The Builder Magazine 

September 1915 - Volume I - Number 9 


REGENSBURG STONEMASON’S REGULATIONS 

(A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN) 

BY BRO. F. W. KRACHER, OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN, STATE 
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

CONCLUDED. 

(As before stated, the question with regard to the old German Stonemasons is, 
whether or not they were Freemasons, and opinions are divided. For the benefit of 
discussion we venture to offer this conjecture— we do not call it a theory— that they 
stood midway between the Guilds and the Freemasons. If we may believe Findel and 
others, the Stonemasons seem to have been in possession of the first Degree of 
Masonry, or the-substance of it— though one may hesitate to accept all the details, as 
given by Findel as to their ceremonies of initiation. Whether they had anything more— 
the Hiramic Legend, for example— has never been established. Perhaps they were men 
employed by the Cathedral Builders, and entrusted by them with the first principles of 
Masonry— as many think was the case with Egyptian Masons in respect to the 
Mysteries— and as such continued to exist and work even after the parent Order 
declined. At any rate, we shall be glad to have the Brethren examine this conjecture 
for what there is in it, putting it to the severest kind of test in behalf of the truth about 
the German Stonemasons.— The Editor.) 

27. A master having charge of a book of the order shall take care of it according to his 
vow to the order. He must not copy it nor have it copied by someone else, he must not 
give it or lend it to any person, so that the book may always remain with the craft as 
the workers decided. But, if a member of the order should need to know a paragraph 
or two, these may be given to him by the master in writing. The master shall arrange 
to have the rules read aloud to all workers in the shops once every year. 

28. If the question arise whether any member under complaint shall be expulsed, the 
master of the district shall not act independently. Two other masters who are in 
possession of the written rules, and who are empowered by their brethren, shall be 
summoned so that the council is made up of three. To this council shall be added the 



workers of the shop in which the trouble arose. The decision of the three masters, 
supported by the majority of the workers shall then be accepted by all the craftsmen. 

29. In case two or more masters of the order should quarrel over affairs not directly 
connected with stone-masonry, this quarrel shall not be brought before any other court 
but that of the order, which shall decide in accordance with their understanding. The 
decision must, however, be submitted to the cities in which the quarrel took place, for 
approval. 

30. That the ritual of the order may be properly observed with divine worship and 
other necessary ceremonies, each master shall donate to the order one "gulden" at his 
initiation. Hereafter he is to pay four "blapparf ' (small silver coin) annually into the 
treasury of the order. Each craftsman also pays four "blapparts"; the same every 
apprentice after finishing his term. 

3 1 . Each master and workman belonging to the order and employed in a shop, shall be 
in possession of a savings-box. Into this box shall be dropped one penny each week. 
The money is to be collected by the master and handed to the order once a year. With 
it shall be paid the church services and other expenses of the order. 

32. All masters who have such boxes but in whose shops there is kept no book-(of 
account) of the order, shall hand it to the master who has the books once a year, and a 
church-service is to follow. If a master or craftsman dies in a shop where no book is 
kept, this must be reported to the next master who has a book of the order. After being 
informed of such a death, he shall have a mass read for the benefit of the departed 
soul, and the master and craftsmen who had worked with the deceased are to pay for 
it. 

33. Any expense caused to a master or craftsman by the order shall be refunded out of 
the order's treasury; may it be little or much. If any one were to be brought before 
court in affairs pertaining to the order, or if one were thereby thrown into need, all 
masters and craftsmen should aid him in accordance with their vow to the order. 

34. In case a master or craftsman becomes ill, or has to discontinue the work and is, 
thereby, confronted by need, he shall receive assistance from those masters having 
charge of the order's treasury. The one receiving help must, however, promise to repay 
all money received after his recovery. In case of death, so much of the clothing and 
other articles left behind, shall be sold, as is necessary to cover the debt. 


This is the regulation book of the watchers (foremen) and craftsmen. 



35. No master shall employ a craftsman who has induced a woman to adultery, or who 
leads an immoral life with women; who does not go to confession at least once a year 
as the church prescribes, or who has the evil reputation of gambling his clothes away. 

36. If any workman ask unnecessarily for a leave of absence, he shall forfeit his 
privilege for another leave for one whole year. This applies to workmen in the shops 
and also such employed on the buildings. 

37. If any master employs a traveling craftsman and wishes to discharge him, he may 
do so on a Saturday or the evening of pay-day, so that the man may be able to travel 
on. The same shall be done by a craftsman who wishes to leave. This rule does not 
hold good if just cause was given by either side. 

38. No craftsman shall approach any one else for work except it be the master of the 
job or the overseer, and never without his master's or the overseer's knowledge. 

Regulation of the Servants (Common Laborers.) 

39. A master shall not employ any laborer who has not been bom in wedlock. He 
must, therefore, endeavor to inform himself accordingly by asking the man whether 
his father and mother were really and tmly married. 

40. No builder or master shall make any laborer, who is still serving as an apprentice, 
a "parlierer" (watchman.) 

41. No builder or master shall make any laborer a "parlierer" although he may have 
served his term as an apprentice, but who has not at least traveled one year. 

42. If one has served as assistant to a mason and comes to a master, in order to learn 
from him the craft, he shall not be accepted as an apprentice unless he is to serve as 
such an assistant for three years. 

43. No builder or master shall employ anyone as laborer and raise him to a finished 
apprentice within less than five years. 

44. Should it happen that an apprentice leaves his master during his term without just 
cause, that apprentice shall not be employed by any other master. No fellow craftsman 
shall support him or associate with him in any way unless he can show testimonial 
that he has served the regular time and met all the requirements of the master. No one 
shall buy himself free before the time, unless he entered into marriage with the 
consent of his master, or who has some other just cause which may force him or the 
master to do so. 



45. Should a laborer think that he is not treated rightly by his master for whom he is 
working, he may bring complaint in the place where he is at work, so that he may 
receive instruction and the wrong may be righted in accordance with the rules of the 
order. 

46. Each master who has a book (permission) from the district of Strassburg, shall pay 
each Christmas a half gulden into the treasury of Strassburg. And this shall be done so 
long until the debt is paid which stands against that treasury. 

47. Any master who has a book and whose work has completed so that he cannot 
employ his helpers any longer, shall send the book and all the money which belongs 
to the order to the builder at Strassburg. 

48. On St. Marc's day, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and fifty 
nine, four weeks after Easter, the following was decided upon in the meeting at 
Regensburg: The builder Jost Dotzinger, of Worms, in charge of the cathedral of "Our 
Lady" at Strassburg, shall be the highest judge of our order. The same shall be true in 
the case of his successors at the same work. (A similar decision was given before at 
Spyr, at Strassburg, and on the ninth day of April, in the year fourteen hundred and 
sixty four again at Spyr.) Master Lorenz Spenning, of Vienna, shall be the highest 
authority at Vienna for the whole country. 

The present masters at Strassburg, Vienna, and Cologne, these three, or their 
successors shall constitute the highest authority of the order. They cannot be displaced 
without good and just cause. 

49. This is the district which belongs to Strassburg: All the country above the Mosel; 
the country of the Lranks down to the Thuringian forest, and Babenburg to the 
monastery near Eystetten; from Eystetten to Ulm, from Ulm to Augsburg, to the 
Adelburg near land of the Welsh (Fiance); Meisen, Thuringia, Saxony, Frankfurt, and 
Hesse, and also Swabia shall be obedient to him. 

To the district of Master Lorenz Spenning, builder of the cathedral St. Stephan, at 
Vienna, belong: Lambach, Styria, Werckhusen, Hungaria (along the Danube.) 

Master Steffen Hurder, builder of St. Vincent at Bern, shall control the cantons. 

Master Conrad, of Cologne, builder of the cathedral at that place, and all his 
successors, shall have charge over the rest of the shops which are now in the order or 
may, in a future period, be admitted to the same 



50. Any master, parlierer, and fellow-craftsman, acting contrary to a secret or 
recorded paragraph, shall be called before such a council and reprimanded, if the 
complaint is founded on good authority. Any punishment meted out must be 
obediently complied with, as the vow demands. If one disregards the call without a 
good reason, he shall be fined in absentia. If he refuses to pay he may be brought 
before a secular or ecclesiastical court which shall decide what ought to be done to 
him. 

5 1 . Whoever wants to join this order, must vow to keep all rules which are written in 
this book or may be added in the future. Should the emperor, king, prince or any other 
authority, rightly or wrongly, object to his belonging to the order, he may act in such a 
manner that no harm can come to him. Any business with the order can be arranged 
thru fellow-workmen who are members of the order. 

52. If it is every Christian's duty to work at his soul's salvation, it is much more so a 
duty of every master and craftsman whom the almighty God has endowed with the 
ability, to erect churches and other buildings and, thereby, to earn their living. 
Thankfulness should fill their hearts, and prompted by their Christian nature they 
should endeavor to increase the divine services, and by doing so earn their soul's 
salvation. Therefore, in honor of God Almighty, his worthy mother Mary, all the 
saints, and especially in honor of the holy four, and for the benefit of the souls of all 
persons who belong to this order or may join in the future, we, as stone-masons, have 
agreed upon these rules for ourselves and all our descendants: We will have 
celebrated one mass every year at the time dedicated to the holy four, namely in the 
munster at Strassburg, and there in the Chapel of Our Lady. This mass shall be one for 
our souls with all the ceremonies belonging to it. 

53. This has been decided upon on the ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand four hundred and sixty four, in the representative meeting at Spyr, etc." 
(Then follows the names of the masters of the different delegations and their 
signatures and subscriptions. ) 

THE LANDMARKS OF MASONRY 

BY BRO. SILAS H. SHEPHERD, WISCONSIN 
CONCLUDED. 

(The study of the Landmarks of Masonry, by Brother Shepherd, is a piece of real 
Masonic Research, and is valuable as showing the confusion that obtains among the 
several Grand Jurisdictions in this country in the matter of Landmarks. In this 
connection, the Brethren might re-read the article on the subject, suggested by an 



essay of the late Brother T.S. Parvin, in the February issue of The Builder. It is 
interesting to note how many of the Grand Lodges adopt the list of landmarks as 
formulated by Dr. Mackey, and as interesting to observe how many are content with 
the unwritten law of the Order. For ourselves, if required to state what we believe to 
be the real Landmarks of Masonry, it would be after this fashion:— The Fatherhood of 
God, the Brotherhood of Man, the Moral Law, the Golden Rule, and the Hope of a 
Life Everlasting.— The Editor.) 

Maine— Maine has no legislation as to what landmarks are. They follow Josiah 
Drummond's ideas. 

Maryland— Maryland has no list of landmarks. Art. II Constitution of 1906 defines the 
duty of the Grand Lodge; among other duties is one "to preserve and maintain the 
Ancient Landmarks." Article XXIX reads: "In all cases not particularly provided for 
in this Constitution, the Grand Lodge shall adhere to, and be governed by the Ancient 
Rules and Regulations of Masonry." 

Massachusetts— Massachusetts has never adopted any list of landmarks. They "feel 
safer in cultivating a spirit of reverence for the ancient customs and practices of the 
Order" than in attempting to define the Landmarks. 

Michigan— Michigan has no list of landmarks. The following is taken from the 
preface of the Michigan Blue Book of 191 1 : "The first place in the volume— the place 
of honor— has been assigned to the "Ancient Charges and Regulations" not because 
they are, in form, binding on us, but because they are universally recognized as the 
beginning and basis of all the "written law" of the Craft; and also because they 
embody many of those "Ancient Landmarks" which give "metes and bounds" to the 
Rules and Regulations of Symbolic Masonry." 

Minnesota— Minnesota has adopted Mackey's twenty-five landmarks. 

Mississippi— The Old Charges and Regulations of 1 723 are printed as a part of the 
Constitution of 1903. Frederic Speed enumerates eight landmarks which are sub- 
divided into many sections and were found among the papers of the late P. G. M. 

Giles M. Hillyer. 

Missouri— Missouri has no list of landmarks. Bro. John D. Vincil, conceded to be one 
of the best posted men on jurisprudence, disclaimed knowing what the landmarks 
were. 



Montana— Montana has the customary exception to its powers, viz: "Provided, 
always, that the ancient landmarks of the order will be held inviolate." Montana has 
no list of landmarks. 

Nebraska— Nebraska has never decided on any particular list of landmarks. 

Nevada— Nevada has a list of 39 landmarks which were adopted in 1872. 

New Hampshire— New Hampshire never officially defined what the landmarks are. 

New Jersey— New Jersey has a list of 10 landmarks which were adopted in 1903. New 
Jersey Proceedings of 1903 contains an interesting report on these 10 landmarks by 
the Committee on Jurisprudence. 

New Mexico— New Mexico has adopted Mackey's 25 landmarks. 

New York— "The Ancient Landmarks are those principles of Masonic belief, 
government, and polity which are the only part of Masonic Law or rule that may never 
be altered or disturbed, and such of them as are lawful to be written are usually, but 
not wholly, engrafted in a written Constitution." (Const. G. L. ofN. Y. 1913.) On 
page 63 and 64 of the same book are the landmarks as defined by P. G. M. Joseph D. 
Evans, 10 in number. 

North Carolina— North Carolina has no list of landmarks, nor legislation defining 
them. 

North Dakota— North Dakota has no legislation defining or enumerating landmarks. 
They include in their Constitution the Ancient Charges and Regulations. 

Ohio— The Ohio Code states that "the Old Charges contain the fundamental laws" 
which is practically giving them sanction as landmarks. The Old Charges are a part of 
the Code. 

