Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-04-19

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time mention pedestrianism. or any
thing connected with it. instinctively
look round with the expectation of hav-
ing to dodge something very much as
man does when quoting Pinafore or re-
ferring to the "l5 Puzzle"
But what is veracious correspondent
to do when crack brained public will
turn out by the ten thousand, as they
have done through the past week, to wit
ness the same old spectacle of half a
dozen or so more or less crippled men
chasing their own shadows in dreary
monotony, mainly for the benefit !
of hackers and the betting frater-
nifty? Had any one asked my opin-
ion as to the chances of another walking
match succeeding here, should have
said that money would be safer invested
in wildcat mining stock than risked in
SO played-out an enterprise. But the
result shows that this pedestrian fever
has fastened on to New York as the Old
Man of the Sea bestrode Sinbad of old,
for the lesees of Gilmore's Garden are
making money hand over fist. There is :.
one point, and one only, in connection
with this match which is worth notice,
and that is the manner in which the
African element Is looming up in this
form of contest, the two darkies, Hart
and Pegram, covering themselves with
glory an inch thick, and conclusively
proving that the sons of Ham are fully
as strong on their pins as their cousins
of the Japhet family, previous popular
opinion to the contrary notwithstand-
ing.
Another show that absorbs its full
share of attention is Barnum's new turn
out for 1880. Whether old Phineas has
discovered in his roamings the veritable
fountain of youth, or whether he is
merely doomed to reach the age of
Methusaleh, is perhaps not material;
but somehow or other he contrives with
each successive spring to come brisk and
smiling with more outrageously un-
heard of combination of novelties and
curious attractions than ever before.
This year it is what one of the papers
facetiously styles an "Eight-clown-power
circus" from the large number of those
venerable jokers it contains in addition
to menagerie, a squad of trained stall
lions, flock of trained doves, pair of
oxen who dance waltz, wonderful
leaping stag, and an intrepid young
lady in tights. who for a presumably
liberal compensation consents to be shot
out of cannon twice each day to the
Mortified delight of the gaping multi
tude.
Yet another spectacle has been afford
ed the sightseeing New Yorker this
week which to my thinking is better
worthy the interest it has awakened
than either of those above referred to.
All of us can remember, if we do not
now experience, the wild enthusiasm Of
our youth over the exploits of whalers.
and have probably all of us-those Of
the male persuasion mean-hankered
at one time or another for the excite.
ment of such life and these great
kings of the deep. who seem like living
relics of that remote age which produc
ed the monster mastodons and plesiosu
ruses and zeuglodons and multitud,
too numerous to mention of creature
with endless names and frequently still
more protracted tails. When, there
fore, saw advertised an exhibition O
| big, dead whale down at certain
dock on the East River. | grasped a
the chance of verifying-or otherwise
t my youthful conceptions of Leviathar
and went down forthwith. To tell th
, truth rather expected to be disappoin'
ed in the size and general appearance {
= the animal; but on the contrary wa
surprised at both. In fact l stood for
: while like the veriest rustic and gaze
In open mouthcd establishment at th
critter. Not, however, half as opene
: mouthed as the critter gazed at me, ft
has mouth measured II feet by 10 or
while mine is-well, it isn't muc
! larger than Brother Talmage's. tt
n great mass of blubber lay upon coup
! of dry docks, which were sunk under i
e and then raised by pumping air out
J. them. Most of its surface was covere
by thick, smooth, shiny black ski
that looked for all the world like ind
rubber, but all along the sides near til
= head the color was whitish and the SUI
4 face SO regularly corrugated that it lool
r ed exactly like the overlapping board
on boats side. The eyes, no large
= than those of COW. were hardly to b
). found in the broad expanse of its leatl
r cry hide; but perhaps the strange'
n thing about the uncanny creature Wa
that tho throat which had to convey a
i the nourishment from that vast mout
J. to the yet more capacious NAV, wa
= barely two inches in diameter. Th
! whales food, which consists mainly