| Show WAKEMANS wanderings LONDON may 15 1893 rhe last quarter ot of a century has wrought a wonderful change for the better with a majority of all british gipsies who have been content to remain in their own land in 1867 while in Eng england landI had means of knowing from personal observation that almost universal squalor and wretchedness were characteristic of irish and english and particularly of london gipsies no one can make a gipsy anything but a gipsy but a generation of change here has ef effected fectea a more marked advancement iv io a rugged sort of prosperity with this than with any other lowly class it has not seized the gipsy bodily and in a moment or a year or a decade put fine clothing upon him and made him a man of affairs but something as with the destitute italians who have landed upon american shores whom we directly find as hawkers willing laborers restaurant keepers newsboys bootblacks booth lacks controllers of retail and wholesale fruit and nut trades and on the high road to prosperity because they are quick witted and willing to labor the british gipsy has found along with old makeshifts for a livelihood many new though rude mccu occupations eions and means of getting on in the ZI world d all after his bis own mind and heart with the race characteristics of these folk will require many generations in which to undergo radical change their conditions and environment are in the main entirely different from those in which crabbe hoyland borrow and simson found them and of which they wrote in other words there is today little or nothing in in book literature altogether true of of british gipsies of the four standard authors named borrow was v as the most romantic simson the most inexorably true yet both write of a time and a mer ripen or gipsy life which with few exceptions have wholly pasq passed away these exceptions comprise the poorest english and scottish gipsies of today some families in the north of england whose members have continued almost literally the old form ot wandering life by the roadside the tinkering the dickering the duckering duk kering or fortune telling and often the tiny sales of imperfect delft and content with a or upturned cart for a roof in in summer and any sort of a town tenement in winter the tiny straggling bands in devonshire and cora cornwall where there has been little change dinall in all social conditions for the past fifty years the few remaining gipsies of perthshire Perth shire Aberdeen shire and the highland districts of scotland and the gipsies of wales where is found the most primitive and idyllic form of gipsy gips life yet remaining in britain the welsh gipsies rarely leave wales all welsh people are fond of them and they are almost as much an integral part ot of the concrete rural social structure as are the welsh people themselves the fact is is that british gipsies a as s well ci as our american gipsies hundreds n eldr e ds of whom I 1 could name who are worth from froin to in landed property have during the past quarter of a century developed a remarkable ability for certain lowly kinds of trade these have been a natural outgrowth in most instances of the petty wayside dickering ini of less fortunate times but they are stul sti I 1 pursuits requiring the exercise of good thrift and judgment and of a sen genuine uin e probity that make the gipsy m middleman addle m an welcome both where occasional credit is necessary and among his countryside customers in the main they are van dwellers in the summer time as with us traveling certain well defined routes and purveying in villages and even in the outskirts ot of towns and cities articles whose annual aggregate value mount to a stupendous sum their cavalcades at the outset may comprise one or more vans these are briefly described tiny houses upon wheels they are drawn by donkeys or often by broken down city tram horses which the gipsies get in the cities for a song and which with care are finally transformed into excellent cattle following these may be three or four or a half dozen little donkey carts atter after the fashion of the coster mongers bongers mon gers city carts these will hold the real resources of the band an examination of the latter would reveal almost enough material in quantity certainly enough in variety to stock a little country store this stock in trade has not been icken up at random in the london district there are great storehouses of travelers goods their owners who I 1 find include wealthy gipsies could not continue in business without the gipsies trade the goods handled are somewhat similar to our american bargain counter odds and ends especially in and metal goods hardware crockery cheap oilcloths and household knacks nic with the coarsest beads and gilded jewelry it would be a revelation to ordinary english tradesmen to realize the enormous quantities of stuff annually disposed of in this manner throughout england scotland and wales and the int integrity rit of these gipsy wanderers where t they ey ask and receive credit for their supplies as they often do smaller smaller travelers goods stores may be found near the bull ring in birmingham where carts may be refilled in