V 



TWO MOTHER MASONS 



'HESE are no female seekers after 

 secrets of the masonic order, though 

 they were free and accepted masons 

 long before Solomon built his tem- 

 ple. They do not use the square 

 and compass in their building be- 

 cause they do not need them. 

 However, each of them has a pair of trowels which she 

 uses with great dexterity. They are real ladies, too, these 

 masons. There can be no doubt about it, for they have 

 waists so slender and aristocratic that they would make 

 the figures of a Parisian fashion-plate seem coarse in com- 

 parison. In fact, the waist in these masons is reduced 

 to the size of a thread, and it seems almost impossible 

 that the digestive organs can traverse so narrow a space 

 and remain functional. This peculiarity gives the name 

 to these masons of " Thread-waisted Wasps," for wasps 

 they are. We must confess, however, physiologists to 

 the contrary, that the slenderness of these " elegant 

 figures " has no deleterious effect upon the health and 



