Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-28

Anthonlus Gawino, previously referred &c
the Bailyows, afterward the Balllies, fror
whom the many families of American Clips
Balleys are descended, and old John FaW
progenitor of all the Gipsy Faws, Faas ant
Falls of Scotland and America. Man.
of the Faa family have attained wealth ant
political preferment in Scotland. The ono
wealthy Falls. merchants of Dunbar, ar
Gipsies. One of the Falls became Colo
mel in the British army. Another served
term in Parliament. Hosts have been an'
are under sheriffs and bailifs. Lady An
struther, wife OF the late Sir John Anstru
ther, of Ellie, was Jennie Faa, a Clips.
woman of
GREAT WIT AND BEAUTY.
These Falls of Faas, of Dunbar, are alst
connected by marriage with the great bank
ing family of Coutts, widely known il
America through the frequent social intel
ligence concerning the noted Baronnesl
Burdette-Coutts. While the celebrated
poem, 'the Gypsy Laddie," commemorate
the abduction bv the Gipsy King, John
Faa, in 1643, of Lady Cssillis, wife of the
Earl of Casillls, "a sullen and ill-tempered
man, more given to theology than ilka day
goodness" who was absent on q deputatiou
to ratify the solemn league and covenant oi
that year at Westminster. Sir Walter Scott
created his great character of "Meg Mer-
rifles" out of Jean Gordon, Gipsv woman
of this very Yetholm; and 1 have broken
bread with her descendants here as well as
during my wanderings among the GIpsies in
America. Scott himself said Of Jean Cor
don: 'She had great sway among her
tribe. She was quite Meg Merrilies. and
possessed the savage virtue of fidelity In the
same perfection.
"Light down, light down, our ain Gorgio
chal (friend OF the Gipsies)I Ye mama
gang farther the day, an friends houses sac
nearl' was the greeting 1 got, as, riding
through the crooked street of Kirk Yetholm,
having come horseback over the Cheviots
from Jedburg, 1 halted at a Gipsy's cottage
and inquired if an inn could anywhere be
found in the hamlets. In an instant I was
fairly pulled from my horse, hugged by a
dozen stalwart Romany men, embraced by a
score of women and spae-wives old, and
kissed roundly and soundly by seven-I re-
member the exact numberl-of as handsome
Gipsy lasses as one would wish to see. NY
horse was led to byre and fed and groomed,
and I was conducted to the largest and best
house, and given the seat of
honor at a little window overlooking the
street; for my fame among Gipsies as
friend of the Gipsies for over a quarter of
,entury in America had preceded me; and
had no more than arrived in Glasgow
when information of my visit had been Sc
,retly sent them.
A GREAT HONOR.
This was no slight honor, as I afterward
earned it was the "throne" on which had
'at all the Gipsy kings and queens of
Yetholm from old Will Faa to Queen Es-
her Blyth-Faa, the last to claim regal title
lere, and whose remains lie in the tiny
4ipsy burial place just above the town.
Che room was at once filled with Gipsies to
he number of 80 or 40. 1 had three letters
o deliver from their Gipsy relatives in
America. These were turned over to me to
De read aloud; and then for four mortal
hours never knew, and never again will
ind, even should ] attain fame among those
who are not Gipsies, SO enthralled an audi
,nce. And 1 venture to say, though had
part in it, no stranger or weirder scene for
be found. Stalwart men with chins
n hand eyed me from under their bushy brows
ike some bandit band intent on wondrous
,lans of expedition. Women of immense
tature, with heads awry as if to catch every
yllable uttered, leaned between and over
lazing with excitement as the fortunes of
heir American brethren were recounted.
1aggish spae-wives, with barred breasts like
boards, and half-open mouths exposing oc-
asional remaining tusks, weaved back and
orth, their trembling grooming now and then
eachlng shrill ecstasy of exclamation, as
heir own weary old souls warmed with the
nesmeric power of the common interest
soon supper good enough for any hungry
nan, was provided, and then, wondrous
onor! after another siege of questioning
vas put to rest in the bed of the dead
queen, Esther Faa-Blyth. 1t was
A WILD NIGHT
nd stormy one, and the old hag's saying
hat Yetholm "is sac mingle-mangle that
ne might think it was either built on a
ark NIGHT, or sown on a windy one!' kept |
to me in wild threnodies as the |
usts rustled among the rattling thatches all |
lat grewsome night.
But GIpsydom in Kirk -Yetholm is sadly |
aning. In my three days visit in Tinker;s |
.ow it was all made clear why Scottish and |
nglish writers of sentimental turn con-
nue. to lament the extinction of these pic
lresque folk throughout Great Britain,
lpsies are not becoming extinct. Their
eld of operations has changed. From
Tery European country every emigrant ship
r the past 100 years has conveyed one or
ore to our own country. until, as I have
pointed out in American Jour-
Ills, we to-day possess Gipsy population
over /, 900, 600 souls. Here in Scotland
und chiefly in Linlithgowshire, Fife and
in TweeddaIe and Clydssdale.
I'd here at Yetholm. All sorts Of
ades and vocations have drawn them
pm their wandering life. Those still
wing upon the road, have positively aban-
med petty theft and depreciation and are
come the peddlers and thinkers of the
untryside thoroughfares. They are So
ally on higher plane. But their dimin-
ION here is startling. Only this year
ey have among themselves taken a sort of
nsus. They find there are not above 5000
psies all told in Scotland. Here at Yet
I'm in 1S47 they mustered from round
out, over 800 souls and 800 asses to escort
E remains of their old King, "capny WuII
a." from Coldstream to the burying
ound at Yetholm. I took census Of
,se at Yetholm, and counted but 67 souls;
d they had all come home to "winter
arters." They possess
A SCORE OF DoNKEYS
d "shelties," or Shetland ponies, as many
IT'S, and the IA families have as MANY
ltched cabins, the property of the Mar
is of Tweeddale, held on the curious
lure of "19 times 10 years. at a
minal rent. The Yetholm, as we'll as all
Ter Scottish drom or road Gipsies now
osist by hawking earthen, tin and white
n ware, horn spoons, and "scrubbers" and
esoms," the latter a sort Of willow
,om, about the country. They travel as
as Newcastle and Staffordshire for the
thenware, buying faulty pottery cheaply
selling the same at good profit. The 1
nainder of their wares they make in a
lie way among themselves, the women be-
: fully as adept as the men. In another
tha I'll