of the tents, on a common just outside London, with her throat cut and
her child lying dead by her side in a pool of blood, and the man with
whom she cohabited--true to his Gipsy character--refused to answer any
questions concerning this horrible affair. An impression has gone the
round for years that the Gipsies are exceedingly kind and affectionate to
their children, in some instances it, no doubt, is true, but they are
rare indeed if I may judge from appearances. I have yet to learn that
starvation, allowing their children to grow up infinitely worse than
barbarians, subjecting them to fearful oaths and curses, and inflicting
upon the poor children blows with sticks, used with murderous passion, to
within an inch of their lives, exhibits much of the lamb-like spirit,
dove-like innocence, and childish simplicity fiction would picture to our
minds concerning these English barbarians as they camp on the mossy banks
on a hot summer day. In the presence of myself and a friend one of these
lawless fellows very recently hurled a log of wood at a poor Gipsy
child's head for an offence which we could not learn, farther than it was
for a trifling affair; fortunately, it missed the poor child's head, or
death must have been the result. In visiting an encampment last autumn I
came across six Gipsy children having their dinner off three small boiled
turnips, and drinking the water as broth; the eldest girl, although
dressed in rags, was going to sit the same afternoon for a leading artist
upon a throne as a Spanish queen. In another part of London--Mary
Place--I found a family of Gipsies living under sticks and rags in the
most filthy, sickening, and disgusting backyard I have ever been into--to
such an extent was the stench that immediately I came out of it I had to
get a little brandy or I should have fainted--the eldest girl of whom had
her time pretty fully taken up by sitting as an artist's model in the
costume of a peasant girl, sometimes gathering buttercups and daisies, at
other times gathering roses and making button-holes for gentlemen's coats
and placing them there with gentle hands and a smiling face; occasionally
she would be painted as a country milk-girl driving the cows to pasture;
at other times as a young lady playing at croquet on the lawn and
gambolling with children. What a contrast, what a delusion! from rags to
silks and satins; from a filthy abode not fit for pigs to a palace; from
turnips and diseased bacon to wine and biscuits; from beds of rotten
straw to crimson and gold-covered chairs; from trampling among dead cats
to a carpet composed of wild flowers; from "Get out you wretch and fetch
some money, no matter how," to "Come here, my dear, is there anything I
can do for you?" from the stench of a cesspool to the fragrance of the
honeysuckle and sweetbriar, in one word, from hell to heaven all in an
hour--such is one side of Gipsy life among the little Gipsies, not one of
whom can read a sentence or write one word, and it is in this way Gipsy
girls are found exposing their bodies to keep their big, healthy brothers
and fathers at home in idleness and sin. Two such Gipsy girls have come
under my own notice, and no doubt there are scores of similar cases.
Gipsy children are fond of a great degree of heat, and sometimes lie so
near to the coke fires as to be in danger of burning. I have seen them
with their faces as red as if they were upon the point of being roasted,
and yet they can bear to travel in the severest cold bare-headed, with no
other covering than some old rags carelessly thrown over them. The cause
of their bodily qualities, at least some of them, arises from their
education and hardy manner of life. Formerly the Gipsies, when there was
less English blood in their veins, could stand the extreme changes and
hardships of the English climate much better than now. An Englishman,
notwithstanding the fact that he has let go all moral and social respect
and restraint over his conduct and joined the Gipsies, does not, and
cannot, thrive and look well under their manner of living, and this I see
more and more every day. I have been struck very forcibly lately in
visiting some of the hordes of Gipsies with the vast number of children
the Gipsies bring into the world and the few that are reared. At one
encampment there were forty men and women and only about the same number
of children to be seen. At another encampment I found double the
quantity of children to adult Gipsies.
[Picture: A top bedroom in a Gipsy's van for man, wife, and three
children, the sons and daughters sleeping underneath]
No one can deny the fact that some of the children look well, but, on the
other hand, a vast number look quite the reverse of this, pictures of
starvation, neglect, bad blood, and cruelty. An Englishman is born for a
nobler purpose than to lead a vagabond's life and end his days in
scratching among filth and vermin in a Gipsy's wigwam, consequently, upon
those of our own countrymen who have forsaken the right path, the sin
attending such a course is dogging them at every footstep they take. I
don't lay at the door of their wigwam the sin of child-stealing, but this
I have seen, _i.e._, many strange-looking children in their tents without
the least shadow of a similarity to the adults in either habits,
appearance, manner, or conversation. Some of the poor things seemed shy
and reserved, and quite out of their element. Sometimes the thought has
occurred to me that they were the children of sin, and put out of the way
to escape shame being painted upon the back of their parents. Sometimes
my pity for the poor things has led me to put a question or two bearing
upon the subject to the Gipsies, and the answer has been, "The poor
things have lost their father and mother." When I have asked if the
fathers and mothers were Gipsies a little hesitation was manifested, and
the subject dropped with no satisfactory answer to my mind. I have my
own idea about the matter.
