Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1899-10-20
OURSELVES AS
OTHERS SEE US
Astonishment of Oriental Inhabitants Of
the Exposition Esplanade.
Some Of the Curious Impressions Which
Raw Chinese Imports Have of the Great
Industrial Show at Philadelphia.

NAAAetNctPhia, wv. o. tlt NnlneSo
denizens of the native village, who are
fresh within n month from their east
ern homes, have had n fine play time
while preparations to arrange their
town on the Esplanade has been I'm
progress.
During the past ten days they have
been permitted to roam at will within
the exposition grounds and buildings,
and they have been as men in n dream,
bewildered at the things they have
seen, to them beyond comprehension
and appearing to some of them super-
natural.
Through an interpreter a group OF
80 OF them were Intercepted with this
question What of all the things you
have seen has most astonished Won ?"
The answer to this was almost UNI
animous: Great space-big room" or
ms ono of them explained: "Plenty air
muchee light. muchee chance to move
about" This contrast to their cramr-
ed quarters in their Chinese home was
otherwise expressed by one OF the Can
ton students when he said: Not SD
muchee Mclean man MS Chnaman."
The density OF the population OF course
explains these expressions. To an
other question, What most amuses
you?" the reply was that II was an
open question between horsclcss car
riage and the concave and convex mir
rors. which reflected THAR faces and
figures in various degrees of fatness
and leanness.
When they were asked to seriouslv
answer tho question as to what most
Interested them, their rcply WAS oln,oat
us uniform as their answer to tho
question as to what astonished them
most. They are all deeply Interested
In the American women, some of Them
as an object of beauty, but to most of
them an object of the most intense
curiosity In the freedom with which
they pass in and out In public. and
the public employment of the women
AZ In strong contrast with their no
lions OF propriety and the customs
OF their native country. A few with
an eye to the mere female beauty of
the causacian variety gaze with open
eyed wonder ut the blonde hair. rosy
cheeks and laughing blue eyes of tho
presiding divinities mt tho numerous
booths and various stands i'm which
women are employed throughout TN,
exposition buildings. 'Thoy seemed to-
tally unable to become rcconciled To
this phase or western life, while they
confess their eagerness to see MS much
of 1t as possible.
They all agree that the "Melican
girls' are pretty. and agree that all
Cinnamon would be envious OF their
glimpse OF the National Export ex
position on account of their oppor-
tunity to witness the unveiled and nm
trammeled beauty of the opposite sex.
without restriction.
Tho boys OF the Chinese quarter.
these children OF the Orient, who arc
fond OF color and fantastic effects. are
apt 70 forget the more serious part of
ths exposition and stop ut whatever
point the most amusing and wonderful
mechanical toy is exhibited These
lads. with peculiar Celestial inoujsi
tfVeness and interest in that sort of
mechanism, are absorbed in all tho
various groups of figures moved by
olockwork. The wonders of electricity
as exhibited In the little contriyances
arc inexplicable to Thorn, and after
puzzling over these exhibits and seek
Ing explanations In their quaint pigeon
English, abandon them altogether for
those things which they have some
hopes Of reaching an understanding
about Tho grandest products of
mechanical genius are passed over by
the Chinese with n sense of awe. tho
secrets of the movements of which
thoy have no hopes of comprehending.
but the little ingenius toys are sure
TO draw hoir eyes and light I'D their
faces with smiles.
On the Esplanade some of them
wandered into the animal show and
sat open mouthed through the to them
amazing performance, for none of
them have cvor seen an elephant or
Hon, wild or tame, in the whole course
OF their lives. The Oriental dancing
puzzles them as much as the working
OF an electric dynamo; the one is as
inerplicable to them as the other.
Their idea of dancing is quito diff
ferent thing. and they have been i'm
pressed with the idea that this Is n
new system OF "wigwagging" which
Ingenious occidentals have devised.
The browning attraction OF the Chi
nsse village arrived today, when 1O2
villagers entered tho colony, bringing
with them a number of Chinese wo.
mon, With tho tiniest feot in the world.
Those female inhabitants of the village
como with their husbands and will
add to the reality and interest OF the
domestic phase OF the village. It is
expected that number of other Chi
nese women will arrive later. The
artstocratic pretensions of these ladies'
OF the Chinese village are measured
by the size of their pedal extremities,
those having the smallest feet making
tho greatest pretensions toward q
higher place In the social scale. 1t is