The Builder Magazine

June 1922 - Volume VIII - Number 6

 

Shriners' Hospitals for Crippled Children

BY BRO. FORREST ADAIR, GEORGIA, SECRETARY OF THE SHRINERS' HOSPITALS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

A TRAIN is wrecked.  From its debris of wrathing steel, temples to suffering childhood have arisen.  A man is maimed and from his pain racked body came a tremendous force to banish pain.  Throughout North America, hospitals, to make anew helpless and hopeless crippled children, are being built by the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.  Eventually there will be scores of these hospitals on the continent and every one of them can trace its beginning back to the smoking runs of a locomotive and its inspiration back to the man who defied pain in order to keep his word.

 

In relating the history of how this came about, THE BUILDER played an imporant part in what some people might call a series of coincidences, but most people will recognize as the hand of a Divine Providence.

 

It was in the stormy year of 1914 that the train went out from Atlanta, Ga.  Ed Roberts was a member of the crew and Ed Roberts was a Noble of Yaarab Temple of the Mystie Shrine.  When he was rescued from the wreck it was discovered that a leg was crushed.  There was also a dislocation of the hip, which was overlooked by the railroad surgeons.

 

When brought back to Atlanta, Roberts called for me as I was then Potentate of Yaarab Temple, and throughout his long suffering I was a daily visitor at his bedside.  His crushed leg was amputated, but the dislocated hip, pressing on a sciatic nerve, continued to give ceaseless and terrible pain.  Opiates were constantly administered until one day I, speaking brother and counsellor, said: "Ed, don't let the doctors give you any more of that stuff.  Stick the pain out.  If you continue on the opiate it will get you the pain you are now called on to endure will be nothing compared to the suffering you'll then have undergo as a drug addict."

 

Roberts gave his word.  That word was never broken.  He was finally discharged from the hospital, but the pain remained with him.  Months passed until one day I was summoned by the wife of Brother Roberts.  I found him in agony.

 

'I dont believe I can stand this suffering any longer," he told me, "but I've given you my word about morphine.  I won't break it, but something has got be done and done quickly."

 

Now in Atlanta was Dr. Michael Hoke, one of foremost orthopaedic surgeons in America.  I called Dr. Hoke and explained the case.  Roberts was again taken to the hospital, where Dr. Hoke manipulated his hip, forcing it back into the socket.  It took weeks for its successful healing and all the time Roberts was given special nursing, and was finally sent out whole.

 

I called on Dr. Hoke for an accounting.  Yaarab is a wealthy Temple and its officials have always believved that their first duty is to their members. I knew Dr. Hoke was a high priced specialist, and was prepared to pay accordingly.

 

Dr. Hoke rendered the bill.  It was $5! I protested.  Dr. Hoke told me to mind my own busines "You haven't any idea of the suffering this man was going through," said the Doctor, "and he was undergoing it just because he had given you his word.  You have your pleasures and it's my pleasure to do something for a man like that I wouldn't have missed this opportunity for a good many $5 bills."

 

I wasn't satisfied. "I want to do something too," I explained.

 

"I'll tell you what you can do," said Dr. Hoke." You can do one of the biggest things it has ever been given man to do.  Do you know that right in this section there are hundreds of children, all gnarled and twisted, doomed to helplessness and pain, who could be made whole just like our friend?

 

"Their parents come to me every day.  I'd be glad to treat all of them.  That's my pleasure, but I haven't the money to furnish them with hospital equipment.  I haven't the money to pay a skilled orthopaedic nurse. But, I'll tell you what I'll do.  If you Masons will furnish a little house, say with three or four beds, and pay for a nurse, I'll undertake the cases of all the patients that couldn't possibly pay, and you'll get more fun out of it than anything you've ever tried.  Think it over."

 

I did think it over. I wanted to think it over all by myself, so I dismissed my car and began walking about the streets with Dr. Hoke's words chanting in my ears. It just happened that I passed the Masonic Temple and wandered in - still thinking.

 

In the temple I encountered the late Joseph C. Greenfield. He was busy writing but stopped as I entered and handed me the sheets of paper on which he was working.  It was an article for THE BUILDER and was headed "What Are We Doing?" The tenor of the article was that while we were making vast numbers of badge-wearing Masons each year, we were doing nothing tangible for the benefit of humanity.

 

Then the idea struck me.  Here was a great organization anxious to do something for somebody and not knowing where to turn.  I had just left a great man, anxious to do something very definite.  Why not bring the two together? "Joe," I said, "call a meeting of the Executive Comittee of the Scottish Rite Bodies, I have a proposition to put up to them."

 

The meeting was called and I submitted Dr. Hoke's plan.  It was enthusiastically accepted.  Then I suggested that we submit it to the entire Scottish Rite jurisdiction of Atlanta.  I wanted whole-souled cooperation in this thing, for I saw the chance for doing something big.

 

When the proposal was submitted, there wasn't a dissenting vote or voice. We were ready to do something. We leased a little cottage near Decatur, equipped it with six beds and Dr. Hooke went to work.

 

It wasn't many months before we saw that our field for doing things was limitless.  What seemed to us miracles were performed each month. We saw children who could barely crawl come out from that little cottage walking erect.  We saw life made new, not only for the little ones, but for their mothers and fathers and for us.  Gradually we added to the hospital, but we've always kept that little cottage.  Today the hospital has sixty beds and is considered a model in every way by orthopoedic specialists.

 

There was just one drawback to the whole arrangement.  We could care only for the children of our immediate section.  Railroad transportation from a distance is sometimes an insurmountable obstacle to the poor. Parents like to be near their little ones as they go through this trial.

 

Then arose another opportunity.

 

W. Freeland Kendrick, at that time Imperial Potentate of the Mystic Shrine, had become interested in a "Home" for Crippled Children in Philadelphia, his home town.  It was his idea for the Shrine to sponsor some such charity and he submitted a plan in accordance.

 

The plan did not meet with as hearty response as it deserved.  Maybe this was providential. For there is a distinction between a "Home" and a "Hospital." There have been established in a great many states and in nearly all the large cities, "Homes" for crippled children.  These little beings with club feet, twisted legs, paralyzed arms and legs, bent backs, tubercular joints and spines, have been sent to these homes, where they have been kept reared and fed until a kind Providence removed them, but in these homes practically nothing has been done to restore the child to a normal or approximately normal condition and send it back where every child belongs - to its own mammy and daddy.

 

This was exactly the work that was being accomplished in the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, and there was the great Shrine order waiting to have someone give them the opportunity to do something big and generous and constructive.

 

The Shrine has been in existence for forty-six years and has grown to a membership of 500,000.  The Shriners are organized along the lines of legitimate fun and clean sport and no body of men on earth ever get more real pleasure out of life than they do.

 

There were some members, however, a good many of them too, who I believe were undoubtedly acting under a Divine inspiration, who thought it might be well if the Shriners continued to have these good times, but at the same time began to do something for humanity.

 

Some of them had visited the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children.  Among these was Imperial Potentate Kendrick, who had already made a move in a similar direction.  Those who had visited the hospital began to dream of more hospitals and more of them until a hospital could be placed within the reach of every poor little crippled child in North America.

 

This dream became a reality when the proposal was made to the Shrine in concrete form in a resolution assessing each member $2.00 annually to carry on this work, producing the staggering total of $1,000,000 each year for the building and maintenance of Shriner's Hospitals for Crippled Children.  A Board of Trustees was named to take charge of the plan and to build these little "miracle shops" as rapidly as funds became available.

 

The work is already far advanced.  The Board of Trustees visited Atlanta and the Scottish Rite Hospital a year ago, accepted it as a model, and now five similar institutions are in course of construction in different sections of the country.  The first five to be located were in St. Louis, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Shreveport, La., San Francisco and Montreal, while five others have been tenatively located, one in Portland, Oregon, one in New England, one in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and one in the Rocky Mountain States.  As soon as these are under way five more will be authorized until there is a hospital for crippled children wherever there is a Temple of Shriners.

