Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-07-22
and Scientists Amaz-
ed and Puzzled by Birth Of
Caucasian and Ethiopian
Twins to a Colorado Mother;
State May Conduct Blood Test
to See if Children Really Diff
fer in Other Than Surface
Racial characteristics! -

L .aa. 49, ii
Denver, Colo, July 21.-Twins, one
black and one white!
! The brother a negro, the sister a
Caucasian!
These two most remarkable chill.
dren known to the science of obstet
RIGS are lying here as wards Of the
state, to whose care the mother, a
white woman, quickly relinquished
them!
The Ethiopian twin, who has been
named Robert, has sloping skull.
The Caucasian twin, Elizabeth, is
fair of skin, with we'll formed mead,
wide brow and we'll developed chin.
Mabel Owen, the white mother, Who
at first refused to believe the babies
of divergent race were hers, has dis
appeared from Denver. 1t was the
white baby, not the colored baby, that
caused her doubts. The father Of the
youngsters, who deserted their moth
er before the babies came, was a
Spanish negro cook in a Denver hotel.
The belief that the male child will
resemble the mother while the daugh-
ter will look like the father, was re-
versed in this case.
At the state home for dependent
children the strangely differing twins
now lie, having been removed from
the Florence Crittenton home because
so many persons came there to see
them. ....
There in their white cribs they give
no sign of the racial war and antipa-
thy they typify.
Elizabeth is lively and bright, stur-
DIV and strong, and makes her wants
known in a loud voice. Robert is
frail and almost helpless, much less
developed than his white sister.
If the mother can be found again
to sign over her children to the state,
| it is expected blood tests will be made
to determine whether there is an actu-
al racial difference between the two
children, aside from the variant phys
ical characteristics.
Denver physicians, scientists and
child-life experts are deeply puzzled
| by the twins and are searching
through ancient and modern works on
obstetrics and childbirth for paral-
lei cases.
Science knows of one other explain
alton, other than that the boy resem
bles the father and the girl the moth
/ er. This explanation is ''atavism:" or
reversion to earlier species, but DIR. T..
Mitchell Burns, obstetrical authority,
declares it is exceedingly unlikely in
this case. ..s.e
Assuming that there is one father,
physicians say that most probably
the characteristics of the two races
have been distributed between the
two children, instead of being comb1n-
ed in the children, as is the usual
case.
Then comes the question: Shall
the state keep trace of the oddly as
sorted twins throughout their life, to
trace possible return of the negro
type to the girl or ascendance OF the
Caucasian type in the boy? Or when
they reach childhood shall they be
permitted to enter the wide world
with the knowledge of their relation
ship, or without that knowledge-the
girl to live as a white woman and
the twin brother as a negro?
Scientists assert that should the
latter come to pass, and the girl. who
shows every sign of Caucasian par
enage, marry a white man, this girls
Continued % Page Twol