July 26, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
105 
he pulled down the window and turned loose a 
roar that made the reception to the Irish Play¬ 
ers sound like the purring of a kitten. 
“Members of his family bounced out of 
their beds and inquired as to what had gone 
wrong with papa. It didn't make him feel any 
better after he had explained at great length to 
have them go and try the faucets to make sure. 
He called a caucus, and under the unit rule 
passed a resolution to the effect that there was 
not a drop of water on the premises, and that 
it would be advisable to send for a plumber. In 
the emergency Mr. Plunkitt’s neighbors hurried 
to his assistance. They offered him all the 
water he wanted. 
“ ‘Fill everything in the house with it,’ he 
ordered, and for the next half hour the 
servants were busy carrying pails, kettles, boil¬ 
ers, vases and loving cups filled with the 
precious stuff. 
“Came the plumber and several of his as¬ 
sistants with picks and shovels and an endless 
lot of tools, which they distributed on every floor. 
After much hammering of pipes and a great deal 
of shouting to one another the plumbers an¬ 
nounced that the trouble was in the street, 
which would have to be torn up. For four hours 
the men dug away and finally they located the 
eel in the supply pipe that feeds the Plunkitt 
house. Life was extinct, closer examination 
disclosing that it had been drowned. Lifting 
the lifeless fish up tenderly, the plumber laid 
it in Mr. Plunkitt’s lap. 
“ ‘What’s your bill?’ asked »the erstwhile 
Senator. 
“ ‘Sixty dollars,’ answered the plumber. 
“‘Sixty dollars for an eel!’ yelled Plunkitt. 
‘I could get a whale for sixty dollars.’ ’” 
* * * 
It would be a crime to leave Winsted, Conn., 
out of this story. So here it is: 
“The Rev. F. M. Hallock, of Bakersville, 
received an elongated package by parcel post 
shortly after the post office opened an express 
business. The package came from his old home 
on Long Island. On opening it he found a 
squirming mass of eels an inch or two in dia¬ 
meter, and about two feet in length. Mr. Hal¬ 
lock thinks the eels were frozen on leaving the 
island, but assumed a flexible ambulatory motion 
after being left at the parsonage by the rural 
postman.” 
^ 
New London is not far behind Winsted with 
eel stories. Here is one: 
“A water tank which the locomotives pass¬ 
ing this city use to replenish their water sup¬ 
ply had not been performing its duty properly. 
The tank was opened and it was found the out¬ 
let was clogged by a family of twenty-one eels, 
some of them three feet in length.” 
% jfc 
Here is a case where eels put out the lights 
(not, however, those of the great white way). 
It comes from Poughkeepsie, and as told 
around the camp-fire, is as follows: 
“As a result of a remarkable run of eels in 
the Sawkill, a stream which runs across the 
town of Red Hook and empties into the Hud¬ 
son near Tarrytown, the villages of Red Hook. 
Tivoli and Madalin were thrown into darkness 
nearly every night for a time. It seems the 
eels could not be kept out of the machinery in 
the company’s plant at Bingham’s Mill. 
“The big millpond is alive with the fish. The 
electric light company has three intake pipes 
laid out into the stream, and into the pipes the 
eels glide in droves and are pumped into the big 
power wheels. They are whirled about in the 
wheels and finally stall the machinery of the 
entire plant. 
“The clogging of the machinery puts the 
three villages in darkness, and kerosene lamps 
furnish the only light until the machinery in the 
plant is started again. The officials have tried 
several kinds of screens in an effort to exclude 
the eels, but thus for they have found nothing 
that will give permanent relief. There is talk 
of draining the pond as a last resort.” 
* * * 
Here is the latest market quotation in eels 
—$666.66 per foot. If you are doubtful, read: 
“Members of Engine Company No. 50 drew 
up in front of a fire at No. 520 East One Hun¬ 
dred and Ffty-ninth street one night recently, 
attached their hose to a fire hydrant and waited 
for the water. None came. 
“The fire, which had started in the apart¬ 
ment of Peter Gidorin, on the first floor, rear, 
was gaining headway rapidly. Twenty-eight 
families were driven from their homes in the 
house, many of them fighting their way through 
smoke and heat. Still no water came from the 
hydrant. 
“The second alarm apparatus hitched on to 
other hydrants and succeeded in subduing the 
flames after a fight of twenty minutes. When 
the last stream had been turned off the blaze 
there came a shout from Engineer Kimmich, of 
No. 50 Company, and an eel three feet long 
shot from the nozzle across the street and 
squirmed toward a sewer. He was caught be¬ 
fore it could escape. 
“Instantly water came from the hose and 
the pressure was all that could be asked of it. 
An investigation showed that the eel had been 
lodged in the hydrant and held so tight that 
the water pressure was not sufficient to push it 
out until $2,000 worth of property had been de¬ 
stroyed. Ordinarily the damage would not have 
been more than a few hundred dollars.” 
And now let Peacock Alley have the last 
word; the last place one would expect to find 
an eel. But to the story: 
“The guests of the Waldorf-Astoria were 
much disturbed by an eel. It is not uncom¬ 
mon for Oscar Tschirsky, the headwaiter, to 
put ‘eel maitre d'hote’ on the bill of fare, but 
this was a live eel, and instead of being in the 
main dining room it was in Peacock Alley. 
“About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the chief 
clerk picked up his telephone and told A. C. 
Bingham, the chief engineer, that a drain pipe 
was clogged. Bingham and his Irish terrier, 
Nellie, found the cause of the trouble in a pipe 
running through the porter’s storeroom. 
“When Bingham opened the pipe and 
started to clean it, something slipped out and 
started to glide across the floor. Nellie gave 
one bark and jumped after it. After a short 
chase, Nellie had the long, black object in her 
mouth and was starting for the door. 
“Bingham didn’t know what Nellie had in 
her mouth, but made a lunge to stop her. He 
fell down, but Nellie kept right on, landed on 
the main floor and started to exhibit her prize 
to the habitues of Peacock Alley. 
“Women screamed and men laughed. After 
the women in Peacock Alley had shown their 
disapproval of Nellie by climbing on divans, the 
dog calmly went to the men’s cafe. A threaten¬ 
ing waiter threw a plate of bread at her and 
she left by the main corridor. In front of the 
desk she found Fritz J. Eisler, assistant super¬ 
intendent, who retreated in haste. 
“Finally, Joseph Smith, the house detective, 
rolled up his sleeves, grabbed the eel and left 
for the basement.” 
Caught 21,750 Fish in a Day. 
All records for the number of fish caught 
in one day at this beach were broken when 
2 I » 7 S° yellowtail were caught at the long wharf 
by six Japanese fishermen with ordinary hook 
and line tackle. Three schools of yellowtail 
swam to the wharf early and remained all day. 
The Japanese fishermen, who made the catch 
from boats, says the San Francisco Call, were 
exhausted from landing the fish when evening 
came, and their arms were numb. 
