‘Parade of Planets heralds Publicity installation’

    

Let me now beg of you to observe, that the light of a Master Mason is but darkness visible, serving only to discover that gloom which rests on the prospect of futurity; it is that mysterious veil of darkness which the eye of human reason cannot penetrate, unless assisted by that light which is from above…

Charge of the Third Degree

The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry

1871

From where I now stand, just before sunrise, darkness visible is about all I get from looking skyward, as the impenetrable light pollution of the metropolitan area veils the heavens in artificial lumens. So, I can’t see the Parade of Planets currently on display.

Maybe you have better luck.

Still, the timing is impeccable. Later today, but well before sunset, my lodge will host its annual Installation of Officers. A celestial spectacle on the morning of our installation. Coincidence? I think not!

While I cannot attend this evening, I wish everyone all the best and a happy, successful year.

Astronomy is that Divine art by which we are taught to read the Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty of the Almighty Creator in those sacred pages, the Celestial hemisphere. Assisted by Astronomy, we may observe the motions, measure the distances, comprehend the magnitudes, and calculate the periods and Eclipses of the Heavenly Bodies. By it we learn the use of the Globes, the system of the World, and the primary laws of Nature, and while we are employed in the study of this science, we may perceive unparalleled instances of wisdom and goodness, and on every hand may trace the Glorious Author by His works.

Ibid.,

Second Lecture, Fourth Section

     

‘Dennis Daugherty, R.I.P.’

    

Just days before Grand Lodge’s Annual Communication comes the sad news of the death of RW Bro. Dennis Daugherty yesterday. There will be better informed and more personal eulogies than I can offer, but I can say without any hesitation, mental reservation, etc. that Dennis was for many of us the embodiment of how Masons ever should meet, act, and part. Always an understated role model, for sure, but inspiring nonetheless.

Dennis affiliated with Publicity Lodge 1000 in 1991, and served in the East in both the 1997-98 and 2010-11 terms. Although he resided in Utica in recent years, Dennis still attended Publicity’s Communications until the pandemic, riding Amtrak five hours each way. He also was a Corresponding Member of The ALR for many years.

From the Office of the Grand Secretary:

SAD TIDINGS

RW Bro. Dennis A. Daugherty

Has Laid Down

His Working Tools 

New York - 2 hours ago 

Dear Brethren and Friends,

It is with a very heavy heart that we announce the passing of Right Worshipful Dennis Allan Daugherty, the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Kansas near the Grand Lodge of New York. R.W. Dennis Daugherty was a 63-year member of the Craft with plural memberships in Bestor G. Brown Lodge 433 in Wichita, Kansas; St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York City; Publicity Lodge 1000 in NYC; Kane Lodge 454 in NYC; and The American Lodge of Research.

R.W. Brother Dennis was Initiated on December 6, 1960; Passed on January 31, 1961; and Raised on February 28, 1961 in Bestor G. Brown Lodge 433.

He faithfully served our Grand Lodge on several committees, including the Credentials of Members & Returns of Lodges Committee, the Publications Committee, and the Masonic Hall Tours Committee.

R.W. Brother Dennis was a Senior DeMolay, having actually met and served with Dad Frank Sherman Land the founder of the Order of DeMolay in Kansas City, Kansas.

R.W. Bro. Dennis was 85 years young and he presently resided at the Masonic Care Community in Utica.

We will provide information pertaining to funeral arrangements as soon as they are known. 

Ted Jacobsen photo

MW Bill Sardone, Dennis, and Grand Master Kessler at Grand Lodge last May.

Our Grand Master, MW Richard J. Kessler; Grand Secretary and Senior DeMolay, RW Richard T. Schulz; and the Past Grand Master of DeMolay, MW William M. Sardone, PGM, share in their expressions of sympathy and sadness on behalf of all of our Brethren and DeMolay for this great loss.

May our Almighty Father welcome our dearly departed Brother into His celestial home above. Amen.

     

‘The first law of the lodge’

    

At the Fourth Manhattan District’s Protocol Class yesterday.

You think you know something about Freemasonry, but then attend a Masonic Protocol class.

That’s where the Magpie Mason was twenty-four hours ago, joining three lodge brothers and others from the Fourth Manhattan District at Masonic Hall for instruction in the finer points of dos and don’ts. Actually, I shouldn’t have written “lodge brothers.” It’s lodge brethren.

If you think yourself above protocol instruction because you’ve read Waite, Wilmshurst and whatever, get used to the idea of being wrong about that. Approaching my twenty-seventh anniversary in Freemasonry, even I was very curious about what would be imparted to us yesterday. Sure, I knew most of the material already—even I can learn osmotically over time—but a lot of it contradicted what I had learned earlier in life as a—cough—“New Jersey Mason,” and some of it was new to me.

