The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-30
FEED HIGH ON MUSKRATS.
Hundreds of the Animals Consuu.d
at Banquet in Michigan
Town Lately.

Two thousand eight hundred musk.
rats were eaten by 1900 guests at the
| great muskrat feast recently held al
Monroe, Mich, relates What to Eat.
statesmen, lawyers, doctors and men
or all professions were included in the
list of attendants and the relish with
which the rodents were devoured should
forever set at rest the claim that the
muskrat should not be numbered among
the Things that are good to eat. Former
Lieut. Gov. John Strong was present
and should have been awarded the
prize for eating the greatest number of
roasted rats. He said he never ate any
tnlng that tasted better and it is par
TALLY at his suggestion that the feast
Is to be repeated at Monroe next wear
All the officials of the town honored the
occasion with their presence and disni
tarles were there from towns and cities
as far away as Toledo. Ohio. From tho
latter city came Frank Wade. the
bosom friend of the late Golden Rule"
Jones, who, he says, taught him to eat
muskrats. No kind of meat was served
excepting muskrat, and aside from the
eating the principal diversion consisted
In speechmaking and listening to ora
tons IN praise of the toothsome "on-
datra zibethicus.
Whlle the guests were principally pro-
1esslonal men, most of them were moro
or less interested in yachting. and it
was yachtsmen who devised and suc-
cessfully carried out the novel feast
Inc occasion was under the auspices of
the Monroe Yacht club. which boasts
among its members some of the most
noted of Michigans lawyers and doc
tors. w. B. Sterling, commodore of the
club; II. A. Conant, Charles Greepin~
and Edward Wilder constituted the
committee that had direct supervision
over the festivities. Il
Preparations for the great "rat car
III were begun weeks in advance
hree thousand rats were advertised
LOT, out the number obtained lacked cool
Vi reaching that figure. The feast began
at ten O'Clock, but in order to have the
rats ready for the diners it was neces-
sary to begin the cooking at noon of the I
.estVe DAY. The preparation of the ro
iehts Ior 1000 was in charge of c. B.
oouthWorth, caterer of renown. The
loted chefs Davis and Look did the s
The rats were cooked in bread
ovens. After being treated so as to rid
mem OF all the musky odor from which
hey derive their name thew were
'laced IN small pans and then showed
mo the oven by the hundred. It wasl
Ell . CLOCK at night when the last pan 1
I'll OF the rats, all savory and brown.
vas brought from the oven. The meat
u the rats was very dark, but the feast
rs declared that it was exceedingly
'weet-far superior to wild duck or
enison
Skilled trappers caught the rats in
nelr haunts in the marshes of that sec-
ION OF Michigan, the trappers being
purred to extraordinary efforts by the
loeral rewards that had been offered
De Lazette, grizzled French TRAINER
aught far more than any other. and he e
as made the hero of the feast and IL
anne keeper of the club Every bit of rs
esh was stripped from the last bona "
the rats. 1t was nearly daylight when
lie feast ended. and no one has vet com.
famed of bad after effects-that is
ON eating the rats.