Beware the Gypsies!

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When the daily Western Maryland Railroad train arrived in Thurmont in late February 1912, nearly two dozen people—men, women, and children—swarmed off the train and began working.

“Some say they were gypsies, others say they were Italians. The ladies would ask to tell your fortune, tell you in which pocket you carried your money and how much you had and succeed in getting their victim doing as commanded. While one would stand before the victim the other would be tapping his pockets,” the Catoctin Clarion reported.

Using this method, Edgar Peddicord had his pocket picked of $10 (roughly $240 in 2016 dollars). Of course, he didn’t discover the missing money until after the Gypsies had moved away from the station onto new targets.

“At the Frederick Railroad station the gang operated on Harvey Miller’s cash drawer, after he had given one of the women money,” according to the Catoctin Clarion.

Before the Gypsies could get away from the station, Frederick County Deputy Sheriff Stull arrived and demanded repayment of the missing money. The man leading the Gypsies took a large roll of bills from his pocket and repaid the missing money without question.

The Gypsies left Thurmont for Frederick on the trolley. After they left, more reports of missing money came in, but it was too late by then to seek any repayment.

This was not the only time that Thurmont had problems with Gypsies.

Another group arrived in Thurmont the same month traveling in three large wagons. The wagons stopped at the town square while the women and children went into different businesses, sometimes telling fortunes for a fee. Although no one reported any thefts from this group, such was not the case when the group passed through Lewistown on its way to Thurmont.

Another group passing through Thurmont in October 1912 “will be remembered from one end of the county to the other as being very adept at picking pockets,” the Clarion reported.

This group was believed to have been the same group that been in town in February and caught picking pockets. Although no one in Thurmont reported any money missing, one of the girls in the group was caught picking pockets in Emmitsburg.

In October 1913, a band of Gypsies who were camping in the mountains near Deerfield were arrested. They had been telling fortunes, which at the time was against the law in Frederick County.

States Attorney Samuel Lewis “had his fortune told and then asked the palmist if he had a license. Finding the band without a license Mr. Lewis went to Frederick and sent Deputy Teeter and Constrble (sic) Hauver to arrest the gypsie (sic),” the Catoctin Clarion reported.

They were arrested, tried and found guilty. They had to pay a fine plus $50 costs in the case and promise to leave the county.

Gypsies are a group of people known as the Romani, who came originally from northern India and were sold into slavery in Egypt when the Muslims conquered the area. Those who converted to Islam were freed. When they made their way to Europe, English-speaking Europeans supposedly called them ‘Gyptians instead of Egyptians. This later became Gypsies.

They began migrating to America in the 19th century and continued their itinerant ways traveling from town to town and causing problems when they resorted to petty thievery like pickpocketing.

The Gypsies were also known for the smith work with copper and other metal. They often earned their way by repairing and retinning industrial equipment used in various businesses.

For residents to get the Gypsies’ metalworking abilities, they had to put up with the thievery.

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