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.