Oklahoma— At the Feb. 1915 Communication of the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, they 
acknowledged and practically adopted the 25 landmarks of Mackey. 

Oregon— Oregon has adopted Mackey's 25 landmarks. 

Pennsylvania— The Ahiman Rezon contains the following on landmarks: "The Grand 
Lodge is the supreme Masonic authority except that it cannot change, alter or destroy 
the Ancient Landmarks." "The Past Grand Masters shall be regarded as the 



conservators of the ancient usages, customs and Landmarks." No landmarks are 
enumerated. 

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations— Rhode Island has no list of landmarks. The 
following is from the preamble to the Constitution of 1897: "Every Grand Lodge has 
inherent power and authority to make local ordinances and new regulations, for its 
own benefit and the good of Masonry in general— provided, always, that the ancient 
landmarks be carefully preserved." 

South Carolina— South Carolina has adopted Mackey's list of 25 landmarks. 

South Dakota— South Dakota Constitution of 1912 states that the Landmarks as 
defined by Dr. Mackey have binding force on South Dakota Masons. 

Tennessee— Tennessee has a list of 15 landmarks which are almost identical with 
those enumerated by Simons 

Texas— Chapter 2, Article 1, Sec. 4, of the Texas Code reads: "The Book of 
Constitutions of Masonry originally prepared by Dr. Anderson, approved A.D. 1723, 
contains the system of ancient laws and customs of the Craft, and is recognized as 
binding on points where this Constitution is silent; the old charges therein shall be 
appended entire hereto." This is the only light we can obtain on what the Grand Lodge 
of Texas thinks the landmarks are. 

Utah— Utah holds the "Old Charges of a freemason" to be the landmarks. Christopher 
Diehl, a well known correspondence writer for years, had a list of landmarks which he 
submitted to the Grand Lodge of Utah; but they were never adopted. 

Vermont— Vermont adheres to the list of 25 landmarks of Mackey. 

Washington— Washington Constitution of 1913, Sec. 13, says: The action of 
freemasons in the Grand Lodge and in their Lodges, and in their individual capacity 
is regulated and controlled 1 . By Ancient Landmarks, and other unwritten laws of 
Masonry. 2. By Written- Constitutions, and general or special legislation. 3. By 
Usages, Customs and judicial action." 

"Sec. 14 Landmarks.— The Ancient Landmarks include those principles of Masonic 
government and polity which should never be altered or disturbed." 


No landmarks are enumerated. 



West Virginia— West Virginia has a list of 7 landmarks, a report on landmarks for the 
information of the brethren is given first place in the West Virginia Masonic Text 
Book. It contains lists by Mackey, Simons, Morris and Pike. 

Wyoming— Wyoming Grand Lodge considers the landmarks too deep a subject to 
comment on and does not attempt an enumeration of them. 

Wisconsin— Wisconsin has no legislation defining or enumerating the landmarks, but 
gives Mackey's 25 in code for their information of the brethren. 

To recapitulate we find District of Columbia Minnesota New Mexico Oklahoma 
Oregon South Dakota South Carolina Vermont Virginia adopt Mackey's list of 25. 
Alabama Louisiana Mississippi Ohio Texas Utah 

hold the old charges to contain the landmarks. Those having list of landmarks of their 

own and the number are Connecticut Lockwood's 1 9 

Kentucky Grant's 54 New Jersey 10 

Nevada 39 Tennessee 15 West 

Virginia 7 

The others all hold that the landmarks are the most important and fundamental law of 
Masonry, but do not consider a list made by any man or body of men sufficiently 
accurate to apply to them. 

In concluding this compilation we can hardly refrain from expressing a thought or so 
which has forced itself upon us. 

The live questions of Masonic Jurisprudence are most all affected by the views 
entertained in regard to landmarks; take for example the question of physical 
qualification. To those who hold the view of Mackey, Lockwood, Simons and others 
that it is a landmark it appears quite different from the view taken by those who hold 
that the only landmarks are the fundamental principles of Fatherhood of God and 
Brotherhood of Man. 

We can hardly grasp the logic of why the physical qualification should be deemed a 
landmark and leave to the local custom column the rule that an entered apprentice 
serve seven years before being passed. They were both the necessary rules of an 
operative Craft and the need of a longer apprenticeship would appear to be greater 
than the strict conformity. 

Again the prerogatives of a Grand Master largely stand or fall on inteipretation of the 
landmarks, as do also our recognition of other Grand Bodies. 



We might make many comparisons and comments but believe that the landmarks, like 
the history and symbolism of Masonry, must be left mostly to individual 
interpretation. 

For those who wish to read on landmarks and have not already done so we would 
refer them to: 

Mackey's "Masonic Jurisprudence." Simon's "Principles of Masonic Jurisprudence." 
Lockwood's "Masonic Law and Practice." Maine Masonic Text Book. Macoy-Oliver 
Encyclopedia. Kansas Code 1913. Bassett notes. Kentucky Book of Const. 1910. 
Grant notes. Iowa Proceedings 1888-1889. Ars. Q. C. Vol. VII, XXIV, XXV. 
Mississippi Const. 1903. New Jersey Proc. 1903. Code of Dist. of Col. 1905, p. 191. 

The correspondence reports of Bro. Joseph Robbins of 111., and Bro. Upton of Wash., 
are rich in comments. 


SUGGESTIONS ON TEMPLE PLANNING, 
CONSTRUCTION AND FINANCE 

BY BRO. R.I. CLEGG, PRESIDENT, THE MASONIC TEMPLE ASSOCIATION, 
CINCINNATI, OHIO 

AT a guess I suppose there are easily in excess of one hundred million dollars worth of 
Masonic temples in this United States. Do you doubt it? Figure it up for yourself. Take 
your own locality. Compare the ratio of the national population with the total number of 
persons in your vicinity. Do the same with the amount invested in local sites and 
buildings and their equipment. Appraise the property on its present sales prospects. 

What are your findings? Is the above figure really not a modest estimate? 

Evidently then, the subject is a most important one from mere financial consideration 
alone. But to take care of what we have already built is only a part of the problem 
involved. Not a Masonic paper giving free account of individual lodge and Grand lodge 
activities fails to tell in nearly every issue of building operations. They grow apace. 

Look over the proceedings of your Grand Lodge wherever it may be. Note the laying of 
cornerstones and the dedications. Why, right here, within an hour's ride on the street 
cars from where these words are written, six new buildings are actually in prospect of 
being added to or substituted for those now occupied by the fraternity. 



With all this buoyant liveliness throughout the land in Masonic building developments 
we might expect to find on hand an abundant stock of information readily obtainable 
about every angle of Masonic temple architecture and finance. Such is not the case. 

Few know anything about it and fewer still tell what they know. 

One far-sighted Mason of high official standing did order that plans should be deposited 
at his office of every structure built by the brethren under him. It was a wise thought. 
But it was never taken seriously to heart. Few complied with his request. 

Nor have I heard of the same demand being made elsewhere although the plans, the 
stockholders' regulations, the directors' by-laws, sundry characteristic annual reports, 
copies of charters, details of building expenses and of maintenance charges - these and 
other similar items easily occur to me as being very useful in finding a safe path for 
those who are new to the road. And few there be who in the natural course of events 
build more than one Masonic temple. 

Many collect postcards of Masonic temples. Never have I found or even heard of any 
ascertaining temple costs and overhead expenses as diligently. 

Inspectors critically follow the "work" and hesitate not to comment thereon. Alas, there 
are no masonic inspectors to bring in like fashion to temple managers the combined 
building knowledge of the Craft. 

Not for the world would I urge that we start an unseemly wrangle about whether the 
executive officers of a Grand body should or should not go, or how far they may 
properly penetrate, into the private affairs of their subordinate branches. Some of the 
Brethren are touchy on these points. It does indeed bear tenderly on democratic 
independence and if the officialism became more pronounced it might by many be 
resented. As long as dues are paid, and while ceremonies are conducted in accordance 
with the prescribed forms, there is no excuse, say they, for further intrusion. Maybe so. 
Yet, after all, how many a sad termination of a too impetuous enterprise could have 
been avoided had the planners thereof been fortified by the dearly bought experience of 
others. 

Furthermore, let me venture upon only a few of the comments that come to mind of the 
less complimentary aspects of temple building. Perhaps we may not then be so inclined 
to stand jealously upon the strict etiquette of lodge independence - much as I too esteem 
it. After a failure or two has been examined there is the more tendency to agree with the 
provision for some quickening and stiffening of an official oversight. 

Does any lodge today lose out by negligence in the matter of bonds or insurance 
without everyone of us feeling shame and resentment ? And supervision is in many 



directions being officially exerted to check up existing conditions in these two 
particulars. Perhaps official superintendence could go further and with profit to all 
concerned. 

Do not guess that this is any hasty assumption. There is a monumental building well 
known to thousands of the Craft where the name "Masonic" is blazoned on the sign of a 
saloon at the ground floor. Another "Masonic" building long had a series of theatrical 
exhibitions presented in its auditorium that were the despair of the local fraternity. The 
foregoing troubles were doubtless due to the drawing of unwise leases or in some 
similar manner losing the direct government of the premises. 

One Masonic building has shown an excess expense per cubic foot of construction 
away by far over any other. This is a matter of architectural temerity that was in due 
course unpleasantly adjusted by the bond-holders. 

A Masonic building hopefully erected as a dividend producer to serve a worthy charity 
has been a load upon the fraternity that seems as doubtful of soon being lifted as was 
Sinbad the Sailor from the shoulders of the Old Man of the Sea. This misfortune was 
occasioned by an excess of faith not ballasted by ample financial resources, but will 
probably be ultimately successful if given plenty of time and unremitting support. 

There are other aspects of course. These are but a few typical and widely separated 
cases. 

Of the devotion and self-sacrifice of the brethren in backing up building enterprises too 
much cannot be said. In one city they have I am told taxed themselves for $12 a year 
apiece as lodge dues. Surely the best of temples is deserved by them. At another city the 
brethren are paying $8 a year dues to their lodge to meet the expenses of a new home. 

And in one more case I recall that the bodies Masonic from Blue Lodge to Shrine all 
pooled their funds, pledged their joint revenues, put the curb to all their banquets, and at 
last reports were emerging rapidly from the depths of a big debt. 

Evidently there are ways and other ways of getting at the subject and of making a 
practical and a profitable study of it. Fain would I linger with this financial side of the 
discussion but the topic is ever a delicate one and I feel barred from entering too 
minutely into its consideration. Space, also, is precious and therefore I must be brief. 

Books on theatres, churches and office buildings, are found in almost every public 
library. Our United States Government has thoroughly classified and tabulated its 
public buildings and their costs in published form. Volumes similarly prepared on 
Masonic temples are rarities as unknown as the dodo or the roc or the unicorn. So here I 



have jotted down a few hints about certain angles of the situation that may help those 
who have occasion to probe into the question, and there is really no telling when the 
trouble may infect any one' neighborhood. 

You will of course get an architect and it is best to get him early, and the best is never 
too good. Manifestly he should be a member of the Craft. There are many things to be 
discussed that cannot very well be freely talked over unless the architect is one of you. 
This point is all the more pertinent with the large undertaking. Sometimes before you 
get to the architect there are a few items that can be considered. 

And first as to location: If you put your temple in the center of your town you will pay 
that much more for the site. But then it does get the eye of your fellow citizens and of 
visitors. It is preeminently an advertisement and should be prominently and favorably 
so. Everybody who "belongs" to the downtown temple is then equally treated as to the 
location and his travels thereto. Erect your temple in the outskirts and then some brother 
may have to come into the city from the suburbs and be forced to travel from the one 
extreme to the other end, to go all over town in fact to get to lodge. 

When the far-off brother has a few neighbors as fellow members you may some day 
find that these long distance brethren are filing an application for another lodge to be 
instituted nearer to their homes. This can be a very proper thing to do but if there is a 
pressing mortgage on your lodge building you perhaps will not approve of their action 
so warmly as you would if the loan had been liquidated before they had made a move to 
leave you. 

But don't rashly assume offhand that being in the center of town necessarily builds up 
your lodge the more rapidly or that a downtown location is on that account a winner by 
reason of central attractions. 

Let us examine a little history in such matters as they affect a certain city where the 
facts are within ready reach. Looking over the records for several years I find that 
lodges in the center of the city are paying less rent than those elsewhere but they also 
grow less rapidly. One chapter four miles from the main business section shows three 
times the growth in membership during the past six years over either of the two 
downtown Royal Arch bodies. 

Mind you I am not in this discussion considering particularly whether large or small 
bodies are best or whether rates of growth slow or fast are most desirable in the long 
run. I have heard the argument that a Masonic temple should be given a central location 
because among other reasons it will there attract a larger attendance and the bodies will 
build up the more quickly. So far I have failed to find sufficient evidence to prove this 



contention. In fact I am inclined to believe the growth of lodges depends upon other 
factors to a large extent. 


As to determining the rents for Masonic temples, you can find numerous varieties. One 
temple management has a cubic-foot specification so that occupancy of certain rooms 
having higher ceilings automatically increases the rents when these particular rooms are 
in use. A rent based upon relative areas, a square-foot rule, would be an obvious 
expedient and is probably common. The former case is somewhat rare I dare say but is 
by no means lacking of ingenuity in seeking an equitable solution of an awkward 
problem. 

