Gipsy Life - being an account of our Gipsies and their children, with suggestions for their improvement

George Smith

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• Publié par: foed
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 41
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gipsy Life, by George Smith This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Gipsy Life being an account of our Gipsies and their children Author: George Smith Release Date: April 9, 2009 [eBook #28548] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIPSY LIFE*** Transcribed from the 1880 Haughton and Co. edition by David Price, email [e-mail] Book cover Frontispiece: Among the Gipsy children GIPSY LIFE: BEING AN ACCOUNT of OUR GIPSIES AND THEIR CHILDREN. with SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT. by GEORGE SMITH, of Coalville. london: HAUGHTON & CO., 10, PATERNOSTER ROW. [All Rights Reserved.] 1880. I give my warmest thanks to W. H. Overend, Esq., for the block forming the Frontispiece, which he has kindly presented to me on the condition that the picture occupies the position it does in this book; and also to the proprietor of the Illustrated London News for the blocks to help forward my work, the pictures of which appeared in his journal in November and December of last year and January in the present year, as found herein on pages 42, 48, 66, 76, 96, 108, 118, 122, 174, 192, 236, 283. I must at the same time express my heart-felt thanks to the manager and proprietors of the Graphic for the blocks forming the illustrations on pages 1, 132, 170, 222, 228, 248, 272, 277, and which appeared in their journal on March 13th in the present year, and which they have kindly presented to me to help forward my object, connected with which sketches, at the kind request of the Editor, I wrote the article. W. H. Overend, Esq., was the artist for the sketches in the Illustrated London News, and Herbert Johnson, Esq., was the artist for the sketches in the Graphic. I also tender my warmest thanks to the Press generally for the help rendered to me during the crusade so far, without which I should have done but little.TO THE MOST HONOURABLE THE PEERS AND MEMBERS OF THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT. I have taken the liberty of humbly dedicating this work to you, the object of which is not to tickle the critical ears of ethnologists and philologists, but to touch the hearts of my countrymen on behalf of the poor Gipsy women and children and other roadside Arabs flitting about in our midst, in such a way as to command attention to these neglected, dark, marshy spots of human life, whose seedlings have been running wild among us during the last three centuries, spreading their poisonous influence abroad, not only detrimental to the growth of Christianity and the spread of civilisation, but to the present and eternal welfare of the children; and, what I ask for is, that the hand of the Schoolmaster may be extended towards the children; and that the vans and other temporary and movable abodes in which they live may be brought under the eye and influence of the Sanitary Inspector. Very respectfully yours, GEORGE SMITH, Of Coalville. April 30th, 1880.INDEX. Part I. Rambles in gipsydom. page Origin of the Gipsies and their Names 1 8Article in The Daily News The Travels of the Gipsies 9 Acts of Parliament relating to the Gipsies 16 23Article in The Edinburgh Review ,, The Saturday Review 25 Professor Bott on the Gipsies 29 The Changars of India 32 The Doms of India 33 The Sanseeas of India 35 The Nuts of India 36 Grellmann on the Gipsies 39 Gipsies of Notting Hill 40 Rev. Charles Wesley 42 The Number of Gipsies 44 Part II. Commencement of the Crusade. Work begun 48 51Letter to The Standard and Daily Chronicle Leading Article in The Standard 53 59Correspondence in The Standard Mr. Leland’s Letter, &c., &c. 60 My Reply 66 69Leicester Free Press 70Article in The Derby Daily Telegraph „ The Figaro 73 75Letter in The Daily News Mr. Gorrie’s Letter 78 My Reply 79 82Leading Article in The Standard May’s Aldershot Advertiser 87 90Article in Hand and Heart 91Article in The Illustrated London News Leading Article in The Daily News 92 Social Science Congress Paper 95 102Article in Birmingham Daily Mail 106 „ The Weekly Dispatch „ The Weekly Times 109117 „ The Croydon Chronicle „ Primitive Methodist 119 121 „ Illustrated London News „ The Quiver 126 127Letter in Daily News and Chronicle 129Article in Christian World ,, Sunday School Chronicle 132 134 „ Unitarian Herald „ Weekly Times 135 Part III. The Treatment the Gipsies have received in this Country. The Social History of our Country 142 Acts of Parliament concerning the Gipsies 145 Treatment of the Gipsies in Scotland, Spain, and Denmark 150 Efforts put forth to improve their Condition 155 His Majesty George III. and the Dying Gipsy 161 Mr. Crabb at Southampton in 1827 164 Fiction and the Gipsies 166 Hubert Petalengro’s Gipsy Trip to Norway 169 