Our Show: A Humorous Account of the International Exposition in Honor of the Centennial Anniversary of American Independence, from Inception to Completion, Including Description of Buildings, Biographies of Managers, Receptions of Foreign Dignitaries, Opening Ceremonies, Poem, Oration, Amusing Survey of All Departments, Incidents, Etc., Etc.Cohen, David Solis
History
Our Show: A Humorous Account of the International Exposition in Honor of the Centennial Anniversary of American Independence, from Inception to Completion, Including Description of Buildings, Biographies of Managers, Receptions of Foreign Dignitaries, Opening Ceremonies, Poem, Oration, Amusing Survey of All Departments, Incidents, Etc., Etc.
We enter an Egyptian structure and behold an oriental barber shaving one
of his countrymen. Egypt cannot teach us anything about shaving our
countrymen; we do not linger here. As we leave the building a Russian
britzska, a carriage invented especially for the use of spelling bees,
dashes by us drawn by the very cream of Tartar steeds. We catch on
behind until we reach a Persian bazaar. We gaze upon the long bearded
native men, and the white shrouded native women, busily engaged in their
national occupation of going to sleep, and become wrapped up in the
shawls of imagination. We are aroused by a wailing outside, cries of
grief mingled with curses and lamentations in choice Persian and gum
Arabic. The cause of this wailing was soon made evident.
LITTLE JOHNNY SHAH,
heir-apparent to the throne of Persia, in a laudable thirst for
knowledge, offered a piece of cake to one of the young lions in the
Zoological Gardens. He wished to find out how old he was, by his teeth.
The experiment will not affect the scientific world as much as it did
the young Persian. That lion may still be seen picking finger-nails out
of his teeth, and as all loyal subjects in Persia are expected to do as
their sovereign does, a dispatch sent to Teheran announced the pleasing
intelligence, that under the next Shah it would be the fashion to wear
but half a finger and a thumb on the left hand. We remain awhile to
share the grief of the stricken father and seventeen mothers, and then
resume our pilgrimage.
We pause for a moment before the French restaurant, enraptured, looking
at the pretty girls and other dainties served up there. We decline the
invitation of a Chinese drummer, hanging around to inveigle parties into
the restaurant established by his country, with a long rigmarole about
“kittens fried in castor oil,” and enter the Main Hall.
[WE SEE NO SEÑORITAS.]
We land in the desert of Sahara, but desert Sahara and step over to
Spain. We look for bright-eyed señoritas, with black lace veils and
stringless guitars; we have been educated to expect this in Spain, by
the ladies of the “International Tea Party.” We are disappointed; we
find a few men who look as if they had walked all the way from Madrid,
selling wine, fruit, and olive oil. We pass through Portugal; more wine,
fruit, and olive oil. We hop through Japan, change a ten cent note for a
bushel of their “hard money,” and sachey on. We linger for hours in fair
France, principally in the Paris department. We saunter through Austria,
stopping to speak a word of complimentary encouragement to the Emperor,
who looks a little down-hearted, evidently thinking of Vienna; then
through Germany and Switzerland, until we reach Great Britain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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