The St. Louis World Fair
The group arrived in St. Louis, Missouri without Verner, who had been taken ill with malaria, in late June 1904, after the Louisiana Purchase Exposition had already begun. They immediately became the center of attention; referred to variously by the press as Artiba, Autobank, Ota Bang, and Otabenga, Ota Benga was particularly popular. He had an amiable personality, visitors were eager to see his teeth, which had been filed to sharp points in his early youth as ritual decoration. The Africans had learned to charge for photographs and performances, and one newspaper account, promoting him as "the only genuine African cannibal in America", claimed " worth the five cents he charges for showing them to visitors".
When Verner arrived a month later, he realized the pygmies were more prisoners than performers. Their attempts to congregate peacefully in the forest on Sundays were thwarted by the crowds' fascination with them, as were McGee's attempts to present a "serious" scientific exhibit. On a July 28, their performing to the crowd's preconceived notion that they were "savages" resulted in the First Illinois Regiment being called in to control the mob. Benga and the other Africans eventually performed in a military-style fashion, imitating that of the American Indians at the Exhibition. The Apache chief Geronimo (featured as "The Human Tyger" – with special dispensation from the Department of War) came to admire Benga, and gave him one of his arrowheads. For his efforts, Verner was awarded the gold medal in anthropology at the Exposition's close.
Read more about this topic: Ota Benga
Famous quotes containing the words the st, louis, world and/or fair:
“Think of the importance of Friendship in the education of men.... It will make a man honest; it will make him a hero; it will make him a saint. It is the state of the just dealing with the just, the magnanimous with the magnanimous, the sincere with the sincere, man with man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by neglect of many other things.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“But ice-crunching and loud gum-chewing, together with drumming on tables, and whistling the same tune seventy times in succession, because they indicate an indifference on the part of the perpetrator to the rest of the world in general, are not only registered on the delicate surfaces of the brain but eat little holes in it until it finally collapses or blows up.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of
deceits?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)