The hardships the women have to undergo are most heartrending. The
mother, in order to procure a morsel of food, takes her three months' old
child either in her arms or on her back, and wanders the streets or lanes
in foul or fair weather--in heat or cold. Some of them have told me that
they walk on an average over twelves miles a day. They are the
bread-winners. I have seen them on their return to their wigwams, in the
depth of winter, with six inches of snow on the ground, and scantily
clad, and with six little children crying round them for bread. No fire
in the tent, and her husband idling about in other tents. In cases of
confinements, the men have to do something, or they would all starve.
For a few days they wake up out of their idle dreams. I know of Gipsy
women who have trudged along with their loads, and their children at
their heels, to within the last five minutes of their confinement. The
children were literally born under the hedge bottom, and without any tent
or protection whatever. A Gipsy woman told me a week or two since that
her mother had told her that she was born under the hedge bottom in
Bagworth Lane, in Leicestershire. When I questioned her on the subject,
she rather gloried in the fact that they had not time to stick the
tent-sticks into the ground. This kind of disgraceful procedure is not
far removed from that of animals. I should think that I am speaking
within compass when I state that two-thirds of the Gipsies travelling
about the country have been born under what they call the "hedge bottom,"
_i.e._, in tents and like places. The Gipsy women use no cradles; the
child, as a rule, sleeps on the ground. When a boy attains three years
of age, so says Hoyland, the rags he was wrapped in are thrown on one
side, and he is equally exposed with the parents to the severest weather.
He is then put to trial to see how far his legs will carry him. Clayton
told me that when he was a boy of about twelve, his father sent him into
the town and among the villages--with no other covering upon him only a
piece of an old shirt--to bring either bread or money home, no matter
how.
Among some of the State projects put forth in Hungary more than a century
since to improve the condition of the Gipsies, the following may be
mentioned: (1) They were prohibited from dwelling in huts and tents, from
wandering up and down the country, from dealing in horses, from eating
animals which died of themselves and carrion. (2) They were to be called
New Boors instead of Gipsies, and they were not to converse in any other
language but that of any of the countries in which they chose to reside.
(3) After some months from the passing of the Act, they were to quit
their Gipsy manner of life and settle, like the other inhabitants, in
cities or villages, and to provide themselves with suitable and proper
clothing. (4) No Gipsy was allowed to marry who could not prove himself
in a condition to provide for and maintain a wife and children. (5) That
from such Gipsies who were married and had families, the children should
be taken away by force, removed from their parents, relations, or
intercourse with the Gipsy race, and to have a better education given to
them. At Fahlendorf, in Schutt, and in the district of Prassburg, all
the children of the New Boors (Gipsies) above five years old were carried
away in waggons on the night of the twenty-first of December, 1773, by
overseers appointed for that purpose, in order, that, at a distance from
their parents or relations, they might be more usefully educated and sent
to work. (6) They were to be taught the principles of religion, and
their children educated. Their children were prohibited running about
their houses, streets, or roads naked, and they were not to be allowed to
sleep promiscuously by each other without distinction of sex. (7) They
were enjoined to attend church regularly, and to give proof of their
Christian disposition, and they were not to wear large cloaks, which were
chiefly used to hide the things they had stolen. (8) They were to be
kept to agriculture, and were only to be permitted to amuse themselves
with music when their day's work was finished. (9) The magistrates at
every place were to be very attentive to see that no Gipsy wasted his
time in idleness, and whoever was remiss in his work was to be liable to
corporal punishment.
All these suggestions and plans of operation may not suit English life;
be that as it may, they were suitable to the condition of the Hungarian
Gipsies, and no doubt laid the foundation for the improvement that has
taken place among them. The Hungarian Gipsies are educated, and are
tillers of the soil. If a plan similar in some respects had been carried
out with our Gipsies at the same period, we should not by this time have
had a Gipsy-tent in the country, or an uneducated Gipsy in our land.
What a different aspect would have presented itself ere this, if the
5,000 Gipsies among us had been tilling our waste lands and commons for
the last century. With proper management, these 5,000 Gipsy men could
have bought and kept under cultivation some 20,000 acres of land for the
well-being of themselves and for the good of the country. There is
neglect, indifference, and apathy somewhere. The blame will lay heavily
upon some one when the accounts are made up.
It is appalling and humiliating to think that we, as a Christian nation,
should have had in our midst for more than three centuries 15,000 to
20,000 poor ignorant Asiatic heathens, naturally sharp and clever, and
next to nothing being done to reclaim them from their worse than midnight
darkness. A heavy sin and responsibility lays at our doors. Take away
John Bunyan, a few of the Smiths, Palmers, Lovells, Lees, Hearns,
Coopers, Simpsons, Boswells, Eastwoods, Careys, Roberts, &c., and what do
we find?--a black army of human beings who have done next to
nothing--comparatively speaking--for the country's good. They have
cadged at our doors, lived on our commons, worn our roads, been fed from
our tables, sent their paupers to our workhouses, their idiots to our
asylums, and not contributed one farthing to their maintenance and
support. Rates and taxes are unknown to them. There is only one
instance of them paying rates for their vans, and that is at Blackpool.
