The leader., 1897-12-08
THE LADY FREEMASON.
Historical Authority for the Legend
Ahnuf Miss ST. Leger.

The legend of the Lady Freemason
is examined, as in the dry light of his
tory, by a correspondent: who COM
municates his learned inquiries to US
this morning The popular version
which every body had heard and no
body quite believed-was that Miss ST
Leger, daughter of a former LORD
Doneraile, had concealed herself in the
case of grandfather clock. which
was standing in room where the oc'
cult rites of the fraternity were about
to be celebrated; that she sneezed Tor
cid she yawn?), and was dragged
from her hiding place, but, in lieu OF in
slant execution, was mercifully al
lowed, in regard for the feelings Of her
father and brothers, to be initiated into
all the mysteries of the craft. Being &
woman, she was considered to be suffi-
GENTLY punished by being told secret
and forced to keep it. The fact that she
never diyulged what she learned has
been used by perverse misogynists as
proof that there was nothing to reveal
Faithful masons have been fixed on the
horns of rather disconcerting diem
ma; either there was nothing to tell OF
a woman never found it out. They have
been invited to repudiate either the
mystery or the woman. But our cor
respondent comes to their rescue
From his researches in stu, and his
investigation of the family archives, il
appears that Miss st. Leger did not hide
herself in clock, for the simple reason
that no timepiece of sufficient capacity
was kept at Doneraile Court. What
really happened, or may have happened
is that she was sitting in a library adj
Joining the room in which the ceremony
| was being enacted But the partition
wall CHANGED to be undergoing repair;
| and while she was dozing-perhaps over
a novel of the period-she was awak.
ened by the sound of voices. Naturally
she wished to know what was being
said Some girls in their fathers house
would have walked into the next room
and taken their proper share in the
conversation.
But this was too tame for Miss St,
Leger. She pulled away some of the
bricks and established a position OF
vantage where she could see and hear
without being observed. All might have
gone well, but either the lodge pro-
| gramme was less entertaining than
she had expected or, as our CORE
spondent suggests, she suddenly real
| lied the terrible consequences of her
action" Whether she was conscience
ct-if, ha 1ata
mined to make her escape. She got
safely into the hall, and saw nobody
there but the family butler. But he
| was no longer the obsequious retainer;
| he was man and a mason. Indeed, he
| was acting as doorkeeper to the lodge
whose sacred rites she had profaned. II
was no longer a case of servant and
| mistress; she was the culprit, he the
| avenging priest. Obviously, he had to
tell her papa. 1t was equally matter
of course that she should fall into a
swoon-it gave her time to review the
situation. The sequel cannot be more
touchingly described than in our CORE
spondent's own language: THE fair
culprit, endowed with high sense of
noHoi, al ohcc CohseHteu 10 pass
through the impressive ceremonies she
had already in part witnessed and be-
come a freemason." The precision of
| the narrative leaves nothing to be de-
sired until we ask for the date. All we
are told is that "the year was probably
NO." Probably! We had imagined
that this full, true and particular ac-
count was transcribed from authentic
| and contemporary records. But if the
| year is only matter of conjecture,
| what of the rest of the narrative? Is it
one more essay in that branch of his
| tory which the Germans call "subjec-
tive notwithstanding a pri-
vate fancy and stating it as an ascer-
| tanned fact ?-London Standard.