Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-09-10
A Rhode Island Clam Bake.

Rev. P. B. Fisk. of Springfield. VT, has
been spending short vacation on the sea
shore, and. touching one of the popular
gatherings of the locality, thus breaks
forth
This is the " strawberry festival sugar
party" and " picnic OF Vermont all in
one. In the particular case | am about to
describe it WIS a society clam bake. or
an effort to raise little money for repairs
on church and parsonage by society who
have about all their current expenses I'm
cluding pastor salaryl paid by the interest
of legacy. They have to eeonomize a
good deal to do this, in consequence of
which the salary of the pastor is very
small but it Is paid regularly, and looks
quite sizeable to those whJ are living upon
farms and doing a great deal of fishing. and
can lay up about all the money that comes
into their hands annually.
The baking was down on the parsonage
grounds. and Just to windward OF the par
sOnage itself. where its SAVIOR was percepti
bic for several days. The tables were ar
ranged to the leeward in a fine old orchard,
and were made of rough boards fastened
upon stakes, the plates being numbered
with chalk. comparing with the numbers OF
tickets issued.
The preliminaries consisted of several
eart-luad of bOuiders OF the size OF man :
head. like weight of green. Shiny rock
weed, a cord (or thereabout) of hardwood
limbs. and about twenty bushels of clans.
These arrived the day before the feast, and
the latter were washed in the pastors tubs
and lett in them until the morning, when
the stones were laid together 50 as 10 make
a bed about six feet by twelve, and the
wood burned upon them as fast as fire
would reduce to Goals. Then about half an
hour before the appointed time iOr dinner.
they covered the fire with layer Of
rock-weed, and piled the clans upon this.
afterwards covering them SIX feet deep with
rOck-weed. Several bushels of sweet pOtS
toes, and corn, with the inside husk LETT on.
were mixed in with the clans. and three
large kettles were at the same time buboling
with "qsahaug" pronounce 1t if you can
chOwder.
The company were then directed 10 find
their seats. and soon tin pans of clans, po-
tatOes, and corn, were set before them or
tumbled upon the table. The mOdus oper-
andl appeared to be to tear of one shell OF
the bivalves and throw it beneath the taOle,
seize the clam by the head. draw 1t through
melted butter Ga cup OF which Is set hy
each plate). and then cause 1t to disappear
stOmach-ward. while the last shell was sent
after the first. Ii is claimed that genuine
Rhode Islander throws the shells over his
shoulder. and considers his appetite salts
fed when the pile of shells rises 30 hIgh
that they begin to slip back in front of hIm,
which Is only exag ggerated moderately
The tickets entltie their purchasers 20 this
part of the ieast-cake, ice-cream. candy,
apples, tea, coffee. lemonade, ana such Ike
are for sale. but woe to the man who MN
giles the two kinds 1t ne has been in
clineG. a little while before. 10 find the
word clam to be only slight change of the
word calm. ne will be likely to end Ms spell
with { iGB1fy.
At the very seaside itself we should en-
joy such feast for We could pick up
shells. and listen to the waves, and have
good time 4; but eating the clans a couple
of miles into village seems, TO Us, de-
cidedly out of character. especially when
we saw that the orchard was thoroughly
cleansed within twenty-four hours, while
the parsonage grounds were still OdoriierOus
with smoulderIng rock-weed, and scattered
clans five days afterwards, when we came
away; it being considered that the over
worked pastor could g get benefit enough
out of the manure to pay him for cleaning
up" We NAV add that, for more than
twenty-four hours after the bake, there
were people who appeared to be exceeding
ly hungry, both men and women. coming
at odd times to rake over the - oven in
order peradventure to find a few more left.a
clam being. apparently. The delicacy of the
region, as would appear also from the fact
that within the area Of two townships. four
of these bakes took place within two weeks,
at which the receipts were respectively from
800 to $500 net. And finally clam bake
is no respector of persons Everybody. in
eluding the minister and his family, must
buy tickets, at par. whether he eats clans
or not. and without regard to his contrIbu-
tions in other ways to the arrangements
And, as it results to the pastor. why should
be not since it is "a matter of benevo-
lence. and he is gong to reap some of the
benefit, indirectly. in s. repairs on the par
sonsge."