The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-12-22

in South France, on the Mediter.
ranean.
There they chose the gypsy king.
Why there? Because a servant wom-
an OF Judea, in the days of our Lord
Jesus lived the last years Of her life
in this French fishing village-and be-
came the patron saint of all the gyp-
sizes.
Alone, among the lagoons, with the
antique village grown round it, rises
the venerable edifice which has exist
ed, In some form. since the dawn Of
Christianity. Good old King Rene Of
Provence gave 1t it's present aspect in
1449.
History and legend tell how two Of
the Marys Of the Gospels were cast on
this shore by a tempest. The Gentiles
of Antioch had put them In boat with
out sail or oars. They were women
who had wept at the foot Of the cross
and visited the tomb and found the
Lord had risen. Mary SalOme and
Mary the mother of James lived on this
spot with their Egyptian servant who
was wrecked with them and whose
name was Sarah. Here they built the
church, died and were buried In 1t.
And because Of Sarah (she who be-
came the gypsies' patron), these sands,
each year, and greatly every fifth year,
were strangely peopled.
Over the roads came professions Of
bizarre vehicles. prehistoric stage
coaches, prairie schOonerS, gypsy vans
and rich house wagons mounted and
surrounded by dusky people. Some
had dragged for months, and some for
years
Three times May has slipped round
and no gypsies have appeared at the
SITS. Maries. In May, 1914, there were
three thousand in the German-Aus-
trian-Danubian camp, while the Ital-
ian-Spanish-Greek Gitanos were less
numerous but richer. Without quar-
reling they met in not very good friend
ship, the Germanos being jealous Of
the Gitanos' newer, finer wagons"
WAS there any truth in the rumor,"
| asked, that the Gitanos had made
eight years ago, which all the gypsies
had been seeking for three hundred
years."
The French official professed igno-
rance.
Did they really elect a king?
"They elect a queen" said NJ. Sc
billie. Local opinion judges the cleo
ton to be kind of play, as on Holy
Innocents' Day or Twelfth Night :.
but as no order was given to penetrate
to the crypt, Of which the Romanich-
els are very jealous, exactly what hap
pens is not known. There is
no complaint. The pilgrimage amuses
the peasants and brings sightseers and
money. The crypt is turned over to
the gypsies on the night of May 24-25.'
What can we know? When the
chiefs go down the winding stairs to
the subterranean arched hall, what
signs from Memphis and Thebes do
they mark on the wall? What sudden
CLEAN of light (perhaps) joins the scat
tered descendants Of the magnificent,
accused race which pretends to know
the future Of the world2
"Not so united as all that :"
an official.
do not bring the controleur- general
into this romantic part of 1t. But I
have come across queer mentions of
"The Song of Pharaoh" which they
sing down in the crypt, the reading Of
the gypsy gospel, and the oldest mag
ician" who, each time, "foretells the
future of the world for the next five
years.
did he foretell it In May, 1912"
I suggested.
One of the French officials equlvo-
Gated politely.
'They got away from the war;" he
said. 1.-THE gypsies disappeared
Most people will tell you they went to
Spain.