It is a black, burning shame and disgrace to see herds of healthy-looking
girls and great strapping youths growing up in ignorance and idleness,
not so much as exerting themselves to wash the filth off their bodies or
make anything better than skewers. Their highest ambition is to learn
slang, roll in the ditch, spread small-pox and fevers, threaten
vengeance, and carry out revenge upon those who attempt to frustrate
their evil designs. Excepting skewers, clothes-pegs, and a few other
little things of this kind, they have not manufactured anything; the
highest state of perfection they have arrived at is to be able to make
and tie up a bundle of skewers, split a clothes-peg, tinker a kettle,
mend a chair, see-saw on an old fiddle, rap their knuckles on a
tambourine, clatter about with their feet, tickle the guitar, and make a
squeaking noise through their teeth, that fiction and romance call
singing. The most that can be said in their favour is, that a few of
them have become respectable Christians and hard-working men and women,
and have done something for the country's good--and whose fault is it
that there are not more? They have been the agents of hell, working out
Satan's designs, and we have stood by laughing and admiring their
so-called pretty faces, scarlet cloaks, and "witching eyes." For the
life of me I can find no more bewitching beauty among them than can be
found in our back slums any day, circumstances considered--and where does
the blame lay?--upon our own shoulders for not paying more attention to
the education and welfare of their children. It is truly horrible to
think that we have had 15,000 to 20,000 young and old Gipsies at work,
carrying out the designs of the infernal regions at the tip end of the
roots of our national life, vigour, and Christianity.
Only the other day the country was much shocked, and rightly so, at a
hundred poor Russian emigrants landing upon our shores; and yet we have
two hundred times this quantity of Gipsies among us, and we quietly stand
by and take no notice of their wretched condition. The time will come,
and that speedily, when we shall have the scales taken off our eyes, and
the thin, flimsy veil of romance torn to shreds. Sitting by and admiring
their "pretty faces" and "witching eyes" will not save their souls,
educate their children, or put them in the way of earning an honest
livelihood. It is not pity--whining, sycophantic pity--alone that will
do them good. The Rev. Mr. Cobbin's Gipsy's petition, written fifty
years ago,
"Oh! ye who have tasted of mercy and love,
And shared in the blessings of pardoning grace,
Let us the kind fruits of your tenderness prove,
And pity, oh! pity, the poor Gipsy race."
has been little better than beating the air, and it may be repeated a
thousand times, but if nothing further is done more than "pity," the
Gipsies will be worse off in fifty years hence than they are now, nor
will presenting to them bread, cheese, ale, blankets, stockings, and a
dry sermon, as Mr. Crabb did half a century ago, render them permanent
help. We must do as the eagle does with her young: we must cause a
little fluster among them, so that they may begin to flounder for
themselves. Take them up, turn them out, and teach them to use their own
wings, and the schoolmaster and sanitary officers are the agencies to do
it. The men are clever and can get money sufficient to keep their
families comfortable even at skewer-making and chair-mending, &c., if
they will only work. All the police-officer must do will be to take
charge of those who prefer to fall to the ground rather than to struggle
for life with its attendant pleasures and enjoyments. The State has
taken in hand a more dangerous class--perhaps the most dangerous--in
India, viz., the Thugs, and is teaching them useful trades and honest
industry with most encouraging results. Before the Government tackled
them, they were idling, loafing, rambling, and robbing all over the
country, alike to our Gipsies; now they have settled down and become
useful and good citizens. In Norway the Gipsies are put into prison, and
there kept till they have learnt to read and write. In Hungary the
Government has appointed a special Minister to look after them, and see
that they are being properly educated and brought up. In Russia, the
laws passed for their imprisonment has had the effect of causing them, to
a great extent, to settle down to useful trades, and they are forming
themselves into colonies. And so, in like manner, in Spain, Germany,
France, and other European countries, steps have been taken to bring
about an improvement among them. In these countries nearly the whole of
the Gipsies can read and write; and we, of all others, who ought to have
set the example a century ago in the way of educating the Gipsy children,
have stood by with folded arms, and let them drift into ruin. I claim it
to be our duty--and it will be to our shame if we do not--to see to the
welfare of the Gipsy children for four reasons. First, that they are
Indians, and under the rule of our noble Queen; second, that they are in
our midst, and ought to take their share of the blessings, duties, and
responsibilities pertaining to the rest of the community; third, that as
a Christian nation, professing to lead the van and to set forth the
blessings of Christianity and civilisation; and, fourth, their universal
desire for the education of their children, and to contribute their
quota, however small, to the country's good, and for the eternal welfare
of their own children; and I do not think that there will be any
objection on their part to it being brought about on the plan I have
briefly sketched out.
I fancy I can hear some of the artists who have been delighted with Gipsy
models--the novelists who have hung many a tale upon the skirts of their
garments--the dramatists who have trotted them before the curtain to
please the public, and some old-fashioned croakers, who delight in
allowing things to be as they have always been--the same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever--saying, "let everybody look after their own
children;" and then, in a plaintive tone, singing--
"Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough;
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now."
