FAMILY LIFE AND CHARACTER 219 



years a revolver, with which he said he would 

 shoot at the legs of a burglar, and I am quite 

 sure he would have done so had the occasion 

 arisen. Although the opposite of superstitious, 

 he objected to being in the dark, but this was, 

 I believe, because of his defective eyesight ; 

 he would always have the lamps lighted as 

 soon as it became dusk, and he rather liked the 

 night-light Mrs. Tegetmeier's invalid condition 

 too often rendered necessary. 



All through his life he objected strongly to 

 convention, fuss and ceremony, and although he 

 became a Freemason he took no interest in 

 the Craft, and soon left his Lodge. He was 

 initiated in the Savage Club Lodge (No. 2190) 

 in 1887, and was regularly received into Free- 

 masonry on June 7th, 1888, being thus one of 

 the earliest members, for the Lodge was only 

 consecrated in January, 1886. I have heard it 

 said that Tegetmeier left off attending the Lodge 

 meetings because he objected to the continual 

 references in the Masonic ritual to " the Great 

 Architect of the Universe " ; but this was not 

 so, it was the ceremonial per se that he did not 

 like. Nor would such an objection be consistent 

 with his whole life, or with the remark he made 

 to me one wet Bank Holiday, when I innocently 

 complained of the rain falling on the people's 

 holiday : " As if God," he said, " was going to 

 alter His settled principles of ruling the world 



