The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-08-26
The ROMANIES.
A Mysterious People of Powerful Frames
Passions and Traditional Principles.

| A Mysterious People of Powerful Frames,
Passions and Traditional Principles.
Fifty or sixty years ago the Gypsies
in England were a much more remark
able race than they are ut present.
The railway had not come to break up
their habits; there were hundreds of
lonely places in dell and dingle where
they could hatch the TAM or pitch the
tent; their blood had been little mixed
with that of the ''Gorgio" or gentle;
they spoke their language with greater
purity than at present, and still kept
their old characteristics unchanged
If they had the faults of Arabs, they
also had many of their good qualities.
If they stole horses and fOraged on
farmers; if their women told fortunes,
lied and sometimes cheated man out
of all his ready money by pretending
to lind treasure in his cellar. on the
other hand they were extremely CRATE
full and honest to those who beiriended
them, and manifested in many ways a
rough manliness which partially re-
deemed their petty vices. They were
all, as are many of their sons mt pres
ent, indomitable rough riders of the
''horse horsey," and, to man, boxers,
so that many of them were distin-
guishcd in the prize-ring, the last of
these being Jem Mace. At this time
there prevailed among the English
Romany strong mutual faith, tribal
honesty, which was limited, but all the
stronger for that. even as the arms of
a man grow stronger when he loses the
use of his legs. They were a people
of powerful frames, passions and ira
ditional principles. Their weak chill
dren soon died from the hardships of
nomadic life. the remainder illustrated
selection by suffering and the survival
of the tittest-to fight.
With such characteristics there could
not fail among the Gypsies many strik-
ing instances of warm friendship, in
tense love and the fidelity which en-
dures even till death. This was known
of them when little else was known
beyond their most apparent and repul-
sive traits. Walter Scott INDUCED in
no romantic license when he depicted
Hayraddin Mangrabin devoted to
Quentin Durward; even at present the
incident of thoughtful gift or any
little act of kindness to them will be
remembered with a gratitude out of all
proportion to its value, and 90 the
rounds of all the Romany in the United
States. And. therefore, when men fell
in love with women there often resulted
those instances of intense passion and
steady faith which at the present day
are really becoming mythical. The
Gypsy in this. as in every thing else,
has been a continuation of the middle
ages, or of the romance era.
Such a passion was inspired more
than half century ago by Jack
Cooper, the Kurumengro Rom, or
fighting Gypsy. in girl of his own
tribe. Her name was Charlotte Lee,
and it was about 1880 that Leslie, the
Royal academician. led by the fame of
her beauty, painted the picture, now
in New York in the possession of his
sister, Miss Emma Leslie The fame of
her charms still survives among her
people, and when few days ago as l
write, / was talking of Charlotte to
some Gypsies of her kin near Phils-
delphia. l was asked if l meant the
Rinkeni-that is, the beautiful one
The CeafWTy.