Morning journal and courier., 1891-06-06

bled upon and with home-comors, with each other, and as if with the empty air Snatches of song begun by gipsies at one extremity of the camp were taken up and finished with flourish at the other. Here are single stanzas from three of them, called respectively, 'By Day and Night" ''The Night ha' Come," and "Chee!- Chee" (Silencel-Be stiIlD;
 By davies Cday) and rat (nighO
 Be as sly as cat
 or the ping CdeviD will pull out his harro
 With a wink, through the hedge,
 Or from off some near ledge,
 He will spring out and chop ofyour snerro
 The camp fires twinklei' the hedge;
 But sure as I'm gipsy lout
 If hobbies" sneak this camp about,
 The stones will rattle from the ledge
 An heads will break, my word pledge
 My word pledge, my word pledge!
 On the drom Croad) there is much that is try
 Make dickerinG do for thy buying.
 Be as wise as an owl,
 But If hobbies" should prowl.
 Just give them fine lesson In lying Look them square in the yak Ceye), If they wain ye;
 Hit them plump in the nak (nose),
 For or it's it's ::chee! chee"' when the hobbies" come:
 Then it's 'Chee! cheer when the hobbies" come;
 For its better to be lying than crying Mingled with the lusty notes of these English gipsy songs were merry "tally-yo- hosl" rung out on the evening air by re- turning horsemen to the campside singers. Now and then some daredevil of a fellow (and often gipsy woman, who is as much the horses master as her Rommany lord) would come pell-mell, full gallop into camp, with whoop and halloa, and, dash i,ry tha tn al-.t ha tree limbs rattle and chatter in passage, while approving shouts or half serious yells and objurgstions followed with the | laughing children and ecstatic dogs. Soon came the supper-the really one great uni l versal home meal of the gipsy day. They were long time at it as they always are, | and as much fun as food was taken. Then | with the cheery camp-fres brightly burn | ing, here and there a lantern hung from elevated cart-thill or swaying copsewood, and with blazing cressets in honor of the stranger, first came my own tales of all | the wondrous good fortune of their own | kind in America; then chlldrens' games | and all manner of campside jollity; fol | lowed by singing and dancing after mar | vicious jigs and reels upon "raal or Gre
 monys;" until at last sleep and silence set
 tied upon the Parkdale gipsy camp and the one "Gorgio Chal" within it, with that amplitude of rest which so comes with | loving touch to no other people on earth as to this outcast Rommany race.
 The outcome of my visit to my gipsy friends was making the acquaintance of a | curious and interesting corner of England,
 of which I had never before heard, and
 which must also be to most Americans
 quite an unknown region. It is variously
 known in Great Britain as the Norfolk
 and Suffolk Fens," the "Broads of East
 Anglia" and, provincially and by fowlers
 and sportsmen, as ''The Brosds." One of
 the families of this gipsy Parkdale com
 munity annually visits the Broads, lives in
 O punt-boat as a floating camp home, and
 while the women dicker and ducker among
 the lowly peasant families, the men, often
 with the women and childrens assistance,
 make good deal of money by weaving
 and selling all manner of rush and osier
 bags, pouches, crates and baskets required
 by fenmen, marshmen, eel and mussel
 batchers and the numberless sportsmen
 and yachting parties that frequent the re-
 zion.
 On party comprised "or granpop'
 Wharton, tinker, fiddler and what-not his son Uriah Wharton, splendid type o the shaggy, huge, manly, kind hearted i English gipsy; huge hulk of son witt
 his fathers sunny nature and frame; thu , wife, little, sharp faced, sharp-eyed ana
 sharp tongued; three as pretty gipsy girl , as one could wish to find for poem TO , nance or idyllic company, Fashion, Me
 linda and Bess; and a number of gips, brats of both sexes and all sizes and age v so bewilderingly mixed with the famil.
 dogs that assortment and description ar
 needless. What with visiting gips, i friends at Keighly, Doncsster and Lincoln e we were three days reaching our destins | tion, the village of Tickling, near Hick
 ling Broad, in Norfolk: and short tram
 from Hickling, accompanied by villag Q cart well laden with gipsy belongings V brought us to the waterside. Here, har by an old daub- and -wattle cottage, who's
 peasant owner roared out an slarmin
 welcome, we found our punt. This wa
 already in fine order for the season, tn !. cottager having cared for it in winter an |, got it in readiness against the gipsies' con 2 ing; and in an hour more the fioatin
 summer home was launched, the evenin
 meal in preparation, and snug quarters fc
 all the motley crew arranged for the nigh
 Consulting the map of England, it wi n be noticed that the shires of Norfolk an 1t Suffolk push out boldly from the nearl
 German ocean. The shore is here a ma, n of sand hills and dunes. Nearly the CT ,e tire surface of the two shires behind it I but few feet above the level of the SCI o and in many respects is similar to Ho '0 land, which is bat one hundred miles di y tant to the east. The whole eastern DO B. tioii of the shires is dotted with extensi, d reedy and marshy sheets of water, of br
 from three to six feet in depth, with
 hard smooth bottom of mari. These lak d like marshes or lsgoons are feeders to il h Bure, Yare and Waveney rivers, all ( d which form confluence, and flow lazil
 I1a oS Ina fant ntsx- fNf Va mouth. These lagoons are provincial d called s'The Broads." No one knows ho d or when the term originated. Their bo n ders are chiefly fiat and marshy. Bl
 many are richly wooded to the water '- edge, giving them peculiarly picturesqr n beauty, particularly in contrast with wit l. flat or slightly undulating fens by whic E, they are surrounded.
 Altogether there are nearly fifty of thei 10 breads, all communicating with each otht $ by lazy currents called dykes" or wit le the rivers, which they feed: and their t,
 tai water surface is about five thousan
 acres. They teem with fish-the roaci V Dream, perch and pike-and are the resol a. of countless water-fowls. Eels and mui ,r sells are taken from them by the ton l ,a their quiet, their unusual diversity, th io characterful folk who live beside them, th of almost countless miles of river and dyE le waterway for small boating and yachting F the quaint and sunny old inns-of call do
 ting here and there the silent shores, an ,e the genuine possibilities for securing ifs i- and game among them, they no doubt DO Id sess sweeter and subtler charms than an as other known resort in England to the ma uralist and sportsman.
 e' My tawny friends belonged to neith d. class, but our house boat possessed uui sn as many provisions for necessary comic ID as many of the hundreds of aristocrat V. yachts which haunt the region, and i ''' crew and passengers were quite as car an free and merry. The boat itself was abo T's twenty-four feet in length and perha IS. eight in breadth. Properly speskin ,,- there was neither "fore" nor ''aft," 1' the terms were interchangeable at wi al At one end was little compartment, hl I ing at its own extreme end g comfortsl