The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-09-26
HUNGARY WOULD
CIVILIzE GYPSIES
Another Attempt, After Many
Failures, to Tame the
Romany Tribes.
ARE DRASTIC
Are to Be Trained to Handicrafts OF
Agricultural Labor, and Such as
Refuse Will Be Sent to
Prison.

LOHQON SIanQarQ: "A DOl0 experiment Is
to be tried by the Hungarian government.
According to our Vienna correspondent
1t proposes to civilize the gypsies by force.
From the time Of the great immigration
In the fifteenth century, II not before, the
Egyptians" have always been exceeding
ly numerous III southern Europe. 1t is not
easy to take a census of a nomadi people,
but If any dependence may be placed upon
official estimates, Hungary may almost
claim to be what our correspondent calls
1.-THE promised Land of the race. If,
as Is believed, its gypsy population
reaches 10000, 1t possesses moro than a
quarter of the total for all Europe, Rou-
mania, however, contains an even larger
number, the old Wallachian province hav-
Ing been one of their greatest strongholds.
Governments, especially Of the paternal
continental pattern, have generally looked
upon these Bohemian wanderers as a nui-
sance, ana have sometimes taken very
strong measures for their suppression,
though IN most cases with slight success.
For the matter Of that, the proposals
now being considered at Buda-Pesth are
sufficiently drastic. A commission Of ex-
perts has recommended that every town
and village in Hungary shall lave a num-
her OF gypsies allotted to it. whether they
like it or not. They are to be trained to,
handicrafts or to agricultural labor, and
such OF them as refuse to bend their necks
to the yoke are to be gathered into two
great r~eforimatories holding 1000 recalct-
trants each. There is a touch Of the gro
tesque IN the notion that a people who
have been ceaselessly on the 0 for
many centuries will at. once reconcile
themselves to regular hours and to sleep
Ing under a roof, for all the world ike the
stationary Gentiles for whom they often
feel much contempt. But perhaps the
contemplated measures are intended less
for actual enforcement than to brighten
away the Romany, who might prefer to
cross the Pennsylvania, frontier into Rou-
mania.
Maria Theresa Tried It.
This Is by no means the first time tina
attempts have been made In the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy ito constrain the
gypsies to lead q settled life. No less a
ruler than Maria Theresa tried her hand
at 1t, and had them, or as many as could
be caught, instructed in agriculture, ex-
actly as is now proposed. Or the whole,
the endeayor was a failure, although a,
small proportion of them did settle down
to trades or to pastoral pursuits-the Hun
garian nomads have long. been famous
workers In brass and iron-and left de-
scendants whose mode of life in no way
| differs from that of the gentle ne.ghbors.
Those measures, however, We're mild, in
deed, compared with the cruel prosecutions
which had fallen to the lot of these un-
lucky people in 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
Superstitious communities were made
against the Egyptians in Hungary. In
one case, five and forty gypsies were
racked and executed, for killing and eating
a lumber Of imaginary victims. We nave
become so accustomed to tolerance in this
country that 1t is hard to believe that in
England, in the time of the grandfathers
of men not yet elderly, it was a felony,
without benefit Of clergy, to consort habit
ually with "Pharaoh's people"
Have Beautiful Mythology. .
Thu Hungarian gypsies are, in some re-
spects, exceedingly interesting, since they
preserve a good deal more Of the ancient
lore Of their. people than Is usually the
case with those who have travelled fur
Their west. In southeastern Europe, to a
greater. extent than elsewhere, they still
keep alive among the peoples a profound
. belief in witchcraft-their magical cere-
monies and medicinal remedies are almost
articles Of faith with the peasantry in the
country, and the lower classes in the
towns. Fortune telling and sorcery, magic
that. is oftener black han white, the
knowledge Of amulets and philtres-all this
forms what the Zingari call '"the old re-
ligion," which rests on the belief that
men are able to control the forces. Of the
lower world. The Hungarian gypsies
have, too. a charming mythology of: their
own, In which the transcendentalism of
the mystic is blended with the Teutonic
fairy tale and its oriental coloring, while
their women have long claimed g pecu-
liarly high degree of prophetic illurnina-
tions Indeed, one of the Hungarian tribes
declares itself to be descended from fairies
who carried off mortal girls and took them
to wife-a belief that is curiously remin-
iscent Of the verse of Genesis about the
sons OF God and the daughters Of men.