The Gypsy Woman

1901

The gypsy woman
Lives on the moor;
She sleeps in a tent,
With a curtained door.

Low is her dwelling
And hard her bed,
But the stars at night
Are a crown for her head.

Rough is her greeting:
From all that's human,
But the morning smiles
At the gypsy woman.

The wind is her harper
And brings from far
His sons of wooing
And shouts of war.

On the printed page
She need never look;
The changing sky
Is her holy book.

She knows not the call
Of church bells ringing;
The falling rain
Makes sweeter singing.

And the voice of the lark
At morn and even
Is a key to open
The gate of heaven.

—Westminster Gazette.

Gypsy Sells Docile Husband To Woman For $5,000 In Gold

1920

Wife Says She's Selling Mate at a Bargain as She Had Paid Same Sum for Him Herself — Declares It Is Tribal Custom and Perfectly Proper

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 1. — Peter Guy, gypsy, formerly the husband of Mary Guy, another of the wandering tribe of Romany, is now the property of another woman.

Peter was sold by his wife for $5,000 in gold, in addition to the property the two had collected in their wanderings.

The bill of sale was drawn up in the office of a local attorney, and at the same time an agreement on the division of property was also made a matter of record.

The three parties to the eternal triangle appeared in the lawyer's office and stated their wants. After he had recovered from the shock, the attorney asked for explanations.

"Oh, not necessary," Mrs. Guy said. "This woman, she want to buy my husband. She have enough money, I don't want him any more, so I sell him."

Says It Is Tribal Custom

She went on to explain that it was the tribal custom, and all of them seemed to think that the proceedings were perfectly legal. The wife asked if her husband could now marry the woman who had bought him.

When told by the attorney that he would have to obtain a divorce, she merely smiled and nodded.

The sale was not the first one in which Guy had figured as human chattel, his former owner told the lawyer.

"Oh, I paid $5,000 for him myself, and I am selling him cheap," she is said to have remarked.

Besides deeding his property to the party of the first part of the sale, Guy gave her the custody of their three children, naming as the only condition that they shall not be taken out of the United States.

Are Dressed in Splendor

All three of the parties to the out-of-the-ordinary sale were dressed in barbaric splendor, with Mrs. Guy the most ornate, the attorney says.

Besides the usual trappings of her tribe, which included a vivid pink headdress, the wife wore a string of gold coins as a necklace which must have been worth at least $500, according to the attorney. In addition, an Austrian kronen hung at the end of each of her tightly-woven braids.

The gypsies live "all over the United States," they told their legal adviser.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 3.

Gypsy Is "Sot" On Him

1901

Young Man Who Has a Wild Time With a Fair Romany

Janesville, Wis., April 25. — A well-known young man of this city has applied to the police for protection, as he fears he will be kidnapped.

For some days past a gypsy named Zyra has been telling fortunes here, and many people have been to consult her, among them the young man in question. After the gypsy had told his fortune, according to his story, she declared that he was hers and that she could not live without him. She cried that she loved him, and begged him to run away with her. He had a wild time leaving her, as she tried force to keep him. She vowed that members of her band would bring him back to her. She is the queen of a band of gypsies encamped on the outskirts of the city.

—Waterloo Daily Reporter, Waterloo, IA, April 25, 1901, p. 2.

Newark Soldier is Convinced By Gypsy War Will Soon End

Ohio and Alabama, 1917

One of the Newark boys at Camp Sheridan, Ala., writes a friend of a queer coincidence that happened him a few days ago. In company with a comrade they engaged a livery auto in Montgomery to show them points of interest, taking two lady friends with them as companions.

They were out in the country several miles when something happened to the machine and the chauffeur told them it would require about an hour to repair the same. The soldier boys and lady friends started on a little hike and walked about a mile and a half when they came across a gypsy camp and all had their fortunes told, the writer of the letter being last.

The soldier asked her numerous questions and finally said, "When will the war end?" "In latter November or December," replied the fortune teller. "How do you know?" inquired the soldier. "Just as I know that the driver of your auto is lying under his machine back in the road, dead," replied the gypsy.

