The record-union., 1891-11-21
The Shockingly Degraded Romany
of Great Britain.
Work of the Great PhiIanthropist Geo.
Smith of CoaIviIle in Trying to Save
the Children of These Miserable
People and Better Their Condition
Always Aided by the Press.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1911
CR1cK, Eng, November 9, 1891.


English village, gave brief outline Of
the work of George Smith of Coalville il
rescuing the children of the brick-yards
and canal-boats of England from their
former frightful condition Of slavery, ig-
norance and misery.
The half of it could not be fittingly told
in an entire volume. But when the social
history of England is written, this unlet-
tered and furiously persistent philanthro
pist must stand as the greatest and most
practical child-saver of his time. After
between twenty and thirty years of labor
through penury, scoffing and cruel dis
couragement, with a few later years of
generally recognized eminence and ma
tional respect, this is the record as it now
stands. Alone and unaided he has eman-
cipated thirty thousand biick-yard boys
and girls from a condition revolving be-
yond contemplation or description; and
he has also, alone and unaided, rescued
more than forty thousand canal-boat chill
dren from a life of still more brutal
slavery, inexpressible degradation, un-
namable immortality and actual crime.
This has been accomplished, he be-
HeveS, through divine aid, guidance and
strength. But / find there has been in
sensible methods ever persistently util-
iZed in any great philanthropic work.
There have been no committees, bureaus,
canting officials or titles. There have
been simply the everlasting presentation
and iteration of enormous human wrong
with the most direct and effective way of
rlghting that wrong going along with it.
Possibly no man ever lived England who
has been so helped by the English press.
The reason for this is that this George
Smith of Coalville first finds genuine
evil to be abolished, but never clamors
practical, and in the end acceptable
method of applying that remedy.
His career is the best illustration have
ever come upon of the splended willing
ness of the press of any country to ham
mer the proposed remedies of genuine
philanthropists into the public's head and
heart and compel adequate legislation to
render them permanently effective. Be-
sides, if this man cannot get all he wants
1or his cause, he takes all he can get,
thanking God, the press, Parliament and
the people, meanwhile pushing right on
for what he has failed to secure; and he
never ceases labor and clamor until he
gets it. All Of which as policy is worth
considering by social philanthropists
everywhere. 1t is particularly worth the
thought of those well-meaning but i'm
placably impracticable people, the pro-
hibitionists of our own very much irri-
tated country.
The consistent and sequential character
of his work has been remarkable. Scarcely
had he succeeded in placing, on January
i, 1872, twenty thousand Of the thirty
thousand of the brickyard little ones in
the public schools, than he began his cru
sade against the iniquities of child-life in
the twenty-five thousand canal boats of
England. AS a boy-slave in the English
10 pd NNyha 7 no
yards abutted the canals. His own eyes
saw the horrors of their experiences and
surroundings. In August, 1887, he had
so thrilled England with his picturing of
these outrages that Parliament finally
gave him all he had asked The bill pro-
vided for the registration of all canal
boats by the sanitary authorities; abol-
ished the disease breeding and carrying
character of these craft; limited their
number of occupants, brought every boat
under surveillance and inspection placed
three-fourths of the canal population in
homes and brought every one of the little
child beasts into the public schools.
Hardly had the practical workings of
the enactments regarding the canal chill
dren become operative, when George
Smith of Coalville began storming Par
lament in behalf of another class of semi
savage British children. In the long
nights of his boyhood. when watching
the burning brick kilns, he had not only
seen the slavery of brickYard and canal
children around him, but he had stored
away gruesome memories of another host
of miserable beings that skulked in the
shadows about him. More lost than all
were these, the half-wild children of the
gypsies and other tent and van dwellers
of the English highways.
The first book he ever possessed-Oli
yer Goldsmith's Natural History''-was
stolen from him by these little foxes as
he nodded by the kilns at night. They
stole his clothing; they stole his scant
food; they even stole the drinking water
from his delft jug. For years these
dreary nights were ceaseless efforts to
outwit the swarthy outcasts in their pill
ferings and wonderful devices to supply
their own dire needs. But in later life he
remembered only their houselessness,
hopelessneSs and utter wretchedness
The hrickyard and canal-boat children
once safe within humanizing influences,
he began his last and most difficult strug-
gle, that Of molding public opinion to the
point OF securing laws which at one
stroke should rescue the children of
British gypsies and all British vagabond
1oik from their present Squalor and utter
wretchedness. Perhaps this is an inn
possible task. 1t is the present heroic
work of this English philanthropist.
While our own country has for more
than 100 years been depicting the ranks
of English and Scottish gypsies, Mr..
Smith estimates their present number to
be about 100000 souls. These are COM
prised in nearly 10000 families. About
40 per cent. are of Scottish and the re-
mainder of English descent. In my own
judgment, based upon personal acquaint-
ance with British gypsies in nearly every
county and shire IN England and Scot
land, his estimate is far to small [
should unhesitatingly say there were
more than twice that number
However this may be, there are as
many moro humans who are not gyp-
sizes, standing in precisely their relation
to the British public. These have per-
haps intermarried with the real Romany,
or, possessing no relationship of blood or
marriage, have fully acquired the most
Objectionable traits and customs of Brit
ish gypsy vagabondism. / use the ex-
preston British gypsy vagabondism''
because the average gypsy family among
the thousands personally know in our
own country is no more like the average
gypsy family of England than is the
Americanized English, Scottish or Irish
immigrant like the crnging, covering
and often squalid personality he left on
the Liverpool, Greenock or Queenstown
docks behind him.
Mr.. Smith has no patience with senti-
mentalism over English gypsies. He is
willing TO admit that my tawny friends
of the American roads and waysides,
through their infinitely more favorable
conditions, enjoy true gypsy prosperity
and lead the Romany's genuine idyllic
life. He simply sees the appalling deg
radati on of the gypsy and van dwellers
about him. 1t is the helpless, hopeless
children of these he would save. He be-
IeveS that it is a social crime that such
menace to society should exist, and that
society, represented by law, should itself
right that wrong. And it may be de-
pended on that, as in the case of the
hriplyuar6 aJo1 cbil1rap ~,