Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-16
THE sTAGs OF THE wOOD.
What They Had aud What They
Did.

The barbecue down under the
shades Of Mr. Vaccaro'S arbors and
bowers, south of the city, on Tuesday
last, was big theme with about l25
persons yesterday. Each participant
averaged an audience from one to
eight persons when relating the Incl
dents and experiences Of the day, and
it is safe to estimate that from seven
to eleven hundred people now know
all about Captain George Mallory's
royal stag barbecue.
For the benefit of eleven thousand
other stays, exclusive of the fair sex,
who were not admitted to this to them
Barmacidean feast, few items regard
ing the frolic may be interesting.
The chief manager, Captain Mallory,
whose annual feast for these Royal
Stays has been a popular thing for
some years back, never eats mite or
morsel of his SavOry dishes, never
tasted ene himself. and only knows
how palatable they are by instinct or
imagination. He prepares and names
the dishes like true prince of the
Barmae family, then calls on his guests
to help themselves until they can eat
no more. He praises his preparations
as they deserve to be praised, but only
partakes Of them himself in an imag.
mary way, and comes home with an
empty stomach but no appetite. The
glory of the thing in his case is the
preparation and the fun Of seeing the
others fill themselves.
A feast like this presents many nov
elites. There are dishes no hotel or
restaurant knows. For example, the
salt rising corn bread, known gener-
alton or so ago as "pone bread" is
made by an old colored auhty from
sole Virginny," who lives dozen
miles east of this. The people Of this
generation know it not except at this
barbecue. Then the bakers bread
used is of peculiar structure, and only
single baker in the town, and he
away back in an obscure street, under
stands how to make it. Then the
squirrels are brought from the woods
Of the Tyrongee, forty miles north
west Of here. And the Brunswick
stew, that is something to tell about.
1t is a backwoodsman's invention, is
made Of ingredients more mysterious
and numerous than that compound the
witches Of Macbeth relates, but pal
atable-well, it's perfectly delicious.
One ought to hear it described by
guest Of Mallory's Tuesday feast, a
we'll known cotton buyer of rotund
figure and q judge of high living He
says: "Why, sir, l haven't had such
time since James X. Polk ran against
Henry Clay, away back early
in the forties. / was a lad then and
used to have hard cider barbecues
down in Virginia, where / lived,
something after the fashion of NAL
lory's, I was a Clay boy and knew a
good deal about such things then, but
they didn't have Brunswick stew.
That is a modern invention. In the
four successive plates | ate ! found
squirrel launches, chicken thighs,
frog legs, turtles eggs, sixteen kinds
of tender vegetables, pieces Of sailor
crackers, soldiers ard-taok, pepper
and other condiments, and all the good
things known to a swamp-hunter 5
palate except turnip-tops and chin
quapins. Why, sir, | am too full for
utteranco even now. Went to my
room at the Peabody about dark after
the barbecue and haven't touched a
moushful since. Never enjoyed such
i
feast on ,itksr side Of the Atlantic.