The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-04
WAEENAYS WAyDERBCS.
Some Interesting Facts About British
GYPSY ROYALTY.

ostracize5 Prince Robert.
IC1pyHzhtI
London. May - There is nowhere I'm
the entire range of sociological study and
Observation $50 crotesque and vet So genu-
inc "a thing as gypsy royalty ITO be
skiing" or queen OF % characterization
crew of wanderers. seems 20 us who are
utterly removed from gypsy thought
feeling and conditions, SO tri0iug and
outlandish a thing that we can scarcely
contemplate the regal status and its odd
dignities without a feeling of ridicule and
contempt
The first gypsy I ever saw was a prin-
cess; afterwards a queen. That was just
forty years ago. She was a mite of a
thing, ana "a great storm of early winter
had separated her from the rest of her
band as it was fastening to
summer climes, and driven her
desperately near doath from the
severity of the elements, to the door of
our ample and ancient farm nome. 1t was
Thanksgiving day. A crowd Of relatives
and friends were being entertained after
the good old New England fashion. = Tho
hundreds Of cattle, horses and sheep had
all been comfortably housed from the be-
wildering storm. Three or four tablefuls
of countryside guests had been served,
everything possessing q keener relish for
the Shudderiug night and its binding
snow While the good Old place was
ringing with laughter and jollity and my
mother, with the manner of severe com
mander, was giving an eye to prepare
tiOns for the hired mems repast the
storm clutched and shook the old farm
house savagelY. In the rattle and clatter
of it all there was swept into the wide,
lOW-ceilingCd room scared. trembling,
tawny girl of perhaps IA years Of age
The snow was beaten into her glossy,
black hair, which was matted wildly
about her shiveTing form My mother
locked the "hired mem out for q bit;
brought the girl to the capaciOus fireplace
and dried and warmed her; and then with
a genuine court martial air, and still with
a brusquc vet certain touch of the waits
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
s., as the farmers say, and this plump
glowing-eyed heathen-she marched us
up stairs, away into the garrett and put
us, still together, into the snuggest of
trundle beds beside the huge, roaring
arms as if for human companionship, and
muttering words Of an unknown tongue
which surely held the meditation and ac-
cent of prayer. this lost heather princess
sObbed herself asleep.
1t would be "A long, and even a romantic
story, how this gypsy girl was found 1t
our home by "A gypsy Lad the next morn
ing how Lad and lass disappeared hand
in hand like ragged silhOuetteS over the
IA ah
how, when boy soldier ] came upon the
two then man and wife, ground between
the teeth of war rs Hood was making his
brave but fatetul winter march upon
Nashville, Just ten years after the stormy
Thanksgiving time, and at then dread
ful risk SET them on their way TO gypsy
friends In the north; how but a few years
later still l again found them, this time in
a great gypsy camp, where the annual
May day meetings and partings were 60
ing on. and where, for what little | 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 I'M
locked house, tent and heart of all gyp-
sydom; but it has brought me TO see and
feel almost with gypsy eyes and mind
and to know that there is truly an inn
presslve reality even in gypsy royalty in
rags.
The accepted notion about gypsy
"kings' and queens is that of the stage
and story-book gypsy, carrying a witch
crook, strlding great strides, dressed in
gaudy tinerY, wearing "a tin crown and
bedecked with Brummagen beads and
rings, who endlessly speaks i'm a voice of
suppressed basso and who "Thees,"
''Thous, Hos, 80 Has " and 'Avauntsp'
trembling subjects until their Joints are
loose in their sockets and the campfire
pots rattle and clink in the crooks of the
iron kettle-sticks. Perhaps something Of
this sort was in vogue a few hundred
years ago. The history of gypsy tribes
in continental Europe shows that
gypsy kings princes" ..earls,"
''dukes' and those of lesser title roamed
about, under license of potentates, with
retinues and cavalcades 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 wandering
British tribes. This was characteristic
OF Scottish more than of English gypsies
The record of the royal doings of the lat
ter is indeed luminous and unique.
In the early part of the sixteenth
century, AnthOnius Gawino, Earl of Little
LS}pt, was so COnSulllnaleIN SlfeWO In
carrying out his assumption ofpilgrimage
and of being under commands of the pope
to wander seven years without sleeping
IN bed, that he actually secured the
countenance, if not the favor, Of James
". This Anthonius Gawino seemed to
be diplomat by nature. He inveigled
King James into giving him a very strong
and sympathetic letter to his uncle. the
King of Denmark, in which the gypsy
chief and his vagabond followers are
spoken of as ''Anthonius GavinO, earl of
Little Egypt, and the other afflicted and
lamentable tribe of his retinue. whilst.
through a desire of travelling and by COM
mand of the pope, pilgriming over the
Christian world - etc, which shows that
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 l540 entered into u league
with John Faw, lord and earl of Little
Egypt directing all in authority in his
realm to compel the return to Faw's sub
mission all those Egyptians who had re-
belled against him, and that all officers
should assist il OBTAINING and Furnishing
those people "in conformity with his
laws so that as the edict read, "the