New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-02
MARDI GRAS FESTIVITIES
CARNIVAL In THE CRESCENT CITY
MADEsT, MRRR1EsT DAY OF ALL
MYSTIC KREWE OF KOMUS

more, giving minute history of its origin
its traditions and the ceremonies which &C
company it. This history, year after year,
is the same; the story Of twelve months
previous dressed in other language, by, per.
haps, other hands. Although, there is some
thing ludicrous in this sudden rush fol-
encyclopedias by the 1he1spaper men, still
dose, that they expect it, and would, per-
haps, be disappointed if it were found
wanting.
We have just celebrated day of peculiar
moment to New Orleans, and the reader OF
the morning paper turns naturally to the
peruse all the doings which characterized
the 'Fat Tuesday" of 1870, but expects also
to wade through long lucubration Oh all
the shrovetides the Christian world has
celebrated since, in the dim past, that grand
old Roman bishop, Telesphorus, invented
Lent, with its forty days of fasting and
| prayer.
| The wise historians, who search into the
origin of customs, and after much delving
among the dust and rubbish OF ages, root
| out a most improbable reason for very
natural circumstance, have not spared
Mdrdi Gras, and we are told by
| dozens and scores of scholars, follow.
ing, parrot-like, in each others footsteps.
| that the carnival is the lineal descendent OF
the old saturnalia of Pagan Rome. The
| fact that Rome rioted under the Caesars in
| the middle OF December, while the Christian
masquerades in the second or third
| month of the year, is very neatly
got around by the supposition that
| the festival has given up two months
| in obedience to Papal bull. There is moth.
| ing, however, in common between the
saturnalia and the carnival, except that
both were seasons of riotous pleasure. The
| saturnalia, like the filthy mysteries which
| disgraced the classic groves of Athens,
| passed away forever with the idols of Greece
| and Rome.
The carnival originated from the very ma
| ture of the religion which witnessed its birth.
| 1t was natural for man to make the most OF
| little time, and, while he had the liberty to
| gorge with meat, to commit every eXtrava-
| gance, and indulge in every pleasure, be
would take every advantage of it on the eve
| of that sombre season when modification,
| fasting and prayer constituted the unbroken
monotony of forty successive days. The
warm-blooded Latin races adopted the
carnival with all the glee of children, and
| wherever their decendents have carried
their language over the globe, traces
of its observance are to be found
The Anglo-Saxon received every custom
| of the church with the soberness
of his nature. To him the eve Of
Ash Wednesday was no ''fat Tuesday," il
was the day of preparation for a holy
season. and confession was one of the
observances of the church which he then
felt it his duty to adhere to. A moderate
relaxation over pancakes was the only fea
ture which did not partake of austerity, to
which he allowed himself to give way, and
| the Saxon has left to his descendants tc
brighten up Shrovetide, but the hot pan
cakes and the plain gold ring.
| The "madest, merriest day" of the car
nival must necessarily be the last, and
Mardil Gras in Catholic Europe exh ibits to
the traveller population in masks, crazy
with excitement and ready for any act o
recklessness.
In old times from Twelfth Night to Lent
the carnival dragged its slow length along
and the city of Venice in that season was
the pet home of the assassin, and gave birth
to the bravo, and plots to sylvanus Cobb
Jr., and his numerous followers, for vol
umes of trash, "to be continued in oul
next
| We have derived from the ancient pio
neers of Louisiana, who brought from theil
sunny homes and vine-clad hills, all the
| pleasant and none of the Objectionable
features of the carnival. Saxon cold com
mon sense and French fire have met on neu
tral ground, and the Mardi Gras of New Or
leans, participated in by both, is celebrated
through the country, and never fails, il
Its annual recurrence, to draw to The
Crescent city fnnumerable visitors from al
sections. Our business men, with very lit
tie of the latin element, but much of ths
| anglo-saxon about them, look on the season
with complacency because it brings custom
and freshens business. With the munif
cence which always charecterizes the de-
yotees of ommerce, when such objects are
| in view, they contribute literally to help
along their more volatile fellow citizens, tc
whom such celebration is, for its own sake
| a matter of the most serious importance.
1 nl ,<f N4,x H.l.,
| are as old as the city ITSELF and much pleas
anter of late years than they were in the
past, when lime was literally sprinkled in
| the eyes OF people who were not contind ndally
| on their guard, and when practical jokes of
far more Objectionable character were not
only INDUCED in, but virtually sanctioned
by law.
PreparaG a ss,s for the Nay.
The ladies had, for several days previous
to Tuesday, been making their arrange
ments for seeing all that was to be seem
and gentlemen having at their command,
galleries overlooking any OF our principal
streets were piled with applications for
seats during the day on these advantageous
lookouts. Some of the gallery owners who
felt dubious as to the ability of their struc.
| lures to sustain the crowds anxious to
occupy them, called In the carpenters and
had extra props erected for the occasion.
Ali day long, ladies and children seated on
these galleries, gazed down at the surglng
crowds passing beneath them, and admired
or laughed at the tasty or ludicrous Co.'S
tunes Of the masqueraders fitting through
the throng. When night came, and the mu-
sic heraided the approach Of that most mys-
terious body, whom the people call the
Krew Of komus, standing room on these
galleries could no longer be obtained, and
1 l. l..
carpenter and his props early in the day,
thanked their stars for this nraca1ltion