Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-01

90.
 Brittany, and, wherever have uttered them in Spain have unreservedly opened to me the tents, huts, houses, hearts and innermost thoughts, feelings and often the secret aspi- rations of the Romany people. There has been no exception nor a single timidity or hesitancy. have known the bitterest in- difference from pretentious Christian men in sorest want when infinitely greater matters than my own success or personality were at stake; but this outcast and despfsed race never turned coward friend face upon me, and never once upbraided mo, save for not permitting them to become all.suficient succorers. And 90 when had been among the Madrid gipsies an hour was in possess sion, without the asking, of Information could truly tell me more in another hour of gipsies in Spain than can be found within the lids of all books ever written upon the Romany race. This man was Francieco or Pancho Tomas; and after hasty trip through Saragossa, at whose capital city the fair maid, Agustina, won immortality of fame for her bravery by her dead 1overs side in defense of her people against the French, passed along the noble Ebro into Catalonia, to the Sierra de Ia Llena where, in a sunny mountain valley near the quaint old hill- town of Granadella, found the most im- portant and interesting gipsy encampment l had ever anywhere beheld.
 Strictly speaking 1t could not be called an encempment, for while a number of patched tents and rude wooden cabins could be seen, the gipsy village with all its uncouth scenes occupied the site of an abandoned pueblo, in which perhaps two hundred ruinous struo- lures were still standing. These were very ancient. Many were utterly uninhabitable, roofs or portions of the walls having fallen iD; but against the remaining walls of such most comfortable temporary huts had been built. Some of these were curious indeed. Loose stones had been formed into end walls running at sharp angle from the ground up against the old side. walls still standing. The roof was composed of skins, or coarse cloth, running from the ground to the peaks of the temporary walls; and the heentrances to olden habitation. Others were formed by the stones and mortar of ruin falling down on all sides, thus snugly protecting some ,sin- gle apartment. Most curious and suggestive of all, limiting to one's fancy common in stinct between these wanderers from Hin- doostan and tho earliest house-builders among the Celts of western Europe, were seven huts, exact duplicates of the beehive cells of Brittany, Cornwall and Ireland, of such extraordinary interest to, archseologists. These had been built of the lighter and thin- ner stones, in horizontal layers, each one slightly inwardly overlapping the lower one, and forming 8 dome-shaped structure with 8 verbally faced the east. The latter is GUS tom with all gipsies, for which they will, or can, give no reason, though it undoubtedly is lingering proof of their earlier worship of the sun. Some of the more important members of the band, the "prominent citi- gems" as it were, occupied structures which were still habitable, to gipsies, after slight tribe, Pancho Tomas, and three or four of his sons' and daughters families were resi- ding in much composure and comfort in the still frmly-standing range of cloisters from which the once capacious church of the mountain town had as completely fallen away and disappeared as though it had never existed: The secret of the assertion of the pueblo by it's native inhabitants lay in the fact that sometime within the past century or two the place had been so thoroughly shaken by one of the earthquakes which now and then thunder along the Riviera that the simple souls who lived within 1t had inconti- nently fled, never to return. It's present oo- cupation by from three to four hundred of the gitani was simply an example of clever tho gipsies of Spain, where thieves have be- come honest traders rather than, as among our kind of folk, honest traders becoming commercial thieves.
 The spot was one of tho most picturesque I have found in Spain. A mountain valley of perhaps twenty square miles in area 8 thousand feet above the sea was protected from northern winds by mountain wall be- hind, reaching another thousand feet above, whose horizon edge was as straight and blue as level ridge of steel. Back to the west, beyond the white houses of Granadilla, were numberless fashings of the sinuous Ebro, with countless pueblos peeping from hilly hills of Montblanch, the peaks of Montagui, and far beyond the castellated heights of sa- cred Montserrat. To tho south lay, in de- scending hollows dotted with smiling will lages, the fruitful valleys of Tarragona; and beyond, under sky of infinite depth and al- most palpable azure, was spread tho vast em erald blue waters of the glorious Mediterra- mean.
 ''It is not too good for us, brotherl" half asked, half asserted Pancho Tomas, as we wandered among his people and herds; for there were more horses than men, more don keys than women, and more COWS and goats than children, belonging to these gipsies, grass upon the mountain aide or tethered about the village undergoing the refurbish- ing arts so well known among these people. estimated that there were fully eight hun dred head of animals gathered here. The lot were worth from twelve to fifteen thou sand dollars where they stood; from eighteen to twenty thousand dollars in the markets of Madrid and Barcelona. They represented on an outlay of less than six thousand dollars, the acquisitions of one Spanish gipsy band during the winter through eastern Old Cas- tile, the Basque provinces and part of Cat alonia.
 will not dwell upon my own delightful experiences among these tawny folk;-their surprise, pleasure and affection on finding in El Americana one who could speak in their own secret tongue and tell them such won- drous and true tales of their rich brethren in the far Eldorado across the sea; my loiter- ings among the poorer detached families whose pride in my little attentions knew no bounds; the hours with the esquiladors, or, in gipsy, the monrabaros, who with their cachas. or scissors, 50 deftly clip and trim the hair of animals; the ingerings among herTeros or blacksmiths, who with their charcoal urns for forges will turn out mar~ vels of horse shoes, nails and all needed im- plements; or those stin more enchanting evenings when the entire village was trans- formed into a scene of innocent revel and dancing, where hundreds of weird figures in the half-lights and shadows glided airily in the sensuous balero or leaped and pounded the ancient street in the roystering zapotea; but briefly give such facts concering the real condition of Spanish gipsies of today as were learned from Pancho Tomas and tho eraver members of his band.
 Under their better fortunes, and what is of more account their better morals, for the last quarter of century the Spanish gipsies have lost greatly in picturesqueness and gained as greatly in character and numbers. This fact would not be admitted perhaps by the single casual Spanish observer in Barcs Iona, Madrid or Seville: but it cannot be gainsaid. The question of numbers is for tunately easily arrived at. Two years ago the subject of general emigration was seri- ously discussed. Pancho Tomas and few other important heads of clans took steps to secure something like a gipsy census. It was taken on one day throughout all Spain. Where wandering tribes could not be reached they were accounted for. Rude as was the system @ measurably correct result was se- cured. The following is tho olassidoation:
 Drom rajahs road lords) or rowing gipsies 600 Kair rajahs town lords) or city gpsies...... 10000
 Total gpsiss in Spain. Iae6oo The rowing gipsies include all wandering bands, whether or not they have temporary