Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-19
RACIAL LAW MAKES
YOUNG GIRL SLAYER
Blood Is Penalty for 0ffense
Like Many in New York
Police Experience.
BY LEMUEL f. PARTON.
neclsl Dispatch TO The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. August Is.-New York's
million foreign-born citizens have
brought with them an ancient heritage.
Stuhbornly resistant to the codes and
social forces of the New World 1t was
the old Sicilian law that only blood can
eNpiate diShonor which led I5-year-old
Mary Arenchia to kill her betrayer, and
the grand jury will hear the case Mon
day. According to witnesses, her father
went with her TO the house of Saferio
Psntellina and stood by as the child
sent five bullets into the body Of the
elderly fruit peddler.
This was in accordance with i'm
memorial Sicilian custom. An offenSe
against a woman becomes family af-
fair. but she alone must take the toll
Of life for honor Under Sicilian Gus
tom. Mary iS now eligible for marriage.
from which sh, would forever have been
barred had she not killed Pantellina.
Revealed by Police Records.
New York police annals. so far as for
cign-born peoples are concerned, are
interviewer with the strands Of me-
dieval blood feuds. vendettas and all the
ancient melodrama of vengeance and
eXpiation.
Two years ago. Maria Cagnilio. an
old woman, shot and killed her sons
assassin in a crowded street For six
yea-s she had slept on hard floor with
no pillow or blanket. until she could
md and kill the slayer Of her son. as
the Sicilian tradition requires. Likewise,
Mary Arenchia lay on q hard floor until
abe killed Pantellina
Not only in these Sanguinary encoun-
tiers, but in innumerable habits of daily
life. are the forgotten centuries echoed
In new America. ANY one observing AL
Capone and his friends. in pleasant So
cial intercourse around the Hotel Metro
pole, in Chicago. will have noted that
certain members of MIR. CaponeS club
embrace and kiss one another on each
cheek. while others do not. The ex-
PLANTATION is found in the old Sicilian
custom which reserves this sautation for
those who have sworn an oath Of fealty
The work OF remaking the tenement
districts i'll New York frequently is
blocked by the stubborn refusal of some
Sicilian or italian to vacate his prem
iSes, regardless Of the price offered for
the property. Here again. the Old
World speaks. 2If one has prospered in
house, il is the worst Of Ill fortune TO
leave it, There are thousands of prosper
Gus Italians here, with means to provide
luxurious homes. still living in squalid.
cold-water ''walk-ups" because Of this
ancient belief.
Ceremony for New House.
But if prosperity has not been such
as to prevent moving there is an
ancient ceremony to be observed in
entering the new house. With certain
venerable lamentations, salt must be
sprinkled on every floor In the house
Otherwise. there viii be nothing but
bad luck in the new home
Funeral debts which go back to the
beginnings of the Misericordia in
Florence are still being paid in New
York One sends a gift or q memorial
on the occasion Of the death of a friend.
The family Of the latter must similarly
observe the later demise of the donor.
and his family. in turn. must take note
OF the next death in the friends family
The books become complicated, but they
We carefully kept
tCopyriEht. 1927