The Spider's Web
9781465685698
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“Eight days I have haunted this beehive, fought my way through the multitude, looked into tens of thousands of faces, and yet failed to find her. I’m afraid, Aleck Craig, you’re on a wild goose chase, and the sooner you return to Montreal the better for your peace of mind. Eight days! and six of them spent amid the infernal clatter of this bedlam. I’ve been wondering what the sensations of a man would be, could he go to sleep in Canada and awaken right here.” The tall, well-built pilgrim from over the border, dressed in a quiet suit of Scotch cheviot and carrying a Japanese cane, purchased no doubt in the bazaar, laughs softly as in imagination he pictures the bewilderment and positive alarm that would overwhelm an unfortunate placed in the midst of his present surroundings suddenly. Indeed, it is a conglomeration of sounds that would appall the bravest heart unaware of their particular origin. The hum of many voices marks the presence of a multitude; from over the buildings across the way come the many cries that day and night accompany the riding of the camels and donkeys in Cairo Street; here and there shout the bunco-steerers who officiate at the doors of various so-called Oriental theaters; fakirs howl their wares—from “bum-bum candy” to hot waffles and trinkets—while the ear-distracting tom-tom music, from behind the gate leading to the Javanese village, throbs like the pulsations of a heart. Above all this infernal din can be distinctly heard the steady “clack—clack” of the ponderous Ferris wheel as it slowly revolves in its course. Such a kaleidescopic scene had never before been witnessed on earth. Since the day when, at the Tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues came upon the multitude of workers, there has not been a time when the civilized and savage nations of the earth held such a congress as on the Midway Plaisance of Chicago. There is always a crowd here. Many come for the excitement; others because of the grand opportunity afforded them to study these queer people from all lands. The red fez abounds, but everyone wearing it is not necessarily a Turk or an Arab, or even an Algerian. It is the head gear of the Midway, and those who have business here don it as a matter of course. In his way, Aleck Craig is something of a philosopher. He has not been abroad, but takes an intense interest in the strange things of other lands, and perhaps it is the opportunity presented by this gathering of nations that causes him to haunt the Midway. His muttered words would indicate another motive also.
