Tombstone epitaph., 1917-12-09
7Aese mysterious beo- bk seemed to hAUe fo,ekuozvIedge of fife oom,ng of oonMcf or Mey made bemSe/Ues scarce m fife g,0st dan- ger zone of EWgbe

n HARIS.-"Where are the gypsiesT
 "They have disappeared since the war"
 ''How could they disappear
 from France, all frontiers being
 guardedT
 "They did" replied the French Odicial. 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 10 the prefecture of police, where I met NJ. Alfred Harduin. chief 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 M. Harduin knows. officially. only Paris and environs. so he sest me to the ministry of the interior, depart ment of the surete general. where met the great Sebille. controleur-gen- efal 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 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 a raft of children. dressing loud and living like princes.
 .At 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 a French peasant would buy one of those horses his tail would come out. his giossy coat go ringwo-ned. 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 workmar.'.ip around the waist of the prince of the Gorgans. under his en- broidered clothes. locked with a gold padio,k of which nobody had the key On 1t were engraved. TT. l. L-B. P.- l512" and no explanation could be ob- tained. The prince said simply. "Tt's a family heirloom" He carried a rich. cruel whip of rawhide. supple oiled leather and small lead thongs. more like e weapon than a whip. jeweled in its hnndle to tke tune of some 5000. estimated. Finally. among his person al belongings were sixty-seven Amer icap gold dollars of 1853!
 How could :he gypsies get away when the war broke outT I insisted. "whep all frontier authorities were ca the lookout for enemy subjects and spiesr
 Instead of making a discourse the controileur-general told me . case of some time before the mobilization.
 4 strong band of gypsies (Kakaras- ca-KralOvifch families) had penetrated from Frnnce to Switzerland and. at