The record-union., 1897-07-27

ing. They used ordinary water into
which they blew and over which they
mumbled an incantation 1t was con-
tended that they were practicing medi-
cine, but Magistrate Kudlich while as
sured that their methods were fraudu-
lent, ruled that there was nothing to
hold them. They are getting a big prac-
tice to-day on a certain thoroughfare
much frequented by physicians There
have been many other cases of the sort.
Neither has it been possible to hold any
of the generation of thumpers, kneaders
and punchers who with monumental ig
norance and assurance practice massage
for all the ills the flesh is heir to.
There is tumble of the mystic and
the magnetic in the claims Of a certain
institution which recently has given
public demonstration of its methods.
It's announcements claim miracles,
and one who attended a demonstration
tells a story of seeing dozens or rheu
matte patients seated upon the stage
and after few slaps and passes from
the burly demonstrators, dscarding
their canes and doing hornpipes. One
old fellow presented his cane to his ben
efactors. The following week he was
seen again on the Brooklyn bridge and
he was hobbling painfully with another
cane. Cheers of applause came from
the hall as each man professed himself
cured. A noticeably large proportion of
the audience was made up of the colored
people of the neighborhood.
The black man of New York is, of all
men, the inveterate victim of the
charlatan. His health and his future in
certain neighborhoods are largely at the
command of the diviner and the quack.
His dreams are treasured up and re-
tailed to the expert or they are inter-
preted out of his own well-thumbed
book of fate, afterward to be coined
into the revenues of the policy shops.
And there is an intermittent struggle
going on among the wise women of his
race to discover some potion or ointment
that viii straighten the hair and bleach
the dark pigments out of the skin. 1t
is an ambition that is confessed only
with great reluctance, but they that
minister to it may be found in Thomp-
son street and in the Tenderloin and
sometimes they have had TO stand and
deliver before the magistrates.
THE ORIGIN.
So far as the genesis of this prac-
tice can be traced, it originated among
the blacks of the British West Indies,
where, for them, fabulous sums are
sometimes spent in the hope of becom-
ing like white folks. The shopkeepers
take advantage of the delusion to ad-
vertise at impossible prices soaps of
foreign manufacture, which in private
they assure their customers will be ef-
fectual in Transforming them if used
with sufficient assiduity The prepar-
ationS are strong with acids, and will
often tighten the color of the skin for
a while, but they are dangerous and
of no permanent value.
Here in New York there are always
places where the initiated can get nos
trums designed to change the skin. One
OF these places used to be on Sixth
avenue. The woman who conducted
it offered to cure" a colored belle of
her skin for $50. A part of her opera
tions involved the daily and prolonged
rubbing of the body with a stiff flesh
brush. If kept up it lightened for a
while the natural hue of the skin. But
the ointments which We're to complete
liz PAO%CSo piONeu harmful, ana the
complaint of a victim whose epidermis
was literally tanned by them put
check to the activities of the institute.
One of the most interesting cases to
come into the domain of the County
Medical Society is that of a practitioner
who was convicted of felony more
than a score of years ago. Afterward
a State law was passed making it
mlsdemeanor for physician to prac-
uce medicine who had ever been con-
victed Of a felony. Under this law he
was arrested when he resumed prac-
tice, convicted in general sessions and
fined 500. The Appellate division re-
versed this verdict and the Court of
Appeals again reaffirmed it. restoring
the conviction. The case now goes to
the. Supreme Court of the United
States to have the question settled
whether the action of the court was in
violation of the section of the constitu-
ton prohibiting ex post facto laws
New York Mail and Express.