The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-05-14
FROM FAR INDIA. /
Planning for an Indian Village at
the Worlds Fair.

A Big Scheme by Consul General Ballan-
tine and One That Would Prove
Very Attractive Feature-How
1t Is to BE Done.
Henry Ballantine wants to bring a.
village FROM India to the worlds fair.
Henry BALKAN tine is United States con-
sui general at Bombay. His father be-
fore him was consul general at Bombay,
and he himself was born in Bombay.
Mr.. Ballantine is the Worlds Columbian
commissioner at Bombay, and, there
fore. he knows all about India. He and
his wife are in Chicago now. For days
Mr. Ballantine has been in consultation
with the officers Of the fair, and at the
next meeting of the directory it is al
together likely that he will be accredited
properly in order that be may carry out
his scheme. It is a wonderful scheme.
There have been Indian villages at
worlds fairs. There were about seventy
inhabitants Of the little hamlet that
was pitched in Philadelphia. But no
Indian village with five hundred people
was ever seen at any international ex-
position. That is the number Mr. Bal
lantine is going to bring to Chicago. In
that number all the castles Of that coun-
try will be represented. And that is
another thing no one ever saw or heard
of at fair There will be the rajahs,
who never came to America and whom
it is difficult to secure A rajah in
India is about as big as governor in
the United States, and it is easily seen
what it means to drag them over here
and place them Oh exhibition. Mr.. Bal
lantine has been promised by many
raiahs whom he knows that they will
come if they are invited with proper
dignity. To do this MIR. Ballantine is
seeking the consent Of the government
to allow two vessels Of the navy to
90 there and invite them in the impress
sive manner such a voyage would nee
essarily imply. If invited with such
ceremony, Mr. Ballantine says, the
rajalls will come and bring rare pres
ents, following the custom OF the
Orient. But Mr.. Ba]lantine intends to
fetch them and to esta blish an actual
Indian village in Jackson park. The
picture will be something like that IA
nous description of Lord Macauley in
his essay on Lord Give. Every caste
will be representative rajahs with
their glittering trains, the middle and
lower classes and the artisans. There
will be carpet weavers from Cashmere
and gold workers from Benares. There
will be turbaned snake charmers in the
streets and the wonderful necromancers
of India, who do such tricks as wrap
ping little boy in basket, setting
the basket on a marble slab, jabbing
him with swords until the blood flows
and then seeing him come running over
! a hill over half mile away. There
will be the nAutch dancing girls and all
of India's glories and all her pomp.
The temples will be reared and the
mosques, and the Mohammedan will
turn his face toward Mecca as he does
at home. The religious ceremonies will
be of vast interest, for the Indians ere
q devout folk and will abandon none Of
their ceremonies on this visit. The
parsees and Mohammedans, who have
10 caste. will come with the Buddhists
who observe the "Iam-ho'ier-than-
thou customs. About the only thing
Mr.: Ballantine will not have in his
Indian village is Rudyard Kipling- But
nc feature of tile exhibit will be more
interesting and none more entirely
novel. as the women from India's
zenanas. Mrs Blllantine, who is her
husbands cola be-ateur in this
work will arrange the women's
exhibit, and will do what no orc ever
did before-bring women out OF the
harems of India into public gaze. When
one knows of the strict sec'usion in
which the beauties of the indian
zenana are kept, the enormity Of this
scheme begins to dawn. Mrs. Ballan-
tine will take the high caste women into
her own home and entertain
them there as her guests, driv-
ing them to the Indian village
in the morning and back again
at night. Mrs. Ballantine, in convers-
ing about her portion of the work the
other evening, said that the zenana
woman would astonish the ladies in the
women's congress, where she will have
them appear, for they are all highly ed
ucated, even though their lives are SO
confined, and can speak English as we'll
as American girls speak French. Their
influence and their interest in the wom-
ans congress, Mrs. Ballantine says,
will be amazing. "There is peculiar
1y appropriate reason why India should
be represented at the fair in an elabor-
ate manner" said Mr.. Ballantine.
Don't You remember that Columbus
was searching shorter passage to the
East Indies when he sailed on that voy-
age which resulted in his discovery OF
America? That is alone enough to
make the interest great in America,
over India, at this time" Mr.. Ballan-
tine will organize company to carry
out his scheme, for it is all arranged
save that it must be financed. The d.
rectory cannot furnish the funds, for
the charter dees not admit that, but Chi
cago capitalists have already signifed