TENNESSEE TERRORISTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9363, 4 February 1909, Page 7

TENNESSEE TERRORISTS.

The trial of a hand of “nightriders,” in Tennessee, has resulted in some startling revelations. By means, of combination they vented the personal spites of members and. regulated the private affairs of many persons for miles around. For instance, says the Daily Telegraph, merchants whose total sales did not exceed 3 dol a day were ordered to sell goods at cost plus 10 per cent, profit; tenants of farms were ordered to pay no cash rents, hut to insist on working the ground on shares; growers of grain and tobacco were ordered to plant only so many acres of soil; landlords were bidden by advertisement not to lease their property for cash rents. A woman who left her drunken husband was ordered to return to him, and when she 'refused, was taken to the woods, stripped, tied to a tree, and lashed with a cat o’ nine tails until her back and shoulders were One big wound. Other women, fond of pretty clothing, were told to cease wearing it, and every case of refusal to comply instantly was followed by a visit from the black-masked crew, a swift and violent seizure of the recalcitrant, a rapid ride to the depths of the forest, and awful whipping. For nearly two years these terrors of the wilderness rode nightly. Then • the riders extended their operations. They began to visit Troy, Dyersburg, and Union Oity. This extension was followed by the order of the murder of Captain Quentin Rankin. Finally, the people became enraged, the Governor interfered, and so came the special grand jury, instructed by Judge Jones, and advised by AttorneyGeneral Caldwell. Quickly, too, came the defiance of the Night-riders: “Dismiss the grand jury, stop the investigation, or we will end jury, judge and prosecutor to join Captain Rankin.” The answer was numerous arrests of alleged Night-riders, by the militia, and 125 "indictments for capital offences with results as cabled. It was a struggle between organised lawlessness and the forces of order.