Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1906-03-08

Letter from the South.
Martins, Tennessee,
March End 1906.
Dear Father:
We reached this place at 10
a. m., and will remain here un-
It'll 4 p. M, when we will leave
! for Nashville.
Well, our visit to New Orleans
is a thing of the past, and we
enjoyed it, but are glad to get
out of the terrible jam and
noise; as you know, we return
ed from our up river trip on
Saturday night. The Captain
invited the crowd to come to
the boat on Monday, a. M, to
witness the arrival of King Rex.
We accepted the invitation and
witnessed the grand sight. The
river was covered with Steam
lers, and as the Kings boat APP
preached, the bands played and
the whistles blowing, and the
Texas battle ship firing guns.
1t looked like a naval conflict.
One of our party was a live Ital-
ian Count, and a fine fellow he
was; he explained to us how a
real naval battle would be.
We then left the boat to go
toour room-we had a very fine
view, close to where King Rex
would receive the keys from
the city, but we failed to make
connection. In place of going
on another street, as the Capt.
told us to do, we went down
Canal street, and got right in
to the jam. | never saw any
thing like it; a wire was stretch
ed along the sidewalk to keep
the people from the street, and
the car tracks on either side
had another wire to hold crowd
back, also, the side walks on Ell
ther side to make room for a
double counter march of the
parade down Canal street.
I never witnessed such a large
crowd of people. We stood in
one place from 2 to 5 p. M, be-
fore we could cxtricate our
selves; many tainted, children
cried, one man died in the jam.
| believe Della would have been
crushed had in not have been
for the timely help of a gentle
man who simply carried her to
a store enterance for safety. |
don't know how we managed to
keep together. Both days the
crowd was about the same. On
the first m )rning of the Mardi
Gras is the parade of King Rex
which is more of a military than
otherwise. In the evening his
parade had 20 floats, and the
same the next morning and eve
ming, only the same floats are
used bat one time. Each
float is a different society, and
no one knows who gives the
money to pay the cost, only
that it comes from these socie-
ties; each float costs about One
thousand dollars, and there
were 60 in the procession, all
said to be designed by a lady, a
Miss Jennie Wild. They are
all destroyed after the parade,
unless some other city buys
them, which has often been
the case. There are people in
this city, we are told, who have
never done anything but build
floats. The Mardi Gras has been
in existence for about Is years.
1t was first introduced by a
number of Creole gentlemen on
returning from finishing a Par
isian education. The floats are
each drawn by six mules, cover
ed in white cloth and led by
coons, dressed in white. The
floats are lighted by torches,
carried by coons. They tried
at one time to light them by
electricity, but it did not work.
People had always been used to
mules and coons, and nothing
else would do. All on the floats
are in mask, and on the street
during the last day have regu-
lar parades of masked people,
but they tell me this is wearing
out, as not so many this year,
and each year it is getting less.
Wednesday we went to the
French Opera, more to see the
building. 1t was where all the
swell operas were given before
the war. 1t is kept up by sub
scriptions, and one gentleman