Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 290, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1913 — UNIONS OF LAWLESS [ARTICLE]

UNIONS OF LAWLESS

Secret Societies That Still Continue to Terrorize Europe. r ■ - ) / * Arson, Murder, Intimidation and Other Crimes at Which Police and Magistrates Wink-—Wide Activity of the Camorra. London.—ls the full story of the secret societies of Europe could be written, said a consul who has spent 30 years of his life in the Levant, according to the London Weekly Telegraph, it would make by ljar the most thrilling and amazing volume, or rather library of volumes, the world has ever known. Many people are under the impression that these lawless societies are things of the past, and it is true that some of them are now comparatively old history; but, strange as it may Beem, it is a fact that today half of Europe, the part east of a line drawn, say, from Palermo to St. Petersburg, is literally honeycombed with societies which batten on every kind of crime and flourish in defiance of the law. The Camorra, for example, is today more balefulTy vigorous and far more wijiggpread in its ramifications than when it spread terror throughout the kingdom of Naples in the eighteenth century. In those early days the Camorrlsti, as its members were called, had their quarters in every provincial town and a dozen of them in the city of Naples itself, each section having its autocratic,chief whose will was law and to disobey whom was death. So powerful were they that their tyranny extended to every trade and every class In the kingdom; they plundered with impunity and practiced every sort of crime, from murder to smuggling. To such an extent did they carry their insolence that they imposed a tax on every article of food that entered Naples; and this impost none, from the highest to the lowest, dared resist. Today, so greatly has the Camorra flourished and spread itß lawless net. its operation covers the whole of Turkey; and it ’ has countless branches elsewhere through the Levant. Its members are principally Italians and Greeks, and they are drawn from all classes, from princes to peasants, Candidates for membership still swear their terrible oath of fidelity on a crucifix of irbn, as did the first members long generations ago; and only after passing the severest tests and undergoing a long probation do they receive the two knives of peculiar form by which the Cammoristi can always recognize one another. The Camorra has been called "an organized band of more than this; for it is prepared to undertake any form pf crime that brings gold into its coffers. In the neighborhood of Constantinople, especially, It draws a large revenue as the paid instrument of vengeance. If, for instance, a lover has a rival whom he would gladly see removed from his path, all that i? necessary is to call

the 'Camorra to his .aid. A dagger thrust in the back on a dark night, a body flung into the Bosphoius, the exchange of a stipulated sugi—and the way is clear for him. Dead men tell no tales; nor do the Camorrieti. It is all in the day’s work; and the gold is none tbe worse for being the price of blood. Thus easy, thank's to the Cam orra, is it to be rid of a falsd lover, a troublesome rival, or a wife or husband who has become superfluous. Even more powerful and dreaded than the Camorra is the Mafia, a secret society which has long held tyrannous sway over Sicily. The Mafia has been well described by M. Gianelli as "an unapproachable and multiform union of persons of all classes who aid each other, in spite of the law and of morality, to murder, to intimidate and sequestrate landed proprietors, to raise a ring in the corn market, to forge wills, to influence the result of trials and to push their best men Into government otlices. It includes outlaws, mayors, judges, thieves, sharpers and members of parliament.”

Another secret society, which is now almost extinct, is that of the carbonari, which, a century ago, was all powerful in Italy and France. True to its motto, "Vengeance for the lamb torn by the wolf,” it waged relentless war against all forms of despotic government, and played a very considerable part in lire history of the early part of last century. Its members who included priests, army officers, and even “women, numbered half a million or more, and among the most zealous of Them were: Lord Byron, Mazzinl and Charles Albert, afterwards king of Sardinia. The carbonari (“the charcoal burners,” as they dubbed themseives), with their mystic riteß and lofty aims, have had their day of intrigue and plotting; as also, to a large extent, the hetaira, which counted a Russian czar, the first Alexander, among Us high placed members. But the nihilists still flourish as vigorously as when their pioneers, Mikhailoff, the poet, and Tchernyshevsky, were sent to their death in Siberia (half a century ago.