Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

39-40

text excerpt

As the evening [during the Fools Festival] advanced, organised pageants flowed into the already crowded room, and were received with frantic outbursts of applause. The first was a naval display. Preceded by a full band of marines, in which, however, the drum element was painfully prominent, the Ship of Folly rolled in, a banner with a strange device floating at its mainmast head. It was guarded by a complete ship's company, officers and men, over a hundred strong, fully armed; and made a gallant show. Having completed the circuit of the Saal, amidst universal acclamation, the ship was brought to an anchor under the cross gallery, and the crew dismissed to "skylark." Fiddles, bagpipes, clarinets, and banjoes heralded the next procession: Bohemian emigrants, chiefly handicraftsmen, headed by life-like impersonations of the great Panslavists, Kieger and Palacky, and bearing high on a velvet cushion the holy crown of Wenceslaus followed by the double-tailed Bohemian lion, tenderly led by a brace of Czech bakers.

excerpt from 'Music and manners; personal reminiscences and sketches of character' pp. 39-40 (162 words)

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1452081660616