Part 30

The children are lying and dying in the mud, with none to deliver. As a result of our negligence and indifference to the wants of the poor gipsy child, we shall some day have a crop of thistles, hard, sharp, and strong, difficult to handle and more difficult to uproot, think about it lightly as we may. The cries of the gipsy children have filled the earth, and reached heaven for help; but we have barred the school doors against them, and locked in their faces the gates through which they should have been led to health, prosperity, civilization, Christianity, and heaven. Gipsy women’s wails and gipsy children’s cries are going upward and upward; and to-day the gipsy, show, and canal children are at our doors dressed in rags and dirt, with matted hair, and tears in their eyes, beseeching us to take them into our embraces and soul-saving institutions, to lead them heavenward and to God, and still we refuse to listen to their entreaties. Shall we refuse to do so any longer? God grant that there may be a speedy breaking of bars, bolts, and locks that have bound our gipsies, show people, and their children to their debasing customs, and that our noble Queen, Senators, and Lawgivers may open the doors of the blessed institutions with which our seagirt isle is covered to our gipsies and their children without one moment’s delay, before our candlestick is removed and glory departed.

The Englishmen of our England of to-day have it within their power to show to the world how to improve the condition of the gipsy and canal children as no other nation has ever had before, without trampling under foot liberty and civil rights. Shall we with folded hands stand by with the blood of the canal and gipsy children hanging upon our garments, with awful effect, while the lambs of Christ’s flock are groping their way to misery, ruin, and woe? Shall we put out our hand to save the children? It is for my countrymen to answer “Yes” or “No.”

I asked my friend John Harris, the Cornish poet, to kindly help on the cause of the gipsy children, and right gladly he did it; and here is his touching poem. May it sink deep into our hearts!

ZUTILLA.

“THE day is done, Zutilla, And yonder shines a star; Our camp is on the moorlands, From busy homes afar. No church bells murmur near us, No echoes from the town, And o’er the lonely common The night comes slowly down.

“Zutilla, thou art dying! Once by the riverside Our tents stood in the sunshine Upon the wasteland wide. Then thou wert but a baby, So beautiful and bright; I kissed thee in my gladness, And wept with fond delight.

“Came from the leafy hollow, A man with hoary hair; His voice was soft as summer When lilies scent the air: This Book he gave, Zutilla, Against our hour of need, Which surely is the present; But oh! we cannot read.

“How pale thou art, Zutilla! I fear thy hour is come. Is there a God of mercy? And will He take thee home? This Book might tell us plainly Now in our hour of need, Not having any teacher: But oh! we cannot read.

“Gone, gone art thou, Zutilla! My tears shall flow for thee, A gipsy’s darling daughter, The sun and moon to me. Thy mother’s heart is breaking, ’Tis well it thus should bleed; For nothing gives me comfort, Now in my hour of need.

“I know not how to utter One word of prayer to Him! Will no one teach the gipsy, Whose life and death are dim? Come, come to us, ye upright, Who walk this favoured sod, And teach us from your Bible, And tell us of your God.

“Yes, I am old and feeble, And sinks life’s flickering spark. Oh! thousands of my people Are dying in the dark! The gipsy children perish, Like mine, before my eyes: O come, O come, and teach us The passage to the skies!

“My wakeful eyes are burning, My soul is rocked with dread: O England, rouse thee! rouse thee! And hasten to the dead. If thou wilt do thy duty, Another light shall gleam Upon the gipsy’s tent-tops Our fathers have not seen.”

God (_Doovel_) bless (_párik_) the (_o_) brickfield (_chikino-tan_), boat (_paanéngro_), and (_Ta_) gipsy women (_joóvyaw_) and (_Ta_) children (_chaviés_), and (_Ta_) may (_Te_) their (_lénti_) tears (_tchingar_) be (_vel_) noticed (_lel-veéna_) and (_Ta_) help (_kair-posh_) come (_avél_) from (_avrí_) heaven (_mi-dúvelsko_) and (_Ta_) my (_meéro_) country (_tem_). So (_Ajáw_) be (_vel_) it (_les_), and more (_kómi_).

NOTE.

