Evening star., 1923-03-11

| friend. who had been sitting by the fire
with me all that afternoon, was a jewel
expert whom / had brought out, after
having my curiosity aroused concerning
the pretty baubles which / had always
seen worn in such profusion by the
women Of the two families.
X 4 :; X
4 he had just murmured in my ear
n some astounding information was
too dazed to talk much and after a cup
Of tea and some Of the honey cakes that
Mere dye, my mother" fas Mrs. Bent
ley was called by everyone) gave US. we
soon went away. The young man was
rather pale.
Easily worth one hundred thousand
dollars" was what he repeated. with
awe, uncut emeralds-old-A -Asiatic,
without doubt-enormous-a fortune
the earrings worth twenty-five thousand
the red ring Is ruby Of marvellous
color; would hate to value it-another
fortune. Heavens and earth, have they
any more?'
II should judge that there must be
fifty pieces that you didn't see,'' I told
him, 81 didn't dare to appear too
curious
All the way into the city he kept re-
peating that It was incredible, incred-
ible.'
Despite my frantic efforts 70 prevent
it, the fr1n got wind Of the matter and
sent out their chief Jewel expert, gray
old individual, to see what he could buy.
He returned raging and snorting. to re-
port that ali the stun the sypsies pos
sessed was junk! He valued it at the
most around five hundred dollars. The
gypsies had solemnly declared that that
was all they owned, or ever had owned,
and that they would be only too glad
to sell it, Refusing this offer, he re-
turned to the house to heap scorn upon
the young expert.
That very night, however, the whole
encampment. with perennial beds Of
flowers and many trees that we children
had planted, and with sheds for tho
| horses, the deep bitches around the
tents, the little gravelly artificial beach
along the small stream that mur1nured
before the pretty site-all, all disap-
peared. Labor that must have been in
oessant throughout the night smoothed
away every trace Of that which had
been there for years. Only the trees
stood. The beach was destroyed. Not
| vestige remained Of SO much as a tent
peg! '--
| The two families had owned that bit
Of land and for years the title stood in
their name, but no one of them ever
returned to claim It. st. Louis. 80 far
as have been able to learn. has never
| heard Of one Of them since.
/ Thot 10 hnx cff fro w M
| ever seeped through into the gorgio
world Of the marveis that may be found
| In almost any gypsy tent and few have
ever thought Of the gypsy wagon as a
| treasure chariot. Yet. at that, and
knowing how my friends have guarded
!, this secret, give It out with my tongue
in my cheek for the thief who may read
this and try to loot the next gypsy
caravan he meets. / do not say that
the gypsy has supernatural powers, but
| I do say that he has developed some
power that is not known to US, and am
| perfectly sure that II some robber, led
on by this description. tries to make
haul amongst the wagons, he will find
| nothing. I will illustrate this with a
story of what I saw myself about such
| q matter.
Tho New Jersey gypsy families which
often camp at Morristown have a good
many friends throughout that section,
~ well they may, for they are a law
abiding, decent and thrifty lot, who
mind their own business, own property
in the state, and sent their daughters
to the schools. Yet the very word
I gypsy" is enough to send some Jig
| norant types of mind OF into Mysteries.
A certain under-sherif was Of this typo.
and as there. had been many small
thsfts around the town. one .year 2whsn
I was spending n few weeks with this