Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1876 — Eating Thirty Quails in Thirty Days. [ARTICLE]

Eating Thirty Quails in Thirty Days.

A little more than a month since there appeared an article, which went the rounds of the city press, setting forth statements to prove the impossibility of an apparently very simple and feasible accomplishment. The proposition was that no man was capable of eating thirty quails in as many days, allowing that he ate only one quail a day. the bird to be cooked in any manner that he might desire. Among the instances cited to prove that such a thing had never been done were numerous vain attempts in England, France and America. The most striking case was that of a man in Cleveland, Ohio, who boasted a stomach like that of an ox (or f as a matter of strength}, a hog or any other beast. This individual wagered SIOO against $30,000 that he could eat thirty quails in the manner prescribed. He lost. After eating only a few of the favorite fowls he grew very sick and then threw up—the sponge. A certain Main street merchant in Louisville carefully took notes of these statements, and, becoming convinced of the truth of them, introduced the subject while at dinner in his boarding-house one day. The proprietor, who was no less a personage than Mr. G. F. Bronnert, the French restaurateur on Market street, near Fourth, said he knew he could eat them and not half try. Thereupon the merchant proposed a wager of a champagne supper for twelve persons that he could not. Mr. Bronnert readily accepted the bet and Mr. Alex. De Maret, the umbrellamaker, who was also sitting at the table, proposed to “go him halves.” The proposition was accepted, and preparations were made at once, a friend of the merchant agreeing to pay for the birds. Thirty days ago last Wednesday Messrs. Bronnert and De Maret ate their first birds, and at noon Wednesday ate their thirtieth, every quail being broiled. In order that no cheating could be done witnesses for both parties were employed, who saw that the terms of the wager were faithfully complied with. Many wiseacres, among them numerous sagacious M D.’s, during the <Mscu s sion of the subject caught up the various suggestions in the experiment and were free to declare their belief in the impossibility of the thing. Borne went so far as to say that a man would die before he could devour the number specified. But, notwithstanding all these discouraging and terrifying opinions, Messrs. Bronnert and De Maret were looking as well last night as ever they did in their lives, and were in a jubilant condition of spirits over their triumph. t Mr. Bronnert was confident that he could eat thirty more broiled quails, and said he would not be afraid to try it, notwithstanding he has been told by two physicians that he will have a very severe spell of sickness in less than sixty days. He said, however, that the feat was not accomplished without a great deal of difficulty and suffering. After the fifth day he became very sick, and it was with the greatest force that he swallowed the sixth bird. From Christmas Day to Jan. she suffered great nausea, and each bird was eaten with equal difficulty and disgust. He said that if he hadn’t got mad eventime I** sat down to his bird he never would have accomplished the undertaking. Said the little Frenchman: “ Ven I sit down ze bird he look good, but I feel zo zick in ze stomack I think I can’t eat him no more, but I go mad. I chew him up bones and all.” Mr. Bronnert further explained that when h<telt so sick of the eating that he thought it impossible to refrain from vomiting he would take a glass of wine and after a while would get ail right again. After the sth inst. he suffered no more sickness, and has eaten his last seven quails with a great deal of relish.— Louir ville Courier-Journal. —Walter Dumont, the young man who so courageously risked his life in rescuing passengers with his boat from the iilfated Sunnyside, which Was wrecked recently in the Hudson River, has received from the Humane Society of New York city a gold medal and SIOO. —The Methodist ministers of St. John, N. 8.. have decided to omit reading from the pulpit numerous notices of lectures, entertainments, etc.; which they are constantly called upon to advertise. s—When a man drinks himself to death in Charleston, 8. C., they call it death " from natural causes.”