€ht librarp of tbr 2lnlt)et0itp of Bout Carolina Collection of il3ort5 Cacoliniana dEntiolDcli bp lo&n feprunt ^ill of tbr Cllaeg of 1889 This hook, must not he taJ^en from the Library hailding 28 ,ug*43BU l5iun'48C LUNC-ISM F 40 The Play that Is Stirring the Nation ®S£ Clansman 'BK THOMAS DIXON, Jr. Copyright, 1905, by Thomas Di C n t c n t js : 1. Portrait and Sketch of Author 2. Twenty-three Great Scenes from the Play 3. The Story of the Drama 4. Mr. Dixon's Famous Articles on The Future of the Negro The Story of the Ku Klux Klan and What Our Nation owes to the Klan N E W Y O R K the a m e r'l c an n' e w s company ■"publishers agents <» r- ivi T «?• AN AMERICAN DRAMA By T HO MAS D I XON, Jr. C F r o m his two famous Novels *'€l)c lLcoparD'0 ^pot0" anD **€l)c Clanmnan" ACT I. THE FALL OF THE MASTER SCENE: In front of the Cameron House, Piedmont, S. C, Election Day, November 20, 1867. ACT II. THE SLAVE IN THE MASTER'S HALL SCENE: 1 he Parlor of the Cameron House, one year later. ACT III. IN THE CLAWS OF THE BEAST PART 1. The Beat of a Sparrow's Wing. SCENE: Same as .Act I. A week has elapsed. PART 2. The Hunt for the Animal SCENE: The Cave Den of the Klan three hours later. ACT IV. THE KU KLUX KLAN SCENE: The Library of Silas Lynch, the Negro Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, the ne.xt afternoon. N T %\)t ^outljem gimugemcnt Co. GEORGE H. B REN NAN, Manager Knickerbocker Theatre Building Number 1402 Broadway, New York ■HE AUTHOR RETOUCHING THE DIALOGUE DURING REHEARSALS. Ci)e ^rotiiiction of tijc ^Iaj> %. Sequel to (UncU Com ;S Cabin ^MMS^"^. CLANSMAN" \fi^ which is in an import- ^ ant sense a sequel to ^ "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ^^ was produced at The MMMMM ^'''''^^'"y °^ Music, wvttjfvn jivttrivft Norfolk, Virginia, September 22, 1905, to one of the largest audiences which ever assembled in a theatre in the city. It was received with remarkable enthusiasm and was played through the South to crowds which have broken the records of every house in which it has been presented. The sensation it has created in the Southern towns and cities has no parallel. The press has devoted columns of editori- als to the discussion of the play. While many of them have taken the ground that such a drama should not be given in the South, where the race problem is acute, they have all agreed that the North should see the picture it presents. The historical accuracy of this picture is absolutely unassailable. Mr. Dixon's answer to his Southern critics is simple and to the point: "The truth is its own vindication. North, South, East and West. If my play is true, the young South should know it, the young North should know it. If it is false, it should be surpressed. If it is good for one section, it is good for all. I seek national unity through knowledge of the truth." Cljc Scatimg Cljaracters of tlje ^3Ia|) ARRANCJED IN THE ORDER WHICH THEY FIRST APPEAR ALECK, ------ The Sheriff of Ulster NELSE, ----- A >, Ohi Fashioned Negro CARPETBAGGER, - - Peddler and Auctioneer GUS. -------- 0/ the Black Guard DICK, ------- A Gemman of Color EVE, ..--------_ N else's Wife AUSTIN STONEMAN, - - Radical Leader Dr. RICHARD CAMERON, - A Conservative FLORA, ------ His Little Daughter NELLIE GRAHAM, - Ben's First Sweetheart KATE LAURENS, \ ----- Nellie's Friends ALICE WORTH. I ELSIE STONEMAN, - \-The Radical Leader s { Daughter BEN CAMERON, ----- The Clansman SILAS LYNCH, - Lieut. -Gov. of South Carolina NEGRO CORPORAL, Of the Governor's Guard WILLIAM PITT SHRIMP, - -! Gc"^'- of South { Carolina GEN. N. B. FORREST, Grand Wizard of the Klan SOLDIERS, BLACK LEAGUERS, CITIZENS, CLANSMEN, ETC. J^ i lo. TWKLVE PAGI]S. THIIEK CEN THOMA^^ D7XON, JR- /^/* // / ,i. 'ff" ^ ^ -v^ - ""i^r ^./••///^''/i'f^'r'if'rffh''^* 'THE GLflNSMflN" SCORED SE NSflTlONfl L SUCCESS Thomas Dixon's Play Swept Big Audience Off Its Feet And Stirred Whites And Blacks To Intense Feeling* Ill a cheap theatre once the writer saw a blood and thunder melodrama sweep an •: udiencce oft \:^ feet in a wild rT-ft\»> of enlhushism Men cnt-er- ed and stamped their feet and clapped their hands in approval of the hoio ^nd hissed the villain with an earnest- ness that depicted the wrath he had stirred up witfalnl their hearts. But that audicr.c w-as on a par with the theatre it fiHea. Culture and the gift of edu- L-atlun. we^e ininUs (luaiitities. Its na- ture- was-appealed to in a direct man- ner by a play -which dealt with the baser passions of life in a wide-open way. Last night two thousand people ac- corded a reception not one whit less enthusiastic to another play These people were for the greater part the most refin,ed and polished of this sec- tion of Virginia They arose en masse and put the sea! of their approbation upon a play that was being: presented fo9 the first time on any stage. The sound of hands being clapped was drowned sometimes hy the volume of cheers that echoed througli the Acad- emy of Music, and again the big audi- torium fairly seethed with sybilant hisses. The applause was for the play Itself, for the man \^ho wrotoe it and for the people who depleted the heroic parts. .\nd the hisses ^\ e^-e the sni- corest applause thai could be given those actors who portrayed Ihe villain- ous and unpopular characters The play was 'The Clansman "" Its author. Thomas Dixon Jr Play Stirs Raze Sentiment. As a dramatic success the prcsen; 3- tlon was remarkable The siory Is ab- sorbing in its interest and the plot is one in which the sequence of o\cnt5 leads to a logical denouement after climaxes of intense strength. T'hoi e \ver& none of the usual "lirst night" hitches nor of the exp*»ctrd stumbh.ip in the lines. The cast had the book letter perfect, the business as smooth •and as finished as though the produc- tion had been running for weeks and The stage force were a I their work '.^s though they had been ■■setting" the play for many days This is fully de- monstrated by the fact that the four acts and five scenes were produced in three hours. The play itself, outside of th? acting, the setting and the business, but just in its naked lines, is unique. Here in Norfolk, of course sentiment Is south- ern, strongly southern, and this, no doubt, had something to do with the enthusiasm. Further south the south- ern- sentiment is stronger. On a tour through the south "The Clansman" will be like -a runaivay car loaded with dynamite. Mr. Dixon declares he has no deseire to stir up race or sectional feeling. But the words he puts into the mouths of some of the negro characters, the situa- tions of most intense race differences, the death cf a fair young child at the hands of a black brute, and the hor- rible insult offered a white woman by a negro \vhen he told her he was a millionaire and asked her heart and hand, can not be played on any south- ern stage before southern white people without rekindling in their veins the smouldering fire which was first ignited during the dark and bloody days of the Reconstruction period. And while these thingrs aroused the white people^in last night's audience, there were incTTlents that reflected the thoughts and sentiments which existed high up In the gallery where hundreds of negro men" and women were packed and jammed. Their hisses were just as cutting aa those of the whites, but they were directed at the white char- acters, and thoir applause was never so loud as when the negro/Lynch ordered the Abolitrcmlst Stoneman from the former's Arouse and presence. This, after Stonemsn, who had preacTied eauality and brotherhood and Inter- marriage, h^d seen the light when Lynch wanted to marry his daughter. Then it was that the chickens of the North caiu' i'-uine to roost. Lesec"! '.s -White ^^'p^jp^acy The Itsson rf "The Clansnian" standa out in plain, bold type all through the play". There is no '■problem" attached to the piece. It is nothing if not defi- nite in its assertlveness that the white race must dominate the black and that no people are better able to preach this doctrine than those of the South who have waded through blood in their struggle to throw off the yoke that was placed upon their shoulders when a scratch of a pen threw over the land they owned a horde of incapable black- skinned people clothed with equal rights. The yoke has been thrown off. but it is still neaiby and Mr. Dixon says he wants to demonstrate, by p^gea from the past, why it must never be borne by wh:*? people again "The Clansman" only reiterates to southern people what they already know But in the process of doing so. its author has rreated a play strong, virile, replete xvith sentiment, sparkling comedy and thrilling climaxes of re- U maskable power. With one or two slight alterations the play could be improved. The tracing of the somewhat cuftai'ed ancestry of a young negro is not exactly palatable to a refined audience. The Cast Well Selected. The cast has been excellently selected in the main Georgia Welles as Elsie Stoneman instantly won her auditors by her unaffected methods and displayed great power in the strong emotional scenes. Franklin Ritchie was a close favorite as Ben Cameron .the young chief of the Ku Klux Klan. One of the strongest roles of the play was that of Silas Lynch, the negro lieutenant-gov- ernor of South Carolina, as played by Austin W^ebb The character is an ab- solutely ne^v one to the stage John B Cooke was equally successful in por- traying the role of Austin Stoneman. a character closely moulded after Thad- eus Stevens, the leader of the radical " j-epublicans In congress during the Re- construction period. Theodore Kehr- wald as Nelse. Maude Durand as Eve, and John B. Hymer as Aleck, brought out effectively the ricch comedy of the southern darkey characters that they portrayed. Other hits were made by little Violet Mersereau. Charles Malles and Charles Avery. Mr. Dixon's Speech. At the end of the third act the calls for the author- playwright were long and pronounced and finally Mr. Dixon appeared before the curtain. Then pandemonium broke loose. Cheers rent the ^ir, handkerchiefs were waved and the American method of applause, hand clapping, seemed tame. The man for whom the ovation was in- tended stood bowing and smiling and apparently calm in what was remarked by many to b^ the most glorious mo- ment of his life. At last things be- came quiet enough for him to make him- self heard. He said in part: "I want you all to know how much I appreciate the wonderful reception you have given my play tonight. I want to thank you for the players, the manageme nt and for myself. Foi- fifty-two years Uncle Tom's Cabin has maligned the south and I can only hope that 'The Clansman' may last that long and accomplish as much for the other side of the great question. "My object is to teach the north, the young north, what it has never known — the awful suffering of the white man during the dreadful reconstruction pe- riod. I 'believe that Almighty God anointed the white meri of the south by their suffering during that time Im- mediately after the Civil war to dem- (Contlnued on Page J.) BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR THOMAS DIXON, Jr. BV K. F. H A R K 1 N S ■ rom his volume "Among Men Who Have Written Famous Books" by permission of L. C. Payie & Co., Boston. ■ rrni 'try^HE LEOPARD'S SPOTS," by Thomas Dixon, Jr., which Doiibleday, Page & Co. pubUslied in Marcli, igo2, is by all odds the most remarkable of the many recent successful first novels. Until lately a success- ful first novel was a rarity ; now it is almost a common- place. "The Leopard's Spots," though not so popular as some, is the most remarkable of all. Max Nordau says that it has deliberately undone the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe. At least, it may fairly be regarded as the South's long-deferred answer to "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In the twelvemonth follow- ing its publication one hundred thousand copies were sold. Strictly speaking, "The Leopard's Spots" is not so much an answer as a sequel to "Uncle Tom's Cabin." By portraying its abuses, Mrs. Stowe dealt slavery a blow from which it never recovered. That slavery cloaked fearful abuses no Southerner — not even Mr. Dixon himself — denies, or could honestly deny. But "Uncle Tom's Cabin" did not look forward to the conse- quences of the emancipation of the negro ; and that these con- sequences are troublesome, and often fearful, no Northerner — not even one of Garrison's sons — could honestly deny. The relation between "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Leopard's Spots," therefore, is simply local. Mrs. Stowe was not re- sponsible for the scalawags who took possession of the South after the war ; nor was Mr. Dixon responsible for the abuses inflicted upon helpless and innocent negroes, both male and female, before the war. But, after all has been said, the negro problem still re- mains ; and this is the problem which the Virginia novelist begs his readers to consider. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" Can the thoughtful white man ever admit the negro to full social and political equality? Possibly some Northerners would vote for a negro of Dr. Booker T. Washington's stamp for President of the United States. Mr. Roosevelt has had Doctor Washington at dinner in the White House. But would the most sympathetic North- ern negromaniac, a refined, aristocratic white man, encourage and permit a negro to marry into his family ? The substance of Mr. Di.xon's argument, which repudiates the idea that absolute equality between Caucasian and Ethio- pian exist in the United States, lies in the chapter entitled "Equality with a Reservation." That scene presents the negro problem stripped of all its shams and subterfuges. It is a violent picture. The effect might have been produced more quietly and more truthfully. Naturally "The Leopard's Spots" aroused much hostile criti- cism, based on the allegation that it appealed to prejudice and that it raked up dead issues. The author replied in a letter from which we quote these few paragraphs : "I have not sought to arouse race hatred or prejudice. For the negro I have the friendliest feelings and the profoundest BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH pity. What I have attempted to show is that this nation is now- beginning to face an apparently iiisohible problem. "I claim the book is an authentic human document, and I know it is the most important moral deed of my life. There is not a bitter or malignant sentence in it. It may shock the prejudices of those who have idealized or worshipped the negro as canonized in 'Uncle Tom.' Is it not time they heard the whole truth ? Thev have learned only one side for forty years. . . . "The only question for a critic to determine when discuss- ing my moral right to publish such a book is this : Is the record of life given important and authentic? If eighteen millions of Southern people, who at present rule, believe what my book expresses, is it not well to know it ? I assert that they do be- lieve it, and the number of Southern white people to-day who disagree with 'The Leopard's Spots' could all be housed on a half-acre lot. I challenge anv man to deny this. If it is true, is it not of tremendous importance that the whole na- tion shall know it?" Comparatively speaking, the author of "The Leopard's Spots" is still a young man. He was born in Cleveland county. North Carolina, January ii, 1864. His father was a well-known Baptist minister. At the age of nineteen Thomas was grad- uated from Wake Forest College, of his native State, and. by the wav, the alma mater of the hero of the novel. Then Wr. Dixon entered Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, as a spe- cial student in history and politics. This advantage was gained by means of a scholarship. The following year, 1884, he took up the study of law at the Greensboro (North Caro- lina) Law School, from which he was graduated in 1886. That same year he was admitted to the bar of all the courts in the State, including the United States district courts, and also to the bar of the United States Supreme Court at Wash- ington. However, with characteristic restlessness, he resigned these privileges, in October. 