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chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. Wise Men of the East and the Market for American Fraternalism, 1850–1892 fter the Civil War, it was male audiences who were particularly compelled by accounts of the Eastern world marketed by a native-born man in Eastern persona because to them West Asia and North Africa were utterly masculine spaces. The pattern had already begun with men like Christopher Oscanyan, who performed as Eastern Christian man for mixed Anglo-American audiences. Bayard Taylor similarly played Eastern artist to sell books and cope with the lyceum trade inadvertently attracting young male and female fans impressed by his reputation as a manly traveler. Among their audiences, a few men would in time play Oriental themselves, writing poems or travel narratives in the Oriental tale style. Even more played Eastern at home in their wives’ Oriental cozy corners, their own Arabian-styled lounges, or a department store decorated to remind customers of the abundance portrayed in the Arabian Nights. Thousands more would go a big step further, combining the old Ex Oriente Lux message with a spiritual persona to create the appearance of wise man of the East. This character was often specifically Muslim, and Americans articulated him in two ultranatural incarnations: the brotherly Arab mystic and the libertarian Arab warrior. In the late nineteenth century, American fraternal orders like the Freemasons constituted the most numerous purveyors of the wise man of the East persona. Had we lived one hundred years ago, most of us would have had a dad, uncle, brother, or boss who played Eastern through their rituals and celebrations. We would have known the location of their lodges, seen their charities at work, and witnessed their costumes and performances in street parades downtown. Fraternalists made up a consumer base of great a√luence and great demand, spending liberally on regalia, lodge space, books and periodicals, food, drink, and more in support of their activities. Much as Christopher Oscanyan and Bayard Taylor had catered to their publics, many an entrepreneur would play wise man of the East to make a career by appealing to the fraternal market segment. 80 ...Wise Men of the East Fraternal wise men of the East carried an Ex Oriente Lux message too, arguing for the existence of ‘‘common misunderstanding’’ regarding the Muslim world among nonfraternalists and arguing that Masons especially knew that the men of the Arab Middle East held ancient wisdom that could save American men from spiritual decline. The fraternalists’ Ex Oriente Lux message crossed over familiar Masonic philosophies as a kind of secret masculinist Oriental tale. These mystical traditions were thus tied to a region deeply sacred to AngloAmerican Christians yet still outside the feminized economy of the church. Indeed, the masculine nature of the Middle East was obvious to most observers, who noted that Freemasons and other fraternalists chose from among the world’s cultures with great specificity in order to flesh out their subcultures. Certainly the Odd Fellows reenacted a masculinist Medievalism in their lodges, while members of the Improved Order of Red Men played Indian to take on rejuvenating, autonomous manhoods grounded in perceived warrior cultures.∞ Equally, the white American fraternal universe contained no orders themed on, say, Chinese, Filipino, Dahomian, or Mexican cultures, all lands many people believed were characterized by ignoble or weak masculinities inappropriate for manly ritual performance.≤ Freemasonry, with its one million members and foundational legends set in the biblical Holy Land, was the most prolific of all the fraternities. Masonry coexisted with at least a dozen ‘‘Arabian’’ and Oriental tale–style brotherhoods that provided men even more opportunities to play Eastern or Muslim. By the 1870s, the fraternal wise man of the East and his Ex Oriente Lux appeal was so common that his currency would inspire broadly accessible satire. Soon the most famous men using the guise were the campy, teasing amateur performers of recreational fraternal orders, most importantly the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners. The wisecracking members of these orders would lampoon the fraternal East and broader middle-class veneration of things Oriental to show how contentious the Easternization of American life could be to plenty of people. This chapter, then, is about the men who, between 1850 and 1892, made use of one the most common Eastern personae in United States history. It tells the stories of professional Masons Rob Morris and Albert Rawson, prominent examples of men who cultivated the fraternal public in order to cobble together a living...

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