s. The whites, on the other hand, unawed by their manner, and
fully decided to adopt this measure as a _dernier ressort_, sent forward
parties commissioned for the dangerous service. It is not known what
resistance, if any, was offered to this stratagem, but very soon the
building was in flames from pillar to turret, and the terrified blacks
rushing forth in mad haste, to encounter a fate scarcely less terrible
than that of being roasted in the flames. As they emerged from the burning
building, the attacking columns threw themselves on their flanks, and
poured volley after volley into their now fairly stampeded ranks. Scores
fell under the first deadly assault, and as they passed on in their flight
they were intercepted or overtaken by their infuriated pursuers, the
massacre continuing a full hour after the terrified rout had begun to
issue from the building.

The statistics of the loss on either side in this engagement have never
been given with accuracy, and there is good reason to believe that many of
the approximations that have gone to the world have embodied intentional
errors. From those who were participating in the affair, and represented
the hostile factions in about equal proportion, we obtain the following
estimate of their respective losses: Blacks killed, ninety; wounded,
twenty-five. Whites killed, five; wounded, three. In the skirmish but few
of the whites wore masks, and this affair has generally been regarded the
fruit of a popular uprising, and not strictly chargeable to any secret
organization, or body of men banded together for political purposes. It
occurred, moreover, at a time when partisan feeling in that section had
reached a strong ebb, and men were incensed against each other as they
rarely become in the light of such incentives. That the Klan was
officially represented in the affair was generally conceded.

It was about this time, or a little previously, that the famous White
League came into existence, occupying the K. K. K. basis as to politics,
and in all essentials of its organization formulated upon the same model.
This society assumed the duty of regulating the political affairs of the
State, and that it succeeded to some extent in purifying the constitutions
of the Returning Boards, those monster instrumentalities of fraud
belonging to the Radical elective system here, there can be no doubt. It
was, however, open to many objections, and on equitable grounds must have
been defeated by