Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-07
THE
Their Origin and Their L.anguage-Their
Lazy, SensuOus, Lying and Cheat
ing Habits-MOsf Of Them
Very Dirty, Very Thievish, Cowardiy.
Malicious and Excessively Unpoeticai
They Are HBad Eggs"

Boston Adcertiser: III ere are about
600, 900 gypsies in Europe, and 90
600 in Hungary alone. Poetry, opera
and music must have been partial
to the gypsies. Sir Walter Scott, the
| opera of Carmen, and scores of Ger
man productions have dealt in gypsies.
and Franz List has immortalized their
music. The gloomy, melancholy eye of
| the gypsy has been explained as the re-
suit OF persecution, or as the yearning for
a happier lot. Gypsy girls have been ad-
mired for their charms. But the sober
truth is that the melancholy eye of the
gypsy indicates stupidity, s~ensuality and
lazy b%rooding. Gypsy girls may have a
certain charm-young people generally
have; but gypsy women are ugly, in the
fullest sense of the word. And romance
itself comes to an end when people are
on bad terms with soap and water, and
revel in roasted cats or half-decayed meats
of any kind. Most gypsies are dirty,
lazy, thievish, cowardly, malicious and
strictly unpoetical. They abominate po-
hcemen; they like people who are ro-
mantle. They are nomadic in the fullest
meaning of the term, and they like
to be recognized as such. More
than a century ago a scholar ~investi-
l Shttd az VI III Ky DSiCC- nv oC
cided it to be Indian in origin and Aryan
in character. The greatest ~etymologist
in this century, Prof. Pott, studied the
gypsy dialects of all Europe, and con
cluded them to be nearer the original
Sanskrit than are most languages now
spoken. More recently the eminent Mi
klosich, the illustrious Slav scholar, has
traced the migrations of the gypsies from
the upper Indus, through Syria and Asia
Minor, to Greece. They left India about
the year 1000; they began to make Greece
their home about 1850; they entered Rou,
mania about 1900, Hungary about 1850
Bohemia about 1410, Germany in 14l7
Spain in 1440. Later on they invaded
Scotland, Sweden, Russia and Siberia
When did they enter America? We d,
not know, But it is quite certain tina
the gypsies occur in Egypt, in the Sou
dan, throughout Northern Africa, anC
even in China. Prof. Miklosich ha.
destroyed the belief that the gypsies ar,
Aryans, except in their dialect. Modern
a~nthropology is disposed to question til,
Aryan character of the people in Brit
T people, and the gypsies are nov
thought to be Dravidians, that is to say
neither Caucasian nor Monaghan. The,
occupied India before the immigration o
, the Sanskrit people, and still survive
especially near Madras and in Southern
India. The pariahs of Northern Indi
are called Domas, but the d is cerebral
and sounds somewhat like r. Our gyp
5 sizes call themselves Rom; they thin
themselves kaIo, black, or n%leleio, brown
, in opposition to the white Europeans
/ whom the gypsy calls parno. Prof. Mix
losich traces the word Zigeuner to At
) singani or Athingani, which is the Byzau
r tine name for abandoned heretics. Tn
, Roms, or gypsies, have no religion. TIL
| ~Byzantines, like some other people
2 measure the value Of strangers on tn
1 score of religion-by the degree to whic
: strangers share our W religious prefer
: ences and customs. Viewed in that lighr
. or by our statue-book, the gypsy is not
: good citizen.