RICHARD SCHWARTZ'S day job is building houses, but his passion is local history, especially Berkeley history around the turn of the last century. He loves that particular time period in his adopted home so much that he has now returned to it again and updated his "Berkeley 1900" book, adding what he says are hundreds of new photos, many of which have never been published before.

It was 10 years ago that he published the first edition of "Berkeley 1900." This second one follows the format of the first, interspersing photos with actual news stories out of the Berkeley Daily Gazette from 1900 to 1909, except that this second volume has more photos.

The Gazette story headlined "Gypsies Quarrel in Camp" now has a picture of Bay Area Gypsy women and their children near their tents. Not all the photos are sharp and clear. Some are quite muddled, but they are all fascinating.

The 1905 account of Gypsies in West Berkeley is still a great read:

"Bad blood between two hostile gypsy camps in West Berkeley has sprung up over the retention of two gypsy maidens, who in addition to their beauty are successful fortune tellers and, hence, greatly desirable members of a well-conducted gypsy band."

Both camps, which were on Grayson Street, wanted the fortunetellers, so the story said. And pistol shots were heard one night. The town marshal couldn't get any of the Gypsies to talk about their dispute, so it was

A couple of weeks later, the Gazette published an account that permanent residents of the area had signed petitions asking for the ouster of the Gypsy camps.

"Marshal Vollmer stated that he had already attempted to drive the gypsies away, but found that they held a lease on the property, which does not expire until September 8. Although they pay but $4 a month for the use of the property, it would nevertheless be difficult to drive them off until the lease expires."

The Gypsies apparently did not leave Sept. 8, because the Gazette printed a story Sept. 22 about "the female contingent of the band." Police arrested a Gypsy woman for spitting on a ferryboat. She was fined $50.

"A. A. Knox, representing the company (Key Route), testified that every day about two dozen women of the tribe come to San Francisco, disperse over every portion of the boat to which passengers have access, and by their disgusting conduct and insulting remarks make the lives of the passengers miserable."

Another very interesting set of stories in Schwartz's book deals with Berkeley dairies.

The Berkeley of 1900 was indeed a place where cows could roam and did. The Varsity Creamery Co. put this advertisement in the Gazette's rival newspaper, The Berkeley Reporter, in December 1906: "Wouldn't you prefer to get your milk from a Berkeley dairy that's removed from its herd every cow found consumptive? The policy of doing just such things has increased our business over 600 percent during the last year."

Berkeley dairymen banded together in 1905 to fight a city ordinance regulating the care of dairies and the testing of cows. W.T. Such, proprietor of the Berkeley Farm Creamery, who owned one of the biggest dairies in the East Bay, said he didn't believe in the tuberculin test.

"In the first place this tuberculin test, as I understand it, was vetoed by Governor Pardee and in the second place Berkeley is the only town in the State where the tuberculin test will be made should we be forced to comply with that section of the dairy regulations."

Such's dairy was located on Allston Way. Schwartz included this ad in his book that Such ran in Berkeley newspapers:

"A Berkeley Enterprise Strictly for Berkeley People Only Absolutely pure country milk and cream from healthy cows and fed in a well-ventilated and sanitary barn — fed on only the best food obtainable."

"Berkeley 1900" sells for $24.95 in Berkeley bookstores and online from Amazon.com. Schwartz will be appearing at Books Inc. at 7 p.m. Nov. 9 at 1760 Fourth St., Berkeley.

Nilda Rego's Days Gone By appears Sunday in A&E. Reach her at nildarego@comcast.net.