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| THE JAVAN SETTLEMENT - By far the most
instructive ethnological exhibit on Midway Plaisance was that made by
the Javan Company, and when, in the latter days of the Exposition,
the management closed its gates because of the exactions of the
directors of the Fair, there was a cry of dismay from friends and
enemies of the Fair alike. It is very truly alleged tht the Javan
Settlement should not have been exiled in Midway. It was essentially
an anthropological display. The voice of the recommender was never
heard in these quiet places. The little people were the antipodes of the noisy and
sordid Turks and vicious-looking Egyptians who crowded the street.
The engraving before us gives a picture of the northern end of the
village near the large theatre. The cottages were built on stilts to
discourage the visits of serpents and other creeping things, and to
avoid the dampness of a tropic soil. At night the little Javans sat
on their door-steps and played their low instruments, while the
sonorous notes of their orchestra, within the theatre, deepened the
sadness of the night. The great Wheel beyond might glitter with its
five hundred lights, the Midway masses might go by in joy under the
white arc lamps, but the scene where the onglongs played was always
far off - continents and seas away, with but a step to go. To sit on
the veranda of the Javan coffee-house, and let the hour grow late -
it was the only truly poetic thing offered by the World's Columbian
Exposition. |
