The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-03-20
ONE UTTERLY PEACEFUL
RACE IN ALL EUROPE
Gypsys the Most Mysterious uf Nj
the Strange Elements of
Folk dom.
THEIR ORIGIN Is UNKNOWN
Whence They Came Has Never Been
Settled To "A tctt''nsN ~" Not
Even Know themselves Nor Gaze.

Washington, March 20. Europe has
still to-day enc u..eAiy peaceful people,
q people in action. in lateni, and al
peaceful contemp patton, says hulle-
tin Just issued by the National Ge"-
graphic Society at Washington
According to press dispatches, this
race Is the only such race, but, tlfen.
IL is one of the most peculiar pcoPseS
in the world history the gypsl's.
Entering into the life of an nations
under the sun, yet part OF uo single
one: mingling themselves within the
highest civilizations yet unietered;
pilgrims upon an eternal wander path,
yet forever true to the ties OF racial
blood and 70 customs y those origin and
Kgnifcance have been fully forgotten,
the gypsy Is the most my sterlous OF ali
the strange elements of foikdom
Spinning of Fables.
whence they came has never been
settled to a certainty. All manner ot
fables have been spun TO explain Their
origin. Since they first appeared upon
the stage of Europe in the Middle
Ages. they have been identified with
the Lost Tribe IT Israel the mixed
multitude that followed Moses ont
of Egypt. the Cauaauites. the Amo~
rites. the Saracens and the Egyptians.
sN0lGF nave }tt8t4 tHftil Az - AAit 'r'44'
aren Of Cain. ana others have decided
shat they were the children u the
Wandering Jew and inheritors Of tho
restless curse If their father
THE gypsies, themselves. have never
professed TO know who they were or
where they came from, but they have
shown great readiness To accept the
conclusions on this subject ef the pe0-
pie among whom they lived, II was
NOT until the growth of comparative
philologv and the chance Investigation
or the eypsies. tongue in the beginning
Of the last century. that scientists
concluded the gypsiez to be a wan
dering low caste tribe from Mort hern
india Their language nearly resent-
bies SansCrit. the foundation tongue
of all our Western languages which
has held itself purest In Indian
sources. 49,
Their Language Preserved.
This language they have wonder
fully preserved in the face of over
mastering cultures and eternal wan
dering This has not been accom-
ylished by q literature or by a close
corporation. The gypsies have no
literature and their language r. an un-
written one. while they themselves are
scattered in small bands over the
whole face Of the earth. scattered even
more widely than the Jew. The gypsy
calls himself rom meaing man. the
man Of all men. His wife Is 'fomni';
his foik-ltf Is 'romnIpen.' and his lam
guaee Is 'romani' Everyone not of
his race come under the generic term
of gentle
"Gypsv-foIk present the atrangest
problems known TO phiioiogy and
ethnogra ply An elementary uomadic
al rpptt1Y{aa n sha
midst OF complex civilizations. they
have retained their physical charac-
teristics their tribal rules and Gus
1orras reminiscent 81 their far-distant
extra European past their rightly in
fected language, aud their thousand
wears Of fever for rowing. They are
absolutely singular and without close
parallel among the peoples Of the
earth.
GYPSY religion and gypsy-aspira-
t8on may hc summed up in two lines
from the works Of the German poet
Goethe:
To give room for wandering is if
That the world WAS made so wide
This folh entered Europe by way
~ Cnustautnople IA the twelfth CEN
sury. and overlooked into the northern
Balkans. Hungary. Central and Wes-'
fern Europe, England, and, thence
40 North and South America The
English called them Egyptiane after
their supposed origin, whence the
eamb aFpsy THE, reached Germany
IN about }+lf ana Englaud about
$500 At first the, were treated kindly
by the Western nations, but their
strangeness, their unconveutionalliy.
their light fingered WAYS. their prone
ness for fortune~tclliuR. uecromaney.
black magic. and their unwlllingnesS