct. The denominational organizations and their membership could not 
successfully meet a similar test. Neither the one nor the other should now be called to 
book upon more exacting standards of conduct than were set up by the moral sense of 
contemporaries. Liquors seem to have had, in former times, as respectable standing in 
the bill of fare at public places of entertainment, in the homes, and in public 
gatherings, as do coffee, tea and other beverages in the social arrangements of the 
present day. From the church, the lodge room and from places of social assemblages, 
it was viewed in the same light. The temperate use of it as a beverage was regarded as 
no offense against religion, morals or good manners. Considering the habits of the 
great mass of mankind at that period it is worthy of note and commendation that this 
essential Masonic duty, the restraint of improper desires and passions, was so 
faithfully observed by the Craft, not only in their seasons of social recreation and 
refreshment, but in other circumstances and relations. 


The following is taken from the History of Rising Sun Lodge, Royalton, Vt., printed 
in 1907, which touches upon this old custom: 


"Not to treat a caller or visitor, and especially the minister when he called at one's 
house, was deemed inhospitable and rude. Illustrating this condition, a good old 
Christian lady years ago related to me an experience of her own which occurred when 
she was a little girl. The minister of the parish called at her home. The family supplies 
happened to be 'shy' on rum, and her good mother, ashamed at the prospect of not 
being able to entertain her guest aflter the usual manner, called the little girl into 



another room, lifted her out of a back window and sent her post haste to a neighbor to 
obtain a supply of the 'ardent' wherewith to regale the parson." 


And the Rev. Bro. Joshua Young, in an address before Old Colony Lodge, 
Massachusetts, some years agone said: 


"The use of intoxicating liquors was discontinued, in more than one Masonic lodge, 
long before they were banished from ministerial councils, ordinations and funerals." 


WHAT THEY DRANK 


In addition to the liquors generally known, the brethren seemed to favor several 
concoctions popular at the time, such as Negus, so-called from its inventor, Colonel 
Negus, in the time of Queen Anne, 1702-1714, a mild, warm punch or wine, usually 
port or sherry, with a little lemon and not much sugar; rum punch was made from 
wine, rum, oranges and lemons; another favorite drink alnong those of the Craft who 
were seafaring men was Rumbo. Smollett, in 1751, in his "Peregrine Pickle," refers to 
the use of Rumbo, sometimes called bumbo. It was a strong drink made up of rum, 
sugar and nutmeg, a sort of sailor's grog. 


Lyon, in his history of the Lodge of Edinburg, says: 


As appears from occasional scraps of the treasurer's accounts, one shilling per bottle 
was the price of the punch that was used in the lodge, and the quantity named was no 
unusual allowance on festive occasions to each attending operative apprentice, to the 
officer, to the stewards "when making punch in the meeting," and to each visiting 
brother. "Cold toddy" seems at a much later period to have been the favorite lodge 
drink, and one of the minutes of the year 1809 is made to record the surreptitious 
removal of "forty-one bottles of this beverage, the property of the lodge." 



That lemons formed an important part of the bibulous menu is evidenced from a 
minute in a lodge in Durham, England, where it is recorded under date of Aug. 2 1 , 
1787: 


On the same night, Br. Robt. Darnel, made a motion that there should be lemons 
provided against the next and every succeeding lodge night, which was unanimously 
agreed to, 


Here is a sample of what was paid for liquid refreshments after punches and the like 
passed out of fashion, taken from the records of Apollo Lodge, Troy, New York: 


Apollo Lodge, to Jonth. Hatch, Dr. 


to 21 lbs. cheese at 8d 0 14 0 

1 gal. wine 0 10 0 

1/2 lb. tobacco 0 10 

6 pipes 0 0 0 

50 segars 0 16 


1 7 6 


Troy, 2d April, 1799. 


Here is a typical bill for refreshments in Rising Sun Lodge, No. 7, Royalton, Vt. Note 
the spelling: 



The Rison Son Lodge, bot of Moses Cutter- 


1 qt. Gin $ .38 

1 qt. W.I. Rum 38 

1 qt Brandy 38 

3 1/2 lbs. "Cheas" 35 

4 doz. crackers 48 


Royalton, April 19, 1826. 

PURCHASED WHOLESALE 


Frequently where lodges could afford it, they purchased their wine in large quantities, 
it being much cheaper that way, and stored it in the cellar below the lodge. A "pipe" 
was a wine measure containing about 126 wine gallons; a pipe of port contained 
about 138 wine gallons, Sherry 130, Madeira 110, Lisbon 140. As early as 1738 we 
find recorded in the Turk's Head Lodge, Wiltshire, England: 


It was agreed that as fault was found with the wine, a pipe of good wine should be 
fixed upon by some of the brethren, and that upon their approbation, the whole should 
be bottled off, and the Mason's seal placed on each bottle and kept for the use of the 
lodge only. 


In the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, Edinburgh, June 4, 1740, the Master informed 
the lodge 



That for the benefit and use of the lodge there wa.s commissioned from London, one 
puncheon containing one hundred and eight English gallons of Rum, and one barrel 
containing two hundred and fifty-five and one-half pounds of sugar, which being 
arrived, Brother Thos. Trotter generously advanced the money for the same, 
amounting conform to the Invoice and Bro. Allan's receipt yron, to the sum of Fifty- 
four pounds, seventeen shillings and seven pence sterling. 


In Master's Lodge, No. 2, Albany, N. Y., Nov. 21, 1786, it was resolved 


That the Treasurer take order to procure for the use of the lodge, one quarter caske of 
Lisbon, or sherry wine, five gallons spirits, two loaves sugar and two dozen glasses. 


From a minute in the Old Dundee Lodge, London, Nov. 27, 1788, it would seem that 
the purchase by brethren of the lodge, of the necessary "spirits," was 


not at all satisfactory, for it was resolved on that date 


That one of the Stewards order from some person not a member of this lodge a certain 
Quantity of wine and Licquors as Necessary. 


In the Shakespeare Lodge, London, Feb. 24, 1803, it was 


Resolved That Messrs. Dunlop and Hughes be ordered to send a Pipe of Red Port, 
similar to the sample now produced, for the use of the Lodge, sealed with the Seal of 
the Lodge, and that Brother George Harvey be requested to draw up certain 
regulations to be observed in future in the Cellar, respecting the same, to be submitted 
at the next meeting of the Lodge for their consideration. 



REGULATING THE COST 


Only a few years after the establishment of lodges in this country, we find the 
following among the regulations of St. John's Lodge, No. 1, Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, in 1739, relative to the use of liquors: 


13. The Junior Warden is to keep an account of what liquor comes in for the use of 
the Lodge, which is not to exceed 2 shillings 6 pence per head, in failure of which he 
is to forfeit the surplusage (without a dispensation from the Master and members) the 
said Warden to render an account to the Secretary, who is to settle the same with the 
Master and Treasurer before the Lodge is closed. 


Sept. 14, 1764, the Lodge of Emulation, London: 


Moved and seconded, that no Liquor be made and mixed anywhere by any member of 
this Lodge, but in the Lodge, under the penalty of every member being at the expence 
of the Liquor he shall make contrary to this order, which is carried in the affirmative. 


The Lodge of Unity, No. 183, London, had this among its by-laws in 1782: 


Article 3rd. All liquor drank at the Lodge during Lodge hours and the beer drank at 
supper by the brethren not exceeding a pint each to be charged in the bill of expenses 
that night but no liquor called for before or after Lodge hours shall be allowed by the 
Lodge. 



Lodge No. 43, Lancaster, Pa., was evidently averse to keeping a charge account in the 
matter of refreshments, for in 1785, its fourth by-law provided "That no brother come 
to the lodge without money to pay the expenses of the night." 


That some innkeepers encouraged the meetings of lodges at their places by giving the 
rent free for the sake of the trade, is evident, as we find in the history of Solomon's 
Lodge, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1787, that the paying of rent at Bro. Poole's 
apparently became irksome or not sufficiently "speculative," for Bro. Emott moved 
that the lodge fall into our former mode of buying our liquors of Bro. Poole and pay 
no rent." 


St. John's Lodge, Leicester, England, March 5, 1794, 


Resolved that every member pay on each Lodge evening, two shillings for his supper 
and for ale during Lodge hours. Members chusing to take Wine or Liquors to pay for 
them extra. 


And Union Lodge, Norwich, England, passed a resolution May 25, 1810, that visiting 
brethren should be charged the price of a bottle of wine. 


Here is an extract from the minutes of Shakespeare Lodge, London, June 23, 1831, 
which is very suggestive: 


The Secretary stated to the Lodge that in order to prevent any errors relative to the 
number of bottles of wine charged in the bill, which appeared to him to have on more 
than one occasion exceeded the number drunk, he had with the appreciation of the W. 
M. provided a quantity of wine tickets. 



How some of the lodges refreshed themselves, and absent one hour, and being rather 
intoxicated was order'd to where, is indicated in the ensuing extract from the sit as a 
private memberrecords of the Mariners' Lodge, England: 


The Lodge to find two shillingsworth of malt Liquor and one Pint of Gin, Rum and 
Brandy for every Lodge night only —the Lodge not to be closed for refreshment, but 
the refreshment to be brought into the Room and put on a Table, any one who 
chooses may partake thereof, paying 6d for the same. To have no Spirits admitted into 
the Room during the time the Lodge is open unless paid for by the person calling for 
it. 


TREATING 


The custom of treating the brethren of the lodge was quite a prevalent one, being 
sometimes required, but more often voluntary. One of the lodges in Norfolk, England, 
exacted, in 1724, that: 


Every Masber on his election shall treat ye brethren with two bottles of wine and ye 
Wardens with one bottle each, and on their second election the Master one bottle and 
ye Wardens a bottle between them. 


When a member was blest with a lewis or lewisa (son or daughter) he usually 
celebrated the event as is evidenced from the records of the Turk's Head Lodge, 
Wiltshire, England: 


August 16, 1739. Brother Mills having been lately blessed with a lewis, was pleased 
to present this Lodge with a crown bowl of punch upon that happy occasion, and the 
young lewis' health was drunk to in form. 



September 20, 1739. Our Brother Delarant presented the Lodge with a bowl of punch 
on his having a lewisa born, and her health was drunk in form. 


The Lodge of Felicity, London, on June 21, 1748, records: 


This being Election night Bro. Griffon was Elected Master and chose Bro. Harforth 
and Bro. Morse Wardens and Bro. Gibbs Seer., the Master paid a bottle, the Wardens 
and Secretary paid each one shilling for the Honour done them. 


FINES AND FORFEITS 


In the Turk's Head Lodge, Wiltshire, England, Dec. 21, 1738, Bro. Hetherington was 
called upon by the Master for his lecture, but excused himself on account of business 
preventing him, but promised it on the next lodge night, or the voluntary forfeiture of 
a gallon of wine. Caledonian Lodge, London, in 1765, had as one of its regulations: 


That if any member of this Lodge come disguised in liquor, he shall be admonished 
by the presiding officer, for the first offense; For the second, of the same nature, he 
shall be fined one shiiling; And for the third, or refusing to pay his fine, he shall be 
excluded without any benefit from the lodge. 


In Mount Vernon Lodge, Albany, N. Y., 1773, one of the articles of its regulations 
provided that 


On lodge evening no member under a fine of one shilling shall have more drink than 
for six pence in the lodge room without the Master's consent. 



In a lodge in wigan, England, under date of Feb. 25, 1801, "Bro. John Taylor being 
disguis'd in liquor he was admonished by the Worshipful and ordered home." In the 
early records of Jerusalem Lodge, London, the Secretary states that "Brother Perdue 
having drank a public Toast without his Apron, paid one shilling as a forfeit for that 
neglect." 


The Worshipful Master himself was called to account in the Lodge of Antiquity, 
Bolton, England, Oct. 11, 1799: 


The Worshipful was fined 2 shillings six pence fro being absent one hour, and being 
rather intoxicated was order'd to sit as a private member. 


GETTING ECONOMICAL 


Many lodges, not only as a matter of economy, but realizing that refreshments were 
more often the means of the brethren becoming better acquainted with each other and 
that expensive wines and liquors were not necessary for this purpose, began to 
retrench and adopted such measures as a London lodge did in 1773 when it enacted a 
by-law: 


That on account of the great expense incurr'd by allowing wine at supper and in order 
to prevent the bad consequences arising therefrom, no liquor shall be paid for out of 
the Lodge funds, which is drunk out of the Lodge room, except beer or ale drank at 
supper. 


Temple Lodge, Albany, N. Y., April 1, 1801: 



Resolved. That in future the Stewards substitute beer for brandy and spirits for the 
refreshments in the Lodge. 


And in the same month, on the other side of the Atlantic, Royal York Lodge, London, 


Resolved that the usual glass of brandy after supper be discontinued. 


Altamont Lodge, Peterborough, N. H., May 7, 1816: 


Voted to exclude the use of Ardent Spirit in this Lodge, and substitute therefor 
crackers and cheese and cider. 


DECLINE OF TUE CUSTOM 


The dawn of the nineteenth century saw the drinking custom on the wane, and we 
begin to find the minutes of lodges recording its discontinuance. In 1816 the Grand 
Lodge of New York enacted "That the use of distilled spirits in lodge rooms, or any 
adjoining room, is expressly forbidden." May 30, 1825, Altemont Lodge, 
Peterborough, N. H., 


"Voted that no account for spiritous liquors shall be allowed or paid for out of the 
funds of the Lodge after this date." 


The Grand Lodge of Connecticut recommended the disuse of ardent spirits at its 
meeting in May, 1822, and the Grand Lodge of Vermont, Oct. 11, 1826, by a vote of 
80 to 28, ruled 



"That no ardent spirits or public dinner shall hereafter be furnished this Grand Lodge 
at any of its communications." 


And on Oct. 9, 1827, the Grand Lodge recommended to all subordinate lodges to 


"Dispense with the use of ardent spirits on all public occasions." 


In 1 842 the Grand Master of Ohio, who was a member of Lancaster Lodge, 
introduced a series of resolutions in that lodge which were unanimously adopted 
wherein the Masonic virtue of temperance was construed to mean total abstinence, 
and the members of the lodge drew up and subscribed to a form pledge to neither 
touch, taste, nor handle any ardent spirits, and 


Resolved that hereafter no person shall be initiated into the mysteries of Masonry in 
the Lodge, or be received into fellowship with the same, who shall not previous 
thereto express his willingness to subscribe to this pledge. 


AMUSING INCIDENTS 


Here is where a brother having lost money in providing refreshments on the particular 
evening, June 26, 1740, in the Lodge of Edinburgh, Scotland, was given a chance to 
recoup his losses, as appears from the minutes of that date: 


And in regaird Brother Patrick Grant hath been att a considerable trouble and expence 
in providing liquors and other necessaries for this meeting, of which a very small part 
hath been disposed of, by reason of the small company that have attended the same, it 



was therefore likewise unanimously resolved upon that he have the benefits of 
furnishing liquors and other necessaries to their next quarterly meeting, preferable to 
any other persons whatsoever. 


In Barrat and Sachse's "Freemasonry in Pennsylvania," quoting the minutes of a lodge 
Dec. 24, 1770, we are left to conjecture that the brethren had a special purpose in 
attending the meeting of the Grand Lodge, but were not given the opportunity of 
accomplishing their object, for it reads: 


Drank 3 bowls Toddy in about 3 hours which we waited on the Grand Lodge, paid 
our Reckoning and went home. 


And from the same source, under date of Aug. 17, 1771, we find the following 
amusing decision: 


The Determination of this Body that Bro. Glenn and Bro. Topham should shake 
hands and drink to each other and forget all former Animosity. 


