The Trap Houdini Could Not Escape

With his career at its peak, world famous Harry Houdini, St. Cecile Lodge 568, New York City, always stayed at the finest hotels when he took his performances on the road. On one occasion at the ritzy Savoy Hotel in Kansas City, a guest recognized Brother Harry as he went into a phone booth to make a call. Once Houdini had closed the folding doors the guest grabbed a broom and shoved it through the door handle in a position which would prevent the doors from opening. When he finished his call, Houdini turned to find the door jammed. Although he tried everything he could, the great magician and world's most famous escape artist could not get out of the phone booth!

Hotel personnel had to rescue him and eyewittnesses reported that upon his release, Brother Houdini was quite upset and did not "subdue his passions."

The Bet

Ruel C. Gridley (1829-1871), Civil War humanitarian and a member of 8 Masonic Lodges in 2 states, was born in Hannibal, Missouri, and was a boyhood friend of Mark Twain.  During the Civil War, Brother Gridley bet a friend a sack of flour on the outcome of a political race. The loser was to carry the sack 1½ miles from  Clifton to Austin, Nevada.  Gridley lost and carried the load, followed by a brass band playing "John Brown's Body." At the end of the march Brother Gridley auctioned off the sack with proceeds going to the Sanitary Commission, a charitable organization benefiting sick and wounded soldiers. The buyer made the donation but didn't want the flour.  So Brother Gridley shouldered his "sanitary sack of flour" and carried it throughout Nevada and California auctioning it over and over again.  Ultimately he raised over $275,000 ($3.9 million in today's dollars) for his organization, which eventually became the primary forerunner to a much more well-known charity — the Red Cross.

Charles Dickens Lodge

Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago today. He was a fervent anti-Mason yet there once was a Charles Dickens Lodge in Chigwell, Essex, England.

Rejected!

The Marines and Paratroopers both rejected him, thinking he wouldn't be a good soldier because he was too small.  When the Army finally accepted him in the infantry, Brother Audie Murphy, North Hollywood Lodge 542, California, proved them all wrong, becoming the most decorated hero of World War II.

Posthumous Fame

Peter Marshall (1902-1949), Old Monkland St. James Lodge 177, Coatbridge, Scotland was a Presbyterian minister who served twice as Chaplain of the US Senate.  Although a man of accomplishment, he was never widely known until after his untimely death, when his wife Catherine wrote his biography, "A Man Called Peter," a best-seller which made him world famous.

The Family Secret

Major General Wayne C. Smith was raised in Schofield Lodge 443, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and later became charter Master of Fort Campbell Lodge 946 of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He is the only military general other than George Washington known to be a charter Master of a Lodge. He had an impressive list of Masonic accomplishments including a term as National President of Sojourners, 1956-57. His father was not a Mason and he did not learn of his grandfather's membership until his mother was on her deathbed. Amazingly the reason for both was the same: family fears of repercussions from his great-great-grandfather's involvement in the Morgan affair more than a century earlier!

Peace And Harmony Not Prevailing

Leading forces against a Mexican uprising, Commander Nicolas Bravo, head of the Scottish Rite in Mexico, had General Vicente Guerrero, , head of the York Rite in Mexico, executed on February 17, 1831.