K. K. K. DEALINGS WITH THE LOYAL LEAGUE.
A Train which brought Welcome Passengers--Caucusing in the Open Air a
Dangerous Proceeding--Correct Surmises--An Old Church, Bequeathed
from Generation to Generation, and Liable to many Uses--Brothers and
Sisters all--The L. L. in full Bloom--Storm succeeded by a
Calm--Weird Visitors--What they left behind them--Dummy Constructed
of Cow-bones, and Habited in full Ku-Klux Regalia--Height, Ten
Feet--Sudden Panic--The Rally--Still in Doubt--The Chairman's
Stratagem--How it didn't Work--Despondent Leaguers taught to Act for
Themselves--Finale.
On the day preceding the evening to which the fates referred the K. K. K.
demonstration, as aforesaid, a crowd of sable politicians might have been
seen lounging in the neighborhood of the village depot; and a few moments
later, as the train drew up, edging their way through the crowd to the
vicinity of two small dark objects, which, though partially concealed by
the crowd, undoubtedly constituted a part of it, as they were seen to wave
above the heads of the tallest what could hardly have been mistaken for
anything less startlingly suggestive than two glazed carpet-bags.
When the tumult subsided, and the crowd, after hovering for an instant in
the neighborhood of this pantomime, melted away as depot assemblages are
wont to do, it was plainly to be seen that the sable electors had been in
search of the two men with the glazed carpet-bags, and the two men with
the glazed carpet-bags in search of the sable electors; for these elements
of the crowd had now amalgamated (so to speak) in a loving embrace.
The ceremony of greeting, as witnessed from a distance by the villagers,
extended to a thousand little personal liberties, which white men would no
more tolerate from each other than would the more dignified of the beasts
of the forest. And when its honey had been extracted by the parties
respectively, they were seen to place their upper extremities near
together in consultation. Some observation of amazing pithiness ran the
gauntlet of woolly crowns; and immediately afterwards a burly politician
withdrew from the caucus, followed by all eyes, and at a point not far
distant drew a diagram on the platform with his cane. Completing the
demonstration, and using, the same weapon, he smote upon the echoing
timbers with loud emphasis, and immediately the olfactory charm was
renewed around the quadrilateral wonder, which, having been viewed by the
crowd with the air of savants, became at once the subject of animated
discussion; and then, as suddenly, of perfect agreement and harmonious
handshaking.
This seemed a favorable moment for dispersion; and, indeed, the latter
movement must have had partial reference thereto, for instantly the crowd
developed as many moral agents as it had possessed caucusing elements,
who, adopting their several courses, looked neither to the right nor left,
but pushed for the interior with all commendable speed.
This cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," but nevertheless boding a
political shower of no mean consequence to dwellers thereabouts had been
viewed, as we have anticipated, by a number of persons, who, in their
anxiety to conceal impressions, did not linger in the vicinity after being
informed, by a glance, of its ominous character. The horseman whom we have
seen in another chapter speeding through the neighborhood on courier duty,
took his cue from a friendly sun-glint shot from the glazed surface of one
of the carpet-bags; and, indeed, all the details of preparation
culminating in the forest meeting of the weird brotherhood, which we have
described, and those events connected therewith, which will demand our
attention as we proceed, were suspended on one of those mere accidents of
discovery which frequently have so much to do with the fate of communities
in times of political disquiet.
In a retired forest grove, distant from any settlement, was a dismantled
church building, which had been resigned by the white settlers of Crow
Hide to the slave population of the township in _ante bellum_ times, and
the title to which, in obedience to a policy of non-interference on the
part of lawful claimants, had survived to their descendants in the golden
era of freedom. This building performed innumerable offices for the
foundlings of emancipation in those parts--marriages, funerals, revival
meetings, society gatherings, etc., occupying it in turn, and even once in
a while the dark-lantern fiend invading its precincts. From its sacred
desk, battered with age and apostolic blows, and warped by the sunbeams of
three generations, the venerable "parson" was wont to deliver castigations
to the erring of his people on holy days, and anon, to receive from the
High Tycoon of the League--enthroned on the same heights--the most bitter
denunciations of his political shortcomings. Here, the firstlings of the
flock were dedicated to the higher life of Christian rectitude in the holy
rite of baptism. And here, too, the candidate for political preferment was
made to feel the responsibilities of the step by being dipped seven times
in the "witches' cauldron" ere he was referred for those special services
which constitute the "heated gridiron," the most beautifully suggestive of
the ritualistic conditions of League membership. Here sisters and
brothers, giving way to their better instincts, harmonized on meeting
days; and here, brothers and sisters, with a broader display of those
principles which govern human nature--if with less consistency--refused to
harmonize on League days. Here, shouting and singing constituted the
mercurial forces "jurin de roasen 'ere and kant meetin'" solstice, and
here (_in hoc signo_) broken heads and scattered fragments of benches
marked the political temperature, when the League machine held right on
its course, over those sensitive members of the brotherhood, which it
might not be proper to denominate "sore tails" without this
circumlocution.