In response to the canal and gipsy children’s prayers, cries, and tears, the only answer coming as yet is as follows: With the assistance of the Government, represented by the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., President of the Local Government Board; the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella, M.P., Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education; J. T. Hibbert, Esq., M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the local Government Board, Mr. Burt, M.P., introduced the Canal Boats Act (1877, 46 Vict.) Amendment Bill on April 9th, 1883, and it was read the first time. When the Bill came on for the second reading on April 18th, Mr. Salt, M.P., for Stafford, met it with a “blocking” amendment as follows: “After the Second reading of the Canal Boats Act (1877) Amendment Bill, to move that it be referred to the Select Committee on Canals.” _The Daily News_ in a leader states: “Mr. Salt intends to move that the Canal Boats Act (1877) Amendment Bill be referred to a Select Committee. The motion, if carried, would shelve this useful and unpretending Bill for another session.” I was in the Speaker’s gallery, and saw with sorrowful pangs Mr. Salt move his successful check to the Bill. This was no sooner done than Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P. for Leicester, took his hat off to “scotch” the further progress of the Bill. Notwithstanding the entreaties of Earl Stanhope, Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., Mr. Pell, M.P., myself and others, Mr. Salt refused to drop his “blocking” amendment, although Mr. Salt and Mr. Taylor knew full well that any amendment they might propose when the Bill is in Committee before the “House” would be considered. Later on Mr. Warton, M.P. for Bridport, put his universal block on, as he always does when measures for the country’s welfare come to the front and are likely to pass into law. In the week commencing April 30, 1883, no less than twenty-nine “blocks” had emanated from this “honourable member’s” brain to be placed against the legislative action of Parliament for the country’s good.

On Friday, April 27th, the _Daily Telegraph_, in a leader, states Mr. Algernon Egerton, M.P. for Wigan, has “blocked” the Canal Boats Act Amendment Bill brought forward by Mr. Burt on behalf of Mr. George Smith, of Coalville.

It seems inexplicable that Mr. Taylor, who, as a Member of the “House,” helped me to get the Brickyard Act of 1871 and the Canal Boats Act of 1877 passed, should at the last moment take steps to prevent the success of the Act of 1877 which my Amending Bill would bring about, and with but little cost or inconvenience to all parties. Both Mr. P. A. Taylor and Mr. Salt are friends to the cause I have in hand—at least I hope so; but to check the Bill was a backward move.

To turn aside the Christianizing and civilizing institutions of the country from exerting their influence upon 60,000 poor canal and gipsy children is no light undertaking. It cannot be the cause of the poor canal and gipsy children that they wish to throw cold water upon, but upon my unworthy self, who has had the audacity, against immense odds and under tremendous difficulties, to take the cause of the brickyard, canal, and gipsy children in hand. Time and patience weave trials into pleasures and difficulties into crowns.

In the meantime the children’s cries are going east, west, north, and south, upward and heavenward for help. Shall it be given? They are more in need of it by far than the children of other working classes. Oh, that a speedy answer may come, and the children delivered from the vortex of ruin and the jaws of death by the hand of the most enlighted Government in the world!

APPENDIX A. MY PLANS EXPLAINED AND OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

To illustrate more fully the plans I suggest for improving the condition of the canal, gipsy, and other travelling children, and to bring to the surface all the weak as well as the strong points which the working out might reveal, I cannot do better, I think, than introduce my readers to an imaginary large gathering of my friends, with a real object in hand, in one of the Committee rooms at the House of Commons, which list of friends, including Lord Aberdare, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Stanhope, Sir William V. Harcourt, M.P., Sir Richard A. Cross, M.P., Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., Mr. J. T. Hibbert, M.P., Mr. Mundella, M.P., Mr. Alexander McArthur, M.P., Mr. W. H. Wills, M.P., Mr. A. Pell, M.P., Mr. Salt, M.P., Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., Mr. Frank A. Bevan, Mr. Edwin Lawrence, will be found in my previous works, and earlier in this, together with many other valuable friends and well-wishers to the cause of the poor neglected brickyard, canal, and gipsy children. Their names will ever be remembered and spoken of by me with the profoundest respect. They are names that stand high in the legislative, literary, press, philanthropic, social, and religious annals of our country, irrespective of creed, sect, or party; and nothing, had space been at my disposal, would have given me greater pleasure than that of showing my gratitude to them by placing all their names upon these pages. {339}

_Question_ 1. “Would you explain to us more fully than you have done in your Congress papers and ‘Gipsy Life,’ the plans you refer to for bringing about an improvement in the condition of the gipsy and other travelling children?”

