The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-01-18
TILDEE ELECTED.
A GRAND sLEIGHING CARNIVAL.
4 DAY OF Jov1AL FUN Al THE CAPITAL
THE MASQUERADE PROCESSION Ex-
CITED GREAT MERRINENT.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 1877.

All washington was SlOtlOuSIy eACiteu
this afternoon by q carnival sleighing
procession on Pennsylvania avenue, which.
transcended in fantastic scenes and fun
any public frolic here since the grand
carnival of 1870. The broad avenue
freshly paved with snow, and resembling,
in its width, at least, a Partisan boulc..
vard-was before three o'clock lined with
thousands of people, on foot, under UNI
brelias, and in carriages, moist and ex-
pectant spectators of the show. Neither
the Senate nor the Supreme Court was in
session, and the dignitaries of both those
bodies came down from their homes with
their wives, children and coachmen.
Half the houses in the capital were emp
tied of their occupants, who crowded the
walks. on both sides of the avenue till
near night-fall and stayed there despite
the hail and rain. At an early hour the
House of Representatives adjourned and
poured forth its members and clerks to
swell the moving mass of lookers-on.
Among these not the least interesting
were the colored population of Washing
ton, the shrewdest, best natured, wittiest
and most intelligent negro multitude in
any American city, and who hail from
every part of the Union, North and
South. From their rollicking lips came
chiefly the shouts which greeted the roys.
terers of the carnival. -
The l. Ter appeared en- masse in sleighs,
cutters, hogsheads, boxes and barrels on
runners and in procession formed spec
tacle prodigiously comical. The vehicles
in which they rode would have suficed
to excite mirth enough, representing as
they did every, style Of winter equipage
introduced in the United States since the
day Of Washington; but the masquers,
the costumes and their mishaps caused
the greatest glee, and for hours the ave-
nue. was in an uproar. a /.
It seemed as though the museums OF
all nations had been ransacked for an
.cient garments to encase the volunteers
of this odd festival. The jungles Of At
rica and India; the forests of both
Americas, and the wilds of the British
possessions north ofthe United States con-
tributed, along with the toy and COSTUME
ers' shops, to. their. makeup. AS they
went by behind horses, both feet, and:
slow, they presented forms, of giants,
monkeys, tigers" opossums, dwarfs,
whales, ostriches, bears and wolves, al
ternating between ,sleighfuls of vividly
bedecked mock specimens of emperors,
princesses" and queens. +"Is dem," ex-
claimed wondering darkey, "de same
crowns. dey pears in when dey is on de
thrones ?"
"Of course. Now, I neya knowed it.
Oar was Jim Blossom, my brudder.in.
law, de minstrel man, what perfawmed
before Queen Victory. He said she
didn't wear no crown" :. mighty sled,
bearing 100 masqueraders, and drawn by
. dozen mules, hitched tandem, went by
with waving of flags and many voices.
Another side, occupied by men with
blackened faces and attired like women,
in calico dresses, sped fast. A sleigh full
of men in pasteboard masks, with long
noses and scarlet cheeks, followed by a
cutter crammed with boys, initiating in
dress and motions cluster of orang-
outangs, excited merriment which was
swollen into great peals Of laughter as
vehicle on runners! representing the Lou
isians Returning Board came into view;
The personages composing this board
were none too complimentary to the orig
fnals; indeed; their aspect was as practi-
cal as can be tancied. Not the group OF
Molly Maguires in cutter close after
them. nor even the silent four members
of TIE Ku Kiux Klan, who tailed off this
br ranch Of the procession, matched their
teroccious looks. The cheers and cachi-
nations of thousands of spectators rolled
down the avenue ia 4 roar, as resounding
as the ,Ncx Years guns from the Navy
Yard.
) Nothing in the pageant was more de-
lghttul than the good huniOr with which
all classes Of people beheld al! kinds Of
satires and hurlesques upon the present
political ditticulties.4 Such satires, how.
ever clumsy, were numerous, but they
provoked naught but hearty laughter and
harmless witticisns. The very Cabinet
officers, and other ofice:holders or both
parties who poked out their heads from
their carriage windows to view tue spec.
tacle, laughed, shook and choked behind
their handkewhiefs. >arse'