A FATHER'S CONVERSION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 136, 10 June 1924, Page 3

A FATHER'S CONVERSION

ROMANTIC/LIFE IN A GIPSY

,CAMP.

Typical incidents in the romantic life of a gipsy were related by Captain Gipsy Pat Smith ' before a crowded audience at the Taranaki Street Methodist Church - last evening. Finally, he gave point to his address by telling the story of his father's conversion. ""'-:... . -

It was not essential for a person to know at what age, he was converted, he commenced. Personally he had no time for the man who inscribed the date of his conversion on the flyleaf of his Bible. It was not the, ..experience of 20 or, 30 years ago that counted so much as the condition of one's heart to-day. It was no more necessary for a person to show proof of conversion by entering the date on a blank leaf in a Bible than it was to carry a birth certificate to show that he was alive. Proceeding, the evangelist said that his mother was not of Romany blood, and on hep marriage she was disowned by her parents because of the step she had taken. Caste was extraordinarily strong'in the gipsy camp, almost as strong/as in the Jewish household. "When he was in America he saw many gipsies, but few of' the real caste. Many.of them bore resemblance to, but were not actually Romanies. So it was with many people in our churches to-day. They seemed to. be Christians, and they looked like Christians, but he wondered if they were really of the blood stock of the family of Heaven, and if really their names had been entered in" the Lamb's book of life.

He went on to draw a character sketch of bis'father, "Jack Bell, the Fire King," fortune-teller, and showman, describing how he made^ his living by inserting red-hot pokers down his throat, holding molten lead in his mouth until it solidified, afid issuing challenges to all-comers to compete with him in dancing on red-hot iron bars. One man, he. remembered, got sadly. burned by i taking up the latter challenge and was'admitted to hospital, "while his' father apparently unharmed. "How like sin that was! Man played with sin until finally it rose up and ruined him, arid then there was no power on earth that conld stay its hold, except Christ. He told of his father's abstinence from drink, whatever his other faults might have been, and of his fortune-telling methods by means of cards and phrenology. The gipsy was afraid to go to church, because he realised that if he was converted he would be deprived of his livelihood—his deceitful practices. Thus when Gipsy Pat became converted at 16 years of age his father disapproved and their chumship was severed. - At last when they ■were travelling togethei- a stolen rabbit caused-him to burn all his boats behind him and to stake all for Christ; .his refusal to eat the rabbit led to an altercation, and so embittered was his father when the lad declared his conversion that he "took it out of him" on every possible occasion. Gipsy Pat converted his mother and sisters in turn, and then came the-.final scene in which son remonstrated^with father, appe.-ilins; against harsh dealings, and the father threatened him with a revolver at his chest. The boy left the camp to take up evangelical work, and soon rame the news of' his mother's death. This led to the last act of conversion, the declaration for Christ of the broken-hearted father, who finally prayed to God for mercy and pity.