AiucriciUi J'islwrics Society. V.\ 



pleasant experiences to all of us. it has added to my days one 

 to be remembered as one of the g-rand feast days of my life. Dur- 

 ing- the course of a not uneventful life L have been in many re- 

 gions and tasted the viands so dear to the people there dwelling. 

 I have eaten pumpkin pie in \'ermoni. johnny cake in N'ew 

 Hampshire, the baked beans and codfish balls of Massachusetts, 

 tripe and sour kraut in the Mohawk valley, the capons of Pennsyl- 

 vania, SniithfieUl hams in A'irginia. terraj^in in Maryland, corn 

 pone and bacon in Cieorgia, and "possum" in Tennessee; I have 

 fared on the best that g'rows in the fertile states of the west; par- 

 taken with relish of the scant fare of the soldier, the "hard tack 

 and sowbelly." and the "Rappahannock stew," made by boiling 

 bacon rinds with leeks and ham bones. T have eaten boskamin- 

 asagoii pagiicgiaii made b_\- the squaws of the Chippewas, and 

 tasted the "pc-icc-ta-gah," the crowning disli of a \\'imiebago 

 feast, made l\v stewing pulverized dried venison in bear's oil and 

 maple sugar. I have fooled away a good part of a month's pay 

 in a swell dinner at Delmonico's, and thought I had tasted of about 

 all the good victuals of this our bountiful union. But to-day, 

 as the grand cap-sheaf of all. I have feasted to fullness at a 

 clam-bake on Narragansett Bay. I had read of these in my 

 boyhood as T had read of the aml)rosia of mythology, and they 

 left in my mind the dim impression of a half-formed dream. I 

 had heard that Rliode Island clams, leaked on the shore and with 

 the drapery of the sea weed to cover them, were good, but I can 

 now say with the Queen of Shcba. that the half had not been 

 told nie. 



I know now. .since we sailed up this beautiful bay, and since 

 partaking of this feast, why we seldom see a Rhode Islander in 

 the west. We have Maine Yankees, Xew Hampshire Yankees, 

 \'ermont Yankees. Massachusetts Yankees. Connecticut Yan- 

 kees and Yankees in general tliickly sprinkled through the west, 

 and splendid state-builders they are; but we hardly ever see a 

 Rhode Islander. I knew oue of them once, and a good man he 

 was, who lived a few years in a western city; but his heart so 

 vearned for the sea shore and the clam-bake that be <iuit a gimd 



