The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-12-13
THE MAsoNs AND MR.. PONCE.
Trial OF the "cIambake Case In the
Superior Court.
Plaintiff Claims That Hungry Ma
sons Caused all het Trouble.

Yesterday morning, in the Superior Court,
tne case OF Ernesto Ponce VS.. A. d. Smith. |
.. j. Harrington, M. A. Dillingham;, and G. |
K. Raymond, the Masonic clambake commit.
tee, was opened to the Jury.
The history Of this case is more or lass IA
mlliar to Portland people and the Masonic
fraternity throughout the state. On the oath
OIL last June Mr.. Ponce undertook to furnish
p's cialnoake at Long Island for several
thousand Masons, who were to come to
foruand to celebrate st. Johns Day. The
contract was that the bake was to be served
at p. m. 1t was not ready at that hour. and |
alter waiting some time the crowd took pos
session of the tables and later helped them |
selves to clans. carrying them from the bake
to the tables In pans. The committee claim |
that Mr.. Ponce failed to fulfill his contract.
and refused 10 pay, while Mr.. Ponce replies |
that he had a sufficient force of walters |
ready, but that bis men were hindered by |
the crowd from properly attending to their |
work in preparing and serving the bake
The suit is brought by Mr.. Ponce against |
the members OF the committee, personally,
who signed the c0ntract-Messrs A. ID.
Smith, c. j. Harrington, NJ. A. Dillingham;.
and G. E. Raymond.
Israel Kicks also signed the contract, but
has since deceased. In the contract Ponce
agreed to provide dinner for not less than
1000 persons at o'clock In the afternoon,
and furnish all necessary tables, seats, dish
ss and walters, and to serve the dinner
promptly and satisfactorily; the dinner to
consist of clambake. with the usual accom-
/ nanimnnfS nf lnhqtarc y-;o
| potatoes. brown bread, white bread, pilot
l the committee agreed to pay him therefor
| $500. For all over 1000 persons, excepting
| members Of the bands, he was to have rs
cents apiece. Ponce claims there is due him
ID. A. Meaher and General j. j. Perry an
peared for Ponce, and N. & II. B. Cleaves
for the committee. The court room was
crowded, many prominent Masons being
present. After jury had been drawn and
empansllea. those who were Masons being
the plaintiff. He gave history of the clam
| bake and the method OF preparing such a
dinner. He said that there is no claim that
Mr.. Ponce did not furnish enough food, but
that 1t was not furnished promptly at
O'clock. Mr.. Ponce procured liz walters.
| There was delay in preparing the dinner,
but 1t was caused BY the defendants. Mr.
Ponce proposed to the committee to pnt
Il
keep the crowd back, but the committee said
they would furnish force of police to keep
| the crowd back out OF the way of the walt
ers and workmen. They did furnish some
police, but they were Of no use and did not
agreed that the crowd should not arrive at
the island until 80 o'clock. They arrived
much before that, and at / o'clock there
were ovei 1000 people on the island. After
these men arrived they crowded around the
ciambake, curious to see how it was pre-
pared, hindering Mr.. Ponce so that it was
almost impossible for him to prosecute his
| work.
At LIS some of them insisted on sitting
| down at the tables and having coffee served
| Ihere were no police and no protection,
| Many OF the men had been marching all the
forenoon and were very hungry, and bound
to have food as soon as they could get it. Ii
| Mr.. Ponce had not been thus hindered he
| would have had the bake ready at 2 O'clock
1 as agreed. Mr.. Ponce actually expended
over $1,000 In preparing this bake and the
1 committee have not paid him a cent. They
wanted him 10 accept small sum, much less
| than the contract.
Mr.. Ponce was the first witness. The con-
tract with the committee was produced and
read: He described his extensive arrange
ments for the bake, in the way Of lumber for
tables. dishes, etc. On the day of the bake
he had 1876 persons at work there for him. He
described the method of preparing the beds
for the clambake and the amount of material
procured for the dinner. He said his dinner
cost him over $4,000. he had $50 bushels of
clans, 500 dozen eggs. rs pounds of coffee,
about 200 pounds OF butter, 2700 Holsters, 60
pots OF beans, and other things in proportion.
