The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-11-21
EEL.EAT|NG CONTEST
Linear Measurements, Not
Pounds, Count at Finish.
Winner, Five Feet Ten Inches In
Height, Consumes Six Feet Ton
Inches Of Smoking Fish-Au
the Waistlines Alike.

New York.-Pie eating matches arc
more or less familiar. Eel eating con,
tests are much less so. for the simple
reason that while commonly the pie
eating Is done In public and for a
wager the eel eating is privately done
and for fun, though the loser may be
required to pay for all the eels eaten!
There Is little club composed Of
half a dozen substantial men, all low
ers OF sea food, that owns a comfort
able bungalow In a pleasant spot on
the Long Island shore, in which its
members meet occasionally to eat a
sea food dinner. They do their own
cooking and they are all good cooks,
with one or another Of them notably
able In some specially. One IL partic-
ularly good on chowder, others on fish
and still others on cells. This club
assembled In the bungalow lately for
an eel dinner and incidentally for an
eel eating contest.
Among fishermen acquainted with
the eel in every aspect and among eel
lovers generally he is considered al a
qualified eel eater who can eat his
own length In eels. But of course no
man could eat his own length of big
eels; the eels for such a test must
not be more than half an inch In d.
ameter, which is the standard size for
eels to be eaten In eel eating con-
tests. Such Is also the size eel that
eel lovers find most agreeable to the
taste
For this particular occasion the club
commissioned an eel fisherman to
gather eels In sufficient quantity and
also those that should fill the require
ments. being not more than half an
inch in diameter and of uniform size.
1t took the fisherman three days to do
this, though Of course In that time
he gathered also many larger eels
which he could market The eels for
the club he selected by sitting his
catch through sieve with half-inch
mesh
The clubs cooking equipment In
cludes two big frying pans 18 inches
in diameter. Two members sat down
before the fire with these big frying
pans and fried eels, which were kept
hot In an over, and when the cells
were all ready the club began to eat
In pie eating and some other similar
contests there Is usually set a time
limit. the winner being the man who
eats the greatest number of pies In
given time; but there is no time
limit here. The members eat leisure
ly, for enjoyment, and then when all
have finished the measurer measures
up the bones which each man has
preserved by himself at the table. One
lot after another each mans eel
bones are stretched out on the table,
with the sections set end to end and
snugly together, and then the meas
ure Of the string is taken.
On this occasion all the men had
eaten more than their length of eels
with one exception. This member,
who stands five feet ten inches in
height, had eaten of eels but five
feet nine. Probably he could easily
have eaten section or two more and
SO have exceeded the recognized
standard limit II he had only taken
the trouble to keep little closer
mental note of his stacked up bones.
But there were other members who
had exceeded the standard by consid-
erable. including one man of the same
height as the loser, namely, five feet
ten, who had eaten six feet ten inches
OF eels. or one foot more than his own
length. This probably constitutes the
eel eating record