"The Gypsies Are Coming! The Gypsies Are Coming!"

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 53, 1985, No. 4

"The Gypsies Are Coming! The Gypsies Are Coming!"

BY DAVID A. HALES

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE EVENING PASTIMES as children growing up in the small farming community of Deseret, Utah, was to hear our parents tell about the Gypsies coming to town. Although the stories were always the same, with no new accounts, these incidents held a great deal of interest and intrigue for us and we enjoyed hearing them time and time again. A repeated request around our house was, "Tell us about the Gypsies."

My childhood interest in Gypsies has continued over the years. In an effort to find out what has been written about the Gypsies and their visits to rural communitites in Utah, I was very surprised to learn that almost nothing has been recorded. The number of people who remember the days when Gypsies brought excitement to routine living in small towns throughout Utah is diminishing. Therefore, this article is written to add to the sparse records that exist about the Gypsies in early Utah as remembered by individuals who lived in these small communities in the early 1900s.

The accounts are recorded here as given to the author and express the feelings of those individuals who had contact with the Gypsies in bygone years. Here one may detect certain elements of prejudice and stereotyping and also possible envy of the perceived carefree and happy lives of the Gypsies.

It is not known exactly when the Gypsies first came to Utah, and accounts regarding the frequency of their visits also vary. Kate Snow states that, "Rare were the occasions when an adventuresome band would brave the rough, dusty road in quest of a little easy money." However, others report that Gypsies were regular visitors in the early 1900s to small Utah communities during the spring and summer months.

In Elsinore, Utah, the Gypsies were known to visit the community every year during the summer and stay for about a month. Myrtle Western, a resident of Deseret for over sixty years, remembered when the Gypsies made their annual trips to that area. She did not remember the same groups coming back. It was always a different group who would come. However, Laverne Rigby Johnson stated, "In the early 1900s, many gypsies traveled Echo Canyon during the seasons that roads were passable. They were always traveling west. The same gypsies called at the ranches so frequently that they were known by name and their individual personality quirks were learned."

Who were these nomadic people who made their appearance in rural Utah communities? Historians generally agree that they were of Hindu origin and were primarily from northern India. Some believe they left India around A.D. 100. Others believe they were exiled because of their religious beliefs or ran away from the persecution of Tamerlane or Timur, the great Tartar conqueror who invaded India in 1398.

It is generally agreed that after leaving India the Gypsies moved westward across Asia Minor and continued the dispersion westward and northward. In some areas the Gypsies settled as serfs on the lands of noblemen while others continued to wander and were tinkers, woodcarvers, minstrels, and fortunetellers. They also became horse traders and were involved in caring for sick animals and horseshoeing. A large group of Gypsies appeared in Hungary in 1417. After traveling westward across Slovakia and Bohemia, they divided into smaller groups that went into Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, and northern Spain.

Old documents show that Gypsies appeared in England in the reign of Henry VIII and soon crossed the borders into Scotland. The first English Gypsies that came to the United States were transported from Glasgow, Scotland, to a Virginia plantation on the ship Greenock in 1715. This group formed the original stock of the English Gypsies in America. Over the years, Gypsies from other parts of the world have also come to the United States. Some came directly from Europe or through Mexico and Canada where immigration restrictions were more lenient. However, most of the American Gypsies are descendants of Balkan, Eastern, and Central European Gypsies who crossed the Atlantic during the wave of immigration at the turn of the century.

There is considerable lore as to how this group of people from India became known as Gypsies. Some say they claimed to come from a country called Little Egypt, and that Gypsies was a shortened form oiEgyptian. Another source states that there was a tradition among early Christians that the Egyptians were condemned to wander forever through the far lands of the world for having kept the Israelites in captivity. Thus, these strange, dark-skinned travelers who spoke an unknown tongue, wore different clothes, and dealt in trading, fortunetelling, and the like must certainly be Egyptians. Again, the corruption of the word Egyptians to Gypsies stuck fast, and the Romany tribes adopted the name too; thus, they became known the world over as Gypsies.

Some individuals claim that the Gypsies knew which communities to visit during their journeys in Utah. They would make markers at crossroads such as stacking stones, marking trees, and making similar signs so that the next band of Gypsies would know which towns were hospitable to them.

The Gypsies brought excitement and adventure to remote farming communities. Myrtle Western recounted, "We always knew when the Gypsies were in town. As soon as the kids saw them they would call out, 'The Gypsies are coming, the Gypsies are coming.' Kids further down the street would pick up on the call and relay it on down the street until everyone knew the Gypsies were in town."

