Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The news-herald. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1909-1911 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1909)
BIG PROFIT MADE ON LAND avTr?f fir D 4 (a , mM Jiujcjf ,-a Lieut Palermo ns.sa:sinaMon of Jiwciih Petrosi- Iti Hip streets of came very e Hear to establishing tin so-called 'I'.lnck Hand" society lii i ho minds of Anierlcnns as ;i definite ornaui.a tion such us the Si('i!i,in Mal'a ami the Neapolitan ('anion a. It wan easy and alluring to ar,ue that Petrosino, cleverest trailer of Ital ian erlli'P and criminals, hail fa en a victim to the International order of l.u Mano Nera. Writers were rot larking to Invent details. Ilia death had been decreed, they nald. hy one or the New York chapters of the I5l.uk Hand and tho sentence executed hy the home branch at Palermo. "We almost believe that there is a Hlack Hand organization In Italy and America." said the edi tor of one of the big Italian dallies tho day after the detective wa i shot down. 'Tntll the death of Petrosino I never believed that there was head or tail to the bomb -throwing blackmailers, but the shot that struck Petrosino would seem to piove that there is a nyiitcm behind them." To one who remembered how violently that same editor had for years protested In Italian and In Kngllsh that there was no such thing as a Black Hand society, the admission was sur prising. Detectives of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Ital ian police squads, who had always scoffed at an or ganized IlIackHand. wondered If they had been mistaken. 'They sonrched the v a r I o u 8 quarters again for gome traco of a central body, for some sign tha( there wera di recting officers' This . Petrosino tragedy certainly savored of the dread Mafia and Camorra and there Tftrf1..:!'.;..,;.'.. iVwiwrV'.H III V 9fe8jSr VBMbfH;)iXApiJy . Ill ; .PKmiwie'fif'Av- J9H I III r"i! wsl - II 'KMim fe' 5Y'''' MCA ' bott,e of cheflp red wlne- IwHMi. cSSwMfe-'tr m 7 p,pe8 r draw through IfrSw MlfOf - JfjMarl ; i straws on stogy-llke Italian : !V$V -tVitW- I'f Mvi 1 cigars that retail for half a fc wo, and have oeea for "i py.AvrQ 5y black -handzrs . V in 111 Which Can Be Bought for a Mer Song in the Little Snake River Valley, Routt County, Colo. A ten per cent profit on a valuation of over 200 an acre is what is being made now by farmers in the Little Snake Kiver valley in Routt County, Colorado, and lands similar in quality and with gilt edged water rights are now offered by the State of Colorado under the Carey Act at 935.50 per acre on ten years' time. This land will grow in abundance oats, potatoes, sugar beet3 and all other grains, grasses and root crops, and is suitable for all kinds of fruit, except possibly the most delicate of tree fruits. The land Is sold In tracts of 40, SO, 120 and ICO acres to citizens of the United States, or those who have de clared -their intentions of becoming citizens. There is no drawing In con nection with this land; first come, first served being the policy. If interested, write to the Routt County Colonization Co., 1734 Welton street. Denver; Colorado, for full in formation as to tho land, special ex cursion rates, etc. SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS. i T r.i-.'rx .v yyrfA BLACK HMD o 'LETTFR was not one of the lieutenant's squad who would not have gladly risked his life to lay hands on a real IilurU Hand chief. Sober second thought and continued In vestigation, however, return the Mack Hand to Its proper category. It Is not and never has been u society. It knows no chieftain, no scale of spoil division, no sacred oath. It has no meeting places, consequently holds no meetings. It Is, In short, but a name for a brand of crime peculiar to Italian crooks, and it is so surprisingly successful becauso of the touipornmcnt of its south Italian victims and their inborn dred of the extortionist. It is almost ludicrous to realize how the name that la now a world-terror was Invented. Some years ago the story of an Italian murder was running In the New York news papers. The police made little headway and developments lagged. A space-writer on a certain morning paper needed more money than the story was bringing him. He could get more space only by giving a new twist to the crime, by working up an exclusive angle. The victim of this murder had received a letter warning him that death would follow his failure to contribute a specified sum by a.eertain date. At the top of the sheet was a crude drawing of a fist holding a long, wicked .looking dagger. It was drawn with black ink. ji Mmbor. sinister emblem. For the reporter it held an idea. The name "Black Hand leaped from bis Imagination, and there you are. With great circumstantial detail and flaring heads ho Introduced his find to the public. The murdered Italian was the victim of a rnpcrloits organization of cut-throats. It jwas the American edition of the much-feared i Mafia, a reincarnation of the deadly Camorra. and In it tho reporter combined the worst I features of each. This characterization was an Instantaneous hit. The murder story was again good for columns of space. The Inventive reporter's rivals wept him several better In succeeding editions. They found meeting places of the Black Hand. They traced other un solved crimes of the Italian district to the same myth ical source. The police said nothing. They had been unable to solve the crime, but If it was the work of a powerful secret organization there was some excuse for them. To the Italian blackmailers who thon, as now, lived off the tribute they could wring from their brothers who worked or who had prospered in business, the appellation was a new and unexpected weapon, a stock In trade beyond value. It was not copyrighted and each and every one of them