Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-06-30
OF MAN
Object Lesson Of Progress a
the Worlds Fair.
VISIT TO THE DAHoMEY VILLAGE

SAsss
Baby Which Everyone Wants to Soc
The King of the v~illage-The Theate
and Musical Instruments.
WORLDS FAIR, June e. [Special.] =
II this great exposition teaches any lessor
it is of the wonderful progress made b,
man in the arts and sciences, in the knowl
edge Of how to live aud behave. 1t show!
how step by step he has advanced from
savagery to his present high estate. AS j
to make the picture more real, more strik
ing and impressive. here are a large nun
Der of specimens of savage life, gathered
from the forest, the jungle and the desert
of all the earth. Thus it is that here i,
this ideal city, this city of palaces, this city
in which modern man has displayed the
best Of which he is capable in all fields O.
human energy, the primitive man come!
in also 10 afford a graphic contrast in the
object-lesson Of progress.
None Of these savages are more interest
ing than the Dahomeyites from Africa
From the very center of the dark continent
they have come, through the enterprise o.
a French Snowman, to exhibit their per
sons and their customs. A village ha.
been built for them on the Midway plais.
ance. 1t is as large in area as an ordi.
nary city block. Visitors pay 25 cents
each for the privilege of entering, and the
show is we'll worth the money. One finds
the village to be a hollow square Run.
ming all round the Enclosure is IL line O,
h,fc IF r,f;>n ~, = ~, n 80, 1,,:1A IL X...
and boughs with rude Md walls. As ]
looked Mt these huts l could not avoid the
thought of how in the building of the
White City itself modern man has merel:
initiated the methods of his savage anccs
tors. The palaces OF the Worlds fair ays
simply undiscovered buildings. But thei,
mud is white like marble, and it Z:
moulded into all the beautiful and expires,
sive forms which art can give it. Well
the hrts of the Dahoneyites are no.
pretty, but they are comfortable. They
have floors of wood, and their matched
roofs do tolerably well to keep the rain off
There is very little furniture within them
and no glass in the small windows. IL
the climate of Dahomey cold is not an ele
ment that must be guarded against. Tit
inhabitants of these h,,ts sleep on the
floor, rolling themselves in rude blankets
OF their own construction and in the skins
of animals.
One of the huts is a k%itchen-an open
house with tables and a modern cook
stove! To this extent at least it must bt
presumed the village is not ttrue to ma.
ture," for in the savage life of west Africs
the cook-stcye is an exotic. Some of the
huts are workshops and dwellings com
bined, for even the Dahomeyites have thei.
industries. In one a blacksmith lives, an6
his principal business, which he carries or
in front of his dwelling, himself seated
squat upon the ground, is that of sharpen
ing spear heads and repairing the spikes
which protrude in such an ugly fashion
from the wa--clubs of the Amazons and
fighting men. Another workman sit.
cross-legged doing embroidery, a curious.
admixture OF savagery and art, of war an.
peace. In Dahomey the women do no.
embroider, neither do they sew or cook
That is the work of the men. The wome.
nurse the babies and then go forth to till
the soil and to fight.
In one of the huts there is the queerest
little black baby you ever saw. It lie,
wholly naked on a skin thrown down /.
the floor. Like all babies in the world II
passes most of its time at sleep, and whe1