Another of riper years, but for some reason not acceptable to the order, made repeated efforts to join the Klan. For his special benefit they arranged to have an initiation not provided for in the ritual. A meeting was appointed to be held on the top of a hill that rises by a gentle slope to a considerable height, on the northern limits of Pulaski. The candidate, in the usual way--blindfold excepted--was led into the presence of the Grand Cyclops. This dignitary was standing on a stump. The tall hat, the flowing robe, and the elevated position made him appear not less than ten feet tall. He addressed to the candidate a few unimportant and absurd questions, and then, turning to the Lictors, said: "Blindfold the candidate and proceed." The "procedure" in this case was to place the would-be Ku Klux in a barrel, provided for the purpose, and to send him whirling down the hill! To his credit, be it said, he never revealed any of the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.[30] These details have an important bearing on the subsequent history of the Ku Klux. They show that the originators of the Klan were not meditating treason or lawlessness in any form. Yet the Klan's later history grew naturally out of the measures and methods which characterized this period of it. Its projectors did not expect it to spread. They thought it would "have its little day and die." It lived; it grew to vast proportions. FOOTNOTES: [14] The writer, D.L. Wilson, was not a member. The secrets of the Klan were not printed or written, but were communicated orally. In Appendix IV, p. 197, will be found versions of the oath taken by the members.--_Editor._ [15] In 1871-1872 a Committee of Congress made an investigation of affairs in the South. Its report, with the testimony collected, was published in 13 volumes, and is usually called the Ku Klux Report. See Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, p. 701; Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi, p. 344.--_Editor._ [16] See above, p. 23. [17] General Forrest said that the order was disbanded in the fall of 1868. See Ku Klux Report, Vol. XIII., pp. 3-35.--_Editor._ [18] Wilson's account in the _Century Magazine_, July, 1884, says that the order was founded in June, 1866.--_Editor._ [19] This was the law office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, father of one of the originators.--_Editor._ [20] Survivors say that six men organized the club and that others joined soon after.--_Editor._ [21] This committee was composed of Calvin Jones and R.R. Reed.--_Editor._ [22] In this committee were J.R. Crowe, J.C. Lester and John Kennedy.--_Editor._