The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-21
MAFIA EVOLUTION Story of Organizations Which Preceded Powerful Sicilian
 Organization. ITS SECRET PURPOSES Members Bound Together by Oath Considered by Them Most
 Holy.
S SECRET PURPOSES

Though the terms Black Hand" and Black Hand Letters" are very much in evidence in current newspapers. they are known in their home by other names. viz: La Mafia," who some times call themselves "Gioyani d'on- ore,'' i.e., young men of honor. in Sici- ly. and the "camorra" in the old king dom of Naples: the letters are let tere di scrocco," ie., letters Of extor- tion. The Mafia is a system of secret association whose qualifications honey comb Sicilian society. radiating from its head center in Palermo through the western and central provinces, and least in Syracuse and Catania, ancient ly Greek colonies Its most persistent object is to guarantee Its members im- munity from punishment. The object lesson of the power there is in combin- ations was exemplified in feujal times by the combination of the barons, who thus became stronger through their az gregate force of retainers than the King or general government; fatal lesson their lawless retainers, who by the same tactics became stronger than their lords, and masters of the situation; thus from the ruin of the hereditary aristocracy arose an aristocracy of crime, the Companions in Arms" This force originally organized to protect the baron and his possessions against both rivals and robbers, levied tribute on both sides; from the property-own- CTS, for keeping off robbers or recov- erinr a share of their plunder; from the robbers, share of the plunder, as the bribe for immunity against pun | ishment.
 The property y-owner had only the miserable choice between being robbed directly by the hrigands, or paying for protection a sum amounting to robbery; if he did not pay this, robbery and theft upon him were connived at. For the victim to make complaint was use less: for the general government was powerless to protect. The result was, that the person robbed had to make base bargain with the "Companlons," by which he obtained partial repara- ton, provided the matter were kept profound by secret.
 If the injured overstepped thls rule of secrecy, or, as 1t Is called 'omerta,' v or the rule of honor. and appealed to a court, then in the field, in the bed of a river, or in the depth of thicket a man was found dead. From the view point of the Companions" one traitor the less: one more lesson of the weak ness of tribunals; one more triumph for the 'Companions.
 Though the Companions" were dis- banded in 1860 by Garibaldi, acting in behalf of United Italy, their plan and purpose was transferred to the Mafia, whose members are bound together by even a stronger bond than were they. The Sicilians. especially the peasantry, are ignorant and very superstitious, and the bond of membership required for admission to the Mafia of Palermo is that of godfather and godson, con sidered in Sicily even more sacred than .. the bonds of nature between father , and son, as being of a religious nature Under the former foreign rulers oi Sicily, the peasant came to have nc confidence In the government or the law, or even in his neighbor; only ii , conspiracy with the most profound se' crecy. This characteristic was exem- plified in the secretly -conspired genera massacre of the French soldiery at t,,,o t,, ac tho SiCi1i1f vespers The leaders of the Mafia coult hardly have had filter instrument. i made to their hand than this, the larg - est class in Sicily, as a clientele to car
 " out their criminal or political be
 hest; for the Mafa has adopted itsel
 to the elective government granted b,
 new Italy, and controls elections an'
 the tone of public sentiment and of tn
 public press Those who remember tn }. worst days of Tammany politics and O {. police corruption in New York cit. can form some Idea of what the Mai
 has done in municipal and police mat
 ters. A part of the. herculean task a
 which the United Italy of 1870 on, SC
 itself was the suppression of brigand
 age, which brought 1t into seriou
 grapple with the stoppagliari of Mon
 real, near Palermo; in its. ipitiator
 rites and organization sample of a
 the other associations for crime anon
 the Mafiosi: the chief rite Is a sort (
 baptism of blood into the godfather
 ship. Brigandage though mostly sur
 pressed in Italy, survives in Sicily: als
 the chief hope of justice by law Is fc
 the court on some excuse tb get
 change of venue to the mainland, e'
 pecially at distance from the ovel
 awing influence of the Mafia. (Detai v chiefly condensed from the Italian)