Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-08-28
WANDERING CYPS|E
Cregg Baby Died md Family Took Up IIlps lnd Departed.

The gpysy camp in South Main street. near the factory of the Smith & Griggs Manufacturing Co. never was more attractive than 1t Is this year. and the neighbors who in the past have been annoyed to some ex-
 tent on account of the antics of nomads who pitched their tents there. feel quite to home with the present occupants of the grounds and
 would be pleased to see them estab- fish permanent headquarters in this city in the hope that their presence would tend to keep out undesirable
 bands of the gypsy tribe. The par ties who have made this spot their stamping ground this summer are not
 gypsies at all, but simply horse deal CTS who tour the New England states for about half the year and then re- turn to their respective towns in the
 fall.s They tell no fortunes, although It is said that one of the attaches is the best cup tosser in the country and never has been known to make a miscalculation. The families are con- stantly coming and going so that at
 no time does the number of families present exceed four or five. They are
 made up of English, Scotch. Welch,
 Irish and Americans. The Gregg family, whose baby died last week and was buried in Pine Grove ceme- tery, picked up their traps after the
 little one died and m0ved out, leay- 1 ing only three tents on the field, one owned by Patrick Quigley, another the property of John Hamilton and the third belonging to Patrick O'Rourlke. They are all young men a\i are accompanied by their wives and children. Quigley has one of the handsomest wagons on the road, and the others have neat vehicles, too. | Quigley and Hamilton have perma- nent residences in Springfield and O'Rourke spends the cold weather in New Haven. They have been in the
 business since they were ''shavers" and couldn't think of turning hand ! to anything else Quigley's father was a native of the north of Ireland and was identified with the revolu- tionary movements of that period, and like many others who sided with
 the losing party. he found 1t conven- lent to step over, to this country.
 After a while he engaged in horse trading and with his family tramped from one end of the country to the other. He died some time ago and
 the son continued the business.
 When the present manager of the
 business was boy it required lots of courage to follow the road because you couldn't tell what moment you
 were going to be held up and robbed If you were not we'll prepared to care for yourself. About twenty-five years ago the Quigleys were surprised on
 lonesome road near Mahanoy City. | Pa, and ordered to throw up their hands. The only man obeyed-there was nothing else to do-and the high waymen, thinking there was nobody else in the wagon except the women | folks, went to work dividing up the horses and were making good head
 way when the youngster blazed
 away at them from under one of the wagons. This gave the elder Quig-
 ley a chance to do little something.
 too, and before the footpads were aware of 1t half dozen of them were praying to be spared and the rest were scampering in all directions.
 | The O'Rourkes have travelled far
 ther than most wandering horsemen
 and can tell interesting anecdotes of l life on the frontier. They have had
 tits with Indians and on one or two
 occasions crossed swords with cow
 boys in various parts of the west. one
 scrap being continued in sort of
 guerella warfare fashion for over
 week. This was in Colorado. when
 the family with half dozen others.
 were coming east after long sojourn
 in the Pacific states.
 Hamilton has seen life on the prai-
 rife and carries upmistakable evidence
 of thrilling experiences with men
 who set very little value upon life.
 His camp was attacked at midnight
 in a country place near Allentown.
 Pa, and it took him all his time to
 protect. but he held the robbers at
 bay until couple of farmers who
 lived nearby heard the racket and
 came to the rescue. When order was
 restored Hamilton was bleeding from
 bullet wound in the back, but he never lost an hour on account of the
 injury. Things are quite different now and in case the tents should be interfered with, which is very unusu-
 al, the owners, if they possibly can do so, ask the intervention of the law instead of using firearms. The South Main street fellows have
 splendid lot of horses. so many that there are scarcely, trees enough on
 the lot to give each hitching post for itself, and lovers of horse flesh from all over the district call at the
 place to do business with the Ouig-