Lucile Roper Hales, a lifelong resident of the Pahvant Valley, explained, "We had a big brass bucket and a small one. The Gypsies tried to get them from us one time to make jewelry. After that, as soon as we found out that the Gypsies were in town we would run home as fast as we could, calling, 'Mama, hide the brass buckets, the Gypsies are coming!' " Exotic visitors always attracted attention. Kate Snow noted,

. . . the men with their big hats and spangled vests, the women with their full skirts, figured waists, braids of black hair and large earrings. . . . They would always have, besides the wagons, horses, dogs and children, some added attraction. One band that came to Manti had a large black bear that would dance. He wore a muzzle to which a chain was attached. The trainer held the chain and directed the dance. They also had an organ grinder, and a monkey that never missed catching the nickles that were thrown to him. The whole population turned out to see the strange people, and enjoy their entertainment. No advertising was necessary, by word of mouth the whole population soon knew of the attraction.

Many memories linger on. Myrtle Western related, "The one thing I always remember about the Gypsies is the bright clothes and jewelry, especially the women with the bright red and purple skirts." However, she also said that the women dressed in black, including a black headdress, when they were telling fortunes.

Ralph Crafts remembered that "The ladies wore bright-colored dresses, bright scarves or bandanas, large dangly gold earrings and necklaces made of coins." Some of these coins were fifty-cent pieces, quarters or dollars, and some were gold worth twenty dollars or more. "Their skin was sun dark[ened]. . . . They came to the store to shop and all the kids would stare and gawk."

Verda Hatch recalled the Gypsies as frequent visitors to her parents' store in Delta, Utah, where they came to purchase cloth from a large selection of plain and printed silk and satin materials.

The Gypsies traveled in groups of about five to ten families. Each community seemed to have one or more spots where the Gypsies would always camp. In Deseret there were two major places where they would usually stay. One favorite spot was a vacant lot close to the west entrance of the town. It was covered with salt grass, and there was an old water well from which they could get water. Another favorite camping place was behind the old LDS church. There was a stand of tamarisks between the back of the church and the banks of the Sevier River where they stayed. The wagons they used came in a variety of styles and decoration. Some were plain and others were very fancy. A few even had stained glass windows.

Wells Robinson of Deseret, Utah, recalled when the Gypsies came to Scipio, Utah. They lived in tents as well as in their wagons. All the local boys would go to their camps as soon as they knew they were in town. The women would offer to tell the boys their fortunes in exchange for some food and water. Naturally, the youths were anxious to have their fortunes told. The Gypsies would read the lines in the boys' hands and tell them the long line was the lifeline, and if it had a break in it they were going to be very sick, but then the fortunetellers would see another line and that would make the boys better and maybe even rich or famous or some other great thing. The youngsters would be so proud that their chests would swell up so big they thought their buttons would fly off. After the Gypsies finished telling fortunes they would always say, "Now, don't tell your friends or your fortune will not come true." Later, all of the boys would congregate on the fence line and tell each other their fortunes and have a good laugh because they were all alike. Robinson also recalled that sometimes the Gypsies would invite him and other youngsters into their tents to talk. The travelers even asked questions about the prevailing religious beliefs, but the boys were too young to be able to answer all of them.

Ralph Crafts related that when the Gypsies came to Deseret the women would tell fortunes for fifty cents:

They would start to tell a fortune and tell you something great was going to happen to you but you would have to give them fifty cents more before they would tell you what it was. One time the Gypsies told a man in town they could tell him how old he was, where he came from, and where he was going. The answer was that he was a day older than he was yesterday, he came from his mother and he was going to die.

Many remember the Gypsies as ardent horse traders. Crafts told of a band of Gypsies who came to Deseret in about 1920:

There were five or six families. They came in white top buggies and light wagons. Each family had five or six trading horses tied behind . their wagons and buggies. If you traded horses you always gave ten or fifteen dollars to boot. They were adept at grooming horses to make them look nice. They would take an old nag and trim his mane, file his teeth, and curry some shiny oil into his hair. Two hours after the trade you realized you had been gyped.

Bert Hales told the story of a man in Deseret who traded horses with the Gypsies. One day when he was looking at a horse, the Gypsy said, "This horse don't look too good, but it is a real good horse." The man traded with him, but soon after he got the horse home he found that it was blind. He went back to the Gypsy and asked, "Why didn't you tell me the horse was blind?" The Gypsy said, "Oh, but I did. I told you the horse didn't look too good."

