Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 95

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 95

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The bake itself also requires hours of preparation ; it is made in Indian fashion with only a few accessories not actually used by the Indian. Piles of stones are heated to cherry redness under great pyres of wood. On to the stones when hot, rock seaweed is piled in masses. The weed furnishes the water necessary for steam-cooking and also the slightly burnt tang which is characteristic of the perfect bake. Next comes a sheet of finely meshed wire netting, a device not used by the Indian, but adopted by the white man to facilitate handling of the clams by preventing burying in piles of weed. On the wire net are heaped clams, and then, in baskets usually, other ingredients, depending upon the season, a complete bake including all-whole peeled small onions, sweet and white potatoes in their jackets, bluefish or mackerel wrapped in paper, sweet corn in single husk, buckworst sausages, seasoned dressing in pans, and lobsters. Over all the Indian spread a deerskin, tucking in the edges to present the escape of heat and steam ; the white man substitutes a canvas covering, usually an old sail. The bake is left to steam-cook thoroughly for forty-five minutes to an hour before opening. In variations from the complete bake, fish may be broiled or baked, and other ingredients cooked separately, but the true Rhode Island bake includes all ingredients cooked under one cover.

A clambake is served preferably out of doors in Indian fashion, or in a dining hall open on all sides, and usually at long wooden tables. On the tables are placed brown bread and white bread and butter ; sliced fresh vegetables, including usually onions, cucumbers and tomatoes if in season, with vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and drawn butter. The order and method of service may vary, but the serving includes an offering of portions of all the concomitants in turn, and the diner piles his plate and eats at discretion. Clams are the most important element in the feast ; all other offerings are accessories to the clam as the reason for the bake. Clams come from the bake steaming hot in pans, one of which is placed before each diner. The process of eating includes withdrawing the clam from the shells, which the steaming has partly opened ; remov- ing the skin from the snout ; dipping the clam held by the snout, in drawn butter, carrying to the mouth and taking whole or biting off below the snout as preferred. Rhode Islanders are adept in handling clams, and the uninitiated from without may learn quickly. Some prefer, after withdrawing clams from shells to pile in drawn butter and eat with a fork, but most Rhode Islanders use fingers in Indian fashion. The feast proceeds with additional servings until all are satisfied, the Rhode Island rule imposing no limit on quantity. Lobster is usually eaten last with drawn butter. Following come watermelons if in season, and at the end Indian pud-

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BATHING BEACH AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

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ding and coffee. Indian pudding is a sweetened dessert, in which Rhode Island cornmeal is the principal ingredient. It resembles the pudding made by Indians, who used crushed huckleberries for sweetening. The Rhode Islander's pride in the clam and clambake appears in the letter which a Rhode Island public school teacher wrote to a Texas school teacher who asked for samples of Rhode Island vegetables for a school demonstration :

Just at this season we find it rather difficult to send you a specimen of the agricultural products for which Rhode Island has achieved worldwide renown, because most of them are either out of season or so delicate in their marvellous succulence that they will not stand a long journey across the continent. Later on we shall have unapproachable strawberries, unprecedented asparagus, unparalleled sweet corn, irrepressible onions, irresistible tomatoes, ne plus ultra cucumbers, unstringed stringless string beans, lettuce so fine as to suggest a cultural education, not to mention the world-famous Rhode Island Red Hen, to which several monuments have been erected, and the Rhode Island Greening apple, which has been a favorite theme for poems. I take pleasure in sending you a paper copy of a Rhode Island clam, another unusual product of the soil. The clam grows luxuriantly along the shore of salt water rivers and estuaries, usually between high and low water mark. It requires little effort at cultivation, growing most rapidly when discreetly left to itself. It is retiring and modest, becoming agitated at the approach of strangers, and seeking to withdraw wholly within its shell. It is dug from the soil like potatoes, although in protest against being disturbed it emits a stream of water, into the eyes of the digger preferably. It is an unusually succulent and delightful morsel, best when cooked within a short time after harvesting. The white settlers learned from the Indians how to cook the clam. It may be used for chowder, fried in crumbs or batter, steamed or baked. The prac- tice of baking follows Indian fashion. In preparation stones are heated in a wood fire until red hot, and then covered with seaweed. The clams are piled in the sea weed, and the whole is covered and left to bake and steam-cook for three-quarters of an hour. The Indians used a deerskin for covering; the modern uses a heavy canvas. When withdrawn from the bake the clams are pulled from the hard outer covering with the fingers, dipped in melted butter and eaten in ecstasy. If you wish to supplement the clam specimen by another vegetable, I suggest that you find the best looking spud in Texas and label it "a potato from Rhode Island." It will not be quite so good as the potatoes grown here, but most native Texans will not be able to detect the difference.

