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"The Moor, the Hindoo, the wandering
Ishmaelite, nay, even the Red man of the
forest, has knelt humbly at our altars, and
acknowledged the humanizing influences of
Freemasonry." - [Extract from a Masonic
Address.]
CHAPTER FIRST.
THERE were hurry and disorder in the public
square of Catesby, confusion and terror in
its dwellings. The morning meal was either
unprepared, in the confusion of the hour, or
if spread, was untasted by those who had
mingled with the multitude around the court
house. Women with dishevelled hair and
garments all disarranged, men half clad,
barefoot and laden heavily with the weight of
children, children snatched from their little
beds and screaming at the top of their voices
at the unaccustomed bustle-such were the
objects that filled the western roads to
Catesby and spread consternation, right and
left, as they came. Every few minutes some
horseman would dash furiously by, scattering
the mud in the faces of pedestrians, and
almost breaking his heart with shouts of
Indians, Indians, as he came to the suburbs
of the town. The great bell in the
Presbyterian chuch, was rolling and plunging,
and rocking about in a most unheard-of
manner, confounding all its voices into one
stunning din of alarm. The old Sexton,
Waifer, whose soul had been buried for many
long years in the concavity of that bell, and
whose boast it was that it made no signals
without a rational explanation (he was tyler
of the masons' lodge in Catesby, which fully
accounts for his stubbornness in this
particular) had just been carried home a
cripple for life, from a fall got by holding
on spasmodically to the big rope, as the
heavy bell made a sudden gyration. Evidences
of terror and the effects of fright, in many
instances ludicrous enough, were visible all
around. The bank clerk, Mr. Shaw, had left
his desk with untold bills lying within the
vault, and the vault unlocked. The county
recorder, Esq. Williams, whose book cases
contained the land titles of the whole
county, and whose boast it was that he lived,
ate, slept and would die in the apartment
which contained them, ran thoughtlessly out,
the room all unfastened and the records
exposed. Boyett, whose livery stable was the
pride of the place, permitted his horses to
gnaw the manger, unprecedented neglect, and
to whinney unnoticed for better food, while
he the negligent, stood with open mouth
drinking in the frightful news as water.
And truly the news were frightful,
sufficiently so to justify any amount of
consternation. For the Indians, who were in
pay of those liberal employers, the British,
had made a sudden foray across the river the
night before, and not only captured much
valuable property and destroyed much more,
but left fearful evidences of their blood-
thirst in the show of eleven corpses,
parents, grand parents, and seven children of
the Colter family, all slain and scalped by
their infernal hands. And all this had
happened since the going-down of yesterday's
sun, and within five miles of the town of
Catesby!
Various reports, some of them highly
exaggerated and absurd, were brought in by
the country people. Those who lived farthest
from the scene of action, and consequently
knew the least of the matter, made up in
ingenuity what they wanted in fact. The most
reliable information was from old widow
Bruson, (commonly called styled Granny Grunt)
who, living near neighbor to the Colters, was
the first to discover the savages, and to
look at this display of their ferocity. She
described it as a piteous spectacle. "The
allduman (old woman) had never crawled out of
her bed for seven long year with the roomatty
(rheumatism,)" she said, "and the tarnal
fants (phantoms) had skulped her as she lay,
arter they'd knocked the leetle sense the
poor creetur had all outener (out of her).
Miss (Mrs.) Coulter had fout the devils like
a she painter (panther) twell (until) all the
meat was hacked offen her arms. The broom
she'd cotched up was chopped in two with
their cussed tomahawks. The old man lay outen
(outside) the door with his head clean off.
They'd called him outen his bed, seems like,
and when he poked his head out to see who was
there, they tuck it smack off at the neck.
But the most dismallest thing ever you seen,
since the Lord made you, was the childer,
(children). Seven sweet, precious-" Here the
old lady's withered cheeks were bathed in a
torrent of tears, answered by hundreds of
those who stood around. "Seven sweet,
precious babies, who'd come to my cabin only
yesterday, to bring poor old granny a gourd
of milk-all of 'em dead in a row-close by the
fire-place-scalped little Mary's arms round
her brother's neck."
Such a tale as this, told in the public
square of Catesby to five hundred people, was
no everyday affair.
But now a more cheerful cry was heard, "Major
Hodges is coming," and upon the back of it,
the noise of bugle and drum and the
clattering of a troop of horse gave stirring
token that something beyond groans and tears
might be anticipated.