First,--I would have all movable or temporary habitations, used as
dwellings, registered, numbered, and the name and address of the owner or
occupier painted in a prominent place on the outside, _i.e._, on all
tents, Gipsy vans, auctioneers' vans, showmen's vans, and like places,
and under proper sanitary arrangements in a manner analogous to the Canal
Boats Act of 1877.
Second,--Not less than one hundred cubic feet of space for each female
above the age of twelve, and each male above the age of fourteen; and not
less than fifty cubic feet of space for each female young person under
the age of twelve, and for each male under the age of fourteen.
Third,--No male above the age of fourteen, and no female above the age of
twelve, should be allowed to sleep in the same tent or van as man and
wife, unless separate sleeping accommodation be provided for each male of
the age of fourteen, and for each female of the age of twelve; and also
with proper regard for partitions and suitable ventilation.
Fourth,--A registration certificate to be obtained, renewable at any of
the offices of the Urban or Rural sanitary authorities throughout the
country, for which the owner or occupier of the tent or van should pay
the sum of ten shillings annually, commencing on the first of January in
each year.
Fifth,--The compulsory attendance at school of all travelling children,
or others living in temporary or unrateable dwellings, up to the age
required by the Elementary Education Acts, which attendance should be
facilitated and brought about by means of a school pass-book, in which
the children's names, ages, and grade could be entered, and which
pass-book could be made applicable to children living and working on
canal-boats, and also to other wandering children. The pass-book to be
easily procurable at any bookseller's for the sum of one shilling.
Sixth,--The travelling children should be at liberty to go to either
National, British, Board, or other schools, under the management of a
properly-qualified schoolmaster, and which schoolmaster should sign the
children's pass-book, showing the number of times the children had
attended school during their temporary stay.
Seventh,--The cost for the education of these wandering children should
be paid by the guardians of the poor out of the poor rates, a proper
account being kept by the schoolmaster and delivered to the parochial
authorities quarterly.
Eighth,--Power to be given to any properly-qualified sanitary officer,
School Board visitor or inspector, to enter the tents, vans, canal-boats,
or other movable or temporary habitations, at any time or in any place,
and detain, if necessary, for the purpose of seeing that the law was
being properly carried out; and any one obstructing such officer in his
duty, and not carrying out the law, to be subject to a fine or
imprisonment for each offence.
Ninth,--It would be well if arrangements could be made with lords of
manors, the Government, or others who are owners of waste lands, to grant
those Gipsies who are without vans, and living in tents only, prior to
the act coming into force, a long lease at a nominal rent of, say, half
an acre or an acre of land, for ninety-nine years, on purpose to
encourage them to settle down to the cultivation of it, and to take to
honest industry--as many of them are prepared to do. By this means a
number of the Gipsies would collect together on the marshes and commons,
and no doubt other useful and profitable occupation would be the outcome
of the Gipsies being thus localised, and in which their children could
and would take an important part; and in addition to these things the
social and educational advantages to be reaped by following such a course
would be many.
I have not the least doubt in my mind but that if a law be passed
embodying these brief, but rough, suggestions, on the one hand, and steps
are taken to encourage them to settle down, in accordance with the idea
thrown out in clause nine, on the other, we shall not have in fifty years
hence an uneducated Gipsy in our midst. Many of the Gipsies are anxious,
I know, for some steps to be taken for the children to be brought up to
work. The operation of the present Hawkers' and Pedlars' Act is acting
very detrimental to the interests of the Gipsy children, as none are
allowed to carry a licence under the age of sixteen, consequently all
Gipsy children, except a few who assist in making pegs and skewers, are
neither going to school nor yet are they learning a trade or in fact work
of any kind; they are simply living in idleness, and under the influence
of evil training that carries mischief underneath the surface.
It is truly appalling to think that over seven hundred thousand sharp,
clever, well-formed human beings, and with plenty of muscular power,
have, as I have said before, been roaming about Europe for many centuries
with no object before them, and accomplishing nothing. Something like
ten millions of Gipsies have been born, lived, died, and gone into the
other world since they set foot upon European soil, and what have they
done? what work have they accomplished? Alas! alas! worse than a cipher
might be written against them. They have lived in the midst of beauty,
songsters, romance, and fiction, and they have been surrounded by
everything that would help to call forth natural energy, mechanical
skill, and ability, but they have been in some senses like children
playing in the street gutters. They have the elements of success within
them, but no one has taken them by the hand to put them upon the first
step, at any rate, so far as England is concerned. It is grievous to
think that not one of these ten millions of Gipsies who have gone the way
of all flesh has written a book, painted a painting, composed any poetry,
worth calling poetry, produced a minister worthy of much note--at least,
I can only hear of one or two. They have fine voices as a rule, and
except some half-dozen Gipsies no first-rate musicians have sprung from
their midst. No engineer, no mechanic--in fact, no nothing. The highest
state of their manufacturing skill has been to make a few slippers for
the feet, as some of them are doing at Lynn; skewers to stick into meat,
for which they have done nothing towards feeding; pegs to hang out other
people's linen, some tinkering, chair-bottoming, knife-grinding, and a
little light smith work, and a few have made a little money by
horse-dealing. There are others clever at "making shifts" and roadside
tents, and will put up with almost anything rather than put forth much
energy. Since the Gipsies landed in this country more than one hundred
and fifty thousand have been born, principally, as they say, "under the
hedge bottom," lived, and died. They are gone "and their works do follow
them." Their present degraded condition in this country may be laid upon
our backs.
