The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-06-17
A VISIT 70 THE ORIENT.
Picturesque Street Scene From Carlo
at Chicago.
TIE Willy ARAB AS A SNOWMAN.
He Knows How to Charm the Dollars
Fro m Pockets of American Visitors
Fun Along the streets-The Donkeys'
Dromedaries and Dancing Girls.

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 Is 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
is at the Worlds fair and not travelling in
the orient. It doesn't cost much to get
into this street of Cairo. A dime Is the
charge. But it costs a good deal to get
out. / do not mean to say you are COM
PEELED to spend more money, but you will
be a queer sort of American II your curl
osity can resist the temptations which the
willy Arabs place before your eyes. Talk
about Yankee ingenuity, American show
men, New England 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 once
plunged from Chicago into an ancient orr
entail city. A winding street lies before
you, lanked on either side by rows of
houses or shops of certain Arab archi-
lecture. There is no mistaking
the fidelity with which the orig
inals have been reproduced. The
quaint windows of the upper stories are
closed with decorated blinds, but on the
street level each house has one or more
little shops. The shops are not more than
twelve or fifteen feet deep, and everything
that they contain is displayed before the
eye. There are in oil 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 q young American woman, and
her business IL Is to handle the cash and
keep q record thereof to make sure the ex-
position management gets its fair per cont.
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 Q 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 real
sonable, too. though you can never be GER
tain the wares are of actual importation.
But IL IL not to the bazaars your atten-
tion Is first directed. The street scene
itself at once entrances you with its pict-
urcsque NJ .elty and pleases you with its
grotesque gaiety. Near the entrance you
como upon lot of Cairo donkeys, little
animals not much bigger than Newfound-
land dogs, attended by Cairo donkey boys.
Very amusing arc the animals, and moro
amusing are the boys, in their bare feet
and native costume, cracking q stock lot
Of jokes in queer English and humming
ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay with many a grimace
and laugh. There is an old tradition
about the solemnity of the Arabs, but you
find no evidence of IL here. The willy ORR
entails have discovered that it does not pay
to be solemn. Gaiety and frolic catch tho
popular fancy, and the dimes roll in tho
faster the more laughter there is along 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
O clatter of feet on the brick pavement
there is no sidewalk in Cairo-and one of
the little donkeys pstters by, urged to