He finds his fellow countrymen prospering, for they are generally a hard-working and thrifty lot, and he proceeds to levy tribute on them just as he did in Naples or Palermo.

If they refuse his demands, stabbing or bomb-throwing show that he has lost none of his ferocity.

Where they are of the most ignorant type he threatens them with the "evil eye," the "curse of God," or even with sorceries.

The number of Italians who can be thus terrorized is astonishing.

Of course, the mere possibility of such things argues a state of mediaevalism.