Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 029-2 - April 1975 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-01-26 12:18:06 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:05:34 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:05:34

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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6. ‘ INITIATIONARY FUNCTIONARIES ' therhood who had been summoned from their mining claims on the river andin the canyons by the bray of the ‘‘Hewgag,’’ an alleged musical instrument resembling a gigantic ram’s horn. The important business at hand was the inquisition and eventual initation of the half dozen ‘‘Poor Blind Candidates’’ seated shivering and blindfolded on the ground. The ceremony which followed was an awesome spectacle of ritualistic ribaldry liberally interspersed with sheer nonsense. The candidates suffered countless indignities during the lengthy liturgy which would have confounded the pledgemaster of any present day college social fraternity. Charged with administering the sacred rites, in addition to the Noble Grand Humbug, were Initatory Functionaries whose titles were mixtures of pure hog-Latin and well fractured Anglo-Saxon. Dignitaries bearing such designations as Roisterous Iscutis, Clamps Matrix, Clamp Petrix, Royal Platrix, Grand Imperturable Hangman and Clampatriarch, outlandishly robed and hatted, emphasized the solemnity of the occasion with racous chants and mystical gyrations. After the Eneffable Staff of Relief (a piece of ritualistic paraphernalia) had been presented to each initiate in turn, and after the flame had been extinguished in the Corruscated Candelabrum, the new brothers were escorted amid wildcongratulatory cheers by the Humbug, who was firmly enconced on a jackass that had been fed liberal portions of whiskey soaked wild oates to ‘‘Slippery Gulch,’? a makeshift barroom, where all got roaring drunk. The scene on the Mokelumne that afternoon in 1850 was soon tobe repeated in a like or greater degree in scores of mining camps up and down the Mother Lode and, as grotesque and incongruous as E Clampus Vitus was, it filled a definite niche. The miners were isolated from both civilization and formal society; their desire for companionship and a need to belong was acute. Back home in the ‘‘States’’ many of them had been members of some established lodge or club, had presided at their own family circle or, at least, been active in a neighborhood “‘saloon group.’? All that was more than two thousand miles east and new outlets were eagerly sought and wholeheartedly accepted by the homesick prospector. * * * * The Order of E Clampus Vitus did not originate in California but was well established in the States before the Gold Rush and was simply transplanted in the fertile western soil. A document, ‘‘Private Rules of the Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, Division 110, Metropolis City, Illinois, 1849,’’ is preserved in the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, An included roster indicates that several ‘ NEVADA COUNTY TRACTION COMPANY 1901 1924 m4 “OUR 28 TON STANDARD GAUGE STREET CARS RAN FROM THIS SPOT FIVE MILES TO BOSTON RAVINE SOUTH OF GRASS VALLEY: CAR BARNS AND POWER PLANT LOGATED AT GLENBROOK MID-WAY. LINE WAS VICTIM OF MOTOR CARS AND ‘BUSSES. MAY 1, 1971 ei yM, BULL MEEK WM. MORI MOTE WART NO 10 CLAS ? NEVAD: i 3 VITUS. NFO NIA SNNEVADAMHOSESCOSNOt OCCUPIED ==THIS =FIREHOUSE . FROM. -MAY 30.1851 10 1938 HAND. PULLED HOSE CARTS HORSE DR ENGINES ANDO MOTORIZED PUMPERS -ALL ROLLED OUT OF THIS ~