The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-08-23
MANKIND IN The TROPICS.
The Vigorous, Graceful and Healthy Com
dItion of the Natives of the West indies.

Then you begin to look about you at
the black, brown, and yellow faces that
are studying you curiously from be-
meath the yellow-striped Madras tur-
bans. or 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 colors Of flesh
are more varied and surprising than
the colors of fruits And 1t IS only
with fruit colors that many of these
skin tints can be compared at all, the
only terms of comparison used by the
colored people themselves being terms
of this kind, such az peau-Sdp0ttAe, ''sa-
pota skin" The sapota or sapotille Is
1 Juicy brown fruit, with rlnd satlny
like a human cuticle, and just the color,
when fresh and ripe, of fine mulatto
skin. But among the brighter half
breeds | think the colors are much
more fruit-like: there are gourd hnts,
banana tints, orange colors, with oc-
casional flushes of pink showing
through, like the first pink of the man
go. Agreeable TO the eye the darker
tints certainly are, and often very re-
markable, all tones of bronze being
represented; but the brighter hues are
absolutely beautiful i'll certain half
breed types, coolie and quadroon.
Standing perfectly naked at door-ways
or playing naked in the sun, astonish-
ing children may be seen-banana-c col
ored and orange-colored babies. But
there is one peculiartype totally unlike
all the rest: the skin is an exquisite
metallic yellow, a perfect gold tone;
the eyes are long and black; the in
tensely dark and lustrous hair falls
over the neck in heavy mass of thick,
rich glossy curls that show blue lights
in the sun. What mingling Of races
produced this beautiful type? There
is some strange blood in the blending,
not Of coolie, nor of African, nor of
Chinese, although there are Chinese
types here of indubitable beauty.
All this population is vigorous,
graceful, healthy; all you see passing
by are well made; there are no sickly
faces, no scrawny limbs. If by some
rare chance you encounter person
who has lost an arm or leg, you can
be almost certain you are looking at a
victim of the fer-de-lance-the serpent
| whose venom putrelies living tissue.
Without fear of eXaggerating facts, L
can venture to say that the muscular
development Of the wOrking-men here
| is something which must be seen in or
! der to be believed; to study fine dis
! PLAYS of it, one should watch the blacks
| and haif-breeds working naked to the
| watson the landings, in the gas
| houses and slaughter-houses, or on the
nearest plantations. They are not
| large men, perhaps not extraordinarily
| powerful; but they have the aspect OF
| sculptural Or even of anatomical mod
| els; they seem absolutely devoid Of adj
| pose tissue; their muscles stand out
| with saliency that a5tOnishes the eye.
| 1t is marvellous. At tanning-yard.
while | was watching a dozen blacks
| at work, young mulatto, with the
| mischieyous face OF a faun, walked by,
wearing nothing but a cIOut about his
| loins: and never, not even in bronze,
did / see so beautiful aplay of muscles.
| A demonstrators OF anatomy could have
used him for a class model; q sculptor,
| wishing to shape a fine Mercury in
| bronze, would be satisfied to take a
cast of such body, without thinking
of making one modification from neck
to heel. Frugal diet is the cause of
this physical condition" a young
French professor assures me. "All
these men" he says, ''liyc upon salt
Goldfish and fruit" But frugal living
alone could never produce such sym
metry and saliency of muscles; race
crossing, climate, perpetual exercise,
healthy labor-many conditions and
| surroundings must combine to cause
| it. Also it is certain that this tropical
sun has tendency to dissolve spare
/ flesh, to melt away all superfluouS It's,
sue, leaving the muscular fibre dense
| and solid as mahogany.-LycGdiC
! Hcara, N Nllpe1,s Magaziac.