Connecticut western news., 1885-01-07
IGNORING DEAD MAS0NS. IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES OF THE
 GRAND LODGE OF SORROW. The Ceremonies Carried Out According to
 the Scottish Rite of Free Masonry.
Prom the New York Times. l

The Ceremonies Carried Out Acc0rdinE 10
 the Scottish Rite of Free Masonry.
 From the New York Times.l
 The ceremonies of the Grand Lodge of Sorrow, according to the Ancient Ac- cepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, commemorative of the eminent Masonic dead of the last seven years, at the Academy of Music Monday evening, were very solemn and impressive. An audience that entirely filled the body of the house and the box circle gathered to witness the services, and they listened throughout with the utmost attention. The programme particularly requested that the audience refrain from any ex- pression of feeling and there was not single outbreak after any of the solos or choruses, while the most profound and reverent attention was paid during the more solemn services.
 The ceremonies began in the lodge room, where the services of the prologue were enacted. The officers entered and took seats. Venerable Master Charles T. McClenachan and Deputy Master Charles Roome sat upon a raised dais facing the auditorium, and seated in Q circle about them were Orator William H. H. Russell, Senior Warden Augustus W. Peters, Junior Warden Frank Wes- ton, Senior Deacon Charles Fl. Heyzer, Junior Deacon George M. Thomas, First Master of Ceremonies William J. Lawless, Second Master of Ceremonies, Joseph B. Eakins, First Steward Ste phen D. Afleck, Second Steward, Geo. VanVliet, and Captain of the Guard George H. Fitzwilson. The officers went through the ceremonies of opening the Lodge of Sorrow, a male chorus chanted I've brought nothing into this world, !" and Carl Bergstein sang the baritone solo Clear my cry to Thee"
 The second part of the ceremony was the allegory. The curtain slowly rose, while the orchestra softly performed a ''Song Without Words" by Mendels. sohn, and disclosed an impressive scene. A platform draped with black, in the centre of the stage, rose behind a sable covered bier, at whose. four corners the flames of swinging censors fickered it. fully in gloom through which only the outlines of the surroundings were dis cernible. A black pail covered the cas- ket and black crape shrouded the chairs of the priests and was draped about the altar. Directly in front of the casket gleamed brazen candelabra with sev en branches, and at the opposite corners of the front of the stage were the emblems and insignia of the Masonic order wrought in gold.
 Soft, slow music was heard, and from the two sides of the stage a solemn procession of neophytes entered, attired in black, each wearing cowl and hold ing book iu his clasped hands. With eyes fixed above them, the neophytes marched slowly to the front, and then ranged themselves along the right and left sides of the stage and stood motion less. A throng of pretty little children in white trooped on to the stage, scatter ing flowers left and right as they came down to the front, and disappeared al either side, leaving the stage strewr with blossoms. The solemn music oi Beethoven's funeral march sounded, anG tine acolytes aud priests entered ir solemn procession, the former in robes of white and the latter clad in sable Each wore shining helmet that redec ted the light of the torch he carried, anC to the strains of the funeral march they marched slowly about the stage anC ranged themselves before the neophytes while High Priest J. H. Hobart Ward First Priest Walter M. Fleming, anC Second Priest John P. Collins mounted the dais. They were clad in robes o purple; gold chains gleamed from thei necks, and white sashes were acros their shoulders. Seven priests ranged
 themselves about the seven branches 0
 the candelabra, and there was an i'm
 pressive silence as they uttered tn,
 names of the Masons whose death the
 commemorated, putting out one of tn
 seven lights after another, until th
 final announcement was made.
 Then came the invocation of the Hig
 Priest and Miss Christine Rosswog an
 Miss Jennie Fish sang a requiem. Tn
 three High Priests, one after another
 recounted the virtues of the decease t brethren of their order, and Miss Fisl B Miss Rosswog, Carl Bergstein and Free t erick Harvey sang songs of praise an = victory, the latter three closing in th trio, "Praise of God" as the curtai : went down upon the first part of the a 8 legory.
 The same scene was presented whe . the curtain rose again, and priest U acolytes, and neophytes marched in an formed hollow triangle, opening for tf
 passage of the funeral procession, aft . which followed the invocation and far ! well and the solemn ceremony of el y tombment..
 !, The scene was again in the lodf :. U room, where Jerome Buck delivered 6 o eloquent peroration, and the Lodge . Sorrow was closed with HandePs ''Hs lelujah" chorus.
 V A Terrible Possibility.