Our predecessors were charitable in the higher sense also, and when an unfortunate 
brother fell through drink, they did not give him up, rather they tried to raise him up. 
As an illustration we quote the records of Union Band Lodge, No. 35, Saintfield, 
Ireland: 


Saintfield, 4th Dec. 1777. 


I ... do hereby as a Mason promise before this Lodge that I will abstain from all 
intoxicating drinks for 12 months, with the exception of refreshments in Lodge. 



Signed W. J. M. 


This unfortunate brother pleaded to be allowed one bottle of porter a day, but it was 
denied him. They might as well have allowed him, yet they forgave him again. 


If anyone fondly imagines that the following suggestion was a recent invention the 
records of Union Lodge, Nantucket, Mass., over a century ago, prove to the contrary, 
for we find, Nov. 2, 1795, a committee was appointed to confer with brother . . 


respecting his misconduct in abusing himself with making use two (sic) freely of 
strong Drink. 


At the communication of Dec. 14, the brother denied that he was intoxicated, but was 
"taken with cramp & could prove it." 


Dr. William G. Hill, a member of Hiram Lodge, Raleigh, N. C., and at the time 
(1842) its Junior Warden, took a very active part in having the use of refreshments in 
a liquid form discontinued at the meetings of the Grand Lodge, it being the custom to 
have a banquet at the close of each session, when it is said the members had a "merry 
time." The Stewards provided the refreshments, and when the report of a committee 
on the subject came up for consideration, he used this emphatic language: 


Why, Most Worshipful Grand Master, the Stewards in their extravagant expenditures 
furnish enough refreshment to keep themselves drunk the entire session, enough to 
make the whole Grand Lodge drunk on the night of the banquet and then have enough 
left to keep Hiram Lodge drunk the balance of the year. 



O 


The Comacines and the Traveling Gilds 


By BRO. W. RAVENSCROFT, England 


THE position in which the authors of the article in THE BUILDER for May 
courteously place me as a Comacine advocate, permits, and I think, encourages, the 
pleasure of some further remarks in reply to their article, relieving me also of the 
responsibility of apology for doing so. 


It seems to me, then, if I rightly read what they have written, that the outstanding 
point to be dealt with is involved in the question, "What do we mean by the 'making 
of Masons' or rather 'builders' as applied to the Operative Masonic Gilds of the 
Middle Ages ?" If such was nothing more than the conferring of degrees, secrets and 
occult knowledge to be accompanied by festivities and other functions, religious and 
otherwise, then one must admit that these lodges may have been semi-permanent, 
ephemeral, accidental, etc. But I am going to claim that while such initiations are 
admitted, and I suppose nowhere denied, the Gilds of the Middle Ages were much 
more than that. And I make this claim upon what I regard as the surest foundation, 
viz. : the evidence written down in stone and wood, but, of course, more particularly 
the former; evidence which cannot be and is not subject to being tampered with as so 
much of that put down on paper may be. Permit me to note, then, the following: 


First: Up to the 12th century there was from the downfall of Rome such remarkable 
correspondence in the development of plan, detail and ornament in work done 
throughout England from the North to the South with that of the Comacine builders as 
to make the conclusion inevitable that some rule, authority or custom controlled 
design and that, especially bearing in mind the difficulties of transit and other 
communication, nothing short thereof could produce such result and that the 
education which produced this must have been the principal item in the making of 
Masons. 



And it is a remarkable confirmation of this that down to the village church, and in 
later days, the barn and the cottage, down to the simplest buildings which had any 
pretense at architecture, as well as to the cathedral, stronghold and more important 
buildings, an influence is so apparent that to an expert it is not difficult to discern 
from a single stone with any moulds or ornament upon it within almost a quarter of a 
century to what period it would belong. And this is the more remarkable since it does 
not follow that because the evidence of "style" is present the workmanship is skilled. 
One could give numbers of instances to show that while the design was, so to speak, 
authorized, the workmanship was clumsy and bad; the work, in fact, of an 
inadequately trained craftsman. 


Second: The foregoing remarks as to some authority under heading 1, apply equally 
to the periods which followed, viz. : the Gothic period and that of the Renaissance and 
I have purposely divided them into these periods because between each there came an 
important revolution. I refer to the incoming of Gothic Architecture at say about the 
beginning of the 13th century and the "revival of learning about that of the 15th 
century." The change from Norman work to Gothic work during 50 years was radical 
in construction, design and ornament. So was that at the time of the Renaissance, but 
contrary to what might have been expected, there was no sudden abandonment of one 
style for another but periods of development during which with precision transition 
intervened until one style had disappeared before the incoming of the successor and 
all through the various changes within the Gothic time the same remark applies and at 
the Renaissance upheaval the old was gradually merged with the new until quite lost- 
witness the Elizabethan and Jacobean mansions and other structures. 


Third: After the incoming of the Renaissance the whole order changed. The 
Reformation not only suppressed the Monasteries but also the Gilds. The former, in 
many instances, became the homes of the nobility, the latter the Clubs of Speculative 
Masons, until so far as architecture was concerned, A would build in the style of 
"Queen Anne" and B, next door, in that of "Mary Anne" or any other Anne. 


Surely this justifies the conclusion that down to the time when the Gothic period was 
ended and the classic revival was in full vogue, nothing can account for the stone 



written history I have briefly sketched short of an organized body, or, if one prefer it, 
organized associations directing and controlling at least the architecture of Western 
Europe. And, roughly speaking, the end of the Gothic period and the decay of the 
Gilds synchronizes with the beginning of Speculative Masonry when good fellowship 
began to be the chief characteristic in evidence. 


Lastly, if I may be permitted a reference to the "Master Mason" for May, 1926. 1 read 
therein an article or English Freemasonry before the year 1717 (in which Bro. F. F. 
Gould's views are set forth) and under the heading of "Oral Tradition" three very 
eminent men are quoted as having written on this very point— Sir Christopher Wren, 
Sir William Dugdale and Elias Ashmole. Before the year 1717, in which, under the 
heading, "Oral Traditions,' three very eminent men are quoted as having held this 
opinion. The passages are to be found in Gould's Concise' History [Revised Edition, 
pages 53, 99 and 100] and are discussed at length in chapter twelve of the larger 
work. The earliest in date is the report of Dugdale's belief by John Aubrey, which is 
as follows: 


Sir William Dugdale told me many years since, that about Henry the Third's time, the 
Pope gave a bull or patent to a company of Italian Freemasons, to travel up and down 
all Europe to build churches. From those are derived the Fraternity of adopted 
Masons. 


In the memoir of Elias Ashmole in the Biographia Britannica we are told by Dr. 
Knipe: 


What from Mr. Ashmole's collection I could gather was that the report of our Society 
taking rise from a Bull granted by the Pope in the reign of Henry III to some Italian 
architects to travel all over Europe to erect chapels was ill-founded. Such a Bull there 
was, and those architects were masons. But this Bull, in the opinion of the learned 
Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative only and did not by any means create our Fraternity 
or even establish them in this kingdom. 



The remaining quotation is from the Parentalia or Memoirs of the Family of the 
Wrens: 


The Italians (among whom were yet some Greek Refugees), and with them French, 
German and Flemings, joined into a Fraternity of Architects, procuring Papal Bulls 
for their Encouragement and particular Privileges; they styled themselves 
Freemasons, and ranged from one Nation to another, as they found Churches to be 
built. 


It seems to me that these opinions should be considered very carefully. One is 
inclined to wonder why, because traditions had grown up around these 
pronouncements which were extravagant and false, he should, therefore, have 
dismissed the lot. I am inclined to think that had he been acquainted more fully with 
the Comacine theory, and the steady development and sequence of changes in English 
architecture he would have concluded otherwise. 


— o — 


The Gild and the Lodge 


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


IT would seem as if Bro. Ravenscroft had, in the preceding article, put his finger on 
the real point at issue in posing the question, "What do we mean by the making of 
Masons as applied to the Operative Gilds?" When, in the article in THE BUILDER 
for May, to which he refers, we set forth a hypothesis of the relationship of the lodge 
to the gild we had in view only the ritual significance of the term. If it be permitted to 
go so far afield for a parallel, we might adduce the puberty rites of savage races, 
which are known to those practicing them as "making men." The anthropological 
analogies to Masonry must be handled with great reserve and caution on account of 



the tendency there has been to build upon them hasty and ill considered speculations. 
But in this case we are only seeking an illustration. According to the savage the half- 
grown boy becomes a man by virtue of his initiation into the tribal mysteries. Yet 
though this is the theory, yet the savage is practical enough, too, and the boy as well 
as being initiated has generally to undergo a long course of training in addition before 
he actually takes his place in the community as a fullfledged man. On the other hand, 
physical strength and endurance, valor in war and skill in hunting do not alone qualify 
him to be regarded as a man, many instances have been reported that definitely prove 
this. There would thus seem to be two essential sets of qualifications, the ritual and 
the practical, before the youth can marry, take his place in the tribal councils, and as it 
were, enter into full citizenship. 


Another parallel might be taken much nearer home, the rite of Baptism in the 
Christian Church. The individual who is baptized becomes formally, or according to 
high sacramental views, actually a child of God. Y et even those with the highest 
views on the efficacy of the sacraments admit in practice the necessity of teaching 
and discipline in addition. So also a man can be presented and introduced in a neat 
little Latin speech (which all present must at least pretend to understand) to the 
Chancellor of a University, who thereupon formally presents him with an imposing 
document on parchment, also in Latin, after all which he may write "Doctor" after his 
name. The degree may be either honoris causa or the result of years of hard work and 
the passing of examinations. Here indeed we have a very close parallel between the 
operative and speculative Mason. The Doctor, honoris causa, does not know anything 
about Civil Laws or whatever else it is that he has been made Doctor of, and no one 
expects that he should. Nevertheless it gives him Academic rank and standing that the 
'operative' scholar, if we may so term him, has to work hard for. But there is this 
difference between the two, if anyone wants information they go to the one who has 
had the training and not to him who is only ceremonially qualified. 


We venture to suggest, then, that the organization by and in which the Medieval 
Masons and builders became such regularly and lawfully, according to the internal 
economy of the crafts concerned, was the lodge. The distinction is important, the 
adjectives might imply regularity and legality according to municipal ordinance and 
the law of the land. It is the internal law of the group that is referred to; and the 
attitude of a present day trades union man towards a worker who does not belong is 
the kind of thing we mean. The apprentice had, of course, to learn his trade if he was 
going to work at it, and this he would leam, as he always has done, in working under 



the instruction of his master. But in order to be regarded as a "right" or "true" mason 
he had also to be initiated, and this was the concern of the loosely organized 
institution which emerges into the light of history under the name of the "lodge". 


The gild as special form of association seems to be peculiarly a Medieval institution. 
We would suppose that Masons formed themselves into gilds because every one else 
did, and in the feudal form of society men were obliged to do so by an outer pressure. 
The gilds very largely passed away when the state of society in which they had their 
origin came to an end. As the lodge may have been much older than the gild so also it 
survived it, because probably it had little or nothing to do with the practical side of 
the craft. If we read Bro. Ravenscroft aright it would seem that he might almost be 
prepared to accept this suggestion, or at least that he is not concerned to dispute it. 

But he raises another point, and again if we rightly understand him, it is what he 
regards as the essence of the Comacine theory. Here we feel we can give him some of 
that definite denial for which his soul longs. Bro. Ravenscroft is such a genial and 
kindly controversialist that we know he will forgive the little joke. 


The question is, though it is apart from our own theory, whether the Masonic gilds 
were like the other craft gilds of the time, merely local associations organized for 
purely local purposes and having no connection with any other like bodies except that 
they all had a general likeness of form and function, or whether they were only 
branches of one inclusive organization, closely knit together and with an effective 
centralized government or directing body, which was not only interested in wages, 
hours and conditions of working and so on, like the other gilds, but was actively 
concerned in planning important buildings and the details of style in architecture. 


It cannot well be gainsaid that the possibility of such an organization existed, for one 
thing we suggest something of the same sort for the lodge, only without any central 
head. And besides there were the monastic and military orders, which did have chief 
houses and generals set over all. But these were well known to the world at large, and 
were the subject of jealous observation on the part both of the Papacy and secular 
rulers. They wanted to know who was at the head of these bodies, and were 
particularly anxious to put their own nominees in charge. Had there been such a 
centralized organization of Masons extending all over Europe, it would have had to 
have been in every sense of the word a secret one, or it would else have necessarily 



been the subject of surveillance at least of the various governments, and in this case 
some record would almost certainly have come down to us. It is only a negative 
argument, of course, and is not conclusive, but we think that under the circumstances 
it carries considerable weight. 


Then again, if the central body was concerned with plans and architectural styles it 
was in this totally unlike any trade or professional organization before or since. The 
Medieval gilds, so far as can be gathered from their own records and external 
references to them, were concerned with regulating the quality of workmanship, 
prices, wages, number of apprentices, relations of the occupation to the community 
and so on, while the teaching of the craft itself was left entirely to the individual 
masters. It was indeed so far regulated that the master was under an obligation to 
teach his apprentice thoroughly and to teach him all he knew, but the teaching itself 
was an individual matter entirely. 


The hypothesis of a central or universal gild as a sort of training college or general 
staff controlling all important building operations seems to us unnecessary to explain 
the facts so ably collected and set forth by Bro. Ravenscroft in his various works. 

That there was a continuity of style is undoubted, the question only is how it is to be 
accounted for. It may be that the advantage (or disadvantage), that by a coincidence 
we both possess of having had a training in the craft or profession of engineer, which 
in the modern world takes a similar place in the community that the Mason's craft did 
in the Middle Ages, may lead us to see the matter in a somewhat different light. To 
the trained man a casual walk through a machine shop, for example, may be quite 
enough to show him all he needs to know about a new way of using some tool, or a 
more advantageous method of handling a certain class of work. In the same way the 
Medieval craftsman had only to visit some recently erected building to grasp anything 
new in constructural methods, or in detail of design. New types of mouldings, or 
ornament, experiments in proportions and so on would be noted at once. Medieval 
architects used sketchbooks too, some of them still exist, and we think that in this 
way the rapid diffusion of new forms and styles are quite adequately accounted for. 


It may, of course, be objected that means of communication were few and bad. 
Nevertheless they existed and were used. Pilgrimages were constant, it is probable 
that almost every one at some time or other made one. Perhaps only to some nearby 



shrine, but often enough, too, into foreign lands, and to Rome itself. Besides that, the 
mason and builder was then, as he is today, a migratory bird, and wandered far afield 
in the pursuit of his avocation. 


Finally, and what seems to us the greatest difficulty of all, style in a building is a 
question of art, and no art was ever yet produced by a committee. Schools of art there 
have been, of course, but they imply no more than the learning by pupils a technique 
from a master, and carrying on a tradition with modifications resulting from 
individual peculiarities and genius. For all these reasons, while we willingly admit the 
weight of architectural evidence for the existence of a noble tradition, of a specific 
style diffused over certain areas, we are not able to concur in the theory that this was 
due to the action, conservative or constructive, of a central and authoritative 
organization that drew up the designs and sent them out to the local builders, or even 
of the existence of a central school or college in which architects were trained in 
certain principles and to work on specific models. If this is what Bro. Ravenscroft 
believes, then we must confess that we do disagree with him. 


— o — 


FURTHER NOTES ON THE GILD 


By Bro. W. RAVENSCROFT 


By the courtesy of the Editor of THE BUILDER I am permitted to see an advance 
proof of the foregoing article and to add a word or two in reference to it. I must not 
take advantage of that kindness by writing at length, but I gladly avail myself of the 
opportunity of just a few words. 


