Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-02
STROLL THROUGH ALL TIE VILLAGES
French Girls DanesIng in the
Streets ofscli'o.
EsK1Mos IN rHE.1eE PALACE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

climes in which human beings can exist.
The best way to study the foreign types
is to begin at the Mexican village, and
from thtre to make a circle around the
grounds and buildings. In the Mexican viii
lage one finds three distinct varieties of
women. The first is a woman who is al
most Spanish, with only q slight mixture
Of Indian blood: she is tell and straight,
and her skin is thoroughly Spanish, being
a cream white, with bright color on the
high cheek bones that betrays the blood Of
the red man. Her hair Is black and wavy,
her lips scarlet, while to the soft. Ian
guor beauty Of her eyes is added that
intensity, that brilliancy of vision, which
comes fIt m race Of lordly savages. This
girl Is the best dancer of the lot; the wild
fire Is IN her veins. the grace of the pam
Their Is In every movement, and she wears
such colors as none but an Indian and
Spaniard could mingle tremendously to-
gether.
The next type is the Mexican woman,
who Is more Indian than Spaniard, and
this mixture produces always a rather
stunted, though interesting specimen The
men and women are both short and thick
set, with black, beady eyes and high
cneek bones; their physique does not make
them, however, like the corresponding
specimen of cob-horse Englishman. The
woman is 1.-THE, and wonderful bearer of
burdens, for she has the thews and
sinews of a Sandow.
carry burden weighing three times as
much as himself for day, with patience,
she mas the enduring power which enables
her to take upon herself the arduous agri-
cultural laborS of man. She dances, too,
and very we'll There are bright beads
about her neck, and her silk and cotton
garments of rainbow hues are embroidered
IN gold patterns. The tiniest little feet and
ankles are hers, with film little fingers,
tapering artistioally, telling one that she
is dainty In feminine arts as well as u
sturdy worker
There are a group Of girls representing
the rext type. and Of all the women at the
exposition they are the most interesting. 1t
Is the first time that they have ever gone
out OF their own country, and they are the
direct descendants of the famous AZtecs,
being the few representatives left of that
greatest Indian tribe These women are
tiny creatures, exquistely formed and re-
hred In feature. They carry their heads
with that up-bearing grace of the full
Hooded Indian. Their skins are not red.
but clear. smooth copper color that shines
like gold III the sun. Their hair Is coarse
and black as ebony. and they are decorat-
ed with bright feathers and gay orna-
ments. These women make the most beau
tiful pottery which comes to US from Mex
leo. for they have kept the old Aztec forms
and decorations in their art; they also
weave pretty baskets and do wonderful
embroidery.
On the streetsiof Cairo.
Leaving the Mexican village one comes
to the streets of Cairo which leads to the
Midway Plaisance. Here there are a lot
of French women posing as Egyptian
dar GERS. but smong them there is one gen.
uihe yourg creature from the orient, and
she looks amidst the rest of the tawdry
gang ss splendid tropical flower would
look In the gardens of a play house. She
Is me dunn in height ard has a magnificent
complexion. She is really beautiful. and is
interesting as an oriental type. Her eyes
are the ltng, almond eyes, possessed by all
the heroines in the Arabian Nights, and
her hair is as black and fine as any onyx
that went to the making of Solomon's
temple. Her lips scarlet as pomegranate
blossoms, and in her face is that mys-
FERROUS sensuous charm of the oriental
VIC man-that charm which has more depth
of meaning than the French woman's fir
tatiousress or the Spanish woman's CO.
quetry; an attraction which does not seem
to be making an effort to attract at all,
but Is simply there, and one feels it's po-
tency.
The oriental beauty wears wonderful gar
ments. Draperies of gold about her loins,
silks studded with jewels and belted about
the waist with girdle of brass inlaid with
turquoise and corals: draped over her
shoulders and graceful head are diaphanous
silks from tie looms of East India-fabffcs
so fine that one could almost draw them
through the eye of needle yet large
enough to fall from her bando Of seQuins
to her tiny feet, where the bangles jingle
dUOut dHhleSs
In the Dahomey Village.
Just above the streets of Cairo comes the
Dahomey village, and here one finds the
African woman in her most horrible state
almost nude, and entirely like an ape.
Her feet are bare, and illustrating COM
pletely that odd formation of the negro
heel, which, in extending so far back,
TINS to have taken all the calf out of the
nlyla oNlr
sticks Even her lips are black, but to re-
deem the widespread, sensual mouth there
are two rows of dazzling ivory. Their
eyes, too, are soft and appealing, kind,
yearning eyes, that shine on their fellows
seeming to ask for help in darkness. These
women have dance peculiar to them
selves; they move neither legs nor trunks.
The motion is made entirely by the arms
and head. and 1t makes one think of the
movements made by the negroes of our
own land scattering corn along the row.
AS for garments, these consist mainly of a
brown sack about the loins and a string Of
beads, to which modern feminine progress
sion has added occasionally a gauze shirt
as mark of distinction.
The girls in the German village follow
Dahomey. We all know the type-Gretch-
eli. bic nile and smiling, very awkward, but
very feminine also, for the large hands are
cultivated in womanly arts, and the big,
cumbersome feet will walk virtuously and
submissively through the path Of matri-
mcny.
Then comes the beauty show, with it's
tawdry collection of Bowery representa-
tives of the women of the various nations
and here one can see Trilby, draped or I'M
draped; Trilby, with a face that might
have been possessed by a feminine satyr,
and an anatomy that might have pleased
Aubrey Beardsley. but Is not to the liking
OF a rude populace.
The Chinese Beauties.
The Chinese beauties are next in order,
and the "spieler' announces them as 1.-The
sweetest. most modest little ladies on the
midway They sit on q rostrum in chairs
of state, their hands fosied submissvely in
the flowing sleeves, their faces with as
mitch feminine expression as countenances
carved out of ivory. They smile now and
then, and you fancy when they do that
Sc me string at the back OF their necks has
been pulled for the purpose. One of these
odd little papier maChe maidens is consid-
cred the beauty Of the lott and, in her own
little Chinese way, she is1quite cute. Her
tiny body gorgeously arrayed, her trousers
are of purple and gold, and the long gar
ment that covers the body to the knees
reveals a panoply Of birds and insects of
every hue on a ground of shimmerng
white and geld satin. Her pretty little
hft L. Id ,s..