amateur, much less of a patron. The reader will, therefore, not be surprised to learn, that this son of genius and obscurity, soon discovered, that the Lamb-skin bibs, or aprons, were not complete-not fit to adorn the persons of the sons of Light-till, by the aid of the pencil and the pallet, their spotless and virgin white was made to yield, in part, to the coloured and gilded forms of certain sublime hieroglyphicks, at the sight of which the eyes of a new-born babe in masonry (as well as the optics of an old Noodle) will glisten like those of a cat in a coal-barrel. Our worthy painter, of course, found it the best thing he could do-(seeing the solitary state of his shop-of which he would often mutter

In this dark solitude, and lonely cell,

Where heaven-born genius and starvation dwell !*) -to join, without delay, the grand trio, who had already got their sublime vocation in the full tide of successful experiment! The son of the pencil and the pallet, was soon seen arm in arm with the Paper Gilder, and with the further aid of a Five Dollar bill, perhaps the last relic of his NewEngland fortunes, got the word and the grip, the alpha and omega of masonic science, and was hailed by the brotherhood as a worthy disciple of the Lamb-skin! Oh! how unfortunate for genius, to be driven to degrade itself, to descend from its native dignity, and to seek fellowship with ignorance, and quackery, in quest of patronage!

I just now recollect, that I am running a little ahead of my story: but truth will tell as well in one part of a history as another: it is falsehood

* See Appendix, Note 15.

only that can blur any page. Before the painter's eyes were opened to the marvellous light, which shines on and about the altars of the Craft, there was another worthy sun-rising brother of mine (four Yankeys to one Dutchman) who, as the old song says,

"Made hats upon blocks, for blockheads to wear. This honest adventurer, who had been journeyman to the Publican already alluded to, before the latter left off handling fur, to retail madeira and manufacture Free Masons, was quick to perceive-and what is it that one of my keen Yankey brethren is not quick to perceive-that if Free Masonry did not make blockheads, it took in slick enough, all it could catch ready made in the natural way. He had emerged from journey-work, and opened shop on his own account. The main chance occupied his thoughts, as it does those of all pains-taking men. He had a room full of blocks, for which, in the infancy of his business, he had but little if any use; and which, as they were ranged round his shelves, in silent and solemn order, very naturally put him in mind of a Lodge in session

"Where one fool lolls his tongue out at another,
"And shakes his empty noddle at his brother!”

My good friend-for all these personages were my friends and companions-was, I repeat it, quick to perceive, that to find heads for his blocks, the masonic lodge room was the place to resort to, after the toils of the day; and having fully counted the cost, as well as the consequence, he marched forward, not with the zeal of a pilgrim, with peas in his shoes, going to

wait upon "our Lady of Loretto;" or that of an honest missionary among the Esquimaux, who cheerfully runs the risk of being scalped for the good of a good and holy cause; but with the cool sagacity of the Beaver, and the calculation of a Wall-street Shaver, did my friend announce himself at the inner door of the temple, with the Shibboleth of Jachin or Boaz in his mouth; I forget which; for I don't recollect, whether it was just before, or shortly after, SMITH, of Vermont, was morganised for disclosing those cabalistic terms in this country; and when they were transposed, by official communication from lodge -to lodge, to keep book masons from getting in among the Lamb-skins, and the wolves in sheep's clothing. But be this as it may, the honest hatter pronounced the magic word, and the awful response admonished him to enter, when

"On a sudden, open flew

With impetuous recoil, and jarring sound,
Th' infernal doors :"

66

But our hero was not alarmed-he entered, not so much with fear and trembling," as with a lively hope, that his idle blocks would soon start from their resting shelves, and be seen to bloom and flourish in the richest of beaver, to deck the noddles of the Entered Apprentices, and FellowCraftsmen, and Masters, and Grand Masters, and Grand High Priests, and Grand Kings, and other illustrious dignitaries, who swell the catalogue of the Noodle Nobility of the self-created Order!

These were the FIVE Scribes and Pharisees, who carried on, for a long while, the old Noodle Manufactory in North Pearl-street, and afterwards in Court-street. It was about this time that Bar

Tas and his associates formed the Executive Directory of France, and were called the Five Headed Monster; and I well recollect, jumbling great things and small ones, that more than once I amused myself in comparing the operations of the great Five Headed Monster, of Paris, with the little Five Headed Monster, of Albany. The one played off Political Quackery on a great scale; the other Masonic Quackery on a small scale.

Under the auspices of the little Five Headed Monster the work went bravely on. Every Publican, who came to town, was sure to find his way to Union Lodge, happily so called, from the generous and noble spirited union of so many various and disinterested interests. A Dutch Lawyer, and a shrewd one too; a Yankey Tavern Keeper, who knew something more than "a hawk from a handsaw;" a Yankey Book Binder, who had studied mankind, as well as Pritchard's Masonry Dissected, and knew precisely when and where to commence the art of making Lamb-skin aprons; Yankey Painter, who knew how to make them shine with the Insignia of the Ducal Order; and a Yankey Hatter, who knew where to find blockheads to suit his empty blocks;-these formed altogether a rare brotherhood of hope," as well as of "mutual help.”

As I said before, these "choice spirits" of the den, took good care to bring every country Publican, who came to town, where he could get the word and the grip; where he could have his eyes opened to the glorious light-the "divine art" of selling two gills of rum where he sold but one before! And where was the honest Publican, who would not come post-haste, especially at that early stage of our back population, from Sacon

daga, Caughnawaga, the peak of the Helleberg, old Beaver Dam, or Skunk's Misery, to learn a secret of so much importance to himself at least, if not to the great family of mankind! No sooner were the eyes of the Pilgrim opened, at the altar of the little Five Headed Monster, than he would return, brim-full of mystery and moonshine; and go to opening the eyes of his blind neighbours, with one hand, to the sublime light he had imbibed in an Albany garret, whilst with the other he would as often and as speedily close them with sixpenny opiates from his brandy or gin bottle! I am writing sober history-if not a history of sober things-as true, if not so dignified as that of Hume or Gibbon, Robertson or Ramsay; and certain I am as necessary to be studied by every American youth, who wishes to pass through life without being made the dupe of a set of vile impostors.

But to return to our Sacondaga, or Caughnawaga Pilgrim; or the one from Skunk's Misery, alias Old Jericho-I knew him well-he is no fictitious personage on this page-or in short, to any one of these Pilgrims:-having thus learned. the way to make the most of his mixed liquors, from his benevolent brethren and preceptors of Albany, and concluding, like a grateful man-a rare thing in these days-that "one good.turn deserves another," and the fine arts, much less the sciences, having at that day made but little if any progress in the country; it was proper, as well as natural, for him to send to them-the Five Masonic Sachems in Albany-all such of his children of light as had occasion to fee counsel learned in the law-to get lamb-skin aprons made and painted for the next festival of Saint