The distinction between "lodge" and "gild" is one which perhaps I ought to have kept 
more carefully in view in my article as I think it helps to clear the point at issue. 



Wren's Parentalia speaks of a "Fraternity of Architects" whose government was 
regular, but who ranged from nation to nation. Dugdale calls them a "Company of 
Italian Architects who traveled all over Europe and who had several Lodges in several 
countries." Ashmole refers to them as Italian Architects "who were Masons" traveling 
about and as existing before the time of Henry III. 


All this looks like a widespread organization (Gild, if you like in the broader sense of 
the word) with a more or less permanent character, and lodges formed of members of 
this Association, local, and perhaps temporary in character. 


I hold then that these lodges were controlled in some way by the Gild, or I would go 
so far as to say Gilds, since I do not identify them with Italy alone. But I do not for a 
moment claim a central Gild or authority drawing up plans, issuing instructions and 
training architects; so that when I mention "some authority", an expression which of 
necessity must be somewhat vague, I rather intend to convey the idea of a consensus 
of opinion whereby Masons worked on similar lines in matters of architectural style 
which developed and even changed from period to period on regular and ordered 
lines; as for instance the use of the pointed arch which superseded the round one. I 
think the absence of a central Gild dominating everything is proved by the influences 
of various schools, Byzantine, Ravenese and Comacine on each other, as well as by 
the individuality of detail which marked the work even in Great Britain alone, to say 
nothing of our English departure from Continental ideals. 


But beneath these variations there was some fundamental unity of thought and 
expression common to the workers in Europe and our brethren of the British Isles, 
and that if Craftsmen and Apprentices were educated in lodges, as they may well have 
been, it was under accepted traditions that they were so trained. And I am not sure 
whether we concede enough to the influence of the Monastic Orders and the 
Episcopacy. We find the names in England, at any rate, associated with the great 
works of the Middle Ages to be those of ecclesiastics rather than the architects, and 
perhaps are inclined to think this a bit of usurpation. But let us take the case of the 
cistercian buildings, where we find carved ornament conspicuous by its absence 
although the general character of such buildings conformed to the style of the period. 



This was on account of the idea held by that severely ruled order that such ornament 
was not admissible, a kind of Puritanism inculcated by that giant of the order, St. 
Bernard. 


Surely this peculiarity, as contrasted let us say, with buildings erected by the 
Benedictines, must have implied some control of design on the part of the monks, and 
it may be that after all they were, in some cases at least, the leading architects. If the 
Cistercians could thus influence architectural design why should not the other Church 
authorities and monastic bodies do the same? Bros. Kress and Meekren seem to hold 
that a common tradition and technique were quite sufficient to account for the 
difficulty we are discussing, but I am afraid I do not feel quite satisfied as to the 
adequacy of this opinion, although I cannot add what I think is still wanting. 


But we are not far apart, and somehow each time we write we get nearer together. A 
happy thing indeed if we are converging toward the truth. 


— o — 


The Background of Masonic History in the 1 8th Century 


By PROF. E. E. BOOTHROYD, Canada 


THIS second article by Prof. Boothroyd is even more interesting than the first one 
which appeared in the April number of The Builder. Masonic students are often led to 
misinterpret the early historical records of the Craft owing to their neglect of outside 
current events of the time. In this article the author gives a vivid picture of a restless 
and disturbed transition period. 



AS an appreciation of the general aspect of the early eighteenth century supplies an 
answer to the questions why Masonry should have been reorganized at that particular 
time, and why that reorganization should have centered at London; so a knowledge of 
the conditions of life and thought— the atmosphere of the times-will account for the 
nature of that reorganization and the new direction given to the activities of the 
institution. The medieval craft guild was an organization developed in a particular 
state of society to supply the needs of, and perform certain functions necessary in, 
that particular condition of society. With the change from medieval to modern life 
those needs were no longer or were differently felt, those functions no longer 
necessary or transferred to other institutions. The raison d'etre of the craft-guild had 
therefore vanished, and the institution was faced with the alternative of itself 
vanishing with the conditions which had given it life, or adapting itself to its changed 
environment and remodelling itself to supply needs of, and perform functions 
requisite under the new regime. 


To the outside observer, the craft-guild of the middle ages would seem to have had a 
four- fold function— economic, eleemosynary, religious and social. It determined the 
conditions of production, arranged for the support of the sick, needy and bereaved 
within its ranks, played its part in the all pervasive religious activity of the age by the 
maintenance of chantries or the care of special portions of religious edifices, catered 
to the gregarious instinct of humanity by its guild banquets and so forth, and, in that 
borderland where religious and social activities intermingle and where today the 
Women's Auxiliaries and Young Men's Christian Association play their parts, 
arranged for the production of Miracle and Mystery Plays at the great festival of 
Corpus Christi. Of most of these functions it had been deprived by the political, 
economic and religious changes which transformed medieval into modern society. 

The regulation of industrial conditions had been taken over by Parliament, and the 
relief of the indigent devolved upon the parochial system; the Reformation had swept 
away the chantries and simplified religious ceremonial; the birth of the true drama 
and the consequent rise of professional actors and permanent theatres had superseded 
the Miracle and Mystery and the waggon-stage or "pageant" on which they had been 
performed by the guilds. The social instinct, that craving of men to meet and associate 
with their fellows, alone remained of all those medieval needs which had been 
supplied by the organization of the craft-guild. This social instinct is not, however, 
satisfied by the mere act of assembling together except in such imaginary cases as the 
Hum-Drum Club described by Addison "made up of very honest gentlemen, of 
peaceable dispositions, that used to sit together, smoke their pipes and say nothing till 
midnight." There must be some definite reason for the assemblage, some common 
occupation for those assembled together. Moreover, if the institution is to become 



popular and acquire wide influence, this reason and this occupation must be in 
harmony with the thoughts and feelings of society as a whole. Hence the necessity, 
for a true understanding of the reorganization of the Masonic Craft in the eighteenth 
century, of a familiarity with the character of the age, a knowledge of the thoughts, 
feelings, ideals, and longings of the time in conformity with which the institution 
must have been reshaped and its activities redirected. 


There is only one way in which such a knowledge and understanding of eighteenth 
century atmosphere can be acquired, the way pointed out by Taine in the well-known 
passage, "a literary work is not a mere play of the imagination, the isolated caprice of 
an excited brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners and customs and the sign 
of a particular state of intellect. The conclusion derived from this is that, through 
literary monuments, we can retrace the way in which men felt and thought many 
centuries ago." To steep oneself in eighteenth century literature, to saturate the mind 
and emotions with the Tatler and Spectator essays, the poems of Pope and the 
Beggar's Opera, with the letters of Chesterfield, the sermons of John and the hymns of 
Charles Wesley, with the satires of Swift and the novels of Fielding, is the only 
method of reaching a sympathetic comprehension of the state of mind and feeling of 
the men who founded the Grand Lodge and remodeled the Masonic Craft. 


The first impression derived from contact with the writers of the period is one of a 
predominant materialism. The men and women of the time seem wrapped up in the 
things of this world, dead to all calls and interests of a higher nature. Drunkenness 
and sensuality are rampant. Gin has recently been discovered and the inn-keepers 
inform the public that one can "get drunk for a penny, dead-drunk for two-pence;" 
while the story that George II's daughter remarked, when his dapper majesty's 
immediate fancy appeared to be losing the royal favour, that she hoped he would soon 
take another mistress, so that things would be easier for her mother, throws a glaring 
light on the moral sensibility of society. And, work of genius though it is, there is a 
strain of coarseness and brutality in Tom Jones that makes the modern reader feel the 
need of a moral and social wash and brush-up after the perusal of Fielding's 
masterpiece. Nor does the political life of the day afford a more edifying spectacle. 
Walpole has systematized the parliamentary bribery and corruption begun in the reign 
of Charles II., and can say of a noisy group of Opposition members, "Each of those 
men has his price;" while the ministers of the Hanoverian sovereign are 
corresponding with the Pretender at st. Germains and assuring him of their devotion 
to his interests, with a cynical disregard of their oaths of office and allegiance. In 



religious affairs the spectacle of a Dean of St. Patrick's basing his opposition to the 
abolition of Christianity on the argument that it "might have a detrimental effect on 
the emoluments of the Anglican clergy," is not suggestive of a high level of religious 
thought and feeling. Such a period of materialism and coarse pleasure-seeking is, 
however, what the student of history would expect at this stage in view of the natural 
reactions of human character and of society. After a prolonged period of religious and 
idealistic activity, of political and ecclesiastical strife, such as that of the Reformation 
and the religious and constitutional struggles of the seventeenth century, it was almost 
inevitable that men should relax their moral and emotional tension and abandon 
themselves to the business and pleasure of the world. This reaction had begun at the 
Restoration, as those familiar with Pepys' Diary will realize as they recall the 
passages in which the distinguished Admiralty official relates how, feeling something 
hard in an envelope handed him by one to whom he had done an official favour, he 
shut his eyes while he shook out the coins, that he might swear he saw no money in 
the letter when he opened it; or how he desisted from his attempt to hold a strange, 
but apparently attractive, lady's hand in church when "1 did perceive that she took a 
pin out of her pocket to prick me if I did persist." And the materialistic reaction thus 
begun continued well into the eighteenth century. 


But a wider and deeper acquaintance with the literature of the time will show that this 
condition of materialism, sensuality and disregard of religion and honour is not the 
only aspect of the age. Under the stagnant and noisome surface of the water there is 
movement and life of a very different character, germinating and developing, 
awaiting the time when the natural tendency to reaction should bring it in its turn to 
the top, to dissipate the accumulated scum of moral and emotional sluggishness, and 
stir the waters to new life and energy. The degradation into which the reaction against 
the narrow Puritan morality of the kingless decade had plunged society under Charles 
II. had produced a natural revulsion of feeling. Even at the height of Caroline license 
we find Pepys recording his wish that Charles would leave his mistresses and devote 
himself to the business of the nation, and his disgust at the venality and pleasure- 
seeking of high officials; and at the close of the century Jeremy Collier publishes his 
rebuke of the grossness of the Restoration drama in the famous "Short view of the 
Profaneness and Immorality of the English stage." With the beginning of the 
eighteenth century we can note the strengthening of the moral reaction in the work of 
nearly every writer of importance. The satires of Swift may have been, nay, they 
almost certainly were, merely the expression of the author's savage scorn of the 
pettiness of human nature; but in the pages of Addison and Steele, of Richardson and 
Fielding, may be traced a profound belief in the real soundness of mankind, and a 
desire to promote the triumph of morality and common sense over the evil and folly 



into which the Caroline reaction had led. Addison, Steele and Richardson wrote with 
a purpose, and if Fielding was drawn into novel writing merely by the desire of a 
robust human being to mock at the anemic sensibility of his predecessor Richardson, 
it is easy to discern beneath his superficial coarseness a sane healthy view of life and 
character. The creator of Parson Adams and Amelia was no Caroline reprobate or 
approver of the Rochesters and Sedleys of life. 


The general aspect of the early eighteenth century as revealed in its literary record is 
thus of a two-fold character. On the one hand is a dominant materialism and 
somewhat cynical immorality; on the other, a clearly-marked moral and social 
revulsion against the evil tendencies of the age. By one or other of these 
characteristics the reorganization of Masonry must surely have been influenced. The 
Institution must have been regarded by those who were remodeling its form and 
reshaping its activities, either as a means of securing the cakes and ale of life, or of 
subserving the higher aims of man. But the general condition of the age could only 
affect the general tone of the Craft; the details of the reorganization must have been 
influenced by the particular currents, tendencies and activities of the time. 


On these contemporary interests and activities few works of the period throw a 
greater light than those daily essays which Addison, Steele and Budgell published as 
the reflections of Mr. Spectator and the real or fictitious letters of his correspondents. 
Dependent on their sales to meet the expenses of publication and provide 
remuneration for their literary labours, the essayists must have sought to appeal to the 
interests of as wide a clientele as possible, and the immediate and extensive 
popularity of the paper testifies to the success which attended their efforts. A leisurely 
perusal, then, of the eight volumes into which the daily Spectator essays were finally 
collected- "leisurely," for that was the character of the age— will serve as a substitute 
for Mr. H. G. Wells' Time-Machine, transport the reader two centuries back into the 
past, and enable him to breathe the atmosphere of the eighteenth century; while an 
examination of the topics discussed and the method in which they are handled will 
afford a clue to those public tastes and interests to which the Masonic reformers must, 
in their sphere, have conformed. 


Perhaps the first characteristic that will attract such a reader's attention will be the 
social aspect of the age. It was during this epoch that "Society" was bom in England. 



Now "Society" is one of those nebulous words the exact meaning of which it is not 
easy to realize, still less easy to express. Included in the content of the meaning is, 
however, a centripetal tendency on the part of the individual members of the 
community, a tendency to gather together, especially in the leisure moments of life — 
which aspect of the meaning will explain how the term "Society" comes to be applied 
to that section of the community which is not under the necessity of daily toil to 
secure the means of subsistence; the prominence of the fair sex in this "Society ;" and, 
incidentally, why lodge meetings are generally held in the evening, when "man 
resteth from his labours." Further, the idea of "Society" implies the formulation of 
rules and regulations for behaviour and even for costume at these social gatherings, 
and eventually on all occasions. This course of action is the proper one, the other 
thing "isn't done." It is "correct" to wear a black tie with evening dress on this 
occasion, a white tie on that. In the little matter of expectoration, I have somewhere 
read that Queen Elizabeth expressed her annoyance with a certain gentleman in 
biblical fashion by spitting upon his richly embroidered costume (corroboration may 
be afforded by a well-known passage in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice). In the 
reign of Charles II. Samuel Pepys records in his diary the fact that entering the 
playhouse late and sitting in a back and dark seat, a "lady" did spit upon him over her 
shoulder, which action, the lady proving well-favoured, he seems to have taken in 
good part and made use of as a sort of introduction. Today Society proclaims the 
impropriety of the public performance of this ancient rite in neatly printed injunctions 
in street cars and railway carriages. The regulation and organization of social conduct 
and social activities in the eighteenth century is humorously brought out in those 
Spectator essays which deal with fashions of dress, coiffure and facial decoration, 
with the habit of "staring" and the Masquerade, and the suggestion that tatting might 
form a suitable occupation for idle young "men about town." This rise of "Society," 
with its regulation of costumes, behaviour and taste on this, that, and the other 
occasion, was an all-pervasive condition of the time which must have been in the 
thoughts and influenced the actions of the gentlemen of the Goose and Gridiron. 


Connected with this general development of society and social life, and the 
organization of the leisure activities of the individual is the rise, within society at 
large, of particular groupings for particular purposes, the formation of numerous clubs 
on which Addison dilates in Number 9 of the Spectator. "Man," says the essayist, "is 
said to be a social animal, and, as an instance of it, we may observe, that we take all 
occasions and pretenses of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies, 
which are commonly known by the name of clubs." The evolution of the club at this 
time in London from the gathering of men with common interests at particular taverns 
and coffeehouses is one of the most interesting features of the time, and its novelty 



and importance are attested, not only by its treatment in this particular essay, and in 
countless contemporary references, but also by the fact that the authors founded a 
fictitious "Spectator Club" to direct the publication and discuss the topics to be treated 
and the method in which they should be handled. 


