TAR AND FEATHERS TAR AND FEATHERS An Entrancing Post-War Romance in which the KU KLUX KLAN Its Principles and Activities Figure Prominently Based on Fact BY VICTOR RUBIN THIRD EDITION 1924 UNIVERSAL PRESS 409, 163 Washington Street Chicago, Ill. COPYRIGHT 1923 BY VICTOR RUBIN PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CRAFTSMEN PRINTERS, CHICAGO [Illustration: 406] FOREWORD Let us reason together. What proof have we that the people of one race are better or to be considered with favor above those of another? It is true there was a time when the word “stranger” or its equivalent in other languages than the English had the same meaning as enemy. Each savage tribe, the early ancestors of all civilized peoples, for want of knowledge and experience, considered all other tribes enemies, and even as civilization grew and boundaries began to be established an imaginary line made enemies of those dwelling on opposite sides of rivers and channels. With more reason, seas came to be recognized as territorial limitations, and it has required centuries to break down notions of enmity and antagonism between dwellers of different localities. Indeed, it can hardly be contended that this spirit of enmity and antagonism has been overcome, when we see not only peoples of different countries, but those of a common citizenship harboring animosities sometimes approaching the malignant, and giving expression both in speech and action to their hatred for those who differ from them in race or color or creed. Victor Rubin in the following pages deals with this question of racial and religious antagonism in a fascinating but most effective manner. Perhaps no one will be able to speak more impressively of Mr. Rubin’s book “TAR AND FEATHERS” and at the same time give an intimation of its contents than has the great scholar and traveler, Israel Zangwill: