The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-07
uaTgleTita's Vendetta.
BY MARIE B. WILLIAMS.

W Orleans young Sicilian, Luigi Rossi, was killed on the New Years eve of 1882. An American gentleman who was arrested for the murder proved by the testimony of companion that while he was returning late from some festivity, he was assaulted by Rossi, and killed him in self-defense.
 He was honorably acquitted, but he remembered with remorse that he him. self had been drinking freely that night, and, as he was coming rapidly round a corner, Rossi had stumbled against him.
 He cursed the Sicilian, and he was by no means certain in his own mind that he did not strike him with his fist. At any rate, in spite of his friends testimony, the city became hateful to Charles Stannard after this tragedy, and he settled in another part of the state.
 The affair passed out of the minds of people, but among the Sicilians it was vivid memory. Over the body of her brother, her only relative, Mar gherita had been led to take the oath of the vendetta.
 "You are only girl, it is true," said Manuel Salcetti, the head of the Sicil- ians, "and you are but fourteen but some day you will be a woman, and on you, as Luigi's only. blood kin, the vow of the vendetta is laid. Wherever you meet the murderer, even if you know that your own life will be the penalty, you are sworn 10 avenge your brother. Do you know what will happen to you if you break your yowI"
 "Luigps spirit will curse mel" sobbed the girl. "My people will drive me out, and if starve, they will give me no bread; if am sick, they will turn from me. They will cry @Maledicta' when they meet me, and when I am dead they will spit on my grave, and Say 'Maledicta' over it."
 "You know your lesson, girl" said Manuel, sternly. "You have lost one brother, but we will all be your brothers, and help to your revenge"
 Perhaps the readers of the Compan- ion think the vendetta, or VOW of ven- geance, belongs to an older day and a different country from ours. It hardly seems possible that in the nineteenth century, and in an American city, such relic of savage period can live and flourish; but we in New Orleans know that it is as common among the Corsican and Sicilian population as it is on the soil which originated it and made revenge holy obligation.
 There are mysterious murders in their quarters, where, one by one, a whole family are killed. Law is powerless to bring the criminals to trial or to identify them, for they all band together to protect and hide the guilty. It is point of honor, too, with the family and friends of the victims never to give information against their enemies, nor appear in court as witnesses against them. They will bide their time and kill them some day, but they would scorn to denounce them.
 Margherita grew up handsome, high-spirited girl. She had no rela- tives, but her people never suffered her to want. She kept the name oi HUI uIOtACk D oldyCA III lltti0 lOCk0t she wore round her neck, and would look at it, grind her teeth, and renew her VOW of vengeance. The VOW did not require that she should pursue Charles Stannard into another coun. try. She was too poor for that, and besides, she needed the help of hel friends in her vendetta; but she held herself in readiness for him when he should return to the city, which he might do any day.
 She learned English, so that she could make inquiries among the Amer. jeans, and few who noticed the hand. some Sicilian at her fruit-stall 1T Canal street, dreamed that she hai consecrated herself to such purpose
 She had never seen Mir. Stannard but many of her people knew him vel by sight, and when he returned ther would be enough to identify him. St she waited in stern patience.
 The hot summer of 1886 brough fatal illness to the Sicilian quarter Margherita was one of the first vic tims, and as the family in which sh lived were all i'll, at the urgent reques of the physician who attended her, sh was removed to hospital. Asa rule the Sicilians prefer to be sick, and TO cover or die, in their own quarters not the most salubrious in the city but Aargherita had no kinsfolk to re monstrate.