Albinos?

Richard O. Marsh, Rochester (N. Y.), business man and bold and experienced explorer of Spanish-American wildernesses, was on his way last week from Colon (Canal Zone) to Manhattan with three "blond Indians" whom he persuaded to join him in Darien (Panama).

Explorer Marsh has long been an enthusiast upon the subject of blond Indians. Anthropologists as yet decline to admit their existence, or to attempt to account for their ancestry in case they do exist.

A New York authority, being asked whether he believed them to be scions of the Vikings, Mendelian "sports" of a darker native race, or just half-breeds, replied that he believed them to be myths. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, chief anthropologist of the U. S. National Museum at Washington, expressed the opinion that the blonds were "just plain albinos." If they should turn out to be of mixed white and Indian blood and should also hail from the San Bias region of Panama, that fact would shatter the proud tradition of tribal purity which the warlike San Bias Indians have so long maintained.

Having found that the accuracy of his observations was questioned upon previous occasions, Mr. Marsh added several scientists to his party when he started south last Winter. Among these were C. M. Breder of the New York City Aquarium, Prof. Fairchild, geologist, of Rochester, and Dr. Baer, anthropologist, of the U. S. National Museum at Washington. The two latter scientists, finding themselves unable to endure the hardships of the climate and of jungle travel, returned several months ago, while Ichthyologist Breder, though young and strong, has occupied a Panama hospital since May. Thus no scientists remained to comment upon the discovery and acquisition of the blonds. This was disappointing to Mr. Marsh. Other knowledge has been gained by the expedition, however, for Mr. Breder previous to his confinement made much-needed collections of the fish and amphibia of the Panama waters.

Despatches said that Mr. Marsh with the three Indians would reach Manhattan early in July. One of the three is a girl of 16 "with hazel blue eyes, white, tender skin and wavy golden hair which Mr. Marsh has had bobbed." The others are boys. Mr. Marsh has dressed them all in "civilized clothes."

The anthropology of the tale, as given in the press, involves the use of the popular phrase "Nordic stock," as well as the blessed words "Paleolithic or cro-Magnon type" and "neolithic Mongolian." But the visitors will have to submit their jaws to the calipers of local science before these adjectives can be sorted out.

His success in penetrating the impenetrable, Mr. Marsh attributes largely to ability to win the friendship of the native chiefs. In this case he obtained their trust by getting President Porras of Panama to send them speedy aid during a smallpox epidemic from which they were perishing in helpless isolation.