The Romany Road

The mental age of an average adult gypsy is thought to be about that of a child of ten. Gypsies have never accomplished anything of great significance in writing, painting, musical composition, science or social organization . . . Society has always found the gypsies an ethnic puzzle and has tried ceaselessly to fit them, by force or fraud, piety or policy, coaxing or cruelty, into some framework of its own conception, but so far without success.

--Encyclopaedia Britannica

No one has ever made an authoritative estimate of the mental age of Big Joe Uwanawich, a high-caste Serbian gypsy who lives at 174 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. There is, however, no question but that Big Joe has been highly successful in evading all attempts to fit him into a social framework. A lifelong man of leisure --many gypsies let their wives earn the family living--Big Joe claims to have been arrested some 100 times during his 70 years, but has never been known to have spent any time in jail, at least not in New York.

The Scofflaw Search. Last November, however, it appeared that New York had finally caught up with Big Joe. Picked up by police at a race track, Joe, along with two kinsmen, George Lee and George Adams, was haled into court as a scofflaw, a term which New York City's Chief Magistrate John M. Murtagh uses to describe the many New Yorkers who habitually dispose of traffic tickets by tearing them up.* Magistrate Murtagh, who has long been waging bitter war on scofflawry, imposed upon Lee (118 unpaid tickets) a $5,900 fine or 590 days in jail and Adams (54 unpaid tickets) a $2,700 fine or 270 days in jail. Then, recollecting that New York police files bulged with some 2,000 more unpaid traffic summonses issued to gypsies, Magistrate Murtagh cunningly announced that he would give Adams and Lee until Jan. 5 to do missionary work among their kinsmen, and promised that if the two succeeded in persuading a substantial number of other gypsies to come in and pay up, he would consider reducing their sentences.

The advantages of this arrangement immediately became clear to Big Joe Uwanawich, who was charged with 51 traffic violations, including demolition of a fire hydrant with his Cadillac. "Judge," said he, "I will try to bring in all the Uwanawiches I can find. Even the ones out of town. By the way, Judge, do you want Miller Uwanawich?"

"I want them all," said Murtagh.

"But, Judge," said Joe, "there are four Miller Uwanawiches. Which one you want?"

The upshot was that Murtagh postponed Big Joe's sentence till Jan. 18 and sent him off to search out gypsy scofflaws throughout the nation.

Man with Influence. Thereafter Big Joe dropped from public view until last week, when the two Georges, Lee and Adams, returned to court to report dolefully to an unimpressed Magistrate Murtagh that the best they had been able to do was to persuade eleven gypsies to pay up $800 on 97 of the 2,000-odd outstanding tickets. This, explained their attorney, was because they didn't have "too much influence." The man who really had influence, he added, was Big Joe Uwanawich, "who is currently on tour rounding up gypsies."

Thus reminded, Murtagh asked Saul J. Allen, director of the city's Traffic Summons Control Bureau, just how Big Joe was doing. In reply, Allen produced Exhibit A, a series of postcards from Big Joe, all addressed to "Dear Saul." They read: P: "December 12. I'm here in Kansas City, Mo. No gypsies here." P: "December 15. Omaha. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Not many gypsies here. Leaving for South. Perhaps do better there."

P:"December 16. Memphis, Tenn. Not many gypsies here. Will write you in Birmingham, Ala."

P: "December 22. Birmingham. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Was in Houston, Texas. Met a few of the boys. They say they will send you some money."

There was, moreover, one other trace of Big Joe: a note from Bessemer, Ala. written on the back of a restaurant check. It said: "I, Nido Uwanawich, met up with Joe Uwanawich. I will pay my summonses as soon as I have money."

Late Communique. With Big Joe out on the Romany road, frustrated Magistrate Murtagh was forced to content him self with ordering Adams and Lee to pay half their fines immediately or go to jail. They paid. Meantime, Saul Allen, returning to his office, found waiting on his desk the latest postcard from Big Joe. "Dear Saul: Just a card to let you know that I just arrived here from Atlanta, Ga. Spoke to Zeke Williams there, and he told me he is sending you what he owes for tickets. I also spoke to other boys, and they promised to do the same thing." On the face of the card was a handsome photograph of Florida's Hialeah race track.

* The word "scofflaw" was invented in 1924 after Delcevare King, an ardent prohibitionist of Quincy, Mass, offered a prize of $200 for the best word to apply to "the lawless drinker to stab awake his conscience." Submitted by both Henry Irving Shaw of Shawsheen Village, Mass, and Miss Kate L. Butler of Dorchester, Mass, "scofflaw" was adjudged the best of more than 25,000 entries.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.