In March, 1867, the Reconstruction Acts were passed by Congress, and in the month of April the actual work of reconstruction began. Then it was that the Ku Klux Klan underwent its second stage of development and became transformed into a band of regulators to handle the alarming situation that immediately followed. Perhaps the best available authority on the Klan in the country today is a little book written by Capt. John C. Lester and Rev. D. L. Wilson, giving an insight into its organization and real history. Captain Lester was one of the six original organizers, and Mr. Wilson, while not a member, was a resident of Pulaski and was closely in touch with the entire movement. In this work they stated that the transformation of the society was effected in three ways: (1) The impressions made by the order upon those who joined it; (2) the impressions made upon the public by it; (3) the anomalous and peculiar condition of affairs in the South at the time. The impression made upon the man who joined was that behind all the amusement features of the organization and, unexpressed in its ritualistic work, was a deep purpose--a solemn mission that would be undertaken later. What it was none knew, but the feeling existed that a mission existed, just the same. The impressions made upon the public immediately showed the Klansmen that the organization possessed a certain power that nobody had imagined it would possess. This power was largely one of fright and intimidation, and was shown in the case of the ignorant and superstitious negro more than in that of the white people. Negroes would see the ghostly nocturnal Ku Kluxes and imagine that they were spirits of deceased Confederate soldiers, and the Klansmen were very quick to grasp the idea and use it to the fullest advantage. In some cases a figure in white would ride up to a negro's house, dismount and ask for a drink of water. The frightened negro would hand him a gourd, which the rider would pour into a rubber bag, concealed under his robe, and then demand a whole bucketful of water, which he would dispose of in the same way, remarking, "That was the first drink of water I have had since I was killed at Shiloh." In other cases the Ku Klux members would wear false heads, ride up to a negro and, removing the head, ask the negro to hold it. Skeleton hands would be fastened to the wrist and held out for a handshake, which procedure usually caused the terrified negro to make a hasty retreat. With the superstition and natural tendency of their race to magnify happenings, the negroes soon spread alarming tales among themselves as to the Ku Klux and its doings, until presently the name was one that invoked horror and terror. It is but natural, therefore, that knowing this new power of frightening the negro, the members of the strange order exercised it to the fullest extent.