s
expected it would be. The efforts of the most curious and cunning to
find out who were Ku Klux failed. One gentleman from the country, a
great lover of horses, who claimed to know every horse in the county,
was confident that he would be able to identify the riders by the
horses. With this purpose in view, he remained in town to witness the
parade. But, as we have said, the horses were disguised as well as the
riders. Determined not to be baffled, during a halt of the column he
lifted the cover of a horse that was near him--the rider offering no
objection--and recognized his own steed and saddle upon which he had
ridden into town. The town people were on the alert also to see who of
the young men of the town would be with the Ku Klux. All of them,
almost without exception, were marked, mingling freely and
conspicuously with the spectators. Those of them who were members of
the Klan did not go into the parade.

This demonstration had the effect for which it was designed. Perhaps
the greatest illusion produced by it was in regard to the numbers
participating in it. Reputable citizens--men of cool and accurate
judgment--were confident that the number was not less than three
thousand. Others, whose imaginations were more easily wrought upon,
were quite certain there were ten thousand. The truth is, that the
number of Ku Klux in the parade did not exceed four hundred. This
delusion in regard to numbers prevailed wherever the Ku Klux appeared.
It illustrates how little the testimony of even an eye-witness is
worth in regard to anything which makes a deep impression on him by
reason of its mysteriousness.

The Klan had a large membership; it exerted a vast, terrifying and
wholesome power; but its influence was never at any time dependent on,
or proportioned to, its membership. It was in the mystery in which the
comparatively few enshrouded themselves. Gen. Forrest, before the
Investigating Committee, placed the number of Ku Klux in Tennessee at
40,000,[42] and in the entire South at 550,000. This was with him only
a guessing estimate.[43] Careful investigation leads to the
conclusion that he overshoots the mark in both cases. It is an error
to suppose that the entire male population of the South were Ku Klux,
or that even a majority of them were privy to its secrets and in
sympathy with its extremest measures. To many of them, perhaps to a
majority, the Ku Klux Klan was as vague, impersonal and mysterious as
to the people