San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-09
VAST THRONES
] SEE KNIGHTS
l MARCH !
AIS Well Along Potomac
, rs Feared Event Like
u Country Fair.
By GEORGE r. HOLMES.
Z International News Service staff
Z Cnrrcsncndent.

International News Service Staff
ts7 Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Aug. s.--A broad
river Of white robed and hooded mem
hers of the Ku Klux Klan-50, 600 OF
Observation-Disclosures down his
/. = toric Pennsylvania Avenue this aft
s ernoon In seemingly endless thousands
while the national capital waited on
: tip-toe and with bated breath for the
rioting that never started and the
- blood that was not spilled.
Z. Ii was perhaps the strangest and
81 the most picturesque parade the olo
savcnue has ever seen-the same ave-
: nue. that echoed to the tramp Oh
Grants men home from the war, that
- has seen presidents march as com
s~znoners. and that witnessed the awe
= some procession that marched with tne
y Unknown soldier TO his grave.
-. PARADE Peaceful
.-~ With the disappearance OF the
masks went most of the mystery OF the
81 ku Klux Khan and there stood re
- vealed only some tens of thousands OF
reperxpiring men, women and children
= na rching in a parade cross section
al life in towns and countryside.
- . The show was as peaceful as coun-
10y fair or a small town carnival, and
;r-Sfad many of the aspects of those bu-
tplic events.
Men marched down the blistering.
= heat filled avenue with perspiring
,-~fAces and aching feet; their women.
,~fundreds with babies in their arms
Looked on and applauded; children
cried and ate bananas and there was
much good natured "joshing" from
= me sidewalks that were packed with
crowd which police estimated at loU,-
200.
- POLICE IDLE.
Il The police had little TO DO. Strung
ont a dozen to the block for the nearly
two miles from the capital to the
monument grounds they swirled clubs
md rrinned-and most of Washington
did likewise. There was nothing EN-
phatic 10 do. Besides, il was safer 70
grin and be good humored. To have
done otherwise might have started
something. And everybody was eau
tious about starting something.
Estimates as to the number OF
vbite-sheeted figures that flowed 90
warmly down the scorching avenue
varied all the way from 25,0O0, a po-
lice estimate, to 100000, an estimate
mad BY Sam d. Rich, grand dragon
Of the Pennsylvania khan, which head
ed the parade.
STILL COMING IN.
A newspaper clocker who stayed at
one point and saw the procession from
beginning TO end, more than four
!. hours, and used counting device, es-
timated there were approximately
$1,000 men, women and children IN
line. Fifteen thousand passed given
point in little less than two hours, 10
abreast.
The army Of klansfolk was recruit
ed from virtually every state in the
ryCnion, although 90 per cent Of them
--came from states east OF the Missis-
<sppi River. California had few, as
did Oregon.
Even this evening, as the tail end OF
the parade was working up toward the
avenue entrance, special trains ana
<sselated automobiles were still coming
r.fn with late corners who missed the
parade, but who arrived in time FOL
The ceremonies in the shadow OF the
s~Washington monument tonight and the
Standardization" services 10 take place
s-scross the Potomac on the NirglSia
side tomorrow.