DARKY MARDI GRAS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 100, 30 April 1930, Page 19

DARKY MARDI GRAS

NEW ORLEANS FETE

CARNIVAL KINGS

NEGROES MAKE MERJfcY

We liad been stirred to ouly a lukewarm interest in Mardi Grus, even though New Orleans was fluttering with carnival flags 'and surging with visitors, writes a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" from New Orleans. The ■ prospects of seeing processions on which thousands of dolars, had been spent scarcely compensated us for the discomforts we were to suifer —our darkie cook Magnolia was going to take a holiday, and not only would she deprive us of pancakes, but she was expecting us to go ourselves to see the processions. "You sho never has feeen nothing like them parades," she told us impressively as she whisked the waffle-batter. "Mrs. Laplage's yard-man was telling "mo he wouldn't be surprised if Miss Bernadine wasn't gwiuo be queen dis yar. . . . Ohliuh! I sho remembcis do time Miss Marie was queen of carnival. Yes, mam, .she said to me, 'Magnolia, you got to come and see my dress and help fix me up for de ball.' . . . , All beads and satin her dress was, and her 'train painted with peacocks. Her pa sho did spend some money on dat gal." " . We sighed at our unworlbincss. As white folks we realised that we came far short of Magnolia's usual standard, for she had been nursemaid and cook in the principal families of New Oilcans, and could quote to us a long list of masters who had been King Kex and young mistresses who had boon queen of carnival balls. All her stories had as their main theme the richness of carnival and most of them had dollars as refrain. "You sho will like the paraeie. livery one of dem masquers wears satin, three dollar a yard, and dey has presents m a bag and throws them to de crowds I remember de year Miss Eulalie was queen. One of do dukes throwed an em'rald ring to'his gal that was sitting on a balcony. . . . and someone'else caugnt it, and dat 'gU was mad. Yes, mam, she never would speak to him alter dat. Dats de truth—l heard it from de chautfuer at Miss -Eiilalie's, and he sho said dat ring was worth hundreds of dollar. ..." IN SEARCH OF PLEASURE. We began to be a little sceptical over the much-advertised spirit of'Mardi Gras. The train-loads ,of tourists kept pouring in, the antique-shops in Frenchtown put up their prices, the department stores flooded their windows with carnivalia of all types from- clown suits to evening cloaks, street hawkers pressed a King Rex streamer on every, automobile —somehow the carefree spirit of carnival seemed to be firmly launched by the- efficiency of modern salesmanship. Everything about Mardi Gras morning confirmed our s.ceptical view of the carefree carnival1 spirit. Correct society was moving down the avenues in its limousines to the correct clubs, from whose balconies it would look down at the parade of New Orleans's richest citizens in masquers' costumes. Sober families had their automobiles decorated with carnival colours, and the children dressed up in pierrot suits on the back seats, while mother and father on the front seat in ordinary dress looked, out earnestly at the spirit of carnival. There was the same conscious seeking of thq carefree spirit about the crowds who piled'On to the streo*cars and even about the troops of college students and shopgirls who yelled from decorated trucks 6t- did serpentine dances down the centre of.the streets. THE ZULU KING. And it was ,not. .-.until, we got caught -in a traffic jam on our dismal way to see the Queen of Carnival hand cake and wine to King Kex that we accidentally came' upon another side of Mardj faras. Down one of the side streets came the sound of beating, tomtons and a single file of masquers who Were listening to rhythms that the earnest carnival-seekers did not catch —war paint was daubed over African features and Ked Indian feathers waved from head to waist, but these were unmistakably negro masquers. Only from them could come this ecstatic burst of drama as they swept down the paved American street whirling toma-' hawksand shrieking in a strange harmony to the broken rhythm. They were making for the canal, and we followed them blindly, giving up all aspirations to. see the formal., white car-nival-and only desiring to know what the darkies were doing. "What's going on there?" we asked a darkie girl in a pink domino. "De Zulu king's cotnin' in. Youall better hurry