They hurried back to where they had left their car, the young women almost hysterical and the soldiers doubtful. There was the chauffeur under the car and life was extinct, as foretold by the gypsy. An examination proved that he died from apoplexy.

The young Newark soldier vouches for the truth of the story and is now convinced, although never a believer that some people are gifted with second sight.

—The Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, Ohio, Nov. 10, 1917, p. 6.

Gypsy Girl Bride Held for Ransom

1920

Father Gives Her Up When Hubby Pays $500

This is Romany Custom, Explains Parent

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The kidnapping of Mrs. Lena Stevens from her home in Cleveland by her father, who held her from her young husband for $500 ransom, has been explained. Instead of finding a villainous parent, Newark detectives learned of a gypsy custom which made the "ransom" legitimate.

George Stevens married Lena Judson, a gypsy, about a year ago. They hit the gypsy trail by automobile, slept outdoors, cooked their meals in the fields and enjoyed a prolonged honeymoon.

Father Starts on Their Trail

Through a mysterious channel Ephraim Judson, the father of the bride, heard that his son-in-law was mistreating his daughter. So he set out to find the couple. When he found them he discovered that the reports were false and had been spread by a rival for the girl's hand.

Judson then demanded $500. He said he had spent this amount of money in ascertaining that his son-in-law was the right kind of husband. Stevens promised to pay, and the couple returned to their Cleveland home.

But the money was not forthcoming, and a week or two ago Mrs. Stevens disappeared. The husband told the police, and they decided it was a case of kidnapping when he showed a letter asking $500 for the return of his wife. Stevens searched and finally found her at her father's home in this city.

Both Wait for $500

Judson explained the circumstances of the "kidnapping," and the son-in-law wired his father in Cleveland to send him $500, so he could get his bride.

The police found the young husband living with the gypsies in a small store in Newark, New Jersey. He explained that his father-in-law, by gypsy custom, was entitled to the $500.

So Stevens is in Newark, hoping his father will send him the $500, while Mrs. Stevens is in New York, hoping her father gets the $500. And husband and wife are hoping to be reunited soon.

The Outcast Gypsy

1910

Now the Modern Ishmael Among Civilized Nations

England and the United States Now Turned Against Them — Efforts to Induce Them to Settle Down Unavailing

Washington. — Everywhere throughout the civilized world the hand of mankind seems to be raised against the gypsies. The last two refuges to which they betook themselves — the United States and England — have set their faces against them. Hereafter in England they are to be treated like common vagrants, without visible means of support, while in the United States the immigration laws serve to debar them as idle and dangerous nomads.

France decided some years ago that the gypsy was a public menace and, in the summary fashion of the republic when it makes up its mind to a thing, expelled him as relentlessly as it has expelled the monks.

Germany, which is a grim manufacturing establishment, after all, simply ordered its thousands of sentinels along its bayoneted border to turn back every gypsy who showed his nose at the line.

Wrathful and perplexed, the Romany moved on to Belgium; but hostile bayonets met them there. Desperate, for they hate water like so many wildcats, they took to the canals of placid Holland. But the phlegmatic Dutchmen, every tradition of their plodding industry outraged at sight of the gay wanderers, drove them out again.

Meanwhile, the Balkans, where the gypsy has ever roamed as free as any other bird of prey, have begun to feel the call of settled prosperity — if Balkan politics will ever give agriculture its chance — that attends the lowing kine and the importation of American reapers and binders. Sheep stealers and horse swindlers are impressing the fiery-souled mountaineers less than they used to, and the bars are being steadily raised against the gypsy, on the ground that he is a common tramp, who contributes nothing to the country and deserves nothing from it.

Transylvania, time out of mind, has been the gypsy's native heath. The hills and caves let him live the life of the early troglodyte, and the industrious among the population afforded him sustenance. But all Romany can't subsist on the loot of Transylvania, and Hungary and Austria received the first overflow.

Maria Theresa a hundred and fifty years ago had a brilliant idea for squelching the dangerous nomads. She provided dowries for all gypsy maidens who would marry her Austrian subjects. It was the most popular move any empress ever made, especially with the gypsy maidens.

They applied for the dowries in beautiful, bridal droves; got them; and ran off with their gypsy husbands and lovers day after day, until Maria Theresa concluded that gypsy maidens were likely to prove unprofitable investments.

