It was more popular to serve celery as a stand-alone vegetable a hundred years ago than it is now. One way of serving it back then was to bread the celery, and then fry it.
When I made this recipe, I struggled to get the bread crumbs to stay on the celery – and the breading was very uneven – though it tasted fine.
Here’s the original recipe:

I used paper towels instead of cheese cloth to dry the celery.
Fried Celery
1 bunch celery
salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs
shortening, lard, or other fat
Wash celery and cut into 4-pieces; dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the celery pieces with salt, then dip in beaten eff, and then roll in the bread crumbs.
Heat 1-inch of fat in large skillet. Put the breaded celery in the heated fat, and fry until the breading is brown and the celery tender; remove from skillet and drain on paper towels.