The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-16
CUE DAY AT TYBEE
THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE THE
BUTCHERS GUESTS.
THE CROWD A HUNGRY ONE.
CARvERs, PRESSED FOR TIME,
USED AXES INSTEAD OF KNIVES.

esting-Dancing AMI Bathing En-
toyed All Day-CakewnIlx and Fire
works End the PrOGramme-Pie
Eaters Contest Won on n Record
of Eleven Pies I'm Fifteen Minutes.
The butchers barbecue at Tybee
yesterday was gala affair.
Three thousand people pronounced it as
much of a success as it was a novelty
for Savannah. The barbecue was, of
course. the bright particular attraction.
A pit $50 feet long had been filled with
wood, which was lighted early in the
morning When this had burned itself
out the pit had become an open air
oven, filled with red hot Goals, and over
this, on spits, were placed the ninety
and odd carcasses of cows, sheep,
lambs and hogs that had come from
various sources for the OCCASION. The
larger carcasses had, of course, to be
cut up to facilitate cooking, but the
smaller ones were spitted whole. In the
earlier part of the day chickens and
other fowls had been served in addition
to the other meats.
But meat was not the only comestible
on the bill of fare which included
"mulatto" rice, barbecued hash, potato
salad, cold slaw, bread and pickles. Ia
bles several hundred feet in length had
been built north of the Hotel Tybee
pavilion, a short distance from the
cooking pit, and on these in wooden
t,lo 70
that came. 1t had been intended only
for those who presented the coupon
attached to the tickets sold by the
committee, but this was disregarded,
and everybody that went to the island
was the butchers guest.
Hurried to the Pits.
Each train load of arrivals as soon
as off the cars hurried to the barbe-
cue, resisting the dance music and
other attractions until they had seen
and the capacious cauldrons, suspended
from tripods, in which that part of the
menu other than the meats was cooked.
Almost invariably the next visit was
made to the serving tables, under the
corner of the pavilion nearest the pit.
The huge pieces of meat were there cut
into stable bits and were dished out to
the crowd that never seemed to grow
less and to have brought with it good
healthy appetite. At least, it looked
that way to the carvers and walters,
for it wore out four sets of them be-
fore all had been fed. even though the
carvers had reduced the exertion of
carving to a minimum by the substi-
tuition of meat axes for knives. There
was no time to strike joints, the OBJ
ject was to feed that crowd and the
niceties of carving as an art were over
looked in the pressure of the more Sc
rious side of the problem.
Like a Country Cue.
That a barbecue was in progress no
one needed to be told. With every
change of the wind waited the con-
glomerate odors of the articles on the
bill of fare. The scene except for its
setting, on the seashore had all the
characteristics of the political barbecue
familiar in other and inland sections,
all except the loud-t talking spellbinder,
lauding the virtues of some politician
out for job. But even though there
was no speech making, politics were
not entirely omitted, in fact, they were
very much in evidence, as not only
were many of the workers for the can
didates for ordinary present and but
tonholing people," but at least two of
the candidates themselves were on
hand.
The crowd was not only a large one
but was made up of all ages, and
grades in the social scale. Particularly
noticeable was the number of old la
dies, some of them so infirm that they
needed assistance in order to get from
place to place. 1t was an orderly
crowd, too,sand until the o'clock train
left the island there had been no
trouble of any kind, not even any good
nstured boisterousness.
To handle so great a crowd the rail-
road found no easy problem. The go
ing to the island was all right because
the crowd was pretty we'll distributed
on the early trains. but getting it back
at night was an entirely different pro-
position,for it seemed that at least half
of those that visited the island decided
to return on the train that should have
left at 7;45 O'Clock. 1t was so packed
that even the steps of the coaches were
occupied and yet not all of those that
wanted to come got on.
Chased the Greasy Pig.
Besides dancing and bathing the
days attractions included a series of
bicycle races, a 100-yard dash, chasing
the greasy pig, a pie-eating contest,
and cake walk, which was followed
by fireworks on the beach
Piggy, who was slated to furnish
amusement to the crowd refused to
carry out his part of the contract.
either because he had not been given
the shave that had been promised him,
or he was discouraged by the size of
the crowd that rubbered through the
bars of his cage and made audible
speculations as to his coming fate.
When he was released between two
long rows of would-be pig catchers he
didn't put up much of a sprint and be-
fore he was out of the lines, long
lank chap who had been taught to
seize opportunity when it presented
itself confused opportunity and the
pig and captured piggy. This the ref
cree declared a foul and piggy was
boxed up for another start. This time
he had lost his nerve and put up a
slow race. He was captured by Jim
Burke The only real excitement that
he created was when he rushed against
a young lady and deposited a liberal
share of his coat of lard against her
dress.
The Cycle Races.
In the first bicycle race. one mile.
open for boys under is, there were
seven entries. L. Nelson. c. w. Jollie.
ID. Doyle, II. Roberts, A. Garden n. L.