Gipsy Dan Boswell

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                                      Rochdale observer Wednesday 4 October 1916
 


                                             DID NOT KNOW THERE WAS A WAR



                                             MILITARY SERVICE ACT ABSENTEES



Two prisoners who appeared before the Rochdale borough magistrates Monday were stated to have said,

                                           
                                               " they did not know there was war"



The prisoners were John William Comer (31) and William Gray (31), who live in a travelling van which is now in a field off Albert Royds-street, and they were charged with being absentees under the Military Service Act. P.C. Hey visited the prisoners at their vans Saturday afternoon and asked them if they had any paper to show why they were not in the Army. Each replied “No,” and they added, the officer said, that they did not know there was a war. Both prisoners denied having made any remark about the war, and Comer said he was not hiding himself He admitted he was an absentee and had an explanation to give. When asked by the Mayor if he wished to put a question to the officer.


                                              Gray said, "Yes, sir; he is a liar.”


Gray also admitted that he was an absentee and stated that he did not wish to say anything to the magistrates. Superintendent Marshall said prisoners were gipsies. The men made pegs and the women  hawked them about the town. Each was fined 40s. to be deducted from their military pay, and handed over to a military escort which had arrived for them.


 As Gray left the dock he pointed to P.C. Hey and said        "That fellow is a Liar.   

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notice how the next two articles
are linked by Tunbridgewells,


                                                   Dundee evening telegraph


                                               daily gazette for Middlesbrough


                                              Monday Tuesday 26 27 June 1916

                                                          CRUELTY TO BEARS.



Three Serbian Gipsies Fined. The treatment of travelling bears formed the subject of a prosecution at Darlington, when two men, a boy, and a woman, said to be Serbians, were charged with ill-treating two bears and a monkey, the three males being fined 20s each, and £1 6d costs. Defendants formed a section of travelling gipsies, and they were Milan Marinicovike (37), Stevan Marinicovike (29), Stevan B. Marinicovike (16), and Yala Marinicovike (36). According to the evidence, the party consisted of seven adults and four children, who’s age ranged from 93 to 3.   Mr smith stated that the defendants arrived in the town on Friday in two caravans one drawn by a small pony and a mule, the company had been traveling about the country since before the war, they call themselves Serbians but he preferred to call them foreign gipsies.mr wilks interposed to say that two of the men had fought in the previous Balkan war, and were discharged soldiers unfit for service. Inspector Cowber, secretary for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, found the woman beating the monkey with whip, the bears, he stated, were of a very exhausted condition. They had rings through their nose and lip, to which a string was attached, and in order to get them to perform on their hind legs the string was pulled, and they were prodded with a stick. It was contended by the prosecution that putting the ring through the nose and lip was cruel and caused unnecessary pain to the animals. When taken to the police station bread was given to the bears, and Inspector Cowber stated that they ate it as if they had had nothing for days. Mr Dobbing veterinary surgeon, expressed the opinion that undue pressure caused by pulling the string would cause the bears unnecessary pain and suffering, and constituted an act of cruelty. The animals were in fair condition. Milan, in his evidence, admitted that he had been fined for cruelty to a bear at


                                                           "Tunbridge Wells"


but he denied that the bear had to be destroyed. A relative had been fined at West London Police Court for cruelty to a bear Walter Pinder, who had travelled the country with six Russian bears, denied that there was any cruelty, and said in all the menageries the bears were dealt with in this way. The Bench refused application for costs against the Society in the woman's case. They also refused Mr Smith's application to have the bears confiscated, but informed the defendant that this would be done in case of a further conviction.

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                                     Liverpool echo 10 December 1918  "extract"



                                                      Secret Service Work.



                                   How Enemy's Spies In England Have Been Trapped.



Between the coast and "TunbridgeWells", which was the headquarters of British army corps, a party of gipsies were continually wandering around the villages unchallenged  untill an officer made an interesting discovery that these people could not converse in Romany, which is the language of the nomad. Investigation proved conclusively that by pretending to trade with the country folk and tell fortunes, information had been secured as to the movements of troops in the Southern Command. Prompt and drastic action followed these revelations 
The article above is just an extract, there is much information about spying and the nervousness of these times, if anyone would like to know more I will put the full account up if you wish, you have to understand the very grave times in the early 1900s, it was a very sad and hard time, everyone was on hedge and worried, the article is a good account try and read such things to better understand the information that comes your way

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                                        Hull daily mail Friday 30 April 1915    "extract"



                                                          Liberating the Gipsies.



                                                   WAR SENDS THEM WANDERING.


Every war of conquest in Europe, says the New Sun, has sent on the road new tribes of gipsies. The original gipsies were, it is believed, wanderers from Central India who were driven from their home land by war and the conquerors.   

In  Germany, the most rigorous of Countries, she tries to keep track of all her gipsies, classing them with tramps and similar wanderers. But Germany is not unkind to those afflicted with the wanderlust.

Indeed, part of the training of a young German frequently is a year or two of wandering over the land, seeking employment and experience under varying conditions.

The result is that in many of the gipsy tribes of Europe there are found Germans of pure blood. Many a German gipsy doubtless has been learning the high- ways and byways of Europe for a purpose more ulterior than trading.

All the war offices of Europe in fact have not neglected this simplest and most thorough means of spying upon the lands of possible enemies. That the war offices do not fail to recognise the possibilities of spy service 

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                                             Daily record Friday 9 October 1914 "extract"



                                                    ENEMY’S CODE OF SIGNS.


