Harold the Klansman
BY
GEORGE ALFRED BROWN
THE WESTERN BAPTIST PUBLISHING COMPANY
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
1923
Copyright, 1923
by
George Alfred Brown
NEODESHA, KANSAS
All Rights Reserved
As a tribute of love and in appreciation of her encouragement and helpin my various lines of labor I respectfully dedicate this volume to mywife, Lela Lockhart Brown.
G.A.B.
PREFACE
The purpose of the author in writing this story is to furnish thepublic with reliable information about the Ku Klux Klan, and at thesame time give entertainment. It is also hoped that Klansmen who readthis story will be given a greater appreciation of the Invisible Empire.
While this is essentially a work of fiction, yet the principles as hereelucidated are the true principles of the Ku Klux Klan.
Statistics quoted in this story are accurate and quotations credited toreal persons are correct. The story as a whole is fiction but many ofthe incidents are true.
George Alfred Brown.
Neodesha, Kansas,
August 14, 1923.
Chapter I
Ruth Babcock was a heroine. To be sure folk did not think of her asdeserving a place in any catalogue where the names of heroic folk arerecorded. She was known in the community as a girl with a kindly heartand plenty of grit. She was descended from fighting stock—her mother,who had died when she was twelve years old, was the daughter of anex-confederate colonel, Clayton Jameson. She had run away from home tomarry Fred Babcock, the son of Major Babcock of General Sherman's staff.
The Jamesons were opposed to the match. Their family was one of theoldest and most aristocratic of Virginia. They knew nothing of youngBabcock except that he was an intelligent, well mannered young manand the son of a major who had fought against the Southland duringthe war. Caroline Jameson had a number of suitors, scions of "bestfamilies," but, contrary to her parents' wishes, she refused to acceptany of these and insisted on marrying Fred Babcock. When her parentspositively refused to give their consent, she defied them and elopedwith him.
They came West and settled in the town of Zala, where young Babcocksecured employment in the only bank of the town. When the baby cameand Caroline Babcock wrote her parents that they had named their babygirl Ruth, in honor of her mother, the Babcocks received a letter,by return mail, containing a message of forgiveness and blessing andinsisting that they come home on a visit and give the grandparents anopportunity to become acquainted with their granddaughter. In this waythe estrangement came to an end.
Two years before this story opens, when Ruth was eighteen, an eventhappened which brought Ruth, who had just graduated from high school,face to face with the stern realities of life. Her father was at thistime president of the bank where he had worked for twenty years.Through careful economy he had become the principal stockholder. Ruthhad noticed for several weeks that her father was nervous and worried.One night he was called out of bed and had a conference with DickWatson, his cashier, and Jim Stover, the president of