University of Virginia Library

6. CHAPTER VI.

The long wished day, which was to reveal to our hero
those hidden wonders so impenetrably concealed from the
profane and vulgar, at length arrived. With restless impatience
and quivering anxiety did he wait the proper hour
for his departure to meet his appointment at the place of
his proposed initiation. And no sooner had it arrived than
he mounted his nag, and, with his initiation fee snugly deposited
in his pocket, rode off for the residence of Jenks,
the friend, who, as before mentioned, had agreed to introduce
him. The distance was about five miles; but his

horse, although it was a murky evening in July, either
through consciousness that he was bound on an errand of
no ordinary import, or in consequence of those birchen
incentives to speed that were freely administered at almost
every step by his impetuous rider, flew over the
rough road with the velocity of the wind, and in one half
hour stood reeking in sweat at the place of his destination.
Jenks, already in waiting at the door, received Timothy
with all the kindness of anticipated brotherhood. As soon
as the mutual greetings were over, the two immediately
set out for the house where the lodge was to hold its meeting.
This was a new two-story wooden building, into
which the owner had lately moved. Although the house
was only partially finished, yet a `rum pole,' as it is sometimes
called, had been raised, and the building was already
occupied as a tavern. The landlord, himself a Mason,
had agreed to consecrate his hall to the use of his brethren,
and the approaching meeting was the first opportunity they
had found to dedicate it to its mystic purposes. The members
of the lodge having mostly assembled when Timothy
and Jenks arrived, the former was left alone in the bar-room,
while the latter went into the hall, proposing to return
for the candidate as soon as all was ready for his reception.
This was a moment of the most thrilling and
fearful suspense to our hero, tremblingly alive as he was
to the overwhelming interests of the occasion. He tried
to occupy his mind during the absence of his friend, which
seemed an age, by now looking out of the window and
watching the movements of the gathering clouds as they
came over, deepening the shades of the approaching evening,—now
vacantly gazing at the turkies, taking roost in
the yard,—now pacing the room and pulling up his well
starched collar, and now hurriedly counting his fingers, to
kill the lagging moments, and allay the fever of his excited
expectation.

At last, however, Jenks came, and informed him, that
the committee appointed to consider his case had reported
faverably; the vote of the lodge had been taken, and

“all was found clear:” he might therefore now follow to
the preparation room. This room was no other than the
kitchen garret, which, being on a level with the hall, and
communicating with the same by a door at one end of it,
was now to be used for this purpose through necessity, as
that part of the hall originally designed for a preparation
room was not yet sufficiently finished to answer for the
present initiation. To this garret the candidate was now
conducted, through the kitchen, and up the kitchen stairs—
that being the only way of getting into the room without
going through the hall, which the candidate must not yet
be permitted to enter. The garret having been darkened
for the occasion, the candidate and his conductor, after
getting up stairs, groped along, feeling their way by taking
hold of the rafters above them, towards the hall door, frequently
stumbling over the loose boards of which the floor,
in some places single, in some double or treble, was composed,
placed there for the double purpose of seasoning
and answering for a temporary flooring. The masonic
reader may here perhaps pause to demur to the fitness of
our preparation room as being too liable to attract the attention
of the inmates of the kitchen below, and thus lead
to an exposure to the eyes of prying curiosity; but all this
had been prudently foreseen, and the difficulty obviated,
by the landlord who had contrived to have his wife and
daughter, the only females of the family, go out on a visit that
afternoon, with the intimation that they need not return
till dark, before which it was supposed the ceremonies of
the preparation room would be over.

As soon as Timothy had been stationed near the door
leading into the lodge-room, he was left to himself. In a
short time however Jenks returned, accompanied by several
others, one of whom was the Senior Deacon of the
lodge, who now approached the candidate, and questioned
him as follows:

“Do you sincerely declare upon your honor, before these
gentlemen, that unbiassed by friends, uninfluenced by unworthy

motives, you freely and voluntarily offer yourself a
candidate for the mysteries of Masonry?”

`I say yes,' replied Timothy, `to all but that about being
biassed by friends—my father advised me to join, and
Mr. Jenks here'—

“Why, Sir,” hastily interrupted the Deacon, “you don't
pretend that your friends used improper influence to induce
you to join, do you?”

