se, as in others, viz., to
visit them at inclement seasons of the weather to find as many of the
Gipsies in their tents as possible, and as I closed my door I said,
"Lord, direct me," and off I started, not knowing which way to go.
Ultimately I found my way to Holborn, and took the 'bus, and, as I
thought, to Hackney, which turned out to be "a delusion and a snare," for
at the terminus I found myself some two and a half miles from the
Marshes; however, I was not going to turn back if the day was against me,
and after laying in a stock of sweets for the Gipsy children, and "baccy"
for the old folks, I commenced my squashy tramp till I arrived at the
Marshes; the difficulty here was the road leading to the tents being
covered ankle deep with snow and water, but as my feet were pretty well
wet I could be no worse off if I paddled through it. Consequently, after
these little difficulties were overcome, I found myself in the midst of
about a score of tents and vans of all sizes and descriptions, connected
with which there were not less than thirty-five grown-up Gipsies and
about sixty poor little Gipsies. The first van I came to was a kind of
one-horse cart with a cover over it; inside was a strong, hulking-looking
fellow and a poor, sickly-looking woman with five children. The woman
had only been confined a few days, and looked more fit for "the box" than
to be washing on such a cold, wintry day. On a bed--at least, some
rags--were three poor little children, one of whom was sick, which the
mother tried to prevent by putting her dirty apron to the child's mouth.
The large, piercing eyes of this poor, death-looking Gipsy child I shall
never forget; they have looked into my innermost soul scores of times
since then, and every time I think about this sight of misery the sickly
child's eyes seem to cry out, "Help me! Help me!" The poor woman said
it was the marshes that caused the illness, but my firm opinion is that
it was neither more nor less than starvation. The poor woman seemed to
be given up to despair. A few questions put to her in the momentary
absence of the man elicited the fact that she was no Gipsy. She had been
brought up as a Sunday-school scholar and teacher, and had been beguiled
away from her home by this "Gipsy man." She said she could tell me a lot
if I would come some other time. She also said, "Gipsy life as it is at
present carried out ought to be put a stop to, and would be if people
knew all."