El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-09-04


manner of gipsies. reconciles two
warning clans, temporarily encamped
within the alien boundaries of greater
! New York. 1t makes a pretty story to
! be read and forgotten. Gripped with
! the pains of hunger, a Romany band
runs amuck among the coast towns Of
Jersey, and after the good old manner
/ of correcting sturdy beggars its mem
J bers are beaten from tithing to tithinS
/ until they melt away beyond the bor-
J ders. social career in exclusive Bal
/ timore is abandoned for life on the
| open trail until the gypsy kings con-
| sort surrenders her life to motherhood
and is brought home to sleep among
! her own people
Enshrouded in Romance.
Such incidents are but the flotsam
| on the sea of current events. They ex-
| cite a momentary interest and the gypsy
! and all ms works are put out of mind
+ And yet not one of all the races of the
mystery, while few have exercised a
| more important influence on the IN
| folding history of the times
Ethnologists and census enumerators
have long since abandoned the effort
I to reach anything like definite esti-
mate of the number of gipsies in the
world. They are content to place the
figures at something under a million.
And yet there is no civilized country on
I the globe where they have not halted
their vans or pitched their tents, alb
Sorbing the language Of the people into
their own, anneXtnS moveabies under
the law of the~right of the cunningest,
leaving behind them prophecies, Omens
and feeling of vague unrest
Originally From India.
Studies based chiefly upon the struc-
ture of their language have in recent
years resulted in a common agreement
that the giPsies were originally from
India. In the first stage of their mi
grations they settled in the Balkan
peninsula, only TO be driven westward
by wave after wave of invading Turks
The name they give themselves is de-
rived from the word Rom. which simply
means a man, and ROmani, meaning
woman. When they started on their
great trek for the west OF Europe, IN
the middle Of the 18th century. their
leader bore a letter of recommended
ton and safe conduct from the en-
peror Sigismund. They were kindly
received.
In four centuries and a half their
characteristics have changed so little
that, then IS now. they were thinkers.
horse traders. and above all, fortune
tellers. 1t is generally agreed that
they were the first 20 bring playing
cards into Europe Then as now they
were natural musicians and dancers.
List insisted that the national music
of Hungary was wholly indebted to the
gipsies.
But then. as now. they were petty
piifeTers and were soon suspected OF
graver crimes. In their magic incanta-
tions they invoked the name of Lillth,
the generic patroness of 'child-stealing.
Suspicion soon took form in severe
known as Egyptians" Having no re-
ligion of their own they were ever
ready to adopt a veneer OF the prevail
ing creed. wherever they might be- In
western Europe they told weird story
of having come from a country Of their
own known as Little Egypt, where they
had sinned against the light, and were
on a penitential pilgrimage. But even
the church at last had to withdraw its
protection. Fifty years OF immunity
was followed by four hundred years Of
restriction and sometimes persecution
in Germany no longer ago than 1907
there was a drive of gipsies as the
elimination Of long period of grow
ing hostility.
Inventors of Slang.
1t was in the beginning of the 18th
century that they made their first ap-
pearance in England and Scotland
There they soon made common cause
with the wandering Vagabonds and
begsars with the result that they gave
an impetus to the language of thieves
which is enc of the most interesting
studies OF the etymOlogtSt. The very
word slang was their own name for
the language they spoke together with
its SYNONYM, -giooeerish' In Cri66,s
"Gipsies' Advocate, written in 1881,
It is definitely set forth:
This (Gipsy) language. called by
themselves slang, or gibberiSh, invent
ed as they think by their fOrefa theirs
language Of one or few of these wan
dering tribes. but is adopted by the
vast numbers that inhabit the earth
such Gypsy terms as bamboozle,
JOCKEY" and pal have found their
way into the language of every day
life
King BnnIshed to America.
History and literature furnish few
characters more piquant than Bam-
fylde Moore Carew, prince of charla-
tans and titular king of mendicants.
q
him from childhood, and. in spite of his
gentle blood and all the efforts 10
make home attractive to him. he found
his most con genial companiOnship
among the English SlpSies.
This aristOcratic snapper-up Of un-
considered trifleS so far surpassed MS
chosen their chief amidst barbaric
pomp. But fate and the tipstaves fin
aly overlook him. and he was sentenced
to TRANSPORTATION to the American col
cnies. His adventures in Maryland.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania as writ
ten out in quaint volume published
more than a hundred years ago. make
interesting reading. W needing pro-
Drietors and pious pastors were all one
to this clever knave, who knew the
sisters and the cousins and the in-lawS
of half the colOnists. and could tell
many details Of what they were doing
when he left the mother country At
Mother PASSWORDS tavern i'll Boston.
he made many bosom cronies. who en-
ond transportation
Master of Twenty Languages.
Far less apocryphal than the adven-
lures of Carew. and yet by no means
less interesting. was the life of George
Borrow. who spent the greater part of
his four score years in intimate asso-
citation with the gipsies, particularly in
England and Spain. Romany was but
one OF the 20 languages he had mas
tered while yet young man. but he
knew it as no other gorgio-or out
siueT-eVer did
In ''Zincali. or the Gipsies in Spain"
published in 1911, in 'LavenSrO." pub
/ lished ten years later. and its sequel.
The ROmany Rye" published in 1857
/ he embodied his studies of the gypsy
life and character with a charm of
style which has made his works classic.
Some OF his portraits seem to be ideal
lied. particularly when compared with
the descriptions set forth by that other
authority. Frames Hindes Groome. who
wrote In Gypsy Tents. but Borrow
! must always remain the name which is
prominently associated with the life
of the modern gypsy.
Rowing Conducive to LONGEVITY.
That the rowing life of the gypsy trail
/ is conducive to longevity seems to be
| established by the many instances
which Groome has cited. He himself
had talked with Betsy Letherland. who
ha Of in