 

The Board of Trustees has made but two provisions of admission into the hospitals.  In the first place, the patients must be financially unable to enter a private insttution for treatment. In the second place, they must be susceptible to improvement.  There are some children so hopelessly crippled that science can do nothing for them.  The Trustees believe that under these conditions it is poor charity to have a hospital bed and hospital care and attention given where no good can result, when so many little ones who can be helped are crying for just that care and attention.

 

However, these cases are few and far between.  The orthopoedic surgeons in charge of these Shriners' Hospitals are men hard to convince that their science can not improve practically every case.

 

The science is a comparatively new one and is constantly being developed.  Operations are now successfully performed that were undreamed of just a few years ago, and research, study and experiments are part of the regular routine of these Shriner institutions.

 

For instance there was the case of the daughter of Brother Frank Higgins of New York, the Masonic writer.  This daughter, Pauline, had been stricken with that dreadful infantile paralysis during the epidemic in New York in 1916.  She spent four and one-half years in the marble wainscoted, splendidly equipped "Homes" for crippled children in New York and Philadelphia, but no surgeon's knife had ever been used and no physical therapist had ever made an effort to start her dormant muscles to renewing their functions.

 

Pauline couldn't walk a step when she was brought to the Hospital for Crippled Children in Atlanta, but five months later when her father came for her, she walked down the broad driveway to meet him.  When he had dried his tears of joy, he sat down in the hospital and wrote a wonderful article for the "New Age," headed "The Greatest Scottish Rite Cathedral on Earth," and in it he described the institution as "the temple of babies' smiles."   John H. Atwood, Past Imperial Potentate of the Shrine, an eminent lawyer now residing in Kansas City, Mo. after visiting the little hospital in Atlanta, wrote to one of his closest friends in the Imperial Council as follows:

 

"I, who fancied that I knew a lot of things, find that I knew nothing about certain aspects in life that I now feel are more important than any of those of which I have had knowledge.

 

"That such a multitude of unfortunates existed, I did not appreciate; that such marvelous things can be done to tight the wrongs done by Providence, I did not imagine was possible.

 

"To my mind, it is the finest thing I know of in the whole world today-churches, big and little, homes and harbors of refuge, as I have known them, shrivel and shrink into insignificance beside the things I saw in those unpretentious buildings among the pines in the suburbs of this good city.

 

"Better than sky-touching towers, stately halls, gorgeous paraphernalia and all the pomp and circumstances that so frequently mark Shrine activities, is a bungalow hospital or two, that might, with perfect truth - if like this Atlanta institution - be described as 'Miracle Houses.'"

 

An Advisory Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons cooperates with the Board of Trustees.  This board is now composed of Dr. Robert B. Osgood of Boston, a fanner President of the American Association of Orthopoedic Surgeons, Dr. Michael Hoke of Atlanta, Dr. John C. Wilson of Los Angeles, Dr. W. E. Gallie of Toronto, Canada, and Dr. W.E. Ryerson of Chicago.  Their services are contributed to the Shrine without cost.  They attend all the meetings of the Board of Trustees and select, subject to approval of the Board of Trustees, the chief surgeon for each of the new institutions.

 

The Shriners are very jealously guarding the integrity of the hospitals.  At the last meeting of the Board of Trustees it was decided to accept no bequests to the hospitals which carried with them provisions for memorial tablets or other methods of converting the institutions into monuments to individuals.  The hospitals are simply and solely for the relief of suffering childhood.  That is all.

 

While in the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta there hangs a picture of Noble Ed. Roberts, the man whose suffering made the whole system possible, the picture is unmarked.

 

Some months ago Brother Roberts visited the hospital.  He was being shown about by a nurse, a newcomer.  As she entered the room where the picture hangs, she pointed it out, not realizing that she was showing the visitor his own likeness.

 

"I do not know who that gentleman is," she said, "but I understand he founded this hospital."

 

An hour later he was found in an isolated spot on the hospital grounds.  He was sobbing a prayer of thanksgiving, thanks for the railroad wreck, thanks for his shattered hip, thanks for the Providence that had made him the unwitting instrument for this work, whose blessings will cover all North America.

 

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AMERICAN FREEMASONRY IN THE WORLD WAR - AN ANNOUNCEMENT

 

BY BRO. CHARLES F. IRWIN, OHIO

 

By his ability to write, speak and organize, hy his unflagging zeal, and by his standing among overseas Masons, Brother Charles F. Irwin has peculiarly fitted himself to superintend The National Masonic Research Society's efforts to collect and arrange the records of Masonic activity during, and as a result of, the Great War. Every brother who has even a grain of information to contribute is urged to communicate with Brother Irwin whose address is Eaton. Ohio.

 

AMERICAN Freemasonry in the World War has learned from the experiences of the past. The losses sustained by the Fraternity in our several wars have been incalculable because no systematic efforts were made to collect, arrange, and embody in print the incidents and events of special worth to the Craft. This condition has been foreseen by modern Masonry and a movement is afoot to rescue from the rubbish heap the innumerable occurences of value to the Craft in the Great War. Various Grand Lodges from year to year have turned their attention to this important work as attested in their Proceedings. Masons individually have been investigating and collecting material because of their zeal for the Institution. But the field is so vast that nothing short of a nation-wide effort can hope to cover the ground.

 

Various Masons throughout the United States have been gravitating toward each other as their lines of investigation have crossed each other's paths. At last a concerted plan of activity is to be put on foot. The National Masonic Research Society is logically the central organization to head this movement. Its past record merits such leadership. The experiences gained by its staff together with their intimate knowledge of active Craftsmen throughout the country assures the Fraternity that proper care will be taken to cover the whole field of war time Masonic activity.

 

The writer has been invited to become the chairman of this new movement. I have been asked to outline the policy of our department and to explain our purpose. This is done under considerable hesitancy. There are many difficulties to be faced and much labor to be undertaken. The prayer of the New England fisherman is appropriate: "O God, the ocean is so vast, and my bark is so small !"

 

It seems that the best results can be obtained through representatives in each state and territory who were themselves overseas and participated in the struggle. Their personal experiences and their contact with war time conditions fit them to express in written form the conclusions they arrived at as the war burnt its way to its final end. Among the thousands of Craftsmen who went across the ocean there are many who observed and participated in events which held a Masonic significance. Incidents isolated and unrelated to the general sweep of Craft activity, when brought into contact with other incidents, reveal the general relativity of the whole Masonic fabric.

 

Our task is to secure the material, to examine it carefully for the purpose of establishing accuracy, and to publish its results, in order that Masonry may enter into the benefits.

 

How can this objective be obtained? By contact with those who are in possession of the facts or who can lead us to the facts. It will be the purpose of our group of workers to secure the material from those who have it. This will be sought by encouraging a correspondence with the brethren who were in the service abroad. We will trace the officers of the various overseas Masonic clubs in order to secure complete histories of these organizations. We will encourage the continuance of the ties formed while we were far from home. As striking material comes to hand it will be presented to the Craft through the pages of THE BUILDER from month to month. There are stirring tales as yet unpublished. There is material to satisfy the Masonic appetite for Masonic lore.

 

Brethren will be encouraged to communicate with the chairman. The occurences which each had may seem obscure and trivial. Nothing is trivial that comes under the observation of Masons. These insignificant events may fall one by one into a chain of significant processes that explain why the world disaster came. These individual recitals may have messages needed by the Fraternity. And you, my brother, are invited to unite with us in our present undertaking.

 

Our objective as I have said will be at first the collecting of overseas Masonic data. This will be done under a number of distinct heads: Military Organizations, Camps, Depots, Combat Areas, the Enemy, our Allies, etc. To this end we shall encourage papers by active brothers embodying the conclusions reached by the writers on various Masonic principles and relationships. We shall ask and seek the answers to searching questions as to the practical worth of Masonry in times of extreme danger and distress. Observations of continental conditions will be presented. Biographies of prominent members of the Fraternity, who participated in the struggle, will be prepared and published.

