Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. In keeping with the facsimile style of the Prescript section, original page breaks (shown as '. . .') and footers (Latin text) remain as printed. [Illustration] The Ku Klux Klan By Annie Cooper Burton _President, Wade Hampton Chapter, No. 763, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Los Angeles, California_ Cover Design by Howard Willard Typography by Taylor's Printery WARREN T. POTTER PUBLISHER AND BOOKMAKER 511-12 Baker-Detwiler Building LOS ANGELES, CAL. Copyright, 1916, by WARREN T. POTTER All Rights Reserved To Father The Ku Klux Klan The great Ku Klux Klan sprang up like a mushroom, a Southern organization formed in a time when no other power in the world could have saved the suffering South from the utter disorder which prevailed during the awful period following the War between the States. The stigma attached to the name Ku Klux Klan by the uninformed masses has, at this late day, been practically removed, thanks to that Southern author, Thomas J. Dixon, who through "The Clansman" swayed public opinion the right way; and thanks again to that master director, David W. Griffith, another Southerner, who filmed this wonderful story and set the people to exclaiming, "Why, the Ku Klux Klan was a grand and noble order! It ranks with the best." Every clubhouse of the United Daughters of the Confederacy should have a memorial tablet dedicated to the Ku Klux Klan; that would be a monument not to one man, but to five hundred and fifty thousand men, to whom all Southerners owe a debt of gratitude; for how our beloved Southland could have survived that reign of terror is a big question. The very name Ku Klux shows that the order was formed among men of letters. It is a Greek word meaning circle. Klan suggested itself; the name complete in turn suggested mystery. Originally the order was purely a social organization, formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, May, 1866, and gave diversion to the restless young men after the reaction of war. They found vast amusement in belonging to a club which excited and baffled curiosity; great sport, too, was found in initiating new members. But it was when the Klan realized that it had a great, vital work to perform that it rose majestically to the gigantic task.