White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1916-04-23
GOWNS LEAD TO
RAID ON GYPS|ES AND
SURPRISES RESULT


the week. The personnel of the band
was much as usual, the distinguishing
feature being that the nomads tray-
elled in automobiles. The cars were
not of the fiiyver variety, but appear
ed to be machines commonly class
ed as high priced. Arrived in the
copper camp the sons and daughters
of Romany got busy after the manner
of the species and the female MEM
bers fastened to read the palms of
the populace. They were given a real
hand-out, and predicted general good
fortune to the good fella and pretty
ladee alike. Their sense of touch
vas highly developed and 1t is report
ed on good authority that some of
Ely's most prominent citizens who
CHANGED a glance into their futures
can feel the touch yet. A perfectly
good fortune was guaranteed to be
told for ten cents, but it is doubtful
IL any one who rendered a palm got
out of it for that trifing sum. Or
dinarily the citizen touched for all
there was in his purse worth men.
tioning, grinned namely and let 1t go
at that.
But when part of a gross of party
dresses disappeared, there were wild
shrieks of protest, and the minions
of the law were set upon the gypsy
fortune tellers. The case Is more or
less mysterious. The damoselles
missed the dresses oon after the
dark skinned dispensers of futures
had left the apartments from which
1t is, alleged the gowns were taken.
II is presumed the gypsess was more
than ordinarily fascinating and read
the sweetest disclosures in the pink
and tender palms of the two animal
nently known in the gay circles of
the younger social set. But, not
long after the soothsayer had depart
ed, the minds of the maidens revert
ed from things mystical to things
material. No girl can forget a party
dress for many consecutive minutes.
Into the nebulous dream cloud of
future bliss created by the gypsy in
the minds of the maidens there burst
with a plop like as the impact of a
paper bag full of eggs on a brick
walk, the knowledge that their party
gowns had disappeared, vanished,
gone, six of them, or three apiece for
each grille.
At this point in the scenario the
faces of the frantic Misses register
In quick succession i~ncredulity, ag-
ony, anger, suspicion, and then the
camera is stopped long enough to
change the scene to the gypsy camp
and introduce the sheriff, the district
attorney and the city marshal.
There is great excitement,
and a potpouri of conversation In
English, Slavic and patois whirs like
an electric buzzer. The sheriff as d.
itttO VI tnO bnoW, DlOuo ctCl DOuy
under suspicion and elicits temper
amental protests and broken English
denials. The two maidens whose
wardrobes had been ravished stood
helplessly by, trying to look wise but
feeling ignorant. Now and then the
city marshal took a hand in stirring
IN tho 0vnciaC All UnC ahnno aud
Fuss words-spoken and unspoken
Only the district attorney seemed un-
moved. Never a word spake he;
never a glimmer of intelligence on
his part; he stood a picture of hun
dred proof, high grade poker-face
obmutescence.
After minutes of this there came a
lull and the district attorney speak
ing for the first time. said: 81 don't
believe these people have got the
dresses after ALL" And why not?-|
and here. the district attorney
fired his forty-centimeter gun,
by dropping easily into conversation
with the gypsies in their own Ian
gauge. He had been a good listener
and had absorbed a lot of inside
dope. But talk about a surprised lot
of petty larceny u~ndesirables, They
had no more idea of stacking up
against an official who could under
stand their mysterious language than
Henry Ford has of starting a gun fac
tory. But il was a nice little play
on the part OF the district attorney
and his associates and worked fine.
The gypsies became a chastened peo-
pie, and tho they may have stolen
everything they could lay hands on
before this incident. 1t is reasonable
to assume they stole no more in Ely
afterward, except to pack up their
belongings, crank up their cars and