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

signs, word, or token, whenever I see him doing, or about to do, any thing
contrary to his interest in buying or selling. I furthermore promise and swear, that
I will assist a brother Secret Monitor in preference to any other person by
introducing him to business, by sending him custom, or in any other manner in
which I can throw a penny in his way." They swear "to represent all who violate
their Masonic oaths as worthless vagabonds, and to send this character after them
to ruin their business and their reputation wherever they may go and be to the end
of their lives." They also swear to seek the condign punishment of all such in the
infliction of the penalties of their oaths upon them. They swear to seek their death.
They swear to a stringent exclusiveness, excluding from their society all that
would most naturally need aid and sympathy, and receiving none who are not
"physically perfect." Old men in dotage, young men in nonage, all women, idiots
and other needy classes, are all excluded. Freemasonry has a vast fund of money
at its disposal. The fraternity are very numerous. They boast of numbering in this
country at the present time six hundred thousand, and that they are multiplying
faster than ever. They permeate every community, and their influence is almost
omnipresent. Of course, such an aid society as this will everywhere and in every
thing ignore and trample on the rights of others to secure advantages for each
other. As an illustration of the workings of this society, I make an extract or two
from "The American Freemason," published in Louisville, Kentucky, dated April
8, 5854, that is 1854, and edited by Robert Morris, an eminent Masonic author.
From the eighty-fifth page I quote as follows: "Lynn, Indiana.-- In hauling a load
of pork to the depot a year or two since, I found the rush of wagons so great that
the delivery was fully three days behind. This was a serious matter to me, for I
could not lose so much time from my business, and was seriously weighing the
propriety of going on to Cincinnati with my load, when the freight agent, learning
from a casual remark of mine, that I was a Freemason, was kind enough at once to
order my errand attended to, and in three hours I was unloaded, and ready, with a
light heart, to set my face homeward. Is it not an admirable thing, this Masonic
spirit of brotherly love?" To this the editor adds: "Verily it is. We have seen it in
many varieties of form, but our kindhearted brother's is but an every-day
experience of Masonic practice, but to the world how inexplicable do such things
appear." Here we have a specimen of Masonic brotherly love. But was this right,
to give this preference to this man, and wrong all who were there before him, and
had a right to have their business done before him! He gained three days' time,
and saved the expense of waiting for his turn, whilst others were obliged to lose
both the time and expense. And this we are coolly told, by high Masonic
authority, is the "constant practice of Freemasons." What an exquisite brotherly
love is this. It is delicious! But this is in entire accordance with the spirit of their
oaths. But is it not a trampling on the rights of others! In this same paper we have,
in an illustration of the nature of Freemasonry, a tale, the substance of which is,
that a criminal, under sentence of death, was set free by Freemasons under the
pretense that he was not guilty of the murder for which he was condemned. So
they took the case into their own hands, and set aside the judgment of the court
and jury. Observe, this is given as an illustration of the manner in which
Freemasons aid each other. These cases are given as their own boast of specimens