The Portland daily press., 1878-11-21
THE CARNIVAL.
A Brilliant Success.
Materializing The Airy Eancies of
the Brain.

The Carnival Of Authors has opened, and
great and iudisputable is tha success thereof.
Much was expected but promise was bettered
by performance The scene at City Hall
last evening was iliaut. a thousand people,
perhaps, were there, and to them came from
castle and cottage, from English baronial hall,
from under the shade of Damsscene minarets,
from fary-land aud from that ndeterminste
time aud place We only know as a long time
ago and great way off, the men and women
and children we have all learned to love or
laugh at in b)oks,-came and mingled with the
people Of the everyday world. The cloud
landers paid visit to the earth, and royal
welcome they got. We had never hoped to see
them with the material eye, but there actually
were in flesh margaret the German maiden
with her long blonde hair, and Ellen Douglas
and the beautiful but soul-less Undne, and the
fair Saxon Rowena, and the Sultana with the
tireless tongue, and fury pursued Orestes, and
to the delight of children, Little Boy Blue and
Tom Tucker-thess and many others. They
came out and chatted and gave even the last
proof of naturalization, they eat-Very hearth
ly too, some Of them.
The whole affair was SO well managed, SO
delicately conceived and finely interpreted that
it was pleasure, from the moment of the
grand entree, when all the characters came in,
like the performers do in circus to the me-
ment the cartain Ill on the faI-irill. The
booths were fitted up in excellent tssts and
those who assumed the characters were always
properly and often handsomely costumed. In
the long narrow ante-rocm at the foot of the
platform stairs stood the Preble Chapel booth,
LongfelloW's Keramos, the faces of the poets
vision looking down upon the potter at his
wheel. The effect was charming, and height
ened by the fact that the tableau was the only
one given in booth and so preserving the
''local color" These are the characters repre-
sented:
LOSgfeilow's Keramss.
roman Grl... .."..s"......,....M Minnie Stevens
egyptian, .,....................... May Stevens
Spanisn Ulrl. Bessie True
Saran Mcintyre
21apahese May Cox
OuCcn Oirl. trederlca Shaw
Close by the booth was the stand of that
meringue Of journalism, the Carnival Reporter,
stand that probably did greater Business ia
an hours time than any periodical store in the
ty, for over four hundred copies were sold in
sixty minutes. The Reporter was found to b.
more than luxury; it was necessity, for it
contained the key to the mystery within, the
list Of characters and cast of tableaux. Very
fittngly it opened the bill and put its readers
in proper mood to enter into the spirit of the
whole affair, by offsringa carnival of poets in
which Tennyson, Rossetti, Swinburne and
Morris were rendered with grace and fidelity
not equalled by those who. played at fiction
within the hsll. The chief regret at the close
of the show of authors is that the Reporter will
close also. But it is making the best Of its
brief life and crowding itself with good things
The editor, Miss Elizabsth s. Jones, was all
the time making observations with note book
in hand, and the record of her impressions will
be found in print this evening.
The sides Of the hall were lined with booths
Of varied shape At first, as in Yankee Doodle,
there were so many people one could not see
the houses; but as the crowd got seated in the
galleries, and gathered in groups before the
curtain, 1t bscame easier to get view of the
scene. The first booth on the right Of the en-
trance was st. Luke's, the Goethe booth,
German house with projecting upper story,
and the red-black-yellow flag flying from the
roof. Within vera these creatures of Goethe's
brain:
Goethe.
Faust. Charlotte
MaleaTet ...,,,..:............ Werther
Mdrtud dOeun6
MepmSCopneleS.s ..OresteS
Pylades.
The following were the characters taken: Miss
Jose, Miss Churchill, Miss Stevenson, Miss Dor
rance Miss Hersey, Mrs Mattocks, Miss Merrill. Mr.
Baxter Mr. Shepley, Mr. Emery, Mr. Pudden. Miss
Barker, Miss Sargent, Miss Dodwell. Miss Brown,
Mr. Fassett, DR. Spaulding, Miss jackson, Miss
Shepley, Miss Hamilton, Miss Prindle, Miss Jones.
In front Of the platform was the famous shoe
in which the old woman lived, copper-soed in
proper and prophetic recognition Of the grest
advance in Crispin's art mada By practical
science. Within wers'these charming little
people:
Mother Goose.
Mistress Maid Hattie Randall
Maids. Nellie Brewer, Annie Goodwin, Gertie
VicGery. Emma Coyle
Cinnamon. Harry Prinde, George Bryant, Charles
Peters, Ralph Bailey.
Dancing Girl. Observation-Disclosures. ..Grace Perry
arfia Darrx