Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-10-15
THE pAN-AMeRIcAN.
A DAY ON THE MIDWAY.

Oala0C6Q 80u COmploto oXPOeAtiVus Aiou
the county fair up. Some there are, un
doubtedly, who regard it as frivolou
and superfluous adjunct. Others thinl
it is about the whole thing, like q ma
whose acquaintance made, whose hom
was in New Jersey, and who somewha
scornfully answered to question, "Wha
do you suppose I care about the ex
hibitsP came to see the illumination
and the midway" The average visito
will occupy position between thes
extremes. To him the midway repre-
sents a place where he can find pleasan
diversion after the strain of sightseeing
in the exposition proper.
And perhaps l should right her
apologize for my heading; for If you ar
looking for rest and relaxation, don't ex
pect to find it by putting in "a day OF
the midway'-though that is exactl.
what did, owing to the exigencies o
the case and the fact that / accompanied
in my tour genial friend who has thu
reputation of being the president of tn,
Liars Club in his city. With enthusi
asm and zeal to do as much of the mid
way as possible while the gates wer'
open, and presumably looking TO
material for future meetings Of the Club
he led me fierce chase up and down
and in and out, and / managed to follow
the pace he set through most of the day
He was fresh and came out in good con
dition; but / was feeling not only thu
WEAKNESS but little of the illness some
times incident to travel, and when
crawled back to Statler's late in tht
evening and checked up twenty-one Of
the midway shows that we had "taker
in," felt like q physical and menta
wreck. If you would enjoy your
recreation to the fullest extent, bt
reasonable in it.
The midway at the Pan-American lies
around the northwest border of the ex
position proper, and there are severa
entrances, so that, starting at any central
point, one may in a short time pass from
the comparative Sunday quiet of the
main grounds into the whir and hula
baloo of the midway; or in the evening
from the mellow light of the thousands
of incandescents which give the grounds
their peculiar glow, into the white glare
of the arc lights which illuminate the
lesser place.
The midway shows, of which there are
about fifty, not including the native
theatres and other shows within shows
are varied in character, but they may be
roughly classified into three divisions.
First, there are the educational features,
largely comprised in the native villages,
like the Esquimau1 village, the Philip.
pine village, &c. These are in their
way valuable as chronological studies, and
for one who can not visit the countries
represented, may possess much interest.
Then there are large number of en-
tertainments, like the Land of the Mid.
night Sun, where optical and electrical
effects are produced such as would have
been hardly possible few years since.
And finally, there are class which are
simply diversions, highly entertaining
diversions many of them, but without
any educational quality. The list in
cludes few of the concert hall grade,
and low grade at that. If you like
that kind, 60 to see them; if you don't,
stay out. They are easy enough to
identify, for they do their advertising on
the outside.
In the various native villages, you are
supposed to see, and you do see approx
mately, what you would If you were
transported to real native village in
stead of an artificial native village being
transported to you. Houses built in the
same architecture and of the same
materials; natives pursuing the same
occupations that they would at home,
and dressed in the same clothes or lack
of clOthes-for some of the costumes to
be seen are scantier than ball dress.
In most of them, too, there is native
theatre, where-for an additional con-
sideration in money-you may see the
drama as it is played in the country
represented.
The objection to this class of shows
which I ran up against in our party was
one which had not taken definite form
in my own mind-that they were dirty
places. One had been in Darkest
Africa, and it was the dirtiest place he
was ever in; another had been in the
Philippine village, and found distress
sing amount of dirt; and another had
been in the Streets of Cairo, or the
Beautiful Orient different names for the
two ends of one street) and there, too,
the dirt was decidedly Objectionable.
Naturally. / might have realized it
more fully, but the dirt seemed so prop
erly part of the show that l had failed
to distinguish it. The African In his
native wilds may be expected to be dirty.
The Oriental, with all his gaudy adorn-
ments and trappings, Is not noted for
neatness. As for the Filipino-well, we
shall probably have to send good many
more cargoes of school teachers, and
guns, and missionaries, and whiskey, to
our eastern islands, before our new
charges will attain that advanced stage
of civilization that will make all their
houses suitable for housewives models.
There are two places, though, where
you need not be afraid of dirt. One is
the Japanese village; if there is any
dirt in that, it has gathered since I was
there. The other is Alt Nuremberg,
which is a German village. My only
regret there was that it was my day fol-
not eating, for wanted to sit down al
one of the tables and fill up, everything
was 80 Immediately clean.
OF slightly different character is the
Indian Congress. Here chiefs and their
warriors of numerous different tribes, at.
tired in all the glory of their war paint,
dance, ride, and shoot in the ring, and
give exhibitions of their manners and
customs, winding up with sham bat
tie, in which the warriors rapidly tumble
and take on the appearance Of the pro.
verbal ''good Indian" There are two
star cards in this show. One Is the willy
old Apache chief Geronimo who is Al
pleased to make his bow to the audience
as any school girl, and who gets as
hearty applause as II he had not cost thii
country more, In lives and money, thar
any other living Indian. The other is
Sioux girl of Is, WinoDa by name, tht
best looking Indian it has ever been my
privilege to see, with bright, pleasant
smile, and who does the most remarkable
shooting, both with rife and revolver,
that have ever seen.
Leaving now the consideration Of tht
human animal in his various shades oi
color and degrees of civilization, we may
devote little time to animals of a lower
order. We may see the remarkabl,
trained horse Bonner; look in on th,
wild water sports by various beasts; OF
gaze with amusement at those ridicu
iously majestic birds In the ostrich farm
but the great animal show 10 of cours'
Bestock's. Here you may feed tn,
mirth-inducing monkeys, and look ove
q large circle Of cages of wild beasts o
all sorts. could suggest one great i'm
provement hereto have the cage
labelled. 40 that we greAnhorns ma,