THE BEAUTY SHOW—What bore upon its front the legend, “International Dress and Costume Exhibit, or World’s Congress of Beauties,” was a large rectangular structure seen upon the right soon after entering the Midway Plaisance from the Exposition grounds. Further information regarding the attractions within was conveyed in an additional notice to the effect that “Forty Ladies from Forty Nations” were there on exhibition. The interior consisted chiefly of a great hall, surrounded on three sides by a raised and carpeted platform, on which were seated the beauties, each on her own division of the dais, the country represented being indicated by a card. There were occasionally those among the visitors, idle jesters, who intimated that the cards were a necessity, the physiognomy of the lady from some Oriental locality not differing radically enough from that of the young lady from Illinois, United States of America, to make such printed notice a superfluity. But these carping people were doubtless envious of the concessionaires, for the beauty show had great patronage and was a profitable venture. As for the beauties and their costumes, it may he said of the young women who appeared, that they were a very good-looking assemblage, and conducted themselves with far more reserve than did some other exhibits of the Plaisance, while the costumes were in many instances admirable, and served to give an excellent idea of the varying styles of feminine apparel in different nations.
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