Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-24
AFOOT IN IRELAND.

AF0OT IN IRELAND.
 The Gipstes- Armagh - The Camp-
 Gipsy Hospitality Occupations Of
 Some GIpsiea-A Motley Crew.
 KIIMEssAN, Ireland, Nov. 13.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Where the winding 'Callsn and the mur-
 murous Ballinahone rivers, after traversing
 warm and glowing landscapes, join in placid
 esque and ansient Armagh, first came upon
 my old friends, the gipsies, in Ireland.
 Many trace of them had I already found.
 Many trail, familiar to my eyes, limiting of their recent presence had been discovered.
 Many pattsran, or guide for their following
 pilgrim kind, unknown to gentry or psag. ants, had I descried with something like longing for their outlaw companionship.
 Many tale of superstitious dread concerns ing their grewsome lives and ways had heard in hut and cabin. And many an as- sertion from the learned, who often know less than all, that there were none of the wandering folk in Ireland, had I silently listened to. But in months of tramping over mountains, on endless highways, in lanes and by-paths, by shining loughs, through smiling valley and by 'voiceful stream, never before had I come face to face, hand to hand and heart to heart, with any of the tawny crew, until from the crumbling tower above St. Patrick's cathedral. upon the veriest heights of Armagh's hills, I espied the ragged brood, and hastened to their sky
 covered homes as fast as ever my good legs could carry me. And it was an odd reaee-
 ton that accompanied me on my way. Ar
 magh, the old, steried in history, glowing
 with ecclesiastic tradition, the Eamhsin,
 Eamania, -huim-ue, or 'noble city," of
 three hundred years before the Christian era;
 Armagh, the Ardmaghs, ''the lofty plain" on the summit of Druimsaileeh, the Chill of willows" of St. Patrick's time and labors; Armagh whose ancient college was once the most famous seminary of Europe, and from which issued learned men of all nations to enlighten in art, to diffuse Christianity and instruct barbarians in all lands; Armagh,
 site of olden royal palaces, environed by wondrous ruins, seventeen times burned and seventeen times seventeen times plundered and ravished by contending hosts; Armagh upon her lovely heights, surpassing in age, lore and radiant and bloody history; from her cathedral hills down past her roofs of slate and thateh, sits like beggared princess at the threshold of her own vanished glories, voieing but sobbing echoes of luminous past just as these tstterdemalion Irish gip- sies at Armagh's gate were & beggarsd and spectral type of g once ancient and glorious race.
 The camp was hidden from struggling roadway passers by few furzs-eovered hil- locks. climbed these where I could survey the little community a bit before becoming
 one of it. The entire grouping was an elo quent picture of willful, hopeless vagabond ism, or of helpless, wandering destitution. For an instant the sight conjured up innus merable scenes of eviction where Irish fami- iies driven from their wretched homes and clinging to their scant belongings, struggled by the roadside in their first heart-rending desperate amazement at the awful blow from landlord power and English law. Descend ing into the camp, I wandered about for 8 time as if one of the many curious daily vis- itors It was about mid d-day, and the mea- ger food the camp afforded, in striking con trast to that of our high living American gipsies, was being served to several hungry groups. Settling in my mind at which one the chief of the band was located, came lrquickly to his side, and after passing the usual Irish greeting of ''Fine dsyl" however sunny or gloomy may be the weather, tossed him a half-crown, sat down upon the ground beside him and nnceremoniously asked for 8 share of the beggarly repast. Without pro test and with much pretentious gipsy servih- 1 ty, 6 portion of stirabout and bit of half raw meat were handed me on battered pewter plate. I began eating the food, which was better than we many times got with Sherman from Chattanooga to Atlanta l in '64, with evidences of hungry satisfaction, and with 6 kindly glance at the chiefs shag- gy headed wife, remarked in tones of praise: "Your raunie's beenship at the pauplers. :" (Your wife is grand at the kettles-i. G., 8 splendid cook
 A flush of responsive qualification leaped into the haggard old face and light of hu- man good will flashed into her keen ol6 eyes; but gipsy wariness as instantly extinguished them both. The gipsy himself was upon his feet with the quickness of stripling. 'Rufie feck map (The devil take meD eiseslated the man, betrayed into his secret language in his surprise and alarm at hearing it from another.
 aCheeI' retorted, proceeding manfully with the stirabout. "Rufie lee Romany chals; shan droms lur Gorgiosl" (No. Si- fence! May the evil one miss gipsies; but a hard road for the restD
 "Querai (Who are youD he asked, trem- bling with excitement, the whole camp all
 
 "A been riah Gorgio chal;" Ca true man and the gipsies' friend); I answered earnest- I ly, chewing the half-cooked meat with val- iant energy.
 That half-crown I had given him fairly ! flew back to me An, the never failing sense of gipsy honor toward their kind, or to one who has befriended the race, was as quick and keen among these shrikes of the Irish I roadside hedges as had ever found it among ! the rich gipsy princes of America He had me in his rough old arms in an instant. l could scarcely get upon my feet and name my country and work before from twenty to thirty men, women and children were show ering greetings, blessings and caresses upon | me in a most embarrassing ay stiAing de- l gree. It brought the sunlight into their | wary, hunted faces marvelously. It lighted \ up the ragged dingle with glorious welcom- 1 ing and friendship. In truth, for the time it \ was a spell of lightsome goodness in thesI | castawsys' dreary lives. that I reyerently | thanked God for the power of transfusing \ into even the momentary consciousness ot \ the lowest and lowliest that live.
 For nearly week remained member of ! this band. Through their trust, which is absolute if given at all, their lives and ways and the lives and ways of all gipsies in Ire land, were as an open book. Two facts l gained are important in general gipsy sociol ogy; one disclosing marked peculiarity oi Irish people themselves. There are not, all ! teld-and this includes skulking city Roma ny unknown in their various town vacations | as members of this outcast race-upwards ot
 five thousand gipsies in all Ireland, of whom barely one thousand follow the precarious l but romantic life of the road Irish Catho- lies, including even the most ignorant and superstitious of the peasantry, without ex- ception hold them in something like 8 terri ble detestation, and will have none of them save in their least offensive character of
 traders, tinkers and beggars. With fine
 scorn they will perhaps hold converse with | them at icy distances on purely commercial
 basis. They will occasionally permit gipey
 to mend kettle, pot or pan; all the time
 showering glib and awful reproaches upon him for his unoanny mode of life; while their hospitality is So boundless that they would not turn the devil himself from their doors, even if his horns and hoofs were dis
 closed through the gauzy guise of Gravel CT" or mendicant. But let gipsp spae-wife
 or fortune teller, once slip into an Irish cabin
 and begin any of her black art conjurings the smoke of war will at once rise above that spot, Calling upon all the category of saints