The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-08-21
VILLAGE BEAUTIES IN BLACK.



SoineDihirulty In Getting the Paint OF.
The little villagc Il Clyde, one Of the
prctticst villages in Wayne county, has Il
great number of beautiful young women
Awhile ago somebody organized q show
to bo given for the benefit of some local
church or charitable organization, and
lot of the pretty girls, led by the female
members of the choir of the church which
was to bo benefited, got together to discuss
what part they would take in the enter
tainment. Somebody had been reading of
minstrel show given by young women in
Brooklyn and suggested that Clyde follow
Brooklyn The idea took The girls de
cidcd that it would he perfectly lovely, and
the details were arranged.
To make the show realistic the girls
thought they ought to blacken up. This
was what the Brooklyn women did. Their
were some protests against going so far,
but the blacking up idea proved popular
with majority of the proposed performers,
and 1t was adopted The performance was
given one night last week. The hall was
crowded, and things went off nicely. There
was singing, and the end men (who were
men, by the way) worked off their gags.
and the whole affair wound up with song
in concert. The Clyde orchestra was
present and did wonders with its varied
assortment of instruments, and the village
folk decided unanimously that they had
had their moneys worth and were per
fectly satisfied.
When the curtain went down, the girls
went back to wash the black of their faces
The first one to reach wash basin took Il
sponge and began rubbing her checks To
the intense horror Of the entire company
the black would not bulge. 1t was there
to stay. The other girls seized pals, basins,
anything that would hold water, got wa
ter and began to scrub. The black remain.
ed. They might just as well have been
negroes of the darkest hue for all the i'm
preston they made on the color. There
were Mysteries and all that kind of thing,
but the black never budgcd.
The girls scrubbed and cried and cried
and scrubbed with the effect of getting off
some small patches of black and heighten-
ing their grotesque appearance. After
hours of work they managed to whiten
their checks enough to enable them to go
out and then they all skipped through
back streets to their homes. Meanwhile
the men were having IA similar experience.
They couldn't get the black off either
The end men and the principal comedian
worked for an hour and then strollcd out
to the Clyde hotel with their faces all
shades from light drab to n coal black
The leading comedian got some of the
black off his nose and chin n little off his
checks, but had been able to make no i'm
preston ON his ears and he was very
spectacular young man when he walked
into the billiard room of the hotel and
huslSily asked for something to drink.
There was theatrical man in town,
and late that night he was awakened by "A
heavy knock at his door. Say" said an
excited voice. "arc you theater mani"
He said he was.
"Woll, | heard you were What do You
do to get burnt cork off when you black
up for niggtr minstrclsi"
Wash it Off"
YES, know, but howy'
why, take sponge 1t ought to wash
right on"
There was long silence. Finally the
voice said again, Say, mister, how do you
mix burnt cork when you use it to black
up for niggcr minstrelsS''
Mix it with water"
Great GOdl'' said the voice; 1--WE mixed
ours with vaselinc."
In the course of week or two it is cx-
pected that the young women who so sue
cessfully participated In the minstrel show
will be around to receive the congratula-
tions of their friends. In the meantime
the ears of the leading comedian are still
of n beautiful glossy black Buffalo tx
press