The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1888-11-02


A Peculiar Type of Physical Bsauty--A
Biending of Races,
Then you begin 10 look about you at
the black, brown and yellow faces that
are studying you curIously from beneath
the yellow striped Madras turbans. on
from under the shadow Of mushroom
shaped straw hats large as umbrellas.
Watching the bare backs, bare shoulders.
bare legs and arms and feet, you find
that the ooiors of flesh are more varied
and surprising than the colors Of fruits.
And II Ii only with fruit coIora that
many of these skin tints can be compared
at all. the only terms of comparison used
by the colorcd people themselves being
terms OF this kind. such as peau- -sapotille,
''sapota skin" The sapota OF sapotilIe
is a Juicy brown fruit, with a ril1d
eatiny like a human cuticle, and
Just the color, when fresh and
the brighter half breeds I think
the colors are much more fruit like; there
are gourd tints, banana tints, orange col
ors, with occasional Iflushes Of pink show
Ing through. like the first pink Of the
mango. Agreeable 10 the eye the darker
tints certainly are. and often very re-
eented; but the brighter hues are abso-
lutely beautiful in certain half breed
types, coolie and quadroon. Standing
perfectly naked at doorways, or playing
naked In the sun. astonishing children
may be seen-banana colored and mango
colored babies. But there In one peculiar
type, totally unlike all the rest; the skin
Is an exquisite metaJlic yellow, perfect
gold tone; the eyes are long and black;
the intensely dark and lustrous hair falls
over the neck In heavy mass OF thick,
rich, glossy curls that show blue lights I'm
the sun.
cannot speak OF this comely and ex-
traordinary type without translating q
passage from DIR. J. j. J. CorniIliac, an
eminent Martinique physician, who re-
Gently published q most valuable series
upon the ethnology, climatology and his
tory of the Antilles. In these he writes:
when, among the populations OF the
Antilles. we first notice those remark
able metis whose olive skins. elegant and
slender figures. fine straight profiles. and
regular features remind us Of the inhah-
tants Of Madras or Pondicherry, we ask
ourselves In wonder-wiIile looking at
their long eyes, full Of a strange and
gentle melancholy Especially among the
womenl, and at the black. rich, silky
cleaning hair curling in abundance over
the temples and falling in profusion over
the neck-to what human race can be-
long this singular variety, In which there
Is dominant characteristic that seems
indelible. and always shows more and
more strongly In proportion as the type
Is further removed from the African ele-
ment. Il Is the Carib blood, blended
with blood of Europeans and of blacks,
which in spite OF all subsequent cross
ings, and in spite of the fact that 1t has
not been renewed for more than two
hundred years. still conserves. as re-
markedly as at the time OF the first inter-
blending. the race characteristic that in
yariably reveals its presence in the blood
of every being through whose veins il
dowss
All this population Is vigorous, grace
full, healthy; all you see passing by are
well made: there are no sickly faces, no
scrawny limbs II by some rare chance
| you encounter person who has lost an
arm or n leg, you can be almost certain
you are looking at a victim Of the fer de
lance-the serpent whose venom putrefies
living tissue. Without fear Of exagger-
ating facts, / can venture to say that the
muscular development of the working
men here is something which must be
seen In order TO be believed; to study fine
| displays OF it, one should watch the blacks
and half-breeds working naked to the
waist-on the landings, In the gas houses
and slaughter houses, or ON the
nearest plantations. They are not
large men, perhaps not extraortii-
narily powerful; but they have the
aspect of sculptural or even of ana
| tomical models; they seem absolutely
devoid Of adipose tissue; their muscles
stand out with saliency that astonishes
the eye. 1t Is marvellous. At a tanning
yard, while / was watching q dozen
blacks at work, young mulatto. with
the mischievous face of faun, walked
by, wearing nothing but clout about
his loins; and never, not even in bronze,
did see SO beautiful play of muscles.
| A demonstrator of anatomy could have
used him for class model; q sculptor,
wishing to shape fine Mercury in bronze,
would be satisfied to take q cast of such
body, without thinking of making ont
modification from neck to heel.-Lafaca,
dio Hearn in Harper's Magazine.
Tho Climate of ST. Petersburg.