along comes these rich men who don't have to make no livin', an' they tell us all that we must not fish in the lake any mo', 'cause they owns the lake an' the fish God put theah foh us. It jus' nachally ain't right, stranger; it ain't no justice."
This is the Night Riders' original view, but the primary object of the band was forgotten by many, officers say, and the organization began to use its persuasion to vent the personal spites of members and to regulate private affairs of many persons for miles around.
For instance, merchants whose total sales did not exceed $2 a day were ordered to sell goods at cost, plus 10 per cent profit; tenants of farms were ordered to pay no cash rent, but to insist on working the ground on shares; growers of grain or 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 had left her drunken husband was ordered to return to him, and when she refused she was taken to the woods, stripped, tied to a tree and lashed with a cat-o'-ninetails 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 of the black-masked crew, a swift, violent seizure of the recalcitrant, a rapid ride to the depths of the forest and an awful whipping.
For nearly two years these terrors of the wilderness rode nightly. For two years no man not a member ever retired to rest without breathing a silent prayer that he and his family be spared the terrors of a midnight visitation.
Then the riders extended their operations. They began to visit the larger towns, such as Troy, Dyersburg, Union City. This extension was followed by the murder of Captain Quentin Rankin. Finally the people became enraged, the Governor interfered, and in frenzy many persons said:
"We will stamp out this organization, legally or by mobs, or we will be stamped out by it."
And so came a special grand jury, instructed by Judge Jones and advised by Attorney General Caldwell. Quickly, too, came the defiance of the Night Riders:
"Dismiss the grand jury, stop the investigation or we will send jury, judge and prosecutor to join Captain Rankin."
The answer was the numerous arrests of alleged Night Riders by the militia and 125 indictments for capital offences.
