fold, "over
the hill and far away" to a secluded spot, and left him with the
admonition to "wait there till called for." After hours of weary
waiting, the young man removed the bandage from his eyes and sought
the shelter of the paternal roof.

Another of riper years, but for some reason not acceptable to the
order, made repeated efforts to join the Klan. For his special benefit
they arranged to have an initiation not provided for in the ritual. A
meeting was appointed to be held on the top of a hill that rises by a
gentle slope to a considerable height, on the northern limits of
Pulaski. The candidate, in the usual way--blindfold excepted--was led
into the presence of the Grand Cyclops. This dignitary was standing on
a stump. The tall hat, the flowing robe, and the elevated position
made him appear not less than ten feet tall. He addressed to the
candidate a few unimportant and absurd questions, and then, turning to
the Lictors, said: "Blindfold the candidate and proceed."

The "procedure" in this case was to place the would-be Ku Klux in a
barrel, provided for the purpose, and to send him whirling down the
hill! To his credit, be it said, he never revealed any of the secrets
of the Ku Klux Klan.[30]

These details have an important bearing on the subsequent history of
the Ku Klux. They show that the originators of the Klan were not
meditating treason or lawlessness in any form. Yet the Klan's later
history grew naturally out of the measures and methods which
characterized this period of it. Its projectors did not expect it to
spread. They thought it would "have its little day and die." It lived;
it grew to vast proportions.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] The writer, D.L. Wilson, was not a member. The secrets of the
Klan were not printed or written, but were communicated orally. In
Appendix IV, p. 197, will be found versions of the oath taken by the
members.--_Editor._

[15] In 1871-1872 a Committee of Congress made an investigation of
affairs in the South. Its report, with the testimony collected, was
published in 13 volumes, and is usually called the Ku Klux Report. See
Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, p. 701; Garner,
Reconstruction in Mississippi, p. 344.--_Editor._

[16] See above, p. 23.

[17] General Forrest said that the order was disbanded in the fall of
1868. See Ku Klux Report, Vol. XIII., pp. 3-35.--_Editor._

[18] Wilson's account in the _Century Magazine_, July, 1884, says that
the order