A COLOR TRAGEDY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9115, 7 April 1908, Page 7

A COLOR TRAGEDY.

A pathetic, though far from uncommon, aspect of the eternal racequestion is illustrated by the tale which Mr Hall Caine has to tell of a young girl, who went out on the !Port Kingston to be married in Jamaica. She was young and pretty, and attractive. “He” had come “home” to finish his education, and had won her love. When the ship reached her moorings at Kingston, the girl eargerly scanned the group on the wharf. ‘ ‘ Can you see your husband that is be?” asked Mr Hall Caine “No —but I am not sure,” she said, slowly aud doubtingly; but in a monent she added, with animation, “Oh, yes; there he is, beside those distressingly plain and fat black people. ’ ’ She waved to someone, then turned, and went on. “He said he would bring his people to meet me, but I expect his mother is somewhere in the shade of the covered wharf down there.” With growing anxiety, Mr Hall Caine examined the man who had returned the girl’s salutation. Though light complexioned, he was distinctly a man of colour. Coming on board with his companions, he kissed his fiancee effusively, and introduced her to his mother, the most conspicious of the “distressingly plain and fat black people. ’ ’ Amazement and reproach were marked on every white face around, and tears we.’e starting to the girl’s eyes, but she controlled herself with dignity, and gave her hand to each of the black tribe. Bidding a steward loox after her luggage, she passed down the gangway, without so much as speaking a word to any friend of the voyage. “The drama is a tragedy, and it has only begun, ” whispered a man at the author’s elbow, “we don’t teach the English girl what all this means. Indeed, if we teach her anything on the subject, it is that the blackrnan ■iy. ’’her brother,’ and that the difference is a trifling distinction of colour or occupation. Her awakening comes when she realises that in her colonial homo she is cut off from the society of all her own country women, and that in motherhood her heart may be filled with loathing instead of love.” “But' this man must know that within this island he can barely dare to speak to an English girl, and never presume to be a guest in her home. But in England the flag of empire covers much! So he goes ‘home’ to England to pass an examination, perhaps, and perhaps, too, if he is not quite as black as his mother, to secure an English wife. When she arrives here, he gives her no time to realise. This wedding will he tomorrow morning at the latest. ” And so it was. A few days plater some of the Port Kingston passengers met the bride on her honeymoon at a seaside resort. She seemed already conscious of the gulf between herself and ordinary white people, even hesitating to speak to her former friends of the outward voyage. In response to no question—at least, to no question actually put into words —she explained to Mr Hall Caine, “I gave my word, and 1 could not break it —not then, at all events.” It may be remembered that an episode remarkably like this is the basis of one of Mr Grant Allen’s “colour problem” novels.