The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-16
GIVEN THE GOLDEN KEY.
Subjects of the Queen Depose
the Local Govern
ment.
THE PAGEANT OF THE FREAKS.
The Victorious Conspirators Parade
Through the Streets of the
Captured Stronghold.

! LOS ANGELES, CAL, April 15.-Mayor
| Roder has been deposed. All the regular
elected city officials are temporarily out of
work. A new order of things has been in
augurated, and if there be anything in
appearances nothing has ever happened in
! Los Angeles that has brought such great
! Joy to her people. Power has been usu1ped
by the Fiesta dynasty, and for this week
the game is to run without limit. Amid
properly imposing ceremonies the old Gov
ernment fell and the new stepped over its
remains, full blown and equipped for
| pleasure.
The restraint of Sunday caused the city
to meet with eager impatience the suns
rise to-day. AS Old Sol looked down upon
the streets for the first time this morning,
he found them already alive and prepara-
tions going forward for to-morrow's recep-
ton of the queen and the multitude of her
subjects from abroad, expected at every
hour of the day and from every point of
the compass. And they came.
As the day grew older the contrast be-
tween this and yesterday became most
marked. It is true that the capacity of all
the well-known hotels was exhausted yes
terday, which means that the city was
| crowded. The streets bore evidence of it,
but to-day the insinuating little cot was
introduced-this cot that may be set down
| Just anywhere in its six-by-two sim plicity;
that ranges down long Railways like a
hospital ward or that fills up every waste
place under the roof of hotel. And
such run has been made upon the little
thing that some of the hotels tonight
announce that there is not another to be
had. The hammock is now coming into
play, swung over the heads of the others
from the ridge-poles and clothes-hooks.
This is the situation at the principal
hotels. The overflow is finding accommo-
dations in the Furnished room" contin-
gent, which is everywhere off the main
business streets, and will doubtless prove
equal to every demand. But the effect of
the arrivals and the hustle of preparation
which is going on everywhere is to elec-
trify the air and impart the iiveliest antici-
pations.
1t is curious to witness the growth of
this feeling upon the new arrival to the
festival city. AT either the Southern Pa
cifc or Santa Fe stations he looks eagerly
around for some signs of the things he had
been led to expect. He sees few stream
ers of yellow, red and green flying from
lines swung across the street from the
electric-light poles. The scattered houses
make an attempt to decorate in the same
colors. There is a wide swash here and
there across the buildings, and the effort is
rather painful and altogether disappoint-
ing.
As he rides up the half mile that lies be-
fore him to Spring street the number OF
begins to line the road on each side and
blend together in front, and by the time
he reaches Main street be realizes that Los
Angeles has kept its promise, that festi-
val is on. The red, yellow and green,
which signifies the wine, orange and olive
that overflow in this country has buried
everything. The scene is wilderness of
life, done up in red, yellaw and green. The
familiar comparison of the kaleidoscope of
changing colors does not fit here, for there
are only these three, save here and there
touch But when they shift and change and
fiutter in the fresh breeze, giving thrilling
element of life to the picture, millions, it
seems of flags and streamers are flying
across the roadway or from the housetops.
Wide bands swathe the front of every
house in every conceivable form of decora-
ton. They form awnings over the side
walks, they whirl in the streets with the
wheels of wagons and bicycles. they form
umbrellas over rider and pedestrian, they
are worn in ladies' dresses, they are every
where and in everything. The butcher
has wrapped his meat in them; they are
the color of the country offered for sale.
They tint your plate of icecream; they
cover your bed, if you are lucky enough to
have one; your neighbor's necktie is made
of them and every man wears them in his
buttonhole.
These colors are supplemented in the
holiday dress of the city by tropical green
things with absolute prodigalty All the
square-base telegraph-poles of the princi-
pal streets have been changed into palm
trees, the widespreading branches spring
ing from them half way up their length. |
Every hard line or angle in the festival
center has been softened and buried under |
the wine, orange and olive.
One notable feature of the preliminary |
was the absence of noise. Nothing with a |
discordant sound developed during it all; |
no noisy thing of any kind indeed, more !
than the rattle of wheels in the street or |
the clang of the streetcars. The great |
work of preparation went on almost
silently. Even the band made no noise
until it was summoned to announce the |
downfall of the old and hail the new order
of things.
But tonight the sound OF revelry began
The lighting of the lamps brought forth
the tin horn, with the merry masquers.
The rendezvous of the latter was in front
of the chief conspirators of the new Govern
ment on Spring street, and formed what
they were pleased to call the Pageant of
the Freaks" 1t was led by Director
General Max Mayberg, and with him wer |
all his lieutenants, including the fire and
police departments of the new Govern
ment, the latter hauling a fire engine
of strictly home manufacture. They also
carried a large Yale lock key-the key to
the city-which later in the proceedings
they presented to themselves.