There are also to be found stipulations; e. g. that when a certain number of hours have 
elapsed during a communication an additional charge is made because you are then 
overlapping what is deemed a regular meeting; and again where a specified number of 
regular meetings are alloted the tenant with a charge for all in excess thereof. 

As to the amounts collected as rents they run up a long range. The highest rent so far 
heard of by me was about $2,000 per year for a lodge room and the necessary ante- 
rooms. As might be expected there were large requirements in the number of members 
and of meetings in this instance. 

A Commandery demands plenty of locker facilities and often has a Red Cross room as 
well as the Chamber of Reflection. On this basis the rented area is large and the rent 
rises proportionately. If this equipment is used by but one or two bodies there is 
standing idle a big space for a considerable part of the year. This can be as much as a 
fourth or fifth of your building. Should you figure your rents in the ratio of building 
space allowance the amount soars for the Commandery. This circumstance is 
mentioned because rents easily become matters of argument and their adjustment is 
seldom equally acceptable to all parties. 

A Chapter with the building equipped peculiarly for its uses will also find that the rent 
seems disproportionate to what may be charged for Lodges in the same structure. In all 
probability this variation may be made worse to the superficial observer because the 
number of Chapters is probably much less than that of the Lodges meeting in that 
building. Every night in the week may be assigned to a Lodge meeting in the temple of 
a large city or town while but two or three might be used by Chapters. 

Special facilities must have an influence on the rent if you try fairly to fix the expenses. 
Therefore I am led to suggest to builders of temples that simplification is very desirable. 
Can the work of the Commandery not all be done in the one room? Many of the 
asylums have suitable stages capable of being more freely employed for any and all 
puiposes that are now demanding additional rooms. Obviously I cannot discuss this 



question as thoroughly in print as I could well desire. My Templar brethren will 
understand and allow for this restraint upon me. 

Somewhat the same thing could be said of the Chapter room. Any ceremony performed 
outside the main room is ritualistically wrong I humbly venture to aver. It cannot edify 
those who see it not. And I fear it cannot but lack the restraining control of the principal 
officers who for the time being like the rest of the audience are kept in the dark as to 
what is transpiring. 

That all the brethren should see what is going on is I believe a fundamental requirement 
in temple planning. In several cases as I have here intimated it can be bestowed by a 
suitable use of the stage or platform with such additional accessories as may be built 
into and be a part of the main room. 

Rhode Island bars the stereopticon, I am told. Certainly I never saw it used in my visits 
there. However I cannot say that the crudely painted canvas or "carpet" that is often 
used in lodges is any better than the blotchy colored slides that may take their place. 
Either is deplorable. A higher standard of excellence is desirable. May I not say so even 
more emphatically ? 

Why not build in these symbols? Make them an integral part of your Lodge and 
Chapter interiors. Paint them in befitting beauty on the walls or carve them prominently 
and permanently where they can be shown the initiate with pride. Surely not in darkness 
but with enlightenment ought they to be appropriately presented and thus impressively 
and clearly displayed. 

Palestine Lodge of Detroit has reproduced for itself the Chapter room of the famous 
cathedral at York. Its fine beams and lofty columns, its built-in organ, its ample scope 
with its compactness and convenience are admirably contrived and accomplished. 

The Lodge rooms in the temple in New York City are also very charmingly designed 
and executed as are those at Philadelphia and elsewhere. 

Appended are some references to published descriptions of Masonic temples and Shrine 
auditoriums found in leading architectural and building trade journals. 

Masonic temple at Washington, D. C., AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING 
NEWS, April 15, 1908. 


Brooklyn Masonic temple, ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS MAGAZINE, August, 
1909. ' 



Masonic Hall, New York City, ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS MAGAZINE, Dec., 
1909. 

Tuscan temple, St. Louis, BRICKBUILDER, July, 1909. 

Brooklyn Masonic temple plan, BRICKBUILDER, July, 1909. 

Masonic temple, Washington, D. C., BRICKBUILDER, July, 1909. 

Irem temple, Wilkes-barre, Pa., BRICKBUILDER, July, 1909. 

Masonic temple, Colorado Springs, Col., BRICKBUILDER, July, 1910. 

Masonic temple, Camden, N. Y., BRICKBUILDER, Sept., 1913. 

Masonic temple, Memphis, Tenn., BRICKBUILDER, Sept., 1914. 

Masonic temple, El Paso, Texas, WESTERN ARCHITECT, Feb., 1914. 

Shrine temple, Jacksonville, Fla., WESTERN ARCHITECT, June, 1914. 

This list is by no means exhaustive but is fairly representative. A complete showing is 
desirable but will take more of my time than can just now be devoted to it. 

I am also reminded that these observations are extending to considerable length, much 
more so than I had intended. Yet the subject is a prolific one and of it much could be 
said. There comes to mind temples whose acoustics are poor, where the ventilation and 
heating has not been deemed to have, as it undoubtedly does have, a vital influence 
upon the hearing excellencies of an auditorium. There are lodge rooms where the 
lighting is execrable. There is one in particular where the officer most frequently heard 
must constantly face masses of light in the direct line of vision. Nothing can be more 
irritating. Of halls poorly provided for entrance and exit there are not a few. But the 
majority are noble of appearance and conducive to the dignified presentation of our 
ceremonies. 

Of the financing of temples little has been said. Much could have been recited. It is 
indeed an important undertaking Wise are they who take no step therein without the 
advice of a competent attorney, and remembering always that coiporation law and 
realty practice are specialties in which many lawyers and businessmen are not adepts. 
Care is essential therefore at every step. Leave nothing to chance and take nothing for 
granted. 



HOW BEAUTIFUL 


How beautiful the thought that men 
From the tools of their employ 
Could make them teach the grander things 
That gave them highest joy, - 
That gave the substance of all good, 

That made life's duties plain, 

That gave the world a brotherhood 
And forged its golden chain. 

How beautiful, as we turn back 
The written scroll of time 
To find that need made common cause 
For things the most sublime, - 
The things that lighten every load, 

That bring to life a joy 

Unknown save where these "working tools" 

Gave men their chief employ. 

How beautiful to know that while 


Religions cannot save 



Nor creeds, nor yet beliefs, nor all 
That may the soul enslave, 

That men, in guilds, most practical 
And to each other true 
Have set the pace for all the world 
What it should be and do. 

How beautiful, in this our day 
When the operative is past, 

That there remains with us the gold 
Their labors have amassed, - 
The priceless wealth of toilers true 
Merged in a brotherhood 
That emulated through the years 
Will mean man's greatest good. 

- L. B. Mitchell, Michigan. 

THE ASCENDING SCALE 

Symbolically toward the skies 
The Masonic temple rises, 

And we patronize its courts to prize 
And win still more its prizes. 



- L.B.M. 


— o — 

THE FOUNT OF YOUTH 

Brother, you will never, never be 
Nearer the fount of perpetual youth 
Than you are right here in Masonry, - 
Brotherly love, relief and truth. 
-L.B.M. 


ANOTHER VIEW OF ’’THE GREAT WORK” 

BY BRO. T.M. STEWART, OHIO 

NOT in the spirit of hostile criticism, but in the kindly spirit of one Brother to another, 
I wish to refer to the criticism of the book, entitled, "The Great Work," in the June 
number of The Builder. I have not only read, but carefully studied, "The Great Work," 
and the other two books of the Harmonic series, and I do not, after a careful reading of 
the criticism referred to, find myself sharing the critic's views as illustrated in the 
comments made on the two short extracts quoted. 

In the first place, let me call attention to the mistake of confusing the title of the book 
with the author's work as writer or editor. The treatise is characterized as "more 
curious than great," but the book does not claim to be great. "The Great Work" is "The 
Living of a Life" in conformity with one's own best intelligence and highest ideals of 
Equity, Justice and Right at any given time. This is the teaching of the criticised book, 
"The Great Work," and all its students soon leam to discriminate between those things 
which are purely personal and selfish, and those things which make for a greater 
unfoldment of one's own capacities and powers. In this way learning by doing, and 
thus by experience discovering how difficult it is to "live the life." 

In the criticism we read: "The writer of "The Great Work" is all the while 
handicapped by the idea that he is the keeper of a wonderful treasure of truth, which 



must be carefully guarded from the eye of the profane, lest it be betrayed into the 
hands of those who are not worthy or well qualified to receive it.” 

But the handicap is not of the making of "The Great School," nor is it the fault of the 
author of "The Great Work." Let me quote from the book, "The Builders," by Joseph 
Fort Newton, as to guarded secrets: 

"God shields us from premature ideas, said the gracious and wise Emerson; and so 
does nature. She holds back her secrets until man is fit to be entrusted with them, lest 
by rashness he destroy himself. Those who seek find, not because the truth is far off, 
but because the discipline of the quest makes them ready for the truth, and worthy to 
receive it. By a certain sure instinct, the great teachers of our race have regarded the 
highest truth less as a gift bestowed than as a trophy won. Everything must not be told 
to everybody. Truth is a power, and when held by untrue hands it may become a 
plague." 

Now contrast the foregoing with the following quotation from "The Great Work" to 
discover exactly the same spirit in regard to secret teachings: 

"The questions referred to (why secrecy) have been put by the skeptical, the critical, 
and the hypercritical; without taking into account the fact that unusual knowledge is 
obtainable only under specific conditions which may also be unusual. Some of the 
(questions) are as follows: 

" 1 . If there be Masters, or Wise men, why do they not present themselves to the world 
and prove their identity as such ? 

"2. Why withhold anything from anybody, if it is true? 

"3 . If the men who possess it are honest, and the knowledge they possess is of value to 
humanity, what excuse or reason can there possibly be for 'Secrets' or for 'secrecy?' 

"4. If the School of Natural Science has, in truth, solved the sublime problem of 
another life, has discovered the Principle of Nature to which that problem is related, 
and has wrought out a definite and scientific formulary in conformity with which 
others may solve the same great problem for themselves, and if all this wonderful 
knowledge is as important for the welfare of humanity as it would seem to be then 
why has not the Great School given it to the world long ago? In other words, why hide 
their light under a bushel? Why not open wide the doors of their treasure-house to 
whomsoever may come ? 



"In substance, if not in actual form, these same questions have been asked many 
times, and by many different individuals. They have been put in such manner and with 
such ingenious inflection as clearly to indicate that those who have asked them 
believe them to be 'unanswerable.' They have, in truth, been asked by those whose 
very tone, emphasis, look and manner combine to convey the challenge: 'Answer me 
if you dare.' 

"In the spirit of courtesy and candor, and with the utmost good will toward, and 
consideration for, those whose accusing and condemning attitude of mind makes the 
task one of great difficulty, it is the purpose, here and now, to answer these questions 
as fully and as frankly as their nature and importance would seem to justify. This is 
done, not alone for the benefit of those who have asked them, but also for as many 
others as may desire to understand the fundamental principle of Ethics which 
underlies them all." (The Great Work, Page 192.) 

For a-complete answer to the foregoing questions see Chapter XII, "The Great Work." 
Again in the criticism, in The Builder, paragraph two, we read: 

"Indeed one has a right to be suspicious of a book, which makes claim of knowing 
what is unknown to all the world and the rest of mankind, which leaves the inference 
that the noblest and most reverent scholars of the world are not worthy to receive its 
revelation." 

On the contrary, the book (The Great Work) is "ADDRESSED to the PROGRESSIVE 
INTELLIGENCE of the AGE," and it clearly and definitely elucidates that point 
throughout the text. 

The article in The Builder (did I not have great respect for its Editor in his knowledge 
of the teaching and his intention "to render justice to all men") would convey to me a 
misrepresentation of the real position, purposes, and claims of the author of "The 
Great Work." 

Relying on our mutual respect for the truth and for the laborious work necessary to a 
true foundation for studious opinions, I am requesting publicity for "Another View of 
The Great Work," because I am sure many members of the National Masonic 
Research Society have found as much helpful inspiration from a study of that book, as 
they have found satisfaction in reading one of the latest of Masonic books, viz., "The 
Builders." Because the method of the "Great Work" is "personal effort," that is the 
individual must live the life to know the doctrine. This same idea is enunciated on 
page 63 of "The Builders," viz., "Fitness for the finer truths cannot be conferred; it 
must be developed." 



Again the criticism in "The Builder" magazine says: 


"For not one of the statements (as to the antiquity of the GREAT SCHOOL) is there 
the slightest shred of evidence, not even a shadow of a basis in fact." 

The name "The Great School" is the modern name of an ancient school whose 
"membership is composed of a voluntary association of men whose lives and labors 
are dedicated and devoted to the acquirement and perpetuation of knowledge in the 
broad and unlimited field of science— physical, spiritual, psychical and ethical— and to 
its application to the development of individual life, individual intelligence, individual 
conscience, individual liberty, individual morality, and individual happiness." To 
these devotees of science in its broadest and best sense, may be added such students as 
have come to them for infinite instruction in the various departments of their 
knowledge. . . . "For reasons which appear to them both imperative and just, their 
work of investigation, experiment, demonstration and instruction is prosecuted and 
accomplished under the protecting shield of personal confidence and secrecy." ("The 
Great Work," pages 40-41.) 

In the foregoing quotation we have the purposes of The Great School disclosed, the 
puiposes are as ancient as the school itself. The "basis in fact" for the existence of the 
school will in time disclose itself when we leam to what extent these ideals and 
puiposes were held and taught by the ancient members of The Great School, as 
indicated and evidenced in the following citations: 


TESTIMONY OF GROTE. 