 

The World War did not end with the Armistice. The after effects continue and will continue for years to come. Masonry's duties are to continue till the objectives of the war are finally attained. Only by securing the principles for which such great treasure of money and men was given can we expect to rest from our labors.

 

It is important to discover whether the sinister influences that produced the strife are destroyed. To know this requires a study of obscure currents of thought and action, on the part of men and organizations before, during, and since the war.

 

American Masonry went to Europe during the war. It carried definite benefits to peoples in desperate need. But American Masons also received definite impressions in their contact with Europe. What these impressions were, and the interpretation of them will be one of our undertakings.

 

THE BUILDER opens to overseas Masons a field for expression. The time is ripe. The Craft are ready to hear. Those who have been considering experiences have had sufficient time to arrange them into lines of definite thought. We invite such to place these ideas in written form and to send them to us. Thus we shall be doing not only our own comrades a benefit but we shall be leaving for future generations a wealth of Masonic action that will prove an inspiration to younger Craftsmen.

 

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WHY MASONIC STUDY CLUBS ARE WORTH WHILE

BY BRO. FRANK G. BURROUGHS, IDAHO

 

THE DETERMINED effort now being made by a large number of Grand Lodges in the United States along the line of Masonic Education had its inception as a response to the need of a fuller realization by Masons of Masonic opportunities and Masonic duties.

 

'Tis an unsettled world today, largely due to the great unrest created by the World War and its readjustment problems. This unrest creates Masonic opportunity and Masonic obligations. We dare no longer placidly rehearse our ritualistic obligations and relinquish all memory and thought of them when we lay aside our aprons.

 

We have work to do and Masonic wages to earn.

 

We must be taught to realize our obligations to our fellow man as well as to our brothers in Masonry.

 

We must obtain a clearer and more definite understanding of what Masonry is and what it stands for.

 

We must learn how to apply to the problems of life the principles taught within the lodge room.

 

We must obtain ritual interpretation as well as ritual instruction. We must help in that building of character which is the cornerstone of our Masonic edifice.

 

We must be brought to realize that the whole duty of man is contained within the ritual instruction of the three degrees of Masonry, and, by constant discussion and constant search, we must learn to dig out for ourselves each little bit of symbolism and every lesson contained in each word of our ritual, every little bit of our lodge furnishings, and every article of Masonic use and clothing.

 

We must learn new meanings of the word "Fraternalism," and learn the true significance of the Masonic ritual in its relation to business life, to home life, to every-day intercourse and to social obligations.

 

Masonic instruction does not imply only a delving into Masonic symbolism, or research into Masonic antiquities. It means an effort to induce Masons to view in their true light the esoteric principles of our ritual and teachings and to indicate the application of these principles in our daily intercourse with the world at large.

 

The wherefore of Masonic instruction lies in its practical application. The real Mason is he who practices outside of the lodge those virtues inculcated in it, not he who is able to deliver a ritualistic recital of those principles and straightway doffs his apron and leaves the principles sticking under the flap until again called for, meanwhile forgetting or ignoring the fact that they form a real working formula for life and conduct twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks in every year of life.

 

The practical application, then, is the ultimate end and aim of Masonic study. The Mason whose deep studies in the symbolism and ritual of the order had led him to a thorough understanding of the hidden mysteries of Masonry cannot avoid having it become a part of him and a part of his every-day life and conduct.

 

Masonry is a never-ending study, and a study that grows on one. It's something like the medical profession. A doctor is never too old to take a post graduate course and learn something new. But there is a difference. In medicine the new things come because of new discoveries in medical science, while in Masonry the thoughts have been there for ages, and need only the mental pick and shovel of the student.

 

The average Mason does not give much attention to the never-ending symbolism of Masonry, to the meaning of the working tools, to the level, the square, the compass and the apron. But he only needs waking up a little to discover how valuable and beautiful are the lessons conveyed by each act done and each word spoken, and by each and every object used in a Masonic lodge.

 

Why the square? - To square our actions, says the ritual. Why the plumb? - To teach uprightness. Why the level ? - To teach democracy. But did you ever stop to think that the combination of the three makes that all-embracing rule of life and conduct - the Golden Rule, "Do to others as you would they should do unto you" ?

 

Let's think it out.

 

If we are square, we shall easily put ourselves in the other fellow's place. If we are upright as the plumb we shall be just in all of our dealings, and if we seek no unearned advancement over our fellows, as the level teaches, we shall be able to see our own failings as plainly as we can see the other man's, and the combination of the three, the square, the level and the plumb, comprises the Golden Rule the great rule and guide of our faith.

 

The educational course in THE BUILDER is planned to arrest the attention and drive home those things not at once apparent. If once Masons realize that the ritual of the Order is not an empty thing, not a string of words to catch the ear, but an ancient composition, every word of which bristles with symbolism and every act of which contains an esoteric significance, then and then only can Masonry become that which it is intended to be a great moral force for the upbuilding of character, a power in the ethical education of millions.

 

If Masonic education realizes its ultimate logical conclusion, our Order will be lifted to an immeasurably higher plane. We shall cease to become merely members of the greatest "fraternal order" on earth, but will become members of the greatest "fraternity" that ever existed - a fraternity that will live as well as speak the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God.

 

To reach this high ideal the Masonic ritual, Masonic emblems, Masonic symbolism, clothing, furnishings, and every and each little act ordained as part and parcel of our work provide the machinery.

 

By the study of Masonry as it is we bring to ourselves the realization of our duties - our duty to ourselves, to our families, to our Masonic brethren, to our associates in business or pleasure, in a word, as our Monitor so tersely puts it, to practice outside of the lodge those virtues taught within it.

 

By Masonic study we come to a realization of the duties and obligations of fraternity. We learn that the symbolism of the cable tow obligates us to help our fellow Mason in a material way anywhere within the length of that piece of string, and that its length is only to be gauged by our ability to help and by his necessities. Our study of the cable tow will show us that we should ever be on the alert to assist the material interests of the brethren as well as our own.

 

By Masonic study we learn to apply as well as recite the lessons of the working tools. To act on the level, and, by the same token, to seek not for undue superiority, and to recognize the equality of others. To be square in all our dealings and to gauge our time properly so that after devoting a time to rest and recreation and a time to work, we may still have an equal period of time left in which we may assist a brother Mason, his widow or orphan. To be upright, straight up and down like the plumb, with no deviation from the absolute perpendicular.

 

By Masonic study we learn the meaning and everyday application of all Masonic symbolism. To keep ourselves as spotless as a piece of lambskin, to be willing to learn and to stand in the northeast corner of the world so as to be near the fountain of knowledge and follow the rising sun from the east by way of the south to the west and thence to the happy contentment of a life full of years and good deeds.

 

Brothers, we want to make our fraternity truly fraternal and a power in a materialistic world of selfish endeavor.

 

We possess the weight of numbers, we have the greatest system of ethics, we need no change, either in our ritual or our teachings - all we need is to bring home to ourselves just what our obligations obligate us to do.

 

And after we have driven that home to ourselves we shall go out into the world and proclaim our Masonic membership - not by wearing a pin or hanging a certificate on the wall of our home or office - but by conducting our lives in such a manner that he who runs may read, that those with whom we come in contact may recognize our Masonic membership by reason of our consistent practice of the ethics of Masonry.

 

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MEMORIALS TO GREtAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS

 

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

MORGAN LEWIS, who was Grand Master in New York from 1830 to 1843, is recorded in history as a soldier, and Governor of New York, but he was also the popular and very active Grand Master; and also the son of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

 

He had every early advantage, and such a nature as could not be spoilt. After graduating from Princeton in the class of 1773, he began the study of law in the offices of that great diplomat, John Jay, who was afterwards the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

Though an apt pupil, and apparently much in love with his chosen profession, Morgan Lewis heeded the shrill notes of the fife when the Revolutionary War was announced, and at once volunteered his services and joined Washington's Army at Boston. He was elected Captain of a company of the New York militia but soon was promoted to the rank of Major. It is mentioned in the dispatches of General Stephens that Lewis behaved very gallantly in the battle at Germantown.

