The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-11-28
COMPARED TO AMERICAN NOMADS
The Wanderers Over tho Sea do not
Fare us Well as they do Here.
Ireland Has no Use for Thcm..-Thc
Scottish Typc...Somc OF Them Well
ofr.-.Good Traits Of these Rowing
Bands.
[corYnlGIIr. 1911
Intelligence,


much time and attention TO study OF
the gipsies as have found them IN diff.
iercnt parts OF Ireland, Scotland and
England, | feel that something like II
survey 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 my good friend, George Smith, oil
Coalvillc, is interested in gipsies in n
vastly broader, nobler and moro cvaugc.
lical way than myself. lie seeks them
out and finds them at their worst, and
the worst Of them, unearthing the hor-
rors oil their lives in and near large
cities; and then, burning with desire
md determination that they shall DO
made good citizens, rouscs all England
with his rugged eloqucnce, insisting
that tho very world stand still until
laws are passed for their complete sani.
tation and civilization.
am not worthy. to live in the same
century with this hero philanthropist,
when motive and labor for gipsics arc
measured. am theirs and they are
mine in America, because with them |
have found such rest and peace rs the
world has elsewhere never given. Be-
cause with them the warm heartbeat
nature has come tenderly near. Be-
cause among them there have been con-
tidences earnest, friendships true and
loyalty sacred. Because wherever 90,
by hill or dale. by town or city, the
love word they gave mo long ago.
"Gorgio Chal!" goes with me rs the
seal and reminder OF ten thousand en-
dearing experiences, and thrills me
that have place i'll SO many hearts,
hearts oil wanderers though they be.
And because, perhaps, their is faint
OF gypsy blood in my own veins that
brings me to my own.
- am theirs and they arc mine in this
land, because Rough and uncouth men
have received me everywhere as 4
brother and an honored guest; haggsh
spae-wivcs. with heads awry, us il TO
catch every syllable uttered, have lis
tened with kindling eyes to the word I
have brought them from kindred across
the. sea; great hulking youths, hearing
with open eyed wonder, have been
nerved with hope for better land and
life; blooming gypsy lasses, with arm s
across their mothers shoulders, and
yet with the ever winsomc restlessness
OF girlhood, have stolen glances at the
stranger, seeming to look beyond him
with yearning eyes to his fair, fur coun-
try, where gipsies ride in wagons like
palaces and eat from plates of silver;
while trustful gypsy children, tugging
ut my knees, have searched my scant
pockets, climbed into my arms and.
fallen aslecp-thcir instinct rs to the
stranger proving, after all, the truest
sesame to the gipsics' hearts at homes.
1t is always IN this selfish, uncvangcli-
cal way that have known in all lands
the outcast Romany race, and because
OF it have not overnuch evil to record
OF them.
There are not all toll--and this in
c!udes skulking city Romany, unknown
in their town vocations as members OF
the gypsy race-upward OF 5000 gipsies
i'll Ireland, OF whom barely 1000 follow
the precarious but romantic life OF
the road. Irish Catholics, and particu-
b larly the lowlicst OF the peasantry, with
out exception hold them in something
like terrible detestation.
HAVE no USE FOR THEM.
Let gypsy spae-wiie or fortune teller
once slip into an Irish cabin and begin
any OF her black art conjuring, 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 whirl-
wind OF eviction MS may be heard for
half league away. The very ,hatch-
ing would be pulled from the roof, if
necessary, to speed and force the battle
for thehome against the grewsomc wilcs.
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 barrcnness
Tor their purposes, saiiGh lodlie, or the
unlucky and accurscd territory.
There is marked difference in Scot
land. In proportion to its population
there arc moro gipsies in the land O.
cakes than in England. Scottish tradi-
tons and literature. especially the bal.
lad poetry OF Scotland, are iull OF GYPSY
countryside lore and supcrstitlons
which have been the outerowth OF
very genial and close relation between
gipsies and Scottish pcasantry. Gypsy
blood is known to course il the veins
OF many OF the Scottish nobility. These
people actually secured the countcn-
ance, ii II OF the favor, of James ".
James V, entered into league with
John Faw, lord and earl OF little
Egypt" in 1910, directing all in author
ity in his realm to compel the return to
Faw's submission all those Egyptians
who had rebelled against him, and that
all officers should assistin OBTAINING and
Furnishing those people I'm conformity
with the laws" SO that, as the cdict
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 Faw, Faas and Falls, who, with the
Baillies, have been the most noted and
numerous OF Scottish gipsies, whose de-
scendants l have found in respectable
numbers and condition throughout the
United States.
The environs OF Edinburgh and Glas-
gov are full Of gipsics who are superior
in,physique to their English brethren
about London, Birmingham, Manches-
ter and Liverpool. In Twecddale, An.
andalc and Nithsdale are many families
OF gipsies whose responsibility and in
dividual means, although they lead 4
rowing life, would compare favorably
with those OF the small farmers in tho