It was on this spot, and amid these venerable surroundings,
contemporaneously with the Ku-Klux demonstration to which attention has
been directed, that a scene was enacted which fills an excruciating
passage in our narrative, and which we have only been debarred from
presenting to the reader by the obtrusion of details which could not be
excerpted from the latter without injuring its consistency.
To say that the L. L. was in full bloom, and moving unflinchingly forward
in the discharge of the numerous obligations which devolved upon it as a
member of society, would be to depose facts that will be brought nearer to
the comprehension of the reader, if we explain that three of its
ablest-(bodied) speakers were coquetting for the favors of the chair, and
denouncing each other in the most incendiary language--despite the
remonstrance of the chair--in the same breath; that the speaker was
hammering on his desk with a vehemence born of despair, and occasionally
interlarding this performance with scowls that would have made his fortune
in the lion-taming business; that the house had risen to its feet for the
third time in a solid vote of remonstrance; and, finally, that two other
members had felt themselves called upon to explain to the rebellious trio
aforesaid the treasonable quality of their offence, the positive madness
of their course, and, when called to order by the speaker, had flown in
the face of that functionary with some very defiant language regarding
their rights as citizens of a free country.
Maddened by a sense of the cold-blooded contempt aimed at him through this
repeated disregard of his most cherished prerogative, the speaker (a white
man) arose to his feet, and was in the act of aiming an inkstand at the
pyramid of wool which served one of the malefactors the double purpose of
a crown of glory and emblem of loyalty, when, lo! there was a crash, a
mighty upheaval of moral forces, so to speak, a thunderous resurge of the
waves of faction, and _presto_! the scene changes.
Now the echoes have gone to rest, and a palpable hush reigns over the
assembly. Instead of those savage principles--war and rebellion--how
emphatic the terms of contrast; meek-eyed peace sits enthroned on every
brow. What means that half-suppressed sigh, that groan smothered in
parturition? But hold! "'Sdeath" A creeping dread moves along the serried
benches, laying its hand on the pulse-beat, invading the pants' legs, and
nestling close to the seat of life of the _tableaux vivantes_ who await
destiny (horrible reflection) on the ragged edge of "unfinished business."
Where late stood those mentors of the scene--shaken by the impulse of
"thoughts that breathe," and bandying hot invectives with unsparing
wrath--how changed, alas! the forms of cringing suppliants whose
counterparts might have been spaded from the Theban catacombs any day for
a thousand years. At yonder extremity of the building, surrounded by the
insignia of more than despotic rule, where towered the "thunderer of the
scene," transfixed _in articulo jactanti_, lo! an Ajax defying the
lightning.
And now what weird forms from the "night's Plutonian shore" are those
which, joined in close procession, invade the folding doors, and with
thunderous steps--matched in echo--storm down the quaking aisles? Doomed
spirits, or ministers of heaven's delayed vengeance, it matters little;
and 'neath such a materialized spell from the echoless lands, who could
doubt, or doubting, live? On they come, looking neither to the right nor
left, neither mending their gait nor halting, until they have plunged _in
medias res_, when, with a scarcely perceptible pause--those ponderous
boot-heels, describing a half circle, smite the puncheon floor--every limb
is adjusted to the most graceful of company manoeuvres; and turning on
their march, they move with the same echoing tread down the aisles, out at
the folding-doors and into the darkness--away--away.
But stop, ha! that sigh of relief springing to a hundred throats was
premature--the fiend hath but dismissed his attendants, himself remains.
Standing ten feet in his boots, and clad in full Ku-Klux regalia
(described in a previous chapter), an embodiment of rank ghostliness, he
now occupied the centre of the building, and if anything was wanting to
that "ghastly, grim, ungainly" ideal, which those who placed it there were
seeking to embody, it was supplied in the most threatening of tragic
postures, and a gesture whose very fixedness was not its least eloquent
feature. This latter described a horizontal line from the shoulder to the
finger-tips, and, _horribile dictu_, the index-finger was pointed squarely
at the anatomy of the august personage who was--had been, we should
say--presiding over the deliberations of the body. For about twenty
seconds that individual had been viewing the landscape from the _de
mortuis_ standpoint; but being recalled to animation by the excessive
personality of this proceeding, he executed three handslings and a
somersault, and was at rest for the time being in a pile of superannuated
furniture at the far end of the hall. Then there was a rush from the
"third person" element, who could but feel that the grammatical situation
was getting momentarily worse. Benches and desks were overturned; stoves
and stove furniture came tumbling about their heads; a pillar, swept from
its moorings by the human wave, fell with a boom like cannon at sea, and,
hark! louder still, and rising above the din, a human voice hoarsely
bawling, "Take him out!"