 

In 1776 Lewis was made Quartermaster-General, with the rank of Colonel under General Gates at Saratoga, and in the action at Bemis' Heights shared tne perks and tne nonors of the day with Arnold, Morgan and the other officers. After the surrender of Burgoyne he was engaged in the operations undertaken by General Clinton against the mixed force of British regulars and the hostile Indians in the northwestern part of the State of New York.

 

After the War of the Revolution Lewis resumed his law practice in the City of New York in 1788, and was soon elected to the state legislature. In this case the office sought the man; not the man the office. In the legislature he did well, but as the purposes of the people were generally in the same direction, there was no opportunity for a contest, and therefore no exciting debates.

 

Morgan Lewis moved his domicile to Dutchess County, and in a short time was appointed, first, a judge of the court of common pleas, and later, attorney general of the State of New York, and in 1801 Chief Justice of the same court.

 

His popularity was by that time nation wide. His splendid record in the Grand Lodge of New York was generally known to the brethren over the whole land. In 1804 he was elected Governor of the State, and was obliged to take up his residence in Albany. In this office he did much to advance the cause of education and to strengthen the militia, two grand steps in the interest of the republic.

 

He was elected to the state senate in 1810, and two years later at the beginning of the war of 1812 he was made Quartermaster-General in the U.S. Army with the rank of Brigadier. He was advanced to the rank of Major-General in 1813.

 

During the campaign of that year General Lewis was with General Dearborn on the Niagara frontier. He captured Fort George and was in command for some time at Sackets Harbor and French Creek. In the latter part of the year 1813 he accompanied General Wilkinson in his expedition against Montreal, and in 1814 had command of the forces which were held for the defense of the city and harbor of New York.

 

From the year 1815 General Lewis seems to have lived much in retirement, so far as politics and his profession go, but did not lose interest in Freemasonry. He lived in a time when the Order sought the man, and made strenuous efforts to keep the best man at the head. No man was elected because it was his turn in the early days of the Republic.

 

He was born in New York City in 1754 and died there in 1844. He was buried at Staatsburgh, where a beautiful memorial was erected in his honor.

 

The cut here shown was loaned by the Rev. Brother Edward Pearson Newton, rector of Saint James Parish, Hyde Park on the Hudson, who is a member of Rhinebeck Lodge No. 432, of Rhinebeck, N. Y.

 

----o----

 

No prayer is unheard, none is wasted, there is none that we shall not meet again in the world to come. Oh! when we come to die, how bitterly shall we mourn that we have prayed so little, prayed so negligently; ah; we shall see then that life was hardly life when it was not also prayer. - Faber.

 

----o----

 

Diligence is the mother of good luck. - Benjamin Franklin.

 

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THE HOLY SAINTS JOHN

 

BY BRO. BENJAMIN WELLINGTON BRYANT, CALIFORNIA

 

ST.JOHN the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist! What was their connection with Freemasonry? Is the Monitorial tradition supported by historical fact? Why does our Fraternity, firmly committed as it is to that regulation in the Constitutions of 1723 which obliges its members only to "that religion in which all men agree," dedicate its lodges to the memory of two Saints belonging distinctly to the Christian calendar? Whence came the tradition? When was it adopted? Why the St. Johns rather than St. Thomas whom tradition denominates the patron of architecture? Such are a few of the questions frequently asked and seemingly no Masonic Question Box is complete without one or more of them.  Much has been written on the subject, but unfortunately little of it appears to have any real value, or to lead us nearer to a solution of the mystery. The excuse for the present paper is not the hope that anything can be added to the accumulation of data, so much as it is an attempt to gather and arrange the available material, and possibly give some hints that may lead to a feasible interpretation.

 

There appear to have been bat two attempts at a serious and extended consideration of the subject in Masonic literature.  The first, and among English-speaking brethren, the only readily available publication, is Dr. Oliver's "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," (1) originally published in England in 1848, as a protest against the action of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813 when the Johannine dedication was discarded by that body when it adopted the Hemming lectures. Dr. Oliver collected and made accessible a great mass of material which he arranged and discussed in most readable form albeit his conclusions are too evidently biased by his own peculiar theological views to have much real value for present day Masonic scholarship.  However we must acknowledge our debt of gratitude for him for his indefatigable labors as a pioneer in what, in his day, was an unknown field.  We cannot read his writings or look upon his portrait which so clearly reflects his benign nature without loving him for his sincere and upright character and his fearless stand for the right as he saw it, even while we take exception to the eighteenth century orthodoxy which appears in almost every page of his Masonic writings.

 

The second work in which the Johannine claims are discussed at some length is the "Kunsturkunden," or "Three Oldest Professional Documents of the Brotherhood of Freemasons," which Krause published about 1810.  Although antedating Oliver's work, I have placed this second because it is little known to the English-speaking Craft, due to the fact that, so far as I have been able to determine, no translation has been published.  This is the work the publication of which was so violently opposed by the German brethren, and for which the author was suspended by the Dresden lodge.  Having access only to the meager quotations and references given by a few Masonic writers, I am not prepared to discuss its contents.

 

To these two extended works upon the subject we should perhaps add Mackey's Encyclopoedia (2) which gives many references and considerable data upon the Sts.  John, as well as several versions of the tradition as it appears in different systems of lectures.  Most of them are evidently quoted from Dr. Oliver's work. However, he has given us a hint of a broader and seemingly a truer interpretation by tracing the St. John Festivals back to the solstitial celebrations of the Ancient Mysteries. (3) Except for these three writers I have been unable to find any extended works which attempt a detailed consideration of the matter.

 

To arrive at an intelligent understanding of this rather obscure subject it seems necessary first to examine into the origin of the two festivals which are far older than Christianity.  They appear to have originated in that ancient wisdom- or light-religion in which so much of that which we now know as Freemasonry had its origin; and of which we catch some comparitively latter-day glimpses in what is commonly referred to under the general name of Ancient Mysteries. Writers and historians are notably unanimous in their agreement that the rituals of many of those ancient ceremonials included festivals in observance of the equinoxes and solstices.  This was true, not merely of one or two of the pagan lands of antiquity, but of many, for they appear to have been very widely diffused in the ancient world wherever any great degree of civilization had been attained.  The Egyptian, Phoenician, Dionysian, Adonisian, Phrygian, Eleusinian, Scandinavian and Druidical mysteries, each in its own land and time, appear to have introduced the astronomical features and all celebrated dramas and festivals in which the phenomena of nature were veiled in myth and allegory.  Thus the priests of each of those faiths of olden time celebrated, each in his own peculiar, and usually beautiful and poetical symbolism, the passing of the equinoxes and solstices as well as other natural phenomena; and hence must have possessed a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the contents of "the great book of nature and revelation"; of astronomy and its vital influence upon the rotation of the seasons.  In the mysteries of Eleusis the story of Ceres and her search for her daughter Prosperine, when divested of its mythological setting, becomes the tale of the seasonal rotation.  In Egypt the thought was the same, but veiled in the allegory of Isis, Osiris, and Horus.  Bear in mind that this is intended to refer only to those aspects of the mysteries which were held less secret and were consequently better understood and more frequently discussed, and about which considerable data has been preserved. Of the inner secrets of those Greater Mysteries celebrated in some localities, little is known with certainty. However there is good reason to believe that when the novice proven himself and won past the ordeals of the liminary initiation, he was rewarded with instruction in the eternal verities of life and its relation to Deity. Here, it is believed, he was led on from the consideration of the simpler and more evident truths of visble nature, which were embodied in his earlier initiation, to the contemplation of the more abstract truth of one God? (4)

 

