The Fuzzy Wonder, Goat Automaton
No, I have no idea what this is about, either, but it's certainly wonderful—and fuzzy! As the product description admonishes, "to create more amusement, we suggest that goat be manipulated by persons wearing burlesque costumes." Words to live by.
The Fuzzy Wonder Goat [PhoenixMasonry.org]
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Can I have that on a t-shirt?
Scroll down to the table of contents link and flip around the catalog.
This and other automata were used in unspeakable masonic initiation rituals:
http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/demoulin/ferris_wheel_coaster_goat.htm
At least they didn't use live goats, like the Illuminati.
@ STEFAN JONES
From your link: "A ba-a-a attachment also makes this goat more goaty."
That is all sorts of awesome.
Scottish love doll?
Masonic Love doll?
It appears to be intended to buck as it rolls about, judging from the linkage. I'm guessing it's just a parade float, an early incarnation of the Shriners' funny cars better suited for a pastoral environment.
Not for public parades . . . if you read the catalog copy, it and the other "goats" are props for initiation ceremonies.
Ah. I do stand corrected. Strikes me as a lot of money (scaled to the time) to spend for hazing... ignoring the suitability of hazing... but I suppose large groups could afford it and got sufficient entertainment/pay-it-forward revenge value out of it, given its reusability from year to year.
So it really is a low-tech mechanical bull equivalent. Probably intended to replace a time when the clueless newbies were strapped to real animals. I suppose it avoids cruelty-to-animals charges; it's just cruel to humans.
Thanks to the current administration they've been selling out of these BIG TIME.
George is so rough on his toys...
Was Freemasons goofing around with novelty goats a uniquely American phenomenon? I got the impression that, at least in the British Empire/Commonwealth, they were a more sober-minded lot.
ACB, I know that catalog. American fraternalism was a big deal back then, with lots of Orders and Lodges other than the Freemasons. I suspect that most of them got up to hijinks once in a while.
The two devices I like best are relatively simple, but sure-fire funny: the pledge altar, and the hula-hula bull dance.
Until perhaps around the 1950s, there was a slang expression in Freemasonry (in the US at least) that referred to "riding the goat" as part of one of the degree ceremonies. Members in some lodges used to tease candidates that they were going to have to "ride the goat." I've never heard it, myself, but I've read about it.
While there's absolutely nothing about any "goat" in those ceremonies, there are old letters and warnings from grand lodge authorities not to inject any hilarity or buffoonery into the ceremonies -- which indicates there must have been cases of excess and stupidity in the past. No one issues injunctions against things that people aren't thinking of or actually doing.
The three degree ceremonies in Craft Masonry are very serious. I'd suspect that these goats were more for unofficial "masonic clubs", unauthorized social club offshoots from lodges, which would have had a wider latitude in the kind of dumbass stunts they could put their new members through. At least with the goat, you don't end up shooting anybody in the head.
Dear Majord
Your comments are quite accurate. And, yes, I've heard of the 'goat' business, too.
The masonic clubs that you referred to are called "Fellowcraft Clubs". Although the clubs need the legal approval of their respective masonic districts to operate, none of the clubs' activities are ever related to the Masonic Degrees or any activities in lodge. (I do suspect you already know all that stuff.)
Thanks and Regards,
W:. Art Donovan
Here's a link to an article that I wrote for Winterthur Portfolio that provides lots more information, and lots more images, of American fraternal goats.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/518920
C. M. Coolidge who painted the dogs playing poker even produced an image of fraternal dogs riding goats.
Best-
Will Moore