In the first place, as I have previously stated, all the vans and other temporary movable dwellings should be registered in a manner analogous to that provided under the Canal Boats Act of 1877. The certificate to be renewable annually at any of the Urban or Rural Sanitary Authorities in the country, the owner of the tent or van paying a sum of ten shillings per annum; to be equally divided between the local authorities and the Local Government Board.

_Question_ 2. “Will you explain to us how the ten shillings is to be collected and divided between the government and the local authorities?”

I would propose that the five shillings paid to the Government should be paid in the form of a charge upon each certificate; or, in other words, each certificate of registration should be stamped with a five shilling stamp, and collected by the Government as the other stamps are collected. The other five shillings should be kept by the local authorities for their trouble and expense in the matter.

_Question_ 3. “How do you propose dealing with the fines?”

The fines should be handed over to the local sanitary authorities, who, I suggest, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, should enforce the Act.

_Question_ 4. “How would you meet the case of a man who, with his family, is at the end of the year, when his annual certificate expires, a hundred miles away from the place where he obtained his certificate of registration?”

I will try to illustrate my meaning in this way. Suppose that a man registered his van at Tunstall, Staffordshire, in the first instance, say, on January, 1883, but during the year he had wandered all over the country almost, and on January, 1884, he was at Northampton with his van and family. I propose that he should take his last certificate of registration to the sanitary authority at Northampton and get it renewed. This plan works out right in the case of hawkers. Of course, the van would have to be brought to the officers, or at any rate, it would have to be where it could be inspected.

_Question_ 5. “You say in your Congress papers that the certificate should be taken on the first of January in each year. Now suppose a man wanted to register his van in October, would the owner be required to pay the sum of ten shillings for the remaining two months of the year, and then be required to take out another certificate on the following January?”

According to the plan sketched out in my Congress paper it would be so; but on further consideration it would, I think, be much more simple, fair, and easy if the certificates were taken out for a year at any time or place the owner thought fit to apply for them.

_Question_ 6. “Will you explain why it is that you think the certificates of registration should be renewed annually? Would it not be sufficient if the vans and temporary miserable dwellings were registered only once?”

No, I do not think it would. Vans, as in the case of canal boats, often change hands, and to keep an oversight of and be able to trace the vans through all their changes would require a lot of official and intricate machinery to be set in motion which would not be needful if the certificates of registration were taken out every year. Every application for a certificate or a renewal of a certificate would bring the owner to the front. The changes taking place during the year could be endorsed upon the back of the certificate, and with the transfer of the van I would hand over the certificate of registration in force to the new owner.

_Question_ 7. “What is the advantage to be gained by registration?”

Registration is the first step towards the advantages that are to follow. By registration the owners and occupiers of the vans are known, and the School Board officers and sanitary inspectors have the initial powers to bring their influences to bear upon the children growing up without education. The gipsies and other travellers as a rule pass through the country under so many different names that unless the vans are registered and their owners known it would be impossible to carry out the reforms that are needed. I have not found one traveller who would object to their vans being registered, provided it could be brought about in an easy and inexpensive manner.

_Question_ 8. “Do you not think that ten shillings per annum would be a heavy tax upon the gipsies and other travellers?”

Not if we take into account that poor people living in houses have to pay rates and taxes to a much greater amount than I propose that travellers should be called upon to pay for their certificates. In fact, they will be much the gainers if my system of a free education for the gipsy, canal, and other travelling children be carried out. For the ten shillings they would, as a rule, receive more than thirty shillings in educational advantages and remission of school fees.

_Question_ 9. “How will the sanitary and other authorities know, as the vans pass through the country, whether they have been registered or not without the inspectors putting the owners to unnecessary inconvenience and annoyance?”

I propose that the name of the owner, the place where the van was registered, and the number of the certificate should be painted on the vans and other temporary and movable dwellings.

