Evening star., 1923-03-18

Larkin FAMILY, which, In turn, nad
and now has great holdings Of real
estate in Ohio and Illinois.
The Harleys are scattered, marry
ing into the teaches. another posh-
and-posh family, and with the Bent
leys, genuine Gypsies. but not AS rich,
since they have never specialized in
real estate and have had none of the
genius In horse trading with which
the Bowmans are endowed. The
Bentieys have nearly always followed
fairs and national, exhibitions. The
women are famous for their ability to
"dukker'-that Is. to tell fortunes.
One Of the Bentleys now pursues this
work in a New York State town and,
Is much respected
THE Hungarian gynsies, like the
i English branch. have their spe-
cial parts of the country. The tribe
OF Demtro. extensive, picturesque.
rich. and possessed of perhaps half
a million in old and rare jewelry, lives
chiefly in and around Detroit. They
are also musicians, and there is a
small string band which has made
great deal of money travelling through
the states. Two members OF II are
now playing a very we'll paid en-
Gypsy Band which used to hold forth
at the old Eden Musee, and which
had nationwide celebrity, was partly
composed of connections Of this ia
nous family.
Fortune telling Is today even a
greater source Of revenue than it ever
was and on it half of the real for
tunes of the race have been built.
The Langs and Bowmans, for instance,
had their tents for years on the sands
at Blackpool, England. Bowman. the
father Of the thirty and forty year
old present generation, was coast
guard there for 50 long that he be-
came national figure. 1t was there
that grand old Gypsy Sarah" held
court. the nobility and literati OF the
British Isles thinking nothing Of TAX
ing a hundred mile trip in order to
consult her wisdom. The fees she
charged the rich would be steep even
today, when we are used to high
prices for everything. Yet she gave
freely to the poor.
Her granddaughter. Georgina, the
most spiritual and one of the rarest
types of the Romany race. took up
the tradition. did we'll with the work,
then married a scion of Il famous
English house, who gave up all he
had and took TO the gypsy ways of
his wife. They came to America.
where for years they travelled from
place to place. Then, with the ac-
cumulation of years. they settled in
Toronto. bought property and today
are established in the highest social
circles Of that city. The children are
college graduates, famous athletes
and one of them a war hero. AL
though their home is one of the
pleasantly modest ones of a suburb,
gossip says that they have holdings
all through the city.
The amount of money that can pass
into the secret pocket Of the woman
who "dukkers'' in the course Of day
proves SURPRISING. Last summer d
caravan Of gypsy automobiles came
through the little town where I was
stopping and I, having on old friend
with them, was at once made one
with them. My gypsy friend was
shrewd woman with a marked sense
Of humor, a graduate, of an exclusive
girls school in Missouri. She was not
of the mystic, spiritual type which
does produce some verv startling and
inexplicable effects in this work, but
handled her people by judging them
with, of course, a far wider range of
social and general knowledge than
any one would ever suspect who. saw
mauve silk dress and a green veil and
coral beads-the traditional costume.
That particular caravan had been
through this town twice before and
an eager crowd gathered about 1t.
One Of the cars was vacated and
drawn a little aside. with the cur
tains partly dropped. and there my
friend and ! sat all day, with a
breathing space for lunch. The after
noon was broken by two special visits
with the car to houses. to see women
who would not come out to the
street where we were parked. Ten
dollars was asked and cheerfully