Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-28
the clambake man busy chopping the small


 piled together under tree and covered with m old sail.
 The clambake man was tall and bony, and ooked like fisherman who had been play ng in hard luck. He wore purple overalls md dirty shirt, with an aged and decrepit arpaulin hat smashed recklessly upon his lead. He chewed tobacco and swore in sev 'ral languages. After the corn had been fixed and slowed away in champagne bask- Us under the sail cloth, he got out the sea pass, and cleaning each one with couple hem to an assistant, who rubbed salt into hem, and then wrapped them, three or four together, tight in pieces of muslin, sewing sach package up with few long stitches. The chickens and the squabs were done up in the same kind of bags and slowed away under the sail. The hard cord wood was heaped upon the pile of stones and set on fire. It was a blazing hot day anyhow, and the wind blew the smoke directly over the grounds where the picnicers were pretending to enjoy themselves, but nobody dared kick, for the committee had been telling every one what a wonder the clambake man was and how fortunate they had been to secure the services of such famous hand at the busi- ness.
 After the heap of wood had blazed and smoked for two hours even the committee began to get impatient, and reminded the clambake man that it was today and not to- morrow that the clans were to be eaten. The insinuation thus vaguely conveyed was treated with proper scorn by the master of the feast. He hitched his overalls disdain- fully, walked around the smouldering heap two or three times, as if locking to see if it was done, and then went away and stayed somewhere out of sight for full hour. When he had thus punished the committee for their presumption he sauntered back and looked at the smoking heap of stones for while longer. Then he spread out the old sail that had covered the heap before it was fired, and brought water in bucket to pour over it until it was we'll soaked. Upon one end he heaped part of a pile of seaweed, that had been fragrant in the sun ever since early morning, and scattered handfuls of salt over it. With a pitchfork he mixed the salt thoroughly with the weed, aud then sat down to rest awhile. By the time the hum gry picnicers had been duly impressed with his deliberation he got up again, and with the pitchfork picked off of the stones the fragments of wood that remained unburned. and afterward, with an assistant and brooms, ashes, leaving the tops of the stones almost bare.
 While he did this the walters attached to the place had been hunting like good fellows getting out the clans, corn, chickens, and other things, and placing the baskets and boxes containing them in wide circle around the heap of stones. The circle was at least fifty feet in circumference, but there were so many baskets and boxes that the row had to be double part of the way around. When the last of the provisions were in place the clambake man swore some and asked the walters why they did not step lively; thereupon they jumped inside the ring of baskets and went for the hard clans, which they dumped in thick layer over the hot stones, while the clambake man packed unsalted seaweed around the outside of the heap of stones to keep in the heat. Over the hard clans the salted seaweed was spread quietly, and then pecks of soft clans done up in muslin bags were laid around in circle with the necks of the bags all point ing inward. "Corn, now!' cried the clam bake man, with few picturesque oaths and the perspiring walters leaped for thu champagne baskets and tossed the delicate green ears upon the heap as fast as they could. Then the chickens, squabs, and fisl in their muslin bags were packed closely to | gether all over the heap, which had begu, | to assume a pyramidal shape, and fe1 ! bushels of white sweet potatoes were poure ! over it. Finally the ciambake man calle, | for the Holsters, and the heap was toppe | off with two barrels of the black, squirmin \ things. Then the clambake man flung tn old sail over the heap and covered tha thickly with the wet seaweed. Steam poure, up from it in Q thick cloud and the clambak man stood off at one side in various statu esque poses while the committee wen seen anything to beat that. For size non, of them ever hal; the heap was full five fee ! high and seven feet in diameter.
 It steamed away for an hour before tn olambake man quit his statuesque poses and ! designed to brush away some of the seaweed and examine it. The seaweed had for ! long time been giving out savory odor a | it steamed; 1t was the only savory thin | about the feast, by the way. The clambak man said that he judged by the smell tha ! the thing was about ripe, and summone ! the walters again. They came with pans ! platters, and receptacles of every sort, an ! when the old sail was thrown back they a | pitched in grabbing whatever came first ! their hands, and rushing off with it to tn tables where the $50 men were waiting wit I watering mouths. The mouths quick ceased watering when the stuff was sprea out before them, but nobody dared kick, be
 cause the clambake man with a stony glal stood and surveyed the feast.
 Probably of all the cart loads of good stu
 that had been heaped upon that altar thel
 could have been picked out with care enoug good food for dozen healthy men; the re
 was half raw, dirty, and in every way di
 tasteful, as the perspiring and begrime
 walters slung it down helter skelter upe
 the tables, mixing in little profanity f.
 sauce.
 But nobody kicked kick, and when tI
 clambake man announced that the bake hs
 been the most successful that he had ev,
 undertaken, all chimed in that it was ali
 the best they had ever eaten, and that set
 tied it. The committee paid over the col
 tract prics without more ado, and the olan
 bake man slowing it away. with cam
 smile, in the pocket of his purple overall
 went to the kitchen and fiurted clumsi
 with the cook until she got him up lit
 lunch of ham and eggs, for no profession
 clambake man ever tastes of his own bak