Gipsy Life: Being an account of our Gipsies and their children, with suggestions for their improvementSmith, George
History
Gipsy Life: Being an account of our Gipsies and their children, with suggestions for their improvement
Smith, George
Romanies -- Great Britain
The following is a wail of their own, taken from Smart and Crofton, and
will show that the Gipsies themselves do not think tent life is so
delightful, happy, and free as has been pictured in the imaginative brain
of novel writers, whose knowledge has been gained by visiting the Gipsies
as they have basked on the grassy banks on a hot summer day, surrounded
by the warbling songsters and rippling brooks of water, as clear as
crystal, at their feet, sending forth dribbling sounds of enchantment to
fall upon musical ears, touching the cords of poetic affection and lyric
sympathy:—“Now, mates, be quick. Put your tent up. Much rain will come
down, and snow, too—we shall all die to-night of cold; and bring
something to make a good fire, too. Put the tent down well, much wind
will come this night. My children will die of cold. Put all the rods in
the ground properly to make it stand well. The poor children cry for
food. My God! what shall I do to give them food to eat? I have nothing
to give them. They will die without food.”
My object in this part will be to deal with the Gipsy question in a hard,
matter of fact way, both as regards their present condition and the only
remedy by which they are to be improved. No one believes in the power of
the Gospel more than I do as to its being able to rescue the very dregs
of society from misery and wretchedness; but in the case of the Gipsies
and canal-boatmen they cannot be got together so as to be brought under
its influence. Their darkness, ignorance, and flitting habits, prevent
them either reading about Jesus or being brought within the magic spell
of the Gospel. When once the Gipsy children have learned to read and
write I shall then have more faith in the power of God’s truth reaching
the hearts of the Gipsies and producing better results.
The following letter has been handed to me by the uncle, to show what a
little, dark-eyed Gipsy girl of twelve years of age can do.
Notwithstanding all its faults it is a credit to the little beauty,
especially if it is taken into consideration that she has had no father
to teach her, and she has chiefly been her own schoolmaster and mistress.
She is the only one who can read and write in a large family. Her books
have been sign-boards, guide-posts, and mile-stones, and her light the
red glare of a coke fire. I give the letter to show two things; first,
that there is a strong desire among the poor Gipsy children for
education; second, that there is that mental calibre about the Gipsy
children of the present generation that only requires fostering,
handling, educating, and caring for as other children are to produce in
the next generation a class of people of whom no country need be ashamed.
They will be equal to stand shoulder to shoulder with other labouring
classes.
(Copy of envelope.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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