ina Fanatics--How
the "Sham" Movement Affected the K. K. K.--Parodied out of the
Field--A Resolution of _sine die_ Adjournment--K. K. K. Horrors on
the Increase--The "Shams" were Opposed in their Movements not only by
the Party who had formerly Upheld the K. K. K., etc.--Rotten-Egg
Battalions--Citizens sometimes took the Execution of the Law into
their Own Hands--A Case in Point.

While the K. K. K. influence was bad enough, in all conscience, and the K.
K. K. embodiment a trifle worse, it had imitators in both these elements
of its being who cherished even Satanic designs, and we doubt if so much
could be written of the former. That the Klan was organized on South
Carolina soil, and did much mischief to the Conservative party and
influence there by assuming to be its exponent on the most untoward
occasions, and at the moment when its services were least desired, is
something which is admitted in the former case, and its stupidity heartily
cursed with in the latter. But it is equally true that many of the
atrocious performances of men in masks which invariably fell to the K. K.
K. score were bastardies, and unless, for the sake of imaginative persons,
it is admitted that Satan was involved in the fatherhood of both, it may
be doubted if even the claim of _illegitimate_ kinship could be sustained.

The "sham," or counterfeit edition of the K. K. K., had no organized
existence in either of the remaining Southern States; but here it not only
possessed this groundwork of system, but possessed it to advantage, and in
numbers and influence (if political rank can bestow the latter) probably
excelled the body which they affected to parody, and, giving the joke a
serious turn, did injure. Their plan embodied as many of the K. K. K.
secrets as they could contrive to capture, and scorning illiberality even
in outward things, prescribed the regalia and mask feature, with an
expansiveness of detail that must have affected the cotton-market. Its
chief place of rendezvous was the capital of the State, and it is believed
by many that His Excellency, the Governor, was, if not its visible head,
at least its trusted adviser and friend. Their object was the
aggrandizement of party; and this they proposed to accomplish by rendering
the State a revolutionary hell, tenantable only for soldiers, black
militia, and that currish type of the politician then in vogue, and who
had been found, by actual experience, be