The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-10-05
THE WHALE.
A Chapter from the Spree Press"-Satu.
raj History for Children.

"What is that boy doing?"
"He is catching u whale. The whale is
generally spoken Of by poets as the mon
ster OF the deep Do you see how lively
he is? The whale is the most
sportive fish under water. The shark
can take q Joke and crack one, but
for broad rifling humor the whale knocks
all the funny atmanaos int" sllvers."
GLOW long is the whale?"
"Some whales are eighty feet long, but
il you ever see one, and rush into q print
ing office to have an item built On the fact,
il would be better for your children II you
said that the whale was forty feet long
The world can forgive a man Tor exagger'
ating the facts OF a tornado, freshet or
steamboat disaster, but the man who lies
abont fish is gone up from that moment
That's tho reason why no true, good man
ever goes q fishing"
"Can a whale crack q hickorynut with
his tecth?"
"Hecan, but no doesn't fool around with
such trities. When he opens his mouth to
bite he prefers to crack a whale-hoat or o
bald.headed sea captain from Nantucket
one Of those tough old fellows who come
back from the Arctic seas and tell about
seeing four moons in the sky at once"
as whales mouth Us large as the cap
Itol building at Washlngton"
That's according to whose book on
whaling you have confidence in. Some
writers can open 0 whales mouth wide
enough 10 chuck In most any building,
while others who want to go to heaven
state that no whale could gulp down a
street car without losing some OF his teeth.
The trouble is that no newspaper man
ever finds time to 90 of on a cruise after
| whales, and therefore tho public can Sc
cure no reliable figures and statistics"
"How old do whales live to be?"
"You have got US now. We never saw
the same whale oYer three or four times,
or whether they died from grief over that
fact, or swan away TO make new ~acquain-
tances, we could never find out. When q
man tells you that a whale lives to be sew
en-, seventy or seven hundred years old,
ask him to submit the proofs"
"Where are whales mostly found?"
SIN the water. They never come to land
until tired OF life and ready for 4 change
''How fast can they swim?"
"That Is another disputed point. A Nan
tucket captain says he saw one speeding
at the rate Of thirty miles IN hour, while a
New Bedford captain saw n going mile
a minute. Horace Greedy could have set
tied the dispute in his 'Recollections of Q
Busy Life, but he seems TO have avoided
doing so. However, II you are ever chased
by a whale, it will be prudent for you to
make a hundred miles an hour II you can
"Do whales prefer shelled corn to corn
on the COBB"
"No. No well.regulated whale would
be in the least put out after swallowing q
wagon load OF cobs."
"Do whales fight with each other%
"Not often. II a whale comes fooling
around, clustering what he can do, he is
generally rolled into the mud to take the
cOnceit out OF him, but, Us q rule, the
whale prefers to rest his nose on a coral
reef and give himself up to planning the
social elevation OF the walrus and the
squid."
as it cruel to harpoon a whale?'
alt is. There should be q Law obliging
the sailors to catch their victims with a
noosed rope, and then stupefy them with
Chlorofom. Continue 10 be q good boy
and to be glad that you are not a whale"