The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-12-29

Prof. Rapi, treasurer of the Camorra
and a district leader of the old school,
a gambler, bon vivant, scholar OF
sort; the great Erricone Alfano was
arrested in New York. Others, too,
were taken in the net-more negH-
gible men, thieves, bad husbands, day
sleepers, pickpockets, kidnapers, and
rogues of the Chiaia and the Vicarla
the larva of the jails and the
slums. That romance might not wholly
die, they netted blithe girl OF Ma
pies, Maria Stendardo. and kept her
to decorate the iron cage of Vfteroo.
For five years these prisoners lay
in irons Many of them died. Mean
while the kings carebineers. urged by
the relentless duke of Aosta, made
strong the case against them. Day by
day the astounding Abbatemcggio. the
traitor, revealed new secrets of the So
ciety.
Twenty of the prisoners were indict-
ed for these various crimes disclosed
by Abbatemaggio. One after the 9TH
er they were bought up and tried In
various courts. One after the other
they were acquitted-and sent back to
Jail. In only one case did the cara
bineers secure a conviction on the evil
dence furnished by the ir former, and
that conviction has been Quashed by
the court of appeals.
Five are charged with IL murder of
Cuocolo and his wife. The others are
being tried for criminal association
in other words, for belonging to the
Camorra. The maximum penalty for
this offense by Italian law, four years
imprisonment The accused men have
already been in prison five years.
Origin OF the camorra.
Camorra comes from kamora-con-
testation The word that gave its name
to the formidable and long establish
ed cryptogamous plant of Neapolitan
life is Castilian ,neologism imported
into Naples through the Spanish dom,
nation
If we think of the Ibertan PENN
sula, that country of bristly sierras
and deep valleys arranged in the
shape of a saw, full of precipices and.
therefore, very rich in natural hiding
p,aces-if we consider the peculiar
physical features of these regions. We
can easily understand how they af-
forded the best opportunities for the
thriving of the gamuri Spanish brig.
ands of the sierras), baneful forerun'
ners and ancestors of the dreaded
Neapolitan Camorrists.
Not a passerby nor vehicle escaped
their watchful eye and their fierce
claws, so that travelling or going from
one place to another on business was
| impossible for any one without shar'
| ing with the ferocious watchers of the
sierras either the money he had with
| him or the profits of the business that
| had taken him on his journey. Ii
was, therefore, necessary to come tc
terms with the brigands; so much sc
! that in time regular tariff of Canon
ra dues was agreed upon with the
! laborers, and shepherds, the miners
ETC.. and with the mail coaches for the
passage of the travellers. according tc
their social Importance and standing.
The community, according to Ca
morristic ideas, was grouped into two
great classes-that is to say, those
who must command by brute force
and dread struck into the hearts of the
people by an association that wrought
must obey, and therefore give to the
former a part of whatever they get
under pain of the loss of everything
and often of their very life.
In times of corruption of the di
recting and depressing powers, wher
brute force, arrogance and solidarity
had a powerful play, it was natura
that the state. which then represented
only a systematical mechanism for alb
sorbing the products of every indivi1
uality. should side with the Camorra.
Whenever there was a difference O
opinion upon the division of soma
thing, the Camorrist interviewed ant
pronounced his decision-so much t
the one, so much to the other; the re
mainder, the best share, of course, be
longs to the judge by right of Ca
mora"
Very different from their Andalusial
ancestors are their present degenerat.
| descendants. The modern honora bl,
society draws it's income chiefly from
theft. from the exploitation of women
from organized raids on gamblin.
houses, from usury extorted from ricl
led astray