The Holbrook news., 1921-08-05
Code of Honor as It Is Enforced in Sardinia, Corsica and
 Elsewhere
DIFFICULT TO STAMP OUT
Most Persistent Disciples Are Among the Most -Mannered and Most Hospitable People in the World Ceremony of Reconcili-
 ation.

New York.-Vendetta still fiourishes in many parts of the old world, but in no place is it more firmly estab- Iished than in the Island of Sardinia.
 Why it fourishes there is mys- tery still unsolved, for the StI dini- ans themselves are probably among the mildest hammered men in the world. Travel all over their island and you will be received with the greatest hospitality.
 There are few inns, except in the two or three chief towns, but inns are not needed, for every door is open to the stranger, the best of fare is of- fered-nay, lavished with open hands the fatted calf is instantly slain, the cellars are ransacked for the oldest wine. Indeed, you might almost start q vendetta by refusing hospitality or wanting to hurry away too soonl
 So long as you do not smile at the women folk you are an honored guest for a much longer time than you wish to remain. But the etiquette about women is as strict as in any harem land in the East, and no intercourse is allowed with strangers.
 Next to Sardinia in the vendetta business comes Corsica, where the peO- pie, after all, are not very different. There is plenty of bloodshed in Sicily, but 1t is organized by q secret so- ciety and has nothing to do with ven detta.
 Albania runs the blOOd-feud on very similar lines and Albania's hereditary enemy, Montenegro, oddly enough, cherishes almost the same traditions. whereas the Serbians, the cousins of the MOntenegrins, are bloodthirsty in quite a different way. It is probably not an accident that feuds and feudal- ism have the same derivation, and clannish traditions must have some thing to do with the custom, writes Herbert Vivian
 Part of Their Code of Honor.
 The great difficulty that govern ments find in suppressing vendetta is that it's disciples regard it as part of their code of honor. Men who go to church regularly and observe all the religious -black-coated gentle men of infinite responsibility, who could be trusted anywhere with un- told gold and frivolous females-nev- ertheless consider it their sacred duty to slay the second cousin twice re- moved of some one who has killed a member of their family in legitimate self-defense. Indeed, there is a stigma on their whole clan if blood has not been wiped out with blood, if many molars have not repaid single tooth. It ceases to be-it never is, ill fact a personal affair. It is just primitive, savage justice.
 In Sardinia church and state have been frantically at work for genera tfons trying to suppress the vendetta, but it is very slow work.
 From time to time, however. rec oscillations do take place. Sixty-five years ago there was a solemn eere- mOny of forgiveness between two :am- lilies that had been at war for two cen turies, killing one another and de stroying one another's cattle and farmsteads. It made an enormous sensation, and marked an epoch in the history of the island. Only the other day there was similar event, for which the parish priest and the mayor of Temple, amid the savage reckland of Angina, are jointly responsible.
 Almost endless negotiations preced- ed the formal kiss of peace. No one wished to foregO his vengeance; the honor of five hostile families was at stake. Again and again, for whole men and boys have been stabbed, and though everybody knew the culprits and all the reasons for