My very dear Consul:

Allow me to congratulate you on your rise from mere clerk to the position of Consul in Chicago.

On the other hand, the miserable Italian colony, as compared to those of other nationalities, is being degraded more and more by the pernicious influence of cheese - dealing consuls, unscrupulous employees, and some prominent Italians of the colony.

A particular case in point is the reception given in honor of General Armando Diaz by the Italian colony of Chicago. This kind of demonstration is nonsensical, because, even if given in honor of a great man, it leaves no trace in the Sands of time.

Moreover, what is your opinion of a generalissimo like Diaz who goes to hear mass in the Church of the Jesuits? To me this alliance between the 2sword and the altar, between militarism and clericalism, seems a real treason - even if official prayers for the Italian Unknown Soldier had been scheduled for the occasion, to the accompaniment of crocodile tears.

Let me explain. If a man is a good Italian patriot, he should not fornicate with clericalism, which is Italy's worst enemy; if he is a good Christian he should not woo the highest representatives of barbarous militarism.

And what was your impression of that parade of top-hats and frock-coats which was organized by our country pumpkins and prominent - but ignorant - business men?

Fortunately for Diaz, that those top-hats did not terrify him after his experience at the front with the 420 m m. cannons!

But don't you think that such parades render our Italian colony ridiculous?

Let us now pass from the Generalissimo to those Italians who exploited his presence in order to vainly make a show of themselves, without considering the great wrong they thus inflicted upon the colony's dignity.

Take, for instance, the banquet offered to Diaz at the Congress Hotel. Although the hall was full of respectable people, particularly Italians, you cannot deny that the dregs of the colonial underworld, were present also, disguised as ladies and gentlemen; such as the self-called doctors, and lawyers, the country upstarts made wealthy in business, and similar vermin - which emerge at every occasion, even at the price of polluting the good reputation of Italo-Americans.

Why all this rumpus made by the wiseacre press, like the Tribuna Transatlantica, against Judge Barasa, because his speech at the banquet was only a few minutes long? Strangely enough, the same press is apt to accuse Barasa of not being able to speak the Italian language well - not realizing that the number of Italians in Chicago who can speak their native tongue is very small.

It is not my intention to defend Judge Barasa. To me they are all alike, and to be frank, I do not give a damm for any judge or consul. But it would not be fair to blame Mr. Barasa for his inability to speak Italian, when one considers that most of those top-hutted and frock-coated guests knew less of the language than Mr. Barasa or myself, a poor manual laborer.

However, the real cause for criticism seems to lie, not in his lack of knowledge of the language, but in his overbearing manner toward the country upstarts, remodeled into "gentlemen," who presume to overlord the colony.

Giuseppe Orrico

807 Garibaldi Place