The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 265
ix, 294 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Ku Klux Klan.
some twelve or fourteen feet high. The false head was so arranged
on the rod that it could be detached and made to hang down and
dangle on the breast, presenting the appearance of a man with his
head cut off and carried loosely on his breast. The false head had
holes cut for eyes, and a mouth cut so as to display enormous teeth.
The inside of the head was arranged to hold a candle or taper,
which could be lighted when desired; and when lighted showed to
the beholder a head with eyes of fire and red-hot teeth; indicating
that the man had just arrived from the dominion of his Satanic
Majesty.
The riders of the Invisible Empire knew how to impress the
Negro and to utilize to the fullest extent his superstitious belief.
Often in the night, when passing a Negro cabin, they would halt,
and one of them would call upon a headless trunk and say: "Bill,
where war you killed ?" "Well," Bill would say, "I was killed at
Gaines's Mill." "What you come here for?" "Well, I cum here
to see about my folks, and see how the Niggers ar behavin'."
"When ar you agwine back to yer grave ?" "When dese crazy Nig-
gers gets out of de Loyal League, and de Freedman's Bureau, its
agents, and de thieving carpetbaggers is run outen de country."
"Hello, Sambo, fotch me a bucket of water ! I hain't had a drop
since I was buried, and I'm mighty dry." When the bucket was
brought, it was eagerly seized, and without stopping the headless
soldier drained from the bucket the last drop and called for more.
The water passed unobserved to the ground under his gown.
The dress, the silent and mysterious maneuvers of the Klan,
the fact that no one knew where they came from or where they
went to, made such an awesome and fearful impression upon the
mind of the superstitious Negro, threatened him with such awful
portents, and seemed to him so big with danger, that the promise
of the forty acres of land and the mule became stale and uninter-
esting; the Loyal League lost its charms; he turned a deaf ear to
the Siren song of the carpetbagger and camp-follower; ceased to
rely on the Freedman's Bureau and its thieving agents; and gave
his allegiance once more to his old master and the Confederate
white man and aided these in routing the official thieves and vam-
pires that were, under the forms of law, destroying and pauperiz-
ing the people of the Confederate States.265
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906, periodical, 1906; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101036/m1/269/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.