This book, with its many faults and few virtues, is my own as in the case
of my others, and all may be laid upon my back; and my object in saying
hard and unpalatable things about the poor, ignorant Gipsy wanderers in
our midst is not to expose them to ridicule, or to cause the finger of
scorn to be pointed at them or to any one connected with them, but to try
to influence the hearts of my countrymen to extend the hand of practical
sympathy, and help to rescue the poor Gipsy children from dropping into
the vortex of ruin, as so many thousands have done before. It is not
unlikely but that I shall, in saying plain things about the Gipsies,
expose myself to some inconvenience, misrepresentation, malice, and spite
from those who would keep the Gipsies in ignorance, and also from shadow
philanthropists, who are always on the look out for other people's
brains; but these things, so long as God gives me strength, will not
deter me from doing what I consider to be right in the interest of the
children, so long as I can see the finger of Providence pointing the way,
and it is to Him I must look for the reward, "Well done," which will more
than repay me for all the inconvenience I have undergone, or may have
still to undergo, in the cause of the "little ones." That man is no real
friend to the Gipsies who seeks to improve them by flattery and
deception. A Gipsy, with all his faults, likes to be dealt fairly and
openly with--a little praise but no flattery suits him. They can
practise cunning, but they do not care to have any one practising it upon
them.
I dare not be sanguine enough to hope that I shall be successful, but I
have tried thus far to show, first, the past and present condition of the
Gipsies; second, the little we, as a nation, have done to reclaim them;
and, third, what we ought to do to improve them in the future, so as to
remove the stigma from our shoulders of having 20,000 to 30,000 Gipsies,
show people, and others living in vans, &c., in our midst, fast drifting
into heathenism and barbarism, not five per cent. of whom can read and
write, at least, so far as the Gipsies are concerned; and those children
travelling with "gingerbread" stalls, rifle galleries, and auctioneers
are but little better, for all the parents tell me their children lose in
the summer what little they learn at school in the winter, for the want
of means being adopted whereby their children could go to school during
the daytime as they are travelling through the country with their wares,
_i.e._, at their halting-places.
In bringing this book to a close, I would say, in the name of all that is
just, fair, honourable, and reasonable, in the name of science, religion,
philosophy, and humanity, and in the name of all that is Christ-like,
God-like, and heavenly, I ask, nay I claim, the attention of our noble
Queen--whose deep interest in the children of the labouring population is
unbounded--statesmen, Christians, and my countrymen to the condition of
the Gipsies and their children, whose condition is herein feebly
described, and whose cause I have ventured to take in hand, praying them
to adopt measures and to pass such laws that will wipe out the disgrace
of having so many thousands of poor, ignorant, uneducated, wretched, and
lost Gipsy children in our midst, who cannot read and write, on the
following grounds--
First. Their Indian origin, which I venture to think has been
satisfactorily proved, and over which country our Queen is the Empress;
consequently, our Gipsies ought and have as much need to be taken in hand
and their condition improved by the State as the Thugs in India have
been, with such beneficial results, a class similar in many respects to
our Gipsies.
Second. As the Government in 1877 passed an act, called "The Canal Boats
Act," dealing pretty much with the same class of people as the Gipsies
and other travelling children, they ought, in all fairness, to extend the
principle to those living in tents and vans.
Third. As small-pox, fevers, and other infectious diseases are at times
very prevalent among them--a medical officer being called in only under
the rarest occasion--and as the tents and vans are not under any sanitary
arrangements, there is, therefore, urgent need for some sort of sanitary
supervision and control to be exercised over their wretched habitations
to prevent the spread of disease in such a stealthy manner.
Fourth. As the Government took steps some three centuries ago to class
the Gipsies as rogues and vagabonds, but took no steps at the same time
to improve their condition or even to encourage them to get upon the
right paths for leading an honourable and industrious life, the time has
now come, I think, both in justice and equity, for the Government to
adopt some means to catch the young hedge-bottom "Bob Rats," and to deal
out to them measures that will Christianise and civilise them to such an
extent that the Gipsies will not in the future be deserving of the
epithets passed upon them by the Government for their sins of omission
and commission.
Fifth. By passing an Act of Parliament, as I suggest, or amending the
Canal Boats Act, in accordance with the plan I have laid down, and
embodying the suggestions herein contained, the Government will complete
the educational system and bring under the educational and sanitary laws
the lowest dregs of society, which have hitherto been left out in the
cold, to grope about in the dark as their inclinations might lead them.
