The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-08
THE CARNIVAL AT ROME.
Some of the Incidem ts OF the Gees sion
GO0d-Natured Bickering-What an
Am rican Lady Saw.

Good-Natured Bickering-What an
Am rican Lady Saw.
The sound of the cannon at 2 o'clock on
the seventh February announced the open
ing of the carnival festivities. All the af-
ternOOn we pelted and were pelted with
confetti and flour. The confetti came pour
ing in through the open windows like hail !;
and as it is about the size, and quite as hard
as a small white bean, the sensation is any
thing but agreeable when it falls in your
face. or your devoted head, and down your
very throat, if you chance to open your
mouth. The only safety is in enveloping in
domino, with a hood to protect the head,
long sleeves to shield the hands, and wire
mask to keep the eyes from being quite
beaten out.
In the evening we went to the Inaugural
ton of the beautiful little Rossini Theatre
1t was opened by the Philodramatic Club
titled amateurs-who had consented to give
public performance for the benefit of the
pet charity of the Princess Marguerite, the
Blind Asylum, the club being the especial
pet of the queen OF the Italian stage, Nine
Ristori. Royalty was expected in the boxes
and royalty on the boards, consequently
every one went in full dress. Everything
was new, brilliant and beautiful. The
boxes were all thrown together: there were
no numbered tickets; the only means of
securing good seat was to go early.
At half-past every seat was filed. At 9
o'clock a tall, handsome man IN uniform
walked down the centre aisle, a buzz and
spontaneous rising of the audience aunounc-
ed the approach of the princess and suite.
The princess was dressed in black velvet.
Her pretty blonde hair, crimped and curled
with classic simplicity, was Ornamented
with two beautiful white camelias. The
ladies in waiting were in black, with clus
ters of violets and sprays of heliotrOpe.
The handsome officer removed the princess
opera cloak, and all was again quiet and
expectant. At half-past the curtain rose,
and the amateurs, the cleverest of whom is
the Marquis del Grilio, son of Nine. RstOri.
played "The First Dreams of Love-"
At IL o'clock our longing eyes were at least
Ristori, grand in tragedy, is inimitable in
comedy. But having seen her in "Mtdie,"
+" Marie Stuart" and Macbeth" we are
sorry that our last impressions should he
" golden-dross" At half past II Saturday
night the curtain fell. Twelve times it was
raised, that the enthusiastic Italians might
receive one more smiling adieu from their
favorite actress. Nine. Ristori, the Mar
chiOness del Gril1o, has very talented and
beautiful daughter, who has great desire
to become an actress but her mother pre-
fers for her the vocation of matrimOny,
hence she is shortly to he married.
Sunday was the grand "COrsO di Gala
but as the Roman aristocracy adhere to the |
Pope and will none of the festivities, many
of the handsome eqnipages that daily appear
on the COrso and in the Pincid were absent.
The hired carriages were filled with ladies
in full dress, who made up in gayety what |
they lacked in nobility and altogether the
scene was not lacking in brlliancy, although |
finer turnouts mi ght be seen on any ordinary |
lay.
The grand procession Of Saturn, Pasquind,
Ceres and Diana, shabby and trumpery rs it
moved down the CorsO in the bright glare
Of the first day, was really very beautiful in
the flashing light of the Bengal torches, and
the Mpcoletti sparkling like myriads of
moving stars. The cannon announced the
hour for clearing the CorsO for the closing
scene, and gaily rode the Popes dragons,
in most incredible caricatures adOwn the
street, the huzzaing crowd seeming greatly to
enjoy this thrust at their once sovereign |
ruler. The last day and evening of the car
nival was grand success, gay, brilliant and
beautiful; but to foreigner not endowed
with an Italians unbounded capacity for
nonsense, ten days of it is an intense bore,
IO dc urta(leu anu dVOIUeu.
A young lady from San Francisco took the
prize, twelve bottles of champagne, for the
most tastefnlly decorated balcony. 1t was
with hanging baskets of beau
iful flowers, trailing vines, and rare bOu-
luets, the stars and stripes tiOated out upon
he breeze and mingled it's folds lovingly
With the Italian cOlors. The Father of his
COUNTRY enhanced the ugliness of the Italian
King, as they looked fraternally down upon
he motely crowd congregatea from all quar-
ers OF the globe for the carnival week.
The go d humOr of the Italian is some
hing wonderful. The more you hurt, pound
md pelt him with confetti, the more he
II ,wers your balcony with kisses and flow
rs We saw hut one ill-nat ured, disagree
bile action during the entire duration Of the
arrival. A lame Englishman who daily
the Corso with a bag of confetti
Ia haversack," and single bouquet
n his hand, which he carried for
everal days in succession, concluded
me night as the shades of evening
we're descending, to throw it to his favorite
,alcony. The bouquet insisted upon going
lown instead of up, and became the
legitimate spoils of the urdhins who crowd
ogetber under the balconif is to appropriate
whatever falls. A little boy picked it up,
md would not yield it. The Englishman
DtdU CApOSuuIdtCu, Du0 ITO HcIi VII
o his rights. A crowd gatfi ered about. The
'nraged gallant bought another, rnng the
,ell, and sent it up. The young lady re-
,eived it from the servant, stepped to the
ront of the balcony and dropped the bou-
luet with a handful of sweetmeats, to the
whipped gamin. Shouts of bravo, brava,"
ang through the street, and the lame adj
nirer vanished from the crowd.
The grand elimination of the Carnival
vas the masquerade at the "ApOllo."
every one went. DomiDoes, fancy dress,
md evening dress, mingled in Joyous free
lon. Masked and unknown, they danced,
lirted and coquctted, till Ash Wednesday
brought them to life of trials and reali-
les.
Rome is exceedingly gay in the season,
md from the amount of Sightseeing that
foreigners do in the day time, and the
amount of dissipation they indulge in