Some of those early mystery-systems with their attendant festivals, were still celebrated in the early centuries of the Christian era, and while their original meaning had, to some extent perhaps, been obscured, the festival days still played an  important part in the life the people among whom Christian missionaries were seeking converts, much as do our own public holidays present day social and religious life.  They were therefore a difficult problem with which the mission and church fathers had to contend.  Of the customs prevailing in the Roman Empire at this period one author has written:

 

"And as the entire State, so also every community, every city, every circle of cities, had its special cult, well founded institutions, rich and distinguished colleges for priests and special feast days and sacrifices. Every province, every city, every village, honored with local rites its protecting divinity, and everywhere the various religious observances were most intimately connected with the civil constitution of the community and sustained by local patriotism." (5) Such was the system with which missionaries had to compete for recognition.  As a parallel situation, let us suppose that a people alien thought as well as blood were to come among us here in America and in the fire of their zeal seek to engraft their religious faith upon our thought.  It would be a difficult, nay, an almost impossible task, to wean away from the observance of Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Years, and perhaps most difficult of all to from our memories the events and traditions as ciated with the Fourth of July; and while the memory of these days persisteed in the thought-life of our people, the missionaries' success could not be complete. Such was the problem confronting the early progagandists of Christianity.  So long as the older festivals remained, the memory of the older faith remained.  So as the "heathen" retained a ghost of the memory of the original meaning of those festivals there was a weak link in the chain that bound them to Christianity.

 

It appears that the officials of the early church about the solution of the difficulty in a thoroughly diplomatic way.  Numerous authors from Sir Isaac Newton in 1733 (6), to the new volume of the Encyclopaeda of Religion and Ethics' just off the press, have given up a picture of the transition from the pagan to Christian observances.  It appears that during the third century or thereabouts, the missionaries having with the above mentioned difficulty, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and after him St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great, each advised that an attempt be made to Christianize rather than to extirpate the popular observances.  If a certain day had been previously observed as a pagan holiday, let it be changed into a Christian festival.  Thus the Christmas observances succeeded those of the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia; the Floralia gave way to the floral ceremonies of May day, and festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist and various of the apostles took the place of the zodiacal observances.  Gregory Thaumaturgus, to whom Sir Isaac Newton gives credit for the institution of the movement, died in 265, hence the change began to take place very early in the history of the church.  In the fifth century, Theodoret speaks of the change of the festivals of the old heathen gods into those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, and other saints, but mentions no other names of apostles. (8) According to Gregory of Nyssa, writing about 379, the church was then observing the festivals of Stephen, Peter, Jaines, John and Paul between Christmas and New Years, on the principle that "the prodse of the proto-Martyr should be followed by a commemoration of the apostles." (9) The author of "Greek Religion" gives a picture of the transition in Greece:

 

"That in Greece itself ancient rites should persist under cover of the new religion, and that ancient deities or heroes should reappear as Christian saints is hardly surprising to one who considers the summary method by which Christianity became the established religion.  It was not so difficult to make the  Parthenon a Christian church when the virgin goddess of wisdom was supplanted by a St. Sophia (Wisdom), then by the Virgin 31axy- Siniaarly Apollo was more than once supplanted by St. George, Poseidon by St. Nicholas the patron of sailors, Aselepius by St. Michael and St. Damian, and in grottos where nymphs had been worshiped, female saints received similar worship from the same people." (10)

 

The connection of the Baptist's day with the ancient midsummer rites of the Teutonic, and Scandinavian peoples also seems well established. (11)

 

Thus we are able to trace quite clearly some of the influences which finally crystallized in the observance of the Baptist on Midsummer's day, June 24, and of the death of the Evangelist on December 27. But much odf it still remains a mystery. It is enough to note here that the nature of the festivals - the one of birth, coming in the summer and on the longest day of the year; and the other of a death falling upon the shortest day and at the season when the hand of death seems laid upon all nature - is particularly fitting.  The peculiar character and history of the men themselves as shown in records and traditions also seems to coincide with the same thought.  The Baptist is reputed to have been a member of the sect of Essenes, who were mystics and celibates and held all property in common.  He is frequently characterized as a "Seeker of Light." He was a man of stern integrity and unshakable fidelity, and bravely met death in the full bloom of his strength in the service of the Cause to which he had devoted his life.  In marked contrast to his short life and tragic martyrdom is the long life and peaceful end of the Evangelist.  While the life and teachings of the one are veiled in obscurity and can scarcely be verified with certainty, the work of the other stands out in clear colors.  The Evangelist appears to have come of a well-to-do family, his mother being one of those who contributed to the support of the work of Jesus and to have been a man of considerable learning.  Truly, he seems to have been well equipped to "finish by his learning what the other began by his zeal." In marked contrast to the simplicity of the message attributed to the Baptist is the finished and scholarly Gospel credited to the Evangelist.  Opening with the mystic doctrine of the Logos- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," he has given us a work notably at variance with that of the other Apostles.  Again, his name appears in connection with the mystic and apparently esoteric book of the Apocalypse.  At every point, in their history, their circumstances, their messages, and their methods we find the same sharp contrast that has its analogy in the extremes of the seasons in which their festivals fall.

 

Having considered the genealogy of the festival, it may be of interest briefly to note that of dedications. "Among the ancients," says Bro. Mackey, "every temple, altar, statue, or sacred place was dedicated to some divinity." This, in Rome at least, was required by law, and the necessary proceedings were definitely defined.  In the laws governing the Collegia, a fundamental legal requirement for organization was that the College should select a patron divinity.  It served in the Roman legal process as a means of identification.  Among the Jews there was a distinction between consecration and dedication; sacred things being both consecrated and dedicated, while profane things were dedicated only. (12) This custom was practiced as early as the time of Moses, the Tabernacle being both consecrated and dedicated, and the same is true of the Temple of Solomon. (13) The practice has been continued among Christians; and it is probably needless to call attention to the fact that Masonry has done the same.

 

Just where or when the Craft became connected with these saints and when it began to dedicate its lodges to them cannot be traced with any degree of certainty. A writer in THE BUILDER asserts that our dedication to them finds a counterpart in the recognition accorded them by the Comacines. Many of their churches were dedicated to one or the other of them.  The Island of Comacina was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and his festival is still celebrated annually by the inhabitants with much pomp and ceremony. (14) This is particularly significant, for many authorities now believe that the Comacines form an important link in the history of our Fraternity.  James I of Scotland in 1424 passed a statute legalizing trade societies, and provided for the dedication of each to some patron saint.  The early craft guilds of England appear to have followed the same custom, practically all of them being similarly dedicated, usually to some Saint connected with their calling, and frequently the guild was namned after him. (15)

 

"None of the Londan trades appear to have formed fraternities without ranging themselves under the banner of some saint," says Bro. Gould, "and if possible they chose one who bore some fancied relation to their trade.  Thus the fishmongers adopted St. Peter; the drapers chose the Virgin Mary, mother of the 'Holy Lamb' or 'Fleece' as the emblem of that trade.  The goldsmiths' patron was St. Dunstan, represented to have been a brother artisan.  The merchant tailors, another branch of the draping business, marked their connection with it by selecting St. John the Baptist who was the harbinger of the 'Holy Lamb' so adopted by the drapers.... Eleven or more of the guilds ... had John the Baptist as their patron saint, and several of them, while keeping June 24 as their head day, also met on December 27, the corresponding feast of the Evangelist." (16)

 

Toulmin Smith examined the records of some six hundred of these guilds and found few cases where the patron saints were omitted.

