This Anti-Secrecy Library Is donated hy the National Christian Association, on the assurance, given on the part of the College, that the books should have a good position and be accessible to the students. If at any time changes should occur, so that these provisions could not be carried out, please notify the National Christian Associ- ation, 221 West Madison Street, Chicago, 111., that measures may be taken for their return. I.I \JX> i II I . UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. M^^ MAR .28 .1894 , 189 , jras - , - -^' ^ "SOT" ^^ s V.' K^^L,^ HOLDEN WITH CORDS fW TUJ? QflPRflT Ur 1 GJMLl A FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION IN STORY OF THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF FREEMASONRY FLAGO, Author of "Little People" "A Sunny Life" Etc, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, EZRA A. COOK, PUBLISHER, 1883. * Entered according to Act of Congress In the year 1883, BY EZRA A. COOK, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. . PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. The educating influence of stories both for good and evil is everywhere recognized. The vile anecdotes of the bar-room and saloon debauch the conscience worse than the liquor they drink does their bodies. It is notorious that it is neither the most eloquent or worthy politician, but he who can give the most sensa- tional illustrations, that stands the best chance of elec- tion. The popular legends and fables of a nation indicate and largely determine the character of the people. Masonic writers have not been backward in the use of legends and narratives to bolster up that institution. Albert G. Mackey, the most influential and extensive Masonic writer of this country is the author of a book entitled " THE MYSTIC TIE, or Facts and Opinions Illustrative of the Character and Tendency of Freema- sonry." Of course the object of the work is to show by what Masonry has done for men, its practical value, and such chapter headings as u Freemasonry Among Pirates," "Masonic Courtesy in War" and u The Soldier Mason," show the object of the author. Such stories have doubtless led many to join the order, that by its mystic power they might be safe among pirates and other outlaws, little thinking they were at the same time obligating themselves to shield these outlaws from deserved punishment. 4 PREFACE. But the power for good of narrations illustrative of God's dealing with individuals affd nations must not be overlooked, for this forms a large portion of God's Word, and Christ himself employed narratives and parables with great power in his teachings. Bunyan's beautiful allegories have shown many the blessedness of u walking with God,' 1 and the influence of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " in showing the people the abominations of human slavery can scarcely be over- estimated, because it was a true picture of that iniqui- tous system. Like the volume before the reader it was a recital of facts, with but enough of the garb of fiction for a covering. For ample proof of the accuracy of the sketch of the abduction and murder of Wm. Morgan and the trials that followed, the reader is referred to the " Broken Seal," by Samuel D. Greene, and to the "History of the Abduction of Capt. Wm. Mor- gan," prepared by seven committes of leading citizens of the Empire State. And for the story of Mary Lyman's wrongs the pamphlet entitled "Judge Whit- ney's Defense,' 1 furnishes ample material. All of these may be had in pamphlet form by addressing the pub- lisher of this work. After reading the aforesaid pamphlets the reader will certainly be ready to exclaim, " Surely facts are stranger than fiction," and will be able better to see how the thousands of our land can be thus HOLDER WITH COBDS of secret iniquity. THE PUBLISHER. OTITS "-' CONTENTS, CHAPTER. PAGE. I. MY GRANDFATHER'S ADVICE 11 Mackey Asserts that Masonry is a ' 'Religious Institution, " Note 1 . . 12 Chase .-ays "Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Bible.".. 12 Morris tells the "Allurements" of the Lodge, Note 3 12 "Masonry unites men of every country, sect and opinion, Note 4.. 12 Grandfather's Masonic Experience in a French Prison 13 " Secrecy has a mystic binding almost supernatural force," Note 5.. 14 II. THE "COMMON AND PROFANE" DISCUSSING FREEMASONRY 19 III. A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY 25 Initiation ' 'a death to the World and a resurrection to a new llf e"Note 6 29 Mackey Hints at the Stripping for Initation, Note 7 29 Taking the Entered Apprentice Oath 30 "The importance of secret keeping, '' Note 8 31 "The shock of enlightenment, " Note 9 32 ' 'The social hour at high XII, " Note 10 33 IV. A TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER .- 34 4 'This surrender of free-will to Masonic authority is absolute^Note 11 34 "Masonry is a religious institution, " Note 12 35 "The dignity of the institution depends mainly up >n its age," Note 13 36 V. PREPARATION FOR A JOURNEY PASSED AND RAISED." 38 "It isthe obligation which makes the Mason, " Note 14 38 ' 'Entered Apprentices are possessed of very few rights, " Note 15 .. 45 VI. AN EVENING WITH RACHEL 47 "Do you suppose the Good Samaritan was a Freemason?" 49 VII. A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERICHO 53 ' ' A violent blow on the head that knocked me senseless from the saddle" 59 ' ' The horseman had flung himself off and was listening to my tale " 57 ' ' Don't go to maddening me with any of your grips and signs " . . . . 59 VIII. MRS. HAGAN'S OPINION OF ELDER GUSHING 60 ' ' Honest Ben Hagan " . 61 IX. MR. HAGAN T^LLS WHAT HE KNOWS ABOUT MASONRY 67 "Placing a drawn sword across the throat," Note IB 72 Treason and Rebellion not Masonic Offences, Note 17 7ii 4 'I promised to help a companion in any difficulty, right or wrong" . . 74 X. A MASONIC MURDER SUCCESS AND RETURN HOME 76 XI. MORE TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER A MODERN PAN. 87 6 COHTEBTTS. CHAPTEB. PAGE. XII A FEW MASONIC PUZZLES 98 XIII. MASONIC BONDAGE. SAM TOLLER'S AFFAIBS, 107 XIV. A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE NOT OF '76. SAM TOLLER MISSING 115 XV. THE SPRING OF 1826. SAM TOLLER. "COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE" 126 XVI. AN ADHERING FREEMASON INCAPABLE OF ENTIRE LOYALTY TO HIS WIFE. A LODGE QUARREL. JACHIN AND BOAZ 134 XVII LUKE THATCHER. KUMORS. MASONRY IN ITS KELIGIOUS AS- PECTS , 144 XVIII. THE GATHERING STORM 152 XIX. A NIGHT IN BATAYIA 162 XX AN EXCITING SCENE 176 XXI. THE MYSTERIOUS CARRIAGE 187 XXII. MARK EELATES HIS MASONIC EXPERIENCES 197 ' ' The ties of a Eoyal Arch Mason, " Note 23 200 "Libations are still used In some of the higher degrees, "Note 24 200 "That vail of mystery that awful secrecy, " Note 25 200 "The Ancient Freemasonry that was practiced in the Mysteries, " Note 26 ... 203 " The Worshipful Master himself is a representative of the sun," Note 27 203 XXIII AN EVENING IN THE LODGE 207 ' The Ancient Mysteries, " Note 23 210 XXIV. FREEMASONRY'S MASK REMOVED SILENT ANTIMASONS, THE CIRCUIT PREACHER. RACHEL FINDS PEACE. HE GIVETH His BELOVED SLEEP 217 XXV. MOVING. THE MASONIC OBLIGATION REMOVED. THE WARFARE BEGINS 229 XXVI. THE FALL OF 1826. OUR JOURNEY. FREEMASONRY vs. JUSTICE 238 XXVII THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES 249 XXVIII. MASONRY REVEALED SAM TOLLER'S MASONRY. THE MYSTERY OF OAK ORCHARD CREEK 257 XXIX. SUNDRY HAPPENINGS 267 XXX. MASONIC SLANDER. THE ENGAGEMENT. RATTLESNAKE COBNEU 275 XXXI. NEW SCENES AND OLD FACES 286 XXXII. THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY 294 XXXIII. AUGEAN STABLES 301 XXXIV. ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE 308 XXXV. MASONRY PROTECTING MURDERERS. Vox POPULI, Vox DEI 317 XXXVI. SOME EXAMPLES OF MASONIC BENEVOLENCE AND MORALITY 333 XXXVII. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 348 " Masonry is strong enough to spread its protecting wing over the vilest criminal" 349 XXXVIII. UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE 360 XXXIX. A FORETASTE 369 LX. THK VICTORY OVER THE BEAST 376 ** I would not wish to enter Heaven with one honorable scar the less" 379 *Will you be the slaves of the lodge, HOLDER WITH CORDS of secret iniquity?" 884 INTRODUCTION. For clothing fact in the garb of fiction the writer deems no apology necessary, having only followed in so doing the universal fashion of the day; but in order to establish between author and reader a sympathetic understanding from the outset, it has seemed both proper and needful to give some of the reasons which lead to the writing of this volume. Once in their past history has God in His providence placed before the American people a great moral issue that could be neither shirked, nor ignored, nor met half way. In vain statesmen compromised, in vain pulpit and press cried " peace, peace!' 1 when there was no peace. God continually sent ''prophets and righteous men," who kept that one issue sternly before the pop- ular mind, and in many cases sealed the truth they spoke with their blood. The sequel we all know. The question God had been asking the American nation so many years in the terrible, relentless logic of events, was forced upon us at last but it was at the point of the sword. Shall the lesson be in vain? It would seem as if God intended America to be the great moral battle field for the world. In her freedom from priestcraft and kingcraft; in the sacred traditions that cluster about her past and the bow of promise which spans her future she occupies a vantage ground in such moral struggles impossible of attainment to a people fettered, as are the nations of the Old World, 8 INTKODTJCTION. with the remnants of feudalism, and bowed down with centuries of oppression, and toil, and ignorance. To America, the pole star of the world's liberties, their eyes are looking with loflf ing desire. In every great question that agitates us, which affects the freedom of our government and the stability of our institutions, they have a vital interest. Shall the simple, hardy, honest emigrant escaping from the despotisms of Eu- rope, find enthroned on our shores the more hopeless despotism of the Secret Empire, with its Grand Mas- ters and Sir Knights and Sublime Princes, its Kings and Prelates and Inquisitor Generals, its secret cliques and rings and combinations? This is one phase of the question which the sons of Pilgrim and Revolutionary sires will be called upon at no distant day to answer, and whether the shadow on the dial-plate of human freedom is to go forward or backward in the next gen- eration depends in no small degree on the readiness with which they wake to the danger and their right understanding of a subject fraught with such far-reach- ing consequences to themselves and their posterity. Thus it will be seen that the writer would have found in motives of mere patriotism more than sufficient ex- cuse for desiring to embody in a living dramatic form a true picture of the Masonic system both in its past history and its present revival. From the Morgan tragedy, unlocked at last by the sworn testimony of that great Christian statesman, Thurlow Weed, to the closing scenes of the book, not a single incident of im- portance has been introduced which cannot be easily veritied, the writer allowing no artistic considerations to blunt the force of that mightiest of weapons against error the simple, unvarnished truth. INTRODUCTION. 9 But weighty as is this reason and let the reader judge for himself if indifference to such facts as are here presented is compatible with sincere love of coun- try another and even highery^eason was the primary force which first urged the writing of these pages. For again God is calling the American people to face a second great moral issue, greater than the first inas- much as the evil we are now called upon to combat is not merely local and sectional but national; not merely national but world-wide. Slavery was a foul excrescence requiring the surgeon's knife; secretism is a subtle poi- son which, if not speedily erradicated from our body politic will make " the. whole head sick and the whole heart faint." Again God is commanding, " Proclaim liberty to the captives," for though slavery exists no longer there is a system of spiritual bondage in our midst, a fettering of mind and conscience worthy of the darkest days of priestly tyranny. And every church, every individual Christian, who through dread of agitation, fear of stirring up strife or mere lazy in- difference countenances this great evil or refuses to bear witness against it, has the fearful guilt to answer for of forging those fetters anew. More than all, Masonry is a religion, and as there can be but one true religion in the world any more than there can be but one true God, it follows that it is either a false religion or else for eighteen hundred years the hopes of humanity have centered about a cunningly devised fable of a certain Divine Man who came on earth, died for sinners, and rose again to be their eternal Friend and Intercessor which was all quite unneces- sary if Daniel Sickels, a distinguished Masonic writer, is correct when, in speaking of the Master Mason, he 10 INTRODUCTION. says: "We now find man complete in morality and intelligence, with the stay of RELIGION added, to insure him of the protection of the Deity and guard him against ever going astray. These three degrees thus form a perfect and harmonious whole; nor can we con- ceive that anything can be suggested more which the soul of man requires." SickeTs Monitor, p. 97. Be- lieving devoutly " in one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named," the writer felt called of God to show the anti- Christian character of the Masonic system, but at the same time it is hoped that the reader will recognize in the portraits of Leander's grandfather and Anson Lovejoy a desire to do justice to the many good men w r ho have been and still are caught in the snare of the lodge. In truth, throughout the writing of this vol- ume two classes have been kept continually in view as especially needing enlightenment Masons and non- Masons; the former being in nine cases out of ten actually the most ignorant of the real nature and de- signs of the institution to which they have sworn away their, liberties and their lives. These, in brief, are the author's reasons for present- ing this work to the public, in the hope that many honest and candid minds both in and out of the lodge may be lead thereby to a still fartKer investigation of its character and claims. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." E. E. F. CHAPTER I. HAD just attained my majority. If this sounds like an abrupt as well as egotistical way of beginning a story, to people who do not care to waste their time reading long para- bles, it will at least have the merit of simplicity and directness, while as respects the second charge the very fact just stated is sufficient answer. I was egotistical. I thought a great deal more of myself than the world did, or was ever likely to. But, as I said, I had just attained my majority. My grandfather, seated taanquilly in his favorite corner, felt it incumbent on him to give me some advice. It was very good and excellent advice, of the same general sort that is always given to young people, and I need not repeat it here, except to say that counsel very like it may be found in certain old-fashioned moral essays called the Proverbs of King Solomon. " Now, Leander," said my grandfather, laying down his pipe for a final and solemn winding up, "you will be a useful and honored man if you strictly obey these rules. It is like the law of gravity, or any other great principle in nature. You cannot disregard them with- out suffering the consequences and making your friends suffer with you. But I am going to speak of something 12 HOLDER WITH CORDS. else. You are the right age now to become a Freema- son, and I am of opinion that it would be an excellent thing. No one can be a good Mason without a belief in God 1 and the Bible, 2 and strict attendance to his moral duties, so that it developes and trains a sense of moral obligation in its members from the outset. Then there are, of course, other advantages, 3 though I don't want you to get the habit of always looking at the worldly side of everything. We are immortal souls and should remember that this is not our final abiding place. Still, it is proper to use all right means for advancement in life, and becoming a Mason will be a great help to you, Leander, now that you are just about to start in busi- ness for yourself. All the members of the fraternity will be, bound to consider your success as their own, and should you ever travel, or be taken sick away from friends, you have onl}" to give the necessary sign and any true Mason will minister to your wants like a brother. 4 Now I have a story to tell at this point that NOTE 1." The truth is, that Masonry is undoubtedly a religious institution- Its religion being of that universal kind in which all men agree, and which. handed down through a long succession of ages from that ancient priesthood who first taught it, embraces the great tenets of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul; tenets which by its peculiar symbolic language, it has preserved from its foundation, and still continues in the same beautiful way to teach. Beyond this for its religious faith, we must not and cannot go." Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence, page 95. NOTES. "Blue Lodge Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Bible. It is not founded on the Bible; if it was it would not be Masonry; it would be something else." Chase's Digest of Masonic Law, page 207. NOTE 8. " The allurements to unite with the Masonic fraternity partake of the nature of personal advantages. It were folly to deny that while the appli- cant is willing to impart good to his fellows, he expects equally to receive good.' 1 * * * " The prime advantages derived from a connection with Blue Lodge Masonry may be summed up under three heads, viz: relief In distress, counsel in difficulty, protection in danger." Morris's Dictionary, Art., Ad- vantages. NOTE 4. "Masonry unites men of every country, sect and opinion." Mor- ris's Dictionary; Art., Brotherly Love. MT GRANDFATHER'S ADYTCE. 13 happened let us see over twenty years ago, and I don't know but as much as twenty-five. I guess it was, for you wasn't born then, Leander. Well, well, l Life's an empty show,' as the hymnbook says." My grandfather sighed and took a pinch of snuff. I had heard the story before but was not averse to hearing it again. I am afraid the idea of any moral or religious benefit to be gained by taking the step he so strongly advised did not impress me very deeply. Bub on the other hand the idea of joining a fraternitj 7 , all the members of which would be bound to help me on in life, I did find especially agreeable, for reasons that need not now be stated. u At the close of the last century," began my grand- father, "French cruisers, as you know, were greatly troubling our commerce. I was captain of the ' Martha Ann,' and the deck of a stauncher, trimmer vessel I never trod. I shipped with a good crew, tried and able seamen; so, getting all things together, I was calculat- ing by the help of Providence to have a pretty prosper- ous, voyage. The idea of being captured hardly entered my head till we were captured, ship, cargo, crew and all by a French frigate that swooped down on the 1 Martha Ann ' like a hawk on a chicken^ We were carried to the nearest French seaport and thrown into prison, a vile, clftse hole where we nearly smothered. The place must have been some old fortress, I think, for there were slits in the wall like port holes, only so high from the ground that we had to make a ladder of each other's shoulders when we wanted to look out. We could catch a glimpse of the water and the ships r and though the sight used to make us so homesick that half of us cried like babies, we all wanted to take one 14 HOLDER WITH CORDS. turn in looking. I tell you, Leander, I felt a thousand times worse for my poor men than I ever did for my- self." I did not doubt this statement in the least. My dear grandfather had the kindest heart that ever beat in mortal bosom. His very silver snuff-box reflected the benevolence of his face like a radiator. u One day, 1 ' he continued, " a military officer visited the prison. I believe he was some sort of General In- spector or something of the sort, and it flashed through my mind that very possibly he was a Mason. Without stopping to think I gave the sign of distress, to which he promptly responded. And now do you wonder that I rate highly the advantages of joining such an institu- tion a universal brotherhood as wide as the world? For remember, he was as ignorant of English as I was of French. Only his vow 5 as a Mason could have led him to take the smallest interest in my fate. Yet from that hour my condition was entirely changed. New and roomy^ quarters were given me, a new suit of clothes, good food and considerable freedom everything in short but the privilege of writing home to my family and friends. But the condition of my poor men weighed 6n my heart. I tried hard and used every means in my power to exert my in^ience as a Mason NOTE 5. " Secrecy has a mystic, binding, almost supernatural force, and unites men more closely together than all other means combined. Suppose two men, strangers, traveling in a distant country, should by some accident be brought together for a few brief moments, during which they happen to be the involuntary witnesses of some terrible deed, a deed which circumstances demand shall remain a secret between them forever. In all the wide world only these two men, and they strangers to each other, know the secret. They separate; continents and oceans and many eventful years divide them ; but they cannot forget each other, nor the dread mystery which binds them together as with an iron chain. Neither time nor distance can weaken that mighty bond. In that they are forever one. It is not, then, for any vain or frivolous purpose that Masonry appeals to the principle of secrecy. " Sickens Ahiman Rezon,, p. 63. MY GRANDFATHER'S ADVICE. 15 in their behalf, but it was of no use. They had to re- main six months in that wretched prison, destitute of every comfort, till finally the difficulties were settled between our government and the French, when we were all set free." u But I can't see why this officer, whoever he was, was not bound by his Masonic oath to heed your ap- peal in behalf of the poor sailors," I said, rather in- consequently, as my grandfather proceeded to show. " They were noi Masons. We must draw a dividing line somewhere. Because a general rule sometimes bears very hard on a particular case it doesn't follow that the rule is not good. To allow outsiders to share its benefits would only end in the destruction of the order. Nothing could be plainer. But then Leander, if you don't care to join just yet I won't urge it. There's plenty of time." My grandfather evidently thought he had said enough, but his sudden lapse into a tone and manner, seemingly half indifferent, by some curious law of con- traries produced more effect on me than his former earnest strain. " I don't want to put off doing anything that would really be an advantage to me," t said. My grandfather looked gratified. " I'm glad to hear you say so, Leander. Procrastina- tion is a bad thing. It has ruined the prospects of many a young man before now. If a thing is right and proper to do, nothing is gained, but sometimes a good deal is lost by delay." My grandfather shook the ashes from his pipe and said no more, while I suddenly remembering some neg- lected farm duties, to which the moral reflections he 16 HOLDER WITH COEDS. had just uttered were certainly very apropos, took my hat from its peg and hurried out. It was the spring of 1826. It was also the spring time of the Nineteenth century, ushered in for the Old World in fierce storm and conflict, for us of the New in comparative peace and quiet, though the year 1812 had left scars on our prosperity not wholly effaced, while there was even then in the atmosphere of the times, at least for those who had ears to hear, " a sound as of a going in the tops of the mulherry trees 1 ' a stir of contending moral forces, of great questions to be answered, and great issues to be met how answered and how met, ye brave souls who have stood so nobly for God and right, even in the very darkest hour of wrong's seeming triumph, tell us! In our small wilderness community, with few books and fewer newspapers, we knew little and cared less for the differing issues of the day, but there are always some souls who seem to be electrically responsive to the times they are born into, and such a one was my second cousin and nearest neighbor, Mark Stedman. To a slightly built frame was coupled one of those ardent, longing, religious souls that are ever striv- ing after unattained the world says unattainable ideals. 'He had taught our district school two winters, but in the summer he worked on his father's farm. Astrono- my and theology were his favorite studies. They fed his love of the sublime a.nd the mysterious, while they ministered to the deepest cravings of a nature at once reverent and speculative; ready to follow Truth to the world's ends, but afflicted with a certain moral near- sightedness that made him just as ready to follow Error 17 when she aped Truth, though in never so clumsy a fashion. It was, as I have said, a period of suppressed stir and ferment in the intellectual and religious life of the country a breaking away from the old forms of thought, a cutting loose from the anchor of the old creeds, and the subtle influence of the times could not fail to reach a soul so sympathetic and intense as Mark Stedman's, though with an effect a good deal like new wine in old bottles. How we ever became close friends may puzzle the reader. I can give no better explanation than tli3 facts previously stated, that we were cousins and near neighbors, with this important addition, I was affianced to his sister Rachel. Of course the sagacious reader will at once perceive why my grandfather's advice was so peculiarly palata- ble. It was my ambition a very pardonable one cer- tainly to give Rachel a comfortable home at the out- set, and almost any stepping stone to success I felt warranted in mounting, unless it involved doing what was really mean or dishonorable. And that, one thought of Rachel, and the noble scorn that would flash from her black eyes if she knew it. had the power to stop me from on the instant. This being the case I was blessed with something like a double conscience. Her approval or disapproval, like a final verdict from the Supreme Bench, carried with it no possible chance of appeal. Yet with all her stern sense of right she was a most gentle creature, pitiful to a worm, careful of everybody's feelings, and ready to show kindness to the most degraded human being. 18 HOLDER WITH CORDS. T had no thought of entering the lodge without first talking over the suhject with her. I felt that her prac- tical good sense would be quick to see the advantage of such a step, and 1 * being by this time fully persuaded that it was entirely and solely for her sake that 1 con- templated taking it, I was naturally not unwilling that she should be cognizant of this fact. But on paying my customary visit at the Stedman's I found only Mark at home, seated on the back stoop with a book and a piece of paper before him on which he was drawing some complicated diagram by the fail- ing sunset light. Rachel was spending the afternoon with a neighbor and had not yet returned. It was so warm and pleasant I declined his invitation to go in, but took a seat beside him on the stoop, and after a little preliminary talk, rather absently sustained by Mark, whose soul was in his beloved calculations, I began upon the subject just now uppermost in my thoughts. " Mark, I'm thinking of joining the Freemasons. My grandfather strongly advises it, and when all is con- sidered I am not sure but it would really be as he says, the very best thing I could do." Mark chewed a spear of grass in silence. But his abstracted manner was entirely gone, and I could see that my communication had for some reason roused an unusual degree of interest, though he waited full three minutes before replying. CHAPTER II. ELL, Leander," he said at last, "what is your principal reason for wishing to join the Masons, anyway?" u The idea of some practical benefit to me, of course. Their influence will help me on in my business, and be a great ad- vantage now that I am just starting in life." " I beg your pardon; but such a reason seems to me very low and unworthy. Motives of mere selfish interest ought hot to be the chief ones to sway men of principle and conscience when making any important decision; especially when it regards joining an institu- tion whose character and antiquity ranks it only next to the church itself. Even you, Leander, would shrink aghast from the thought of joining the church for any such reason as mere worldly benefit.' 1 I listened in some amaze, for Mark in his earnestness was twirling and twisting the piece of paper on which he had drawn his half-finished diagram, into a shapeless quid between his thumb and finger a forgetfulne^s which evinced as nothing else could have done, that our subject of talk was, for the moment at least, of supreme and absorbing interest. 20 HOLDER WITH CORDS. u I know Masonry claims to be very old and to teach morality and religion and all that sort of thing," I said at length. " But the fact is, you and I belong to two different sets of beings. I am of the earth, earthy. I'll frankly own up to it. And you are well, some- where between heaven and earth most of the time, and I guess a little nearest heaven of the two. After all, I don't understand this fuss about motives. If two roads lead to the same place, what great difference dyes it make which one I take? Though I don't join with an especial eye to these moral and religious considerations that you seem to think so much of, I suppose I shall get the benefit, of them just as much as those who do." " I am not so sure of that, Leander. Do gold and jewels lie on the surface of the ground for men to pick up at their will? And is truth, which is more valuable than topaz or ruby, to be gained at less cost? Doesn't it make all the difference in the world whether a man sets out to search for gold, or hunt for blackberries? If you join the lodge for mere worldly advancement you will probably get what you seek, but its higher and grander benefits, as they formed no part of your motive in entering, will not in all likelihood ever be yours." '"For pity's sake, Mark, why don't you join?" I asked, banteringly. u Does the Papal doctrine of supererogatory merit prevail in the lodge? I hope so. I am sure it would be very convenient for me and other poor sinners, for a few members like you scattered here and there would cover up all our shortcomings." " Leander, don't make a joke of serious things. I can't bear to have you. The fact is I have been think- FREEMASONKY DISCUSSED. 21 ing over the matter for a long tivne ever since I had a talk with our minister, Elder Gushing. You know I never could see my way clear to join the church. I hope I am a Christian, but I never had the assurance. 1 am sorry for my sins, but I was never visited with those deep convictions that others feel. And while these evidences are lacking I simply don't dare ap- proach the Lord's table for fear I may eat and ,drink unworthily, and so bring down on my head the guilt of unpardonable sin. I told him just how I felt, and he said that perhaps, on the whole, it would be better to wait till my evidences grew clearer. And then he be- gan to talk about Masonry, how it was the oldest and most venerable of institutions, sanctioned by the good and great of every age. Religion's strongest ally, teaching the most sublime principles of virtue, so that it was really like a kind of vestibule leading into the church itself. He strongly recommended me to join it as a kind of preparatory sisep. I have put it off for a good while, but I don't mean to any longer. Now you know my reasons, Leander, for becoming a Mason. 1 ' It is said by Christ that u the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Even in this case I was a good deal wiser than Mark Stedman. But I made no audible comment ex- cept a low whistle under my breath which would bear any interpretation he chose to put upon it. u Have you told Rachel? 11 I finally asked. u No, but I have been meaning to; I hardly know why I haven't." The fact was I enjoyed more of Mark's confidence than his sister did. His poetical, mystical nature was 22 HOLDER WITH COKDS. apt to shrink from the touchstone of her clear common sense. The very closeness of their near relationship, allowing as it did no vantage ground of distance from which to view each other, was in their case what it very often is a bar to mutual understanding. At that moment Rachel's light step parted the orchard grass. The gold and crimson had faded from the sky and in its place was the more heavenly glory of the eventide. There was the pale sickle of a young- moon overhead and a few stars had begun to tremble faintly out of the blue. She came forward with her bonnet untied and falling backward, and her brown cheek glowing with youth and health. Ruth might have looked thus hastening home from the harvest fields of Bethlehem. " I thought I heard my name spoken, 1 ' she said, as she came up. u What is the confab about, pray?" " We were talking about joining the Masons. What do you think about it, Rachel?" Rachel took her bonnet entirely off and twirled it by the string a moment before she replied. " I don't think anything about it. Why should I? In the first place I know nothing about it, and am never likely to. That is reason enough for keeping my opinions to myself. But I don't mind telling both of you that there are things about Masonry which I neither like nor understand. What is the need of secrecy, for instance? I should not have to ask that question about a band of thieves, or even a handful of patriots who had met to plot the overthrow of some tyrant such as we read of in history. But in a time of peace and a land of freedom what is the use, as I say, of secrecy?" FKEEMASONEY DISCUSSED. 