Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-12
ITALIANS IN LOUISIANA
Anomalous Conditions That Led to the
Tallulah LNnching


luiah, La. and the ordering away of the
other Italians in Madison parish may
temporarily check. the Italian immigration
INTO north Louisiana and thereby inter-
rlpt a movement which is having an eX
traordinary influence on Louisiana and
promises to hasten a solution of the col
though, is likely to be only temporary.
The Italians seem To be the only race
INA can labor successfully and compete
with the negro in the semi-tropical eli
mate Of Louisiana. They have been ar
irving Tor the last twenty years ut the
rate OF many thousands each year, and
lnc census soon TO be taken will show
that largely because of this immigration
districts and parishes which formerly
mad large majority of negroes are now
white. Among these are plnullemine As.
sumption. Terrebonne, Iberia and ST.
John. The Italian immigration has MAJ.
urally been largest in southern Louisiana
IN the territory around New Orleans
where there is already 4 large Latin pop
nation Thence it has spread into the
northern parishes. where il has met With
far from hearty welcome: but the ltal-
severance of the Chinese. enduring per-
Secution and overcoming prejudice by
mere persistence.
No better evidence could be presented
Of this triumph over bitter prejudice
than is found right here in New Orleans
The Parish prison lynching of eight years
ago was blow from which many
thought the Italian colony of New Or
or 5000 Italians left New Orleans chem.
seeing no hope or future for themselves
here. and settled in Memphis. ST. Louis
Chicago and at other points. But the
Italians have lived down the Hennessy
assassination and the dscretiit of the
Malta, and have more than regained their
former position The Italian colony of
New Orleans has doubled In numbers
since the Parish prison lynching affair.
and in wealth and standing has ad-
vanced far more. It has taken The first
hl ,l,.s -
New Orleans. There are now TWO daily
italian papers in New Orleans, and Sig
nor Enrico Cavalli, the editor of one of
them. the Italo-Americano. is the repre-
sentative appointed by the Italian gov
eminent to investigate the Tallulah
iynching. Schools have been established.
King iiumbert. through the Italian con-
sui. has contributed literally to the sup
port of these schools. which keep alive
love for Italy in the hearts OF its sons.
The status of the lta.ans has been
very much improved OF late. They
dropped the hand organ long ago, and
hey never took TO barbering. shoe clean
ing or street work. as in New York
From cobbling they have brancheG our
INTO the manufacture Of shoes, and they
control some of the largest factories in
t!H Np&th 10 fruit, vegetable and fish
trades they nave absolutely controlled
since they first came. for they are with
out rivals in peddling. They are rapidly
ness. formerly mOnopoliZed by Irishnien
and Germans. and into nearly all lines
even the learned professions. Latterly
hey have been quite conspicuous in POI
tics.
IL is, however in the country districts
that the Italians are making themselves
immigrants are from Naples or Sicily
They are peasants. accustomed to farm
work. and lhey come over here TO work
IN the sugar plantations They come
limited in Sicily and
Naples. The little town of tontessa En-
jeliina. for instance, has more of its citi
Zens in Louisiana than 1T home; and CAT
Ilu. from which came all the men
lyuched in Madison parish the other day,
has several thousand Of its sons and
daughters in Louisiana. The Immigrants
race, willing % work and impervioUs to
he climate. The immigration commits,
sioner At This port declares that the char
acter Of the Italians arriving is steadily
improving. They find work the day they
arrive. Some come over i'll the summer.
work through the grinding season. when
wages are high. and return to Italy in
the winter with their earnings: but this
practice is dying out and IL majority of
the immigrants come TO stay. learn Eng
lish. or something like English. as 5000
rs they can. and apply for naturalization
papers. Not Il few adopt English names
like Brown. Smith or Jones, in order TO
be thorough Americans. They don their
picturesque costumes within week of
heir arrival and pick up a cheap inita
ton of American dress
They make good laborers and give per
feet satisfaction to the planters being
infinitely superior to the negroes. The
Louisiana planters have been for years
trying to get some substitute for the ne
srocs who are not trustworthy. The
Italians come nearest 10 fulfilling all con
ditions. They are well satisfied with
their wages and save money where the
negro cannot. They do not drink and
cause little trouble. They are willing to
live in the same cabins as the negroes
and to work with them in the fields on
equal terms and they work hard and
satisfaction and are rapidly crowding the
negro back from the sugar district In
all the districts Immediately around New
Orleans where the negro furnished nine
tenthS of the labor ten years ago. the
Italians are in a majority today. New
Orleans was a white oasis in the midst of
a population Overwhelmingly negro at -..e
last census; the new enumeration will
show that Plaquemine and ST. Bernard
below. jefferson and ST. John above, Ter
rebonne l.afonrche, Iberia and ST. Mar
that is, have u majority or white popu-
lation-thanks to the immigration of the
Italians and the rapid increase of the
support the southern theory Of white
supremacy" but who are looked down on
with contempt by the americans, the ere
oes and the other white races.
The position of the Italian in Louisiana
is very anomalous because OF the race, or
rather the negro. question. Neither the
whites nor the negroes know how 10
class him-he is, as il were, Il link con-
Meeting the white and black races.
Swarthy in color, the Sclians are dark
er than the critics and ouadroons, the
negro half breeds of southern Louisiana.
but they are undoubtedly white. On the
other hand they are willing TO live in the
same quarters with the negroes and To
work side by side with them. and seem
wholly destitute of that anti-negrO preju-
dice which is one of the distinguishing
features of all the white races in the
South. 1t cannot be said that this att
tude of the Sicilians toward the negro
has won his gratitude He. looks upon
the Italian with pretty much the same
feeling as he entertained of old toward
the poor white trash He has no respect
for the Italian and refuses to treat his
with the respect anrd Difference shown 10
other white men. He will not take off
his hat TO him or call him Mister a
word which Is never applied under any
circumstances to the negro in the South.
even when colonel and judge. are used.
and which the negro always uses of the
whites.
1t is the same with the whites. The aV.
era &c man will classify the population rs
whites dagoes and negroes. This is the
explanation of the lynching of Italians
in Louisiana. Not 80 per cent but 100 per
cent of the white men lynched in this
state have been Italians There have
been wholesale Italian lynchin2s in New
Orleans ST. Charles. St. John and Mad
ison. The unwritten law of the South
is that "a white man shall not be lynched