Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-04-26
WAYS Of GYPs!ES
These Queer People Are the Same
All Over the World. s-
4 RACE WITHOUT 4 NATION.

n nRCe WJjnVUj n VA jVN'
Originally From India, Now outeasta
In Every Land In Which They Live.
They Are Natural Rosuss, Without
Laws, Literature or Religion.
The gypsies are the most unchanging
race in the world. Wherever they are
found-and they are found everywhere,
from Persia to Mexico. from central
Africa to Siberia they are the same.
q race of outcasts. despised by the peO-
pie among whom they dwell. yet keep.
ing their own ideal unchanged. true to
their barbaric law. jealous Of stran-
| gers. clever enough to make a living
from the weaknesses and foolishnesses
| Of the people who despise them. Gil
mate seems to make no difference to
them.
In all environments they remain un-
changed, the same sharp faces. the
same black, keen, inscrutable eyes; the
same bronzed skin: change in food or
conditions Of living make no mark on
them, and they only take on the u
toms or beliefs or costumes Of other
races in order the better to cheat and
fleece them-a race without national.
ity, without laws. without a literature.
without a religion, for it Is said that
in their tongue there is no word for
God, none for the soul, none for i'm
mortality.
Where did they come from? From
Bohemia, say the Frerch, but they are
not really Bohemians 0 o nu-
merous there than elsewhere; from
Egypt, they sometimes say themselves.
to get q better price for their sooth-
saying. :" But there is nothing genuine
" Egyptian about them. In reality
they came from India. Their strange
language shows that. jealousy guard
ed from the knowledge of strangers. it
has yet been learned little by little.
and comparison shows it is full Of Hin
du words, words that you may hear
even now all over India.
Surprising. perhaps. Mt first blush
that there should be millions Of low
caste or outcast Hindus scattered all
over Europe and even wandering
through the byways of America. but
only strange because We do not think
about it. In reality Europe is full of
Asiatic peoples. For long centuries
they came pouring in. especially
through the gate between the Ural
mountains and the Caspian sea. The
bitter proverb. Scratch the Russian
and you find thefTartar." may. remind
US that the great. Tartar invasion, un-
der the grandsons Of Ghengfs Khan.
conquered all eastern Europe and set
tied the Tartar tribesmen all down the
vast Volga valley across the steppes
and along the shore Of the Black sea.
The Huns and the Turks are also Ash
atics, as are older peoples. like the
Firms. So all eastern Europe is soak
ed with Asiatic blood. and II so many
peoples came from northern Asia why
should It be incredible that one race
should come from southern Asia? SNy}'
u 1t seems probable that the gypsies
.drifted into Europe in the wake o.
lBati Khan's invasion. when he came,
sdown on Russia with his vast locust
swarms of Tartar horsemen, $4,000 in
number. The gypsies came from cen
trail Asia, whittier they bad been dr1v-
en- from India by the tmplacable and
destructive invasion OF Mahmud OF
Ghazni, about 800 years ago. It was
about 1885 that Bait Khan and bis To-
Gust warm began to devastate Eu.
rope. And a century later rowing bands
Of gypsies were scattered through east.
ern Europe allacbia. Moldavia. "Bui.
garia. BY l417 a horde?of gypsies made
their appearance in northwestern Ger
many. claiming to be Christian pill
grims from Little Egypt" but their
Christianity was about as genuine us
their Egyptian origin. Their thievish,
vagabond character was already man.
ifest then. and they were driven from
northern Germany to begin their per-
petual wanderings through every Eu-
ropean country and in due time to
cross over to America in the wake OF
the white races. .t
But the great bulk Of them still re-.
main in the Danube valley, where
they first appeared some six centuries
ago. In Roumania there are between
a quarter and a half 4 million OF them.
In Pennsylvania there. are q hundred
thousand more. while Servia and Bull
garia and Macedonia have from thirty
to a hundred thousand each. The con.
dition of the gypsies in the valley 'of
the Danube is in some respects ne
culiar, with considerable differences IN
the different countries. In Servia the
leveIing power Of Turkish rule. exert.
ed century after century. had the ct
feet Of bringing the gypsies closer 70
the condition OF the mass Of the peas
antry. In servia. therefore. though