GIPSY BRIDE'S JEWELS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 196, 20 August 1934, Page 5

GIPSY BRIDE'S JEWELS

WORTH ABOUT £5OO BOY AND GIRL WEDDING LIFE IN HUMBLE TENT. A bride of sixteen, robed in white silk, and bejewelled with diamonds, wearing a gold coronet, a jangling necklace of golden coins, was married at Whitton Park, Middlesex, at sundown. recently, to a boy of seventeen. It was a Romany wedding, and one of the strangest ceremonies ever seen. It was barbaric yet modern, a piece of colourful pageantry of all the centuries. The bride was Lena Evano and the bridegroom Joseph Steiro, both belonging to a French-Canadian tribe of gipsies. A roomy, square tent stood under a massive tree. Outside a band played sensuous music. In that tent the family and friends of the bride bade her goodbye in their strange, musical language. Tears streamed down the girl’s face, and when she was almost at breaking point two strong, swarthy me- grasped her by the arms and rushed her across the encampment to another tent, in which the bridegroom sat before the heaped meats and bread of the wedding feast. The boy ’s head was bowed as his bride entered. He looked up, and smiled without saying a word, .Slowly, the bride sidled up to his side. Logs were piled on the camp fire, in the ecries shadows the band struck up a strange anthem and the Romanies danced with joy. After the ceremony a correspondent of the Daily Express chanced to get a few words with the bride. She told howall the tribe had helped to fashion the wedding dress, a charming thing of white silk and lace. She showed her jewels and coronet. They were easily worth £5OO. The coronet had in it scores of real English sovereigns and her necklet was made up of golden Empire and American coins, bome, it was stated, were £l2 Australian pieces. They will be stored in the humble tent in which the young couple make their home. All the male members of the tribe are pledged to guard the jewels.