known. For wop is merely the corrup
tion of guappi, which means a dandy,
a somewhat dashing fellow, and con
veys the notion of a polished rascal
not above sticking a knife in your
back.
Poor wops! How far they have fal
len from their name! Until very recent
years employment agente used to col
lect fees from them and send them to
places where there was no work. And,
in spite of stringent laws, there are
still parts of this country where it is
the rule to have three crews—one com
ing, one going, and one at work. All
three are robbed at every turn. But
mostly, labor is hard to get in isolated
camps, and the contractors are anious
to keep the workers. They have even
gone so far as to force them to work.
A gang of Italian laborers was sent
out of New York in April 1900, to
what was described to them as farm
labor; but when they arrived at their
destination, in North Carolina, they
found themselves in a construction
camp of the South & Western Railway.
Once there, they saw. nothing for it
but to work; tunneling, however, final
ly palled on them, and a large party
started to leave. The camp superin
tendent, having no other means of
stopping them, called upon the sheriff
McDowell county to help him bring
them back. Ambuscaded on the Toad,
as they were leaving, the Ita'ians open
fire on the sheriff and his posse, aud
two men were killed. For that, nine
of the Italians remained months in
jail; but the justice of the peace held
that there was not sufficient cause for
arresting any of the party that had
made up the ambuscade. In the trial
of the Italians it was brought out that
this was not the first time the camp
superintendent had gone out and driven
back laborers at the point of the pis
tol. 3 r°
A state of peonage- also eisted- at one
time in the railroad construction camps
back of Valdez, in Alaska. Men sent
in from Seattle were worked just
enough to keep their board bills paid,
and, as this amount was deducted from
their pay checks, they had no money
until the' end of the season, when they
were permitted to do enough to buy
their passage out again. For their
summer’s work they had absolutely
nothing. *
in recent years tne cleverest schemes
evolved for keeping wops in bondage
has been done away with in most
stats. Instead of paying their men
when the money was due, contractors
used to issue drafts on themselves dat
ed several months ahead. These were
not negotiable, and, if the men left,
they had to travel back to the contrac
tor’s office or sell the drafts at a dis
count of from twenty per cent up, In
California, where this abuse proved the
most obnoxious, one large firm issued
drafts payable a year ahead, and cash*
ed them on the spot at a discount of
fifty per cent.
It took a tragedy to put an end to
this practice:
A laborer employed by the Bray
Brothers Crushing Rock company of
San Francisco received one of these
drafts May 18, 1909. and could not see
why he had to wait until July 19 for
his money. On the first of July, when
he thought he had waited long enough
he went to the pretty young woman who
stood between the members of the firm
and their enraged employees, and de^
manded what was due him; when she
refused, he shot her. The death of the
girl brought about the enacting of a
law in California regulating pay days.
Without this, the evil might nave flour
ished indefinitely; a bill covering the
point had, in fact, been shelved at the
preceding session of the legislature.
And now that the employmetn agen
cies and pay days are being attended
to, we have the bordante, the boarding
house keeper. He hangs on the flanks
of the construction armies and agrees
to provide men to the contractors on
condition of having the board and lodg
ing privileges. He gets urn non umc
the agencies, and everything is regular
and according to law; but he frequent
ly takes back the agents’ f es from the
wages of the men, instead of paying
them himself, and they are too ignor
ant to object. Even the sailor board
ing house keeper never had a better
scheme for collecting blood money. He
charges them all he dares, too, for the
food, and houses them miserably. Last
year when the census was being taken
an enumerator found the house of a
bordante in Passaic, New Jersey, which
registered three hundred and fifty
names. The men slept in shifts, and
the beds were never empty more than
five minutes at a time. Under such
conditions the wops sicken after a few
days and leave. Then a new gang
comes to be bled.
As a matter of fact, the law always
lags behind justice. There could not
be a better example ot this than the
profitless efforts of the Wainwright
Commission in New York. It did a
masterly piece of work and framed an
employers’ liability law. that met the
man-to-man standard of justice; but
the court of appeals in New York felt
impelled to declare it unconstitutional.
This decision may be a very good
law, but it leaves unmet a crying need
in a world where the accidents that
happen from day to day are not even
kept track o.f As things stand, to kill
a wop means so little that it is even too
much of an effort to get his name
straight, if indeed any name at all is
recorded.
One Pietro Salvagni was lost to his
relatives until his name was found in
a coroner’s record as Peter Sullivan.
If Pietro had not written a letter the
day before he was killed, he would nev
er have been found. Calogero Salerno
had a headboard to his grave marked
J. C. Seller. Luigi Grandi was buried
as Lewis Grant.
There is a certain advantage in hav
ing these men die nameless and uniden
tified. Near Hackensack, on the Erie,
Concetto Laferta was killed last year,
and some time after the Italian consul
at the request of his relatives, ferreted
out the fact and asked the railroad
whether it was willing to settle out of
court.
But the case is already settled,” re
plied the railroad lawyer; ‘ ‘ an admin
istrator was appointed and damages
were awarded. ’ ’
When the papers were produced, the
administrator proved to be an under
taker, and the damages, for which a
full release was given, consisted of fifty
dollars, the cost of the funeral! This
case was unusual only in the small
amount of the undertaker’s bill. Or
perhaps the railroads have the under
takers trained. It is a common custom
in many parts of this country to give
letters of administration to the under
taker as the chief creditor, and this has
too often worked a terrible hardship
to those dependent on the dead man.
It has become a regular part of the
undertaking business to secure the bod
ies of wops, learn whether they had
any money in the bank, and, if they
had, bury them in style in proportion
to the amounts indicated in their pass
books. Of course this is a straight
steal, but the sufferers are so far away
that there is not much danger of troub
le from them. Recently the consulate
gerjferal of Italy has sent an official
notification to all probate judges, ask
ing that the practice of making the
undertaker the administrator be dis
couraged, and that not more than fifty
dollars be paid to the undertaker.
These human vultures have gone to
appalling lengths. A young Italian,
who supported his old mother, stopped
Bending her remittances; and the Ital
ian consul, when appealed to, found
his name in the coroner’s records in
New York. Among his effects was a
pass book showing that he had had
$233.3 in a certain Italian bank. This
sum would have been a great boon to
the old woman, but when the eonsul
inquired about it at the bank, he was
told that it had all been paid out. The
bank, however, could not produce an
order of the court to account for its
action. The fact was that the under
taker, having found out' eactly how
much the Italian had made out his bill
for every cent of it, and the money
was paid to him by the bank without’
question!
The young assistant was right. The
wops don't know anything, and they
don’t count.—Everybody’s Magazine.
We are agents for the Arch Family
Remedies. Alaska Drug Company.
Bargains
This Week
I have just received a small
well selected stock of Pillow
Tops, Banners, purses, Hand
Bags and other leather goods
direct from the manufactur
ers. A very select stock for
Xmas
STUBBINS
WELL MADE AND BEAUTIFUL
F
U
R
N
I
T
U
R
E
Does not coal u much as some people
think. Bit Onr Chain and Tables
Book Cases, and indeed all Our Furni
ture adds mneh to the cosiness of home.
Alaska Furniture & Undertaking Co.
L. G. THOMAS, Mgr.