Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-04-13
The Carnival in Spain.
BY JONI HAY.

The true Carnival survives in its naive
purity only in Spain. 1t has faded in
Rome in romping day of clowns play
In Paris it is little more than buster
season for dreary and professional vice
Elsewhere all over the world the Carnival
gayeties are confined to the saloon. But in
Madrid the whole city, from grandee to
cordwainer, goes with childlike earnestness
into the enjoyment of the hour. The
Corso begins in the Prado on the last
Sunday before Lent. and lasts four days.
From noon to night the great drive is filled
with double line of carriages two miles
long, and between them are the landaus
of the favored hundreds who have the
privilege of driving up and down
free from the law of the road.
This right is acquired by the pay
ment of ten dollars day to city charities,
and produces some fifteen thousand dollars
every Carnival. In these carriages all
the society of Madrid may be seen; and
on foot, darting in and out among the
boots of the horses, are the young men Of
CASTLE in every conceivable variety OF
dOSuiu duO lduldoIlS ucIC dIc
of course pirates and Indians and Turks,
monks, prophets, and kings. but the favor
ite costumes seem to be the Devil and the
Englishman. Sometimes the Yankee is at
tempted, with Indifferent success. He
wears ribbon-wreathed Italian bandits
hat. an embroidered jacket, slashed buck
skin trousers, and wide crimson belt, a
n HracS ,rnnt III =
sal in Boston,
Most of the maskers know by name at
least the occupants of the carriages. There
is always room for a mask in a coach.
They leap in, swarming over the back OF
the sides, and in their shrill monotonous
scream they make the most startling reve-
lations of the inmost secrets of your soul.
There is always something impressive in
the talk of an unknown voice, but especially
is this SO in Madrid, where every one
scorns his own business, aud devotes him
self vigorously to his nelghbor's. These
shrieking young monks and devilkins
often surprise haliformed thought in the
heart of fair Castihan and drag it out
into day and derision. No one has the
right to be offended. Duchesses are called
Tu! Isabel by chin-dimpled school-boys,
and the proudest beauties in Spain except
boubons from plebeian hands. 1t is true,
most Of the maskers are of the better class
Some of the costumes are very rich and
expensive, of satin and velvet heavy with
gold. | have seen a distinguished diplo-
matlst i'll the guIse of a gigantic canary
bird, hopping briskly about in the mud
with bedraggled tail-feathers, shrieking
wellbred sarcasms with his yellow bleak.
The charm of the Madrid Carnival is
this. that It is respected and believed in.
The best and fairest pass the day in the
Corso. and gallant young gentlemen think
| it worth while to dress elaborately for a
few hours of harmless and spirituctIe intri-
que. a society that enjoys a holiday SO
thoroughly has something in it better than
the blase cynicism of more civilized capi-
tails. These young fellows talk like the
lovers of the old romances. have never
heard prettier periods of devotion than
from some gentle savage, stretched out on
the front seat of landau under the peer
ing eyes of his lady, safe in his disguise if
not self-be-trayed, pouring out his young
soul in passionate praise and pla g
around them the laughter and the cries.
the cracking of whips. the roll of wheels
the presence of countless thousands, and
yet these two young hearts alone under
the pale winter sky. The rest of the
Continent has outgrown the true Carnival
1t is pleasant to see this gay relic of SIM
pier times, when youth was young. No
one here is too ''swell'' for it. You may
find duke in the disguise of chimney.
sweep, or butcher-boy in the dress of a
Crusader There are none so great that
their dignity would suffer by days reck.
less foolery. and there are none so poor
that they cannot take the price of din
ner to buy mask and cheat their misery
by mingling for time with their betters
in the wild license of the Carnival.-Fron
the ATLANTIC MoNNHLY TOR April.