Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-03
THE MAFIA AT HOME.
Not a Single Secret Society but Q
General Understanding.
INDlVIDUALIsM Is ITS SOURCE.
It Has Various Grsdations as Strict q
Those Of the Nobility.
SYSTEMATIC STEALING OF CATTLE

The tragedy at New Orleans. and the In
terest It has created-in those organizations Of
the criminal associations of Sicily collect
lively known as the Malta, has induced .
correspondent Of the London Times to send
from Rome an interesting account of the
Malta.
This is not, he says, like the analogous
Camorra of Naples, q complete and single
organization, but secret understanding Of
Sicilians for robbery, murder, Yendets
ia and revolt against the present or any
organized Government. In one section of
the island it takes one form, and in another
q very different one. Italian writers are dis
posed to trace its origin back to the police
Of the baronial period, when every noble
had his band Of bravoes and was at war with
his neighbors, but the roots or the Malta are
in the character of the people. Slcilianf
are Greeks, and have most of the vices Of
the Greek character, and among these
chiefly that of an exaggerated individual.
ism, an indifference to the general good 30
long as the individual advantage is found
nearer at hand, and none of their govern
ments, down 10 the Garibaldian, had any
higher idea Of government than to make use
Of the vices of the people to keep them un-
der.
The System Of Land Ownership.
The Italian writers on the Malta regard
the system of land ownership as one of the
principal agencies in keeping it alive. The
Latifondi, or immense tracts of land under
one ownership, through which you may
travel miles without seeing human habi-
tation, render the policing of the country
extremely difficult and the hiding of the
outlaws easy, while the wide separation of
fha, 49, II Al
tates, due to the general social organization
and the extreme poverty of the latter, gives
the largest range of opportunity, which is
often provocation sufficient for crime. The
proprietor, resident in the cities on account
of the insecurity of the estate, farms out the
product of it to gabellotto, much on the
terms that an Irish landlord would get if
the Land League ruled.
The gabellotto, perhaps sublets ii, but in
any case must supervise its cultivation,
and, to be in security, must stand well with
the Malta. He has his soprastaute, or
superintendent. who BY force of character
has risen from the lower ranks Of labor.
Nor to his promotion was it enough that he
was laborious, jealous, attached to his
patron and we'll acquainted with the busi-
Eess; it is necessary tina. he should be en-
ergetic, brutal, ready for blow, instant to
respond to an insult. of wide acquaintance
with the Malta and have had at least a
couple of questions with justice. He has
won his position by crimes of capital de-
gree and keeps it at any cost.
A Peculiar Sort of Department.
The Malta has its grades as clearly de-
fined as those of the nobility. At the roots
of it is sort of department. which is recog-
nized as the first qualification, called Om-
erta, Mafiote abstraction of morality, sui
loE L. In
special code (which establishes as the first
duty OF a man to do himself justice with
his own hands for all injuries received, and
stamps with infamy and holds up to public J
execration and public vengeance whoever
appeals to justice or assists its operation"
The manutengoIo is the lowest member
of the Malta. He is the friend who hides or
feeds or aids the active agent in crime, the
proprietor who allows the brigand or mur-
derer to shelter in the farmhouses and even
warns him of the movements of the police,
generally from fear of his person or his
property; or sometimes the citizen who bribes
or threatens the jury when the prisoner ia
brought to justice. The next grade is the,
malandrino. This is a positive criminaI,l
and often of the worst type. "He lives, in '
appearance, honestly, has business. is reg
ular in his life, and is citizen in full pos
session of the rights and privileges as sue
But in reality he is the organizer, the di
ector of the bands of brigands He protec
and aids them morally and materially, an,
cheats them of their booty. II by rare
chance he is discovered and is likely to be
be takes to the mountains him.
self"
Extensive Stealing Of Cattle.
The form of crime in which the Malta en-.
erts the greatest influence on the general
po1i af he 81 e.
as the abigeato, cattle stealing on large
scale, in which the completely of different
classes of the population is most required.
The Matiote Of high rank is spared on con-
dition Of his silence, but even those who ara
obsequlous to the organization are not over
looked. The victims are generally the less
wealthy owners of herds, who have little
power to make their rights respected, and
who do not dare make complaint to the au-
thorities for fear of worse. The cattle, when
stolen. are driven to hiding places remote
from their pastures, and in some secret spot
butchered, the skins and offal buried or de-
posted in a cave, and the animal, quartered,
sold to the butcher of some village or town
in the vicinity at price which gives O trlb-
ute to the completely of the receiver.
The meat is sold in secret and the inhabi-
sants. though assured by the price of its dis
honest origin, do not hesitate to buy il, and
The police, if BY chance they find that the
meat had not been acquired regularly, 6nd
no one ready to aid in tracing the origin Of
Z, but many to depose that the bollo to show
It's purchase had been lost, or that the meat
lad been bought of some passing vendor
or, with all the ingenious regulations to
prevent the selling Of stolen meat, there are
always more ingenious devices and more
false swearing to prove that ID
vas not stolen.
The Worst Feature of IL
But the worst of the Malta is not In the
tealing Of cattle or in the levying OF black.
nail; the ultimate and inevitable Develop
nent Is into associations Of criminals or
,anized for any crime and sworn to obey
he orders of a chief, who is naturally the
worst OF the band, with an obedience un-
lesitating and unquestioning. The statutes
re, with slight differences, as follows:
Obedience, blind, prompt, unhesitating to
he chiefs; absolute silence as to the mem-
'ership and their enterprises; assistance,
noral, material, and pecuniary, TO the
olleagues, especially when they are in
,rison; reference of all questions to the !.
hief and never to appeal to the law. The
Of one of these rules is treason,
nd the chiefs have no variety of penalties,
ut apply one, quick, sure, exemplary. and
But there is no affair too trivial and none
90 great for the Malta to take under its
Is there an auction? The bidders
aust pay the Maiotes for their abstention
rom the bidding, or withdraw If a Maiote
neans to purchase. Is Mafiote q candi-
ate In the elections? It is made clear that