Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-04-12
eYPsY.FAlR IN SURREY.
Gays Devoted to Horse-Trading, Gam
bling and Frolicking.

Days Devoted to Horse-Tradins, Gam
bling and FroIickng.
Along the middle of the street the
main business was horse-dealing, and
a Gypsy hostler would trot out sue
cession of the weediest old screws that
ever kept out of the kennels, with the
parade and precaution due to so many
mounts for Mazeppa, while one-eyed
man. with swollen, wrinkled hands,
like red toads, watched their PAGES
with critical attention, and probably
bought by the pound Higher up,
ponies and cobs of better appearance
were strung together by the head, as
though they were fish, and ate hay and
kicked one another by the curbstone,
while their venders conversed in the |
road with dash of mutual suspicion.
Coming back to the stalls again, was
attracted by loud hyena laugh of
highly mechanical merriment and
found that it proceeded from the pro-
prietor of little game of chance, who
was experimenting its results with
great show of interest and hilarity. 1t
was a sloping Chinese billiard-board,
where a marble was propelled by a
spring, and prize was awarded OF
value varying according to the COM
partment into which the ball rolled.
At right angles to the main street was
a broader hilly one, where the shows
and shooting galleries had been erected.
Here was Tommy Atkins shooting
down a tube, or instructing his young
woman, as she dropped over the stock
of the gun, limp from prolonged gig
Cling, in the art of aiming. 1t must
be regretfully confessed that Tommy
Atkins himself did not uphold the rep
utation of his service for marksman-
ship, for he fired away at least fifteen
pence without making the bell ring
once, and excused himself to the young
woman with the friz and netted hair
who presided by observing that shoot
ing was mot in his line. "
The erry-go-rounds, or, as they
prefer to call themselves, the "steam-
circusses," were of course represented.
There were two of these institutions
side by side, though one was complete
ly cast into the shade by its more gor-
geous rival. The former was literally
"one-horse," or rather one pony,
concern, for patient little quadruped
plodded round in the center. when he
was required to set his dingy and tail
less wooden brothers in motion, to the
strains of wheezy hand-organ. The
rival worked by steam, and all the
horses had glass eyes and gilded
names, and lordly names painted on
their shoulders, while the organ to
which they revolved worked by steam
too, and blared through double rows
of trumpets, and even had three little
plaster figures in front of it, which
jerked in a paralytic manner at inter-
vals 1t was good to see the gallant
way in which the boys sat these steeds
with the vermillion nostrils, like those
of Browning's Rowland;
And with arches Of red for the eye-sockets'
rim"
One hand these cavaliers laid jauntily
on their hips, the other restrained the
impetuosity of their fiery chargers,
while envious and dismounted friends
attempted to tickle the horsemen's leg'
as they swung by. and were cut at il
true light cavalry fashion.
Then there was nice old motherly
lady, rather of the Peggotty build
who, Just as the machine was starting
, was intrustng pasty little nephew t.
. the care of his vacant-looking eide
sister, whose eyes were as CLASSY an'
uninteresting as those of her horse
and who was obviously not to b
y depended upon to put out so much a
finger to save her small brothe
. should he turn giddy and threaten t
\ topple over. Whereupon, at the las
;, moment that noble woman ducke,
= between the wooden legs. and hand
bag, umbrella and all, climbed to tn
!, vacant saddle on the other side of tn
:, boy, where she swept round, wit
: that uncomfortable martyrs smil
, which one frequently observes on
steamboat as it gets outside tn
. harbor. Girls of all ages were goin
n round, some with half-closed eyes an
an air of dreamy ecstasy; Others rattle
red, and smiling in adeprccatory wa
:. at acquaintances in the crowd; Other
: pale, and evidently beginning to mal
uncomfortable calculations as to IL
:, comparative powers of endurance
. the engine and themselves, Fl Atsste,
y in Harper'S Magazine.