Masonic And Anti-Masonic Processions, Caricatures, Etc.

said order seems to have originated either in imitation of Freemasonry , or may be to burlesque it , that the Gormagons may also have made public parades . In Henry Carey ' s poems , printed in 1729 , we have the first satire against Masons , combined with the Gormagons . * " The Masons and Gormagons Are laughing at one another , While all mankind are laughing at them ;

Then why do they make such pother ? " They bait their hooks for simple gulls , And truth with bam they smother ; But when they ' ve taken in their gulls , AVhy then ! 'tis—welcome brother . " Hogarth seems to have seized the opportunity of making a penny out of the Gormagons . In Nichols and Stevens' edition of Hogarth , printed , in London in 1810 , 1 found a caricature , and underneath was printed , " The mystery of Masonry brought to light by the Gormagons , " and it is stated that the following lines were also printed on the plate : —

" From Eastern climes transplanted to om- coasts , Two oldest orders that creation boasts Here meet in miniature , exposed to view , That by their conduct men may judge their due . " The Gormagons , a venerable race , Appear distinguished with peculiar grace . What honor , wisdom , truth , and social love ; Sure such order had its birth above .

" Bnt mark , Freemasons , what a farce is this ! How wild their- mystery . ' what a bum they kiss . ' Who would not laugh who such occasions had ? Who would not weep to think the world so mad . ?" The editors of the Hogarth before me admit that the year when that caricature was engraved is unknownbut they intimate that it probabl

, y apjieared about the year 1742 , memorable for the anti-Masonic caricatures exhibiting the Masons and " Scald Masons " in front of the Somerset House . As this is a mere conjecture I beg leave to differ from the opinion of the said editors . The caricature may be divided into three groups ; first , a musician seated on the ground , and four Goi-magon dignitaries ( Confucius is one of

them ) . One of these holds in his hand the moon , another the sun , the third wears a breastplate with a goose engraved thereon , and Confucius has a long beard reaching his knees . The second group is indelicate , but I shall describe it the best way I can . It consists of a donkey , on which a woman is squatted ; her indelicate part behind is bare , and spotted with beaut y spots ; a ladder , with a dozen or more staves , is also placed across the back of the donkey , and at the back of the woman a mandressed in a tunichas his head poked

, , through between the staves of the latter , and his mouth in close contiguity to the beauty spots ; to this the doggrel refers , " What a bum they kiss . " The third group is a man and woman laughing . There are some other things on it , but they need net be described . Now , with the exception of the sun . and moott , which are certainly appropriate symbols for a Chinese order , whose emperor is a descendant from the sun and moon , there is not a solitary Masonic emblem

then in use among Masons on the said caricature . The ladder was not made into a Masonic symbol till about forty years after 1742 . Now , if the said caricature had been engraved in 1742 , and was designed to ridicule the Freemasons , surely something unmistakingly Masonic would have formed a prominent part thereon . If the figure with his mouth close to the beauty spots had been designed to represent a Freemason , Hogarth would have invested it with some kind of a Masonic insignia . But , as already stated , there is