The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-21


This led me to make some inquiries;
for labOrer working for 90 cents a day
does not usually pay "a cents a cake for
his toilet soap, but large quantity of it
had evidently been sold. The shOpkeeper,
himself Il mulattO, assured me that most
OF his customers would buy no other soap
for toilet uses. A report had been spread
that this complexion soap was made ex-
pressly for washing the color out of ne
grOeS' skins, and that il was a sure thing
if used perseveringly. Consequently. al
most every negro in St. Lucia was wash
ing with the English complexion soap at
"A cents 4 cake.
Have you eyer known of a negro
washing himself white with this soapH
/ asked the shOpkeeper.
HE shrugged his shoulders and smiled,
and replied Jhat perhaps it had not been
IN use long enough YET. At any rate ii
did them no harm. and kept them from
using worse things. What worse things2
asked, and he turned to a large glass
showcase and showed me a collection of
! cosmetics that could hardly be duplicated
outside of the West Indies. There were
at least a dozen preparations for whiten-
ing the skin by chemical acJion-sOme in
powder form, some liquid, and others un-
guents. None of these bleaching prepar
atiOns sold for less than six English shill-
ings the box or bottle, and some for eight
and ten shillings; but at these prices, he
said, he sold large quantities of them.
Not less in number were the preparations
for strengthening the hair. These were
all unguents and sold at from to
S shillings the bottle. Keep an eye
on your cOtOred people, he told me, and
| you will ind that nine in every ten are
| trying to bleach themselves and straigh-
| ten their hair
Don't they soon find that these things
are all humbug, ana give il Tp' l asked.
No, he replied, for they get Just
| enough results from them to encourage
them to go on. All of these things con
| tain enough acid or some other chemical
| to Tighten the color of the skin very
! slightly for a short time. Frequent rub
| bing with a stiff brush has the same eff
| feet. The darkest negro can make him
| self shade lighter by violent rubbing
continued for weeks, but the color re
| turns in a few days. They want some
! thing quicker than that
After this conversation l kept my eyes
! open, and what | saw astOnished me.
] Good fortune threw in our way, an Amer
| lean cook a ColOred man named Bob,
| from South Carolina. How Bob happened
! to be down in St. Lucia just at the time
we needed him has nothing to do with
this story. He was there, and ne was a
treasure Bob was a very smart mulatto
y
fun, and good cook. His skin was very
light, and he had the finest and whitest
set of teeth I ever saw.
Bob had not been on the place week
| before l began to suspect that he was
| trying to turn himself white. This sur
pIised me very much, for he seemed to be
| TOO intelligent a man for such fOOlery,
and ] kept watch on him. The first sus-
] piCiOus thing noticed had nothing to do
with the color of his skin; it concerned a
bottle of tooth powder. Somebody had
sent me a sample bottle of pink tooth
powder, which | had promptly thrown
| away, being suspicious Of all such things,
and it had got as far as a dust heap out
side the dining room door. Bob found it
there and brought it in and asked
whether he could have it. OF course /
gave it to him, but cautioned him against
using any unknown powders upon his
beautiful teeth. He showed them all
like a double row OF pearly piano keys
as he smilingly assured me that he was
not going to use the powder himself, but
that he had use for it.
"A few days later Bob came into the
house-you know the kitchen down there
is always in a separate building, some
distance from the hOuse-and asked me
for some blue paper that he could do III
a few powders in. / learned soon after
ward that he kept in his room a large
glass jar. such as druggists use, with q
broad glass stopper, and filed with q
coarse white powder. l also found that
after getting the blue paper from me he
had done up several dozen powders, hall
in the blue paper half in white. | ex
amined the powder in the jar, and founG
that il felt soapy to the touch, and while
it had no OdOr smelling of it made me
sneeze violently There must have beer
three or four quarts Of it in the jar.
Bob was far and away the most in
telligent cOlOred man on the place, anC
the others soon learned to look up to him
He made them call him MIR. Bob like
white man Whatever he did they
thought was right, and, as far as they
could, they initiated his manners anC
dress. Our population increased won
derfully, for every servant brought in al
army of sisters and fathers and grand
mothers; but as they had to feed them
| selves. and lived in shanties outside, thi!
made no difference. They came from
various parts of the West Indies, and 81
had variety of customs and dialects
and Bob used to drive US into roars OF
laughter with limitations of their manner
and conversation
AS we kept no boat, the boat house
was used only for a dressing room after
taking our morning swim, and later in the
day the negroes were at liberty to use it
Tor the same purpose. lney maze gOOI
use of it, too, for they were all very
clearly, and bathed at least once every
day. One afternoon ! had occasion to &c
into the boat house for something, and as
| approached the door heard Bob's voice
saying something about getting whittier
and whittier every day Inside l found Bot
making preparations to wash, with his
shirt sleeves rolled up and his collar
thrown well back. He was emptying one
of his blue powders into a pail of water
into which he had evidently just poured q
white powder, for the empty paper lay OF
the table Around him were a dozen ad
miring darl1ios watching him with grea
interest. My entrance interrupted thu
conversation, and Bob looked sheepish
II said nothing a. the time, but that
evening | called Boo into the house anC
asked him whether he could possibly bt
such a fool as to be trying to turn him
self white. He burst into roar o
laughter.
4 amt no such fool as that boss. b,
he answered, for he had learned TO cal
me boss like the rest. 4 reckon | alway
keep de skin de Lord A mighty give me
I'm Jest a workin these fellows up, anC
sellin' them my powders 50 they can turn
themselves white
But they can't do it, told him, 'st
you are swiudling them
90 Not edzactly that he replied
scratching his head I'm jest keepin' then
from spending their money on the STUFF
from the shops that don't do them NJ