for my life. I could only reply with a smile, and tell
them that I was in safe keeping till the work was done, as in the case of
the canal movement. Frowns, dogs, sticks, stones, and oaths did not
frighten me. The time had arrived when the vagabondish life of a
Gipsy--so called--should be unmasked and the plain truth made known; and
for this the Gipsies will thank me, if they take into consideration the
object I have in view and the end I am seeking. My object is to elevate
them, through the instrumentality of sanitary officer and schoolmaster
being at work among the children, into respectable citizens of society,
earning an honest livelihood by honourable and legitimate means; far
better to do this than to go sneaking about the country, begging,
cadging, lying, and stealing all they can lay their hands upon, and
training their children to put up with the scoffs, sneers, and insults of
the Gorgios or Gentiles for the sake of pocketing a penny at the cost of
losing their manhood. A thousand times better live a life such as would
enable them to look everybody straight in the face than burrowing and
scratching their way into the ground, making skewers at one shilling per
stone, and being considered as outlaws, having the mark of Cain upon
their forehead, with their hands against everybody and everybody against
them. There is no honour in a scamp's life, credit in being a thief,
glory surrounding a rogue, and halo over the life of a vagabond and a
tramp. To see a half-naked, full grown-man and his wife, with six or
eight children, sitting on the damp ground in rag huts large enough only
for a litter of pigs, scratching roasted potatoes out of the dying embers
of a coke fire, as thousands are doing to-day, is enough to freeze the
blood in one's veins, make one utter a shriek of horror and despair, and
to bring down the wrath of God upon the country that allows such a state
of things in her midst.

"How dark yon dwelling by the solemn grove!"

Part V.
The sad Condition of the Gipsies, with Suggestions for their Improvement.

One thing that strikes me in going through the writings of those authors
in this country who have endeavoured to deal with the Gipsy question is,
their hesitation to tackle the Gipsy difficulty at home. On the surface
of the books they have written there appears a disposition to mince the
subject, at all events, that amount of courage has not been put into
their works that characteri