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

768
Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
people were excluded from this order, as it was the case in many Masonic
jurisdictions. The climax arrives when even Bricktop's sweetheart asks him to
become a Knight of Pythias. Finally, he submits to the demand of the society and
becomes initiated.
Bricktop then describes in a chapter headed "Terrible Doings" how he finds
himself in a dim little anteroom with a wicket, where he has to give an alarm.
When asked to name his object for giving the alarm, he gives the false reply, like
"because I was told to" and "to get rid of persecution," while it is expected of
him to answer something earnest, such as the Masonic formula "in search of light
and truth." Bricktop is literally "roped into" this order, since he does not
understand the metaphorical meaning of the cabletow: "[...] a lasso was thrown
over my head, and in the twinkling of a sheep's tail I was roped into another and
a larger room [...]." 1918 Bricktop satirizes both in words and illustrations the
armor and disguise of the investigating committee who ask the "man of the outer
world" to deliver all his valuables, and of the other members: "It certainly
seemed as though the antipodes of creation had been brought together to see how
they felt in each other's company. Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray
would not express it by half. Every conceivable uniform, from the complete
Knight of Edward II. to a Bloomer of the period, was there [...]." 1919
The narrator further ridicules the stage effects, such as the noises: "The next
thing that greeted my waiting senses was a most infernal whanging of gongs and
hewgags, followed by a cavalry-call blast upon a bugle or an unlicensed fishhorn
[...]." 1920
1918 Ibid, p. 32.
1919 Ibid, p. 36.
1920 Ibid, p. 34.