It was in 1924 when Grand Lodge, at the suggestion of MW Arthur S. Tompkins, made the Bible presentation part of lodge life. ‘I am glad to report that my recommendation…has been adopted by many lodges,’ he said before Grand Lodge in May of that year. ‘I hope it may become a universal custom, one that shall indelibly impress upon the mind of every new Mason the fact that the Holy Bible is the Great Light in Masonry; that the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the cornerstone of our fraternity; and that our first duty to is to God, and the Sacred Book should be the lamp to our feet and a light to our paths.’ 

“We study Protocol because we are convinced of its powers to help maintain harmony,” said RW Bro. Tomas Hull, Grand Director of Ceremonies. “It is a form of courtesy to the individual and a manifestation of respect to the Craft. Harmony is the first law of the lodge. Where discord enters, Freemasonry leaves.”

In the I Knew That category, for examples:

 - No one may tread across the Master’s Carpet.

 - No smoking, food, or drink is permitted in the lodge room.

 - The Inner Door may be used only during degrees.

In the Contradictions Department:

 - Never say “Blue Lodge” or “Symbolic Lodge,” but say “Master Mason Lodge” or “Masonic Lodge.”

 - Do not say “Worshipful Sir” or any other “Sir.” (I’ll never be able to break that habit!)

 - Do not say “To you and through you.” (I can break that habit.)

Under New (to me) Material:

 - There are no “Open Installations” or other events, but instead are “Public.”

 - Do not say “grace the East,” which I’ve never heard before.

 - Do not say “Sitting Master,” although I never knew where that came from anyway.

There was an awful lot more. As my lodge’s tiler, much of the instruction was idiomatic to my responsibilities. Make sure you avail yourself of this and the other courses offered in your district!

     

‘A few words on the EA°’

    

We have a Ritual of Initiation upcoming at lodge in November, and our monthly magazine, The Herald, includes a few pages of educational reading focusing on a certain aspect of the EA° excerpted from Symbolical Masonry: An Interpretation of the Three Degrees by H.L. Haywood. (He was a member of our lodge a century ago, oddly enough.) Also in mind is Grand Lodge’s appeal on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Israel. Here are the relevant paragraphs:

Before a man can be persuaded to learn an art, he must realize his ignorance thereof; before he can be made to enter into a new life, he must be made to feel that he is in a natural state of ignorance in regard to that life. There is a certain method by which the candidate is prepared in our ceremonies that is designed to cause the Apprentice to know that, whatever may be his title and possessions in the world, he is poor, and naked, and blind as regards that new life which is Masonry. There is in this method no desire to humiliate him, as that word is understood, but there is every need that he experience humility, a very different thing.

Humiliation may come from disgrace, or some check of adverse fortune; humility is that lowliness of mind in which one becomes aware of his real position in the universe. To know one’s self is to be humble, for in the presence of the infinities of the universe an individual, be he the greatest of the great, is pitiably small and weak; “what is man that thou art mindful of him” is his cry, and he will be the last to strut with pride. A mere sense of humor alone would preserve a man against vanity, did he not also know that he is a frail creature, compounded of dirt and deity, hemmed in by ignorance, and weak every way. When a man compares himself with his fellows he may find cause for pride, but when he stands in the midst of that lodge which is itself a symbol of the cosmos, surrounded by emblems and images on which rests a weight of time more than that which lies upon the pyramids, where the All-Seeing Eye, symbol of omniscience, looks down upon all, he can but feel how frail, how unspeakably helpless and frail, he is. The worldling may eke out a modicum of pride in considering how much wealthier he may be, or more learned than another, but the Mason, acknowledging a law that demands he be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect, will be more inclined to cry “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Black Cat Caboodle

“Among the ancients,” writes Pierson, “the ceremony of discalceation, or the pulling off a shoe, indicated reverence for the presence of God.” The Pythagorean rule, that an initiate must “sacrifice and worship unshod” applied throughout the religious customs of antiquity. The priest removed “his shoes from off his feet” before entering the place of worship even as does the Muslim of today. Of this Mackey gives an interpretation as simple as it is wise! “The shoes, or sandals, were worn on ordinary occasions as a protection from the defilement of the ground. To continue to wear them, then, in a consecrated place, would be a tacit insinuation that the ground was equally polluted and capable of producing defilement. But, as the very character of a holy and consecrated spot precludes the idea of any sort of defilement or impurity, the acknowledgment that such was the case was conveyed symbolically by divesting the feet of all that protection from pollution and uncleanness which would be necessary in unconsecrated places. The Rite of Discalceation is, therefore, a symbol of reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, that the spot which is about to be approached in this humble and reverent manner is consecrated to some holy purpose.

