The herald., 1897-11-13
MASONS OF ARIZONA
FOLLOW OUT THE LEGENDS OF
THE CRAFT
The Grand Lodge Meets Five Humid
red Feet Below the Surface of
the Earth

PHOENIX, Ariz., Nov. lin the
written lore of Masonry it is told that the
order had it's birth in the cave-quar-
ries beneath Mount Lebanon. where the
workmen of Solomon's temple gath
cred at night and bound themselves a
brotherhood united in the triple cause
of mutual protection, learning and
truth. In the earlier days of the guild,
through the persecution that ever is
allotted a cult that is new, the caves of
Syria were the lodge rooms. But the
days when Masonry was deemed allied
to the black arts are past, and not for
centuries have the craftsmen of the
order been compelled to hide their
lodges like the foxes.
In Arizona this month was a return
to first principles, for the annual ses-
sions of the grand lodges of the terri
tory have been held in cavern. Not in
a dismal quarry, rough strewn with the
products of the chisel and mallet. but in
a temple of surprising beauty, direct
gift from the Supreme Master, un-
marred by touch of human workman.
Large it is as the largest lodge room,
with fluted and frescoed roof, with Won
drous columns and pillars such as mortal
could never hew, the walls the spotless
white of purity, with, here and there,
stripe of the blue of truth. At the
masters right hand nature had placed
a pedestal of creamy white, that rang
like bell under the gavel. On either
side the dais were snowy curtains of
limo fhrn,1o1 vxrhio ho 1icy1,t re
shone, only mellowed by the barrier.
Though the lodge room is five hundred
feet below the surface, it was reached
from below; and well guarded might it
be. for the approach for rods is by mar
row tunnel. Then the way led up a
short shaft and through portal broken
in the cavern's side.
At the back, beyond the masters sta
ton, is another gateway, but one that
only adds to the mystic influence of the
place. Outlet it is, yet no man knoweth
whittier it leads. Though the cavern's
air is sweet and pure, no draft comes
from the Stygian pit. No man has ever
been lowered into it's mouth, and Ian
terms swung down show nothing beyond
the narrow slit six feet in width, of un-
known length and awful depth. Stones
thrown within are never heard to strike
the bottom. Such is the rearward
boundary of the lodgeroom.
The location of this lodgeroom is at
Bisbee, one of the most unromantic of
mining towns, set in gorge of the Mule
mountains, in the southeastern part of
Arizona. Down the narrow valley the
shanties straggle in the usual nerve
0iStrnctinG At tho hoad 10
great smelling furnaces, surrounded by
growing mountains of Stag. The hope
less ugliness of all is redeemed at night,
but only to picture an inferno-bright,
golden streams of molten metal ever
squirting, the valley vividly lighted from
time to time as the Stag pots are dumped.
The never-ending Shrek of the damned
seems to rise from the blowers that
force oxygen to furnaces and cOnverters.
Dark forms fit here and there, outlined
in the birthstone glow from the bullion
pots as fiends with pitchforks armed
though the initiate knows their only
weapons are clay-tipped tappers' rods.
Over all hangs the sulphurous discharge
of the smelter's stacks.
Below all this lies the lodge room,
down shaft, along drift and up an
"upraise," where stolid Cornish miners
broke through the side of the chamber.
The room is, approximately, an acre in
area and twenty feet in height. Under
foot the white floor is almost level. Over
head the dripping of lime water long
ago drained has left the most curious
tracery, much as though, it has been re-
marked the cavern were in an iceberg
and not in cOarser aarth
The management of the Copper Queen
is not in the mining business for senti-
ment That the cave has not been dis
turbed is probably owing to the fact
that the copper deposits cease in the
surrounding lime rock. So work has
been prosecuted elsewhere in the sixty
miles of drifts and shafts that honey
comb the earth to the depth of 500 feet.
Yet the manager of the mine, the
senior of the noted Williams brothers,
is not a man devoid of sensibihty or of
idea of fitness. He is, withal, Mason.
He offered the cavern for the grand
lodge sessions and, perhaps the only
modern departure, brilliantly lighted
lit by electricity.
Present on the 10th and 11th was the
fullest attendance ever known by a
Masonic governing body in the south
west. Governor McCord, Arizona poten-
tate of the Shriners, attended, as well as
the Masonic majority of the officials of
Arizona, New Mexico and Sonora.
las TT M'CT TNTOCK