This suggestion was well received by the others, and they agreed to meet the following night to hear McBryan's report from the priest. When they met the next evening McBryan reported that the priest was favorable to all of the selections except one, whom he knew to have expressed anti-Catholic sentiment. The name of this man was dropped and another substituted.
During the following three weeks Springer announced the names of these men as candidates. It would not do to announce them all at once as the public might suspect a secret caucus.
These leaders went to work at once to elect their candidates. Rastus Jones was the colored janitor of the Wilford Springs Central State Bank. He was a good janitor and prided himself on the fact that he was the janitor of the "biggest bank in Wilford Springs." Like most members of his race, he was superstitious and possessed an imagination that became very active under the stimulus of fear.
"Rastus," said Stover as the janitor was straightening things in his office, "what do you think of the race for mayor?"
"Law, Mistah Stover, I don't know much about elections. I ain't no politician."
"What do the colored folks think of the candidates for mayor?"
"I hears a heap o' them say that they's goin' to vote for Mistah Greene—that he's a powerful good man."
"Do they talk that way, Rastus?"
"Yes, sar, lots of them do."
"Rastus, you tell your friends that if they vote for Greene they are working against their own interests. Greene is in favor of the Ku Klux Klan."