Rhode Island clambakes achieved national. international and worldwide reputation. Dis- tinguished sons of other states, including many who had achieved high political office, came to Rhode Island to eat clams, the list including several Presidents of the United States and many Congressmen. Visitors from foreign lands came also; it is related, with excellent authority, that the real reason why Andros neglected to ask for the Rhode Island Charter on his visit to Rhode Island was that he had eaten clams at a genuine Rhode Island bake, and in the ecstasy of voluptuous delight forgot even that he had been appointed Governor of New England and entrusted with a mission by his royal sovereign. Rhode Islanders visiting strange lands in distant continents find that the reputation of Rhode Island clambakes has preceded them. In the halcyon days before Field's Point had been eliminated, and while the shore dinner pavilion still sent forth irresistible aromas and the noisome crash of crockery a trip by boat from Providence to the point, with dinner and return. could be accomplished in two hours or an hour and a half. Field's Point was then the most attractive dinner place in Rhode Island. The standard price for a clam dinner was fifty cents ; with lobster, seventy-five cents. In the twentieth century clam- bakes are served at a few bayside amusement parks, but the reputation for genuine Rhode Island clambakes is preserved best by private clubs and a few old-timers who delight in making a clambake with all the solemnity of the undeviating Narragansett ritual. They are right ; no alien bivalve has the flavor of a Rhode Island clam grown to maturity in a Rhode Island river bed and warmed by the sun in the interval between high and low water. No boiled or steamed clam has the flavor which only scorched Rhode Island rock weed can give. No ingredient or accessory of a clambake may be cooked apart and attain the tang that is Rhode Island. Even the watermelon, alien interloper from a southern habitat, attains a flavor at a Rhode Island clam-

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bake never equalled by watermelon otherwise or elsewhere. A Rhode Island clambake prepares the tongue for adequate appreciation of the luscious coolness of the melon.

WATER SPORTS-The convenience of Narragansett Bay as an avenue for rapid travel between settlements and the development of intercolonial commerce established in Rhode Island an economic interest in boats and boating, and in ships and sailing. Besides owning and sailing vessels, as did Providence Williams, son of Roger, his sloop, Rhode Islanders built ships and brigs for sale in intercolonial trade and in the ports of England. "Shipshape and Bristol fashion" meant seaworthy construction and excellent equipment, all in good order ; it referred to vessels built and rigged at Bristol, Rhode Island, one time the third American seaport in importance. Rhode Island sloops, brigs and ships earned a well-deserved reputation for speed ; it was partly rakish lines and partly splendid seamanship which won renown for Rhode Island privateers- men and the colony war vessels, as well as the ships from Narragansett Bay engaged in foreign trade after the Revolution. When iron and steel ships replaced old-fashioned sailers, Rhode Island interest in wooden vessels for commercial purposes was continued in boats and sailing vessels for recreation and sport. Traditions of fineness of design and speed were preserved in yachts, and yachting became a favorite sport. The environmental factors of Narragansett Bay as a broad inland waterway, affording relatively quiet water for miles of sailing areas, and an abundance of smart breezes to add zest to racing contributed to the popularity of boating and yachting. Pawtuxet and Ten-Mile Rivers became favorite haunts for canoes, and canoe clubs were established on both rivers to foster and promote canoeing. Besides on the two rivers, and other rivers also, canoes were used in perhaps a hundred inland lakes and ponds.

