The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-06-12
Finest e. Exhibit at the. Pa, Paris Ex,osi;.
lion. .n~;

An interesting feature. of number IF
the foreign sections at!the Paris exhibit
tioif was the soldiers that had been sent
there by their respective governments.
nominallyato guard the exhibits, princi-
,papy as: a sort of ornament, thew being
Simply required to stand round and bc
looked at by the curiosity seeking visi-
tors. Some economical governments,
thinking that wooden soldiers would an
swer the same purpose at a less expense,
accordingly displayed figures represent.
ing soldiers; lin the various uniforms. and
people in the different costumes IF the
country. These figures were sometimes
.qpitc welllnade, aud were placed in such
positions as often to appear very iife-likc.
We have moro than once seen people open
their mouths to ask their way Of of
these wooden soldiers; and we ourselves on
one occasion deeply apologizcd to wood
en- Chinese mandarin, who we had care
'lcssly run into and almost thrown off his
Mlance - -.
jSergcant Jones, Of the United States
marine corps, had doubtless witnessed
similar laughablc mistakes, and this is
probably what suggested to him the idea
OF playing little trick at the expense of
the visitors.
At all events; one fine afternoon, as we
were passing through the American sec
ton, VIC found the sergeant standing per-
fectly straight; and absolutely still, near
one OF the showcases. Rather perplexed
at his attitude and at the seriousness
of'his expression, we sought post of Oh
servation and waited. {.
FoIaWhile no one noticed him; but
as. he continued immovable, some one
presently stopped before him and stared.
Then two, three, four, six idlers stopped
to see what the first idler was looking at.
There stood the sergeant, grave, silent
and motionlcss. An incrcdulous smile
appeared on the faces Of the observers,
and their number doubled, trepled, quad
ruplcd. The sergeant had not moved
Some one ventured to touch his hand,
another followed, and presently dozen
curious people wore feeling him from
head to foot. Not muscle rclaxed-he
had not so much as winked. An cxhibi-
tor who was busting the contents Of his
showcase seeing what was up, sauntcred
carelcssly along and carefully busted of
the sergeant This settled the question
beyond a doubt; it was statue! There
were now about three hundred of all ma
tionalities gathered about this marvellous
piece of workmanship!
"Ctest bien une statucr'-
"Quel mcrveillcux travail".'--
"Awh WEAKLY, now you know, those
Yankees are jolly clever people!"-
"Wall, reckon there amt anything
can beat this in this whole show"
"Chin ting cdop stick young hyson
pekin yang tsc kiang!"-
"Amiodo naga sakito kio yedlow---
"Stambeul maho wetali va tibt
loublou !''--came from three hundred
Threats in twenty different languages.
b (These last three EXPLANATIONS, as vol
will readily understand, dear reader, are
expressive Of the utmost wonder and ad
miratien in the Chinese, japanese ant
Turkish languages. I might multipl,
these expressions of delight to an unlim
tied extent, and give you a high opinion
of my linguistic powers; but I believe
that modesty is virtue-to he proud OF.
The last man had barely opened his
lips to have his say, when the look OF ad
miration suddenly departed from thu
three hundred faces, and the three hun
dred Threats simultaneously sent out q
guffaw which fairly shook the vast cdificc
and attracted hundreds of visitors from al
sides.
The statue had turned on its heel and
quietly marched off.