Sir : I have the honor to transmit for your perusal an article which appeared in the Fremden Blatt of the 14th instant, with the translation of the same, which I have caused to be made, the article being upon the subject of the swindles which have been practiced during the present year or two upon the peasantry of Galicia and Hungary. I also take occasion to inclose two other articles upon the same subject, which I have taken from the Vienna Weekly News of the 19th and 26th instant; the latter paper being an English print of this city.
My object in forwarding these articles, Mr. Secretary, thinking that you may be interested in reading them, is to keep the Department informed, as far as I am myself, in a matter which appears to be a great fraud and swindle upon a people who were seeking homes in our country. At Wadomice, a town of Galicia but little known, a trial is now taking place the interest of which extends far over the limits of this monarchy. As far as the police is concerned, it must be owned with shame that it lent a willing hand for a monthly remuneration or a certain percentage, and that, instead of preventing crimes, they committed them.
In mitigation, however, it must be said that they were subject to the orders of the district authorities, whose instructions, as they allege, they simply carried out. This trial also proves again the well-known fact that criminals are a fraternity, which is international and interconfessional. Polish, German, and Hungarian criminals here go hand in hand to cheat and rob Polish, German, and Hungarian emigrants.
Christians and Jews for years carried on a nefarious traffic in human beings, selected alike from the ranks of Christians and Jews.
Criminals flock together everywhere; they understand each other without regard to nationality and religion. All the accused sixty-five in number were divided into twenty-eight sections, and arraigned on the following charges: Violence and privation of personal liberty paragaph 93 , extortion paragraph 98 , abuse of official power paragraphs ; and , accepting bribes paragraph , bribing others seduction to abuse official power paragraph , robbery paragraph , fraud paragraph , false assumption of an official title paragraph , concealment of deserters paragraph , and inducing soldiers to desert paragraph Inquiries made by the courts of justice show that emigration to America from some of the districts of Galicia has assumes gigantic dimensions.
