SICILIANS HERE DINE SIGNOR PALIZZOLO
And the Commendatore Reads a Greeting to America in Verse
HE'S FOR THE OPPRESSED
Came to Thank His Countrymen for Aid They Gave and Wants to See Them Uplifted
One hundred members of the Sicilian colony of New York gave a dinner last night at the Hotel Astor to their countryman Raffaele Palizzolo, ex-Deputy from Palermo, who says he has come here to advise the Sicilians for their own good and raise them in the opinions of the other Italians and Americans, by whom they are much misunderstood.
After being introduced by the Chairman, Enrico F. Pescia, the guest of the evening said in Sicilian that he always disdained to be a patrician in Italy, as he preferred to be among the people and help them whenever possible.
"I send my greetings," said Signor Palizzolo, "to the whole of the Sicilian colony of New York. I am here because I feel very grateful to the Sicilians in America for the help they sent to me when I was being persecuted in Italy, and I wanted to thank them all personally. That is the reason why I am here."
"On my arrival in this city, I saw that my poor countrymen were much misunderstood and ill-treated by every one and had no one to say a good work on their behalf, because their good qualities were entirely unknown. Only the crimes laid to their charge were made public. I want to express my thanks to the Italian press in this country, and also to the American press, for the courteous manner in which they have treated my visit to this country. The American press is, in my opinion, the only one in the world to-day that represents freely public opinion. The reason of its greatness and power is that it is really human. Its achievements are without comparison.
"All Sicilians are poetic, and I am a poet myself. In a short poem I have endeavored to express my thoughts on this great country--America."
Then Signore Palizzolo read a poem in Italian, of which this is the first verse:
UN SALUTO ALLE AMERICHE
Terra ospital di liberta secure,
E inviolate asilo, riverente
Inanza a te m'inchino
Ed il saluto della gran madre Italia oggi to porgo
E benedice il di che dalle ispane
Rive del fragil sue naviglio ai venti,
Sciaglia le vele l'Italo nocchiere
Le sue pro e volgende ignoti lidi.
A free translation of this would be:
A GREETING TO AMERICA
O, kindest land of liberty,
Freedom's inviolate shrine!
To you I offer reverence
And greeting from our mother home
I bless the day when from Spain's shore
That fragile bark its pilot steered.
Turned its prow westward till 'twas beached
Upon an unknown strand.
Among the prominent Italians present at the dinner were ex-Coroner Antonio Zucca, Commendatore C. Piva, Chevalier L. Solari, Dr. Ed. San Giovanni, Dr. G. Purpura, Dr. N. Portoghese, Dr. E. Scimeca, Vincenzo Porcasi, Frank Zito, F. C. Lo Monte, G. Lo Cicero, G. Dominici, G. Sacca, Joseph Di Cuccio, D. Cuccio, G. Mercadante, P. Brucato, F. Brucato, G. Gallo, F. H. Hobb, H. L. Preston, Francesco Romeo, James W. Parson, Theodore Wolfe, Santi Amoroso Saitta, S. Sciortino, B. Follina, G. Maccarrone, A. Collora, Francesco Barbera, P. Tramontana, S. Francavilla, V. Torina, Cesare Barra, Nicholas Selvaggi, Guido Guidici, and Dr. A. Caccini.
