Thirty-Six Hours With The Dead.

THIRTY-SIX HOURS WITH THE DEAD .

( From the Boston ( U . S . ) Freemasons' Magazine . ) When the news arrived that the passage of the troops through Baltimore had been contested by a mob , Mr . Ford , a resident of Petersburg , in conversation with a friend , casually made the remark , that had he been the Massachusetts regiment , instead of shooting fourteen or fifteen of the mob who assaulted the troops so brutall ,

y he would have shot fourteen or fifteen hundred of them . He thought nothing more of the circumstance until , just as evening was approaching , and he was quietly passing to his home from the business of the day , he was stopped in the street by several gentlemen , who announced themselves as a vigilance committee appointed to examine him as to his political sentiments . Conscious of no disloyalty

to his State nor to his country , he cheerfully consented to the examination , aud told them to proceed . The remembrance of the remark he had made had quite escaped his mind at the time . A crowd immediately began to collect about him , and demonstrations of an insulting nature were commenced as the examination proceeded . "D—d abolitionist ! " "Hanghim ! hang him ! " "I'll

get a rope ! " & c , cried a number of the spectators , and the crowd rapidly increased , until hundreds surrounded him and the committee . After some conversation , a test question was decided upon by his interrogators , and was put to him by the chairman of the committee . Chairman . —If our slaves should rise against their masters in this community , should you fight with the slaves or with their masters ?

Mr . Ford—Gentlemen , I am surprised at your question . I am a loyal and true-hearted citizen of Petersburg and this State . I have lived with you several years , and all I have or hope to be is with you , and should a slave insurrection occur here , you will find me among the foremost in defending you and the citizens of Petersburg against it .

The answer was satisfactory to [ the committee , and the chairman , turning to the throng , announced it , and their conviction that Mr . Ford entertained no sentiments that were treasonable and disloyal . At this moment , cries of " He ' s a Black Republican ! " " Damn his Black Republican soul ! " " To h—11 with him ! " " Hang him ! " "Hang Mm ! " & c , rose in various quarters , and a scene of great

confusion followed , witb indications that the enraged mob would execute their threats , despite the conclusion announced by the committee . As it partially ceased , one of the spectators cried out to Mr . Ford , " Did you say this morning that you wished that the Massachusetts troops had shotfourteen or fifteen hundred of the citizens of Baltimore yesterday P "

This Mr . F . could not deny , and he disregarded the question . The fury of the populace at his hesitancy knew no bounds , and yells and screams and threats of the most profane and diabolical character were heaped upon him , and followed by a rush of a number of the most daring to rescue him from the hands of the committee who still stood next him .

A number of his friends near by , and among them two or three members of the Masonic Lodge , to which he belongs in Petersburg , then pressed towards him , and succeeded , in the darkness which had come on during the examination , in pulling him along the street and out of the reach of the rush into a store . Through the store he was urged into an alley-way in the rear , while

the crowd in the street , who had lost track of him , were clamorously in search . A friend and Masonic brother accompanied him rapidly through the alley , and conducted him to the only place of safety which probably could have concealed him—a tomb in his family buryingground ! Taking the key of the vault hastily from his pocket , he opened it , urged Mr . Ford in among the coffins , looked the door upon him , and quickly disappeared . That night and the following day every place and bye-place in the town was ransacked in the eager

Thirty-Six Hours With The Dead.

search of the mob for the victim who had so terribly and so narrowly escaped their clutches . They finall y concluded that he had been spirited away , and relaxed their vigilence . Meantime Mr . Ford remained , undisturbed , with darkness and the dead . There were several bodies deposited there—far less feared , we presumed , by him than the

living . History can surely point to few more thrilling incidents than this living entombment . At 3 o ' clock the following Monday morning , the train was to leave for Richmond . At an earlier hour Mr . Ford's protector and friend , like Belshazzar of old at the mouth of the lion ' s den for righteous Daniel , stood to deliver the subject of this sketch from the charnel-house

, where , for two nights and a day , which he will probably never forget , he had fasted with the dead . He was faint and weak from exhaustion , but the emergency lent him strength . "While his friend went for his daughter , a charming little girl , some seven years of age , ( Mr . Ford ' s wife was and is still on a visit in South Carolina ) , Mr . F . wended his way cautiously and alone to the depot .

Here they met again , and when the train rolled out of the station on its way north , Mr . F . sat on one of the car seats , with his child wrapped closely in his arms . Arriving at Richmond , he attempted to procure a ticket , but was told that no passengers could go out for the North unless exhibiting a pass from Governor Letcher . With many misgivings , Mr . F . ( it was still early in the

morning ) , wended his way to the executive mansion . He represented to the Governor that his business called him out of the State , and desired credentials which would enable him to continue the journey . Mr . Letcher asked no questions , but promptly made out the papers and handed them to Mm . In due time he arrived with his little daughter in New

York . Mr . Ford left property in the town of Petersburgh of the value of 10 , 000 dollars , which he had accumulated by his industry since the close of the Mexican war , in which he served as a volunteer . Cannot our Masonic brethren of that city save some portion of that , and thus carry out the good work which they have begun ?

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

THE GRAND STEWARDS' LODGE AND THE G . SEC . In Preston ' s Illustrations of Masonry , ( p . 264 , Stephen Jones ' s edition ) it is stated that about the year 1779 , " The Stewards' Lodge finding their finances much reduced by several members having withdrawn their annual subscriptions , applied to the Grand Lodge for relief ; upon which it was resolved that in future no

Grand Officer should be appointed who was not at that time a subscribing member of the Stewards' Lodge . " Will some brother , acquainted with the succeeding resolutions of Grand Lodge , inform us when this rule was abrogated , or if it is not now as binding as it was ei ghty years since ? and although our present edition of the Booh of Constitutions provides for the appointment of

the Grand Secretary by the Grand Master , must not the former have been , according to the above , a subscribing member to the Grand Steward ' s Lodge ? Has Bro . Gray Clarke , who is supposed to read the Booh of Constitutions , and know the resolutions of Grand Lodge , ever been a member of the Grand Steward's Lodge ? Such a rigid disciplinarian , forming his own construction

of Masonic law , differing generally from his predecessors and every one else , ought certainly to have been legally appointed . —Ex . Ex . JERUSALEM SOLS . Is anything known about a society rejoicing iu the name of the Jerusalem Sols ? I am led to make this enquiry from seeing the title-page of A Sermon , preached before the Boyal Grand Modern Order of Jerusalem Sols