The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-12

face and hands and, I was told, over
! all the rest, of his body. A few years
ago, while up North, he had some
sort of a disease which caused these
white spots to appear ON him.
His affection puzzled the medical
men, and a great deal was written
about his case at that time in the
medical press as we'll as in the daily
papers. 1t was thought that he was
going to die in the hospital to which
he was taken. but he recovered from
his Illness the white spots stopped
appearing and when he found himself
on his feet he was about half black
and half white. The white spots on
his face were as rosy and the tex
ture of the skin where they had ap-
peared as silky as those of young
white girl.
'Well, this colored con man was
selling 'make-you- white medicine to
the Colored folks in the Mississippi
toWns-price. $50 for six bottles-to
be used at the rate of a bottle
month, and guaranteed to render 'em
just like white folks at the end of
six months, when they had finished
taking the six bottles.
"Of course, he got the currency of
the black believers in punches and
bundles. Few of them could doubt
the evidence of their own eyes when
they felt of the con mans white spots
and found it impossible to rub them
off
His scheme is, first of all, to sell
all of the $40 outfits of his medicine
that he can, and after that to rake
over the town he is working for per-
sons of his race who have only SIS, $40
or s. to invest-he takes no lower than
IS.
He tells the victims who buy the
colored water from him that they can
expect action on the stuff after they've
been taking it for a week, so he isn't
taking any chances on return trips.
IN the last few years l have been
meeting all through the South smooth
darby grafters whose game is to ped
die fake liquids and salves guaranteed
to make the hair of their purchasers
as straight as that of white people.
The liquids were generally plain bay
rum or some cheap sort of toilet water,
and the salVes ordinary vaseline, but
these grafters get as high as $40 Tor
their outfits of wool-straightening
stuff. 1t is neatly packed in small
pasteboard boxes, covered over with
highfaluting pastors setting forth the
merits of the treatment They vari-
ously call their stuff 'kinkene,'
straightene,' 'make-it-straight,' why
wear-wOOl" 'untie-those knots and so
on, and they sell the truck without half
trying. They, too, are careful to visit
town only once, for in selling the
hair straighteners they guarantee
quick results and are not looking for
razor trouble.
"A year or so ago a crafty, middle
aged black man, who posed before his
people as an itinerant preacher of the
Gospel, corralled scores of them
throughout Florida and Georgia by
would render the wearers invisible
whenever they desired not to be seen.
The charms were ordinary pebbles,
neatly sewed in little pieces of cha
mois skin. The CRATER, who got rid
of them at from $40 to $25 each from
credulous members of his race, told his
victims that the charms were straight
from the hands of the mother of the
voodoos' in Africa. To cinch his argu-
ment he always pronounced certain
chanted incantations over the charms.
In the regions in which this man
operated white poultry raisers and fruit
growers were soon amazed to observe
black men helping themselves to all
the chickens and fruit in sight, often
in broad daylight, with no apparent
fear of the consequences. The negroes
taking these chances positively believ-
ed that while wearing their charms
they were invisible to the owners of
farms whose grounds they set out to
loot, and it took a lot of buckshot ju-
diciously placed to convince them that
they had been deceived and that their
charms from the hands of the mother