Originating in London, the institution spread throughout the land, a fact which bears 
witness to another prominent feature of the period, the change in the position of the 
capital city, and the growth of the conception of London, not as A town, or even THE 
town, but as TOWN; as something distinct from other urban aggregations not merely 
in size, but in character. With the development of organic nationality the need of a 
brain and heart to direct national action and pump the blood of life to all parts of the 
trunk and limbs of the body national was supplied by this change in the view of 
London which was held by Londoner and provincial alike, and in the relation of the 
city to the rest of the country. Society needed a central seat, an arbiter elegantiaium or 
dictator of form and fashion; a critic of life in all its varied activities; and this London 
now supplied. What was worn in "town" was the question in the minds and on the lips 
of-all; how the day was spent; what London thought of this or that. And as one 
realizes this fact one appreciates how the formation of a Grand Lodge at London— the 
center of the national nervous system would be felt throughout the length and breadth 
of the land, and the fashions and activities of that central body adopted and copied by 
gatherings in provincial centers. 


Into the life of this newly-realized "society" had come an interest which, as a source 
of social grouping and social activity, a topic of meal-time and salon conversation, 
had, perhaps, lain dormant since the decline of Athenian democracy— the interest of 
politics. Political activity, the determination of policy and the conduct of government, 
had not, of course, ceased from the fall of the violet-crowned queen of the Aegean to 
the times of Anne and George I; but at Rome and during the middle ages the tendency 
had been for government to be left in the hands of a small number of sovereigns, 
nobles and officials, and, except when conditions became intolerable, ignored by the 
mass of the population as something outside their sphere and perhaps beyond their 
comprehension. When Edward III asked the advice of Parliament on a matter of 
foreign politics the Commons humbly begged to be excused from speaking on 
"matters too great for their poor wits", and when the Lower House did presume to 
offer advice on foreign policy under James I the king angrily forbade them to "meddle 
with mysteries of state too high for them." With the triumph of Parliament over the 
Crown and the rise of the party-system in the reign of Charles II, a change came over 



the scene and politics, in the modern meaning of the term, were bom. Questions of 
war, peace and alliance, the actions of foreign rulers and ministers, and matters of 
domestic policy became staples of conversation. The Spectator tells of the coffee- 
house Solons who knew and canvassed the minds and aims of foreign statesmen, and 
of ladies who showed their party leanings by the side of the face on which they wore 
their patches; while the rise of Addison himself from poverty and obscurity to the 
position of Secretary of state through his ability as a party-pamphleteer bears witness 
to the rise of that public opinion on matters political and the importance to the 
politician of securing its favor which gave us the daily press. Here was a condition of 
affairs which must have entered into the minds and calculations of the Masonic 
reformers. Just when those religious differences which had sharply divided 
Englishmen in the seventeenth century had been composed by the Toleration Act, a 
new element of division had arisen in politics, as the breach in the lifelong friendship 
of Addison and Steel over the Peerage Bill shows. For this new interest allowance 
must be made. Politics must be one of the activities of the Order, or the notice "No 
Admission for Politics" must be inscribed over the entrance to the Masonic Lodge. 


The earlier part of the seventeenth century had been a period of emotional activity. 
Men had felt strongly and deeply, as the character of contemporary literature shows. 
The Caroline Age is the great lyric epoch of English literary history, the time of 
Herbert and Herrick, Suckling, Lovelace and Carew, and song is an appeal to the 
emotions; while even the prose of the period assumes a semi-poetic form, appealing 
to the heart rather than to the brain, as a hundred ringing phrases from Milton's prose- 
works in the vein of the oft-quoted lines from the Areopagitica, "I cannot praise a 
fugitive and cloistered virtue," or "There be delights, there be recreations and jolly 
pastimes that will fetch the day about from sun to sun, and rock the tedious year as in 
a delightful dream," will testify. Cromwell, the heroic character of the age, was a man 
of deep feeling, revealed in passionate championship of the poor and oppressed, the 
ever-recurring outburst in his letters to the Speaker, "sir, this was none other than the 
hand of God," and the fact that his own death was hastened at the loss of his daughter. 
With the reign of Charles II the brain begins to take precedence of the heart. Men 
begin to think rather than to feel. And, in spite of such outbursts of popular passion as 
those which marked the Popish Plot and the Sacheverell Trial, the emotional fires die 
down. The new age is characterized by great critical and speculative activity. The 
founding of the Royal Society in the reign of Charles II, and the part played therein 
by men who were not professed or professional savants, by admiralty officials like 
Pepys and country gentlemen like Evelyn, each of whom became its President, reveal 
the intellectual curiosity which was one of the dominant notes of the time, and which 
is summed up in the life and work of Sir Isaac Newton. It was at this epoch, as 



Professor Bury points out in his "Idea of Progress," that the all-important conception 
of the onward and upward movement of mankind was fully grasped; that men began 
to think of Paradise, not as in Milton's epic as in the remote past, but in the remote 
future; of the changes in human conditions as development along a line, an undulating 
line, maybe, leading into valleys as well as on to heights, but not the round and round 
a circle process, from Golden Age to Golden Age and then round once more, which it 
had appeared to the ancient Greek. How widely and strongly this critical and 
speculative interest was felt is demonstrated by the nature of those Spectator essays 
which were designed as their authors stated, not for the philosopher's closet and the 
schools, but to form a part of the tea-equipage of every well-appointed table. The 
daily sheets of Addison and Steele provide for the entertainment of that social hour a 
critical survey of life in all its varied aspects and activities; their readers are invited to 
reflect upon dress and superstition, upon the character of the Italian Opera and its 
suitability to English taste, on grinning, staring, the use of cosmetics, the construction 
of an epic and the character of the ballad. The essays on True and False Wit, on 
Chevy Chase and Paradise Lost carry on that English literary criticism which, in any 
real sense, was born in the Prefaces of Dry den. Masons may find something 
suggestive in the constant description of their writings by the essayists as 
"Speculations". The same phenomenon of the critical and speculative occupation of 
social leisure meets us at a little later date in the pages of Boswell's Johnson, in the 
constant series of questions which elicited the sage's dicta on a hundred and one 
subjects from the winter habitat of swallows to the credibility of Christian evidence. 


As the subject-matter of contemporary literature reveals the interests and activities of 
an age, so do its form and style reflect its general character and attitude to life. Now it 
has been held, and in the main truly held, of the writers of this age, that the matter of 
their works was subordinated to the form, that what was said mattered less than how 
it was said, and that their creed was accurately stated in Pope's well-known lines: 


True art is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well 
expressed. 


The inference is that the age of Anne and the early Georges was a formal age in 
which attention was directed chiefly to externals, and the inference is borne out by the 
very suggestive letters of Lord Chesterfield to his son, directing the latter's attention 



to details of dress and behavior and reminding him that his dancing-master was the 
most important personage in the formative period of his life. Consideration of form 
and ceremonial, of the correct way of doing things, must therefore have occupied 
much of the thought of the men and women of the eighteenth century. And this was 
natural in view of the material and social aspect of the age. But as in the case of the 
dominant materialism and pleasure- seeking of the period allowance had to be made 
for a contradictory current of moral feeling, so this view of the formalism and 
objectivity of eighteenth century literature requires some qualification. In his 
"Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement" Professor Phelps has drawn 
attention to the existence from the earliest years of the century of a sub-current of 
romantic thought and writing flowing against the main stream of classical "Augustan" 
literature, and revealed in the work of such writers as Croxall, Lady Winchelsea, 
Parnell, Ramsay and Thomson. Here, then, is a minor subjective and mystic phase of 
life and thought, to some extent qualifying the dominant externalism and objectivity, 
and perhaps revealed in even so classical an artist as Addison in those Oriental tales 
and allegories which were so popular with the readers of the Spectator. 


Such, in very brief and imperfect outline, were the character, the interests and 
activities of the early eighteenth century as revealed in the literature of the age. In 
such an atmosphere of materialism and sensuality tempered by the rise of a moral 
feeling, of social and political life organized in clubs and parties, of formalism and 
ceremonial slightly tinctured With mysticism, of intense intellectual, critical and 
speculative activity, with their minds and feelings permeated and their actions 
predetermined by some at least of these interests and characteristics, the fathers of 
modern Freemasonry met at the Goose and Gridiron in London, that "town" which 
had become the center of the national nervous system, to inaugurate the first Grand 
Lodge. 


— o — 


EDITORIAL 


R. J. MEEKREN Editor-in-Charge 



BOARD OF EDITORS 


LOUIS BLOCK, Iowa 
ROBERT L. CLEGG, Ohio 
GILBERT W. DAYNES, England 
RAY V. DENSLOW, Missouri 
GEORGE H. DERN, Utah 
N.W.J. HAYDON, Canada 
R.V. Harris, Canada 
C. C. HUNT, Iowa 
CHARLES F. IRWIN. Ohio 
A.L. KRESS, Pennsylvania 
F.H. LITTKLEFIELD, Missouri 
JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, California 
JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, New York 
ARTHUR C. PARKER, New York 
JESSE M. WHITED, California 
DAVID E. W. WILLIAMSON, Nevada 


MISUNDERSTANDING 



THERE are some people - we have all met them, who seem to be perpetually 
mistaking, or taking amiss, the meaning or intentions of what others say or do, or 
write. As the phrase goes "they take things the wrong way." Beyond such 
standardized utterances as "Dinner is ready"; "It is time to go"; or "Please remit at 
your earliest convenience"; they seem - to their victims - to take a positively perverse 
delight in hunting up some interpretation that not only had never occurred to the 
speaker, but is the furthest possible from his meaning. 


Naturally, in any given case, the reason is not necessarily the same. Some are hasty, 
they catch at a word or two which calls up for them certain associations and without 
paying attention further jump to d conclusion. Others are superficial and never look 
beneath the surface, and if what is being said goes below the surface banalities current 
in social intercourse they cannot fathom it - they do not try indeed, but give the 
utterance a surface meaning. A certain writer was dealing once with a very profound 
subject, the relationship of God to man, and he made the statement that though He 
was Our Father, He was not a fond parent. The phrase disturbed a lot of good people 
and they wrote letters about it, angry, caustic, critical and reproachful. They had all 
jumped to the conclusion that instead of having chosen his adjective with the greatest 
care to express exactly what he meant, he had taken it at random, as presumably they 
would have done, and meant merely that God was to us unsympathetic, hard, 
unpitying - nothing was further from his thought, as the rest of the article made 
perfectly clear. 


In other cases pre-occupation with another subject, temporary or habitual, leads to 
misapprehension. Make a passing allusion to the Constitution to an ardent 
prohibitionist, and a certain amendment comes to his mind. Speak of law and its 
enforcement and he goes off at a tangent into the subject of bootlegging and its 
prevention. Yet again the reason for misunderstanding may lie deeper and be more 
obscure still, it may be rooted in the subconscious working of personal antagonisms, 
of jealousy, envy or fear. And more confusing still any and all of these and like 
causes may function together, mixed in any proportion. Two people personally 
antagonistic cannot agree even about the weather, anything whatever will serve as a 
cause for dispute. 



Leaving that aside as rather hopeless, and confining ourselves to the mistakes that can 
be explained and cleared away, some more examples may be given that have recently 
come to our notice. There is much said today, this thought is parenthetical, about 
education; we are supposed, and doubtless have, made great advances, nevertheless it 
would seem as if the great ideal of what used to be called a "liberal education" in "arts 
and humanities" has been lost sight of in the mass of new special aims and methods. 
That ideal was simple, so simple that no one ever formulated it; it was to enable a 
man to read and understand, not one thing but anything. A mind so trained is a very 
great asset to the body social even if its possessor is not an expert on something or 
other and even if he would not shine in firing off answers to a newspaper general- 
knowledge questionnaire. 


A month or two ago, in a journal of considerable literary pretensions, was an article 
on things in general, the author of which took the standpoint of that cynicism which is 
supposed to be the very latest thing and which is as old as the book of Ecclesiasticus, 
or older. He quoted and enlarged upon a very well-known verse from Pippa Passes, 
to-wit: 


"God's in His heaven, all's right with the world." 


He introduced it with the remark that it was doubtless after partaking of a good 
breakfast that Browning was moved thus to sing. 


Now dismissing as quite irrelevant the fact that this writer may have justification in 
accusing us of mistaking him in the very way that we have been pointing out, by 
criticizing a non-essential remark casually made; and merely noting, that though in 
most people a warm, albeit temporary, feeling of optimism is induced by the 
absorption of a good meal, yet very few can do their best work in such a state, 
whether writing poems or digging ditches; we will draw attention to the fact that the 
point of the refrain quoted from this poem has been quite missed. It is not Browning's 
song, but Pippa's. This is important; for the tale tells how the determined will of a 
poor little, half-starved, ill-paid, over-worked factory girl to be happy and to make the 
best of things in spite of everything, entered into and profoundly affected the lives of 



others. Browning was an optimist, but not of the after-dinner, wine-and-walnut type. 
It was apparently his object to set forth the very worst aspect of things, of men and 
circumstances, and the inevitable tragedies of life, and yet leave his reader able to 
infer that in spite of all there was room to believe in God, and the good and the 
beautiful and the true. 


In another periodical, devoted to the interests of a certain church, there was at about 
the same time an article on missionary work in India, and the writer quoted another, 
and today even better known refrain: 


"Oh, the East is East and the West is West 
And never the twain shall meet." 


and then proceeded to intimate that Kipling was quite and absolutely wrong, that 
under the influence of the labors of the apostles of a certain denomination at least, the 
East not only could but did meet the West. Kipling, of course, is particularly liable to 
such misuse, for, apart from the fact that he never explains, he writes lines and coins 
phrases so striking, and so "eminently quotable", that they claim the attention and 
abide in the memories of the dullest. Doubtless hundreds are familiar with these lines 
who never read the poem in which they occur. 


In reality no writer in English since Shakespeare is so impersonal as Kipling. He tells 
us nothing of himself, it is not what he says but what the people say of whom he 
speaks, and they are obviously real people and could only have spoken or acted thus, 
even if they never "dwelt on sea or shore", or had their being in any time or space 
known to philosophers, even the followers of Einstein. 


It is quite possible - there are tricks in all trades - that in both these cases the writers 
were familiar with their respective quotations but not with their context. Had the 
second gone on to the succeeding lines- 



"There is neither East nor West 


Nor border breed or birth"- 


there would have been something to give him pause, and had he considered the whole 
ballad he would have seen that Kipling had merely said in his way what he was trying 
to say in matter-of-fact prose. 


Some may remember - it is ages ago now - the wave of wrath and indignation that ran 
through Canada when the poem Our Lady of the Snows was first published, a poem 
which embodied in beautiful and moving verse a very gracious compliment to the 
country and its people. But the latter, at least the newspaper writers who undertook to 
speak for them, flared out at the title. Canadians had then recently become very 
sensitive about the climate of their country; they had begun to feel that they were too 
well renowned for exceedingly low temperatures. It had come to be regarded as very 
bad advertising to even mention "winter." If Winter Comes had not then been written, 
but if it had the book would doubtless have been put under ban. The words "snow" 
and "ice" were to be removed entirely from Canadian editions of standard 
dictionaries. And then to have their country personified under the name of Our Lady 
of the Snows - it was too much. All the nice things said of them in the poem counted 
for nothing, they but added to the insult. 


The Bible is another book that has suffered greatly in this way. Had it not there would 
perhaps have been fewer warring sects calling and professing themselves Christians. 
But perhaps the thing was the other way round, had there been fewer sects there 
would have been less misinterpretation, for centuries people have been wresting 
scripture to their own damnation probably we are misusing the quotation here, but 
never mind, it will serve. Passages from the Bible have been torn from their context, 
and pieced together to support dreadful doctrines - we are not going to specify what 
doctrines - but most will agree that there have been dreadful doctrines thus defended. 
St. Paul has been set against St. James because one stresses faith and the other works, 
yet St. Paul said also exactly what St. James did, had men only been looking to find 
out what he meant and not seeking to use him as authority for their own opinions. 



