People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — STRANGE STRUCTURES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STRANGE STRUCTURES.

Some of the Queer Buildings of the White City. Odd and Airy Dwellings of the Jitumm Straw-Stack Hats of the South Sea Islanders Notes in General. [Special Ohloago Correspondence. 1 There never was a queerer lot of buildings gotten together than are to be seen in the Columbian metropolis at Jackson park. Scattered throughout the grounds are all the different styles of architecture of every race of people on the globe, from the bush hut of the Australian ranger to the palace of the American millionaire. A study of the primitive structures of the savages of far distant islands of the great oceans is afforded the people of the big cities of civilization, who but for this grand fair would have had no knowledge of them save that gleaned from books of travel. There is also an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with the manners and customs of the strange races of the earth in their everyday life at the fair, for everything is just as it is in their native villages beyond the big waters. In the fair grounds proper there are the Esquimaux, the cliff dwellers of the southwest and the aborigines of the eastern states. These are domiciled each colony by itself in dwellings fashioned after those of their native habitations, conforming as near os pos-

sible to the native architecture for the benefit of the civilized world. The little people of the extreme north in their enforced imitation of semitropic customs are not altogether in their proper element, but they manage to hang on to the ragged edge of existence and give a very faithful representation of their home life in the frigid ■one.

In somewhat as forlorn a condition are the tawny-skinned denizens of the mountains of Mexico, who, in order to carry out the idea of being’ domiciled in their native state, are compelled to lead a counterfeit existence in a huge heap of tin fashioned as nearly like a miniature mountain as the carpenters and tinners of the fair could make it.

Then there are the various tribes of eastern Indians in their make-believed tepees over on the lake front Here there is a more faithful representation of natural conditions than is to be found in either of the other colonies. But for the genuine article of primitive architecture the Midway Plaisance must be sought Here are the Laplanders, South Sea islanders, Javanese, Dahomeyans, all of whom hold forth in villages composed of houses fashioned After the ones they live in when at home in their own countries. More pieturesqne and airy than the ml are, possibly, the diminutive dwell-

ings of the Javanese. Constructed wholly of bamboo and matting made of bamboo splints, they are the perfection of hot weather quarters. From a casual glAnce one would think they would hardly withstand the faintest puff of wind, so lightly are they constructed, yet through the many severe blows to which Chicago has been subjected since they were erected they have remained intact. Among the queer structures of this quaint little village is the theater building in the central portion of the grounds. This is a somewhat pretentious building to be constructed of such light material. It is about thirty feet high, thirty feet wide and fifty feet long and is composed of nothing but bamboo poles, ingeniously put together, and matting such as is used on the other houses. The work of building this village was a mammoth undertaking for the little brown people who inhabit it, but in their leisurely fashion they finally accomplished it, and are now quite comfortable and contented in their little dove-cotes of houses. □Nearly as odd as the houses of the diminutive Javanese are the huts of the Fijians, close by on the opposite side of the Plaisance. Strongly resembling scooped-ont straw stacks of an ancient date, they nevertheless afford the inhabitants ample protection from all kinds of weather. This is all that is required of them, as the highest conception of comfort of which these people are capable is a full stomach and a place-to crawl into and sleep. We might go on and enumerate the

different styles of architecture in vogue among the civilized nations, but lack of space will not permit- Suflice it to say that there is hardly a characteristic architecture in the world that is not represented in our great White City. And not only the buildings are shown, but the minutest details of everyday life are faithfully portrayed, so that a few hours spent among the villages of the fair will afford about as much knowledge of the different countries as would a complete tour of the world.

JAVA VILLAGK.

FIJI DRUMMER.

A BUSH HUT.