Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-12-05
A WONDERFUL TRANSITION.
A PuL.Blooded Negress Turning PurcNWhtte
Her Sister Also Changing Color. .,.,.

g., -uer SISTER Ano SnahginS NoioT. rf.
For colored person to change the
dark color of the negro skin to lighter
or darker hue has always been regarded
us much of an impossibility as for leo
pard to change his spots, but q case of
the former which lately came to light
in Baltimore, Nd, establishes the. fall
lacy Of the idea and gives the dweller
of the jungle some hopes of eventually
appearing in a different suit. In the
house of Mr.. Robert Hough, Jr., No.
224 North Calvert street, there resides
as cook colored woman named Nancy
White, who is actually changing her
color Us if to be in keeping with her
name. She was born on the eastern
shore of Maryland some forty years ago,
of negro parents, and came to Baltimore
at the age of twenty. Her skin was
then of u dark tobacco color, and
though, as he states, her mothers IA
ther was Indian or part Indian, she her-
self, in face and form, and speech and
general characteristics, bore all the
traces of being full-blooded nesress.
In stature she is of medium hight,
and her under-lip protrudes in q droop-
ing manner like q tottering pedestal
holding up tho remainder of her face.
Shortly after her arrival in this city she
obtained employment as general help in
the family of wealthy grocer living in
the upper part of Cathedral street, re-
naming with him many years. Here
she was twice attacked with gathering
in the head, from the effects of which
she felt queer tingling all over her
body, and especially about the limbs
and hands. With the disappearance of
the gatherings she perceived small
white spot on the back of her right
hand, and, u few days lator similar
marks appeared on her arms and legs,
until she became completely dotted
over with them. This was about twenty
years ago, and the spots have continued
to grow larger and larger, till at the
present time her limbs and hands, with
the exception of q black patch here and
there. are as white rs alabaster
The skin is. in fact of the most deli
cate description, and shows the blue
blood beneath in style that would
ravish the eyes of the aristocrats in any
royalty-loving county. A reporter visit
ed Nancy to convince himself of the
facts. He found her seated in the kit
chen, and thinking he was doctor she
became communicative respecting her
metamorphosis of skin. The change,
which began on the limbs, is now spread
ing to the head and body, and patch
Of white under the dropping willow lip,
which only recently developed itself, is
growing with wonderful rapidity. At
present, to view it from short dis
tance, it looks as if Nancy had been inn
bibing cream from dish, in the cat
fashion, and had forgotten to wipe her
mouth. She calls it white cloud, and
trusts that it will speedily cover up the
other portious of her dark face.
The forehead is similarly marked, and
like the white around the mouth the
cloud is travelling so swiftly that it keeps
up its present rate, the old lady will
have the appearance Of colored nun in
less than o month. The changing of
Of her skin. though so gradual that it
is not perceptable to the eye, causes
Nancy great pain and oppression, for
which she is under the treatment of q
lady doctor. Other physicians also at
tend her, and they oil agree that she
will in time be as white as any person
in the land. At present her arms and
lower limbs present the appearance of
the skin of a piebald horse, the white
spots being larger than the strips Of
black with which they are interspersed.
Another extraordinary case of skin
metamorphosis is that of Nancys elder
sister, who lives on Federal Hill, and
the changes in whom appear to be of
the chameleon order. She arrived in
this city many years before Nancy, but
nothing strange manifested itself in her
appearance until the discovery of the
white spots in the latter. Like the lat
ter, too, she was affected with the gath
ering disease in the head, and then, to
her horror, she, discovered sundry
black spots coming over her in the same
places as where the white ones devel-
oped themselves in Nancy. These con-
tinued to grow with great rapidity, and
at the end Of few years, no centfaband
in the country had brighter black hue
than the unfortunate sister. She was
originally of shghtly darker shade
than Nancy, but now strange to relate,
she is undergoing still another change.
Spots of very bright mulatto color are
breaking out over her skin, and from
the rapidity with which she became a
thorough black, she hopes by the end of
a,couple ofyears to be only afew shades
darker than her blue iveined sister
Nancy. obi 5!i., it~@ r.' ad. .sU
1 Cloyerdale logic: California is
the noblest State in the Union. Sono-
ma county is the choicest, part of Cali
fornia. Cloverdale is the loyeliest spot
in Sonoma county. Therefore, Clover
dale is the incest place in America"