Evening star., 1900-10-20
MARVEL OF BEAUTY
Exhibit of the French Colonies at the
Paris Fair.
an IDEA OF THEIR VAST WEALTH
Works of High Art Sent in From
ar Distant Lands.
SPLENDID LOOKING MEN
Copyright. 1900, by V. GrihavedOffl
,ecial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.


Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
PARIS, October 12, 1900
The picturesque region of the oriental
dancers at the Paris exposition is also re-
on of much educatlve value. i is In the
heart of the French colonial section that
the houtchi-koutchi folk dance their widest
and we.rdest The air Of that quarter is
filed day and night with the sound of the
strange oriental music with which Arabs
and Tunisians and stalwart Soudanese
backs call the passing stranger to witness
the contortons of the eiephantine "Rosau,
Queen of the Desert Dancers" or the grace
full swirl Of the ''mo0n-eyed maiden of Ell
BasaH" And this French co.onia. section is a
marvel OF beauty and of Cnarm for other
and higher reasons. superb reconstruction
of a little known and most gorgeous life
and revelation of colonial empire possess
ed by France of which the bulk of the peo-
pie have little or no adequate idea.
1t is safe TO say that the average man.
taken uEawares. without time to ransack
books or maps, would say that France as
CoIoniZ4ng power was quite out of the
reckoning. We have got 50 used to tai
French deCadence. especially a contrasted
with AnglO-Saxon expansive energy. that it
comes a surprise to he reminded that
the French colonial empire is the finest in
the world after the English. That is the
cod fact. which statistics will prove to
you If you be of that order of man
t. whom statistics prove digestible
and nOuiIshing. And It > face winch
takes on a new and living meaning and a
very picturesque and fascinating aspect
when you impress 1t on your mind not by
turning over Biographies or blue books, but
by visiting the French colonial pavilions
and there studying co!onia, life almost at
first hand AiSiers. French Soudan, Sene
gal, French Congo, French West Coast of
Africa, the Ivory Coast. Dahomey. Tunis.
atfNfFi -
French Oceania, GuadeIoupe, Martinique,
New Caledonia taking some of the names
at random, what a wealth Of romantic
sociation they suggest
Evidences of Wealth.
Examined in detail the handsome pavil-
ions, bult and arranged each after the
fashion of the country they represent, tell
a Story of an immense material wealth
also. 1t Is, of course, a wealth not yet
fully developed, sometimes scarcely as much
as touched yet, but looking round in the
Trocsdero palaces "n- sees that it is 4
wealth certain, enormous, all but iuexhaust-
ibie. 1t has sometimes been said tha, the
French Co.OnieS in Africa consist of ar d
desert and virgin forest, the as, utterly
ft 10 support a colonizing population. Look
n ne D.s map ,ha, hangs III The SOudanGse
pavilion. and you are reminded that the
arid desert, the Sahara is Jhe center of
northern Africa almost the strategic key to
the NhOle comment, a perpetual barr er to,
say, the English, who would like well to
pant the whole African map red and who
d hundred years hence Will certainly bitter
ly regret that this vast territory is not
under heir dominion. For the despised vir-
gin forest, there is not single paw lion
which does not help to convince the visitor
that all that timber will one day prove of
priceless value. In every exhibit, North
Africa, East Africa, West Africa one sees
superb specimens of native woods. stout
and resisting (good for houses and sh ps
and paving purpOses), exquisite in grain and
color, lending itself admirably TO artistic
uses. Some of the native wood-carvng,
which is shown abundantly in every pa
ri!ion, is of a most remarkable beauty of
detail. The forest has created artists
Dahomese. the Soudanese, the Congo and
Ivory Coast blacks. AS time goes on and
all this native skill gets TO work more and
more regularly and productivity the gain
will be very great. In none of the pavil-
Ions does one signs that the African
wood produce has been used for paper
making, but it Is certain that before many
years the increasing demand will force
manufacturers 10 begin 10 tap the African
forests for their raw material.
Products of Great Value.
And one learns in the course Of an in
spection OF the colonial exhibits that II Is
not by any means only sand and forest that
the French have acquired. Their possess
sions yield thousand products of the