St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-05-25
Our New York Letter.

MoRs REGARDING ITS oBJECT-LoCAL
HAPPENINGS.
NEW YORK, May 1S, 1877.
To the Editor of the CALIFORNIAN
To say that Folly ruled the metropolis
on Tuesday last, would be telling sort
of double harrelled truth, so far a. .lc
Carnival was concerned. The morning
dawued as bright aud balmy a. ever
upon the famed Mardi Gras OF Maple,
and everything was propilious for the
holiday experiment which il was the
advertised intention of the managers to
firmly engraft upon the New York cal
endar. Anticipation, toward the last,
Lad spread like some infectious cpl
demic, till it had touched even the most
incredulOus of the scoffers and GROWERS.
Probably Il very small proportion only
of the inhabitants had moIe than the
should be, but all could understand the
announcement of professions, and ev-
erybOdy was on the streets to see what
fun the day would develop. Very large
numbers came in from the neighboring
regions, and the crowd, all told, was
immense. 1t has been since asserted
that on but two previous occasions in
the history of the city-namely, ut the
time of LincoIn's funeral, and on the
Centennial Fourth of July-have there
been seen such street assemblages.
But believe | remarked above, that
Folly ruled the day, and SO it did.
Theoretically, the city was to be deliv-
cred over to that character, in the per-
son of Rex, the king, who was to eXer-
else dazzling and jOvial sway for few
bright hours, amid IA gorgeous retinue
and delighted populace. Practically,
Folly seemed to have mistaken his pO
sitiOn, and taken possession of the heads
of the managers of the festivities, which,
| regret to say, "petered out" badly in
consequence. The three features of the
day were advertised to be "Grand
Day Pageant" a "Grdnd Evening
at night. Well, they all three came off
and were all grand-fzzles. The for
mer procession formed at the Battery,
where it was joined and headed by Rex
and his courtiers, who came steaming
up the bay from some point whittier
they had previously repaired, the better
to carry out the illusion that they swoop-
ed down on us from some unknown
realm of fancy.
OF this caravan have little to say
further than that it was almost entirely
composed of advertising wagons of
''hutchers, bakers, and candlestick max
ers," sprinkled with brewers and pa
tent-right men. Decidedly the best
display in the train, and, in fact, its re-
deeming feature, was an enormous
wheeled platform, or float" i'll the
language of the carnival, prepared by
the Ponds Extract Company. Tower
ing upon this was a colossal pasteboard
bottle, which. could it have been filed,
would have held enough of the we'll
known remedy to cure the aches of a
nation. In front of the bottle sat Il
young girl in white, resting in fancy
little boat drawn by swans, while at the
corners reclined four of the most perfect
~ ''made up" frogs that ever masquer-
AIDED. These ''greenbacks" could open
and Shnt their big mouths and roll their
great google eyes in most startling
and fr0ggish manner and as the float
sailed slowly up the sea of faces, tn
multuous applause kept even pace with
it. This the frogs arrogated entirely to
themselves, bowling and kissing their
webbed paws to the multitude with a
mimic gravity that was quite irresisti-
bic. One or two other concerns made
feeble attempts to emhOdy something
of the proper spirit of the day, but they
didn't succeed.
The evening display, thanks to the
incompetency of the managers, was not
much better. The allegorical floats
were mostly either passable or poor
largely the latter. There was no dis
cipline or order either among the dra-
mats persona or the miscellaneous
crowd of vehicles and pedestrians which
jostled and mingled with the regular
procession. To add to the richness of
the farce, no adequate provision of
torches or other illumination had been
made, and the sorry train dragged itself
through it's prescribed route amid mel
anchOly darkness and the shouts of
wOuld-be spectators, who called for
candles to see the show by. The day
and evening were bad enough in all
conscience, but the ball which wound
up this melancholy celebration, was by
far the broadcast exhibition of imbecilitv
of those who had it in charge. Gil
more's Garden had been covered with
10000 square feet of dancing floor, two
bands of music had been engaged, and
vast quantities of champagne and other
refreshment ordered. The failure that
was made may be imagined from the
fact, that probably not over a thousand
people were in the building at any one
time, and these almost exclusively pas
sive spectators. The half-dOZen or so
couples who ventured out into the des-
Olate waste of floor, looked very much,
to use hOmely comparison, like flies
in Il pan of milk. This was continued
till some time after midnight, when the
unequal struggle was given up, and the
Carnival stepped down and out.
But this is evidently a bad year for
carnivals.
On the same day as the events above
mentioned, occurred the unwilling of
the colossal statue Of the poet Halleck,
in Central Park, the ceremonies con-
nected with which would in themselves
have been sufficient to attract a respect
able fraction of the swarms of humanity
who had scanty luck in making a gala
day of it down town. But the addi-
tiOnal attraction of the presence of Pres
ident Hayes and a portion of his Cabi-
net swelled the multitude in attendance
to number estimated at quarter of a
million. The popular curiosity to see
the man who has been the subject of
such hot contention was intense, and