ife still have their effect on the race.

This is largely the reason why it is that New Orleans has been often
spoken of as the American Venice. To that beautiful European city, with
its gondolas and picturesque costumes, belongs the honor of having
originated high-class comedy. To New Orleans must be given the credit of
planting, or at any rate perpetuating, the idea in a tangible shape in
this country, and of having, for fully two generations, kept up the
annual celebration almost without a break. Masquerading came across the
Atlantic from Venice by way of France, where the idea took strong hold.
When emigration from France to the old Territory of Louisiana became
general, the idea came with it, and the practice of sending children to
Paris to be educated resulted in the latest ideas of aristocratic
festivities being brought over to the home which has since sheltered
them.

History tells us that on New Year's Eve of 1831, a number of
pleasure-seeking men spent the entire night in a Creole restaurant at
Mobile arranging for the first mystic order in that city, and from this
beginning the long line of Creole comedies sprang up. In 1857, the
Mystic Krewe of Comus made its first appearance upon the streets of New
Orleans. "Paradise Lost" was the subject selected for illustration. Year
after year the revelry was repeated on Shrove Tuesday, but the outbreak
of the war naturally put a stop to the annual rejoicing. Southern
enthusiasm is, however, hard to down, and directly the war was over,
Comus reappeared in all his glory. A few years later the Knights of
Momus were created, and in 1876 the Krewe of Proteus had its first
carnival. Many other orders have followed, but these are the more
magnificent and important.

It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the feeling which prevails
in regard to these comedies. The mystery which surrounds the orders is
extraordinary, and the secret has been well kept, a fact which cynics
attribute to the exclusion of ladies from the secret circle. It is well
known that on many occasions men have pretended to leave the city on the
eve of the comedy, and to have returned to their homes a day or two
later, not even their own families knowing that they took a leading part
in the procession. The Carnival Kings issue royal edicts prior to their
arrival, commanding all business to cease on the occasion of the
rejoicings. The command is obeyed literally. Banks, courts of justice
and business