Evening journal., 1899-10-04
OURSELVES AS
OTHERS SEE Us
Astonishment OF Oriental Inhabitants Of
the Exposition EspIanade.

oOme Ol the curious impressions Which
Raw Chinese Imports Have of the Great
Industrial Show at Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, Oct s.-The Chinese
denizens Of the native village, who are
fresh within a month from their east
ern homes, have had a fine play time
while preparations to arrange their
town on the Esplanade has been in
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 a 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
20 Of them were interrogated with this
question: What Of all the things you
have seen has most astonished your"
The answer to this was almost un-
animous; Great space-big room" or
as one Of them explained: Plenty air.
muchee light, muchee chance to move
about" This contrast to their cramp-
ed quarters in their Chinese home was
otherwise expressed by one of the Can
ton students when he said: mot SO
muchee Mclean man as Chinaman."
The density of the population of course
explains these expressions. To an
other question, What most amuses
you?" the reply was that it was an
open question between horseless car
riage and the concave and convex mir
rors, which reflected their faces and
| figures in various degrees of fatness
and leanness.
When they were asked to seriously
answer the question as to what most
Interested them, their reply was almost
as uniform as their answer to the
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
as 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 at the blonde hair. rosy
cheeks and laughing blue eyes Of the
/ presiding divinities at the numerous
booths and various stands in which
women are employed throughout the
exposition buildings. They seemed to-
tally unable to become reconciled to
this phase of western life, while they
confess their eagerness to see as much
Of it as possible
They all agree that the Mclean
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 un-
trammeled beauty Of the opposite sex,
without restriction.
The boys of the Chinese quarter.
these children of the Orient, who are
fond of color and fantastic effects. are
apt to forget the more serious part Of
the exposition and stop at whatever
/ point the most amusing and wonderful
mechanical toy is exhibited. These
lads, with a peculiar Celestial inquisi-
! tiveness and interest in that sort Of
mechanism, are absorbed in all the
various groups of figures moved by
cloclkwork The wonders Of electricity
as exhibited in the little contrivances
are inexplicable to them, 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 The grandest products Of
mechanical genius are passed over by
the Chinese with a sense of awe, the
secrets of the movements of which
they have no hopes Of comprehending,
but the little ingenius toys are sure
to draw their eyes and light up their
faces with smiles.
On the Esplanade some Of them
I MduQCAtu Anll lAN cAOW anu
sat open mouthed through the to them
amazing performance, for none OF
them have ever seen an elephant OF a
lion, 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
inexplicable to them as the other.
Their idea of dancing is quite a diff
lerent thing, and they have been i'm
pressed with the idea that this is
new system of "wigwagging" which
ingenious occidentals have devised.
The crowning attraction of the Chi
nese village arrived today, when lO2
villagers entered the colony, bringing
with them a number Of Chinese wo-
men, with the tiniest feet in the world.
These female inhabitants of the village
come with their husbands and will
add to the reality and interest OF the
domestic phase of the village. It is
expected that a number OF other Chi
nese women will arrive later The