The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-03-30
RODE A WHALE,
Colonel Jim Willis Experience or the
Coast Of North Carolina.

The piscatoria reporter will now
introduce Captain Jim Willis, who
will favor us with fish story, says
the Washington Star. Captain Jim
halls from Morehead City, N. c. At
this moment he is leaning against the
buffet at the Nolmandic, and this is
Whit he is saying:
"DOwn yOpder where live we have
all sorts of tlnny denizcns of the deep.
from minnows to whales. including
yachtmen. | don't propose to stuff
you with trout story, or to say any
thing to you about the size of a black
bass, because | am aware that there
are lot of land lubbcrs right here in
this city who can lie just about as
hard as anybody else in this particu-
lar line. can't tell yarn with any
bigger bass in it than the next fellow.
My speciality is the whale. I'd like to
bet 500 to a cent that when a request
for story comes round | can catch
bigger whale than anybody else.
"Bul throwing all jokes to the four
or even greater number of winds of
heaven, did have an experience with
whale that came nearer making a
Jonah out of me with the casting up
process omitted. One sunny after
noon, not very long ago, l was sitting
in the shade of my own fig tree and
swinging in my own grapevine swing.
It was one of those days when nature
takes an outing. A splash of water
was seen to seaward. A jet of the
ocean went up and fell back as spay.
| saw this, but was in too much of IA
rcvcric to trace causes.
"a party Of my fisher friends, who
lived further up the beach, came run
ming by, and as they passed me they
sang out, There she blows This cry
woke me up. Once more the jet Of
water spurted upward from the sea,
and down to the pier | rushed. a
whale is apt to create sensation in
any seaside community even though
there be no summer guests, because
there are always many hundreds of
dollars concealed on its person. 1t is
a red-letter event in local annals when
a whale comes in. The saloon keepers
especially make merry over the arrival.
This kind of guests, however, are SO
few and far between at Morehead that
accommodation for them was rather
below the standard.
sour reception facilities in this
particular instance were so Inadequate
that it was long an open question
whether that whale would or would
not conclude to settle in our town.
1t was only by luck and through no
particular preference of his own that
he did so. The town only boasted OF
two harpoon outfits. One was an an
cicpt harpO0n gun that years before
had been found by wreckers on board
the hulk Of Il South Sea wlaler which
had gone on our coast while bound to
New Bedford, and the other was
very primitive hand power harpoOn
rig. There wasn'ta real whalebOat in
the town, but four ordinary fishing
boats were manned by as many crews.
One carried the harpoOn gun and one
the Handwriting apparatus. The
other two were without any arma.
ment, except shotguns and one or two
rifles.
ut was almost hopeless cas- with
us, for II a whale is not hit In the
vltals he will go down, to come tn the
surface In q distant part Of the sea,
When one Ia struck IN the vitals he
spouts or blows blood, and then floats
into eternity. We rowcd on so as to
come AT the game trom different