The Forrest City times., 1902-10-24
CIVIL1ZING THE GYpSIES.
IN Ehort In Hungary to Force the
h"many to work and sleep
Under n Roof,

bold experiment is to be tried bv
the Hungarian government. Accord
ny 10 our vienna correspondent, it
proposes TO civilize the gypsies by
iorce. From the time of the great SIN.
'gratlon in the fifteenth century. if not
before, the Egyptians" have alway.
oeeh exceedingly numerous in south.
eastern Europe. 1t is not easy to take
nsus of nomadic people. but if
any dependence may be placed upon
omelaI estimates, Hungary NAV almost
cialm to be what our correspondept
calls 1.-THE promised Land" of the
race. If, as is believed, its gypsy nom
uIatIon reaches 160 900, it possesses
more than quarter of the total for
al Europe. Rouma mia, however, con-
talns an even larger number, the old
NaIlaehlan province having been one
Oh their greatest strongholds. Gov
efhments, especially of the paternal
continental pattern, have generally
looked upon these Bohemian wander
ers as nuisance, and have sometimes
taken very strong measures for their
suppression, though in most cases
with shght success, says the London
Standard
For the matter of that, the proposals
now being considered at Buda-Pesth
are sufficiently drastic. commission
OF experts has recommended that ev-
cry town and village in Hungary shall
have a number of gypsies allotted to
| l, . m
are to be trained to handicrafts or to
agricultural labor, and such of them
as refuse 10 bend their necks to the
yoke are TO be gathered into two great
reformatories holding 1000 recalci-
trants each. There is touch of the
grotesque III the notion that people
who have been ceaselessly onsthe move
for many centuries will at once recon
Gle themselves to regular hours and
to sleeping under roof, for all the
world like the stationary Gentiles for
/ whom they often feel so much con-
tempt But perhaps the contemplated
measures are intended less for actual
enforcement than to brighten away the
Romany, who might prefer to cross the
=.
This IS by no means the first time
that attempts have been made in the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy to con-
strain the gypsies to lead settled life.
No less ruler than Maria Theresa
tried her hand OF it, and had them. or
as many as could be caught, instructed
In agriculture, exactly as is now pro-
posed. On the whole, the endeavor
was failure, although small proper
ton of them did settle down to trades
or to pastoral pursuits-and left de-
scendants whose mode of life in no way
differs from that of their Gentle
neighbors. Those measures, however,
were mild, indeed, compared with the
cruel prosecutions which had fallen to
the lot of these unlucky people in their
| earlier days, for even at the end of the
eighteenth century, charges somewhat
similar to the accusations of ritual
murder that are still brought against
the Jews in certain ignorant and SUI
perstitious communities were made
against the Egyptians in Hungary. In
one case five-and-forty gypsies were
racked and executed for killing and
eating a number of ina ginary victims.
We have become so accustomed TO toll
erance in this country that it is hard
To believe that in England, in the time
of the grandfat theirs Of men not yet
elderly it was a felony, without bene-
fl Of clergy, to consort habitually
with "Pharaoh's people"
hn JJttr, 10
respects, exceedingly interesting.
since they preserve good deal more Of
the ancient lore of their people than
is usually the case with those who
have Travelled further west. In south
eastern Europe, to a greater extent
than elsewhere, they still keep alive
among the peoples a profound belief
in witchcraft- magical ceremo-
MES and medicinal remedies are al
most articles of faith with the peasant
ry in the country, and the lower ella ses
in he towns. Fortune-tellinga and sor-
Gerry. magic that is oftener black than
white, the knowledge of amulets and
philtres-all this forms what the Zin-
gari call the old religion" which rests
OH ttIC pCtiNi thdt lLCi ar dDAC " YUM
troll the forces of the lower world.
The Hungarian gypsies have, too, a
charming mythology of their own, in
which the transcendentalism of the
my tic is blended with the Teutonio
fairy-tale and its Oriental coloring.
while their women have long claimed
a peculiarly high degree of prophetic
illumination. Indeed, one of the Hun
garian tribes declares itself to be de-
scended from fairies who carried of
mortal girls and took them to wife-a
belief that is curiously reminiscent Of
the verse in Genesis about the sons Of
God and the daughters of men.