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It was no youth, but a woman, and our captam's wife. But I did not wait to specu late on this, for I saw that the fires must be drawn at once, and I had no strength leftI sprang to the handle and sounded the whistle. There was the well-known shrill shriek, which could not fail to be heard throughout the ship; and I fell down fainting on the stokehole floor.

"I remembered little more that passed until I found myself in the hospital at Panama. The event of that night, my wound, and the want of medical attendancefor we carried no surgeon --had brought on an attack of fever, and I had been dangerously ill. I had been delirious, and when I did gain my consciousness, the events which had really happened were so mingled in my brain with the extravagant fancies of my delirium, that I found it dfficult to distinguish the one from the other. I soon discovered, however, that the people had been told that I had been guilty of gross insubordination toward the chief engineer, and that he had been so maddened by passion as to fire his revolver at me; and that I, having gained possession of the weapon in the struggle which insued, had shot him to save my own life. Of course I denied this; but my ideas, and no doubt my talk, were still so incoherent, that but little notice was taken of what I said. Soon the captain of the steamer came to my bedside, and begged and entreated me, in the most pitious manner, to allow his version of the story to be believed. He said he had been bewitched by the charms and arts of that woman; and believing that none of the crew knew that he was already married, he had agreed to give her a passage, and had taken her on board with him as his wite. She had obtained from him, by pretending a playful, womanish curiosity, a knowledge of where the gold on board was stowed, and how it could be got at; and this vile woman, with her accomplice and paramour, (the villain whom he had foolishly engaged at her recommendation as chief-engineer,) and another manʼalso shipped at San Francisco, had between them conceived and attempted to carry out that attrocious project, in which they had been so nearly successful. The engineer's hurt had not been serious, and the captain said that he had connived at his escape, with his accomplíces, as soon as the ship got into port. The woman, indeed, had not been seen in her disguise by any one but himself; for he had been first in the engine-room when the whistle sounded the alarm, and had managed somehow to get her out of the way unseen. It would be useless now, he said, to attempt to capture them; and he implored me not to contradict the account he had caused to be circulated, and so cause his ruin, which would be sure to follow, should the owners learn the real truth of his story. He made the most solemn vows of repentance and amendment, and I believe he was truly sorry for his fault, as well as its consequences; but I was deaf to all, until he spoke of his sweet wife and his dear little girl, whom I had seen, as I have said in New York. He said that his wife was in poor health, and that he was sure, if she learned the truth, the blow would kill her. Well, sir, at length I yielded, and agreed to confirm the account he had given. You may be sure that the crew, and especially Macpherson and the rest of the watch in the engine-room and on deck-who had been drugged by some liquor which the chief had given them-were not altogether imposed upon, and a hundred different versions of the story were flying about; but no one ever knew the right of the affair.

"I returned home as soon as I had recovered, and from that time to this I have never told anybody: but you know how it all happened.”—Masonic Ritual and Ga

zette.

THE FUNERAL RITES OF MASONS.

THE burial service of our Order must awaken in the mind of a sincere Mason the most exquisite feelings and solemn thoughts. The aids of religion are called in to raise and cheer our hearts. The announcement of spiritual truths, fill every thoughtful mind with beautiful and sublime conceptions of immortality and the resurrection. In circumambulating the vault; in depositing the white apron and sprigs of evergreen in the grave; in committing earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust, our thoughts are caried across the waste of centuries, even unto the beginning, when man was created in the image of God, and when he fell from his first estate. And even from this point, with the first great light shining upon us, we can survey the gracious and mysterious Being who became our surety, and brought life and immortality to light. From the very mouth of the tomb we look back to the Holy Mount, which burns with the footsteps of the cherubim, and there behold the labors of those faithful and obedient workmen who wrought the first temple, which was the beauty and glory of Israel. Much of our burial service is the production of modern taste or invention; but when we inquire into the origin of this service, why it is that Master Masons only are entitled to Masonic burial, why we deposit in the grave the emblems of innocence and immortality, and why we inter the dead due east and west, there is a response full of hope and joy. Not in vain are our fu neral signs and ceremonies. When we walk around the vault of a departed brother, we are assured that his soul is living in an unbroken existence. The very earth which falls upon his coffin gives back the sound of freedom and redemption. The state of the present life and that to come is figured by the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament; the tabernacle, for that it was movable, may resemble the condition of the life present; the temple, for that was fixed and immovable, the fruition of the life to come. To the framing of the Tabernacle came the Jews only; but to the

VOL. III.-NO. XII.-36.

building of the temple, with the inhabitants of Jewry, the men of Tyre and Sidon, to wit, both Jews and Gentiles, all concur in this building, wherein is never heard the noise of hammer.

