There were several different organizations which sprang into existence in the South during the reconstruction periods, each one operating along the same general lines but bearing different names. There were the Ku Klux Klan, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces, the Constitutional Union Guards, and the Knights of the White Camelia, which was larger than any of them. In the latter days of the reconstruction, when acts of lawlessness in the South were so bad that an investigation was held by Congress, the general name of Ku Klux was applied to all extra-legal Southern movements. As this narrative deals only with the Ku Klux Klan, a discussion of the other movements is unnecessary. The Ku Klux Klan was organized in Pulaski, Tenn., in May, 1866. Several young men who had served in the Confederate Army, having returned to their homes, found themselves suffering from the inactivity and reaction that followed army life. There was nothing to do in which to relieve it. There was but little work to do, and but few had capital to engage in new mercantile or professional pursuits. The amusements and diversions of normal society were lacking, and to meet this situation, it was decided to form a secret society merely for the purpose of burlesque and fun-making. After the society was organized, and a name was sought, one of the members suggested the word "_kukloi_" from the Greek word "_Kuklos_" meaning circle. Another member then suggested: "Call it 'Ku Klux,'" and this suggestion was at once adopted, with the addition of the word Klan. The new society was a success from the start. The "joiner" of 1866 was no different from the "joiner" of 1921. The boys made the organization one of deep mystery; they adopted grotesque and hideous costumes which they wore to and from their places of initiation; they gave out hints of the wonders of the new society, which played on the curiosity of the public; and they had mysterious communications printed in the local newspapers. The members were required to maintain profound and absolute secrecy with reference to everything connected with the order, and went at their work with great glee, to the added mystification of the community. The result was that everybody in the city of Pulaski and all throughout the surrounding country, became possessed of the "joiner's itch" and sought admission. No applications were solicited for membership, because the organizers knew human nature well enough to know that if they gave out the impression that they wished to be exclusive the applications would be both voluntary and numerous. The organization grew very rapidly, and strangers coming to Tennessee from other Southern States learned of it, became members, and secured permission to start local organizations. By the fall and winter of 1866 the order had grown all over the South, and in nearly every community there was a "Den" of Ku Kluxes enjoying the baffled curiosity and wild speculations of a mystified public.