Evening star., 1912-09-04

| The birth of a princess, swart and
black-eyed, after the manner Of gypsies,
reconciles two warning clans. temporarily
encamped within the alien boundaries of
Greater New York. It 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 man.
ner OF correcting sturdy beggars its men,
bers are beaten from tithing to tithing
until they melt away beyond the bor-
ders A social career in exclusive Balti-
more is abandoned for life on the open
trail until the gypsy kings consort sur
renders her life to motherhood. and is
brought home to sleep among her own
people.
| Such incidents are but the f1otsam on
the sea of current events. They excite a
momentary interest and the gypsy and all
| his works are put out of mind. And yet
not one of all the races OF the eartn Is
SO enshrouded in romance and mystery,
while few have exercised more I'M
portant influence on the unfolding history
Of the times.
| Ethnolog1sts and census enumerators
have long since abandoned the effort to
reach anything like definite estimate Of
| the number Of gypsies in the world. They
are content to place the figures at some
| thing under a million. And yet there is
no civilized country on the globe where
they have not halted their vans or pitched
| their tents, absorbing the language of
the people into their own. annexing NOV
ables under the law Of the right Of the
cunningest, leaving behind them prophe-
cies, omens and feeling of vague unrest.
| \ \
Studies based chiefly upon the structure
Of their language have in recent years re-
| suited in a common agree
Origin in ment that the gypsies were
| ~. originally from India. In the
AAuAo' first stage of their migra-
| tions thet settled in the Balkan penin-
sula. only to be driven westward by wave
after wave of invading Turks. The name
they give themselves Is derived from the
word Rom, which simply means man,
and Romani, meaning a woman. When
they started on their great trek for the
west OF Europe, in the middle of the fif-
| teenth century, their leader bore letter
| of recommendation and safe conduct from
| the Emperor Sigismund. They were kind
| ly received. In four centuries and halt
| their characteristics have changed so lit
| tie that, then as now. tney were tlnkerS
horse traders, and, above all, fortune tell
| ers 1t is generally agreed that they
were the first to bring playing cards into
Europe. Then. as now. they were nat
| ural musicians and dancers. List. in
| sisted that the national music of Hungary
| was wholly indebted to the gypsies.
| But then, as now. they were petty pill
| ferers. and were soon suspected of gravel
crimes In their magic incantations they
invoked the name of Lilith, the generic
| patroness of child-stealing. Suspicion soon
took form in severe laws against those
| wicked people, known as Egyptians .
Having no religion of their own. they
We're ever ready to adopt a veneer of the
prevailing 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 penitental pilgrimage. But
| even the church at last had to withdraw
| its protection. Fifty years of immunity
4 was followed by four hundred years OF
| restriction and sometimes of persecution
| In Germany no longer ago than 1907
there was a drive of gypsies as the cul-
| mination of long period of growing hos
| tility.