In the beginnings of the moral life of man, a place was made holy by being set apart, as the word literally means. The Sabbath was kept separate from other days; the Temple from other buildings; and the altar from all other spots of earth. This was a necessary teaching to cause men to recognize the mere existence of sacredness. But the floor of a Masonic lodge room is not made sacred in order to render other places defiled by contrast; rather is it to convince us that as the lodge is a holy place, so also should the whole world be, of which the lodge is a symbol. When men walk the common ways of life with bare feet, when they undertake every daily task with clean hands, when they seek out their fellowships with a pure heart, then will all life shine with the sanctity God intended, and the Universe be in fact, as well as theory, the Temple of Deity. In the days before our era when astrology and alchemy were seriously received by great minds, the planets were believed to rule variously over the fates of life, and each planet was supposed to be in some wise linked up with a corresponding metal. Lead was Saturn’s metal, iron belonged to Mars, copper to Venus, gold to the sun, etc. To keep one of these metals in one’s possession was to invite the influence of the planet to which it was sacred. Consequently, as a Candidate came to the Mysteries, he was divested of metals lest he bring some unwelcome planetary influence into the sanctuary.

If we find a far-off echo of this custom in our own ceremonies, we may understand that the lodge would thus symbolically exclude every jarring element from its fellowship. We may further understand it in another sense, as meaning that the possessions which secure us the services of the world have no potency in the lodge.

Of this, as we may read in his booklet on “Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism,” A.E. Waite has written with characteristic insight. His words have a finality of wisdom that may fitly conclude a study of destitution:

“The question of certain things of a metallic kind, the absence of which plays an important part, is a little difficult from any point of view, though several explanations have been given. The better way toward their understanding is to put aside what is conventional and arbitrary—as, for example, the poverty of spirit and the denuded state of those who have not yet been enriched by the secret knowledge of the Royal and Holy Art. It goes deeper than this and represents the ordinary status of the world, when separated from any higher motive—the world-spirit, the extrinsic titles of recognition, the material standards. The Candidate is now to learn that there is another standard of values, and when he comes again into possession of the old tokens, he is to realise that their most important use is in the cause of others. You know under what striking circumstances this point is brought home to him.”

     

‘They came from the sixth floor (and Hong Kong & Italy)’

    

You promise that no Visitor shall be received into your Lodge without due examination, and producing proper Vouchers of his having been initiated in a regular Lodge.

Book of Constitutions

United Grand Lodge of England

The VIPs Monday night. From left: RW George, RW Tomas, RW Peter, WM Tom, the Most Worshipful Richard J. Kessler, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, RW Wayne, RW Philippe, and Bro. Marco in the red of the Grande Oriente d’Italia.

Our Communication Monday night was supposed to have been a pretty dry discussion and adoption of our operating budget for the year but, as is so ordinary in Freemasonry, things got exciting.

Publicity Lodge still tackled its budget, but we were blessed with the company of Grand Lodge top brass and sojourning Masons from distant locales. For the second time in seven months, Grand Master Richard Kessler joined us, even arriving early to socialize with the brethren. He was accompanied by Grand Secretary Richard Schulz, D.D. Grand Master Philippe Hiolle, and Grand Director of Ceremonies Tomas Hull. Their presence was prompted by the advance notice that two very special guests were coming.

Right Worshipful Brother Peter H.Y. Wong, Past District Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England’s District Grand Lodge of Hong Kong and the Far East, was accompanied by RW Wayne Ang, Past District Grand Standard Bearer. As Tiler, I was primed. (That DGL somehow remains in existence.)

In addition, we welcomed an unexpected visitor from Italy: Bro. Marco comes from La Pace (Peace) Lodge 76, under the Grand Orient of Italy in Padua. I know what you’re thinking: “Wait, the English guys can’t sit in lodge with GOI guys!” But that’s not true any longer. In March, the UGLE and the GOI resolved their decades of estrangement, re-establishing recognition, relations, and normalcy, so there was no risk of an international incident erupting in tranquil Publicity Lodge. The English now recognize both the Grand Orient and the Regular Grand Lodge there.

WM Tom, left, greets the delegation from James W. Husted-Fiat Lux Lodge 1068 who journeyed up two flights of stairs to be with us. That’s RW Ron at right.