the lazy but small shipments from time to time are forwarded by rail from london I 1 have friends in the fruit and nut trade in the drury lane quarter of london who have supplied gipsies in all parts of the provinces for the past twenty years halt alt 0 of this trade is is done on credit and the ers all inform me they ey have ave never lost a penny at the hands of their thousands of gipsy small customers all these goods fruits and nuts auts are hawked in little villages and sold at fairs and on market days indeed the english country fair of today would lose all its and most of its attractions for younger people were the pretty gipsy booths and gipsy showmen withdrawn about the middle of the century when the british rural police act which was directed against gipsies and all wandering folk of the road came in force we find borrow lamenting that the gipsy had nowhere to lay his head the oppressive measure undoubtedly sent america english gipsies within a period of ten years indeed it almost extirpated Gipsy dom in great britain but the coming gipsy bipsy soon saw a way to mend his fortunes he took out a license to become a traveling merchant two and sixpence gives him this right for the period ot of one year he could still remain a gipsy in in every other particular ti insensibly and by degrees he actually 2 y became the fellow whose vocation he originally assumed in order to merely exist there gradually followed a system among the wanderers of providing gipsy ground on which to camp in safety from the raids of the mounted constabulary gipsies here and there who had got a tooting and could be trusted bought or leased bits of waste land unused lanes idle tracts at the out skirts of cities and towns or camping rights in roomy old stable yards these are in in turn sublet to arriving pilgrims at from one shilling down to a p penny enn y a day and thus with gipsy trave travelers ers who really have something besides black arts to sell one can travel from lands end to john OG house or london to oban and return and never upon the road by day or underneath the tent or the van roof and the stars at night be outside the comforting protection of watchful british law but the british gipsy is something more than a trader his kind are encroaching upon or making for themselves many other profitable pur suits and vocations I 1 have always held that in this would be found the real evolution of the gipsy and that in just the degree he became like other men not in religion because you can no more reach a gipsy with christian missionary schemes than you can secure any expression of belief from any other form of agnostic in vocation and the better ment to himself and family in material living in like degree would the so called black arts of Gipsy dom disappear I 1 have from time to time shown this to be true among american gipsies it is gratifying to find it true among british gipsies I 1 do not regard them as having chosen the most elegant ot of vocations eions nor as a class can they be said to sustain enviable relations to society but they are doing something making money finding themselves possessed of of inherent industrial pow power er and their acquisition and possession of means are making them a better race ot of men in one of the large london traveling goods concerns previously referred to the largest shareholder is a gipsy who is reputed to be worth fully I 1 know of many shooting galleries in london conducted by gipsies they are not only successful with these but in associative form just as they are beginning to own most ot of the moneymaking spunch and judy shows of the metropolis control many like privileges at noted places of holiday resort near london from which unusual profit is derived one of the most thriving vegetable boothman booth men of covent garden market is a gipsy who is in great favor with and andis is brought much trade by bythe the countless costers of the neighborhood near the royal albert docks is a public house owned and conducted by a gipsy and this property is worth more than 2000 precisely as in in some of the leading american cities where important 0 horse sales stables are owned ey by gipsies who are thought to be of another race I 1 found in london and its environs thirty one similar establishments wholly controlled oled by gipsies they are credited with an extraordinary amount of trade not only in horses but in donkeys shetland and Ju Cu ponies and goats commission dealings are unknown every transaction is made for cash and in two ot of these places the leasehold fittings and stock of animals abw always 17 s on hand must require the po possession session session 0 of a capital of from 65 5 to an old and profitable business in london is that of purveyor of carts ind and donkeys to the costermongers there are thousands upon thousands of these costers in in the metropolis many are notoriously improvident to start in business requires a hand barrow or cart and a coster of recognized standing must possess both cart and donkey there are many places where from fifty fiffy to soo carts are hired out by the day week or month and where costers may purchase barrows carts and donkeys on the partial payment