 

Other than the Comacine recognition, which cannot strictly be considered as that of a guild, inasmuch as it was their churches and their island home which were the subjects of dedication, the earliest Masonic connection of these particular saints of which we have record, appears in a, guild of Stone Masons and Carpenters at Cologne in 1430 called the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist. (17) On the other hand, the "Quatuor Coronate," or "Four Crowned Martyrs," are invoked in the Strassburg Ordinances of 1456 and those of Torgau of 1462, while in neither of these, nor in the Brotherbook of 1563, is there any reference to the Baptist." (18) Bro. Mackey says that the earliest festivals of the Operative, or Stonemasons of the Middle Ages were those of St. John the Baptist on June 24, and of the "Four Crowned Martyrs," on November 4. (19)

 

Dr. Oliver quotes a bit of doggerel verse which he says "it is confidently affirmed" was a part of the O. B. of a system in use in the fourteenth century:

 

"That you will always keep, guard and conceal, And from this time you never will reveal, Either to M. M., F. C., or apprentice Of St. John's Order what our grand intent is." (20)

 

The learned brother neglects, however, to cite his authority for the above, and Mackay, who has evidently copied the stanza from him, adds the comment, without giving reason or authority, that it is doubtful if it can be traced to an earlier date than the beginng of the eighteenth century. (21) I have been unable identify it among the MSS. listed in Gould's History. Of a similar character is the reputed antiquity of so-called Charter of Cologne, which purports to date from 1535, and which contains these Articles:

 

"E.  That the society of brethren began to be call 'the fraternity of Freemasons' A.D. 1450 at Valenciennes Flanders, prior to which date they were called 'the brethren of St. John.'"

 

"K.  Every year a feast is held in honor of St. John the patron of the community." (22)

 

The authenticity of this, like the former quotation is gravely questioned by almost every Masonic scholar so we may dismiss them both without further comment.  Among the Craft in Great Britain the earliest definite date of a Johannine reference appears to be "St. John's day in Christmas," 1561, when it is related that Queen Elizabeth sent an armed force to break up the annual Grand Lodge at York.  But the Masons, as it were, executed a counter-attack and initiated a number of the officers of the force, who returned to the Queen with so favorable an account of the objects and nature of the society that the Craft remained unmolested during the remainder of her reign. (23) This appears to the earliest reference to the festival of the Evangelist in connection with the Fraternity to which a semblance of credence can be given.  Gould gives a list of early dates which he has succeeded in verifying, where the festival of the Evangelist is mentioned in the lodge minutes, as follows: Edinburgh, 1599; Aberd 1670; Melrose, 1674; Dunblane, 1646; Atcheson Haven 1700, while the earliest notice of the Baptist's day appears in the York minutes of June 24, 1713.  These are the earliest references appearing in the records of any exclusively Masonic organization.  There is mention of the feasts of both saints in the records of Gateshead Sodality in 1671, but that was an organization of mixed trades. (24)   The earliest date, that of Edinburg, 1599, is entry in the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh No 1, providing that annually on St. John the Evangelist's day the Wardens shall be chosen. (25) A ritualistic notice appears in the Sloane MS. of 1646, the date of the initiation of Elias Ashmole, which contains the question and answer: "Where did they first call their Lodge? A. At the holy chapel of St. John." (26) In a copy the Gothic Constitutions exhibited before Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, at an assembly held on John the Evangelist's day, 1663, it was strictly joined that the Grand Festivals should be held on John's day in commoration of a custom which existed from time immemorial. (27) Both Anderson Preston refer to that meeting, but the Roberts MS states that it was held December 8. (28) According the Alnwick MS. the members were required to attend the parish church of that town each "St. John's day in Christmas", - "Clad in aprons and carrying common squares." (29) In a charter granted by the Bishop of Durham, April 24, 1671, it is directed that the incorporated body "shall upon the fower and twentieth day of June, comonly called the feast of St. John Baptist, yearely for ever, assemble themselves together before nine of the clock in the forenoone of the same day, and there shall, by the greatest number of theirs voices, elect and chuse fouer of the said fellowshippe to be there wardens, and one other fitt person to be the clarke . . . and shall vpon the same day make Freemen and brethren; and shall vpon the said fover and twentieth day of June, and att three other feasts or times in the yeare - that is to saie, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, St. John Day in Christeninas, and the five and twentieth day of March, . . . for ever assemble themselves together." (30) This was the Gateshead Sodality mentioned above.

 

The Four Old Lodges of London having constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro tem in 1716 or early in 1717, set the date for the formal revival of the quarterly communications for St. John the Baptist's day of 1717.  It is related in Anderson's Constitutions that "Accordingly on St. John the Baptist's day in the 3rd year of King George I., A. D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house." "The ASSEMBLY and Feast" was held on the same date in 1718, 1719, and 1720; but there appears no record of the observance of the Evangelist's day under the Grand Lodge until 1720 when a quarterly communication or Grand Lodge was held on that day.  This was under the Grand Mastership of George Payne.  The festival of St George the patron saint of England, which falls on April 23, was later adopted as the principal feast of the Grand Lodge.

 

The earliest known minutes of the Craft in Ireland show a meeting of the Grand Lodge of Munster on the Evangelist's day, 1726.  The annual meeting was held on the same date in 1727.  The meetings for 1728, 1730, and 1731 were dated on the Baptist's day.  In 1732, that day falling on Sunday, the Grand Lodge met on Saturday and adjourned until Monday the 25th. The year 1729 shows no record of a meeting.  The General Regulatians incorporated in the same minutes are dated as having been adopted on the Evangelist's day, 1728, but there is no other record of that communication. They provide "In due Honour, Respect, and obedience to ye right Worshipful the Grand Master, that his Worship may be properly attented for the more solemn and proper holding our Grand Lodge on St. John the Baptist's day, annually, for ever . . . . "(31) The minutes of the Munster Grand Lodge do not continue beyond 1733.  The present Grand Lodge of Ireland was established in 1730, but its earliest minutes have been lost, and Gould gives no dates of the early communications.  According to Mackey, however, the present custom includes the observance of both the Baptist's and the Evangelist's festivals. (32)

 

The Scottish Grand Lodge was established in 1736, the minutes showing a preliminary meeting on September 30, which suggests the festival of St. Michael though Gould makes no reference to it in his account of the formation of that body.  The actual organization took place an St. Andrew's day, November 30, and that day is still observed as the principal feast of Scottish Masons, thus concurring in the celebration of the feast of the patron of their country. Bro. Mackey, however, quotes Lawrie to the effect that Scottish Masons always observed the festival of the Baptist until 1737 when the change was made to St. Andrew's day. This statement is in marked variance with Gould, who, I believe, is the safer guide.  The Johannine dedication still prevails under the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the three degrees are officially designated "St. John's Masonry."

 

Enough evidence appears, therefore, to indicate that the two festivals had already attained an immemorial status in the customs and traditions of the Craft long before the dawn of the Grand Lodge era.  Even during the Middle Ages there is sufficient evidence to warrant a belief that they were quite widely recognized.  Indeed, if we may accept the Comacine theory now gaining ground among our Masonic scholars, there is, in the peculiar attention accorded these two saints and their festivals by those architects and builders, another link in the chain of Masonic evolution.  Through them the line leads back to the Roman Collegia, and thence to the ancient pagan solstitial observances. The change from the pagan to the Christian nomenclature would have been a natural result of the Christianization of the Empire.  Thus, apparently we have in our Johannine dedication and festivals a direct line of descent from the most ancient observances known to man, and from the evidence at hand, I am inclined to believe that in remarkably few instances have their celebration been entirely neglected by the Craft.  That this is not far-fetched will be realized when we remember that many a recognized and time-honored historical or genealogical tree has little more to support it.

 

(To be concluded.)

 

1. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Rev. George Oliver; J.W. Leonard & Co., New York, 1855; included in vol. 5, Universal Masonic Library., Rob. Morris, Lodgeton, Ky., 1856.

2 "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," A. G. Mackey, see articles on "Dedication," "Parallel Lines," "St. John the Baptist," "St. John the Evangelist," "Festivals," etc.

3. Ibid, article on "Dedications."

4 "History of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, vol. 1, p. 15.

5. "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," Uhlhorn, p. 31.

6 "Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John," Sir Isaac Newton, 1733, Chap. XIV, pp. 204-5.

7 "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics," Ed. by Dr. Jas. Hastings, vol. 11, p. 58; New York, 1921.