23 " I suppose good can work in secret as well as evil," said Mark. " Indeed, I asked Elder Gushing this very question and he reasoned something like this: that the mysteries of Masonry, like the mysteries of religion, were too sacred to be openly exposed to the gaze of the common and profane, who would not be benefited thereby, and for whom such things would only make sport. Even the white stone and the new name were secret symbols used in heaven." " Well,'' said Rachel, turning upon him rather sharp- ly, " as nature made me a woman I suppose I am one of the common and profane in the eye of Masonry and Elder Gushing. How could he draw any such parallel? Religion opens the door freely to male and female, rich and poor, bond and free. I never did get any good out of our Elder's sermons and I am afraid I shall get less now. But that brings me round to the next point. Isn't it rather hard that women are excluded? Don't we need its moral and religious teachings as much as men do? Are we never placed in circumstances of trial or danger when the succor and help that } T OU say every Mason is bound to give his distressed brothers would be very grateful?" u But, Rachel," I said, u men vote and make the laws. Women are excluded from our legislative halls, but you don't complain of that. If our laws are made by only one sex they are framed in the interest of both, one as much as the other. And so, though women cannot be Masons, they get all the real benefits of the institution when their husbands and brothers join." My experience had not then shown me their false- ness. I was telling Rachel only what I actually be- lieved. 24 HOLDER WITH CORDS. She was silent a moment and then with a little laugh in which amusement seemed to blend with a suppressed doubtfulness, she turned to go into the house, only say- ing as she did so u I won't presume to dictate in a thing I know noth- ing about. I dare say it is all right. It must be if such a good man as your grandfather thinks it is. He is a better man than Elder Gushing a great deal." Rachel did not open her lips again on the subject and steadily evaded all efforts on my part to resume it. CHAPTER III. A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY. T WAS accordingly arranged that Mark Stedman and I should present ourselves as candidates for admission into the lodge, which was at that time one of the most flourishing institutions of our little village. Not only did the minister belong to it, but the senior deacon and many church members, to say nothing of others, who, though of that carnal world which, ac- cording to St. John, " lieth in wickedness," were yet pew owners, and in their way pillars of respectability and influence. The preaching of Elder Gushing was on this wise. He often gave us excellent moral homilies and some- times equally excellent resumes of Israelitish history, in which he lashed severely the sins of the chosen peo- ple and their countless backslidings into idolatry, from Aaron's golden calf down to the sun worshipers seen by Ezekiel in the temple. The young people mean- while, seated in the galleries, laughed and whispered, and wrote notes to each other, while their elders slept comfortably in the pews below. But into his sermons, Christ Jesus, the Hope of all nations, the Sin Bearer for a ruined world, if He entered at all, came only " as a wayfaring man who turneth aside for a night." 26 HOLDER WITH CORDS. Under a preaching that had so little to say about the great Head, it must be owned that the church in Brownsville needed considerable propping up, and might well be congratulated that so efficient an '' ally " stood at her elbow; for the meeting house and the lodge, as if to symbolize their friendly relations were only separated by the main street of the village, and stood not a stone's throw apart. Perhaps the meekest sheep would have its thoughts if the shepherd persisted in feeding it on thistle; and I cannot blame Rachel if in her young uncharitable- ness, craving for spiritual food that should satisfy a hungered soul, hardly knoAving herself what she want- ed, only knowing that she never got it, she often said sharp things of Elder Gushing. My initiation into the lodge preceded Mark's by his own desire. As for me I was quite willing to take the entering step first and alone, and was only amused at Mark's request. " Of course so many good men would never join it if it wasn't all it claims to be," he said, apologetically, making use of that time-honored argu- ment, which I believe has, at one period or another, buttressed up every evil thing under the sun. u But the thought troubled me of assuming solemn obliga- tions whose nature I can know nothing about before- hand. It really makes me tremble. Supposing I couldn't conscientiously take them?" u Don't distress yourself, old fellow," I returned care- lessly. " Your conscience is just like a new shoe always pinching. When IVe crossed the Rubicon you'll pluck up some courage, I hope." And poor Mark, meeting with no sympathetic under- standing of his peculiar difficulties, either from Rachel A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY. 27 or me for she would not be drawn into another dis- cussion of the subject by the most artfully framed attempt to throw her off her guard betook hinrself to the barn, where a dozen gentle-eyed nioolies, his special pride and care, stood ready for milking. Not a creature on the farm but would come at Mark's call. And in their dumb trust and confidence I have no doubt he found some comfort, if nothing else. They, at least, never misunderstood him. I must state here that my younger brother, Joe, had been improving his leisure time for several days in poring over an old book which he generally contrived to shuffle out of sight when anybody approached. 1 thought it beneath my dignity to be unduly curious in Joe's affairs, but one night the important one of my initiation into the lodge seeing him occupied in his usual manner, I inquired, as I consulted the glass and ran my lingers through my hair several times to be sure I was all right, what book he had there. " Maybe I'll lend it to you when I'm done with it," was Joe's evasive answer. When I turned round Joe was innocently paring an apple, but the book was gone: a faculty of suddenly and completely disappearing, as if the earth had opened and swallowed it up seeming to be one of the most re- markable properties of the volume. "I dare say it is some foolish dream book. If it is, Joe, you'd better throw it into the tire and not be spending precious time in this way." " It ain't a dream book," said the indignant Joe, in response to this brotherly counsel. " It's a Bible story, now; ain't it, Sam?" The person appealed to nodded his head and blinked ZO HOLDER WITH CORDS. one eye alternately at Joe and rue like a quizzical owl, but made no other reply. Sam, by the way, was a kind of village " ne'er do weel"who only worked when he felt like it; and as his feelings in this respect were about as little to be depended on as the weather, his services were not in much demand among the farmers round, except at par- ticular seasons of the year when help was scarce. But my grandfather, in the kindness of his heart, often hired Sam Toller when nobody else would; and thus Joe, who rather took to the shiftless, kindly fellow, had as much of his society as he liked. " Going now, Leander?" asked Joe, as my hand was on the latch. u Yes ; its about time. Why ?" "Oh, nothing. Only take care you don't get too much light. 'Taint healthy. It blinds folks sometimes. 1 ' As this enigmatical advice was only a specimen of many mysterious hints dropped by Joe, I paid no atten- tion to it, though after closing the door I was very cer- tain I heard a smothered guffaw from Sam. My first view of the lodge room was not calculated to impress me with any undue sense of solemnity. Our meeting house, bare, homely, barnlike structure though it was, I never entered without feeling in some dim way that there was a wide difference between it and all secular places. Here tobacco juice defiled the floor, while the atmosphere was unmistakably pervaded with a strong smell of Old Bourbon. But as this was before the era of the temperance reform, when even ministers drank their daily glass (or more) as a matter of course, it is to be hoped the reader will conceive no unreason^ able prejudice. A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY. 29 Except as regarded the obligation to secrecy, which I naturally thought must imply a secret of some im- portance to keep else why the obligation? and the equally natural idea that the ceremonies of initiation into an order coeval r with the building of Solomon 6 s temple must be conducted with at least some degree of corresponding dignity, I had not the dimmest guess of what was to follow. To the question whether " unbiased by friends, un- influenced by worldly motives, I freely and voluntarily offered myself a candidate for the mysteries of Mason- ry," I gave, though rather falteringly, the expected affirmative. Had I not been strongly u biased " by my grandfather's wishes? and had not Mark Stedman told me that my motives in entering were altogether un- worthy? Though I had none of Mark's religiousness, 1 had been brought up in good old Puritan fashion, and a double falsehood right on the very threshold of my Masonic career did not look to me like a promising beginning. I am an old man now, but I blush to-day at the thought of a half-nude, blindfolded figure/ with a rope around his neck waiting for the lodge door to be opened to " a poor blind candidate 1 '' poor and blind enough. NOTE 6. "There he stands without our portals, on the threshold of this new Masonic life, in darkness, helplessness and ignorance. Having been wandering amid the errors and covered over with the pollutions of the outer and profane world, he comes inquiringly to our doors seeking the new birth and asking a withdrawal of the veil which conceals divine truth from his uninitiated si^ht. * There is to be not simply a change for the future but also an extinction of the past, for initiation is as it were a death to the world and a resurrection to a new life." Mackey's Ritualist, pages 22-23. NOTE 7. " PREPARATION. There is much analogy between the preparation of the candidate in Masonry and the preparation for entering the Temple as prac- ticed among the ancient Israelites. The Talmudical treatise entitled ' ' Beracoth " prescribes the regulations in these words: ' No man shall enter into the Lord's house with his staff [an offensive weapon] nor with his outer garment, nor with his shoes on his feet, nor with money in his purse." Mackey's Ritualist, page 42, Art. Preparation. 30 HOLDEK WITH CORDS. % Heaven knows ! " who had long been desirous of re- ceiving and having a part of the rights and benefits of this worshipful lodge, dedicated to God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John, as all true fellows and brothers have done who have gone this way before him/' Of course the Masonic reader is privileged to skip these details. They are only intended for the " common and profane " outsider to borrow Elder Cushing's phrase, so highly resented by Rachel; and as they are not pleasant to me in the retrospect, T may be excused for wanting to abridge them as far as is consistent with a graphic account. Suffice it to say, that after answering in an equally foolish manner a varietj^ of foolish questions or rather having them answered for me, I was made to kneel in front of the altar with my left hand under the open Bible, and my right on the square and compass, there to take the oath, with the customary assurance that it "would not affect my religion or my politics." Up to this time I had been simply dazed and con- founded. The wide difference between my imaginings and the reality had almost roused in me the indignant suspicion that instead of being regularly initiated I was being made the victim of a practical joke. Now the real thing was to come; and comforted by thinking^ that the Ultima Thule for which I had embarked on the unknown sea of Masonry was at last in plain sight, I went through the first part calmly and steadily. " I, Leander Severns, of my own free will and accord, in presence of Almighty God and this Worshipful Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, dedicated to God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John, do hereby and hereon most sincerely promise and swear that I will A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY. 31 always hail, ever conceal and never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of the secret art and mysteries of Ancient Freemasonry which I have re- ceived, am about to receive, or may hereafter be instructed in, to any person or persons in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother Mason, or within the body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such; and not unto him or unto them whom I shall hear so to be, but unto him and them only whom I shail find so to be after strict trial and due examina- tion or lawful information. " Furthermore I promise and swear that I will not write, print, stamp, stain, hew, cut, carve, indent, paint or engrave it on anything movable or immovable, under the whole canopy of heaven, whereby or whereon the least letter, figure, character, mark, stain, shadow or resemblance of the same may become legible or in- telligible to myself or any other person in the known world, whereby the secrets 8 of Masonry may be unlaw- fully obtained through my unworthiness." But when I came to the closing part: " To 'all of which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, without the least equivocation, mental reserva- tion, or self-evasion of mind in me whatever, binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea at loiv water mark. where the tide ebbs and flows twice in tiventij-four hours; so help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due per- formance of the same" I stopped short in horror and dismay. . "The importance of Secret -keeping is made the ground-work of all Masonic degrees. Morris's Dictionary, Art. Secret-Breaking . 3 HOLDER WITH CORDS. Bind myself under penalties so horrible? Never. Not for the secret of the philosopher's stone. Shocked and horrified I was going to refuse decidedly to go on, when a thought of my absurd condition, kneeling there blindfolded, haltered, with only a shirt and a pair of drawers, the former with the front folded back, one leg and one arm bare, one shoe off and one shoe on, to vary slightly the classic rhyme of " my son John," rushed upon me with a horrible sense of the ludicrous. And aftar that one moment's hesitation I swallowed my scruples and took God forgive me! the Entered Apprentice oath. Then came, in Masonic phrase, the " Shock of En- lightenment," 9 by which I was curiously reminded, as I had been several times before, in the course of the cer- emonies, of Joe's mysterious hints. I heard the Wor- shipful Master repeat that passage which stands on the threshold of Holy Writ, alone in its majesty, like a sublime archangel, set to guard the portals of eternal truth, "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." I heard a confused uproar all around me like Pandemonium let loose. The bandage fell from my eyes, and giddy and faint I staggered to my feet to listen to a short semi-moral, semi-religious, semi- mystical address from the Worshipful Master, receive my lambskin apron, and be presented with the three Masonic jewels, u a listening ear, a silent tongue, and a faithful heart," which though not used inexactly the NOTE 9. " In Masonry by the Shock of Enlightenment we sect humbly, in- deed, and at an inconceivable distance, to preserve the recollection and to em- body the idea of the birth of material light by the representation of the circum- stances that accompanied It, and their reference to the birth of Intellectual or Masonic light. The one is the type of the other, and hence the illumination a' the candidate is attended with a cer< mony that may be supposed to imitate ^he primal illumination of the universe. " Mickey's Ritualist, page 34. A MYSTERIOUS BOOK CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY. 33 manner intended, I have had considerable occasion for since, as subsequent chapters will show. It was all over. I was a regular Entered Apprentice in a lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. I went home " clothed/' but not in my u right mind." My senses were in a whirl and my head ached terribly, which was no matter for special wonder considering the fact that in our lodge, as in most others at that time, u refreshment" 10 had followed very close on "labor," and contrary to my usual habit I had taken more than was good for me. As I felt in no mood to encounter the rasp of Joe's tongue, I was much relieved Jo find him in bed and asleep. But his evident inkling into lodge room mat- ters was a puzzle. With the resolve that on the mor- row I would get Joe's secret out of him if bribes or threats could do it, I crept silently into bed, not desir- ing to waken Joe if I could help it, and went to sleep like " one of the wicked," without saying my prayers. NOTB 10. "By the term ''refreshment' is symbolically Implied the social hour at high xli. , when the members of the lodge are placed under charge of the Junior Warden, who is strictly enjoined to see that thov do not convert the pur- poses of refreshment into Intemperance and excess. "Morris's Dictionary, Art. Refreshment. CHAPTER IV. A TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER. CALM review of the whole subject next morning only confirmed me in my won- dering bewilderment. If this was Free- masonry, great indeed were its mysteries ; and feeling that my unassisted faculties were quite powerless to comprehend them, 1 concluded to have a talk with my grand- father, as being the only person near me eligi- ble to such communications. For even now I began to feel the galling bond 11 of lodge slavery. I could not tell my perplexities to Mark Stedrnan, my bosom friend from boyhood, and though in his case the embargo on our free speech was likely soon to be removed, between Rachel and me how was it? How must it be in the years to come, when we should sit by our own hearthstone ? Freedom to talk on every other subject, but as regarded this, a black, bottomless gulf of silence, which one of us could not cross, and the other dared not. I did not want to start the conversation, and fidgeted about some time, hoping my grandfather would begin. NOTE 11. " That this surrender of free-will to Masonic authority is absolute, (within the scope of the landmarks of the order) and perpetual, may be inferred from an examination of the emblem (the shoe or sa-idal) which is used to en- force this lesson of resignation. 