The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-01-26

AN IDEA.-A correspondent OF DaveG-
part paper suggests to the Western Union
Railroad Company to bridge the Mississippi
at Port Byron and build their road to Daven-
port. Such move would cut off the i'm
mense coal trade from that road, destroy its
project of an extension to Warsaw and oths1
wise maternity injure the road. We have no
fear that it will be done but we suggest to
| thepeopie this side of the river that they at
fa.d every encouragement and facility to the
new road to get 3 track into this city, and do
nothing which will have tendency to drive
them away.
| TIE MASQUERADE CARNIvAL.-Last night
| 1.-THE 2oth) the much sslksd-of grand mas
! querade skating carnival" came off at Chris
tian i Beebe's Island City Park. Why it
was christened Carnival we do not know.
Time was, when carnival" meant some
| thing; when the Corso was filled with the
pageants of roaring bacchanals when iolly
oioSiIenus, with his jokes, his big drum k, and
| his buifoonsry, kept the multitude in d roar;
when inspirat ton came from balconies SHIN
nering, isks starry night, with the bright
eyes Of lovely women. But, in cold night.
on the ice, with no bacchus; no reeling sat
yrs; 9no boquets or confts 20 Corso no
tauns; no pageants; there can be no car
nlval," Nevertheless there was splendid
skating party, and the skaters and the
skateresses were in splendid condition, and
exhibited poetry of motion an undulating.
wtiINygU in
like the bending Of 1.-the willows; a change
tul t"ining and INTERVIEWING; and involu-
tions, and airy flexions, such as were not
known to the ancients, nor to any other peo-
pie who have not learned to shoe their feet
with steel.
mat more masks were not there NAV be
owing to a scarcity of costumes and, may
| be, to the fact that people were allowed TO
dress as they pleased. If no one had been
admitted without q disguise, 1t would have
bsen mesqnerads-what there was OF it;
but would not have been suocess-at Mai.
Wilson's desk. It is easier to look on than
to skate; cheaper to be spectator than a
masqueradcG, when one considers that cos
TUNES have caught the viilainous complaint
of high prices
There were many costumes which we
would like to describe, did space allow us to
do 60. There was the inevitable Yankee
three Of him-the irrepressible niger, male
and female, Chinese, cats, dogs, harlequins,
/ Nose, zouaves, and Falstaf, with an obesi-
ty so remarkable that whether he fell on his
back or on his face it was equally protuber-
ant and EXCESSIVE. .-..
= The skating, as whole, was not destitute
of fair merit, There were those vino. bent
nearly double, with legs acutely at
the knees, and arms swinging wildly, made
. little head way, and that most ungainly -
There were maskers in tights, at whose evo-
luton one shuddered lest some untoward
movement, or accidental collision, should
snap their frail combinations. There were
ladies who stripped for their work, las coal
beavers bare their arms, and thereby conssi-
tuted at once revelation and suggestion
Now went one with the happity-hop move
ment OF the beg inner, and close behind fol-
lowed a swaying Camilla, sweeping onward
IN long, rounding lines. and seeming to pro-
duce motion rather as the result of volition
than of physical effort.
majority of the men were awkward, as
most men are on skates. Skating, says the
Chicago Times lucal, is the sister of dancing,
aud it requires, for its higher development,
eae flexible form of woman, her Weld ng
gracefulness, her exquisite appreciation of
Il
two stiff, angular, massive, to excel in an
art whose perfection consists of bending
lines, litheness, fexibility and gentieness.
Putting his nose in advance, or reversing.
the operation, and allowing that organ to
bring up the rear, a man will excel woman.
In straight lines, forward or backward, his
superior muscle gives him advantages over
O woman, whose result is speed, but never
poetry.
The carnival was succsss-at the ticket
ohoe.g So was the music, and the ice. And
the Nominations were splendid, making
gorgeous show for each side Of the river
So of the rockets. The whole was success
"a charming success-in the ANGLES visible;
/ ANGLES beneath which the polished steel shot
forth hot CLEANS, and above which beautiful
reality extended little way, and then disap
peared, leaving the pursuit to the imagina
ton.
Taken in all respects, every body was prob
ably satisfed-the proprietors with their re-
cepts, the skaters with their efforts, and the
spectators with what they witnessed-we
were, q any rate.
The Springfield, Mass, Republican says
''Mr Kasson, of Iowa, is one Of the ablest