Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-10-07

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parting they might Leave behind
and faithful servant" and that in de-
them footprints Oh the sands of
Time"
"Ordinarily it is a breach of pro-
priety and good taste for a public
speaker to use himself as a text and
discuss his own private life. There
are. however. exceptional occasions
which justify some slight departure
from the rule and I trust I may be
pardoned if l treat the present as one
of those exceptions and indulge lit
tie in personal history and reminis-
cence
"My father was good Mason and
a good man, and his life and example
and the high character of those of
| his friends. whom I understand We're
! Masons. inspired in me at an early
age an admiration of the institution of
| freemasonry. AS young man just
starting in my career ia my chosen
profession, I resolved that as soon as
I could earn and spare the money
necessary to pay the fee for initiation
| would endeavor to become a Mason.
Understand that no Mason solicited
my application or suggested that
should Join the Masons.' as the pub
lie sometimes say, for this is strictly
forbidden by the laws of the inst1tu-
ton and to do so would subject the
offending membars=to reprimand or
even expulsion from his lodge. So in
February 1877, a little more than
thlrty-six years ago. l asked and re.
the brethren; sought and found the
door of the lodge; knocked and was
admitted into Centre Point Lodge No.
81 of Free and Accepted Masons, at
Centre Point, in Howard county, of
this state, thus illustrating the scrip
tural injunction: "Ask and We shall
receive; seek and We shall find; knock
and it shall be opened to you" 1t
was then and there that l was brought
from the darkness of ignorance to
the light of Masonic knowledge and
enabled to see and understand some
of the beautiful tenets and precepts
of Masonry which my mind haG
previously but darkly and vaguely con.
ceived. The ledge room itself was
lighted only with candles and was
wholly devoid Of all those rich anG
expensive furnishing and equipments
which characterize the strong anC
wealthy lodges of the larger cities ane
towns, but its members, though few
in number, were of the salt of the
earth. They were mostly farmers anC
some OF them rode from homes eight
or nine miles distant on the SATURDAY.
night next before the full moon in
every month" through rain or fair
weather and over rough roads. in or.
der to attend the meetings of the
lodge. Though mostly poor in purse
they We're men of pure and upright
lives and exemplified in their daily
walk the best type of American citi.
zenship and Christian manhood. II
was OF such lodge as that and of
such men as formed its membership
that Brother Rudyard Kipling wrote
! They hadn't much regalia and their
Lodge was poor and bare,
But they knew the ancient land
marks
And they kept them to hair.
Time passed on; the months rolled
by and in due season l was passed
from the degree of an Entered AID.
prentice to the more honorable degree
OF F'ellowcraft. and at last reached
the pinnacle of my hopes of being
raised to the sublime degree of Mas.
ter Mason. The regalia and apparatus
used may have looked to some eyes to
be cheap and crude-in fact, nearly
all OF 1t was homemade; the breth.