Many of the Gypsies were excellent singers and musicians and many could play the mandolin, guitar, or fiddle. Others would entertain with rope tricks for a fee. During one of their visits to Deseret, Ralph Crafts remembered the young Gypsy fellows singing around their big camp fires: "As we passed by, we could hear them three or four blocks away. It was the first time I ever heard 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' and 'When You Wore a Tulip.' One of the fellows had a beautiful voice and we loved to walk slow and listen to him. They were a happy lot."

Lemira Dutson remembered a time when members of the community went to the town hall in Oak City to be entertained by a Gypsy singer. He played and sang for hours with an extensive repertoire.

One of the Gypsies that visited in Elsinore was a trick roper, and he put on an hour's demonstration of his skill at one of their Fourth of July celebrations. George Staples recalled, "A rider would gallop his horse past the Gypsy and he would call his shots and would rope that animal on the left front leg, then the right front leg, then a hind leg, then both hind legs, and finally by the tail. To me his skill was almost unbelievable."

Gypsy conduct appears somewhat controversial. Some informants related incidents of shady business dealings and begging but claimed they never personally knew the Gypsies to actually steal anything. Others related stories of outright thievery.

Rumors of Gypsies kidnapping children abound, but no actual accounts have been related to the author. Perhaps this rumor stemmed from children often being told, "If you are not good the Gypsies will get you" or "If you are not good we will sell you to the Gypsies the next time they come." Gladys Winters remembered that she never went anywhere when the Gypsies were in town. As a young girl in Bountiful, Utah, she was very much afraid of them. She was always told to give them something, usually food, if they came begging as they did not want a Gypsy angry with them.

One time two pigs were missing after the Gypsies left Deseret. Some say the Gypsies stole them, but nobody really knows what happened. As soon as they arrived in town they made camp; the women and older children would go from house to house begging for food or whatever they could get. Myrtle Western remembered, "They always said the Gypsies stole chickens, pigs, horses, children and clothes off the line. They begged, but I never knew of them stealing in Deseret."

In contrast, Ralph Crafts recalled a time when his father was in the store in Deseret. A Gypsy girl grabbed a ten dollar gold piece right out of his hand and started to run away with it. "Dad had to chase her down and grab her and take it away from her."

One time when the Gypsies were in Oak City, Lemira Dutson recalled,

We had our washing on the line. Mother had made me a shirtwaist blouse from some red and white striped material. A young Gypsy woman kept begging mother to give it to her but she would not. Finally, when I got home from school mother asked me and I said it would be all right to let the Gypsy woman have it. She was pregnant and did not seem to have anything appropriate to wear. She was happy to get the blouse.

Much oral testimony suggests that the Gypsies were very persistent and would do almost anything they thought would make people give them what they wanted. Lucile Roper Hales recalled the time her mother was making pancakes and a Gypsy woman came into the kitchen and stuck her dirty finger into the batter. The mother did not want to cook it for her own family then, so she gave the batter to the Gypsy and told her to go home and cook it herself. Another time a Gypsy came into that same kitchen and found the children eating cookie dough. She became very upset at the sight of the children eating the raw dough and warned them that it would surely clog them up. Gypsies often visited the Abe Roper home in Oak City. "We always had a big garden," Hales explained:

Papa peddled a lot of produce to help support the family. I'll never forget the time he had cucumbers out on the lawn getting them washed and ready to peddle. The Gypsies arrived and wanted some so he let them have a few. They snatched them up and ate them, peel and all. That was the first time I had ever seen anyone eat cucumbers without being peeled. One time Father had given them a lot of produce from the garden. One Gypsy lady was determined that she did not have enough and she was going back to the garden to get more. Papa told her that he could not give her any more. He needed the rest for his customers when he went peddling, but she still insisted. Papa finally told her he would send the dog after her if she went into the garden again. She started down the path so Papa called the dog. The minute he called the dog she came running out and left.

When Gypsies were passing though Echo Canyon, Laverne Rigby Johnson recounted that

A favorite camping spot was on Rees Creek where it ran beneath a bridge on the Lincoln Highway. There they had water and grass for their horses, the children could wash themselves in the creek; but best of all they had a clear, unbroken view of the Rigby Ranch house. If it happened to be a season when a crew of men were working there, the gypsie [sic] women timed arrival at the ranch house kitchen door as the men left the dining room. One gypsie woman was particularly obnoxious. She quickly moved about the kitchen touching food, knowing the cook would not use what had been handled by a gypsie. She quickly bunched her apron, as though preparing to gather chips and firewood, then dumped mashed potatoes, left-over roast, or whatever was available, into the apron.

