The record-union., 1891-11-21
own language, will be interesting to

1eTeHt parts OF England anG Scotland,
and have eaten and chatted with the tent
and Van dWellers with the same sorrow
fuI results confronting me. In many
cases where parents attend fairs, feasts
and races with cOcoanut stalls and other
lnltIatory gam bling amusements, the chill
dren are sent early in the morning to
pick up living in all sorts of questiona-
bic ways, and up to II or II O'Clock at
night some of the children of both sexes,
together with their mothers, are often
kept hard at work brawling, banging
and shouting with cocoanuts and balls in
hand, while in many instances their
fathers are drinking in the public houses,
and as reward for their hard days toll
ing and drudging, Sunday and week day,
the poor children are sent supperless and
unwashed to bed. This is usually on
some old rags, under street stall, i'll
hail, rain, snow, frost and fogs, and in
line weather with the cleaning moon
ana tWlnkilng stars peeping through the
torn apertures OF their street curtains and
gutter beds.
81 have seen these men, women and
children drunk, all of heap like so
many dogs, while there were others, en-
gagged in the vagabond's calling, ashamed
of their position, who hung down their
heads and hands and went with the tide
and pellmell crowd down to ruin. In
many instances / come upon parents with
large families who have taken the wrong
turning through their dislike of work, or
the hardness of town life, and are now
tramplng the country lanes, towns end
villages with carts, vans and donkey bar
rows. hawking, begging, lying, and, 1
am afraid, often stealing.
Some time ago l visited with friend
Canning Town, and found scores of fami-
lies Of gypsies and other vagabond travel
ers living in state that would shock the
rhNya nd a 1a1 boo
than thirty children ofschool age clustered
around US, not one of whom could tell
letter. In two small four-roomed cot
tages, into which the gypsies and travel
ers had crept for few months in the win
ter, there dwelt, or pigged, seventeen
families OF men, women and children.
Others were squatting about in filthy
wigwams among the slush, filth, rags and
straw.
Among these folks, on the outskirts of
London, in one wigman ! have seen
poor woman dying; in another a man,
who had taken to gypsying, was gasping
Tor breath; in another tent woman was
at deaths door, and at another abode of
death, into which / had to creep on all
fours, there sat at the entrance, upon a
brick IN the mud, poor lost, present-day
gypsy girl of z years of age, but no
heavier than child of year. It's legs
were no thicker than drum-sticks. 1t
could neither stand, sing, speak, cry nor
hear.
''At a 'crow-pie' feast near Rugby I
saw IN five vans fifteen children, two of
whom could only read or write little.
During the deep snow of the winter of
lSS1-SS met with in the old Waiting
street, but mile or two from our home
here, nine men. women and children
crouched together, whose only sleeping
apartment was under an old donkey
40 arf HIa hoI l-aI Ii
and well in my neighborhood for two
years. The work gave out, and he for
sock his trade to follow hedge bottom
creeping.
AT Daventry found travelling show
man and his wife and their seven chill
dren. Their only home and stock in
trade consisted of a few sticks, old rags.
knives, whistles and a cracked drum.
At Northamptonshire fair / found ten
vans and carts and between thirty and
forty children, only one or two of whom
had ever been inside either Sunday or
day schools. In three old tumble-down
carts, tied together by canvas, string,
straps and pieces ofrusty hoop iron, there
were nineteen children and seven men
and women.
''Moses Holland, one of my Oldest
gypsy friends, knows about $50 families
in the midland counties and thinks
there Will be an average of
five children to each tent or
van. In some tents he has seen as many
as ten, and in other tents twelve, chill
dren. In his own tent his wife was i'll.
and dead child lay by her side, which
Holland laid out himself on a few rags
and some litter.
AT Broomsgrove Fair / counted over
fifty vans and covered cart homes, con-
nected with which there were nearly $50
children. But six could read and write.
T,,x 1.--l.+ I
and five high, there slept eleven men,
women and children, whose night
dresses were saturated wet clothes. Some
time ago l visited flower show at West
Haddon and found in two vans and
tumble-down wagon eighteen children
and seven men and women. Only two
could read and write.
ION a recent Sunday in a Northamp-
tonshire lane, near Buckley wharf
during pouring rain, came upon eleven
present-day gypsles-slx men and women
and five chiidren-WhOSe home was a
small, rickety donkey cart, tied together
with pieces of cord, and small sheet,
full of holes, under which they crept at
night.
''On the preceding Saturday night these
gypsieS were under this one rotten sheet
tor the night by the roadside near Wee
don. A policeman told them to move
on as on the following Sunday people
would be going to church, and they would
be an eyesore to all these good people
Driving the gypsies about the country
with policeman's truncheon and
move on will not improve their condi-
ton. 1t can only be done by means of
the sanitary officers influence directly
upon their homes, and by the school
masters influence upon their heads and
hearts. And if l live long enough this
shall become universal remedy for all
manner of gypsy and other travelling
vagabondism in England and Scotland"
These are the beings whom Mr.. Smith
has given the name of "Gypsy and Van
Dwellers," and it is the 10000 to $4,000
"Gypsy and Van Children" of these
wretched wandering vsgabonds, whom he
is endeavoring to rescue from their pres
ent condition of utter bestiality through
the hoped-for passage of his movable
Dwellings Bill" The provisions of this
bill,, if carried out, would cause the regis
tration of all gypsy and other travelling
vans; bring each one under constant sur
veillance and sanitary inspection. the
same as with the lodging-houses of the
great English cities; prevent the present
horrible overcrowding of tents and vans,
and, above all, bring everyone of tn ese
outcast children compulsorily into the
public schools, but wholly free of ex-
pense to their parents, by a system of
free pasS-books for use wherever the
gypsy family might be temporarily tarry-
ing. EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
[For the RECoRD-UNIoS-By Len.I
SAN DIEGO BAY.
Under the dome of midnight sky