Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-29

| held under the curious tenure OF nineteen
| times nineteen years. at a nominal rent.
| But few families remain. Nearly all the
| old stock has died OF or emigrated to
| America, though no longer ago than lStI
| they mustered from round about over 800
souls and 800 asses to escort the remains of
their old king, s'canny Wull (|NilD Faa''
from ColdStream to the burying ground at
Kirk Yetholm. 1t was here. too. that my
late friend, the brightest, wjttiest and most
SenSi bic gypsy woman that ever lived,
Queen Esther Faa, reigned SO long. so
wisely and so well.
PROBABLY the most idyllic form of gypsy
life yet remaining in England may be found
in Wales and the English lake district of
northern Lancashire, Westmoreland and
Cumberland. ! have been much among the
statesmen or land-oWning peasantry of
of the latter region, as well as with the
eypsies there. Perhaps | have questioned
800 small farmers and others as to the gyp-
sizes status among them. | have never Sc
cured an answer unfavorable TO the no.
mads. On the contrary, much as Is the
case III remote countryside districts in
America, the gypsies' annual coming is
looked forward to with eagerneSs and de-
light: while the summer ket day and
the little village fair would be Shoru Of
much of their attractlveness were the gypsy
folk absent. Nor could learn in all this
right dishonesty on the part of any
gypsy within the memory of man. In
tie winter time. those who follow the I'M
BRIAN summer routes, kair or house usually
in the larger Lancaster towns, such as
Wigan, Bolton. Preston, Blackburn, Come,
Lancaster and INVERSION, and though the
beer mug travels gaily among them during
this period. they are generally liked and
often respected in the
NHIGHBoRHoop OF THEIR PLANTATIONS
Again, in Yorkshire. away from its manu-
featuring towns. the gypsies have well de-
fined routes of travel, and are never
scourged or chased by the consta bulary as
they are IL the midland Shires, where they
have chiefly come under Mr.. Smiths OBJ
servation. In Wharfedale, III the vicinity
Of llkley, are many families Of respectable
gypsies. Up about Northallsrton they are
the only countryside peddlers and thinkers,
and do much in the way of buying and SELL
ing horses and other livestock. In Lincoln
shire and NottinghamShire from Grimsby
to Trent. and particularly about Noting
ham and ACKNOWLEDGMENT, are very many
prosperous gypsies. whose families can be
traced nearly as far back as some of the no.
bilIty, and often with quite as favorable re-
suits. In the county OF Norfolk / have
passed some of the most delightful days of
my life as the guest of gypsy families, who,
making summer-house boats of large punts.
provide the hosts Of sportsmen that an
nually resort to the "Broads'' or marShy
lakes. with wicker baskets and bait. and
often act as guides to the most desirable
fishing and hunting grounds.
In all the west and southwest of England
the gypsies are welcomed and treated most
generously In Cornwall they are gener-
ally called ''vagrom men," as the sturdy
Cornish folk class all persons, even to
commercial travellers, literary trampS and
60, ,l,,, f-A,,
place to place; while in Wales a simpler,
more unsophisticated, kinder-hearted peo-
pie do not live than the gypSies. All
Welsh people love them. They never leave
Wales and they are as much an integral
part of the concrete social structure as
are the Welsh peasantry themselves.
The difference between British gypsies
and American gypsies is astounding. But
after all it is only difference of condition.
The evolution of our gypsies from ignor-
ance and depreciation to Opulence, lntelI-
gence and some considerable educational
acumen, is simply the result of liberation
from hard and often grinding life here,
which anywhere fosters the worst of human
traits; precisely as British lowly. trans
planted from life battle for mere exist
ence. shortly become with us men and
women often of competence and frequently
OF culture.
The British lowly are hard to get along
with anywhere IN ireland, Scotland and
England. because they suffer sorely from
grinding labor and an. to US, almost incon-
ceivable poverty. British gypsies. like their
Gorgio brethren, are degraded and bestial
just in proportion TO their degree OF pov-
erty. The same family which Philanthopist
Smith finds snivellng under rotten sheet
by the English hedge, with perhaps not
even skinny hedgehog for the Sunday
dinner, transferred to America. nevermcre
is found among lawbreakers. and in ten
years time becomes one of the vast army
of overwhelmed middlemen between
American farmers and metropolitan live
stock markets, riding from hamlet to ham
let in wagons like palaces. and literally eat
ing their ample food from plates of bur
nished silver. EDGAR l. WAkEMAS.