1886, to enter the ministry. Seven months before he had been married to Miss Harriett Bussey, of Montgomery, Alabama. It would be a rather difficult task to note in an orderly fashion all the steps that Mr. Dixon took from his graduation at Wake Forest College to his entrance into the ministry. For one thing, he was a member of the North Carolina Legislature from 1884 to 1886; but other pursuits seem to have lessened legislative attractions for him. At the same time, in 1884, he must have been a curious, if not a powerful, legislator, for he was then only twenty years old, and consequently not a voter. A young man to have been affected by the buzzing of the political bee ! In 1887, after his ordination, he was elected pastor of a Baptist church in Raleigh, North Carolina. During the follow- ing year he occupied a Baptist pulpit in Boston, and the next year he accepted a call to New York. There his restlessness waned, for there he remained until 1899. Before the close of his ministry he enjoyed the reputation of attracting larger con- gregations than any other Protestant preacher in the country. At any rate, his ministration was remarkably popular ; and when he pleased he could preach a highly sensational sermon. Many of his pulpit utterances are to be found in the books which he compiled prior to his leaving New York — "Living Problems in Religion and Social Science" (1891), "What Is BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Religion?" (1902), "Sermons on Ingcrsoll" (1894), and the "Failure of Protestantism in New York" (1897). The last book may be said to have foretold his departure from the ministry. As pastor of the People's Church he rose to more than local prominence by reason of his freedom and originality of thought, his vigor of expression, and his independence of action. He proved on many occasions that he was not a man to be fet- tered by traditions or by customs ; but, at the same time, he stood afar from radicalism. His faith was as strong at the end of his ministry as at the start, and his independence con- cerned the lesser restraints. He did not hesitate, for instance, to go hunting with a gun — which is not exactly a clerical occu- pation. It was as a preacher, by the way, that Mr. Dixon first be- came identified with fiction. Camden, the heroic preacher who figures in one of Lilian Bell's stories, was drawn from the same man who afterward drew the heroic figure of Charles Gaston in "The Leopard's Spots." Nearly every educated imaginative boy at some time feels disposed to write books. Our North Carolina boy was no ex- ception to this rule ; and though law, and afterward religion, drew him away from literature, he has returned to it as to a first love. After leaving the People's Temple he spent much of his time lecturing; and, indeed, he is one of the most pop- ular lecturers in America. But he kept literature in mind, and simply awaited his theme — his opportunity. "The Leopard's Spots" simmered in his mind for more than a year. Almost every day something went into the mental pot — some idea, some fact found in an obscure quarter, some new answer to an old argument. The actual writing of the novel occupied about sixty days. Part of the writing was done in a deserted cabin on the shore of Chesapeake Bay, across from "Elmington," the author's estate; and part was done in the spare hours of a lecture tour. This tour was full of distraction. There is a story which tells how a peremptory dinner call at a hotel brought him moodily down-stairs. As he was entering the dining-room, a black hall- boy pulled his sleeve and said, " 'Scuse me, sub ; but I reck'n vou's forgot sump'n." "Have I?" said Mr. Dixon, puzzled. "What is it?" "You's sutunly forgot all 'bout dat collah an' necktie." Sure enough, in his excitement he had overlooked his neckwear, and he returned to his room thankful that his omission was not worse. He does not mind telling a story on himself. "Elmington Manor," the author's new home in Divondale, Virginia, is a truly magnificent estate. The five hundred acres comprise all the attractions of the country and the seashore. Quail, woodcock, and wild turkey abound ; there are twenty- five acres of oyster beds ; there is a beach a mile and a half long ; there are three hundred large shade trees on the lawn ; the white house, with its imposing portico, contains thirty-five rooms, and the drive from the porch to the front gate is two miles long. The log cabin in which the author works was planned by him and built by negroes under his supervision. Across the creek from "Elmington" and the five hundred acres roundabout were once among the possessions of the Indian princess, Pocahontas. NELSE: "NOW DES LISTEN DAT CHILE !"