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| THE AZTECS - Between the Scenic Theatre and
the Illinois Central Railroad viaduct, on the north side of Midway
Plaisance, during the last sixty days of the Fair, a band of Mexican
Indians was settled behind the structure which is here portrayed, and
for the sum of ten cents the visitor might enter. The sign reads:
"The Aztec's Village. Alive and on exhibition here. Original
home-life and industries. Weavers and metal workers; sports,
pastimes and ceremonies; singing and dancing." The people in the
photograph are going westward, and the entertainment is not open. It
was never a successful enterprise, following, in this respect, the
history of other far Southwestern exhibitors that have come to
Chicago. Lieutenant Schwatka's Cliff-Dwellers, the original Moquis,
utterly failed to arouse either scientific or lay attention, when
shown in the Owings Building, several years ago, and the poor
creatures endured extraordinary privations before they reached their
own country again. There was some doubt, too, in the public mind as
to the genuineness of the Midway Aztecs. Their serapes were said to
have been made in Germany. Their booths were filled with trinkets,
however, and if general knowledge of Mexican aborigines had been
greater, a good trade might have gone on, for the Midway was crowded.
There are so many different tribes of Indians in Mexico that only
such scholars as Prof. Powell can even name them. |
