The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-10-05


stowaway II certain members OF
ships crew make up their minds to
do so. Men have been sewed up in
mattresses, headed up IN casks, and
have been undiscovered after hours OF
persistent search. Later on it has
been equally simple for the stowaway
to make his way OFF the ship and out
on the pier in an old suit OF overalls
or uniform. This has been done not
once but countless times, and the au-
thorities have seemed to be powerless
to prevent It.
r HE Italian criminal has a genuinely
! hard time OF 1t In his own country.
He is beset by police regulations; II
he is an ex-convict he is under the
constant necessity of reporting fire.
quently to the police; he cannot carry
any deadly weapon-not even a pock-
etknife-and the permission of the
chief of police is necessary before he
can obtain employment The law in
addition says that he must not leave
Italy, refusing him a passport. This
has made the smuggling OF the crimi-
nal on ships bound for the United
States quite a profitable little sub-in-
dustry among Black Hand" sympa-
thizers who happen to hold posts of
one sort or another upon the Mediter-
ranean steamers. AS the months go
by one criminal after another slips
through and almost invariably makes
his way into New York.
The nameless brotherhood has yet
other projects Of reform in view. It
confesses freely that, regarding the
public part of its work, It wants the
open support Of the people and the
government It will ask for making
punishable by Imprisonment as well
as by fine the carrying of firearms. It
will demand the restriction of the sale
Of fireworks to national holidays.
Now there are innumerahsa saints
days among the Italian population of
New York, and these celebrations are
elaborate beyond all description. Fire
works have grown to be a very large
and important feature of them. They
are a constant source of danger for the
reason that during the firing of of
rockets and the incident noise OF other
explosions there is ample opportunity
for a criminal who wants TO settle d
private grudge or to terrorize in some
way to whip pistol from his pocket
and fire hurriedly. His victims drop
In the general excitement and noise,
1t is scarcely known how.
IN EVERY vessel sailing from Pal
" ermo or Naples are q dozen or
more members of the Cammorra OF
the Malta, employed as sailors, coal
beavers and stewards. says Lindsay
Denison in Everybody's. 1t is their
fraternal duty to aid their brethren
to evade the passport law. II there
are six or more members of a ships
company earnestly desirous of con.
cealing stowaway the thing can al
ways be done. There are recorded
instances where a stowaway has been
hunted for three hours by 20 men,
after all the officers and crew have
been sent ashore, and has remained
undiscovered because he was sewed
up in mattress in bunk.
When the steamship has tied up at
her berth in an American port, the
fugitive puts on the uniform or over.
alls of one of his confederates and
easily makes his way off the pier. And
thus a seasoned and hardened criml-
nal. his blood-stained hands against all
the world as the worlds hands are
against him, he is turned loose In the
land of the free and the home of the
brave Every steamship man con-
cerned in the Mediterranean trade
knows something of the system; one
of them has admitted these facts. 1t
is the theory of the professional po-
liceman of America that the Italian
comes to us through France |
and Canada. That is nonsense; he
has neither the intelligence nor the
means.
The ex-convict has the New York
address of one or more former mem.
bers of his society in Italy. He
makes his way to this address as
quickly as he may He is without
work and in strange country. 1t may
be that happy chance will find honest
work for him at once. But usually it
Is not so. He becomes, more likely, a
willing and useful tool of the "Black
Hand" a dependent on the generosity
Of more thoroughly acclimated crirni-
nails. The stealthy delivery of black.
letters. the stabbings, the
bomb paintings. and even the murders
Of the Black Hand" type are done by
men who are so ignorant and so help.
ess that they face starvation IL they
10 not carry out the orders OF this
Black Hand" thugs who house and
'eed them after their surreputious
sDtry into the United States.