Connecticut western news., 1915-02-18
THAT GREAT HARRINGTON FEAST
Result of Getting Wrong Kind of Cab
 aret Girls.

hTeN A1tttSs
 The sensation of the past week haa been the aftermath of the Great Bar rington Chamber of Commerce dinner, with naughty cabaret trimmings, where several innocent Canaan men were guests. The Berkshire papers have overfiowed with details, rumors, speculations and ominoIs prophecies of dire consequences of the feast, and the metropolitan papers have featured it and cartooned it until the outside worM must be persuaded that Great Barring. ton is sink of iniquity, that tho fes- tive element of its population are an unsophisticated breed uf hayseederr, that D. B. Cornell is the devil himself, and that the town is beyond salvation -eternally and hopelessly lost. All this hullaballoo cnn have no other effect than to give Great Harrington an undeseryed black eye and humiliate it in the eyes of the wOrld-u direct consequence of too much publicity. The provucation is one of those unfor- tunate things that becomes all the moro malodorous the more it is stirred up. Incidentally the agitation tends to humiliate unjustly certain individuals who were the victims of circumstances and their own good nature.
 Viewed impassionately the facts seem to be that D. B. Cornell, president of the Great Harrington Chamber of Com merce, Git is asserted hy some that there is no such orgauization,) ar- ranged for the appearance of three 'cabaret girls" at the annual banquet. He truthfully asserts that he consulted with member of the Bald.Head Club of America concerning the cabaret per formance at the annual banquet of that Club in Winsted last October, which was a feature of the feast, obtained from a reputable booking agency in New York, and a clean and in nowise objectionable performance. 1t appears, from the sequel, however, that MT. Cornell was induCel by somebody else to apply to an entirely different agency from the one recommended by the R. H. c. member, and secured three girls of different stripe. One of these girls told suggestive stories at the Great Burlington banquet, to the dis gust of number of ladies who had taken seats in the gallery and who promptly withdrew.
 It is stated that the girls made free with the gentlemen around the tables, sitting in their laps and fondling and kissing their bald heads, familiarity which was encouraged by some and resented by others. This is denied by the leading lady in a statement printed in the newspapers. Mir. Cornell ayers that he did not know the girls were go- ing to act in disreputable manner, whereas the aforesaid leading lady pointedly declares that the program was strictly as ordered by MT. Cornell. This, however, is question of veracity which we are not qualified to decide.
 The occurrence was seized upon by enemies of Mir. Cornell, of whom he evidently has plenty, and the agitn- tion began. Threats of arrest moved the cumulative Cornell to promises of reprisal. If you want the morals of the town sifted, he said, we will apply the process until you get more sitting than you are bargaining for. In the meantime the morbid curiosity of the fastidious and discriminating public had become whetted to the point where it must have all the details availab le, and the keen-witted newspaper men, alert for something to offset the dull monotony of the European war, were shrewd enough to recognize the maiR chance, and resourceful enough to see to it that the fastidious and discrim- mating public did not clamor in vain for details. And so the story grew, and SO it travelled, until the name of Great Burlington is pretty thoroughly besmirched with a smirch that it does not deserve and which could have been avoided, even "after the fact, if the advice of level-headed, prominent citi- zen, quoted in the Eagle, had been fol- lowed: Boys, go take a good cold water bath and forget it.. ;"