Needless to say, Freemasonry, too, has suffered the same way. The misconceptions of 
opponents we may leave out of consideration, but those of Masons are important. 
Again we have no intention of going into detail; but the very different opinions that 
every thoughtful member of the Craft will have come across will make it 
unnecessary. The most widely varying ideas as to the real purpose and function of the 
Institution are to be found, but perhaps should be put in a different category. But 
when it comes to the elementary and fundamental duties and responsibilities laid on 
members and lodges it is another matter. They should be, one would think, clear 
enough. Yet they seem, like the law of Moses, to be voided of all real meaning, and a 
Pharisaical system of tithing mint, anise and cummin (or its modern equivalents we 
hasten to add, lest we, too, be misunderstood) put in the place of the plain meaning of 
the precepts of the Royal Art. Masonry suffers, as all big things do, for its size, the 
wood is not seen because the trees hide it. 


"Go round about Zion," said the Psalmist, "tell the towers thereof; mark well her 
bulwarks, consider her palaces." To one who approached by the Joppa gate, and went 
no further, the Joppa gate would thenceforth be for him Jerusalem. Those who would 
understand a thing must be prepared to go round about and enter in and see from 
every point-and even then they will probably not agree. 


* * * 


WALTER CLIFFORD BURRELL 


On Oct. 1, Bro. Walter Clifford Burrell died at the Henrotin Hospital, Chicago, 
following a serious operation. 


Bro. Burrell's Masonic affiliations were in Iowa and New York, but he will be best 
known as President of the Masonic History Company, which has for many years 
published revisions of Mackey's works. 



He was an enthusiastic supporter of the National Masonic Research Society from its 
inception. He was also a member of the Correspondence Circle of Quatuor Coronati 
Lodge. 


Those who knew him intimately know well his keen desire for progress of Masonic 
scholarship. He loved the Craft and his pleasure was in its advancement. He took all 
his obligations seriously. No worthy cause found him lacking in sympathy. His hand 
ever ready to aid, his tongue to speak the kindly word. American Masonry in him has 
suffered a very great loss. 


— o — 


THE NORTHEAST CORNER 


Bulletin of the 

National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association 

Incorporated by Authority of the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, A.F. & A.M. 

MASONIC TEMPLE, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. 


OFFICERS AND BOARD OF GOVERNORS 


HERBERT B. HOLT, Grand Master, President 


JAFFA MILLER, Vice-President 
RICHARD H. HANNA, Vice-President 



ALPHEUS A. KEEN, Secretary 

FRANCIS E LESTER, Executive Secretary, Las Cruces, New Mexico 
JOHN W. TURNER, Treasurer 

ARIZONA - Lloyd C. Henning, Holbrook. 

ARKANSAS - Claude L. Hill, Grand Master, Booneville. 

CONNECTICUT - Fred A. Borland, Past Grand Master, South Manchester. 
FLORIDA - Cary B. Fish, Grand Master, Sarasota. 

IDAHO - Will H. Gibson, Grand Master, Boise. 

KENTUCKY - G. Allison Holland, Grand Master, Lexington. 
MINNESOTA - Albert F. Pray, Grand Master, Minneapolis, 

MISSISSIPPI - John R. Tally, Grand Master, Hattiesburg. 

MISSOURI - Wm. W. Martin, Grand Master, Daniphan 

NEW JERSEY - Benjamin F. Havens, Junior Grand Warden, Trenton. 

NEW MEXICO - Herbert B. Holt, Grand Master, Las Cruces. 

NORTH CAROLINA - Dr. J. C. Braswell, Past Grand Master, Whitakers. 
OKLAHOMA - Gilbert B. Bristow, Past Grand Master, Roosevelt. 

RHODE ISLAND - Howard Knight, Past Grand Master, Providence. 
SOUTH CAROLINA - Charlton DuRant, Grand Master, Manning 
SOUTH DAKOTA - L. M. Simons, Grand Master, Bellefourche. 
TENNESSEE - Andrew E. McCullagh, Grand Master, Maryville. 

TEXAS - Dr. Felix P. Miller, El Paso. 



UTAH - Fred M. Nye, Ogden. 

VERMONT - Christie B. Crowell, Grand Master, Brattleboro. 

NORTH DAKOTA - Dr. J. S. Lamont, Dunseith. 

WASHINGTON - Morton Gregory, Grand Master, Masonic Temple, Tacoma. 
WISCONSIN - Fred L. Wright, Past Senior Grand Warden, Milwaukee. 
WYOMING - Frank S. Knittle, Grand Master, Casper. 

ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR, GENERAL GRAND CHAPTER - Mrs. Clara 
Henrich, Most Worthy Grand Matron, Newport, Ky. 

ROBERT J NEWTON Editor Publicity Director N. M, T. S. A. Las Cruces New 
Mexico. 


THE CHICAGO TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIA MEETING 


THAT every Grand Lodge should take care of its own tuberculous Masons in its own 
state and that the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association should 
attempt to provide relief and hospitalization for the sick and wandering brethren in the 
Southwest, is the doctrine enunciated by the Board of Governors of the Sanatoria 
Association at their meeting in Chicago on Nov. 19. 


That the cause of Masonic tuberculosis relief is one that is of vital interest to the 
leaders of the Craft was proved by the fact that there was a large attendance at the 
meeting, although it was the fourth day of Masonic meetings for some of those 
present. Some of them had sat through the Grand Masters' Conference on Tuesday, 
two days of the Masonic Service Association meeting and remained for the one day 
Sanatoria Board meeting. 



Herbert B. Holt, Grand Master of New Mexico and President of the Sanatoria 
Association, called the meeting to order and in his presidential address covered the 
history of the movement, proof of the need for relief and some suggestions for action, 
without making any definite recommendations. 


Francis E. Lester, Past Grand Master of New Mexico and the Executive Secretary, 
made a report of the organization and publicity work, and Alpheus A. Keen, 
Secretary of the Association and Grand Secretary of New Mexico, presented the 
financial report showing an expenditure of approximately $10,000 in more than one 
year of operation. 


Full and complete discussion followed during the morning session and was continued 
in the afternoon. Out of this developed the plan of action. It was determined that the 
National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association should continue its campaign 
of education with the double purpose of informing the Craft as to the cause, nature 
and prevention of tuberculosis and also to secure action by all Grand Lodges for relief 
and hospitalization. Freemasons of every state will be urged to provide funds for 
relief in homes, to care for sick Masons and members of their families in existing 
tuberculosis sanatoria, and in some state to build a State Masonic Tuberculosis 
Sanatorium, or to build a Masonic hospital building in connection with the State 
Tuberculosis Sanatorium or some other tuberculosis institution. 


Close cooperation between Grand Lodges and State and local Tuberculosis Societies, 
hospitals, clinics an other agencies will be urged, to secure their services in the 
examination and treatment of tuberculous Masons and families, the services of home 
visiting nurses and the benefit of such cooperation in every line of anti-tuberculosis 
activity by the organizations and institutions which specialize in this problem. 


Examination and treatment of all members of the patients' families, especially the 
children, to secure necessary care and treatment to guard against the development of 
additional cases in the family, will also be urged. 



The National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association will act as the agency to 
provide home relief and hospital care for sick Masons who wander away from the 
home jurisdiction seeking arrest of their disease in milder climates. The executive 
officers of the Association were directed to secure all facts and figures as to the cost 
of hospital construction and to present them to a later meeting. 


An appeal for funds for immediate relief was authorized and will be made. All 
Masonic bodies and Masons will be asked to contribute to the relief of those who 
stand in the Northeast Comer of the Southwest, so that they may be cared for at once 
Life saving work will be initiated with the first funds available. All contributions for 
this purpose should be sent to Alpheus A. Keen, Secretary, Grand Secretary of New 
Mexico at the Masonic Temple, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 


A GIFT THAT COUNTS 


Masonic veterans, inmates of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, at 
Danville, 111., recently sent a contribution to the National Masonic Tuberculosis 
Sanatoria Association for Masonic tubercular relief with the message, "May the 
Heavenly Father bless you all." 


It was a "widow's mite" in the sense !that it was not a large contribution, but coming 
from these disabled soldiers and accompanied by such a message, it is one of the 
greatest offerings yet made for the care of Masonic sick. 


WHAT THE MODERN WOODMAN ORGANIZATION HAS DONE 


The Woodmen's Sanatorium was established in 1909 twelve miles from Colorado 
Springs for the treatment of tuberculous members, and since then over 6500 cases 
have been cared for. In percentage of lives saved through arrest of tuberculosis, cured 
cases and improvement in health of thousands of afflicted members, this sanatorium 



holds and maintains the best record of any similar institution in the world. The cost of 
maintaining this sanatorium is close to $40,000 a month. 


FROM GEN. PERSHING 


I hope you will pardon this very tardy acknowledgment of your note of July 20, with 
reference to the national movement initiated by the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, A. 
F. & A. M., for the relief and hospitalization of consumptive Masons. An extended 
absence in Europe and numerous engagements since my return to the city have 
resulted in an accumulation of correspondence, and I regret that your communication 
has not received earlier attention. 


The plan initiated by the Masons of New Mexico, so familiar with the urgent and 
immediate need for action in behalf of their tuberculous brethren seeking the climatic 
conditions of the Southwest, is one that should appeal to all Freemasons. I heartily 
indorse this national movement to provide aid and comfort to the unfortunate 
sufferers of this dread disease, and trust that your campaign may meet with complete 
success. 


(Signed) JOHN J. PERSHING. 


LONG, HARD FIGHT, RESULT YET DOUBTFUL 


Brother No. 109. Grand Lodge of Illinois. This brother tells his own story in three 
letters. His story needs no comment. Note the dates of same: 


"El Paso, Texas, May 16, 1922. 



"An article in the Masonic Chronicler of Chicago, entitled 'The Grand Lodge of 
Sorrow', has just come to my attention. I happen to be one of the large number of 
Masons who have been initiated into this 'Lodge of Sorrow', not of my own free will 
and accord. I have laid down my working tools nearly two years ago. For the first six 
months I remained at home' but as it became evident that the fight to regain my health 
would be a long one, it became necessary to break up our home, sell the furniture and 
my good wife went to work, while I went to a hospital in Chicago. 


"Here I remained six months, during which time I made no improvement whatever; 
pneumothorax was tried, but on account of many adhesions, I could not take the 
treatment. The doctor then told me I had just one more card to play, and that was a 
change of climate. It was then that I was somewhat disappointed when I learned that 
the great Masonic Fraternity had no sanatorium in the West or Southwest, where the 
tubercular's progress is much faster and recovery more certain. 


"I decided to come to El Paso. My condition made it necessary for me to have a 
compartment so I could remain in bed all the way. The railroad fare and these 
accommodations required more money than I could afford, so my brethren of 
Bohemia Lodge, No. 943, furnished me the transportation. 


"My last card so far seems to be a winning one, as I have made considerable 
improvement in the eight months that I have been here. If I continue to improve, in 
another year or so, I ought to have an arrested case, and once more be able to earn my 
living. 


"I am citing my case merely because I thi nk it is not very different from the cases of 
thousands of other Masons similarly afflicted. I am sure if there was a Masonic 
Tuberculosis Sanatorium in this part of the country, that the lives of a great many 
Masons could be saved, and surely a live Mason is a greater asset to a community 
than a dead one. 



"As most cases of tuberculosis in the advanced stages require from one to three years 
to recover and the expenses of sanatorium treatment amount to a thousand dollars or 
more a year, it is safe to say that many a brother who is not financially able to meet 
this expense is prevented from taking advantage of probably the one and only chance 
of saving his life. Freedom from worry and a contented mind are essential to a 
complete recovery. 


"A Masonic Sanatorium where a sick brother could stay until he was able to go out 
and earn a living, would assure these to him. There is no question as to the necessity 
of such a sanatorium and a start should be made towards its establishment at the 
earliest possible moment. Every Mason in the country should contribute towards its 
support. It might be possible to purchase one of the many sanatoria now operating in 
the Southwest, and the work of saving the lives of our brethren, who are sick and in 
distress, could be begun in a short time. 


"By all means, let us build a Temple for our 'Grand Lodge of Sorrow' where the 
degrees of Improved Health will be conferred" 


Following is a report of a public health worker who visited Mr. by request: 


"Nov. 13, 1925. 


"He seems to feel that his case has been at a standstill for some time and is afraid he 
has even been slipping backward since September. 


"As to finances, he says that they are at present nil, though he has spent $8,000 in 
chasing the cure - $200 of that being supplied by his home lodge. 



"He was very much interested in the present movement to establish a Sanatorium in 
the West. ... You will, I am sure, receive further details from him. He has not had a 
complete chest examination for a year." 


"El Paso, Texas, Nov. 14, 1925. 


"Will write just a few lines this time to inform you that Mrs. Thrasher called on me at 
your request and asked me to write you. 


"I am certainly glad that the movement started a few years ago to build a Masonic 
Tuberculosis Sanatorium is still alive and gaining impetus. Since I wrote you my 
letter on the Lodge of Sorrow in 1922, my condition has remained practically the 
same. On the 8th of last September I had a hemorrhage from which, it seems, I cannot 
fully recover, as I raise a little blood every few days. My sputum has been clear as 
long as a week at a time, only to find a little blood in my sputum the next day and so 
it has been since my hemorrhage. 


"While my progress cannot be considered satisfactory it must be remembered that I 
was a hopeless case to start with. A very far advanced case over five years ago, when 
I had to stop working and it was very doubtful at that time whether I would live one 
month. I am, however, still living, and while not able to follow any regular 
occupation I have been at times fairly active. My diseased lung has been from the 
start and is today, rotten, that is about the only word that will properly describe it. It 
also has a large cavity near the apex. 


"I am giving serious consideration to the thoro-coplasty operation, which probably 
will be the only one thing left for me to do if I should not stop raising blood, or it may 
even be worth trying if I do stop raising blood. 



"After these five years of fighting, my financial condition is very nearly like that of a 
bankrupt, but have been able to get by fairly well, when not confronted by many bills 
for medical attention. Since my hemorrhage in September, have had to have more 
medical attention than usual, and of course this proves a hardship to me. 


"I will try to write an article in the near future and probably there will be some ideas 
or suggestions in it that may be helpful to you in your efforts to make our dream 
become a reality. If I can help the good work along in any way, let me know, I will 
gladly do whatever I can." 


"April 10, 1926, El Paso, Texas. 


"I have started to write several times but have been so uncertain and undecided about 
many things concerning my future, that I was at a loss as to what to write, and the 
beginning of the letter was also its finish. 


"I have been feeling unusually good since I wrote you last and have been taking some 
exercise and am holding up well under it. 


"Have been deliberating about the operation and decided to postpone it indefinitely. 


"If I should continue to feel as well as now and improve, I may give up the idea, but 
should there be another set-back like last September then I would go ahead with it. 


"Whether this is a wise decision, I do not know, but I am not anxious to get cut up 
unless it becomes absolutely necessary. 



"I very much appreciate your offer to make arrangements with El Paso physicians to 
take care of me, but I will give myself one more chance to get by without the 
operation and should future developments make it necessary for me to resort to it, I 
will at once communicate with you." 


