The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-26
CITY OF CRUEL CRIME.
ApTENA. ITALY, IS THE WICKED
EST PLACE IN THE WORLD.

n Nursery for Murder-Four Thous-
and People, All of Whom Are
CriminaIs-HamIeti in the Volscinn
MAINTAINS where Crime Is Bred
in the Inhabitants.
Rome Letter in Chicago Inter-ocean.
Armed with a government commission.
Cesare Lombroso and other renowned
Students of criminology have turned their
trenton to the little city of Artena, in
he Volscian mountains, some forty miles,
bs the crow flies from the capital. Lom-
broso will write book on Artena.
M This town of 400 inhabitants lives in
history as the southern hatching-oven of
.vi,doers and felons. AS long as four and
4, half centuries ago Carrodo Celtic said
of its citizens: mo possible punishments
can deteFthem from heaping up crime up
on crime for their perversity of mind is
zrnore fertile in inventing new offenses than
the Imagination of judges is in new pun
ishments." And at the period mentioned
Enew-fangled ideas for executing and tor
#turng criminals were almost as plentiful
has such relating to bicycles to-day.
Either for patriotic or geographical rea-
ons, or both, Artena has never figured in
the criminal literature of the present peri
cd, which has branded other places in
Italy as homes of the born delinquent; but
now an overhaunng Of records. ancient and
81 contemporary, by the well known author
tiles on medical Jurisprudence is promised
and We will soon know all about this ro-
mantle spot, where assassins grow wild
"a where far-browed mothers educate their
B children in the noble art of cutting threats
Il and where revenge is the prayer on the
n lips of young and old.
Meanwhile your correspondent has done
little investigating on his own hook TO
Il begin with he ascertained that while the
crop of murders-aud this does not in
q clude homicides or mere manslaughter-in
3 the whole of Italy is on a ratio of thirty
n to every other kind of 10000 deaths in the
kingdom, nearly per cent. of the men,
q women and children buried in the noun
tain cemeteries of Artena year by year,
4 die by violence. And let the reader re-
member here that the Italian national
Il murder crop is the largest in the civilized
q world being four and half times larger.
4 for instance, than that of Great Britain
n which is not reckoned among the gentlest
countries.
The 1900 citizens of this town are. ac-
N cording to the Mayors statements, among
n the hest situated in Italy as far as means
and opportunities for making a steady and
4 poorest of them owning enough rich land
u in the valley to yield all they need, While
the better-to-do families are among the
heavy wheat sellers and spectators of the
n province. That actual want does not exist
3 in Artena was further demonstrated to me
by the surprising fact that during my visit
not single beggar approached me; not
even the children asked for centesimos
Under these circumstances, to which may
be added particularly mild climate one
should imagine that the Artenans were
happy-go-lucky lot, little lazy, perhaps,
but certainly unwilling habltually to walk
the path of the transgressor. Such a sur
mise would completely coincide with the
writings of the Lombrosos, Morrisons, Fer
rises and others, who insist that the ma
jorlty of criminals are bred under anomal-
Gus social conditions. Moreover, 1t would
concur with the latest year book of the
New York state reformatory, which says
that SO per cent. of criminals in New York
came from homes which were positively
bad-that is, where want and abject pow
erty reigned, besides crime, while only 713
per cent. came from homes that were pos
itively good.
So much for pathological theories. AS a
matter of everyday practice, crime -four
ishes in Artena as if the town We're one
immense bagnio, and ats 1000 inhabitants
so many graduates from the gaileys, set
free on lone island to massacre and rob
each other at will.
AS already stated, 2 per cent. of all
deaths in Artena are the outcome of muir
der direct; persons dying of wounds re-
ceived in assaults or by the action of in
cendarism, are not included In the list.
Thefts, street robbery, burglary, and as
saults with stilletto or revolver are mat
terS of such ordinary occurrence in the
town, and in the valley belonging to the
people, that to investigate them all, ac-
cording to the mayor of the city, the
atale 4ttder
have to be increased out of all proportion
to the total number of inhabitants. The
authorities, continued this official, take
notice only of the most atrocious of crimes
brought to their notice by the press Of
the capital, or when non-residents suffer.
This complacent official is the eleventh
successor of a mayor mysteriously muir
dered in Artena in the beginning of 1879.
Ala these mayors were elected for a Pc
Rod of ten years. Three died under the
hands of assassins, two of them in broad
daylight, and on the open market place.
The rest received such wounds as to Grip
pie them for life and make them leave
their post In haste. The present incum-
bent of the office aspires to the distinc-
ton of OUTLYING his term, and 10 that
end goes about his business with ears Sc
curely plugged and eyes shut. As a piece
of general information, he told me that
the number of crimes against life and
property brought to official recognizance
in Artena is fifteen times greater, rela-
lively TO the number of inhabitants, than
IN any other place or district in italy"
Mark the words, official recognizance!'
Everything tends 10 show that almost
the entire population of this mountain
town is imbued with criminal propensties
There is no need of leading an Artenan,
who may have strayed from his or her
environment, into crime by suggestion. All
OF them seem to be possessed of an irri-
ElStiDia passion for itV-rruplfV that
wishes its victim to feel the bitterness of
death. The men and women of Artena are
even wanting in paternal and maternal af-
4ectlon. Vengeance is of their daily pray
er and in deliberateness of criminal pur-
pose they have no equals on the face of
hurope, save, perhaps, in some parts dom
mated by THE unspeakable Turk"
Since the old name of Montefortino was
erased from the map after the fall Of
home and the end of the papal government
IN 1870, three entire families, some of the
OLDEST IN the city, have been completely