National Republican., 1883-05-01
THE GREAT WHALE.
The True story OF the Fish That Was Ex-
hibited Through the Country Last Year
"A showman's Wles.

Aho AEuo StOfy OF INC fthh Ahht WINS TX
hibited Through the Country Last Year
"A showman's wlIes.
MANY persons" writes London corre-
spondent of the Chicago Neps, Saw the whale
that Frederick Engelhardt and Capt. Boyton
took through the country year or so ago. 1t
was funny sort of whale and had quite a
history. The advertisements set forth that it
was captured in the Atlantic, off the coast of
Maine, after long and difficult pursuit, tho
weapon of its death being an explosive bomb.
Having been towed ashore it was embalmed,
so that its tissues were intact and the people
of the west had the same chance to see that
whale as those of the sea coast and in all its
native blubbeT, so to speak. That was tho
advertisement; but Capt. Boyton told me the
other day the whole story. He is consider
able OF wit, as you know, perhaps, and the
rich humor of the story, If missed out of this
screed, is because Of the unfaithful repetition :
When they first took the whale 1t was on
the point of being cut up by some fisherman
who had found it floating dead in Cape Cod
bay. The idea was to make show of it in
Boston, but it was soon decided that such a
show would not be of long enough continu-
ance, and the embalming process was de-
cided upon. 1t was not success, $50" says
the captain, Eve proposed to continue it with
spades. We dug his inside out and sold the
blubber and scraped the skin Off clean on tho
inside. Then we threw into him tons Of lime
and pounds of arsenic, bales of hay, brick
bats, everything to make him full, deodorize
him, and give him weight. Outside of
him we put on fine linen cover,
very strong, not sewed, but pasted,
and when this was dono We had
complete whale. We put him on
car about fifty-fve feet long, and, with a
train of one sleeping car and baggage van,
we started. About the first stop we made
was Washington. Well, wo brought our en-
balmed whale right under the shadow of the
Smithsonian institution and got Prof. Baird
to come and see him. We fooled him COM
pletoly the most wonderful thing he ever
saw. Tho minute he said anything we had
it down in our notebook, and when he went
away we went to the newspaper Offices and
printed what he had to say. We used to get
doubters in, with whom we made a rule to
get very much offended-not always with
success though. If n man insisted on touch
ing him we would cry out, "My God don't
do that; you will get poisoned, sure-blood
| poison ~
"For time we made good deal of money
but the whale got very shaggy. Riding on
the car he used to get shaken up very much
and brake out in pieces, and you could sec
the hay and dry goods boxes inside of him.
used to lay awake at night and wonder what
l would do If the train went of the track
| Well, as soon as we would get to the town we
would patch him up with plaster of paris and
linen, 1t used to show, but we would say
when questioned, that that was the place
where the bomb struck Finally, he got all
over bomb wounds and we had TO say it was
decay. Finally, in New Orleans he wouldn't
hold together any longer, but we worked VI
a boom for him. We got piece of muscle
| from an animal, and had IL made into circle
about the size cricket ball could go through
| 1t was then put in alcohol and exhibited as
the size Of the whales throat. Then we got
| tho preachers to explaining how it was
miracle that Jonah was swallowed by the
whale, and it didn't matter what kind o
throat the.whale had, he could swallow what
ever God willed.
"We used to get strolling preachers to give
their discourses on Jonah and the whale some.
where in the vicinity Of tho tent They used
to do it, too. Finally the sheriff got the
whale, but he couldn't realize ON him"
Now, is not that chapter out of a show.
mans experience? l remember that whale
and wrote column about him, in which
told, as l believed was true, how wonderfully
the embalming process had been conducted
So did lots of other journalists and now l an
told that both Oliver Doud Byron and MAJ
| Goodwin were bidders for % share in til,
speculation, and Byron had $4,000 ready tC
put in, when his wife objected.
| -e-
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