— o — 


The Precious Jewels 


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


(Continued) 


THE consideration of the tracing or trestle board, and its conjectural forerunner, the 
square pavement, or floor prepared for making working drawings on, led us last 
month rather far afield into a discussion of the technical methods of the Operative 
Freemasons. Some reasons were given, and more might be found, to make us think 
that the medieval Craftsman could not have had the profusion of plans that present 
day builders are accustomed to because, for one reason, of the practical difficulty of 
obtaining material to make them on, and that he would not have bothered with them 
in any case because he did not need them. And, further than this, a Freemason, was 
expected to be able to make whatever drawings he needed for himself to carry out his 
own job. Some men would make them more fully and accurately than others. Some 
doubtless could visualize their work without them. It would depend entirely on the 
type of a man's mind and the extent of his experience. Besides this it must be 
remembered that marking out the work on the rough stone is essentially the same 
thing as making a full-size detail drawing. Under present day conditions the workman 
in doing this merely copies the drawing made by someone else; then he was himself 
the designer and artist, and was given as free a hand in the matter as his skill 
warranted. No one yet had dreamed of a state of affairs where specialization should 
produce men capable of doing only one thing or the other. 



Now the simplest way of reproducing a drawing or a plan is by measured offsets from 
a center line. To use a base line as well makes for greater convenience and accuracy. 
This is the general method employed by all draughtsmen. Where however the design 
is complex and irregular, such as figure groups, landscapes, maps and so on, the 
method of squares is more convenient. Essentially it is the same thing in principle, the 
whole area being measured out beforehand. In theory any set of crossing lines would 
serve-straight, curved or crooked— and it would make no difference however 
irregularly they were spaced; but for obvious practical reasons straight parallel lines 
at equal intervals, intersecting at right angles, are most convenient in every way, as 
we saw in the discussion of the diamond and equilateral triangle as the base of 
measurement and design. That this convenience and practicability is a real one, and 
does not depend on being a convention to which modern draughtsmen are accustomed 
(as, for example, the system of coinage used in England, which only use and wont 
could make endurable) is proved by the fact of its universality. It is not only 
employed by draughtsmen, engineers and architects today, but it was used by ancient 
Egyptian artists and painters. Bro. C. Purdon Clarke is authority for its use by Persian 
builders in a very important paper on the subject read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge 
in the early days of its existence, and he also reproduced architectural sketches drawn 
on squared paper in 1541, and some plates from the 1621 edition of the vitruvius 
showing this method exemplified for drawing the human figure and for setting out a 
capital of the Ionic order. 


The Persian technique, which is presumably still in use, is very interesting from our 
point of view. The drawings having been made on squared paper are reproduced full 
size on a specially prepared floor made of plaster of Paris carefully leveled. The point 
is not specifically mentioned, but the modus operandi of the technique would seem 
naturally to call for the marking out of this floor into squares corresponding to those 
on the paper. 


MEDIEVAL WORKING DRAWINGS 


Let us now consider what the requirements of the medieval Freemason would have 
been. Sketches, done more or less by freehand, would have been made by the Master 



called in by those who were having the building erected— the "lords" spoken of in the 
Old Charges— and agreed upon between them. There is no need to suppose they were 
drawn strictly to scale, the trained hand and eye of the artist needs only the barest 
minimum of measurement, and the Master Masons of Gothic work must have been as 
much artists as craftsmen. The chief measurements of the building may have been 
recorded in a memorandum or contract similar to the one quoted last month. Taking a 
church as the most typical structure, after the chief dimensions of length, width and 
height had been determined, there would be the question of the number of bays there 
were to be in chancel and nave, whether there were to be towers, transepts, chapels 
and so on; and the contract already quoted shows how other buildings might be 
referred to as models in place of precise descriptions or drawings. In a large building, 
where (as was done most frequently) part was to be completed first, it is probable a 
plan would be drawn, but it would be more of the nature of a dimensioned diagram or 
sketch, than a drawing done accurately to scale. Every bay in the structure was a 
complete unit in itself, structurally speaking, the chevet, or head, at the east end, 
whether apsidal or square (as was most usual in England) would need to be drawn 
more fully, as also the west end with the facade and main entrances, and the ends of 
the transepts if there were any. But all these parts and their arrangement were as well 
known to all the masons as the parts of an old frame building were to the pioneer 
carpenters who put them up. The difference between one church and another was in 
its proportions. The relation of height to breadth and length, the size of the windows, 
of the lower arches to those of the triforium and clerestory, and so on. In these there 
was room for infinite variety, but the essential skeleton was always the same, that is, 
for the same type of church. A small parish church with a timber roof would not have 
the flying buttresses that were necessary to maintain the soaring vaults of a cathedral; 
yet even here the flying buttress was only an elaboration of the simpler solid form 
used in the smaller building. 


Certain details, however, would need some elaboration in design as, for example, the 
mouldings, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Gothic style of building. 
Let us suppose that an arch was to be constructed; it does not matter whether for door 
or window or for one of the bays, all were designed on the same principles. Today it 
would be very carefully drawn to scale, then some junior draughtsman in the 
architect's office would make large size detail drawings for the different parts, and 
from blue prints of these the stone cutters would work. All this needs a very high 
degree of accuracy in the drawing because the workman follows it blindly, he has no 
say in the design and no discretion. The medieval craftsman on the other hand was 
told there was to be an arch, and how high and wide it was to be, and duly instructed 
to "go to it," in whatever was the slang of the day. 



CHARACTER OF GOTHIC ARCHES 


Norman and Romanesque arches were semicircular, those of the Gothic style were 
formed, as is well known, on the intersecting arcs of two circles. A great practical 
advantage of the circle over any other curve is that every radius is normal to the 
circumference, and the angle that the joint must make with the curve of the arch is 
easily found by drawing any line from the center to the circumference. In Fig. 1 is 
shown a diagram of a typical Gothic arch with a simple moulding of two "orders." It 
will be seen that it really consists of two separate arches, the outer one deeper than the 
inner. It was usual to cut each prominent member of the moulding on a separate range 
of stones, so that an elaborate doorway might consist of three or four "shells" built 
one outside the other. In the Norman arch these stones were often Cut square. An 
example is to be found in THE BUILDER for August last year [page 231, No. 6. In 
No. 5 the upper part of a moulded Gothic arch is shown], A first step toward 
elaboration was to cut off the comers, thus making a chamber, such as is shown in the 
two small windows of the north transept of St. Etienne at Beauvais, reproduced in the 
Study Club article last December, page 378. A later and more elaborate form of 
decoration is to be seen at page 366, but from the section shown at the right it can be 
seen that the square outline of the stones was retained, the ornamentation being 
chiefly on the face. The Gothic form was evolved quite naturally, out of its 
foremnner, and needed very little change in methods of working, but the effect 
produced was changed entirely from the step-like form of the earlier style to a splayed 
form giving the general appearance of sloping outward, though basically it was 
worked out of the square step form, the design requiring the minimum amount of 
stone to be cut away, as may be seen by reference to the sections in Fig. 1. Another 
economy in stone was the indifference to the size of the voussoirs, which were long 
or short as the blocks happened to come, there being no attempt to make them equal, 
or to use the joints as ornaments as was done in Renaissance work. The effect was all 
gained by the rounds and hollows of the moulding. 


It will be seen also that the voussoirs were interchangeable; it made no difference 
how they came so long as together they filled up the space between the spring of the 
arch at a and the keystone at d, as shown in the figure. It will be noticed also that the 
centers, marked C, fall within the arch. If the arch were truly equilateral they would 
be at the intersections of the arcs with the base line. In lancets they fall outside, 



producing a very acute form. Whatever type it was, the width and the height would be 
determined by the general design. When it came to laying them out, the centers could 
be found by a simple geometrical construction. It would make no difference whether 
working from inside or outside measurements. The height being set out on the line h 
d, perpendicular to the base a b, and with a and d as centers two intersecting arcs are 
drawn, shown in dotted lines, and the straight line joining the intersections will cut 
the base line at the required point. It is very probable though that in many cases the 
centers were found by simple guess and trial, which with a little practice can be very 
easily done quite accurately enough. 


Now from what has been said it can be seen that all that is necessary to work the 
stones (aside from the moulding) is to get the proper curve and the correct angles, the 
length of the stone being indifferent. 


It would be worked first of all for the two faces, which would have to be parallel. 
Then, if a templet were used, the curve and the line of the joint at each end could be 
easily marked off. Such a templet is to be found among the Masonic emblems in the 
window from Chartres Cathedral, a drawing of which was given in THE BUILDER 
last January, and which, for convenience, is reproduced here [Fig. 2], There would 
have to be one for each order or range of stones in the arch; and in order to make 
them full sized arcs would have to be drawn on the floor long enough to get the curve. 
A reference to Fig. 4 will make it clear. The stock, or butt, of the implement is 
straight and coincides with the radius of the circle, the other limb is shaped to fit the 
curve. The tool thus made would be used exactly like a square, both for marking out 
and testing the angles of the joints. The dotted lines give other radii of the circle to 
show the constancy of the angle. 


In order to make it, only short arcs would need to be drawn, but in order to get the 
length of the curves, the arch, or at least one side of it, would have to be drawn in full. 
The length of course could be calculated, but it is doubtful if there were any 
mathematicians in the Middle Ages able to do so; it is quite certain in any case that 
the simplest and most direct way is the graphic method of drawing the full arc and 
taking measurements from it. 



THE COMMON SQUARE 


While we are on the subject of implements it may be remarked incidentally that the 
squares, like the levels and plumb rules used by the medieval craftsmen, were 
undoubtedly made of wood. There is a widespread theory among Freemasons, in 
America at least, that there is a difference between the mason's and the carpenter's 
squares. The former is supposed to have limbs of equal length, the latter to be unequal 
and to be graduated in inches and fractions of inches. The currency of this hypothesis 
appears to be chiefly due to the authority of Mackey, who, in his Encyclopedia, says 
under this head: 


The French Masons have almost universally given it [the Square] one leg longer than 
the other, thus making it a carpenter's square. The American Masons, following the 
incorrect delineations of Jeremy L. Cross, have, while generally preserving the 
equality of length in the legs, unnecessarily marked its surface with inches, thus 
making it an instrument for measuring length and breadth, which it is not. It is simply 
the trying: square of a stone-mason. 


We do not know if this opinion was original with Mackey or not; it is quite likely it 
was not, but the facts do not agree with it at all. At the present time joiners use a try- 
square, with a steel blade and a wooden stock. Carpenters use a steel square, 
graduated, the long arm being two feet long, the shorter twelve inches. Precisely the 
same square is used by stonecutters and other workmen, blacksmiths for instance. It is 
peculiarly an American tool. In Europe the old home-made wooden squares are still 
in use both by carpenters and masons, and are exactly like those we find in medieval 
representations, a number of examples of which have appeared in THE BUILDER, as 
at pages 229 and 230 last year, and page 24 in the present volume. These are merely 
samples, in fact we do not recall any old representation of mason's tools in which the 
limbs of the square are shown of equal length. In many cases the stock is very short in 
comparison to the length of the blade. There is a good reason for this in a wooden 
implement. The shorter the stock the less strain there is on the joint, and the less 
likely is it to be knocked out of truth by an unlucky fall or accidental blow. The 
French masons therefore have adhered faithfully to the original tradition in this. But 
so also did the English, throughout the eighteenth century at least. The squares shown 
at pages 312 and 313 last month are examples of many that might easily be found. 



Probably the real reason for making the square equal limbed in Masonic designs and 
jewels was merely a desire for symmetry. The actual shape of the working tool would 
not balance well as a collar jewel, nor does it combine so well with the compasses. It 
is another case of an imaginary technicality, which has not even the excuse of having 
some special symbolism attached to it. 


NOTES 


1. The reference is given in Gould's Concise History, p. 226 it is given also in the 
larger work. 


2. What may be intended for a template for mouldings more on the principle of a T 
square, is to be found in the curious engraving from a 1547 edition of vitruvius 
reproduced in THE BUILDER for December, 1924, page 384. It is on the left 
immediately above a common square and just under a narrow bladed saw. But the 
curves shown are not those of Gothic mouldings, which however would hardly be 
expected in the sixteenth century. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. Under what conditions did the round arch develop into -the pointed form? Was it 
borrowed from the Saracens or developed independently ? 


2. Could any symbolic teaching be drawn from carvings and mouldings either in 
contrast, or additional to that of square work ? 


3. Could any significance be attached to the form of the mason's square ? 



THE WOMEN ARE INTERESTED 


Women are quick to realize that hospitalization of consumptive Masons will 
safeguard wives and children from infection and may save Masonic fathers to resume 
the task of family support. They want to help save Masonic homes from ship-wreck. 


The Most Worthy Grand Matron of the General Grand Chapter of the Order of the 
Eastern Star, Mrs. Clara Henrich, of Newport, Ky., is ready to lend the services of her 
organization to the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association. She writes: 


"I will be only too glad to add a leaflet in my many letters and commend you for your 
wonderful work." 


Mrs. Minnie Evans Keyes, Grand Secretary, writes: 


"I can think of no greater plan to promote than the one you are seeking to put through 
in the hospitalization of the Master Masons who seek the healing qualities of your 
climate." 


The Most Worthy Grand Matron has written the Grand Matrons of every state, urging 
their co-operation with the Grand Masters in every way they may be permitted to 
serve in this movement. As a further evidence of her interest and desire to help, the 
Most Worthy Grand Matron has accepted a place on the National Board of Governors 
of the Sanatoria Association. 



o 


"HOW SOON CAN I BE GIVEN TREATMENT?" 


Masons suffering from tuberculosis are beginning to ask when they can be cared for 
in the Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatorium which has been the subject of discussion for 
over four years. Many have died while Masonic bodies talked about doing something. 
Many more will doubtless die before something is actually done. One of them writes: 


"I have just learned that there may be some chance of my receiving treatment - 1 have 
just recently had a set-back, having a light hemorrhage and feel that it is absolutely 
necessary to enter some institution as soon as possible. I am no longer able financially 
to take care of myself, having been sick for quite a while, and the members of my 
lodge have been very nice to me. They took care of me in a convalescent home here 
in El Paso for two months, March and April. During that time I made such good 
improvement I tried to go back to work, but had to go back East to find work. Went 
back and rested a month and started to work and only worked ten days and started a 
hemorrhage. The doctor there advised me to return at once to this country and go into 
a hospital as soon as possible. I must do something. I am running very short of funds 
and realize that I must save as much time as possible. How soon can I be given 
consideration, or treatment, should my lodge sanction or recommend same?" 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


THE LIFE OF HENRY HOWARD MOLYNEUX HERBERT, FOURTH EARL OF 
CARNARVON, 1831-1890. By the Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Hardinge. Edited by 



Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon. Published by the Oxford Press. May be purchased 
through the Book Department of the National Masonic Research Society, 1950 
Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Three vols., cloth, illustrated, maps, tables of 
contents, index. 391, 400 and 383 pages. Price, postpaid, $21.75. 


INTERESTING to the general reader from the character of the statesman whose 
career it records and the importance of the movements and events with which it deals, 
Sir Arthur Hardinge's Life of the Fourth Earl of Carnarvon should have a special 
appeal to the Mason. "Freemasonry," as the biographer reminds us, "attracted Lord 
Carnarvon - its ancient rites, its mystical significance, its world- wide activities and 
brotherhood appealed to him, and the condition in which he actually found Grand 
Lodge, its want of life and liberty, spurred him to a vehement effort at reform." 
Freemasons the world over will naturally be interested in the man who secured "the 
supremacy of Grand Lodge as against the crippling decisions of the Grand Master and 
the Dais or Board," in England; who did much to foster the development of Masonry 
in the Overseas Dominions of the British Empire; and who, as Pro-Grand Master, was 
called upon to deal with the critical situations arising from the elimination from its 
principles of belief in God and the immortality of the soul by the Grand Orient of 
France in 1877 and the condemnation of Freemasonry by the encyclical of Leo XIII 
in 1884. 