"The allegorical interpretations of myths has been by several learned investigators 
connected with the hypothesis of an ancient and highly instructed body of priests, 
having their origin either in Egypt or in the East, and communicating to the rude and 
barbarous Greeks religious, physical and historical knowledge under the veil of 
symbols." (Grote's History of Greece— Everymans' Library Edition, Page 81, Vol. II.) 

STATEMENTS OF PHILO. 

"They have also ancient authors who were once heads of their school, and left behind 
them many monuments of the methods used in their allegorical works. ... He who is 
the senior most skilled in the doctrines, comes forward and discourses, with steadfast 
eyes and steadfast voice, with reason and thoughtfulness; not making a display of 
word-cleverness, as the rhetoricians and sophists of today, but examining closely and 



explaining the precise meaning in the thoughts, a meaning which does not merely 
light on the tips of the ears, but pierces the ears and reaches the Soul and steadfastly 
abides there." (Philo "On the Contemplative Life." By Fred C. Conybeare, Oxford 
1895.) 

THE EXPERT OPINION OF THE LEARNED MEAD 

"These secret brotherhoods (of Ancient Egypt) left no public records; they kept 
themselves apart from the world and the world knew them not. But it is just these 
communities, which were the links in the chain of heredity of the Gnosis," i.e. 
Knowledge of the things that are. ("Fragments of a Faith Forgotten," by G. R. S. 

Mead, Page 61.) 

"Most of these mystic schools and communities, whether of Greek or Egyptian or 
Jewish descent, when they came in contact with each other, gave and received . . . and 
so modified their preconceptions and enlarged their horizons." ("Fragments of a Faith 
Forgotten," by G. R. S. Mead, Page 95.) 

The foregoing quotations are but a few of many of the same nature that could be 
made. They indicate that ancient communities or schools of learning have existed in 
remote times, and without going into the question of chronology, the world old quest 
reaches far back into the ages. 

For instance, "The Babylonians were not content with merely editing their ritual and 
religious hymns or their myths about the gods and heroes; they also compiled 
commentaries and explanatory text-books which gave philological and other 
information about the older religious literature." ("The Origin and Growth of 
Religion," by A. H. Sayce, Page 16.) 

The main characteristic of the ancient teaching was the profound secrecy in which the 
traditions were kept, we therefore have to rely on the spirit and purposes of ancient 
teaching and veiled symbolic allusions. It is certain, that the mystery-side of religion 
was initiation into a higher knowledge; the highest praise is bestowed upon the 
Mysteries by the greatest thinkers among the Greeks, who are witnesses to the purity 
of the teaching, which enabled men to live better lives here and to depart from this life 
with the certainty of immortality. Pythagoras is said to have been initiated into the 
Egyptian, Chaldean, Orphic and Eleusinan mysteries. He is known or remembered in 
India today under the name Yavancharya, or the Ionian teacher. 

Now as to "records" the existence of which is in doubt in the minds of many because 
of the partial statement quoted from the book, "The Great Work" — and included in 
the fourth paragraph of the criticism in The Builder, together with the critic's 



questions: "Did he (T.K.) ever see those records of immemorial time, reaching 
thousands of years back of Moses? Did he ever see any one who did see them ? If so, 
how does he know that they are authentic? By what science for the testing of 
documents did he determine their authenticity?" 

In the same paragraph on page 43 of the book, "The Great Work," from which The 
Builder quotes we read: 

"These (records) cover a consecutive and unbroken chain backward from the 
immediate present to a time many thousand of years before the Mosaic period." But 
we may also read in that same paragraph: "For a number of years, however, he (T.K.) 
has been in personal touch with members of The Great School, and during that time 
has received from them a definite and personal instruction, from which it may not be 
deemed impertinent or presumptuous to present for the thoughtful consideration of the 
reader the following brief and incomplete summary." 

The answer is complete. As a student in the Great School, in personal touch with its 
members, commissioned by them to present an outline of its methods, puiposes, and 
teachings to the modem world, he doubtless has in proofs all, and more, than the 
question demand. That a complete and satisfactory answer is not vouchsafed any and 
every one on demand, I may be permitted to again quote from "The Builders": 

The "one great secret (of Freemasonry) is that it has no secret. Its principles are 
published abroad in its writings, its puiposes and laws are known, and the times and 
places of its meetings. Having come down from dark days of persecution when all the 
finer things sought the protection of seclusion, if it still adheres to secret rites, it is not 
in order to hide the tmth, but the better to teach it more impressively to train men in 
its pure service, and to promote union and amity upon earth. Its signs and grips serve 
as a kind of universal language, and still more as a gracious cover for the practice of 
sweet charity— making it easier to help a fellow man in dire plight without hurting his 
self-respect. If a few are attracted to it by curiosity, all remain to pray, finding 
themselves members of a great historic fellowship of the seekers and finders of God. 

It is old because it is tme; had it been false it would have perished long ago. When all 
men practice its simple precepts, the innocent secrets of Masonry will be laid bare, its 
mission accomplished, and its labors done." (The Builders, Page 244.) 

To which all Masons, as well as all students of the Great Work say, "So mote it be"— 
because it is exactly the position of the Great Work. 


Further in regard to books, manuscripts and records, the existence of which is doubted 
by some and denied by others: 



"Egyptian research has independently arrived at the conclusion that the pyramid- 
builders were at least as old as the fourth millennium before the Christian era. The 
great pyramids of Gizeh were in course of erection, the hieroglyphic system of writing 
was already fully developed, Egypt itself was thoroughly organized and in the 
enjoyment of a high culture and civilization, at a time when, according to Archbishop 
Usher's chronology, the world was being created." ("The Origin and Growth of 
Religion," by A. H. Sayce, Page 33, 34.) 

The collective researches of Orientalists, and especially the labors of late years of the 
students of comparative Philology and Religion have led them to conclude, that, an 
immense number of manuscripts and even printed works known to have existed, are 
now to be found no more. They have disappeared without leaving the slightest trace 
behind them. 

Were they works of no importance they might, in the natural course of time, have 
been left to perish, and their very names would have been obliterated from human 
memory. But it is not so; for as now ascertained most of them contained the true keys 
to works still extant, and entirely incomprehensible, for the greater portion of their 
readers, without those additional volumes of commentaries and explanations. (For the 
missing works of Lao Tze and Confucius, see "Lectures on The Science of Religion," 
by Max Muller, Page 185.) 

The ancient teachings to which allusion is made, can be followed in the remains of 
every ancient nation, and underlie the spiritual (but not spiritualistic) teaching of the 
present time. 

Tradition asserts that thousands of ancient parchments were saved when the 
Alexandrian Library was destroyed by Julius Caesar, B.C. 48; in A. D. 390; and 640 
A. D. by the General of Kaliph Omar. (Consult Moses of Khorene, National Historian 
of Armenia.) Thousands of Sanscrit works disappeared during the reign of Akbar. The 
universal tradition in China and Japan, is, that the true old texts with the commentaries 
have long since passed out of the reach of profane hands; the disappearance of five or 
six times the matter contained in our Bible, besides 80,000 or more Buddhist tracts, 
(The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists," by Spencer Hardy) to say nothing of 
the loss of the sacred Babylonian Commentaries, and the loss of the Symbolic key to 
Egyptian hieroglyphic records. 

"The number of separate works in Sanscrit, of which manuscripts are still in 
existence, is estimated by Professor Max Muller to amount to about 10,000, which 
makes him exclaim, 'what would Plato and Aristotle have said, if they had been told 
that at that time there existed in that India, which Alexander had just discovered, if not 



conquered, an ancient literature far richer than anything they possessed at that time in 
Greece?' 

"We can readily conceive that amongst these manuscripts there are dramas and works 
of fiction innumerable, and treatises in literature and science, but there is little hope of 
their being completely investigated and sifted, and only like nuggets in a mine are the 
really valuable works likely to be found accidentally." ("Hindu Astronomy," by W. 
Brennand, page 132.) 

These traditions make interesting study— but time prompts the assertion of a 
companion tradition in India of subterranean abodes, of large corridors filled with 
tiles, cylinders and other records, to reappear in some more enlightened age, when 
bigotry shall no longer blind the human mind and prevent careful study of the facts 
before judgment is pronounced. ("Historie des Vierges: Les Peoples et les Continents 
Dispams.") 

Purely Brahamanical consideration, based on greed of power and ambition, allowed 
the masses in India (as in Egypt) to remain in ignorance of great truths; and exactly 
these same causes compelled the Initiates among the early Christians to remain silent 
because some of the uninitiated Church Fathers, who had never developed so as to 
know the truth, disfigured the order of things. 

"Once more we may repeat that there was early intercourse between Egypt and 
Babylonia and that in this intercourse the prevailing influences came from the East." 
("Archaeology of Cuneiform Inscriptions," by Prof. A. H. Sayce, page 144.) 

The chief of an ancient Hindu Pagoda said to Colonel Tod, who was better loved by 
the natives than any other Englishman: 

"Shahib, you lose your time in vain researches. The Bellati India (i.e. the India of 
foreigners) is before you, but you will never see the Gupta India (secret India.) We are 
the guardians of her mysteries, and would rather cut out each other's tongues than 
speak." 

Again referring to The Builder, our Brother critic says: "Why did not the Great School 
begin its work at home, and lift India out of the shadow of superstition and the 
paralysis of pessimism." Passing by the work the School has endeavored to do the 
world over, we may quote the criticised book, "The Great Work": 

In India as in Egypt "the tide of civilization at last reached its height. The material 
prosperity of a nation or a people, when it rises to a certain point, seems of itself to 
develop a subtle poison whose cumulative effects will, in due time, manifest 



themselves physiologically within the body politic. First comes the spirit of 
selfishness, then the desire for power, then the struggle for wealth, then the practice of 
dishonesty, then the oppression and suppression of the weak, then the protest of the 
injured, then the internecine strife, then the final struggle for existence, and in the end 
spiritual darkness and national death. 

"The poison of unassimilated material prosperity was in the blood of Egypt. The spirit 
of selfishness took possession of her people. The struggle for position and power 
began. Dishonesty prevailed. Oppression and domination followed. Suffering and 
sorrow were everywhere. The cry of the subject was unheard and unanswered. Death 
had set its irrevocable seal upon the proudest of nations. Egypt died. The history of 
her death struggle is the tragic story of the approaching and appalling spiritual 
darkness which finally settled over that beautiful land of sunshine." (The Great Work, 
page 56.) 

Here is the reason why the India of today is what we know her to be instead of that 
which she might have been. Egypt died. India sleeps. 

As we may read in the book, "The Builders": 

"Nevertheless, if life on earth be worthless, so is immortality. The real question, after 
all, is not as to the quantity of life, but its quality— its depth, its purity, its fortitude, its 
fineness of spirit and gesture of soul. Hence the insistent emphasis of Masonry upon 
the building of character and the practice of righteousness; upon the moral culture 
without which man is rudimentary, and that spiritual vision without which intellect is 
the slave of greed and passion. What makes a man great and free of soul, here or any 
whither, is loyalty to the laws of right, of truth, of purity, of love, and the lofty will of 
God. How to live is the one matter; and the oldest man in his ripe age has yet to seek a 
wiser way than to build, year by year, upon a foundation of faith in God, using the 
Square of Justice, the Plumb-line of rectitude, the Compass to restrain the passions, 
and the Rule by which to divide our time into labor, rest and service to our fellows. 

Let us begin now and seek wisdom in the beauty of virtue and live in the light of it, 
rejoicing- so in this world shall we have a foregleam of the world to come— bringing 
down to the Gate in the Mist something that ought not to die, assured that, though 
hearts are dust, as God lives what is excellent is enduring." (The Builders, page 275, 
276.) 

So then let us include in this communication Max Muller's testimony as to the 
influence of ancient teachings in old India: 


"If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its 
choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has 



found solutions of some of them, which well deserve the attention, even of those who 
have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India." (What India Can Teach Us, by 
Max Muller.) 

A modern formulation of the ancient spiritual science, whose ancient home is India, 
may be quoted in this connection from "The Great Work" and is that which 
"attention" is called: 

"And finally, it is hoped that when the work is finished it will impress upon every 
reader in such manner as to inspire him to immediate action, the paramount fact that it 
is to his own best interest, his own greatest good and his own largest possibility of 
happiness, both now and in the future of this life, both here and in the life to come, to 
enter at once upon the noble and ennobling task of 'Living a Life' in conformity with 
Nature's Constructive Principle, and never thereafter to falter until he shall arrive at 
the goal of individual Mastership, whether that be in this life or in the great hereafter." 
(The Great Work, Page 209.) 

In the foregoing we have referred to the high ideals and lofty puiposes of the Great 
School as disclosed in the book, "The Great Work," contrasting them with similar 
ideals and puiposes as revealed in the book, "The Builders." Both books are the work 
of Masons. Both aim to show the traditions of the past and to inculcate the personal 
effort necessary to be a man, not merely in form, but in faith, in spirit, and still more 
in character. So mote it be. 

