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52
NEW ORLEANS ILLUSTRATED.
and are the results of consultation, time, money and labor, expended by gentlemen of taste and ability, in order to present a pageant worthy of the occasion.
After the King’s procession, the maskers go about the streets in whatever order or disorder they please, but are, of course, subject to restrictions and the law, as on other days.
“To portray half the characters seen on this day,
Fantasic, grotesque, classic, solemn or gay,
Would be just such a hopeless and intricate task,
As to tell who the persons are under the masks.
Here are kings, queens and princes in gorgeous attire,
Knights, pages and Cupids with hearts all a fire :
And birds ol the air, and fish of the deep,
Prosperines, Plutos, Robin Hoods, and Bo-Peeps.
Pompous Sambos and Dinahs without stint or limit,
Ugly imps with long tails, which they whisk every minute Round somebody’s limbs, and then laugh in their glee,
As the Fates or the Faries in wonderment flee.
There are Tantalus, Minoture, Cerberus, Charon,
Chinese with long cues, and the Pride of the Harem,
Gods, mortals and angels, monks, nuns and Minervas,
Immediately followed by hosts of infernals.
Boys in petticoats mimicing pert little belles,
Girls in pants, whose bold strutting their sex at once tells,
Dear old Mother Goose with her silly son Jack,
And the Man of the Moon with the sticks on his back,
Evening Stars, and Auroras, Hate, Hope and Hypocrisy,
And a cod’s head burlesques the Fish Aristocracy.
Indeed there is nothing the mind can invent,
From above or below, that they don’t represent ;
And in groups or processions, one by one or in dozens,
They pass and astonish our dear country cousins,
Who’ve come in on a visit, in crowds not a few,
To see all the shows, and the grand Mistick Krewe,
Which for long years has been to the sight of this day,
The crown and the glory of pageants, all gay;
And whether they rtpresent history or chance,
The Vices or Virtues, common facts or romance,
Their tastes and conceptions are faultless and true;
And there’s only one drawback—between me and you—
To their festivals, chaste as fireworshippers’ flames ;
None know where they come from, and. none know their names;
And whither they go we cannot even guess ;
But there is a sly rumor ’mong “ members of press,”
That they’re not men at all, but wonderful sprites Who visits us yearly on Mardi Gras nights,
To show us how even a masquerade rout
May be polished, by those who know what they’re about.
We do not pretend to dispute with these sages,
As newspaper men have been truthful for ages,
And laid down to people what should be the law,
And of course they are posted about Mardi Gras.”
At night the far-famed Mistick Krewe of Comus give a torch-light procession, illustrating some well chosen subject, making a spectacle which many leading journals in all sections of the country have pronounced “ worth crossing a continent to see.” The festivities end with a grand ball by the Krewe, and a State reception and ball by the King, which are attended by brilliant assemblies, and