It would seem to have been the design of the leaders of the Ku Klux Klans,
in issuing their warnings, to play as much as possible upon the
superstitions of the people. These documents were written in a disguised
hand, sometimes in coarse language, and contained sentiments intended to
inspire terror in the minds of the recipients.
They were usually bordered with designs, representing daggers piercing
bleeding hearts, death's heads and cross bones, and various grotesque
devices. Some of them had a spice of grim humor, which, although fun to
the Klan who issued these missives, meant banishment, scourging or death
to those who received them. Specimens of these, the originals of which
fell into the hands of the United States Officials during their attempts
to break up the Ku Klux organization are here given _verbatim et
literatim_.
Five persons residing in White County, Georgia, having made themselves
politically obnoxious to the Klan, received the following:--
"READ THE CONTENTS, K. K. K.
O ye, horsemen of Manassas. Bounce, ye dead men that is now living on
earth. We are the men that I am talking about. We are of K. K. K. Now
Sandy Holcumb, Green Holcumb, Daniel McCollum, and E. Dickson, your
days are numbered. We shot the old Belt weather[2] a little too low.
We aimed to shoot him through the heart; and if you don't all get
away from this country very soon, your Radical hearts will be shot
out of you, and we had just as leave shoot you as for you to get
away.