1 ' Morris's Dictionary. Art. Authority. A TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER. 35 I must stop to state that, owing to his age and infirm- ities he had not for some years attended any meetings of the lodge. " Well, Leander," he said at last, pushing his specta- cles back over his forehead, " when are you intending to take the other degrees?' 7 " I don't believe I shall ever take them at all." My grandfather pushed his spectacles farther back and looked at me with mild surprise. "That won't do, Leander. To get the full benefits of joining the order you ought certainly to become a Master Mason. That's far enough;* as far as I ever went myself. I don't think much of these higher de- grees they are perpetually tacking on nowadays. They are what Papist ceremonies are to religion ; innovations that can only work mischief. These new-fangled, up- start degrees are invented to tickle shallow minds. They are like mitres, and red hats, and triple crowns, just made to puff up human vanity, nothing else under the sun. Masonry, pure and simple, is a divine 11 insti- tution, and doesn't need any of this artificial bolstering up." ' k To tell the truth, grandfather," said I, waiving a branch of the subject in which I did not feel interested, " I am disappointed in the whole thing. It isn't what I thought it was. I don't understand it." kt Of course you don't," answered my grandfather, placidly. " It isn't intended to be understood at first. Knowledge must corne by degrees. I never met with a NOTE 12. " All the ceremonies of our order arc prefaced and terminated with prayer because Masonry If) a religious Institution and because we thereby show iv- r dependence on, and our faith and trust In, G-od." -Mackey's Lexicon, Art. Prayer. 36 . HOLDER WITH COEDS. man yet who understood the first chapter of Genesis." " But," said I, making a desperate rush to the real point, u I don't like the way in which the oath is put, and don't quite like the idea of taking an oath at all; but if I could take it as in a court of justice, erect, with my eyes open like a man, and none of those horrible penalties at the end, I should make no objections to it." "You feel something as I did, Leander," was my grandfather's unexpected reply. '" There are things in Masonry that I never could understand even to this day, that I never could bring myself to quite like. But we must remember that it is a very ancient 13 institution, founded in very different times from these, so naturally there would be things about it that don't accord with our ideas now. Why, I find it just so with the Bible, Leander. There are things in the Old Testament that I never could quite reconcile in my own mind with the New: the wars of the Jews, for example, and David's praying for vengeance on his enemies. But then I don't give up my Bible. I know it is all right, and that is enough for me. And just so with Masonry; I take what I do understand, and let the rest go." Oh, my dear grandfather! was there ever a simpler, truer soul than thine caught in the coils of " the hand- maid?" I felt my objections unconsciously melting before such simplicity, such kindness and candor, as snow NOTE 13. " From the commencement of the world we may trace the founda- tion of Masonry. Ever since symmetry began and harmony displayed her charms our order has had a being. " WeWs\Monitor^ page 1 ; Sickels's Ahiman Rezon, page 14; Sickel^s Masonic Monitor, page 9. 'A belief In the Antiquity of Masonry Is the first requisite of a good teacher. Upon this all the legends of the order are based. The dignity of the Institution depends mainly upon its age, and to disguise its gray hairs is to expose it to a contemptuous comparison with every society of modern date." flote by Robert Morris, page 1, Webb's Mon- itor. A TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER. 37 melts under a spring sun. After all, could there be inherent evil in Masonry when such a man as he. up- right, benevolent, doing his duty to God and his neighbor, so far as he knew it, saw none ? If the read- er is tempted to ask the same question, let me in return put to him another: In the days when human slavery lay like a pall over our land, were there no apologists for the terrible system, as kind, as candid, as Christian as was my grandfather? Joe, contrary to my expectations, had not tried to annoy me with any of his mysterious inuendoes; and, acting on the wise old adage, to let "sleeping dogs alone," I concluded that it would be best on the whole to let him enjoy his secret unmolested. That he had overheard the talk of some careless Masons who had neglected to " tyle " their doors properly against "cowans and eavesdroppers " seemed the most probable way of explaining it; and, truth to tell, I shrank from a contest with Joe in which I was very likely to come off second best. I was much more troubled to think what I should say to Mark, especially as I saw him just then crossing the fields, and knew that though he had come ostensi- bly on some errand of the farm, his real object was to have a talk with me. And so it proved. u Mother wants to know if Uncle Severns has got a setting hen he'd like to part with. One that she put some eggs under the other day is flighty, and keeps leaving her nest." We went out to the barn together and a hen of the desired proclivities being duly selected, Mark, holding his captive fast, turned to me with an expectant "Well?" CHAPTER V. PREPARATION FOR A JOURNEY. u PASSED AND RAISED/' HAT do you want me to tell you?" I asked. "None of the secrets, of course; but I thought you might give me some gen- eral idea of the nature of the obligations without disclosing anything." " That's exactly what I can't do," I an- swered, promptly. " The obligations 14 them- selves are a part of the secret. 11 Mark's countenance fell perceptibly. He stood still for a moment, softly stroking the brown feathers of the hen, which gently pecked at his hand and gave sundry low, pleased cackles in response to his rather abstracted caresses. Then with a sudden brightening of his face he looked up and said: 11 Anyhow, you can tell me one thing. Are you glad or sorry you have joined the lodge?" He had put the test question. I might nave shirKed it by some cowardly evasion, but I thank God him alone, for it was no courage of mine that I never thought of doing so. u Mark. 1 ' I answered, " when a thing is done and there is no going back, regrets are not of much use. But I want to tell you now that Masonry is not in the least what I thought it was, and when you come to find NOTE 14. " It Is the obligation which makes the Mason. ''Morris 11 Diction- ary. Art. Obligation. "PASSED AND RAISED/' 39 out what it really is you will be more disappointed than J am, because you expected more. And this is about all I am able to tell you." "But then/' said Mark, after an instant's thought, " you must remember that you have only taken the first degree; perhaps that is the reason it disappoints you. If we judged everything by its beginning our judgments would be very partial and biased, and lead us to utterly wrong conclusions in the majority of cases." Though the more I thought about it the more re- pugnant grew the idea of letting Mark, with his nervous system as finely toned and delicate as a woman's, enter the lodge without any notion of the ordeal he must pass through. How could I utter a syllable to warn him ; with the iron grip of .that terri- ble vow binding me to perpetual silence? And what added to my perplexity, I did not feel prepared, since that talk with my grandfather, to call the system evil, and entirely evil. I had only taken the first degree, as Mark said, and it was not impossible that by going farther and deeper into it I might find my previous Impressions entirely altered; for I felt much as Rachel did, that my grandfather, though an untaught layman who had followed the seas most of his life, in his sim- ple-hearted goodness actually stood on a far higher level of Christian attainment than our formal and per- functory Elder. Let the reader bear in mind that at this period Ma- sonry was a power that, according to one of its own orators, " stood behind the sacred desk, sat in the chair of justice, and exercised its controlling influence in executive halls." a factor of unknown quantities that 40 HOLDER WITH CORDS. entered more or less into every problem of the day, social or political, and he will understand one reason why it was so seldom denounced as a moral evil. True, some exceptionally bold spirit here and there had the courage to protest, but his witness generally fell power- less between the horns of two opposing dilemmas; for either he was or was not a member of the lodge, obliged in the one case to withhold his real reasons for de- nouncing it, because those reasons were themselves a very important part of the secrets his oath required him to keep; or, on the other hand, forced to base his opinions of the system almost wholly on the little he could see of its outside workings. While I was thinking what to say to Mark, Joe's in- separable companion, Sport, a brown and white puppy of no species in particular, ran in and began to smell frantically about the floor, then giving one joyons yelp and bark dashed into a corner behind me, and tearing away the hay, disclosed Joe himself in his retreat, which, to do him justice, he had chosen for purposes of privacy rather than eavesdropping. For among other inconvenient traits incident to his age and disposition, he had a habit of shirking any irksome or unsavory task about the farm by absenting himself in the man- ner above described. And thus he had overheard all our conversation. I regret to say that I immediately collared Joe with the intent to give him a shaking, but as Mark, who had much the same liking for him that he might have felt for a mischievous monkey, good-naturedly inter- posed in his behalf, I finally released the young gentle- man, after darkly promising that u he would catch it another time." ''PASSED AXD RAISED." 41 Mark went off with his hen under his arm, perplexed, curious and dissatisfied. I must confess that it was a relief to me to have our conversation broken off. At the same time it was plainly evident that I could not guard my Masonic jewels any too carefully from the unscrupulous Joe. At that moment Sam Toller, pitchfork in hand, looked in at the barn door. " Yer gran'ther wants ye, Leander, right off." " Do you know what for, Sam?" I asked, rather sur- prised at this sudden summons. u Wall, I couldn't say for sartin. May be he's got some news to tell you. He kinder looked as though he had. And, come to think on't, I saw the postman leave suthin' about an hour ago." Sam's Yankee faculty for guessing, and generally guessing right, whether it concerned the weather, or the crops, or human doings in general, was seldom at fault. It was not in the present instance. MJ T grandfather held a certain land claim in western Pennsylvania, and the important news was this: There was now an opportunity for selling the land at a great advance on the original price, so great indeed as almost to make our fortune, as fortunes went in those primi- tive times. Furthermore, as doing business by corre- spondence was slow, troublesome and unsafe, our present perfect mail system being then in embryo, and as there were also sharpers in the land in those days, human nature being much the same in 1825 that it is in 1882, it seemed highly necessary that some member of the family should go in person to negotiate the sale. My grandfather adjusted his spectacles at exactly the right angle, and gave the letter one more careful and 42 HOLDER WITH CORDS. deliberate reading. Then he folded it up and turned to me. "Yott must be the one to attend to this business, Leander; I see no other way. I've always calculated on giving you and Rachel something to start with when you are married, instead of leaving it all to you in my will, and this'll come very handy now. It's something of a responsibility, I know, to put on young shoulders, and if you were like Mark Stedman, with your mind in the clouds half the time, I shouldn't feel easy to trust you. Not but what Mark is as good a fellow as ever breathed, and knows enough to be a minister, only when it comes to doing business it needs a level head." My grandfather's decision was ratified in a solemn family council held at dinner, when the subject was discussed in all its phases and bearings, the only oppos- ing voice being my gentle widowed mother's, who saw only danger and death for me in the enterprise. "0, I can't let Leander go!" she cried. " He will certainly be killed by the Indians." " Poh !" said my grandfather. u What are you think- ing of, Belinda? There are no Indians about there now. He will be in a sight more danger from painters and rat- tlesnakes. Not that / ever saw rattlesnakes anywhere else as thick as I've seen 'em right here in this very township. Why, I remember when we first came here a party of us went out and killed twenty in one after- noon." Whereupon Sam Toller for in true democratic fashion master and servant eat at one table proceeded to match this story with another which I will not mar by trying to repeat. Sam was renowned far and near "PASSED AND RAISED." 43 for his snake stories." While nobody could relate tougher ones, he had the true artist instinct, and knew just how to mingle fact and fiction so nicely that it was impossible to tell where the one began and the other left off. Even my grandfather listened with indulgent interest, but my mother gave rather absent attention, and as soon as Sam finished started a fresh cause for alarm. u There are worse things than painters or rattle- snakes. What if he should be robbed and murdered coming home?" u Belinda," and my grandfather spoke gravely and solemnly, " this business has got to be attended to. I hate to have Leander go, but there seems to be no other way to do. He is the staff of my old age, but there is One in whose keeping I can safely trust him." And Miss Nabby Loker, my mother's prime minister in all domestic affairs, and despotic, as prime ministers are apt to be, put in her word of consolation. " After all, Mrs. Severns, I wouldn't worry. If anybody is foreordained to be killed, staying at home won't help it any, and if they are foreordained to die a natural death, why, it'll be so even if they go to the world's ends. There's a sight o' comfort now in that doctrine. I wonder folks don't see it more. It makes you feel so easy 'like to know that everything is all decreed beforehand." As my grandfather leaned towards Methodism, his ideas of free grace and Miss Loker's rigid Calvinistic interpretation of the Divine decrees often came in con- flict; but now he offered no word, either of contradic- tion or comment, but sat with his gray head bowed in silent reverie: possibly prayer. It may have occurred 44 fiOLDEH WITH CORDS. to liiin that even so stern and forbidding a doctrine might be a refuge to the troubled soul in hours like this. There are times when it is good to feel that underneath God's love and tenderness is an infinite knowledge, em- bracing all our future life, our down-sittings and up- risings from the cradle to the grave, and even beyond into that dim eternity which bounds all mortal vision. Rachel took the news very quietly. Like all self- contained natures her feelings showed very little on the surface. " It is your duty to go, Leander, and that settles it. I am sorry your poor mother feels so worried. She ex- aggerates the dangers. I have no doubt you will come home all safe and quite a hero/' "And then?" I looked up at Rachel questioningly. She under- stood me, for a little wave of color rushed over cheek and brow. But there was not a shade of coquetry about Rachel. In her sweet, pure nature there was no room for such a thing. " As soon as you get home, Leander;" she quietly answered. And so our wedding day was fixed. It was to be the sixteenth of September Rachel's birthday. Sam Toller duly spread abroad the tidings of my pro- jected journey, in which the whole village took a de- cided interest not at all strange under the circumstances. As my grandfather was liked by every man, woman and child and I might safely add the very dogs in Brownsville everj^body was full of good wishes and kindly advisings, given in the hearty, neighborly fash- ion of rural communities, where the weal and woe of the individual is considered part and parcel of the whole. 