The sun., 1904-08-21
BROOkLYN ADVERTISEMENTS.
EA DandruG Cured. Examination Free.
AOr. John AUGUST. 90 syssI,,,s9. yssT; M.'r
E,d1 Rejuvcnator. - TRIAL BOTTLE, 7Sc.
kWA sos Fulton St. opp. Flatbush av., B'klyn.
Drug and Department Stores have IT,
BLACKMAILERS FROM SICILY,
JUST NOW THE FOREMOST ISSUE
IN LITTLE ITALY.
The ManninO Kidnapping Only sample
OF the Operations They Have Been
Carrying On-How They Brought Their
system OF ExtOrtiOn Here From Italy.


II you will go some evening into one OF
the little cafes in Little Italy, where they
sell cup of black coffee for two cents or
a bootleg of claret for a nickel you are
likely to see a group Of rather elaborately
dressed Italians sitting at table by them
selves. They wear much jewelry and
have an air Of general prosperity. You
notice that the ordinary italian who drops
in for his coffee or claret leaves them
strictly alone and hunts scat in the corner
Of the room furthest away from them.
Although these prosperous looking Ital-
ians order the best that the house can give
them, no one ever sees them pay for it..
when they are ready to go, they brush in
solenty past the waiter and the proprietor,
The other Italians look after them and
talk rapidly under their breath, and you
catch the word -Sioilia.'
These well dressed men are Sicilian para
sites, the terror OF the italian colony and
just now the foremost issue in Little Italy.
The series Of blackmailing outrages which
eliminated this summer in the Mannino
kidnapping has brought the matter to
general attention, but these crimes OF ex-
tortion have been going on quietly for two
years or moreover since Sicilian immigra-
ton became general. Nearly year ago
a prominent Italian prophesied that the
colony would soon have to do something
toward purging itself of Siciian influence.
The first Italian emigrants came to New
York from the southern part OF the
mainland. They were mostly peasants,
ignorant, but honest and industrious. They
were the original hand-organ men who
have now grown into the property owners
OF the East Side.
After them came Neapolitans and finally
Romans While there was a Sicilian now
and then, the people of that province did
not begin general emigration until about
four or five years ago.
Sicily. Corsica and Sardinia have always
been noted for brigandage and crimes Of
violence. Corsican vendettas and Sicilian
abductions have been the theme Of novels
from time immemorial, but the Sicilian
system Of blackmail and extortion has been
less known. For the criminal OF that district
is natural blackmailer, just as the Nea-
politan criminal is a natural expert pick
pocket
Sicily is the garden Of Italy, beautiful
region noted for It's flowers and lemon
groves. The land IL held mainly in small
tracts. which have been owned by the
same families from time immemorial.
The Sicilian is naturally ease loving and
rather lazy. He Is somewhat cowardly.
too. and easy to bully-so say the other
Italians
And 30 for centuries q big element in the
population has lived without work upon
the earnings OF the lemon farmers. These
criminals are organized in bands. They
demand and receive regular tribute from
their victims, a stated percentage upon
the earnings of the land.
Sometimes they kill farmer by way Of
enforcing discipline. These occasional mur-
ders prevent the farmers from complain
ing to the police.
Sicily is heavily populated province,
and the pickings OF the brigands, while
sufficient to keep them in idleness. are
police started to break up the blackmail-
ing habit a few years ago. While the higher
officials Of Italy are often corrupt, these
Sicilian policemen. who work for something
like 40 cents a day, are described as re-
markably honest and efficient
They secured the passage Of very strin-
gent law against vagranoy. They tracked
several of the largest gangs to their strong
holds, arrested them and secured con-
victions for long terms. While they did
not stop brigandage and blackmail en-
tirely, they made them Improbable.
A few years ago some enterprising Sicil-
ian criminals heard about the prosperous
Italian colony OF New York. They emi-
grated and found happy hunting ground
here in the city.
The Sicilian aboreris paid 40 cents day.
The Italian laborer in New York gets 81. 80.
Men in easy circumstances in Sicily were
neve" good hunting for blackmailers, be-
cause they had the intelligence and courage
10 report any matchmaking demands to the
police, In New York, on the other hand,
many of the padrones and well-to-do mer-
chants are but one step removed from the
peasant and have still the peasants fear Of
Siciian criminals.
The profits of these first blackmailers
were enormous. They passed the good
thing along. Immediately the hard citi-
zens OF Palermo and the orchard country
near Mount Etna started for New York.
This thing has been going on for four
or five years" said prominent Italian the
other day. There were sporadic cases
before, but II was not a regular industry
as II is now.
"The blackmailers are all Sicilians. do
not mean to say that all Siciians are black
mailers. There are many honest, hard
working men from that province in New
York Nevertheless, the bad ones have
Created a general prejudice against all
1cilans, so that our countrymen shun
Deople from that province have known
men to be blackballed in Italian societies
for no other reason than that they came
from Sicily.
There are thousands OF them living in
New York on the blood-money wrung from
my countrymen. They dress well, live on
the best that Little Italy affords, and are
never known to work
They have many ways OF getting money.
The most common is plain extortion. They
a man who is known to have
money and demand a certain sum, threaten
ing to kill him il he doesn't hand 1t over,
and 10 kill him anyway II he tells.
They have positive genius for picking
men who haven't the nerve to give them
away. When such an affair does come to
the knowledge Of the police it is because