Sixth. The families who are seeking a living as hawkers, show people,
&c., apart from the Gipsies, are on the increase. By travelling up and
down the country in this way they not only escape rates and taxes, but
their children are going without education, as no provision is made in
the education acts to meet cases of this kind. By bringing the Gipsy
children under the influence of the schoolmaster our law-makers will be
adding the last stroke to the system of compulsory education introduced
and carried into law through its first difficult and intricate phases by
the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., when he was at the head of the
Education Department under the Liberal Government, and through its second
stages by the Right Hon. Lord Sandon, M.P., when he was at the head of
the Education Department under the Conservative Government.
Seventh. There is an universal desire among people of the classes I have
before referred to for the education of their children, in fact, I have
not met with one exception during my inquiries, and the Gipsies will be
glad to make some sacrifices to carry it out if the Government will do
their part in the matter.
Eighth. The Gipsies and other travellers of the same kind use our roads,
locate on our commons, live in our lanes, and send their poor, halt,
maimed, and blind to our workhouses, infirmaries, and asylums, towards
the support of which they do not contribute one farthing.
Ninth. As a Christian nation professing to send the Gospel all over the
world, to preach glad tidings, peace upon earth and good-will towards men
everywhere, to take steps for the conversion of the Gipsies in India, the
African, the Chinese, the South Sea Islander, the Turk, the black, the
white, the bond, the free, in fact everywhere where an Englishman goes
the Gospel is supposed to go too, and yet--and it is with sadness,
sorrow, and shame I relate it--we have had on an average during the last
three hundred and sixty-five years not less than 15,000 Gipsies moving
among us, and not less than 150,000 have died and been buried, either
under water, in the ditches, or on the roadside, on the commons, or in
the cemeteries or churchyards, and we, as Christians of Christian
England, have not spent 150,000 pence to reclaim the adult Gipsies, or to
educate their children.
Tenth. As a civilised country we are supposed to lead the van in
civilising the world by passing the most humane, righteous, just, and
liberal laws, carrying them out on the plan of tempering justice with
mercy; but in matters concerning the interests and welfare of the Gipsies
we are, as I have shown previously, a long way in the rear. We have
passed laws to improve the condition of the agricultural labourer's
child, children working in mines, children working in factories,
performing boys, climbing boys, children working in brick-yards, children
working and living on canal-boats, and a thousand others; but we have
done nothing for the poor Gipsy child or its home. In things pertaining
to their present and eternal welfare they have asked for bread and we
have given them a stone; and they have asked for fish and we have given
them a serpent. We have allowed them to wander and lose themselves in
the dark wilds of sin and iniquity without shedding upon their path the
light of Gospel truths or the blessings of education; and to-day the
Gipsy children are dying, where thousands have died before, among the
brambles and in the thicket of bad example, ignorance, and evil training,
into which we have allowed them to stray blinded by the evil associations
of Gipsy life.
"An aged woman walks along,
Her piercing scream is on the air,
Her head and streaming locks are bare,
She sadly sobs 'My child, my child!'"
A faint voice is heard in the distance calling out--
"My dying daughter, where art thou?
Call on our gods and they shall come."
"So mote it be."
* * * * *
* * * * *
London: Printed by HAUGHTON & CO., 10, Paternoster Row, E.C.
WORKS PUBLISHED
BY
HAUGHTON & CO.,
10, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
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_Just Published_, _price_ 1_s._ 6_d._, _cloth boards_.
THE LIFE OF GEORGE SMITH,
OF COALVILLE.
"The name of George Smith, of Coalville, is familiar as household words,
and the unpretending memoir just published by Messrs. Haughton & Co. of
him, to whose deep sympathy and ceaseless effort the populations of our
brick-yards and canals owe so much, will be read with interest by
all."--_The Graphic_.
"Readers of Mr. Smith's letters in numerous papers, and of his
descriptive articles in the _Illustrated London News_, _Graphic_, and
other journals and magazines, will be glad to possess this little work,
which tells the story of his career in a brief but interesting manner.
The book is elegantly printed on good paper, and is embellished with an
excellent portrait and with an engraving of Mr. Smith among the Gipsy
children."--_Capital and Labour_.
"This is 'a chapter' in philanthropy, yet it contains three times as much
in the way of practical philanthropy as would suffice to make any man a
benefactor to his generation. His devoted, self-denying, persistent, and
successful endeavours on behalf of the brick-yard children, the canal
population, and more recently the Gipsy 'arabs,' of our country and time,
are concisely and vividly set forth in this neat volume."--_The
Christian_.
"The name of George Smith, and his noble work amongst the canal-boat folk
and the Gipsies, have become familiar and welcome to multitudes in Great
Britain. This volume is an excellent sketch of Mr. Smith; it contains a
capital likeness, and should be read by all who desire to possess
increasing zeal in rescuing the perishing."--_Christian Age_.
