Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1876 — GYPSY LIFE. [ARTICLE]

GYPSY LIFE.

Bemarkable Adventure* of a Penn■ylvania Girl. “ I was under their rule four years, and •would have been in bondage to-day if I had not made up my mind to escape from the band, be my solemn, sacred oath violated or not.” ' : ' Such was the language of “Barretta JM.artel," & young woman of fine figure -and appearance, who was a passenger on an eastward-bound express train from Central Pennsylvania a few days ago. The ■conductor stated that she had escaped from a gypsy band in western Virginia, and was "going toward her home in Berks County, which she said she had been induced to leave in the sutnmerof 1872. She had been given the above name by the leader of the band shortly after she joined them. “ Yes, I am willing to tell all I know about these so-called gypsies,” she said. “ I have risked my life in leaving them, and, further, I am going to keep nothing hid under ground. They are a bad set the most of ’em, and I only wonder that the American people allow the wandering thieves and miscreants to swoop down among the farmers to plunder and cheat them. ® “To begin, I was fifteen years old when I was coaxed to leave home. We lived beyond Fleetwood first, and then moved down near the county line of Montgomery, in Pennsylvania. A band of ‘ gypsies,’ as we called ’em, came along in wagons, and one of the women wanted to tell my fortune, i had jet black eyes and a dark skin, and very dark hair, and the woman took a fancy to me. They camped in the woods near our house, and the woman came over to our place often. Then a man came and made me a present of a pair of cheap bracelets. 1 was silly enough to consent to visit them in the woods. Wnen I went to them they talked to me of tire nice kind of life they were leading, and, after getting my head full of gy’psy life, I at last consented to go with them for a month toward New York State. I was to get five dollars a.jveek ’and iny Hoard.- I was to help cook and attenato fne children. -. The man gave his name as Luke Murell. He had-withhim four other families, bat he was the lead■er. The camp was a large,one; there being thirty-seven people in all, and about fitly horses and nine tents. In Murell’s family there were three children and his wife, a middle-aged, raw-boned Irish woman. The woman told me to say nothing to my friends about going. I- told her I did not know how to get away. Tneyarxanaed it as follows: The band left the woods three days before I did. 1 was to tell my parents I was going on a visit to my aunts by railroad, and instead of that I was to meet the band at a small stat ion beyond Allentown. We the® cuaup through the country, and it was four days before we stopped. J never heard of the folks at home afterward, although I secretly wrote three letters.

“We had not been gone a month before one of the women in the camp asked mt how I would like to become a gypsy. I said first-rate, not thinking that anything would come out of it. I was getting paid right along, and I thought I could make money anti save enough to buy me many things. Then Mrs. Murell came to me and said she was right glad to hear that I was willing to become one of thelrnumber, and to be bound to them Uy still closer ties. ,

“ Right after that I got to thinking. I never suspected much of anything out of the way. but strange fancies crept through my miud. I thought nothing more about if until Luke Mureli said to me one even-, ing that the camp was pleased with my appearance, and that the folks would give me a welcome that night. I thought they were going to have a little evening party ot some kind, and 1 said all right. The little children were out to bed, and we Were camped iri a ravine that run well up in a back mountain not far from Elmira. 1 won't be certain about the date, hut it •was in August. I, was alone in our tent wondering where the folks had gone to, And what they were doing. I got afraid. Everything was quiet. None of.,the dog? ■barked, and the horsea you couldn’t hear. About ten o’clock some one called me Uy vny right name, * Lizzie,’ and 1 knew it was file voice of ‘Bods,’ one of the young sons of the tinker of the band. I ■came out and asked what was wanted. He said, ‘ Luke Mureli wants you down j at the spring They’re all down there, so Is the horses.’ I could see which way to ,jrn by 'W llght of the fire. When I'got t<? tljem 1 saw nothing but big trees mid a row of homes. Inside the ring of horses and trees was the spring, and a big .’lire was burning near a big stone-pile on 4be other side. ‘1 hey baa told me to fix myself Up, and 1 had <>n a summer wrapiier and my jiair was done up in the witlerlkll style. One of the women stepped and tflid me to let my hair down, that

