Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-06-10
CRAFT OF MASONRY
INTERESTING HISTORY OF OLD.
EST OF ALL FRATERNAL Sc.
cRET SOCIETIES.
Organization Not Quite Two Centuries
old-Grand Lodge Organized June
81, 1717-History Of Masonic Fra
ternity in Iowa.

Free and Accepted Masons is holding
Its sixty-second annual meeting in Dav-
export this week. Representatives of
sos lodges and ove- $4,000 individual
Masons are in attendance. Ottumwa
lodges and represented by Alex Smith
and John Peach. Following is given
q sketch of the order from Its organi-
cation to the present day:
That the great craft of Masonry has
very weighty influence in the world
few will gainsay. And few will be
found to question the statement that
this influence is ever upon the side of
good. It may not be an idle study If
Influence, and to account for its
strength. For, at least in the English
speaking world, there is no meddling of
Masonry In controversial fields. In pol
itical matters the opinions Of individ-
ual members are unfettered by their
afaliation, and no greater offense
against Masonry con be committed
than to seek personal preferment or
party advancement through member
ship. Likewise in matters Of belief
there is absolute freedom. From the
neophyte there is required only 9 de-
claration Of belief in Diety-a first
great cause-without any dogmatic
definition. Within all the wide range
of human belief there can be no phase
ITO which this simple requirement can
be found antagonistic At Masonic al
tars in every land men of all races and
creeds meet as brothers and as equals.
As a symbol of mans relationship to
the Divine the Book of Holy Writings
is found in its meeting places. Whether
that book of revelation be the scrip
lures Of Jew or Christian, the Koran
Of Islam or the sacred volumes of In.
ola, the symbol Is unchanged.
Misleading Fables.
It would be instructive even to the
general reader, If there be given out
line of the history Of Masonry. So
much has been written upon this sub
ject that is manifestly absurd, and SO
few even of the fraternity are &C.
quainted with the real facts, that a
statement is permissible. And yet to
write SO that the truth may be of in
task. If the reader will consider the
knowledge worth acquiring for better
understanding of an organization
which is prominent among the factors
of modern society, he may follow out
the recital. Otherwise he will be more
interested in the legends and fictions
which pass current among Masons
themselves. The altogether fabulous
history which takes place in the real
story of the craft was never intended
to mystify or deceive or impress the
profane. 1t is a result of ignorance on
the part of those who should best I'M
derstand its meaning. The average
young Mason is really burdened with
the mystery of the order, and his
breast goes near to bursting with the
mighty secrets it contains The legends
and allegories employed to impress
upon his mind serious moral truths are
to such an one facts which it were
arch-heresy to- doubt. So he wags his
head solemnly If Masonry be by
chance mentioned. He makes asser-
tons as 10 the antiquity of the frater-
nifty equaled only by the Welshman's
pedigree, about midway in which the
creation of the earth was recorded. To
his the craft has built the pyramids,
had designed and wrought INFO endur-
ing form the tombs and temples of all
antiquity, had builded the churches Of
Christendom and the palaces of the
changing dynasties. King Solomon and
his Tyrean artisans, Numa and the Ro-
man artif1cers, King Athlestane and
the Saxon craftsmen, and whole line
Of al-building grand masters
all these are jumbled together in the
story that in the past has found ready
acceptance. 1t has proven a shock to
1I ft,ox wit
English craft authority seriously ques-
toned whether King Solomon's temple
ever had more than symbolic exist
ence.
Two Centuries Old.
Let II then be said, as matter Of un-
questionable fact, that the Masonic
fraternity, in its present form and
with its existing machinery of organi-
zation, Is not quite two centuries old.
To be exact, that the grand lodge of
England-mother of all Masonic bodies
came into being on June "a, 1717.
This was not of course birth, alb ovo,
but rather gathering of scattered
and altogether unimportant organiza-
tons into definite and coherent body.
The operative craft of Masonry had. ex-
istence in England and upon the con-
tinent of Europe for some centuries
previous to the date named Its men,
bers formed a close trade body, hold
ing the principles Of the builders art
as valuable secrets. These could be
revealed only to such as had been duly
entered as apprentices, and had by
years of labor and instruction proved
themselves qualified to become fellows
of the craft There is no doubt, also,
that the tools and implements of the
trade were expressive, and had mean
ing known only to those free of the
guild and accepted by their fellows.
1t is likewise true that from time to
time this society of builders admitted
into their lodges gentlemen who had
connection only as patrons of archi-
lecture or students of allied arts and
sciences The writer is inclined to be-
lieve, and from recurrent evidence that
men of certain prescribed and mystical
associations did take advantage of
membership In this altogether utilitar.
ian society to pursue their studies and
speculations, guarded by the secrecy
ri 1f{