isa-normaladvance-1909-00203
| Description: |
THE NORMAL ADVANCE203only pleasure in the United States that meetswith universal journalistic approbation.There is a tradition that the royalists of thecarnival show no more satisfactory divine rightto their thrones than other royalists that thekings are the heavy contributors to the organizations, and that the queens claims uponcouncil boards of the realm of beauty are notentirely by reason of her personal beauty orcharm. There is such a tradition, but it neveris recognized at carnival time and is seldommasquerade of the populace, without regardto sex or age, and with a very slight distinctionas to condition. In motley disguises the harlequin, the exaggerated dandy, the ape, the Indian, the monk, the devil parades the streets,singly, in couples, or groups, thronging publicplaces, visiting their friends and performingevery species of antics for the edification ofthe public and the amusement of themselves.Here will come a tribe of red men, replete withwar-paint, feathers, tomahawk and spear, and.«*« t fifs ■■■ ^ /■ S :*■yTHE RUBYbelieved by those interested never, never, bythe society neophyte of the season. Ah, no,Momus, Proteus, the Lord of Misrule, Rexfinds ever in New Orleans the hearty loyaltyof the most unqestioned Jacobinism and thereal mask of life never portrays more satisfactorily the fictitious superiority of consecratedindividualism in European Monarchies, thanin the Crescent City, do these sham faces theeternal youth and beauty of the carnival royalties.From time immemorial Mardi Gras has beencelebrated in the Crescent City, by a generaluttering the terrifying war-whoop—perhapsthere will be forty or fifty of them there willgo a crowd of boys disguised as girls slylyogling the passer-by from under their masks across the street, in charge of a coloredmammy, are two boys and a girl, the formerdressed as pages and the latter as Cinderella while yonder, brazen, yet cautious, for theydare not be offensive, in an open carriage,drive two courtesans decked as seraphs andescorted by two of their kind in mens garments. It is a wild whirl of vivid color andever-changing scenes—a gay, animated, bril- |
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| Source: |
http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34233 |
| Collection: |
Indiana State University Archives |
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