_Question_ 10. “Do you not think that the travellers and gipsies would be much inconvenienced by having to register their vans every year?”

No, not if they were habitable, and in a fair condition in other ways. It would not require more than an hour once a year. The forms and certificates would only take a few minutes to fill up.

_Question_ 11. “How do you propose bringing about the education of the gipsy and other travelling children?”

I would do as I have proposed in my “Gipsy Life” and Congress papers, viz., establish a free educational pass book, which book should not cost the parents more than one shilling, and on the plan set forth in my “Canal Adventures by Moonlight,” p. 162. The pass book would do for all the children living in the van or canal boat, and the child or children presenting it to any schoolmaster connected with any properly organized public school would claim at his hands a free education for so long a time as they presented themselves for admission. With the system of pass books there will not be the difficulties that would have been created by the pass-book system in the village dame school days of yore. Day schools, as you know, are now conducted upon the standard and code system. I will try to illustrate how the plan would work out in practice. Opposite my room windows across the green, all last week was an old tumble-down van in which there was a man, his wife, and seven children. Five of the children were of school age—none of them could tell a letter; but, supposing that Tom was in the First Standard, Betty in the Second, Bill in the Third, Polly in the Infants’, and Jack in the Fourth Standards, these classifications and particulars would be entered in the pass book, and supposing that the gipsy had sent the children with their pass book to the National School on his arrival in the village, the schoolmaster would immediately he had opened the book have seen to which standard each child belonged, and would have sent him or her into it.

_Question_ 12. “Do you not think that it will cause the schoolmaster extra trouble; and how do you propose to meet this difficulty?”

I have talked to several schoolmasters upon the subject, and they think that all attendances of travelling children should be entered and paid for at the rate of those children who pass their examinations. Each child who passes the usual examinations costs the country about tenpence per week, and I have been told by schoolmasters that if this sum was forthcoming from the Government for the gipsy and travelling children—which is the system I propose to meet the case of the canal children—they would gladly receive them into their schools; or, in other words, the Government must pay the schoolmaster one penny for each attendance, which should be entered in his school returns to the Education Department; the same course in some respects which is taken with pauper children.

_Question_ 13. “What plans do you propose for granting the gipsy and canal children their certificates of qualification?”

I would propose that the children should be allowed to present themselves at any school for an examination at the usual time; _i.e._, provided they had made two hundred attendances during the year, and that such attendances had been duly entered in pass books and signed by the schoolmasters at whose schools the children had attended; or that they satisfied the school attendance officers or School Board authorities, wherever their vans were registered, that the gipsy children were being educated privately, or in other ways to their satisfaction.

_Question_ 14. “Do you not think that there will be much difficulty in getting the children to make two hundred attendances during the year?”

No. As a rule, all travelling vans, canal boats, and other miserable dwellings are not on the move more than half the time. Frequently they will stay for weeks together in one place. And I would also, to enable the children to make their number of attendances, reckon two attendances in a Sunday-school equal to one day-school attendance.

_Question_ 15. “Do you not think that parents of town children will object to their sitting by the side of gipsy and canal children?”

In some instances the parents might object to it, as you say, but generally they would not. I think that two-thirds of the children now travelling the country are the children of parents who once followed town and settled employments. If the children I want to introduce to the day schools throughout the country had been gipsy children of past years, with all their evil habits manifested at every step of their lives, I can imagine that strong objection would be raised against their introduction to English school life. Our present gipsy children are, as a rule, our travelling gutter children. I think that the mixing of the travelling children with the town children at school will be one of the first steps towards bringing them back to civilized usages and habits. At the present time gipsy and canal children are the outcasts of society, unknown and unrecognized by others, except by those of their own kith and kin. The mother has at the present time no object to “dress up her children for.” With its introduction to school, natural instincts, parental feelings, love, and hope are brought once more into action, and generally the natural consequence will be that the mother will send her children to school as clean and well dressed as other children are. To have separate schools for canal and gipsy children will not be a workable plan. Sometimes for weeks the teacher would scarcely have anything to do; gipsies especially fluctuate very much.

_Question_ 16. “We should be glad if you could give us additional reasons and facts, and explain a little more to us why you think that vans should be registered annually, or at any rate have their certificates renewed.”