BLIND MASONS

Chaplain Couden of the House of Representatives of the United States for a long period of years was blind, and yet was a Mason.

W. W. Drake, Kileen, Texas, became blind during his Mastership; he was reelected for a seeond term.

Charles F. Forshaw, Doncaster, England, who died in 1800, was for a number of years widely known as a Masonic musician. In his Notes on the Ceremony of Installation, page 52, Henry Sadler gives a sketch of the most famous of blind Masons, George Aarons, Master of Joppa Lodge, No. 1827, and of Lodge of Israel. He was a ritualist taught by Peter Gilkes, and for nearly twenty years was Lecture Master in the leading Lodges of Instruction. More remarkable still is Lux in Tenebris Lodge, on Shaftsbury Avenue, London, which is a Lodge for blind Masons. The Craft in England has always acted on the principle that when the Craft was transformed from Operative to Speculative the Physical Qualifications were transformed with it.