Kansas City journal., 1897-10-08


OF all nights. the maddest merriest night
in all the year, the night to which tens OF
thousands of people look forward with
fiendsh impatience and which tens CT
thousands of others await with resignation.
Take it for all in all, Kansas City shall not
look upon its like again-until next Car
nival night.
Carnival night last night demonstrated
one fact beyond the possibility of contra
diction. 1t is possible to have fun and lots
of 1t without being either ruffian or u
general nuisance. There was little or no
rowdyism during the entire evening, and
the thousands of people who thronged the
streets thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
There was no masking after 6 o'clock yes
terday evening. There was no smearing
of paint or shoe blacking; there was no
wanton insulting of women.
For all these reasons there was more
solid fun to the square inch on Main and
Walnut streets last night than at any time
since Westport landing became the Priests
of Pallas float of to-day. The streets
We're thronged from sunset to nearly mid
night and everybody had a good time. The
motley pageant of grotesquesness and friy>
grown backward. .the hilarious holiday
when King Hi HI had banished every old
fogy went on uninterNIptedly and without
any reason for interruption.
A noticeable feature of the street scenes
was the small number of persons gro
tesquely attired. though there was no lack
of boy-girls and men-women. But the
crowds which filled the streets down town
from curb to curb were almost ent.rely well
dressed people bent on having good time
while they had a chance.
few which carried their masquerading to
the point of being ridiculous. There were
plenty of ballet girls and men and boys
with Mother Hubbards, but this was about
as far as it went. Unless a man carrying
two-ribbed umbrella and wearing several
hundred miniature tin hams on his clothes
might be called an exception.
Another feature was the large number of
women and girls on the streets. but the
majority had escorts and confined their
funmaking to fitting gentleman's hats or
blowing horns in their ears.
Oh, yes, there were the horns. Came near
forgetting them. They were many in num-
Der and varied in size. Some of them were
battered and dinted from frequent contact
with many craniums, but big and little.
long and short, plain and with fringe and
trimmings, they all made noise, and their
combined din was hard on weak ears.
And the patient, persevering and vocif-
erous Salvation Army. 1t tried to hold a
meeting at Eleventh street and Grand ave-
notion on the part Of some Of the members
that they did But it is to be feared that
the converts were few. Nobody could cas-
But the still small voice could not be heard
In that din, though the Salvation lads and
!assies almost split their throats in inef-
fectual competition.
the presence of the police. Her name was
not ascertained in the excitement, but she
wore gorgeous red shirt waist and she
was a conspicuous member of a bevy of
sweet young things who carried a stout
red cord between them. 1t was their no.
tlon to suddenly surround some unsuspect-
ing lad ana pen him within an enclosure
from which there was no temptation to es-
cape. But the penalty came with the first
sa.teeLmpt. az ana afterwards this young woman
In the red shirt waist got hugged hard and
often. She didn't seem to care very much.
though, and the only variation in the pro-
sramme was the frequent change in the
ment.
Last night really began yesterday morn
ins. ana at frequent intervals during the
day there was heard the lonesome sound of
some irrepressible youngster who could not
wait for the night to come. But as soon as
the sun, had sunk behind the packing
dog has his day, so every small boy has
had come. He proceeded to seize the oppor-
tunliy, ana everybody came downtown to
see him corral the chance. The contagion
spread. and the sun had hardly got started
on ,llrt the s,,, way to China before the streets
where and in great hurry to get there.
me two streets which presented the busiest
scenes were Walnut and Main. and there
the fun was fast and furious. 1t was fast
eST Tta and m19s. FURIOUS about o'clock.
and the special illumination on many of
the principal business houses gave the final
touch to a composite Kaleidoscope picture
that II was exceedingly attractive, and was
no part in the funmaking. The eddying
currents of humanity that merged into
each other every instant, the constant new
ness of a dissolving panorama of an ebbing
and flowing tide of human beings. currents
ana counter currents that flowed beneath
a glittering canopy of red. green and yell
low lights, made an intensely interesting
spectacle. AS far as the eye could reach
looking north on Main or Walnut street
from Twelfth, there was a ceaseless surg
ing mass of human beings that became in
dividualized as one mixed with the throng.
and then the infinite variations of the scene
came to view.
The unanimous opinion of everybody in
Kansas City and tens of thousands of vis-
ftors is that there was a hot time in the
old town last night