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
Rather than the cause of the children should suffer by presenting garbled
or one-sided statements, I purpose quoting the letters and articles upon
the subject as they have appeared. To do otherwise would not be fair to
the authors or just to the cause I have in hand. The flattering
allusions and compliments relating to my humble self I am not worthy of,
and I beg of those who take an interest in the cause of the little ones,
and deem this book worthy of their notice, to pass over them as though
such compliments were not there. The following are some of the letters
that have appeared in the _Standard_ in reply to mine of the 14th
instant. “B. B.” writes on August 16th:—“Would you allow an Irish Gipsy
to express his views touching George Smith’s letter of this date in your
paper? Without in the least desiring to warp his efforts to improve any
of his fellow-creatures, it seems to me that the poor Gipsy calls for
much less sympathy, as regards his moral and social life, than more
favoured classes of the community. Living under the body of an old cart,
‘within the sound of church bells,’ in the midst of grass, sticks, and
stones, by no means argues moral degradation; and if your correspondent
looks up our criminal statistics he will not find one Gipsy registered
for every five hundred criminals who have not only been within hearing of
the church bells but also listening to the preacher’s voice. It should
be remembered that the poor Gipsy fulfils a work which is a very great
convenience to dwellers in out-of-the-way places—brushes, baskets, tubs,
clothes-stops, and a host of small commodities, in themselves apparently
insignificant, but which enable this tribe to eke out a living which
compares very favourably with the hundreds of thousands in our large
cities who set the laws of the land as well as the laws of decency at
defiance. As to education—well, let them get it, if possible; but it
will be found they possess, as a rule, sufficient intelligence to
discharge the duties of farm-labourers; and already they are beginning to
supply a felt want to the agriculturist whose educated assistant leaves
him to go abroad.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account