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

the stuff we use in de kitchen for scrub
bin. l bought six papers of il for three
shillin, and I've sold over "a worth of il
so far. / put it in blue an white papers
an tell EN- to mix them, because it makes
it look more scientifcal like. l might as
well have dere money as de shop keepers,
sah.'
Il tried to make Bob understand that
it was not fair for him to take advantage
of the Ignorance of his companions in this
way but, he had such bonanza that no
argument made any impression upon him,
and as he was fellOw-countrymau ! did
not care to expose him. In fact. il would
have done no good if l had. The negroes
were satisfied that Bob was turning him-
self white with his powders, and they
would have continued to buy them in
spite of anything / could have said.
After that Bob took pains 10 call my at
tention whenever he found one of the ne
grOes trying TO whiten himself or
straighteu his hair. He brougb in men
with their faces shining with grease
warranted TO remove the color. and girls
with their hair tied up painfully in tight
rags and pasted down fiat with ill-smell-
ing, sticky stuff that was probably ban
doline disguised. The woOlly-headed
women, found, never went to sleep with
out a towel tied tightly about their heads
to tiatten the hair down. AL the women
o-A NAAt tLlOt. bitl anu NOuuf-' maui NttilA
practice of cOmbing each others hair,
hoping to take out the kinks. In fact,
was soon satisfied that there was not a
colOred man or woman on the place but
what was taking some measures either to
bleach the skin or Straighten the hair,
and often both.
This was interesting" the contractor
| went on, but not altogether surprising.
| The West Indian negroes are deusely igno-
rant and they naturally regard the
white mans fair skin and STRAIGHT hair
as marks of superiority. That will do
for the negroes of the West Indies, | said
to myself, but our cOlored folks in Amer
lea could not be duped in such a way:
| they are too smart for that But had
! hardly been home week before ran
| across an almost precisely similar thing
| in this city. In looking over my paper
/ one morning ] found an account Of a col
! ored girl who was arrdiPned in the
| TOmbS police court for some ofeuse, and
| in the report was this curious sentence:
! 1.-The peculiar appearance of her face
| she accounted for by saying that she was
using preparation for bleaching the
/ skin, She expected to be entirely white
/ in a few days.
Being interested in the subject" he
| continued, Il determined to follow up
this clew. With some difficulty l made
my way into the Tombs prison and visited
| the girl. She certainly had some appa-
| rent ground for her belief that she was
! turning white. She was naturally very
! dark, but there were several large spots
| and a number of small ones on her face
that were nearly as white as MY own
! skin, though they had an unhealthy, un-
natural appearance In other places the
thin outer skin was pealing of, disclosing
! the whittier skin beneath 1t did notneed a
/ professional eye to see that she was using
| some chemical strong enough to remove the
outer skin gradually, thus making her
/ self, for few days, much lighter WhCr-
ever the dark outer skin peeled of Ma
/ ture would, OF course, soon replace the
! dark skin that was removed. The girl
was also using a preparation for straight
ening her hair, and / found that it was
| useless to try to argue her out of the
belief that she could turn herself white.
/ She told me without hesitation where she
ad bought the preparations, and gave
me the address of firm on the west side
of the city, up town.
My next step was TO visit this place
| and talk with the proprietor who proved
to be a very light and intelligent colored
| woman. The similarity between her and
| my man Bob struck me at once She told
me seriously that she had once beenvepy
dark, but had changed her complexion by
the use of her preparations There was no
doubt whatever, she said, about the
efficacy of her medicines. She had cured
a large number Of colored people, turning
them PERFECTLY white. The word cured
was invariably used in speaking of the al
legged metamorpho5is. She showed me a
large number of recommendations coming
from all over the union, but principally
from the southern states. For $40 she
would straighten woolly hair; for 81 she
would sell a single bottle of the prepara-
ton for bleaching the skin. A
number of customers came in while
| was there, and there was every in
dication of a large business. In the cir
culars the woman gave me, ! noticed a
popularity that had struck me in all the
similar preparations in the West indies,
that nothing was said about these oint-
ments being intended for colOred people.
All the illustrations were of cOlored
lasses, but there was not word in the
text about race differences. t
1T was no part Of my plan" the con-
tractor concluded Ito push the inquiry
further. l had seen the West India ne
groes making every effort to turn them
selves white, and | wished to know
whether any of our American colored
folks have the same desire. / found that
some Of them have. right here in New
York, and that there are people shrewd
enough to cater to this desire.