was free to use it All "Little Italy" was talking of the Black Hand. Its translation Into Italian & Mano Nera had an even more sinister sound. The next lot of blackmailing letters sent out bore the usual dagger, the skull and cross-bones, the bloody finger pjjnt, perhaps the long, black coffin', and every one was signed "La Mano Nera." The Black Hand was launched and the crimes since committed In its name number tens of thou sands, the spoils collected have sent many a criminal back to Italy with a fortune accord ing to the Sicilian rating, and not even the po lice will venture to estimate its cost in human life. The Black Hand crimes nil follow the same general lines, but that Is no argument that there is an organized society. The yeggraen who terrorize country postmasters all work after an Identical fashion, but no one has ever Intimated that they were organized. Safe crackers the country over use the samo tools and methods, but who has susrectcd them of holding conventions? The East side gangs the "Humpty" Jacksons, the Paul Kellys and the like plunder similarly with more or less success, but the only connection between gang and gang Is an occasional feud, the re sulting "shooting up" of which gives the po lice opportunity to send a gangster or two to Sing Sing. No Italian Is too lonely or too poor to em bark as a Black Hander. A sheet of paper. BARBER-SHOP WRFCKED BY SLACK HAtfD &OM& BLACK HAND WARWNQ pen and Ink, and enough knowledge of Italian to scrawl a few lines of demand and the ac companying threat are all that Is necessary. Possible victims are on every band. The bar ber In the dingy basement half-way down the block; the fat and timid grocery keeper on the corner; Antonio, of the tenement Just below, who goes out early each morning all dressed In white to boss his gang of street sweepers all these are possible victims of the single handed Black Hander, and all sooner or later pay tbelr tribute. Of course he signs himself "La Mano Nera." and then sits back to wait the working of the 6-ell of temperamental dread. About a table in a tllr.gy, low-celltnged basement win shop off Mulberry Ilend or over on nicecker street four or live greasy, low browed men gather of an afternoon over a - weeks, perhaps, but it is not possible oppor tunities for labor that they discuss. Their need of money is mentioned quite frankly. In tho next breath one of the gang recalls that Gluscppl, the tailor, looked sleek and prosper ous standing in front of his shop an hour be fore. Another cries for pen and paper, which the master of the wine Bhop brings with never a smile, though he knows only too well the nature of the note that is about to be written. One is silently nominated to scrawl the com mand, another puts on the decorations and a third signs "La Mano Nera." The tailor Is ordered to come three nights later at 7:30 o'clock to the stone arch In Washington square and hand $200 to a little man with a hump on his back who will be waiting there. He is . told further that if he falls or mentions the letter to the police death and destruction will be upon him. The next morning Gluseppl has hardly opened bis shop before the postman comes with the letter. One glance at the clumsily drawn black hand and the daggers scattered about Is enough to tell him that the curse has fallen. For a time he is too frightened to read the sum of the extortion. The patrolman on beat passes his door, a broad-shouldered, strong-armed sign or law and order. A great temptation comes to Gluseppl. He will be brave as the American papers advise. He will call the police. He rushes out after the po liceman, only to be overcome with a blue funk before he can blurt out his troubles, and ends by asking some foolish question that haa no bearing on the terrifying letter. So on the appointed night he goes to Washington square. The hunchback is there, waiting, with a par ticular eye for possible treachery from plain clothes policemen. Gluseppl slips the de formed one an envelope and both hurry from the spot In opposite directions. Around the next corner the hunchback becomes a changed man. The hump on his buck disappears and the breaking off of a bit of putty straightens a seemingly twisted none At the wlne-Bhop the two hundred, perhaps the bulk of the tail or's savings, Is speedily divided and the blackmailers are ready for other weeks of Idleness. Again the Black Hand! There Is a" possibility of big rewards In the game of plunder that has attracted criminals of skill, darins and brains. Many of them are ex-convlcts from Italy, who plun dered there in the name of the Ma fia or the Camorra. Others are equally desperate criminals who got away from Italy before being caught and given the convict brand, which makes entry Into America difficult and remaining here uncertain with Petroslno's band continually "fan ning" the Italian quarters. One of these skilled laborers of crime or perhaps a pair of them will gather about him four or five dull, unimaginative, lazy fellows preferably "black sheep" of the town or section In Sicily from which the leader came and there you have as near an organization as the Black Hand has yet perfected. Thla leader is known to hlB followers as a bad man. He has a record for speedy carving with a dagger, per haps, or a much-to-be-envied knack of using his revolver quickly. He rules the gang by fear of bloody violence and does not even bother to extract oaths from them. Italian bankers, contractors, whole sale dealers In spaghetti or olive oil or wine, owners of equities in mort gaged tenement houses these are the victims of the big Black Hand ers. One thousand dollars is the least they strike for. Failure to pay means that a bomb of crude but deadly construction will be dropped In front of the marked man's bank, store or tenement house. Generally the bomb is so thoroughly over loaded with dynamite that it wrecks much surrounding property, but for that these land pirates care not. Often the Innocent are slaugh tered, but that brings not even a shrug from these hyenas of the ten ement. F.verv so-called Black Hand out rage helps on the game of plunder dru to' the fear of the myth ical society. A lull In Black Hand outrages by no means Indicates the innetivltv olfthe plunderers. erally It-spells their continued suc cess.. i Lu "You must always keep In mind," said Petrosino, the Palermo sac .tn tn thla sort of Italian crime "that the commission of crimes of . ia nn the main issue wuu thi acum of the earth. If a man thai demands, pays over their priced they Wwen.