Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-12-24

lly, and selling the same at good nrost
Inc remainder of their wares they maize
III rude way among themselves, the
women oelng quite as adept as the men.
some drive asses before their little carts.
CUT more possess the hardy ''Sheltie,' or
onetiaDd pony. For their own shelter at
night their carts are "wbummel'd" or
wTnemmel that Is, turned upside down.
oeneraily speaking. the gypsies of
portion to the distance thew make their
nauhts from the great centers of popula-
lt9n. Inc same IS measureably true of all
otner English lowly folk. The gypsy class,
Whlch also includes all manner OF travelling
ana tTamplng non-gypsy vaga5onds, the
Iadlcal Improvement of whose condition
has become the heroic work of Georoe
smith, OF Coalville, never pilgrim far
from London, Bristol, BIRMINGHAM. Man
chester, and Liverpool Their members
sally out from these cities and FORAGE
around and around them in we'll de6ned
circles, going and coming as thew are
prompted by impulse or scourged by ne
cessity. A
They are Bedouins of civilization. IN.
deed, and their reformation or exrirnatior
would prove public good Ny own OBJ
servatlon and experiences have been almost
wholly among another and better class.
and the latter Is more like our American
gypsles than any of the Romany in all for
elgn lands.
Probably the most idyllic form of gypsy
lite yet remaining in England may be
found In Wales and the English lake
| district OF Northern Lancashire, West
moreland, and Cumberland | have been
much among the Statesmen" or land
I owning peasantry of the latter region. as
well as with the gypsies there. Perhaps
have questioned 300 small farmers and
others as to the gypsies' status among
them. have never secured an answer un-
favorable to the nomads. On the contrary.
much as Is the case in remote countryside
districts in America, the gypsies' annual
coming Is looked forward to with eager
ness and delight; while the summer mar
ket day and the little village fair would be
shorn of much of their attractiveness were
the gy psy folk absent. Nor could | learn
IN all this romantic region of single act
of downright dishonesty on the part of
any gypsy within the memory of man.
Again IN Yorkshire, away from its
manufacturing towns, the gypsies have
we'll defined roads of travel and are never
scourged or chased by the constabulary as
they are in the midland shires, where thew
have chiefly come under Mr.. Smiths
observation. In WharfedaIe, in the vicin-
lty OF llkey, are many families of respect
able gypsles. Up about Northallerton
they are the only country side peddIers
and thinkers and do much in the way of
buying and selling horses and other stock.
" NIpc nd
| from Grlmsby to Trent, and particularly
| about Nottingham and Hucknail- Torkard,
are very many prosperous gypsies, whose
families can be traced nearly as far back
| as some OF the nobility, and often with
quite as favorable results. In the county
! OF Norfork | have passed some of the most
delightful days Of my life as the guests of
the gypsy families, who, making summer
Households Of large punts, provide the
hosts of sportsmen that annually 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 Eng
land the gypsies are welcomed and treated
most generously. In Cornwall they are
generally called ''vagrom men," as the
sturdy Cornish folk class all persons, even
commercial travellers, literary tramps and
tourists who for any reason wander from
place to place; while IN Wales simpler,
more ursophisticated, kinder hearted peo-
pie do not live than the gypsies. All
Welsh people love them rhey never
leave Wales. and they are DIS much an in
tegral part of the concrete social structure
as the Welsh peasantry themselves.
The difference between British gypsies
and American gvpsies is astounding. But
after all it is only difference of condi-
ton. The evolution of our gypsies from
ignorance and degradation to opulence, in
telligence and some considerable educa-
tional acumen, is simply the result of lib
Grafton from hard and often grinding
life here, which anywhere fosters the
worst of human traits; precisely as Brit
ish lowly transplanted from life battle
for mere existence, 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
conceivablespoverty. British gypsies, like
just in their proportion to their degree of
anthropist Smith finds shivering under
rotten sheet by an English hedge, with per-
haps not even skinny hedgedoo for the
Sunday dinner transferred to America,
nevern1ore Is found among lawbreakers
and in 10 years time become one of the
vast army of ever elcome middemen be-
tween American farmers and metropolitan
live stock markets, riding from hamlet to
hamlet in wagons like palaces and literal
ly eating their ample food from plates of
FURNISHED silver.-Edgar L. Wakeman, in
Inter Ocean.