The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-12-22
These mysterious beo-
PIE seemed TO haze
t0'eknoWledge of tie
comtng Of conflict far
they Made Themselves
scarce tin tile cast Auu-
ger z0Ae Of EAy1be

StU/Ie IN me E'lST IUH-
ger zone Of Europe
nARlS.-"Where are the gypsiesr p
Ill They have disappeared since
the war"
How could they disappear
from France. all frontiers being
d guarded"
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
flee sent me to the prefecture of police,
where I met NJ. Alfred Harduin. chief
of the second bureau Of the first d.
vision.
'Are the gypsies In concentration
camps?" I 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 I
met the great Sebille, controleur- gen.
eral of the judicial investigations serv-
ices, whose eyes see over all France.
1.-THE facts are the more curious" he
admitted, because France was literal
" overrun with gypsies Immediately
before the war. OF forty thousand
snomades' 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 to
regulate them.
Two rich and populous tribes, in par
ticular, the Gorgans and the Yankos,
seem to have made a considerable stir
in the countryside with their fine
horses. gorgeous house wagons, women,
girls. bears, apes and raft of children,
dressing loud and living like princes.
Eat Roisel, In the Somme," ran a
report. "a tribe Of so-called Russian
gypsies (South Russia and Bohemia)
molested the populations"
They were rich and naughty. They
wore brilliant clothing and ornaments
and had fine horses. Yet when q
French peasant would buy one of those
horses his tail would come out, his
Glossy coat go ringwormed, his plump
ness sink in, and even "some teeth
came out (says Farmer Cardon), being
made Of hardened bread crumb."
AS for gold (strange detaiD, they
found a massive gold chain Of ancient
around the waist of the
nrince of the Gorgans, under his en-
broidered clothes, locked with a gold
Of which nobody had the key!
On II were engraved, "T. |. LIB. P
1872" and no explanation could be OBJ
Gained. The prince said simply, "It's
4om;1v heirloom" He carried a rich,
cruel whip of rawhide, supple oiled
leather and small lead thongs, more
IKE a weapon than a whip, jeweied in
ITS handle to the tune of some $4,000.
Finally, among his person
al belongings were sixty-seven Amer
lean gold dollars Of 1858!
"How could the gypsies get away
when the war broke out?" | insisted,
"when all frontier authorities were on
rho lookout for enemy subjects and
spies?"
Instead Of making discourse the
told me case OF
some time before the mobilization.
A strong band Of gypsies (kakaras-
m -Kralovitch families) had penetrated
from France to Switzerland and, at