The prevention of kidnapping, bomb-throwing, and the other
allied manifestations of the Black Hand depends entirely upon
the activity of the police--particularly the Italian
detectives, who should form an inevitable part of the force in
every large city. The fact of the matter is that we never
dreamed of a real "Italian peril" (or, more accurately, a real
"Sicilian peril") until about the year 1900. Then we woke up
to what was going on--it had already gone a good way--and
started in to put an end to it. Petrosino did put an end to
much of it, and at the present time it is largely sporadic.
Yet there will always be a halo about the heads of the real
Camorrists and Mafiusi--the Alfanos and the Rapis--in the eyes
of their simple-minded countrymen in the United States.
Occasionally one of these big guns arrives at an American port
of entry, coming first-class via Havre or Liverpool, having
made his exit from Italy without a passport. Then the
Camorrists of New York and Brooklyn get busy for a month or
so, raising money for the boys at home and knowing that they
will reap their reward if ever they go back.
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