— Act L Mr. Dixon's Famous Articles ON THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO THE STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN and WHAT OUR NATION OWES TO THE KLAN THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO and Booker T. Washington's Work Containing Some Sentences Omitted in The Saturday Evening Post Article. FOR Mr. ]5ooker T. Washington as a man and leader of his race I have always had the warmest admiration. His life is a romance which appeals to the heart of universal humanity. The story of a little ragged, barefooted piccaninny who lifted his eyes from a cabin in the hills of Vir- ginia, saw a vision and followed it, until at last he presides over the richest and most powerful institution of learning in the South, and sits down with crowned heads and Presidents, has no parallel even in the Tales of the Arabian Nights. The spirit of the man, too, has always impressed me with its breadth, generosity and wisdom. The aim of his work is noble and inspiring. As I understand it from his own words, it is "to make Negroes producers, lovers of labor, honest, independ- ent, good." His plan for doing this is to lead the Negro to the goal through the development of solid character, intelligent in- dustry and material acquisition. Only a fool or a knave can find fault with such an ideal. It rests squarely on the eternal verities. And yet it will not solve the Negro problem nor bring us within sight of its solution. Upon the other hand, it will only intensify that problem's dan- gerous features, complicate and make more difficult its ultimate settlement. It is this tragic fact to which I am trying to call the attention of the nation. I have for the Negro race only pity and sympathy, though every large convention of Negroes since the appearance of my first historical novel on the race problem have gone out of their way to denounce me personally and declare my books carica- tures and libels on their people. Their mistake is a natural one. My books are hard reading for a Negro, and yet the Negroes, in denouncing them, are unwittingly denouncing one of their best friends. I have been intimately associated with Negroes since the morning of my birth during the Civil War. My household servants are all Negroes. I took them to Boston with me, moved them to New York, and they now have entire charge of my Virginia home. The first row I ever had on the Negro problem was when I moved to Boston from the South to I"1 w > o o < u w 2 THE FUTURI-. OF I HE SEGliO lake cliarge of a fashionable chuieli at the Hub. I attempted to import my baby's Negro nurse into a Boston hotel. The proprietor informed me that no "coon" could occupy a room in his house in any capacity, cither as guest or servant. I gave him a piece of my mind and left within an hour. .As a friend of the Negro race I claim that he should have ihe op])ortunity for the highest, noblest and freest dcvelop- iiK-nl of his full, rounded manhood. He has never had this (ijiportunity in America, either North or South, and he never can have it. The forces against him are overwhelming. My books and play are simply merciless records of condi- tions as they exist, conditions that can have but one ending if they are not honestly and fearlessly faced. The Civil War abolished chattel slavery. It did not settle the Negro prob- lem. It settled the Union question and created the Negro ])roblem. Frederick Harrison, the English philosopher, during his visit to America two years ago, declared that the one great shadow which clouds the future of the American Republic is the approaching tragedy of the irreconcilable conflict between the Negro and White Man in the development of our society. Mr. James Bryce recently made a similar statement. Sixty Million Negroes If allowed to remain here, the Negro race in the United States will number 60,000,000 at the end of this century by their present rate of increase. Think of what this means for a moment and you face the gravest problem which ever puzzled the brain of statesman or philosopher. No such problem ever before confronted the white man in his recorded history. It cannot be whistled down by opportunists, politicians, weak- minded optimists or female men. It must be squarely met and fought to a finish. Several classes of people at present obstruct any serious con- sideration of this question — the pot-house politician, the os- trich man, the pooh-pooh man, and the benevolent old maid. The politician is still busy over the black man's vote in doubt- ful States. The pooh-pooh man needs no definition — he was born a fool. The benevolent old maid contributes every time the hat is passed and is pretty sure to do as much harm as good in the long run to any cause. The ostrich man is the funniest of all this group of obstructionists, for he is a man of brains and capacity. I have a friend of this kind in New York. He got after me the other day somewhat in this fashion : "\\ hat do you want to keep agitating this infernal question for? There's no danger in it unless you stir it. Let it alone. Hush it up and it will take care of itself. I grant you that the Negro race is a poor, worthless parasite, whose criminal and animal instincts threaten society. But the Negro is here to stay. We must train him. It is the only thing we can do. So what's the use to waste your breath ?" "But what about the future when you have educated the Negro?" I asked timidly. "Let the future take care of itself!" the ostrich man snorted. "We live in the present. What's the use to worry about Hell? If I can scramble through this world successfully I'll take my chance with the hell problem !" My friend forgets that this was precisely the line of argu- ment of our fathers over the question of Negro slavery. When Tim FUTURE OF THE NEGRO the constructive statciiien of Virginia (called pessimists and infidels in their day) foresaw the coming baptism of fire and blood ('6 1 to '65) over the Negro slave, they attempted to de- stroy the slave trade and