The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-05-24
FOUND HEAD OF MURDERED MAN


De win tgu you that u.s name Ia
Ramon Luuteni but before ne takes
breath Doe win qualify the statement Dog
saying chat Doe knows his name ia BH-
mon. for ne cam write DO. but Lanteu.
his new uHm. Doe cannot write. for Dee
h.a been going Jo might school only Do
few months. says the San Francisco
Chronicle. Then Hp viii announce
proudly that bis "h1lf brother Joseph
Iautori. can write Dis own name with
uourshos. but Joseph has been going to-
school for three years.
There are life stories adrin along
the vh3rNcs and soawau from Meigg's
wharf to the Pacific Mail dock that are
more strange aud interesting than the
Hctious of Dickens, Poe or Dumas san
Frmcisco's water front is the meeting
place of men of AN nations; there may
Doe found notsam and jetsam from an
races and tribes between the poles and
the East and West Some are dere-
Lets awash, while others are standing
breast high in the human stream and
are lighting their way. Their identity
is ion the undercurrent and reaches the
surface for a moment only on the up
lift of some tragedy. such is the iden-
tity of Ramon, fourteen-year-old
Porto Rican boy who has been taken
into the family of Guiseppi Lanteri Of
81 Broadway.
Joseph Lanteri, pure strain Italian
boy, and the "half-brother" he adopted,
Ramon Lanteri, are the lads who found
the sack containing the dismembered
parts Of Biagio Vilardos body, the man
murdered by Pietro Tortorici; I'm the
absence Of such find the identify Of the
murdered man would, probably never
have been learned. on the witness
stand at the Coroner's inquest they tes-
tilted that they were "half-brothers.'
Joseph Lanteri, II years old, was plain
ly Italian his features a composite of a
long line of forbears. Ramon was dis
tiuctly a modern product Of the West
Indies, his speech a mixture of West
Indian. Spanish and broken English,
punctuated with few Italian phrases.
This led TO questions and the develop
ment of Ramon's story and the fact
that he was no relation to the Lam
ters
Ramon is a native Porto Rican and
has no hesitancy In declaring that he
never had "A father. During the first
few years Of his life he drifeted about
the quays OF San Jaun, out to the to-
bacco and sugar plantations Of his is
land home, then back to the quays
again. Clothing is never an object Of
worry on the part OF youthful West
Indian and if he is hungry are there
not the cane fields bananas and other
fruits? The priests taught him his ca
tecthism and his prayers, and his mot
her taught him to hate the soldiers Of
Spain, who would give him a kick as
pay for running an errand. Then came
a great day when big ships steamed up
and down the front Of the castle and
fired big guns at It, Ramon sat on a
hill and clapped his hands and yelled
when q great cloud Of earth and stone
told that shell had struck home. Then
nc sat on the same hill and shouted
curses and jibcs and jeers at the Span
ish soldiers passing hurredly along the
road below him on their retreat to the
interioi. Then he kept pace with the
American commons i'm pursuit for he
knew the probable rendezvous of the
Spanish, and besides the Americanos
fed him and did not kick him out Of
their way and he joyed in the little
cannons that whir-r-red streams Of
bullets raising the dust ON the hill
ahead and sending the Spaniards to
cover.
Those great times were soon ovei
and Il en- Ramon learned that he must
wear clothing and work if he wanted
to eat and to go to school. But he had
lived for a moment i'm the midst Of big
things and he wanted to see more. He
heard that the planters Of the Ha-
waiian Islands wanted Porto Ricans in
their canefeds; he had no idea where
Hawaii was, but other men had gone
there, were going and he could go, too;
he was II years old and could work,
pile sugar cane and cut it If necessary.
He was a member of one Of the gangs
of Porto Ricans that passed through
this city a little over three years ago