(As an open forum for fraternal discussion, The Builder is very glad to have the 
friends of TK present their claims, and no one of them is more welcome to do so than 
Dr. Stewart, of the Cincinnati Masonic Study School, whose attainments as a student 
of Masonry entitle him to be heard on any theme of Masonic interest. Happily he is 
not one of those, of whom there have been a few, who regard any difference of 
opinion as a personal insult. Far from it. His article is admirable in spirit, like the man 
himself, and we need not say that it is equally choice in statement and form. Howbeit, 
we beg him to believe that we never for a moment made the mistake of imagining that 
TK, in the title of his book, described it as Great. Not so. Our reference was to the 
estimate of the book by other Brethren who called it "the greatest Masonic book in the 
world"; hence our remark that it seems to us "more curious than great." For the rest, 
we may take the points of the article in order: 

First in respect of the Secrecy employed by the alleged Great school. Brother Stewart 
quotes from our little book, The Builders, to prove, what we never at any time denied, 
that everything must not be told to everybody. But that is not the question at all. It is 
not the secrecy of the teaching of the supposed Great School that we criticise, but the 
fact that the existence and history of the School are kept secret. Masonry also employs 



a secret method of teaching, but its existence is no secret. Its Old Charges, its history, 
and even a part of its ritual are written and may be read by all. Not once have we 
suggested, much less demanded, that TK betray any of the secret doctrine of the Great 
School, but he should at least be willing to prove that such a School exists. Brother 
Stewart reminds us that prominent Masons have talked with TK and convinced 
themselves that such a School does exist; but surely that need not be a matter to be 
talked of in whispers behind closed doors. 

Second, even if such a Great School exists, having headquarters "in the far off India"— 
and as to this we make no question, for there are many Great Schools in India and 
elsewhere and have been time out of mind— that does not prove that it has existed from 
the beginning of time, with records antedating the days of Moses and the pyramids. 
Grote, Philo, Mead and others are quoted by Brother Stewart to prove what we have 
never questioned, that religious and philosophical schools existed in ancient times. 
Manifestly so. The Mysteries were such. The Greek schools of Philosophy were such. 
We may even go back to the Men's House of primitive tribal life, which was a secret 
Lodge in which every youth, when he became of age, was initiated into the law, 
legend, and religion of his people — with ceremonies not unlike those used today. But 
Brother Stewart, by his own quotations, proves too much. He shows that there were 
many Schools— whereof Yarker has written so learnedly in his "Arcane Schools"— 
myriads of Schools, not one Great School superintending the education of humanity, 
creating Buddhism, early Christianity and Freemasonry, as TK affirms. So that, his 
quotations are quite wide of the mark, so far as this discussion is concerned. 

Third, as to the "records" of the hypothetical Great School, Brother Stewart is content 
to show, what we have not called in question, that there were many precious records 
treasured by men in "the gray years of old." some of which, alas, were destroyed. But 
that has nothing to do with the matter in hand. TK claims that the records of his Great 
School have been preserved intact, and that they run back into pre-historic times, 
telling the story of man's slow climb out of darkness toward the Light— including a 
record of the life of Jesus who, it is alleged, was a member of the School. His 
statement to this effect is definite and unqualified; not a theory, as Brother Fenell 
pointed out, but an affirmation. Some of us make request for proof of it. And it is not 
enough to tell us that TK has talked with members of the Great School and found that 
it is true. Without betraying any of her secrets. Masonry publishes her most ancient 
documents to the world. If the alleged Great School has such documents, why not ask 
it to do likewise— the more so that it purports to possess a hidden life of Jesus and the 
true story of the origin of Masonry? As a matter of fact, the statements of TK are 
impossible of proof, in the nature of things, and he knows it. Brother Stewart quotes 
the words of TK to the effect that for a number of years he has been in personal touch 
with members of the Great School and knows what he is talking about, and says that 



"the answer is complete." It is not complete. It is no answer at all. It does not even 
touch the question, much less answer it. Nor does the passage quoted from The 
Builders help his case in the least. 

Fourth, very graciously Brother Stewart proceeds to show that the spirit and moral 
teaching of the Great Work are in harmony with the teaching which we tried to set 
forth in the closing chapters of The Builders. Exactly. Moral science, and the laws of 
the life of the spirit, are as much agreed upon, the world over, as are the propositions 
of mathematics. Life has no meaning save as we see it as a Great School for the 
building of character, and its deepest satisfactions, as well as its highest joys, are to be 
found in doing the will of Him "in whose great hand we stand." Masonry is a Great 
School of spiritual faith and moral culture; all that is secret about it is its method of 
teaching— which is true, as we pointed out in The Builders, of all the Arcana Schools 
of old. Still, the moral teaching of Masonry is one thing and its history is another; and 
in The Builders we kept the two apart, treating tradition as tradition, legend as legend, 
history as history, and we insist that TK should do the same. Masonry stands in a great 
Secret Tradition, an epitome of universal initiation, deriving, no doubt, from many 
Arcane Schools; using its history, its traditions, its symbols and dramas the better to 
bring young men to discover the greatest of all Secrets, at once the most open and the 
most hidden— the kinship of the soul with God its Father, and of life as love and 
comradeship, here and hereafter.— The Editor.) 

A TALE OF THE TRAIL 

This life's a middlin' crooked trail, and after forty year 
Of knockin' round, I'm free to say th' right ain't always clear; 

I've seen a lot of folks go wrong - get off th' main high road, 

An' fetch up in a swamp somewhere, almost before they knowed; 

I don't set up to be no judge of right and wrong in men, 

I ain't been perfect all my life an' may not be again; 

An' when I see a chap who looks as though he's gone astray, 

I want to think he started right - an' only lost his way. 



I like to think the good in folks by far outweighs the ill; 

Th' trail of life is middlin' hard an' lots of it uphill; 

There's places where there ain't no guides or signboards up, an' so 
It's partly guess work and part luck which way you chance to go. 

I've seen th' trails fork some myself, an' when I had to choose, 

I wasn't sure when I struck out if it was win or lose; 

So when I see a man who looks as though he'd gone astray, 

I want to think he started right - an' only lost his way. 

I've seen a lot of folks start out, with grit and spunk to scale 
Th' hills that purple over there, an' somehow lose th' trail; 

I've seen 'em stop an' start again, not sure about th' road, 

An' found 'em lost on some blind trail, almost before they knowed; 

I've seen 'em circlin', tired out, with every pathway blind, 

With cliffs before 'em, mountains high, an' sloughs an' swamps behind; 
I've seen 'em circlin' through the dusk when twilight's gettin' gray, 

An' lookin' for th' main high road - poor chaps who've lost their way. 

It ain't so far from Right to Wrong - th' trail ain't hard to lose; 

There's times I'd almost give my horse to know which one to choose; 
There ain't no guides or signboards up to keep you on th' track; 



Wrong's sometimes white as driven snow, an' Right looks awful black. 
I don't set up to be no judge of right or wrong in men; 

I've lost the trail sometimes myself, an' may get lost again; 

An' when I see a chap who looks as though he'd gone astray, 

I want to shove my hand in his an' help him find th' way! 

- Selected 

— o — 

UP THE ROAD 

Friends of mine along the way, 

Whither bound this windy day? 

Join us, friend, our way is one, 

Up the road, till day is done. 

Up the road toward light of Home, 

Shining far for all who roam, 

Shining for us brothers all, 

Lest we falter, lest we fall. 

Up the road, with words of cheer 
Fit to banish every fear, 

Helpful deeds and kindly smiles, 

Easing so the wind-swept miles. 



Up the road we brothers all ! 

Brave to answer every call; 

Up the road, till day is done 
And the goal at last is won. 

- Charles S. Newhall, in the Survey. 

SHE WOULD BE A MASON 

By James C. Naughton 

The funniest story I ever heard, 

The funniest thing that ever occurred, 

Is the story of Mrs. Mehitable Byrde 
Who wanted to be a Mason. 

Her husband, Tom Byrde, is a Mason true, 
As good a Mason as any of you; 

He is tyler of Lodge Cerulean Blue, 

And tyles and delivers the summons due. 
And she wanted to be a Mason too - 


This ridiculous Mrs. Byrde. 



She followed him round, this inquisitive wife, 
And nabbed and teased him half out of his life; 
So to terminate this unhallowed strife 
He consented at last to admit her. 

And first, to disguise her from bonnet to shoon 
This ridiculous lady agreed to put on 
His breech - Ah! forgive me, I meant pantaloons; 
And miraculously did they fit her. 

The lodge was at work on the Master's degree; 
The light was ablaze on the letter G; 

High soared the pillars J. and B.; 

The officers sat like Solomon wise; 

The brimstone burned amid horrid cries; 

The goat roamed wildly through the room, 

The candidate begged them to let him go home, 
And the devil himself stood up in the east, 

As proud as an alderman at a feast, 

When in came Mrs. Byrde. 


Oh, horrible sounds! oh, horrible sight! 



Can it be that Masons take delight 
In spending thus the hours of night ? 

Ah! could their wives and daughters know 
The unutterable things they say and do 
Their feminine hearts would burst with woe. 
But this is not all my story, 

For those Masons joined in a hideous ring, 
The candidate howled like anything 
And thus in tones of death they sing 
(The candidate's name was Morey): 

"Blood to drink and bones to crack, 

Skulls to smash and lives to take, 

Hearts to crush and souls to burn - 
Give old Morey another turn, 

And make him all grim and gory." 

Trembling with horror stood Mrs. Byrde, 
Unable to speak a single word; 

She staggered and fell in the nearest chair, 
On the left of the Junior Warden there, 

And scarcely noticed, so loud the groans, 


That the chair was made of human bones. 



Of human bones! on grinning skulls 
That ghastly throne of horror rolls - 
Those skulls, the skulls that Morgan bore ! 
Those bones, the bones that Morgan wore ! 
His scalp across the top was flung 
His teeth around the arms were strung - 
Never in all romance was known 
Such uses made of human bone. 

That brimstone gleamed in lurid flame, 

Just like a place we will not name; 

Good angels, that inquiring came 

From blissful courts, looked on with shame 

And tearful melancholy. 

Again they dance but twice as bad 
They jump and sing like demons mad! 

The tune is "Hunkey Dorey" - 
"Blood to drink and bones to crack, 

Skulls to smash and lives to take." 

Then came a pause - a pair of paws 
Reached through the floor, up sliding doors, 



And grabbed the unhappy candidate ! 

How can I without tears relate 
The lost and mined Morey's fate? 

She saw him sink in a fiery hole, 

And heard him scream, "My soul! my soul!" 

While roars of fiendish laughter roll 
And drown the yells for mercy! 

That ridiculous woman could stand no more - 
She fainted and fell on the checkered floor 
'Midst all the 'diabolical roar. 

What then, you ask me, did befall 
Mehitable Byrde ? Why, nothing at all - 
She had dreamed she'd been in the Mason's hall. 

FREEMASONS AS BUILDERS 

A Series of Researches into the Operative Efforts of the Craft 
1. THE TEMPLE AT INDIANAPOLIS 
BY BRO. ELMER F. GAY, P.G.M. OF INDIANA 

THE Masonic Temple of Indianapolis is owned jointly by the Grand Lodge F. & A.M. 
of Indiana and the Indianapolis Masonic Temple Association. The latter Association is 
composed of eleven directors representing eight Blue Lodges, two Chapters Royal Arch 
Masons and Raper Commandery No. 1, K. T. Each party owns an undivided one-half of 
the building and real estate. 



The building has a frontage of 130 feet on Illinois Street, facing west and a depth of 150 
feet on North Street. It is of Ionic style of architecture and is faced on all four sides with 
Bedford stone, backed with brick. The walls are unusually heavy, being five feet thick 
at the foundation. There are no windows above the first floor, except some are glass on 
the Illinois Street front, which are for decorative purposes only. Artificial ventilation is 
used exclusively in the building. The air is taken from the street level, and, after being 
thoroughly washed, is forced through heaters to all parts of the Temple. 

The first floor is used exclusively for Grand Lodge puiposes. The main foyer is about 
40x50 feet, which, with the double stairways, is finished in Italian marble. At the right 
of the foyer are the quarters of the Grand Secretary, on the left the Grand Lodge Library 
and check room for the entire building.* Directly in the rear is the Grand Lodge 
Auditorium which has a large, well equipped stage as well as 1 ,200 leather upholstered 
opera chairs, and, as Indiana has but one representative from each lodge at the Grand 
Lodge meetings, ample accommodation is provided for many years to come. 

The Temple is four double stories high, which allows for four mezzanine floors in the 
west end. The first floor mezzanine has two kitchens and three dining rooms, each with 
a seating capacity of about two hundred. They are divided by folding doors which may 
be opened, throwing the three into one room, if desired. 

The Second and Third floors are exactly alike, and each contain two Blue Lodge rooms, 
size 50X70, a tyler's room, preparation room, two examination rooms, smoking room, 
and a large social room, size about 60x35 feet. The two social rooms are divided by 
collapsible doors which, when opened, make a room about 35x120 feet, used for 
dances, receptions, etc. 

In the west end of the lodge rooms is a balcony containing a pipe organ, choir and 
lantern rooms. The gallery is reached by two sets of stairs, each containing three, five 
and seven steps. The four lodge rooms are named the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and 
Composite, and differ only in the style of furnishing. The second and third mezzanine 
are devoted exclusively to the use of candidates, each lodge room having six individual 
preparation rooms. The fourth floor is devoted to the use of the Chapters, Council and 
Commandery, and contains an Asylum, Red Cross room, Armory and social room, for 
the use of the Commandery, a Chapter room with necessary anterooms for use of the 
Chapters and Council. The asylum and Chapter room each contain a pipe organ. 

The fourth floor mezzanine contains a kitchen and banquet room, capable of seating 
about 350. This room is for the exclusive use of the bodies using the fourth floor of the 
Temple. 



The specially prepared roof is used by the Commandery as a drill room and by the other 
bodies for garden entertainments. The basement is used for boilers and machinery 
puiposes. Two Chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star meet in the lodge rooms on the 
second floor. This Temple is used only by York Rite Masons, the Scottish Rite and 
Shrine having separate Temples of their own. 