"A smartly written biography of a man who may be justly termed the
Children's Friend. It is well got up, and contains an excellent portrait
of the great social reformer. It is well that this fascinating sketch
should be given to the world."--_Literary World_.
"In this book we are presented with a sketch of the life and
labours--labours which have been attended with a large measure of
success--of one of the most devoted of living
philanthropists."--_Scotsman_.
"A fine biography, which every one should read in order to understand the
noble character of a man who must be pronounced a great
benefactor."--_Free Press_.
* * * * *
_Price_ 3_s._ 6_d._, _cloth boards_, _with Illustrations_.
OUR CANAL POPULATION:
A CRY FROM THE BOAT CABINS, WITH REMEDY.
New Edition, with Supplement.
By GEORGE SMITH, F.S.A., Coalville, Leicester.
"A little book called 'Our Canal Population,' lately published and
written by Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, furnishes the most incredible
details of what is going on on our silent highways."--_Morning
Advertiser_.
"The notorious state of 'Our Canal Population,' the women and children
who live on barges, and in whose condition Mr. George Smith, of
Coalville, has awakened public interest, is described as 'revolting and
intolerable.' If only a part of the statements made were true it would
be enough to make the ears of them that hear it tingle for pity and
shame."--_Daily News_.
"Although the statements made by Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, in 'Our
Canal Population,' were doubtless, in some instances, open to the charge
of exaggeration, in the main they were largely correct. Mr. Smith has
earned the thanks of the community in this philanthropic object, as he
previously earned our thanks for his efforts to ameliorate the condition
of children in the brick-yards."--_Standard_.
"Canal Boats.--On the 1st inst. came into operation an Act (the 40 and 41
Vic., c. 60) which is calculated to do much good. Hitherto 'Our Canal
Population' were left pretty much to themselves. They were considered
outside the pale of local and educational authorities. They were
permitted to live in their boats as they pleased, and to bring up their
children without any interference from school authorities. Mr. George
Smith, of Coalville, whose efforts on behalf of the children employed in
brick-fields were attended with such beneficial results, turned his
attention to 'Our Canal Population,' and the credit likely to be won by
the passing of the Act of last Session will be mainly his."--_The Times_.
"Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, who has done so much for the well-being
of 'Our Canal Population,' is now busied in attempts to ameliorate the
condition of juvenile Gipsies."--_Daily Telegraph_.
"This gentleman represents by name, at least, a very large family, but he
has won for himself considerable distinction among the 'Smiths' for his
unparalleled efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of 'Our Canal
Population' on the English canals, the women and children working in the
brick-yards, and the Gipsy children."--_Christian Herald_.
* * * * *
_Price_ 3_s._ 6_d._, _cloth boards_, _with Portrait of Author and other
Illustrations_.
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN FROM THE BRICK-YARDS OF ENGLAND, AND HOW THE CRY
HAS BEEN HEARD,
With Observations on the Carrying-out of the Act.
By GEORGE SMITH, of Coalville, Leicester.
SIXTH EDITION.
"We heartily commend to our readers' notice a new edition of a work which
is full of thrilling interest to those who sympathise with childhood,
whose hearts bleed at the story of its wrongs and leap for joy at any
humane or beneficial measures on its behalf."--_Sunday School Chronicle_.
"This book, now in its sixth edition, has many capital illustrations, and
is a monument to the patient self-denial and unwearying zeal brought to
bear in favour of the poor children by the author."--_Weekly Times_.
"His cry for the protection for the helpless little ones is one that must
assuredly command attention."--_Daily Chronicle_.
"This book is the record of a splendid service nobly done. The author is
likewise the hero of it. The value of the book is enhanced by the
careful and tasteful manner in which Messrs. Haughton have fulfilled
their share of the undertaking."--_Derby Reporter_.
"This is a title of an interesting work. The whole forms a most
interesting record of a noble-hearted work. We hope the book will meet,
as it deserves, with an increasingly large circulation."--_Derbyshire
Advertiser_.
"'The Cry of the Children' and 'Our Canal Population' are unique in many
ways. They have brought prominently before public attention two
unsuspected blots upon our civilisation. We wish any word of our's could
give still wider publicity to his self-denying labours."--_Live Stock
Journal_.
"Mr. Smith writes with vehement energy, which he puts into everything he
does. Some will perhaps think that his language is occasionally too
little measured, but then it is probable that a man of more delicacy of
feeling and expression would have never undertaken, and we think it is
certain that he would never have carried through, the work which Mr.
George Smith has accomplished. That work is of no small
value."--_Staffordshire Sentinel_.
"A good deal of new matter is inserted in this edition, including an
interesting account of the history and progress of the movement. . . .
The volume is certainly worthy of a careful perusal."--_Birmingham
Gazette_.
"In it is written the author's account of his single-handed struggle for
the emancipation of the poor children of the brick-yards--a struggle long
and patiently sustained, and which at last, in 1872, met with its past
merited reward in freeing 10,000 of these little ones from their dark
slavery."--_The Graphic_.
"This is a deeply interesting book, both from the facts which it sets
forth and the cause it advocates."--_Christian Age_.
