The Portland daily press., 1897-07-06

or School.
portion of the parade over mile in
length i'm itself, far overlayed anything Of
the kind that has ever been seen in this
section of the country. So we'll were all
of the arrangements carried out that there
was not hitch in this part of the parade
from the start to the finish. Considering
the number of horses and displays in the
parade, the small space allowed for the
formation of this division and the short
space of time given for it's formation, it
was remarkable that the affair passed off
as smoothly and as well as it did.
The eighteen Mardi Gras floats were
stored and prepared for the parade on
Lincoln street at the foot of Pearl AS
early as four o'clock yesterday morning
members of the celebration committee and
mon had to go to the place where the
floats were being prepared and begin
hauling them out into the street and
hitching the horses on to them. 1t was
a herculean task and only the very effio-
lent men engaged in it brought the floats
out on time and in good condition. In
this work Mr.. Charles Clark and Mr..
David Ray of the Portland Fire Depart
ment excelled and they are entitled to the
utmost credit for the manner in which
they carried out their part of the pro-
gramme,. and should ssbe accorded the
thanks of every citizen for their efforts
to get the parade started on time. Then
there was another thing which caused a
lots of work and was we'll done. Sew
enty 1.-TWO drivers and eighteen banner car
riers had to be ASST gned teams, given in
structions and uniformed. Mr.. Wallace
and Mr.. Fairfield had charge Of this mat
ter and did their work well.
But by far the hardest and most diff,
cult part of the whole show was the cos
tuning of the characters for the floats.
This was done by Chairman Ilsley and
Elmer Gerrish and Frank Howe of the
celebration committee, and these gentle
men worked from little after O'Clock
until 10 and filed every costume, got the
characters out on to the street on time
and posed them on the floats before the
procession moved.
1t was exactly half past ten when the
fourth division started from India street
and wheeled into Congress street. First
came Mr.. q. NJ. Bigelow, chief of the
division with his aids, Messrs. F. G.. Fas-
sett, T. A. Burke, Charles G. Sanborn,
W. ii. Hatch, B. P. johnson and George
E. Smith. Then came Merriman's band
of 20 piece, and following this was the
first Of the Mardi Gras floats bearing the
king Of the carnival, represented by Mr..
A. D. Sweetsir, attended by his body
guard of handsome young men, all beau
tifully costumed in rich and elaborate
robes.
This first float is huge affair and Is
very graceful and beautiful in design. 1t
bears the kings shield on the nose of the
craft and similar shields were carried by
the king and his body guard. The shields
have the mask of comedy and the familiar
clowns cap on it, besides the inslgnis of
monarchy, a crown. In the centre of the
craft stands huge canopy, very beauti-
fully ornamented. 1t is supported by six
pillars and behind the thorne stand the
kings body guard. An ornate railing
surrounds the craft rear end of the boat
above which floats the kings banner and
from the stern project backward num-
Der of gilt spears, giving the craft very
rakish appearance. 1t would be impossi-
BILE to find words to adequately describe
the gorgeous effect Of this float.
The first team after this float was tho
display of J r.. Libby. This was mag
nifcent six horse chariot, all white with
handsome white horses and led by boy
dressed in white. In this chariot were
seated large number of pretty girls from
the big dry goods store.
Then came the fine float of the P. H.
S., described elsewhere, and behind it
was the Smaller schools handsome team.
Float No. 2, entitled design, came next
A hideous sea serpent is seen to be swal-
lowing a boat, the evident intent of this
tortuous nightmare being to convey that
nothing of fancy or fact is too extrava-
gan; or wild for the skin of his majesty S
artisans to compass. 1t has heretofore
been the rule to have some of his majes-
| ty's followers on his title float, but the
splendid hideousness of this monster is
such that. none would venture within
reach of the fancy.
W. pa. Allen Il Co., theswood mantel
manufacturer had a very beautiful float