HOP BITTERS REGATTA-The Seekonk River, between Red Bridge and Pawtucket, affords a two-mile straight-away course for sculling; there Brown University crews trained while rowing was the leading sport at the college and the Brown boat was a valiant contender in intercollegiate racing and a victor at Lake Quinsigamond. The Brown boathouse was a land- mark on the western shore of the Seekonk River above Red Bridge for years after the Brown shell had become a relic and rowing was but a memory so far as Brown was concerned. On the Seekonk, in June, 1880, occurred the Hop Bitters regatta, which attracted to Rhode Island the leading amateur and professional oarsmen of the period, besides a crowd of sporting men and other spectators without precedent. For the day of the races the banks of the Seekonk along the two-mile stretch were lined with observation stands, and boats of all kinds were pressed into service to accommodate those who wished a closer view than could be had from the banks and the crest of the high bluffs on both sides. The New York and New England Railroad, and the Providence and Worcester ran special trains from Boston and Worcester directly to the East Providence shore, one train including eighteen cars. Another special train was run from New London to Providence, A three-deck observation steamer carried a crowd from the Providence River around Fox and India Points and up the Seekonk to the starting and finishing line above the Red Bridge. Every conceivable type of conveyance was in use, carrying passengers from the centre of Providence over the East Side hill to the race course. Horse cars were loaded with seated and standing passengers, on platforms, in aisles between seats and on running boards until not another person could find toe space and handhold.

The regatta included races for amateurs and professionals over a four-mile course, laid out upstream two miles, with a turn and return to a line near Red Bridge. For the amateur contest a silver trophy valued at $1,000 had been made by the Gorham Company. Frank E. Holmes of Pawtucket won the amateur race in 22 minutes 44 seconds. He had been the favorite in the betting, and the victory was popular. For the principal attraction, a four-mile race by profes- sionals, entries included Wallace Ress of St. John, New Brunswick; S. W. Lee of Newark, New Jersey ; J. H. Riley of Saratoga, New York; J. A. Ten Eyck of Peekskill, New York; F. A. Plaisted of Boston ; Jacob Gaudier of Toronto; J. A. Dempsey of Geneva, New York;

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R. W. Boyd of England; Edward Hanlan of Toronto. The prizes for the professional race amounted to $6,000. Hanlan was the favorite in the betting pools, and led at the start of the race, with Boyd and Riley following. Ross, coming from behind, passed Riley and Hanlan before the turn had been reached and as the oarsmen straightened out for the pull down the two-mile stretch to the finish line, the order was Ross, Riley and Hanlan, close together with the race still to be won by hard rowing. Shortly after turning Hanlan stopped rowing and with- drew. The leaders finished : Ross, Riley, Ten Eyck, the time being 29 minutes 54 seconds.

Hanlan's earliest explanation of his withdrawal was to the effect that a "stitch" or sharp pain in his side made further rowing impossible. Later he said that he had not been in good physical condition on the day of the race, but had been persuaded to start, contrary to his own judgment, because of urgent request by his friends. He was criticized severely because of the second explanation, on the ground that he should not have started in poor condition, which would have cancelled the betting on him. The prizes for the regatta were awarded in the eve- ning at Rocky Point.

On the day of the race the Providence and Buffalo baseball nines played a league game at II o'clock to avoid conflict with the regatta. During the same week a seventy-five-hour go-as- you-please walking match was the attraction at Infantry Hall. Walking matches were as pop- ular at the time as bicycle racing became at a later period. The Theatre Comique offered a special performance of "The Modern Don Juan" at II:30 on the day of the regatta. Other theatrical entertainments for the day and evening included Harrigan and Hart, at the Provi- dence Opera House; Maude Forrester and her trained horse, Lightning, in "Mazeppa, or the Wild Horse of Tartary," at Lowe's Opera House; "The Ambassador's Daughter," at Park Garden ; and "Contrabandists, or the Law of the Ladrones," at San Souci Garden.

The unsatisfactory ending of the professional race, following another in which the betting favorite had withdrawn, effectually terminated interest in professional rowing in Rhode Island, but rowing for physical exercise continued. The Narragansett Boat Club, with boathouse on the Seekonk River close to the two-mile course, included among its members enthusiastic oars- men who kept rowing alive in Rhode Island.

