Post by Tamrin on Sept 6, 2008 13:56:26 GMT 10
Unknown Mason
Some years ago there came to light an old book Hieroglyphic Monitor which had belonged to a John Boyce of New York in 1854. Pasted on the inside cover was a newspaper cutting entitled ‘A Masonic Funeral in California’. It read as follows:
“The first Masonic funeral that ever took place in California occurred in the year 1849 and was performed over the body of a brother found drowned in the Bay of San Francisco..... Upon the body was found a silver mark of a mark-master, upon which were engraved the initials of his name. Further investigation revealed to the beholders the most interesting exhibition of Masonic emblems that were ever drawn by the ingenuity of man on human skin.
Beautifully dotted on his left arm, in red and blue ink, which time could not efface, there appeared the Holy Bible, the Square and Compasses, the twenty-four-inch gauge, and the common gavel. There were also the Masonic pavement representing the ground floor of King Solomon’s temple, the indented tessel which surrounds it, and the blazing star in the centre. On his right arm were the square, and the level. There were also the five orders of architecture—the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.
In removing the garments from his body, the trowel presented itself, with all the other tools of operative Masonry. Conspicuously on his breast were the Great Lights of Masonry. Over his heart was the pot of incense. On other parts of his person were the bee-hive, the Book of Constitutions, guarded by the Tyler’s sword (the sword pointing to a naked heart), the all-seeing eye, the anchor and ark, the scythe, the forty-seventh problem of Euclid; the sun, moon, stars, and a comet; the three steps, emblematical of youth, manhood, and age. Admirably executed was the weeping virgin, reclining on a broken column, upon which lay the book of Constitutions. In her left hand she held the pot of incense, the Masonic emblem of a pure heart, and in her uplifted right hand a sprig of acacia, the beautiful emblem of the immortality of the soul. Immediately beneath her stood winged Time with his scythe by his side ‘which cuts the brittle thread of life”, and the hour glass at his feet, which is ever reminding us that ‘are lives are drawing to a close.
It was a spectacle such as Masons never saw before, and in all probability may never witness again. The brother’s name was never known.”
George Power, 1986, A Second Masonic Miscellany: A further collection of items of Masonic interest, p.14.
