THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

pack-horses or mules, placed in the center of the convoy, in charge of
keepers. The company consisted of a Master Mason directing the work,
Fellows of the craft, and Apprentices serving their time. Besides
these we find subordinate laborers, not of the Lodge though in it,
termed layers, setters, tilers, and so forth. Masters and Fellows wore
a distinctive costume, which remained almost unchanged in its fashion
for no less than three centuries.[86] Withal, it was a serious
company, but in nowise solemn, and the tedium of the journey was no
doubt beguiled by song, story, and the humor incident to travel.
"Wherever they came," writes Mr. Hope in his _Essay on Architecture_,
"in the suite of missionaries, or were called by the natives, or
arrived of their own accord, to seek employment, they appeared headed
by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole troop, and named one man
out of every ten, under the name of warden, to overlook the other
nine, set themselves to building temporary huts for their habitation
around the spot where the work was to be carried on, regularly
organized their different departments, fell to work, sent for fresh
supplies of their brethren as the object demanded, and, when all was
finished, again they raised their encampment, and went elsewhere to
undertake other work."
Here we have a glimpse of the methods of the Free-masons, of their
organization, almost military in its order and dispatch, and of their
migratory life; although they had a more settled life than this
ungainly sentence allows, for long time was required for the building
of a great cathedral. Sometimes, it would seem, they made special
contracts with the inhabitants of a town where they were to erect a
church, containing such stipulations as, that a Lodge covered with
tiles should be built for their accommodation, and that every laborer
should be provided with a white apron of a peculiar kind of leather
and gloves to shield the hands from stone and slime.[87] At all
events, the picture we have is that of a little community or village
of workmen, living in rude dwellings, with a Lodge room at the center
adjoining a slowly rising cathedral--the Master busy with his plans
and the care of his craft; Fellows shaping stones for walls, arches,
or spires; Apprentices fetching tools or mortar, and when necessary,
tending the sick, and performing all offices of a similar nature.
Always the Lodge was the center of interest and activity, a place of
labor, of study, of devotion, as well as the common room for the
social life of the order. Every morning, as we learn from the Fabric
Rolls of York Minster, began with devotion, followed by the directions
of the Master for the work of the day, which no doubt included study
of the laws of the art, plans of construction, and the mystical
meaning of ornaments and emblems. Only Masons were in attendance at
such times, the Lodge being closed to all others, and guarded by a
Tiler[88] against "the approach of cowans[89] and eavesdroppers." Thus
the work of each day was begun, moving forward amidst the din and
litter of the hours, until the craft was called from labor to rest and
refreshment; and thus a cathedral was uplifted as a monument to the
Order, albeit the names of the builders are faded and lost. Employed
for years on the same building, and living together in the Lodge, it
is not strange that Free-masons came to know and love one another, and
to have a feeling of loyalty to their craft, unique, peculiar, and
enduring. Traditions of fun and frolic, of song and feast and
gala-day, have floated down to us, telling of a comradeship as joyous
as it was genuine. If their life had hardship and vicissitude, it had