The doughty Major had received intelligence
of the massacre a little after sunrise, and
so quick were his movements that within two
hours, he had collected about thirty of his
neighbors, mounted them, called out the
drummer and bugler of his regiment and was
here at Catesby, equipped and provisioned for
marching against the savages. A tremendous
shout from the crowd acknowledged his
alacrity, and his zeal that morning was
remembered afterwards at the polls when the
Major changed the color of his feather and
donned a general's uniform.
In war time, and especially upon the
frontiers, no man waits for orders or a
commission. A very short period sufficed for
the Major to open a rendezvous for volunteers
and to arrange a plan by which four scouting
parties of twenty-five men each should follow
up the Indian trail. The Major himself headed
one of the parties and the number of his mess
was soon filled up.
Archimedes Dobrot the town tailor, a famous
Indian fighter who had been at the River
Raisin, and nearly lost his scalp with the
rest, headed the second; and he too was
fortunate enough to fill the ranks without
difficulty. The third and fourth companies
were not so successful, although an abundance
of patriotic speeches were made, enough one
would have thought to put the war spirit into
a snail.
Kruptos, the attorney, a splendid speaker, a
ten hour man, mounted the stump in person and
was fast inclining public opinion towards the
volunteering point, when his eloquence was
suddenly checked by the proposition of an
impertinent fellow in the crowd, an enemy of
his, who offered to go as volunteer and take
his three sons with him, if he, Kruptos,
would go too. This disgusting proposal was
unworthy of reply, and Kruptos retired amidst
the jeers, it must be confessed, of the whole
square.
The first and second parties got off shortly
after noon. The third contrived to fill its
ranks by help of certain spirituous stimuli
well known to all recruiting sergeants, and
that also dashed off in the direction of the
river anxious to compensate for the delay.
The fourth company had scarcely a half a
dozen members by sundown, and so much
coolness in volunteering was evident, that
there was even a talk of desisting from
farther trial. But this was not so to be. The
cowardly determination was changed by the
timely arrival of Robert Carnarson who had
heard, late in the day, of the danger, and
hastened to town on the wings of the
intelligence.
This young gentleman was familiar with
everybody in Catesby, as appeared by his
shaking hands with one half the crowd, and
calling the others by name. He was a stout,
well-built individual, of some five and
twenty years of age, possessing a bland look
and one of those fortunate voices, that,
without being absolutely musical, pleases
every ear, and makes its possessor popular,
if only for his tongue's sake.
He was well-bred, and moved amongst the crowd
as first among his equals, using such
language as betokened a polished education,
although not untinctured with the localisms
of the borders. His dress like his manners
was gentlemanly but not finical; the material
being costly, while the make was countryfied
and plain. He was furnished with an elegant
sword, holster pistols, and gun, and rode the
best horse-so said Boyett, and he ought to
know for he had owned him three times-the
best horse in the country, by twenty dollars.
That he had come fully bent upon
volunteering, could be known by his
preparations, and the first words he uttered,
"Keep a vacancy for me, Captain Webster, for
I am going with you, if you will take me."
Accompanying him were two others, Mr.
Socrates Ely and Tim, whose surname no mortal
being knew.
The former had graduated in the same college
class with Robert Carnarson, and being
disposed to literary pursuits had gone west
and offered his services in various quarters
as a school teacher. Strange to say, he had
failed in every application, and always on
account of the same cause, his hand-writing.
It must be confessed that his pen-marks were
mysterious ones, and might, some of them,
have puzzled Champollion himself, had it been
in his day, to solve them. But it certainly
argued a poor appreciation of literary valor,
on the part of school trustees, to reject a
polished scholar, (a curiously wrought stone)
and an estimable gentleman, merely on the
account of his penmanship. But so they did,
and Socrates Ely, A. M., after spending all
his loose change in a vain search for
employment, gladly accepted Robert's
invitation to come and live with him, and
there he had remained ever since, studying
Euclid by day, and Homer by night, and laying
a thousand plans for immortality.
Mr. Ely had volunteered merely to accompany
his college chum, and knowing so little of
sword and gun, he might as well have brought
a deacon's rod from the Lodge room, as the
old Queen's arm musket that he had balanced
painfully upon his shoulder, to the great
detriment of his overcoat.
