The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-13

daily brought up before the courts would
include petitions from parties having con.
tracted these ill-assorted marriage, but. on
the contrary, they are very rare. A white
woman, when separating from a colored
man, usually gives him parting blessing
with volley OF not too wei! chosen words,
packs up her things ard departs. A black
man, when he tires OF his white wife. is
some fine day found missing and never
turns up again. Or, II storm has been
brewing, he usually leaves the color of his
hand upon her face or eyes, takes his bag
gage and then departs.
The offspring OF mixed marriages are
classed under the head OF colored chill
dren, so that IL Is difficult to ascertain lust
how many OF them are born each year.
They are pretty, as a rule, although often
they are as dark as the father, with wiry
or curling hair.
intellectually these children compare
favorably with pure white and pure col.
orcd children. In the schools at the West
End there are a numberoi pupils OF mixed
parentage. Thor mode OF life and the
example set them by the people with
whom they arc thrown in contact daily
make them particularly clever and shrewd.
and good many OF them are old before
they are young. Where tho parents are
respectable and live among respectable
people the children are different and live
and act rs most poor but respectable chill.
dren ordinarily do. One Of the prcttiest
colored girls at the West End is the daugh-
ter OF colored man and an Irish woman.
She IL about seventeen years OF age and
nearly white, with long luxuriant hair
and fine features. She Is well formed and
bids fair to deyelopinto beautiful woman.
A few years ago this girls mother died,
and her father married again. This
time he also chose an Irish woman,
and the children Of this union, while
they arc pretty, are darker than the others
and look more like Spanish or Indian chill
drcn.
There is proneness among such chill
dren, whore they are 30 nearly white. 10
draw themselves away from colored peo.
pie and make their associates exclusively
white people. The tendency OF the child
in making such move Is 20 oyerstep the
bounds and show spirit not unmixod
with superciliousness toward the members
OF his own race. Indeed, instances Of il
in this very city are common. Every day
young men OF colored parenlage pass up
aud down Washington street, famlliarly
chatting with young white business men,
or with pretty white girls daughters OF
their employers sometimes), who, perhaps
would DO shocked IL they woro told the
men were colorod. In their cowardice
these young men will not even speak or
look nj other colorcd men, aud 20 be seen
with colorcd woman is not TO be thought
Of.
The children OF mixed parents occupy n
very remote social position. In the best
circles OF colorcd society, whore the prom.
inont business men, and those having the
most money, and their wives and Intimate
friends take the lead, and which IL as OK
elusive, in its way, as "McAllister's 400"
the offspring Of white women and colored
men are admitted only when taken up by
some influential member OF II, and even
then they will have no very firm footing.
IL Is the same with those who seek the
society OF the Caucasians exclusively
they can never enter the ultra set.
So few advantages are derived from
those intcrmarragcs, either by the parents
or the children, that prominent colored
people say II would be great blessing II
the practice were entirely stopped. AT
best, the world offers but little happiness.
for misery stalks lis streets at every turn:
but the misery occasioned by such unions
can only DO guessed at. The woman, from
whatever stock she may have sprung,
either sinks or rises 10 her husbands level.
Whichever way II may be, the usual re.
suit IN perfect isolation from white
friends and a new lifo among colorcd peo-
pie Tor the rest OF her dayA Then there
are snubs from past acquaintance and
snubs from the new, who wolcsmca white
woman among them rs the yiic Of man
OF their own race rs coldlyrhnd icily rs
naughty peer Welcomes an outcast.