The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-04-13
THE"BLACK HAND"S0CIETY.
RISE AND FALL OF A MYSTERIOUS
ORDER IN SPAIN

Churgcd with Strange Crimcs-Norc
Than 1000 Arrests.
The London TELEGRAPH, speaking of
the arrest of 1000 members of the
"Black Hand Society, gives this ac-
count of an extraordinary organiza-
ton which sprang up recently in
Spain:
Never since the prisons of the
French Revolution sent it's victims in
tumbrils to the guillotine has 50 mot
ley a crowd zen gathered within the
walls of a Jail. Ordinarily noisome
enough, the Andalusian prisons have
now a close resemblance to the Black
Hole of Calcutta. Penned together in
the foul cells, the floor covered with
dirty straw, with a loaf of hard bread
in one corner and a jug of muddy wa
ter in the other, lie, now modify
silent, now swearing and jesting, for
b.dden to throw dice or play cards,
these wild-eyed peasants, some of them
old and white haired, with a blanket
thrown over them, Others of them
young and stalwart, with a cloak
thrown jauntily over their shoulder.
Friends they had outside, for letters
and food found their way into their
midst; and sympathetic crowds gath
cred at the gates bowling for the re-
lease of the prisoners.
There is no more lovely valley in the
world than that in which the city of
Xeres is placed. Luxuriant vegeta-
ton fringes the rivers which traverse
it majestically. Vast herds feed on
the slopes. Wealth untold and still
unsought lies hidden in the rocky soil.
A patient population, accustomed to
poverty, till the fields in patience,
paying to others the fruit of their
labor, earning for themselves a scanty
subsistence. Middlemen of the class
best known in Ireland and in Egypt
gather their rent or serve them with
notices of eviction. Their landlords
are grandees who live in Madrid, buz-
zing round the court of the young
King Alfonso, never moved to visit
their territories in the South.
But there came a time when the
peasants refused to recognize the
claim of the land-owners-refused to
pay rent to the middlemen. Civil
guards and soldiers were sent against
them. Then began a carnival of
crime. Robbery on the highway,
Notwithstanding, inctn liarism, destruc-
ton of vineyards. moonlight attacks
these were for months the burden of
the newspapers. Threatening letters
were received by the authorities; land
wne fled from the rural districts.
Among the wine-growers of Neres the
socialist propaganda had been spread.
MANY murders were reported in
lonely parts of the country;
dozens of people mysteriously dis
appeared. judges came down
with extraordinary powers; civil
guards conducted the most rigid inves-
LEGATIONS, but nothing of Importance
could be learned. At last a servant
called on his master, told him that he
was deputed by a secret society to kill
bilr, and gave information where the
leaders of the society might be found.
On the following night IN attack was
made on a lonely farm; the assailants,
driven off, left one of their number
bel I'd, and he, being at the point of
death, made a confession ~attributing
the deed to the instigation of a secret
society.
Thus was discov, red the ~organi2a-
tioa of The Black Hand" It's lead
ers were a schoolmaster, a smuggler
and a brigand. It's inspiration came
from thedefunct "Internationlle." Its
plan of action was to tempt the dis
contented operatives and farm laborers
into its ranks. offering them relief in
sickness or old age, and promising
that their material condition
should be improved. Within the circle
of casual recruits was formed an inner
circle, which gave itself the name
of "The Black Hand and printed
a black hand On every warning missive
which If sent out. 1t held its sessions
by torchlight, the members wearing
masks. 1t decoyed its victims into
lonely glens, slAw and buried them
there. 1t established secret juntas
over the entire region. and partly by
persuasion, partly by force, compelled
10000 persons to Join its ranks. 1t
boasts that it hal branches in Murcia,
Est-emadura and Portugal, and allies
in every socialistic society in the
world. But as soon as the civil
guards were on its track, and the
wholesale arrests that were made
proved the law to be in earnest, it
vanished rs suddenly a ) il arose.