Emperor Joseph II thought he had them fixed forever when he gave them houses and lands, seed, grain and farming implements. The seeds were promptly eaten; the houses became horse stables; the implements were sold, and the owners moved on.

There are believed to be 300,000 of them in Austria and Hungary still; 100,000 in Turkey; 150,000 in Russia; 200,000 in Spain and Portugal; 50,000 in Italy; 10,000 in the United States, and several thousand in South America, to whose broad pampas and rich plantations their nomad fancy has been turning for some years past. In all, the whole race of gypsies, as known to the white nations, numbers fewer than a million; and the whole mass of them is forever moving on.

The great traveler and ethnologist, Sir Richard Burton, whose translation of the Arabian Nights has immortalized him, is one of the few genuinely scientific men who have studied the origins of the gypsies in a genuinely scientific manner. He does not condemn them utterly, and is at pains to note that the race has, at times, produced men of real distinction. He quotes the families of the Hungarian Hunyadis, the Russian Tolstoys, the Scotch Melvilles, the Cassilis and the Contis in Franca under Louis XIV, and the famous gypsy chief, Thomas Pulgar, who, in 1496, gave Bishop Sigismund the help he needed to beat back the Turkish invader from Europe.

How to Find Out Whom Any Given Person Will Marry

1876

It doesn't require any astrologer, or medium, or gipsy with a dirty pack of cards. It is very simple, lies in a nutshell, and can be expressed in a very few words.

The plan is this. If a girl expresses a fondness for majestic men with large whiskers, make up your mind that she will marry a very small man with none. If she declares that "mind" is all she looks for, expect to see her stand before the altar with a very pretty fellow who has just sense enough to tie a cravat bow. If, on the contrary, she declares she must have a handsome husband, look about for the plainest person in the circle of her acquaintance, and declare "that is the man," for it will be.

Men are almost as bad. The gentleman who desires a wife with a mind and mission marries a lisping baby, who screams at a sight of a mouse, and hides her face when she hears a sudden knock at the door. And the gentleman who dreaded anything like strong-mindedness, exults in the fact that his wife is everything he detested. If a girl says of one, "Marry him! I'd rather die!" look upon the affair as settled, and expect cards to the wedding of these two people. If a man remarks of a lady, "Not my style at all," await patiently the appearance of his name in the matrimonial column in connection with that lady's. And, if any two people declare themselves "friends, and nothing more," you may know what will come next.

Gypsy Is Identified by Alleged Victim

1920

Blacksmith Says Woman "Blessed" Away His Bank Roll.

LINCOLN, Neb. — William Dunagan, of Roca, a little village near Lincoln, has identified a young gypsy mother as the woman who "blessed away" $248 of his bank roll in Roca last fall.

Mr. Dunagan is a blacksmith and alleges that the gypsy woman was one of a party riding in eight automobiles that stopped in Roca to have one of the machines repaired.

After he had repaired the car, he says, the woman "blessed him" and took all of the money he had on his person.


20-Cent Tax for Bachelors

Ohio Town Wants Single Men to Pay Sum Monthly

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. — Unmarried men who pay no municipal taxes may be taxed at a rate of about 20 cents a month. A measure including that provision was reported favorably by the city council and is being considered by the mayor's advisory board. It was estimated such a tax would net the city $192,000 annually.

Walt Whitman Remembered, Some Hurt Feelings

1907

WALT WHITMAN'S COMMERCIALISM.

Charles Godfrey Leland told the following story of Walt Whitman:

"When my book on the gypsies appeared, I, knowing that it would interest him, gave him a copy, in which I had written a short complimentary poem, and, mindful of the great and warm gratitude which he had declared regarding my brother Henry, I asked him if he would not write for me a few original verses, though it were only a couplet, in the copy of 'Leaves of Grass' which he had sent to my brother. His reply was a refusal, at which I should not have felt hurt, had it been gently worded or civilly-evasive, but his reply was to the effect that he never did anything of the kind, except for money. His exact words then were, 'Sometimes when a fellow says to me. "Walt, here's ten or five dollars — write me a poem for it," I do so.' And then, seeing a look of disappointment or astonishment in my face, he added: 'But I will give you my photograph and autograph,' which he did."

