The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-20
Italians Honor Memory of
 the Irredentist ssMartyr"

Hundreds of thousands of Italians, in America well as in Italy, will join today in celebrating the thirty third anniversary of the execution of the soldier Overdank who was put to death after an unsuccessful attempt upon the life of the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. Every year since 1882 the supporters of the Italia Ire denta movement have observed the twentieth of December in commeIn or ation of the f'martyrdom'' of the Ire dentist leader. sThe Italian govern ment has in former years attempted to suppress such meetings, but now that. Italy is at war with Austria, in the hope of recovering ''unredeemed Italy, it is likely that the iOverdank synnpathizers will be given greater liberty Last year, in spite of the ef- forts of the police, hundreds of dem onstratiors were held at which ora tors lauded Overdank as the martyr of the Irredentist movement. Rome and other cities were placarded with posters calling upon the people to. remember Overdank and His. Sacrf- hce.'' Cola Anni, a Republican dep uty, and Ricciotti Gariba1di, son of the Italian iberator, were among those who lauded the t'Trfestan mar tyr,'' and a marble tablet in memory of the soldier was unveiled in Rome.
 lXs having for its object the recovery of those parts of ancient Italy held by the Austrians, first began it's activi- sizs in 1877. The society soon had
 ndreds of committees. the chief one >ar. Naples. In spite of every effort of the Italian government to suppress the anti-Austrian agitation it soon reached formidable proportions In 1883 a committee of Irredentists, fired with fanatic zeal. decided to kill the Austrian emperor, in the belief that his death would result in the downfall of the Austrian empire, and that Italy could thus claim the Tyrol, Trieste, and other Austrian provinces on the Adriatic. The band of con- spirators visited Trieste while the e11l-, peror was visiting that city. and con- cealed bombs in the house which he was a guest. The bombs were dis covered, and the chief conspirator Overdank, died on the ga11ows, Dec 20, 1882.
 Overdank's conspiracy was the third attempt on the life Of the Aus trfan emperor. The first attempt to assassinate Francis Joseph was made in 1853. a few years after he had been elevated to the throne by J Joseph Libenyi, a Hungarian. who tried to cut the emDeror's throat. Francis Jo- sephs injuries were slight and the
 
 very next day. In 1866, as the em- peror was stepping from his carriage in front of a Prague theatre, he was attacked by a man with a pistol. Be- fore the fellow could fire an English man who was standing near by, knocked knocked the weapon to the ground.
 Many superstitious people believe that the failure of all the attempts on the life of the Austrian emperor con- stitute fulfl1ment, complete in every way, of the curse called down upon him by the Countess Karo1yi, a Hun garian woman whose son had been executed. by the young emperor's or der. In the presence of hundreds, in a ball room, the angutshed mother cried: May your family be exter- minated. may you be sn1itten in theJ persons of those you best love, may your children be brought to ruin and may you live on and on in lonely, un- broken and horrible grief to trenbIe when you recall the name of Kar- oIyii" k