The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-07-22
TOY MANUFACTURERS
MEET IN MANCHESTER
Outdoor Dinner Served According to
Lumber Camp Methods Big
Feature of Gathering.

Manchester, July 22.-By far the
most novel feature of the Toy Max
ers outings was the dinner and en-
tertainment this Friday afternoon in
the woods of the Green Mountains
near the plant of the n. ID. Cass Co.,
of Vermont, when those attending the
convention were guests of the Cass
Co.
The party assembled about
o'clock in the afternoon and were
met at tie main road by wagons,
horse drawn, and especially design
ed for the occasion for transporta-
tion into the woods After passing
the plant yards, saw mill and pond OF
the Cass Company they came to an
immense table with overhanging
trees for covering arranged in the
form OF a horse shoe. Within the
circle appeared towering piece OF
decoration which showed the stages
OF toy manufacture from the noun
tain log through the various pro-
cesses until at the top was shown a
finished item of the Blue-Bird line of
the Cass Company glistening in its
enamel paint.
A woodsmen's dinner had been
promised and the promise was we'll
kept, +. c. Williams, the new pro-
prietor of the Battenkill Inn at Man
chester Depot, himse t, chef Of no
mean ability, had literally kept the
pot boiling for days and it was under
his personal rection that the real
woodsmen in their artistic attire,
marched or rather ambled forth froo
the woods and served the mea:.
From a large brass kettle actually
one hundred and twenty-five years
old, and steaming hot on its tripod
over an open fire, they dipped the
appetizing Canadian pea soup. The
next course came from an immense
black iron cauldron which had been
undergoing the cooking process for
twenty-four hours. Boiled brisket of
corned beef with the proyerbal cab.
bage as we'll as beets, turnips and
carrots came forth and the mountain
air gracefully accepted the pleasing
aroma.
For moment the woodsmen van
ished into the underbrush and in
their places came a troop of children
in the guise of wood efs led by
Razettio Houle, vaudeville artist OF
French, Canadian parentage, who has
yet to see his tenth birthday While
Master Houle captiyated the crowd
with his songs and antics to the ac.
compartment of several old time ac-
cordians played by Italians from the
Cass labor camp, the elves served
orange ice.
Again the scene changed, the elves
disappeared and the woodsmen wait.
ers returned. With a garden hoe and
shovel they opened what appeared to
be a mound Of earth and disclosed
the "bean hole" True to the days
of old the "bean hole" yielded Boston
baked beans properly Drowned, and
there was plenty of steamed Indain
meal brown bread The final course
| termed by the woodsmen as sun-of-a
gun pudding was compounded of rice
and raisins.
The "big feed ended and the
woodsmen proceeded to exhibit theil
skill with axe, saw, peavy, pike poe
and spiked boots Two teams of two
each contested in the Telling Of two
huge trees. The trees were in turr
cut into logs in TIE regular manner
i Those who had never witnessed los
riding then had opportunity to mar
vel at the dexterity of the real woods
j. N wnen ne mounts log in the
water armed with his trusty pike
pole. The winner must reach the op
posite side of the Mill pond with hi'
log and pole intact. He could slil
into the water on the way if he chose
but he and the log and pole must al
come through.
Following the contests the part!
Z broke up for various forms of enter
tainment according to individual de
sires, and this evening they reas
sembled at the Equinox House fot
dinner at which time they were ad
dressed by Judge Frank L. Fish o
Vergennes.