Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-01
LITTLE ITALY MOURNS
u Gran Baciga|up, Their
Friend, Is Dead.
GAVE POOR FREE BURIAL
Undertaken Has Taken Care OF 1000
or More Pauper Dead.
HE BEGAN LIFE AS BOoTBLACK
Rose to Afiuence and Never Let One
Of the Colony Sleep In
Potter's Field.
IE BEGAN LIFE AS BO0TBLACK

NEW YORK. December 1.--"Bollettino.
Bollettino! Bacigalup' morte"'
The Mulberry Bend cherubs who sell
the extras Of the italian newspapers
shrilled this Information through the colo
ny yesterday.
From the highly vanished black por-
tails OF g Mulberry street Haunted the
crepe announcing the death Of Charles
Bacigalupo. who had buried THOUSANDS OF
Jtalo- Americans. saving hundreds Of
them from the potters field. and who
himself "a now awaiting burial.
In the history CT Italian immigration in
New York there has been no one Italian
to struggle from the bottom to the enjoy
ment of such prestige as did Bacigalupo.
In his fight out of poverty and into for
tune his name came to be one to con-
jure with.
For it is a matter of the colony's his
tory that he allowed no italian to miss
proper burial because Of poverty. 1t
has been known for a long time that Ba
cigalupo kept q half acre in Greenwood
cemetery and another big plot in Calvary
for those who died poor and without
friends.
Where His Shop Stands.
Bacigalupo's chapel and undertaking
''parlors' are just to the south of Null
berry Bend Park. Around it is the tan
gle of streets that get narrower and uglier
as they merge into Chinatown.
Not alone with the poor of the Italian
colony did Bacigalupo concern himself.
Many an unfortunate white woman found
dead in Chinatown was saved from the
potter's field by him. When. several years
ago. the bones of nine Cinnamon were
disinterred in Brooklyn to be shipped to
China. Bacigalupo was called in by the
wealthy Chinese to arrange for funeral
procession with POO coaches.
Nearly thirty years ago Bacigalupo was
working for an undertaken at night and
shining shoes in daytime. He started IN
business for himself with secondhand
hearse, hiring his horses by the job from
a livery stable
One of his first cases was one of charity.
When an Italian whose soul had de-
parted through the puncture of a stiIetto
was ordered to the morgue. Bacigalupo
took the body and buried 1t, hard as IT
was for him at that time to meet the eX-
pense.
Fame Spreads to His Profit.
He kept to the one charity of burying
the penniless dead, and with each year,
as it became known that Bacigalupo was
that sort of man. his business grew, until
at last it reached its persent stage, where
stable of several hundred horses and
1.-THE only automobile hearse" in the town
make part of his equipment.
So high did the undertaken rise in the
esteem of the people about Ilm that he
was called I'll gran Bacigalup," the
great Bacigalupo. The mention of his
name was sufficient to command instant
obedience.
1t is related that on one occasion
faS n ~
of the town, having suffered from the OPP
erations of a hand-organ man for many
mornings, cast about for some Italian of
importance who might rid him of the
nuisance
grinder the next day:
La tua musica non me placia Anda
''' : ''O "BACIGALUPO."
The translation was:
Your music does not please me- 90
away and never come back.
The Italian scurried away from that
block and never returned.
Gave Robe to Pope.
Four years ago the undertaken was in
trusted with 5000, contribution of the
Italian colony. to present the pope when
he made a visit to Rome. Bacigalupo
added to it a wonderful and costly priest
w garment for the holy father.
The innovation of dirge-playing bands
at the funerals of the colony was made
bv Bacigalupo, and funerals since then
have taken on a splendor at reasonable
prices the like of which early lmmi-
grants in New York never dreamed of
seeing.
Extremely modest about his charity
work. Bacigaiupo would never tell just
how many Of the penniless dead, men.
women and children of the poor, he had
buried but it is said that they number
more than a thousand. He would talk
about his big funerals with much pride.
and boosted that he drove the second
coach in the funeral of Gen. Grant.
He was also proud of having been the
director of the memorial exercises held
in the colony after the assassination of
King Humbert.
In the Bend colony the news of the
death of the undertaken caused general
mourning yesterday and last night. and