The "opening ceremony," which is supposed to be inflicted upon the Klan
every time it meets, covers eight closely printed pages of the "Kloran,"
and is filled with tiresome and boring conversation between the various
officers. An opening "klode," to the tune of "Greenland's Icy Mountains,"
with its chorus "Home, Sweet Home" is then to be sung, and this is
followed by a long-winded prayer ending with a petition to the Lord to
"bless our Emperor." After more words, the poor Klan at last finds itself
open.
Then follows the "closing ceremony" which contains five pages of the same
sort of wordy discourse, with a verse to the tune of "Blest be the Tie
that Binds," a prayer for the success of the "Invisible Empire," and the
weary Klansmen are then allowed to go home.
The bulk of the "Kloran" is taken up with the "ceremony of
naturalization." In the entire ritual the alleged fraternal order is
called the "Invisible Empire," with only an occasional reference to its
legal incorporated title. The candidate is an "alien" until he has been
bored to death to the extent of about thirty pages, whereupon he is made
"a citizen" of the "Invisible Empire" through the process of
"naturalization." It is rather a curious anomaly that an American citizen,
who does not need to be naturalized to enjoy the privileges of American
citizenship has to be "naturalized" as a Ku Klux, while the foreign born,
the Catholics and the Jews cannot be naturalized at all. They are forever
"aliens."
The ceremony of naturalization consists in walking the candidate from
station to station, causing him to listen to verbose passages, swearing
him to the obligation previously referred to, threatening him with death
if he ever reveals any of the secrets, and finally making him go through a
parody on the solemn and sacred rite of baptism.
As a matter of comparison with the original Prescript of the Old Ku Klux
Klan, there are ten questions which are asked the "alien" upon his first
entrance into the "outer Den" of the "Klavern." These ten questions
unmistakably show an intention on the part of the "Invisible Empire" to
turn the United States in a country controlled by a "class" as opposed to
several "classes," and are so utterly at variance with the requirements of
the original Ku Klux Klan, as to add stronger proof that the present
organization is a historical fraud with no right to use even the name of
the former organization. These questions which can be found on pages 25
and 26 of the "Kloran" are as follows:
"1. Is the motive prompting your ambition to be a Klansman serious
and unselfish?
"2. Are you a native born, white, Gentile American citizen?
"3. Are you absolutely opposed to and free of any allegiance of any
nature to any cause, government, people, sect or ruler that is
foreign to the United States of America?
"4. Do you believe in the tenets of the Christian religion?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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