Newspapers / Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.) / Dec. 2, 1875, edition 1 / Page 4
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I ' ^ 'pil .■II.' I’!; -iyM THE MASONIC JO UR KAl^v Child Life on a Farm. to release It was May. The tender new leaves, just unfolding, gave all the woods a mis ty, hazy look ; the apple trees were in full bloom, the whole air was sweet with flower fragrance and trembling with bird songs, and tnis old earth seemed like fairyland, Mr. Kendall and his little boy, Teddy, were working down on the meadow. Teddy was riding horse for his father to plow His legfi were so short that they .stuck out each side nearly straight, and once, going under an apple tree, the low branches brushed him off. When Ted dy was first promoted to riding horse to plow, he felt it a great honor and priv ilege, but the charm of novelty had long since fled, and “riding horse’’ became as stupid as any other work you’re obliged to do. This morning he would have lAucli preferred carting manure with Ralph and /Taron tojogging up and down, up and down, on old Kate’s back. But boys on a farm have to work, and girls, too. This bright May morning, when everything said; “Oome out doors and play,” when she wanted to go for wild flowers, Millie had to stay in and wash dishes, make beds, run up stairs and down on errands all the fore noon, because her mother was cleaning house. But she and Teddy both had ■ famous appetites for the corn beef and bag padding at dinner time, and perhaps enjoyed the afternoon's play all the bet ter for the morning’s work, After dinner they went down into the meadow. Tip and Ty both following ■ them, like little dogs. Sometimes they let the children carry them, but usually ■ they preferred scampering along on their own responsibility, hiding in the grass, and pouncing out at each other, turning somersaults, prancing along sidewise with high arched backs, and behaving generally in a way that often appeared to ■ very much shook their dignified mother, .old Blackie, There is no better playfellow in sum mer than a brook. You can have no end . of fun with a brook. To-day Teddy , said. “Let’s go down to the brook and see what the freshet did.” Millie pushed and squeezed through a thick fringe of pussy willows on the brook’s bank. “Oh, Teddy,” she cried, “what do you think? Here’s an island, a real, true island \" ■ The brook had divided into two parts, inclosing quite a piece of land. “What a jolly place to play Robinson vCrusoe I” said Teddy. “But how can we get over there?” asked Millie, gazing ruefully at the stream which flowed between them and this promised land. “If we try to jump it, we shall tumble into the water. It’s t'.vo wide tojump. Teddy looked puzzled f®r a moment; then his face brightened with an idea. “I’ll tell you. Here's the way.” He bent down one of the supple young willows. It reached over to the island. Standing on it. and holding by a branch above he slided safely across, at the same time enjoying a delightful teeter on the bending bough. Then Millie tried the new-fashioned bridge. All went well till she jumped off on the other side, when up snapped the willow, catching Millies skirts, and suspending her in the air about a foot above the ground. Here was a nice situation. Teddy couldn’t have reached the branch to pull ' it down even if he hadnt been laughing so hard. There was nothing for it but that he must leap the brook, splashing in to the water on the other side, and come asked over the branch again dangling Millie. “Did it tear m/dress much? Millie, when once more on earth. “Not much. I guess aunt Olive’ll mend it for you.” “No; I’ve got to do it myself now,” said Millie, twisting her neck to look anxiously at the gaping rent, Tip and Ty had to be brought over next. “There!” said Teddy, warm and red with his exertions, as he landed the last eat, “here we are, all the inhabitants. Now thi.s is our country. We discovered it. We can do anything we’re a mind to here.” It was agreed that Millie being more familiar with the brook, should be Rob inson Crusoe, Teddy, Man Friday, and the kittens llamas. The llamas, how ever, were not a success. They would climb trees, and they wouldn t have bur dens tied to their backs, so finally they were allowed to be the wild animals pe culiar to this island. A thick clump of willow bushes, into which Teddy and Millie could just squeeze themselves by cutting out some of the branches, was the cave. The island was mostly covered with sand, its chief natural products being willow bushes, a little thin, wiry grass, and coltsfoot. As Aunt Olive used colts foot for cough medicine, Millie and Ted dy was confirmed in their opinion that this was one of the most remarkable is lands ever discovered. It was to he called “Kendall s island,” after the dis covere'i’s. They