Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-02-23

about our manner of life and our
methods of doing business. But many
times 1 have been tempted to write
something about our people, that
other people may know them better,
for nothing accurate has been written
that l can find
Valley Stanley is known from Bos-
ton to Worcester and throughout all
the outlying country. He is the her
editary- chief of his tribe, for, like
kingship, leadership among the gyp-
sizes is usually hereditary. His people
camp at Somerville during the sum-
mer months, though they move about
to some extent as his business as
horse trader demands. At present he
is living in Everett, while the people
of his tribe are distributed through
out Everett and Lynn for the winter.
Gypsy Held in Respect.
ST would take Valley Stanley's word
where / would not take another mans
bond,'' said an Everett horses dealer
of the chief of the Stanley tribe.
why, knew his father, Bill Stanley,
chief of the tribe before him. There
was never a straighter man in the
horse-dealing business than Bill STAN
ley"
That is the idea formed of two gypsy
chiefs by man intimately associated
with them in business that offers
great opportunities for sharp work.
Perhaps you yourself have been
frightened when a child by somebody
telling you to watch out or the gyp-
sizes will get you" said the chiefs
son. THAT is because people have
the idea that gypsies go in for kid
naping children. They have usually
carried this idea in their minds since
they themselves were children, when
they received it from their parents in
precisely the same way. That is abb
solutely a wrong idea of us. Why
should we kidnap? We have children
enough of our own, quite as many az
we can take care of.
Then they accuse us of being adj
dicted to stealing. That is lie. We.
know the value of a good reputation
in our business, and if we had no
higher standard of honor than that it
would be sufficient to keep us honest.
1 think that If you will inquire among
the people with whom we have done
business you will find we bear an ex-
cellent name for honesty This mis-
y
inherited, and it has been fostered by
the depredations of many wanderers
who are not gypsies at all, but have
taken to a nomadic existence for
sheer love of idleness and freedom
from responsibility. know of French
men, of Irishmen and of Germans who
travel about the country posing as
gypsies, when they have not a drop
~ T. A.
of the gypsy code of living.
Some of us are fairly well educat-
ed. Much of that education has been
obtained by contact with the world,
but the world is a good university, and
one doesn't forget the lessons one
learns there. When a gypsy leaves
the life of his forefathers and applies
himself to the usual pursuits of CIV
ilization, he generally succeeds which
proves that the gypsy is man of in
tel1igence- 1 have a cousin who is
mayor of a large town and another
mandatory.
Personal characteristics.
Look at me. Do look like an
Egyptian? Am I dark, or swarthy, or
fierce of aspect?''
Tom Stanley is well-set-up man
above the average height, no darker
than most dark men of Caucasian
blood He speaks English well. and
away from the environments of his
summer camp has as little of the air
of the gypsy-the gypsy of fiction,
that is-as business man.
Yet people picture me- and my
people in their imaginations as half
savage wanderers. akin to the Egyp-
tians or the orientals- Look at this
little girl of mine Does she look like
an Indian child?''
He thrust forward a bashfuI tot of
about seven years, a f1axen-haired
child with big blue eyes She, too,
was as far removed from the popular
idea of the gypsy as Pears is now
from the north-pole-
am Of American blood. but of
English descent My people lived In
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