Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-23
STREET OF ALGIERS
1t is the Oriental Section of the Paris
Exposition.
HIDEOUS PANDEMONIUM OF SOUND
Same People and Same Shows
as Were Seen at Chicago.
RATHER TAME AS A RULE
Specisl Correspondence Of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
PARIS. June IL, 1900.
Oh yes there's a sort of Midway Plai-
sance at the exhibition, but 1t is long way
from being as conspicuous a feature of the
big show as at Chicago You have to ask
your way to 1t. and when you are about
half way there you think 1t must be poked
away in a corner it's SO far from most
everywhere else. When you get as far as
the Eiffel tower you ask a policeman.
lover the river he says. So over you go.
You are not surprised that the place is
remote You are looking for the most for
eign'' things IN all the great universal ex-
position: the men from the mystic orient.
the women with the masked faces; the wild
children Of the desert, the races that are
as old as the world, yet know nothing of
the changes that mark our western civiliza-
ton. You realize that it is less incongruous
to find them away off in a distant corner.
lover the river" rather than under the
glare of an electric light or within sound
of the putting of steam engine that is
running an up-to-date moving machine.
AS you approach the neighborhood indi-
Gated the quarters of the weird people
from the east You look ahead and the en-
vironmont seems appropriate The whole
aspect of the locality is strange. Surmount-
ing the sloping hill is that architectural
curiosity, the Trocadero. which in all its
lines and adOrnments sets you thinking of
the and of the Moors. All around there
abouts are hundreds of still queerer s:ruc-
lures. There are long, ramb ing buildings
and narrow squatty ones. with roofs hang
ing over like the frOwning brow of a pirate
There are domes of fantastic shapes and
coloring. nlinarets carved in queer designs
mysterious balcOnied windows, great. wide,
gloomy portals opening on black vestibules.
forbidding-looking stairways suggestive of
al sorts Of narrowing episodes. and. scat
tered here and there. grotesque and hideous
figures in stone or wood.
Looks Very Oriental.
AS you draw near you see multitude of
men in fezzes. white. black and yellow men:
and women and children, too, in costumes
that bespeak all the different races of the
orient. Marching back and forth before the
door of somber building you see several
Mongolians. whom inquiry will disclose to
be Annamtte soldiers. Yes You say, this
looks very eastern. but II isn't the Mid
way Plaisance. for you hear no note of
the tumbling drums the piercing cymbals
or the many other queer Instruments or
the odd cries and chatter that were so con-
spicuous at the Chicago worlds fair.
So You continue your stroll Suddenly
a very pandemOnium of sound crashes into
your ears. You turn. On the left you see
what looks at first like the wide doorway of
one of the houses But 1t isn't. 1t is the
mo nth OF winding thoroughfare. and your
eye Is b+WliGered Dy the scene therein The
place swarms with humanity. queer human
ity, for the most part, with odd shades of
skin. and still Odder apparel Every one
Il moving about if each individual in the
throng was playing the role of a bit of
colored glass in kaleidoscope. And gu,
from that weird street, you stop in front
of 1t. issues a screeching chorus beside
when a visiting sawmill would suggest a
deaf and dumb asylum.
The Street of AIGiers.
This is the Midway Plaisance of the
Paris exposition. That isn't the name II
goes by, however. 1t is called THE Street
of Algiers as you may notice by a sign