                                               THE BLACK COW MYSTERY SOLVED.



A particularly ingenious example of the methods employed by German spies at the front for communicating information to their troops given in the Telegramme the Pas-de-Calais. The German Intelligence department has taken a leaf from the book of the gipsies and wandering beggars, who often have a code of signs which they write on walls and fences. A favourite sign of the German spies, who are no doubt innocent-looking peasants apparently amusing themselves with bits of chalk, is a black cow. This animal, crudely sketched in black crayon on walls and gates and fences, was frequently noticed by the French as they passed and was so badly drawn that it aroused, suspicion. 

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                                        Hudderfield daily examiner Tuesday 9 june 1914



                                               MR. WATT-DUTON AND THE GIPSIES.


There was no topic upon which Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton was no more competent to speak than that of the gipsies. It was. in fact, his favourite theme, and always made it interesting. He stated that in Aylwin he had not idealised the gipsies, but that they were true to life. He went on to say that the gipsies are a very gifted people, very highly musical. They live a life that is utterly apart, a life with its own habits, its own customs, its own signs. In this connection mention was made of their ancient custom of following the “patrin.” As they walk through the woods they leave behind them a mysterious record of their passage, which only a gipsy could decipher. Every few yards they break off a twig or pull off certain leaves in a peculiar way, so that the gipsies know where a gipsy has been.

THE CHARM ROMANY CHARACTER. Mr. WATTS-Dunton said the real gipsy—the pure Romany—disliked much as he did himself the “wandering London mongrels” so often called gipsies, he agreed with Borrow that the charm of the Romany is frankness and simplicity.

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                                          Driffield times Saturday 13 June 1914



                                                    FAMOUS MAN OF LETTERS.


Mr. Theodore Watts Dunton, the poet, novelist, and critic, and also  the freind of Swinburne, died from heart failure on Saturday evening, in his eighty second year. death took place at the house made famous as the home of Mr. Watts Dunton and Swinburne for many years, The Pines, in Putney Hill. Mr. Watts Dunton died suddenly. He went into the drawing-room fully dressed, and later was found lying dead on the couch.   


Others of the famous circle of which Mr. Watts-Dunton was so distinguished member included



Rossetti, who dedicated to him his ballads and sonnets,

William Morris,

Tennyson,

George Borrow, and Charles Dickens.

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                                              Liverpool echo Saturday 13 June 1914



                                                LIFE & LETTERS, The Romany Rye. 


                                                        The Charm of Character.


 Mr. Watts-Dunton said the real gipsy—the pure Romany—disliked much as he did himself the "wandering London mongrels" often called gipsies. He agreed with Borrow that the charm of the Romany is " frankness and simplicity " Between the Gorgios—as the gipsies call us —and the Romanies there is a dividing wall. When once this wall is broken through—and it was broken through by Groome, Borrow, and myself—the frankness begins to show itself. The real gipsies are exceedingly conscientious as regards one another.


 “They believe in the Romany 'sap'—that is, the snake which bites, or, should I call it, conscience."


The deceased writer relates George Borrow —towards the end of the latter's life, Borrow had become entirely soured, and especially shunned by all literary men. With the exception of Mr. Richard Collinson. The Hake, family, and I don't believe anybody but gypsies and what are called people. Passion for North Wales. Aylwin" in manuscript, contained much more about North Wales than appears in the printed volume.

                                             " My passion for North Wales,''

Mr. Watts-Dunton once told an interviewer, of very early date. .... Though I am familiar with the Alps and other mountain ranges, no mountain scenery has for the peculiar witchery of Snowdon, the home of the Druids, is indeed the mysterious dominant centre of " Aylwin." But the story was much too long for market purposes. Its length appalled me. And I was impelled to..Cut out some thousands of words of description and symbolical suggestions.

                                                  "This has always grieved me",

 and it grieves me much more now that I know that Welsh people, who would have enjoyed those passages, have taken the book their hearts."   




 The article below contains much information on



                            THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.


If anyone would like to read it I will put the full account up, you can also access it yourself by the tittle



                                    Aberdeen journal Monday 13 November 1916


                                 WATTS-DUNTON. Life of a Remarkable Personality.
                     Published THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF THEODORE WATTS-DUNTON.
            Thomas Hake and. Arthur - Riekett. London : T. C. & E. C. Jack, Ltd. 2 vols 30s net.
                                                    The life of eminent literary  .

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below is yet again  disgusting words in an article,
never shy away from learning,
hard lessons are the best,
then they become easy,

                              Yorkshire evening post Tuesday 15 February 1916



                                    THE MARINES TO MARRY SERBIAN GIRLS.


A Rhodes scholar, who was with the American ambulance detachment throughout the fighting in Serbia tells me (writes the London correspondent of the “Daily Dispatch") that Admiral Troubridge completely won the hearts of the Serbian—soldiers and women alike. No fewer than half a score of the admiral's merry men have resolved to make the alliance with Serbia social as well as political and military. 
They are marrying attractive brides from among Serbian belles. Educated in the excellent school at Nish, some of these Serbian girls can speak  four languages and are very domesticated. No greater mistake could be made than to regard the Serbs as

                                                            "mere gipsies".

They have a literature of which they are very proud, and their racial lineage is untainted.