It really livened things up, having all these eminent Masons with us. What’s more, the meeting of James W. Husted-Fiat Lux Lodge 1068 down on the sixth floor was canceled abruptly because principal officers could not attend, so RW Ron Sablosky brought seven of his lodge brothers upstairs to visit. Pretty good timing, I’d say. What was to have been a forgettable business meeting became a memorable Masonic night. (I, on behalf of the Education Committee, was scheduled to present a discussion on petitioner-interview techniques, but that will be done another time.)

WM Tom, left, and the three PDDGMs: Ron, Rich, and George, with the Grand Master at right.

An additional attraction arose when it became known that RW Sablosky, RW Schulz, and RW George (one of Publicity’s venerable Past Masters) were united in lodge for the first time in many years. The three served together as DDGMs during the 1996-98 term.

I publish a monthly digital magazine of about 25 pages for Publicity Lodge. The November issue will have this photo of the trowel presentation on the front cover. That’s RW Peter Wong on the left and Worshipful Master Tom on the right.

RW Bro. Wong presented our Worshipful Master the gift of a ceremonial trowel, the reverse of which he’d had engraved with a message to commemorate this occasion. Bro. Marco likewise bore gifts: a book, in Italian, about his Grand Orient’s 200+ years; and a reproduction of his lodge’s seal.

And yet, even more serendipitous, RW Sablosky, having no idea RW Wong was present, found himself reunited with his old acquaintance, they having known each other some thirty-five years. Ron invited Peter to his wedding ages ago, and Peter replied with a telegram(!) sending regrets that he couldn’t make the trip. Ron still has the telegram.

Master and Grand Master.

Of course the Grand Master is the last to speak, and MW Kessler praised the civility of our parliamentary budget haggling, segueing into a reminder that we Masons make certain promises to each other. (I’m not the paranoid type, but I wondered if he tailored those remarks for my edification in the wake of the recent Magpie post, about our mayor being made a Mason, that upset some.)

A meeting for the history book, and since I’m Publicity’s Historian, I’d better type this up formally for the permanent record. Can’t wait to see what happens next time.

     

‘From the Library of Publicity Lodge No. 1000’

  

Latin mottos: ‘Let There Be Light’
and ‘Know Thyself.’

Speaking of fine arts (see post below), there was one lot on eBay last week of particular interest to my lodge. I didn’t bid, but I hope one of the brethren won it when the gavel dropped last night. I’d told them about it via our Faceypage.

It is a bookplate from what, I suppose, was a library maintained by Publicity Lodge. I don’t know where the stacks might have been, but I’ll guess the lodge once upon a time leased one of those small offices that inconspicuously occupy the odd-numbered floors of Masonic Hall. Maybe part office for the treasurer and secretary, and lodge library, and storage, and smoking lounge. I wish we could do that today.

You’re wondering why the lodge would keep a library when the Livingston Library is on 14. From the look of this bookplate, I’ll guess it dates to the 1930s, and that’s when the Livingston Library was born. Maybe there was no Publicity library. The lodge published a history in the early ’30s, and maybe this bookplate was commissioned specially for the book’s print run. This is all guesswork on my part. I’ll have to delve into the voluminous lodge minutes to see what was going on there.

     

‘Publicity Lodge’s new officers’

    

Publicity and visiting Masons last night.

Publicity Lodge 1000 will enter its second century this fall with its newly installed officer team, they having been made legal last night.

It was a fine affair. And public, so we enjoyed the company of family and friends of Freemasonry.

etymonline.com

The Installing Master, one of our venerable PMs, guided us through the ceremony as Leonard Bernstein would conduct the Philharmonic. Multiple Right Worshipfuls attended to demonstrate their friendship to the new Master. (I withhold his name, unsure if he is known publicly as a Freemason.) A contingent of Prince Hall brethren did likewise. And our Fourth Manhattan VIPs supported our special night too. And Oscar stopped in to say hello as well, before heading upstairs to Allied Lodge, where he had a speaking engagement.

It was a full house in the Doric Room.

Several Publicity Masons we haven’t seen in a while turned out, which is a big part of the fun too.

Past Master Chris transmits Solomonic wisdom to his duly installed successor, Worshipful Master Tom, as Installing Master William looks on.

For my part, I continue as Tiler, keeping away the cowans and eavesdroppers. However I struck out in my bid to serve as Historian also. Apparently our bylaws didn’t create the position, so there’s no way to install anyone as such. I foresee a proposed amendment this fall when we resume our labors. (Our Grand Lodge’s Grand Historian has the goal of seeing every lodge include a Historian.) I’ll keep busy doing the relevant work in the meantime.

Aside from our summer outing, probably one Saturday next month, Publicity Lodge will meet next on September 11. We’re known for hospitality, so come visit—and check in with the Tiler.

