Evening Star Newspaper, March 18, 1923, Page 71

FICTION | ’g:r[]z %unflw S Part 5—8 Pages BY LOUISE RICE. HE genuine Gypsy is the proudest person in the world, for the reason that he be- Ueves himself and all other Treal Gypsies to be the actual descend- ants of Egyptian kings. He mixes up a good many prophecles of the B! Wwith this bellef and with the equally | insistent bellef that this state of kingship (or, rather, royalty, for the 1dea is not confined to the masculine) will return to him again. He is con- vinced that the mysterious ability of his race to remain separate and apart, even In blood, through these count- less generations, has been an act of God in preserving them for their ul- timate high destiny. From this it is clear that the old, fantastic accusation that Gypsies steal gorglo children is absurd. The Gypsy considers the gorglo blood far, | fur inferior to his own, and resents itroduction of it fnto his race rriages, “oul,” as they are called. re deeply devlored and untll this present generation were even a scandal and a disgrace. Yet now, alas, there are so few of the undiluted blood remalning that the old barriers are breaking down. In another hun- dred vears it is feared there may not ve an individual of unadulterated Romany rakt left in the world. This s the opinfon of all Romanys, no matter from what country. On the other hand, the persons in whom there is a trace of the “great biack blood” wliil be many, and this may enrich the world, as the separate 1 distinet race never has done. If you were to get & true account ‘rom the average American of what e belleves about the Gypsy, it would run into a hodgepodge of impressions Spanish . decks of s, chicken Kidnaped children, Gerald! - as the cigarctte siren, myster- fous wagons skulking along country | roads at night, dark women ang dirty, | brawling men. with no visible means | of support. In trying to explain what the real | Gypsy is, as against this mass of | erroneous bellefs, the last item can | be dealt with by a direct and un-| qualified negative. Reul Gypsles are | heavy property holders. It is rare that the people whom you see In the | summertime. camping or traveling, have not good. fut farms from which | ey draw thefr living, as well as the | irin” place—the Lome house—in | which they abide when they chgose. \ ANY of the people whom you see M in Gypsy dress or following Grpsy pursuits, or claiming to be| Gypsles, are not such in the remotest degree. It is these. in a certain division, who do all their mischief to the reputation of the genuine Gypsles and their posh-and-posh kindred, | That particular division is the un-| derworld, as you might say. of| Gypsydom. It has occasional con-| tacts with the underworld of the! gorglos, since its members are them- | selves gorgios. All their assumption | ot Gypsy dress and way of lying is | an effort to disguise their real| <haracter. They are both pretty and | wholesale tieves, Iidnapers, ravish- | ers. bootleggers, stealers of dogs and prize poultry, looters shops and occasionally dispensers of | drugs. 1 You can recognize them by one | thing. It is the men who will do business with you, who will do all| the talking. The women, cowed and | sullen creatures, are thrust into the background. When such a lot come to your place, warn them off and se that a policeman keeps more or less | in eye on them until they are out of the vicinity This eriminal division of the spuri- ous Gypsy is heartily hated and care. fully avoided by many other even spurious Gypsies, who by Instinct and | training are quite as respectable and decent a lot as you would want to ieet. English Gypeis call them mempers and American Gypsies | call them “travelers” and “vonder” people, the later only to be heard in the southern states. They are often ‘ue basket malers, tinkers, ftinerant ers and photographers. They quently have small wares to sell | nd somtimes the women tell for- Tu These people are usually of Fnglish, Scottish or Welsh origin and | otten tanned almost as dark a| hue as the dark skin of the real Gypsy, for there are cases in which | families have pursued this wander- ing and outdoor life for at least ten generations. The genuine Gypsy does not inker or sell any of the' things in which the “memper” deals. The “memper” 55 usually rather poor, sometimes wretchedly so, and he is often im- provident and shiftless, Never, never is the wildest Gypsy either improvi- @ent or shiftless, all traditions to the contrary notwithstanding! The Gypsy, like the Hebrew, has a keen sense of value, and when he (though always “she,” with this race, no mater how the name stands in the title deeds) buys a plece of property, you may be sure that the value will increase greatly in a few years. Quite 2 number of small but very profitable farms are owned by some of the families ‘'which travel through New and Maryland, and some of the «ll but sound banks in the towns alug their accustomed route of travel could tell of very substantial Lark accounts which lie against their names. The Harleys, a posh-and-posh fanily, that is to say, of half real Gypsy blood and half the blood of