if you want to see him, she tojd'us excitedly, and we followed her through the crowd to one of the shellheaps near the canal. There with, stout nep-esses and wailing piccaninnies surging around use we stared down at the boat that was coming in. , In the prow stood a startling figure —the Zulu king himself, a huge negro, his arms" bare, his brown skm daubed over with war paint, feathers and flam-ing-coloured beads swinging about him as he waved at the yelling; crowds on the bank.1' Me' had a glimpse of his ponti•ficijl •.loftiness as he strutted .down the gang-plank-viith a huge cigar in his mouth —then; the; .'spectators on the shell-heap surged down^to the street and we were swept down with them. The Zulu parade was- forming—half a dozen "dukes" on horseback Were'making a way down the centre, of the afreet, their costume a strange anachronismi for . they wore red military coats <iv£r; Zulu fringe and leathers.Fronv the painful position against a lamp-pqst' > into>wliich we had beeniwedged by a wiry old: negress, and her jlalmdry basket "w6 gathered that there was some difficulty about starting the parade as the king was being besieged by" all the auto-graph-hunters of darkie-town, who were getting him ,to : autograph ■ coconuts. At last the cavalcade %ot into motion, the mounted dukes grinning over their cigars 'and throwing souvenirs from bags to the piccaninnies wlw scrambled under the horses' hoofs? with shrill cries of "Mardi Gras!" Then came the floats—gilded structures of papier maehe that gleamed in the semi-tropical sun. On the first was the Zulu kiug between two negro queens, both superbly conscious of their public glory, staring proudly at the crowd from behind the cannibal cauldrons from which peeped piccaninnies. Behind tins first flout- came the two or three lesser ones with the kings of previous years, one ot them lolling back rogally, another waving and grinning at the crowd.: "Will you look at that no-cpunt nigger Cato?" gasped the wiry negress near us, "he sho is drunk as ho can be. He was a • torch-barrer- in de parade last night, and he sho drunk all dat dollar he got paid." ■■•■■■ REVIVALIST PREACHERS. We were carried along the street in the rush. .that followed the floats and the Eed Indian marching clubs, and found ourselves gasping in a side street in "darkie-tpwn. There were perpetual shrieks-of laughter, wails, and bursts of music from the darkies in the street and from the open windows all along, .tinpan bands were pushing their way through the masquers and starting up a dance tune until the darkies poured out on to all the balconies above the street—mulattos with whites pfeyes fiashinjr down, stout mammies' who looked- asvil! they would break the\shaky iron framework, loosehung negro boys, who 'executed dance steps while" the, crowd shrieked up at them encouragingly. There was perpetual -'shifting 'colour and movement, and as undertone to the-laughter .came -the occasional wail of a revivalist preacher threatening the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah to New Orleans during carnival—even the masquers pausing, as they drifted by, to chime in the moaning responses; .-Mac a true. Lord!" "Amen!'!- "You said it, briidder!" , ' . When Magnolia arrived next movmng we told her enthusiastically that we-had seen the darkie Zulu -.parade. She stif- . fened -visibly. "I sho -wouldn't.. make _ a show 'of ;myself--like-those; no-ROUpt niggers," she commented, darkly. I floesu't associate with dem low lives. C-ato's sals wanted me to so with them and dress up like Shnlcc-Bnbics .• . f\p>' sol. dresses dats a disgrace, pink satin,

with tinsel ten cents' a' yard, and gift shoos. But I tole 'em, )ike : Ise tellin' you, I ain't no time for such foolishness. No, mam, I went to the Kex parade good and early . . . got under de balcony where Miss. Bernadine was "sitting . . . dat sho was a mighty pretty dress she had on.. . . you'd see how aho was queen, I dare say?" :.:■;■' Apologetically, we admitted that we had not seen the white parade or the kini and queen, and we.retreated before the reproach in Magnolia's • liquid eyes. Nexj; day she told us that she was leaving ii£ to go back to be cook at Miss. Bern.-j,-dine's, and we realised how deeply Magnolia had felt our falling off from tlje standard she Set her "white folks.' We were low-lives who at carnival had listened to the beating of tom-toms instead of to the rustle of the society pages. |