The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-14
WORLDS FAIR.
A Unique Spectacle of Bewilder-
ing Magnificence.

A Unique Spectacle of Bewilder-
ing Magnificence.
MinnesOta'S at the Fair-s'Open
Hunt"
Some Typical Specimens of the
Different Races.
Isuppose our readers will want to
hear something of my impressions of
the Worlds Fair.
1t is magnificent spectacle. 1t is
bewildering 1t is beautiful. 1t is
unique. A city has sprung up,-a
white city,-in Jackson Park, with
innumerable palaces and temples;
interspersed with bodies of water,
arms of the great lake, embracing is
lands and bridges, and dotted with
skiffs, canoes, gondOlas, and electric
boats. Ones first thought is admira-
tion and astonishment; ones second
thought is pity that all this must be
torn down, swept away, at the close
of the Fair.
The buildings of the several states
are Fair in themselves. Cali
fornia's exhibit is something wonder
full; with it's vast display of oranges
and other semi-tropical fruits. The
Illinois building also contains won
derful showing of the resources of
the great state. Minnesota's build
ing is we'll enough, but her exhibit is
tame and bare-except the commits
sioners,-who are neither tame. nor
bare. But we have that $500 stuff
fed moose" standing in magnifcep<
grandeur, solitary and peculiar, en-
couraging immigration to the land of
sky-tinted waters. And we have Mr..
Hunt, the chief commissioner, who
is receiving, l am told, $4,000 or
$1,000 year, out of the $15O,0O0 ap-
prOprieted by the state. An English
man received telegram that his
son, who had resided in Judea, was
dead He wired to send on the body.
In due course of time he received a
great iron cage, containing live
tiger. He could not understand it,
and so he wired back, -''where is the
body of my son?" An answer came
Hes inside the tiger" / fear that
the people of Minnesota, when they
<HQuire, "where are our $15O,000?"
will receive the reply "Open Hunt"
l don't really suppose that the Min
nesota building and exhibit will ever
be of one dollars advantage to the
state. But it has provided nice
berths for lot of very nice pleasant
gentlemen, and we should be happy
But if that $3.50. 900 had been expend-
ed in building two state warehouses
at St. Paul and Minneapolis, the
good effects would have been immedi-
ate, and have been felt for hundreds
of years to come. But the state
vanity counts for something; and
there are always sharp fellows, like
Hunt, ready to take advantage of it.
A popular idea is an umbrella under
which all sorts of chaps take
shelter.
To me the most interesting part of
the Fair was the collection of repre-
sentatives of different races. One
oon ooo OK ,,o,,oI of I;uorco I,,yoon;+ ",
in few hours, at the Fair, as they
would see in years of travel.
There are the Esquimaux, with
their summer houses of skin, and a
representative of their ice-houses.
There are the people themselves,
looking like cross between the
Chinese and our American. Indians,
which perhaps they are; short,
swarthy, good-natured, with grim
ming teeth and small Mongolian eyes,
bead-like. One solemn.looking chap
sat with pair of hairy, walrus-skin
breeches on him, with the ther-
mometer at IS deg in the shake. 1t
was enough to make him look
solemn. Some pot-bellied, thin-leg-
ged children, had found pot-bellied,
thin-legged toad, had turned him on
his back, in a puddle, and were study
ing him as college of astronomers
might study an 8rolite.
A few minutes walk took me from
those children of the extreme, frozen
north, to whole village of tropical
negroes, from Benin, on the west
coast of Africa. I watched them for
an hour. What jolly, happy,
thoughtless mob they we're, with
dance after dance and song after
song! Their drums and rattles beat
time, and not only the dancers but
those sitting around moved in SYM
pathy with the sound. The dance
was a singular series of jerking
movements, in which the elbows
were brought together behind the
back, and legs and arms moved like a
jumping-jack when the string is
pulled. You could hardly tell the
men from the women, for the meH
seemed as beardleSS as the women,