Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-19
SORROW IN MIDWAY.
Men Who Run the Worlds Fair Side Shows
Cannot Pay Their Expenses.

Cannot Pay Their Expenses.
From the Chicago Evening Post
Grief surrounds the general jollity of Mid
way and the fair like a black mourning band
around pink envelope. 1t is absent from no
settlement, and in none does it fail to excite
sympathy. Even the hustler who brought on a
rather woolly show to Chicago with the hope
of making million dollars by the sale of dates
from South Water street and perfumery from
the West Side is pitiful when he whacks his
chest and cries: "Now may the curse of the
prophet strike this pig of country. May cholera
hit it and fire and earthquake. Was thi. an explo-
ration of the arctics visit to the worlds fair
that undertook? Here l am afar from my own
country. l have spent vast sums in creating
village by the special request Of the Sultan Of
Turkey. / have built a gorgeous theater.
enter it. 1 consult my ticket seller. He re-
ports that the spectacle. unrivsled. Of the
flower and pearl of dancing troupes has taken
in the sum of S17.75. of which S1.25 was of tin
and glass.
Curses on the country. on the CITY. on the
exposition and on the fat-headed swine of a
ticket seller who took in that $l.25. 1 will 60
to the sultan. / will say to him: Gracious
and most high. there is nation of pigstickers
and pigs that has spit upon thine servant and
debased thine flag He will send ships and
armies to Law waste your country. He will
spread fire and desolation in the land. And /
will sue in the courts. By the soul of the
prophet. will.
ALL MIDWAY IN MOURNING.
This aspect of dreaminess pervades the whole
Midway. The lions above Carl Hagenback's
doorway have a disconsolate aspect The little
Japs in the bazaar make a CHASTITY failure Of
their attempts to laugh and joke. The South
Sea Islanders, who don't. bv the way, dress in
picturesque blue overalls, Jumpers" and
slouched hats. hang YEARLY over their war
canoe. They all hacking and coughing
miserably. and in their wretched tent, which is
their only shelter, they huddle close to a big
stove and long for the return to the sobbing
lagoons and the palm-growing estuaries of
their native places.
In the German village the blue-nosed bands
blow increasingly for group of shivering Wis
itors who try to warm themselves with fictions
about malt liquor being heating. A glass of
beer on such a day this lies mans
stomach like a cake of ice. The Bavarian girls
who serve sandwiches and white wine wear
hooded cloaks. 1t is the same in the streets in
Vienna, whose primary purpose also is to fur
nish a picturesque place In which people may
encompass the cheering lager. All the gayety
il knocked out of Vienna by the sight of q
to a man with fur cap pulled down over his
ears.
TOO COLD FOR DAHOMEYANs.
The Dahomey amazons and gold heaters are
having more trouble with the cold than they
ever had with the French general Dodds. There
il trouble in the Algerian village. where the
desert men with frozen fingers smoke cigarettes
and howl their wild songs to keep warm. They
want to go back home. and their manager
would like to send them back if he could. But
this is a case where it is not cheaper to move
than to paw rent. He is bound to stay and he
has joined the managers Of the other villages in
an attempt to force the exposition to clean up
the Midway and provide electric lights.
1t is sud to see all this misery even il it is
ludicrous also sometimes to watch the suffer-
ings Of these alien. simple people who came to
this country expecting to find gold dropping
from the trees and the streets running with
milk and honey, only to encounter a climate
more fierce and unrelenting than any they had
ever dreamed of. Still all of them have hopes
They look forward to the day when the sun
will shed warmer rays and the flowers will
blossom while down Midway will race the hol-
iday throng that will make their fortunes.
The Cairo Arabs have anticipated this al
ready They keep mp unbroken round of
festivities and go to bed with their sandals on
pretty nearly every night. All Of them have had
to shake out a reef in their turbans and at least
three of them have been greeted in the morning
by green elephants with pretty mauve eyes.
They do not pay for their drinks. They can't,
because they get only about IS a week. Their
drinks are purchased by young men who come
down TO the park and think it is the height of
sport to pour beer down the dusty throat of a
man in brown robe and green turban.