Who is there that has not witnessed examples of fell panic converted into
a gallant defence, or brave onset, by the most seemingly trivial
occurrence? It was so on the present occasion. A section of stove-pipe
being projected against the uplifted arm of the ghostly personage,--who
had, perhaps, contributed more than any other being to the tumult by which
he was surrounded,--that member fell to the floor with a crash, and this
movement having been witnessed by one of the refugees, his emotions took
that form of expression which perhaps was best adapted to arrest the
panic, if not to restore confidence.
The flying Leaguers turning their heads to discover the author of this
seeming sacrilege, beheld, instead, the accident which inspired it, and
instantly faced about with changed resolution. The individual who first
sounded the alarm, though, evidently, still frightened by the tones of his
voice, repeated it in the same words; and this second reminder was
followed by a feeble rally, directed at the rear of the speaker's body.
While this manoeuvre was in course of evolution, a voice from the rear
files shouted, "Forward!" but the effect of the command was so visible in
widening the distance between the assaulting column and the object of
attack, that a dead silence fell on the assembly, and, for the space of
several minutes, each was busy for himself examining the salient points of
the enemy's position.
The gallant chairman having recovered his legs by this time, and seeing,
by the spasmodic movement in the crowd, answering to that muscular feat,
that something was expected of him, proceeded instantly to measures.
Wearing a severe countenance, he called the house to order, and, looking
around upon the assembly, announced a committee of five (greatly to the
relief of the remaining threescore), whose duty it should be to rid the
camp of the fell intruder. Why this had not been thought of before is one
of the unsolved conundrums, and why it ever was thought of, the committee
aforesaid are not yet prepared with a reply. Neither is there any good
reason for the state of things which immediately followed, as a dead calm
fell upon the assembly, which probably would not have been disturbed until
this moment, if another of those fortunate occurrences, which seemed made
to order for the occasion, had not reached the tide of League affairs at
its swell.
Whether the machine was an eight-day affair, and had accomplished the
moments of its destiny, or simply a piece of mechanism poorly planned, we
are quite unable to say. But at the moment when the Quaker period of the
aforesaid conference had reached its most eloquent passage, a cracking
sound was heard in the vicinity of his ghostship, followed by a rattling
explosion, whose fussiness could hardly be resembled to anything but an
avalanche of dry bones hurled from some upper region; and, instantly, in
obedience to this warning, a desire to forsake present surroundings for
some less melancholy region took the form of an inspiration in the breast
of each "politishun." In what way this manoeuvre would have been
executed, if the chairman had persisted in the high-tragedy role he had
assigned himself, by remaining to announce some plan of retreat, is
another mystery connected with this event, with which we are not concerned
beyond the bare announcement. But it is certain that that individual,
taking time by the forelock, had made a successful advance on the rear
window, carrying the sash with him, and that his followers were engaged in
a very animated game of leap-frog, directed towards similar advantages at
other angles of the building. In less time than is consumed by a record of
the event, the doors were blocked with a mass of rolling, tumbling,
somersaulting Leaguers. The windows had their full quota of struggling,
sweating passengers. A large crack in the wall was in labor with three
burly forms, and yet a score or more were unaccommodated, and, with heads
ducked, were hurling themselves endwise against the retreating columns,
with an energy which evinced the strong determination of each to avoid the
fate of that hindmost unfortunate, whom Satan, from time immemorial, has
exacted for toll.
But, though some confusion waited upon this exodus from the neighborhood
of the big haunt, it was conducted with greater dispatch than had
characterized any similar movement in the history of the rickety old
building, and soon the boss straggler, having eluded the individual on two
sticks by pigeon-winging it through a hole in the roof, rolled upon the
green sward beneath with a grunt of overpowering relief.
When the building was completely deserted, and the swallows, half in
doubt, had returned to their perch under its eaves, a sound, which could
scarcely have been mistaken for aught but the hooting of an owl, broke the
stillness of the neighboring forest, and was quickly replied to at the
distance of perhaps a furlong in the opposite direction. The echoes
awakened by these signals were still busy at hide-and-seek with the
shadows in the old building, when two forms, clad in long robes and
wearing high-peaked caps, crossed the plateau to its threshold, and giving
way to an involuntary chuckle as they gazed first upon the wrecked
surroundings, passed to its inner precincts. Perhaps a full minute elapsed
before they reappeared at the entrance way, and, being joined here by a
companion with two led horses, they placed their bags of cow-bones on the
latter, and, mounting, galloped swiftly into the darkness.