abolish slavery. My friend can find his very words in the answers of their opponents. "Let the future take care of itself! The slaves are here and here to stay. Greater evils await their freedom. We need their labor. Let the question alone. There is no danger in it unless you stir it." The truth which is gradually forcing itself upon thoughtful students of our national life is that no scheme of education or religion can solve the race problem, and that Mr. Booker T. Washington's plan, however high and noble, can only in- tensify its difficulties. This conviction is based on a few big fundamental facts, which no pooh-poohing, ostrich-dodging, weak-minded philan- thropy or political rant can obscure. The first one is that no amount of education of any kind, industrial, classical or religious, can make a Negro a white man or bridge the chasm of the centuries which separate him from the white man in the evolution of human civilization. Expressed even in the most brutal terms of Anglo-Saxon superiority there is here an irreducible fact. It is possibly true, as the Negro, Professor Kelly Miller, claims, that the Anglo- Saxon is "the most arrogant and rapacious, the most exclu- sive and intolerant race in history." Even so, what answer can be given to his cold-blooded proposition: "Can you change the color of the Negro's skin, the kink of his hair, the bulge of his lip or the beat of his heart with a spelling-book or a ma- chine ?" Lincoln's Opinion No man has expressed this idea more clearly than Abraham Lincoln when he said : "There is a pitvsieal difference betivccii the white and black races which, 1 believe, zvill forever forbid them living together on terms of social and political equality." Whence this physical difference? Its secret lies in the gulf of thousands of years of inherited progress which separates the child of the Aryan from the child of the African. Buckle in his History of Civilization says: "The actions of bad men produce only temporary evil, the actions of good men only temporary good. The discoveries of genius alone re- main : it is to them we owe all that we now have ; they are for all ages and for all times ; never young and never old, the\' bear the seeds of their own lives ; they are essentially cumula- tive." Judged by this supreme test, what contribution to human progress have the millions of Africans who inhabit this planet made during the past four thousand years? Absolutely noth- ing. And yet, Mr. Booker T. Washington in a recent burst of eloquence over his educational work boldly declares : "The Negro race has developed more rapidly in the thirty years of its freedom than the Latin race has in one thousand years of freedom." Think for a moment of the pitiful puerility of this statement falling from the lips of the greatest and wisest leader the Negro race has yet produced ! Italy is the mother of genius, the inspiration of the ages, the Till- m-rcRi- OF THE negro creator of architecture, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, law, science, philosoi)liy, finance, church organization, sculp- ture, music, painting and literature, and yet the American Negro in thirty years has outstripiK-d her thousands of years of priceless achievement ! Education is the development of that which is. Tlie Negro has held the Continent of Africa since the dawn of history, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his feet. Yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him its light. His land swarmed with jjowerful and docile ani- mals, yet he never built a harness, cart or sled. .\ hunter by necessity, he never made an ax, spear or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the nmmcnt of its use. In a land of stone and timber, he never carved a block, sawed a foot of lumber or built a house save of broken sticks and mud. and for four thousand years he gazed upon the sea yet never dreamed a sail. Who is the greatest Negro that ever lived according to Mr. Booker T. Washington? Through all his books he speaks this man's name with bated breath an o >■ Tim STORY OT HIE KU KI.L'X KI.AN Lpoii the assassiiialiciii w J P w Q u w < THE STORY OF THE KU KLUX KLAN rule in 1870, the Grand \\ izard knew thai liis mission was accomplished and issued at once liis order t(j disband. The execution of this command by young Morton, the Cyclo])s of the Nashville Den, also of the staff of the (lran < J > 2; < o H ■J Tllli STORY 01' nil: KU KLUX KLAN nuarcliiij;- Xaslivillc. 'I'Ik) iikuIc a iinanininus l)reak for the rear, and went out throui;!! every opening without knowledge of any obstruction. Many of tliem wore window sash home for coUars. The clansmen silently wheeled again into double column, and rode toward their old rcn > < b z z < u < ■j~i WHAT OUR NATION OWES TO I'HK KLAN. IT is a curious paradox of hi,stor\ that the law sometimes owes more to tliose who have defied it tlian to its ap- pointed guardians. Doubt is tlie first step to a larger faith. Denial is the beginning of larger affirmation, and the traitor of to-day becomes the hero and lawgiver of to-morrow. Many of the men to whom we owe the progress of the world were executed as criminals by the official guardians of society. When the publisheil formulas of law have been outgrown by the race, or its forms for any reason have been perverted so that they no longer are the expression of the organized virtue of a people, it