Sprung from a family of which Isaak Walton had written in the 17th century that it 
was "blessed with men of remarkable wisdom, and a willingness to serve their 
country, and indeed to do good to all mankind," Lord Carnarvon was naturally led to 
enter political life and devote himself to the public service; and the times in which he 
lived afforded a wonderful field for the exercise of his natural talents and the display 
of the family characteristics. There is a tendency to regard the latter half of the 19th 
century as a somewhat drab and uninteresting page in the record of history; but the 
period which witnessed the consolidation of the United States by the War of North 
and South, the creation of the Kingdom of Italy and the German Empire, the 
completion of English democracy, the rise to nationhood of the Overseas Dominions 
of the British Empire, and the spread of Occidental ideas and interests over the 
surface of the globe, was undoubtedly one of the most striking and important epochs 
in human development. In all these movements Lord Carnarvon was keenly 
interested, and in many of them he played an important, often a determinative, part. 
Sir Arthur Hardinge leads us behind the scenes and enables us to appreciate the 



springs of action, to gather the impression made by leading personalities on one of the 
foremost actors in the drama, and feel the actual movement of the times. 


The real charm of the book lies, however, in the gradual unfolding, as his life-story is 
told, of the character of its hero. Sir Arthur wisely refrains from attempting any set 
character sketch, and allows us to form our own picture of the man from the record of 
his interests and activities. This is the way in which we form our impressions of the 
men and women we meet in actual life, and with whom we proceed from mere 
acquaintance to real appreciation, intimacy, and friendship; and its employment by 
the biographer transforms his subject from a figure painted on canvas to a living, 
breathing man, and enables us to grasp the nobility and charm of his personality in a 
way we should never do from a string of adjectival platitudes. The wide range of Lord 
Carnarvon's interests, from the price of sheep to the confederation of Canada and 
from the translation of Homer to the humanitarian regulation of vivisection, the 
courtesy and tact which made such a deep impression alike on colonial statesmen and 
Irish Home-Rulers, his devotion to duty and sturdy independence of thought and 
action, combined with his high standard of personal and political honor to form a 
singularly complete and well-rounded character. Indeed, as we read steadily through 
the three blue-clad volumes, we feel in contact with an almost superhuman perfection, 
and look for the glitter of a halo around the noble earl's head, or begin to suspect that 
Sir Arthur has fallen a victim to that lues Boswelliana described in Macaulay's Essay 
on Chatham. But the last chapter, devoted to social life, in which we see Lord 
Carnarvon throwing off the cares of office and delighting in a well-planned and 
executed practical joke, restores the human touch, and completes the charm of the 
character. 


That Freemasonry should have appealed so strongly to a man of this stamp, and that 
he should have been led to devote so much of the scanty leisure of an extraordinarily 
busy life to Masonic activities and the furtherance of Masonic interests, is another, if 
unnecessary, testimonial to the appeal of the Ancient Craft 



DEBITS AND CREDITS. By Rudyard Kipling. Published by Doubleday Page & Co. 
May be purchased through the Book Department of the National Masonic Research 
Society, 1950 Railway Exchange Bldg., St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, table of cotents, 354 
pages. Price, postpaid, $2.15. 


T must be confessed that the reviewer came to this latest volume of Bro. Kipling's 
with something like apprehension. He had seen sundry rather unfavorable notices 
here and there, both out of and within the circle of the Craft, and all seemed to 
complain of a lamentable falling away and loss of power. One critic excuses it 
definitely on the ground that he is growing old, while others seem to have this idea at 
the back of their minds. Frankly, on reading the book itself-some of the stories are 
already well known - there was a feeling of wonder bow these writers came to their 
conclusions. Age as a rule, an almost universal rule, makes no difference in literary 
work. An old man sees things differently from a younger man, some things seem 
smaller to him, others greater - the surface becomes less important. But Kipling, as 
writers go, is not old. 


There is only one story that we would be inclined to judge as not being quite so good, 
and that suffers from the excellencies that have gone before. The United Idolaters, 
which tells us more of Stalky and the "egregious Beetle." It seems as if this, and 
possibly The Propagation of Knowledge, suffer from a didactic aim. This however is 
only impression as the stories are too skillfully told to let one be sure, and on second 
reading one is even less so than at first. 


Half of the stories are more or less connected with the war; some immediately, as the 
Sea Constables and The Janeites, others less directly. That this should be so was only 
to be expected, and not really in any way to be regretted. It would have been 
unnatural had they not been, written as most of them were either during or soon after. 
Those who are still war-sick will not like them, but a subjective feeling of that kind 
does not affect their merit. It was very long ago that the writer came to the conclusion 
that there was no learning to like Kipling's work, as is possible with other writers who 
in the first place repel. One either likes him - or dislikes him at the first introduction 
and usually very decidedly. Unfortunately many have pretended they like him, or at 
least are interested, when they are in the other class; and many judge him on very 
slight acquaintance. Above all things, to read him one must not fear in any way the 



naked facts of life, those which convention hides so carefully that many people hate 
to acknowledge their existence. 


The volume has little concerning America, and that little will doubtless be deemed 
too much by American readers. The Vine-yard has been published and criticised in 
the newspapers and enough said about it to make it unnecessary to say more here. The 
English language is the inheritance of the United States, and it seems as if, quite 
naturally (though of course illogically), everyone who writes English should write 
from the American standpoint; is a sort of traitor and renegade if 'he does not. Had he 
been a Frenchman or a Spaniard no one in this country would expect him to look at 
things otherwise than from his own national standpoint, it would be allowed for. But 
being an Englishman he sees things as an Englishman; and as he himself said years 
ago, it is in some ways harder for the people of the two countries to understand each 
other precisely because, speaking a common language, they expect too much of each 
other. And the poem We and They puts the matter into a nutshell, even where the 
differences are not so great as those enumerated. As the last stanza says: 


All good people agree, 

And all good people say, 

All nice people, like Us, are We 
And everyone else is They: 

But if you cross over the sea, 

Instead of over the way 

You may end by (think of it!) looking on We 

As only a sort of They. 


Having more or less disposed of this we may pass on. The wonderful story, In the 
Interests of the Brethren, is included. It is a wartime story, but has little to do with the 
war and a good deal with Masonry. We understand that official opinion in England 



would have been decidedly against any such extension of lodge activities as is there 
suggested, though to the ignorance of the unofficial mind it is not easy to see any real 
objection. Three other stories are connected with this dream lodge, Faith and Works, 
No. 5837, but only as affording a jumping-off place for them. One, The Janeites, 
which is about the war, tells us of a new and wonderful secret society that will be 
incomprehensible to the uninitiated, those who know not Jane. To those who do 
nothing more need be said, there is only one Jane, and they will not wonder why the 
Sister in charge said she was going to get Humberstall on the hospital train, even if 
she had to kill a Brigadier to make room for him. 


"Banquet Night" is a purely Masonic Poem; it is a poem and it is Masonic, a 
combination which, judging by its extreme scarcity, is a most difficult 
accomplishment. In this we can only say that the hand of the master has lost none of 
its cunning. We quote the first and last stanzas: 


"Once in so often," King Solomon said, 
Watching his quarrymen drill the stone, 

"We will club our garlic and wine and bread, 
And banquet together beneath my Throne. 
And all the Brethren shall come to that mess 
As Fellow-Craftsmen-no more and no less. 


So it was ordered, and so it was done, 

And the hewers of wood and the Masons of Mark, 
With foc'sle hands of the Sidon run 


And Navy Lords from the Royal Ark, 



Came and sat down and were merry at mess 
As Fellow-Craftsmen-no more and no less. 


The Quarries are hotter than Hiram's forge, 
No one is safe from the dog-whips' reach. 
It's mostly snowing up Lebanon gorge, 
And it's always blowing off Joppa beach; 
But once in so often, the messenger brings 
Solomon's mandate: "Forget these things! 
Brother to Beggars and Fellow to Kings, 
Companion of Princes-forget these things! 
Fellow-Craftsman, forget these things!" 


A volume could easily be collected of the stories and poems from Kipling's different 
works that have a Masonic connection. In fact it might be difficult to know what to 
leave out, for hidden allusions are to be found in many places, some where they seem 
to have almost entirely escaped notice. 


One marked feature of Kipling's art, due doubtless to his type of mind, is his power of 
vividly personifying things, and a man who can make a ship or an engine an 
individuality can make animals alive. The Bull That Thought is every bit as good as 
the Maltese Cat and Rikki Tikki, and for those who know the latter no more need be 
said. In The Eye of Allah the past has been brought to light even as it was in Puck of 
Pook's Hill,, though the tale is not so pleasant. But many of his stories have been 
unpleasant, some there are that one would not read a second time-willingly, The 
Children of the Zodiac for one, the Head' of the District for another-to each his own 
perhaps. There is. nothing quite like that in these last tales, it would seem as if they 



were inspired with a deeper insight, a larger hope, a realization that if the world 
passes and the glory thereof it does not matter so much. Look well to the end. The 
end of the last tale is a wonderful thing, though one critic at least seems to have 
missed the point of what went before. 


When Helen left the cemetery she turned for a last look. In the distance she saw the 
man bending over his young plants; and she went away, supposing him to be the 
gardener. 


So did Mary Magdalene. 


* * * 


THE MAN NOBODY KNOWS. By Bruce Barton. Published by the Bobbs-Merrill 
Co., Indianapolis. Cloth, table of contents, 220 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.65. 


THE BOOK NOBODY KNOWS. By Bruce Barton. Published by the Bobbs-Merrill 
Co., Indianapolis. May be purchased through the Book Department of the National 
Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, table of 
contents. Price, postpaid, $2.65. 


TO call an author popular in this day of commercial literature and best sellers seems 
to imply a certain depreciation of his effort. It is unfortunate, but when art becomes 
art for money's sake, and success is judged solely upon the basis of copies sold, it is 
no wonder that an author of real merit dislikes to be termed popular. The true 
meaning of the term should carry with it, nothing more than a distinction between 
words intended for the scholar and those for the general reader. It is with some 
hesitation that the term is applied to Bruce Barton. His literary output is not of the 
prolific type which characterizes the money-maker writer. The reviewer must plead 
ignorance of Barton's work in general, in fact it must be admitted that he has read no 



more than some of the current magazine interviews which have added so much to his 
position in the literary field. But on the basis of this and the two books herein 
reviewed it can be said that Barton does not belong to the class to which the term 
popular would be applied in a depreciatory sense. That he is popular cannot be 
denied, his work has a widespread appeal, though it possesses literary merit which 
lifts him above, the average author in the best seller class. 


In reviewing books of the type of The Man Nobody Knows and The Book Nobody 
Knows, it is very difficult to avoid entering into the field of religious controversy. 
Either the reader approves, in which case he allies himself with the so-called 
Modernists, or he must disapprove and join the Fundamentalists. In either case he at 
once places himself in a position exposed to the missiles of the opposing faction. It is 
only by ignoring one group that one can hope to accomplish anything. And at this 
point it may as well be said that those who tend to traditional views had better refrain 
from reading either of these books unless they are willing to have their orthodoxy 
severely criticised. So far as the reviewer is concerned he does not wish to enter into 
any controversy on religion, and his opinions of the author's treatment are advanced 
merely as his opinions and in no wise as a statement of his religious tendencies. Such 
a warning, it seems, should not be necessary, but experience has taught that an 
inadvertent statement often rouses the ire of those on the other side of the question. 


With this brief preamble let us view Jesus of Nazareth as Bruce Barton presents him, 
perhaps it would be better to say, as the reviewer sees him through Barton's pages. It 
is an original and stimulating picture that has been given us. Barton's Jesus is not the 
inaccessible character hedged in by the terrors of divinity, and so far beyond the 
average man 'chat by no effort can he hope to approach his level, but rather an 
intensely human and lovable personality, who, if he lived in the world today, would 
find his name on the calling list of each of us. If we needed him we might even call 
on him to complete our Sunday morning foursome. It would not be more shocking 
than his eating on fast days was to the Pharisees, or defending his disciples in 
plucking com on the Sabbath. 


This is rather a different picture from that many of us received from kindly old ladies 
who were constantly looking for spectacles and telling us that we must love Jesus, all 
the while they were putting him in such a disagreeable light that we had no desire to 



know anything about him. Sunday was his day, and a deadly dull one. If rough and 
tumble games were indulged in, we belonged to the race of lost souls; Jesus wouldn't 
love us and we were headed for perdition by the most direct route. What healthy 
youngster could possibly like or be interested in such a person? No wonder our ideas 
of religion were of something to be avoided rather than to be sought. This is not 
Barton's Jesus, and it is not the Jesus that religion today is trying to recover. Surely 
the God of us all, the Father of the human race, was not such a stickler for "piosity" 
that his children could not enjoy themselves in harmless pastimes, even on Sunday. It 
is said that God himself felt the need of rest, hence the consecration of the seventh 
day of the week. If our rest is made better by the enjoyment of life, then 'chat must be 
the way in which he intended us to make use of it. Certainly the God, whom Christ 
called his and our Father, had no intention of making a painful duty of our respect and 
worship of Him. Yet too often religion amounts to more than this. The old picture of 
Christ is, to a large extent, responsible for this attitude. No human being, man, 
woman or child, has any use for such an effeminate un-human figure as many 
religious teachers have made of Christ. If the idea can once be conveyed to the. 
people in general that Jesus was an intensely interesting character, thoroughly human 
whatever more he might be; if from the pulpits of our churches such a character as 
The Man Nobody Knows were to be set forth, and if our laymen would read the Bible 
as they read a historical novel, a tale of adventure, or a story of success, then there 
would be created a solid background against which to set the ethical teachings of the 
Carpenter of Nazareth. 


It is just such a foundation as this that Barton gives us. This is no kindergarten story, 
but a tale written for the man who has never received a really human conception of 
the Founder of Christianity. It does more than make religion a beautiful theory, it 
makes Christianity an intensely interesting practice, and pictures Christ as a good, all- 
around fellow, successful, sociable, a lover of the innocent pleasures of life; the kind 
of a man you want for a friend. 


Everyone is interested in reading about the success of others. The adventures of the 
poor boy who arose to a position of prominence in the affairs of the world will always 
find readers. But these ordinary successes often leave nothing behind them. In the life 
of Jesus we have one of the most thrilling of successes, one which death saw only in 
its beginning. We see a great executive starting out as a poor lad, spending his early 
years in a carpenter shop in a small village of Galilee. At his death we see a small 
organization of eleven men who had been picked from lowly stations in life and who 



came to be the leaders in an organization embracing half a billion people. Surely no 
modern enterprise can boast of such a record. This man should be invited to every 
business conference. True it is that great undertakings have been launched without his 
aid, but modem business is being built more and more along the lines of his 
organization. Service is coming to be the keynote of commerce as it was of Christ's 
teachings. 


Such is the work-a-day feature of Christianity; but we all like to play. There is no 
more popular place for recreation than the great out-of-doors. Jesus, according to the 
old idea of him had no place therein; he was a weakling, a fine companion such a man 
would make on a camping trip! But he could teach you some things about the 
camping life that you don't know. There is little said about such things in the Gospel, 
but can one imagine a man who for three years tramped over the territory surrounding 
Jerusalem knowing nothing about outdoor life? I was nothing unusual for him to 
spend the night under the stars. He must have been tanned like the old-time cowboy 
and had muscles like iron. This man was -no weakling. 


