The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-10-31

dreadful fight occurred at Hawick, at the
Winter Fair, in 1880. Tho dispute arose out
Of quarrel between two gypsies as TO the
right to frail sister who had been comforting
her favors on both. Two gypsies were
killed, while the whole Of the two tribes
one being from Yetholm and the other from
observation-disclosures in the fight. A some
what similar occurrence happened in l772,
near Falnash Tho real cause of these furi-
Gus encounters seems TO have been the in
vading propensitics Of the West Country
gypses. Tho last three Of Jean Gordons
sons and two OF their wives were found
guilty of sheep stealing May, 1870, when a
iuryman, who had been asleep during the
trial, awakening suddenly, found his breth-
rem equally divided on the case, upon which
he cried out emphatically, Hang 'em al"
SO they were hanged OH the 9Th of June. In
TAG poor Jean Gordon was ducked TO death
in the Eden at Carlisle for having expressed
her Partially 10 the Stuarts. As often MS she
got her head above water she cried out,
"Charlie yet Charlie yet |" and died like a
true Faa. IL was not till 1888 that the severe
statute of 5 Eliz., C. 20, which had not been
put in force, according to Blackstone, since
the time when, as Hale says, " at one Suffolk
assizo no less than thirteen gypsics were exc
cuted upon these statutes few years before
the Restoration" was repealed by 23 Geo.
III, C. 81.
Up TO the passage of the vagrant act, 8
Geo. w. c. SO, for tho punishment of idle
and disorderly persons, rogues, and vaga-
bonds" gypsies could only be proceeded
against under II Geo. II. G. 8. Old "Wull
Faa," Of Kirk Yetholm, King Of the Gypsies,
died 1854, at n great age, at Coldingham,
when his corpse was escorted TO Yetholm by
n 4, xvl ,i.I,t unra III,
was succeeded by his son, evil Faa," who
died In 1s47, after reign of 63 years. In
his youth he was great football player.
Kirk Yetholm ball on :" Eastcrn's Fen" is
one Of tho keencst that can be played. II
is perhaps the only place where females en-
gage in the game of foot ball, and they still
play as eagerly as any man. For n short
time during the latter years of old Wull
Faa, who seems to have maintained the re-
spect accorded TO his ancestors, the gypsy
chiefs held the positions of corstables, peace
officers, or country keepers. But events
were passing into a distant part of the globe
that did more than all the philanthropic
| efforts of the Austrian government, and more
than all the cruel and savage domestic legis-
lation of Scotland and England to thin the
ranks and break UP the power of the gyp-
sizes. In 1775 the American war of indcpcn-
dence broke out. The Government was in
need Of soldiers, and the thinkers were appre-
hcnded all over the country and forced into the
American service. This kidnapping system
was, according to the testimony of persons
Of intelligence living at the time, Quoted by
Mr.. Simson,) the means of greatly breaking
up and dispensing the gypsy bands in Scot.
land. From this blow they never recovered.
The war in America had been concluded only
n few years when that with France broke
out The gypsies were again pressed into
the service, being everywhere apprehended
as !" idle and disordcrly persons and vaga-
bonds" But large numbers mutlated
themselve to escape service, and adopted a
fixed habit of life, SO that it is notorious
that in Scotland gypsies now fill many hon
orable posts in the legal and medical profess
sions, as we'll as creditable positions in u
lower station.-1he Nineteenth Century.