8. "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," vol. 2, p. 1907.

9. "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics," vol. 5, p. 847.

10. "Greek Religion," Fairbanks, pp. 285-6.

11. "Encyclopaedia Americana," New York, 1904, Article on "Eve of St. Johns."

12 "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," article on "Dedications."

13 "THE BUILDER," vol. 3, CCB.  May.

14 "THE BUILDER," vol. IV, p. 262.

15 Essay on "History and Development of Gilds," Brentano, 1870.

16. History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p76

17. Ibid. p. 79

18. Ibid

19 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," article on "Festivals."

20. "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," p. 32.

21. "Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry," article on "St. John's Order."

22 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 117.

23 "Some Account of the Schism," etc. Oliver, p. 7; Universal Masonic Library, vol. 5. Also "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 179.

24 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 3, p. 75.

25 "Ibid, vol. 2, p. 79.

26 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," article on "Lectures."

27 "Mirror for the Johannite Masons," Oliver, p. 102.

28 "Encyclopeadia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Saint Albans, Earl of"

29 Ibid, article on "Alnwick Manuscript."

30 "History of Freemasonry," Gould, vol. 2, p. 275.

31 Ibid, vol. 3, pp. 282-3-4.

32 "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry," Mackey, article on "Festivals."

 

----o----

 

OUR DUTY TO THE MERCENARY CRAFTSMAN

BY BRO. FRANCIS E. WHITE, GRAND SECRETARY, NEBRASKA

 

Here is an utterance from the sagacious and much experienced Grand Secretary of Nebraska that can and should be recommended to the attention of every Master and Grand Master in the land. It deals in a telling way with a problem that has reached scandalous proportions in large centers, and will probably reach to larger proportions still if the present rate of membership increase continues. Ye editor expresses a pious hope that Brother White will follow this with another paper on those unhappy brethren who make use of the Fraternity for political and business purposes, often in the most unblushing fashion!

 

WHATSOEVER a man soweth, that shall he also reap" is as true today as it was when Paul, the Apostle, wrote it. I am assuming that the Apostle Paul used the words as a figure of speech, and with no reference to the fruits of the soil.

 

Applying this gem of wisdom to Freemasonry, we might say that we are now reaping, and will continue to do so, what we have sown, a portion of which we do not want and which we do not know what to do with. If the crop exceeds our expectations, we must remember that Nature makes allowances for losses and produces accordingly. It would be a waste of time to refer at length to the great increase in membership in the past few years. Every student of Masonic conditions knows what it has been, and the statistical tables give the facts. I believe it is safe to say that every Masonic student realized, when noting the great increase in membership, that there was a percentage without which Freemasonry could have prospered very nicely. One Masonic writer puts it rather tersely, saying, in reply to the query: "Are we making too many Masons?" "No; a thousand times no! We are making them entirely too slowly; in fact, we are not making one for every one hundred Master's degrees conferred. We are too busy making members to devote our attention to making Masons." This statement seems to me to be a little overdrawn.

 

However, we have to consider conditions as they exist and not as they might be. It is a question that needs the wisdom of Solomon to answer, and I can only give my personal views on the subject. I have always taken the view that becoming a member of the Masonic Fraternity is in the nature of a contract, whereby the lodge promises to do and perform certain things, and receives from the candidate his promise to something, not exactly in return for what we give, but to fulfill his part of the contract, not only for his own brood, but for the good of the Fraternity. After due consideration, I have reached the conclusion that we are responsible for a percentage of mercenary Craftsmen. People see our Masonic Homes, note our Relief Committees, see our funeral processions, and the little real charity that we do reaches them in an exaggerated form, and who can blame them, if from our own acts, they are impressed with the idea that to belong to the Masonic Fraternity carries with it a Masonic funeral such as the town never saw before, and a living, in case of death, to your wife, your children, your wife's kin and yours to the most remote of them. Many a wife, mother, sister, and daughter has received just such an impression as the above from some member of the family who no doubt believed it himself. Too many of our members construe charity as coming in place of going: that is to say, they expect to receive it, in place of extending it. A little education on the right lines might change a mercenary Craftsman into a charitable one; in any event, it might change some of our members and their dependents from demanding, where they have only the right to request.

 

Candidates should be advised more fully on what they can expect from the Fraternity, also on what we shall expect from them. This, however, relates more properly to a different subject than it does to the one I am trying to answer. As long as a brother continues to fulfill his promise, we are in duty bound to extend to him the same fraternal consideration that we do to our most just and upright brother. It is difficult for some of us, at times, to feel the same spirit of fraternity towards some Masonic brother that we do to others, but the time to set him apart in a different class passed when we received him into fellowship. Therefore, we must consider that he has some rights, and if he obeys the laws of the land and transgresses no Masonic laws, we must render to him a full measure of consideration.

 

The mercenary Craftsmen might be divided into three classes. First - A percentage among these brethren might, by proper proceedure, become worthy members of the Fraternity, and it is our duty to try to induce them to change their selfish natures and grow to be more in keeping with the spirit of our Fraternity. We might try to get them interested in our charity work, if we are doing any. If we are not doing anything on these lines, let us take up some of it for our own benefit as well as for the benefit of the Masonic brother. Precept and example will do much. Bear in mind that the brother you are trying to win over has some good in him and perhaps needs to be reached in the right way to produce deeds of charity that will bring abundant fruit. Do not forget that if you want the Masonic brother to walk in the paths of rectitude, charity, and brotherly love, you must walk in these paths once in a while yourself. The privilege of association with men of character and standing is one of the incentives for some men to seek admission into the Masonic Fraternity, and sometimes a mercenary Craftsman realizes that getting into the Order does not carry with it the association privilege, and when he wonders why, some one might suggest that good deeds are the only passport to full fellowship in the Fraternity. The above suggestions refer to a class of members that I believe we can benefit: members who are susceptible to good influence, and will respond to the right effort that is made to reach their better natures. Let us fulfill our part of the contract, and by persuasion endeavor to turn a part of the crop we have reaped from the seed sown, into a valuable asset, in place of letting it remain a liability.

 

The second class of mercenary Craftsmen will doubtless solve the problem as to what shall be done with them, for themselves and for us, when they learn that they can get out of Freemasonry only what they put into it, and being entirely destitute of anything to put in, many of them will drop out, either by demission or by suspension, and the laws in regard to suspension should be kept in good, first-class condition, and not be permitted to rust for the want of service.

 

The mercenary Craftsmen who will cause us the most trouble will be those who think that the world owes them a living and who are trying to collect the entire debt, as they view it, from the Masonic Fraternity. Finding neither sympathy nor financial assistance in their own Masonic lodges, the members of this class will take "to the road," and open up again the beaten path that formerly ran from the south to the north in the summer time, and reversed the line of travel at the approach of cold weather. I said that this class would cause us the most trouble, and yet it should cause us the least. We have now and for some time have had a remedy for this trouble in our own hands; but the well-learned hard luck story related to the Master of a lodge, whose sympathy is large and whose judgment for the time being is set aside, brings a few dollars that are worse than wasted. This class of mercenary Craftsmen should be dealt with kindly, firmly, and effectively. Kindly, so as to be sure that the applicant for relief is not entitled to it. Try to convince him in a kindly manner that if he were entitled to relief, he would receive it. If there is any doubt, solve it in favor of the applicant. If you are going to err in a matter of this kind, err on the right side, but do not err too much. Firmly, by insisting upon some evidence of Masonic good standing, more than a simple statement of the name and number of the lodge, and the old, old story of stolen receipts and Masonic papers. Insist upon something in the way of documentary evidence; a receipt for dues for the current year, with some authentication by the Grand Secretary, should be demanded. Effectively, by spreading the information regarding impostors, far and wide.

 

To these might be added the class of men who apply for admission to our lodges, hoping for increased business or for help of a political nature. Our duty to Craftsmen of this kind, is to ignore their mercenary proclivities.