     

‘Charges from the old and to the new lodge Masters’

  

From Etsy

’Tis the season of Installations of Officers here in New York Freemasonry. I’m eager to get to lodge Monday night for ours.

The Master-elect has been a Master Mason for more than twenty years, but the rest of the officer line is comprised of Masons who have been around for, I think, five years or less. It’s fun for me to observe their efforts and palpable sincerity, and even to hear their worries and frustrations because they don’t know how good they have it! Without uttering—or perhaps knowing—the “O word,” Publicity Lodge upholds most of the Observant suite of best practices simply from tradition. I guess that makes sense, as in Traditional Observance.

But, while I look forward to Monday, I look back today at one of the essential seminal works of Masonic literature. With the installation of a new Worshipful Master and the “outstallation” of our current Master, I am reminded of two essays by William Hutchinson from The Spirit of Masonry, first printed in 1775.

In my view, there are about ten books from eighteenth century England that are essential reading for those who want to understand what Freemasons do and why, and The Spirit of Masonry is among them. (Without listing all, I’ll just say they are books of constitutions, ritual exposures, and individuals’ expoundings of Masonic thought. Nearly all that have followed are derivative.)

William Hutchinson

These pieces from Hutchinson originally were charges. William James Hutchinson (1732-1814) was a lawyer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and an author of poetry and prose. He would come to be dubbed “The Father of Masonic Symbolism,” to give an idea of his significance to what we do in lodge. Sunday, the fourth of June, happens to be the anniversary of his initiation into Freemasonry in 1770—meaning he had composed these orations and published Spirit within five years of being made a Mason.

What follow are, first, an excerpt of one of the charges from The Spirit of Masonry and then the ensuing charge in its entirety. Enjoy.

A Charge Delivered

by the Worshipful Master

on Resigning the Chair

By the rules of this lodge, I am now to resign the chair. But I cannot do this with entire satisfaction until I have testified the grateful sense I feel of the honor I received in being advanced to it.

Your generous and unanimous choice of me for your Master demands my thankful acknowledgments, though, at the same time, I sincerely wish that my abilities had been more adequate to the charge which your kind partiality elected me to. But this has always been, and still is, my greatest consolation, that, however deficient I may have been in the discharge of my duty, no one can boast a heart more devoted to the good of, the institution in general, and the reputation of this lodge in particular.

Though I am apprehensive I have already trespassed on your patience, yet, if I might be indulged, I would humbly lay before you a few reflections, adapted to the business of the day, which, being the effusions of a heart truly Masonic, will, it is hoped, be received with candor by you.

Title page.

Every association of men, as well as this of Freemasons must, for the sake of order and harmony, be regulated by certain laws, and, for that purpose, proper officers must be appointed, and empowered to carry those laws into execution, to preserve a degree of uniformity, at least to restrain any irregularity that might render such associations inconsistent. For we may as reasonably suppose an army may be duly disciplined, well provided, and properly conducted, without generals and other officers, as that a society can be supported without governors and their subalterns; or, which is the same, without some form of government to answer the end of the institution. And, as such an arrangement must be revered, it becomes a necessary requisite that a temper should be discovered in the several members adapted to the respective stations they are to fill.

This thought will suggest to you, that those who are ratified to preside as officers in a lodge, will not be sated with that honor, but, losing sight of it, will have only in view the service their office demands. Their reproofs will be dictated by friendship, softened by candor, and enforced with mildness and affection; in the whole of their deportment they will preserve a degree of dignity, tempered with affability and ease. This conduct, while it endears them to others, will not fail to raise their own reputation; and as envy should not be so much as once named among Freemasons, it will effectually prevent the growth of it, should it unfortunately ever appear.

Such is the nature of our constitution, that as some must of necessity rule and teach, so others must of course learn to obey; humility, therefore, in both, becomes an essential duty; for pride and ambition, like a worm at the root of a tree, will prey on the vitals of our peace, harmony, and brotherly love.

Had not this excellent temper prevailed when the foundation of Solomon’s Temple was first laid, it is easy to see that that glorious edifice would never have risen to a height of splendour which astonished the world.

Had all employed in this work been masters or superintendants, who must have prepared the timber in the forest, or hewn the stone in the quarry? Yet, though they were numbered and classed under different denominations, as princes, rulers, provosts, comforters of the people, stone-squarers, sculptors, &c., such was their unanimity, that they seemed actuated by one spirit, influenced by one principle.

Grand Lodge of New York Past Master apron.

Merit alone, then, entitled to preferment; an indisputable instance of which we have in the Deputy Grand Master of that great undertaking, who, without either wealth or power, or any other distinction than that of being the widow’s son, was appointed by the Grand Master, and approved by the people for this single reason—because he was a skillful artificer.

