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

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Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
Den next I dake der third degree
I dink dayed brake my jaw,
Day put me on a pilly goat
Der verst I efer saw.
I nefer rode a goat before, und
I vont you all ter know
Der Lodge ish diferend dan it vosh
Some dwenty years ago.
Not enough that he has to ride the goat, the poor candidate also has to take a
bath in "water warm as snow," which has also been a new invention to frighten
the initiate and to amuse the spectators. The poem is also interesting because it
makes fun of a German immigrant's English.
It is hard to trace the history of the goat riding custom. We would say it was
practiced approximately from the 1870's to the 1930's. An early reference to fun
sections in Masonic ceremonies is to be found in the Masonic Review dated
1870, in a letter to the editor: "Sometimes the candidate, during the preliminary
proceedings, is made to believe in advance that he is to be the subject for
amusement. Dark inuendos are thrown out, mysterious hints of danger are given,
and remarks made calculated to awaken fears or excite contempt." 1944 The writer
states that the candidate's first opinion of Freemasonry is generally formed from
the first impressions he receives, and that thus a wrong image of the order is
forced upon the neophyte. Not only in Blue Lodge degrees, but also in the higher
degrees of Past Master and the Royal Arch, he has observed such treatment:
In chapters, also, this penchant for amusement at the expense of the
candidate some times gets the upper hand, more especially in the P.M.
and R.A. degrees. I heard of one chapter in which the candidates in the
R.A. degree were severely maltreated, and suffered other indignities that
I may not name in print. The revelations of that degree are of the highest
importance, and the work extremely solemn: but what estimate will
candidates have of it if they are thus treated? It is a dishonor and
disgrace to Masonry, when such things are permitted. 1945
He further condemns giggling, the making of vulgar speech and whispering
during lodge sessions as insufferable, and underlines that the lodge room during
labor "is no place for boyish tricks or low buffoonery, for sport or amusement;
such things are out of place [...]." More than fifty years later, the magazine The
Master Mason, dated 1925, and published by the Masonic Service Association of
the United States proves that the goat riding practice was once a dark chapter of
third degree Masonry, but has been abandoned:
Let us rejoice that the Masonic Goat, so over worked (sic) in other days,
is a thing of the past. He is dead and deeply buried, and there are no
1944 Moore, Masonic Review, vol. XXXVII, 1870, p. 36.
1945 Ibid.