45 Among others who came in to talk over the impor- tant matter was Deacon Brown, a man of much influ- ence, both in the church and out of it. Not only was our village named for him, and its every post of trust and honor filled by him at various times, but he had been twice elected to the State Legislature. Being an enthusiastic Mason himself, when the talk turned, as it naturally did, on the length and possible perils of the journey, he at once adverted to my having lately joined the fraternity as a particularly good thing at this juncture. " Only he ought to take the two upper degrees be- fore he starts; decidedly, he ought to." " You are quite right, Deacon," answered my grand- father: "I have told him myself that to get the full benefits of belonging to the order he must go as high as the Master Mason's 15 degree. You must urge it on him. The words of a man like you, now. might have a good deal of influence with him." The Deacon was used to such gentle, unconscious flattery from his. townsmen and turned to me with a fatherly smile. kt You must listen to your grandfather, Leander. You are not at liberty to neglect such an important duty; such a shield against all manner of unknown perils. You owe something to your friends if you don't to yourself. Why, nobody knows or ever can know how many lives Masonry has saved," he added, waxing en- thusiastic over his pet institution. u IVe heard of even pirates and highway robbers that respected the Masonic sign and, when it was given, treated those they had been laying out to rob and murder like brothers. But I don't mean," explained the worthy Deacon with :i NOTE 15. "Entered Apprentices are possessed of very few rights, * * arc not permitted to speak or vote or hold anv office ; secrecy and obedience are tlie only obligations imposed upon them. " Mackey's Jurisprudence, p. 159. 46 HOLDER WITH COBDS. sudden remembrance of the possible interpretation which un-Masonic ears might put upon this statement, " that a lodge would ever take in such characters, knowingly. Even the church cannot always keep out unworthy members, so I have no doubt some have joined the Masons who became robbers and pirates afterwards, and yet had enough of conscience left not to dare violate their oath." Remembering the awful nature of that oath, as it had been imposed on me, I found no difficulty in believing that it might have acted as a restraint on Captain Kidd himself, had that worthy ever joined the fraternity, of which I was doubtful. As the highest Masonic authority gravely holds out, among the various inducements of the order, its power "to introduce you to the fellowship of pirates, corsairs and other marauders," let not the innocent-minded reader conceive any ill opinion of Deacon Brown for doing the same thing; nor think it strange that, urged by him and entreated by my grandfather, who was not quite willing to leave his favorite grandson to the shield of Omnipotence alone, I consented to take the upper degrees and was duly " passed and raised " to the Sub- lime Degree of a Master Mason, with all the privileges appertaining thereunto among them that of consort- ing on brotherly terms with " the pirates and corsairs " aforesaid. CHAPTER VI. .N EVENING WITH KACHEL.. WAS going to take the journey on horseback; and Major, a fine, fleet, spirited animal raised on the farm, was the one selected by my grandfather as best fitted in qualities of speed and en- durance to bear me successfully on the ex- pedition. They all gathered round to say " Good-bye," and see me off the dear home faces transfig- ured with the love and tenderness of parting. Even Joe, though he had so often been an aggravating thorn in the side of his more sedate elder brother, now looked almost manly in his new gravity and soberness. So much so that I bent down and whispered to him, as he stood giving Major a farewell pat: u Dear Joe, I hope I shall come back all safe, but if I don't if anything happens to me take good care of our mother and grandfather. Don't let them want for anything, but be their pnop and stay instead of me." " Oh, Leander, don't talk in that way!" sobbed Joe, who was as warm-hearted as he was provoking. " I want to tell you now before you go off, I'm real sorry for all the mean, aggravating tricks I've played off on you, and 1 want you to forgive me/' Forgive Joe! Yes, until seventy times seven! Nor 48 HOLDER WITH CORDS. was it any check on the freeness and fullness of my forgiveness that I knew very well Joe's repentance would last as long as my absence by the calendar, and not a day longer. I had bid good-bye to Rachel the night before. What we said I will not write here, for I am afraid the reader will not be interested in our lover's plannings for the future, or all the little things as important to us as the bits of straw to nest-building birds, which, with provi- dent New England forecast, Rachel was already be- ginning to gather together in reference to our future home, and now showed me with a pretty pride in her own economy and thrift. There was an old arm chair that she had stuffed and covered with her own fingers, till it was the perfection of coziness and comfort; a stand bought at a bargain, which would be just right to hold the family Bible; and such stores of linen table cloths and towels of her own weaving, wonderful to behold in their exquisite fineness and whiteness. Yes, Rachel and I loved each other with that pure, honest love, which I am afraid is not as common now as it ought to be, but which, whenever I see it, makes me feel as if a flower from Eden had suddenly blossomed in my path. Yet Eden had its serpent. There was one subject avoided by both of us with a kind of instinct. I had advanced to the third degree in Masonry only to find my rst experience repeated; to be disappointed and astonished at the infinitessimal smallness of the secrets revealed, and bewildered with the 'general mixture of solemnity and puerility which characterized the ceremonies. But I had come to the conclusion that so long as I was fairly in, with no pros- pect of getting out, I would make the best of it by AH EVENING WITH RACHEL. 49 reaping all the advantages I possibly could from my connection with the order. My self-satisfaction, how- ever, was much disturbed by Rachel's negative disap- proval, which I felt, like a kind of Mordecai in the gates, that would neither bow down nor do homage. " You must see, Rachel," I said, with the hope of getting her to say something favorable, " that my join- ing the Masons is a very good thing now. I may be placed in circumstances where I shall need assistance that no mere stranger, uninfluenced by any such tie, would be likely to render." Rachel took a moment to consider, and then, instead of giving me any direct answer, turned around with the rather startling inquiry: u Do you suppose the Good Samaritan was a Free- mason?" " What an idea, Rachel! 1 ' "I don't see anything so very strange about it. Didn't Elder Gushing tell us when Uncle Jerry died, and had that great Masonic funeral, that Masonry was many hundred years older than the time of Christ? Didn't he tell us that John the Baptist and ever so many others, way back to Hiram and Solomon, were Masons? So the Good Samaritan might easily have been one, only I am certain he wasn't." u Why not?" I inquired, curious to see by what style of reasoning she would prove her point. u just because our Savior holds him up as an ex- ample of the purest benevolence for all mankind to imitate, which he certainly never would have done had there been any tie between the Samaritan and that poor wounded Jew, other than just their common hu- manity; for then it would not have been benevolence, 50 HOLDER WITH CORDS. but a mere sense of honor or duty, or some such thing, quite different from charity. Don't you see?" I did see, and for the first time felt a little vexed at Rachel's clearsightedness. I had been rather fascinated, to tell the truth, with the brotherly love, so strongly inculcated among lodge duties, the only thing about Masonry, by the way, which had as yet very much commended itself to either my conscience or common sense. " It seems to me, Rachel, you are straying wide of the subject," I said, impatiently. " Why do you evade a plain question? I only asked if you did not think it a good thing under the present circumstances." " Oh, I dare say," answered Rachel, indifferently, as if she did not care to discuss the subject. And then she went and stood at the window a moment, silently gazing out at the starlit sky. A vein of mingled poetry and humor, bubbling up in 'all manner of unexpected ways and places, gave to Rachel's character a sort of piquant charm. I think now she resembled as much as anything a New England huckleberry pasture, rich with every kind of wild, sweet, homely growth hardback and sweet fern and blackberry vines full of sharp little briars, all tangled in together. u Now, Leander," she sa.id, suddenly pointing up to the sky, " 1 am going to give you something to remem- ber me by. I shall choose a star and call it mine, and whenever you see it shine out you must think, ; That's Rachel's star. 1 But which shall it be?" And she stood in a pretty, reflective attitude, with upraised eyes, scanning the airy vault. Then she clapped her hands gleefully. AX EVENING WITH RACAEL. 51 "There, I have it!" she exclaimed. ''Don't you rt- m ember when we were children, coming home from school hot and thirsty, we used to think the water at the Widow Slocum's was better than anywhere else, for no earthly reason than because she always gave it to us in a new tin dipper, so bright we could see our faces in it? Thinking of that has put it into my head what I will choose the constellation of the Dipper. It has such a housewifely, practical sound, too; just the thing." And Rachel laughed her sweet, low, musical laugh, in which, as I had now forgotten my momentary vexa- tion with her, I could not help joining. But she Suddenly sobered, and turned away from the window with eyes suspiciously bright in the star gleam. "Sometimes I have thought it wrong for me to pray," she said, "because I am not a Christian; but I shall pray that God will guard you from every danger, and I think he will hear me, though I am not 'a believer.' as they call it. But oh, I wish I was! I think I might be one if I had somebody to tell me how. I tried to talk with Elder Cushing once, but what he said to me might as well have been so much Hebrew. It was all about 'saving faith,' 'sanetification' and 'assurance,' and such things that I could not understand in the least, or see how I could eveT make them have any practical connection with my homely, actual, every-day life. I suppose, these things are really necessary before one can be a Christian, but they seem to me as far off and as hard to reach as the very stars shining up there. Of course, it is not really so, or else nobody could be a Christian. I suppose the fault is all in me that I might have them if I would. But it seems to me that I am willing, and all I want is to find somebody that 52 HOLDEK WITH CORDS. knows how to begin low down, and teach me as they teach the primer to little children." While nothing in my own heart answered to Rachel's longings, I was touched by the pathos in her cry, and felt something like indignation at Elder Cushing's utter inability to help her. For what right had a man to stand where he did and yet have no word of heavenly counsel that a simple, honest soul like Rachel's could appropriate to her spiritual needs? When she asked for bread when, in the humility of her soul-hunger, she would have been glad of the very crumbs of Grospel truth why did he give her a stone? It is but fair to say that Elder Gushing had no direct, intention of thus mocking her needs; no thought of bringing down on himself the old prophet's terrible denunciation, "Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the flock." But did he never sorrow in secret over his fruitless, barren ministry? Was he satisfied that while the lodge grew and prospered the church received next to none into its fold? Did no thought cross his mind that, professed minister of Jesus Christ though he was, he served at a strange altar that he even took of its unhallowed fires, and in the very temple of Jehovah offered profane incense in praise of another God? I dare not say. Long years ago Elder Gushing went where mortal judgment has neither right nor the power to follow him; but let the "foolish shepherds" of a later day heed these woids of warning from another plain old prophet: Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hands. CHAPTER VII. A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERICHO. HE parting fairly over, my spirits went up like the barometer before a clearing norVest wind. The going forth like the hero in a fairy tale to seek my for- tune had a pleasurable excitement that buoyed me up through the first part of the expedition, and made me insensible to most of the discomforts and fatigues which a journey of any length in those days almost necessarily involved. But I had never any difficulty in obtaining a night's shelter even when tavern accommodations failed me, as they often did in that new, sparsely settled country; for among the rough but kindly farmers, hospitality was the rule and its opposite the exception. Thus the first part of my journey was utterly devoid of those situations in which the Masonic rites and privileges with which I had been lately invested are peculiarly valuable; and a certain pride and self-respect, the re- sult of my New England birth and breeding, kept me from claiming them when there was no urgent call for so doing. Near the Ohio boundary I stopped at a cabin situated in the middle of a small clearing, but with no sign of any other human habitation near, to inquire my way v of which I felt doubtful.. Dogs, little and big, rushed 54 HOLDEN WITH COEDS. out as I rode up, barking defiance in various keys, from the shrill yelp of the smaller curs to the deeper and more threatening bass of their leaders; but an old man sitting on a log outside, smoking his pipe, came forward and hospitably dispersed the dogs with an oath here and a kick there all but one, who seemed to be a privileged character, a cross between the bull and mastiff breed, and as surly as the captain of a regiment of Bashi-bazouks. The whole place was repulsive its owner no less so. Rum-soaked, tobacco-soaked, he was the very picture of a hoary-headed old sinner; I could not bear to look at him. " Fine beast, that o' yours,' 1 he said, admiringly, eying my horse, " but looks kinder jaded. Been far to day? 1 ' " Quite a piece," I said, feeling disposed to be laconic. " Can you tell me if I am on the right road to Lundy's Settlement? 11 " Lundy's Settlement? Ye ain't reckonin 1 to git thar to-night?' 1 I answered in the affirmative, feeling that I should infinitely prefer spending the night out of doors with Major tethered to a tree than accept his hospitality, which, however, he did not seem to offer. " I say, Matt, 11 he called out, stepping back and speaking to some one within the cabin. "Here's a man wants to go to Lundy's Settlement. You kin tell him about it I reckon." And in answer to this appeal u Matt " came out; but as our conversation was mingled on his part with profane expletives, many and various, I shall not record it here, only to say that it was ex- tremely unsatisfactory, for while possessing entire, A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERICHO. 55 knowledge of the whole local geography of that region, he ingeniously evaded giving me any direct information regarding the points on which. I most desired to be en- lightened. He was a younger man than the other young enough to be his son, and of equally sinister expression. Indeed the relationship between them was apparent at a glance. 