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

764
Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
'Sometimes I have to deal with drunks and so I have to prove
horizontals and adjust uprights while fixing them on their proper bases,
then we all part in harmony.' 1903
The following joke deals with the mosaic pavement or checkered floor of a
Masonic lodge, which has alternating black and white squares representing good
and evil. It mentions another checkered symbol, the chessboard: "An eccentric
chess champion came into lodge with white slippers. 'Sorry,' he apologized, 'I
thought I was on the white squares tonight.' " 1904
We have selected the following joke since it employs both racism and the
Masonic custom of voting by casting balls, black balls rejecting and white balls
electing the candidate. The joke mirrors a conversation among two colored men.
The cliché that black is the symbolic color of evil and white of purity and
goodness is reversed in this case:
White Balled
'Am it true dat Rastus Johnsing done got black-balled when he tried toe
git 'lected in you' golf club?' - 'No, sah; he done got white balled. Black
ball is what 'lects a gemmen in ouah organization.' 1905
The last two jokes on Masonic customs concern the Masonic fire, which is
the table ceremony of toasting and clapping the heavy-bottomed glasses on the
table in a prescribed rhythm. Since "firing" is a technical term (cf. Sections 5.3
and 6.7), these jokes are understandable only by Freemasons. The first joke
makes fun of a waiter who thinks his hearing aid does not work right because he
hears funny gaps when the Masons are clapping - which is normal, of course.
The second joke refers to a Masonic "battery," i.e. the rhythmical clapping of
hands as a sign of honor. A sergeant orders "rapid fire," but since the gun men
are Freemasons they misunderstand him and clap their hands instead of shooting.
1903 Buchanan, p. 61.
1904 Ibid, p. 70.
1905 Pettibone, p. 67.
1906 Buchanan, p. 98.
Masonic fire
A newly engaged restaurant waiter complained to his doctor that the
hearing aid he had fitted was faulty. 'In what way?' asked the doctor. 'It
seems to come on and off mostly when I am at work, because when I
listen to those masons [sic] clapping after a speech, it sounds very
uneven, there are funny gaps in it.' 1906