Tim, the nameless, was a block altogether of
a different pattern, being to trades and
callings what Socrates Ely, A. M., was to
science - a universal It was said, that he
became a Freemason to find out something
about Hiram, the widow's son, who, the Bible
informs us, was a goldsmith, silversmith,
iron founder, brass founder, stone mason,
carpenter, spinner, weaver, dyer, tailor, and
last of all, engraver. Tim was born with a
jack-knife in his hand, He had served
apprentice to nine trades (three months to
each), and in every instance, excelled his
master in practical skill before his time was
out. He had made a fiddle at twelve years
old; a copper bugle at fifteen: a wagon, out
and out, wood and iron, at twenty; taken out
eleven patents; dug wells; built chimneys;
erected houses; soldered tin ware; shod
horses; mended clocks; painted signs, and
baked confectionery. He had shaped a perfect
model of king Solomon's temple, according to
the best authorities and presented it to De
Witt Clinton, who pronounced it the most
ingenious work of art he had ever seen.
Tim had enlisted in the present call for
volunteers merely because he had never helped
to kill a man, and he felt that his education
would not be completed until he did.
The accession of these three, and the spirit-
stirring oration made by Mr. Carnarson, from
the court house steps, soon revived the
spirit of patriotism, and filled up the
quarter hundred by dusk. As it had become so
late in the day, it was agreed upon, by all
hands, that the company should now separate,
to meet again promptly at sunrise, armed and
equipped for marching: and so the multitude
broke up, exhausted by the day's excitement
Let us follow Robert Carnarson, whom we have
installed as the hero of our tale.
After a supper hastily eaten at the public
inn, he might have been seen immediately
afterward, wending his way to the well-known
residence of Mr. Baldridge, father of Miss
Josephine Baldridge, whose hand Robert had
bespoken for the dance of life some months
before. This announcement will convince our
readers, at the very outset, that we have no
love tale for their amusement; the love
scenes, the tender question, the blushing
reply, the extatic thanks, the sighs, the
smiles, and the grips - all these time-
honored landmarks in love's Freemasonry, had
been carefully preserved, and the parties had
made suitable proficiency in this first
degree of the mysteries preparatory to that
of the second, or the marrying degree. Among
that cool and deliberate portion of our
population that live nearest the North pole,
it is maintained, that at least six months
ought to elapse between these two degrees;
nature herself has pointed out the interval
to the third.
The love affair, then, between Robert and
Josephine, will not detain us long in the
recital.
The former, after a rapid walk to Mr.
Baldridge's dwelling - if the reader ever
visits Catesby, he will recognize it by the
green posts in the portico-rapped at the door
with love's own signal, the latter kindly
acting as his conductor, answered it, and
admitted him; a certain ceremony of reception
was gone through with, only understood by the
initiated, and they never, never reveal it;
and then the applicant was led to the very
sanctum of the dwelling-the parlor-and into
the presence of the family.
When Mr. Carnarson stated the object of his
visit to Catesby, there was, at first, a
profound silence. Josephine turned pale, and
looked as though she would like to dissuade
her lover from his warlike purpose. If this
were her intention, however, it was
forestalled by an encouraging remark from her
father, who congratulated Robert on his
intention. "It was the duty of every young
man," he said, " to come forward at such a
crisis as this. Had his knee suffered him to
mount a horse, the cowardly youngsters who
filled the square today, might have clung to
their mothers' petticoats, and he would have
volunteered himself. He would have been half-
way to the river with that brave Major
Hodges. The trashy boys, the chuckle-headed
babies "-and here a sudden cough intervened
to close the sentence.
Much judicious advice was then added, as to
the best course for a scouting party to
pursue; for the old gentleman had been a
volunteer under Mad Anthony Wayne, and he
knew all about it: and then the family
retired, leaving Josephine and her lover to
the uninterrupted use of the parlor. A
lover's lodge, in the first degree, was
opened forthwith. But it is improper to make
a written record of the proceedings. It is
enough for the reader to know that these two
lovers had been well instructed to keep the
work of each degree to itself, and they
governed themselves accordingly.
Being about to part, the young lady, with
many a sigh, and tear, presented a token to
her lover, and bade him wear it for her sake.
She said: "It was the property of poor Aleck
(her deceased brother), and was taken from
his body after that horrid accident. I know
that you were members of the same Lodge, and
I feel that this circumstance will impart to
it a double value in your eyes. You are going
upon a dangerous service, dear Robert, and
must take good care of yourself on my
account. Remember, you are not your own, for
I have accepted you-a poor bargain, I am
sure:" - the young lady was making a hysteric
attempt at wit "a poor bargain-and-and-but
never mind my nonsense, dear Robert, take
good care of yourself, for you are all-all"-
here the prepositions and conjunctions were
strangely neglected. "I shall expect to see
you back in a week or two; and whenever you
look at poor Aleck's breastpin, think of-
think of-no matter for the rest."
