The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-06-11
LAND GOING WHALES.
FACTS ABOUT THE BUSINESS or
KEEPING WHALES ALIVE ASHORE.

CsptussA che Two Whales which Were
BurnsA IT Bsrnum's The Snowman Tri.
umphs Ovsr the Observation-Disclosures Dif.
ncuit 20 Keep Alive In Captivity.
Professor II. d. Butler. w|lso brought
the two white whales now Ia the New
York aquarium from Riviero Ouelle,
near the mouth of tho 81. Lawrence
river, by railroad, In reUsnt interview
spoke M follows about his achievement;
'In ceiling You how I keep whale
alive On land, 1t will 'bs necessary for
me to give away one Of my professional
secrets. but I guess there is no reason
why shouldn't give 1t away. First
catch your whale. Then put him In q
box, open at the top snd lined with wet
seaweed. That will give him enough
moisture to keep him fairly comfortable.
Now comes the trick Of the trade-that
is, to keep his blowhole moisteued with
Q wet sponge. Of you know that
. whale IL not q flsh. He breathes air.
like any other animal. and he has only
one breathing passage, the blowhole.
he can't breathe through his mouth a.
aman can. and Il he caught bad cold
in his blowhole he would suffocate TOD
T, lack Of air. Now, II the baowhole dries
up 1t cannot relax and contract, hut
.stifRens up. and the WHALE promptly
/. dies. Therefore IL 10 necessary to keep it
constantly moist This requires little
water. In fact, think I didn't use
more than two pailfuls ON my two
whales In the 900 miles trip down.
That included . sponge bath apiece
twice day.
II remember very well my 1lrst
whale. That was about 30 years ago,
when was In the show businesa
was employed In Barnum's museum
heye, and ! also had IN aquarium in
Boston, where spent one week ont OF
the four. While I was there two men
named Tetu came fr0m the mouth Of
the st. Lawrence with two whales fro
zen solid. which they exhibited in q
building ON Chatham street. A neat
business they did, too, with those
whales. Eventually the whales were
dissected, and was present at the dis.
section. Although I was no scientist
only practical showman-I decided,
OH examining the internal economy Of
the subjects, that IL was practicable to
bring live whale to Boston. OF the
financial advantages OF such scheme ]
had no doubt.
"'H those fellows can make good
thing out Of dead whales, said, j
can make fortune ont Of live one
$50 went to see Professor Agassiz.
who was at that time at the height Of
his fame.
Professor, said /, how long will a
whale live out of water?'
"'Six hours, II 1t il q good, healthy
specimen, said he.
"'I'm going to bring one down here
by train from the gulf Of st. Lawrence
said. L believe I can keep him alive
during the journey
""Young man, said he, don't you
be fool. If you've got money to waste,
you can have better time with it than
that.
"But I felt certain, and so made ar
rangements with the Tetus to catch me
q whale in the spring. They caught me
a white whale, like the ones now in the
aquarium here, and got it as far as
Portland without any one finding out
about it. Then the newspapers got on,
and the Boston papers published dis
patches telling Of our progress along the
route. You'd have thought that whale
was member of royalty from the at
tention he attracted. That was the first
whale ever brought alive into America,
and everybody wanted to see 1t. l had a
special exhibition, at which Agassiz,
Longfellow, Wendell Phillips, Whittier,
William Lloyd Garrison, and other we'll
known people were present. In con-
graduating me Professor Agassiz said
L didn't think it could be done.
There Is nothing like believing in a
thing and then going on and doing it.
"No sooner had Mr.. Barnum heard OF
my whale than he came to me and said:
"'Hell, Butler (that was the only
profanity he ever used), why can't we
have q whale in the museum?
''At that time there seemed to be no
space for tank, but later put one in.
Meanwhile the Boston whale fourished,
and had a harness made for it, which
hitched to water chariot. The whale
would draw the chariot around the
tank, and any child that wished could
ride behind the monster. Meantime !
was busy having basin dug in the Gel
Lar Of Barnum's museum, at Ann street
and Broadway, New York. Another
whale was caught, and I brought it in.
How to keep the water in the tank fresh
was problem. We decided OH bold
course, and on Saturday night big
gang Of men were at work laying pipes
down Fulton street and through Wash
ington market to the river. 1t was done
by Monday morning, before nybody
had chance to get out an injunction
against us. A few people knew about IL,
among them the alderman Of the ward,
but the alderman-well, he was all
right. guess the pipe is there yet.
stG<n,, xuo had v,x,vv,vtnx o,,-,,,n