some of the familles which, while “travelers” living in tent and wagon for generations, are not Gypsy at all, went to a New Jersey town many years ago and bought a’ house on a prominent avenue. They had money 1o live on and to bring up the large sumily, in which was modest but real Jusury, although without visible sueans of support. What was not Xuown at the time and is not known now except to a few. was that Neil) Jlarley had a great deal of property throughout the state. This he con- trolled through an agent, never ap- pearing In connection with it himself. ©ae of his daughters, Louise, mare ried Into the famous and genuine Larkin family, which, in turn, had and now has great holdings of real estate in Ohio and Illinols, The Harleys s ttered, marry- ing tnto another posh- and-posh family, and with the Bent- leys, genuine Grpstes, but not as rich, since they have never specialized in real estate and have had none of the WASHINGTOY W% Holds to Belief That Kingly or Queenly State Will Strongly Opposed to Marriages Qutside of Race—Families Own Profitable Farms ¢ ¢ ¢ and Have Large Bank Accounts—-Swapping of Motor Cars Takes Place of Horse g ¢ ¢ SUNDAY MORNING, ' MARCH 18, 1923, e R E———————————.. At B i, 'Genuine Gypsy Proud of Supposed Descent From Egyptian Royalty A Eventually Be Restored. R hlo i o it i g Trading—How Fortune Tellers Study Lives of Their Patrons—One Prominent Figure Possesses Remarkable Versatility. the Bowmans are endowed. The Bentleys have nearly always followed fairs and national exhibitions. The ‘women are famous for thelr ability to “dukker”—that s, to tell fortunes. One of the Bentleys now pursues this work In a New Yark State town and is much respected. * k¥ % HE Hungarlan gypsies, like the English branch, have their spe- clal parts of the eountry. The tribe of Demitro. extensive, picturesque. rich, and posse of perhaps halt amillion in old and rure jewelry, lives | chiefly in and around Detroit. They | are also musicians, and there is a| small string band which has made a great deal of money traveling through the states. Two members of it are now playing a very well pald en- gagement in vaudeville. The famous Gypsy Band which used to hold forth at the old Eden Musee, and which had nation-wide celebrity, was partly composed of connections of this fa- mous 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 Bluckpool, England. Bow an, the father of the thirty and forty year old present generation, was coast- | guard there for =0 long that he be- came a national figure. It was there that grand old “Gypsy Sarah” held court. the nobliity and literatl of the British Isles thinking nothing of tak- | 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 everythlng. Yet she gave fresly to the poor. ! Her granddaughter. Georgina, ttual and one of tie rarest Romany race, took up| the tradition, did well with the work. | then married a scion of & famous English house, who gave up zil he had and took to the gypsy ways of hie wife. They came to America. | where for yeers they traveled from place to plice. Then, with the ac- cumulation of years. they settled i 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 ome of the pleasantly modest ones of a suburb, gossip says (hat 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 a day | proves surprising. Last summer al caravan of gypsy automobiles came | through the little town where I was| | stopping and 1, having on old friend | with them, was at once made one| with them. My gypsy frlend was a| shrewd woman with a marked sense | of humor, a graduate of an exclusive | girls’ school in Missourl. She was not Inexplicable effects in this work, but handled her people by judging them with, of course, a far wider range of soclal and general kuowledge than any one would ever suspect who saw her, garbed as she was in a red and mauve silk dress and a green vell and coral beads—the traditional costume. That particular caravan had been through this town twice before and an eager crowd gathered about it. One of the cars was vacated and drawn a little aside, with the cur- tains partly dropped. and there my friend and 1 sat all day, with a| breathing space for lunch. The after- | noon was broken by two special visits with the car to houses, to sce women who would not come out to the street where we were parked. Ten dollars was asked and cheerfully W = “A GYPSY MAN, AS HEIS'A WIZARD WITH A-HORSE, HAS NOW-BECOME A GENIUS WITH MACHINERY.” of Windsor. there were some fine Indian|would pay for real handwork; of members of the Mic- and every year practically | for the pleturesque; and as to the a sitter predicted, with the advice to was bought these personal and $3 for others and $1 brief work. there was & tc et makers, tal of $140 pac usual, said the worker. but there w in which at least $3 would not be taken in but Boston -to-do sub- patroled every fall recque-looking YPSY women used to wes kets occastonally, women might, for a pastime. but they never made them to sell and usually those which they carried about and | were ordinary | tant store articles which they bought by | | of the mystic, spiritual type