EDITOR'S WALLET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 52

EDITOR'S WALLET.

. i. Variegated Colour Line.

11 Black as & pot ! Bl&ck as a pot I " . " I ain't nigh so black as your own gian'mammy." " Black as a crow 1 Black as the ace o' spades ! " "All what you says to me I puts on your gran-mammy "—-this in the solemn tone of * witch casting a spell. . The foregoing dialogue took place between two little coloured girls who were loitering on the banquette" just oatside my parlour window ; and it set in motion a long train of thought. I was impressed anew by one of the stronglymarked characteristics of the negro race — the way in which the colour line is drawn among them— and ib struck me as being somewhat surprising that people who write about them usually ignore this trait. The fact is, the white man draws one black colour line, pub the negro's colour line is variegated. Every shade 11 counts " with the latter, and the colour question is a fruitful topic for discussion ; more frequent, it must be added, among women than amoug men. Tongues w«g excitedly over the comparative "brightness" of Molly's and Juley Ann's complexion ; hird words, and even blows, ate often the outcome of such arguments. Naturally, the " brighter"— that is to say, the whiter— the complexion, the more superior and aristocratic does its owner consider herself ; while "coal-black Rose" it literally and metaphorically in outer darkness. To have hair "as straight as a poker" and a skin light enough to freckle is to be an object of envy to" those lees blessed. I*

. "My daughter Calline is the freokledeat thing ever you ccc," s*id one coloured mother proudly to another. " Why, even to her eyelids is freckled. An*. as fer her hair, you couldn't curl it to save you." " Ah, Lord ! " sighed the other, as she gazed mournfully upon her own dark-hued progeny, " I wisht I oou!d s*y's muoh for mine. Tniak I must 'a' been xjunjered when L mvrried a man black like George, an' no* I has this houseful o' nappy-headed chillun. Emma's hair's that kiuky ib jus' won't grow long; au' it's goin 1 to bi a mighty big set back to her when she comes old 'noagh to marry."— Atlantic Monthly.