Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-28
AUTHORS CARNIVAL.
WHO TAKE PART IN IT AND WHAT
IT Is FOR.
Some of the More Striking Features
What Lookers-on say-Modest
DressiHg-A Success.

Correspondence of the RECORD Usrosl
San FRANCISCO, October %, 1882.
At first thought it is wonderful how
third Carnival, having lost the freshness of
first design, can possibly be SO much of
an attraction as to fill the largest building
devoted to such purposes in San Francisco.
But a great number of people are interested
directly, or through others, in some one OF
the six charities concerned the crowd of
participants reckons into hundreds; the
friends of these and the friends friends
the public who interest themselves in it as
. spectacle; the strangers within our
gates-all help to
SWELL THE ATTENDANCE
To the proportions OF multitude. To an
outsider it would seem that the charities
were about to reap harvest, but the ex-
penses of such an undertaking is very
great. Rent, 500 per night; gas, left to
the Imagination I; certain provisions for
costumes, another bill; music, SO much
more; carpenters, scene painters, furnish
ings, hangings, and so forth-till, when
balance is struck, if one.fourth of the re.
ceipts is clear, it will be as much as is
hoped. Count in then the expenditure of
brain, nerve and muscle; the aches to
head, to hand, to back, and sometimes to
heart (; the vexatiops, the little tempers.
the hurts, the bruised feel;ngs-and you
must wonder how the thing pays at all.
For instance, take the vivac;ols little Miss
Lake OF the pre-Rsphaelite booth-enter.
pricing, energetic, equal to exigency as any
ordinary two women-see her sink into an
attitude OF despair hear her exclaim,
sob, sorrow what shall do !' Behold
her seize upon another idea witness her
rally her victory over another discourage.
ment, and reflect that in these busy DAYS
OF preparation she has gone through a
hundred such trials. People whom you
thought bright become stupid at such a
time, and are tantalizing in the extreme ::
pretty faces, in ordinary, refuse to hold
their own in extremes participants look
upon rehearsal as a play affair, and com
plain when it is treated as serious mat.
ter. And SO the directors, worried, fretted,
tortured, sink into attitudes of despair and
exclaim, Oh, sorrow !" Can you wonder
a. 1t?
BUT THE CHARITIES ARE POOR,
They need money, their sick need medi.
cine, nurses, proper food, and winter ap.
proaches beside, when the sick poor apply
in greater numbers. This is why it pays
to hold Carnival, though the balance at
the end may be small; and this third
Carnival seems charity peur ct simple.
he nrst was gorgeous show in which the
rich took part as they patronize charity
balls in New York, as the nobility attend
charity fairs in England people who call
themselves exclusive took characters, and
their fresh, young and beautiful daughters
did the same. In costume and in beauty
one woman outvied another, and thus it
came to seem to some like q splendid
vanity. The second, by contrast, seemed
out of tone, dull, by the glitter of the first
subdued, sober, not up in caste, tame, per-
haps yet have no doubt it simply was
all this because 1t came after the first,
Now we are fanaiharwith the subject of
Carniyals, some of the vanity and display
has dropped out Of it, and the third effort
is made principally by middle class, our
plainly respectable folks, who have not
lost sight of the charity they first had in
view. The result is to be seen nightly.
Every lady Is properly clothed, no dress is
TOO Low AT THE NECK,
Too high in the sleeve, too short in the
length; or, if SO, 1 have not seen it.
The costumes are picturesque and tasteful
few of them rich and handsome but
the latter are the exception. Many
dresses are from the costumers', being
freshened and trimmed according to taste
and requirement ; the rest could all of
them easily have been made by the
wearers, but it is quite enough that they
are correct and pretty. The participants
are not, as q rule, beautiful, being in
great contrast to the Temple of Flora of
the first year, which was a cluster of the
loveliest, flower. like faces / ever beheld
together. But the majority of these are
young people, pleasant 10 the eve, and
good to look at; they are piquant and
courteous In manner, and they are
sprightly and attractive, as nearly every
young person is. They all look pretty in
the tableaux, for bit of gauze acts as a
beautitier always. Nevertheless there are
some faces exceedingly pretty. For in.
stance, Venus, in the Homer booth
Juliet, in the Shakespeare booth; Spirit
of the Pond Lily; court lady in white
brocaded satin, in the Louis XVI. booth ::
Spirits of Nigh. and Morning nearly ali
the ladies of the Dore booth, and last,
but not least, Mrs. Judah, in the booth
dedicated to the old folks.
TOO FEEBLE NOW
To follow the grand march in all its wind.
ings, she waited at the foot OF the great
stage last night that the procession might
not be incomplete as it came prominently
before the audience, and leaning upon the
arm of Mrs. Henry Gray as Lady Capulet,
she stepped in behind Romeo and Juliet in
her favorite character as Nurse to the
heroine. AS she thus assembled and crossed
the stage. arrayed in quaintly.made black
velvet dress, with lace cap and large lace
collar, her kindly smile shone out above
the crowd of faces upturned affectionately
toward her, and / said to myself she was
an old woman with wrinkles and gray hair,
but her face was the loveliest there. |
should like to give an idea of the process
sion, If could, as it trails its length slowly
about the floor representing fete of ma.
tions. Shoulder to shoulder first come the
police, and then in slow and stately dignity.
the ladies richly dressed and with long
trains, the managers of the enterprise. <
score of drummers follow, heading the
military, which is completed by cadets. and
Uncle Sam, with Columbia upon his arm.
steps after. The different booths follow in
the order of their arrangement upon the
floor. A long double file of
DAIRY MAIDS
Trips along, all in jaunty hats, Dolly Var.
dens, Turkey red skirts and clippers. Some
carry bundles of grain and sickles, some
the pail and milking-stool. They are the
occupants of the Warwick booth. and cele
brate q festival given by the Duchess of
Warwick upon her estates to her milk.
maids. The pipers in plaid and tartan.
with the bagpipes under their arms, head
the Scottish booth, Amy Robsars, other
characters from Kenilworth, Scotch dane.
ers, etc., taking place in it. The young
ladies from the French booth are arrayed
in the peasant costume of their country ::
Alexander Dumas to the life comes after,
followed by the people of his own creation,
The Court of Louis XVI is fine display
of costumes and coiffures, the King in his
royal ermine and with his pages, preceding
the lords and ladies. The actors in the
Legend of the Pond Lily, being msgicians,
fairies and spirits, are gauzy bespangled