The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1884-06-18
THOSE PRETTY OCTOROONS.
A RACE OF PEOPLE WHICH ~ NO RACE
THE PECULIAR POSITION OF Irs
WOMEN.
Society Debnrs Them from MnrriaRe-How
They Live and nre Provided ior-Fnture
OF Their Children.

There is in New Orleans race and
distinct race which is no race. 1t has
it's one hand upon the whites and the
other upon the blacks, and 1t occupies o
position betwixt and between, belonging
to both and to neither. The whites re-
fuse to acknowledge them, and they
hold themselves 80 far above the blacks
that they will acknowledge no relation
ship with them. Like the bat they are
neither bird nor animal, but occupy a
position entirely distinct, and very
lonesome one it is. There are the octo-
rooms, which in New Orleans means not
only person whose blood is one-eighth
negro, but all OF that class who are almost
white, but in whom negro blood is per-
ceptible. Down there they don't say
negro blood-it is negro "taint." They
are not white enough for white nor black
enough for the negro.
Their position, especially that of the
women of the race, is very peculiar. No
matter how white an octoroon girl may
be, white man may not marry her.
She may he rs beautiful as Venus, and
accomplished in every possible way; she
may sing like Patti and paint like Rose
Bonheur, but no white man would marry
her and remain in New Orleans. II
would be ostracism for her and for him
also. She could not be received in
society, and he would find himself on
the wrong side Of the wall ut once. The
law is fixed and the barricade is impass.
able.
The women of this mixed race are
wondrously beautiful. Their complex
ions ARE dazzlingly white, with shade
of olive underneath the skin that shines
through, toning down the wbito TO
shade OF brown, that il rs beautiful in
color ~ beautiful can be. Their teeth
are marvels of whiteness aud regularity.
Their figures are invariably perfect in
their voluptuousness, and the whole
woman is as near physical perfection MS
anything ever permitted on this earth to
the temptation Of men. st Anthony
would have stood but poor chance had
he undergone his temptation in New
Orleans and had the arch enemy EN-.
ployed octoroon women to bis fall.
There is nothing in womnnhood more
delightful. The men among them are
In various employments and many of
them have achieved successes. They
have had advantages above their half
brothers who are darker in color, for
they are all necessarily the SONS of white
men, many of whom have for their
mothers sake been liberal to them in the
matter of education and means to COM
mence life with after education was com.
pletcd.
To understand this the status of the
0ctoroon woman must be understood.
She cannot marry white man, nor can
white man marry her. She cannot
associate with the race with which she
is allied, for she has had opportunities
lar above them. She looks upon the
"nlgger' proper with even more con-
tempt than does the pure white. Her
contempt is tinged with bitterness; for
she cannot help thinking that, were she
without that one drop OF negro blood,
her beauty and requirements would give
her any place among women she might
desire. But while white mnn cannot
marry her, there is no law--human mt
Ienst-that prevents his living with her.
Az tho poor girl cannot marry n white
man, and will not marry negro, she
does what seems to her the next best
thing, and the only thing she can do;
she accepts tho protection" of white
lover and lives with him. The next
thing is for the white lover to buy her
house and furnish it gorgeously, and
make it really his home. He does not
take her to the theatre or balls of his
own class, nor is he ever seen with her
ON the street; but her house is really his
home. She bears him children. and
those children he educates and provides
Tor. III many instances better than his
legal offspring; but he may not recog-
n,ze them. The black blood in them
bars that.
When he is tired of his illegal flame it
is the simplest thing in the world. The
house and its furnishings are hers and
whatever money he has given her he.
comes hers in her own right; aud the
middle-aged woman who has lost her
beauty, accepts the situation. lets the
furnished rooms to single gentlemen. and
lives in comfort all her life on the
proceeds. 1t was for this that she ell
tered into the arrangement to begin
with. and its ending satisfies her. She
nccumnlates money, her children, who
would pass for white anywhere ex.
cept in the South, go elsewhere where
their talent has scope. and become
actual men; and the daughters may emil
CRATE also, or they may stay in New
Orleans and go through the same OK.
perience that their mother did before
them.
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