The Pompeii Panorama—near by—showed a very realistic representation of this city destroyed by the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79. This display was succeeded by the Persian Theater and the Model of the Eiffel Tower.
We left the crowded roadway, and entered the narrow Street in Cairo which made an imposing impression with its strange, oriental facades—the picturesque shops—and the quaint overhanging upper stories of the ancient Egyptian city. Natives of this African country—which is fertilized by the waters of the Nile—manufactured and had for sale Egyptian, Arabian, and Soudanese articles. Donkeys and camels were engaged in carrying visitors who chose to admire the busy thoroughfare seated on the backs of these animals. The native camel-drivers in their national costumes moved around and mingled with the strangers—which gave the populated street a peculiar charm to the eye, whereas the "Bum-Bum Candy" sold by Egyptian confectioners, afforded a strange sensation to the palate of the visitor.
Here, where the architecture, the surroundings, and the people were as far removed from anything American as could well be imagined, we really—for some minutes—were lost to all consciousness of being in that extremely modern city, called Chicago.
After having viewed the side attractions to which belonged the Egyptian temple—resembling the temple of Luxor—the tombs of the ancient kings, and fac-similes of mummies, we entered the Algerian and Tunisian Village. Besides a theater, it contained a great number of booths or bazaars in which a choice selection of goods of all kinds—peculiar to Algiers—was for sale.
Proceeding southward through the frequented avenue, we saw—in succession—the Kilauea Panorama, a vivid picture of the great volcano of Hawaii, with all the surrounding scenery—an American Indian Village, showing the remnants of some of the greatest North American Indian tribes, and their manner of living—and a Chinese Village including a theater, a joss house, and a bazaar.
The most southwestern portion of the Midway Plaisance was occupied by the "Wild East Show" where performances were given by Bedouin Arabs. With their short Turkish swords—the cimeters—they accomplished feats of such intrepidity and daring as to cause the spectators' blood to coagulate in their veins.
Bending our steps westward again, our attention was fixed upon the attractions on the north; id est on our right hand side.
Very striking to our eyes were two exhibits the comparison of which established the fact that they were as unlike each other as could be fancied. Not only that the two villages contrasted greatly by their external appearance; but the scenes and inhabitants that they encompassed, were in direct opposition. Reader, can you realize that here from the North Pole to the Equator there was but one step? Laplanders, from the Arctic region in Europe, the next-door neighbors of barbarians from the Torrid Zone in Africa? Although both low in the scale of humanity, the fierce and savage Natives of Dahomey with their repulsive habits exhibited the characteristics of the very undermost order of mankind.
But the mind was at once relieved from this sad picture of human debasement by the refined and attractive scenes in the Austrian Village, inclosing realistic reproductions of thirty-six buildings as they existed, more than a century ago, in old Vienna, deservedly eulogized in the song:
Es gibt nur a Kaiserstadt
Es gibt nur a Wien;
Da muss es praechtig sein,
Da moecht' ich hin!