The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-03-05
VILLAGE 6EAUTle5 IN BLACK.
They Initiate Negro Minstrcls. bat tiayc
Come Difficulty In Getting the Paint &c.


Come Difficulty In Getting the Paint 0e'
The little village Of Clyde, ono of tho
prrtticst villages in Wayne county, has Il
great number of beautiful young women.
Awhile ago somebody organized show
to be given for the benefit of some local
church or charitable organization, and a
lot of the pretty girls, led by the female
members of the choir of the church which
was to be benefited, got together to discuss
what part they would take in the enter
tainmcnt. Somebody had boon reading of
a minstrel show given by young women in
Brooklyn and suggested that Clyde follow
Brooklyn. The idea took. The girls de-
cided that it would be 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. There
were some protests against going so far,
but the backing up idea proved popular
with majority of the proposed performers,
and it 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 off their faces
The first one to reach wash basin took II
sponge and began rubbing her cheeks. 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 of
some small patches of black and heighten-
ing their grotesque appearance. After
hours of work they managed to whiten
their cheeks enough to enable them to q
out, and then they all skipped through
back streets to their homes. Meanwhile
the men were having a similar experience.
They couldn't get the black off either.
The end men and the principal comedian
worked for an hour and then strOlled out
to the Clyde hotel with their faces al
shades from light drab to IA coal black
The leading comedian got some of thl
black off his nose and chin, a little Off hi
cheeks, but had been able to make no i'm
preston on his ears, and he was a very
spectacular young man when he walked
into the billiard room of the hotel anC
huskily asked for something to drink.
There was theatrical man in town
and late that night he was awakened by
heavy knock at his door. Say" said al
excited voice, are you n theater MANI
He said he was.
"Well, l heard you were. What do you
do to get burnt cork off when you blacl
up for niger minstrels"
Wash it off. ~
Eyes, l know, but how"
"Why, take sponge. 1t ought to wasl
right off"
There was long silence. Finally TIL
voice said again, Say, mister, how do yol
mix burnt cork when you use it to blacl
up for Niger minstrelsS"
Mix it with water"
Great God" said the voice; 1--WE nike
ours with vaseline.'
In the course of n week or two it is OK
pected that the young women who so sue
cessfully participated in the minstrel shoy
will be around to receive the congratula
tions Of their friends. In the moantim
the ears of the leading comedian are Still
of n beautiful, glossy black. --Buifalo ES
press.