becomes necessary to break the law in order to keep it. The inventor of the telescope was punished as a common malefactor. George Washington was a traitor to George III. It is often necessary for those to whom law and order are dearest to join the ranks of the lawless that in the death of laws, the law may live. Some years ago, the chief of the fire department of Chi- cago, dressed in citizen's clothes, was attending the funeral of a friend. The clergyman was praying beside the open grave, with every head bared and reverently bowed. The fire chief suddenly received the impression of danger as from some mys- terious call of the soul. In obedience to a resistless impulse, he raised his head and looked toward the city, to find the sky line lurid with smoke and flame. From the locality of the fire, its headway and the direction of the wind, his trained eye saw it meant a second baptism of ashes and death for the gray city of the West. In violation of every form of decency, he sprang through the crowd of mourning friends like a mad- man, and ran to the long line of carriages. At their head stood a pair of magnificent horses attached to a landau. A driver in livery sat on the box. The chief rushed up to this driver, exclaiming : "My man, I'm the chief of the fire department. I must reach that fire quickly. The city is threatened with ruin. You have a fine pair of horses — kill them if necessary, but get nie there in fifteen minutes." "This is a private carriage," was the sneering answer. "I didn't ask you whose carriage it was," thundered the chief. "I said to take me to that fire in fifteen minutes — won't you do it?" "I will not," snapped the driver. The words had scarcely passed his lips when the chief sprang on the seat, his big fist suddenly shot from his shoulder, the driver dropped wriggling on the grass and in a moment a magnificent pair of horses, lashed into fury, were dashing through the streets of Chicago. Mistaking him for a madman policemen tried in vain to stop the carriage. Within fifteen minutes he reached the scene and gave the orders which saved the city. The act was a violation of law. And yet for doing it Chi- cago has built a monument to this man. When our fathers got excited about the tax on tea they did unlawful things. They boarded other people's ships, grabbed ^;..y:..>,^- .^»^:.:.^««^w^..«««..,.^^^^. liSLai LYNCH: "YOU HAVE IMPERILED YOUR HONOR AND MY LIFE!"— Act IV. ini.lT OUR N.-ITIOX Oll-liS TO Tllli KI..L\ tea that did not belong to them and (Uinipcd it into the sea. When they finished the job they clinilied upon the shore, rolled up their sleeves and said : "If anybody on this side of the ocean or the other side. don't like the way we handle tea, let them come on." This was a violation of law. It was a highdianded outrage. When Benjamin l-'ranklin, our European (li])lomat, heard of it he gravely informed the coiu't that it was a lie, that no such thing ever happened in Boston harbor, that he knew the peo- ple of Boston, that no such crime could have been committed by them. He soothed the indignation of the court with tlu- assurance that the next ship would bring the news of the affair on which they might rely. A ship did bring news. It was from Bunker Hill. Our fathers broke the law and wrote a better one. Thev were prophets not parrots, men not martinets. They did not talk about their ancestors. They were ancestors. I have been accused of celebrating in The Clansman the glory of a group of daring and successful lawbreakers. I plead guilty to the soft impeachment. The Ku Klu.x Klan was a gigantic conspiracv of lawless night raiders who saved the civilization of the South, and be- queathed it as a priceless heritage to the nation. The conditions which made tliis paradox possible have no parallel in the records of our race. The bloodiest war in history had just closed. The conquered South lay helpless with tlie flower of her manhood buried in nameless .graves. Four million ne.groes had been suddenly freed and the eco- nomic world torn from the foundations of centuries. Five bil- lion dollars' worth of property had been destroyed, every bank had been closed, every dollar of money had become worthless paper and the country had been plundered by victorious armies. With the sympathetic aid even of their foes, the task of reorganizing their wrecked society and controlling these mil- lions of ignorant and superstitions negroes was one to appall the stoutest hearts. Instead of the cooperation of a generous conqueror the South as she staggered to her feet received full in the face a blow so terrible, so cruel, and so pitiless, that it surpasses belief. Such a blow on a disarmed and helpless foe could have been struck but for the tragedy of Lincoln's assassination and the frenzy of insane passion which for the moment blinded the North. Upon the assassination of the President the greatest and meanest man who ever dominated our national life became the master of the Republic. This man, Thaddeus Stevens, was beyond any doubt the most powerful parliamentary leader in all our history. A fanatic, a misanthrope embittered by physical deformity, a born revolutionist endowed with matchless audacity, he became in a moment the bold and unscrupulous ruler of a crazed nation. Twenty-eight years before this crisis he had become infatu- ated with a mulatto woman of extraordinary animal beauty whom he had separated