But there are seasons of the year in most countries where out-of-door activities are 
reduced to a minimum, and indoor social gatherings are the order of the day. Who 
would invite his childhood Jesus to such a function? Yet the man was invited to 
attend a bridal party, and when the wine ran out, instead of letting the people go home 
dissatisfied, he changed the water to wine, the first of his miracles. Doubt the miracle 
if you like, it is sufficient for our purpose that he was invited to the hilarious wedding 
party, and Oriental weddings are very hilarious, and instead of putting a damper on 
the amusement, he helped it along. There was hardly a house in which he was not a 
welcome guest. He numbered among his friends not only those of high social 
standing, but the publicans and sinners as well. He must have loved companionship, 
and if invited to a modern social function doubtless he would be the "life of the 
party." 


Following Barton from The Man Nobody Knows to The Book Nobody Knows is a 
natural transition. The nature of the author's treatment of the Bible as a whole is not 
essentially different from that of the period of Jesus. 



The Bible is actually the world's best seller. The demand is continuous and an 
enormous number of copies are sold each year. Even so, there are very many people 
who really know little or nothing of what it contains. As an illustration, Barton cites 
the following illuminating incident: 


Not long ago I met a man who wanted to know which of the Old Testament books 
contained the verse: "Thus saith the Lord, Every tub shall stand upon its own 
bottom." 


If we see the Bible as Barton tries to make us to see it, as containing an outline of 
history, a collection of wisdom, literature and numerous biographies, all of which are 
as interesting and as readable as any modern work. Some portions are, of course, dull 
enough, but they are of little value, and one can skip them without losing much. 


There is nothing unusual in a man's reading a history of Europe or America, and no 
one thinks him foolish for so doing. Why should the attitude be different because he 
chooses to read a history of the Jews? Were it Klausner's History of Israel, no one 
would comment, but because it happens that one interested in the Jews chooses to 
read the historical book of the Bible there is an inclination among many men to 
believe him either a religious fanatic, or else that something is amiss in his general 
makeup. 


Maybe you are not interested in history. Philosophy may be more to your liking. In 
this event, you can find much to entertain in Proverbs, Psalms and the Prophets. This 
material is not the hashed over conclusions of pseudo-scholars, but the source 
material upon which you can form your own conclusions unhampered by the fetters 
of scientific minds. A philosophy of life can be gleamed from its pages, and it will 
either be a philosophy based entirely on what you find therein, or one modified 
according to your own interpretations. In either case you are ahead of the game for 
the reading. 



We all like biographies of great men, and possibly you may prefer such reading to all 
others. There is no better place to find it than between the covers of The Book 
Nobody Knows. The life of Christ, Solomon, David, Noah, Adam, the prophets and 
countless others-a great mass of material for your entertainment, and he who reads 
may learn. 


— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE 


THE YOUNG MAN WITH GREAT POSSESSIONS 


In the May issue, page 149, you say, "the young man who came by night to Jesus did 
not like the advice to sell all he had and give to the poor; neither did he understand 
how he could be bom again." 


This is decidedly interesting to me. 


Must I sell all that I have and give it to the poor in order to be "born again"? I have 
heard that phrase before: is that what it means? I wish that you would write me fully 
as to what being "bom again" means and what it involves. Since we are told that we 
are ALL the children of God, where is there any need for being born again, and 
besides, how can a man be born again when he is old? 


A young man, who had read and traveled extensively, told me that Adam had two 
sons, and these two sons represented two great religious truths. The oldest son was 
called Cain (or Cane) and he was (religiously) the father of Freemasonry because he 
was the first city-builder, and moreover of his seed there came the Masonic Jubal and 



Tubal-cain as mentioned in the lodge lectures. Moreover, this young man said that 
this Cain's brother represented the great religious truth of the Christians and that only 
by a blood sacrifice which he brought could a person become a Christian and that 
therefore the Freemasons are not advocates of that great religious truth. 


Will you please advise as to the reliability of this man's information? Where can I 
find the matter in detail from some one of our reliable scholars? I am very much 
interested in the “mysteries." 


Now I have asked you enough to cause you to write a book, I will close for the 
present, thanking you for the courtesy of a reply to my many tedious questions. 


L. B. M., California. 


In one respect we fully agree with our correspondent, to fully discuss the questions he 
raises would make a book. 


To take the last first; a reference to the Bible (Gen. IV, 25) will show that Adam is 
said to have had three sons, and the geneological line in which the chief interest 
centers is the third one, Seth. He was the ancestor of Noah. At its face value we 
would have to conclude from the narrative that all the descendants of Cain perished in 
the deluge. It is possible that the informant of whom our correspondent speaks had 
some acquaintance with the "Legend of the Craft" as related in the old charges in 
which the three children of the earlier Lamech are mentioned, and that he combined 
this with the old allegorical interpretation of Abel as a “type" of Christ, just as the 
flood and the Ark, and the passage of the Red Sea were taken as types of baptism. But 
that such ideas as this had anything to do with the relationship of Freemasonry to 
religion is not borne out by the facts. It comes into the light of history as a distinctly 
Christian institution. It remains a Christian institution in Northern Europe. It has in 
different countries moved a greater or less distance along the path of removing all 
qualifications based on religious doctrine. [There is much information on this subject 
in the Meaning of Masonry by Wilmshurst, The Men's House by Newton, Great 



Teachings of Masonry by Haywood, Speculative Masonry by MacBride, and Builders 
of Man by Gibson.] 


In regard to the first question, it may be better to refer to the passages alluded to, they 
were not quoted. The first three gospels tell us of a man who had great possessions, 
Luke tells us he was a ruler, and asked the Lord what he had to do to be saved; he 
claimed to have kept all the commandments from his youth up, and so, he was told to 
sell all he had and give it to the poor. It has generally been supposed that this was the 
same Nicodemus who, according to John, came and was told that be must be bom 
again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It would seem therefore that giving away all 
one has and being bom again are not contingent on each other necessarily. 

Nicodemus seems to have understood the phrase literally, but it is obvious that what 
Jesus meant was an initiation (in the general sense) into a new life, and in the early 
church this initiation was supposed to be fulfilled in baptism. And the church put a 
very exclusive construction on this-only those who had been baptized could be 
regarded as "children of God." And if the whole passage where this phrase occurs 
(Gal. Ill, 26) is taken as a whole, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Paul taught 
the same thing. Only those who had voluntarily accepted the faith and had received 
the initiation of baptism were of the children of God. The rest of mankind were 
children of wrath, of disobedience and not "heirs of the kingdom." 


* * * 


MORGAN AND THE OBLIGATION 


In THE BUILDER of November, 1924, there is a very interesting account of the 
Morgan Affair in Western New York in 1826. 1 was born in 1950, not far from 
Canandaigua, and in my younger days heard a great deal about the "Morgan Killers." 
Now it so happens that I am very intimately acquainted with a prominent Mason who 
is a grandson of one of the two men who made the final disposal of Mr. Morgan in 
1826; from him I learned the details of the whole affair as he got them from his father 



and grandfather. The kidnappers were Canadians and the place where they lived can 
be seen from near Bock's Monument. 


Was there ever a time in America when Masons were obligated by their oaths to 
inflict a penalty on those who betrayed their secrets as was alleged in the ease of 
William Morgan in 1826 ? 


H. G. HUBBARD, Pennsylvania. 


The story traditional in your family is certainly very interesting, though it is not easy 
to reconcile it with the few definite facts that have been fully ascertained. Publicly the 
faithful brethren of the, period seem to have generally insisted that Morgan was taken 
to Canada, and that he went thence on his own motion to parts unknown. Privately, 
many Masons undoubtedly believed or suspected that he had been made away with. 
Whether they actually knew more than the general public seems very doubtful, 
excepting, of course, the very few individuals who were actively concerned in the 
affair. 


The question you raise is one that can be emphatically answered in the negative. 
Never, in any country, has any Masonic promise or obligation been demanded of 
initiates to take any action, individually or collectively, in such a case; not even the 
perfectly proper and lawful penalty of suspending or expelling an unworthy member. 
There has been apparently a continuous evolution in this matter of Masonic penalty. 
Before the modern period there was apparently a tradition of a death penalty for the 
revelation of Masonic secrets. The newly made Masons were probably informed of 
this, though there is absolutely nothing either in the Old Charges and regulations on 
the subject. In the seventeenth century and up to the Grand Lodge period this had 
most likely become only a ritual method of emphasizing the binding character of the 
oath sworn by the initiate. In the modified and revised forms of a later date, after 
1723 perhaps, this was made explicit by adding it to the formal promise made by the 
candidate, so that instead of being informed that it was a traditional law, he 
imprecated the penalty upon himself, saying, in effect, "rather than do this I would 
suffer that," or, "Should I do this I deserve that." But this compromise between the 



conservative desire to retain an ancient form, that was also felt to be symbolic, has 
undergone still further modifications. In many places, after reciting the traditional 
penalty, some such clause as this is added: "Or the equally effective one of incurring 
the contempt and detestation of all honorable men." And in some European rituals the 
process has gone further still and the traditional clause has been entirely eliminated. 


In the period between 1730 and the end of the eighteenth century another step in this 
evolution was taken, in the addition of a general statement that the promise required 
contained nothing contrary to religion, morality or statute law. After the anti-Masonic 
excitement in this country this statement was minutely particularized and put in the 
form of a solemn declaration or pledge to the candidate, which in legal effect makes 
any possible interpretation of the promise null and void that could be considered 
illegal, or that was against the individual's conscience, while the forms of promise 
have also been modified to absolutely rule out the possibility of any such 
interpretation. 


However, if there was any truth at all in the respective "relations" of Edward Giddins 
and Samuel D. Greene, both of whom by their own account were in the thick of the 
trouble, we might judge that a number, and possibly many, of the simple-minded and 
comparatively uneducated Masons of Western New York in 1826 did suppose, in 
spite of the intentions of those who had revised the rituals, understand that they were 
bound to assist in punishing traitors. Of course this was the very point that the anti- 
Masons sought to make, and these two men are by no means reliable witnesses; but 
even if it were so it was not the fault of the fraternity but the ignorance of individuals 
that was to blame. 


* * * 


THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN AT JERUSALEM 


I have recently seen a paragraph in a Masonic magazine, under the heading "English 
Mason's Acquire Old Jerusalem Site," which states that the English Grand Priory of 



the Knights of St. John have bought a part of the 'historic site connected with their 
order in Jerusalem. I should like to know more about this. 


J. S. L., Connecticut. 


The statement is, we believe, quite correct, but then the heading appears to be an 
error. The close connection now existing between the modem Masonic Order of 
Templars and Knights of Malta, has led to quite general misconceptions on the 
subject. The connection, by the way, is historically rather ridiculous as the two Orders 
were bitter enemies, and their intestine feuds had much to do with the loss of 
Palestine to the Saracens. 


It must be remembered that the Order of St. John, commonly called Hospitallers and 
later first Knights and Rhodes' and then Knights of Malta, continued their existence 
all through the Middle Ages down to the present time. Much of the property of the 
suppressed Templar Order was transferred to them. 


The Hospitallers were organized by Languages-each Language had its own 
headquarters, but the general government was in the Grand Master, who resided at 
Malta, from the time the Turks drove the Knights out of Rhodes till Napoleon took 
the Island from them, after which they retired to Trieste where they still exist. 


At the Reformation the English "Language" broke away from the main body and its 
members adhered to the Church of England. They have had a continuous separate 
existence since then. They retain all their original exclusive and aristocratic -features, 
and they also carry out their original object of aiding and assisting the sick through 
hospitals. They have never had the remotest connection with Freemasonry, except the 
borrowing of their name by the latter. 



The Order last year made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, at which time we believe the 
purchase referred to was made. A very interesting account of the pilgrimage has 
recently been published. 


* * * 


THE COMPASSES 


Can you give me any information relative to the symbolism ,of the Compasses? It is 
said that they belong to the Grand Master. Is there any reason for this statement? 


W. N. Tucker, Saskatchewan. 


If any attempt were made to furnish the details of all theories relative to the 
significance of the compasses, one would soon find himself the author of a volume of 
unusual size. In the study of symbolism individual thought plays a most important 
part. It is impossible to say that any interpretation is the correct one and all others are 
wrong. Every one is privileged to draw his own conclusions, and one theory is just as 
correct as -another. One explanation that has received widespread recognition is that 
the compasses represent the God in man. The evolution of this idea is a process which 
if we endeavor to trace its beginning takes us back to the times of the ancients. Early 
in the development of religion the sun was represented by a circle. At a later stage 
arcs came to represent the planets and their paths. A semicircle was frequently used as 
a symbol of the celestial hemisphere. Because the compasses were the only 
instruments which would inscribe circular lines they gradually assumed the 
symbolism of the results of their work, in much the same way that the square came to 
be a symbol of earthly things. In the course of religious evolution the heavens came to 
be looked upon as the source of good and consequently this idea was incorporated in 
the significance of the compasses. As a consequence the compasses have come to 
represent those heavenly qualifications which are interpreted as the characteristics of 
a really good man. 



These seems to be a general acceptance of the compasses as the property of the Grand 
Master, but no reason is generally accepted for this practice. A possible explanation 
would be that the compasses are primarily an instrument of design and would not be 
used in the practical work of quarrying and squaring stones, nor in setting them. 

These are the duties of the Craft in general. Designing belongs only to those who 
have attained proficiency in the other branches of the trade and who have come to be 
called Masters. It would follow that the Grand Master, as chief architect and designer, 
would have his office designated by that instrument which was particularly suited to 
his occupation. 


E. E. T. 


* * * 


THE POSITION OF THE LESSER LIGHTS 


Noticing that the Grand Jurisdiction of Oklahoma placed their Lesser Lights in the 
same position as Wyoming, I wrote to the Grand Secretary who, in turn, referred me 
to you. 


Please give me, if you can, some reference as to which is the proper way to place the 
lights. 


J. M. LOWNDES, Wyoming. 



The question raised by Bro. Lowndes is of no little interest. There are several variant 
methods which have been in use in various sections and all of which seem to be 
equally "proper." 


In England it is generally conceded that the proper distribution is one at the station of 
each of the principal officers. In some American jurisdictions they are closely 
grouped and placed at the South of the altar, one to the East, one South and one West. 
Another variant is formed by enlarging the triangle thus formed so that one light is 
East of the altar, another South and the third West, all being so placed that they do no 
interfere with the ceremonial. All of these may be no more than compact variants 
which have evolved from the English form. 


A form which may have been in general use throughout the northeastern section of 
this country is a radical departure from anything thus far explained. The lights are 
grouped one to the East, one Southeast and one West, the East and West tapers being 
parallel to a line drawn longitudinally through the lodge and the East and Southeast 
parallel to a North and South one. They were in close proximity and were we to bisect 
the lodge with an East and West line and then quarter it by one drawn North and 
South, the situation of this triangle would be about the center of the northeast quarter. 


The old French charts show the lights placed as you do, one in the Northeast comer, 
one in the Southeast and the third in the Southwest, although even they seem to have 
no uniformity. Generally it would seem that one light was added for each degree so 
that in the third degree instead of there being only one light in each comer there were 
three. 


The possible evolution of these variants would be a subject for interesting 
speculation, but it would probably be no more than speculation. Ritualistic evidence 
is strangely lacking on this point. One seems as correct as another, and at least the 
Wyoming practice has the approval of age. 



REQUEST FOR BACK NUMBERS 


The Book Department has a demand for ten or twelve copies of THE BUILDER for 
October, 1923, and also for August and November, 1918, and November, 1919. If any 
members of the Society or other readers of THE BUILDER have copies of these 
numbers that they would be willing to dispose of will they please communicate with 
us?