The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-01-09
GRAND LODGE Of SORROW.

bcred ny All VINO Participated or We're
Permitted to W1tnesa-Scenes of Oriental
Ceremonial Re-Enacted.
NEW YORK, December %.
The Grand Lodge of Sorrow, Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Ma
sonry, was held in the Academy of Music
Sunday evening. The auditorium was
filed, nearly every prominent Mason in
the city being present. The lodge held
funeral services in memory of members
ranging from the fourteenth to the thirty
third degree of Masonry, who have died
within the last six years. The ceremony
may not inappropriately be termed q
grand Masonic requiem mass for the
repose of the souls Of Sidney 2. Nichols,
II. Gardner, Charles Blackie, George w.
Roome, James NJ. Martin, Gustavus A.
Fuller and sixty-two other lamented citi-
xens who have died rich in Masonic honOrs.
The services opened with full lodge
In session on the stage. Its members
wore rich regalia. In set Masonic terms,
the Lodge of Sorrow was opened, the
venerable Master saying that they had
met to honor the dead and sympathize
with friends and relatives in their afflic-
ton. A candlestick, with seven burning
candles, stood near the Prompter's box.
1t was fianked by tall candelabra and Ma
sonic bannerets and gonfalons. These
emblems remained in the foreground dur
ing the entire ceremony, and even when
the curtain was lowered.
The second part of the pageant was de-
voted to the funeral services in honor of
the dead. A catafalque, surmounted by
bier and coffin, all covered with q
black pail, stood in the center of the
stage. A pedestal, topped with a blazing
pan of fire, stood in each corner of the
funeral pile. The stage was set to a
scene from "Aida," which gave the rite
an Egyptian coloriag. The scenery rep
resented the interior of temple ON the
Nile. The solemn strains of Men,
delsshon's
"SOSG WITHOUT WORDS"
arose from the orchestra as an army of
neophytes in black gowns with triangular
aprons of violet hue, and cabalistic
caps issued from the wings of the stage.
They marched and countermarched around
the catafalque, and were finally ranged in
solid columns ON the right and on the
left. chorus of forty voices, with an
INTEGER WIFE
and nineteen tiny girls dressed in white
with silvered sashes and bearing baskets
of flowers, moved around the bier scat
tering roses ut its base. A fiaXen-haired
little one, as beautiful as an angel, took
her place in front of the catafalque, while
her sisters ranged themselves ut its side.
When the baskets were emptied, the little
ones melted within the wings, and the
orchestra played Bcthoven's funeral
march. A die of acolytes, clothed in
hooded white gowns, entered from the
left of the stage, and another file, arrayed
in hooded black gowns, came in from the
right. Both files wore triangular aprons,
red in color. Their brows were crowned
with tillets of silveV. They marched and
countermarched around the catafalque,
keeping step to the mournful strains of Il
dirge, and drew up in front of the neo-
phytes, the white gowns on the left and
black ones on the right.
Then General j. Ii. Hobart Ward, re-
splcndant in the robes of Jewish high
priest, descended from platform at the
back of the stage. Walter NJ. Fleming
and John +. Collins, the assistant priests,
accompanied him. Fleming's arms were
bare. Both he and Collins wore rich
robes, and might have been easily mis-
taken, in view of their surroundings, for
priests of Isis and Osiris.
The three priests mounted dais over
looking the catafalque. Seven men clad
in black gowns with white surplices,
bearing broad red crosses on the breast
aud back, then stepped to the front aud
halted near the seven-cornered candle.
stick. Tie first uttered al aphOrism on
life and death, and said in u solemn tone
of voice:
"To the memory of Chas. S. Arthur,
Charles Blackie, Gustavus A. Fuller,
Gregory Satterlee, Sidney z. Nichols,
Hugh Gardner, Isaac II. Brown, and
Lewis +. Hoppel."
He then stepped to the brazen candle
stick, and turned out one of the seven
lights. Then one of his companions ut
tered another aphorism, named seven
more of the dead, aud turned out another
of the seven lights.
This was continued until similar honor
had been paid to all of the dead, and the
lights OF the braZen seven armed CANDLE
sticks had been totally extinguished. The
Seven Knights of the Cross then retired
to the back of the stage, and Miss Jennie
Fish, Frederick Harvey and Carl Bergs
passed around the catafalque and sang
RosSinfs
PRAYER FROM "MOSRS."
yhe high priest then delivered short
invocation, and the acolytes raised their
torches and again marched round the
funeral pile. After another C:orus the
marching and counter-marching was re-
sumed. A black-robcd figure alternated
with while-robcd figure, and in this
order the file stood on the right and left
of the catafalque. Miss Christine Ross
wog sang the solo:
or WILL EXToL THEE"
IN q pure tone of voice; after which
Priest Collins, Priest Fleming and High.
Priest Ward delivered short funeral ora
tons.
The pans OF fire at the corners of the
catafalque burned out during the funeral
addresses.
OF the three speeches, Mr.. Fleming's
was Tuca the best. In the language of
an intelligent Mason, Fleming twas
TIE MARC ANTONY OF THE OCCASION
After the addresses aad appropriate
music, the curtain fell.
In the thIrd part of the funeral cere-
monies the scenery had been changed. 1t
apparently represented crypt under
some old Egyptian temple. ias Stage
was dSrkened, and the black aud white
iutires r,.annaurc with dimmp,l torches