Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-03-25

Hel lHOlHel, WHO lNeu III IL leIlleSSee
city. The mother longed to see the girl,
and she herself suggested the arrange
ment of which l speak
The girls friends call upon her, dine
with her, and they haven't the slightest
suspicion that the handsome, gypsyish
quadrOOn woman who waits upon the
table is their hostess's mother. 1t is an
odd arrangement, but how else, in the
circumstances, could it be arranged?
Il knew of a similar case right here
in New York not many years ago. An
octoroOn girl who had been educated in
Montreal convent at the expense Of
her father became an artists model
when she returned to New York and
passed for white She posed for the
head and face only. Her features were
Of the Greek type.
After two years of this work she
was married to a Frenchman, the man.
ager of a French shipping firm in New
York. Until the marriage the girl had
visited her mother who lived in the
colored section of Harlem, in secret.
After her marriage she could not af-
ford to take such chances of exposure,
so her mother became her washerwo-
man and did the heavy cleaning up
around the apartment. Thus the moth
er was enabled TO see the daughter two
or three times a week. 1t was the
mothers suggestion.
The daughters French husband, a
fine fellow and first rate business
man, was recalled to France a few
years later. With his wife and five
children he is now living in prosperity
and happiness in one of the major port
cities of France. His wife's mother
was taken along with the family in the
capacity of domestic She Is still alive
and waiting on her grandchildren.
The French husband doesn't know
that his wife is an octoroon, but l
don't believe he'd care If he were told.
Frenchmen, and in fact most Euro
peans, view this matter differently, you
know. He loves his wife and his fam
lily, and probably he wouldn't care II
he knew. Perhaps he will be told some
day.
IAN octoroon girl from New Orleans
went to Chicago a short time before
the worlds fair in 1903 to pass for
white. She was beauty, with a milky
skin and chestnut hair. She found en-
ployment as a demonstrator in a booth
on the worlds fair grounds.
Along came a young German who
fell in love with her. The young Ger
man was a graduate in medicine and
surgery. His people in Berlin were
rich. The young German proposed
marriage to, the octoroon girl. She de-
clined him.
He pressed his offer. He refused to
be refused. Finally she told him about
herself. She wanted to be fair about
it. He told her that what she told him
made no difference. They were mar
ried
He Is practising his profession in
Germany. They have a houseful Of
beautiful children. l saw the children
playing in Berlin park. did not see
the mother. If had come face to face
with her / should have passed her by
without recognizing her, though I
dandled her on my knee when she was
a child, and If she met me she certain
ly would recognize me. The answer Is
simply that l am glad to know that
she has won out, that she didn't have
to be underhanded to win and that the
door of opportunity opened to her touch.
The annexation of Cuba, Hawaii
and the Philippines by the United
States helped a good deal the persons
who sought to pass for white. The
swarthy Cubans, Kanakas and Filipi-
nos who visited the United States in
such numbers, and settled here, look,
many Of them, as if they had some Of
our blood in them. Some Of them-the
Cubans, l mean-have.
"The darker octoroons desiring to
pass for white find it convenient to be
known by their white friends as Cubans
or Kanakas or even FilipinOs and in
order to portray the part properly they
master the languages Of the countries
from which they pretend to come.
"One other thing: There is a general
idea, based upon the Darwinian doc
trine known as the reversion TO ances-
tral types, that the children Of union
between an octoroon and a white per-
son are liable to be black or brown.
In my opinion this belief is baseless.
l have known Of many marriages Of
this kind, have seen the issue Of SUCH
unions and have never seen single
instance of such reversion; but such
a thing is feared even by the octoroon
figuring in such marriages. New
York Sun.