CALIPH OF BAGDAD, THE

This most Widely-read of Masonic novels was written by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. He was born at Waterville, Maine (the native State of a score of eminent Masons), June 5, 1823, the first of nine children. He moved to Malden, Mass., where his father was Universalist pastor, and a friend of Bro. Hosea Ballou, and lived there ten years ; in 1838 he moved to Waltham, Mass., from which, in 1841, he joined the Navy. Returned, he took up journalism, and for forty years was on the staff of the New York Ledger, an old-fashioned newspaper which published stories and essays. He was made a Mason in Oxford Lodge, Norway, Me., in 1854, and was its Worshipful Master five times. He was exalted in 1859; Knighted in Boston in 1872, and in 1874 was made 32 in the same city. He published three Masonic stories in the New York Ledger in 1858-1874. Sea stories, Oriental stories, Masonic stories, and religious stories were his forte. A new edition of the Caliph of Bagdad was published by Geo. H. Doran; New York.