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!
Having arrived at the center of the spacious promenade, we ascended one of
the six northern platforms, communicating by turns with thirty-six aerial
coaches, suspended by an iron axle to the periphery of the mammoth _Ferris
Wheel_.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111