The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1871-11-04
The kkIa-kxiiRX.

iteEls OF the day must hc incretu on
indeed to deny the existence of this
| !aw-tlefying, nepro-.l.tifnidatiilg niuF-
dcring, fraud-perpetrating band of
Southern towards and eH-reh2ls. The
late Congre ssio:.al inEe tigltion, Il:
Washington, developed lis eNi tellce III
every part OF Tennessee, il Middle
and Southern Kentucky. il E.os.i .itui,
1 FeN;is, \ ort!,yrsl Mississippi a..d Ala
bama, NortilWest Georgia, Middle and
| Western parts OF Norta aHd South
! Caroiilias. In smaller numbers it was
| found ID c;-i il Arkansas, Middle
aAu southern Alabama asld Nj ,Sissipl,i,
! the reminder OF Georgi,. and parts Of
| Florida, the remainder OF Nor.h ard
South CaroIinls. and 10 some extentin
Southern Virginia. There are tea
'lans, of twelve meinhers each, IN oi.e
town Of fifteen Hundred Inhabitants in
/ Western South Carolina. IN o..e town
ship Of the same county more t'a!
tiree-foIrths OF tie white voters ar,
members OF the order. : During the
nent man in that town was able, IN
| less than ten minutes after tho first
shot was fired, II SO from the court
/ house, :.moHg the crowd IL the
street, to put seventy men il liile,
| fully armed and orgluized white
within the succeeding twelve hours
over twelve hundred men assembled
at the town, aud showed from tie first
every evidence OF thorough orgaliza-
| ton
! hen the negro prisoners were taken
! from the jail III Union and murdered
| five hundred hu-Niux. perfectly or
! C,lilized and III admirable discipline,
/ as shown by their eoadrct, were esl-
! gagged iii the outrage. They are known
| to have assembled upon notice sent to
! the neighboriug counties, and to have
come from twenty-five TO t,4irty-iive
miles, over winter roads, from every
| point OF the compass, between s5attIr-
! day morning anei Sunday night. meet
! ing i'll Union county 1T the appointed
! llollr-iuitlnigh Oh Sunday.
1t is estimated that from two-third5
to ttree-fourths OF all the white men,
|
are members OF the Iku-k!ux, i'll the
lnost disturbed districts of South Caro-
! lima; aud OF the young, unmarried
men siE-seventllS are members. The
members OF the order claim even Il
| larger membership than this. rs TO
/ the rules themselves, we quote the fol
! lowing from the Posts Southern con-
F.! tributor:
No member of the order is allowed
/ to appear any k,I-kIux business eN-
! cent III disguise. His horse must lie
! disguised also. The disguise IS COM
| monty Z. long, loose gown, fastened
| about the neck, hanging loosely nearly
! to the feet, and covering tiia entire
| person below the thro;lt. over the
| head is drawn kind OF loose bag or
sack, having holes cut for the eyes and
!, hole for the mouth. The voice is lla-
| bitually disguised, and the language Is
merely All imitation of Irish brootle.
All members on active duty are for
| bidlen to speak at all, except when
| it is absolutely necessary. These dis
g1lises are usually made of some thin
cotton cloth, black and red seeming to
| be preferred. They are bedecked with
stars, creScents, and like figures, cut
out OF cloth of q different color and
sewn on the gown. The head dress
frequently has several horns, made Of
cloth and stuffed. The horses are COW
cred, head and flank, with sheets of
the same material as the disguise, and
similarly orIlamented.
TO make the use of names unncces-
sary, each member Of the order, as
soon as he is assigned to a Kan, i;
designated by q number. While on
expeditions, or even at other times in
conversation among themselves about
ktl-kluN matters, members of Il khan
are forbidden to speak OF Il member by
name, but must always designate him
by his number, SO that amy accidental
listener could not identity the person
spoken of. While tie passwords,
grips, hailing signs, signals, ETC., are
general and known to all members,
they are forbidden to use them except
when absolutely necessary, and are for
hidden to attempt to discover by these
whether another person IS Il member of
the order, unless some substantial rea-
son exists for knowing it. They must
under no circumstances talk to any one
who is not Il member of the same khan
about any matter with which the order
is connected, or about the order itself;
and after any act is done by the klan,
no one must speak OF anything con-
| nected with that act, even to another
member of the same klan, except to
the chief, and only then when it is inn
portant to do SO. In each klan the
members know each other and their
own chief, but, except through neces-
sity or accident, have no knowledge of
what other persons belong to the order.
When individual members, or the
whole Of different klans, meet for work,
each member is required to avoid, if
possible, knowing who any other indi-
vidtial is.
Each chief of a klan knows and re-