The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-08-15
JOLLY FAT MEN.


FOURTEENTH ANNUAL GATHERING OF HEAVY
WEIGHTS AT GREGoRY's PoINT-A GIANT RE-
PAST DEMOLISHED.
Down at Dorlon's place on Gregory's Point. whera
the Norwalk River enters Long Island Sound, pc
cuar atmospheric phenomenon was observed yes
terday, it has annually been for thirteen years
past. The air suddenly became surcharged with
savory aroma that made coasters smack their lips
and landsmen hurry on their Sunday go-to-meet-
ing" clothes. There fish in that odor and fowl.
and green corn, and sweet potatoes and spices, all
intermingled. but pervaded throughout by favoi
of clans. 1t meant that the Fat Mems Associations
were down for their annual bake and that ediblea
in that section going to speedy havoc. Tho
feeders came by the ton. There were wagons
from New Haven with creaking axles. and horses
that Bergh would have ptied; carry-alls from
the interior that tor the nonce became carry
ones and trains with engines that snorted from
fatigue. But it was the steamer Laura M. Starfn
that had the hardest work to do. She was freghtsd
with the New York and Jersey fat men. and the won-
der is how sho held together on the trip. Happily
there no mischance. and pounds of adipose
humanity beyond calculation were put ashore and
waddled and foundered around and made merry in
q way that only fat men are capable of. 1t was
for dyspepsia to those rosy faces glow and
those mountainous cheeks heave when their owners
said funny things or enjoyed other peoples funny
sayings. Every one also seemed to be hungry. and
in that savory atmosphere there good cause for
it and good prevention, too, witness the contents
Of the larder: -Seventy-Ave bushels Of CLANS bar
rels OF sweet potatoes 1900 pounds Of Ash, 4.0Oa
ears OF corn, 1.4OO pounds OF lobster aud LOCO
chickens.
ELECTION OF oFFIcERs. a..s IA lh.t.
The fat men had solemn duty to perform before
they began the still weghter task Of demolishilsQ
the roast Officers had to be elected-men who could
maintain with due flesh and dianity the honors OF
the club. They went about it in busness-like way.
and elected as president Willard Perkins, Of Water
bury, Conn. VINO lacks tour pounds of 400. He toox
something known as 1.-THE chair" beamed cordially
everybody and all the square inches OF his copn.
tenance were suffused with bushes when Mr.. O. w.
Bradley. the retiring Incumbent, who tips the beam
at 3l2 stepped up to him. This gen tleman bore the
baton OF office, large crooked staff. with the
Sianoned on it. He presented n it a to- men Men
Perkins with suitable address. and the
head OF the club, rising. told the members how
highly he esteemed the honor and promised to
home and labor hard to increase in flesh and ap.
petite. Then the following gentlemen, with the APP
busch, of Hoboken, All; Patrick Murphy, of Sau-
gatuck. Conn.,. 27S; J. L. Wheeler or Saugatucks
Andrew Hull. OF Danbary, Conn. 300; Theodore N;
Amsden of Albany. 22o; William Werner. of New
York. 800; A. Wallace Of Bridgeport. Conn. 22oa
William II. Risley. OF Berlin. Conn.,. 225; James Hill
lender. or New York. 255. and J. A. Kerr, OF New
York. 227. Among the other coossi were James
Covert. who tips the beam at 800; Charles 8. War
rem who is eighteen years Old and brings it down
at 279; A. king at $780, r. S. Roy at 297 d. McCor-
mack at 30S and James Norton ut 353. glfs
Suddenly there was concerted movement In tho
gathering. volume OF steam was rising from the
bake; then there CHATTER or plates and the
semby broke wildly for the dinner table. 1t
strange and fearful spectacle the way people set
about putting everything edible out OF sight, but
far more striking the movements of the rat men
themselves. Who describe the feversh anxiety
with which the who ate his hundred CLAIMS last
year looks the moment which will dc.
eide il in twelve months of encouraged ex-
pansion he has made room for more? And
still more dreadful the thoughts of the man
whose clothes ft him too much and who reads in
that physical shrinkage fall from adipostyi Sud.
denly there pause. Faces bianched and
tongues were speechless. Had the CLAIMS given out
or had the walters tainted from overexertiont
Happily it only the opening OF another bake.
How describe what followed that banquet; how
mammoth mortals moved with difficulty; now they
would joke and dance in spite OF consequences. aud
how they footed it featly In the lively
quadrille. while the platform groaned and
the very earth quakedi It ell passed of happily.
though. Not cloud marred the occasion except
toward the close, when there q demonstration
in earnest. An agent of an anti-fat concern had
come upon the s:ene. The rash man tell victim
to his folly. They mobbed him first and then made
him swallow his samples. He disappeared soon
after and all hands went away with the conviction
that he absorbed by his own compound. Tho
number Of buggies broken was not computed, but
1t noticed that the Laura NJ. Starin never lay 80
low in the water as she did on her trip home lase
nipht.