which the wholesale. or baskets which they | Vis does produce some very startling and | purchased sold at a high connections, For that I would hear their vers g [f 'MWB# L] (7 i |estimate as to what indfviduals how they “played up” to the demand good or bLad taste of the homes “THEY CERTAINLY COULD TALK CONVINGINGLY ABOUT HOW THEY WORKED THOSE BASKETS UNDER WATER AND THE SK WHICH THEY HAD TO BE DRIED.” D THE SKILL WITH | which those conditions can be wisely |handled. Twice in my own life I (have heard the Impending death of | put &)l financtal matters in order. In HAVE said that the gypsy man does not work steadlly, but there are many instances in which this is not true, There I8 a very fine gypsy of the Bowman family in Port Stan- ley, Ontarlo, who for years has held a steady job there. Another Is the overseer of a Jamafca plantation, where he went as a young man, and has remained ever since. A posh-and-posh has been an ac- countant in Detroit for the last ten years. All of these men, it is true, contrive to get an amount of the out- door life that other men in their po- sitions are not likely to gain. They walk ‘long distances to and from work; their holidays and Sundays are spent out of doors, even Wwhen the weather Is bad; they sleep with the open window and have a horror of a musty room or of one Into which the sun neverfalls. If there s such a thing as a rac- they are likely to be found there whenever they are not at work or asleep. They also hate hotel and restaurant food, and, as all gypsy men are good cooks, they will con- trive to have a stove and a pot or two, no matter how they are living. { This brings to mind that at one.of the southern resorts there is a chef who is much heralded as a Hindoo, and whose concoctions are supposed to be Astatlc in orlgin. This man I8 a puro Romamw, and on the proceeds of his work has brought up a family of very bright girls and boys, all lof whom have taken to the profes- slons. One of the girls {s now giving promise of decided literary ablilty. Many of th families who live in BY RING O the editor: I had a few wds to sa gards to formal dinner parties set for same and since then I been beselged with letters from readers beselging me to devote more articles one of these letters makes special mentlon of the matter of introduc- {tions I may as well devote this arti- cle to that subject. a article on this subject by Mrs. Julla kinds but the article in question left where their supposed-to-be product one of these cases there was not the [the opinion of the party who seat it was placed. n the winter they lived in a very pleasant apartment on Lexington avenue N knew how to darn their stockings, 3 had it Was to be twondered at, but in ten members, including several dis- | their red skirts, sashes, big earrings went |and other colorful arrangements, p with them for an occastonal | they certalnly could talk convincing- amusement {1y about how they worked those wrate | baskets under water and the skill with which they had to be dried by | | the full of the moon! Many of the motor caravans which are now’so famillar combine a num- | ber of well-paying industries. The mother and often- the girls will tell | | fortunes, and as they usually “make” the same route they have clients |awalting their arrival everywhere. !people’s affairs, year by vear, the “fortune” finally comes to be the giv- ing of often shrewd and very good adviced on all sorts of matters. ¢ farmers buy and sell stock real estate only when so ad- viked by visiting zypsy women. This is not all the business that can be { contracted, however. A gypsy man, | as he is a wizard with a horse, has now become a genius with mach- lery. 1 have repeatedly sesn some | ®00d mechanic try to run one of the rickety cars fn which the gypsy bowls ulong at a good clip, only to find that| he can do nothing with it whatso- ever. The swapping of “filvvers” s, therefore, a paying business for the gypsy man. Very often the family will start out with a broken-down old machine. for which they will pay - $50 and will get home in | the fall with all but a brand-new touring car, the same having been obtalned by progressive swaps. The Inew car' is then sold, and you may be sure that it will be at a .good price, and the process begun over again, * % X X HE -tradition that the gypsy man will not work is entirely untrue. He is not successful as a steady, by- | the-year worker, but as a farm hand, |for harvest ~and other strenuous times, he Is highly prized by those who understand his- excellence. In August and September many of the ‘carnvans “lle up" near farms while the men and boys tuck in and do two men’s work a day for a while. Gypsy men are good storekeepers and there are numerous novelty stores at the seashore and other re- sorts which are kept by them, while their womenfolk, at 2 discreet dis- tance, conduct fortune-telling boothe. It is not true that gypsy women tell fortunes by the cards. Thew may do this, sometimes, as an amusement, but when they really “work” they rely wholly on the lines of the. palm.to give them a start, after which they are either guessing shrewdly or are actually using some sixfh- sense which is highly developed in a few of them. No guessing, for {nstance, will ac- count for the fact that some of these “mystics” can and do unerringly describe to the sitter the conditions of his or her life and the ways in | As they grow familiar with these| slightest symptom of disease and ’m-!