Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-06-09

pecially to study the operations of the Black Hand and Maf1a people who are found more in Sicily than in the northern provinces of Italy. It Is a peculiar char acteristic of Italian criminals, by the way, that l can generally tell the prov ince a man comes from by the nature of the crime he commits. If I hear of a man being slashed in the body with a stiletto, I am reasonably sure that a Neapolitan did it; if a man has been slashed in the face, I put 1t down to a Calabrian. A Sicilian is inclined to use bombs. The meanest of all Italian crtm- inals come from the north of Italy, from Piedmont. They are the Italian conh- dence men. and there are no worse law breakers in the world than they.
 MT. Clarke and l shall visit many of the principal cities and towns throughout Italy and have talks with the chiefs of police and the local magistrates. One thing we are anxious to find out is what the Italian police think of General Bing- hams scheme for having a secret police to keep tab on conditions without the knowledge of the regular police force The Italian police are used in secret op- erations, and they ought to know how much such O plan would be worth. Some people here think 1t would be futile. be- cause after making one arrest and hav- ing to appear in court and make his charge the secret officers identity would be established
 Then we shall find out what means the Italian police are taking at present to control Black Hand operations. Much can be learned in that way. We shall hear of the latest tricks of the criminals. and we shall probably have chances to be present at the examinations of appre- hended lawbrealyers and witness the ltal- ian system of examination and prosecu- ton.
 "An interesting phase Of Italian crime is what is known as Fomerta. This Is the unwritten understanding that seems to exist everywhere fin certain classes that men who are arrested must not ten on their friends even though they them selves may not be guilty of participation in the offense. This freenasonry often makes f hard for the police to secure evidence and we shall be glad to find out what Italian police are doing to combat it
 There Is no doubt that we ought to gain a quantity of interesting inforTna- ton which will largely assist MT. Clarke in his work. The intimate contact with Italian conditions alone will do much to give a closer insight into the peculiar workings of the Italian mind. And am sure that the Italian police will be glad
 
 the logical thing to do-to go to the places from which the criminals come for information about them
 Do we expect 10 find out just what are the Mafa and the Black Hand7 We'll I don't see how vs can. We know as veil as we possibly can, think already The best definition 1 ever heard Of this kind of crime ras that whenever a group of men banded togethsr-ssy six from Pa- lerno. in Sicily. and a couple from sn- other viIlase-with the tacit agreement that they should subsist on blackmail or stolen money they cons.ituted a MaH7 O. Black Hand band. There is no reEulas organization. no formal sgreement-illys e tacit U1dsrstan6lng Add to this that the Msfz is formed of two different classes Of people. high and low, and has a more dissinctivs system Of free-nason- TT, and you can describe the two forms sf 7wime h-sterta ss well ss any man"