Secrets of the Craft

“Masonic Trivia” is a book containing...you might have guessed it already…more or less curious facts about Freemasonry and Freemasons. The author is a Mason himself (of the prankster Shriner variety) and hence presumably suited for the task of compiling a work of this character. Most of the facts really are pretty trivial, including a whole chapter on American clowns, and you won't find any sensational revelations about Da Vinci codes or reptilian world conspiracies in Brother Champion's book. Even so, if you diligently sift through this material, you might find some factoids of more than passing interest.

The list of famous people who were Freemasons is (of course) very long, and include Oliver Hardy from the comic duo Laurel & Hardy, Harry Houdini (a member of the Invisible Lodge of stage magicians, who use magic tricks instead of secret passwords for recognition), Arthur Conan Doyle, George Washington, Reverend Josiah Henson (the real life model for Uncle Tom in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”), White supremacist George Wallace, Haitian president Jean-Pierre Boyer and (perhaps) Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1948, all the main presidential candidates were Masons: incumbent Democrat Harry Truman, Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey, notorious Dixiecrat J. Strom Thurmond, and the Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace. Ronald Reagan, however, was never a Mason, although he referred to himself as such due to a string of purely honorary memberships. Reagan participated in events organized by the Scottish Rite and the Shriners, but was never properly initiated into any Masonic lodge. The cartoon character Mickey Mouse may have been a Freemason, though (you heard me). Walt Disney was active in a Masonic youth organization, DeMolay, and his creation Mickey Mouse did spout DeMolay insignia in a series of strips made in 1931!

The ritualistic and formalistic nature of Masonry sometimes creates problems for the interested, as in the case of a 19th century sailor who was initiated four times on four different continents, since the various Masonic lodges didn't recognize each other's rituals! Sometimes, though, even Masons can improvise, as when a Canadian lodge in a small 19th century frontier town appointed a female “tyler” (the officer guarding the lodge meetings), despite the fact that Anglo-Saxon Masonry doesn't allow women to become Masons. Interestingly, she was also a Huron. Apparently, the number of White male settlers interested in Masonry in this particular outpost was too small to fill all the necessary positions. Another curious story deals with General George Rogers Clark, elder brother of William Clark of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. When General Clark suffered an accident which made it necessary to amputate his leg, he promptly requested of his brethren that the leg be buried according to Masonic ritual! The request was carried out, perhaps making Clark the only person to have two Masonic burials, the first one of his leg, and the second one (nine years later) of the rest of his mortal coil…

Some stories retold in “Masonic Trivia” are downright bizarre, as that of Angelo Soliman, an 18th century African slave who worked for various European aristocrats and eventually became manumitted. As a free man, he entered the Masonic Order in Austria, was a member of the same lodge as Mozart, and eventually became Grand Master of the same lodge. He reformed it in a more scientific and intellectual direction. After his death, rather than receiving a Christian or Masonic burial, Soliman's body was seized by the emperor and put on public display in “primitive” garb together with stuffed African wildlife! In 1848, this absurd mummy burned to ashes when rebels attacked the imperial palace.

While Masons are (rightly or wrongly) associated with religious tolerance, many U.S. grand lodges have excluded other categories of people. While most of the author's examples aren't dated, I presume they are from the 19th or early 20th centuries. Connecticut Masons disqualified any “Stupid Atheist” or Libertine from membership. Arizona disqualified “Eunuchs and Illiterates”. Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin and South Dakota also disqualified eunuchs. Georgia disqualified hunchbacks. South Dakota excluded any man with a cork leg, while Wyoming turned a blind eye (author's pun) to any man with a glass eye! The author never explains why Masons had these prejudices against the handicapped. Perhaps they didn't want disabled people to “burden”, say, Masonic pension and health plans?

Finally, “Masonic Trivia” also contain some non-Masonic trivia, such as the information that U.S. president Rutherford B Hayes was sworn in with no Bible being used, or that Lyndon B Johnson was sworn in with his hand on a Catholic missal mistaken for a Bible! We also learn that the “Masonic initiation goggles” showed in an episode of “Mythbusters” really belong to the Odd Fellows. That's another show, I'm afraid.

Not sure how to rate this work, but since it kept me up all night and all morning, I suppose I have to give it three stars and a strange handshake. Now, concerning those conspiracies...