Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-17
AN AMAZING CHANGE.
Henry Welch, an rishman, Rapidly
Turning Into a Black Man.
WHAT SIX MONTHS HAS DONE.
He First Became Light Yellow and Is
Growing Darker.
BILE Is THE EXPLANATION GIVEN OF 1T

BILE is THE EXPLANATION GIVEN OF IT
NEW YORK, May 16.-There have been
negroes whose skins turned white in spots
for revenue and exhibition chiefly. There
have been negroes whose skins were SO
slightly tinted anyway that they readily
passed for white men. There have even
been negroes entirely white, if we may trust
veracious travellers. But who ever heard of
white man with not a drop of African
blood in his veins who turned negro?
And an Irish white man at that?
Yet this singular phenomenon is now be-
ing observed in a well authenticated case at
the Presbyterian Hospital
The history of this extraordinary patient,
verified in great part by inquiry among
his friends as set down on the hospital
records and gathered elsewhere runs thus:
His name is Henry Welch. He is 50
years old, and the son of Thomas and Mary
Welch, of County Down, in Ireland, where
he was born. He has been in America 35
years, most of the time employed as a
waiter. He came to New York ten years
ago, and has been employed in many res
taurantS, uptown and down. Up to six
months ago no one had questioned that
Welch was a white man any more than that
horse has four legs. Some time last No
vember he began to be troubled with an in
termittent pain in the region of his stom-
ach, at times very severe. He had a Ian
guild feeling and bilious look, and along
in December his face began to take a slight
tinge of yellow, as if he had an attack of
jaundice.
He Still Grows Darker.
The pain continued and so did the yellow
tinge, and the color steadily got darker
BY Christmas he was about the shade of
typical Italian. BY the end of January he
was as yellow as a Chinaman. A month
later he would be taken for a quadroon.
Two weeks ago he was like mulatto and
still growing darker Then Welch, being
convinced that Providence for some mys-
terious reason had elected to make full
negro out of descendant of an Irish king
shut himself up in abject dependency.
His friends talkei him into the idea of
going to a hospital to be treated, and May
6 he was admitted to the Presbyterian. He
was now as dark as any mulatto, and would
be taken for one anywhere by any person,
his straight iron-gray hair and long iron
gray muStache to the contrary notwith-
standing.
colored man, though it took close and OBJ
servant inspection to see the difference. He
was of very dark brown, as dark as the
wrapper Of a strong cigar, but the shade had
q slightly dead and inky black look, not
like that of man with African blood. This
was chiefly noticeable in his face, where the
Caucasian flush shone a little through the
dark tint and gave him an unnatural look for
colored man. The insidas of his hands,
too, were also of nearly the same color as
the outsides.
Ordered From a Restaurant.
On May z, having been in the hospital i
two days and feeling encouraged, he thought |
he would like TO go out for walk. He |
walked around through the park and on the |
Westside until about 1 O'Clock. Then he |
drifted into a restaurant near the park to |
get dinner. He sat down at table and |
the walters looked askance at him, but no |
body came to get his order. He hammered |
on the table with plate, and after he had |
exercised himself in this way for awhile the |
proprietor, who had been eyeing him over |
the top of his desk with the hope that he |
would take the hint and get out, came up |
and said:
"Now stop that and light out. We don't |
serve colored people here"
"But OF amt no coloreo man," said |
Welch, who still talks with burr in spite |
70 his long years on Americas free soil. |
''Oi'm no more colored than yisself Dim |
as white a man as you are" said Welch, |
''and we've got no right to put m? out"
But the proprietor was not going to ad- |
NIT any equivocation about the evidence of |
his own eyes, so he said that if Welch didn't |
go and at once he would call his walters and |
have him put out. So Welch said he would |
go, but the proprietor had made the great
est mistake of his life.
''Oi tell yez Dim white,'' he shouted |
''0'im white as yisself Can't you tell
white man when you see one? Look at my
hair and see for yourself"
But the proprietor wouldn't look at any,
thing but Welch's mahogany face, and out
he went with a bevy of grinning walters |
making merry over his discomforture. |
Probably that made Welch madder than all |
the rest, having been waiter himself and |
grinned at other people.
Another Deadly Insult.
He sought another restaurant, and the
proprietor this time met him suavely at the
door and told him firmly, but kindly, that /
he could not afford to have the custom of
colored people. Welch protested again, but
the proprietor was unmoved.
''Well, look at my hair, said Welch.
''A ou can see from that OIm no nagur."
The proprietor looked at the hair. but |
wasn't convinced by that either ''Why,"
he said, 'Tye seen lots of niggers with
straight hair. YOu can't play that on me-"
Welcb said he was Irish. But the restau-
rant man said he didn't care if he was the
Grand Duke of Ireland, he couldn't come in
there.
The next attempt was tine last. After that
Welch gave it up. Here he was received
in grim silence, and after while a waiter
came and put down in front of him an odd
looking bill of fare and went away. On this
bill of fare the cheapest Wand was oliver
and bacon" s. 75. Coffee was 81 a cup and
bread 20 cents slice. A sirloin steak cost
81 SO. Mr.. Welch had been around restau-
rants too much not to know the significance
of all this He got up and went OUT That
day he dined at the hospital and has been
content to stay there ever since.
His condition has not varied much from
day to day, but he has not got any better.
His color has gone on slowly growing
darker. The change is just perceptible
from one weeks end to another. He is
now about two shades darker than he was
when he reached the hospital If he lives
long enough he will be totally black.
The Cause of 1t All.