A PRACTICAL POSTSCRIPT
Our knowledge of remote antiquity is derived not so much from the traditions that have been handed down by the ancients as from the enduring relics of craftsmanship that have survived. It was the poet Bryant who wrote:
The forms they hewed from living stone
Survive the waste of years alone
And mingled with their ashes show
What greatness perished long ago.
In the halls of Buffalo Consistory, A. A. S. R., is a splendid collection of Indian artifacts collected from the ancient forts, village sites and burial places of the Indians who lived in western New York from early to recent times. This collection brought together through the unceasing efforts of George L. Tucker, constitutes a museum of antiquity and illustrates the handiwork of the American Indians. It has grown under the patronage of George K. Staples who has looked with sympathy upon its development. Many scores of fine specimens have been added to this collection by Everett R. Burmaster of Irving, N. Y., a field archaeologist of rare ability and insight. Today the Tucker Collection is sought by archaeologists and studied because of its interesting and unique character.
There is an intimate connection between archaeology and Masonry. The archaeologist finds the lost cornerstones of history and with his trowel unearths records that history has failed to write. The archaeologist gives
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