The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1912-06-28


ing their little craft out of the harbor
straight towards the vessels of the
blockading fleet off the bar. There
was nothing to be done. The broken
oar rendered the boat unmanageable
and Major Rion and the men with him,
in spite of their efforts, soon saw that
unless some miracle intervened they
would be captured. A worst peril than
imprisonment, however, soon threaten
ed them. Their boat, drifting help
lessly with the tide, was borne down
upon vessel of the Federal fleet.
From the deck of the warship the
command was given to halt. This
the Confederates could not do, their
broken oar rendering it impossible.
A second command was given; and
though the men in the rowboat held
up the broken oar to show why they
did not obey the command, they
heard an officer on the Federal ship
give the command to sentry to aim
his musket at the boat. At this mo-
ment an idea occurred to Col. Rion
who was a Mason. He stood up in
the boat and made signal that all
Masons knew, and at once he saw an
officer on the warship leap forward.
A sharp command was given, the
sentry lowered his musket and soon
boat put out from the warship's
side. The Confederates were taken
on board, treated with the utmost
consideration and later paroled and
sent back to Charleston. The officer
who saw and understood the signal
was himself Mason.
During the Boer war in South
Africa many interesting incidents
took place among the Masons. The
following stories were told by a resi-
dent Of Charleston who served
through the campaign.
"While Babbington's brigade was
marching through the southern por-
tion of the Transvaal young lieu
tenant of one of the home regiments
was sent out with a patrol of six
men. After reconnoitering for some
hours the young officer attempted to
lead his men back to his own camp.
To his dismay he found that he was
lost. For hours they wandered
about the veldt, and were becoming
exhausted, both from want of food
and from continuous marching. FL
nally they saw house with light in
it, but did not dare approach it for
fear of running into the hands of the
enemy. The lieutenant left his men
behind a small rocky kopje, and
crawling up stealthily on his hands
and knees, he managed to reach
window of the house. He looked
through the window and there he saw
a large number of Beers gathered in
consultation. After watching them
for SINE time he noticed that one of
the number was a Mason. He was a
Mason himself, so he had no fear,
and Immediately made hiuselfl
known. He told the Beers OF
trouble and asked their assist
Without any to do they went ouJN
brought his men in, gave them fine
meal, provided them with comfortable
quarters for the night and the next
morning guided them to their own
lines. a few days later two of these
men were captured by the Beers this
time they had no Mason with them to
work the wonders of that order, and
they were treated as ordinary prison
ers of war.
"Another striking example of the
influence for good this order has is in
the following experience of man of
one of the volunteer regiments. He
had led a wandering life and acquir-
ed many bad habits. Among them
was terrible weakness for drink.
However, in his early days before he
left home, and was still living under
the influence of good home train
ing, he had become a Mason. His
regiment was camped outside of one
of the larger towns of the country,
and much drinking was going on
among the troops. He had been un-
der the influence of liquor for sew
eral days and finally had spent all
his money. While loafing about the
saloons in the hope of being treated
by his friends, which they avoided,
because they knew his weakness, he
found purse with nearly two hun
dred pounds in gold in it. Instead
of going and spending the money for
drink, he took it to the colonel of
the regiment. The man was a
Scotchman, and when asked why he
did not take at least one drink out
of the money, he said: "It mought
ha bane a brothers" chester Re-