en told to the world in
minute detail, but the secret deliberations of the Imperium are herein
disclosed for the first time. The exterior of the Capitol at Waco
was decorated with American flags, and red, white and blue bunting.
Passers-by commented on the patriotism of Jefferson College. But,
enveloped in this decoration there was cloth of the color of mourning.
The huge weeping willows stood, one on each side of the speaker's
desk. To the right of the desk, there was a group of women in widow's
weeds, sitting on an elevated platform. There were fifty of these,
their husbands having been made the victims of mobs since the first
day of January just gone.

To the left of the speaker's desk, there were huddled one hundred
children whose garments were in tatters and whose looks bespoke lives
of hardship. These were the offsprings robbed of their parents by the
brutish cruelty of unthinking mobs.

Postmaster Cook, while alive, was a member of the Imperium and his
seat was now empty and draped in mourning. In the seat was a golden
casket containing his heart, which had been raked from the burning
embers on the morning following the night of the murderous assault.
It was amid such surrounding as these that the already aroused and
determined members of the Congress assembled.

Promptly at 11 o'clock, Speaker Belton Piedmont took the chair. He
rapped for order, and the chaplain offered a prayer, in which he
invoked the blessings of God upon the negro race at the most important
crisis in its history. Word was sent, by proper committee, across the
campus informing the president that Congress was in session awaiting
his further pleasure. According to custom, the president came in
person to orally deliver his message.

He entered in the rear of the building and marched forward. The
Congress arose and stood with bowed heads as he passed through. The
speaker's desk was moved back as a sign of the president's superior
position, and directly in the center of the platform the president
stood to speak. He was dressed in a Prince Albert suit of finest
black. He wore a standing collar and a necktie snowy white. The hair
was combed away from that noble brow of his, and his handsome face
showed that he was nerved for what he regarded as the effort of his
life.

In his fierce, determined glance you could discover that latent fires,
hitherto unsuspected even in his warm bosom, had been aroused. The
whole man was to speak that day. And h