Produced by Tim Lindell, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Harold the Klansman BY GEORGE ALFRED BROWN THE WESTERN BAPTIST PUBLISHING COMPANY KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 1923 Copyright, 1923 by George Alfred Brown NEODESHA, KANSAS _All Rights Reserved_ _As a tribute of love and in appreciation of her encouragement and help in my various lines of labor I respectfully dedicate this volume to my wife, Lela Lockhart Brown._ _G.A.B._ _PREFACE_ The purpose of the author in writing this story is to furnish the public with reliable information about the Ku Klux Klan, and at the same time give entertainment. It is also hoped that Klansmen who read this story will be given a greater appreciation of the Invisible Empire. While this is essentially a work of fiction, yet the principles as here elucidated are the true principles of the Ku Klux Klan. Statistics quoted in this story are accurate and quotations credited to real persons are correct. The story as a whole is fiction but many of the incidents are true. George Alfred Brown. Neodesha, Kansas, August 14, 1923. Chapter I Ruth Babcock was a heroine. To be sure folk did not think of her as deserving a place in any catalogue where the names of heroic folk are recorded. She was known in the community as a girl with a kindly heart and plenty of grit. She was descended from fighting stock--her mother, who had died when she was twelve years old, was the daughter of an ex-confederate colonel, Clayton Jameson. She had run away from home to marry Fred Babcock, the son of Major Babcock of General Sherman's staff. The Jamesons were opposed to the match. Their family was one of the oldest and most aristocratic of Virginia. They knew nothing of young Babcock except that he was an intelligent, well mannered young man and the son of a major who had fought against the Southland during the war. Caroline Jameson had a number of suitors, scions of "best families," but, contrary to her parents' wishes, she refused to accept any of these and insisted on marrying Fred Babcock. When her parents positively refused to give their consent, she defied them and eloped with him. They came West and settled in the town of Zala, where young Babcock secured employment in the only bank of the town. When the baby came and Caroline Babcock wrote her parents that they had named their baby girl Ruth, in honor of her mother, the Babcocks received a letter, by return mail, containing a message of forgiveness and blessing and insisting that they come home on a visit and give the grandparents an opportunity to become acquainted with their granddaughter. In this way the estrangement came to an end.