4 ' He kin git thar to-night, dad," said the worthy, finally, and tipping a sly wink in the old man's direc- tion as he spoke. " There's a way through the woods, only its kinder lonesome. Git out thar, you!" This side remark, I must explain, was not addressed to me, nor to the paternal relative, but to the canine Bashi-bazouk, who was smelling viciously about Major's BONES. B} T putting a few more questions I found that the " way through the woods " was a bridle path that would lead me out near the river, on the other side of which the settlement lay, and decided to take it without more ado. " Just follow the road you come on, straight along till you come to a blazed tree its a big butternut. Turn in thar and keep along till you come to the river,' 1 was the gist of the directions given me as I rode away, which being* so plain and simple seemed hardly to admit of mistake, especially as I found without any difficulty the " blazed " tree which was to be my gui'de to Lundy's Settlement. Innocent readers of more civilized regions and times may need to be informed that the number of " blazes " on a tree that is, where the bark is chipped off also their peculiar position on the trunk, whether horizontal or perpendicular, formed a system of directions for the use of the traveller as important for him to understand 56 HOLDEN WITH CORDS. as the language on the regular signboards in more civilized parts. For a while I trotted on in good spirits. But the woods grew denser, the shadows longer, and I halted and looked about me with a feeling of disheartening doubt. Could I have possibly mistaken the way? I was about to move on when the woods to one side of me crackled sharply. Several masked men sprang out, and before I could turn for defence or parley I re- ceived a violent blow on the head that knocked me senseless from the saddle. ******* When I awoke to consciousness the stars were shining. At first I did not try to move but lay in a kind of stupor, feeling curiously indifferent to all that had happened. But as my senses slowly returned the whole terror of the situation rushed upon me like a great wave. The robbers had not only taken my faith- ful horse and my trusty pistol, but had also taken every cent of money I had about me. I tried to sit up but fell wearily back with a groan of pain, wondering if there was anything left for me to do but lay there, desolate and forsaken, in those wild, unknown woods till death found me. But suddenly my heart leaped with a new sense of hope. As I gazed btankly upward I could see shining down upon me, still and clear, the constellation of the Dipper Rachel's chosen sign. Rachel, bright, merry, housewifely Rachel! What was she doing now? Working some pretty knicknack for the happy home that perhaps would never be ours? drawing the needle in and out with bright visions of the future ? " Rachel, Rachel," I moaned; and then, echoing in my heart like an angel's A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERICHO. 57 voice, I hear again her tearful words said on the eve of our parting: "I shall pray that God will guard you from every danger, and I think he will hear me." I felt strangely comforted! The awful terror passed from me, and in its stead came a restful, soothed feeling almost like a child on its mother's breast. And the hours of the night wore on, and still I lay there watched over by Rachel's starry sign that paled as the dawn approached like a beautiful hope lost in its own fulfillment. The east grew pearly gray, then flushed to roseate. All about me was the stir of awakening life. I roused myself to one more effort, and found I could walk, though with great pain and difficulty, for among my other injuries I had suffered a dislocation of the ankle bone, which was the result of falling from my horse when the sudden attack of the ruffians felled me to the ground. As I limped groaningly along, being obliged to sit down and rest at such frequent intervals that I made small progress, the welcome sound of a distant gallop struck my ear. It was coming nearer, and 1 shouted, u Helloo!" with all the strength of voice I could muster. " Helloo!" was answered back, and in an instant the horseman had flung himself off and was listening to my tale in much wonder and indignation. He wore the common, rough, backwoodsman's dress, and his black hair and beard seemed totally unacquainted with razors or barber's shears; but he had very pleasant features, lit np by an expression of unconscious, almost childlike goodness, that I secretly felt to be rare, and was attracted to accordingly. 58 HOLDER" WITH CORDS. "Confound the mean, horse-stealing rascals," he burst out at last. " I ain't swearing, stranger, though my woman would say I was. It must have been Dick Stover's where you stopped. I always suspected him and his sons of being in with that gang, bat never could get the proof. They directed you right the op- posite way from the settlement, and then gave infor- mation whereabouts to lay in wait for you as you rode along. I now sec it all as plain as a church steeple." I may as well stop to explain that I had suffered at the hands of a noted gang of horse-thieves, the impun- ity with which they committed their outrages being chiefly due to the fact that they had secret accomplices scattered here and there through the settlements. u If the folks in these parts don't get stirred up a trifle now, my name ain't Benjamin Hagan," continued that modern representative of the Good Samaritan. " But let me help you mount my beast, and we'll get home as quick as we can. You look as though you wanted a little fixing." Grave as was the situation, it occurred to me with some sense of amusement that I was pretty thoroughly u fixed" already, being now in circumstances of suffi- cient distress to give me an undoubted claim on the charity of any Masonic brother, for it may not be known to the general reader that the style of dress, or rather undress, imposed on every lodge candidate and duly described in a prior chapter, is really an object lesson, the lodge being much given to this peculiar method of instruction; and the reasons therefore, Ma- sonically considered, are as follows: u That, being an object of distress at the time, it was to remind the A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERICHO. 59 candidate if he ever saw a brother in like situation to contribute liberally to his relief." Mr. Hagan's connection with the fraternity I felt to be a rather doubtful point, but I remembered that among the other bits of disinterested advice given me before leaving home, I was told that it was always best to determine, by putting a direct question at the out- set, whether or no the person on whose charity I might happen to be thrown was a Mason. And this question I accordingly put. But instead of answering me at once, Mr. Hagan stared with something between a frown and a smile, and then put the return interroga- tory: " Be you one?" " Yes," I answered, rather faintly. u Then, stranger, I will give you some advice. Don't go to maddening me with any of your grips and signs, for I tell you beforehand, I ain't responsive." And having thus delivered himself, Mr. Hagan's face resumed its usual serenity of expression, as he helped me to mount, and then led the horse by the bridle for about half a mile, till he reached a neat, substantially built log cabin, the front almost covered with flowering vines, where "his woman," a gentle, dove-like being, who used the Quaker thee and thou, stood ready, as soon as the case was explained to her, to lavish upon me every motherly care. And sorely, indeed, I needed it. Fever set in, the result of my wounds, and for several days ran high. CHAPTER VIII. MRS. HAGAN'S OPINION OF ELDER GUSHING. AM glad thee is feeling better, friend Leander. Will thee try some squirrel soup? It will be nice and nourishing for thee." This remark was addressed to me by Mrs. Hagan, one day after I had made con- siderable progress on the road to convales- cence. Dressed in the regulation gray of her sect, with a snowy handkerchief pinned across her bosom, and on her head the daintiest Quaker' cap', which could not quite confine the bright hair that waved and rippled over her forehead with most un- Quaker like freedom, my hostess was a charming woman, as fitted to adorn a palace, had Providence seen fit to place her in one, as her own log cabin home. During my sickness I learned considerable about my host and his wife. They were both communicative in the easy, simple-hearted fashion which naturally begets confidence in return. Already I had told them all about Rachel, and my engagement to her, to the great delight of the worthy couple, the history of whose own courtship and marriage I will now proceed to relate. Mr. Hagan was born in Virginia, and on the death of his father came into possession of considerable property, of which a number of negro slaves formed MRS. HAGAX'S OPIHlOtf OF Lt)ER GUSHING. 61 the most valuable part. On a visit into the bordering State of Pennsylvania, he fell deeply in love with a fair young Quakeress, who, though her family were decided- ly against her marrying outside the pale of Friends, seemed disposed to smile upon his suit. But on one point she stood firm. Educated to believe that human slavery was a horrible system, replete with wrong, and the grossest injustice, she utterly refused to counte- nance it so far as to marry a slaveholder. And as fourteen years of service were as nothing to Jacob for the love he bore to Rachel, so the value of his human chattels were to honest Ben Hagan as the small dust of the balance compared to the priceless jewel of such a woman's affection. Like the merchantman in the parable he sold all he had and bought it. As was natural with a man of his intense convictions it was but a step from ceasing to be a slaveholder to becoming an ardent Abolitionist, and Mr. Hagan, by his fierce denunciations of the system, soon made him- self so unpopular with his neighbors that he was finally glad, for more pressing reasons than poverty for after freeing his slaves' there was not much left of the father's patrimony to leave Virginia and buy a tract of land in one of the wildest portions of western Pennsylvania. But the woman who had urged him to this step for conscience' sake was not the one to shrink back from any personal sacrifice it might involve. Cheerfully she accepted all the hardships and privations of that rough border life, while her Quaker thrift and management told in the long run. Children were born to them, and a fair degree of comfort and prosperity now bless their simple, God-fearing lives. Mr. Hagan had been for a number of years an 62 HOLDER WITH CORDS. itinerant Methodist preacher, whose services at camp- meetings were in great demand, as before his stentorian voice and fervid eloquence his simple, excitable hearers bent like a field of corn before the reaper's scythe; and his gentle Quaker consort supplemented his labors most efficiently, for their seemingly opposite faiths, producing no discord in their lives, caused no separation in their work. Her "inner light,'' and his u witness of the Spirit; 11 her Quaker simplicity of speech and his Meth- odist fervor, blended together in delightful harmony like the different parts in a psalm tune; though the unregenerate man within him would sometimes crop out in a mild expletive for which she always reproved him with a gentle, u I am surprised at thee, Benjamin." As I was sipping the squirrel soup, delicious in its rich flavor and exact seasoning, Mrs. Hagan took out her knitting and began to engage me in a talk about Rachel, which brought out among other things the story of her spiritual difficulties to which she listened with silent though intent interest. "Has thee no minister in thy midst?" she finally asked. U yes; Elder Gushing. He is considered a good preacher, I believe; but Rachel doesn't like him very well, and he never seemed to help her any." "Hath he helped others?" I thought a moment and then was obliged to answer, bluntly but frankly, u I never heard of his converting anybody." " Then am I to understand that thee never has any revivals in thy midst, no seasons of refreshing from the Lord?" gravely pursued my interlocutor. " A few join sometimes by letter from other church- -. : . HAGAN'S OPINION OF ELDER GUSHING. 63 es mostly. Now and then somebody makes a pro- fession, but that's rather an uncommon thing." Mrs. Hagan's needles clicked very fast for a moment, and I began to hope she had asked me all the questions she was going to, at least on this particular subject; for not having thought much about it before I did not feel qualified to give her strictly accurate. information. Finally she dropped her knitting and turning round to me inquired, " Is thy minister a good man?" " Nay, friend Leander," she added, seeing that I was really too much astonished to make an immediate reply, " thee need not look so surprised at my question, for if thee will turn to the Bible thee will learn how the priests under the ancient covenant sometimes wrought evil in the sight of the Lord. There must always be offences, but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh; and a double woe if he be set for a watchman of Zion. But I desire to think no evil of thine Elder. It may be in the people. What more can thee tell me about him ?" " He is thought* a good deal of by other ministers, and some of his sermons have been printed; mostly Masonic addresses, delivered at funerals and other special occasions. He stands very high in the order, and has taken fifteen or more degrees. I really don't know as I can think of much of anything else to tell you about him," I added, apologetically, for I could hardly suppose she would be satisfied with such a brief and bare description of Elder Cushing's ministerial character and qualifications. But she answered quietly, " Thee has no need to say more, for thee hath said quite enough to show me why 64 HOLDER WITH COEDS. he has no help for thy friend. 4 Can the blind lead the blind?' He hath need to be taught himself, and how should he teach another? taught the same lesson that my husband learned five years ago this very night, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and so convinced him of sin in the matter of being a Mason and joining in their false worship, that he came out from among them forever, and bore testimony to their evil works." She spoke with slow, solemn, almost rhythmic ca- dence, as she generally did when under the influence of strong feeling. And much as I wondered at her words, I wondered more at the speaker this fair, spiritual woman with her strange dual life; one part all earthly and practical, filled with the rough, homely duties of a borderer's wife, while the other took such hold on the divine and the heavenly that she seemed almost like one who moved and had her being among the eternal realities of the unseen world. During my illness she had often beguiled me of weariness and pain, by relating to me some of her " ex- periences," which, as I think of them now in the light of a maturer understanding, appear to have been the result of a mighty faith acting unconsciously on one of those rare natures in which the practical common sense of the worker goes hand in hand with the poetic mysticism of the idealist and dreamer. Once when lost in the woods she had prayed .for guidance and seemed 'to hear angel voices directing her steps. At another time when her husband was pros- trated by a slow wasting sickness in which neither medicine nor doctors proved of any avail, after a season of prayer by his bedside she had seen in a vision an MRS. HAGAN'S OPINION OE ELDER GUSHING. 65 elderly man of grave appearance, who, bidding her to " be of good cheer," put into her hand a certain root with directions how to make a medicine from it for her sick husband; which directions she at once on awaken- ing from her trance proceeded to follow with such good results that he soon began to recover. Of course nothing could be easier than for the skeptically inclined to demonstrate to a nicety that Mrs. Hagan was altogether mistaken and deceived; that the angel voices were mere figments of a bewildered fancy, and her knowledge of the root which proved so efficacious a remedy, instead of being supernaturally imparted by a divine messenger, had dropped in her childhood from the lips of some old Quaker nurse, but being too young at the time to give it any heed, it had lain dormant and forgotten until memory, wrought upon by a sudden crisis, had delivered up the secret in this visionary guise. But, after granting the truth of any theory like the above, there remained much the same difficulty that thoughtful minds experience after hearing the Bible miracles explained away on the most approved materialistic basis; for her whole life and character, sublimated as they were by a habit of most frequent and exalted intercourse with the Eternal, pre- sented in itself a phenomenon more wonderful than any of her dreams and visions. " My husband desires to have a talk with thee on this subject before thee leaves us," she said, rising to take away the empty bowl. " I fear thee will never see thy horse again, but thee must not feel uneasy about pur- suing thy journey. Means will be found for so doing when thou hRst gained sufficient strength. The rob- bers have been pursued, fhee knows, but without sue- 66 HOLDER WITH CORDS. cess. It was hoped the capture of Dick Stover and his sons would break up the work of the gang in these parts, but they received warning in time to flee the settlement. But there is Benjamin, now." And she hurried off to greet her husband, and attend to certain housewifely duties incident on his home- coming. CHAPTER IX. MR. HAG AN" TELLS WHAT HE KNOWS ABOUT MASONRY.' HOPE if the rogues ever are caught and there's small chance of that, for they are miles over the border by this time, and safe in some of their haunts, most likely they'll be hung without benefit of judge or jury," remarked Mr. Hagan, whose soul chafed within him at the easy escape of the desperadoes. " Does thee know what thee is saying, Ben- jamin? 