Gypsy Kept House In Big Sewer Pipe

Chicago, 1901

KEPT HOUSE IN A BIG SEWER PIPE.

For four months Hiram Mourie, a gypsy, has lived in an iron culvert pipe at 107th street, Chicago. The pipe, with its queer household effects, has been lying beside the Calumet River Railroad. It was eighteen feet long and nearly four feet in diameter. In this queer iron house Mourie kept his bedding, cooking utensils, mirrors, hunting traps and fishing nets. He was greatly distressed when be was compelled to vacate his abode and looked on in sadness while it was rolled away by a gang of workmen, who imbedded it under the railroad tracks, where it will serve as a culvert for the drainage of water.

Mourie said he found the iron pipe a very cozy and comfortable home during the winter's cold. Mourie, with a band of gypsies, arrived in Chicago last fall. He sold a mustang pony belonging to the chief of the band and squandered the money. For this offense he was forced out of the camp. It was then that he sought refuge in the big iron pipe, where he lived until ousted by the workmen.

—Before July 6, 1901

Boy Rescued From Gypsies, Now of Unsound Mind

New York, 1908

Leonard Allen, Rescued from Gypsies, Runs Away Again — His Mother's Plaint.

Mrs. Mary Allen, of 14½ Union street, whose son, Leonard, was recently recovered from a gypsy camp at Fall River, Mass., called at the Times-Press office Friday and stated that the boy has again disappeared and she asked the aid of this paper in locating him. Mrs. Allen states that her son is of unsound mind and that she will not be at rest until he is committed to a State Hospital.

Leonard Allen, the weak-minded son of Mrs. Mary E. Allen, who wandered away from their home at 14½ Union street, Friday morning, was found late that afternoon on North street near the city limits. Mrs. Allen will take some steps to have him committed to an institution.

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, New York, April 14, 1908.


Fear of Gypsies Makes Boy Insane

Middletown, N. Y., May 22. — Seized with the fear that he would again be carried away by gypsies, Leonard Allen, fifteen years old, of this city, has become insane. He seized a large knife and threatened to kill his mother, Mrs. Mary Allen, a widow. The boy was committed to the Middletown State hospital. In August, 1906, young Allen, a healthy, rugged fellow, was taken away from this city by a band of gypsies. On March 18 last the boy was found at Fall River, Mass., | the police of that city having rescued him from gypsies.

—Distributed wire article


Told His Story Against Gypsies

Leonard Allen, the fourteen-year-old son of Mrs. Mary Allen, of 14½ Union street, who went to Fall River, Mass., the first of the month to give testimony before the grand jury against the Stanley gypsies, who took him away from Middletown two years ago, and were afterwards arrested for ill treating him at Fall River, returned to town Saturday noon, having been brought, back by Capt. Connor of the Fall River police force, who came here after him.

Young Allen was taken back the Middletown State Hospital, to which he had been committed after making an attempt on the life of his mother with a butcher knife.

—Orange County Times-Press, June 23, 1908, page 2.

Passing of the Gypsy

1896

Romany Ryes Gradually Disappearing From the Haunts of Man.

The gradual disappearance and extinction of that picturesque vagabond, the genuine, simon pure gypsy, has caused much comment, but the reason for the dying out of the old race is somewhat difficult to find. There are probably more roving, wandering vagabonds in the world today than ever before, but a real Romany is seldom found even in England, where he formerly flourished. In this country real gypsies were never numerous and are today less so than ever before. They are occasionally met with, but the bands are either very small, or are composed of horse trading scamps and fortune telling "fakirs," who have not a drop of the Romany blood in their veins.

In the old days the gypsy impressed himself and his personality on the literature and the art of the countries in which he roamed. It was a poor novel that did not introduce a gypsy fortune teller, and a poor play that did not have at least one child stolen by gypsies, while the artists fairly reveled in studies and sketches of gypsy maidens. But the gypsies of today do not indulge in any child stealing proclivities, although they occasionally make a "bluff" at telling fortunes. As for the children, they usually have enough of their own not to bother their heads and risk their liberty by stealing those of other people.

