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"Oh, Madam!" he said, bowing. "Miss Carew does not agree with you, I am sure?" Turning to the girl. "I haven't given the matter any thought," she replied, coldly. She shivered slightly, nervously, and looked around. At that moment the lights were turned on in the garden another surprise arranged by the Mistick Krewe! illuminating trees and shrubbery, and casting a sudden glare upon the balcony.
"The young lady saw you at the Mistick Krewe ball last night, and, recognizing an old friend," with a slight accent "pressed me into her service. And now, having completed my errand, I will wish you good-morning!" And the lawyer briskly departed. The young man's hand trembled as he tore open the envelope, but he surveyed the contents of the brief message with tolerable firmness.
The ball at the theater, the Roman Veglioni, succeeded elaborate tableaux, the "Tartarus," of the ancients, and "Paradise Lost," of Milton, in which the "Krewe" impersonated Pluto and Proserpine, the fates, harpies and other characters of the representation.
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.
"Signed, REX. "Attest: TYPHOON, PUCK." Who composed this Mystic Krewe no one knew. Year after year, like a splendid dream, a glittering procession moved through the streets at dusk of Shrove-Tuesday, representing the fairest myths of fable and the most gorgeous pageants of history. Mrs. Long, who had seen a Roman Carnival, declared it far surpassed in magnificence by that of our own Southern city.
Availing themselves of the open-house of the unknown "Krewe," a composite host that vanished on the stroke of twelve, many of "Old Rough and Ready's" retinue mingled with the gathering, their uniforms, well-worn, even shabby, unlike the spick and span regimentals from the costumier.
When the inflow of merry-makers had ceased, bewildered, trembling, she looked with blanched face toward the spot where the soldier had been standing, but he was gone. At that moment the cathedral clock began to strike twelve times it sounded, and, at the last stroke, the Mistick Krewe, one by one began to disappear, vanishing as mysteriously as they had come.
He has good letters and a fair name, and mingles in the Mystick Krewe, that curious club, possible nowhere else, that has raised mummery into the sphere of aesthetics. Perhaps he has worn the gray, perhaps the blue. It is only in the very arcana of exclusive passion it makes much difference.
Already immense "proclamations," printed in every color of the rainbow, were thrown about the city like handbills, running somewhat in this style: "We command that Tuesday, Mardi-Gras, March 5, be set apart as a day of Fun, Folly and Frolic, when the innocent license of the mask shall have no let, when the places of festivity shall offer a night of pleasure to all our people, and when the pageant of the Mystick Krewe of Comus shall dazzle the eye and captivate the reason by the wonders of art and beauty.
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.
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