MT. Ponce said he lighted the fires for the
bake at 45, using spruce wood. 1t had
| rained and wet the wood and he used kero-
sene to make 1t burn freely. He was ready
to put the bake on the rocks at 12.45. but the
crowd jostled the men SO much that they
| worked under disadvantage and it was half
past one when the bake was under the can
vas. he only saw one man of the committee,
Mr.. Harrington, around there. Ponce told
him II ne didn't make the crowd clear out he
could not get the bake ready. Mr.. Earring
ton tried to get them back, but 1t was no use !;
| they paid no attention to him.
The crowd asked for coffee and the walters
tried to supply, them. The crowd seated
themselves at the tables and took whatever
was within reach. When the bake was open
ed at 2.30 or 3 O'Clock the walters were
croWde1 so that they could do nothing. Ii
there had been no interference the dinner
| would have been ready in time.
Henry Il. Cleaves then proceeded to cross
examine Mr.. Ponce at some length. Mr..
Ponce denied that he agreed to have Mr..
Fletcher Of Boston In charge of the bake. He
admitted that some Of the clans for the bake
| OF them were rejected. He admitted that as
| late as noon on the oath he was sorting out
dead clans from the stock he was going to
use. He denied that the clans tasted of kerr
4
that the coffee he used was good. 1t was
made in wash boilers, and he used five or six
pounds Of coffee for II or 16 gallons of water.
he used kio and Java coffee; part bought
g. Co. He denied that one of his men told
him that he was not making the coffee strong
enough. He denied that any one told
him he ought to start the fires for the bake
ats O'Clock. He said he had seen bakes
enough to know good one. He said he
considered this good one. Never said that
he should have had the bake ready in season
II he had not found great many clans rot
ten, and had to send half of the help off to
him to put up. any kind of a wire fence
| around the bake and tables. Nobody got
dinner at the Ponce hotel that iday because
there was nothing cooked there.
Charles e. Littlefield was the next wit
ness. He is in the costume business In Port
land, but has been connected with Ponce In
| the summer hotel and island business a good
| deal since 1883. He described at length the
preparations. the work, the amount of pro-
vision, etc., much the same as the testimony
OF Ponce. He said the wood was good, such
as they always used at the island; there
were 10 cords OF 1t and they used about four
gallons of kerosene Always use 1t on
clans, When they were ready to build the
bake the crowd was between the bed and the
clans and other things and wouldn't clear
out; this made delay Of half an hour. Had
~ uCu w plcphE6 bu6 Dtu anu Dullu the
bake. Witness said he did not have charge of
the bake. That was under P0nce's sole
charge. The fire was started at 10 40 and at
i2.45 1t was swept of. The rocks were then
plenty hot enough. The bake would have
been covered by o'clock If the crowd had
kept out of the way; instead 1t was 100 or
45. Witness said he knew how to make
good coffee; this coffee was made By Mr..
Day, but he assisted In making coffee there
should be allowed four pounds to eight gal.
Ions of water. He said Trey made 800 gal.
Ions of coffee, but when asked later on cross
examination how much coffee they had he
said 70 pounds. He said quite large num-
Der of Masons were at the tables as early as
half past one o'clock.
Seth b. Day said he had charge of the
coffee and considered 1t good. One tank he
considered too weak and 1t was thrown away
and new made. He said the coffee was in
the water soaking when he got there so that
the amount allowed he didn't know.
George E. johnson furnished 40 bushels of |
clans dug the day before and they were |
good ones. He was one of the walters, but |
said he could do nothing for he couldn't get |
a chance; the Masons turned to and helped |
themselves.
Napoleon B. Chase, an officer of the ISL |
land, said he sold Ponce the wood and it |
was good wood; same as is always used at |
bakes. Said he didn't see anybody interfere |
with the workman ahnut tha haka than /