The record-union., 1893-06-03
Special Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1881

LONDON, May y, 1898.
There is nowhere in the entire range of
sociological study and observation so gro
tesque and yet so genuine a thing as
gypsy royalty. To be king or queen"
of tatterdemalion crew of wanderers
seems to US, who are utterly removed
from gypsy thought, feeling and condi-
tons, SO trifIing and outlandish a thing
that we can scarcely contemplate the
regal status and its odd dignities without
feeling Of ridicule and contempt.
The first gypsy l ever saw was princess,
afterwards a queen. That was just forty
years ago. She was a mite of a thing,
and great storm of early winter had
separated her from The rest of her band
as 1t was Fastening to summer chimes,
and driven her, desperately near death
from the severity of the elements; to the
door OF our ample and ancient farm
home. 1t was Thanksgiving Day. A
crowd of relatives and friends were being
entertained after the good old New Eng
land fashion. The hundreds of cattle,
horses and sheep had all been comforta-
bly, housed from the bewildering storm.
Three or four tablefuls of countryside
guests had been served, everything pos
sesslng a keener relish for the shudder-
ing night and its binding snow. While
the good old place was ringing with
laughter and Jolity, and my mother with
the manner of severe commander, was
giving an eye to preparations for the
hired mems" reDast, the storm clutched
and shook the old farmhouse Savagely.
In The rattle and clatter OF ii all there was
swept into the wide, lowceiHnged room
4 scared, trembling, tawny girl of, per-
haps, IA years OF age.
The snow was beaten into her glossy.
black lair which was matted wildly
about her shlverlng form. My mother
locked the "hired men, out Tor a bit,
brought the girl to the capaciOus fireplace
and dried and warmed her, and then,
with genuine cOurt-martial air, and
stlll with brusque, yet certain touch of
the walf's immediate needs which had
real humanity in it, set her at the table
and fed her until she could hold no
more.
Then taking both of us-myself ''rising
nYe, as the farmers say, and this plump
gioWlng-eyed heathen-she marched us
up stairs away into the garrett, and nut
us, still together, into the snuggist of
trundIe-beds beside the huge, roaring
chimney, where, cuddling me in her
warm arms, as if for human companion
shlp,and muttering words OF an unknown
tongue which surely held the meditation
+
princess sobbed herself asleep.
1t would be q long, and even a roman
TIC story, how this gypsy girl was found
at our home by a gypsy lad the next
morning, how lad and lass disappeared,
hand and hand, like ragged silhouettes
over the snOw-capped hills about our val
ley farm; how, when a boy-soldier, l
came upon the two, then man and wife,
ground between the teeth of war as Hood
was making his brave but fateful winter
march upon Nashville, Just ten years
after the stormy Thanksgiving time, and
at a then dreadful risk set them on their
way to gypsy friends in the North; how,
but few years later, still again found
them, tins time IN q great gypsy camp
where the annual May-day meetings and
partlugs were going on, and where, for
what little l and mine had done. this
same gypsy girl, now queen of her tribe
made my merits, through her gratitude
so great to her people and race, that in all
lands and places since, three magic words
have unlocked house, tent and heart of
all gypsydOm, but it has brought me to
see and feel almost with gypsy eyes and
mind, and to know that there is truly an
impressive reality i'll gypsy royalty in
rags.
The accepted notion about gypsy
kings" ana queens is that Of the stage
and story book gypsy, carrying a witch
crook, strldlng great strides, dressed in
gaudy tinery, wearing a tin crown and
DedeCked with Brummagen beads and
rings, who endlessly speaks in voice of
suppressed basso. and who 'Thees,"
'thOuS.u "hOs," has and "ayauuts"
trembling subjects until their joints are
loose in their sockets and the camp-t fire
pots rattle and clink in the crooks of the
iron kettle-suckS. Perhaps something of
this sort was in vogue few hundred
years ago. The history of gypsy tribes
IN Continental Europe shows that gypsy
kings" princes" "earIs," dukes
and those Of lesser title roamed about,
under license of potentates, with retin-
ues and cavaIcadeS that would have done
honor to truly titled folk of the time
But all this sort of thing is now alone
found in the shilling shocker and penny
dreadful wilds OF literature. There was
up to the last century some genuine royal
gypsy pageantry among the larger wan
dering British tribes. This was charac-
teristic of Scottish more than OF English
gypsies. The record of the royal do
ings OF the latter is indeed luminous and
unique.
In the early part of the sixteenth cent
ury AnthOnlus Gawino, Earl OF Little
Egypt, was so consummately shrewd in
carrying out his assumption of Pilgrim
age and OF being under commands of the
Pope to wander seven years without
sleeping in a bed, that he actually secured
the countenance, If not the favor, of James
Az. This Anthonius Gawino seemed to
De a diplomat by nature. He inveigled
King James into giving him very strong
ana sympathetic letter to his uncle, the
King OF Denmark, in which the gypsy
chief and his vagabond followers are
spoken of as "Anthonius Gawino Earl
of Little Egypt and the other afflicted
and lamentable tribe of his retinue whilst
through desire of travelling and by COM
lnand of the Pope, pilgriming over the
CHRISTIAN world. etc. which shows thar
their imposition upon the melancholy
Scottish King was complete, whether or
not his testimonial ever benefited them
in Denmark.
Until nearly a half century after this.
although the gypsies had already become
troublesome, their true character had not
been discovered. James v, shortly be-
fore his death in 1910, entered into a
league with John Faw, Lord and Earl
of Little Egypt" directing all in author
ity in his realm TO compel the return TO
laws submission all those Egyptians
who had rebelled against him, and that
all officers should assist in OBTAINING and
Furnishing those people lin conformity
with his laws so that, as the edict read
''the said John have no cause for COM
plant thereupon in time coming" This
edict further charged all officers of the
realm 10 command masters of all ships at
ports and ravens where the said John
and his company might come to receive
them. and, on expenses being paid, to
convey them to their own country.
This was only shrewd bit OF maneu-
vering on the part OF King Eaw. who
being pressed to take himself and tribe
out of the country, pretended to his fol-
lowers rebellion against him, and Sc
cured this unique edict in his favor to
give color of necessity to prolonging his
and his peoples stay in Scotland. This
tsaw whose shrewdness slammed the