Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1899 — THE KUKLUX KLAN. [ARTICLE]

THE KUKLUX KLAN.

The Original White-Cape Are Soon to Hold a Reunion. Some time soon the famous Kuklux Klan will hold a reunion in Atlanta, Ga. Only the members of the organisation know the exact date of the meeting. The Kuklux Klan was the most form-' idable organisation ever formed in thia country for the purpose of punishing crime outside the courts. When first organised the object was to protect life and property among the law-abiding class from the ruthless depredations of the outlaws who infested the country. Such was the chaotic condition of affairs in the South following the close of the civil war that nobody felt secure, so the originators of the klan determined to administer swift and speedy justice to such criminals as deserved punishment, and the penalty was graduated according to the character of the crime. While at the beginning it undoubtedly exercised a salutary influence in quelling the lawless element, and in the protection of life and property, still by degrees unscrupulous men took advantage of the terrible and mysterious reputation of the Kuklux Klan to avenge themselves upon those for whom they had conceived an enmity, and it finally degenerated into a gang of desperadoes that were worse than the element which it sought to punish. It was no infrequent occurrence during the latter days of the klan for some peaceful citizen to be taken from his home and maltreated by a gang of ruffians led by some member who had decided that it would be for his personal gain that the citizen should be made to leave the community. Many were the dark deeds of violence done under cover of the night and under the cloak of the Klklux Klan long after the more respectable class that originally belonged to it had withdrawn in disgust and had joined in the effort to atone for past errors by assisting in putting down the klan and bringing the perpetrators of such deeds to justice.