Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-28
GIPSIES IN ENGLAND.
Blooming Lasses With the Winsome
Unrest of Girlh00d.
TRADITIONS OF THE ROMANY.
An Idyllic Form of Life Among British
Non-Gipsy Vagabonds.
THEY ARE BEDOUINS OF CIVILIZATION

past five years having given much time and
attention to q study of the Gipsies as I
have found them in different parts of Ire
land, Scotland and England, I feel that
| something like survey Of these British
nomads, with few points Of contrast be-
| tween them and their American brethren,
would have interest to many American
| readers.
At the outset am forced to confess that
my good friend, George Smith, ofCoalville,
| is interested in Gipsies in vastly broader,
nobler and more evangelical way than my
| self He seeks them out and finds them at
| their worst, and the worst of them, unearth-
ing the horrors Of their lives In and near
large cities; and then, burning with desire
and determination that they shall be made
good citizens, rouses all England with his
rugged eloquence, insisting that the very
world stand still until laws are passed for
their complete sanitation and civilization.
am not worthy to live in the same cen-
tury with this hero philanthropist. when
motive and labor for Gipsies are measured.
am theirs and they are mine in America,
because with them have found such rest
and peace as the world has elsewhere never
given. Because with them the warm heart
beat of nature has come tenderly near.
Courteous Treatment Of Their Guests.
I am theirs and they are mine in this
land, because rough and unoouth men have
received me everywhere as brother and an
honored guest; haggish spae-wives, with
heads awrY, as if to catch every syllable ut
tered, have listened with kindling eyes to
the word I have brought them from kindred
across the sea; great hulking youths, hear
ing with open-eyed wonder, have been
nerved with hope for better land and lifej
blooming Gipsy lasses, with arms across
their mothers shoulders, and yet with ever
winsome restlessness of girlhood, have
look beyond him with yearning eyes to his
fair, far country, where Gipies ride in wagons
like palaces and eat from plates of silver;
while trustful Gipsy children, tugging at
my knees, have searched my scaut pockets,
climbed into my arms and fallen asleep
their instinct as to the stranger proving,
after all, the truest sesame to the Gipsies'
hearts at homes. It is always In this self
ish, unevangelioal way that I have known
in all lands the outcast Romany race, and
because of it I have not oyermuch evil to
record of them.
There are not all told-and this includes
skulking city Romany, unknown in their
town vocations as members of the Gipsy
whom barely 1000 follow the precarious
but romantic life of the road. Irish Catho-
lies, and particularly the lowliest of the
peasantry, without exception hold them in
something like a terrible detestation.
Countryside Lore and Superstition.
Scottish traditions and literature, espe-
cially the ballad poetry of Scotland, are
full of Gipsy countryside lore and supersti-
tions which have been the outgrowth Of
very genial and close relation between Clip
sizes and Scottish peasantry. Gipsy blood
is 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 into
a league with "John Faw, Lord and Earl Of
Little Egypt" in 1910, directing all in au-
thority in his realm to compel the return to
Faw's submission all those Egyptians who
had rebelled against him, and that all Of
ficers should assist in OBTAINING and punish
ing those people 'in conformity with his
laws" so that, ss the edict read, "the said
John have NO cause of complaint in time
coming"
e
genuine Gipsy upon his character, was the
progenitor of the many tribes of Faws,
Faas or Falls, who, with the Baillies, have
been the most noted and numerous of Scot
tish Gipsies, whose descendants I have found
in respectable numbers and condition
throughout the United States
The environs of Edinburgh and Glasgow
are full of Gipsies who are superior In
physique to their English brethren in Lon
don, Birmingham, Manchester and Liver
pool. In Tweeddale, Anandale and Niths-
dale are many families of Gipsies, whose re-
spectability and individual means, although
they lead a rowing life, would compare
favorably with those of the small farmers of
the same regions.
Good Fortune Visits the Nomads.
With few years such good fortune, from
a pecuniary standpoint, has come to Scot
tish Gipsies through the vast increase Of
summer visitors, American as we'll as En-
glish, to the highlands and islands of Scot
land. They resort to the vicinity of Oban,
Rothesay, Inverary, even cross to the outer
Hebrides, and are found in every romantic
glen in the Trossachs and along the high
land lakes. These are gradually abandon
quicker profits of "show" Gipsies in sum-
mer, and during the winter seek lowly
quarters in cities.
The smallest and the largest collection Of
Gipsies ever found in Scotland were, re-
spectively, in the far North and at the very
southern boundary. The first was discov-
cred one early morning in July. I was
coming with an eminent Northern Presby-
terian divine from grand Strathglass over
the bleak moors, down through fairy Glen
Urquhart to Drumnadrochit by Loch Ness
side. On one of the fern spread braes of a
little loch stood q solitary Gipsy tent-the
tiny woolen hood of the true Romany. Its
flaps were skewered close. The inmates
were asleep. 1t was the tiniest, snuggest
home human eyes ever beheld. could not
but repeat aloud to my reverend companion
some Gipsy sayings, perhaps 5000 years old,
tents of our people" my loves breasts
are as hillocks of amber; as bright tents
FURNISHED by the sum-" "Our tents are
firm against the sand
Scottish Rovers Are Scarce.
The largest aggregation of Scottish Gip-
sizes, now sadly dwindled, is at the border
Teviotdale town of Yetholm. These might
be called house Gipsies, as they occupy
thatched cabins in Kirk Yetholm, the prop
erty of the Marquis of Tweeddale, held un-
der the curious tenure of nineteen times
nineteen years" at q nominal rent. But q
few families remain. Nearly all the old
stock has died off or emigrated to America,
though no longer ago than 1s47 they mus