Nashville Union And American

A BIG EATER.
In Fact the Greatest Eater in the World—Some Account of a Los Angeles Gourmand.
From the Los Angeles Star, June 14.

A gourmand, perhaps the greatest, if not, one of the most remarkable eaters that ever lived, is at present residing in Los Angeles, in the person of Herman Schmeider, a native of the Grand Duchy of Monaco, a principality in the south of Europe, and not containing within its confines more than 16,000 acres, within which territory the individual in question was born in 1830, of German father and Greek mother. Shortly after his birth he evinced one of the most voracious dispositions. At the age of three years, he could masticate the coarse dried beef of his native country with the apparent ease of an adult. His voraciousness seemed to increase rather than diminish with years, and nothing seemed to appease his gluttony.

On arriving at the age of nineteen years, through the munificence of the grand duke, his case was brought before the College of Savants, where a daily examination of his case was had for over eight consecutive days. The labor proved fruitless: his case baffled the science and skill of the most noted and eminent of Monaco's medical faculty.

At the age of twenty he was taken into the service of the grand duke, and trained to a course of plain diet, such as parched corn, marenail (a fish caught in the Mediterranean) on which, for a time, he seemed to thrive, but afterwards declined rapidly, and became so emaciated that his physicians ordered a restoration of his former diet. In a short time he again assumed his former appearance, and with it his alimentary powers increased.

His case now attracted medical men from far and near; a diligent study and inquiry was made, but without avail, and his case was finally abandoned as hopeless. All agreed that his unnatural appetite would not shorten his days, but, nevertheless, would prove a source of continual illness to him during his life, (a fact which has been fully verified).

At the age of twenty five years he was dispatched, with a number of troops, as one of the grand duke's purchased quota to the Hospodar of Roumania. He remained with his last master but long enough to effect an escape, which he succeeded in doing after serving nearly two years against the marauding Magyars, who, at the time, made continual incursions into the prince's territory. His means of escape was accomplished in the dress of a Turkish trader, by which he succeeded in arriving in safety at the Austrian port of Trieste. Here he remained but long enough to secure a passage to New York, at which port he arrived after a voyage of forty days.

His first exploit, on arriving in America, was to wager that he could eat a whole ham, 1 pound of candles, 1 pound of biscuit, and drink 30 cups of tea, all in one day. His advertisement attracted the attention of the notorious Kit Burns, (lately deceased), who duly installed the remarkable individual as an addition to the noted canine attraction of his place, Kit's first effort on acquiring his charge was to undertake a more vigorous system of training, whereby he could test the capacity of the remarkable man's stomach, which was accomplished by eating an amount fabulous to contemplate, and which in quantity surpassed his former greatest efforts.

His case finally attracted the attention of the New York police, by whom he was arrested as a nuisance, and on being convicted, was sentenced by Judge Barnard to six months' imprisonment on Blackwell's island. On his term expiring, he mingled again in the world; was in a short time lost sight of, until last week, when he made his appearance in a restaurant on New Commercial street, in this city, where he ate for nearly two hours, to the disgust of the proprietor, and on retiring proffered 25 cents in payment, which the saloon-keeper looked on as only one-fifth the cost of the material.

His greatest effort was the consumption of 34 pounds weight avoirdupois of what was nearly all oleaginous matter, such as pork-fat, train oil, tallow candles, etc. He may justly be considered one of the most remarkable men that ever lived and will ere long no doubt attract the attention of our eminent medical men; without a doubt he may justly be styled the most remarkable gourmand of his story.