El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-19
For the Better Half
Written FOR the HERALh

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There is a great quantity of eat
ing and drinking, making love and
lifting. laughing and on the con-
trary. smoking, cheating. fighting,
dancing and fiddling. there are
DULLES pushing about, bucks ogling
the women, knaves picking pock-
cts, policemen on the lookout,
quacks (other quacks plague take
them bawling in front of their
booths. and yokels looking up at
the tinseled dancers and poor old
rouged tumblers. while the light
fingered folk are operating upon
their pockets behind. Yes, this is
Vanity Fair.-Thackeray
Ell Paso has her Vanity Fair in her
streets these days and nights OF the
Carnival, and in many a face in the
crowds one may read a page of story
as full of human littleness and human
bigness, of poor humanity's successes
and failures. as vivid and interesting
as Thackeray's wonderful book. He
who stands alone and watches the
show will also find the profound mel
ancholy that the sight of big crowd
amusing itself always gives If he
will join the throng he will be curious
with its curiosity, laugh when it sees
a joke, applaud when it claps, and
jeer with its jeers, but to stand apart
and watch he can see how small is the
gamut of human interest. From apart
he sees how little separated the very
rich man and the very poor man are
as they jostle each other for some
sight how the highest amusement is
not so remote from the lowest as he
sees the dancing girl with her black
ened eyebrows ogling the men and
nearby the society girls in curls and
patches making eyes, going through
thousand pretty little performances to
heighten their charms. Nor is the
worst crime so much blacker than the
little wrong doings, nor is old age SO
far from youth, nor beauty from decay,
that humanity should SO sweat and
jostIe and cheat and kill for every
slight advantage.
The battle of the confetti is a pretty
thing, graceful, merry, light hearted,
having no evil nor hurt, unless it gets
in ones eyes or mouth. An occasional
man over careful of his dignity and
fussy to protect it may rebel against the
soft showers of papers but he is abb
normal. The signifioan of the con-
fetti throwing is freedom, it is thrown
on great folks and on beggars, on the
mayor on ministers in their black
cloth, and even on policemen, and on
theexclusive lady, and the old Mexican
hag who begs you out of your gay hu-
NOR to give her a few centavos. Its
blows are an attention, a compliment,
or a jest. And what does it all mea'
but that humanity throws on the
Outermost garment of its reserve and
exclusiveness and for short while
some slight realization of the theory
that all men are created equal. finds
expression Introductions or letters
of credit are not required for confetti
throwing.
And flo. my, how Vanity Fair does
fib about what it enjoys and what it
does rot enjoy in the Carnival.
The women fib over the shows they
would like to see but pretend indiffer-
ence to. And their desire to see may
be only the excusable one of seeing for
once what other people call fun or
success, a human interest in other
humans, but they fib-
The men fib as they grumble and
VOW they are Indifferent to parades
and the next moment stretch their
necks and strain their toes so as not
to miss seeing a man riding burro,
or girl in a white dress and gilt
crown riding on float
The maidens fib as they protest
against the confetti which comes dash
ing into their faces an acknowledge
ment that their bright eyes and fair
faces make them objects of attention
to many. A girl never really does
object to being considered fair or to
finding out who thinks she is so.
The young men fib They feigu an
which they think neces-
sary to a man-of-the-wo rld-impression,
but they dart around the corner af-
ter pretty girl If they cannot get to :.
see her without the hurry.
The only absolutely honest celebrant
Of the Carnival is the boy or girl of
ten years or Whereabouts. He wants to
see everything and says So He wants
to poke his nose into everything. He
uns to every crowd and worms his way
in and is equally pleased to see the
queen and her retinue.-a lost baby
crying for it's mother. a tinseled dane
ing girl. policeman tussling with
a horrible monstrosity ex-
hibiting his misfortune. drunk and |
a military band, the big
governor, a nervous horse-everything |
that is doing interests him and becomes
a part of his days story of adventure.
He will crowd a pickaninny, Mexican,
or elegant with equal rudeness. He
knows no conventiona1ity, prejudice. or
caste. The small girl is about three
fourths as Independent. equally curious
and one and a half times as ambitious
to see everything, as is the small boy.
The queen. her maids, the little scar
let clad pages scampering after her,
the dignified little crown bearer, the
huzZas that arise around the royal
party thick as incense smoke from
many fires, is adding grace and beauty