— o — 

* (No coats or hats are allowed above the first floor, all persons being required to check 
their clothing in the main check room off the lobby, from which two high speed 
elevators take you to any floor desired.) 


EDITORIAL 

(The Builder is an open forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its 
contributors writes under his own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. 
Believing that a unity of spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research 
Society, as such, does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over 
against another; but offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, 
leaving each to stand or fall by its own merits.) 


WAR AND THE MYSTIC TIE 

ALAS ! it seems decreed that the nations must at last make a desolation, and call it 
Peace. Anything may happen in these wild and fateful days in which we live, when the 
whole world is half mad and half of it wholly mad. Many things fair and fine have 
already been crushed by racial rancors and national hatreds running riot in a vast 
eruption of savagery, and the end is not yet. Dreadful days lie ahead of us, when the 
very existence of civilization will hang in the balance, and nothing will be heard but the 
thunder of great guns and the hot steps of the Lords of Hell as they ride to ruin - 
nothing, save a wail of woe following the evening sun around the world! 

Much of what we call modem thought passed quietly away into sleep at midnight on 
August 4th, 1914, and the Clock of Time was set back for an age. Since that dark date 
tie after tie by which men were bound together, has been broken, until little is left but 
the Law of the Jungle - that he may take who has the power and he may keep who can. 
Science turned traitor, and by its very skill in the mastery of force has changed the 
beautiful earth into a human slaughter-house. The Church failed, having lost what it 



claimed to possess, the power to uplift and guide the nations, to draw men to each other, 
and to base human life on love of man for his fellow. Socialism, with its vague 
humanitarian mysticism and its fine rhetoric of a cosmopolitan philosophy, collapsed 
like a house of cards in a storm. 

Last of all, the mystic tie of Masonry seems to have given way under the pressure of 
world- war; the Grand Lodge of England, after a memorable debate, having severed 
relations with its Teutonic Brethren - the Masons of Germany having already 
repudiated their Brethren in England, France, and Italy. No doubt it was inevitable that 
men should act so, looking at each other, as they do, across a million graves where 
sleep the fathers of dream-children never to be bom! We do not chide, we only grieve. 
Nor do we let go of faith, as not a few have done, for the cynical dogma that humanity, 
so far from being the offspring of God, was begotten by the Father of Lies, upon the 
daughter of a Thief - its culture a veneer covering an immobile animalism which 
nothing can alter or influence. 

No, no ! Albeit we do recall that during the blood and fire and tears of our own Civil 
War, when States were divided and Churches were rent asunder, the Masonic tie was 
not broken. While it could not avert the tragedy of war, it did mitigate the horror of it, 
building rainbow bridges across the battle lines, and many a man in Gray planted a 
Sprig of Acacia on the grave of a Brother in Blue. Today, those graves where heroes 
sleep together have sunk level with the sod, and the men who met as foes at Gettysburg 
have tented together as friends, each paying tribute to the valor of the other. From this 
fact let us take hope that, no matter how vimlent and violent the present war may be, 
this, too, shall pass away, and the hatred which glows like a furnace today will give 
place to thoughts of gentleness and pity. 

Have no doubt; the men in arms across the sea are not different from us. Soon they will 
have their Decoration Days, and over the graves of their uncomplaining dead will be 
drawn closer together, seeing with eyes purified by suffering that the tmth which each 
fought for was but a fragment, a gleam, of a greater tmth, and that courage, sacrifice 
and heroic aspiration are the virtues of all peoples. Men who are now enemies will see 
each other as they are, and then they will he enemies no more, but friends, even as our 
North and South, once arrayed in long lines of blue and gray, are now united and free. 
The Great War will purge the bitterness of spirit from the peoples and a common 
sorrow will fall upon them like a benediction, the while they turn their energies to the 
upbuilding of the civilization which their conflict threatened to destroy. 

* * * 


WASHINGTON’S MASONIC LETTERS - 



Having just returned from a visit to Mount Vernon, we found awaiting us a copy of 
"Washington's Masonic Correspondence as Found Among the Washington Papers in 
the Library of Congress," compiled from the original records, under the direction of a 
committee on library of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, with annotations by the 
venerable Brother Julius F. Sachse. It is a noble volume, containing copies and fac- 
similes never before published, the William Williams painting of Washington the 
Mason, now in the Alexandria- Washington Lodge, serving as a frontispiece - with 
sixteen other illustrations well selected and exquisitely mounted. This historic volume 
was prepared under the supervision of Grand Master J. Henry Williams of 
Pennsylvania, and its publication is a notable event in the annals of Masonic literature, 
alike for its beauty and its value. A detailed review of it will appear later, but we must 
say at once that it sets at naught, now and forever, all the statements, arguments and 
libels of the fanatics of the anti-Masonic craze of the last century that Washington 
never belonged to the fraternity, or that he had but a languid interest in its affairs. The 
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, in its publication of this volume, has rendered a 
distinguished service to Freemasonry, laying the Craft under abiding obligations of 
gratitude and goodwill. 

* * * 


FREEMASONS AS BUILDERS - 

Elsewhere in this issue Brother Clegg gives us a wide vision of the seriousness of the 
building problem faced by Masons all over the United States, as the Fraternity, more 
and more, demands larger and better quarters. If he calls attention to mistakes, more 
than to successes, it is to warn those who contemplate a new Temple, of the pitfalls in 
their path. We gladly give space to his article, because he speaks from experience, and 
because his counsel is beyond peradventure timely and good. 

Happily, however, not all Masonic temples have brought with them serious troubles. In 
many cases Lodges are fortunate to have practical men with big hearts, and long 
experience, who have been able to build into a Masonic temple in a simple but 
comprehensive way those elements of convenience which make the "work" of the 
Lodge, as well as the social features, a joy to those who participate therein. Such a case 
is that at Indianapolis. Here the Grand Lodge of Indiana, and the enthusiastic Brethren 
of the city of Indianapolis have joined hands in the erection of a commodious, 
convenient, and, as we think, almost an ideal Masonic Temple. 

The Grand Lodge has its auditorium, Library and Grand Master's and Grand Secretary's 
suite all on the main floor. Above are quarters for the Blue Lodges, Chapters and 
Commanderies of Indianapolis, and the detailed floor plan of the Blue Lodge floor 



shows how carefully every comfort, as well as necessity, of the foundation degrees in 
Masonry has been considered. If anything, even more ingenious has been the method 
by which the conferring of the Chapter and Commandery degrees has been made easy. 
And best of all, every detail of all of these degrees is brought out in the hall itself - the 
Brethren can see the whole degree, in every case (with but a single exception). 

We hope that our illustrations of this wonderful temple will convey all this to the 
Brethren, particularly those who may be interested in Temple construction in a practical 
way, now, or in the immediate future. From time to time we shall publish drawings of 
other temples - always with a view of bringing before the Craft those elements which 
are vital and essential, and which may easily be incoiporated into almost any Masonic 
Temple, no matter what its cost. 

* * * 


MASONIC BOOKS - 

So many and so urgent have been the requests of Brethren to know how and where they 
may obtain Masonic books, that we venture to suggest that they take the matter up with 
the Torch Press Book Shop, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ye editor has no interest in this firm, 
save that he has dealt with it for many years, and, knowing it to be courteous, efficient 
and in all ways trustworthy, he does not hesitate to commend it to Brethren in quest of 
books and to Lodges seeking to form libraries. Many of our best Masonic books are out 
of print, but may be had at second-hand, and as the Torch Press Book Shop deals in 
books both old and new, and is in constant touch with book-dealers both in this country 
and abroad, it will be able to aid the Brethren. Meanwhile, ye editor offers his advice 
and assistance - such as it is - both to the Book Shop and to any of his Brethren free 
gratis and for fun, wishing to do all within his power to bring good books and good men 
together. 

* * * 


CORRESPONDENCE 

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE RITUAL? 

Dear Brother: - So much is there that finds ready response in my heart that I hesitate to 
pick out a sentence from Brother Robert Tipton's essay, page 155, The Builder, and 
give it less than praise. He says: "I for one shall be happy to welcome the movement 
that will strive to banish the antiquated terminology and render our ritual into easy 
unambiguous English." Maybe I do not quite get at the meaning he wishes to convey. 



For that matter, I am open to conviction on very many questions pertaining to the 
fraternity. Further testimony is therefore always welcome. But as to the ritual, is it not a 
fact that it has suffered more by excess of editing than by lack of the "blue pencil" ? 

Today I doubt if any two Grand Lodges approve the same ritual. Familiar as I am with 
the "work" in several states I cannot recall any uniformity after you cross the lines of 
official jurisdiction. If then we have no more satisfactory conformity than is now finally 
or tentatively exhibited by all the revision committees that have labored over the 
problem I doubt very much the result of so broad a commission as the one outlined by 
my Brother Tipton. 

There might be some advantage in having a uniform ritual but I fear that the results 
obtainable would not justify the effort. The ritual in each state has grown to its present 
arrangement by small and infrequent additions and subtractions. Familiar as each is at 
home, it would not have the prestige abroad over a similarly accepted one. It seems 
impossible that there would be any general give and take process that could be agreed 
upon for a revised ritual for universal use. 

However, I have sometimes thought a plan not impossible of acceptance might be 
something after this style: Before we try to bring these oft-tinkered rituals up to date, 
why not travel the other way? Is it practicable to unearth the earlier forms of the ritual 
and then in each state secure authority to give them or one of them, the oldest 
preferably, once in a while ? A lodge of my acquaintance was wont to get its older 
members once a year to present a degree as it used to be done in the long ago. These 
meetings were always well attended. They were indeed events to be remembered. 
Nevertheless the wisdom of this sort of thing is I daresay debatable. 

Yet there is one way in which Brother Tipton's own Grand Lodge can set an example. It 
owns the Bowers-Spencer-Hughan eighteenth century ritual which is mentioned freely 
in that interesting book, "The Origin of the English Rite." The first of the two degrees 
there given would be suitable for lodge presentation. The third degree might raise 
objection. Into the reason for this I need not go. Taking the degree work from that ritual 
that seems admissible for rendition by the lodge members and I am sure it would meet 
Brother Tipton's desires. I beg of him to look it over when he goes on his pilgrimages to 
the Masonic Library at Cedar Rapids. 

If there is to be a simplification of the ritual attempted anywhere the unique possession 
of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is well worth entrance for that honor. Would it not be well 
at some annual gathering of your Grand Lodge for some enterprising brethren to put on 
that work with the attendant lecture of the famous Peter Gilkes? And may it be my good 
fortune to be among those present! 



R. I. Clegg, Cincinnati. 


* * * 


THE REALIZATION OF THE TRUTH 

Esteemed Brothers: - "TK and the Great School" is not such an important Masonic 
subject as "The problem of demonstrating a future life" that Brother Fennell 
propounds in his letter to you, and which has been solved by TK and his "Great 
School," let us hope, and which, no doubt, was the problem of the Ancient Mysteries in 
whose strenuous degrees many are said to have disappeared forever. 

This problem of the race, which too, is fast becoming the deeper problem of Modem 
Masonry, as indirectly acknowledged in the reply, "that the immortality of the soul is 
the polar expedition of philosophy, as it is the polar star of faith." In which case it must 
become the final puipose and object of all great educational movements, must and will 
be solved. 

The word "polar" left out of the above quotation might leave the expedition open to 
include the hot sands of the desert perhaps, or at least, convey a warmer feeling for the 
subject, but we suppose, "ye Editor" wishes to keep perfectly cool. 

Now the two prominent "landmarks" or great milestones of Freemasonry are first, a 
belief in God, and next a belief in immortality, and then the degrees proceed to show us 
how we can become one of those "living stones eternal in the heavens." In other words, 
demonstrate the mortal belief in immortality; but still, keeps before us the speculative or 
doubtful success of the enterprise and the unusual difficulties to be overcome. This 
would corroborate TK in his constructive principle with a lot of doubt thrown in, and 
the fear that the constructive teaching might prove destmctive at any moment. 

The egoistic claim of a Great School of very wise brothers who know all, is only 
characteristic of nearly all the Oriental teaching, and not out of keeping with the 
speculative knowledge implied to P.G.M's, and S.G.C's, of Masonry. It may be 
attractive to many but need not bother us who have some imagination of our own. It is 
along the same lines of scripture teaching that the "Jews" are the special selected people 
of God, or God's chosen people, all right possibly, in a spiritual sense, but does not look 
well literally, for we think God is no respecter of persons. 

Another question that stands out quite prominently as we proceed, is the fact that these 
advanced Adepts who are represented to be back of the several movements of human 
education differ among themselves, and the different groups disagree as to the great 
Truth and as to method and practice. This alone carries a doubt of their Great 



Knowledge, outside the belief of their followers, for Truth cannot disagree, it is One, 
and God Truth, and Spirit, are used as synonymous terms for Divine Perfection. 

The principal weakness of the teaching of the TK, as presented in the "Great Work" is 
its seeming neglect of God, that Divine Shove which is the inspiring hope of humanity, 
and making "Personal Responsibility" the keynote of endeavor. In this sense it is 
unmasonic, for Scripture distinctly teaches that the "carnal mind" (sense or human 
mind) is enmity against God and cannot understand spiritual ideas at all. 

In place of God, it gives us a "Constructive Principle" of nature which does not always 
work constructively and is very dangerous, and an Elder Brother who is ruler of this 
planet earth, a Planetary God subject to still higher authority, which is pantheism, even 
if it prove true that there really exists such personal ruler. 