`O, no,' replied Timothy; `but falsifications are exceptionabilities,
and I thought you was going to make me
say'—

“Ah, Sir,” again interrupted the Deacon, “you said no,
I think, to the last question: The answer will do, will it
not, Brethren?” `We conclude so, Brother,' was the reply.
The Deacon then proceeded.—

“Do you sincerely declare upon your honor that you are
prompted to solicit the principles Masonry by a favorable
opinion conceived of the institution—a desire of knowledge,
and a sincere wish of being serviceable to your fellow-creatures?”

`Yes, I do,' eagerly replied Timothy. Here Jenks seeing
the probability that the candidate would need considerable
prompting, stepped up to his side and jogged him
to be quiet.

“Do you,” continued the Deacon, “sincerely declare
that you will cheerfully conform to all the ancient established
usages and customs of the fraternity?”

`Why, yes—it is conjecturable I shall,' replied Timothy,
in a half hesitating, half jocular tone and manner,
`though the d—l a bit do I know what they are: Suppose
you first explicate and expound them a little.' “Say you
do,” impatiently whispered Jenks in his ear. `I do then,'
said Timothy.

The Deacon then went into the lodge to report the answers
of the candidate, while those remaining proceeded
to strip him of his clothes; but not understanding the meaning
of the movement, and not much relishing being taken

in hand in this manner, he suddenly started and twisted
himself out of their hands, demanding what they were going
to do, & bidding them beware of putting tricks upon one
who could throw any two of them at a back-hug, side-hold,
rough-and-tumble, or any other way—a threat which he
probably could, and would have made good, (for he was no
slouch at athletics) had they persisted at that moment while
under the impression, as he was, that this movement was
no part of the ceremony, but a mere trick or joke attempted
by way of interlude to pass away the time till the Deacon
returned. But Jenks again interfered, and after many
persuasions and the most positive assurances that this
was really part of the ceremonies, induced him to consent
to let them proceed. He then rather grumblingly submitted
himself again into their hands, observing that he “supposed
it was all right, but what the sublime art of masonry
could possibly have to do with pulling down a fellow's
breeches, was beyond the expansion of his comprehensibilities
to discover.” He was then divested of all his clothing
except his shirt, which was turned down round the
neck and shoulders so that the left breast was left bare.
They then incased his legs in an old pair of woolen drawers,
which, on account of the candidate's unusual crural
dimensions, reached no farther down than about midleg;
and bound a black silk handkerchief so snugly about his
eyes as to make an impervious blindfold. His right foot
was next placed into an old shoe, which in masonic parlance
is called “the slipper;” while a rope, of several
yards in length, was tied with a noose around his neck.
These important ceremonies being in due form completed,
all the attendant brethren retired into the lodge-room, except
the Senior Deacon, who was here left in charge of the
candidate. This officer then taking hold of the end of the
rope, or cable-tow, as it is termed in the technics of masonry,
made towards the hall door, and reaching out his
right hand, while with his left pulling upon the rope round
the neck of the candidate, he gave with his mallet, or gavel,
three loud knocks on the door, which were instantly answered
by three still louder knocks from within; while at
the same moment the door was partly opened, and a harsh,
sharp voice hurriedly cried out, “Who comes there, who
comes there, who comes there?” All this was the work of
an instant, and the noise thereby produced falling so suddenly,
so unexpectedly, and with such a rapid succession
of confused and startling sounds on the ears of the candidate,
he involuntarily bolted with the quickness of thought,
several feet backwards;—which movement straightening
the rope, and causing the Deacon to hang on stiffly at the
other end, at once threw the two into a position much resembling
two boys pulling sticks. As soon as the poor
blind and alarmed candidate had time to rally his scattered
ideas, after being brought into this situation, a sudden
fancy shot through his brain that they were going to hang
him; and, like a led pig, that has hung back almost to
choaking, he suddenly made another desperate lunge backwards,
when, as the evil genius of masonry would have it,
the Deacon unluckily let go his hold, and the poor candidate
came down on his rearwards on a place in the floor,
which happened to be of but one thickness of boards, with
such violence, that every thing gave way before him, and
he was precipitated with a loud crash down into the kitchen,
and landed, with the shock of thunder, on the floor.
Just at that moment, as bad luck would again have it, Susan,
the landlord's daughter, a sturdy girl of sixteen, had
come home, and was in the act of hanging up her bonnet
when this strange vision fell on her astounded senses. She
turned round and gave one wild, fixed stare upon Timothy,
who with a loud grunt had floundered on to his feet, and
now stood in his red drawers, with his face concealed by
the black bandage, and so tied with large bows behind as
to resemble horns, with his cable-tow hanging down his
back, and with his mouth distended with the grin of a baboon
thrown into the air. She gave one wild look on this
appalling figue, and bolted like an arrow through the door.
Scarcely, however, had she reached the yard, when some
movement of our hero striking her ear, and leading her to
suppose the monster was at her heels, fear seized her afresh,
and deprived the poor girl of all power of getting forward,
and, like a sheep or a rabbit frightened by a dog, she continued
for some time leaping up with prodigious bounds
into the air without gaining an inch in advance, throwing
up her hands with a pawing kind of motion towards the
heavens, and eagerly exclaiming, “O Lord! take me right
up into the skies! O, Lordy! O, Lordy!” She soon however
recovered her powers of progression, and with all her
speed made towards the barn where her two brothers were
pitching off a load of hay, screaming at every step, “O,
murder! murder! save me! save me, Ben! The devil is
come! The devil is in the house! O, save me—save me!”

