Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-02
ADDICTED TO iCR|ME
Dangerous italian Colony in
New York.
DOINGS OF THE MALTA
CITIZENS AFRAID OF IT'S SECRET
WORKINGS.
Hard to Find Jurors Who Are Willing
to Try Such Murder
Cases.
DOINGS OF THE MALTA
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

special Correspondence OF Inc Evening Star.
NEW YORK. May i. 1908.
There may be, and no doubt is. a great
deal OF absurd sensationalism in most Of
the yellow newspapers tales Of the power
and development of the Malta. based upon
the recent so-called barrel murder mys-
terry here in New York. But that the
criminal doings Of the low-class Italians
of New York-and 1t is undeniable that
most of them in New York belong to the
most inferior grade Of their countrymen-
have been keeping the courts of New York
more busy during recent years than any
other race of Greater New York coloniZers
is fact well known to everybody who keeps
tab upon such matters over here. Crimes
of violence on the part Of New York Ital-
tans have become SO common that the New
York papers scarcely give them more than
a line or two Of space, even when they at
tain the grade of murder. unless. of course,
there are features in connection with them
capable of horriflc working up with pen
and pencil, as in the case Of the informing
Italian from Buffalo who was recently
tucked away in a barrel by number of
bosom friends in the counterfeiting busi-
ness. 1t Is in no wise an exaggeratfon to
state that rarely day passes upon which
some Italian Is not slaughtered somewhere
within the boundaries of Greater New
York. Such affairs are alluded to by the
newspapers in the most perfunctory terms
Dominica This-or-Tnat, in row with Gfu-
seppe The-Other-Thing over a game of
cards, or woman, or bottle of bad wine,
or forty cents which Dominica believed
Giuseppe owed him, thrust his knife into
Giuseppe's vitals
Murderers Usually Escape.
Almost invariably the perpetrators of such
commonplace murders as those of this
character make their escapes-for the very
simple reason that the police make little
or no effort to get them. If all of the ltal-
ians who engage in deeds of violence over
this way were apprehended. there would
have to be especial jails for them, not to
speak of especial courts to try them. Nor
are the Italian men alone residing In the
various colonies Of their race In Greater
New York given over to the free use OF
the stiletto or the gun upon the slightest
possible provocation. An appalling list OF
murders have been committed over here
during the last twelvemonth by Italian
girls, few of whom had yet got out OF their
teens. Most of these crimes were COM
mitted out Of jealousy, and the perfect IN
difference with which the young murder
esses conducted themselves after being ap-
pretended and when visited by good Wo-
men on comforting missions was something
extraordinary even for the hardened at
taches of the city prisons to witness.
It is mighty hard matter to assemble
Jury in New York to try an Italian Grim
inal. 1t is known to be dangerous work to
serve on such juries. There have been too
many mysteriously slit threats following
that sort of service, and the average New
Yorker Is perfectly familiar with the fact
that he is taking big chance If he gets
his name enrolled on a jury that Is booked
to try an Italian. However exaggerated
the stories as to the vast and sinister
power of the Malta organization may be,
there is a mighty healthy fear of that out
fit over this way.
Change in Their Behavior.
1t has also been widely noted how totally
the manners and conduct Of the Italians
in Greater New York have changed dur
ing recent years. They were, until the be-
ginning of this century, perhaps the most
humble and self-effacing aliens to be found
in this vicinity. One does not have to bark
back very far to remember when the pick
and-Shovel Italian of New York removed
his cap when addressed by person of such
qualified authority as a sparrow cop. and
called the sparrow cop "Nobleman," to the
latter's intense establishment. But a pc
culiar sulkiness and surliness has taken the
place of this one-time humility of deport-
ment Three grimy and gritty Italian la
borers on a sidewalk of New York come
pretty near taking up all the space nova
days and the natives that they meet,
whether they be ladies or not, have to all
but take to the curb. Down in the italian
Quarter"-that Is, the downtown Italian
quarter, not the one In Harlem@is colony
that has all but been cut out by the slum-
mers in recent years. The Italians are the
only colonized aliens In New York who so
vehemently resent the visitations even of
substituting summers that they
have actually got into the habit of throw
ing offal upon their clothing, Or in plenty
of other instances, actually attacking them
with violence.
It is of course, no indictment Of the
great and Iovable Italian people Of the bet
ter sort to state that some of the most
thoughtful men of New York have express
ed the recent opinion that the gates of the
United States should be as firmly barred
against the sort of italians who have been
descending upon this port during the past
quarter Of a century, but particularly dur
ing the past ten years, as they have been
against the Chinese. At that. any New
Yorker who has half an idea what he talks
about would be laughed at If he publicly
stated over here that the Chinese quarter,
as It now stands in New York, Is a more
undesirable colony than the main Italian
quarter. The Chinese are distinctly and de-
cidedly cleaner in their quarter than the
Italians, for one thing. and, for another,
their violations Of the laws and ordinances
of New York are few and far between. You
very rarely see Chinaman in a New York
police court, and, when you do, he is more
often the complainant than the defendant.
The Chinese in the New York quarter have
got quiet little methods or getting hunk
with each other in accordance with the rules
and regulations of their companies, but
they are not necessarily violent nor insist
emily vicious
New Scheme Of Graft.
A new dodge that skillful young man
successfully put through couple of weeks
ago over here must have netted him quite
neat little sum. He went to each and
every typewriter renting agency on Man
haitian Island, and at each establishment
rented machine, being careful to select
only such machines as had that new look
He rented each of them for a term Of two
weeks, and paid, of course, in each instance
the two weeks rental in advance-he
couldn't have rented them otherwise He
had them all sent to room which he had
rented particularly for the purpose after
having given as a reference the head of a
loan and investment company" with an
Office in lower Broadway. The investigators
Of the references found the loan and in
vestment' Office to look pretty fair, even
If it did consist of only one room. and the
boss of the loan and investment" COM
pany was all but effusive in his indorse-
ment of the young man who had rented
the machines.
The machines were sent to the young
49,