THE GREEK GYPSIES AT LIVERPOOL.
Towards the middle of last July, the people of Liverpool were surprised by the advent of a large band of Greek gypsies, ninety-nine in number, whom the London train had left stranded on a vacant space of ground beside the railway station. Though spoken of as ‘Greek’ gypsies, they were really from all parts of the Græco-Turkish corner of Europe, and some even from Smyrna and its neighbourhood. But they preferred to be regarded as Greeks, and all of them spoke the modern Greek tongue. They had come to Liverpool, intending to take an early steamer to New York; but their progress was here suddenly arrested; and their stay in Liverpool proved to be of longer duration than had been anticipated by themselves or by others. From their first squatting-ground beside the station they had early been removed to a secluded corner at Walton, within the grounds of the Zoological Gardens. But how long they must yet remain there, and what was to be done with them, seemed difficult problems.
It was not the fault of these strange emigrants that they thus halted on the outward verge of Europe. They had honestly paid their way hither from their Mediterranean home, and they had enough money among them to pay for their passage across the Atlantic. But at this point America interfered. Ready as she once was to welcome all immigrants with open arms, America has become less hospitable of recent years. She has excluded the Chinaman, for racial reasons; and now she is drawing the line at the ‘pauper,’ of whatever race, because of his poverty. It is not many years since Longfellow apostrophised Driving Cloud, ‘chief of the mighty Omawhaws,’ telling him it was in vain that he and his meagre tribe ‘claimed the soil for their hunting-grounds,’
While down-trodden millions
Starve in the garrets of Europe, and cry from its caverns that they, too,
Have been created heirs of the earth, and claim its division!
But times are changed. And the European ‘pauper’ finds no resting-place on North American soil, but is sent back to his old hopeless existence in the garrets and ‘caverns’ of Europe. It is only the self-supporting immigrant that receives a welcome. There is nothing unnatural in this attitude of the Americans. A young and ambitious country does not want its ranks to be recruited from the idle, unenergetic, and criminal classes of older states; indeed, half the troubles of America have come, not from the descendants of the men who founded the Republic, but from the heterogeneous invaders of the present century. Thus, the American attitude is intelligible enough. Nevertheless, the mere fact that the poor are not permitted to seek a home in that vast country, forms a grim commentary on the popular conception of America as the great haven of refuge for all the victims of Old-world tyrannies.
It must be confessed that the appearance of the gypsy camp at Walton was not at all suggestive of the ideal emigrant; so that it was perhaps as well that the present writer conceived the idea of visiting them without any intention of advocating their claim to such a title. The scene, truly, did not suggest any such qualities as cleanliness, industry, or wealth. Scattered along two sides of an open grassy triangle stood the gypsy tents, some fifteen or twenty—small-sized, mean, and dingy, loosely put together, constructed of old canvas or sacking, which fell on either side of a low ridge-pole, and was closed at one end. In the open space between the two rows of tents a group of gypsy men were amusing themselves—some wrestling and fighting playfully; while the others looked on, talking, laughing, and smoking. A few female figures were moving about among the tents; and a host of children, of all sizes, scampered, toddled, and tumbled over the grass, as happy as if they had never breathed a milder air than that of this chilly English summer day.
One glance at the swarthy faces of these people was enough to convince one that their claim to be called ‘gypsies’ did not rest upon the mere fact that they were nomads by habit and tinkers by trade, but that they were the little-mixed representatives of a distinct racial type. A closer examination did reveal the presence of an infusion of white blood among a few of them; but nearly all were the darkest of all dark-skinned Europeans. In no degree whatever did their tawny complexion result from long exposure to wind and sun; for, when one glanced at the skin which their half-open shirts disclosed, or at the bodies of the ill-clad little creatures everywhere running about, one saw the same uniform dusky hue. The hair of all was jet black; but the colour of their eyes seemed to be invariably of a deep hazel shade, rather than the opaque black that may be seen in the eyes of many people of a fairer skin.
No sooner were their visitors descried, than several young children, and one girl of about seventeen, swooped down on them with pleading cries for money. Strongly resembling the children of our itinerant Italians in their dress and appearance, they were also like them in their appealing tones and in the very words they used. ‘Grazia, grazia, deh mi pena [penny], ma dona!’ were the words they reiterated in various combinations, as they held out their dirty little hands beseechingly for the expected ‘pena.’ Whether they had become familiar with this Italian patois during their temporary residence in Italy, or whether—as is likelier—they had been always accustomed to it in their homes among the Ionian Islands, it was clearly the favourite form of speech among the younger children. But that they also understood modern Greek became speedily clear, although they were far from appreciating the uses to which that language was put. For on this occasion the writer was accompanied by a Greek gentleman, representing an eminent merchant of Liverpool who had greatly exerted himself on behalf of his otherwise friendless countrymen; and by his instructions, all attempts at begging were sternly suppressed, not only because the thing itself was objectionable, but also because he foresaw that, if indulged in, it would further complicate the position of the gypsies, and counteract his efforts to arouse the sympathy of the American authorities. Accordingly, by a few rapid sentences in Greek, the suppliants were effectually repressed.