The boys hearing this outcry, leaped from the load, and
ran out eagerly crying, “What's the matter—what's the
matter?” “Oh, Ben!” replied the breathless and affrighted
girl, “Oh, Ben, the devil is in our house! Oh! Oh! Oh!”
“What the darnation do you mean?” exclaimed Ben.—
“Suke, you are crazy!” “O, I ain't—I ain't nother,” she
cried with histerical sobs—“it is the devil—I seed him
with his black face, and horns, and tail a rod long! How
he looked! Oh! oh! boo-hoo-hoo!” “I snore!” exclaimed
the youngest boy, with glaring eyes, and teeth
chattering like a show-monkey in January, “I snore! Ben,
where's dad?” “Jock!” said the oldest boy, flourishing
his pitchfork and courageously making towards the house,
“you come on with your fork—by golly! we'll fix him!”
So saying, Ben, followed by his brother, pushed forward
to the scene of action, both proceeding with their forks
presented, ready to receive his majesty of the black face
and long tail upon the tines as soon as they should meet
him. When they came near the door they proceeded more
cautiously, stopping to peep in at a distance; but seeing
nothing, they soon grew bolder, and the elder one fairly
put his head within the door. Here all was quiet and nothing
to be seen. They then went in, searched about the
room, looked out of the windows, and passed into the lower
rooms of the other part of the house, without finding

any breach or hole where his majesty could have come in
or gone out, or indeed discovering any thing that could in
the least account for their sister's fright. The Masons
they knew were in the hall; but they never dreamed that
the apparition could have had any connexion with the proceedings
of the lodge room. They therefore concluded
that it was all poor Susan's imagination that had caused
such a fuss, and getting her in, they called her a darn fool
to be scart at nothing. But she still persisting strongly in
her story, they soon gave it up that it must have been the
devil; and their mother coming home soon after, and hearing
the story, still added to their fears by expressing her
belief that it was a bona fide satanic visitation; and as soon
as it was dusk, they lit up a candle, and all sat down close
together in fear and wonderment, without going out of
doors till the Masons broke up; and even then they received
no new light on the subject; for the landlord was silent
on the affair, being quite willing to let it go as it
stood, lest the truth might be discovered. It therefore
became the settled opinion of not only the family but the
neighborhood, except the brethren, that the devil actually
made his appearance on that eventful evening, and thousands
were the conjectures as to the nature of his errand.
So much for the devil in red drawers, hoodwinked and cable-towed.
Let us now return to the lodge-room.

No sooner had the accident just related happened, than
several of the brethren rushed out of the hall, and, while
some carefully took up and replaced the broken board by
another so as to leave no clue to the disaster, others ran
down, and seizing the candidate, now bruised, sore and
bewildered, hastily forced him up stairs and hurried him
into the lodge-room, where they were on the point of receiving
him, when this luckless interruption took place.