from her husband. This yellow vam- pire had fattened on him during his public career, amassed a fortune in real estate in Washington, wrecked his great am- < I Q Q O a I o p s w D CO O 2^ W o H o < w [/I aa < u z IVHAT OUR NATION OIVES TO rilli KL.tN bitioiis, and made of him a social pariah. This giant among men, whose young soul had learned the pathway of the stars, his cheeks now whitening with the frosts of death, was slowdy sinking with this woinan into the night of ncgroiil animahsni. The crack of a derringer in the box at I'ord's 'J'iieater, and the hand of a machnan suddenly snatched him from the grave and lifted him into the seat of empire witli his negro wench b_\' his side! Mr. Stevens determined to blot the old South fnuii the map, conliscate the property of its citizens, give it to the negroes, deprive the whites of the ballot, send their leaders into beg- gared exile, enfranchise the negro and make him the master of every state from the James to the Rio Grande. If this statement seems an exaggeration, let my reader turn to the Congressional Globe for 1867, p?.ge 203. and read ]Mr. Stevens' Confiscation Act, House Bill No. 29, and his speech in its defence — a speech which will forever light with the glare of innnortal infamy his character and career. He succeeded in enfranchising the negroes, anrl disfranchis- ing enough whites to give them a majority. A reign of terror immediately followed. The men who represented Aryan civilization had to take their choice between rebellion or annihilation. During this period in South Carolina 80,000 armed negro troops, answerable to no authority save the savage instincts of their officers, terrorized the state and not a single white man was allowed to bear arms. Hordes of former slaves, with the intelligence of children and the instincts of savages, armed with modern rifles, paraded daily before their former masters. The children of the breed of Burns and Shakespeare, Drake and Raleigh had been made subject to the spawn of an African jungle. \\'hen Goth and Vandal overran Rome and blew out the light of civilization they never dreamed the infamy of raising a black slave to rule over his white master and lay his claws upon his daughter. Could modern flesh and blood endure it? No. The spirit of the South suddenly leaped forth, "half startled at herself, her feet upon the ashes and the rags," her hands tight-gripped upon the throat of tyrant, thief and beast. The Ku Klux Klan, a secret oath-bound brotherhood, rose, disarmed every negro and restored Aryan civilization. The secret weapon with which they strucl< was the only one at their command, and it was the most efficient in the history of revolutions. The movements of these white and scarlet horse- men were like clockwork. They struck shrouded in a mantle of darkness and terror, and they struck to kill. Discovery or retaliation was impossible. Their edicts were executed as by destiny without a word, save the whistle of their Night Hawk, the crack of his revolver, and the hodf-beat of swift horses, moving like figures in a dream, and vanishing in mists and shadows. The Southern people in their despair had developed the courage of the lion, the cunning of the fox, and the deathless faith of religious enthusiasts. With magnificent audacity, infinite patience, and remorseless zeal, a conquered people turned his own weapon against their conqueror, and beat his brains out with the bludgeon he had placed in the hands of their former slaves. And so a lawless band of night raiders became the guardians < J < i4 W Q O a Pi o IVII.-IT OUR NATION OWES TO THE KL.IX of society, brought order out of chaos, law out of lawlessness and preserved the Aryan race in America from the corruption of negroid mongrelism. Had the South in that crisis become mulatto, the nation would inevitably have sunk to its level. The future of this nation depends on the strength and puritv of our white racial stock ; for this Republic is great, not by rea- son of the amount of dirt we hold or the size of our census roll. W'c have become great for one reason only : because of the genius of the race of pioneer white freemen who settled this continent dared the might of kings and made a wilderness the home of freedom. (i[l)p Aiupriran ^rl|ool of piaguirtttng HY MAIL FIFTH YEAR MONTHLY PAYMENT There are schools for the teaching of painting, mvisic and other arts- Playwriting is an art. Can you give any sane reason why it cannot be taught ? This was the first school of the kind established in the world. It is securing the attention and cooperation of the best minds. Perhaps you have been writing "plays" for years, never by the remotest chance disposing of one. Has it never occured to you that your knowledge of the art is fatally defective ? It requires as much time to learn it as Law or Medicine. SIR HENRY IRVING: "You may be the mightiest genius that ever breathed, but if you have not studied the art of writing for the stage you will never write a good acting play." Mr. Thomas Di.xon, Jr., a man of genius, open minded and clear- sighted, author of " The Clansman," a play that is turning people away at every perfomiance, kindly writes : yw^ ^ FOR CIRCULAR, ^DDREiS: W. T. PRICE 1440 BROADWAY [NEW YORK CITY "Ufje SechniQue of the Drama/' by IV. T. Price $1.50: "Brentano's or as aboVe ®If^ Ollansman By THOMAS DIXON, Jr. THE PLAT THA r IS STIRRING THE NA TION