TAKING HIS DEGREES.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4449, 9 April 1883, Page 3

TAKING HIS DEGREES.

A middle-aged lady, with a black alpaca dress worn shiny at the elbows, and a cheap shawl, and a cheap bonnet, and her hands puckered up and blue, as though she had just got her washing out, went into the office of a prominent Mason a few mornings since, says the Milwaukee Sun, and took a chair. She wiped her nose and the perspiration from her face on a blne*ebeeked apron, and when the Mason looked at her, with an interested, brotherly look, as though she was in trouble, she said: ' " Are you the boss Mason P" He blushed, told her he was a Mason, but not the highest in the land. She hesitated.a moment, fingered the corner of her. apron.'and curled it up like a boy speaking a piece in school, and asked : "Hare you taken the whole two hundred and thirty three- degrees of Masonry P" The man laughed and told her there were only, thirty-three degrees, and that he had onlystaken thirty-two. The ether degres could only be taken by a very few who, ,*rere recommended by the Grand Lodge, 'arid they had to go to New York' ;{M*t b the ( thirty-third degree.• The lady studied a minute, unpinned tbe safety-rpin tbat held her shawl together, and .put it in her mouth, took a long breatb, and said : " Where doeß >. my husband get the other two hundred degrees then ?"

The prominent Mason said he guessed her-: huff band never got two hundred degrees; unless be bad a degree factory. He said be did'nt understand the lady. "Does my husband have to ait with a corpse, three nights a week ?" she asked, 'ber eyes flashing fire. "And do they keetii.a lot of sick.Masons on tap for my husband to sit. up with tbe other three nigVtV?"■ !.'." :.:-" The prominent Mason said he was thankful that few Masons died, and only occasionally was one sick enough to call for Masooic assistance. " But why do you ask these question, madatne P" said the prominent Mason. The woman picked tbe fringe of her shawl, faong her head down, and said : " Well, my husband began to join the Masons about two years ago, and he has been taking degrees or sitting up with people every night since. He has come borne twice with the wrong pair of drawers on, arid when I asked him how it was, he said it was a secret be could not rereal under penalty of being shot with a cannon. AH he would say was that he took a degree. I hare kept a little track of it, and I figure that he has taken twohundred and thirty-three degrees, including the Grand Sky Fugle degree, which he took the night he came home with his lip rot, and his ear hanging by a piece of skin.".

"Ob, madame," ~ said tbe prominent Maion, "there is no Sky Fugle degree i j Masonry. Your husband has deceived you." " That'i what I think," said she, as a baleful light appeared in her eye. "He said he was taking the Sky Fugle degree, and fell through the skylight. I had him sewed up, and-be was ready for more degrees.: After he had taken about one hundred and fifty degress, I told him I should .think he would let up on it, and put some potatoes in the cellar for tbe winter, but he said when a man got once started on the degrees he had to take ; them all, or he didn't amount to anything, j Sometimes a brother Mason comes home with him alone in the morning, and they talk about a ' full flash' and about their ! ' pat hande,' and ' raising 'em out.' One night, when he was asleep, I heard him whisper, 'I raise you 10 dollars,' and when I asked him what it meant, he said they had been raising a purse for a poor widow. Another time he raised up in bed, after he had been asleep, and shouted * I stand pat,' and when I asked trim what it meant be said he was ruined if I told it. He said be had spoken the pass-word and if the brethren heard of it they would put him out of the, way, eren as Morgan was put out of the way.- Mister, is ' I stand pat 5 your password ?" The Mason told, her it' wasn't; thai the words she had spoken was an expression used by men when playing draw pocker, and he added that he didn't believe her husband wan a Mason at all, but that he had been lying to her all these years. She signed and said " Thajt's what I thought when he came .home w^ith a lot of ivory chips m his pocket. He said they used them at the lodge to vote on candidates,, and that a white chip elects and a blue chip rejects a candidate j If you will look the .matter up and see if he has joined the Masone, I will be obliged to you. JHe raays he has taken all the two hundred and thirty-three degrees, and now the boys want him to join the.Sjaights of Pythias. I want to get an injunction to prevent him joining anything else until we got some under* •lotfaies for winter. I'll tell ydu what I will do. The next time he says anything •bout' Sky Fugle degrees, I 'will take a washboard and make him think there is one degree in Masonry that he has skipped, and", now gop'dr-bye.'. You have comforted me:greatly, and I will lay awake tonight till my husband comes from the lodge,with! his pat hand, and I will make him think he has forgotten his ante."" 1" \ n .';"' ' \ " " The lady went out to a grocery to buy some bar soap, and tbe. prominent Mason resumed his business with a feeling that 1$ are not all. truly good, and>*Jiere is cheating going on all round. '■