It was a lovely February day as Sara walked down Sixteenth Street, Washington—clear, cool, with silvery sunshine. Sara was appropriately garbed in a squirrel coat and hat, pearl-gray hose, and gray suede slippers. Her gloves matched her eyes, and her manner was sedate. She walked down to Pennsylvania Avenue, looked at the White House casually, and then sauntered on to the New Willard. Her color was so imperceptible that she walked in unhindered and strolled through the lobby. Mrs. Therwald was not in, she was informed by the room clerk. She talked with a bellboy, and when Mrs. Therwald entered, observed her from afar, carefully and at her leisure. She was a big florid woman, boldly handsome, but beginning to show age. About a quarter of an hour after she had taken the elevator, Sara sent up her card and letter of introduction from the wife of a prominent white Chicago politician.
Mrs. Therwald received her. She was a woman thoroughly bored with life, and Sara looked like a pleasant interlude. They were soon chatting easily. Sara intimated that she wrote for magazines and newspapers and that she had come to see the wife of a celebrity.
“Oh, no—we’re nothing.”
“Oh, yes—the Klan is a power and bound to grow—if it acts wisely.”
“I really don’t know much about it. My husband is the one interested.”
“I know—and that brings me to the second object of my visit—Matthew Towns.”
Mrs. Therwald was silent several seconds—and then: “Matthew Towns? Who—”
“Of course you would not remember,” said Sara hastily, for she had noticed that pause, and the tone of the question did not carry conviction. “I mean the porter who was sent to the penitentiary for the attempted wreck of the Klan Special.”
“Oh, that—scoundrel.”
“Yes, There is, as perhaps you know, a great deal of talk about his silence. He must know—lots of things. I think it rather fine in him to shield—others. I hope he won’t break down in jail and talk.”
Mrs. Therwald started perceptibly.
“Talk about what?” she asked almost sharply.
Sara was quite satisfied and continued easily.
“Well, about the black conspirators against the Ku Klux Klan—or the white ones, because they are more likely to be white. Or he might gossip and just stir up trouble. But I think he’s too big for all that. You know, I saw him and talked to him—really handsome, for a colored man. Oh, by the by—but of course not. I was going to ask if by any possibility you had seen him on the train.”
“I—I really don’t know.”
“Of course you wouldn’t remember definitely. But to come to the point of my visit: certain highly placed persons are convinced from new evidence, which cannot be published, that Towns is a victim and not a criminal. They are therefore seeking to have Towns pardoned, and I thought how fine it would be if you could induce your husband and some other high officials of the Klan to sign the petition. How grateful he would be! I think it would be the biggest and fairest gesture the Klan ever made, and frankly, many people are saying so. In that case, if he is a conspirator, he could be watched and traced and his helpers found. And then, too, think of his gratitude to you!”
Sara left the petition with Mrs. Therwald, and they talked on pleasantly and casually for another half-hour. Miss Andrews “would stay to tea”? “But no—so sorry.” Sara said that she had stayed already much longer than she had planned, and hoped she had not bored Mrs. Therwald with her gossip. In truth she did not want to let the lady eat with one who, she might later discover, was a “nigger.” They parted most cordially.
Mrs. Therwald happened a week later to say casually to her husband:
“That Towns nigger that they sent to jail—don’t you think he’d be safer outside than in? He seemed a decent sort of chap on the trip. I was thinking it might be a shrewd gesture for the Klan to help free him.”
Her husband looked at her hard and said nothing. But he did some thinking. That very day the white Democrats of Chicago had complained to the Klan that their small but formerly growing Negro vote was disappearing because of the Klan meeting and the Towns incident. Illinois with its growing Negro vote would be no longer a doubtful state politically unless something was done. How would it do to free Towns?