The San Francisco call., 1905-04-23

At Independence. Louisiana,
which isn't much or a place
in itself except that the sweet
ness Of the orange blossoms sweeps
over it like a breath from heaven,
there's A shabby little house with
not much furniture worth mention
ing in it, a poor. bare, squalid lit
tie place: but Rosa Torturici longs with
an her heart to take her baby in her
arms and 20 there-because her mother
is there, and her little sisters. and her
father.
Life has been very hard for Rosa
Torturici in the past few weeks; mex
pressibly terrible; she has suffered
catacIysnn, and So
Rosa Torturici wants to so home to
her mother.
Somehow that puts such a different
complexion on things. Somehow all my
preconceived notions are broken and
swept away. as the flood carries off the
dam like so much matchwood.
Somehow
Well, I guess there comes a time in
every ones life when he wants to go
home 10 his mother.
Sorrow. suffering and lost illusions
make little children of US all.
Rosa Torturici IS the pitifulest fig
in all San Frar>:sco.
Three weeks age she was quite IN
known. a shabby. girlish little creature
with her baby at her breast-such as
she is even now. but hidden then in the
dim obscurity Of poverty.
There came the revelation of the
murder Of Biaggio Vilardo, so shock
ing. so atrocious. so elemental in its
brutality that the whole city revolted
and sickened at it.
Then, with the startling prominence
OF a single, more-than-life-size figure
thrown upon a screen, Rosa Torturici
is dragged out of her dim obscurity and
thrust into the glare.
She is the wife of the murderer.
She was in that basement-fiat where
the butchery was done.
She knows
What does she know?
She is the only one TO lay hold of;
she was so near to it that the horror
II tie crime attaches to her.
All the city is saying her name.
When she comes first into the glare
she is regarded with repulsion: there is
something monstrous. sinister about
the shabby, girlish little creature with
her baby at her breast-and even now
time has softened the feeling only into
a distant pity, tinctured with aversion.
tempered with suspicion.
The fercely dramatic character Of the
crime lays hold Of your mind whether
you will or not. Each one involuntarilv.
reluctantly. irresistibly reconstructs the
scene for himself, sees the swift. heavy
blow Of the cleaver. the increasing fury
and terror of the murderer when the
blow has fallen and there is no draw
ing back. dripping with the warm blood
of his victim. painting, sweating, hurry
ing 10 conceal the deed.
It is so elemental it speaks of the
dawn when men clothed themselves in
skins, and killed after the manner of
beasts, for their mates or each others
possessions. or in unreasoning hate.
We ask of each other. What kind of
human beings are these who can do
such thing?"
Preconceived notions are of little
value after ALL
go to the City Prison with the
that we must remember there are COM
ing to our shores many who are but
one degree above the quadruped."
Rosa Torturici sits by the grated
prison window, her wide-eyed baby girl
on her lap patting her little hands to-
gether and grooming softly.
1t is such q fragile, shabby little
figure sitting there, slight as a fifteen
year-old girls, with the cheap white
shirt-waist untidily fiaring Toose from
the skirt belt, and the black skirt rent
at the knee. 1t is such a pretty. young.
appealing face framed in the mass OF
brown hair. The skin is Of the creamy
tint and texture Of Gala The brown
eyes are large and prominent and
luminous. The long nervous strain.
perhaps the awful things they may
have looked upon. make them appear to
be starting from the head. In profile
they are so prominent that you can see
a golden light through the iris Be-
tween the brows the same nervous
strain has knotted a frown into two
deep wrinkles. The chin is round and
small, and the mouth soft little bud
that quivers with the overtension oi
the nerves and relaxes now and ther
into q wan little smile.
These signs-the starting. brilliant
eyes, the troubled. knotted brows. tn,
quivering of the lips-are the only evi.
dences Of emotion she has given ex.
cept on that day when she was taker
20 the Morgue to look on the manglec