The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-11-04


tasteueiIu INTO the sOCketot the iron barb.
TINS, with the line attached. makes
we -ht requiring Tor the cast the use
% both arms, and strong arms at that.
A man would not care 10 carry a har-
poon more than a mile in hot day It's
own weight, rs much as the impeling
force. is depended on to bury Itself in
the floating mound OF seemingly pol
1shcd India rubber which constitutes a
whale above water. and when IL first
buries Itself, there Is, for few seconds.
some vicious splasking and ugly flirting
OF Jake or I'm. whales tail is an IN
strument Of o0ense OF about one hundred
horse power and well adapted 10 cut
ting through a boat as a table knife
goes through an egg shell. The two
fms suggest members between paddles
and rudimentary arms. IL is also a
member very capable of striking out
from the right OF left shoulder, and
striking very hard. When half-dozen
men are within six feet of these weaD-
Ons, controlled by an enormous black
sunken mass, eighty or one hundred
feet long, they are apt TO look. a triiie
wild and their eyes have tendency to
men of boat-steerers who have had all
the grit permanently taken out of them
by the perils and catastropheS of that
moment. A New LondOner once had
the cap swept from his head by the
sweep of the whales tail over it, and
he was too nervous for boat service ever
afterward. Il is no skulking fight like
shooting lions and tigers from the
shelter of trees or rocks. It's a
fair stand-up combat between half a
dozen men in an egg-sheil of a boat
on the open sea, and sometimes on
heavy ocean pillows, and five hundred
tons of flesh. bone and muscles, which,
If only animated by few more grains
of sense, could ram the whaleship her
self as effectually as an ironclad. Half
8 century ago a mad whale in this way
sent Nantucket ship to the bottom.
As a murderous spectacle the capture
and killing Of a whale. as seen even by
a sea-cook from the galley window, is
something ultra-exciting. 1t makes
ones hairs stand upon both ends.
There is the whaleboat, the men sit
ting motionless in their seats, the long
bars apeak, shooting through the water
tOwed by the whale unseen underneath
the surface. Sometimes two or three
boats hitch on, for the more the whale
has to drag the sooner he becomes eX-
hausted. Now they haul in on him and
carefully coil the wet line in the tubs.
Closer and closer they near him, the
passage of the great mass under water
being marked by swIrls and eddies on
the surface. Our herculean king,
" Black jake" is at the bow, the round,
razor-edged, long-handled lance lying
by him, his back TO the crew, his eye on
the eddies, his great bare black arms,
now the right, now the left-mOving
FIRST in one direction, then another, as
thus he signals TO the steerSman the di-
rection in which to keep the boats
head; for although we are being towed
rs a tug would tow a skif, we must be
kept as near as possible in a line with
the submerged motive power, and then
with a swash and snort, out of the
water six feet ahead comes twenty,
m lybe forty feet of that great black
massi 1t is astonishing how much there
is of him. And he is down and under,
with his great gulp of air, in less time
than it takes to write or even speak
these last twenty words. but not before
the lance is out of Jake's hands, driven
three feet into his side, and hauled
aboard again by the light, strong line
attached. Suddenly the whale line
Stacks. The boat ceases its rush through
the water The eddy and swirl ahead
cease. Now look outfOr squalls. This
Is one of Mrs. Grayback's peculiar
tricks. She is ambushed somewhere
below. She designs coming up under
the boats bottom, and constituting
herself into submarine island of
flesh, bObbing like a released cork. She
is resolving herself into a submarine
earthquake, and proposes to send that
boat and crew ten feet into the air, or
capsizing them off her India-rubber
back One hundred or five hundred
tons of wicked intelligence is thus
cropping about in the unseen depths for
the purpose of attaining the proper
position, and, as it were, exploding
herself like an animated torpedo. Every
seat in the boat is an anxious seat.
There is no talking. but a great deal of
unpleasant anticipation. Those who
have seen the thing done before, await
in dread suspense the shock and upset
It's very much like being over powder
magazine about to explode. To keep
up the interest let us leave this partlcu-
lar boat and situation in stain quo.
Your Imagination may complete the
catastrophe or not, as you choose. Final
consummatiOns are not desirable in
thrilling tale, and this tale is meant to
be thrilling. Therefore, if you've got
a thrill in you, please thrill.
From the schooner's deck, mile and
a half away, Captain. cook and cooper
the head, tail and midriG of the ships
cOmpanv-now perceive that the white
puff of spray from the whales blow
holes has changed to a darker color.
" Spouting blood,n we remark. The
boat is living quite near by. Atintervals
of a few minutes r circular streak of
white water is seen breaking the smooth
surface of the lagoon. He's in his I" fur
ry." He is dying. II is a mighty
death, a wonderful escape OF vitality
and power, affection and intelligence,
TOO, and all from the mere pins prick
of an implement in the hands of yon
meddleSome. cruel, audacious. greedy,
unfeeling pigmies. Spouting blood,
bleeding its huge life away, shivering in
great commissions, means only for us forty
barrels more of grease and a couple of
hundred pounds of bone to manufacture
death-dealing. rib-compressing, liver
squeezing corsets from. And all the
while the calf fingers by the dying
mothers side, wondering what it is all
about Dead and with laborious stroke
towed 10 the vessel, the calf swims in
its wake. Made fast alongside, its