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

Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature 791
In the following, we are going to view a comic ridiculing the popular belief
of Masonic punishment for betrayers of the oath of silence. It is to be found in
the Rarebit Fiend 1955 , created by the American graphic artist Winsor Zenic
McCay (1869 or 1871 - 1934) 1956 in 1905. This was a comic made for grown-ups
which did not provide a continuous story but consisted of several self-contained
sequences employing minimal settings. The Rarebit Fiend describes a dream or
nightmare situation followed by the awakening at the end of each sequence, and
it is famous for its sick humor:
Not only does the emphasis on death and disfigurement make the Fiend
an early monument of "cruel" or "sick" humor; the dream fantasies that
McCay taps so unerringly are [...] generally those of adults [...]
(embarrassment through nudity, transvestism, inability to perform
occupational duties or having a peccadillo discovered; loss of identity;
fear of dying, going mad or disappointing a sex partner). 1957
As The Adventures of a Rarebit Eater, this comic was animated in 1916/17.
Already in 1906, the Fiend strip was immortalized by the American pioneer
filmmaker Edwin S. Porter who based on it a seven-minute live-action trick film
which became a classic of the early cinema, titled The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend.
In the Masonic sequence of the Fiend, the dreamer is merely the spectator of
someone dear suffering embarrassment. The dreaming person is the wife of a
certain lodge member called Mr. "Gab" (because he is always gabbling and
cannot keep a secret to himself), who tells her the whole thing from the time he
has entered the lodge until he has come out. Although his wife promises not to
reveal a word, she gives away the lodge secrets to her friend who likewise
swears not to tell, but instead holds a speech in front of the sisters of the woman's
club in an attack on secret societies, betraying all the happenings inside a
Masonic lodge. Somehow, the Masons get wind of this, and in consequence, Mr.
Gab is summoned by his brethren who want to "decorate" him - but not with a
medal, as he is soon going to find out. Fellow Masons in devil costumes with
horns on their heads, some of them naked, take off Mr. Garb's clothes, cover him
first with hot tar and then with feathers. 1958 Thus decorated they send him home
to his wife, who is fainting when perceiving his appearance, and whom he
reproaches thus: "What in the devil did you tell those lodge secrets for?" The last
patch shows the horrified wife awakening and realizing that she has made an
1955 The title refers to the nightmares imputed to eaters of a Welsh rabbit supper.
1956 McCay's personal data were taken from McCay, Publisher's Note, p. v. ff.
1957 McCay, "Publisher's Note," p. ix.
1958 Such kind of punishment is no mere invention, but has actually been executed, even in modern
times. Thus, we find the following description in The Debunker, a small monthly magazine dated
1929, in an article which opposes a Masonic statement about the wrongdoings of "atheistic
ruffians", by claiming that most crimes actually are done by believers against unbelievers (p. 51):
"... He (Jeadie Janes) was seized on a street of Austin, Texas, by a group of men, forcibly placed in
a car, and carried to a point outside of the city limits. ... His clothing was then removed from the
upper part of his body, and he was severely whipped and a coat of tar and feathers applied."