(h'r I nor the sitter really gave | the predictton any ‘thought: | work up a following among educated people, since she feels that It Is there that she will be appreciated. Sel- dom 1t is that she falls in this. The less gifted are content to work for the folk whose: problems are less in- tricats. Both types of fortune tellers make a great deal of money. The rigid rullng th - the United States against fortune-telllng has driven !away whole colonies of gypsies, who ! nave gone to Canada, where the mild {and tolerant British lion allows them to follow thelr thousand-year-old protession and pays no heed so long as there are no complaints from the commudlty. Many have returned to England and to Hungary, to Spain, Egypt. India, Arabla and other dis- tant homes which they have not seen, | often, for several generations. money,. having enough property of able, especlally as thelr ‘way of liv- ing does not call for the expenditure of a great daul of cash, During . the war I personally knew of abput fifty thousand dollars’ worth of 1ibérty bonds that were purchased by gypsiés, and this, of course, could have been only a fraction of the total amount, since I knew only of an oc- castenal purchase. A good many gypsles, half-gypstes and less-than- halt went to the war. Stocks and bonds have heavy hold- ings among the English gypstes, but in this-country the distinctive ten- dency !s te put money in farms and sinall town houses. The Hungarians, Poles and Bohemians incline to tak- ing silent’partnerships in stores and peddlers’. wagons, while the orlen- tals, Arabs 'and 80 .on are often ‘“con- cessfon people;” that is to say, they buy the pieces of ground which are called concessions, in falr grounds and the like, and elther use them themselves (for, they are often clever jugglers and conjurers) or rent them {out, travellng ground from one part ,of the country t6.the other, follow- ing the line of these entertalhments. ‘One 5¢ them, paft Arab and part Hungarian, born in ‘this country, goes under a Jewish name, speaks Ylddish and Hungarlan, the Arablan form of the Romany language, Derfect, and even idiomatic English, has a unique sort of culture, knowing the Koran 'and the Bible well, possesses the choicest slang vocabulary it has ever been my luck 'to listen to, and wears a derby hat! He Is by all odds the most astounding figure in the gypsys dom of Amerfca. a I am sure tliat. this man is worth several hundred thousand dollars, as his activities include the' backing of an occasional “burlesque” ~company and the managing of a whole country fair. In the Jatter capgeity he'ls well known in & number ef southern | states, | | | Of those who remain many are in- | dependent of the need for making | varlous kInds to be entirely comfort- | |in and the last named wanted I should clarify these matters and also state | what changes if any has been made York. since both the! A real “mystic’ always trles to|in the code since Mrs. Hoyt's article weav- | €Irls were taking volce culture! I were those |am sure that if they so much as seen print. One pt. for inst. which the lady did name. | This uce to happen a whole lot more |tn the old days when people done | {“YOU ARE FREE TO PUT YOUR ARM AROUND MRS. GAVIN OR | SLAP HER FACE OR IGNORE HER ENTIRELY.” thelr drinking standing up, but they 1s still plenty of occaslons when this embarrassing situation rises a spe- clally in Pullman wash rms. or’at a national convention of the moose. 1 always kind of laugh it off and |say something to the effect that you 2 boys know each other of coursc and they generally tell one another what thelr name is which also gives be a clew. * % % ¥ RS. HOYT glves it as a gen. rule that when you are making a plain introduction you just say “Mrs. Reed, Mrs, Wallace” unlest of course thelr names happens to be Mrs. Pink- ney and Mrs. Welsh. But she says that when one woman is & young woman and the other one ain't so young, why the young one should ought to be presented to the older one, 8o If Mrs. Wallace is older than Mrs. Reed you have got to say “Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Reed.” Now days however what with bob- bed hair and funny clothes it ain't always possible to be sure and a per- son would be a fool to go ahead with the Introduction without first asking the 2 dames which is the oldest. According to Mrs Hoyt's article, when a man and woman is introduced the woman ain't required to shake hands unlest the guy sticks out his hand, but if he does so it is very rude for the woman to not grab a hold of it. Personly however I have been in- troduced to many a dame that must of thought I was holding out my hand so, as she could admire the cal- ing stable anywhere within reach | and what kind of a table to| to soclal etiquette and as more than | One reader enclosed me a copy of | Hoyt of N. Y. city who is suppose to | be the last wd. in decorums of all| many pts. to be cleared up at lease in | not even touch on was the matter of | introducing 2 people to each other | when you don't know nelther one’s | wagons or motor cars have only modest competences, but they have with them or In safe deposit vaults somewhere thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of rare jewelry. This, however, can hardly be classed as part of thelr fortunes, since, as far as the thought of selling it fa concerned, It might as well be so much sawdust. | It is the rarest thing in the world for a gypsy, even though many timesa removed from purlty of blood, to sell a single plece of jewelry or even ta be willing to dlscuss its monetary value. It is passed along, from mother to daughter, and worn some- times and sometimes put away for years, but—it remains. ;On one oc- casion of bitter need, T know, not personally, but through other gypsies, {that a Romany man pawned about half the jewelry of his family. It , plece by plece Although fortunes had made that family much poorer for a time, it did not prevent their re- covering their heirlooms as quickly las possible. Many of the English gypsies are Methodists and Episcopalians, while those of the other races are often ardent Cathol Notwithstanding this, they all have superstitions, cus- toms, thought channels, Instincts, be- | ltefs and emotional reactions that are as remote from this age and from |all Christianity as though they had this m stepped across the th |sands of years from ancient Egypt. | Though they die out, as a pure race, } 1t is a rare heritage that they possess and this the world Is siowly o ing to appre “Anything on the Hip?” Is a Polite Question LARDNER louses or something and 1 been hu- milited so many thres along these that now when they's a dame being introduced to me I s pretend like I was unloosent belt or looking through my vest pockets for a tooth pi It is well to remember that when the party who is making the intro- ductions says “Mr. Bolling, shuke hands with Mrs. Gavin that don't | nessarily mean that you got to shake hands. The introducer ain't got no authority to designate the mode of caress und irregardless of whatever he says you are free to put your arm around Mrs. Gavin or slap her face or ignore her entirely. The reader who sent me Mrs. Hoyt's article murked one paragraph which she says has got her all up in the air namely the paragraph where it says that if you are presenting your marrigd daughter to a older man you have got to say “My daugh- ter, Mrs. Reed.” £he says that since reading the article she has had numerable occa- | stons to introduce her daughter to old galoots and when she springs that “Mrs. Teed” they all think she ginny as it is a notorious fact th | the name of the man her daughter marsled is Eyclesheimer. Of course In a case like this you half to use | your own judgement and as far as I am conserned 1 would be a whole lot more libel to think that a woman was 1-2 seas over if she told me her daughter's name was Mrs. Eycles- hefmer. \ RS. HOYT'S article goes on to say £\ that when You present anybody to the President you are suppose to say “Mr. President. T have the honor to present Mr. Burke of San Fran- | cisco,” but when you introduce th to a Cardinal you must say “Yo ninence, may 1 present Mr. Burke® My reader don't think fits hardiiy falr to tell the President where Mr. | Burke is from but to keep it a secrct from the Cardinal, but personly it looks to me like this was making o | mountain out of a mole hole >ecause if Mr. Burke s really from Saa Fran- clsco, the dlalogue ain't libel to cou- tinue more than 2 or 3 hrs. before the Cardinal kind of suspects same. It is the worst kind of form to ask the introducer to say a namne over when you did not catch it the 1st. time but they's a way to get around this. Like for inst. suppose you are Introduced to a pretty gal and you ain't got no idear what the man sald her name was, why all as you half to do is say “I am certainly please to meet you, Migs Gourmand” or some such name and she will say “My name is Andrews, please.” In closing up her article Mrs. Hoyt gives a list of don't in introductions and amongst them she says don't ask no personal questions a moment after you have been introduced. A great many people might have different Idears in regards to what is personal questions s used in this connection and no doubt some poor hicks will draw the line too fine and refrain from asking questions which might of been regard as too personal in the old days but would be O. K. now. Maybe I would better wind up this little article of my own by giveing a couple examples of what kind of questions not to ask and what kind is perfectly permissible. Well then we will pretend like you have just been Introduced to a man named Harley. Don't say to him “Glad to meet you, Mr. Harley. Do you and your wife get along all right?” or “Glad to know you, Mr Harley. What makes you limp?” But do say If you feel Iltke it “Please to meet you, Mr. Harley. Got anything on the bip?” RING W, LARDNER. Great Neck, Long Island, March i