Widnes Examiner. — 1892-05-28 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

GIPSY SMITH AT WARRINGTON.  On Sunday and Monday,large congregations were drawn to Bewsey-road Wesleyan Chapetto hear the well-known evangelist, Gipsy Smith, who gave addrecises of an earnest character, and afterwards met and conversed with penitents in the vestry. On Monday evening every available seat in the chapel was occupied, to hear the story of his life. After hymn and prayer, the Rev. A. Freeman briefly introduced the lecturer,who, on rising,was loudly applauded. In his remarks he said there were gipsies and imitations of gipsies. A great many people looked in the wrong place for them, and very many had all sorts of prejudices against the people to which he belonged. Mr. George Smith, who had written about them, did not understand them or he would never have said the foul things he had said. He had looked in the wrong place for them. The gipsy is away in the country lanes,fields, and forests, and does not know anything of town life. He believed there were about 20,000 gipsies in England, and, in his opinion,they were one of the lost tribes. They had no record, no bible, no churches, and no education, and he thought it:would be better if we had put education is in the hands of the gipsies instead of putting guns in the hands of the soldiers. They had no religion, but they believed there was a salvation somewhere. He said he was proud of their morals in private life ; we never have read of them committing murder, or running away from their wives, or a gipsy divorce suit, or elopements. They drink occasionally, but there were not many habitual drinkers. Swearing I was one of their greatest sins. They also' pilfered, but as regarded the statement of their stealing children, it was only a nursery story, as they had plenty of children of their own. He maintained they were worth saving for Christ, and he was hoping the time would come when he would be able to send two gipsy vans into the country to live among them and evangelise them. He said we spent hundreds of pounds in trying to save the heathen in foreign lands, but not five shillings in saving the gipsies in our own country. The lecturer afterwards gave in a most humorous manner an account of his early tent life, he having travelled with his father's van through most of he southern counties. When quite young he accompanied his father, in the evenings, to the public-houses where he assisted him as the caterer of amusements, his part being to sing and dance, his father playing the violin. In speaking of the drink trade be said he had hated it from his earliest days, and if lie had the power he would make it impossible for a man to be in the ministry, or a steward, or local preacher, or even to be a member of the Wesleyan body who was not a teetotaller. Ile then related the manner of his conversion, and his transition from gipsy tent to pulpit. His success is the more remarkable considering he had no education to begin with. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr. Smith for his admirable lecture, the meeting afterwards terminating by the singing of the doxology and the pronouncing of the benediction. The collections were in aid of the chapel trust, and during the collection Mr. A. Baker contributed a solo. The collections amounted to £27.