-satlsfUsd to Jet-hto nlnntv "Have you ever noticed." he continued "that .u. i. hnmb throwing, more kidnaping, more m j oiui iuu - - . .t.. ti,n in the BDrlng, summer or early fail The winter is the hard time of the year with all Italians and naturally the collections como harder. Men who have given up a few ,i,oi0ra now nnd then for months suddenly de cide that, come what may. they will pay no more. According to the laws of the trade this means punishment and there you have your outrages." The Intense love which a respectable Ital ian bears for his children has made kidnaplug highly lucrative. ' The Italian kidnapers about New York have been almost uniformly successful since they began signing their letters "La Mano Nera." In every case the child has been even tually returned to his home or left where the police would be sure to find him. Equally In every case there have been Indications that the father, in spite of the most strict instruc tions to the contrary from the police, quietly paid over the amount demanded by the Black Handers or at least a aatlefylng portion of It. Knowledge of kidnaping cases nearly al ways gets to the police and without delay. An Italian mother whose son falls to return from an errand to the bake shop around the corner or whose daughter disappears between the public school and her home, does not fear even the Black Hand. Her husband may cringe and tremble when she suggests the po lice, but If ho delays, the mother, with many walls of anguish, rushes to the noarest police station and blurts out the whole story. As a rule the poiice have little or nothing on which to work. They have the Black Hand letter demanding the ransom, but of what good Is that when the leader of the gang may be that dapper, swarthy brother-in-law who Is even then In the parlor mingling his temperamental tears with those ul the family? Gimlet Flbbs claims to have caught a catfish weighing 50 pounds down In the creek, does he? Well, It's safe to say he's lying to the extent of about 40 pounds. Hammer Not if he hears you say it WHAT IS PAINTf The paint on a house Is the extreme outside of the house. The wood la simply a structural under layer. That is as It should be. Unprotected wood will not well withstand weather. But paint made of pure white lead and linseed oil is an Invulnerable armor against sun and rain, heat and cold. Such paint protects and preserves, fortifying the perishable wood with a complete metallic casing. And the outside of the house Is the looks of the house. A well-constructed building may be greatly depre ciated by lack of painting or by poor painting. National Lead Company have made It possible for every building owner to be absolutely sure of pure white lead paint before applying. They do this by putting upon every package of their white lead their Dutch Boy Painter trademark. That trademark is a complete guarantee. True Thrift. "When visiting a certain town In the Midlands," says a medical man, "I was told of an extraordinary Incident wherein the main figure, an econom ical housewife, exhibited, under trying circumstances, a trait quite character istic of her. It seems that she had by mistake taken a quantity of poison mercurial poison the antidote for which, as all should know, comprises the whites of eggs. When this anti dote was being administered, the order for which the unfortunate lady had overheard, she managed to murmur, al though almost unconscious. "Mary. Mary! Save the yolks for the pud dings!" Tit-Bits. Why We Are Stronger. The old Greeks and Romans were great admirers of health and strength; tbelr pictures and statuary made tht, muscles of the men stand out like .cords. , : - ' As a matter of fact we have ath letes and strong men men fed on fine strength making food such as Quaker Oats that would win in any contest with the old Roman or Greek champions. It's a matter of food. The finest food for making strength of bone, muscle and nerve is fine oatmeal. Quaker Oats Is the best because It is pure, no husks or stems or black specks. Farm ers' wives are finding that by feeding the farm hands plentifully on Quaker Oats they get the best results In work and economy. If you are convenient to the store, buy the regular size pack ages; If hot near the store buy the large size family package. S An Arbitrary Classification. "So you think every patriot has a more or less clearly defined ambition to hold public office?" "Yes," answered Senator' Sorghum. "As a rule, patriots may be divided Into two classes the appointed and the disappointed." His Helping Hand. First Him When that man feU overboard, why did you throw the cigar I gave you after him? i Second Him I thought I heard the poor devil call for a rope! Good for Sore Eyes, for 100 ytsn PKTTII'S EYE SALVE h. pfnUivtly cured tyt ifincaMS everywhere. All druggists or Howard Droi.,uflslo, N. Y. Bees sometimes fly two miles from the hive and find their way back wltbr out difficulty. Mr. Winiiow'l Boothln Rfran, Po ctittdrt n teflhlnit, Kiflrm tht glint, rviluroa t emBiu)U.UnDm,curoi wloaoollu, Sbitbulb A dead beat always gels more credit than he deserves.