a
privilege which the State laws denied them), but to be permitted to go a
step further, and "conglomerate," was not to be thought of, and Klan
discipline was brought to bear--one of its few acts which has received the
unconditional endorsement of both Northern and Southern society.

CHAPTER VIII.

K. K. K. CUSTOMS.

The Klan never did its Work by Halves--How General Orders were
Transmitted--Form of General Order--Its Imbroglios with the
League--Avoided Conflict with United States Troops--Ku-Klux
Prosecutions a Weakness of the Courts--League Informers--K. K. K.
Intimidation of Witnesses--_Memento Mori_--Crusade of the Ermined
Ranks--Misdirected Prosecutions--Obligation to Disregard Judicial
Oaths when they Conflicted with the Plans and Policy of the Order--No
Patch-spots in its System of Government--Weird Drill--Absenteeism not
one of the Strong Points of the Brotherhood--The Klan a Bitter Enemy
of those Unorganized Parties of Ruffians who made War on their kind
in the former's Name--Its Right to Borrow Sympathy on this Exchange a
Grave Question of Doubt--Vendettas Conducted against the "Shams."

The Klan never did its work by halves, nor never pronounced a meaningless
threat. If an individual was warned to leave the country at a certain
date, there was no help for it, neither were there any extensions of time
or modifications of original orders. Had members of the Order been
incarcerated in a county prison for Klan offences, and a rescue been
planned, the bars must yield at a certain hour. If some poor wretch was
doomed by order of the Council to suffer under its laws of extradition,
the weird scout was "over the borders and away" ere its absence could be
noted, or electric messages sent to notify the authorities of the
impending outrage.

When the Grand Wizard wished to promulgate an order, the newspapers were
the medium commonly sought. His commands in the use of this means were
delivered to the next in rank, and by him transmitted to the Grand Giant
of the province named, an officer who maintained constant communications
with the Den system. No Den was required to execute a general order within
the territory which it occupied, and in but rare instances did it proceed
to enforce its own _local_ measures. This force was, in almost every
instance, employed beyond its own boundaries, and not unfrequently crossed
the borders of the province, and eve