Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-27

What similar to our American bargain
counter odds and ends, especially In tin
ware and metal goods, hardware, orookery,
cheap oil-cloths and household nicknacks,
with the ooarssst beads and gildsd jewelry.
1t would be O revelation to ordinary Eng
lish tradesmsn to realize the enormoSs
quantities of stuff annually disposed of in
this manner throughout England, Scot
land and Wales, and the integrity of these
gypsy wanderers where they ask and re-
ceive credit for their supplies. as they of
ten do. Smaller Travellers Goods stores
may be found near the Bull Ring In Bir-
minghsm, whore carts may be rehlled In
the lazy iourneytngs; but small shipments
from time to time are forwarded by rail
from London.
have friends in the fruit and nut trade
in the Drury Lane quarter of London who
have supplied gipsies In all parts OF the
provinces for the past twenty years. Half
of this trade is done on credit, and the
frHiterers all inform me they have never
lost q penny at the hands of their thou
sands of gipsy small customers. All these
goods, fruits aud nuts, are hawked In lit
tie villages and sold at fairs and on mar
ketdsys. Indeed the English country
fair of to-day would lose all its pictur-
sequences and most of Its attractions for
younger people were the petty gypsy booths
and gipsy showmen Withdrawn.
About the middle of the century when
the British rural police act, which was di-
reeted against gipsies and all wandering
folk of the road, came in force, We find
Borrow lsmenting that the "gipsy had no
where to lay his head" Tie oppressive
measure undoubtedly sent America hfty
thousand English gipsies within . period
of ten years. Indeed 1t almost eItirpated
gipsydom in Great Britain. But the com
ing gipsy soon saw a way to mend his for
tunes. He took out license to become q
travelling merchant 1.-TWO and sixpence"
gives him this right for the period of one
year. He could still remain gipsy in every
other particular. Insensibly and by de-
grees he actually became the fellow whose
vocation he originally assumed in order to
merely exist.
There gradually followed a system
among the wanderers of providing ''gipsy
ground" on which to camp In safety from
the raids of the mounted oonstsbulary.
Gipsies here and there who had got foot
ing and could be trusted bought or leased
bits of waste land, unused lanes. idle
tracts at the outskirts of cities and towns,
or camping right in roomy old stable
yards. These are in turn sub-let to arri-
wing pilgrims at from one shilling down to
a penny a day. And thus, with gipsy
travellers who really have something be-
sides "blsck arts" to sell, one can travel
from Lands End to John O'Grost's house,
or London to Oban, and return, and never
upon the road by day, or underneath the
tent or the vsn-roof and the stars at night,
be outside the comforting protection of
watchful British law.
But the British gypsy Is something more
than q "vsgrom" trader. His kind are
encroachipg upon, or making for them
selves, many other profitable pursuits and
vocations. have always held that In this
would be found the real evolution of the
gipsy; and that in just the degree he be-
came like other men-not In religion, be-
cause you can no mere reach q gypsy with
Christian missionary schemes than you
any other form of Agnostic-in vocation
and the betterment to himself and family
in material living, in like degree would the
SO called "blsck arts" of gipsydom dissp'
pear. l have from time to time shown
this to be true among American gipsies
1t is gratifying to And 1t true among Brit
ish gipsies. l do not regard them as hay
ing chosen the most elegant of vocations;
nor as class can they be said to sustain
enviable relations to society. But they
| are doing something; making money; find
| ing themselves possessed of inherent in
dustrial power; and their acquisition and
possession of means are making them a
better race of men.
In one of the large London Travelling
Goods" concerns previously referred to,
| the largest shareholder is a gypsy who Is
| reputed to be worth fully eight thousand
| pounds. 1 know of many shooting gal
leries in London conducted by gipsies.
| They are not only successful with these,
| but, in associative form, just IS they are
| beginning to own most of the money max
ing Punch and-Ju Judy shows of the metroP-
| oils, control many like privileges at noted
places OF holiday resort, near London,
/ from which unusual profit is derived.
| One of the most thriving vegetable booth
i men of Covent Garden market is q gypsy,
who is in great favor with, and is brought
much trade by, the countless costers of the
neighborhood.
Near the Royal Albert decks is q public
house owned and conducted by q gipsy,
and this property is worth more than two
thousand pounds. Precisely as In some of
the leading American cities, where impor-
/ tant horse sales-stables are owned by gip-
sizes who are thought to be of another race,
i 1 found in London and its environs thirty
one similar establishments wholly con-
trolled by gipsies. They are credited with
an extraordinary amount Of trade, not
only in horses but In donkeys, Shetland
and Cushendsl ponies and goats Com
mission dealings are unknown. Every
i transaction is made for cash, and In two
of these places the leasehold, fittings and
| and stock of animals always on hand must
| require the possession of q capital of from
Eve to ten thousand pounds
An odd and profitable business in Lon
don n that of purveyor of carts and dom
keys to the costermongers. There are
thousands upon thousands of these COS
ters In the metropolis. Many are notori-
ously improvident To start In business
| REQUIRES a hand barrow or cart, and q
coster of recognized standing must poe
sess both cart and donkey. There are
many places where from ffty to FIVE hun
dred carts are hired out by the day, week
/ or month, aud where costers may pur-
| chsss bsrrows, carts and donksys on the
partisl-psyment plan. Those controlling
this manner of business are said to secure
profit of Ave hundred to ons thousand
per cant. They are ususlly graduate, cos.
| ters; but three of those engaged In the
traffic know to be gipsies, who are be-
coming very rich. They are supposed to
be retired costers, with whom London gip-
sies have many points OF common resem-
blance, character and interest.
The most surprising discovery of this
sort 1 ever made In London was in the &C
| quaintance of q dramatic agent, near the
Il
the Surrey ride, while making inq uiries re-
garding the haunts and ways Of London
music-hsn performers, among the many
agents of this Vicinity. The man is one
of the richest and most powerful of this
numerous tribe. Those who daily deal
with him believe him to be Hebrew; but
/ had indubltable evidence, aside from his
own admission, that this man, whom hun.
dreds of the "prossers" fawned upon and
feared for his favor and influence in
booking their London and provincial
music-hau engagements, was none other
| than one of the outcast Romany race BE
had in former times been ''on the roadr
with "vsgrom" travelling shows. some o!
which he still controls, and had, gradually
and without attracting attention to bis
early gypsy associations, become leading
dramatic agent In this famous Poverty
Junction" region. s.-.-
know In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liver.
pool. Manchester, Bristol, Plymouth and
London, of many gipsies who are chin.
ney-sweeps and who, by hiring others and
doing contract" work have secured inde
/ pendencs and comfort. At Brighton
Southport, Scarborough and other impor'
tant English seaside resorts are hundreds
of donkeys upon which "outersn and al