The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-05-21
NOW HE Is A MULATTO.
N SIX MONTHS A NATIVE IRISH
MAN TURNS ALMOST BLACK.

| the TINT Steadily Darksned-Event-
ually He Will Be Like Full-Blooded
Negro.
From the Nel1 York Herald
There have been negroes whose skins
turned white in spots-for revenue and ex-
hibition 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 a white man with
not drop OF African blood in his veins
who turned negrol
And an Irish white man at thatl
Yet this singular phenomenon is now be-
ing observed in a well authenticated case at
| the Presbyterian hospital.
As the museum lecturer says when he
makes the living skeleton stand up, there
is, ladies and gentlemen, no deception about
this. The case is on record, and you can
verify it for yourselves. A man about whose
pure Caucasian descent there is no doubt.
who six months ago was of as fair and ruddy
| complexion as any of you, is now from
head to foot the color of q mulatto, and
| growing darker every day. The case 10
| recognized among physicians as true and Of
great interest. IL Is, so far as Is known, the
first that has ever come under local obser-
walton.
HIS STORY.
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 WEIGH. He is so
Years old and the son Of Thomas and Mary
WEIGH, Of county Down, in Ireland, where
he was born. He has been in America
| thirty-five years, most Of the tune
employed as waiter. He came to New
| York ten years ago and has been employed
in many restaurants uptown and down. He
has boarded some time with Mrs. Charles
Jack, at the corner Of 18th street and the
Southern boulevard, who is put down as
his nearest friend. He is unmarried and has
no relatives in New York, though he is we'll
| remembered in the places where he has
worked. He is member Of the Roman
Catholic church.
Up to six months ago no one had ques-
! toned that WEIGH was a white man any
more than that a horse has four legs. He
was as white as any other healthy white
man in New York. Some time last Novem-
Der he began to be troubled with an inter
mitte0t pain in the region of his stomach,
at times very severe. He took home RENEE
dies for the stomachache and was finally
treated by physicians, getting better and
worse variously-about as other patients do
| perchance. He had a languid feeling, and
along in December his face began to take a
slight tinge Of yellow, as if he had an attack
OF jaundice.
GROWING DARKER.
The pain continued and so did the yellow
| tinge. WEIGH worked Off and on, as the
| pain would let him, and the color steadily
| got darker. BY Christmas he was about
| the shade Of a typical Italian. By the end
| Of January he was as yellow as China
man. A month later he would be taken for
quadmaroon.
By that time he ceased work altogether
and did not go out very much.
Two weeks ago he was like a mulatto and
still growing darker.
| Then WEIGH, being at last convinced that
| Providence for some mysterious reason had
elected to make a full negro out Of de-
| scendant Of an Irish king, shut himself up
in alb ect dependency.
| TO THE HOSPITAL.
His friends, who were not 50 confident
| about the manifestations Of providence in
his case as he was, to cheer him up talked
him into the idea of going to hospital to
| be treated, and May he was admitted to
the Presbyterian and assigned to bed In
| ward 5.
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 mustaohe to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Still his exact tint was not quite that Of O
colored man, though it took close and OBJ
servant inspection to see the difference. He
was Of a very dark brown, as dark as the
wrapping of strong cigar, but the shade
had a slightly dead and inky black look, not
like that OF a man with African blood. This
was chiefly noticeable in his face where the
Caucasian flush shone little through the
dark tint and gave him an unnatural look
for a colored man. The inside of his hands,
too, were also of nearly the same color as
the outsides.
Being questioned and examined by the
deeply Interested physicians who had never
seen a case like this, Weleh's chief physical
symptoms were found to be a great weak
ness and the same pain In his stomach.
They diagnosed the case as hypertrophic
cirrhosis, and told the patient he had
disease Of the liver and wasn't any more of
a negro than he was before.
WEIGH felt better.
On May Z, having been in the hospital
two days and feeling encouraged, he
thought he would like to go out for walk
So SuDt. Wall gave him a pass and he
strolled forth about 10 o'clock. He walked
around through the park and over on the
west side until about l o'clock. Then he
drifted into restaurant near the park to
get dinner.
AT THE RESTAURANT.
He sat down at a table and the walters
stood off and looked askance at him, but
nobody came to get his order. He ham
mered on the table, and after he had exer-
cised himself in this way for awhile the
proprietor, who had been cycling 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 Oh amt no colored mou,n said
WEIGH, who still talks with burr In spite
Of his long years on Americas free soil.
"Oi'm no more colored than yisself"
/ suppose the proprietor thought there
was nothing strange about that, and nothing
peculiar about q negro who had a county
Down brogue, because he said WEIGH would
have TO 60 anyway.
"Orm az white man as you are" said
WEIGH, land ye've got no right to put me
out"
But the proprietor was not going to admit
any eQuivocation about the evidence of his
own eyes, so he said that IL WEIGH didn't
go, and at once, he would call bis walters
and have him put out. So WEIGH said he
would go. but the proprietor had made the
Qrandest mistake of his life