The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-31
NEW ORLEANS PRAISED.
AN ENGLISH WRITER THINKS TT
 "MOST INTERESTING"
And Also Admires the Nardi Gras
 Carnival.


 to American feeling for the statement
 on which we will venture, that in cer-
 tain aspects the city of New Orleans is
 the most interesting in the United
 States: for it is not to be questioned
 that of all cities in the States it is the
 least American, least characteristic of
 all the qualities and the few defects
 that we of the older country imagine
 we perceive in the American nation.
 It is not altogether out of touch, it is
 true, with the magnificent spirit of en-
 terprLse that is one of the finest char
 acteristics of that nation, (with such
 harbor as the estuary of the mighty
 Mississippi furnishes that were indeed
 imposSible,) but it combines with that
 aspect another an old world side. that is
 as unlike as aught can be the busy,
 pushing spirit of extreme modernity
 which is less characteristic than the
 spirit of enterprise of typical American life. It is not only that it is a southern
 city, 8 city of those southern states
 that have so much less of the push and
 the modernity that distinguish the cit
 ies of the north. It iSl this, but it is
 more than this; it is the city wherein,
 beyond all others, survives and slum-
 bers On all that Creole population, of French and Spanish extraction, that preserves among the bustling, hustling glo-SaXonism that surrounds it the pleasant, the lazy, the picturesque, the
 lovable characteristics of a race origi- naly Latin but modified by the lam guor that after generation or two al- ways seems to creep into the Latin character when it finds itself transport ed to languorous climate. When you leave the buster and more important of the streets of this beautiful. city the Queen of the Mississippi, and wander down the Creole part of the town, you may pass along shaded avenues with houses on each side, the iron gates (of- ten exquisitely worked) of whose gar den walls give points of view into pa- tios quite in the old Spanish style, with lovely flowers fountains, and all access sories of a luxury that seems to remind us that the Moors left their mark on old Spain. All this is very charming, very refreshing, after a surfeit of the indica- tions of those qualities-no doubt the more precious qualities in the modern race of life-that are in such striking evidence throughout most of the four ishing cities of the States.
 This Creole population is, of course, Catholic, almost to man. The Catho- lie religion is in strength (we are told that it gains in strength) in many parts of the states, but nowhere probably in such strength as in the city of New Or leans. In the case of a strictly Catho- lie people, by whom the obligations and ri, of T | faithfully observed it is almost matter of human necessity that these priva 1 tions and obligations should have some ! set-off in the shape of the carnivals, ob- 1 served no less faithfully before the pe- riod of penance commences, as on the "Mardi Gras," on it's expiration at Eas- tortide, and Gas schoolboys have their exeat in 'nidterIn) at Mi-Careme in the middle of the forty days. At New Or leans the good Catholics made their great day of rejoicing and of carnival the Mardi Gras, the fat Tuesday that precedes all the jours maigres, the fast ing 1stylsSo Lent.
 The whcAe~ entertainment and period of ravelry is cornsuonly known by the day on which it reaches its final culmi- nation, the Mardi Gras; but in point of fact the carnival goes on almost with | out an hour of Interruption during the 1 whole of the three days preceding Ash Wednesday, as we call it, on which Lent officially begins. It is revelry to which the whole city of New Orleans aban- dons itself.
 The show Is on a scale and of mag nificence that no other exhibition of the same kind in the world rivals or ap- breaches. It is q sight in itself to see a whole city, a city of no mean size and given up exclusively, to it's last unit, for three whole days or more, to the business of revelry and merry making. The scale on which the whole thing is done is only to be called inn mense, and the thoroughness with which the city is prepared to give itself up to the business-that is to say, the the moment, is indicated sig nificantly by the manner in which the ball of folly is set rolling
 THE CARNIVAL'S DETAILS.
 Details of this magnificent carnival vary from year to year. Indeed, the of the cars that go in pro- oession through the streets are never repeated. But for the main incidents he type is fairly constant. On the day before Mardi Gras itself there comes at 1aybreak into the harbor a vessel 1ecked gorgeously with flags and dra- oery, and all the bravery that the in- yenuity of man can suggest. On her leck, under a great canopy of state, sits King Carnival, master of the revels hat shall be held in the city during the lays to come. The election of this king goes by favor; it is scarcely too much 1 o say that it goes by gold, for election , s commonly to him who contributes the greatest sum to the very considerable expenses that the pageant entails. On he wharf, to receive our Folly King, is lrawn up a military escort, and with hese are the mayor and chief officers of he city. bearing the keys of the munc- pal buildings These, with all due cer- N mony, are handed over to the Carnival King in token that the city is now giv- t n over to the rule of folly-let there be ' 10 sane sense talked under King Foly's { ule! Then, with mighty pageantry, he makes his procession through the city hat has been thus formally placed be- eath his sceptre. His progress is pre- eded by the city police, after whom | idle knights in ormor, followed by l -.sAl- A.