Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-07-07
THE EXPOSITION OF 1899.
Some of the New Attractions of the Greater
America Midway.

America Midway.
The amusement features of the
greater America exposition, which
opened in Omaha July 1. for season
of four months, will surpass those of
last year in point of numbers and in
the quality of the attractions. Never
before at any exposition held in this
country since the Worlds fair, have
so many strange and decidedly inter-
esting features been arranged to in
terest and amuse the public, as will
be seen on the Midway the coming
season. Among the latter will be a
Filipino village, with a number of ma
tive men, women and children, in
their native costumes, showing the
habits, ceremonies and everyday life
of the people. Their huts will be ex-
act reproductions of those found
about Manila, and the native animals,
tropical plants, and agriculturalim inn pie
ments. will here be found. There will
also be Cuban villages, Hawaiian viii
lagos, and natives of Porto Rico, with
dancing girls and all that goes to
show the daily life and habits of these
people
In the work of building the new
Midway, comfort as well as pleasure
has been especially taken into consid
Grafton. A mammoth and elegant
structure having been erected on the
site of the former Chinese village loca-
ted on the West Midway. Here the
visitor, tired of sightseeing, can rest
in the cool and inviting shade of
leafy bowers of fragrant and rare and
tropical trees. plants and flowers,
while strains of sweet music in hidden
hooks tunefully play in suggestive
harmony of the passing scenes. Theat-
rical performances will be given in
the main building, under the famous
Orpheum Theater Circuit manage
ment, where some of the worlds most
talented artists will appear in vaude-
vile. comedy sketches, thrilling aero
battle feats, juggling. startling fire
dances, cake walks and the latest mu-
steal productions. A large and well
appointed arrangement under the
same roof which will be a source of
delight to the hungry, is the Midway
restaurant and buffet, where every
style of prepared foods will be sup
piled at prices which visitors will not
have need to find fault with.
The great cvclorama of the battle
of Missionary Ridge is now complete,
with the exception of the outside dec
Grafton. 1t is certainly one of the
finest cycloramas of the civil war ever
exhibited, and as many Nebraska sol
diers took part in this battle, it will
be of exceptional interest. The fore
ground of the cyclorama is covered
with sand, gravel, trunks of trees and
relics taken from this famous battle
field.
The wonder of the exposition is a
spectacular illusion called the "Naiads
of the Fountain 1t is the result of
three years work by a French designer,
and was exhibited in Paris for the first
time year ago. The details are of
the most elaborate kind, and the sub
lect significant of Grecian mythology.
Permission to exhibit it in this coun-
try was obtained by a gentleman in
Boston, who. at great expense, Sc
cured the concession at the Greater
America Exposition. Human types
of female beauty are used in the allie
CORY. aided by powerful spectacular
effects, colored fires of surprising
brilliancy and gorgeous costumes,
music, etc.
The Old Plantation will not be re-
cognized by visitors of last season.
The grand theatre, much larger and
finer than the former one, has been
erected in the front, instead of at the
rear, as it was last year. Some queer
looking types of colored people from
the cotton, tobacco and sugar states
will he seen at the Old Plantation.
among them the only body servant of
Jefferson Davis, who was captured by
the federal cavalry with his master, just
at the close of the civil war, and has a
remarkable history of his own.
Other amusement features will be
Pains London magnificent display of
fireworks, which are to excel the eX-
hibition of last year, and which will
be one of the most beautiful, unique
and novel attractions of the exposition.
Dazzling displays of colored fire. and
series of remarkable set-pieces are
being prepared, which will illus
trate some of the principal events
of the late war. Horse races by cleo
trio light. fire and ghost dances by
half-civilized Indians, and scores of
other attractions will be seen, leaving
little or nothing to be desired in this
line by the visitor at the greater
America exposition.