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community or a whole class and then as quickly subside. Southerners made use of its name at a critical moment to cover the exertions they were then making to keep the negroes in order, and to counteract the activity of the carpet-baggers and the freedmen who followed them. The Klan's organization was loose and its methods differed from one locality to another in response to local needs and the character of the men who chanced to be in control of its operations. They ranged from acts of violence to comical practicings on the superstition of the negroes. Undoubtedly its name and methods were employed to cloak many of the crimes of violence with which the organization and members of the Klan proper had no connection.

KU KLUX COSTUME (NORTH CAROLINA)

The costume is a long gown with loose flowing sleeves, with a hood, in which the apertures for the eyes, nose and mouth are trimmed with some red material. The hood has three horns, made out of some cotton-stuff, in shape something like candy bags, and stuffed, and wrapped with red strings, the horns standing out on the front and the sides of the hood. When a costume is worn by a person he is completely disguised by it. He does not speak in his, natural tone of voice, and uses a mystical style of language, and is armed with a revolver, a knife, or a stick. In some instances where they have ridden through neighborhoods they have disguised their horses so that even they should not be recognized. . . . It is a large loose gown, covering the whole person quite closely, buttoned close around and reaching from the head clear down to the floor, covering the feet and dragging on the ground. It is made of bleached linen, starched and ironed, and in the night, by moonlight, it glitters and rattles. Then there is a hood with holes cut in for eyes, and a nose, six or eight inches long, made of cotton cloth, stuffed with cotton, and lapped with red braid half an inch wide. The eyes are lined with the braid, and the eyebrows are made of the same. The cloth is lined with red flannel. Then there is a long tongue

sticking out about six inches, made of red flannel also, and so fixed that it can be moved about by the man's tongue. Then in the mouth are large teeth that are very frightful. Then under the tongue is a leather bag placed inside, so that when the man calls for water he pours it inside the bag and not into his mouth at all.

Senate Reports No. 1, p. 2. 42d Congress, Ist Session, 1871.

PART X

THE CATTLE INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE

SINCE THE WAR

LV

CATTLE DAYS IN THE WEST

The two extracts below represent two past phases of the cattle industry of the United States, the driving of great herds from Texas to the railroads in Kansas, and the cattle ranches of the Plains of a decade later. The advance of farming communities has appropriated the land to the plow, or the enclosed pasture has taken the place of the boundless grazing lands; thus the grazing industry is to-day organized on far different lines. Professor Turner has said that, in the settlement of the United States, the fur trader always first invaded the wilderness. After him came the grazier with his herds of cattle, only to be displaced in his turn by the pioneer farmer. The second stage of development of the Great Plains has passed away in large measure in our own generation, though there are still great grazing ranches in the West for both cattle and sheep. As the rough and ready life of the early West contrasted sharply with the methods of life in the older settled States, the romance of the cowboy and the cattle days has been a favorite theme for writers of thrilling tales of adventure.

A

In 1860, Texas, as it had been for many years before, was the chief producer of live stock in the Western States. The peculiarly favorable climate of Texas gave the State almost a monopoly of the business. The pastures were green the year around, and the proximity to market, either at points on the Mississippi River, to which herds from the

eastern part of the State could easily be driven, or by water from points on the Gulf, gave a distinct advantage.

The outbreak of the war brought upon the ranch-owners a peculiar embarrassment of riches. With the Northern market cut off, and Southern business life demoralized, no disposition could be made of the rapidly increasing herds Occasional fugitive sales along the Mississippi became almost the only markets. . . . In 1865 and 1866 the ranchowners determined to seek Northern markets at any cost, and thousands of animals were massed in the northeast portion of the State preparatory to driving to Missouri railroad stations. . . . The solution of the problem confronting the cattle-raisers came through the construction of the railroads across Kansas. In 1867, the old Kansas Pacific Railroad, now the Kansas Division of the Union Pacific, was being built from Kansas City along the valley of the Kaw due west across the State. . . . Arrangements were made for the location of the proper yards at Abilene, a station one hundred and sixty-five miles from Kansas City, situated in the midst of a richly-grassed prairie section, admirably adapted for grazing grounds of incoming herds. The town had less than a dozen houses, and was within less than thirty miles of the end of the road, as then completed. Yards were built and steps were taken to induce the cattle men to make this a point from which to ship their herds. . .

1868 saw a general friendliness toward the new movement among Texas stock-owners, and a northward drive that exceeded seventy-five thousand head. But the succeeding year, 1869, saw a greater increase, and one hundred and sixty thousand cattle came tramping up like a horned army from the ranches of the South.

By this time well-defined trails had been located, and for two decades those trunk-lines connecting the great producing and consuming points held their supremacy. The most famous of these was the "Chisholm Trail." . . . From two

hundred to four hundred yards wide, beaten into the bare earth, it reached over hill and through valley for over six hundred miles (including its southern extension) a chocolate band between the green prairies, uniting the North and South. As the marching hoofs wore it down, and the winds blew and the waters washed the earth away, it became lower than the surrounding country and was flanked by little banks of sand, drifted there by the wind. Bleaching skulls and skeletons of weary brutes who had perished on the journey gleamed along its borders, and here and there was a low mound, showing where some cowboy had literally "died with his boots on." Occasionally a dilapidated wagon-frame told of a break-down, and spotting the emerald reaches on either side were the barren circle-like "bedding grounds," each a record that a great herd had there spent a night.

The wealth of an empire passed over the trail, leaving its mark for decades to come. The traveller of to-day sees the wide trough-like course, with ridges being washed down by the rains, and with fences and farms of the settlers and the more civilized red-men intercepting its track, and forgets the wild and arduous life of which it was the exponent. It was a life now outgrown, and which will never again be possible. . . . In 1871 nearly a million cattle were driven north. .. . But it was the height of the wave. . . . At the beginning of winter (1871-1872) came a storm of sleet, putting an icy coat over the sod; and multiplied thousands of cattle and hundreds of horses died of cold and starvation. . . . Abilene's prestige was gone. Ellsworth, forty miles farther west, became the shipping point on the Kansas Pacific. . . . Newton, where the road crossed the trail to Abilene, stopped many of the herds, and with Ellsworth divided the claim to the title Abilene had held for several years, "The wickedest town in the West." . . . It was of the new shipping point that another picturesque saying became popular, "There is no Sunday west of Newton, and no God west of Pueblo." . . . Soon after,

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