would bring corn and beans down there, and riant a garden. “Then,” said Millie, who was of a hope ful turn of mind, “we can sell all we raise to father. I know he’ll buy it, ‘cause he promised to give us ten cents for every hundred squash bugs we'd kill this summer, and of course he'd be glad • der to have us raise things ourselves. We’ll get rich, Teddy.” “Yes,’’ said Teddy, “perhaps we shall have $2 apiece by fall. Whatshall jou do with your money ‘T shall buy a microscope,” responded Millie, promptly. Ever since she Lad somewhere read of the wonders revealed by microscopes, her ambition had been to possess one. To look m the unknown worlds hid in water drops—what delight that must be 1 “Pooh, I shan't!” said Teddy. “I shall buy a sheep from father. Then I shall have wool and lambs to sell, and before long money enough to buy a farm of my own. You can oome and live in my house if you want to.,’ “I’d rather live with father and moth er ; but I’ll oome a visiting, and bring the microscope, too.’’—Chritstian Union. the i the door and the children, but he rus^d I through them and first snatched ^ the ba by from the cradle, and bore ^ it back through the flames and laid it, nadly burned, on the ground outside. The Smiley girl got out ofa back window, ' and escaped with .slight 'oruises, As soon as the boy had deposited nis baby sister in a safe place, he hurried back tn bring out Maggie, the three year-old. He fought his way through the wall of fire> and as he reached the space on the other side, saw his little sister enter a closet on that side of the house and shut and fasten the door. Charley hammered on the door and called his sister s name, and beg ged her to open the door so he might res cue her, for he saw that, the house was doomed. The little girl seemed to be crazed with fright, however, and did not open the door. The brave boy was fi nally compelled to abandon his sister to her fate, and fly for his own life. Be fore assistance arrived, the house was all in flames, and the boy was found lying on the ground near the baby, almost un conscious, and was unable to tell the men wlio were trying to put the fire out that his , little sister was locked in the closet in the burning house. A portion of the bedding and furniture was removed, while the child was left to be consumed. It was not until the house was burned up that the terrible announce ment W3,s made that one of the children was mis.sfng. A search was made among the ruins, and the charred remains of the unfortunate child were found. The injuries received by the brave Giiity boy in saving the baby, and his at tempts at resoiiing bis other little sister It IS feared will prove fatal. His clothing was nearly all burned off, and his hair singed to the scalp. His face and hands are also burned to a blister. The baby (Edith) is burned badly about the head and face, and is also in a very critical condition. The latest accounts from the scene of the shocking .occurrence state that Mrs. Gltity has become a raving maniac. A Brave Boy. Mrs. Charie.s Ginty. living on the Oil Creek road, 'Warren, Pa., left her house in charge of her three children and a neighbor’s child while she went to make some purchases. The Ginty children were Charley, aged 10 ; Maggie, three years old, and Edith, a baby, eleven months old. Sarah Smiley, the neigh bor’s child was aged seven. During the absence of Mrs. Ginty the girls, Sarah and Maggie, got the kerosene oil can and were playing with it near the stove. Charley was out doors, and the baby asleep in the cradle. The little girls in some way spilled the oil oat of the can, and a spark snapping from the stove ig nited it before it could be taxen up. The blaze of the burning oil filled the room, and the screams of thh children at tracted the boy (Charley) who rushed in^o the house. The flames were between Th.e Compass and Square, As symbols of philosophic teaching, these mystic emblem.s of the Craft are everywhere recognized by the Fraternity with respect and reverence. Their tal- ismanic power is never lost on the living, and frequently they may be seen on the monuments of the dead as yiost mortem mementoes. .Entering a country grave-yard the other day in company with a brother, we observed on a number o! tombstones these well-known emblems. Seeing them therein the silent chambers of the dead, they spoke to us in their simple forms as mystic monumenial records in language which was both indicative and definite. We read them in their soiemn and sub lime meaning as we bad never before. We bad often seen them where the eyes of the outei. world never saw them. On the hgly altars of the Craft, as the mem bers of the fraternity well know, they remind us of the duty of prayer to the Father of all, and of our obli.gations through life to be guided by Masonic honor. There