Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-24

the curious fact Is made apparent that in nearly all instances the families or bands, as they are found here to-day, are descendants of those who have, in @ sense, been banished from more favorable territories by their own kind; and have become attached, as do all human beings, save Irish landlords, to that something in scene and cline, and love of place even in poverty, which holds the heart closely to this emerald jewel of the sea. Gipsy laws and edicts are memorable. The former powerful Romany families of Eng land and Scotland (and to illustrate their real power I have only to instance the Smith family of the present day residing at Honi- ton, Devonshire, England, who are worth in lands, town properties and London and Northwestern railway stocks, upwards of 8 million pounds sterling), now chiefly trans planted to America, have had to do with this. Insubordination offences against gip- sy equities; unendorsed marriages between men and women of unfriendly tribes; and scores of other causes of similar import ss grave in their results from the standpoint of gipsy laws and ethics, as crimes and offences against our own laws and ethics, have made of Ireland, which never warmed to these un- canny pilgrims, a sort of permanent penal territory for glpsies whom gipsies of other and more favored lands will not tolerate near them. Strange ss this may seem, its truth is beyond cavil, as it's effects are inevitable But these Irish gipsies make the best they can of their beggarly conditions of penance, with all that sodden. yet often cheery, trust in the fataIism so distinguishable through the ages in the Aryan and Semetio races to which they surely owe their origin. Neither are there wanting individual instances of comparative progress and accomplishment under desperately unfavorable conditions among this forlorn folk in Ireland. A Dub lin barrister is gipsy. In Belfast gipsy holds a responsible position in spinning
 GaI-o 1e church; another owns a roadside inn near that city; while another is 8 rich dealer in the famous and unsavory quarter of old Smithfeld market. At Cork a gipsy is re- sponsibly employed on the little railway running to Blarney. At Galway one keeps 8 lowly inn; another is an angler "coach- er' for gentlemen who come to fish salmon in the Corrib; and throughout the West many of the drovers and graziers are gip- sies. They are also found employed in va rious capacities. with no questions asked concerning their origin, about the many daily and weekly markets and at the regu lar fairs of Ireland. In one of the mid- land counties a gipsy is the agent of 8 large estate; and to his credit no eviction has ever occurred upon it. At many of the castles of the Irish nobility-and there are more splendid castles and demesnes in Ireland than generally supposed-nany are employed ss gamekeeI rs, for which steal- thy and sylvan vocation they possess pecu- liar qualifications; while, more power to them for itl no hungry gipsy can camp near by without tasting the flavor of mi lords pheasants or rabbits from the al- ways plethorio preserves. Some are own CTS of iaunting cars in the larger cities. Others are dealers in the noted Cushendal ponies of the Antrim coast, acting as mid dlemen between the breeders and the Irish and English markets. At the annual Dub Eair r1iv,c r.1ifn 7rHn such to the management, breeders or the public, control Q major portion of the heavier dealings, and practically inspire and profit by all the valuable dickering and jockeying for which this greatest of all horse fairs affords such extraordinary op- portunity. All these of course hide their despised origin, and are always anything that is Irish, as varying exigeneies and necessities may arise.
 But with these wind-whipped pilgrims of the hedges, who had so boisterously well comed me, and with their kind throughout all Ireland, the very acme of careless, list less vsgabondism is reached. If dickering and dukkering (fortune telling) bring food enough for the day, we'll and good. If not, then they will beg it, or lie in a hedge by g smo1dering fire if peat, bog wood or dead branches may be begged or pilfered, and starve like hibernating animals until driven to some sort of exertion. To be sure each one is a tinker; each one weaves rude bss- kets of willow; each one is dextrous at bench, tub and broom making; but as thou sands upon thousands of honest folk would annually starve in Ireland, under the pres ent infamous system of landlordism, if the very skin were worked from strivers' bones, were it not for the saving power of Ameri- can money. my not altogether honest, and altogether vagabond, gipsy friends content themselves with the least possible strain of nd cal p{f Gn tO aYiak with them even for few days, it fell to my will ling lot to replenish their larder. A fat gip- sy larder means great gipsy feast A feast is hardly feast in Ireland, let alone other countries, without "a drop to drown grief and lift joY." Song, dancing and uproari- ous registering were the consequence. And the penalty, for punishment has as long legs as joy has short ones, was the descent upon our camp of the crushing arm of British law in the form of squad of royal constabulary who, with their 'Movs on, ye gipsy dogsl' put us all to flight in 8 lively but dejected cavalcade down the winding Newry road.
 And we were motley crew. Spae-wiyes, fierce and tall; older hellyons, muttering ard wailing as they hobbled along; mothers hug ging ragged chauyies to their breasts; maid ems with the stride and strength of men; old men beyond a centurys age; hairy fellows from middle age to youth; with our gaunt, voiceless dogs, our tinkeTs' wheels, our mis- eraDle carts, our mourn1ul goats ana lAnk1 scraggy asses;-aIl speeding toward the myr- tie loving South, camping by day, travelling by night, but ever hustled and driven ruth lessly on. At Markethill, near the splendid castle of Gosford, we turned from the New " road to the south; crossed the head waters of the Cushar river; trailed past lofty Dead mans Hill; touched the sunny edge of coun- ty Louth, passing through Louth town and quaint Ardee; crossed the fair valley lands of Meath, winding through olden Kells, from whose abbey of long ago came, through inf nite labor, the marvellous Book of KelIs, and through ancient Trim, where in Hugh de La cy's castle once lived King John of England. and where Richard imprisoned his own and Gloucester's sons; and finally, along the Dub lin road, by little Kilmessan, came into { hidden dingle tine gipsies well knew, where 2 rude temporary camp home was made. And here We separated with warm hand pressures and with eloqnent tongues and eyes; fol my tramp to the Hill of Tara and through the Boyne country, and these tawny, hope. less waifs for their endless tramp without rest or home, until their tents are pitched 1T the silenees eternal.
 EDGAR L.. WAKEMAN.