Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-10-21
The European Gypsy.

The European Gypsy.
A BRIGHT and wretched race is row.
ing European highways, enlivening the
roads with variegated costumes and
stirring great cities with song. 1t lives
on love and freedom. Its represent
atives are called Tziganes, Zingari,
Gigani, Cygans, Zigeuner, Gitanos,
Gypsies, Egyptians and Bohemians.
These names illustrate its development
and close relationship with southern
races. Where the sun is warm, where
flowers bloom, where groves are luxuri-
ant, where savory fruits drop from the
trees, there the gypsy thrives and -four
ishes. His tent is a rickety cart; his
code the nauajG in Spain, the kinyal in
Russia dagger, short and sharp; his
garments, rags; his law, nature. He
kills an unfaithful wife, and if a woman
of the tribe yields to outside enticements
she is put to death. The Chinaman is
silent concerning the manners and laws
of his nation. His silence is easily main
tanned, for he has a home far away.
The gypsy, however, vicious and eff
Terminate, born in the slums of great cit
les, speaking their languages, and trad
ing with their inhabitants, clings to his
Arabian Incidence without uttering a
word concerning the laws which he
obeys, the gods whom he worships, or
the peculiar code of honor which he OBJ
serves. Stealing brings no dishonor.
The most respectable members of the
tribe visit the thief in prison. If dag
gers leap from their sheaths in a forest
or dark street, and are buried in the
hearts of irate combatants, the thud of
a falling body is followed by its silent
burial, and the caravan goes its way.
What is life that they should mind it?
This curious race must not be treated
lightly. 1t is Nature, beautiful and
wild, living face to face With that other
Nature, conventional and deformed.
The gypsy knows nothing of the alb
stract idea of liberty. In him liberty is
instructive and natural. The earth be-
longs to man; man has a right to the
earth; this is the essence of his reli-
gion. The trees have fruit-let us eat
them; women have kisses-let us snatch
them; the sun is warIn-let us bask in
It; this is his creed. The true gypsy is
the primitive man imprisoned in the
city-a living protest of Nature against
the men of the day, whom he considers
degenerate. He is not the primitive
man of the North-fghting bears, dig
ging holes under the snow for shelter,
killing wild beasts for food, and telling
trees for fuel. He is the nervous man
of the South-as shapely as Apollo, as
elegant as a woman and as supple as a
deer. He kills his wife with a dagger
or a strong embrace. He is always a
child; he never grows old. He breathes
the freedom of Nature. He is the same
everywhere. A common type gives him
common characteristics. The Russian
Tzigane loves sunlight, wanders over
the highways dressed in rags, and plays
his guitar with the same nonchalance
and ease as the Spanish gitano. The
gypsy's dance, voluptuous and frantic,
his music sparkling and languid, his
ruses, his combats, his carelessness, his
flashing eye, are the same in the SUBJ
urbs of Kieff in the black lands, as at
Seville in the golden land. The earth is
bis mother, pleasure his love and freedom
his religion. Give him a palace and he
will return to the cottage. He pretends
to- obey the laws of the land that gave
him birth, and, if he violates them, SUBJ
mits to the prescribed punishment; but
in his own sphere his only rule of con-
duct is the simple code of the tribe, and
his only authority that of its chief.
When driven to the city by want or
cold, he settles in squalid quarter dam
gerous to strangers. He lives in the
street. In the street the women of the
tribe arrange their hair, dress their chill
dren, and make love to the young men.
If pressed by hunger, he rises slowly,
mutters a few oaths, casts a Jealous
glance on his black-eyed wife, sees that
the spring which launches the blade of
his nauajG is in order, seizes few red
and blue kerchiefs, and starts through
the streets, accompanied by an old
toothless mule, his head wrapped in a
tied at the back of his
neck, with the ends fluttering over his
robust back. Selling handkerchief and
mules is an easy occupation. He will
never trace furrow on the ground nor
touch the workman's hammer. He con-
siders labor dishonorable. He does
nothing but what is indispensable to
earn a living. If he steals it is not
through love of money, but to escape
the necessity of earning money by labor.
To him the city is prison. He loves
the country. There he breathes freely
and is joyous. He has no house rent to
pay. No one asks him whittier he is
going. The stars are his lamps, the sun
warns his cold bones, and food is
abundant and free. In the country he
asks nothing more than water in the
brook, chestnucs on the trees, milk from
q stray COW, and roses to adorn the dark
hair of his darling. Lying on his back,
be sings for heurs.-NeW York San