Let these considerations, my worthy brethren, animate us in the pursuits of so noble a science, that we may all be qualified to fill, in rotation, the most distinguished places in the lodge, and keep the honors of the Craft, which are the just rewards of our labor, in a regular circulation.

And, as none are less qualified to govern than those who have not learned to obey, permit me, in the warmest manner, to recommend to you all a constant attendance in this place, a due obedience to the laws of our institution, and a respectful submission to the direction of your officers, that you may prove to mankind the propriety of your election, and secure the establishment of this society to the latest posterity.

A Short Charge

Delivered to the Master

on Being Invested and Installed

Worshipful Sir,

By the unanimous voice of the members of this lodge, you are elected to the mastership thereof for the ensuing half-year; and I have the happiness of being deputed to invest you with this ensign of your office, be it ever in your thoughts that the ancients particularly held this symbol to be a just, a striking emblem of the Divinity. They said the gods, who are the authors of every thing established in wisdom, strength, and beauty, were properly represented by this figure. May you, worthy brother, not only consider it a mark of honor in this assembly, but also let it ever remind you of your duty both to God and man. And, as you profess the Sacred Volume to be your spiritual tressel-board, may you make it your particular care to square your life and conversation according to the rules and designs laid down therein.

You have been of too long standing, and are too good a member of our community, to require now any information in the duty of your office. What you have seen praiseworthy in others, we doubt not, you will imitate; and what you have seen defective, you will in yourself amend.

We have, therefore, the greatest reason to expect you will be constant and regular in your attendance on the lodge, faithful and diligent in the discharge of your duty, and that you will make the honor of the Supreme Architect of the Universe, and the good of the Craft, chief objects of your regard.

We likewise trust you will pay a punctual attention to the laws and regulations of this society, as more particularly becoming your present station; and that you will, at the same time, require a due obedience to them from every other member, well knowing that, without this, the best of laws become useless.

For a pattern of imitation, consider the great luminary of Nature, which, rising in the east, regularly diffuses light and lustre to all within its circle. In like manner it is your province, with due decorum, to spread and communicate light and instruction to the brethren in the lodge.

From the knowledge we already have of your zeal and abilities, we rest assured you will discharge the duties of this important station in such a manner as will redound greatly to the honor of yourself, as well as of those members over whom you are elected to preside.

     

‘An extra special MM Degree’

    

Publicity Lodge and guests Monday night.

We enjoyed a really big night Monday at Publicity Lodge. Conferring the Third Degree on a FC Mason is sufficient reason for meticulous planning and deliberate execution, but we received word a few days earlier that our Grand Master, with other Grand Lodge officers, would attend, which, naturally, adds great prestige to the auspiciousness.

Plus, we were honored with the support of sister lodges in the Fourth Manhattan District. And we were charmed with the visit of more than a dozen Prince Hall Masons. We haven’t seen a turn-out like this since before the pandemic.

Grand Master Richard Kessler said he doesn’t get to witness much degree work in his current capacity, so he decided to come see this Sublime Degree. Accompanying him were Junior Grand Warden Peter Stein, DDGM Philippe Hiolle, Senior Grand Deacon Larry Kania, Grand Director of Ceremonies Tomas Hull, and Trustee George Filippidis.

From elsewhere in the Fourth Manhattan were brethren from Manahatta Lodge 449, Columbian 484, Gramercy 537, and St. Cecile 568.

PHA lodges represented were Prince Hall 38, Beacon Light 76, Master 99, and Sons of Kings 123.

(If I missed anyone, I’m sorry, but you didn’t sign the visitors book.)

An unforgettable night! Our new MM felt the impact of seeing so many forming the lodge when the hw came off. Let’s do it again next month!

     

‘Bro. Richard Belzer, 1944-2023’

    

Richard Belzer also is credited with books of fiction, like this novel, and non-fiction, such as various investigations into ‘conspiracy theories.’

He lived in France, so it’s not as though we saw him in lodge, but he still was a Brother Mason. Richard Belzer died yesterday at age 78.

We have a number of actors in Publicity 1000, but The Belz was the famous one. That popularity derives from his portrayal of NYPD Detective John Munch, first in the cast of Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-96); then Law & Order (1996-2000); and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-2016). And he parlayed that same role into appearances on diverse productions, from The Wire to 30 Rock.

To me, he’s still a counterculture comedian from the ’70s, cracking me up in The Groove Tube and various National Lampoon enterprises.

I would have loved to have asked him what brought him to the Inner Door and what it all meant to him. R.I.P.

