The Alaska sourdough. [volume] (Douglas, Alaska) 1911-1911, 1911-11-07

scheme for collecting blood money He
charges them all he dares, too, for the
food, and houses them miserably Last
wear when the census was being taken
an enumeration found the house of
bordante in Passaic, New Jersey, which
registered three hundred and fifty
names. The men slept in shifts, and
the beds were never empty more than
five minutes at time. Under such
conditions the wops sicken after few
days and leave. Then a new gang
comes to be bled.
AS a matter Of fact, the law always
lags behind justice. There could not
be better example of this than the
proftless efforts of the Wainwright
Commission in New York. It did
mastery piece of work and framed an
employers liability law, that met the
man-to-man. standard Of justice; but
the court of appeals in New York felt
impelled to declare it unconstitutional.
This decision may be very good
law, but it leaves unmet crying need
in a world where the accidents that
happen from day to day are not even
kept track Of AS things stand, to kill
a wop means so little that it is even too
much Of an effort to get his name
straight, if indeed any name at all is
recorded.
One Pietro Salvagni was lost to his
relatives until his name was found in
a coroner g record as Peter Sullivan.
If Pietro had not written letter the
day before he was killed, he would new
er have been found. Calogero Salerno
had a headboard to his grave marked
J. G. Seller. Luigi Grand was buried
as Lewis Grant.
There is certain advantage in hav-
ing these men die nameless and uniden-
Concetto Laferta was killed last year,
and some time after the Italian consul
at the request of his relatives, ferreted
out the fact and asked the railroad
whether it was willing to settle out Of
court
But the case is already settled,' re-
piled the railroad lawyer; can admin
istrator was appointed and damages
were awarded
When the papers were produced, the
administrator proved to be an under
taker, and the damages, for which
full release was given, consisted Of fifty
dollars, the cost of the funeral! This
case was unusual only in the small
amount of the undertaken BILL. Or
perhaps the railroads have the under
takers trained. 1t is common custom
in many parts of this country to give
letters of administration to the under
taker as the chief creditor, and this has
too often worked terrible hardship
to those dependent on the dead man.
1t has become regular part of the
undertaking business to secure the bod
les of wops, learn whether they had
any money in the bank, and, if they
had, bury them in style in proportion
to the amounts indicated in their pass
books. Of course this is straight
steal, but the sufferers are SO far away
that there is not much danger Of troub-
le from them. Recently the consulate
general Of Italy has sent an official
notification to all probate judges, ask
ing that the practice Of making the
undertaken the administrator be dis
couraged, and that not more than fifty
dollars be paid to the undertaken.
These human vultures have gone to
appalling lengths. A young Italian,
who supported his old mother, stopped
sending her remittances; and the Ital-
ian consul, when appealed to, found
his name in the coroner's records in
New York. Among his effects was a
pass book showing that he had had
$233.3 in certain Italian bank. This