years at the
end of which they were to return the child and pay a fixed sum, a
miserable pittance, to the parents for its use, but, practically, the
bargain amounted to a sale, except that the money was never paid. The
children left their homes never to return. They were shipped from Naples
to Marseilles, and made to walk all the way through France, singing,
playing, and dancing in the towns and villages through which they passed,
to a seaport where they embarked for America. Upon their arrival here they
were brought to a rendezvous in some out-of-the-way slum and taken in hand
by the padrone, the partner of the one who had hired them abroad. He sent
them out to play in the streets by day, singing and dancing in tune to
their alleged music, and by night made them perform in the lowest dens in
the city. All the money they made the padrone took from them, beating and
starving them if they did not bring home enough. None of it ever reached
their parents. Under this treatment the boys grew up thieves--the girls
worse. The life soon wore them out, and the Potter's Field claimed them
before their term of slavery was at an end, according to the contract. In
far-off Italy the simple peasants waited anxiously for the return of
little Tomaso or Antonia with the coveted American gold. No word ever came
of them.

The vile traffic had been broken up in England only to be transferred to
America. The Italian government had protested. Congress had passed an act
making it a felony for anyone knowingly to bring into the United States
any person inveigled or forcibly kidnapped in any other country, with the
intent to hold him here in involuntary service. But these children were
not only unable to either speak or understand English, they were
compelled, under horrible threats, to tell anyone who asked that the
padrone was their father, brother, or other near relative. To get the
evidence upon which to proceed against the padrone was a task of exceeding
difficulty, but it was finally accomplished by co-operation of the Italian
government with the Society's agents in the case of the padrone Ancarola,
who, in November, 1879, brought over from Italy seven boy slaves, between
nine and thirteen years old, with their outfit of harps and violins. They
were seized, and the padrone, who escaped from the steamer, was arrested
in a Crosby Street groggery five days later. Before a jury in the United
States Court the whole vile scheme was laid bare. One