The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-03-01
The Gypsy Northumberland Septen-
rial Gathering Of Eagabon:ss from
the eTttcrlnosd PARTS og The Earth.
.encc Of the Buffalo Courier.

STlIIGAhDl, bEkAANl,(
January %, 1872.
In the quaint and lovely little town Of
Cannstadt, four miles from here, assemblies
next week the septennial parliament OF the
yagabonds of the world--that nation without
country the people of Rsmmany Rye. l
drove down there to-day and had short in
tcrvicw with their king, Joseph Reinhardt,
old, blind, and cghty-tive. l had intended
TO have lett for Dresden OH Monday, but will
now defer my departure for week, to wit
ness one of the rarest sights in Christendom,
rs surely this meeting Of the Bohemian SEN
ate must lie. What can they have to talk
about: No legislation against yagrancy,
s,lrcv-no statutes against poaching will be
enacted. I tried to ask old Joseph, but his
familiar, a woman hard of yisagc and lean of
limb (Which she seemed to have no scTuplcs
about showing), CURLY said if was Of them
l would know; and 4 broad piece Of silver
was wasted in trying to start her tongue
talking of themselves.
Who are these Gipsic$, or Egyptians, is n
problem. Like Egypt of old, they have
"place in history" but unlike her, they form
no connecting link sufficient to fill 4 student
with enough enthusiasm to trace their rise.
Occult, mysterious, inscrutablc to historians
and statesmen, infinitely perplexing to magis-
trates and policemen, they are the crlN of
ethnologists and the despair of religious mis-
sionarics. We are told that they arc the REM
nant of some "lost" Aryan tribe, some low
caste sect from India, but Where do we lind
their prototype? The question is not so
much whether they arc Indians, as cthnolo-
gists say, or Egyptians, as they claim--true
descendants Of kamescs. They are the real
human fly in amber, and the question Is,
How did they get there?
1t is but four centuries ago that band Of
three htndrcd--the first ever mentioned by
historian or chronicler-rugged, dirty, and
larcenouS, appeared on the banks OF the
Elhe, bringing to the people Of the Hanse
towns strong letters of recommendation
afterwards found to have been forged from
the Emperor SigiSmund. They gave out
that they were doomed to wander up and
down on the face Of the earth rs Il punish
mcnt for having apostatizcd fromlChristianity
to paganism, and the simplc-1aithcd, credu-
| lous, kind-hearted villagers treated them at
| first with much tenderness and compassion !;
but the hospitality was abused, everything
portable was stolen, and patience ceased to
he Q virtue; SO the majority were hanged,
and the remainder literally "pulled up their
stakes" and left. In SaXony and SwitZcr-
land they flrcd worse. Michael, Duke of
Egypt, their leader, with the remnant of the
Land, journcvcd into Bavaria, and attempted
to play q new dodge-that they had been
crowded out of Asia Minor by the Turks,
only to find that one may go farther and fare
| worse.
But for al their prosecutions they throve
apace, multiplying like sheep, and the Grand
! ChoSroe flourished from generation to gene
ration. Kings of Galilee and dukes of Egypt
tlefcd extinction, and q new emperor Of Tu-
| mis- Gas the king of them all was called was
always found ready to occupy the throne CT
his predecessor broken OH the wheel BY
| the multitude regarded is sorccrers and wiz
ards, by magistrates as vagabonds and thieves,
MalthllSian doctrines were practiced upon
them without murmur from priest, prince,
or peasant. Charles V. banished them from
the low countries, forbidding them to return
under pain OF death In 1916 Bohemian
was condemned by the court of Utrecht to
be scourged till the blood came, to have bis
nostrils torn with hot pincers, and to DO en-.
PEELED from the territory of the province; yet
the poor wretch made his appearance soon
afterwards on the frontier, cntreating that he
might he hanged-a request which was forth
with granted. Burning alive was the pun
| ishment melted out TO recllcitrant gypsy wo-
men. They were not looked upon as human
beings; and it is matter Of authentic record
that one of the petty sovcreigns in Germany,
when out hunting on one occasion, set his
! hounds to run down gypsy whom he found
| in q wood nursing baby. AS for Spain,
the holy inquisition made the peninsula for
! two hundred years one vast terrestrial in
terno for the Gitanos. The Azucena Of 1ic-
ton was but a type Of thousands OF actual
martyrs and group of Gypsies to be burnt,
whipped, or branded, was standing dish at
every auto do fe. Yet Spain. never ceased
to swarm with them. From the time they
first entered France, in 1922, calling them
selves Saracens, down TO 1889, when the laws
against them were repealed, they were
hunted remorselessly and increased in cor
| responding latio but since then they have
been steadily decreasing, and on Friday next
Duke Peter will represent less than four hun
drcd. The scourge, the gibbet, and the fag-
got, were powerless; but education, the
scientific development Of quackery, and the
mathematical precision of the exposition of
humbug, is slowly but surely starving them.
The old librarian of Stuttgardts noble col
lection, my host during my stay here, re-
turned with me from Cam and told me many
stories of this veritable kaiser Of thieves,
whom he had known for many years, pro-
missing to take me down and give me for
NAL introduction to his majesty. But he
warned me, if I wanted to get information of
himself or his people, had better talk to the
statue in front of the Town Hall rather than
him. However, propose to try it.