Mardi Gras Mystery

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THE Mardi Gras had reached its final hour. New Orleans was a city that teemed with its spirit of Carnival. Beneath the brilliance of Canal Street, throngs persisted in their revelry, amid the remnants of festooned decorations that had marked the last day’s celebration.

This was Mardi Gras Day, itself. The climax to three weeks of intermittent merrymaking. By day, the pageant of Rex had rolled along Canal Street, with all its marchers and its mammoth floats bedecked with tinsel. The wide thoroughfare had been packed with humanity, pressed to the edges of the narrow strip allotted to the grand parade.

Evening had brought Comus, with the last display of pageantry. Flares of vari-colored lights had accompanied this brilliant procession. Then crowds had spread, to carry their hilarity everywhere, in one last outburst of enthusiasm.

Masqueraders, detaching themselves from more sedate spectators, were seeking the streets of the old Latin Quarter. This district, the Vieux Carre, formed a natural magnet for those who embarked in revelry.

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