Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-11-30
These mysterious beo-
bLe seemed TO haze
forekuoz0Ledge Of tie
0OmIng Of conflict far
they made bemse/Ues
Scurre m tile cast dan-
ger zone Of EnrQbe

HARIS.-"Where are the gypsiesW
"They have disappeared since
the war;"
'How could they disappear
from France, all frontiers being
guardedT
"They did," replied the French
official, smiling.
Such was the result of my first in
quiry, and such is the final word of a
curious story. Editors in America ask
ed me to discover what has become of
the gypsies." The French foreign Of
fee sent me to the prefecture of police,
where / met M. Alfred Harduin, chief
of the second bureau of the first di-
vision.
"Are the gypsies in concentration
campsT 1 asked.
'Those belonging to enemy countries,
yes" he answered, "but almost none of
them have any nationality; that is to
say, their nationality could never be
established. Such was the cause of
the law Of 1912"
But NJ. Harduin knows, officially,
only Paris and environs, so he sent me
to the ministry of the interior, depart
ment of the surete general, where
met the great Sebille, controleur-gen-
eral of the judicial Investigations serv-
ices, whose eyes see over all France.
"The facts are the more curious" he
admitted, because France was literal
ly Overrun with gypsies Immediately
before the war. OF forty thousand
'nomades' on the lists of the interior
twenty-six thousand were Romanichels
(Romanys or gypsies), and things had
reached a point, in 1912, that France
was obliged to make a special law te
regulate them"
Two rich and populous tribes, in par
| ticular, the Gorgans and the YankOs
seem to have made considerable stil
| in the countryside with their fine
horses, gorgeous house wagons, women
girls, bears, apes and raft of children
dressing loud and living like princes.
"At Roisel, in the Somme," ran {
report, "a tribe of so-called Russian
gypsies (South Russia and Bohemia.
mo1ested the populations"
They were rich and naughty. The.
wore brilliant clothing and ornament
and had fine horses. Yet when :
French peasant would buy one of thos
horses his tail would come out, hi
glossy coat go ringwormed, his plump
ness sink in, and even "some teetl
came out (says Farmer Cardon), beinI
made of hardened bread crumb."
AS for gold (strange detaiD, the,
found a massive gold chain of ancien
workmanship around the waist of tn
prince of the Gorgans, under his EN-
broidered clothes, locked with a gol
paddock of which nobody had the key
On it were engraved, ST. I. LIB. P
1872" and no explanation could be OF
tanned. The prince said simply, 'It's
family heirloom" He carried a ricf
cruel whip of rawhide, supple ole
leather and small lead thongs, NOR
like a weapon than whip, jeweled i
it's handle to the tune of some $4,000
estimated. Finally, among his person
al belongings were sixty-seven Amel
ican gold dollars of 1851
''How could the gypsies get ava
, when the war broke out?" l insisted
when all frontier authorities were O
the lookout for enemy subjects an
spies?"
: Instead of making a discourse tn
{ controlleur- general told me a case {
: some time before the mobilization.
{ A strong band Of gypsies CKakara
ca-Kralovitch families) had penetrate
from France to Switzerland and, {