1 ' mildly inquired his wife, this outburst rather shocking her peaceful non-resistant principles, as savor- ing quite too much of that spirit of vengeance inherent in " the natural man." 4t It is an awful thing to send any poor soul before its Maker without giving it any time for preparation.' 1 " I know that, Mary, and I would be the last man to counsel violence if the law could be depended on. But now about Dick Stover. Who gave him and his sons warning? and how did it happen that the sheriff at the time the writ for their arrest ought to have been served was away and couldn't be found till there had been plenty of time for them to make tracks out of the set- tlement? When sheriffs, and juries, and the very judges on the bench are in league with thieves and &8 HOLDER WITH COEDS. murderers, honest men had better take the law into their own hands. That's just 'my opinion." "Thee thinkest, Benjamin, because one end of the skein is snarled, $ie best way to get it smooth is to go to work and snarl up the other end, does theenot?" asked his wife. At which small piece of feminine satire her husband laughed good-naturedly, and then as a sudden remembrance seemed to strike his mind, he turned to her and said: " Daniel Stebbins' child is sick again, and they want to know if you haint got some more of that bark that did it so much good last spring." u A whole bottleful. The children are off down to the creek, but if thee'll see to the baby while I am gone I'll go right over and carry them some." This was no formidable charge, as the baby, a chubby ten-month-old, was then placidly enjoying its afternoon nap. There was nothing to hinder a quiet talk, and Mr. Hagan seemed in the mood for one. Tilting his chair back at precisely the right angle for comfort, he began, putting in abeyance for the time a question I was about to ask, whether indeed the laws in that par- ticular portion of the Quaker State were so imperfectly, administered as to shield criminals, a painful conviction to that effect having been forced upon my mind during the preceding conversation. " I suppose now you thought by what I said when you asked me if I was a Mason that I wan't one. But I am or rather I was one once. Now, if I may inquire, what is the highest degree you've taken in it, so far?" "The Master's," I answered, not feeling, of course, after what Mrs. Hagan had divulged, any s surprise at the revelation. WHAT MR. HAGAST KNOWS ABOUT MASONRY. 69 " I didn't reckon you'd been much further," coolly pursued Mr. Hagan. " I've gone jour degrees higher than that up to the Royal Arch. Now, are you satis- fied with it so far, speaking in a general kind of a way?" For reasons that must be obvious to the discerning reader, I found it much easier to reply to Mr. Hagan than to Mark Stedman, who, it will be remembered, had once put to me a similar question. Here was a man who knew not only all the Masonic secrets I knew but presumably a good many more. "It doesn't suit me in all respects," I answered, candidly. " I don't fancy the oaths, nor many of the ceremonies they have to go through with. But then I shouldn't think of saying there was no good in Mason- ry. Its teachings are on the side of morality and re- ligion; and that is certainly a good thing as far as it goes. My grandfather belongs to it, and he is one of the best men I ever knew." " I only put the question that I might see better how the ground lay between us,' 1 continued Mr. Hagan, with a quiet ignoring of both these arguments. " Now I'll tell you how I come to give it up. You know that when I married Mary I made myself a poor man for her sake. Not that I've ever been sorry for that, mind you; I never felt so happy in my life before as when I broke the first clod of ground about here, and thought of my slaves all free and comfortably settled on farms of their own. i No broken hearts,' thinks I, ' to be laid to my account hereafter; no wives parted from their husbands; no babes torn out of their mother's arms and sold on the auction block.' But that's neither here nor there. It's Masonry we are talking about, and that you know is a thing Friends ain't over partial TO BOLDEST WITH COEDS. to, no more than they are to slavery. So when I married Mary I concluded not to say anything to her about my being one. While I see no great evil in it, I'm free to allow that I was anything but satisfied in my own mind. There were things about it I couldn't seem to make hinge with Scripture, no how; but I thought I'd hang on to it, saying to myself that I was a poor man and might be glad of their help sometime, seeing we are all liable to sickness and trouble as the sparks fly upward. And maybe I should have gone on deceiving Mary to this day if I hadn't fell under the power of the Spirit. I was at a campmeeting over to Bear Creek. We had some powerful preaching and it hit right and left. I thought I had religion before; I used to pray and exhort; so I was kinder pitying the poor sinners, as they fell to the ground all around me by scores, groaning and calling on the Lord for mercy, when all at once an arrow from the Almighty struck me, right between the joints of the harness, as it were. I began to shake and tremble, and almost before I knew it, I was down as flat as the most hardened reprobate there. 1 tell you when the Spirit gets hold of a man as he did of me then, and turns him inside out and up- side down he feels like an empty vessel, as the Scripture says: there ain't much spiritual pride or anything else left in him. Folks that knew me and had heard me pray and exhort thought I was getting' some deeper experience, and so they crowded round me, and some shouted l Hallelujah.' and some prayed, and some sung 1 Glory;' but all the praying and shouting and singing went over my head as idle and unmeaning as the rush of the wind in the treetops, till finally old Father ILoomis came along. He wan't the smartest preacher WHAT MR. HAGAN KNOWS ABOUT MASONRY. 71 on our circuit, folks said, but he had a kind of gift with the anxious ones, a way of seeing through 'em some- how, and putting his finger right on their trouble. And when he came to me all he did was just to kneel down and pray like this: ; Lord, show this man wherefore thou contendest with him. Set his secret sin in the light of thy countenance.' And then he went straight off to somebody else, but that prayer just flashed the truth right through and through me. I knew I'd got to give up Masonry. And I was glad to give it up; I hated it. Why, if two doors had opened before me, and on the signboard of one was wrote, k The Lodge,' and on the other ' The Bottomless Pit,' I'd have gone into one just as quick as into the other. The Lord had set my secret sin in the light of his counte- nance. I got right up on my feet, and I made con- fession how I had sinned by continuing a thing my conscience disallowed. And as soon as I did that the Lord restored unto me the joy of his free Spirit, and gave me great liberty in laboring with sinners; and there was a precious ingathering of souls at that meet- ing such as was never seen before or since in these parts." Mr. Hagan paused an instant in his rapid narrative, and then went on: ''But our feelings ain't the thing we are to go by. It's the law and the testimony; and if we had nothing but just the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, they'd be enough to show whether Mason- ry is right or wrong." Astonishment and perplexity had taken hold of me while I listened, nor was either feeling much diminished when he handed me his well-thumbed pocket Bible 72 HOLDER WITH CORDS. open at the fifth chapter of Matthew, thirty-fifth verse. "That says, l Swear not at all;' then are lodge oaths contrary to Scripture or not? And ain't there some things in 'em at the end that don't gibe very well with the Sixth Commandment?'' "You mean the penalties," 16 1 answered, with a vivid rememberance of my own scruples in that regard, and the soothing anodyne administered by some of the lodge brethren. "I have been told that they do not really mean anything more than merely to impress on the candidate's mind a sense of the guilt he would in- cur if he violates his oath." "Ain't it breaking the Third Commandment to call God to witness words that don't mean anything? And will the Lord hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain, because he does it in a lodge, with ministers and church members round to keep him in countenance ?" I was silent, while Mr. Hagan's long fingers moved on to another passage as relentless as one of the Fates. "You promised never to defraud a brother Mason. How about cheating folks that ain't Masons? The Golden Rule don't read much like that, if I remember right. And you know our Lord has given us some pretty plain talk on the Seventh Commandment. How did your lodge oath handle that? Didn't it say, not in just these words, but what come to the same thing: 1 Break it as often as you're a mind to, and we'll wink at it; only because when you're bringing misery into happy homes, and ruin and disgrace on the innocent, that they ain't Masons' homes nor Masons' wives and daughters?' How would you like some time after you are married to sit down and tell Rachel that part of your Master Mason's oath ? What do you think Christ NOTE 16 "A most solemn ir.ethod of confirming an path was by plating a drawn siuord across the throat of the person to whom it was administered.' Pierson's Traditions, page 33. WHAT MR. HAGAIST KNOWS ABOUT MASOKRY. 73 would say to it? I don't wonder his presence ain't wanted much in the lodge. He was sharp enough on the Pharisees when they tried to pare down and clip away from the laws of God l Ye serpents, ye genera- tion of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?' Such a remark as that now might jar on the proceedings considerable." I thought the same, but preserved a discreet silence; though all the while Mr. Hagan-was putting to me these terrible questions, I watched with fascinated gaze that faithful hand move serenely on, marking Mene< Mene, against that u moral and religious" system so dear to the hearts of my grandfather, and Deacon Brown and Elder Gushing, to say nothing of a host of other worthies more or less eminent in their day and generation. " What do you think Christ meant when he said, ' Render unto Caesar the things that be Caesars'?" I did not see very clearly the -drift of this inquiry, but feeling it as a temporary truce in this severe cross- examination, I answered promptly enough, " That we ought to obey the laws of the land and be good citizens, I suppose." " Did you think of that when you promised to warn a brother Mason of any approaching danger, and keep all his secrets, murder and treason" excepted?" kt I thought a good Mason was not supposed to com- mit criminal acts," I said, this being the best answer I ..could think of under the circumstances. "Then it seems to me that when they put in them words they took a mighty deal of trouble for nothing, especially as, they ain't very pleasant sounding ones," remarked Mr. Hagan. dryly. NOTE 17. ''Treason and rebellion al?o, because they are altogether political offences, cannot bt: inquired into by the lodge, and although a Mason may be convicted of cither of those acts in the courts of his country, he cannot be Ma- sonically punished*, and notwithstanding his treason or rebellion, hia relation to the lodge, to use the language of the old charges, remains indefeasible." Mack- ey's Masonic Jurisprudence, p. 510. 74 HOLDER WITH COEDS. Again a discreet silence, in which I began to dimly perceive the beauty of at least one of my Masonic jewels. For in the lack of any answering argument, what refuge like a " silent tongue?" "And how are you going to tell a good Mason from a bad one?" pursued Mr. Hagan, thus calling to memo- ry the unpleasant fact that even though the lodge ex- pelled an unworthy* member, there was no Lethe process which could pour oblivion over the knowledge of its secret signs and grips and passwords, for when once imparted he would be just as free to use them as a shield from the consequences of his own criminal acts, as any member in 'good and regular standing' for legitimate purposes. But I won't be hard on you, see- ing I've done a trifle worse than that myself. When I took the Royal Arch degree I promised to help a com- panion in any difficulty, right or wrong, and keep all of his secrets, without any exception. And besides, I " Mr. Hagan," I exclaimed, starting up, tc I really can't I mean I wish you wouldn't tell me anything that you have no right to tell. 1 think with your views about the order you did entirely right to leave them, but to reveal secrets that you have taken a solemn oath to keep seems to me quite a different matter." My host answered with the same peculiar look he had worn on our first encounter, when I put to him that unlucky question regarding his Masonic con- nections. " I argered that out long before you ever thought of being a Freemason, and I've seen no ground for chang- ing my mind since. If a man takes a wicked oath, where's the Bible authority for keeping it ? Is it to the glory of God that he should keep it, or break it? WHAT MR. HAGAST KNOWS ABOUT MASONRY. 75 But then," added Mr. Hagan, with a slight change in his voice, " a man hain't no right nuther to throw away his life. I argered that out too, and I'm mighty care- ful what I say before them that'll turn it to my hurt." " Mr. Hagan," said I, startled but incredulous, " do you actually mean that if any Mason should betray the secrets of the order he would have to suffer the penal- ty of his oath?" Mr. Hagan looked keenly at me from beneath his shaggy eyebrows. "That ain't the question, whether such a thing would be. It has been done; and Tm knowing to it. r CHAPTER X. A MASONIC MURDER SUCCESS AND RETURN HOME. HORROR fell upon me. The soft south wind came sighing through the cabin, the sunshine lay in great golden patches on the floor, but I. felt like one on whose shuddering gaze the door of some mould- ering charnel house had suddenly opened as 1 listened to Mr. Hagan's story, which ran as follows: " I joined the lodge when I lived in Virginia. Now there's a difference in human nater, we all allow that; and there's a difference in lodges. Some are de- tent and respectable, as far as the outside of things go, and others again aro as full of rowdyism and all man- ner of goings on that shouldn't be, as an egg is of meat. And this was the way with the one I joined. I got so disgusted after a while that I stopped going to their meetings. I hadn't much taste for profanity nor hard drinking, you see, but I kept on paying my dues, and so was considered a regular Mason in good stand- ing. It was afterwards that this affair happened which I'm going to tell you about. " The chaplain was Gus Peters, and though he could not read a word of two syllables without spelling it, - they chose him to the office for a joke. He was a sim- ple kind of a fellow, that got hold accidentally of some of the secrets, I never rightly knew how, so they made A MASONIC MURDER. 