Thomas Alfred Smyth

 

On a crisp spring Sunday, April 9, 1865, defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee met with Union commander Ulysses S. Grant to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia. The occasion effectively ended the bloody American Civil War. After four long years the troops, North and South, could return home to rebuild their lives. The death and destruction were over… almost.

Born in Ireland on Christmas Day in 1832, Thomas Alfred Smyth emigrated to Philadelphia at the age of 22. He was a woodworker and carriage maker by trade. At the onset of the Civil War, Smyth enlisted in the Union army as a captain. He was quickly commissioned as a major and after distinguishing himself in several battles, promoted to lieutenant colonel, then full colonel. He commanded troops at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Siege of Petersburg where he was promoted to brigadier general.

Smyth was raised a Master Mason on March 6, 1865, as a member of Washington Lodge No. 1 of Wilmington, Delaware.

Increasingly distinguishing himself, Smyth became commander of a division of the famed Gibraltar Brigade, so named to signify its tenacity in combat and its steadfastness like the Rock of Gibraltar. On April 7, 1865, a Confederate soldier spied Smyth in his General's uniform, which made him an appealing target. The sniper's shot shattered Brother Smyth's cervical vertebra, paralyzing him.

Troops moved the wounded general to a local tavern to care for him.

Two days later as Grant and Lee sat signing documents just 30 miles away General Smyth passed to that House Not Made By Hands eternal in the heavens. Having been a Master Mason a mere 33 days, Brother Smyth had the unfortunate distinction of being the last Union General to lose his life in that awful conflict,

The Napron

 

When you arose from the altar as a newly initiated Entered Apprentice, the Senior Deacon instructed you to salute the Junior and Senior Wardens and then he turned you to the East and said, "You now behold the Worshipful Master approaching you from the East a second time."

With that, the Worshipful Master presented you with your first Masonic gift, something you would, in one form or another, carry with you through your Masonic journey, even through the remainder of your life and into eternity. It is your Masonic Apron.

The apron, with a few exceptions is an ever-present item, your constant companion in the Masonic degrees. In the first three degrees you are taught to wear it as an Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason, and are given the purpose for such and any accompanying symbolism.

In subsequent degrees, most have their own apron in varying colors and even different shapes, most bearing designs representing the symbolism of the degree. In the Blue Lodge, officers' aprons carry the design or insignia of each office. Those who have served in the East will usually wear a Past Master's apron showing the compasses above a quadrant with the sun in the center.

The Chapter or Royal Arch apron is red-bordered on a white background and displays a Triple Tau bordered by a triangle and a circle. The York Rite Council usually wears an apron bordered in royal purple with a triangle enclosing a trowel and sword. Likewise, most of the Scottish Rite degrees have aprons in a range of colors with symbols representing the content of the degrees.

Masons generally are familiar with all of this but may not realize it was not originally called an apron. The word derives from an old French word, "naperon," a similar sounding word preceded by the letter "n," a term stone guild members would have used. As the word crept into English and became napron, a quirk of the English language caused the dropping of the first letter. In English, nouns beginning with a vowel are preceded by the indefinite article "an" and those beginning with consonants are preceded by the word "a." The slurring of the phrase a napron was heard as "an apron" and the "n" was quickly dropped. The English word "napkin" also derives from napron but has retained the "n."

Whatever your thoughts on the "napron" and all its accompanying symbolism in all the degrees, perhaps the best and simplest way to characterize it is the very first thing you heard about it when you were presented with your very own white leathern apron: "It is an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Freemason, more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, more honorable than the Star and Garter or any other order that could be conferred upon you at this or any future period by king, prince, potentate, or any other person, except he be a Freemason. I hope you indeed wear yours with pleasure to yourself and honor to the fraternity.

That Infamous Period

 

Brother Harry S. Truman had no middle name. He explained his parents gave him the middle initial "S" to honor his grandfathers, and was a combination of the names Solomon and Shipp. On occasion he joked that "S" was his middle name, omitting the reference to his grandfathers; and, when you're the President of the US, people take you seriously, even when you may be joking. From that offhand remark some have contended there should be no period after the "S" and occasionally become smug and adamant about that fact and are quick to point out the ghastly mistake when an author inserts the period. Others will point out it remains an abbreviation for his grandfathers' names, that his middle name was not "S", and as a matter of style, the name should contain a period.

Is there no end to this controversy? Well, Harry S Truman college in Illinois says there is no period. As you go through its website and literature, you will never find a period after that S. The US government, on the other hand, says there is a period after the S and so states in its printing office style manual. Almost all newspapers today, from the New York Times to Truman's hometown Independence newspaper, use the period. But, wait, not the Chicago Tribune that once announced, "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Is there no final authority? Where do you go for guidance to settle this earthshaking controversy? Here's a suggestion… let's go to Harry Truman himself.

My home is just a few miles from the Truman Presidential Library. I am a registered researcher there, have been there many times and gone through hundreds… no make that thousands… of documents. In all of those documents, I have never seen a single Truman signature that does not have a period after the S; Truman also had a signature stamp. It has a period after the S. Any time his secretary typed his full name in a document, there was a period after the S; and the header on his White House stationary has… you guessed it… a period.

Still not convinced? Most Worshipful Brother Truman's final resting place is in the courtyard of that library. As you visit that spot and study the gravestone, you will find there is, indeed, a period after the S – That's pretty good evidence that the period belongs there. It's literally carved in stone.

And now that we've addressed that critical controversy, let's consider another one of equal significance. That Masonic ring on your finger… should the compasses point in or out?