A band of gypsies which appeared in the province of Quebec the other day actually tried to sell their own children, arguing that times were so poor that they were no longer able to provide for the little ones. So it can readily be seen that the day of the gypsy is past. If he ever had any usefulness, he has long ago outlived it. — Troy Times.

Gypsy Oracle Arranges Ego Transference for Brothers As One Dies

1901

CHANGED SOULS AT DEATH-BED

Queer Story Comes From Budapest

Evidence Bears Out the Fact that Something Queer Was Done But it is Believed by Experts that it Was a Hypnotic Trick

BUDAPEST, Dec. 28. — Vienna is not to be outdone by Paris in the production of remarkable canards.

Last week Paris correspondents recording the resurrecting of the dead in leading Paris hospitals. Today we have, perhaps, an even more absorbing story here.

How far it is true I cannot say, but the old philosophers averred the performance recorded here was a matter of no uncommon occurrence in ancient Egypt.

From a small village in the neighborhood of Budapest comes the following remarkable story:

"The horrors of the death-bed have apparently been added to in a new and unexpected manner and the question of the raising of the dead has assumed a new phase.

"Modern surgery has hitherto stopped at the limits of the physical being and has been content to consider the transfusion of blood as the greatest miracle which it was capable of accomplishing.

"An old and wealthy Czech named Rageli, had two sons, Rudolph and Jean, and the latter, who was his favorite, lay at the point of death. In his despair over the threatened loss of his favorite son Rageli had recourse to the assistance of a well known gypsy oracle and between these two a plot was arranged, it is alleged, which will possibly send both of the plotters to the gallows. Rageli betrayed to the oracle the fact that his distress would have been minimized if it had been his other son's life which was attacked by disease as his whole hope was based upon the assistance of his younger son Jean.

The oracle at once saw a way to enrich himself and lessen the distress of Rageli, and told him that if he desired to have such a plan consummated it would be possible for him at the critical moment when death was taking place to bring about a transference of egos so that the soul of his favorite son could be transferred to the healthy organism of his brother whilst the latter's would assume the place of the one which left the defunct body.

In order to accomplish this mysterious feat the gypsy claimed that the brother must absolutely be present.

"There was no difficulty whatever in bringing such an arrangement about, as Rudolph naturally desired to be at the bedside of his brother at such a solemn occasion as his death. The gypsy oracle was there, of course, for the avowed purpose of trying to prevent the fatal catastrophe.

"What weird scene actually transpired in that remarkable death chamber no earthly tongue has yet told and but for the strange stories which have floated out of the quiet village to the world beyond the gossiping of peasants and chatter of servants, nothing would ever have come to light, for those who made the guilty compact are naturally silent on the subject.

"Both of the brothers were married and it is to this fact that the really tangible evidence which has been found in support of the extraordinary story has been forthcoming.

"The brothers were both affectionate, devoted and faithful husbands, and among the many freaks attributed to Rudolph since his brother's death is that he has deserted his own wife and is now living with the widow of his brother, showing the most passionate devotion for one another.

"In reply to the expostulations of his wife Rudolph solemnly avers that although he retains the outward semblance of his former self he is in reality Jean.

"This story, which was at first received with ridicule by the villagers and servants, has been coupled with the fact that the old gypsy was around the Rageli house so much at the termination of the younger son's illness and his well founded reputation as a sorcerer has furnished the necessary link in this most sensational story.

"To add to the mystery of the situation the old father has shut himself up in his lonely mansion and refuses to see anybody. The servants aver that he is haunted by the spirit of Rudolph, which is trying by every means in its power to avenge the diabolical act that caused its disembodiment in favor of Jean.

"They aver and state themselves as being willing to bear witness to the fact and ready to face any court of law, that they have seen the apparition of Rudolph a dozen times in the old chateau since the death of Jean and that its countenance is so disfigured by hatred and despair that it resembles a fiend more than it does the only happy brother.

"Another rumor credits Jean with being so horrified by the strange tales which are afloat and which so peculiarly corroborate his own belief that he acts at times like a demented person.

"The rustic population are firm believers in the supernatural and it is difficult to find any of them who do not firmly believe the story.

