Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-02-17
So. $1,000 for the first convic-

$50 $1,000 for the first convic-
ton.
Thus Governor Clifford M. Walker
when he heard of the flogging of Mr..
Brown
To say that such hooded mobs rule
Georgia is an exaggeration. To say
that they rule Toombs county is al
most true. For many months that
county has been haunted by horror.
Nathan Bedford Forrest. grand dragon
of the Ku Klux Khan in Georgia, cal
led the flogging of lawyer Brown IAN
unspeakable outrage, said that the
perpetrators were limitation Klans-
men,. Well schooled to their role,
the floggers could hardly have been
told from authentic members. Recent
reports tell of the following knockings
on the doors of lonely houses in
Toombs county:
w. T. Simon, carpenter, was warm
ing pan of broth in the kitchen of a
frame house. His wife was sick up-
stairs; he had come home twice that
day from work to give her food. He
was expecting the doctor, and hear
ing knock on the door he started
forward. The sound of more than one
pair of boots on the porch made him
look out of the window. His yard
was full of men. In long white robes
they writhed with dismal laughter in
the moonlight. They called to him,
Co, til
he shouted through the window. A
volley of revolver bullets spattered
against the front door, Six men in
white robes came after the bullets.
They took Simon away and beat him.
Cliff Collins, farmer, went to bed
early that night. His house, with
every window dark stood at the edge
of some cottonwoods His daughter,
thin girl of twenty, who had cooked
for him since his wife died, slept in
the next room; his son slept down
stairs with his boots on; his dog slept
in the woodshed Cars stopped in the
road; the long white figures got out.
Come down, Cliff" hailed a voice.
Stubborn and terrified, Farmer Col
Inns would not open the door. The
men broke it down. They took Mr..
Collins off to the wood, and finding
the trembling girl and the heavy eyed
boy, took them along as well-flogged
father, son, and daughter.
Mrs. Beulah Lewis, widow, living
alone, read the Atlanta Constitution
until she got sleepy and then went up
to bed, taking the cat with her. She
was half undressed when the gentle
men in white began breaking down
her front door. They roared when,
having shot their way into the bed
room, the cat confronted them, lick
ing nervous chops, on the top Of a
bedpost One man fired from the hip;
the cat tumbled off the post. The
woman had tainted but they revived
her. Then they stripped her, beat
her unconscious.
Mrs. Ophelia Harrison was visited
last May by a hooded company Her
way of living was not liked. They
took her away in an automobile,
stripped her, beat her until her body
was livid with stripes, left her to
walk home-six miles.
R. E. Smith, a storekeeper, heard
the doorbell ring that night. He was
taken away in a car and beaten with
straps.
Willie Wilson stayed up late one
night. He and his wife took turns
walking up and down the floor with
a sick baby. They heard automobiles
stop in front of the house Mr.. Wilson
got down his gun. Eight masked men
came into the bedroom where the ba-
by was wailing and Mr.. Wilson was
standing in the dark. They threw
flashlight beams into his face and
fired twice, killing him.
A negro was visited night later.
Hooded men tied his hands and feet
together; where his hands and feet
fastened another rope, took turn
around the rear axle of an automobile
and started off at full speed down
the road. The dragged body was torn
beyond recognition. He had been &C
cused of stealing turnip seed.
And the question is: Are the men
who flogged lawyer Brown and these
other Toombs county jewellers real
or spurious Klansmen? Grand Dra-
gon Forrest, of course, says they are
not He adds another $500 reward
to Governor Walkers $1,000 for the
arrest and conviction of the leader of
the flOggers.