Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-31
GIPSIES' FUNERALS.
Strange'Rites in the Lovely Valley Of
the Presumscott,
WHERE HAWTHORNE sOJOURNED.
Burning the Effscts Of the Dead Hero and
Tinker, Zeke.
REVERENCE ASDFEAR OF GRAvEYARDs

rFRoM OUR TRAVELLING coMmssIoNER.i
CAMP ON LAKE SEBAGo, Me-, August
GA 2O-mile drive from old Portland town
through'the lovely valley of the Presum-
scott. or an equal journey from the railway
station at the southern end of Lake Sebago,
in which you will wind along the lakes
eastern shore through many an olden ham,
let, will bring you to little group Of
ancient buildings clustered on either side
of brook about an old mill. This spot, in
the old days called "Dingley's," is now
without name, save that known by country
side folk as "Rada ux's Old Mill" 1t was
here the Hawthornes once lived. Beautiful
as is the quaint place itself the sur
roundings are picturesque and romantic
in the extreme. Lake Sebago is
worth the fondest picturing. 1t is
one of the most beautiful of Names count
less inland seas. Laying your mittened
right hand, back downward upon your desk,
you would fairly have its contour before
you, your wrist, were it little, standing for
its southern boundaries; the tips of your
clumped fingers for its widened northern
extreme; and your thumb lying just where
the witching Jordan Bay reaches for miles
inland to the northeast. between which and
your hand, the long, narrow Cape Raymond
pushes down to the southwest, its splendid
point breaking into the romantic Squaw
and Frv Islands. A great chain Of lakes is
accessible to the north through the winding
mazes of the Songo river; and lake and
river nave furnished fruitful theme for
poet and artist for more than century.
Dense forests and lofty promontories add a
marvellous beauty to the cove-indented
shores of Sebago.
PARADISE OF FISHERS.
IT is the paradise Of fishers of land locked
salmon; and thousands of summer wander
ers come here, with never q one to know of
the beauty and interest hid about the little
next BY Radaux's Mill. Below the lake are
thk deserted bed and locks of the old canal,
where wondrous affairs of commerce and
wonderful canal boat shippers were rife in
the old days. Still below foams and dashes
the little Presumscott on its way to Casco
Bay. Around to the right, to the east and
the'northeast, are pond and lake innumer-
able. Lake and field, stream and fallow,
forest and river, winding road and sunny
hamlet, feast the eve on every hand. To-
day it seems an enchanted region of still
life in man and nature, touched and tinted
in tenderest fashion by heaven and the first
frost.fres that CLEAN across the land.
This is the spot where the gentle Haw-
thorne passed nearly eight years of his life,
the most formative period, with the windows
of his heart and soul wide open to heaven.
1t is also a spot which nv friends, the gip-
sizes, love dearly.A There are two reasons for
the latter. Gipsies more than any other liv-
ing folk long for closeness to all that is ten
der and winsome in nature; and they COM
bine with that affection q thrift which is
matchless among lowly classes in Americs.
Roundabout through all this enchanting re-
gion there is such sumptuous plenty among
countryside folk that the easy-going farmers
and farm-wives annually welcome the tawny
wanderers, while dickering, tinkering,
horse trading and fortune-telling 60 merrily
on to the great gain of the Romany. This
feeling of hospitality is so marked that this
camp-nest among the pines is given and ac-
sort have ever known in my pilgrimings
with gipsies; for invariably farmers take
advantage of the gipsy's fear of claw" to
exact extortionate prices for camp privi-
leges, and the gipsies of the American roads
of to-day will never pitch their tents until
they possess formal acknowledgment of their
right of occupancy
ETERNAL SILENCE HAD COME.
But beautiful as was this camp among
the pines, the very path that led from the
highway to it under the odorous boughs
seemed possessed Of an added hush and
solemnity; and while the faces of my
Romany friends frightened as 1 approached,
there was q reticence of manner and-soitness
of speech on the part Of those who came for
ward to greet me, which told without words
that the eternal silence had come to one
among them. If this had not been enough
there were surer signs. Every one of the
vagabonds was in camp. Every horse was
securely picketed. Each hooded tent, save
one, was empty of humans, and the occu-
pants of all, particularly the women, were
gathered in and about one mean and shabby
sy custom, served to comfort those who
mourned. Besides this, a glance showed
me that near the dilapidated tent were the
indubitable proofs Of death in gipsy
camp. A cart, "wholmed, as they call it,
that is turned upside down, as is often done
for shelter in one-night encampment,
half dozen empty chests and boxes, an old
portable forge and q sadly-battered
grinders wheel, with the stone and fittings
removed, were gathered together near the
tent at the edge Of the circling pines for
barbaric ceremony which I knew would
occur that night.
ssLazy Zeke," whom / had known for a
quarter of century, had been gathered to
his Sanscrit fathers. They had buried him
under the velvety brown Of the forest turf,
over there 100 yards, this very day; the en-
tire. camp had put aside dickering and duk-
kering out of respect for the dead and liv-
ing; and the last rite that of burning the
effects of the dead, would occur when night
closed in upon the forest camp.
DIED AS A HERO.
"Lazy Zeke" was gipsy ne'er-do-well.
That sort of man is an unusual one among
the Romany. Ethically under the unwritten
but inviolable communism of the race, as q
dead Gypsy he was as good as any live one
among them. So they were all extolling his
virtues, though in lite guzzler, a aspendthrift
and the noblest of all liars; and like the dead
Irish scapegrace whose friends could still up
roariously mourn at the wake as square
drinker," because "any man could drink
with Dan in a coalhole wild his back to the
slack" Zeke's songs, his mirth, and even his
foxy deceptions were transformed into no
blest qualities. It seemed never to occur to
these nomads that Lazy Zeke's" ending
had been somewhat heroic. I had passed
many an idyllic dav and night with Zeke
under his scant blankets and my inquiries
disclosed the fact that he had given his life
for another's. The children had been sent
to Lake Sebago for fish. A little one had
fallen from ledge near painted Rocks"
into deep water. Zeke, old, infTm, but
ehild with the other children, was with
them. He plunged in after the little one.
saved it, but, himself enfeebled. had fallen
back and persisted in an element which in
any form Of application always gave him sore