they speak to the living; but being associated with the monuments’ of the dead, they seemed to present a les son to the mind of reflection even more serious than in the Lodge room. We had seen them in their mystic positions hun dreds of times, as they lay on the face of the Holy Bible, while around them were gathered the fraternal and prayerful living ; but in the cemetery of the dead they were no longer initiatory. They appear to have been, placed on the monu ments of the dead as the insignia of a grand finale—al the dying testimony of those who wished in their silent restioi, places, to still do honor to their Masonic obligations. Be this as it may, engraved anywhere they speak the definite Ln, gnage of the Mystic Tie, and teach the- gradualSB of the Lodge the philosophy of life, as clearly and as truly as any system of ethics ever known to man. Their en- gravementon the dead bespeak the lb, ing sentiments of the Fraternity, and so show the, devotio-n, as well, of those who have departed. To the true and thooghtfiil Mason these beautiful emblems are ever sacred more so if pousible, than any othersol'the Craft, because they are the alpha of hfi institution, and therefore they may n-j|i be the omega of his dying hours ; for if he is a Mason at all he cannot forget them in view of his duties to himself or his rela- tions with his fellow men. In their piaotical uses among work men they have ever been essential in- making square xvork, and there ore thev cannot be dispensed with in the dailv labors of the mechanic if he would have his work pass inspection among master workmen. In speculative Masoiirvthev are used as emblems only, and from them are drawn some of the richest practical lessons of Masonic philosophy. In iheir mystic blendings they are made to teach us “to square our actions and to keep them within due bounds;” the one te circumscribe our ambitions, desiies and passions, and the other to regulate and measure our actions so that they will con form to the ruling of justice and equity, Their presentation anywhere ia miiver- sally recognized by the outside world a? being Masonic, b'ut as ornaments of taste ati.d adornment they are worn by such at are Master Masons. Many wear them with pride because they are ardently attached to the institution. To wear them nnder any other consideration ii disapproved by the Graft because it ij contrary to the teachings and genius oi the Fraternity. Brother Mackey informs us that a man ufactor ol flour in 1873 applied to tli# Patent Office for permission to adopt ihe square end compa.S8 as a trademark. The Commissioner of Patents very right fully refused the permission on tie ground that the mark w.rs a Masonk; symbol. We a-e not told who the appli cant was, but if he was a Mason he was doubly in the wrong, for these emblems are too sacred to be eacrifioed on any al tar of selfishness, or to be used for any purposes of gain. Masonry intends them to teach morality, to inculcate the im portance of personal restraint, and to regulate the actions of life by the laws of prudence truth and equity, To the neophyte they present them selves as one of the three great lights oi Masonry ; to the Fellow Craftas a por tion of his working tools, and totbeilas- ter Mason as the official emblem of the Master of the Lodge. The Bible, com pass and square compose the essential furniture of every Lodge room, and it is not at all strange that the latter, as pecu liar emblems of Masonry, are often placet) upon the monumental tablets oftliedeaC. Living or dying, all true Masons chug to these emblems as to the sheet anchor of their Masonic faith, knowiiirg tW they serve as talismanic agencies of rec ognition through every part of the world, and that they will, when engraved on the 'tombstones of the dead, reflect well on the characters of the departed. Being the first reflections of Masoii'C light the Master Mason ever beheld, aud the intimate witne.sses of bis ohligatiouf, it is right and proper that every Mason should hold them in respect and rever ence, and .'■o conform his life to demands as to never disgrace himself M th e Fratern i ty.— Masonic Adoocaie. Thomas Owens, who mii.-^t )iave been very hiuigry, recently paid (jii .3-5 for one bowl o' chowder, five eggs, ami five sausngw- He stole tliem from a saloon iu Palmer, Mass-," the court fixed the price, The past summer has been noted by teorologists as being'cooler by five degrer* than the average season for more tli.'in eigW years past. A Tennessee girl told a fellow sb® "‘jl give iiim a kiss if be wr.uld Fh")'* u|j ran well till she got out of sight folks, and then gave in. This shows'' Tennessee girl will do when she’s h.wir
Masonic Journal (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 2, 1875, edition 1
4
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