Bisbee daily review., 1909-08-24
WAR 0N THE GYPSY
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES UNITE TO
 ExTERmINATE WANDERERS.
Conference at eerne May Decide to inaGsurate Campaign to Drive Out the Camps of the Pie
 turesque Ncmada


 A wanderer on the face of the earth. with no place they can call homo and with every mans hand raised against them. the gypsy tribes of Europe are ,o face an organized persecution which promises to drive them from the conti. nent.
 No home but the read. no life but pleasure, and no roof but the sky" the gypsy's dream of happiness is no longer to be realized in Europe, for in June of next year a conference of rep resentatives of all the powers will meet at Berne to decide on the best means of getting rid for all time of the picturesque bands of strolling people, whose history goes way back to the most remote ages.
 It is a need for a universal system of policing the continent that has forced oppressive measures to be adopted against the gypsies.
 Recent attacks, successful and un. successful. on the lives of monarchs. have fired the police of the continent to renewed efforts to guard against anarchy.
 No one ever accused the gypsy of being an anarchist He is too indolent. too easy-going to take an interest in politics. He cares nothing about who governs the country. CT how the wealth . d.-t.ibuted. as long as he can go from place to place in his decorated wagon and get enough to eGt 70 keep life in himself. hiy wife. his children, his horse and dog
 Ii is a stern remedy that is about to be applied. merely because in isolated instances the criminal has taken ad- vantage of the free life of the gypsy camp to use it for cloak. But the order has gone forth, and the attempt to be inausurated next June will be the most systematic ever known. The task will be an enormous one. for the pleasure-loving brown man, with his love for music and bright colors, his unconventionality in dress, his wild cry for personal liberty, has spread all oyer the continent. It is said .hat there are no less than 750,000 in Europe. and 1t must be remem- bered that this enormous total has been reached in spite of the fact that for large part of his history the gypsy has been an object of suspicion and of persecution in many countries. In consequence of the unwillingness | cs the gypsy to give statistics about | Himself it has not been easy to ascer. tain the totals in the various countries. Ba; in anticipation of the conference | ~ ha- made to get figures. and the following | do not vary markedly fror< the exact | totals:
 Austro-Hungary, soo,00o: Turkey. | 100 coo: Greece. 10000: Bosnia, 10000; Russia. 10000; Italy. 50.o00;. Portu- gal and Spain, 100000; France. 10000; England, 5000.
 In this motley aggregation are in i cluded the descendants of a dozen races, for the gypsy, though he pre- serves certain characteristics, is really the composition of the worlds lovers of complete freedom.
 Cipsies are not bandits. Not even 1 their foes in Europe charge this. | They may commit petty thefts, such as | robbing a henroost in order to get
 food, but the percentage of stealing
 among them is not great considering ] the wild. open life they lead.
 Both in Europe and in the United
 States the principal business Of the
 men is dealing in horses. Here undoubtedly they turn some
 pretty sharp corners and drive some
 slick deals. But the history of the
 horse trading shows 1t to be busi. ness for specialized skill and bad con. science. Even David Harum" of hu-
 morous memory was not above dnT
 ing a deal in which he badly stung [
 rival
 It is said that there are now only
 10000 gypsies n the United States
 They are familiar sights on the coun.
 tryside and in the big cities at time
 when some big gathering assures an
 influx of visitors and liberal patronage for the clever women of the camE
 who foreteil the future for small con
 sideration.
 Undoubtedly the concerted Eu
 rorean movement will drive large mum bers from the other side to this coun
 .-y. Mexico and South America. thers
 to continue the strolling life, which
 is theirs by choice. and from which
 no nsn's decree can permanenti, turn them.