The Archduke had put in an appearance at the Austrian Pavilion, sat through Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with a certain amount of impatience, and lingered at the Colorado Silver Camp exhibit, where, imagining that camps must necessarily include camp-followers, he proceeded to lead his entourage on a lively search after ladies of flagrant repute that would have taxed the abilities of even a seasoned spotter, let alone a greenhorn like Lew—running up and down and eventually out into the Midway, accosting amateur actors who had never been west of Joliet with untranslatable ravings in Viennese dialect and gesticulations which could easily be—well, were—taken the wrong way.
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I speculated that "learning about foreign people" was just innuendo for "fucking as many different ethnicities as possible." This line provides the evidence to back up my speculation.
"put in an appearance at the Austrian Pavilion"
This suggests that he dropped by only long enough to proclaim he was there. Ferdinand wasn't interested in doing a presser for Austria to the people of Chicago.
"sat through Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with a certain amount of impatience"
Who could sit impatiently through a show purported to be this exciting?! That was a rhetorical question because the answer is "a really horny guy from out of country eager to put his dick in some Americans."
"lingered at the Colorado Silver Camp exhibit, where, imagining that camps must necessarily include camp-followers"
He lingered here because it was the first place Ferdinand suspected he could find some poontang. "Camp-followers" can mean many different things but the meaning that most matters here is "women providing sexual services." Ferdinand, being foreign, doesn't quite get the idea of the exhibits at this World's Fair. Or he simply assumes the Fair would be portraying the various exhibits as accurately as possible and where miners on the frontier go, so do women who can make money via sexual transactions. And even if they're just actors, actors like to get laid too! And what young American actress could pass up the opportunity to fuck a European Archduke? That's a rhetorical question too because the answer is probably "loads of them" but the more important point is that at least one of them is going to be some kind of star fucker.
"accosting amateur actors who had never been west of Joliet"
See? Actors! But these are probably the male actors pretending to be silver miners whom Ferdinand and his men will not stop bothering with questions in a foreign language while putting their index finger of their right hand through the circle made by their index finger and thumb of their left hand.
"gesticulations which could easily be—well, were—taken the wrong way"
The "finger in the hole" gesture probably garnered a lot of responses of "Oh, you want the fried doughnut cart just past the reindeer show up on the left!" That was a joke! The actual response was probably, "What do I look like? A fancy English author overflowing with bon mots?! Get your pick away from my dirt mine!"