Esmeralda’s Song 174 George Borrow’s Travels in Spain 177 Romance and Poetry about the Gipsies 183 Dean Stanley’s Prize Poem 190 Part IV. Gipsy Life in a Variety of Aspects. Persecution, Missionary Efforts, and Romance 192 The Gipsy Contrast and Punch 193 Gipsy Slang 195 Rees and Borrow’s Description of the Gipsies 199 Leland among the Russian Gipsies 201 Burning a Russian Fortune-teller 203 A Welsh Gipsy’s Letter 208 Ryley Bosvil and his Poetry: a Sad Example 213 My Visit to Canning Town Gipsies 220 Article in The Weekly Times 222 My Son’s Visit to Barking Road 227 Mrs. Simpson, a Christian Gipsy 228 Part V. The Sad Condition of the Gipsies, with Suggestions for their Improvement. Gipsy Beauty and Songsters 237 Gipsy Poetry 239 Smart and Crofton 239 A Little Gipsy Girl’s Letter 242 Scotch Gipsies 243Gipsy Trickery 244 My Visit to the Gipsies at Kensal Green 248 Fortune-telling and other Sins 249 Wretched Condition of the Gipsies 254 Hungarian Gipsies 259 Visit to Cherry Island 260 The Cleanliness and Food of the Gipsies 262 A Gipsy Woman’s Opinion upon Religion 264 Gipsy Faithfulness and Fidelity 264 A Visit to Hackney Marshes 266 Sickness among the Gipsies 270 A Gipsy Woman’s Funeral 271 Gipsies and the Workhouse 274 Education of the Gipsy Children Sixty Years ago 274 Mission Work among the Gipsies 275 Gipsy Children upon Turnham Green and Wandsworth Common 276 Sad Condition of the Gipsy Children 277 The Hardships of the Gipsy Women 281 Efforts put forth in Hungary and other Countries 282 Things made by the Gipsies 284 Pity for the Gipsies 285 What the State has done for the Thugs 286 The Remedy 287 My Reasons for Government Interference 289Illustrations. page Frontispiece. Among the Gipsy Children. A Gipsy Beauty 1 A Gentleman Gipsy’s Tent and his dog “Grab” 42 A Gipsy’s Home for Man and Wife and Six Children 48 Gipsies Camping among the Heath 66 Gipsy Quarters, Mary Place 76 A Farmer’s Pig that does not like a Gipsy’s Tent 96 Gipsies’ Winter Quarters, Latimer Road 108 A Gipsy Tent for Two Men, their Wives, and Eleven Children, and in which “Deliverance” was born 118 A Gipsy Knife Grinder’s Home 122 A Gipsy Girl Washing Clothes 132 A Respectable Gipsy and his Family “on the Road” 170 A Bachelor Gipsy’s Bed-room 174 A Gipsy’s Van, near Notting Hill 192 A Fortune-telling Gipsy enjoying her Pipe 222 Inside a Christian Gipsy’s Van—Mrs. Simpson’s 228 Inside a Gipsy Fortune-teller’s Van 236 Gipsy Fortune tellers Cooking their Evening Meal 248 Outside a Christian Gipsy’s Van 272 Four Little Gipsies sitting for the Artist 277 A Top Bed-room in a Gipsy’s Van 281 A Gipsy beauty who can neither read nor writePart I.—Rambles in Gipsydom. The origin of the Gipsies, as to who they are; when they became regarded as a peculiar race of wandering, wastrel, ragamuffin vagabonds; the primary object they had in view in setting out upon their shuffling, skulking, sneaking, dark pilgrimage; whether they were driven at the point of the sword, or allured onwards by the love of gold, designing dark deeds of plunder, cruelty, and murder, or anxious to seek a haven of rest; the route by which they travelled, whether over hill and dale, by the side of the river and valley, skirting the edge of forest and dell, delighting in the jungle, or pitching their tent in the desert, following the shores of the ocean, or topping the mountains; whether they were Indians, Persians, Egyptians, Ishmaelites, Roumanians, Peruvians, Turks, Hungarians, Spaniards, or Bohemians; the end of their destination; their religious views—if any—their habits and modes of life have been during the last three or four centuries wrapped, surrounded, and encircled in mystery, according to some writers who have been studying the Gipsy character. They have been a theme upon which a “bookworm” could gloat, a chest of secret drawers into which the curious delight to pry, a difficult problem in Euclid for the mathematician to solve; and an unreadable book for the author. A conglomeration of languages for the scholar, a puzzle for the historian, and a subject for the novelist. These are points which it is not the object of this book to attempt to clear up and settle; all it aims at, as in the case of my “Cry of the Children from the Brick-yards of England,” and “Our Canal Population,” is, to tell “A Dark Chapter in the Annals of the Poor,” little wanderers, houseless, homeless, and friendless in our midst. At the same time it will be necessary to take a glimpse at some of the leading features of the historical part of their lives in order to get, to some extent, a knowledge of the “little ones” whose pitiable case I have ventured to take in hand. Paint the words “mystery” and “secrecy” upon any man’s house, and you at once make him a riddle for the cunning, envious, and crafty to try to solve; and this has been the case with the Gipsies for generations, and the consequence has been, they have trotted out kings, queens, princes, bishops, nobles, ladies and gentlemen of all grad