The record-union., 1891-11-28
BRITISH GYPSIES.
Wakeman Once More On His Fa-
vorite Topic.

The Difference Between the Romany
of America and That of Great Brit
afn-The Nomads Are Ever We'll
come in Scotland and in Wales-How
Their Condition Is Improved In This
Country.
Especial Correspondence of REcoRD-UNIoN
Copyright, 1871
LONDON, Eng, November Is, 1891.
Having wandered among gypsies in
America for more than quarter of cent
ury, and for the past five years having
given much time and attention to study
of the gypsies as / have found them in
different parts of Ireland, Scotland and
England, l feel that something like sur
vey of these British nomads, with a few
points of contrast between them and their
American brethren, would have interest
to many American readers.
At the outset / am forced to confess that
vile, is interested in gypsies in a vastly
broader, nobler and more evangelical
way than myself. He seeks them out
and finds them at their worst, and the
worst of them, unearthing the horrors Of
their lives in and near large cities; and
then, burning with desire and determine
ton that they snail be made good citi-
zens, rouses all England with his rugged
eloquence, insisting that the very world
stand still until laws are passed for their
complete sanitation and civilization.
L am not worthy to live in the same
century with this hero philanthropist
when motive and labor for gypsies are
measured. l am theirs and they are mine
IN America, because with them l have
found such rest and peace as the world
has elsewhere never given. Because
with them the warm heartbeat of nature
mas come tenderly near. Because among
Them there have been condolences earnest
Friendships true and loyalty sacred. Be-
scause wherever L go, by hill or dale, by
town or city, the love word they gave me
long ago, "Gorgio Chal," goes with me as
the seal and reminder of ten thousand en-
dearlng experiences, and thrills me that
have place in so many hearts, hearts Of
wanderers though they be. And because,
perhaps, there is the taint of gypsy
blood III my own veins that brings me to
my own.
i am theirs and they are mine in this
land, because rough and uncouth men
have received me everywhere as broth
er and an honored guest; haggish spae-
wives, with heads awry, as if to catch
every syllable uttered, have listened with
kindling eyes to the word L have brought
them from kindred across the sea; great
huIklng youths, hearing with open-eyed
wonder, have been nerved with hope for
a better land and life; blooming gypsy
asses, with arms across their mother S
'houlders, and yet with the ever winsome
SseStlesSneSs of girlhood, have stolen
s3lances at the stranger, seeming to look
Beyond him with yearning eyes TO his fair,
gar country, where gypsies ride in wag-
DnS like palaces and eat from plates OF
silver, while trustful gypsy children,
fugglng at my knees, have searched my
scant pockets, climbed into my arms and
fallen asleep-their instinct as to the
stranger proving, after all, the truest Sc
same to the gypsies' hearts at homes. 1t
Is always in this selfish, unevangelical
way that l have known in all lands the
Dutcast Romany race, and because of it
j have not overmuch evil to record OF
them.
There are not all told-and this includes
skulklng city Romany, unknown in their
town VocatlonS as members of the gypsy
race-upward of 5000 gypsies in Ireland,
of whom barely 1000 follow the precari-
Gus but romantic life of the road. Irish
Catholics, and particularly the lowliest
of the peasantry, without exception, hold
them in something like terrible detesta-
ton.
Let gypsy 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 on all the category of saints in
one shrill and mighty breadth of appeal,
the Irish mother will treat this gypsy
cheat to such whirlwind of eviction as
may be heard for half league away.
The very thatching would be pulled from
the roof, II necessary, to speed and force
the battle for the home against the grew
some wlles. And my gypsy friends the
world over know this fact so well and
bitterly that universally with their race
ireland is termed, in recognition of its
baroness for their purposes, SdLtdh lodLie,
or the unlucky and accursed territory.
There is a marked difference in Scot
land. In proportion to its population
there are more gypsies in the land o.
cakes than in England. Scottish tradi-
lions and literature. especially the ballad
poetry of Scotland, are full of gypsy
countryside lore and superstitions which
have been the outgrowth of very genial
and close relation between gypsies and
known to course in the veins of many of
the Scottish nobility. These people actu-
ally secured the countenance, if not the
favor, of James ". James V. entered
Unto league with John Faw, Lord and
Earl of little Egypt" in 1540, directing
all in authority in his realm to compel
the return to Faw'S submission all those
Egyptians who had rebelled against him,
and that all officers should assist in de-
tanning and Furnishing those people sin
conformity with his laws,' so that, as the
edlct read, the said John have no cause
OF complaint in time coming"
This Faw, whose shrewdness stamped
the genuine gypsy upon his character.
was the progenitor of the many tribes OF
Flaws, Faas or Falls, who, with the Bail
3es, have been the most noted and nu-
merous of Scottish gypsies. whose de-
scendants l have found in respectable
2umbers and condition throughout the
United States.
The environs of Edinburgh and Glas-
gov are full of gypsies who are superior
IN physique to their English brethren
about London, Birmingham, Manchester
and Liverpool. In Tweeddale, 'AnandaIe
and Nlthsdale are many families of gyp-
sizes whose respectability and individual
means, although they lead rowing life,
would compare favorably with those OF
The small farmers of the same regions.
.Ihe gypsieS whom / have met in Aber-
deenshire and Pertshire are not so well
of, but are much tiked and always well
coined among the peasantry.
Within few years much good fortune.
from pecuniary standpoint, has come 10
Scottish gypsies through the vast in
crease of summer visitors, American as
well as English, to the highlands and
islands of Scotland. They resort to the
vicinity of Oban, Rothesay, Inyeraray.
even cross to the outer Hebrides, and are
found in every romantic glen in the