     

‘Publicity’s Presidents’ Day message’

     

Well, this isn’t actually a Presidents’ Day message. The following is a message from the Master of my lodge to the brethren of Publicity 1000 in our February trestleboard, but it’s Presidents’ Day and George Washington’s birthday, and I’m in Virginia enjoying the Washington Masonic Memorial centenary festivities, so I’m sharing this.

As America marks the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln this month, we Free and Accepted Masons ought to celebrate these two giants on whose shoulders we still stand, so many years after they made so much history. I don’t know if there are better exemplars of the type of mature masculinity that our gentle Craft inculcates in its brethren.

You know about Washington the Freemason, the general, the president, the “Father of our Country.” Here I just want to share a little about Washington the boy. Not the cherry tree myth, but the real story of how he adopted a code of adulthood as his own. A book published in France in the seventeenth century contained a detailed list of virtues to educate boys. It was translated into English, and it was so popular that it remained available a century later, when the teenaged Washington received it in Virginia. He took it to heart and he transcribed this list of 110 maxims into his school book. We know it today as “George Washington’s Rules of Civility.”

Some examples:

No. 39  In writing and speaking, give to every person his due title according to his degree and the custom of the place.

No. 56  Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

No. 109  Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.

Click here for a free copy from the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

It all prescribes the dignified and moral conduct expected of a gentlemen of those days. Lincoln was born a decade after Washington’s death, and born into a far more humble environment than Washington, but he too is renowned today for the same unimpeachable manly character. Did you know he once fought a duel, with swords, intended as a fight to the death?

In 1842, he rebuked a public official in the wake of a government scandal. The public official challenged Lincoln to the duel. For weapons, Lincoln chose large cavalry broadswords instead of firearms, knowing he was much taller than his opponent and enjoyed a longer reach. Before anyone could be hurt, Lincoln used his weapon to hack off a tree branch, demonstrating his advantages over the other duelist. The two wisely agreed to a truce.

Years later, during the Civil War, Lincoln was president and his former adversary was a U.S. brigadier general who won an important battle and was wounded in the action. Lincoln nominated him for promotion to major general. Lincoln never was a Mason. Supposedly, he had an interest in the Craft, but the Anti-Masonic hysteria of the 1820s and ’30s dissuaded him. Washington, as you know, was initiated into the local lodge even before he turned twenty-one.

Examples of outstanding integrity from Washington’s and Lincoln’s lives are numerous because of their virtuous characters, and their public lives obviously reveal the inner men. As Freemasons, it is our challenge to labor in self-improvement and we would be wise to emulate these leaders by incorporating their qualities into our own lives. Our world needs masculine energy, and in the spirit of masculine self-development, I encourage each of you to take time this month to reflect on Freemasonry’s Four Cardinal Virtues for your own personal growth. And consider ways to incorporate other Masonic teachings in your improvement as a husband or father or friend or neighbor. Identify personal areas where you want to grow; create plans to achieve realistic goals; and budget time to work toward success.

Remember, true self-improvement is an ongoing process, so make sure to evaluate progress and adjust plans as needed. Let us also remember the principles of Freemasonry, such as Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, and strive to live by them daily. Freemasonry is more than a fraternity; it is a philosophy for living. Simply upholding our principles places us far ahead of other men on the path to becoming better men and citizens—to being good and true.

As always, I am honored to serve as your Worshipful Master, and am grateful for the dedication and commitment of each and every member of Publicity Lodge. I am proud to be a part of this fraternity and to be associated with such a great group of men. Thank you for your continued support and for being a part of our great brotherhood.

     

‘100 years of Publicity 1000’

     

The founding brethren of Publicity Lodge 1000 on the night of the Charter and Constitution Ceremony, Monday, October 30, 1922. The ceremony took place in the Grand Lodge Room of Masonic Hall, but I’m not sure where this photo was shot. Sorry for the glare. This is a photo of a framed picture and the chandeliers are reflecting.

It was a hundred years ago today, at this very hour in fact, that my lodge was made legal by the Grand Lodge of New York.

On the evening of Monday, October 30, 1922, inside the Grand Lodge Room of Masonic Hall, Publicity Lodge 1000 was constituted and its officers installed by a ritual team consisting of Grand Master Arthur S. Tompkins, Deputy Grand Master William A. Rowan, Senior Grand Warden Meyer B. Cushner, Junior Grand Warden Terry M. Townsend, Grand Treasurer Jacob C. Klick, Grand Secretary Robert H. Robinson, Grand Chaplain Oscar F. Trader, and Grand Marshal John J. MacCrum.

The first meeting Under Dispensation,
Thursday, December 29, 1921.

