The Progress., 1893-06-17
A VISIT TO THE ORIENT
Picturesque Street Scene From
Cairo at Chicago.
THE Willy ARAB As A SNOWMAN.

He Knows How to Charm Quarters and
Dollars From tho Pockets of American
yisitors-Fun Along the Street.-The
Donkeys, Dromedaries. Dancing Girls
and Faxed Mummies.
WORLDS FAIR, June H. - Especial -
One Of the great successes of the side-show
department of the exposition is the street
in Cairo. There is no other place within
the vast enclosure where so much genuine
fun may be had and where such strange
sights may be witnessed. Here it is diff
cult for the visitor to imagine himself in
Chicago, or in America. So skillfully Is
the very atmosphere of the Egyptian me-
tropolis counterfeited, so realistic IL the
reproduction of the quaint scenes of Arab
life, that one has now and then to pinch
himself in order to recall the fact that he
IL at the Worlds fair and not travelling in
the orient It. doesn't cost much to get
into this street of Cairo. A dime IL the
charge. But il costs n good deal to get
out do not mean to say you are COM
PEELED to spend more money, but you will
be- queer sort of American IL your curl
osity can resist the temptations which tho
willy Arabs place before your eyes. Talk
about Yankee ingenuity, American show.
men, New gland smartness-you should
see the Arabs charm dimes and quarters
and dollars from the pockets of their visit.
Ors. They are the real artists in that line.
On entering the gate you are at oncJ
a -.
entail city. A winding street lies before
you, fanked on either side by rows OF
houses or shops of certain Arab archi.
lecture. There Is no mistakng
the fidelity with which the orig.
inals have been reproduced. The
quaint windows of the upper stories are
closed with decorated blinds, but on tho
street level each house has one or moro
little shops. The shops are not more than
twelve or fifteen feet deep, and everything
that they contain is displayed before tho
eye There are in all forty or more OF
these bazaars, and in most cases they are
attended by native statesmen, who speak
enough English to get along very nicely
and who are very shrewd in trade In each
shop is a young American woman, and
her business it is to handle the cash and
keep a record thereof to make sure the ex-
position management gets its fair per cent.
of all receipts These bazaars display no
end of oriental jewelry, much of which
was manufactured in America, to
save customs duties; handkerchiefs,
perfumery, slippers which are made on the
spot by native workmen, candy, flowers
(by very bold fiction claimed to be of
Arab culture), toys, cigarettes, dried
snakes and lizards from the Soudan, curio
of all sorts. As a rule the prices are rea-
souable, too, though you can never be GER
tain the wares are of actual importation.
But it is not to the bazaars your atten-
tion il first directed. The street scene
itself at once entrances you with its pict-
uresquc novelty and pleases you with its
grotesque gaiety. Near the entrance you
come upon lot of Cairo donkeys, little
animals not much bigger than Ncwfound-
land dogs, attended by Cairo donkey boys
Very amusing are the animals, and more
amusing are the boys, in their bare feet
and native costume, cracking stock lot
of jokes in queer English and humming
tara -ra boom decay with many grimace
and laugh. There is an old tradition
about the solemnity of the Arabs, but you
find no evidence of it here. The willy ori-
entails have discovered that it does not pay
to be solemn. Gaiety and frolic catch the
popular fancy, and the dimes roll in the
faster the more laughter there iSalong the
street.
A great crowd of visitors is in the thor
oughfare, which is as long as two or three
city blocks Every few moments you hear
clatter of feet on the brick pavement
there is no sidewalk in Cairo-and one of
the little donkeys patters by. urged to