NEWS OF THE WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8317, 16 May 1905, Page 2

NEWS OF THE WORLD.

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL. [Pn Pksss Association.] (Per R.M.S. Ventura at Auckland.) A HIDEOUS MURDER. SAN FRANCISCO, April 27. San Francisco, which rivals London and Paris in its horrible murder cases, has recently added another to the long list of especially hideous affairs. On the evening of April 6 a man walking along a street on the border of what is known as the Latin Quarter, at eleven o'clock in the evening, saw another j man carrying a heavy burden, m what seemed to him a furtive and suspicious fashion. The police were notified, and found a bundle which proved to be i the headless and dismembered body of I a young man. The following day the tide washed to the shore near the fishermen's wharf the head, legs and arms of the murdered victim. lne remains were presently recognised to be those of Biago Vilardo, -a poor Italian or Sicilian. The police, who ,are believed to deserve considerable credit in this instance, finally arrested : Rosa Tortorici, who, with her baby ,in aims, came to the blood-stained house . where it was apparent the murder was committed. The woman, who is young and beautiful, said she knew her husband committed the murder, but she did not see him do it. She said her husband and Vilardo, who was a boarder in the house, were quarrelling at 7.30 o'clock, and she left the house and did not return until 9.30. -xien she came home and went to bed, paying little attention to the basin of blood and other evidences of crime. Though it is asserted ' that the police officers put Mrs Tortorici through a cruel "sweating process," nothing more I than this could they learn. It is generally believed that Vilardo was the victim of the Mafia, though other evidence points to a personal quarrel. At any rate, Tortorici has not been captured, and his wife and babe remain in the city prison, though no formal charge has been made against the woman. It is a curious fact that though there were hundreds of Italians among the throngs who poured through the morgue to view the body of Vilardo none of these ventured to identify the murdered man. Another Vilardo, half-brother of the victim, did .finally identify the dead man. When the funeral was held it was marked that only this half-brother and * one other male friend ventured to be present. Several elderly women attended, j praying beside the coffin. It is said that Vilardo helped to bury^ a victim of the Mafia who was killed some months ago, and that he gave testimony to the police regarding this affair. For this, it is said, he was marked for death, and Tortorici was but the representative of the black band. However this may be, the actual murderer may be in Italy by this time, and it is not likely that his wife will be punished very severely for what is held to be at least a criminal knowledge of the murder. The woman appears to be quite content in prison. She talks little and betrays nothing. The other Italians in the city are equally reticent, though Tltalian," the local Italian newspaper, has abjured Tortorici, if he has a drop of the warm blood of Italy in his veins, to come forward to take the burden of the crime on his own shoulders, instead of hiding behind the skirts of his unhappy wife. It appears that Tortorici attacked Vilardo from behind with a. cleaver while the latter sat eat-mg his suppei'. He then used other implements in cutting up the body. JAPANESE IMMIGRATION. One San Francisco newspaper is attempting to inaugurate . a crusade against the Japanese emigration to the United States. The Labour Unions have taken the matter up to some extent, and it appears that the way is being prepared for a campaign in favour of Japanese exclusion at no far distant day. At present each, steamer from Honolulu brings Uarge numbers of Japanese, who have learned that much red tape at landing here can be avoided by stopping a few weeks at Honolulu en route. The stop at Hawaii enables the emigrants to buy some sort of American clothing, to have their money changed, and to avoid examination as to sanitation upon arrival at San Francisco, . A large number of direct emigrants from Japan have recently been refused a landing, being accused of having the affliction of trachoma, a contagious and incurable disease of the eyes. An AntiJapanese League Convention will assemble here on May 7, the first step being organisation. The alarm of the residents of the Pacific coast as to the influx of Japanese is not shared by the residents of the other States, who do not see many Japs. It must be admitted, however, that, even in California, there are many' persons who realise that the labour market is not flooded at the present time ; that the Japanese people are decent and well behaved in their daily life; and that their presence is in every way a benefit rather than a menace at th« present time. Still, there may be some reason, it is admitted, to restrict immigration to some extent, considering the Japanese enterprise and the enormous population and small territorial possession of the Island Kingdom. MILITARY SURGERY. Surgeon-Major Louis L. Seaman, late of the United States Volunteer Engineers, and a leading authority on military surgery in the country, is in San Francisco, en route to the Orient, to continue observations of the medical aspect of the Russo-Japanese war. "If Amerioa had to go to war to-morrow," Dr Seaman said, "there is absolutely nothing to prevent a repetition of the miserably wretched condition of affairs that existed in 1898, when, during a short campaign of six weeks in Cuba, fourteen men died from preventible disease to every one that 'died 'from Spanish bullets." Major Seaman is deeply disgusted with the failure of the United States Government to. take ad- . vantage of the splendid lessons in military surgery and sanitation which the Japanese are impressing on the world. "Those lessons are simply going to waste," he has said. "Our general staff sent five officers to observe the war. All these are connected with the iulling department of the army, and not one had anything to do with the three great life-saving departments — • commissary, transport and medical- — and yet it is just here that the Japanese are peculiarly fitted to give us ' many points. The nauseating conditions in Cuba amounted to nothirig less thin a • Governmental crime. General Okii has just reported of his army of one hundred thousand men, that only forty died from preventible disease. How strikingly does this compare with our miserable failure in Cuba, and in the Philippines. We have able mcdi- ■ 1 cal men in our army, but their hands I are tied. I am going to Japan again, j and hope to join the staff of Oyama." ! UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION. NEW YORK, ApriL2i. Close to twelve thousand immigrants , were brought to this port to-day, on eight big liners. This breaks all records for a single day., The officials at Ellis Island notified the commanders of three steamers that it was useless trying to ' land steerage passengers to-day as they.

oould not be accommodated. It is not possible for Ellis Island to handle more than six thousand in one day, and if tomorrow's arrivals amount to anything at all it will be Monday before the officials get through with the rush. The immigrants, v on the whole, are a supe-rior-looking crowd. There are very few Russian or Polish Jews among them, and this is explained by the fact that the Jewish religious holidays prevented a larger number of them from sailing at I this time. They will arrive in great numbers next week. It is believed that most of the immigrants are Italians. , THE BODY OF PAUL JONES. Despatches from Paris announce the success of the search that Ambassador Porter has been conducting for the body of John Paul Jones, hero of the American revolutionary sea- fights. The body was fouiad in a good state of preservation, considering that interment took place more than a hundred years ago. General Porter has been conducting the search for the body for five years, and at his own expense a force of workmen tunnelled and cross-tunnelled the old St Louis cemetery. Hundreds of wooden caskets were found, and at last four leaden oaskets, the last of which contained the body of John Paul. The body was well preserved, being immersed in alcohol and swathed in bandages. Those present were struck with the resemblance of the head to the medallions and bust of the admiral. The coffin was taken to a medical school, Where identification was completed. The organs were so preserved that it was even possible to make an autopsy determining the cause of death, which was as recorded. It is expected that the remains will be conveyed to the United States by either a French or American warship, and they will be given fitting, if rather tardy, sepulchre in the land which John Paul Jones^ so heroically served in life. j