St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-01-31
Our Boston Letter.
The Carnival of Acknowledgements Col
lege Alumni, Etc., Etc.

Editor CaledOniGn:
For few weeks past the public have
been agitated by a good deal of talk,
exciting much latent curiosity and con-
, siderable interest as to the success OF
the Carnival of Authors" which was
to be held for the benefit of the Old
South fund. Although such Carnival
was held in Washington last winter,
and in other cities since, yet it was re-
garded as an experiment in Boston. If
numbers indicate success, this was a
decided one; for there was a large
attendance throughout, commencing
Wednesday evening, Jan. 22d, and con-
tinuing four evenings, including a
matinee Saturday afternoon. 1t was
estimated that there were 1000 present
one evening.
1t was naturally restricted mostly to
the weather. class, as single admission
tickets were one dollar, and the prices
of seats according to the location.
There were eight booths, or miniature
theatres, appropriately dIaped and or
namented, with the names of the
authors over them. The largest and
more elaborate scenes and tableaux
were represented on the platform in
front. while there were malX scenes
illustrating different worRs,t of the
authors taking place at nearly the same
time in the different booths. On the
right side, were booths for Moore, Schil-
Ter, aid Goethe, while opposite on the
left, we've those of Tennyson, Scott and
Dickens. Directly opposite the organ
was an Eastern Mosque, of which the
upper part was occupied by the chief
marshal and his assistants, and the
lower was used to enact scenes from
the "Arabian Nights" On either side
of the Mosque were the booths of Whit
tier and Longfellow. The snow-cover-
ed cottage of the former at once sug-
gested, "Snow- Bound"
To really enjoy all the scenes from
the various authors you should be ia
miliar with them in minor details. The
selections of scenes. costumes, the man
ner of acting, all showed that there had
been no lack of time, labor nor money
in the preparation in fact we were
quite amazed and bewildered at the
multiplicity of scenes aud characters.
There had been committees appointed
from different churches and societies to
take the charge of the different booths,
and each one had floor manager to
supervise them, and the whole was I'M
der the charge of the Chief Marshal,
Col. \. A. Rand.
As the booths were all upon the lower
floor, it was impossible to enjoy all the
good things at once, and the best thing
was to station Yourself in one place in
the balcony and see and he content
with part of them. The Grand Pro-
cession, which occurred at eight O'Clock,
was we thought by far the finest thing
on the programme; consisting of nearly |
200 persons representing all the various
vi Ni'tiuSNCi, HailipuilltltS. COS- |
tunes. from the stately danes and
courtieIs, orientals, Quakers, Mother
Goose and family, Old King Cole, Peter
Pumpkin eater, and last but not least,
the queer, drOll, ludicrous characters of
Dickens. As the procession slowly filed
in to the music of the band, some of
the characters seemed so natural and |
life-like that you felt like stepping out
and shaking hands with them. The
Dickens Reception on the main plat
form was another amusing feature, as
duced to all of the characters in the |
different books: redoubtable Sam We'll |
Ter, Pickwick, the Fat Boy, Martin
Chuzzlewit and Mark Tapley, Nicholas
Nickleby, Little Nell and Grandfather, |
Dombcy and Son Paul, Mr.. and Mrs. |
Micawber and twins, Miss Gummidge |
and Betsy Trotwood. There were those
who personated characters from IL or
ID of Dickens works; but although |
most of them were remarkably well |
carried out, we noticed "Squeers aud
his Boys" who acted their parts with
truthfulness to descriptions
You almost trembled mt Squeers'
frowns. Then followed scenes from
spanish Student )" Pre-
ciosa alone, and then her inter view
with the court it was quite a tragic
scene in pantomime.
Quite IL number of beautiful tableaux
in the Mosque from the Arabian Nights
five scenes-attracted great deal of
attention. list, room in Sultan's Palace
the attendants in the background and
the Sultan listening to stories told by
the Princess. End, The son of Vizier
discovers the slave and is astonished at
heI beauty, etc.
In MOore's booth were given four
scenes from paradise and the Peri.
At Goethe's were series of pictures
from Faust.
In Whittier's booth, the occupants
were engaged in the primitive manner.
spinning, knitting, or in some useful
employment: the placid faces and gen.
tie manners of the fair young Quaker
esses won your heart at once; while
the next moment you would be laugh
ing at the dance in the Mask in
Comus, or sympathizing with poor lit
tie Miss Muffet in her great fright at
the spider, or bewildered by the 'Dream