new them.

"They could do wonders by the power of the imagination," says Glanvil of
the gypsies; "their fancy binding that of others." Understand by
imagination and fancy all that Glanvil really meant, and I agree with
him. It is a matter of history that, since the Aryan morning of mankind,
the Romanys have been chiromancing, and, following it, trying to read
people's minds and bind them to belief. Thousands of years of
transmitted hereditary influences always result in something; it has
really resulted with the gypsies in an instinctive, though undeveloped,
intuitive perception, which a sympathetic mind acquires from them,--nay,
is compelled to acquire, out of mere self-defense; and when gained, it
manifests itself in many forms,

"But it needs heaven-sent moments for this skill."

AMERICAN GYPSIES.

I. GYPSIES IN PHILADELPHIA.

It is true that the American gypsy has grown more vigorous in this
country, and, like many plants, has thriven better for being trans--I was
about to write incautiously _ported_, but, on second thought, say
_planted_. Strangely enough, he is more Romany than ever. I have had
many opportunities of studying both the elders from England and the
younger gypsies, born of English parents, and I have found that there is
unquestionably a great improvement in the race here, even from a gypsy
stand-point. The young sapling, under more favorable influences, has
pushed out from the old root, and grown stronger. The causes for this
are varied. Gypsies, like peacocks, thrive best when allowed to range
afar. _Il faut leur donner le clef des champs_ (you must give them the
key of the fields), as I once heard an old Frenchman, employed on
Delmonico's Long Island farm, lang syne, say of that splendid poultry.
And what a range they have, from the Atlantic to the Pacific! Marry,
sir, 't is like roaming from sunrise to sunset, east and west, "and from
the aurora borealis to a Southern blue-jay," and no man shall make them
afraid. Wood! "Well, 't is a _kushto tem for kasht_" (a fair land for
timber), as a very decent _Romani-chal_ said to me one afternoon. It was
thinking of him which led me to these remarks.

I had gone with my niece--who speaks Romany--out to a gypsyry by Oaklands
Park, and found there one of our good people, with his wife and children,
in a tent. Hard by was the wagon and the horse, and, after the usual
initiatory amazement at being accosted in the _kalo jib_, o