TENNESSEE TERRORISTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 11, 6 February 1909, Page 5

TENNESSEE TERRORISTS.

WOMAN TIED TO A TREE AND WHIPPED. The trial of a baud of '• night-riders " in Tennessee, has resulted in some startling revelations. By means of combination they ve:iteil 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 2dol. a day were ordered to sell goods at cost plus 111 per cent, profit ; tenants of farms were ordered to pay no cash rents, but to insist on working the ground on shares ; growers of I grain and tobacco were ordered to plant only so many acres „i soil; landlords L were bidden by advertisement not to lease their property for cash rents. A woman who left her drunken husband was ordered to return to hint, and when she refused, was taken iu tne woods, stripped, tied to a tree and litsiied with a eat o' nine tails until her back and shoulders were one big wonnd. 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 L'nitnt City. 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 Attorney-General Caldwell. Quickly, too, came the defiance of the aightriders: " Dismiss the grand jury, stop the investigation, or we will send jury, judge and prosecutor to join Captain Rankin." The answer was numerous arrests of alleged Nightriders by the militia, and 25 indictments for capital offences, with results as cabled. It was a struggle between organised lawlessness and the forces of order.