Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-04-05

about my feet. BY this time they had
got rue out into the yard on the dark side
Of the house, for the moon was shining.
They put big stick Of wood between my legs.
My pants being about my feet this held me so /
could't move. Then one of them went to the
woodpe and took up that hickory limb you've got
there, sir, which they brought along with them.
Two Of them sat down, and the other commenced
on me. He said, Now count, you d-d black
rascal But, sir, couldn't for they come SO
fast. They beat me from my knees to the back
part of my head till the blood just run out of my
hide. Each of them took q turn After they got
through, one Of them says to me to put some salt
and pepper on the cuts, and then they got on their
horses and rode off. 1t took me quarter of an
hour to get into the house. laid in bed two days
1t was nearly two weeks before l could 60 to
work"
Another story is that of man for whose re-
ligious welfare the rufians seem to have had great
solicitude. One night in November, party OF
Eve went to the house Of Dick Morton. They
were masked, with gowns, and upon their heads
they wore long, pointed caps. They were admit
ted. -Four of them walked to the middle OF the
room, grounded arms and knelt. The fifth stood
they had come for the purpose of holding prayer
meeting. They requested Dick to kneel. He did
so. In the room his wife lay sick, and upon pal
lets on the floor his children slept There was no
light other than the Pickering flame of the embers
on the hearth. 1t was scene Of peculiar terror.
hS lS~oSA ASu Al PioySlS ohu pooA DiSn "'S
forced to make responses. He confesses to having
been so frightened that his memory Of what they
prayed for is almost blank. One sentence only
he recollected, and that was: "Lord have mercy
on this wicked family" Having concluded their
devotions, they departed, reminding him that they
were from hell.
More serious cases than these were those of a
boy, II years old, who was shot without mo-
ment's notice, while sitting in a cabin, one night,
some time ago, and of his companion, who was
taken out and riddled with bullets. Soon after
this, negro found his house burning up around
him, one night, and, when he made an outcry, he
was fatally shot, and his wife received charge Of
bird shot that NAMED her for life.
These fellows think they have rights like other
people, and when Bill Stokes one Of the leaders
was captured in his own house, he was disposed to
question the legality of search the officers began
| to make, and asked for their warrant. "Here ii
;s," said one of them, pulling out q revolver.
| THAT will dc" said Bill Stokes. Then the posse
broke open partition, whereupon Mrs. Bill Stokes
leaped forward and seized bundle they had not
seen. They tried to take it away from her but she
capperclawed them so that they wished she was a
tigress instead of a woman The bundle was final
ly broken and out rolled mask, inside which was
pinned the following oath, to which the members
Of the gang had subscribed -
Doc you solumnly sware, in the presence ofyoer
God, that you will support and protect the so-cawsd
kuklux khan as long as you lv; and you will sware
that, and you will obey the orders if called on by
the clan, Gill the Negroes, youngs if nasry.
"Youngs if nsary" meant colored babies.