This brand-new cavalcade consisted of a large number of pedestrians masquerading as ducks, geese, rabbits, frogs, camels, donkeys, cats, pigs, and giraffes (the French words for all of which have well-defined metaphorical meanings), and as chimeras, Pierrots and Pierrettes; and a score or more of fantastic floats (designed by Montmartre artists of repute), the subtle and piquant symbolism of which was all Greek to the foreign tourists who chanced to see them and not too intelligible to many Parisians who fancied they knew their Paris and their French. The floats were entitled (to mention only those whose significance is fairly obvious) _Pegasus Seized by the Sheriffs_, _The Anti-Landlord League_, _The Wrestlers of Thought_, _The Temple of the Golden Calf_, _La Vache Enragée through the Ages_, _Feeding of la Vache Enragée_, _Drawing the Teeth of la Vache Enragée_, _A la Belle Etoile_,[81] and _Ma Tante_.[82] The design for this last, by M. Grün, is given herewith.
Judges were satirically represented as side-whiskered café garçons; the victims of _la misère en habit noir_, as street pavers, attired in frayed frock-coats, wind-traversed shoes, and weather-beaten “plug” hats; and _Les Jeunes_,[83] as small boys, in dunce-caps, playing on drums.
[Illustration: GRÜN’S DESIGN FOR FLOAT IN CAVALCADE OF LA VACHE ENRAGÉE]
The street parade lasted from mid-day to sunset. It was preceded by a theatrical representation for the benefit of destitute artists, which included appropriate skits by the Montmartre playwrights Xanrof and Courtéline, an address by the Montmartre socialist poet-deputy Clovis Hugues, and rapid platform drawing by the Montmartre caricaturists, Pal and Grün; and it was followed by bonfires and open-air dancing, and by a masked ball at the _Moulin Rouge_, in the course of which a lottery was drawn, whose principal prizes were sketches by Montmartre artists, among them Faverot, Willette, Henri Pille, Roedel, Léandre, and Puvis de Chavannes. The occasion was further signalised by the publication of a magazine, _La Vache Enragée_, under the editorship of Willette.
The distinctive feature of the second and last[84] fête of the _Vache Enragée_ (1897) was a musical poem, entitled “_Le Couronnement de la Muse de Montmartre_,” by the Montmartre composer Gustave Charpentier, now thrice famous as the author of _Louise_, in which Labour, figured by one Mlle. Stumpp (a working-girl, who had been elected by ballot the Montmartre Muse), was crowned by Beauty, figured by Cléo de Mérode. Charpentier interpreted his cantata as follows:—