The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-10-18


ask no questions, even if he was not
personally a member. Livery stable
keepers in small towns and their white
helpers would be alert and busy sad
ding and bridling horses for unknown
men at late hours Of the night, but
nobody knew anything. Sometimes
the raid was largely a frolic and ct
others it had a deadly purpose. 1t
executed in thorough way and on
broad principles of public policy the
laws which state and local govern
naents were too vicious, weak or lg-
norant to enforce. 1t made itself ter
rible and by so doing maintained Or
der, peace and a measure Of safety.
When gin houses were burned evi-
oence was not awaited, but the worst
negro leader in the neighborhood
was visited. But the Klan did not
drive out the radical governments or
restore supremacy. It had degener-
ated to rowdyis1n and in places to
means of private malice and neigh
borhood feuds and brawls before its
collapse in 1869. Even the United
States government was powerless
against it until it was swerved from
the purpose which gave it dignity
and force and traitors were developed
within it's own ranks. In South Caro-
lima the radical government was not
even brought into order by the Ku
Klux Klan the excuse for renewed
outrages and impost on the people and
for arming more negroes. If Mr.. Dix
on intended his play to teach his
tory he should have studied history.
In South Carolina the radical govern
ment was finally overthrown in 1876,
seven years after the Klan had van
ished, and the work was done by
Wade. Hampton's Red Shirts who op-
Grated very much under the same
system as the Klan, only substituting
for grips, signs and passwords gen.
eral understanding so that it was but
necessary for a courier speeding at
night along lonely country roads to
rein MS horse at a white mans gate'
and ishout the one. word, "Wanted!'
for every male thing within capable
or riding a horse and firing a pistol
to go pelting out to saddle up and
make for the rendezvous at top speed.
On one occasion more than eight
thousand armed men were gathered
in Columbia at an emergency call be-
tween ten O'Clock of Sunday night
and midday Of Monday.
But why should these old horrors
OF a long-forgotten crime be parade<i
and distorted in fanciful -garb before
the people Of today? What good can
it do? knowledge OF them, as Of
any c.ler historical episode, can De
found in various books, giving actu.''
facts and figures and not the fancies
OF a playwright or novelist. Nj.
Dixon contends that his book and play
are answers to Uncle Toms Cabin,
but "Uncle Toms Cabin" did its work
fifty years ago and it is not regarded
as useful or instructive in this day.
If Mrs. Stowe saw fit to invent facts
and to distort actualities hideously 10
fire the northern heart for a political
purpose, what is the sense OF South
ern people encouraging a similar per
formance now for no purpose at all
but to make some money for Mr.. Dix
on and some actors and theatrical
Spectators?
The play itself is melodrama. 1t is
strong in some respects because 1t
deals with strong and stirring time
Of which little is known and with aw-
full and horrible things. The public
loves the morbid, the tragic, the
mysterious, the thrilling, and the un-
L. L.
have man actually lynched on the
roof of the capitol here, he would
fill the square with people at two dol
lars a head. Crowds will linger for
hours, fascinated by the grewsome re-
mains of man cut to death by the
merits of the usefulness Of a play that
people rush to see it. In Texas last
wear excursion trains were run,
crowded with eager citizens, to see a
negro burned to death. The chamber
of horrors at the Eden Musee is the
most popular feature of that enter
tainment. Mr. Dixon has struck a
new vein of sensationalism for this
part of the country; but we doubt II
sThe Clansman' will succeed better
| in the North than Uncle Toms Cab
in" with it's bloodhounds and whip
ping post would do in the South The
two +b;pcc attract the same interest