Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1892 — WHO ARE WHITE CAPS? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHO ARE WHITE CAPS?

THEY ARE NOT PECULIAR TO THE WILD WEST. Old-Style Rcgula nm —Fence Tta'ls and M.lll Fond* as Moral Persuaders-Jn England They Used the Stocks aud tlie Ducking Stool. VlgTaoc * Societies. A rrcent church trial' in New Jersey was the outgrowth of a white cap outrage. A young pas*or is on tr al charged with all'sorts of improprieties, simply because he would not meekly submit to having his horse paint d and stable,l in the pulpit, his buggy housed on top of the church, andolber inconveniences to himself which more or less amused some of the people' in the neighborhood. The young - pastor was college bred, had studied base-ball curves as well ns theology, and had practiced in the gymnasium as well os in Ihe prayer-meet rig. He refused 1o submit 10 petty outrages, hunled down the “white caps," wi o warned him 1o be long-suffer.ng if lie would live, and sect some of them to the penitentialy. This scon s to have ! been the principal means of expos,ng him to a church trial whe o he i all kinds of charges. And these white ,| caps are in New Jersey, within an hour’s ride of New York City, nearer to that resort of fash'on, Long : Branch, and almost w.tiiin hearing of the camp-meeting hymns at Couau

Grove. Still there are people in the East who seem to think that “white caps” only thrive in the will’, and woolly West. They shiver at the outrages perpetrated by the n--w organisation of outlawry and wonder i: the West will ever fce:ome civilized. It is title that the white caps made their first appearance in the West under 'hat name. The AVest is rich in nomenclature, and never allows anything to go nameless. So the white caps had a imm- t.nd that i.ame has traveled far to w rry many people thru* the West, and get itse.f in the encyclopedias. Even ’earned Englishmen ■visiting America ass who and w a* are the white cap-: its what eondith n ©f society they thrive; what causes Each outbreaks in civilized countries: artd what is the remedy. ' Bless the souls of these learned phi; sophers, tiespirit behind the white • aps is as oIJ as the world. The spirit of democracy Las always had its place in man’s nature, and it will not down. It will not wait for red tap ■ and alow justice. It prompts a man to knock down the fellow that insults him or wrongs his family. It fires communities where some one in the society d< - fi«3 the moral code that has become the unwritten law. It inspires vigilance committees and regulators to take charge of many things which the courts might better handle, and when courts are slow and uncertain it leads to mobs and riots. The world has never been free from these as it has never been free from this spirit in man to regulate things himself, without waiting lor somebody else to do it, says the Chicago Inter Ocean. There have been riots in France aDd in En-

gland as well a 6 in America, but in America there have been more regulators and vigilance committtes lhan in the.old world, because we have had no parish priest to whom we carry all the petty grievances that are beneath the dignity of the courts. The regulator has his place in almost every country community. H» usually belongs to the best and mo6t law-abiding part of the cpjnmunity. He obeys the law hlms if and proposes that others shall do likewise. The most common subject of the regulator is immorality, which he prefers to deal with rather than give it gn airing in the courts. If one man in the community Is unfaithful to his wife, if he is cruel and un„ust to her, If he beats h s children, or treats them like cattle* his neighbors in the country do not call in the cOns'able or go to the Justice of the I’eace and swear out a warrant for his at rest. 1 hey give him warning to correct his habits. If he heeds the warniug the regulators will go no further, but if he does not they will treat him to a ride on a rail, or dip him 4n the millpond, or hold him under Ihe pujppepqvt, pi; 101 l him in a snow drift, or test his Qualities as a sprinter and atrip him of all clothing that his action may be freer. If it is arl aggravated case, or if he has repealed the Offense after these attentions, he may be painted with tar and given a ccat of feathera to keep him warm, or he may have to run the gantlet -while every regulator spurs him on with a whip. These are barbarous customs, but man will never «* rid of all his barbarous nature. He will continue to argue that the end justifies the means, and try to make the punishment fit the erira?. As the,/)Id wprkl has had tiie pillory and the stocks tm men, and the ducking stool and the Mdlefor shrewish women, ail of which were barbarous, so has America had barbarities less severe to lit the petty atfaaoea that eould not be carried into

the courts. And dhc parish priest often give the order to use the ducking stool in England, so the circuit rider has ! often figured in the band of regulators in small American communities. ■ As the seriousness of the offenses or supposed offenses against a community

increased ihe severity of the regulators has been more maik *d. The white caps were, an advanced order of the village regulators. They stepped short of the Ku a lux Elan ail'd vigilance committee of the ranc>iin ,> n and the miners where ■Judge Lynch presides. Th • lirst appearance of the white caps under that name was in the southern part of In liana. It was an organization of vigilantes and its iirst idea was (o band against the negroes coming into that region from Kentucky.

