Evening star., 1935-02-17
MARD| GRAS CITY
DRESSESFORFETE
New Orleans to Stage Spe-
CiaI Ball for ViSi.
tors.

NEW ORR EANS. February 16.-
Canal street, the widest thoroughfare
in the United States. is criss-crossed
with vari-colored lights, the narrow
rues Of the old French Quarter have
been cleared, the statue Of Andrew
jackson has been given its annual
bath, masks and dominoes have been
dug out of trunks and closets, fam
beaux have been filled with oil, Rex
is aboard his royal yacht heading for
his capital-and New Orleans is ready
for its greatest Mardi GraS.
Mardi Gras-"fat Tuesday"-falls
this year on March S, but already
this picturesque old city is deep in
its series of balls and tableaux, and
from now until the chimes in ancient
st. Louis Cathedral ring out the
merrymaking and ring in the 40 days
of Lent, there will not be a dull
moment in this City That Care
Forgot" Already the streets are
thronged with the visitors from many
States. here to participate in Amer
icas greatest carnival. There will be
q day-by-day increase in the volume
of visitors from now until Mardi Gras
week, when there will be 10000
strangers within the citys old iron
gates.
Originated in 1927.
It was in 1927 that band Of young
Creole students, fresh from their
studies in Paris, decided they'd put
on Shrove Tuesday celebration, and
from that year on, Mardi GraS has
grown in its magnitude and beauty
and appeal until today its cost runs
close to a million dollars and its spec
tators come from the four corners
Of the earth.
Mardi Gras proper will start on the
night of February %, with night
pageantry and the first public glimpse
of a lesser carnival king parading
through his loyal subjects.
Then the celebration rises in a
crescendo until Tuesday, March S.
when Rex, King of Carnival. lands
from his royal yacht to receive homage
from his subjects. The Rex pageant,
during which he crowns his queen and
himself receives the keys of the city,
is the highlight of series of pageants
in which Proteus and Caractacus and
ComuS also lead their parades through
the cheering throngS. The Zulu King
lands from his royal barge, coming in
from Lake Pontchartrain and he, too
parades the downtown section to end
the pageantry at an uptown mortuary,
where he crowns his queen, and the
remainder of the day and night is
given over to dancing.
Individual maSkers dance in the
streets to the music of myraid bands.
and the ancient city holds open house
for its visitors. This year it has been
made possible for the stranger to take
an active part in the balls and cele-
brations in previous years held sacred
to the kings and their courts and the
members of the various krewes. One
Of the great balls this year is to be
given over wholly to the visitors.
More Than Mardi Gras.
And for the visitor to New Orleans
Gras celebration itself, for all Of the
JIlC SICoCCllI
City is stepped in legend and history
and beauty and romance
There are old cemeteries with their
dead resting in ovens" high above
the ground the Duelling Oaks
meath which more than 200 gave their
lives in the Code Duello of bygone
days the Haunted House in which
the notorious Nine Lalaurie tortured
her slaves to death that she might
listen to their cries. the first thrill
slayer" . D.. old Congo Square, where
Marie Lebeau and her followers wor-
SHIPPED the snake and carried on their
voodoo orgies Chalmette, where
the Battle of New Orleans was fought
and where several thousand hero dead
sleep beneath rustling magnolias and
milk-white dogwood . . the pic
turesque river front with its bottoms
ranging from the red-sailed lugger OF
the Cheniere Camorada fisherman to |
the hulking tramp discharging cargo |
from the seven seas the tomb OF
Dominique You, pirate chieftain.
Drive outside of New Orleans and |
there is the famed Teche country.
where the fleeing Acadians found |
RESORTS.