The sun., 1893-08-31
DANCERS or ALL NATIONS.
STRANGE DANCING SEEN AT THE
WORLD'S FAIR.
ihirty-Flye Nations Represented In
the Recent Rail- nt the, Natntoriunl
dancing of the Japanese Ladies'
Queer African Dances.

jackson Park, Special Corresponds
ence. The feature of the worlds fair
entertainments which seem to meet
with the heartiest response in point of
attendance are those. in which the
many strange peoples of Midway Plais-
ance take part. This week ball was
given at the Natatorium, in which 35
nationaities We're represented. 1t may
be safely said that never were so many
different kinds of dances seen during
one evening at one place before in the
| worlds history. 1t is possible that in
the Roman triumphs which we read SO
| much about in our school histories
there were as many tribes brought to-
| gether and led captive to make Ro-
| man holiday, but they were usually
| from one quarter of the Eastern con-
tinent and not from all quarters of
| both hemispheres as were the merry
makers who danced upon this Column
bian festival. There were noises of
| all kinds only worthy in many instances
| Of being called music from the fact of
| a fairly correct idea of time to which
| the dancers paid more or less attention
| In their strange dancing. There were
American Indians, Esquimaux, Daho-
| meyans. MeXicans Nubians, Lapland-
ers, Irish jig dancers. Turks, AIgerians.
| Syrians, Egyptians, Hindoos and many
other natiOnalities represented in the
motley crew who amused an American
| audience packed into small room as
| closely as sardineS i'll Il box. One could
| see newspaper men here in boxes who
hailed from almost I'LL points of the
compass of the four corners of the
| earth. Over on the stage were two
princes of India hobnobbing with Clti-
| zen Francis Train, the best advertised
man i'll America. Close to one of the
| princes sat an American typeWritist,
a regular worker in Midway Plaisance,
| gowned in fetching costume Of black.
| She did her best to win India upon
| q brief acquaintance and if we hear one
| of these days of lucky American
typewritist marrying his nobs of In
dia," we will love to jot down in our
| note books another instance of the in
| fallibility of Chicago nerve and Yankee
enterprise. The average pencil push
er" is credited with possessing the
chemically pure article Of gall of the
most pungent variety, but even the vet
Grams In newspaperdom sighed that
night for the privilege of sitting at the
young lady's feet and take lessons in
the noble calling of embracing the
main chance or perhaps the last chance
The throng included many colors of
skin and raiment, babel of tongues,
but manifested an abundance of good
nature and ready obedience to the
programme.
One of the most pleasing numbers
| on the list was the dancing Of the jap
anese ladies, seven in number, much
in the style of the three little maids
from school who perform in the Mi
kado. The DahOmeyans gave their
war dance to the beating of tuul-tOmS
ana other devices which make life and
night hideous. They circle round their
musicians much in the style of the
| American Indian, but the African na-
ture manifested itself very strongly in
the vigor and enthusiasm of their dane
ing. When they got fairly warmed up
it was almost impossible to stop them.
| The manager shouted and waived his
arms but all to no purpose. They
had just got down to business and
would probably have kept it UP all
night with fiendish yelling, il it had
not been that a Frenchmal who has
spent forty years among them hap
pened to be present, and by personal
| appeal finally quieted them down.
| One old DahomeF warrior or ANA
! Eon of the kings body guard kept up
/ the fun all by herself after the others
were quieted down. 1t Is we'll known
since the French conquest of DahO-
mey that the old Greek story of the
AmazOn's or female warriors had some
foundation in fact. The choicest and
bravest warriors of the king of DahO-
mey who are alone entrusted with
! guarding the loyal parsonage from
| harm, are huge women Injured to all
hardship and brutality by special train
ing for that purpose. All the dances
were interesting because they were
evidently exactly true to the original
and many Of them were entirely diff
fereat from anything ever seen in this
country before, Such, for instance,
as the wild cannibal dances of the Fiji
! Islanders, which consist mainly of u
wild savage brandishing of heavy war
! clubs to the time Of very vigorous
I; dancing and leaping. The dancers ad-
vance upon each other with blood
curdling ferocity and as vigorously
turn aside beating the ground with
their heavy war clubs. Every national
ity on the Plaisance strictly preserves
it's customs and identity, although they
socially mingle together with appar-
emily congenial natures. It Is quite
a common sight to see an Albanian,
| Greek or Turk conversing with q Chi
naman over pot of American beer in
/ the Val. Blatz beer tunnel by means of
/ a sign language, which both seem to
understand with little trouble. 1t is
wonderful to sec how quickly all of
these foreigners catch ON to the Yankee
customs, modes Of expression, slang
and especially Dutch-American beer.
| Turks, Cinnamon, Laplanders. Esqui-
maux, Soudanese, Mibians, Egyp-
| tians all patroniZe the American beer
stalls, and, strange to relate, but few
of them ever become noisily intoxicated
i like many Americans and Europeans.
!, OF course, there are exceptions to the
rule, but not many
The remark made some time ago by
Kate Field to the effect that she would
like to see some practical Snowman
, like L. L. Barnum running this great
worlds show is now bearing fruit.
Frank d. Millet, the famous war cor
respondent, painter, decorator, and
Jack Of all trades, whose name is al
most a household word on two contf-
nents, is now in charge of arranging
the pageants and circuses for the good
| people who visit the Columbian expo
sition. One night he arranges q grand
fireworks and Chinese, lantern display
on Wooded island and the next day
/ he will have the whole of Chicago out
/ to see grand international swim
ming match or canoe race. These Cir
Gus features are proving very attract
i've and have increased the attendance
wonderfully. Everybody likes to see
i circus and features of this kind will
in all probability be kept up as long
! as they prove a drawing card.
| The great event of the week here
was the arrival of 800 West Point