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The Mother Lodge

Blake Bowden

Administrator
Staff Member
By Rudyard Kipling

There was Rundle, station master,
An Beazeley of the rail;
An' Achman, commissariat,
An' Donkin o' the jail;
An' Blake, conductor sergeant --
Our master twice was 'e,
With 'im that kept the Europe shop,
Old Framjee Eduljee.

Outside -- "Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!"
Inside -- "Brother" an' it doesn't do no 'arm,
We met upon the level an' we parted on the square,
An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother Lodge out there.

There was Bola Nath, accountant,
And Saul, the Aden Jew,
An' Din Mohammed, draughtsman,
Of the Sursey office, too.
There was Babu Chicekerhitty,
An' Amir Singh, the Sikh,
An' Castro of the fitten' sheds,
A Roman Catholic.

We 'adn't good regalia,
An' our Lodge was old an' bare;
But we knew the ancient landmarks,
An' we kept 'em to a hair.
An' lookin' on it backwards,
It often strikes me thus,
There ain't such things as 'eathen now,
Except, per'aps, it's us.

For monthly after labor
We'd all sit down an' smoke
(We durs'nt give no banquets
Lest a Brother's caste were broke),
An' man on man got bukkin'
Religion an' the rest,
An' every man comparin'
Of the God 'e knowed the best.

So man on man got started,
An' not a beggar stirred
Till mornin' waked the parrots,
An' that dam' brain-fever bird.
We'd say 't was very curious,
An' we'd all go 'ome to bed,
With Mohammed, God, an' Shira,
Changin' pickets in our 'ead.

Full oft on Gov'ment service
This wanderin' foot 'ath pressed
An' bore fraternal greetin's
To Lodges East and West
Accordin' as commanded,
From Ko'at to Singapore,
But I wish that I might see them
In my Mother Lodge once more.

I wish that I might see them,
My Brethren white and brown,
With the burlies smellin' pleasant
An' the ag-dan passin' down,
An' the old Khansannah snorin'
On the bottle-Khana floor,
Like a Brother in good standing
With my Mother Lodge once more.

Outside -- "Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!"
Inside -- "Brother" an' it doesn't do no 'arm,
We met upon the level an' we parted on the square,
An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother Lodge out there.
 
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