In this it resembled the old Ku Klux organization, but did not go to the extremes of the Ku Klux, in that it stopped short ( f murder. It gave warning to ngtocs that they could not live in that community. These warnings were followe i by whippings and other outrages, until the negroes gave the section a wide berth. Then the white, caps assumed to themselves the enforcement of the unwritten law which exists in every community. They were a band of regulators who assumed to be a t ourt, jury and prosecutors, and every man who was not a whitp cap was subject to thei/ courts of inquiry regarding his conduct as a citizen. They wore masks of white muslin when exercising their authority to whip or dock or ride on a rail any man who had offended against their laws. From that they were named white caps. The counties of Crawford, Orange, Perpy. Harrison, Spencer, Dubois suffered so much from these outrages and they attracted so much attention in the newspapers that the Governor of Indiana requested Attorney General Michen.r to make an investigation. Gen. Michener made a tour < f that part of the State and made a very full report. He found that the first organization was in Crawford County, and from this, the others followed Datura ly. All the little vigilant committees in that pait of the

Slate became known as white caps, and there became a compact organization, all acting together along the same line. So notorious became their outrages upon those who excited their suspicion that there was general distrust in ail that part of the State, every man being suspicious of his neighbor who was not a member of his own organization. Their punishments were brutal and they had an entire disri gard of the laws of the State. Another rival organization known as the “black caps” was the result and it reached the point of civil warfare. Acting on the Attorney General’s report the Stale authorities took steps to destroy the organization. Evidence was finally procured against the principal participants. They were tried and punished, and that ended tho white caps as an extensive organization in Soulhem Indiana.

The reports of the outrages by tho Indiana white caps were no doubt much exaggerated by sensational newspaper writers. The private secretary of the late Governor Hovey has been investigating these stories for a year past, and he says that in most instances he found that the white caps were reputable citi-zens*-persons of property—and not lawless in any sense, except in protecting what was their own by methods outside of tho courts. On the other hand, he found no case where reputable citizens had been molested. One report of mistreatment of a woman was given wide circulation in the most sensational manner, to make it appear that the white caps were most ruffianly. The truth was that a vile woman who had been put off an Ohio River boat took up her quarters in a school-house and sought to corrupt the youth of the neighborhood. Ordered to leave, she refused to go. A company of fnen and women took her from the school-house, and the women gave her a switching. She was not injured. It

was in no sense as brutal as the act of a number of church deacons in New Jersey, who tarred and feathered two women like her who established themselves in the neighborhood for a like purpose. But sensational newspaper correspondents made it an outrage that would make all Indiana shamefaced. It may be said in justification of the white caps of Indiana that tho Ohio River towns ore generally infested with the most dis-

reputable “wharf, rats” to be found IB the country. There are chicken thieves, drunken loafers, vile women without any respect for decency or law, and all kinds of 1 l ickguards, who arc a general nuisance. These people might hnvo been punished if caught in some act defying the law, but the white caps c ncluded to lock the stable door before any more horses were stolen, and drive out the dangerous and disreputable Without waiting for them to offend against the strict letter of the law. In doing this they did a good service to the community, but of course they did not follow the properly defined methods named in the laws of their State.

One other organization of white caps became so notorious as to call for investigation by the State authorities. This was in Southern Ohio. Nothing had been heard of such an organization in that State until Nov. 17, 18x8. Suddenly on the night of that date a band of about thirty horsemen appeared in Sardinia, Brown County, and proceeded to administer punishment to a resident accused of immoral conduct. The local authorities taking no cognizance of tho affair, an appeal was made to the Governor. An investigation was immodii ateiy instituted, by which it was disclosed that there was an oath-bound organization of citizens, some of them quite prominent in the county, and it was their purpose to regulate all such affairs as did n t appeal directly to the courts. Their crimes were petty, but unlawful, and prompt steps by the authorities broke up the organization. The more influential members agreed to procure the disbanding of the organization, and no prosecutions were made. These were the tw'o organizations of “white caps” that attracted investigation by State authorities. There were many oth'r smaller vigilant committees in other States, but there was no evi-

dence of a confederated relation between them to warrant the belief that it was one organization. The White Caps have been more heard of in the East in the last year, not so much because there is a fresh impulse toward the old idea of regulators and vigilance committees as because they have taken up the Western name and adopted it. Ii has been heard of in New Jersey, New York, end all over New England. Itisa convenient name to use when two or three neighbors wish to warn another that his conduct is unbearable. They have always done this, but they have not used this name. But White Caps have no terror to the country. It is seldom that a lawless organization is found in a country with law, except in the petty affairs that cannot be dignified in the courts. In New Jersey the White Caps seem to be composed in equal parts of bigoted churchmen and rough hoodlums, for, while the lattes regarded it fun 1o annoy a dude pastor, fresh from Yale College, the former are equally prejudiced against the young pastor because he showed the spirit of manhood and taught the hoodlums that a minister of the gospel was not necessarily less a man because of his calling.

OLD-TI [?]E PERIUASION

A FREE RIDE.

A COAT OF TAR.

A MODERN MAZEPPA.

VILDAGE COURT OF LAST RESORT.

WHITE CAP VENGEANCE.