pay nent plan those controlling this manner of business are said to secure a profit of soo to idoo icooper io per cent they are usually graduated costers but three of those engaged in in the traffic I 1 know to be gipsies who are becoming very rich they are supposed to be retired costers with whom london gipsies have many points or of common resemblance character and interest the most surprising discovery of this sort I 1 ever made in london was in the acquaintance of a dramatic agent near the corner of york and waterloo roads on the surrey side while making in quines queries regarding the haunts and ways of london music hall performers among the many agents of this vicinity the man is one of the richest and most powerful of this numerous tribe those who daily deal with him believe him to be a hebrew but I 1 had indubitable evidence aside from his admission that this man whom hundreds of the pro festers fes sers fawned upon and feared for his favor and influence in in booking their london and provincial music hall engagements was none other than one of the outcast romany race he had in former times been on the road with traveling shows some of which he still controls and had gradually and without attracting attention to his early gipsy associations become a dramatic agent in this famous poverty junction region I 1 know in edinburgh glasgow liverpool manchester bristol plymouth and london of many gipsies who are chimney sweeps and who by hiring others and doing contract work have secured independence and comfort at brighton southport southwort South port scarborough and other important english seaside resorts are hundreds of donkeys upon which bouters outers ou and all children are given bone breaking rides along the beaches nearly all the owners of these are gipsies some of whom not only have respectable bank accounts but also own town properties in and about bunea ton and coventry are many gipsy property owners A few are farmers but most own properties at the outskirts of these cities such as places for stabling sale stables and old inns which still have attraction for the farmers and make dickering in horses and other live stock possible and profitable probably the richest of all british gipsies one smith lives at nuneaton Nu neaton he owns nearly all the houses and land in in one entire street has money in in considerable sums loaned to speculative tr traveling avelin gipsies and is is also the owner of bant bank stock and blocks of shares in in the london and north western railway altogether his holdings are computed to exceed a quarter of a million dollars on one occasion while visiting the old cathedral city of gloucester england and wandering in st catherines street where the sunday school was first established by robert I 1 came at the head of the street to a little old inn much frequented by farmers I 1 entered and sat down to rest A half dozen country folk were just closing some sort of commercial transaction and one of the men me n had counted out in gold sovereigns i n s he took a receipt and short shortly lyie left fi I 1 asked the barmaid if that was not an odd place for so much money and she replied that it was not for oilcloth dick and such as he frequented the place and gipsies seemed to have all the ready money in england these days his van is just over there she added and its worth seeing repairing Re repairing pairin to the lane indicated I 1 found oilcloth dick his van and half a dozen gipsy families the latter had for years peddled oilcloth which they secure from yorkshire factories throughout england scotland and wales they are several hundred in number their vans are beautiful specimens s of the wagon makers art and all these gipsies are practically traveling merchants of large means and long established trade in no city in the world can be found finer draught horses than in liverpool the floated or four wheeled trucks are called lorries their drivers lorry men and the huge horses which two and three tandem pull from four to six tons of cotton or iron over the streets with dignified ease are consequently lorry cattle they are chiefly bred in wales lancashire and C clydesdale a ae scotland having been much among these lorry men and their nippers or apprentice helpers I 1 soon discovered that the trade in these valuable horses was not altogether confined to english horse dealers two gipsies purchase scottish and lancashire horses for the liverpool birmingham and manchester markets and one gipsy is the largest trader from wales it is not seldom that these romany horse merchants have from ca 2 to invested in single shipments and very different than with their gorgio or gentile brethren every penny of these amounts is their own and not borrowed money these instances could be from personal knowledge indefinitely multiplied there is but one conclusion from them the gipsy question on this side of the ocean will soon cease to occupy the attention of even the missionaries for the british gipsy is becoming a british business man even though as yet in a small way and in canniness and thrift in trade and and economy in living no human being can surpass this outcast romany race EDGAR L WA WAKEMAN KrMAN |
