The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-25

Marie BOner, aged five months and
a few days, is as black as her heart
| other hand, Sallie Boner, likewise
| aged five months and few days, and
twin sister to Marie, is much whittier
than the average Caucasian baby.
The case is providing much interest
to the doctors and nurses. They say
that it is nothing more or less than
the unusual but well authenticated
atavism or manifestation of q racial
strain that has been submerged for
generations, and finally crops out un-
expectedly. The case of Marie and
Sallie is all the more unusual because
OF their being tWins-one black and
the other white. The doctors declare
that they have records of cases where
a single baby has betrayed the sub
merged strain of another race, but
the atavism has seldom manifested it
self in this manner. Atavism is not
peculiar to any race The same freak
of nature might develop in the off
spring of white persons
Marie and Sallie are at this moment
snuggled side by side in a cot in the
day camp of the Chestnut street re-
lutely of the rudely curious visitors
who find them a source of wonder
ment. Both are as healthy as child
rem can be, and their chief recreation
lies in chasing each other-like two
cubS-around their trundle cot and
eventually falling into a terrific strug-
gle for supremacy Maybe race su-
premacy is the crux of their baby an
tagoniSIn, and maybe it's merely the
joy of being on the top of the wind |
swept pier away from the Sordidness
and fetidness of the streets and alleys. |
There are many wonderful conjec- |
lures about Marie and Sallie. Their |
mother died when they were born, /
and as far as their father knows there 1
may have been the blood of the white /
man in Mama Boner's veins Friends |
of Mama Boner say that IT must have |
been four generations ago that the /
negro strain was broken The grand /
parents of the twins came from Geor- |
gia-
salIie is basolutely white. She is
not green nor yet blue Neither is |
there the slightest indication of her
Ethiopian parentage in her hair. Her
lips are full, but not the thick, super 1
sensual, sagging lips of the negro. As
a matter of fact, there are scores of /
Caucasians to be seen every day in
Chestnut street whose lips are heavier
and thicker. Her eyes are as blue as
corn flowers, and so fair and delicate
is her skin that the blue veins beneath
can be traced along their forked way
for inches. Her nails are pink and
delicately. shaded just like those of
any white baby. Her little nose is
going to be aquiline and daintiIy
nodded.
It is Of no advantage to describe Ma
rie. Marie is the typical pickaninny
just as cunning, just as clean and
equally bright as her white sister
but a pickaninny if there ever was
one To make the distinction all the
more vivid, Marie's chubby little legs
are so bowed that she would easily
represent the letter o If stood on her
minute feet. Sallie's are as straight as
legs can be.
Now the future of Marie and Sallie
is no mean thing to contemplate.
Some enterprising vaudeville man
might teach the odd sisters to do a
sister act" Already several well
known doctors are interested in the
twins and are preparing to have the
reared where they can watch
heir development. Both are pretty to
a degree and, while Sa1lie's hair now
has brunette inclinations, the nurses
say that it is not unlikely that II will ]
urn blonde.-Philadelph Public
Ledger