THE BLACK-HANDERS IN SESSION
"Upon entering the house, which was close by Cina's farmhouse, I saw a
table in a room on the ground floor and around this table were seated
the following bandits: Ignazio Lupo, Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala,
Uncle Salvatore (Giuseppe Palermo), Uncle Vincent, Vincenzio Giglio,
Bernardo Perrone, Nicola Sylvester, besides a man from Brooklyn whom
the gang called Domenico and who was a baker, and five other men whose
names I did not know. Cina was not there, being occupied with his
family, where a birth was expected momentarily.
"As I stepped in no one motioned to recognize me nor was my greeting
returned. Mechanically I took a seat. After about ten minutes of
sinister silence and ill-boding glances, Cina broke the strain as he
came rushing in with Peppino, his brother, both of them laughing and
shouting like madmen.
"'A boy! A boy!' they yelled.
"Cina received the congratulations of the gang. Silence once more
haunted the room. Then Lupo turned to me abruptly and said:
"'Don Antonio, your work is worthless. It is a rotten job; so much so
that none of it could be sold. Cina and Cecala have risked their lives
in trying to sell it. However, they have sold some four thousand
dollars of the counterfeit money, taking in, all in all, about one
thousand dollars in genuine money. They have expended about two
hundred dollars on their trip to different cities distributing our
product. Therefore, there remains about eight hundred dollars, which
will be divided among the ones that have advanced the first money. If
you had turned out a good job we could have taken in more by selling
it all. As it is about seven or eight thousand dollars have been made
for the stove.
"'The Canadian money is worthless and must be burned. It cannot be put
on the market. But this is no fault of yours, in this instance. It is
the fault of the one who made the plates.
"'Now you watch how the money is divided. _If there is any left_, you
get it. These men present will not accept a penny of the remainder
until those who advanced the money have been settled with.'
"'As my work did not turn out well,' I replied to Lupo, 'give me only
enough to return to New York.'
"'No,' broke in Morello, decisively. 'We don't know yet whether you
may return to New York or whether you are to continue the work in
company with another man.'
"'You want money?' asked Lupo. 'Who will give it to you? I have spent
two hundred dollars and now will take that amount. There will then be
but six hundred dollars to be divided.'
"'Don't do things all your own way, Ignazio,' Morello warned in his
husky voice. 'Let us deliberate and argue this thing out. There are
eight hundred dollars. You have spent two hundred dollars. You get
seventy-five dollars now. I have spent fifty dollars and will take it
now, as I need it very much, as you know. Fifty dollars we will give
to Cina, twenty dollars to Don Antonio, ten to Uncle Salvatore and ten
more to Uncle Vincent, five to Giglio and five to Bernardo; what is
left is needed for the continuation of the work with the other
plates.'
"'And the man who made the plates, don't you want to give him
anything?' inquired Cecala.
"'Yes,' was the reply in chorus.
"'Well,' turning to me, 'take these twenty dollars,' said Morello,
'and return to the house. Await there the decision whether you are to
return to New York or not.'
"I accepted the money and tucked it into my pocket. Then I was driven
to the stone house in a carriage accompanied by Cina's brother
Peppino.
"During this session with the gang some of them got busy and started
to burn up the Canadian five-dollar notes, and a portion of the
two-dollar American notes. These were the notes returned as worthless
by the gang. While throwing the notes into the stove Uncle Salvatore
and Peppino exclaimed from time to time:
"'What a shame. They might all have been sold.'
"Once more at the stone house I explained to Caterina what had
happened. I told her that they had given me the twenty dollars and
that I was going to go to New York and not return; of course she was
to come along with me. But after thinking it over we resolved that our
appearance was so miserable that we had better remain a while longer.
There was also the ever-present danger that if we ran away from this
gang we would be murdered. We abandoned the idea, therefore, and
stayed at the stone house awaiting the orders of the gang.
"We were not kept waiting long. Next morning, Salvatore Cina came to
the house in a very happy mood. He told me that I could not return to
New York because the work was to be continued with other and better
plates for the two-dollar notes. The five-dollar notes were to be
continued, and we were to print until five million dollars had been
struck off the press. This amount, he said, would make us all rich.
Then the work was to cease. He told me that it had been decided to buy
a horse and carriage for the exclusive use of the stone house. I was
to go to New York and meet Cecala who would introduce me to the man
who was to direct the work from now on. I was to tell Cina the day I
intended going to New York.
"After arranging that Giglio and Bernardo were to remain with
Caterina, while I was in New York and Uncle Vincent went to Newburgh
on business, I said that I would be ready for my trip in two days.
Then Cina left me after he had warned me not to tell any of the
secrets of the place, explaining how hard it was for the police to
discover the plant. He declared I must be happy in the thought of
future wealth.
"On March 7, 1909, Cina returned to the stone house with a carriage,
bringing Giglio and Bernardo to keep Caterina company. He drove me to
the Highland station, and I got aboard the 11 A. M. train for New
York. Arriving at the Grand Central station I was met by Cecala, who
took me to a house at No. 5 Jones Street. Not finding the party he was
seeking there, he told me to go to my aunt's house and return to the
Jones Street address at eight o'clock that evening and ask for Don
Peppe.
"That same evening at the appointed hour I went to the Jones Street
house and inquired in a grocery store on the street floor for Don
Peppe. A woman indicated to me the door where I knocked. A bald-headed
man, about forty-five years old, with a nice light brown moustache
opened the door.
"Cecala was there seated in a chair. He introduced me to the man who
opened the door saying that he was Giuseppe Calichio, a lithograph
engraver, alias Don Peppe. Cecala turned to Calichio and said:
"'Don Peppe, we are in need of your work. This man (indicating me) is
a printer, but he is not capable of doing the work that we require.
