Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-03-06
FROM NEW ORLEANS.

lFrom our own Correspondence,


From our own Core ppndcnt.
NEW ORLEANS, la, Feb Is 1850. .
Tothr Editor of the Free Press and Times;
We are enjoying another warm season,
and the records of your low temperature
and heavy SHOWS remind how wide the
contrast between your winter and ours
Vast crowds nave been ilocking south
ward, like blackbirds, the past few weeks
and particularly the last few days, till the
old city for once has been full every
where.
The grand elimination here at this sea-
son Of the year is the carnival of Mardi
GrlS. which, with the Exposition, has com
bned to draw even more people hither
than usual. Monday was the day REX"
arrived, and probably there was not tar
from fifty Thousand people on the Expo
sitlon grounds that morning, which
means from forty to forty-five thousand
paying visitors, rs there are several thou
sand of the exhibitors and government
and State attaches. The procession from
the Canal street landing arrived ut the
main building, about three O'Clock p. m,
and consisted of military escort, city
officials and sundry persOnages, some in
masks and some that would have looked
better hal they also shown other faces
than their own. The Mexican band and
officers of the Mexican persuasion were
prominent and added to the display. 4
| reception WAS then held. The chimes
| rang out and all the parade of mock roy
| atty fully iuaugurated.
That night the first street procession
| took place the Merry krewe of Pro
| teus' supposed to be brother of Rex
believe,) being the actors. The floats,
| eighteen in number We're lighted up by
| flaming torches with retleCtOrs borne by
| red rObed men at the sides, and now and
| then Il red or blue bengal light and the
scenes were laid i'll China and afforded
| ample opportunity for the grOtesque and
absurd. Music by several bands added
| noise and sometimes melody during the
| passage of the tableauX. The streets were
| crowded from the curbstone TO the house
| tops balconies being braced up and ar
ranged in tiers of seats all along the
| route taken the public parks being
utilized the same way. Tuesday was
Mardi Gras day-the preliminary demon
| stratiOn being only the beginning of the
tun-and the whole city gave the time to
it, Il legal holiday. The stores were all
closed and the crowds had the streets and
kept them.
| disappearing was an epidemic. as prey
aleut as ever yellow fever can have been.
Old men and boys, young men and maidens,
and children in arms were arrayed in all
the fantastic garbs that the long practice
of this people has enabled them to invent.
and we mad all the fowls of the air, the
l>h of the sea-, the animals of the land,
reptiles and creeping things, wings, fins,
tails, plunes i'll all the COlOrs of the rain
bow about Us at once Black people We're
persOnating white, white people initiating
blaCk-men ON horses boys on dOnkeNS.
caValcades, parties in carriages in carts
IN drayS, Turkish trousers and knee
tights, meal sacks and silk, ostrich feath
ers and straWS, lunaticS, savages, dudes
swells, all sorts and kinds mingling in one
impossible to be described, strange effect
Il All We're masked, some with only dOmi
noes but most with faces of man or mon
key, beast or demon. One little fellow
some eight years old was dressed like /
revolutionary worthy, possibly George
W., everything from his glded shoe buck
les to his cooked hat being as pertec
as ii he had that morning stepped down
and out from some old picture frame
: All the morning hours this motley thIonl
wOVe their way in and out among tn,
palmer dressed visitors, like buttcrtle,
in the grass and the sight from the lOnl
| rows of seats where waited the fOrtunat,
. occupants for the day procession of Rex
was at once singular and unreal. One
half the world seemed to have lost IT,
senses Every one was good natured
II Husbands who had disguised themselves
We're hunting up their wives to see if they
could identity them. The balloon man
, the candy man, the vendors of lithograpn
4. of last nights, to-day's and tonight
. PROFESSIONS We're all in full cry and busy
! | Ihe sorry mules-wishing | have II,
doubt, ii mules wish, that they NIGH
have il holiday and wear yellow trouscr
, and red coats possibly with tasScl ON eacl
, ear ana goggles dragged the heavy ladel
, cars bringing more and yet more of tn,
. grave ANA gay To see the sights and add I,
the crowd and confusion. The parade
, was to come OF ubOUt ten u'clOck-bu
the word. about, was long bridge tina
: reached over till nearly two O'Clock. \
. last the procession came. The car of Re,
: was preceded by Il military escort, stu
/ dent cadets they seemed to he. and TIN
. floats following represented scenes takei
from lyanhuc taking in Richard. Rebecci
!. and Robin Hood with moat, dungeon an,
+ tower enough to satisfy everyone, and Il.
- the circus people say to verify the show
| bills"