The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1893-06-30
ADVANCE OF MAN.
Object Lesson Of Progress at
the Worlds Fair.
VISIT TO THE DAHoMEY VILLAGE

Specimens of Savage Life Gathered from
the Wilds of Africa-A Cute Little Black
Baby Which Everyone Wants to Soc
The King of the village-The Theater
and Musical Instruments.
WORLDS FAIR, June q. -[special.1 -
II this great exposition teaches any lesson
1T is of the wonderful progress made by
man in the arts and sciences, in the knowl-
edge of how to live and behave. It shows
how step by step he has advanced from
savagery to his present high estate. AS if
to make the picture more real, more strik-
ing and impressive. here are a large num-
Der of specimens of savage life, gathered
from the forest, the jungle and the desert
Of all the earth. Thus it is that here in
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 of
human energy, the primitive man comes
In also to afford 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 Of
French Snowman, to exhibit their per-
sons and their customs. A village has
been built for them on the Midway plais-
ance. 1t is as large in area as an ordi-
nary city block. Visitors pay rs 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 inclosure is line of
huts of native construction, built of trees
and boughs with rude mud walls. AS
looked at these huts 1 could not avoid the
thought of how in the building of the
White City itself modern man has merely
initiated the methods of his savage ances-
tors. The palaces of the Worlds fair are
simply mud-covered buildings. But their
mud is white like marble, and it is
moulded into all the beautiful and express
sive forms which art can give it. Well,
the huts of the Dahomeyites are not
pretty, but they are comfortable. They
have floors of wood, and their thatched
roofs do tolerably we'll to keep the rain off
There is very little furniture within them,
and no glass in the small windows. In
the climate of Dahomey cold is not an ele-
ment that must be guarded against. The
inhabitants of these huts sleep on the
floor, rolling themselves in rude blankets
of their own construction and in the skins
of animals.
One of the huts is kitchen-an open
house with tables and a modern cook
stove! To this extent at least it must be
presumed the village is not "true to ma
ture," for.in the savage life of west Africa
the cook-stoye is an exotic. Some of the
huts are workshops and dwellings COM
bined, for even the Dahomeyites have their
Industries. In one blacksmith lives, and
his principal business, which he carries on
in front Of his c Yelling, 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 war-clubs of the Amazons and
fighting men. Another workman sits
cross-legged doing embroidery, curious
admixture OF savagery and art, of war and
peace. In Dahomey the women do not
embroider, neither do they sew or cook.
That is the work of the men. The women
nurse the babies and then go forth to till
the soil and 10 fight.
In one of the huts there is the queerest
little black baby you ever saw. 1t lies
wholly naked on skin thrown down on
the floor. Like all babies in the world it
passes most of its time at sleep, and when