You must go with him and continue this work. It is already started and
everything will go well. When we have printed two or three million
dollars' worth we will stop. We are in luck.'
"'Unless we are discovered by the police,' replied Calichio.
"'Have no such fear,' said Cecala. 'The place where the work is done
is very secure. No one would ever suspect that such a thing is going
there.'
"'Listen, Cecala,' said Calichio. 'If things happen as they did when I
did work for you before, then I refuse to go. I do not care to work
and risk my life and then get nothing for it.'
"'No, no,' said Cecala. 'You know that that work did not turn out at
all well.'
"'I know nothing other than that you caused me to sell my little
printing shop, and I am in terrible condition financially even now as
a result of it. If you want me to do the work you speak about in
company with brother Comito here, you must give me twenty dollars a
week and board. I have a family in Italy to look after, don't forget.
As long as you pay me what I want I am ready to work for you; but I
must be paid in advance. The first week that you fail to pay me in
advance I will cease to work and come home. And what is more, my dear
Cecala, I want good eating and must have wine every day; as you know
there is not a day that goes by without my drinking wine that I do not
get a headache. The wine gives me strength and health.'
"Cecala's answer to this was characteristic:
"'Don Peppe, I will do all that is possible to get you twenty dollars
a week, but I must first talk with the others, my friends, as you know
that I am not alone in this undertaking. As to the eating, you will
have all that you want and there will be wine. I will have a barrel of
it shipped to Highland, direct to Cina, who will see that you get some
when you want it.'
"'Who is this Cina?' asked Calichio, suspiciously.
"'He is my godfather, whom you will know when you are in Highland,'
said Cecala.
"'Perhaps he is that farmer whom I saw in Don Piddu's (Morello's)
house last year?'
"'Precisely,' said Cecala.
"He continued: 'I will bring the first twenty dollars to-morrow.
To-morrow night you will leave with Comito?'
"'All right. But first, I must see the plates and examine them to see
whether they are good. If I am to do this work, it must be done
perfectly. You know that I do not do things by halves. I must see
whether the plates need retouching. I will bring my tools. If I am
unable to use them for this work then we will buy some before leaving
the city.'
"'Have no doubt,' continued Cecala. 'I will come to-morrow morning and
show the plates to you, and you can take them with you.'
"'Come to-morrow about 10 A. M. with Comito, and not before ten,
because I expect a person on some _personal_ business and do not want
him to see you,' counselled Calichio.
"During all this talk I did not say a word. On my way with Cecala to
my aunt's house in Bleecker Street Cecala remarked:
"'Don Antonio, that man Calichio is the professor for the job. In
Italy he has printed for aristocratic families, who were in hard
luck. He printed for these aristocrats about three million dollars in
fifty, one-hundred, five-hundred and one-thousand lire notes. _This
money was worked off in this country on people who were going to Italy
on trips._ Don Peppe is capable of transferring to lithographic stones
the engraving on bank notes and then transfer the engraving from the
lithographic stones on to zinc plates, and in this way perfect the
plates that are necessary for our business.'
"'Is that how our plates were made?' I inquired.
"'No. Ours were made by photography and a lot of preparations are
necessary by that method. It is enough to say that I have spent over a
hundred dollars up-to-date for chemicals.'
"Suddenly Cecala turned on me a whispered: 'Don Antonio, what have you
told your aunt?'
"'Nothing--why?'
"'Did she ask where you are working?'
"'No. She knows that I am working in Philadelphia.'
"'Good! If she asks with whom you are working in Philadelphia say that
your employer is a priest, and his name is Bonaventure (----).'
"'Very well,' I replied. 'My aunt is not interested whether I am
working with a priest or with a monk. I have told her that I was
employed in a printing shop, nothing else.'
"'Good! You are an intelligent man, and that is why I and all my
friends like you Calabrians, because you are secretive and are never
corrupted. I knew a Calabrian who was arrested with counterfeit notes
on him, once, and the policemen made him all kinds of promises and
even punched him, in their effort to learn from him who had given him
the counterfeit money to exchange; but he never told a word. He never
squealed.'
"I made no reply; only shook Cecala's hand and went to my aunt's.
"The next morning, I forget whether it was the 9th or the 10th of
March, I went at the given hour to Calichio's house, where I found
Cecala examining the zinc plates for the two-dollar American notes, of
the check letter C, plate number 1110.
"Calichio carefully examined the plates with a magnifying glass. He
explained to us that the acids that were used for washing the plates
were too strong and had destroyed some fine lines and that it would be
necessary to retouch the plates and so raise the missing lines. He
would do it himself, Calichio said, if the proper tools were brought
to him. Cecala quickly answered that the tools would be bought
immediately and that we were to prepare to leave for Highland that
night. We then went to a hardware store on the Bowery, and Calichio
selected some chisels and other tools, for which Cecala paid. As soon
as we were out of the store Cecala gave Calichio his first twenty
dollars in advance. Turning to me, Cecala said:
"'Don Antonio, Don Peppe and I are going to buy some chemicals. You
can go away and be at Jones Street to-night at 10 P. M. ready to
leave. Buy what you need, because you will not return to New York
until the work is completed.'
"I went to a store and bought a pair of shoes for myself and a pair
for Caterina. I also bought some little delicacies of food for her.
"That night the three of us left on the 11 P. M. train for Highland.
Arriving there at 2 in the morning, we were met at the station by
Peppino Cina with a carriage. He told us that we must go directly to
the stone house and not stop at Cina's farm because a strange face
might arouse suspicion among the neighbors. We did not work that day.
We took a much-needed rest."