A TATOOED FREEMASON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 13, 22 April 1871, Page 17

A TATOOED FREEMASON.

[From the Philadelphia Age.] The first Maßonic funeral that ever occurred in'California, took place in 1840, and was performed over a brother found drowned in the Bay of San Francisco. An account of the ceremonies states that on the body of the deceased was found a silver mark of a Mason, upon which were engraved the initials of his name. A little further investigation revealed to the beholder the most singular exhibition of Masonic emblems that was ever drawn by the ingenuity of man upon the human skin. There is nothing in the history or traditions of Freemasonry equal to it, beautifully dotted upon his left arm, in red and blue ink, which time could not efface, appeared all the emblems of the entire apprenticeship. There were the Holy Bible, square and compass, the twenty-four inch guage and common gavel. There.were also the Masonic pave* ment, representing the ground floor of King Solomon's Temple, the identical tessel which surrounds it, and the blazing star in the centre. On his right arm, and artistically executed in the same indelible liquid, were the emblems pertaining to the fellow-craft's degree, viz, the square, the level and the plumb. There.were also the five columns representing the five orders of architecture —the Tuscan, Doric, lonic, Corinthian, and Composite, In removing his garments from his body, the trowel presented itself, with all the other tools of operative masonry. Over hit heart was tKe pot of incense. On the other parts of las body were th#

beehive, the book of constitutions guarded by the Tyler's sword pointing to the naked heart; the All-seeing eye, the anchor and ark, the hour glass, the scythe, the forty-seventy problem of Euclid, the sun, moon, and stars, and comets ; three steps which are emblematical of youth, manhood, and age. Admirably executed was the weeping virgin, reclined on a broken column upon which lay the books of constitutions. In her left hand she held the pot of incense, the Masonic emblem of a pure heart, and in her uplifted hand a sprig of acasia, the emblem of the immortality of the soul. Immediately beneath her stood winged Time, with his scythe by his side, which cut the brittle thread of life, and the bour glass at his feet, which is ever reminding us that our lives are withering away. The withered and attenuated fingers of the Destroyer was placed amid the long and flowing ringlets of the disconsolate mourner. Thus were the striking emblems of mortality and immortality blended in one pictorial representation. It was a spectacle such as Mason never saw before, and in all probability such as the fraternity will never witness again. The brother's name is unknown.