The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-08-30
A Panic Among the keokuk Negroes
Resulted From Prank of Some
Practical Jokers, With Riot
That Became Historical.
THEY WANTED A CONDOR
A Syndicate of keokuk Capitalists
Contribute Ten Thousand Dollars
to Obtain a Condor and Lose
an Insurance Law Suit.

Keokuk history contains some pages
bizarre and humorous, illustrating
that truth is stranger than fiction
because fiction must seem possible,
as that old KeokulS resident, Mark
Twain, explained once upon a time.
Not long after the civil war, a
bunch of brilliant jokers, then young
men, but later prominent citizens,
We're enjoying their usual Sunday loaf
in drug store far down town. They
| concocted what they thought would
be little scare including some mild
excitement. The Joke got away from
them and became a very laughable
tragedy.
They All Went Terror Stricken.
The jokers wrote note to each
of the colored ministers in town,
stating that the Ku Klux Khan, then
very active in the South, were march
ing on Keokuk and due to arrive at
any minute to eat up the negroes.
They called in a colored character
called Sugarlip and instructed him
infinitely to deliver a note to each
preacher in the pulpit without the
least delay. Each colored minister
announced the terrorising message
to his congregation, and one of
them added:
"You all kin do as you please, but
as for me, Use a-gwine." and with
the last syllable he went head first
out the nearest window.
In ten minutes the streets were
full of negroes, many Of them with
guns.
Confusion Worse COMPOUNDED.
Whole families by the hundred
started for the open country north
west with all possible Of their be-
longings on their backs, in hand
carts, or on one horse wgaons. There
was terror, confusion, and panic.
Hundreds of negro men with the
guns collected at the levee, the Ku
Klux Khan being expected to arrive
by steam boat.
Chance played into the hands Of
the jokers. Approaching the Keo-
kuk levee to tie up for several days
was show boat Of the Kennedy
Comedy company which was dubbed
the Kennedy Komedy Kompany by
it's advertising man. It's boat had
painted on it's sides and pilot house
in immense letters the letters X. X.
X, also the symbol of the Ku Klux
Khan. The boat was peacefully and
hopefully arriving at the levee stimuli
taneously with the crowd Of terror
lied and armed negroes.
Trying to Queli Panic.
The negroes instantly opened fire
upon the boat. The comedy company
management and the captain and
pilot were dazed at this reception
which they could not understand;
but since bullets were going through
the upper works of their boat, they
stopped and backed out of range.
In the meantime, leading citizens
were doing their utmost to quiet the
negroes and to find out what it was
all about-the bevy of jokers in the
drug store scattered speechless at
the results of their joke. Starting in
the middle of the morning sermons,
the trouble lasted until nightfall,
and it was a week before all the
refugees came back from up country.
One Greater Than WaIIlngford.
Sixty years ago, there arrived here
a suave, cordial, elegant, educated
physician who made his successor,
Wallingford, look like a piker.
After making the acquaintance, and
gaining the respect and admiration
of leading Keokuk citizens, this doc
tor convinced them that what Keo-
kuk needed to become known all
4 - ,{y Il
condor in a museum here.
Five Of the leading men in town,
including a banker, a Judge and a
leading business man, each subscribed
$4,000 and gave the $4,000 to the
suave doctor to go to the Andes
mountains and bring back dead
condor The only security they
asked was a life insurance policy.
One syndicate's Black Friday.
One of this early Keokuk syndi-
cate was reading the Herald in
New York hotel at breakfast one
morning, when he saw dispatch
from Venezuela that their condor
hunter had been killed there in
duel, That was the morning of
Black Friday, 1857, and the begin
ming Of the bursting of Keokuk's one
big, inflated boom.
Greater things overshadowed the
losses of the condor syndicate, but
the members sued the insurance
company for the insurance money,
payment Of which was refused be-
cause the insured was killed in a
duel They lost the suit.
Their attorney was John w. Noble,
afterward in the cabinet of Presl-
dent Hayes. The only fee he got
was a few books given him by these
clients. A few years ago, he sent
these books to the Keokuk public
as the most appropriate final
resting place for them and their
story.