Evening star., 1898-03-12

merry mummery; and throughout all Eu-
rope the modern spirit makes against the
old-time masked feasts that ushered in the
Lenten season. Where people do not OBJ
serve the fast they will Lot get up much
excitement over what precedes it
For all the old-time ways and to have a
! taste of oid-time life the traveller should
pack his trunk for Spain. Seville is glori-
Gus. The glowing capital of .Andalusia
haked with white summer dust as the
cheeks of her beauties are faxed with vio-
let powder, suggests the clack-clack of cas-
| tanets, whose music is not paid for on a
stage, but the free work of amiable dam
sells and a whole existence that seems at
! least unmercenary. But Seville is a large
city, and foreigners are spelling 1t. Cadiz
| Is a smaller place. and is absolutely dead
to all the world. Its flavor is its own
Cadiz has the worst hotels Imaginable
Here the French cuisine is modified by the
sturdy appetite of the ancient Visigoth
where there is none to modest it and make
ii ashamed. The Spanish word for cooking
food -guisar-sounds strangely like dis
guisins 1t; and garlic and oil will go far
toward Disgusting anything.
But this strange cookery in itself is a
guarantee that one is in spot untroubled
by influences from outside; and il all goes
We'll with the musty streets, with the mold
erlng architecture and the festivities of hal IL
a century ago, where the disguises of the
merrymakers are even more curious than
the disguises of the table.
The Dreadful Maskers.
The carnival is the festivity which ushers
in Lent. The idea is to be gay and abandon
ones self to folly, bee ause the slate is soon
to be rubbed out. Accordingly, the Span
iards seem to change their natures Or
dinarily the oriental habit of protecting
women by secluding them prevails. Ac-
eordingly ladies take the greatest liberties
at carnival Ordinarily Spaniard will re-
sent word as ne would a riow. Accord =
ingly. h. VII bear any kind OF chaff these
lew days of the year. In trd II. the VIII Jlc
procedure seems pi2nhcd to tempt human
nature 10 the utmost on al is weakest
SIDES.
Or the actual events there is, first, the
open-air masking, then the throwing of
Chopped paper, the squirting of ail the
pretty women with the diluted cologne wa
tel and the 1rtest KIND of Compliments 10
be paid 10 seroritas seLtei with their
| molhers on hired chairs along the conse-
Grated street. Last of all there are the
late masked balls and suppcrs aftarward
which should not, but actually do last
long into the morning.
Cadiz has ore long street-they call il the
broad street but it is really narrow-and
the gas pipes on this street are so arrane-
ed that Gfches of lights can be thrown
across it, about five to the block through
out its whole extent. Here English and
American tourists find those dreadful
| maskers who insist on shaking hands with
their wives
Here are little cafes. cigar shops and
soda water booths turned for the day into
sales rooms of confetti. chopped paper
perfumed water, whiskbrooms and tickling
machines made out Of feathers. Each has
use.
Weapons of Torment.
The cut paper is cut very small. indeed,
like tiQy guuWadS all colors A million
or more of them are contained in one long
light paper cartridge or cornucopia Thrown
with some force they burst, scattering va
riegated showers on the heads of those
they strike; or. to be more economical and
less rough, a handful at a time is sprin-
killed. over the hair or trickled down the
back of any fair one who seems deserving
of the compliment.
Instead Of resenting this, the ladies are
Wen pleased, and they will fight you, hand
ful for handful, until mouth. eyes, ears and
every corner OF your respective beings is
dr1fted full of spangles gold and silver,
white, green. red, blue, pink and lemon
colored. Only you must not touch the
ladies with your hands.
The perfumed water comes in long tubes,
like the oil paints seen in artists studios or
the slycerine and roses found In drug
stores. Unsrew the nozzle. press the
tube and the perfumed water does the
rest.
beauty on her cheek or in her ear or
trickles down her spine, according as your
luck or taste DEGREES: and its fragrance In
this hot land is grateful to a people given
over completely to powder paint and per-
fumes.
The ''ticklers" are on long sticks, to be
used at a distance. The whiskbrooms are
for use when you officiously brush the
spangies from some lady who is absolutely
stunning while she stands with body
thrown into that curved, disjointed atti-
tude which Spanish women know so well
how to assume, elbows out wrists at
waist, smile OF lip and a sly defiance in
the half-closed eye. Only, you must not
touch the lady with your hands.
Who the Girls Are.
Who are these girls, so gracious gay
and romantically easy-going, and how is it
you have never managed to see them be-
fore? They are the whole female popula-
ton of Cadiz, and picked flowers from
every village ten miles around Servant
maids and daughters of mobiles mingle with
peasant girls and the wives and daughters
of bull fighters, shopkeepers daughters,
shopkeepers wives-everybodys wife and
everybody's daughter-yes, and everybodys
mother, too.
The whole special fabric is spread out ON
this one street, so bright, so long, SO mar
row and SO romantic in its architecture
Three rows of chairs fill up the entire side
walk on each side of the street.
On these the people of distinction sit, re-
ceive and throw confetti, flowers and per-
fumed water. On every balcony and at
every window there are young ladies lean
ing ont. These are the highest class of ali,
in their own apartments or apartments
rented for the night
1t is favorite diversion of these young
ladies. day and night, but particularly in
the afternoon, when the street is not so
full, to let drop from a balcony an enor-
nous hand of canvas or other material,
stuffed with straw. He whom 1t bumps on
the head will look up in vain to catch a
glimpse OF the offender. A mocking laugh
from behind the curtains will be all his pay
as the hand Is jerked back by string.
At the Masked Ball.
In the center of the street the masked
and the unmasked walk together, male and
female. the just and the unjust It is i'm
possible to stand still, one must keep al
ways moving, under fire of cut paper
gold and silver spangles, cologne water and
remarks railing. complimentary and often
indtfrerently decent
But here, in a city where word is daily
answered with a blow and wnere stabbing
ARRAYS form the chief preoccupation of the
judiciary. you see no ill-temper and never
q sign of the slightest annoyance.
The naked balls, unfortunately, are not
such great successes. 1t Is not that good
humor does not also reign In them; but the