an odd Mardi Gras memory for you

From George Augustus Sala's America Revisited, 1883

"It was about ten minutes past nine when the Carnival began to boom in the form of a most tremendous clamour of brass bands. Shawm and pipe, psaltry, and ophicleides blown louder than ever; cymbal and triangles, and especially that very old friend of mine, the Big Drummer. He came along in the light of torches, drubbing away at the parchment as though for dear life. Last night he wore a splendid military uniform, and had on his shoulders epaulettes of red worsted as bright and big as prize tomatoes. But I was aware of him many years ago, when he wore a leopard skin mantle and a brazen Roman helmet, with a white plume. I was aware of him when he was in the service of a travelling dentist, when he administered a thundering whack to the drum simultaneously with the extraction by his patron of a patient's tooth. The whack drowned the patient's yell of agony."