Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-02-11
AN INTERESTING PERSON
Is Mont Mrinzo, Who is a Native Of
Fee, Morocco, Africa.
A Guide in the Desert Of Sahara.
and Along tho Nile-Actsd as
Interpreter for General Grant,
While Making His Tour of World.
His Ninth Visit to the United
States.


States.
Mont Mrinzo, native of Fee, Mo-
rocco, in the northern part of Africa,
is in the city with a group of native
performers. Mrinzo is a very inter-
esting person. He is a large, fine
looking man, and very intelligent. He
speaks five languages very fluently.
1t was his knowledge of English which
caused his selection by President
Grants party, during Grants tour OF
the world, to act as interpreter at
Gibraltar, an honor which was highly
appreciated by Mrinzo. He met Grants
secretary at Pittsburg recently, and
spent some time with him in recalling
incidents in connection with his SER
vice to the patty.
Mrinzo has been more or less before
the public ever since he was six years
of age When mere child he was
taken with his sister to London to rep
resent Morocco at the first Worlds
Congress of Nations ever held. After
wards he acted as guide to European
and American parties over the desert
of Sahara and along the Nile as far as
the falls. He also served as inter
prefer on many occasions, being en-
ployed for some time at the famous
Alhambra in Grenada, Spain.
Mrinzo has paid nine visits to Amer
lea, and is very fond Of this country.
He first came here in 1870, and re-
turned six years later, during the Cen
tennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He
was also at the Worlds Fair, in Chi
cago where he was one of the partners
in the Algerian theatre. Two native
female dancers accompany him, and
he claims to have exhibited them be-
fore many of the worlds greatest rul-
ers. They appeared twice before
President Cleveland, and he has
snap shot of the dancers taken in the
blue room of the White House.
Mrinzo probably does not please
many of his male patrons by his meth
cd of conducting his entertainment,
as he aims to give correct repreduc-
ton of the Oriental dances, accom-
panied by lectures, rather than to
crafty their sensual appetites. 1t is
one of the girls who accompany him
who performed the remarkable feat
n -
her body in Madison Square Garden
without showing any indications OF
dizziness This girl comes from the
edge of the great desert, and does not
speak Mrinzo's native language. He
pronounces the "houchee-couchee"
dance an American invention, and in
sists that it is not an accurate repro
duction of any Oriental dance.
There are four separate and distinct
Oriental Dances he says, "and all Of
them illustrate prayers, or are por-
tons of religious exercises. The
whirling of the body is practiced as
religious exercise in Africa, and to
times required to continue until he or
she falls exhausted and dies. This
sometimes requires twenty-four hours.
The dance of India, as performed for
President Grant is accompanied with
torches and the dancers undergo great
physical torture
Mrinzo is very familiar with condi-
tions in his own country, and with its
history, and he talks interestingly on
these subjects. He stated that the
population Of Morocco is unknown be.
cause of the practical impossibility a
enumerating the inhabitants. They
live off the luxuriant production Of
the soil, and are required to do but
little work. There is an abundance OF
fruit and game, and the excess rots
on the ground. The people are all
idolators, and there are some twenty
forms of religious worship, many yet
worshipping fire and the sun and
moon. Fee is large city with very
few modern buildings. The principal
business is trading. The houses are
hundreds of years old. Mrinzo claims
that his fathers house is seven hun.
dred years old, and it occupies whal
would be a full block in Wheeling
Two-thirds of it is never occupied
Mrinzo will leave shortly for New
York York to fill theatrical engage
ment with the "Big Sensation" Com
pany.