After a short pause, to see whether the candidate was
hurt, as well as to recover from the fright and confusion
into which they had been thrown, they, on finding that no
serious damage had been done, now repaired to their respective
stations that the ceremony might proceed. The

Worshipful Master then bid the candidate “enter with heed
and in God's name.” A short prayer was next repeated,
when the candidate, after a few unimportant questions and
answers, was again taken in hand for the purpose of performing
the customary ceremony of being led by the cable-tow
three times round the lodge-room. The brethren
by this time having fairly recovered from their alarm, were
now, as they thought of the late affair, and looked on the
poor blind candidate, beginning to be seized with much
merrier emotions. And as he was led along, his wo-begone
countenance wincing at every step, as if he expected every
instant some new calamity to befal him, and lifting high
his feet, like a new-yoked hog, in fear of more accidents
from faithless floors, his shirt sadly torn, and his drawers so
disordered as to lead to some corporeal developements of
masterly conformation, his appearance produced no little
sensation among the assembled brotherhood.—Some were
seen compressing their mouths and screwing their lips together
to prevent the escape of the threatened explosion
of laughter,—some snapping their fingers in silent glee,
and some holding their sides, and writhing and bending
nearly double through the convulsive effects of suppressed
risibility: and in a moment more, the contagion seizing the
whole company, the hall shook and resounded with a universal
burst of half-smothered laughter. Even the Right
Worshipful Master, who was then reading a passage from
the open Bible before him, found such difficulty in commanding
the tones of his quavering voice, that he was forced
to run hurriedly over the remainder of the passage,
and no sooner had he reached the last word than he bro't
the book together with a hasty slap, and gave himself up
to the uncontrolable gust of emotions that was every where
raging around him. As soon, however, as the Master could
succeed in assuming a face of sober dignity, and in quelling
the tumult, the Junior Deacon brought the candidate,
now blushing almost through the black handkerchief over
his face at his own degradation, to a station near the altar.
The sharp points of the compass were then presented to
his naked breast, accompanied with some other of the usual
ceremonies, previous to administering the oath. He was
next ordered and assisted to kneel on his left knee, while
his hands were placed in due form, one under, and the other
on the open Bible, on which were laid the square and
compass. After this, the Worshipful Master approached,
and told him that he was now in the proper place and situation
to receive the oath of Entered Apprentice, and desired
him, if willing to take it, to say over the words, repeating
them exactly as they were given off to him. The
Master then proceeded to tell over the first clause of the
oath, which Timothy, after some hesitation, repeated. They
then went on with the rest of the obligation, which was in
the like manner, told over and repeated, until they came to
the last clause, “Binding myself under no less penalty
than to have my throat cut across from ear to ear, my tongue
torn out by the roots, and my body buried in the rough
sands of the sea, at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs
and flows twice in twenty-four hours—so help me God;”
when the candidate, who, after all that had befel him, was
not so much bewildered as to quite lose his own notions
about things, or so subdued as to be ready to submit to any
thing which he might think for the moment to be of questionable
propriety, suddenly started upon his feet, and in a
sort of desperate and determined tone exclaimed, “What!
have my own throat cut! and ask God to help do it? I'll
be exploded first!” This unexpected scrupulousness and
refusal of the candidate, whom they supposed to have been
too much tamed by the events of the evening to cause them
any further trouble, occasioned a momentary confusion
among the brethren, and brought Jenks, his old prompter,
immediately to his side. The latter then used and exhausted
all his powers of coaxing to induce the still stubborn
and determined candidate to repeat the clause in
question; but, finding that his entreaties were of no effect,
he resorted to menaces, threatening to turn him out naked
into the street if he refused to complete the oath. But this,
instead of producing the desired effect, only made the candidate
more turbulent, and he instantly retorted, “Do it,
if you want to smell my fist!—I can abolish a dozen of
you!” At the same time suiting the action to the word,
he sprang forward, flourishing his clenched fist with such
fearful violence, that all hands, for the safety of their heads,
were obliged to leap out of his reach, while with his left
hand he made a desperate pull on the bandage over his
eyes. But the quick eyes of the brethren catching this
last movement, a half dozen of them sprang upon him in
an instant, and, forcibly holding his arms, put him down in
his former position, in despite of his furious struggles to
get free. Here they held him down by force till his breath
and strength were fairly exhausted by the violence of his
efforts. They then, with the sharp points of the compass
and sword, began to prick him, first on one side, then on
the other, until, through pain, exhaustion and vexation, he
sunk down and burst out into a loud boo-hoo—blubbering
like a hungry boy for his bread and butter. Jenks, now
taking advantage of this softened mood, immediately
renewed his exertions, and by a little soothing and persuasion,
soon brought the poor subdued candidate to consent
to take the remainder of the oath, which was instantly administered,
lest with recovering strength he should renew
his opposition; and thus ended this troublesome part of
the ceremony.

