The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
Die europäischen Freimaurer haben für diese Abart wenig Verständnis.
Sie fassen ihre Aufgabe zu ernst auf. Dagegen liebt sie der Amerikaner,
wie die in den meisten amerikanischen Freimaurerblättern übliche
heitere Spalte deutlich zeigt. Er spricht auch in Zeitschriften gerne von
'shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings' ('The Walrus
and the Carpenter'). 1880
In this sense, Painter comments that " [t]he Missouri Lodge of Research feels
that sometimes we take ourselves too seriously as Masons," 1881 and welcomes the
edition of Tied to Masonic Apron Strings. Humorous Events Connected With
Masonry by Pollard in 1969, in cooperation with the editor of The Royal Arch
Mason Magazine, who provided the cartoons. Painter argues that this book
"shows us another side of Freemasonry. It [...] gives us an opportunity to laugh at
ourselves and with our Brethren." 1882
As an example of self-criticism expressed by American Freemasons we
would like to mention the satires written by the humorist Roe Fulkerson, for
example Our Lodge Portrait Gallery (from which we have already quoted in
Section 8.4.5 on sociability), Leaves from a Diary of a Grand Master's Wife,
which describes the clichés of the hardships and the joys of being a Grand
Master's wife, and the Clinical Notes of a Grand Master. The latter were
published in The Master Mason, Nr. 9, of September, 1925, with the following
introduction: "As a Grand Master, his saving grace of humor has let him see the
fun in the serious side of Masonry, and in what is sometimes tragic to the 'cases'
he describes." 1883 In this satire, Fulkerson takes notes on special cases of patients
who have come to him for a cure. These notes consist of three short paragraphs,
the first one describing the patient, the second his or her symptoms, and the third
the suggested treatment. Of course, all patients are prototypes of a certain
character, and they all want something from Freemasonry, for example a job or a
loan, or their daughters to marry a Mason because of the social functions. They
are treated by him as they deserve.
1880
IFL, p. 368.
1881
Pollard, Foreword, p. V.
1882
Ibid.
1883
Newton (ed.), The Master Mason, p. 759.