 

To sum up this subject: Every Grand Lodge should give it careful consideration; provide ways and means for the identification of their members, so there would be no possibility of them being taken for impostors. A very small percentage of the money wasted on unworthy Masons would provide first-class documentary evidence in the way of diplomas and receipts for dues. Legislation should be enacted prohibiting lodges from contributing any of the lodge funds without such documentary evidence, showing that the applicant for relief is in good standing in a lodge that is recognized by the Grand Lodge. With a list of regular lodges before the examining committee, a diploma or a receipt for dues in the hands of a worthy brother should always and most always will receive a steady response to reasonable requests for assistance; all others should he denied.

 

----o----

 

THE SONG OF THE RED BIRD

 

BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

It was a cold and wintry day

As down a sullen city street

I made my silent, gloomy way

With heavy heart, reluctant feet.

 

The day itself, as sad as I,

Was roofed with clouds of heavy gray;

The weary wind was but a sigh;

The city street was mired with clay.

 

But from the sky's deep heart of peace,

Down wafting soft, and still, and slow,

As though to put my heart at ease,

There fell great innocent flakes of snow.

 

Above my head the maples met

With branches gray, wind-swept, and bare;

My spirit hears their mourning yet

For many sorrows lingered there:

 

And many sorrows lived in me

And many fears, regrets, and woes

While there I stood beneath that tree

And lived with it amid the snows:-

 

When all at once I heard a song,

A tender, winsome song I heard,

Too heart-enthralling to belong

Unto so small, so shy a bird!

 

My heart had broken down in me!

It lived again that holy day;

For when that bird sang in the tree,

One more long winter passed away.

 

----o----

 

THE PASSING OF CHARLES HOMER

 

BY THE EDITOR

 

"To the Past go more dead faces,

Every year;

As the Loved leave vacant places,

Every year;

Everywhere the sad eyes meet us,

In the evening's dusk they greet us,

And to come to them entreat us,

Every year.

 

ON MARCH 9 last, Charles Christopher Homer died at his home in Baltimore, Maryland, the city of his birth, after an illness of a year. His passing left a gap that will not easily be filled, because he was a man who wrought largely and in many circles. Following his father, for whom he was named, he became president of the Second National Bank of Baltimore. Later he became president also of the Savings Bank of Baltimore, and a director of the Baltimore Clearing House Association, as well as president of the National Currency Association.

 

But he was not content with his activities in banking, multifarious as they were, and never refused to place his tireless faculties, his business experience, and his trained faculties - he was a graduate of the Law School of the University of Maryland - at the disposal of worthful causes: he was a director of the German Orphan Asylum, a trustee of the Shepherd and Enoch Pratt Hospital, and he was one of the original members of the City Service Commission. In addition to all this he held membership in a large number of societies and associations, the scope of his interests being indicated by this incomplete list of them: - Academy of Political Science, American Academy of Social and Political Scienee, American Asiatic Association, American Forestry Association, American Geographical Society, American Institute of Banking, Maryland Historical Society, Municipal Art Society, National Economic League, National Geographic Society, National Masonic Research Society, National Municipal League, Navy League of the United States, Society for the History of Germans in Maryland, and the Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore Country, Baltimore Athletic, Baltimore Yacht, Merchants, Baltimore Press, Automobile and City Clubs, Baltimore.

 

Along with all these, and in some senses over and above all these, went a passionate interest in Freemasonry that waxed more and more compelling for twenty-six years. From his being made a Mason in 1896 until his death he labored tirelessly in all the Rites, and always with patience, with good humor, and with sanity. Maryland Masons gave to him the highest possible expression of their regard by electing him to succeed Thomas J. Shryock, who was serving his thirty-third term as Grand Master. When he was made Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Maryland in 1919, the Grand Chapter published a record of his Masonic affiliations, as follows:

 

Companion Homer was initiated April 2, 1896, passed May 8, 1896 and raised June 1, in Germania Lodge, No. 160; dimitted March 22, 1901.

 

Placed dimit in Kedron Lodge, May 7, 1901.

 

Filled the chairs in Kedron Lodge, No. 148, A.’. F.’. & A.’. M.’., of Maryland, serving as Master in 1906.

 

Member of the Board of Grand Inspectors in 1907.

 

Elected Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge in 1908.

 

Elected a member of the Board of Managers of the Masonic Temple in 1908, serving thereon to date.

 

Elected Deputy Grand Master in 1911.

 

Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Grand Lodge for four years.

 

Acting Grand Master, February 3, 1918 to November, 1918.

 

Elected Grand Master November, 1918; re-elected November 1919.

 

Elected member of and Treasurer of the Grand Lodge Charity Fund in 1915, succeeded by Brother Daniel J. Emich, as Treasurer, in February, 1918.

 

Exalted in Druid Royal Arch Chapter, No. 28.

 

Became charter member of the Baltimore Royal Arch Chapter, No. 40, serving as High Priest of that Chapter in 1912.

 

He was knighted in Beauseant Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar, 1897: Eminent Commander, 1906; Grand Commander Knights Templar, 1913; Concordia Council, No. 1, Royal and Select Masters; Albert Pike Lodge of Perfection, Meredith Chapter Rose Croix, Maryland Preceptory, Chesapeake Consistory, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Master of Kadosh, 1913 to 1918; Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, 1911; Coroneted 33d, October, 1913; appointed Deputy of the Supreme Council in the State of Maryland, March, 1918; Sovereign Grand Inspector General, October, 1919; member of Finance Committee and Committee on Foreign Relations of Supreme Council Scottish Rite; Treasurer of the War Relief Fund the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Member of Executive Commission and Treasurer of Masonic Service Association of the United States; appointed Provincial Magus for Maryland of Rosicrucian Society, in 1918; M. P. Sovereign St. Cyprian Council, U. S. Red Cross of Constantine; Grand Warder Encampment Knights Templar, September, 1919.

 

To this should be added the fact that he was one of of the founders of the Masonic Service Association, attended all its annual sessions, except the last, and was treasurer until illness compelled his resignation: and that, from its beginning in 1915, he has been an enthusiastic member of the National Masonic Research Society - so enthusiastic that we shall for many a long  day sadly miss his cheery presence, and his hearty voice. Peace to his ashes, and a long remembrance to  his illustrious name !

 

----o-----

 

THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

 

BY BRO.  H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA

 

The following paper is one of a series of articles on "Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of Masonry," by Brother Haywood, to be used for reading and discussion in lodges and study clubs. From the questions following each section of the paper the study club leader should select such as he may desire to use in bringing out particular points for discussion. To go into a lengthy discussion on each individual question presented might possibly consume more time than the lodge or study club may be able to devote to the study club meeting.

 

In conducting the study club meetings the leader should endeavor to hold the discussions closely to the text of the paper and not permit the members to speak too long at one time or to stray onto another subject. Whenever it becomes evident that the discussion is turning from the original subject the leader should request the members to make notes of the particular points or phases of the matter they may wish to discuss or inquire into and bring them up after the last section of the paper is disposed of.

 

The meetings should be closed with a "Question Box" period, when such questions as may have come up during the meeting and laid over until this time should be entered into and discussed. Should any questions arise that cannot be answered by the study club leader or some other brother present, these questions may be submitted to us and we will endeavor to answer them for you in time for your next meeting.

 

Supplemental references on the subjects treated in this paper will be found at the end of the article.

 

PART XII - THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

 

OFTEN we hear it said by zealous reformers that we men must learn to be social beings, that individualism, egoism, and all such creeds are vicious in their effects, and-that the socializing of life will bring in an era of which William Morris dreamed when he wrote that "Brotherhood is heaven, the lack of brotherhood is hell." (Or did he use the word fellowship?" It matters not.) Admirable as is the spirit and intent of these reformers a fallacy lies at the heart of their theory.  We men are already social beings: we were born that way.  To tell us that we must become social is like telling the fishes to live in the water.

 

When a human babe is born it finds itse