The Master now addressing the candidate, said, “Brother,
to you the secrets of Masonry are about to be unveiled;
and a brighter sun never shone lustre on your eyes. Brother,
what do you now most desire?” `I should like a drink
of water, and then to be let out,' sobbed Timothy, taking
the last question literally, and being now quite willing, in
his present state of feelings, to forego any more of the secrets
of masonry if he might be suffered to depart. But he
soon found that this was not to be permitted; for the
prompter bid him answer the question properly, and say
he desired light. The question then being repeated, he
submissively answered as he was bid; when the Master,
giving a loud rap, and raising his voice, said, “Brethren,

stretch forth your hands and assist in bringing this new-made
brother from darkness to light!” This last order being
followed with much bustle, and sounds portending busy
preparation for some important movement, the candidate
became alarmed, fearing that some other terrible trial, yet
in reserve for him, was now to be experienced; and he began
to breathe short, and tremble violently. The members
having formed a circle around the agitated candidate,
the Master, after a few moments of the most profound stillness,
now broke the portentous silence by loudly exclaiming,
“And God said let there be light, and there was light!”
Instantly all the brethren of the lodge furiously clapped
their hands; and, with one united stamp brought their uplifted
feet to the floor with such a thundering shock as
made the whole house tremble to its lowest foundations:
while, at the same time, the bandage, which had been gradually
loosened for the purpose, was suddenly snatched from
the eyes of the candidate, who, shuddering with terror at
the astounding din around him, and dazzled by the intenseness
of the bright flood of light that burst, from total darkness,
at once upon his unexpecting and astonished senses,
now stood aghast with dismay and consternation; his fixed
and glassy eyes glaring in dumb bewilderment on the
encircled group of figures, which, to his distempered and
distorting vision, seemed some strange, grim and unearthly
beings, and which his wandering imagination soon converted
into a band of fiends, standing ready to seize, and pitch
him about in torments. Gazing a moment in mute amazement
on this terrible array, he became suddenly agitated,
and, rising to his full height, and collecting all his delirious
energies, he, with one prodigious bound, sent himself,
like a rocket, completely over the shoulders of the encircled
brotherhood, and fell in a swoon at full length on the
floor, leaving an atmosphere behind him but little improved
by his ærial transit. All for a while was now bustle and
confusion in the lodge-room.—Some were seen running to
take up the prostrate candidate—some hurrying for water
and spirits to revive him—some, with one hand holding the
organs of their mutinnous olfactories, to work in clearing
the floor of the sad effects of masonic principles operating
the wrong way; and others no less busily engaged in the
process of disaromatizing, or removing their own clothes
and emblematical adornments; for I grieve to say, that many
a gay sash, and many a finely figured apron, here fell a
sacrifice to this hapless result of the ennobling mysteries
of Masonry.

At length all was again in a fair way to be restored
to order. The candidate was soon brought to his
senses, and finding himself not dead, and being assured
moreover that the storm had now entirely passed by, he began
to revive rapidly. His clothes were then brought him,
and he was assisted to dress. This being done, and a glass
of spirits administered by way of a restorative, the Master
proceeded to complete the ceremonies, which were here
made to consist only of the grip, signs and pass-words, the
lecture of instructions being dispensed with for this time,
owing to the weak condition of the candidate; for he was
still a little wild, and occasionally visited with sudden starts
and slight convulsive shudders, sometimes breaking out into
a loud laugh, and at other times shedding tears.

The lodge was now closed with a prayer by the Worshipful
Master; after which, the brethren were called from
labor to refreshment. Bottles were then brought on, and
all freely partaking, soon relaxed into cheerful chit-chat
and social gaiety—some occasionally breaking out into
parts of those chaste, animating, and lofty breathing songs,
so peculiar to this moral and soul-gifted fraternity, and so
worthy withal of that classical origin of organized Freemasonry
which the learned Lawrie and other historians of
the order, have, with great appearance of truth, we think,
traced to the mysteries of Bachus. And while strains like
the following,

with the exhilarating effects of the now rapidly circulating
bottle, co-operating in their genial influences on both body
and mind, the feelings of the company were soon exalted
to the highest pitch of joyous excitement. A thousand
lively jokes and sallies of wit, together with many a hearty
laugh over the romantic events of the evening, enlivened
the scene; and even the pale and exhausted candidate began
to mingle slightly in the prevailing mirth, and feel, as
they now broke up, that Richard would soon be himself
again.