The mourning apparel of Masons consists in white gloves and white aprons. White is the native color of th wool of the lamb, and is emblematical of innocence. Solomon knew the beauty and propriety of wearing white gloves and white aprons on funeral occasions. The general use of white was recognized by him, under the inspiration of heaven. "Let thy garments be always white." In all countries and all ages white has been regarded as an emblem of purity. Isaiah says. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red, like crimson, they shall be as wool."

In our funeral processions the course of the mourners is frequently changed on their way to the place of interment; and whenever this occurs, a living square and angle are made. At the centre, which is the point where both sides of the angle meet, it is usual for the stewards to elevate their rods, and so place them as to make a square or right angle, beneath which the procession moves; and as each one of the company passes under it, his head should be not only uncovered, but bowed in awe and veneration for the name of God. and in token of humble submission to the will of the Lord, who taketh brethren away.

It is the custom of Masons to bury their dead due east and west. There is a beautiful propriety in this. It is not only in keeping with the ceremonies which are performed at the grave, but it carries our thoughts back to the days of Solomon, and rievts them upon the remarkable events which consecrated the brow of Moriah. It is, then, an ancient custom, originated at the first temple. The situation of the Lodge is due east and west, and Soloman's Temple was so situated. Moses by divine command, erected a tabernacle to God, and placed it due east and west, in commemoration of the miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel, when he conducted them through the Red Sea. From the east the

divine glory first came; from thence came the Bible; and through that, the new covenant. Christ, it is said, died with His face to the west; and the third foundation of the temple, which was the form of a cross, was so constructed, that that which would probably be the upright piece was situated due east and west, so that if that foundation could have been raised, it would have stood to the east, fronting towards the west. The sun, which rises in the east and sets in the west, gives assurance of the coming day.

The scriptural passages which are introduced into our burial servic constitute an excellent and profound commentary upon the principles and doctrines of our Order. The Lodge having been opened in the third degree, with the usual forms, the Master of the Lodge pours forth the most solem but animating words of divine inspiration.

Here we learn the foundation of our faith, the pillar of our hope, and the keystone of the Masonic fabric. The whole of the funeral ceremonial, from the first sign given and the first word spoken, to the last sign and word at the grave, attests and does homage to the doctrine of the resurrection. We know that the grave is but a temporary habitation, and the lifeless body, instead of being a dishonored and worthless thing, is destined to be found and raised ere our Master's spiritual temple is finished.

"Death is as the lines drawn from the centre to the cir <umference, even on every part." and which unite us as with a close and mysterious band with the Lodge unseen. In forming a funeral procession to carry out and lead our dead to the last earthly homes, we are reminded of a far stretching procession winding its way through a hollow, broken land, and hiding its head in some bending vale; it is still all one; all advancing together; they that are the fartherest onward in the way conscious of their lengthened following; and they that linger with the last are drawn forward as it were by the attraction of the advancing multitude. Thus, all mankind are moving to the grave, and pressing beyond the margin of the material world. Those who have traveled the way before us were once as animated with life as ourselves, and had

their hopes and their projects, their joys and sorrows; and we must follow them. There are crowds on all sides; there are enemies posted and armed at every station of life to drive us into eternity. Human wisdom can find no way to deliver man from the land of darkness and the shadow of death. Hence' there is something religious in conveying in a solemn and decent state to the grave, that which is sown a natural body, and then erect a monument to mark the resting-place of that which shall be raised a spiritual body. It must needs be a destroyed and ruined temple, but it shall be splendidly rebuilded. Let, then, the spot be marked where it has mouldered to dust. A great day shall dawn, when the rubbish shall be removed, and its ruined arches and its crumbled columns shall rise up, gloriously and indissolubly reconstrueted; and then shall be heard the mysterious steppings of Divinity, as He comes to possess its altars, overshadowed with the wings of cherubim.

CHARLES SCOTT.

LODGES OF INSTRUCTION.

EVERY instrumentality designed to promote a knowledge of, and increase the interest of the members in, Freemasonry, merits encouragement. Experience proves that the more men know of the Order, the better its members understand its nature, its peculiar aptitude for good, and the power of its mystical influence over men, the more do they appreciate its benign principles. Its magical power is not alone in its ritualism, but in its peculiar form of social organism, and the means by which it gathers men around a common altar, and moves them by a common interest. The chief reason why some do not take a deeper interest in Masonry, why they are not more frequently at the Lodge, why they do not more extensively patronize its literature and study its philosophy, is because they know so little about it. Ignorance, gross, willful and inexcusable ignorance, is the great difficulty.

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