The breastpin was simply a golden square and
compass, manufactured by that Tubal Cain of a
fellow, Tim, who had made it for Alexander
Baldridge, while the latter was Worshipful
Master of the Catesby Lodge.
To his hotel, Robert now returned, to find
Mr. Socrates Ely still sitting up, poring
over his Homer, although the hour was the
very earliest in the morning, and Tim, who
had just finished a handsome lion-headed
riding whip, expressly for the campaign.
Promptly at sunrise, the cavalcade assembled
and set forth. The day's hard riding took
them more than forty miles from Catesby, and
to the camp of Major Hodges' party, who had
preceded them on the march the day before.
Here they learned that the Indians, under a
noted chief, had crossed the river in much
greater force than had been at first
supposed, and had done immense mischief in
various settlements on the route. Many
parties of the whites had been formed to
reconnoiter, and, if prudent, to attack them;
and nearly half the regiment of the Blues was
out endeavor ing to intercept them in their
return route. The news were stirring, indeed;
and the Catesby companies joined camps
together that night, fully anticipating,
before another, to meet the savages in
battle.
It is a thrilling scene-one of these military
encampments. The large fires, whose scarlet
hue contrasts forcibly with the thick shade
of the forest, rendering it even more
profoundly black in the comparison, presents
one of the most brilliant displays of
coloring imaginable. The cheerful jest,
unrestrained by the presence of stranger, or
woman; the broad opening of heart to heart,
by the social influences of the occasion; the
symbolic groupings of stars over head; the
mysterious voices of the night around;
nothing in life's memory dwells longer on the
mind of a child than an encampment scene;
nothing is so pleasantly recalled to memory,
by the retired soldier, as his bivouac in the
forest, when comrades were cheerful, and good
cheer abundant.
The mess which Robert Carnarson had formed
for his own-special accommodation, consisted
of Tim, the artificer, Ely, his old college
comrade, and the two brothers, Ellison, his
neighbors, sons of a widow woman-widowed by
the pestilence of intemperance. These five
had built a fire at a little distance from
the rest, or rather, Tim had built it, while
the others looked on his handy way with
stares of admiration; had cooked a bountiful
supper, or rather, Tim had cooked it, while
they assisted him with epithets commendatory;
and they were now cosily sitting upon some
seats that ingenious Tim had fabricated out
of the limbs of the oaks that were melting
into ashes before them.
The conversation started with a jocular
remark from one of the Ellisons, who had
observed the square and compass on Robert's
bosom. He thought that Bob was determinated
that folks should know he was a Mason anyhow,
for he carried his jewel on his breast.
"And where else would you have a jewel worn?"
responded the indefatigable Tim, who was
fitting a spare spring into the lock of Ely's
musket-that essential portion of the
mechanism having been abstracted from it
years before. "Where else but on his breast
should a Freemason wear his jewels? Next to
the heart is the place, and if I aint
mistaken, that's the very jewel that Aleck
Baldridge had in his shirt bosom at the time
the coach load of passengers was drowned in
Secon's river. I ought to know that jewel,
seeing as how I made it; and if you'll press
the lower part of the square hard, you'll
learn something about it, Bob, that Josephine
herself didn't know of when she gave it to
you."
His directions were followed by Robert, the
others crowding around to see the result;
and, to the astonishment of everybody, the
square flew apart, and was transformed into a
perfect double triangle, on one side of which
was engraved, in microscopic characters, the
name, age, and Masonic standing of the owner,
and this passage of Scripture from 2
Chronicles ii. 14: " To find out every device
which shall be put to him." On the other
side, a number of Masonic symbols,
exquisitely executed; the most prominent of
which, was the Mark Master's mark of the
fabricator.
"Yes," pursued Tim, when the murmurs of
surprise were hushed, "I made that breast-pin
and intended it for Dewitt Clinton, but when
Aleck waited on me day and night, time I
broke my arm, I gave it to him and fixed one
up afterwards for Clinton of another pattern.
