A GROUP OF ARABS, TURKS AND BEDOUINS.—If there be a region in the world where caste and race distinctions are forgotten where the religion is the same, it would appear to be in northern Africa, for the people at the Fair from that continent seemed utterly devoid of prejudice as regarded each other. The group here represented should have the addition of some swarthy Nubian chief, to convey a full idea of the good fellowship which prevailed, but, as they sit thus together, they afford a contrast as interesting as it is certainly not very strong. The Turk and Arab are not very dissimilar in facial expression. Transpose fez and turban and the ordinary American would mistake Bedouin for Turk and Turk for Bedouin. The Turk may have a little more of the air of a man of the world, but in the faces of the six men there is a striking general resemblance. There is in all the same expression of wide separation from the man of Europe or America as there is the same symbol of the faith upon the different costumes. It was one of the merits of the Columbian Exposition that, bringing together as it did people from every part of the world, it enabled comparisons and conclusions never so easily attained before. Of course all this was incidental, but the circumstance did not detract from the value of the ethnological study so made possible.

Other Pages from PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR.