News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-22
THOSE PRETTY OCTOROONS.
RACE PEOPLE WHICH Is NO RACE
THE PECULIAR POSITION OF ITS
WOMEN.
Society Debars Them from Alnrriage-How
They Live and are Provided for-Future
of Their Children.

There is in New Orleans race and
distinct race which is no race. 1t has
its one hand upon the whites and the
other upon the blacks, and it occupies
position betwixt and between, belonging
to both and to neither. The whites re-
fuse to acknowledge them, and they
hold themselves SO 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 a 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 be as beautiful as Venus, and
accomplished in every possible way; she
may sing like Patti and paint like Rosa
Bonheur, but no white man would marry
her and remain in New Orleans. 1t
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 at 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 white to a
shade of brown, that is as beautiful in
color as beautiful can be. Their teeth
are marvels of whiteness and regularity.
Their figures are invariably perfect in
their voluptuousness, and the whole
woman is as near physical perfection as
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 his fall.
There is nothing in womanhood 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
pleted.
To understand this the status of the
octoroon woman must be understood.
She cannot marry a white man, nor can
white man marry her. She cannot
associate with the race with which she
is allied, for she has had opportunities
far 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 man cannot
marry her, there is no law-human at
least-that prevents his living with her.
AS the poor girl cannot marry 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 the ''protection" of a white
lover and lives with him. The next
thing is for the white lover to buy her a
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
for, in many instances better than his
legal offspring; but he may not recog-
nize 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 be-
comes hers-in-h er-owa-figAt end-bhe-
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
accumulates 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 ex-
perience that their mother did before
them.