New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-18
W oman Tarred
And Feathered
In Texas Town
Taken From Hotel Veranda
and Stripped; Ku.Klux
Khan Agitation Will Be
Taken Up by Legislature
determination Demanded
Courts and Governor Assert
Officers Are to Blame
for Failure to Suppress

SHREVEPORT, La, July 17.-Mrs
berlah johnson was taken from the
porch Of a hotel at Tenaha, Tex,
stripped, tarred and feathered, accord
ing to advices reaching here to-day.
The attack on Mrs. Johnson, which
occurred last night, was said to have
been made by masked men wearing
white uniforms. They are said to have
driven up to the hotel in three automo-
biies and filed out, displaying firearms
and to have taken the young woman
into one of the cars.
The automobiles proceeded to q point
several miles into the country, where
Mrs. Johnson's clothing was removed
and she was given coat of tar and
feathers. She then was placed in the
automobile and returned to the town.
Mrs. Johnson, who claims to have
been working at the hotel as a maid
and cook, says she did not know any
of the men in the party.
Masked Band Beats Man
Beating Of man named Mcknight
of Nacogdoches, Tex, by masked men
at Timpson, nearby town, is reported
here as another Saturday night de-
velopment in border towns.
Special Dispatch to The Tribune
AUSTIN, Texas, July 17.-Legisla.
tive action having for it's purpose the
determination of the Ku-Klux Klan or
any similar organization in Texas is to
be proposed by Representative Lee ]
Rountree in the special session of the
; Texas Legislature called by Governor
Pat M. Neff for tomorrow.
Special legislation is needed to meet
the situation, says Mr.. Rountree, due to
the fact that chapters of the Ku-KluX
ELAN are scattered over the state and
no effective way of combating their
activities has been discovered
1t is pointed out in an anonymous
latter to Judge James R. Hamilton, OF
the Criminal District Court of Travis
County, that the Ku-Klux Klan EMPLOYS
agents to circulate over the country
and organize chapters. That this is en-
tirely feasible is shown by the almost
simultaneous appearance of the crgani-
{,
Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and Waco.
Supposed Abductors Arrested
Little has been done to check the en-
ergies of the Klan and only three men
have been taken in custody. These men
were arrested in Waco on July 8 and a
charge of white-capping filed against
them. A few hours before a band had
abducted man from in front of the
Waco City Jail and taken him out of
the city. Officers in pursuit met three
men returning to the city with the vic
tim tarred and feathered and placed
them under arrest. Four others who
were in the party escaped
On July in Fort Worth a man was
given coat of tar and dropped from
a speeding automobile in the heart of
the business district. Other suppose j
evildoers were whipped, and a man
accused of having killed policeman
was lynched.
Similar activities have been common
in the other cities of the state in
which the Klan exists. Several physi-
clans in Beaumont and Houston have
been driven away, and in Houston two
alleged "lounge lizards" were at
tackled. Horsewhipping and tarrine
and feathering have been the chief
methods of punishment, and except in
the Fort Worth case no known deaths
have been charged to the members of
the Klan.
The advent of the organization in
Austin, the capital of Texas, was made
known by posters tackled on the Travis
County Courthouse, the Capitol Build
(contiuusd on page fourl