H would look better. Luke Marell then stepped up and took me by the hand, and led me around the spring, the stones and the fire, so as all the people of the band could see me. We walked slow. I smiled, but, strange to say, none of them returned R, and instead of having pleasant faces, they looked sober, cold and sickly. None of them-had a word to say. I was going to speak to Airs. Murell. but she laid her finger on her mouth and sadly shook her head. I became nervous. Tlie lire died out, and the woods were dark. Only a faint light arose 1 torn the embers,’and I could just see the outlines of the forms of the crouching people about me. “Then I was led to the spring, and I was told to bathe my hands, face, temples and neck. For the first time In my life I used a silk towel, which he handed me. He poured cold water on my head, and then 1 sat down on a camp stool. Two young girls then came up and took oil my slippers. They brought a basin of water and bathed my fleet. While this was going on they sang one of their peculiar melodies. I afterward found out that the women did the singing alone, and the words and music are only taught them after they have two children. After my feet had been dried, they spread branches of cedar and pine before me, upon which I stood. The singing stopped. Luke Murell then came to me with a bowl of water. I took a mouthful. First 1 thought it was a joke or a trick, and I laughed. As the ceremony went on I was convinced that it was more serious than lat first had supposed. I was then taken through a regular baptism, and when I received my new name of ' Barreta’ I was told I should never forget it, but would always be known by it. They called me ‘ Rets? ever afterward. Then I was asked whether 1 was pleased with the people. I said ‘Yes.’ Whether I had keen kindly treated. I said ‘Yes.’ Whether 1 had any reasons to regret having known themf-to which I said ‘No.’ Then they asked me whether 1 had said that I desired to become ,one

of their number, and before I could answer that question a young girl about ten years old, the prettiest creature I thinkTever saw, ran'iip to me and gave me what I afterward found out was a bunch of wildflowers. She got upon the stool, took me around the neck and whispered in my ear to say 1 Yes.’ I loved the child, and when she asked me to say ‘Yes,’l would have done anything for her. 1 said I was willing to "join them, whereupon the women folks commenced to chant some ve'ses, and several girls ran up to me and kissed me. This, I afterward learned, was all a trick or trap laid out by the old folks to catch me. Then I was told to kneel down on the palms. I did so. Mr. Murell stood up and told me to repeat after him the words that he read out. I don’t remember ihem exactly as he read them or said them to me, I only know that it was a fearful, terrible, binding Oath. I solemnly swore that I would always be with and live tor the people I had chosen as my future companions. I swore never to desert them, never to reveal their secrets; never to complain; to be satisfied at all times and under all circumstances, and always to do all in my power for the good of those around me. I swore by the stars and a number of other signs. Then I was welcomed, my hands were shaken all around, they had more music, the fire was relighted, and we had a merry time.

“ That’s how I was made a gypsy. Whan I got tn the tent my head was all in a daze. I could not sleep, as I more fully realized what I had done. Afterward I found out that my misgivings were well grounded. The next day I was gradually let into the secret of begging as it is done bythe ‘daughters of the forest,’as they sometimes call themselves. For two days I had to listen to the old woman giving me instructions in fortune telling. For the first season I was only to tell fortunes for young girls. I was to judge them and say most about lore subjects. Afterward I was allowed to tell anybody. If I could lay my hands on anything worth having I could do so, but"it was nobody’s businesswhere I got it, I was never asked where I got things. I was pleased with the idea of telling fortunes. I was dressed in bright red colors, which were a strong contrast to my dark skin. I al way's wore my hair hanging down, and a string of big yellow beads hung around my neck. I had a bracelet made of snake skin, and I was careful to let everybody see it. I got along well at fortune-telling. I picked up fast, and before the first season closed I knew how to read human nature very well, andcouldread character tolerably. 1 will not say much about stealing, for lam ashamed. Some of our wagons had false- bottoms, so that whenever the cjmip was searched nothing could be found. If the officers came they were given full privilege to search all around, and in this way they were led to believe many times that we were really innocent There is no truth at all in fortune-telling. We said just what came into our minds. “ One time a young man in Tennessee came to me and told jne to go to a certain house and induce a young girl to have her fortune told: ..He told me what to say‘. He was’ in love with her and wanted to marry her. I understood him aud carried out-my part very well. I sung her a the young lover, and the beautiful girl got-as white'as snow, then red, and then gavg me five .ars. Sne could well afford it. I got tefl dollars from the man. He had been discarded, but before we left the place, Murfreesboro, I think it was, I saw the pair out driving. It’s all trickery with those bands that are not regular bloqded foreigners. They are mighty few in America, I tell you. I fell in love with the lift. 1 . It was romantic, if it was bad. I Was paid well for my labor, and I became very healthy. We traveled all around the West and wintered in Texas. I got the chills in the Red River country. the winter ve practiced new dodge?.

