The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-08-27

the crime Of coming from the North and
teaching negroes, these good, self-sacri-
fcing girls were shut out from all pleas
ant Intercourse with human kind. Worse
than that, every naineless indignity that
not over-refined white men and women
could devise was put upon them. Light
wasn't wanted In those parts. Like the
eyeless beetles Of the Mammoth cave.
they didn't know what light was.
The domestic happiness the g Fool'
and bis wife enjoyed may be inferred
from the fact that whenever Judge Tour
gee started out to attend court, Mrs.
Tourgee never dared feel any confidence
that he would come back alive. He was
Northern man, and Republican, who
dared to say SO In what is supposed to
be free country. For this reason he
was universally hated. Attempts were
made to kill him. A plot to assassinate
him was formed, much In the same man.
ner as described in the story. He es-
capped it by following the road his horse
chose.
A man who knew him well at Green's
boro, and who lived there when he did,
says he received stacks of anonymous
letters from the " Regulators" threaten
ing his life. They were profusely deco
rated with collins, skulls, and cross
bones. Black men, and white ones, too,
used frequently to creep secretly to his
house, with their backs oil bleeding
from the Kuklux bull-wllip. They had
been dragged from their beds in tie
dead Of night, and thus cruelty lasbed
The tragical experience of Bob Mar
tin was fact exactly as narrated. SO
was the whipping Of '.sJesse Hyman,
the white youth who was Kukluxed, and
who was so crushed by the sense Of be-
ing whipped like negro that he left his
native State never to return.
Outrages were committed by the Ku-
klux that were never known outside of
the neighborhood In which they oc-
Cured. 1t makes the heart turn sick to
find that the awful murder OF John Wal
tiers by Southern Democrats is literally
true, just as the Fool has told it. The
real name of John Walters was John
Walters Stevens. He was Justice Of
the Peace at Yanceyville. A Mr. Nixon,
now of New York, was at Greensboro when
the awful deed was committed, and is ac-
quainted with the circumstances. At a
Democratic meeting at the Court House,
Squire Stevens was called into one Of
the jury rooms under pretense Of being
consulted about forming a fusion ticket.
Once inside the room, the ruffians sprung
upon him in a mass and threw him upon
table and held him down. Then they
cut his throat. They held bucket to
catch the blood, and passed it through
the window to one of the conspirators
outside. They threw the mutilated
body, with one leg broken, into wood
box and covered it with sticks, precisely
as narrated in the "Fool's Errand,"
" Those who participated in this crime
were well known, and made claims to
respectabiity." An Englishman or
German reading of these things might
well ask whether it yes true that they
happened in the United States and not
In Russia or in the blood-stained domin-
ions of King Thebaw. @ sH'''' ia
Mr.. Nixon informed q New York Tyib.
u1ae reporter that "John Burlison,'' .
Kuklux, was real person well known
to him, although that is not his name.
He says gs l 88i&h1Ea9 aai 81
"On one occasion several Northern
men were sitting on the veranda Of the
Benbow House, at Greensboro, talking
about the Kuklux. Some of them ex-
pressed doubt if there were any, iii
fact whereupon Burlison spoke up and
said he had been one, and 'you,' and
YOU and you, pointing to several
men who were sitting around. - ile
That Judge Tourgee himself never lost.
his life, is probably only due to lucky
accident and to the popular impression
that he would be a tough customer to
tackle in fight. He had no mind to
yield up his life tamely, and always trav-
eled we'll armed. His official position
was that of Judge of the Superior Court
of the Seventh Judicial District. He
was also delegate to the North Carolina
Constitutional Convention. In perform
ing his judicial duties he journeyed from
county to county on horseback. He thus
had perfect opportunity to see the South
ern people as they are. The knowledge
thus gained led him to oppose to the ut
most the reconstruction measures pro-
posed by the Government. He declared the
people were not yet ready for reconstruc-
ton. The measures once adopted, how
ever, he did what lay in his power to
make them successful. It was in vain
all in vain. Reconciliation was scorned
and trampled upon. Rebel Brigadiers
despised and misunderstood that genera
sity which permitted them to open their
mouth and blatantly eulogize jeff Davis
upon the floor of the United States
Senate. Republicans and negroes were
once more killed by the score in the
South, not now indeed in open, honor
able way, but by masked men at mid
night, armed with knife, whip and pis-
tol. He woke from his fond, silly dream
of beautiful Southern home, poor fool,
to find the battles he fought had all to
be fought over again.
Discouraged and saddened, he gave
up the unequal contest. He retired to
a region where men may vote according
TO the dictates of their own conscience.
and wrote for his fellow-countrymen a
faithful account of his experiences in
Greensboro. 1t will not lessen the in
terest in the Fools Errand" to know
that it is narration of fact. Northern
citizens who contemplate voting the
Democratic ticket this fall might ssfind
it to their advantage" to read the book
before the election.