Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-10-11
HERE'S A SPICY
CARNIVAL ROAST

Denver's Festival of Mountain
and Plain, With Comments on the
Passing Show. Humbugs of
Street Fair Shown Up by One Who
is an Adept in the Use of vitrolic
Language.
lDenver Correspondence to the Times
Republican,
The great carnival has come and
gone. The strangers have turned from
our gates with whole heap of fun and
experience stored away in memory's
vault and heaping hole in their purse
that will require another years strug-
gle and weary and grinding toll to re-
pair and refill. Far from the madding
crowd. in the dispassionate quiet of
their homes they. may perhaps reflect
on the passing show, whether it pays
the price exacted for the brief moment
| of fun and frolic and the privilege af-
| forded them to shout and scream and
l. yell and play the lunatic for one week
long and perhaps return another year
| to sling their hard won shekels into the
pockets of Denvers milionaires.
| To localize famous epigram, Den
yer is composed of 10000 people, mostly
fools, and for carnival week the fools
broke loose, turned out enmasse and
| took possession of the city, and the
| crowd was augmented by 10000 more
fools that came crowding in from God
knows where-from Utah, Wyoming,
Nebraska, New Mexico and Arizona. In
hordes and droves and mobs they came
from ranch and farm and shop and
mine, from all the surrounding country,
and they paid the price, all their avail
able cash, their years hoardings, all for
what?--a song, a laugh, a shout. a 'rah,
for the flare of color, the blare of a
trumpet; for a little noise, bit of fun,
a crazy frolic. Some one has said give
the people but half a chance and they
will go crazy fast enough The carnival
was their opportunity. SO 10000 for
leigh idiots Joined the native fools and
together made night hideous with their
bowls, each wing with the other to
make the biggest fool. and for down
right, sweeping, startling, raving,
idiotic lunacy and madness they broke
the worlds record and are clear out of
sight.
AS spectacular display it surpassed
the most sanguine expectations For
one entire week Denver was ablaze
with color light and beauty. The city
was transformed into fairyland, with
kings and queens and palaces. with
giants, pigmies, sprites and elfs dane
ing along on wheels, in one bewldering
maze of beauty. The parade of the sill
liver serpent, with its glittering trail of
gorgeous floats, gay with the royal
Icolors of purple and gold and crimson.
the occupants bedecked in all the hues
of the rainbow, presented scene OF
/ unrvaled magnificence and splendor.
1 And that other vision of the people-a
! bowling mob that damned the streets
4 from end to end and from curb to curb
showing, shouting, pushing, jostling,
lshrieking, yelling like mad, whooping
like Indians, yowling like Wildcats
on they came, one long, black confused
mass of swaying, surging, seetnins
4 humanity, that under the brilliant glare
q of the million electric sparks that flash
q along the purple darkness of the night
: forms a vision worthy of Dantes In
lferno. 1t was great. grand, glorious
land-yes, it was, in the language of thu
local press-a "howling success" Evi
erything is in Denver a .howiing sue.
7 cess," and sometimes bowling hum
bug.
4 The leading events and characters
4 deserve a word of comment. On Tues
q day afternoon was the queens parade
AN artistic and handsome display
3 what there was of it. Tuesday evening
a was the parade and the ball of the Sill
ver Serpent, with the handsome, ador-
& able and immaculate Frederick Smut.
ger as grand marshal and star attrac-
>ha + :
: fair confined to the 400 exclusives, Of
which Freddie is chief mogul and high
I much a-muck, and none dared enter il
s save by the grace of Lord Beau Brum-
: mel Shutter. Thursday-the masquer
ade-was Wolf Londoners day ant
the peoples, with Wolf as director an(
star comedian Wolf is an autumn
daisy, who banks his reputation part,
on his resemblance to Cupid in tor
boots and gray mustache, partly OF
the after dinner speeches and anec-
dotes with which he regaies his news
paper chums, but mainly on the wine
cellar that props up his store. Masauer
ade day was about all the people saw
of the great show, as the balance of i
was walled in by the grand stand, from
which the bulk of the population wa
IeNclUueu ny an e-.pi pitiHe tiubltssAoi
fee, and though they had been willin.
to pay it, stood no show, as the seat
were all sold before the strangers ar
rived.
Friday and Saturday We're given owe
to the horse silow--another society at
fair. 1t was really a fine display
though there was considerable grum
bling because that also was confined Z
the pavilion There was sham bat
tie" fiasco, with some other snide feat
ures in the city park, which drew thou
t sands of people--a shrewd bunco game
nicely executed by the tramway com
pany In reviewing the weeks doing
one can't get rid of the impression tina
Shutter and society reaped all tn
glory; Wolf Londoner got all the fun
the tramway company got all th
money and the people-wel, they go
the experience So the gods We're i'm
partial in the distribution of thei
awards.
There were other attractions adver
Itised, but for some mysterious reasol
/ they did not materialize. The gran
military parade on Tuesday, the fines
ever seen in Denver" was-well. nobod.
knows where it was; thousand an,
more troops, including the returne'
Colorado volunteers and the veteran
4