“At last I became tired of the life. I was abused several times because T was in hard luck. I alsrf w anted to keep up my appearance, which made some of the other women jealous. They commenced to spread evil reports about nle, ciid said that I was guilty qf committing crime that I had fought hard to overcome and escape. Business got bad, and-all my inohey s ' \vas either lost or stolen from the wagon. , “One, night last summer I determined to leave. 1 mounted a fast runninghorse, but befote I got three miles toward Cum- ; berland, Md., I was/>veriaKen by one of the young men. Then they wanted me to 1 get married. Right or wrong, I must become the wife of the oldest son of a gipsy horse doctor. They thought that would keep me with them. They told me of my oath, and at last I promised not to run away if ’thcY would not make me marry that man. They consented, and last winter we went down to Georgia and wintered there. But I firmly made up my mind to get Way this spring just as soon as they came north. I was tired of being belli in bondage. All nfy life seemed to be a fraud. We did nothingbut lie, cheat, deceive and lead astray.* During my firs ■ two years I saw two young Women taken into gipsy life. Where they are how I can’t say, for their bands separated from ours last season. I pitied them, but said not a word. The men are as bad as the women. They buy up old horses, and then fix and doctor them to sell or trade. Farmers are their victims. They are swindled and plundered in many ways. Rut gypsies never bdrn tarns. They think too much of horses, etc., to burn db#n barns. I don’t think they’d set fire to anything. That is one of the few of their good points. “ I made many a dollar in a dishonest w»v. and it is no wonder that I lost every penny I had. 1 traveled as far north as

Maine, doun through Canada, through the west as far as Minnesota, down through the Indian country to Mexico, and thence through the Gulf States, as they call ’em, to Georgia and northern Alabama, where we spent the winter. A good many 1 Irish, English and Welsh people travel by wagon through the country in the summer, but live in the larger cities through the winter. “ The people that Luke Murell says are his ancestors he calls the great north ol England Herne family. He says his grandmother was a Spanish Woman and his grandfather a Bohemian. He tame to this country ten years ago. lie claims to be a gypsy, but 1 don’t believe him. If lie is, or is not, it don’t make any difference. I’m no gypsy, nor never will be, yet I passed for one nearly four years, and I never was mistrusted. I would have run off with a Southern storekeeper that I met at a gypsy dance, but I thought it might be jumping out of the pan into the fire. I did not trust him. I trust nobody. Gypsies are liars, and 1 sometimes think jeople generally think so. lam determined to tell a clean story about them; nothing but what is the truth.

“ When we got as far as Warren County we were camped about three miles out of a small town. The. night was fearfully dark, and the rain p oured down in torrents. That night I made up my mind to leave. I had been down-hearted for the past two months, for a dear girl in the camp, the same one that hugged me on the night I was baptized, took sick and died in the southern part of Ohio. I thought I could never get over that. She was a beautiful girl, just turning thirteen years. She had the pneumonia, and she died in her father’s wagon in the woods. Two days afterward we got permission to bury her in a farmer’s graveyard on his farm in one corner of a field. The funeral was at night. I shall never forget it. An old man took the part of a minister. He whs a tearful thief, and I thought it could not be possible that such a bad man should say the funeral prayers for that youig, innocent and beautiful girl. Four old graves were within the stone walls of the little cemetery. A big tree rattled its rotten branches in the night air, and in that damp night the body was lowered to its last resting place. It was dressed in a beautiful shroud and laid in a neat coffin. “ After the funeral that night, 1 made up my mind to leave them. At the time I started it was just such a night as the funeral, only it rained. I slipped out of the camp and silently got away from the woods. I told my story to a hotelman, and I got to Williamsport. People have been kind to me all along, and now 1 am going toward home on this train. I hope they’re alive and well; but my heart sinks within me almost when 1 think that 1 have not heard from them for so long. No doubt they have long ago thought I was dead.”

The woman attracted considerable attention- Her deep black eyes fairly sparkled when she became warm in her descriptions of forest life. She was slightly above the medium in height, and her skin was a dark olive. She had a magnificent set of natural teeth, which were rarely shown, however, as she smiled but very little. She was dressed in black, with the exception of a cherry-colored ribbon bow at her throat, which a lady in Williamsport had given to her through one of the policemen. “ Talk about women being drudges among decent white people,” she continued, “that’s nothing. Women who are compelled to lead wandering lives in this country are compelled to lie, cheat, steal and commit almost any crime to obtain money*. There are plenty of women who are situated the same as I was, and who are just waiting for a good chance to get off’.” She got off at a small station near Allentown, and look a branch road leading down the country’. It was learned that her proper name was Julia Bogert; that her lather and mother were dead, but that her brother and two sisters had removed to Montgomery County.— Allentown (Pa.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.