As a matter of plain fact, Sin, Disease, and Death,: are the names that include all the 
troubles of humanity, and the Holy Bible is the text book accepted by this Western 
civilization, as containing the remedy for it all. In it, the great teacher, Christ, tells us, 
that if we keep his sayings we - shall never die. It also tells us that the strength of sin is 
the law, and the result of this law of sin is death. And right here lies the problem for 
Masonry, Christianity, or any other benevolent society, for when this enemy, death, is 
destroyed, it is the last enemy of man and eternal happiness is attained. 

Now if the carnal mind is enmity against God, (which is the one Truth we all want) and 
the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, then worldly wisdom will never solve 
the problem, and yet, this same book tells us that by man came death and by man must 
come the resurrection. So man must solve it and it naturally becomes the most inspiring 
problem of the age, and all great minds will give it attention. 

The best and most logical explanation, I have seen, of that law which is the strength of 
sin and the cause of death, is given in "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures," 
by Mary Baker Eddy; she is truly Masonic in placing God first foremost and all the 
time, as the "greatest help in time of trouble," and agrees with the ancient Hermetic 
teaching in claiming that "all is Mind," but Divine not mortal, and further agrees with 
the ancient Sages, (who are the only Great Learned Men that seem tangible) that the 
Divine Mind is one Mind, and the All and source of all; therefore, the question would 
not be the "demonstration of a future life," but the Realization of the Truth of the 
Continuity of Life, now and always, and that every expression of life is that life. 

"Life Understood" by L. L. Rawson, an eminent English scientist, the second edition of 
which has just been published, is also an eye-opener along this line. 


Lraternally yours 



Arthur B. Rugg, Minneapolis. 


* * * 


UNAFFILIATED MASONS 

Dear Brother: - There is a subject about which I wish to say a few words - in regard to 
the great army of our unaffiliated members. They are, most of them, aside from their 
one fault of non-affiliation, good men and Masons. Some of them have become non- 
affiliated through carelessness, having left the jurisdiction of their Mother Lodge. They 
have let time slip by, unconsciously, until the amount due their Lodge is so large that it 
would be a hardship for them to pay the sum required for reinstatement. I have known 
this sum to go as high as twenty- five and thirty dollars, an amount remarkably large for 
a workingman, with a family, to spare. Often times he cannot possibly do so, and a 
member is lost. Why did not the Brother state his case to the Lodge ? it may be asked. I 
will answer. I have in mind a Brother who had something like twenty- five dollars 
charged against him in his home Lodge, and he had met with misfortune through illness 
in his family - his wife died leaving him with a large family to care for. He saved ten 
dollars and sent his Lodge. I as secretary, under the seal of our Lodge, wrote them the 
conditions. They refused to reinstate him until the full amount was paid, and kept the 
ten dollars. I know of other cases of like kind. 

We are adding new material to the building of the Great Work, some of it good, some 
bad. No doubt some of it which has been consigned to the rubbish heap may fit in some 
niche and be found valuable. There will come a day when every stone in the "great 
edifice" will be tried by fire to see if it is square and sound and true, and if in the 
highways or byways we find one that has the right mark upon it, why not rejoice? In 
other words, why not hold out an inducement to the unaffiliated and see what tie result 
will be? What do you think of it? If the secretary of the Lodge, or the master, would 
make it easier for them to resume work in the quarries, perhaps they would do so. 

Fraternally 

L. C. Stewart, Florida. 

* * * 


MASONIC EFFICIENCY 

Dear Brother Editor: - 1 am very much interested in the plans and puiposes of the 
Research Society, and I will tell you why. In common, as I believe, with many other 



Masons, I have many times wondered at the apparent lack of definite purpose in 
Masonry, aside from the ritual work; and as one ponders the matter it is really 
surprising that so much interest can be maintained as is the case. I believe the 
explanation is to be found in that vague conviction, which seems to lurk in the mind of 
even the least informed Mason, that Truth of some important kind is concealed about 
the premises. And to be candid, it is usually most effectually concealed, so that truly, 
only he who seeks, and seeks diligently, may find. 

The question, as I see it, is this: Is Masonry anything more than a means of manicuring 
morals and massaging out the lines in the characters of men? Most of us believe it is. If 
it only means a process of making men respectable - a purveyor of genteel amusement 
to keep men out of mischief - the Lodge has certainly been mistaken in the past, and is 
doomed in the future. A Masonry that will make men hate evil and make them sacrifice 
for good, will certainty be taken seriously. Anything less will not even be laughed at. 
As I understand it, you are seeking to make Masonry efficient by making it intelligible, 
and I am with you to the world's end, and back again. 

Yours fraternally, 

Oscar Wayman, Texas. 

* * * 


THE FIRST SCOTTISH RITE MASON 

Dear Brother: - 1 want to tell you something that I am sure will interest you. I have the 
material in detail covering the life of Moses Michael Hays, who was the first Scottish 
Rite Mason made on the North American continent. You will remember that Morin was 
commissioned by the Grand Orient of France to carry the Rite of Perfection to North 
America. Morin came to San Domingo with the Grand Constitutions and there 
commissioned Francken as Deputy. Francken came to Boston and there commissioned 
Hays. Hays later commissioned Spitzer and Snitzer commissioned John Mitchell, who 
established the Rite of Perfection at Charleston, the forerunner of the Mother Supreme 
Council. Now very little has been known about Hays, but every Scottish Rite Mason 
both of the Northern and Southern jurisdictions, should be interested in being made 
familiar with the man whose patent connects his own directly with the royal origin of 
the 32d Degree. While rummaging in the Boston Masonic Library I came upon an old 
patent presented to the library years ago by E. W. Myers, of Richmond, Va. It is either 
the original or a copy of the patent given Hays by Francken. I am inclined to the 
opinion that it is a copy, but I shall try to identify the penmanship so far as Francken is 
concerned, as I know where some writing known to be his can be found. If the 



penmanship of this patent and that of Francken's known writing are identical, I have 
discovered, as you can see, a document that is the foundation stone of both the 
Supreme Councils. But that is merely incidental to the life of Hays. His title to his 
place as the first Scottish Rite Mason in America is established incontestably in other 
ways. 

Fraternally 

C. D. Warner, Mass. 

(This is indeed interesting, and we sincerely hope that Brother Warner will push his 
researches through, and give us the results of his findings. The pages of The Builder are 
open to him to spread before the Craft whatever of interest he may unearth in the 
archives. His articles on Masonic subjects in the Christian Science Monitor attracted 
wide note, and justly so, alike for their matter and manner, and we shall be very glad to 
hear from him when he is ready to publish his studies. - The Editor.) 


MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS 

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

In 1853, when the subscriptions for the Washington Monument were waning, and the 
people were becoming restive, Congress appropriated $50,000 for an equestrian 
Statue of General Washington, and Brother Clark Mills, a local artist, was awarded 
the contract. Mr. Mills enjoyed an excellent reputation as a sculptor. 

It was decided to erect this bronze memorial in the Circle at the intersection of 
Pennsylvania Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue and twenty-second street and K street. 
This circle is one of the places which the eccentric L'Enfant had designed for a little 
fortification, which he thought would be necessary when mobs and riots were in 
operation. But it had been turned into a Park, and in this centre the statue may be seen 
from many directions. 

The statue shows the General in his Continental uniform, with a drawn sword in his 
hand, facing the east. The bust is a copy of that of the famous Houdon, and is regarded 
as perfect. The pose of the General and the apparent activity of the beautiful horse were 
highly eulogized at the time. 


The horse, of course, in an equestrian statue, is a conspicuous part of the group: the 
animal appears as nature made him: his limbs are not obscured by fashionable raiment, 



which future ages might not be pleased with: the uniform of the Generals however, is a 
very beautiful one, and one that Americans should never tire of looking upon; that of 
the Continental Army. 

This work of art was dedicated on the 22d of February, 1 860, by the Grand Lodge of 
the District of Columbia, with Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 in attendance. Washington 
Commandery No. 1 was the escorting body. 

The Grand Master, George C. Whiting, after executing the usual ancient rites, turned to 
the President of the United States, Brother James B. Buchanan, Past Master of 
Lancaster Lodge No. 43 of Pennsylvania, and said: 

"Mr. President. This gavel, prepared expressly for the puipose, was used by 
Washington, as President of the United States, and as Grand Master of Freemasons pro 
tempore, in laying the comer stone of the Capitol of the Nation, on the 1 8th of 
September, 1793, and I have now the honor of requesting, in the name of the Fraternity, 
that you, his brother and his successor, will likewise employ it in the crowning act of 
dedicating this statue.” 

The President of the United States, on receiving the gavel from the Grand Master, made 
a beautiful dedicatory address. 

The writer is probably one of the few Masons, now living, who witnessed this historic 
dedication, and the recollection is one of lasting pleasure. 

WHAT IS FAITH? 

What is faith but risking all 
To the realness of the call ? 

Faith may never be to know - 
It may always be to grow. 

- E.G. Rockwell. 


BURDENS 



Not always do they rob life of its charms, 

At times they lend a glory and a glow; 

A woman with a baby in her arms, 

A pine tree bending heath a weight of snow. 
- A.D. Patterson. 


THE LIBRARY 

"IN A NOOK WITH A BOOK" 

AN ATTIC PHILOSOPHER 

THREE or four Brethren have asked why we did not name "The Pleasures of Age," by 
Emile Souvestre, among the very best books on old age. Because we feared that others 
might have as hard a time finding it as we had years ago, when we came upon it in an 
old second-hand book shop where we were wont to browse betimes in the times that 
come not back. It is indeed a gracious book, sweet, meditative, and wise, one of the few 
books that treat of the last scene of life without bitterness, which even Cicero did not 
escape. Also, Souvestre did not know old age, save by imaginative insight, for he died 
at the age of forty-eight when life was at high noon. 

Besides, we like his "Attic Philosopher" better, the more so because we once had a 
prejudice against the book before we knew it, thinking that it must be the musings of 
some thin, wan cynic, pinched by poverty, and writing his bitter thoughts from an Attic. 
Imagine our surprise and delight when we saw the book itself - coming as it did, on a 
day so dull that if we had gone seining in the ocean of ideas we could hardly have 
caught a minnow. Instead of a book of sharp cynicism and acid wit, we found one of the 
wisest, sweetest, most wholesome books it has ever been our joy to meet. 

The Philosopher in the Attic gives us his grave and kindly wisdom in the form of a 
diary, or journal - less learned than Amiel, but with equal observation and insight. He 
teaches virtue by ridiculing vice, and such bitterness as he feels is clothed in a garb of 
mirth, and is soon washed away by the waters of Marah. He sees the misery of the 
world without despising it, and its cowardly tricks without hating it. He leams not to 
judge by appearances; he shows the joys of the poor and the sadness of the rich. He tells 



stories, reviews books, records gossip, paints landscapes, studies human nature because 
he loves it; smokes, dreams, and remembers - and through it all blows the sweet air of 
the country and the perfume of a simple faith in God. Hear some of his sayings: 

"Let a man leam to be at home in his own heart, and he will surely leam how much 
there is to do at home." 

"O Philosophers ! find us amusement without brutality, and enjoyment without 
selfishness!" 

"Ah! if men only knew in what a small dwelling joy can live, and how little it costs to 
furnish it ! " 

"We award the palm to Charity, but let us give it to Moderation - the great social virtue. 
Even when it does not create the others, it stands instead of them." 

"Trustfulness prevents sorrow, if not from coming, at least from staying. I put my 
judgment in place of providence, and the happy child is changed into an anxious man. 

"Is it not true that beyond goodness, prudence moderation, humility, and self-sacrifice 
itself, there is one great truth, which alone can face misfortune? And that, if a man has 
need of virtues for others, he has need of religion for himself?" 

Ay, here is meat for the mind, food for the soul, and light along the path. Yet it is not a 
book of proverbs, but of vivid human life from day to day, with its sorrows, its homely 
joys, its deep and quiet consolations. There are the old fruit woman, the soldier who 
loved flowers, the two sisters on their first trip to the country, the old veteran to whom 
love of France was a kind of worship - with memories of old days an scenes far off, and 
gentle thoughts of the dead who live in our hearts, and therefore never die. It is a wise 
book, equally for what it remembers and for what it forgets, giving alms to oblivion 
while laying up that treasure which neither time nor death can rust. Truly, if one can 
have such a kind heart and such a sweet faith, it matters little where he lives - whether 
in a Attic or in a Palace - for he will be cleansed of envy of evil, of restless fret and fear, 
finding God everywhere. 

* * * 

Speaking of best loved books, ye scribe may be permitted to tell a story, while we chat 
together in the Library. Once on a time he found himself lonely, ill, and far from home - 
having fallen unconscious on the street of a strange city, where he was picked up by 
two brother Masons and cared for till he was healed of sun-stroke. When able to be 
about, he went for a walk, and, seeing the sign of a Book-shop, he ventured in to see 



what he could find for the mending of his spirit. There, in a tiny case of curious old 
books, he found a volume which proved to be one of the best friends of his life. It was 
entitled "Some Fruits of Solitude," by William Penn, and in his loneliness ye scribe 
sought to leam what solitude had taught a great and wise man. 