As an eight year old, Laverne Rigby Johnson saw the Gypsies breaking camp one morning as her mother was brushing her hair. She thought of the horse in the pasture beside the highway. She left her mother, brush in the air, ran up the lane to the highway, one pigtail and the remaining hair flying loose. As she reached the highway a Gypsy had a rope in his hand and was at the pasture gate stroking her horse's nose. As she appeared he turned away. Of course, she always knew her sudden appearance had caused his change of mind.

Merchants and shopkeepers seemed to have had their share of problems with the ubiquitous Gypsies. "We had a bakery and the Gypsies were so quick that they could steal a whole bag of rolls right from under your eyes," recalled Delilah Brown of Salt Lake City. The women had bright, full skirts that reportedly had large pockets sewn into them in which to conceal things.

Blaine Winters, whose father owned a hardware store in Garland, Utah, during the early 1900s, remembered that the minute the Gypsies came to town he was summoned to help guard the store and see that they did not steal the merchandise. Winters recalled the time a Gypsy wanted him to open his money purse and just let him pass his fingers over it: "I had about two dollars in change in the purse. I opened the purse and just let him run his finger over the top of it. I was watching closely to see that the money was not taken. When I got home I opened my money purse and it was empty. The Gypsy's fingers were quicker than my eyes." A similar story was told by Myrtle Western:

I was clerking in a store in Fillmore when I was a young girl and before I was married. One morning I was alone in the store and just getting the money out of the safe when from out from nowhere appeared a Gypsy lady. She saw me with the cash box and tried to get me to just let her run her hands over the top of the box. I was scared and did not know what to do. Just then the owner of the store came in and said, "What's going on in here?" When he saw the Gypsy lady and me with the cash box in my hand he told me to lock that cash box in the safe at once. That is where it stayed until he was able to get the Gypsy lady out of the store.

Another story told of a very attractive Gypsy girl who wore a sheer blouse hopefully to distract male clerks as the other Gypsies roamed the store gathering what they wanted.

One evening Wanda Jenkins, her mother, brother, and sisters were gathered around an old pot-bellied stove in Kanab, Utah. Her father was away at the time. There was a loud knock on the door, and before they could answer it a group of Gypsies came into their home. They wanted to read their palms and tell their fortunes. Wanda was about ten years old at the time and she was scared. "While one had you cornered the others seemed to be everywhere in the house. They grabbed your hand and looked at you with their dark eyes," she recalled. Finally, her mother pointed to the door and ordered them out. They seemed to vanish as quickly as they came. They checked afterward, but found nothing missing. Later, in her teenage years, Jenkins was working at a restaurant and motel when suddenly some Gypsies came in the building and were everywhere, even behind the counters. Again, one would occupy her while the others went everywhere. Because of her earlier experience with them, she was more brazen and followed her mother's example. She ordered them out of the place. They left as quickly as they had come.

Jenkins related a third incident with the Gypsies that was indicative of the changing times and the changing life-style of the traveling people. She was in the hospital in Kanab when a big^ black car with three rows of seats drove up. A pregnant woman was brought in, and in about thirty minutes she had her baby. After the baby was born, one of the men went out to the car and got a piece of cloth that they wrapped the baby in and then they all drove away.

In later years the Gypsies were known to travel around the state in big cars, and they were engaged in car trading. However, they did not bring the exitement or thrill that the wagon bands of the previous era brought.

During the late 1920s their life-style was greatly affected by industrialization. With the coming of the automobile and tractors and the introduction of stainless steel, there was not a demand for tinkers or horse traders. Also, with the crash of 1929 and the depression, people had little spare money for fortune telling, carnivals, and entertainers. The depression welfare projects likewise enticed the Gypsies to flock to the cities where they had to stay in order to be eligible for the welfare money that was available. The rationing of gasoline limited their mobility, too.

Some observers state that the Gypsies have now lost their identity and that they have been swept into the mainstream of American life, while others claim there is a thriving Gypsy population in the United States. Not only have Gypsies survived in the New World, but they have also synthesized a viable dynamic life-style and have sustained core values while making use of the American environment.

Gone are the days when the Gypsies traveled from community to community in rural Utah, but the excitement they brought still lingers in the memories of those who recall the cry, "The Gypsies are coming, the Gypsies are coming!"

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