Aleck never knew of that secret spring at
all, for I meant to have my own fun out of
him some day about it. But poor fellow, he
was hurried away to his last account without
a moment's warning. We discovered the bodies
of the seven passengers in a drift below the
ford, more than two weeks after the accident.
You couldn't have told your father from your
mother, the bodies were so decayed. But I
pointed out Aleck's from the rest, for on his
breast was this jewel, and I knew it to be
the jewel which I had given him as a token of
gratitude."
"Tell us, Bob," inquired one of the
Ellisons," what's the rule for trying men who
want to be Masons? Father used to say before
he took to drink, that the Masons rejected
him because he was one-legged." "Ha,ha,
ha,"
roared Tim," a one legged man a Mason! why
how on earth could he-ha, ha, ha,-how could
such a man- that's too good a joke! ha, ha,
ha! I think I see him "
"Every person desiring admission," said Ely,
quoting from memory out of the ancient
constitution of Masonry, "every person
desiring admission must be upright in body,
not deformed or dismembered at the time of
making, but of hale and entire limbs, as a
man ought to be."
" If you really wish to know our rule,"
replied Robert, "our published books give it
clearly enough. The ancient writer who spoke
of a sound mind in a sound body, gave our
Masonic model with great exactness. Many a
fine house has a despicable tenant, while
many a noble soul dwells in a hovel. Now,
while Masonry is too much of the building art
to endure the shabby cabin for a dwelling,
she is quite too nice to accept the finest
temple unless the god therein dwells."
"Fact," pursued Tim, speaking with his mouth
full of gun screws,'- fact, I knowed a man
once down on the Olean who was said to have
been rejected nine times because he had such
a d-1 of a temper. The Masons didn't believe
they could control him and yet he was the
richest man in the place. I'm told he swore
he'd get up a political party some day a
purpose to break down Masonry and have his
revenge; but he can no more injure it than
this rotten old lock can injure my new
spring." At the word snap went the steel,
affording a most unfortunate point to his
illustration and occupying all his attention
for the remainder of the sitting to remedy
it. *
In another hour all was still in the
soldiers' camp. The sentinels walked drowsily
to and fro in the paths or paused to lean
against some favoring tree, and snatched a
hasty doze. The sky began to change.
Mutterings of distant thunder might have been
heard in the region of the south. The wind
arose. The voices of the night were all
absorbed in the roarings of the blast that
portended a storm. The sentinels, widely
wakened by the disagreeable prospect, roused
up the whole camp to prepare for it. There
were no tents, it being a cavalry scout, and
the only thing that could be done was to
stake down the blankets in the best position
to afford a shelter, heap heavy wood on the
fires, and await the result. But this
preparation was in vain. The gusts increased
in violence, tearing away the frail shelters
and bearing them far above the tree-tops, and
scattering the fire brands as chaff. Then the
heavy fall of decaying trunks shook the
ground, and the volunteers felt that a
hurricane was approaching them dry shod. All
around was as the darkness of the land of
Egypt, a thick darkness that might be felt.
The pitying stars had withdrawn their rays,
unwilling to look down upon such a scene of
devastation. The weaker branches from the
forest trees fell thickly on every side,
threatening both limb and life. A minute
longer, and the tempest broke in its fury.
Fortunately for the safety of the encampment,
the centre of the gale passed a few hundred
yards below them, but the elemental force on
the edge of the current was a fearful index
to the whole. Those who had not taken the
precaution to shelter themselves behind the
larger trees, were dashed violently to the
ground and grievously stunned. The horses
suffered severely from the fall of boughs,
and several were so mangled that their owners
in mercy despatched them. Major Hodges had a
leg broken, others were hurt but in a lesser
degree.
The duration of a hurricane on land is rarely
long. In another hour the frightened party
had collected again to compare their losses
and as far as possible repair damages.
Tim, who amidst his other amusements had
practiced surgery, proceeded briskly to set
the broken bones, and then manufactured for
himself a blanket cap in place of a hat blown
clear away. Fires were rekindled, wet
garments dried, and by daylight the
encampment was again lost in sleep.
* This anecdote and Tim's prophetic omen
will recall to the mind of the ins formed
reader the circumstances that led to the
antimasonic warfare of 1826-33. Many a threat
of extermination preceded the baleful attack.
Freemasonry is a moral order, instituted by virtuous men,
with
the praiseworthy design of recalling to our remembrance
the most
sublime truths, in the midst of the most innocent and
social pleasures,
founded on liberality, brotherly love and charity. -
ARNOLD.
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