Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-05

the Milwaukee Industrial Exposition.
Prominent among the special fea-
lures arranged for by the management
of the Milwaukee Industrial EXPOSE
ton Association, and to be presented
in connection with the coming fall
is the famous japanese
village. This realistic representation
of japanese village life was first pre-
sented TO the public in New York
early in the present year, and has been
accorded most fattering praise by the
public and the press. When it is con-
sidered that good sized colony of
japanese men, women and children are
required in providing for the public
this faithful representation Of japanese
domestic arts, and that no less than
twenty shops and studios are kept in
operation, the tools, furnishings and
samples therefor amounting to over
fifty tons, faint idea can be had Of
the expense incurred by offering so
grand an exhibit. Among the tens of
thousands of people who visited this
village when it was in New York was
DR.. Oliver Wendell Homes. So pleas
ed was he with what he had seen, that
he Immediately wrote his friend, r. B.
Haskell, editor and proprietor of the
Boston Sunday Herald, the following
which was by the latter published in
Sunday Herald: 81 have been more
than delighted with the japanese ex-
hibition, and do not like to think
that any of my friends and fellow
citizens should miss seeing it. People
who can spare few months time and
81, to $4,000 can visit Japan and
study the remarkable people and their
wonderful works in that country. But
here we have Japan brought to our
own doors. One is ashamed to speak
of the cost of admission without apol-
ogizing for its insigniticance." The
whole village, with its score of neat
and curious little shops, and its colony
of those wonderful little brown people
SO busy at work, will be in readiness
on the opening day of the Exposition.
Men, women and children are attired
in their native costume, and conduct
themselves exactly as they would were
they engaged in their chosen profession
in their mother country. There are
cabinet makers, silk weavers, painters,
BARRIERS, rice ornament makers, en-
broidery workers, tailors, lady hair
dressers, coppersmiths, porcelain de-
corators, sketch artists, bronze workers
potters, wood carvers, and dozens of
other art workers Of equal interest.
AS the men and women carry on the
work Of manufacture or decoration the
younger children play about the differ
ent shops, keeping the babies quiet
and amusing themselves in ways most
pleasing to a person unaccustomed to
their habits.
The typical Mexican orchestra, COM
prising six4y musicigns of rare ability,
all attired in the attractive costume OF
their native country, is another rare
feature secured by the Exposition
management. People who visited the
Worlds Fair at New Orleans, and
there heard the Mexican band, will
surely not fail to take advantage of the
opportunity now provided for partak-
ing of the musical feast to be furnished
by this celebrated orchestra, as it will
be the organizations last tour through
the United States.
Another musical feature, and novel
| ty as we'll, will be the widely-known
McGibeny Family, consisting of father
mother and thirteen children, each a
musician of superior talent.
The rapidly increasing interest of
Wisconsin people in raising fne-b breed
dogs has prompted Manager Bechtner
to arrange for bench show, at no
small expense, which shall afford Ex-
position patrons the opportunity of
inspecting the most interesting and
largest exhibit of fne-breed dogs
| (including several of worldwide fame)
that it has ever been their privilege to
enjoy. Visitors to the Milwaukee
Exposition of 1886 will also find a
great many other interesting and in
structive specialties, for which the
management has closed contracts. To
prove these it has been necessary to
incur an expense of many thousand
dollars, but there is determination to
make the coming Exposition the
grandest and most attractive of any
ever held in the Northwest, and it will
be done.