-
Articles/Ads
Article GRADUS AD OPUS CAEMENTITIUM. ← Page 4 of 4 Article HOW I WAS FIRST PREPARED TO BE MADE A MASON. Page 1 of 9 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Gradus Ad Opus Caementitium.
That at the end you shall have fully learned How to die . Remember that ,. to a man Just and virtuous , Death has no terrors Equal to the stain of falsehood And dishonour . FUKUYA -
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
HOW I WAS FIRST PREPARED TO BE MADE A MASON .
BY BROTHER SAMUEL POYSTEE , P . M . and Treasurer , Burgoyne , No . 902 . P . M . Alhenmtm , No . 1491 . npHE near approach of Yule-tide reminds me that Freemasonry first presented itself - * - to my notice in the form of- a merry game played at a Christmas party in an old
country house . "How many years ago ! " as little (?) Buttercup pathetically apostrophises the first lord ' s " sisters , cousins , and aunts " in the play . Well , I was a very small boy then , and my sisters , cousins , ancl some of my aunts too , for that matter , were bouncing , romping girls , and we were all full of fun , and as greedy for a new game as an old ' epicure for a novel relish .
Forfeits palled upon us . Hunt the slipper had fatigued us . The clever youth of the party ( not tho present writer ) had exhibited his card tricks three times over , until ' - the dullest child present , mtai five , had detected all the modus operandi . Blind-man ' sbuff was stale—musical chairs ( ah ! ah ! fair reader , do you know that game ?) hadnot yet been . invented ; we -were rapidly becoming bored , when a genius , in the shape of a lively-maiden , who . had seen some seventeen summers , exploded a bomb-shell hv our midst , 'by propounding the astounding query—were any of us Freemasons ? Some three or four Of the party owned to being members of the sportive Craft . I , with the majority , had to confess ignorance ; but with that keen desire for knowledge so
characteristic of the juvenile mind , we—the cowans , only they didn't call us so—professed our eager desire for initiation ; Fortunatel y our hostess , a buxom and merry young matron ,, turned out to be a past mistress in the craft , and the introducer of the sport at onceenlisted her services and those of the other emeritii who had pleaded guilty to the occult knowledge . The ScottishmftUj who , visiting Lis compatriot , found that the preparations for his hospitable reception wore not so patent as he desideratedjogged his host ' s sluggish
, memory with the inquiry , suggestive of possible toddy : " Is there sic' a thing as a kettle i ' th' ' oose ? " Our mistress of the revels now startled us all , except of course those who were in the secret , with the tremendous question , "Is there a baby in the house ? " A baby ft In what awful rite . were we about to assist ? A baby ! I had just been reading . " Ivanhoe . " In the notes to that exquisite romance , I remembered perusing an account of how the populace at Grantham had arisen and slaughtered the Jews in a riot on ,
. the false rumour of some uncanny celebration of thepassover , in which a baby had played an awful part . I thought of the creed of Isaac of York , and trembled . A baby ! Was it not also recorded in the notes , to ¦ " Woodstock , " how the roundheads spread the gruesome calumny that . Lunsford ' s dragoons derived their strength to fight , for Church and King from devouring Puritan infants ? Is it too discursive to repeat , the old but good story anent this vulgar tradition ?
In the skirmish at Brentford , roaring - cavaliers from Colnbrook and Uxbridge to the west , facing London : snub-nosed , crop-eared traders and prentices , kneeling behind eighteen-foot-long ; pikes in the east : the -dragoons are clearing ' the streets , using ,., peradventure , the flats of their broad swords a little too freely-over the backs and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Gradus Ad Opus Caementitium.
That at the end you shall have fully learned How to die . Remember that ,. to a man Just and virtuous , Death has no terrors Equal to the stain of falsehood And dishonour . FUKUYA -
How I Was First Prepared To Be Made A Mason.
HOW I WAS FIRST PREPARED TO BE MADE A MASON .
BY BROTHER SAMUEL POYSTEE , P . M . and Treasurer , Burgoyne , No . 902 . P . M . Alhenmtm , No . 1491 . npHE near approach of Yule-tide reminds me that Freemasonry first presented itself - * - to my notice in the form of- a merry game played at a Christmas party in an old
country house . "How many years ago ! " as little (?) Buttercup pathetically apostrophises the first lord ' s " sisters , cousins , and aunts " in the play . Well , I was a very small boy then , and my sisters , cousins , ancl some of my aunts too , for that matter , were bouncing , romping girls , and we were all full of fun , and as greedy for a new game as an old ' epicure for a novel relish .
Forfeits palled upon us . Hunt the slipper had fatigued us . The clever youth of the party ( not tho present writer ) had exhibited his card tricks three times over , until ' - the dullest child present , mtai five , had detected all the modus operandi . Blind-man ' sbuff was stale—musical chairs ( ah ! ah ! fair reader , do you know that game ?) hadnot yet been . invented ; we -were rapidly becoming bored , when a genius , in the shape of a lively-maiden , who . had seen some seventeen summers , exploded a bomb-shell hv our midst , 'by propounding the astounding query—were any of us Freemasons ? Some three or four Of the party owned to being members of the sportive Craft . I , with the majority , had to confess ignorance ; but with that keen desire for knowledge so
characteristic of the juvenile mind , we—the cowans , only they didn't call us so—professed our eager desire for initiation ; Fortunatel y our hostess , a buxom and merry young matron ,, turned out to be a past mistress in the craft , and the introducer of the sport at onceenlisted her services and those of the other emeritii who had pleaded guilty to the occult knowledge . The ScottishmftUj who , visiting Lis compatriot , found that the preparations for his hospitable reception wore not so patent as he desideratedjogged his host ' s sluggish
, memory with the inquiry , suggestive of possible toddy : " Is there sic' a thing as a kettle i ' th' ' oose ? " Our mistress of the revels now startled us all , except of course those who were in the secret , with the tremendous question , "Is there a baby in the house ? " A baby ft In what awful rite . were we about to assist ? A baby ! I had just been reading . " Ivanhoe . " In the notes to that exquisite romance , I remembered perusing an account of how the populace at Grantham had arisen and slaughtered the Jews in a riot on ,
. the false rumour of some uncanny celebration of thepassover , in which a baby had played an awful part . I thought of the creed of Isaac of York , and trembled . A baby ! Was it not also recorded in the notes , to ¦ " Woodstock , " how the roundheads spread the gruesome calumny that . Lunsford ' s dragoons derived their strength to fight , for Church and King from devouring Puritan infants ? Is it too discursive to repeat , the old but good story anent this vulgar tradition ?
In the skirmish at Brentford , roaring - cavaliers from Colnbrook and Uxbridge to the west , facing London : snub-nosed , crop-eared traders and prentices , kneeling behind eighteen-foot-long ; pikes in the east : the -dragoons are clearing ' the streets , using ,., peradventure , the flats of their broad swords a little too freely-over the backs and