Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-06-01

speclaCorresponden1e Of t'azette and Journal I
LONDON, May Is. The last qRlrtcrot |
century has wrought i wonderful |
change for the better with majority ~ /
sl British gypsics who have been con, I
lent to remain III their own land Iii
1867, while in England, had means If |
knowing from sonalobserYUtion that I
almost universal Squaor aud wrctchcl |
ness was characteristic Of Irish and |
English, and particularly of London, |
gypsies. No one can make of a gypsy |
anything but a gypsy; but generation I
of change here has effected Il moro |
marked advancement in ruggcl sort ut |
prosperity with this than with any Other |
lowly class.
1t has not seized the gypsy bodily and |
in moment, or year, or u decade, put |
fine clothing upon him and made him d
man of affairs; but, something Us with |
the destitute Italians who have landed |
upon American shores, who we directly
ind as hawkers, willing laboIers, res
taurant keepers, newsboys, boothiacSs,
controllers of retail and Wholesale fruit
and nut trades, and on the high road to
prosperity, because they are quick
witted and willing to lubor-the British
gypsy has found, along with Old make
shifts for livelihood, many new though
rude occupations and means Of getting
on in the world, all after his own nina
and heart.
With the race characteristics of these
folk will require many generations iii
which to undergo radical change, their
conditions and environment are iii tic
main entirely different from thos ii
which Crabbe, Iloyand, borrow a&L
Simson found them and Of which they
wrote. In other words, there il to-day
little or nothing in book literature
altogether true OF British gvpsios. OF
the four standard authors namei Borrow
was the most romantic; Slmsou the
most inexorabiy true. \ ct both write
of time and a merripen or lypsy life
which, with few exceptions, has Wholly
passed away. These exception COM
prise the poorest English and Scottish
gypsies of to-day some families iii the
north of England whose members have
continued almost literally the old form
finkeriEg, the dickering, the dukkeriAg
or fortune-telling and often the tiny
sales of imperfect delft and tnwarG,
content with "whummced' or up.
turned cart for roof in summer anda any
sort of town tenement in winter the
tiny, struggling bands in DevOnshlre
and Cornwall, whore there has been
little change in all social conditions for
the past 80 years; the few remaining
gypsies Of Perthshire, Aberdecnshire
and the Highland districts Of Scotland;
and the gypsies Of Wales, where is
found the most primitive and idylliG
form Of gypsy life yet remaining IN
Britain. The Welsh gypslcs rarely
leave Wales. All Welsh people ara
fond of them; and they arc almost i.
much an integral part Of the concrete
rural social structure as arc the Welsh
people themselves.
The fact is that British gypsics, "a.
well as our American gypsics hundred
of whom could name who arc woltlI
from $4,000 to 100000 lit LANDED
property, have, during the past ulartGI
of century developed rcmarknbl,
ability for certain lowly kinds Of trade
These have been natural outgrowth
IN most instances, of the petty waysil,
dlckering Of less fortunate times, Vii
they are still pursuits requiring the eX
erclse OF good thrift and Judgment an
OF genuine prubity that make til
gypsy middleman welcome both wher
occasion credit is necessary and anon
his countryside customers. IN the mai
fthey are van-dwellers, in the sumnu
time, as with US, travelling certain well
dehned routes and puryeyug i'll vlllagf
and even in the outskirts Of towns ttn
cities, articles whose annual uEgrGIa.
value amount TO a stupendUus sum
Their cavalcades at the outset ma
comprise one or more vans. these urt
lbriety described, tiny houses upo
wheels They nrp dr.ivt,n nv ln,,En,rE