Arraigned before Magistrate Kernochan, the men were all held for trial, in company with twenty-seven others arrested in all parts of the country. Barracola was found to be a man of great wealth, owning whole blocks of houses in the lower tenement district. The newspapers devoted pages to the capture of the ringleaders, and thousands of angry people attempted to get into the court-room every time the men were brought up for a hearing.
"A PITCHED BATTLE WAS TAKING PLACE IN THE YARD."
Not until now, however, has the story been told of how Sergeant Collins, little by little, worked his case up from nothing at all. Sergeant Collins himself gave the writer the details of this chronicle in London, while on his way to Italy, there to make certain inquiries about Barracola, it being believed that the former Italian banker was also a moving spirit in the malevolent organization known as the Mafia.
Imprisonment for life is the least punishment the majority of the "Black Hand" captains may expect. "If a dozen of them don't go to the electric chair I shall be much mistaken," said Sergeant Collins. The detective will receive some fifty thousand dollars in rewards for his work in ferreting out the heads of an organization which existed solely for the purposes of blackmail and murder, and which threatened to become a perpetual and ever-growing menace to society.
THE WIDE WORLD: In Other Magazines.
A LILLIPUTIAN RESIDENCE.
The illustration given below shows one of the queerest houses in the United States. It is four storeys high, yet does not exceed an ordinary cottage in height. The house itself is said to have been built by a man of small stature and eccentric ideas, and a romantic little story is connected with the place. When the house was completed—so runs the legend—its owner was lonely, and, thinking the most expeditious way to get what he wanted was to advertise in the American papers, he inserted a paragraph under the heading "Wife Wanted." Scores of letters and photographs arrived from the hopeful divinities. From the collection of pictures he selected a beautiful face—one that fulfilled his ideal of woman and wife. They corresponded and an engagement resulted. The prospective bride left her Eastern home and came to the eager bridegroom in California. She was a magnificent specimen of womanhood—a modern Juno—but, to the horror and complete despair of the now undone bridegroom, she was six feet high: for him and his house a giantess. Under no possibility could he get her into his "Diamond Castle." This was an insurmountable obstacle to their marriage, and with great sadness they held a consultation and decided to part for ever.—"THE STRAND MAGAZINE."