They Opened Their Golden Gates

My congratulations to the Freemasons of San Francisco, where a new Lodge has life. You can read about it here.

It’s been over 20 years since I’ve visited San Francisco. It’s such a beautiful city. And they love Canadians down there, as it seems men were always buying me drinks. On my trips down there I managed to visit a number of different Lodges and was appreciative of the friendliness of the brethren down there. A couple of Lodges back then met at the Scottish Rite Temple on Van Ness and Sutter. The Lodge room was absolutely huge with high ceilings and décor which I was told back then would have been impossible to replace. You got to the Lodge room in a rickety old elevator with a gate in the front.

I went through two extremes of visiting. On one hand, I ended up at a Lodge in Marin County with my dues card resting comfortably back at my hotel on the other side of the Bay. My examination consisted of a handshake. Not a Masonic one, just a handshake. “That’s it?” I asked. Yes, that was it. Not even a single question. They were conferring a Second Degree that evening and at the end the District Inspector stood up and jokingly noted that some Work from another state had crept in—and he recognised it because that’s where he was from. The Master then pointed out many of the officers were guards at San Quentin and asked them to stand up. “You shouldn’t have any problems when you’re down here,” he added.

On the other hand, another Lodge assigned two old Past Masters to examine me and started to go through the Third Degree catechism that I don’t even think Masons in California learn any more. I had to explain that my Lodge’s ritual was entirely different, we didn’t have those questions, our signs were different and even our obligation wasn’t the same as theirs. They left me in the ante-room for 20 minutes while the Lodge figured out what to do with me. They finally let me in, but I missed the opening ceremony. Still, they were pleasant old gents who took the Masonic name of ‘caution’ seriously and I gave a bit of a talk on how Masonry was different in my part of the world. There were interested and quite surprised, as everyone assumes Freemasonry is the same the world over.

Another Lodge was fairly young, but small, with a number of Chinese and Filipinos as officers. They offered to give me a tour around town the next day and I could stay with them if I wanted and they really didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer. It’s quite remarkable they would be so outgoing with a perfect stranger, so I suppose the point is I really wasn’t a perfect stranger. I was a brother.

Then there was a Lodge which had been ordered out of its long-time meeting place on Market Street by the Grand Master because—gasp!—a restaurant renting space on the ground floor served drinks. On my next trip, the Lodge had ended up amalgamating and I don’t believe it survived much longer.

And another Lodge stunned me by holding off its meeting because the Lodge’s charter had been removed from the building and was with someone who was too sick to attend that night. The Lodge had something like 444 members but there were maybe a dozen scattered about the room that night, and the S.W. stood up to announce he was moving to Washington State.

A couple of Lodges gave me copies of their histories. I have a beautiful golden bound book presented to me by Oriental Lodge No. 144. You can read about the early days of that Lodge on-line here.

My days of travelling to San Francisco are likely over, but I’m sure the members of the new Lodge an ashlar’s throw away from the cable-car line will treat their visitors with the Masonic hospitality that is a hallmark of our American brothers.

Lest We Forget

My father was in the Army in World War Two. My uncle was in the RCAF and served overseas.

This story is from 1935.

FREE MASONRY IS TARGET OF NAZIS
End of All Masonic Lodges and Abolition of Veterans’ Groups Announced
BERLIN, Aug. 8—(AP)—The end of all Free Masonic lodges in Germany and the abolition of more World war veterans’ organizations were announced today.
Reichsfuerer Hitler’s newspaper, Voelkischer Beobachter, stated that on Saturday the last Masonic lodges in the Reich, the state lodge of Saxony, the Dresden Great lodge, and the “German Brethren Chain” of Leipzig will be dissolved.
Use Law of 1933
Secret police today dissolved the veterans’ “Steel Helmet” formations in Berlin, Brandenburg, Pommerania, and Eastern Mark, the territory along the western ridge of Pomorze, Poland.
The dissolution of the veteran units was accomplished on the basis of the law of Feb. 28, 1933, for the protection of the people and the state. The property of the Steel Helmet units was seized.
After dissolution of the old Prussian Free Mason lodge July 21 and the gradual disappearance of smaller lodges in a year-long campaign, the Free Masons in Germany—first so-called “state enemies”—thus would be wiped out completely.
See Jewish Republic
Hitler’s organ, asserting the secret aim of Free Masonry was a Jewish world republic, said the forthcoming dissolution would “finish a special chapter in world history, and the guardian of the Nazi ideal will be alert.”
Jews accused of trying to hid their race to escape the anti-Semitism appeared to stand in the center of Nazi determination to purify German blood.
Der Angriff, newspaper of Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, directed an attack against Jews covering up by becoming Christians, and asked how much longer the Protestant church would continue to baptise Jews.

Now Pinch-Hitting for the Masons...

In honour of the Boys of November (why is baseball being played so late in the year anyway?), we pass on this bit of news from the Masonic archives.

Lodges are always—or at least should be—places of fellowship and conviviality, and have some kind of events involving the social aspect of a fraternity. One Lodge, I gather in Connecticut, had annual event along the following lines. This story is from the Hartford Courant of October 20, 1959:

Whitey Ford To Appear At Masons’ Sports Night
MANCHESTER (Special) -- Whitey Ford, star left-handed hurler for the New York Yankees, will be “subbing for the sub” when he appears here to night at the Sports Night of the Manchester Lodge of Masons.
Gil McDougald, another outstanding performer for the Yankees, was scheduled to appear here along with Jackie Farrell, Yankee public relations man and two local youths, both in the minor leagues, Moe Morhardt, who signed with the Chicago Cubs last spring as a “bonus baby”, and Gene Johnson, of the Milwaukee farm system.
Substitute Can’t Come
Several days ago, Howard Waddell, chairman of the committee making arrangements for the Sports Night, was informed that McDougald will be hospitalized until the middle of next month and that Bill (Moose) Skowron. Yankee’s first sacker would appear in his place.
Monday, Waddell was again told by Mrs. Skowron that a wrist injury her husband received several weeks ago during the ball season had not healed and that he underwent surgery for it again Sunday night,
The affair will start at 7 p.m. with a dinner at the Masonic Temple.

Kyle Rote was the featured speaker the following year and the event seems to have carried on through the 1960s. I gather the Lodge simply called the Community Relations department of some sports team, arranged for some athletes, and then sold tickets to a dinner as a fund-raiser.

Is your Lodge organised enough to be able to pull off the same kind of thing today?