The record-union., 1894-06-04
MURDEROUS FOREIGNERS.
They Slay Each Other For Very
Trivial Causes.
Crime In the Coal Regions of Pennsyl-
vanfa Hard to Deal With-Hungar-
fans. Poles, slays and Italians, and
the Way They Live.

1t is evident that the authorities OF the
Pennsylvania coal fields are confronted
by task to speedily suppress the cpl
demic ofcrime which has been practically
unchecked and is constantly growing.
Murders have been of almost daily occur
renee, while small robberies and minor
crimes have been actually beyond num-
ber. as no attention was paid TO them, and
no record kept of their frequent occur
renee in Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill
Counties.
Despite the efforts of the police they
are unable to find sufficient evidence in
three out of four murders to arrest any
body whom they may suspect of the
crime.
There were twelve murderers in Lu-
zerne County Jail in 1892 awaiting trial.
Of these four were found guilty in the
second degree, Or of manslaughter, and
the others discharged. The same year
the newspapers show there were thirty
four murders known to have been COM
mitted within the county limits, and the
number of suspected murders was nearly
as large.
Eighteen men were before the court on
the charge of murder last year. The pro-
portion of convictions was about the
same as the year before. The cases in
which no arrests were made bordered
closely on fifty.
MURDER IS INCREASING.
Though five months have not passed,
this year shows an alarming increase in
the number of murders. Already ten
men have been on the trial list for this
crime. The police have reported some
thirty cases on which they have worked
unsuccessfully, and nearly two dozen
men have mysteriously disappeared, and
it is supposed they have been waylaid and
done away with, as no trace OF them has
ever been found.
The outside world knows little OF the
criminal classes of the coal regions. who
come from Hungary, Poland and Italy.
To them may be traced directly nine
tenths of the murders and robberies in
this section.
The Welsh. Irish, English or American
miners are hard-working, rough but
intelligent and peaceable class, who rarely
cause any trouble, and were the mines
worked entirely by them the reign of
lawlessness at present existing would
cease. The Huns, Slavs and Italians who
come to the coal fields represent the low
est orders of their own countries. Most
of them have been compelled to flee from
their homes for crimes committed there,
and they bring their Stilettos or reyolvers
with them, and seldom miss occasion to
use them here.
NEVER BECOME AMERICANIZED.
These foreigners remain foreigners.
They do not become AmericaniZed,
though they may take out papers OF natu-
ralIzation solely for the political gain
thereby accruing; they are actuated by
none of the grand principles Of liberty,
though widely awake TO the advantages
of personal liberty. They come here to
work in the mines for 81 or 81 % day,
live on food which would starve another
class of men, and in four, five or six
years collect 81 900 or $1,000, and, if the
law does not prevent them, return to
their own country with this fortune.
The Huns. Slavs and Italians live in
manner particularly advantageous to the
propagation of crime. They congregate
in settlements, each class by itself, and
horde together in small two or three
room houses like cattle.
In Hungarian boarding house there
are usually two rooms, with no designa-
ton such as kitchen or bedroom. There
is a stove a table and bed. The board
ing-house keeper and his wife occupy the
bed, the boarders sleep on the floor, on
piles of straw, with blanket or two over
them. No articles of apparel are re-
moved, unless the boarder is unusually
1astidious; then be pulls off his boots.
the blankets nor the straw are removed
from one years end to the other.
Perhaps mining engineer was not ex-
aggerating when he said; You can scent
a hungarian settlement before you see it,
and you do not have to be near sighted
either.'
Living under these conditions, it is not
surprising that there are so many quar-
rels and free fights. The people are ex-
ceedingly clannish. Sometimes in these
fights the occupants of one boarding.
house are arrayed against those of an
other. Then the men of one settlement
have grievance against the residents of
one nearby; invariably pitched battle is
the result and somebody is hurt.
PAY DAY BREEDS FIGHTS.
Perhaps the one time in the month most
prolific of these fights is pay day night
The mine pay car reaches the breaker in
tie afternoon, the men are paid, and have
holiday the rest of the day. No sooner
is the pay envelope torn open than the
recipient goes to his favorite saloon and
begins drinking ''polinky." This is a
whisky to which Jersey lightning' is
mild in comparison. To ''polinky" may
be traced the majority of the crimes, for
there is no Hun so dangerous as a
drunken Han, and, like the Indian, none
80 good as dead one.
The Hun who sober is a quiet, harm
" q
perfect flend incarnate, fearing neither
God, the devil nor the Constable. He is
longing for a fight every nerve within
him is trembling for the excitment of a
clash at arms with any one or every one
This condition is generally reached
about or 10 O'Clock on pay night, and to
to use the words of Constable who once
attempted to quell one of the fights, ''then
hell commences, and such a hell that Old
Nick hims elf couldn't stand" The
drunken Hun would at first hugely en-
Joy mild fight in which his Ists and
heavy boots are the weapons, but before
long clubs are trumps and in the end
pistols and knives are drawn, and 1t is
only when blood has been split that the
fighting ardor cools, and by that time
probably one or two men are dead and
several badly hurt.
Christening and wedding celebrations
hold the record for mortality next TO pay
day nights, and besides these there are
dozens and dozens Of causes which lead
to fight and the death or injury of some
one.
OFFICERS DO NOT INTERFERE.
The officers of the law seldom attempt
to stop these affairs, which are confined
exclusively to the settlements. The
morning following they go around, find
q dead body and then commence the al
most useless task OF trying to find who is
responsible for the crime. They ques-
ton the boarding house people, who
know nothing; they ask the neighbors,
whose ignorance is quite as marked;
they ask every body in the attempt TO get
information. The reply may be summed
up in the three words. in which the Hun
always takes refuge when IN the hands of
the law: Me no know" This reply is
universal and officers are nonplussed.
They may make half a dozen arrests
they usually do in order to get their fees
the prisoners are brought to Jail in this
city and live at the expense of the county
l,r-r fiI11e a nd then nra diSnl1n rrafi