YACHTING -- Rhode Island in 1930 had over a dozen yacht clubs, besides the Newport sta- tion of the New York Yacht Club, and associations promoting motor boat racing and outboard motor racing as follows : Barrington, Bay Spring, Bristol, Conanicut, East Greenwich, Edge- wood, Fall River (at Tiverton), Newport, Rhode Island, Saunderstown, Washington Park, and Watch Hill Yacht Clubs, and Point Judith Knockabout Association, Warwick Country Club, and Westerly Boat Club. Narragansett Bay affords courses for yacht racing almost with- out limit in number, and with ample variation for choice in distance, the regular channel marks furnishing locations for turning places. Besides the courses wholly within the bay, other courses lie at the mouth and in the ocean off shore. International races for the America's cup are conducted off Newport, as are the annual races of the New York Yacht Club for the Astor and King trophies. Yacht racing in Rhode Island waters has been promoted in recent years by the building of one-design boats in classes so nearly identical in model, in rig, sail area and other equipment, and in speed also, as to make racing a genuine test of seamanship. The size of rac- ing boats varies from keel boats eleven feet on the water line and twelve-foot skiffs, sailed by boys or junior yacht-club members, to racing classes of forty-footers, and the ninety-foot sloops engaged in international cup races.

In several classes the one-design principle is practiced in other yachting centres, and racing becomes interstate or international. Thus Rhode Island has been represented in the international Star boat series annually. The Rhode Island challenger, "Rhody," won the international cham- pionship in 1926, and the Star boat races were conducted in Narragansett Bay in 1927. Chal- lenging boats came from Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, New Orleans, Newport in California, Cuba, Hawaii, and Manila. Star fleets of Central Long Island, Gravesend Bay, Peconic Bay,

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Massachusetts Bay, Delaware River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay sent representation. The challenging crew from Newport, California, won the series of races, using "Temple III," a boat built at Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, to replace their own boat and to avoid transporting the latter from Pacific to Atlantic coast. In the fifth race of the regular series "Temple III" was tied with "Colleen" of Southport, Connecticut, and "Mackerel" of Baltimore. "Temple III" won the sail-off with "Colleen" by only seven feet. The Star boat races were sailed over a course laid out from Warwick Neck. Besides racing between sailing yachts, keen competition is main- tained in racing power boats, gasoline motorboats built on racing lines with high-powered rac- ing engines, and the new type of "sleds" driven by outboard motors. Many Rhode Island racing yachts have been built in sheltered coves, at East Greenwich, Pawtuxet, Bristol, Bul- lock's Point Cove, and other places.

AMERICA'S CUP RACES-One of the Rhode Island yards has achieved international repu- tation. John Brown Herreshoff, known as the blind designer, began building yachts at Bristol in 1863, and in 1877 was joined by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in the enterprise known as the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, which in 1930 is continued by R. F. Haffenreffer, Jr. The Herreshoffs were selected in 1893, because of their success in building fine yachts, to con- struct "Vigilant," which in that year defended the America's cup against "Valkyre II," chal- lenger, owned by Lord Dunraven. The Herreshoff Company has built every cup defender since 1893. In 1895 the Bristol boat was "Defender," which defeated "Valkyrie III," also owned by Lord Dunraven. Then followed "Columbia," which defeated Sir Thomas Lipton's "Shamrock I" in 1899 and "Shamrock II" in 1901; "Reliance," which defeated "Shamrock III" in 1903; "Resolute," which defeated "Shamrock IV" in 1920; and "Enterprise," which defeated "Sham- rock V" in 1930. The Herreshoff Company also built "Weetamoe," which in 1930 was one of the "Enterprise's" rivals for the honor of defending the cup. In the succession of successful cup defenders-"Vigilant," "Defender," "Columbia," "Reliance," "Resolute," and "Enter- prise"-the Herreshoffs achieved victory not only over the challenging English yacht, but also over rivals in America building yachts as competitors for selection as defenders. The series of Herreshoff yachts illustrates progress in fineness of line and model, and the introduction of innovations in construction and equipment. Thus metal, beginning with aluminum and Tobin bronze, replaced wood ; hollow metal masts were substituted for solid spars and hollow wooden spars ; centreboard replaced keel, and fin-keel replaced centreboard. Challenger and defender in 1930 were so nearly alike in model above the water line that some could identify them only by color, "Shamrock V" being green, and "Enterprise" white. But "Enterprise" had modern equipment not duplicated on "Shamrock V," including a novel hollow metal mast in which strength had not been sacrificed to attain the lightness of weight which permitted transfer of mast load to ballast without affecting load waterline; a new type of rigging the boom, which facilitated handling sails, and mechanical "gadgets" for hoisting and trimming sails, thus replac- ing the man power still used on the "Shamrock V." The series of races demonstrated conclus- ively that "Enterprise" was the faster boat in every type of sailing, aside from superior equip- ment, the latter proving only the alertness with which attention was given at Herreshoff's to every detail that would tend to improve racing quality, and to the modern exemplification of "shipshape and Bristol fashion."