"Their superstitions are so firmly rooted that they would not dare to molest the gypsy or the elder Rageli, although it is said that the police have investigated the case under the belief that the stories which have gone abroad were only a cover invented to hide a murder growing out of jealousy on the part of the brothers over the love of Jean's wife.

"They have abandoned the murder theory, however, and are at a loss to know how they can possibly take any action in the strange matter.

Psychologists say the changes of identity, or the transposition of egos are by no means impossible and that many well authenticated cases of such happenings have been recorded.

"These, however, have always been accidental so far as the record shows.

"Hindu fakirs, who claim to be able to withdraw their own egos from their bodies and traverse space at will say that one of the principal dangers with which they have to contend in these experiments is the possibility that some disembodied ego may attempt to establish itself in their own physical shells whilst they are absent from them.

"This is the supreme danger they apprehend when passing into what Western people call the trance state.

"There are many cases on record familiar to every newspaper reader in which living persons have been other than themselves for a number of years, afterward again assuming their own identity. It seems possible that these may have been due to the transference of egos.

"Some of the more thoughtful persons here who have devoted their attentions to the subject do not hesitate to aver their belief that Rudolph was hypnotized by the old magician at the time of his brother's death and made to believe that he was Jean so that the old magician could obtain money from his father.

"This would not, according to the hypnotic authorities, be at all an impossible feat and therefore there may be truth in the main part of the story to the effect that Rudolph and the father had been led into such a remarkable delusion." — VALERIE DELAMAR.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, December 29, 1901, page 16.

Gypsies Progress: Use Autos, Not Covered Wagons

1922

GYPSIES TRAVEL IN AUTOS

Wanderers No Longer Use Covered Wagons to Travel In.

Tuesday evening some Lincoln people returning from Crete in an automobile passed a caravan of gypsies who seemed anxious to learn if they were out of Lancaster county. The caravan was made up of three trucks and two touring cars, for now it is unusual to see gypsies traveling by the slow horse and wagon method. Officers reported that the caravan passed thru Lincoln early Tuesday evening and was about the first that has been seen this spring.

These transients are unwelcome visitors according to police officials of Lincoln, and during the past few years every legal power has been employed to make their stay as short as possible. Before the war it was uncommon to see these restless children of the great outdoors touring about in automobiles and during the war they practically ceased their wanderings. With the coming of peace, however, they once more took up their ceaseless wandering, but as tho during their period of inactivity they had learned some modern ideas, it is now a rare thing to see the real gypsy traveling in the old covered wagon.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 7, 1922, page 7.

Gertrude May Have Been Stolen by Gypsies

Indiana, 1909
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Northern Indiana News and Gossip (only pieces of the column follow)

Gertrude, the 7-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dan Austin, near Mishawaka, has been missing for several days and it is feared she has been stolen by a band of gypsies encamped near the place.

Mrs. Michael Gray, of Bluffton, was arrested and fined for whipping the child of a neighbor.

Mrs. R. A. Brown, of Huntington, who has been spending the summer at Northport, Mich., was attacked by a large bald eagle a few days ago, but succeeded in beating the huge bird of before it had inflicted more than a few scratches upon her.

When Steven Cotton, a Wells county farmer, was stricken by heart trouble and sank unconscious in the field where he was plowing Thursday, his faithful dog summoned assistance by running to the Cotton home and barking, then darting back to the field where his master lay. Mrs. Cotton went to her husband's assistance and he soon revived.

George Young, for sixteen years proprietor of a meat market at Huntington, has sold out to Louis Diffenbaugh, who is moving the fixtures of the establishment to Fort Wayne.

Peter Flum, 89 years of age, died Saturday at his home northwest of Osslan. He was a pioneer resident of Wells county, having located there in 1849, and was widely known.

The ax used by J. Henney, an Avilla liveryman in splitting wood, struck a clothesline, was deflected and cut an extensive gash in Mr. Henney's scalp that required five stitches to close.

Major N.N. Boydston claims the distinction of being the only resident of Warsaw to unfurl the American flag on Thursday in honor of the discovery of the north pole by Dr. Frederick Cook.

--Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, September 8, 1909, page 11 (partial).