Table of Contents

Just A Quiet Little Lodge Room

Just a quiet little lodge-room,
But a mighty force for good;
With its loyal band of members
Learning more of brotherhood;
Striving, stumbling, but progressing
Down a pathway toward the right;
Just a humble bunch of plain folks,
Reaching, seeking for the light.

Just a quiet little lodge room,
How it stirs the heart and soul
With the thrill of great endeavor
Toward a high and common goal;
With each pledge of faith and courage
To maintain the forward fight,
On the road that leads them onward
Even onward to the light!

Our Cabletow

Sometimes we hardly know its there,

Our guiding cabletow;

If we go down the paths of right,

Its hold we never know;

But if we start the way that's wrong,

It has a sudden way that's strong,

And makes us heed

its strength to lead

Down paths we ought to go.

And yet how good a thing to feel,

How fine a thing to know,

Then when the baser actions seek

To wreck and overthrow,

When worldly appetites deprave,

Or lower passions would enslave,

We can feel,

like gripping steel,

Our guiding cabletow.

A Brother's Hand

When you're feeling all downhearted,
And life's hard to understand,
Say, it's fine to feel the pressure
Of a Brother's friendly hand.

Just to know he sympathizes,
Though he doesn't say a word;
How it starts your courage climbing,
As your heart is touched and stirred.

With an arm across your shoulders.
And a grip you love to find,
How it makes you feel the bounding
Of the hearts of humankind.

It is just a little token
Of an ever growing band,
For there's faith and hope and courage
In a Brother's friendly hand!

Line 5 of this poem was missing in our source, so a substitute wording has been put in its place. If you know the true words, please let us know so that we can restore them.
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Within The Lodge

To serve for the joy of the serving,

To aid every brother in need;

To strike at the wrong without swerving,

And fight for the truth of its creed.

To never give up, but keep hoping,

To counsel of others give heed;

While striving, through stumbling and groping,

To translate its thought into deed!

To seek for the truth that in giving,

The heart is made richer four-fold;

That life is made fairer in living

The lessons its members are told.

To look on each one as a brother;

Be true to each trust we may hold;

Here we find in the love of each other

Rewards that are rarer than gold!

George B. Staff (c.1890-c.1930)

We've been able to find out very little about this Masonic poet. A resident of Franklin, Indiana, Brother Staff published poems in a variety of magazines from 1911 to 1924. His subjects included humor, nostalgia, Thomas Edison (for the Edison Company magazine), pacifism (pre-WW I), fishing, golf, and nature conservation.