not a majority of their number, had refused to participate in the massacre, this clew was adopted by the authorities, and a detective force employed, which it was thought could not fail of success. Several days were consumed in the pursuit and investigation, and at the end of that time it was announced that one of the party had become "State's witness," and that a full expose of the affair would follow. The faith that was reposed in this story shows how unequal was the estimate which the State authorities placed upon the resources and influence of their secret enemy, and how illy adapted to the ends in view was the machinery of prosecution employed by the courts in this and similar causes. The party who had professed a willingness to betray his associates in this affair could only be prevailed upon to embrace a very small number in the accusations he made, and, at the subsequent trial, completely failed to sustain the points of the indictment which had been founded on his sworn admissions. The arrests were made, however, and after a long and tedious contest between the State and Federal courts, regarding the subject of their jurisdiction--which could not fail to prove advantageous to the accused--the trial, or something which bore a resemblance thereto, was proceeded with. Viewing the resources of the two parties to the presentment, and the efforts put forth by each, it could not have been a success on any terms, and, under the existing conditions, proved a judicial farce of the first magnitude. The negroes who had made their escape from the scene of the massacre, and who had held out promises that they could identify their would-be lynchers, failed to meet the tests which were imposed at the trial; and the State's witness, mainly relied upon, either could not, or would not, criminate his associates beyond a few general statements, that would not have justified even a partial verdict. After a lengthy trial, pending which the State authorities put forth their utmost exertions to establish the guilt of the accused, it was announced that an _alibi_ had been proven in each case; and so ended the Gibson county horror. In Obion, a county adjoining Gibson on the west, the details of even a bloodier affair than that recounted above were given to the public a few years earlier, but which, for some reason, never found its way into the courts. We give the outlines in this place, because these horrors, in view of the _locus in quo_, will always be classed as twin editions in future histories of the Ku-Klux riots.