Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-11

| Jana IL has SUTuck inc as somewhat singular
that the people down south almost invariably
introduce this subject in speaking to strangersl
> the subject of the kukluX was brought forward
ventured to express some doubts as to theiI
ever having been an organized band OF kukluX
My soft-eyed companion smiled fascinating
smile, and said he thought was mistaken. "ln
fact" said he, 81 was once kuklux myself;
and the soft eyes shot CLEAN or two that
seemed TO indicate that he would very much en-
= joy being kuklux again. He went on to say
at was TWO years or so ago when lived III
Montgomery, Ala, that ten of us, all young
men, organized kuklux khan. We organized
to brighten the negroes, and to have some fun.
Doubtless you saw in the papers of that time
long accounts of our mysterious dongs.
We first thought Of the organization to scare
, the negroes from the loyal league meet
ings. There was young medical
student among our number who had the skele-
ton of a man. We frightened more negroes
with this skeleton than in any other way.
Taking it out on the road toward where there
was large negro settlement, we would attach a
small, strong cord to it, and put it over limb
overhanging the road. We would then get
securely back, and whenever negro came along
the skeleton would be gradually let down in
front of him. If il was too dark for him to see
it, he would feel the cold, hard bones, and if he
| cOud see it, it never failed to frighten him half
to death, and in either case the negro ran as
hard as he could, yelling "murderP "ghosts!"
and "ku kluxP And, sir, l tell you the negro
that wouldn't "hollep' when that skeleton
touched him wasn't in the neighborhood of
Montgomery. And the soft eyes were closed in
their owners keen relish of the long-ago fright
of the negroes. "But wasn't there danger in
your peculiar way of fun-makingP Gust, sir,
enough to make it enjoyable. We were fired at
several times, but none of us were ever hit. The
darkieS, you know, are very Superstitious, and
firing at US so often and never bringing down
any game, they grew more and more terrified at
the tall, white apparitions that would suddenly
confront them in the dark woods You see |
am very tall myself; well, two of us, with white
sheets thrown over us, would get on the side of
the road, and, getting one on the shoulders of
the other, squat as low down as possible. Then,
| when the negroes came along, We would slowly
| rise up, getting taller and taller, until the
negroes would swear we were kukluX forty feet
high"
| "Did you never shoot back at the negroesP
| ooh, no. We never used the least bit of vio-
| lence during the continuance of our Organiza-
| ton. There was one time when we were all
pretty badly frightened. There was a large ne
| gro meeting OF some kind being held in front of
the state house one evening. We got about two
| pounds of this stuff they make blue lights with
| in the theaters and put it around the gate way
TO the capitol. When the meeting got pre- tty
| well under Roadway, we touched off our little
| hell, and tell you hell was to pay then, sure
enough. We had put enough of that stuff there
| to have lasted Niblo's Garden for twelve months.
| The fames-blue, devilishlooking hames-shot
up about fifty feet. The fire bells were rung, the
| whole police force ordered out and the negroes
| were nearly frightened to death. They rushed
| out into the street, and as nearly every one OF
| them was armed they fired their pistols indiS-
| criminately in every direction. We kept the ne
| groeS thoroughly frightened around Montgom-
| cry for some time. | remember on another &C.
| caSion, we had inserted in the morning papers a
notice to the effect that the X. K. X. would meet
| at the den of death at the sound of the earth
| quake. That evening we got thirty pounds of
| powder and went out toward the cemetery,
| where there was an old piece of artillery. This
| we cleaned up, loaded it to the muzzle, put a
| slow match to it and got out of the way. And
when that gun went off you can bet there was a
| little earthquake, sure enough" How long did
| you keep up this innocent and recherche pas
timer "Well, after time the boys got tired of
| it, and when bad men commenced to do mis-
| chief under the name of kuklux, we diSbanded
| our organization" Soon after the soft-eyed ku-
klux (who is the son of clergyman of some
note) took his departure; and so came and went
| the first kuklux have yet been able to discover
bodily .-Corespondence Ne,o York Herald.
