Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-02
AN ARTIFICIAL NEGRO.
A Man Whose Color Changed fro
White to BIack-Results of the Use

A Man Whose Color Changed from
White to BIack-Results of the Use of
Nitrate of Silver.
In the wide, level grass plot west OF the
grand stand at the Interstate fair
grounds, says the Kansas CITY STIR a
dark-skinned solitary figure stands all day
long. switching the clOver-tops with a
crooked cane and keeping a desultory
watch Tor trespassers on the line of the
fence. Pretending to watch would he
perhaps more accurate. for he Is lame on
one SIDE and walks with difficulty, so he
sLah9s sun; mostly looking dreamily at
1h0se who pass on the road notice him
simply as an inOffensive negro. but the
Few VINO had occasion to walk over the
neld near TO him have star ted in surprise.
not unmlXed with horror, at something
m0nstrOusly unnatural in his apDear-
ance. He is black, but not like an Afri-
can IN color or features. 1t is rather a
blue-black; an uncanny, bideOus shade
that seems as though his skin had been
hrst drained OF all blood and smeared
with dye. When one comes to look at
him closely the peculiar shade in a photo
graph IS lrresistibly called to mind HIS
face looks almost exactly like a photo
graphic proof that has nearly faded out OF
turned black.
Even the eyeballs and lips partake of
the discOlOratiOn. The balls of the
former are dusky blue and the latter a
dark purple. Against his skin a reddish
beard forms a strange contrast. The
name OF this singular being is Thomas
White, and he has lived near here the
larger part of his life. His color is the
result of taking nitrate of silver as a
medicine, and he is a living example of a
cruel penalty that science imposes for a
desperate cure.
Those who have read WiIkie Collins
graphic narrative of thessorrows of ssPoor
Miss Finch" viii remember she loved a
twin brother named Oscar, who was an
epileptic. Poor Miss Finch was blind
and saw her lovers face only through her
finger tips, with which she felt his fea-
lures. Cursed with his dreadful disease
he did not dare to marry her, when bold
physician proposed employing nitrate of
silver as cure. This drug, as is we'll
known, is sensitive to the light and turns
black when expOsee to the sun. With it
photographers prepare sensitive paper
Tor their prints, and once absorbed in the
blood the same effect was to be expected.
Oscar knows the hideOus Disagreement
that is his doom. but determines to use
the remedy, cOnsOling himself with the
thought that his bride will never see him.
How il affects him he describes in a letter
I'm the novel.
Il told you in my last" he wrote,
THAT the discolOratiOn Of my skin had
begun. The complexion you were once so
good as to admire has disappeared for
ever. am now of livid ashen color
so like death that sometimes startle nv
self when | look in the glass. In about
six weeks more the doctor calculates this
will deepen to blacklist blue, and then
the saturation (as he calls it, will be COM
plete."
On this much of the motif of the story
he says:
Physicians rarely prescribe the drug
because the remedy is usually cOnsId-
cred worse than the disease. and few have
the fOrtitude to withstand it."
Il knew White twenty years ago. said
Deputy Marshal Ike jackson, N'when his
color cOrrespOnded with his name. and
saw him gradually turn black year after
year. At first the color could scarcely be
noticed, and then he grew darker and dark
er, until he IS as you see him nOw.'7
a reporter, whose curiosity Overcame
his hesitancy at approaching so delicate
a subject, strO He'd across through the
clover field yesterday and engaged White
in conversation.
will l tell you about myself?7 said
he; Il don't mind. Sit down here by me
on the log and I'll do the best I can. /
q =
me this color. 1t is from nitrate of silver
l have taken. Twenty-Five years ago
yes, more, for it was a good deal before
the war; suffered terribly from epileptic
hts. had one every day or two and was
rapidly losing my mind. / could remeul-
Der nothing, got so weak and thin could
scarcely get around, and was dying by
inches. About that time Judge Taller. who
used to be big man here, and was. sub
a oil !, a. 3
silver, taken internally, would cure me.
He had used it himself and it had turned
his skin black just as you see mine now
only perhaps worse. He was a curiO sity
all around, and l used to be afraid to look
ut him.
"The idea of getting that way tur ned
me sick, and l thought then l would
rather die than use the stuff. The fits,
though, got TO coming so fast and so bad
that l saw l would probably die any how
and made up my mind to begin with it
My mother, though, would not hear of nv
taking 1t. l had good white skin then.
and the notion of me turning black was
more than she could stand. At last,
though, she saw how things were and gave
her consent.
"Then l began to take the medicine. got
it put up in pills OF three-quarters of a
grain each, and would take three or four
Of them day. L don't know how long l
kept that up. 1t would be impossible for
me TO tell. 1t was for months, thought
guess years. For a long time there was
no change in my skin. Then [ began to
turn black very slowly. At first you
could hardly notice it at all Then it got
deeper and deeper. ltseeme Il as though it,
took all color away with il, and folks
used TO say at first that 10 oked pale and
wouldn't notice the black all. 1t came
so gradually that / had a chance to get
used to it and also those around me, so
it wasn't so hard. People told me that it.
would affect me bad when | got old, but l
have never felt any injHry from it except
the staining of my skin. l have rheuma-
tlsm and strong light N axes my eyes a
trltle weak, but Pm 50 years old now, and
might feel so anyhow. Judge Taller died,
Iolks SAID, from the medic me, but it has
never hurt me-"
slow did it affect the fit ?"
1t stopped them. l finally began to
taper off on the nitrate of silver, and got
1t down to grain a day, and finally a
grain week. have taken none now for
about two years. Once, years ago, 1
thought l was completely cured, and took
none for eighteen months, but the fits
came back and l began again on il at
once, and the medicine check ed them
would have surely been dead had it not
been Tor 1t. and now | Gm tOierably stout
for man Of my age, and have wife a nd
four children"
Were you married."
Yes" he replied, quickly, anticipatin g
the question, Il was married after tn e
coloring began. 1 was engaged to be mar
RED before | comm enced to take the medi-
cine, and-well, she didn't abandon me
because l grew ugly TO look at. My
came back again, and would rather have
the blue skin thou sand times over again
than the disease.''
He pulled his hat over his blackened
forehead, and resumed his impassive
switching of the clover blooms with his
crooked cane.
ONE OF Ills SCHEMES THAT
PAID.