"Every true philanthropist will read with deep interest Mr. Smith's
account of the history and the passing of the Act, which marks one of the
brightest victories yet won over prejudice and self-interest in the
United Kingdom."--_Derby Mercury_.
"This excellently got-up work will strike a cord of sympathy in the
bosoms of all who are interested in the works of Christianity and
philanthropy. . . . Should find a place upon every book-shelf because
its contents are of thrilling interest. . . . The book is essentially a
statement of facts, and no one can peruse its pages without feeling the
impulse of the living spirit which breathes in this 'Cry of the
Children.'"--_Potteries Examiner_.
"Mr. George Smith has, in his 'Cry of the Children from the Brick-yards
of England,' raised issues too serious, and advanced pleas too
passionate, to be treated with indifference."--_Daily Telegraph_.
"In the present volume, which contains a number of excellent woodcuts, we
have gathered up the full story of the evils which used to prevail, which
in the hands of a person of less moral courage and perseverance than Mr.
Smith would have failed."--_Leicester Daily Post_.
* * * * *
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Footnotes:
{8} Since writing the foregoing concerning Mahmood or Mahmud, I came
across the enclosed, taken from an article in the _Daily News_, January
11, 1880, which confirms my statements as regards one of the main causes
why the Gipsies or Indians left their native country:--"Ghuznee was the
capital of Mahmud of Ghuznee, or Mahmud the Destroyer, as he is known in
Eastern story, the first of the Mohammedan conquerors of India, and the
only one who had his home in Afghanistan, though he was himself of Turki
or Mongol nationality. Seventeen times did he issue forth from his
native mountains, spreading fire and sword over the plains of Hindustan,
westward as far as the Ganges Valley, and southward to the shore of
Gujerat. Seventeen times did he return to Ghuznee laden with the spoil
of Rajput kings and the shrines of Hindu pilgrimage. In one of these
expeditions his goal was the far-famed temple of Somnauth or Somnauth
Patan in Gujerat. Resistance was vain, and equally useless were the
tears of the Brahmins, who besought him to take their treasures, but at
least spare their idol. With his own hand, and with the mace which is
the counterpart of Excalibar in Oriental legend, he smote the face of the
idol, and a torrent of precious stones gushed out. When Keane's army
took Ghuznee in 1839, this mace was still to be seen hanging up over the
sarcophagus of Mahmud, and the tomb was then entered through folding
gates, which tradition asserted to be those of the Temple of Somnauth.
Lord Ellenborough gave instructions to General Nott to bring back with
him to India both the mace and the gates. The latter, as is well-known,
now lie mouldering in the lumber-room of the fort at Agra, for their
authenticity is absolutely indefensible; but the mace could nowhere be
found by the British plunderer. Mahmud reigned from 997 to 1030 A.D.,
and in his days Ghuznee was probably the first city in Asia. The
extensive ruins of his city stretch northwards along the Cabul road for
more than two miles from the present town; but all that now remains
standing are two lofty pillars or minarets, 400 yards apart, one bearing
the name of Mahmud, the other that of his son Masaud. Beyond these ruins
again is the Roza or Garden, which surrounds the mausoleum of Mahmud.
The building itself is a poor structure, and can hardly date back for
eight centuries. The great conqueror is said to rest beneath a marble
slab, which bears an inscription in Cufic characters, thus interpreted by
Major (now Sir Henry) Rawlinson: 'May there be forgiveness of God upon
him, who is the great lord, the noble Nizam-ud-din (Ruler of the Faith)
Abul Kasim Mahmud, the son of Sabaktagin! May God have mercy upon him!'
The Ghuznevide dynasty founded by Mahmud lasted for more than a century
after his death, though with greatly restricted dominions. Finally, it
was extinguished in 1152 by one of those awful acts of atrocity which are
fortunately recorded only in the East. Allah-ud-din, Prince of Ghore, a
town in the north-western hills of Afghanistan, marched upon Ghuznee to
avenge the death of two of his brothers. The king was slain in battle,
and the city given up to be sacked. The common orders of the people were
all massacred upon the spot; the nobles were taken to Ghore, and there
put to death, and their blood used to cement the rising walls of the
capital."
{176} The "Czardas" is a solitary public-house, an institution which
plays a considerable part in all romantic poems or romantic novels whose
scene is laid in Hungary, as a fitting haunt for brigands, horse-thieves,
Gipsies, Jews, political refugees, strolling players, vagabond poets, and
other melodramatic personages.
{218a} A Black Govel.
{218b} Going a tinkering.
{218c} I'll show you about, brother; I'm selling skewers.
{219} The fact of Ryley having at his death a caravan, pony, carpets,
curtains, blankets, mirrors, china, crockery, metal pots and dishes, &c.,
seems hardly, in my mind, to be in accord with his doing no work for
years, smoking under railroad arches and loitering about beershops. I
expect, if the truth were known, the whole of his furniture and
stock-in-trade could have been placed upon a wheelbarrow.