PROF. TYNDALL ON DUST AS AN AGENT IN
SPREADING DIsEAsE.-ln looking, for exam
| pie, at this illuminated dust, we may ask our
selves what it is. How does it act not upon a
| beam of light, but upon our own lungs and
| stomachs2 The question at once assumes a
| practical character. We fluid on examination
| that this dust is organic matter-in part living
| in part dead. There are among it particles of
| ground straw, torn rags, smoke, the pollen of
| flowers, the spores of fungi, and the germs of
other things. But what have they to do with
the animal economy With your permission,
will recur once more to question which has
| recently occupied good deal of public atten-
ton. You know that as regards the lowest
forms of life, the world is divided, and has for
a long time been divided, into two parties, the
| one affirming that you have only to submit alb
| solutely dead matter to certain physical condi-
| tons TO evolve from it living things the Others
without wishing TO set bounds to the power of
| matter, affirming that in our day no life
has ever been found to arise indie
pendently of pre-existing life. Many of
you are aware that l belong to the
party which claims life as a derivatiye of
| life. The question has two factors-the evil
dence and the mind that judges of the evidence
and you will not forget that it may be purely
| a mental set or bias on my part that causes me
throughout this discussion from beginning to
end, to see on the one side dubious facts and de-
| fective logic, and on the other side firm reason
ing and a knowledge of what rigid experiment
tai inquiry demands. But Judged of practically,
| what again, has the question of spontaneous
| generation to do with us2 Let us see. There
are numerous diseases of men and animals tn
are demonstrably the products of parasitic life,
and such disease may take the most terrible
| epidemic forms, as in the case of the silk-worms
| of France in our day. Now, it is in the highest
| in question are spontaneously developed, or are
waited from without to those afflicted with the
disease. The means Of prevention, if not of
cure, would be widely different in the two cases.
But this is by no means all. Besides these
| universally admitted cases, there is the broad
theory now preached and daily growing in
strength and clearness-daily, indeed, gaining
| more and more of assent from the most success
full workers and profound thinkers of the medi-
cal profession itself-the theory, namely, that
contagious disease generally is of this parasitic
character. II had heard or read anything
since to cause me to regret having introduced
| this theory to your notice more than year ago
l should here frankly express that regret.
would renounce in your presence whatever lean
| ing toward the germ theory my words might
then have betrayed. Let me state in two SEN
fences the grounds on which the supporters ofthe
theory rely. From their respective viruses you
may plant typhoid fever, scarlatina, or small
pox. What is the crop that arises from this
| husbandry? AS surely as thistle rises from
thistle seed, as surely as the fig comes from The
fig, the grape from the grape, the thorn from the
| thorn, so surely does the typhoid virus in
crease and multiply into typhoid fever, the
scarlatina virus into scarlatina, the small
pox virus into smallpox. What is the concu-
sion that suggests itself here? 1t is this That
the thing which we vaguely call virus is, to
| all intents and purposes, seed; that, in the
whole range of chemical science, you cannot
point to an action which illustrates this perfect
| pdIdlelSnl Will Luc pueuOIDella Ol llle-t0lS de-
monstrated power of STANDARDIZATION and re-
production. There is, therefore, no hypothesis
to account for the phenomena but that which
refers them to parasitic life.
And here you see the bearing of the doctrine
of spontaneous generation upon the question.
For if the doctrine continues to be discredited
as it has hitherto been, it will follow that the
epidemics which spread havoc among us from
time to time are not spontaneously generated,
but that they arise from an ancestral stock
whose habitat is the human body itself. 1t is
not on bad air or foul drains that the attention
of the physician will primarily be fixed but upon
disease germs which no bad air or foul drains can
create, but which may be pushed by foul air
into virulent energy of reproduction. You may
think am treading on dangerous ground, that
am putting forth views that may interfere with
salutary practice. No such thing. If you wish
to learn the impotence of medical science and
practice in dealing with contagious diseases, you
have only to refer to recent Harveain Grafton
by DR.. Gull. Such diseases defy the physician.
They must burn themselves out. And, indeed,
this, though do not specially insist upon it,
would favor the idea of their vital origin For
if the seeds of contagious disease be themselves
living things, it win be difficult to destroy either
them or their progeny without involving their
living habitat in the same Observation-Disclosures.