Courage, common sense, a resolute cheerfulness, and, above all, a sense of being "never 
less alone than when alone" - such was the message, perhaps one had better say 
medicine, of that gracious little book. Later he found "More Fruits of Solitude," from 
the same pen, which, in his opinion, are richer, juicer, and grown by a sunnier wall of 
experience. They are two little baskets of ripe wisdom wherein, if a man will look, he 
will find apples of gold - a blend of honest, homely shrewdness and heavenly 
spirituality, qualities rare enough and still more rarely growing together. Years 
afterward, in reading the Letters of Stevenson, he learned that Robert Louis had much 
the same experience with the same little book in the old days in San Francisco. 

Why are not such books written now-a-days? It would seem that we are so smitten with 
the curse of being busy - a kind of St. Vitus' dance of doing things - until we are almost 
bankrupt in the real business of living. Meditation is almost a lost art among us. We 
hardly know how to be alone, much less to be quiet and think things through - or, better 
still, to listen to those voices which will tell us, if we have ears to hear, what life means. 
Penn was a Quaker, that is to say, a Quietist, and he has put into simple words what he 
learned in the School of Silence. Hear him a moment: 

"How many people come into, and go out of the world, ignorant of themselves, and of 
the world they have lived in." 

"Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. Riches lie in bags; Happiness 
in content - which wealth can never give." 

"No religion is better than an unnatural one. To be furious in religion is to be 
irreligiously religious." 

"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated. Death cannot kill what never 
dies. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas." 

"Humble, meek, merciful, just, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and 
when death hath taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the divers 
liveries they wear here make them strangers." 

This last saying - a favorite with Lincoln - ye scribe can never forget, and it expresses 
his real feeling in regard to religion. If only this truth had been kept in mind and heart, 
how much bigotry and bitterness would have been avoided - but, alas, so many liveries 



make men strangers, even enemies. No part of the ministry of Masonry is more benign 
than the way in which, by the fine art of friendship, it leads men to this discovery made 
by Penn long ago; and so, happily, we do not have to wait for Death to take off the 
mask to know and love our fellow men. 

* * * 


QUESTIONS 

Dear Brother: - Nothing has been published in The Builder more helpful to the average 
member of the Craft than the questions compiled by the Cincinnati Masonic Study 
School. Lodges in this section are some distance apart, and we have no Past Master's 
Societies or Research Guilds, and it is hard for the less informed Brethren to get 
anything that will create interest for more light, ft is in appreciation of what the 
Cincinnati School and the Research Society are doing, through The Builder, that I make 
this expression. Yours fraternally. E. J. Matthiesen, La Cross, Kan. 

Many thanks for your words of good cheer. Others have written letters of like tone, 
which confirm us in the belief that we have found a method and a point of contact with 
the greatest of all problems before this Society - to awaken the interest of Masons in the 
study of Masonry. We are glad to announce that, when the series of questions on "The 
Builders" is finished, other books will be taken up in the same manner, by the kindness 
and industry of the Cincinnati School - for example, "The Story of Freemasonry," by 
W. G. Sibley, published by the Lion's Paw Club, Gallipolis, Ohio. 

* * * 

Will you be kind enough to tell me whether or not the Emperor of Germany is a 
Mason? I have seen it stated both ways, even in Masonic journals, and I am puzzled to 
know the truth. - J. L. B 

No, Kaiser Wilhelm is not a Mason. The story probably comes from the fact that every 
King of Prussia, since the time of Frederick the Great, with the exception of Frederick 
William IV and the present Emperor, were Masons. The only monarch in Europe 
associated with the Craft, we believe, is the King of Sweden, who is Grand Master of 
Masons in Sweden - the Crown Prince being Deputy Grand Master. 

* * * 


Please tell me the origin and meaning of the word cabletow. Has it any other than a 
Masonic usage ? I have searched in vain for any clear explanation of it. Perhaps others 
would also be interested in your answer. - H.T.S. 



Until recently the word cable-tow was of exclusive Masonic usage, but the Standard 
Dictionary (1913) defines it as "a rope or line for drawing or leading; in Freemasonry, 
symbolizing, in the second and third degrees, the covenant by which Masons are 
bound." Just why it should thus be limited to the second and third degrees, is strange. 
Mackey, in his Encyclopedia, says the word is "purely Masonic" and that the German 
"Kabeltau" is the probable derivation. Lawrence, in his "Practical Masonic Lectures," 
says that Mabel is a word from the Dutch, signifying a great rope, which, being 
fastened to the anchor, holds the ship fast when she rides; and that Tow is a word from 
the Saxon, which means to hale or draw, and is applied, nautically, to draw a barge or 
ship along the water." (Lecture II) Albert Pike found the origin of the word in the 
Hebrew "khabel," which meant rope, cord, cable attached to an anchor, (Prov. 23:34) 
and that Tu or To as a suffix, meant "his" - that is, "his anchor rope." In Ezk. 18: 12, 16 
and 23:15, and in Job 22:6 the same "Mabel" meant binding or pledge, and " to bind as 
with a pledge." And in Ezk. 18:7 is the word "Khabel-to," meaning "his pledge." By the 
length of the cable-tow is meant, so Pike held, "the scope and intent and spirit of one's 
pledge." 

Such is the confusion with respect to the origin of the word, and as to its symbolism the 
confusion is equally great. Pike seemed to hold that it has no symbolical significance at 
all, the use to which it is intended to be put in case of need divesting it of every 
semblence of a symbol. With this Mackey agrees, remarking that it is used merely as a 
physical device for controlling the initiate - which might conceivably be true in the first 
degree, but is obviously an error in the references to it in the other degrees. Lawrence 
held that the cable-tow is a symbol of the obligation of a Mason, the Mystic Tie binding 
the initiate to God, to the Order, and to Righteousness; a tie which both binds and 
draws, and which holds a man fast, lest he drift like a ship at sea. Rowbottom, in his 
"Origin of Masonic Ritual," gives the cable -tow as a symbol which teaches the 
candidate that he is bound with a cord whose running noose of indigence and want, 
tightening with unrelenting severity, will bring no less disaster to the careless and 
indolent who try to evade the duties of their lives. Paton, in his "Freemasonry, Its 
Symbolism," (Chap. XLV) insists that the cable-tow is a simple and natural symbol of 
the tie which unites the Fraternity, and its use may perhaps be referred to the figurative 
language in which the Lord speaks to the Prophet Hosea, when remonstrating with 
guilty Ephraim: "I drew thee with the cords of a man, with bonds of love." (Hosea 1 1:4) 

So there, now, you have it all laid out, confusion worse confounded as to both origin 
and meaning. We have our own views as to the symbolism of the cable-tow, but before 
we give them we wish to hear from others; and to that end we invite discussion. Let us 
hear from you, brethren. 


* * * 



There is a word familiar to Masons often translated, "What, the Builder!" and 
sometimes, "What, is it the Builder?" I am not familiar with the Hebrew, but somehow 
this phrase never had any deep meaning for me. Have you any suggestion in the matter? 
- T.S.M. 

Albert Pike felt very much as you do about that word, and he was wont to translate it 
"marrow-in-the-bone." At first sight this seems no better than the accepted rendering, 
but hear now his explanation of it. As "medulla" in Latin means marrow, the inner part, 
the quintessence; and in Greek the brain was called the "muelos," or marrow, of the 
skull; and as "Os," a bone, in Latia, meant also the kernel, Pike contended that the 
Hebrew word in question had a similar meaning. "Marrow-in-the-bone" was used, Pike 
held, as a trite phrase to conceal a deep truth, after the manner of Pythagoras. Really the 
"marrow-in-the-bone" meant the Divine Word in the Universe. For example, the true 
Word of a Mason was the Hebrew name of God - which has been lost - the Pater 
Agnostos, the Unknown Father and invisible God, incomprehensible by the human 
intellect, and therefore nameless. The substituted word - substituted of necessity, since 
no one may name the nameless One - is the symbol of, and represents "the first bom of 
Creation, the Eternal Word, or Logos, in whom shines the image of God, so far as man 
can know Him, by whom all things were made." If you will think for a moment, you 
will discover that this gives a very wonderful interpretation to the word we use, 
especially in the scene in which it is used. 

By an odd turn of things, five Brethren have asked about the 47th Problem of Euclid. 
One is a young man who tells us, frankly, that he does not know what the problem is 
and would like to have it stated. Another wants to know why Pythagoras used it as a 
symbol, and what it symbolized. Another asks if it may not have a practical meaning 
and use for Masons today. 

(1) The problem is as follows: - In every right-angled triangle, the sum of the squares of 
the base and perpendicular is equal to the square of the hypotenuse - that is, the line 
which connects the ends of the other two sides. If, for instance, the base be three 
measures and the perpendicular four, of the same length each, the hypotenuse will be 
five. If it be not, the base and perpendicular form either an obtuse or acute angle, and 
the triangle is not right-angled. If a Mason was carrying up the comer of a building, and 
wished to know whether it was square, he measured three feet from the comer one way 
and four the other. If the line drawn from the termini was more or less than exactly five 
feet, he had not made a square comer. Such was the problem and the practical use made 
of it by the old operative Masons. 


(2) It is said that when Pythagoras discovered this theorem he sacrificed a hundred 
oxen. Why? As a mathematical problem it is of no more importance or interest than 
fifty others in Euclid; and of much less than many of them. Pythagoras never styled 



other problems symbols, much less as "a Great Symbol." Why did he use it as such? 
Certainly he did not consider the figure, the right-angled triangle, as a figure, a symbol. 
No, its symbolism was in the numbers three, four, five - especially three and four, the 
sum of which is the always sacred number Seven. Why was seven sacred to 
Pythagoras? Seven what? Perhaps the seven Divine potencies in the theology of the 
Median Magi, under whom he studied in Babylon. Of the seven, three were feminine 
and four masculine. As the three female powers were of the world of Nature - in the 
theory of olden time - they were represented as a horizontal line, or base, of the right- 
angled triangle, and the four male forces by which Deity acts upon nature, were the 
perpendicular; and the hypotenuse represented the Deity Himself, Ahura Mazda, 
containing in Himself the four male powers. 

(3) So far Pythagoras. But what may the problem mean to us? Such use of the problem 
evokes no profound meaning, much less enthusiasm, in a modem man - save as it may 
bring to mind the familiar truth of the Father-Mother God of all great religions. 
Therefore we beg to suggest a very practical meaning and use of the problem, after this 
manner: - Just as the old Masons used this problem to test whether their work was 
square, may we not employ it for the more noble and glorious use of testing whether 
our lives are square and tme with the order of the world ? How may a man know that 
his acts are right ? By the judgment of Conscience? But conscience is not infallible. It 
tells us to do right, but it does not tell us what is right. Let Conscience be one measure 
from the comer, what is the other measure, or standard, by which the moral test may be 
made complete? Here again we pause for discussion, and we shall be eager to hear the 
Brethren talk it over. It is a problem of vital practical import, with which every man is 
confronted almost every day - by what method can it be solved? 

* * * 


ARTICLES OF INTEREST 

Ancient Masonry, by F. W. Krueger. Square and Compass. 

Henry Price, First Grand Master of Masons in America, by C. D. Warner. Galveston 
(Texas) News. 


The Secrets of Freemasonry, by E. B. Guild. American Freemason. 

The Scarab as a Symbol in the Book of the Dead, by T. M. Stewart. The New Age. 
Masonic Training for Youth, by A. G. McChesney. The New Age. 



History of the Origin of the Original Grand Lodges and the Royal Arch, by J.F. Carson. 
Virginia Masonic Journal. 

* * * 

BOOKS RECEIVED 

Love and the Freemason, by Guy Thome. Wemie Laurie, London. 

Oriental Consistory Magazine, Vol. 6, Chicago. 

Washington's Masonic Correspondence, by J. F. Sachse. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia. 

The Bible of Today, by A. Blakistin. Cambridge University Press. 

Property Concepts of the Early Hebrews, by M. J. Laure. University of Iowa. 

What Can I Know? by G. T. Ladd. Longmans, Green Co. New York. 

The Modem Mystic's Way, by W. S. Palmer. Duckworth & Co., London. 

— o — 

THE BUILDERS 

As the mighty poets take 
Grief and pain to build their song: 

Even so for every soul, 

Whatsoe'er its lot may be - 
Building as the heavens roll, 

Something large and strong and free - 
Things that hurt and things that mar 
Shape the man for perfect praise; 


Shock and strain and min are 



Friendlier than the smiling days 

- J.W. Chadwick. 

— o — 

AMEN 

Give me strength to help him on; 

If a blinder soul there be, 

Let me guide him nearer Thee. 

Make my mortal dreams come true 
With the work I fain would do; 

Clothe with life the weak intent, 

Let me be the thing I meant; 

Let me find in Thy employ 
Peace that dearer is than joy; 

Out of self to love be led 
And to heaven acclimated, 

Until all things sweet and good 
Seem my natural habitude. 

- Whittier. 

WHENCE COMES SOLACE? 

Whence comes solace? Not from seeing, 
What is doing, suffering, being; 



Not from noting Time's monitions; 

But in cleaving to the Dream 
And gazing at the Gleam 
Whereby gray things golden seem. 

- Thomas Hardy. 

THINK ONLY THIS 

If I should die think only this of me: 

He told the truth it was given him to see, 

And tried to help his race along the way 
Toward that better, brighter far off day. 

- J.F.N. 

— o — 

WHERE IS REST? 

Rest is not quitting the busy career; 

Rest is the fitting of self to one's sphere. 

'Tis the brook's motion, clear without strife, 
Fleeing to ocean after its life. 

'Tis loving and serving the highest and best; 

'Tis onwards ! unswerving - and that is true rest. 

- John S. Dwight.