The lodge was organized by advertising and other media professionals. According to legend, a number of them were acquainted professionally and socially (maybe through the Advertising Club of New York), but it was some time before they realized many in the group were Freemasons. Upon that discovery, they set about organizing a lodge. Grand Master Robert H. Robinson issued the Dispensation, and the first meeting U.D. was held Thursday, December 29, 1921.

It is unsurprising Publicity’s birth was covered by trade publications serving the publishing world. The November 4, 1922 edition of The Fourth Estate newspaper reported:

An interesting event in advertising circles was the constitution of Publicity Lodge No. 1000 F&AM on October 30.

Arthur S. Tompkins

This lodge is made up of advertising men. It was organized a year ago, and operating under dispensation until it received its charter and was regularly constituted by the Grand Lodge officially Monday evening. The ceremony, which took place in the Masonic Temple at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, New York, was conducted by Supreme Court Judge Arthur S. Tompkins of Nyack, who is Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, and a large suite of other Grand Lodge officers.

There was a large attendance of Masons from other lodges. The ceremony was simple but impressive. St. Cecile quartet furnished the music. Addresses were made by the Past Grand Master Robert H. Robinson, and on George Washington as a Mason by Grand Master Tompkins. The Master and a delegation from St. Nicholas Lodge presented the new lodge with a handsome ballot box. Several charter members of Publicity came from St. Nicholas.

Our original VSL.

The new lodge has 53 charter members, a long list of members who have taken the First Degree, and another long list of applicants. It meets in the Grand Lodge room in Masonic Hall, 23rd Street at Sixth Avenue.

Herman G. Halsted, of Paul Block, Inc., is Master.

John H. Baumann, of Stevens & Baumann, is Senior Warden.

Louis W. Bleser, of Charles C. Green Advertising, is Treasurer.

George French is Secretary.

The November 11, 1922 issue of Editor & Publisher reported:

The ceremony of constitution was attended by many Masons from other New York lodges, and visitors from abroad, including the Past Grand Master of Masons of Nova Scotia. The Master of Saint Nicholas Lodge No. 321, accompanied by a delegation of members, was present and presented Publicity with a handsome ballot box.

E&P also included Publicity among its Ad Clubs and Associations listings.

Herman G. Halsted

RW Herman G. Halsted was born June 16, 1876 in Orange, New Jersey, according to Who’s Who in New York City and State for 1924. He was DDGM of the Third Manhattan District. He also was a Scottish Rite Mason and a Royal Arch Mason in Jerusalem Chapter 8.

How did Publicity grab the Number 1000, the huge milestone and a most memorable cardinal number? It’s not exactly a sequential lodge number. Bay Side Lodge 999 was constituted on May 9, 1922; St. Mark’s Lodge 1001 somehow was constituted the day before that; and Lodge 1000 received its warrant nearly six months later! For a fraternity that inculcates study of Arithmetic among the Liberal Arts and Sciences, this appears amiss.

Publicity Lodge lore explains that because the Roman numeral M equals our number 1000, it was planned for us to receive that number. What’s so great about M? In advertising copy writing, the copy writer adds an M at the end of his copy, center page, to inform the editor there is nothing more to read. (How the advertising business chose M for that purpose may be unknown today.)

And speaking of writing and editing, MW Tompkins also advanced the idea of an official periodical for New York Masons. It would be titled The New York Masonic Outlook. This was a novel idea as grand lodges did not have in-house magazines for their members, but in the 1920s, all things became possible. Masonic membership in the United States surged during and after World War I and through the twenties, reaching 3.5 million before the disaster of the Great Depression. The multitudes of Master Masons resulted in lodges proliferating coast to coast. More real estate was acquired and developed. More charities were established. The appendant bodies flourished. Supporting industries providing regalia, paraphernalia, and other goods profited. There was more of everything, so there was money to establish a magazine for New York Freemasonry too.

It didn’t take Grand Lodge long to hire the best available editor to bring the Outlook to fruition. Harry LeRoy “H.L.” Haywood (1886-1956) was among the top Masonic authors whose books are valued for their clear prose to help the reader grasp Masonry’s sometimes arcane and vexing subjects. He also was renowned for editing The Builder, published by the National Masonic Research Society, that was not only a magazine, but was the centerpiece of a correspondence course in Masonic education. Haywood arrived in New York and, seeking the most talented available help in starting a magazine from scratch, he affiliated with—who else?—Publicity Lodge 1000.

Because the world outside has changed in infinite ways since 1922—people then could not comprehend what we today take for granted—it is especially appreciated how Publicity Lodge remains mostly unchanged. Our styles of dress and appearance evolved, and even our ritual has been altered a little, but our sacred retreat of friendship and virtue steadfastly upholds the meaning of Masonry. Here’s to another hundred years!

M