7? him take the oath and become a regular member as the best way to shut his mouth. He got into drinking ways after- he'd been in the lodge a while he'd been tolerably steady before and that was how the trouble come. When the liquor was in him he was apt to let out the secrets, and it got to be a serious question what to do about it. Things went on so for a time, then all at once the man was missing, and he never turned up again, dead or alive. Folks settled it that he'd stepped into the water some night when he was too tipsy to go straight, and there the matter ended. As I said before, I'd pretty much stopped going to the lodge then, and I married soon afterwards and came up here to live, and what with the trouble we had, for I was sick all one summer, and the crops, fell short for two seasons running, enough happened to drive the whole thing out of my head. "Three years ago last winter, while I was on a preach- ing circuit, 1 come across an old acquaintance that was a member with me of that same lodge in Virginia. The man stuck to me like a burr, and when I found he was really sick and had no money to carry him further, I told him I'd settle the bill for a night's lodging at the tavern. u Well, he set and shivered over the fire and talked in a queer random way for a while. Then all at once he started up and stared at me kinder wild and anxious. " ' You remember Gus Peters?' says he. " I told him, ' Yes:' and then he said in a whisper, as though he was afraid somebody was listening at the keyhole " l I'll tell you, for we are both Masons and bound to keep each other's secrets. I 'know what became of him /' 78 HOLDEK WITH CORDS. "An awful suspicion shot through my mind when he said that, but I kept quiet and let him talk on. " k You see we were chosen by lot, I and another man, to put him out of the way. We couldn't help it. We had to do it. Ain't we sworn to obey every summons 18 of the lodge to the length of our cable-tow? And the drunken fool was babbling out our secrets. But it wan't me that drawed the knife across his throat; I want you to know that. I helped fasten the weights to him and throw him into the creek. He'd taken the oath and knew what the penalty was, and it ain't mur- der I say to hold a man to his oath. Leastways its Jack Benedick, not me, that's got to answer for it. You remember Benedick, one of the dare-devil sort. He's a gentleman of the road now, and I reckon has forgot all about that little affair.' " I let him ramble on, for I felt as though I was under a spell. I couldn't move hand nor foot. I ain't giving you all the little details of his story, but every circum- stance about it fitted together like a piece of joiner's woik, and I hadn't a doubt in my mind but what it was true. u In two daj r s he died of delirium tremens, and I see that he was decently buried." I sat for a moment after Mr. Hagan had finished this awful recital, literally dumb with horror. Was the spirit of Cain at the heart of this " benevolent insti- tution, and its terrible penalties not the mere lifeless formulas I had been taught to believe, but instinct with awful meaning for the betrayer of Masonic secrets ? u Benedick?" I said, questioningly, as a new idea- struck me. " Isn't that the name of the head one in the gang that took my horse and nearly murdered me ?" NOTE 18. "The Mason who disobeys a due, summons subjects himself to se- vere penalties." Morris's Dictionary, Art. Disobedience. A MASONIC MURDER. 79 u He's the very same man; a Royal Arch Mason/' answered Mr. Hagan coolly. u He's learned his trade thoroughly since he cut poor Gus's throat. The Stovers are all Masons, and if you don't understand how they cleared out of the settlement so easy without any hindrance from the sheriff, you've forgot the most im- portant part of your lodge oaths, I reckon." Over this information I pondered silently, for it cer- tainly verified the truth of Deacon Brown's statements in a manner more convincing than, agreeable. What a fine chance of u consorting on brotherly terms with rohbers and marauders" I lost through undue modesty when I stopped at the Stovers' cabin ! The sudden awakening of the baby, who began to cry most vehemently, and refused to be comforted by any process with which masculine minds were con- versant, stopped further revelations until Mrs. Hagan's return allowed us to continue our talk. "Mary knows as much about Freemasonry as J do," resumed Mr. Hagan. kt You may think some of the things ain't fit for a woman's ears, and I don't say they are; but to my mind no lodge oath has a right to sun- der them God has joined together. And somehow you can tell things to an angel that you can't to a common woman." Mr. Hagan uttered this profound philosophical truth with a simplicity refreshing to hear; and silence fell between us for several moments, which 1 spent in men- tally considering how the test would apply to Rachel. Under no imaginable circumstances could I ever find it easy to tell her the secrets of the lodge, from which I concluded that there was considerably more woman and less saint about Rachel Stedman than Mary Hagan. ' 80 HOLDER WITH CORDS. '' Did you ever hear of a Captain William Morgan? 1 ' asked Mr. Hagan, finally breaking the silence. " I heard he had moved to New York State. We were boys together in Culpepper County.' 1 " My grandfather is very well acquainted with him, 1 ' I answered eagerly, little thinking how soon that name would stir the land to its very center with the greatest horror and pity and indignation. "At least I think it must be the same man you are speaking of, for I know he came from Virginia." " I used to think he was uncommon smart," pursued Mr. Hagan; " a man the world might hear from some day. He was one that always had his thoughts, and was free- to speak 'em whether other folks agreed with him or not. A frank, generous, open kind of a nature he had. Nothing underhand about William Morgan; never." "My grandfather thinks very highly of him," I re- turned. "He is a very fine appearing man, I have heard him say, and one that can talk well on almost any subject. He first went to Canada, and engaged in business, but a fire reduced him to poverty, so that he has gone back to his old trade of bricklaying. He and his young wife are now livin'g in Batavia, Genesee County." Mr. Hagan, with his hands clasped over his knees, sat silent, his eyes fixed on one of the golden checkered patches of sunlight that wavered and danced over the cabin floor. "Captain Morgan is a Freemason," I continued, " and unusually well posted in the secrets of the order, I have heard my grandfather say. Now, if Masonry is really contrary to the Bible, and I must admit that it CAPTAIN WILLIAM MORGAN 81 seems so from your showing, how is it that two such men as they don't or can't see it in its true light? How can it be supposed that they or the members of the Masonic fraternity generally could look with any- thing but execration and horror on such a cold-blooded murder as you have been telling me about, planned and carried on by a few desperate villains, Masons only in name, and vile enough to use their connection with the order as a cloak for every crime?" " I ain't a man to see visions or dream dreams/' slowly answered Mr. flagan, " but speaking from what I know of the spirit of the order, something as bad as that, or worse, will happen yet, arid not done in a corner as that deed was. Then, and not till then, the scales will fall from their eyes. I know what I'm saying, and you mark my words." My host did not give me much time to ponder over this startling prophecy, but after a moment of silence began on another subject by making an inquiry about the locality of my grandfather's claim. The rest of our conversation I shall not transcribe, it being decided- ly too geographical in its general details to interest the average reader. The " claim" lay about forty miles distant, and like the Good Samaritan he had already proved himself, as soon as I was able to resume my journey, Mr. Hagan lent me a horse and funds sufficient for my needs. Fortune, though she had showed an adverse face hith- erto, now suddenly changed her frowns to smiles, and when I reached my destination a tract of wilderness land near the Virginia line, where some enterprising capitalists had taken it into their heads to lay out a city whose name and precise location on the map need 82 HOLDER WITH CORDS. not be given here, being a matter of no special moment to the reader I succeeded in negotiating such favora- able terms of sale as more than realized my grand- father's most sanguine expectations; and I begun the return journey, which being perfectly free from adven- ture gave me time to do considerable thinking, with a light heart. On my homeward way I stopped for a night at the Hagans'. The gentle Quakeress, whose womanly in- terest in my betrothed had not at all abated, gave me a couple of fine hem-stitched handkerchiefs to take to Rachel as a wedding gift, remarking in the quaint man- ner peculiar to her sect, " I have a concern on my mind for thy friend, but I do not doubt she is one of the Lord's elect, and will some day be brought into the light. But have a care that thee does not put a stumbling block in her way." " Mrs. Hagan!" I exclaimed, feeling really hurt at the insinuation. " Thee would never do it purposely, friend Leander,' but thee might do it unthinkingly. Did Rachel wish thee to join the lodge?" " No; she was very much opposed to it." " Does thee imagine her opposition will grow less when thee and she are wedded?" was Mrs. Hagan's next searching inquiry. Before this pure-souled woman, knowing that she was talking with full knowledge of all the ridiculous ceremonials of the lodge, its awful oaths and hideous penalties, i felt my cheeks glowing hot with the blush of honest shame. ; 'No;" I answered, after a moment's hesitation, " Rachel is not apt to change her mind when it is once SUCCESS AND BETUKN HOME. 83 made up. But I sincerely mean, after we are married, to stop attending the lodge altogether. It will be ex- cuse enough that I don't want to leave Rachel alone evenings." '"Take heed, friend Leander, lest thy fear of man bring thee into a snare, and with thee this dear soul whose welfare should be precious to thee as thine own life, t am a woman and I have the heart of a woman. My husband never guessed it, and I have never told him, but long before he confessed to me that he had been a Mason I knew the whole truth. Does thee think I passed no miserable hours with the thought like an arrow in my heart that the one I loved and honored before all other men was deceiving me? And 1 would warn thee beforehand of the danger to thy mutual happiness. Thee and Rachel will make a sad mistake to begin married life at variance with each other. 'Can two walk together unless they be agreed ?'" " 0, we agree to disagree, Mrs. Hagan," I answered, with an assumed lightness, " at least so far as Masonry is concerned. Rachel never really opposed my joining the lodge in so many words; but she has a tremendous power of letting me know what she thinks without saying much." " I have warned thee," she answered, her deep, spirit- ual eyes not looking at me as she spoke, but with a curious far away gaze in them that awed me though I did not understand it. "I have warned thee," she re- peated, in the same strangely solemn way, and said no more. The beautiful lives of Benjamin and Mary Hagan were never wrought into a biography, but long after- wards I accidentally heard of them as keepers of a 84 HOLDEN WITH COEDS. famous station on the underground railroad, minister- ing to the Lord they loved in the person of many a poor footsore fugitive to whom such a halting place on their weary road must have seemed like the chamber called Peace, with its windows opened toward the rising sun of liberty. I paid for the horse and returned the money Mr. Hagau. had lent me to offer anything more I felt would be an insult to their simple-hearted kindness and rode away the next morning, the hot tears blinding my eyes as I left them standing in their cabin door with words of farewell upon their lips. The sun was setting when I entered Brownsville, and the first person to meet me with recognizing glance happened to be Sam Toller. u If I ain't glad to see ye back again, Leander Sev- erns," he said, after his first doubtful stare, for the sun was in his face, and it was not till I came directly alongside that he fully comprehended who I was. "But they'll be a sight gladder to see ye up to the house. Been swapping horses?" he asked abruptly, as his eye fell on my raw-boned steed, which was certainly in decided contrast to the sleek and beautiful Major. " Yer gran'ther won't like that." I had not thought it best to rouse useless anxiety by writing home any account of the adventures which had befallen me, and Sam was therefore the first person to receive the news. Certainly if its speedy publication had been an important object with me, nobody any better qualified for that purpose could have been se- lected. "Wall, things did fall out with ye kinder providen- tial, after all," grunted Sam, who was by no means of SUCCESS AND RETURN HOME. 85 an irreligious turn of mind, and could, when he chose, make the most edifying moral reflections. It was a remarkable deliverance, and I hope ye thanKed the Lord for it. Now I lay anything that the man that did so well by ye was a Mason, and I have been thinking that it might be a good thing for me to join the lodge. " Mr. Hagan had been a Mason, it is true," 1 an- swered, cautiously, concealing with some difficulty a smile at the very idea of poor, shiftless Sam Toller, who never had money enough in his pocket to pay his entrance fee, ever being admitted. "He told me so himself; but it was because he was a Christian that he was so good to me, and not in the least because he was a Mason." u All the same, 1 ' replied Sam cheerfully, " I've kinder gathered from Elder Cushing's talk that there ain't much difference; a good Mason and a good Christian are abo'.it alike. Now what would you say if I should tell you I had jined 'em while you've been gone/' And to my unspeakable amazement Sam leaned over and gave me, in the most approved Masonic style, the Master Mason's grip. " Is it possible, Sam?" I asked, as soon as I could get breath from my first bewilderment, which state of mind was nowise abated by Sam's answer, " Hain't I got just as good a right to be a Mason as any man? If I hain't I. like to know why." And Sam, ordinarily the best-tempered fellow in the world, waxed surprisingly irate. " I am sure I meant no offence, Sam," I answered, humbly. u It was quite natural I should be a little surprised. But now I want to know all about the 86 HOLDER WITH CORDS. folks, and how things have gone on at home while iVe been away." "Middling well," was Sam's succinct reply. "There's the Captain now, a standing at the gate as though he was looking for ye." CHAPTER XL MORE TALK WITH MY GRANDFATHER. A MODERN PAN. N a moment my grandfather had caught sight of me and hobbled out, his white locks waving in the wind. the joy of that home coming! The quiet, blissful content when my mother's tears of hap- piness were all shed, and my story of dis- aster and success recounted in its every de- tail for the twentieth time! For, as Rachel prophesied, I had come home " quite a hero," even in Joe's eyes, who was decidedly more respectful to me that evening than he had ever been in his life before. Rachel and I had our own little private cup of joy with which no stranger intermeddled. She listened with paling cheek, but not saying a word, when I related how the robbers struck me down and left me for dead in those dark unknown woods; but when I told the experience which followed, the strange sense of com- fort and peace that stole into my heart when lying there, bruised and bleeding, I saw the s constellation of the Dipper, and remembered her parting promise, she looked up with great wide eyes, in which the surprise of some wonderful, unlooked-for joy seemed suddenly kindling. "0, I remember that night," she exclaimed. "I 88 HOLDER WITH CORDS. was restless and couldn't sleep. A fear of something dreadful seemed to oppress me. I couldn't shake it off, but 1 thought a breath of fresh air might make me feel better and I got up and raised the window. As I leaned out I could see the Dipper, and I began to won- der if you were in trouble or danger that I had such a feeling. So J just put my head down on the window- sill and prayed; and then all the strange oppression seemed to slide right off of me like some heavy weight. 0, Leander, do you think God really did hear my poor little foolish prayer and answer it?" u I know he did, Rachel," I answered, solemnly and earnestly. Two great tears rolled down Rachel's cheeks. Reach- ing out dumb hands of longing, her soul had at last touched the Invisible Father, and for one transcendent moment her whole being dissolved in awe-stricken bliss at the thought. The next day, in a private aside, I asked my grand- father if he knew Sam Toller was a Mason. " No; 1 ' he replied, nearly dropping his pipe in aston- ishment. u I don't believe it. There's no more harm in Sam than there is in a chip squirrel, but he's such an idle, shiftless fellow that there isn't a lodge in the State would take him in." " He gave the Master Mason's grip last night, and gave it to me correctly too." My grandfather looked nonplussed. " Then of course he must at some time or other have joined the order. Worse fellows than Sam Toller have been Masons before now, but I must say I am surprised." And my grandfather, whose good, easy, placid soul was seldom long astonished at anything, after a mo- MORE TALK -WITH MY GRAKDFATHER. 89 ment's reflection took up the Canandaigua paper which had just arrived, and would have dismissed the subject if I had been willing to let him. " I haven't told you yet that this Methodist preacher, who, together with his wife, showed me such kindness, was a Mason," I remarked, feeling my way by slow de- grees to the point T wished to reach. "Ah !" and my grandfather looked interested. " Now, Leander, after such practical proof of its benefits, I hope you see that I was right in urging you to join the order. 11 u But Mr. Hagan had renounced all connection with Masonry years before. He thinks it a bad thing, con- trary to the Bible. We had a long talk about it, and he made it very clear to my mind that the oaths and penalties at least, if nothing else about it, are entirely wrong." I spoke with a little concealed trepidation which I found was wholly unnecessary. My grandfather's faith in his favorite institution was much too strong to be thus easily disturbed.