you ?’ ” Such things are not uncom mon according to law enforcement officers. But there are rights and wrongs in stealing. You don’t harm people physically. You outwit, never outhit. You don’t take things from friends or anyone else who has been kind to you. You steal only from those who deserve to be stolen from. Writer I. S. Brown, in one o f the few books on Romany lore and his tory, reports that a gypsy told him: “We don’t steal too much — we just make an honest living off the chumps.”- Other commandments in the gypsy code: • It’s sinful to wear a straight skirt, or to cut your hair too short. The most moral hair style is long braids, although more o f the younger girls are copying styles they see on television — and often pay for it with beatings from their fathers or older ^brothers. “When we see an American wo man go by, I say, ‘Look at that beau tiful woman, she got no worries, she free to go any place,’ ” a gypsy girl said. “ But then my mother-in-law say, ‘Ah, she immoral — got no respect for her men, look how she shows her figure.’ ” • It’s sinful to go out4lone with a boy, even if he’s the nice gypsy boy from next door. At big weddings, girls dance with other girls and with their brothers and uncles. Yet it’s perfectly proper for a girl
“ They tell that just to ra-tion-al-ize. That’s the word, right?” Maybe. But the fact that she has qualms about the stealing story — and talks about rationalization — gives some indication of the cracks in the centuries-old Romany culture. The young gypsies’ faint signs of rebellion at their peoples’ moral code may achieve what police and politi cians have attempted for nearly a thousand years. Get the gypsies to conform to local laws. It’s not that the Romanies don’t believe in right and wrong. It’s just that their ideas seem inside out. “ I took things lots o f times to prove to the neighbors that I was a good girl, that I could do it,” said an intelligent, attractive young wo man. “ If I don’t, they say to my parents, ‘Your daughter’s not worth a dime—she can’t steal.' ” At the bargaining table, when a girl’s father tries to get more money from a prospective bridegroom’s fa ther, he’ll often say, “ Corel Misto” —“ She steals well.” Romany tots get thir training by peeping through the curtains as mama lifts the wallet of a man who has wandered in for a “ gypsy good time.” Sgt. John Hartigan o f the Chica go Police Department Youth Divi sion once asked a 9-year-old gypsy shoeshine boy if he attended school. Hartigan recalls: “ The lad pulled out a pocket full of change and said, ‘O.K. — how much will it take to take care of
O n e c o u l d s a y of the Gypsies, as one does of the weather, that everyone talks about them, but no one does anything about them. That they are a fascinating and unique body of people cannot be denied. Since not much isTcnown o f their re ligious beliefs and customs, we think the following interesting account which appeared in the Chicago Daily News* of June 15, 1964, by-line Lois Wille, will enlighten our readers and cause them to pray that these people may be given the Gospel. Under the heading, “ Gypsy Youths Rebelling Against Traditions,” Miss Wille writes: W h e n C h r i s t was about to be crucified, so the story goes, a band of gypsies happened upon the scene and swiped the nails. There are two versions of what happened while the soldiers hunted for new ones : Christ was so moved by the act of kindness that He gave gypsies spe cial permission to steal everything they could put their hands on, for evermore. Christ was so angered at the delay that He put a special curse on gypsies, dooming them to steal for evermore. You’ll hear both stories from Chi cago’s Romany gypsies on the near southwest side. Either way, the mes sage is the same: For them, stealing (or “ coring,” as they say) is O.K. “ Ah, my people don’t really believe that,” says one young gypsy woman.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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