OTHER SPORTS-The Rhode Island climate tends itself to the promotion of outdoor sports and recreation other than boating and yachting. Swimming and other water sports have had the development that might be expected in a state so close in almost every part to salt water beaches and fresh water rivers, lakes and ponds. One who in Rhode Island is considered only an indifferent swimmer attracted crowds to a midwestern swimming pool, who wished to "see the Yankee swim." The bracing air encourages vigorous games such as tennis ; Narragansett Pier, Newport, and the Agawam Hunt Club in East Providence have been the arenas for

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national and international champion tennis matches. Rhode Island has produced champion tennis players such as F. H. Hovey and W. T. Tilden, 2d, both national singles champions, and J. D. E. Jones and Arnold W. Jones, father and son team champions. Golf became pop- ular almost immediately after its introduction in Rhode Island thirty years ago; golf courses are distributed throughout the state, and the number of players mounts into thousands. Glenna Collet of Rhode Island has won the national women's championship year after year. Pony polo matches are played at Narragansett Pier and Newport.

In baseball the Providence Club won the National League championship pennants in 1879 and 1884. and the world championship in 1884; the city has had several championship teams in the Eastern and International Leagues. Brown University, Rhode Island State College and Providence College have had strong nines. In recent years greater emphasis has been placed in Rhode Island on amateur and semi-professional than on professional baseball, with the result that many home leagues have been maintained, additional to the schoolboy leagues in high schools and other schools. The purpose has been promotion of baseball playing by boys and youth ; the playground system, and the acquisition of park reservations with playing spaces have been significant factors in this development of baseball. The influence of Timothy O'Neil, popularly known as "King of the Sand Lots," in organizing and sponsoring junior baseball leagues. has been remarkable and inspiring ; it has done much to reestablish baseball as a fine game to play, as well as to watch. The O'Neil leagues have been successful invariably with gains not only for the most popular of American sports, but also for the boys in lessons of sportsmanship, self-control and orderly procedure.

From its introduction to Rhode Island by Brown University as a college sport, Rugby foot- ball has attained popularity in colleges, high schools, and as a professional sport played by city teams in a sectional league. Brown University, Rhode Island State College and Providence Col- lege support elevens; and high schools and academies have teams, some of which are associ- ated in interscholastic leagues. Brown has had several great football teams, from the eleven of 1895. which registered a tie score, 6-6, with Yale, down to the Iron Men of 1927, who were victorious in all major contests and who were rated as American college champions. Soccer football, cricket, lacrosse and hockey are other sports which have large following, both of players and enthusiastic supporters of teams. Intercollegiate competition in track and field athletics had much to do with popularizing these sports in Rhode Island with colleges and other schools. A highly developed interest in bicycling led to an interest thirty years ago in the improvement of roads, the wretched condition of which scarcely had been realized until thou- sands of Rhode Islanders joined bicycle clubs and had an opportunity, first hand, to experience the unpleasantness of riding on neglected public highways. In the heyday of bicycling the clubs conducted "century" and other "runs" weekly, thus luring large numbers out of the cities on riding tours.

In ten or a dozen years the automobile had replaced the bicycle as a popular vehicle, and most of the clubs had disappeared or were engaged in other activities, if still existing as bicycle clubs. For a while bicycle racing became a popular sport and Rhode Island produced several champion racers. Through all of these and other outdoor games and sports Rhode Islanders reaped the benefits of Rhode Island climate in renewed health, because of active exercise in the open air. The climate favors outdoor sports through unusually long seasons, inasmuch as only football is not played through the summer. Players enjoy the tonic effects of vigorous exercise in an invigorating atmosphere, while enthusiastic spectators, although they do not play, profit from the benefits of hours spent in the open air and sunshine. Even winter, with its icy cold- ness, affords attractive sport in skating in hundreds of lakes and ponds, and coasting on the innumerable hills.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 95

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716