Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-24
BURGOO PARTY.
Vests Definition More Acceptable to The
Missourian Than webster's.
How II Re Eats and Faten-strong Reminder
of the lncnnta,lon Scene From Macbeth.
Tin Cup and Fingers.
srecis, to the Gazette.


been here several days looking after their
Investments In this city, had their first
taste of bnrgoo and their first experience
of burgco party on the banks OF the
Blue river last Thursday. Several local
capitalists having them in charge and
wishing to show them something new
under the sun, TO them at least,
decided upon burgoo purity
and Thursday morning they started for
the Blue river, bright and early, going
out as far as Sheffield on the dummy
line, taking carriages there and driving
number of miles up the river to n very
pretty shaded spot which was sufficiently
secluded 10 suit the promoters of the
party, rs one of the essential features of
burgoo party Is secluston. For it
should be known to the uninitiated that
a burgoo party Is party where, to use
the vernacuiar, Everything goes.
1t might be well TO explain first what
burgoo is and what is meant by a burgoo
party. There are two definitions of
burgoo eXtant. One Is the dictionary
definition of the doctrinalres who would
not know burgoo from a horseshoe if
they were 10 meet it in the road. The
other is by Senator Vest, aud is def
milton suggested by an experience of long
standing, more than speaking
acquaintance with burgoo. The die
tlUnary says burgoo is kind of
OATMEAL PUDDING
or thick cruel USED by seamen and says
If Is derived from the old English bur-
yum, or yeast, and gawl, which means
cruel. Without any intention OF throw
inG obloquy OH Mr.. Webster one Is con-
FL
rusnl of the definition that be had never
been within u mile of burgoo II that is
really what he thinks it IS. Senator
Vests definition is much better. The
senator was seated In the courthouse in
this city one day. surrounded, Us usual,
by crowd anxious to hear one of his
inimitable stories, when the conversa-
tioD turned to picnIcs, and some one in
the crowd asked the senator what in the
world Durgoo was.
The senator paused q moment and
said: "a native Missourian who doesn't
know what burgoo is deserves TO be trans
ported TO Kansas or Iowa, or some other
state equally benighted, and there live
out his life surrounded by Republican,
and prohibition. II there is any worse
fate than that on this earth dou t know
what it Is.
''MY dear sir, the man doesn't live
who can tell you what burgoo is for the
simple reason that no two kettles o
burgoo were ever made alike. But per-
hups by relating Il little incident that
happened ct II burgoO party that l par
ticipated III once ! NAV give you pretty
good idea OF whit it is. The picnic was
held on the Current river, beautiful
stream in the southern part of this state,
famous for the clParness of its waters
and the swiftTess of its current. 1t was
several years ago, but l remember the
day as well as il IL was yesterday. When
/ drove up il was quite Int and every,
body else was on hand. The burgoo was
i'll course of making then, and although
l had frequently eaten it, l had never
seen II nude, and wanted to see exactly
what went into il.
''You will find 1t is always the old man
OF the neighborhood who makes the
burgoo, and walking over TO the big
caldron found him stirring about in a
thick bowl of soup with a big stick. He
dropped in piece of chicken, u squirrel,
a rabbit, onions, cabbage, parsnips,
fresh beef-well, don Il know what else
he didu t put in 1t. Right above him a
big tree spread its boughs and on the
limb over the caldron was.
wooDPECKER S NEST.
While I was trying to engage the old
man In conversations futile task by the
way-rlght down into the soup there
dropped n young woodpecker. The
n-fenthers were just sticking out of lis
wings, and its long neck and head didn't
have feather. while its eyes stood out
like goggles. The old man paused stir
RUG for q moment as if Is little startled;
and en- resumed Us he remarked, Just
in time. just in iime!' That's about
the best idea of burgoo that can give
you
The senator's definition gives pretty
good idea OF what bufgoo is. Anything
from the heavens above or the earth be-
meath that falls into the caldron is, as
the old man said, 'just in time.'
The proper thi to do at a burgoo
party is to FISH. Why, nobody knows.
No fish are ever caught, but it is consid-
cred the proper thing, aud on reaching
the place the party at once proceeded to
casting lines. There were several
buckets of nice minnows and for a few
confusion. About one hour was
spent in waiting for the
fish that never came, and then lying
down on the cool, shaded banks of the
pretty stream, they snapped lies Of the
fish they had SauCht, the last man beat
Ing all the others and NOT halt trying.
The only mishap of the morning, and
that could hardly be called u mishap, Us
1t only served to increase the fun, was
the falling into the river of the best
dressed man in the crowd. A thorough
soaking that didn { do him any harm was
the result.
A few yards away. near spring, the
burgoo was in course of making, fire
had been built under big black kettle
that looked suspiciously like soap ket-
tie, although the old man in charge was
ready TO make affidavit that nothing but
burgoo had ever been In IL. He first
filled II half full of water and let IL come
TO boil. Then he put in Il painful of
bread crumbs. After that meat, fish,
vegetables, solids and liquids went in in
such confusion and such heaps that there
was no keeping track of thsin. There
was plenty OF good bourbon in the crowd
and every body was an good humor.
One OF the funniest incidents of the day
was the recitation of the
INcANTATIoS SCENE FROM MACBETH.
1t was given by three of the gentlemen