Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-26
TO FOLLOW nEDGE-BoTToM CREEPING.

SOOAA
TO FOLLOW HEDGE-BoTToM CREEPING.
Sat Daventry found a travelling show
man and his wife and their seven children.
Their only home and stock and trade con-
sisted of few sticks, old rags, knives,
whistles and a cracked drum. AT a
NorthamptonShire fair | found ten vans
and carts and between thirty and forty
children. only one or two of whom had
ever been inside of either Sunday or day
schools. In three old tumbledown carts,
tied together by canvas, string straps and
pieces of rusty hoop iron, there were nine
teen children and seven men and women.
"Moses Holland, one of my oldest gypsy
friends, knows about two hundred and
fifty families in the midland COUNT es,
and thinks there will be an average of five
children to each tent or van. In some
tents he has seen as many as ten, and in
other tents twelve, children. In his own
teut his wife was ill. and dead child lay
by her side, which Holland laid out him.
self on few rags and some litter.
AT Broomsgrove fair l counted over
fifty vans and covered cart homes, con-
nected with which there were nearly 15O
children. But six could read and write.
In one van, eight feet long, five broad and
five high, there slept eleven men, women
and children, whose night dresses were
saturated wet clothes. Some time ago
found in two vans and q tumbledown wagon
eighteen children and seven men and women.
Only two could read and write.
ION recent Sunday in a Northampton
shire lane, near Buckley wharf, during a
pouring rain | came upon eleven present
day gipsies, six men and women and five
children, whose home was small rickety
donkey cart, tied together with pieces of
cord, and small sheet full of holes,
UNDER WHICH THEY CREPT AT NIGHT.
Ton the preceding Saturday night these
gypsies were under this one rotten sheet
for the night by the roadside near Weldon
A policeman told them to move on as on
the following Sunday people would be 60
ing to church, and they would be an eye
sore to all these good people. Driving the
gypsies about the country with a police
mans truncheon and move on Will not
improve their condition. 1t can only be
done by means of the sanitary officers in
fiuence directly upon their homes, and b.
the schoolmaster's influence upon their
heads and hearts. And if live long enough
this snall become universal remedy for
all manner of gypsy and other travelling vag
Alcoholism in England and Scotland
These are the beings whom Mr.. Smith
has given the name Of gypsy and van
dwellers," and it is the 10000 to $1,000
gypsy and van children" of these
WretcneQ, wandering VaBaOOnuS, whom he
is endeavoring to rescue from their present
condition of utter bestiality through the
hoped for passage of his movable dwell
ling bill'' The provisions Of this bill, if
carried out, would cause the registration
of all gypsy and other travelling vans;
bring each one under constant surveillance
and sanitary inspection, the same as with
the lodging houses of the great English
cities; prevent the present horrible over
crowding of tents and vans. and above all,
bring every one of these outcast children
compulsorily into the public schools, but
wholly free of expense to their parents, by
a system of free pass-books for use wher-
ever the gypsy family might be Temporal
ill tarrying. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN