The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1893-10-21

cerers to see him and they, after play
ing their tricks and working their in
carnations, pronounce Selim'b disease
to be ''cherchez lie femme" They adj
v1se the father to marry his son to the
one he loves, and after finding that love
is really the one thing that ails the
young man, he decides upon a matrf-
monlal cure, and at once forms an ALE
glance for Sel1m with the daughter of
his neighbor, Ibrahim. Then follows
the wedding and it's attendant festivi-
teS, dancing, etc. If the author of the
:kalamounic" play should put in
claim, the lack Of sufficient protection
by the international copyright law
would be the only thing that could
Keep Messrs. Willard and Barrie out
OF lawsuit for damages
VI all the stage representations in the
various theaters in Midway Plaisance
the turkish is the only one presenting
an attfactlon that may be regarded as
dramatic. Most Of the stages are
stages are given up to the exhibition of
dancing girls in various. more or less
indecent, posturings. An exception
may be made, however in the per-
formances given by those quaint little
people, the Javanese. The island of
Java, which is about the size of Cuba,
ana fas something less in area than the
state OF Illinois, has population of
ABOUT 2l,O0O,OOO Of this number there
are more than 100000 natives. $685.
OOO Chinese, 1900 Arabs and 10000
europeans. The location of the island
is only about 5 or degrees south of the
equator, yet the climate is delightful.
the average temperature being 80 de-
grees at noon and 20 degrees at night.
The island has 600 miles Of railroad,
an ettlclent telegraph system and a
standing army of $4,000 men. 1t is the
most prosperous and fertile tropical
island IN the world. It is purely agri-
cultural and, besides supporting it's own
dense population, raises q, surplus for
export of 100000 worth year. J
The drama, strictly speaking, has no
home in Java, but the art initiative ap-
pears to be well established. Among
the most popular entertainments of the
Javanese is a kind of pantomime,
wherein some story Of the exploit Of
the gods, demigods and heroes of the
t1lndu and Javan mythology are repre-
sented with the attributes and in the
situations described in their popular
poems. At one style Of such exhibi-
tlons the characters are represented by
real persons, richly dressed as de-
scr1bed in the poem; at another by
shadows on a screen, produced by the
use OF leather figures from eighteen to
twenty inches high, each made to rep
resent a character in the story At an
other, the figures are more properly
puppets than shadows; they are made
OF wood and are about ten OF twelve
lncnes high. They are operated from
beneath and are made to perform their
parts without the Intervention of
screen.
In each Of these different STYLES of
entertainment the manager of the
tneater rehearses the story, which he
illustrates by the pantomime work of
the persons employed to represent the
characters by the shadows, or by the
manipulated puppets. At intervals the
orchestra engaged by the theater per-
forms selections. The instruments, as
wen as the music, are peculiar and
novel. Several are required to COM
pose a ''gamalan" or band, the most
conspicuous Of which is the gong. If
is regarded by the Javanese as the
most musical of all monotonous instrl1-
ments, and it certainly is powerful in
It's effect. In addition there are steel
ana wooden bars arranged on sounding
boards, covering diatonic scale of two
octaves; an instrument somewhat re-
sembGng the violin and reed instru-
ments.
Dancing-that is, stage dancing-with
the Javans as with Asiatics in general.
consists in graceful attitudes of the
body and in the slow movement of the
arms and legs, particularly the former.
The hands and fingers, even, express
their poetic ideas. Javanese women
in general do not appear in any kind of
public performances The dancing
girls Of Java form a class by them
selves; some belong to the household
of the native sovereign and hereditary
prince. When these dignitaries enter
tain Europeans the dancing girls are
brought to the hall with great care and
under a guard in a large palanouin
borne on mems shoulders. There are
bands Of dancing girls to be found in
the principal towns who hire them
selves to perform on particular occa-
sions for the general public entertain
ment, but these are generally less at
tractive and as a rule are profigate
characters.