Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-11-04
THE FALL OF A SEA MONARCH.
BY FRANK T. BULLEN.

the great sun issued forth of his
| chamber, and all the wild sea basked
! in his beams with million, million
smiles. Save the sea and the sun and
! the sky, there was nought apparently
eXisting-it might well have been the
birthday of Light. The one prevail
| ing characteristic of the scene to a
human eye, had one been there to see,
! was peace-perfect, stainless peace.
Yet beneath that sea of smiling, placid
beauty a war of unending ferocity
was being waged, truceless, merciless;
for unto the victors belonged the
| spoils, and without them they must
perish-there was none other food to
be gotten.
But besides all this ruthless war
fare, carried on inevitably, because
without it all must die of hunger,
| there were other causes Of conflict,
matters of high policy and more in
| tricate motive than just the blind, all
/ compelling pressure of hunger. The
| glowing surface of that morning sea
was suddenly disturbed Simultaneous
| ~ at lhlls pOlhto, etilu llhO eloStbbllito
incense the bushy breathings of some
scores of whales became visible. Per-
| fectly at their ease, since their in
stincts assured them that from this
| silent sea their only enemy was alb
sent, they lay in unstudied grace
about the sparkling waters, the COWS
and youngsters frivoling happily to-
! gether in perfect freedom from care.
Hither they had come from one of
their richest feeding grounds, where
all had laid in a stock of energy suf-
ficient to carry them half around the
globe without WEAKNESS. So they
were fat with great richness, strong
with incalculable strength, and be-
cause of these things they were now
about to settle a most momentous
question.
Apart from the main gathering of
| females and calves by the space of
about mile lay five individuals, who
from their enormous superiority in
size. no less than the staid gravity
of their demeanor, were evidently the
adult males of the school. They lay
almost motionless in the figure of a
baseless triangle, whereof the apex
was a magnificent bull over 10 feet
in length, with a back like some keel
less ship, bottom up, and a head huge
and square as a railway car. He it
was who first broke the stiffness that
reigned
Slowly raising his awful front with
its down-hanging 20-foot lower jaw
exposing two cleaning rows of curved
teeth, he said
Children, ye have chosen the time
and the place for your impeachment
of my over-lordship, and | am ready.
Well l wot that ye do but as our
changeless laws decree; that the choice
of your actions rest not with your
selves; that although ye feel lords
of yourselves and desirous of ruling
all your fellows, it is but under the
compelling pressure of our hereditary
instincts. Yet remember, pray you,
before ye combine to drive me from
among ye, for how many generations
| have led the school, how wisely |
have chosen our paths, so that we are
still an unbroken family, as we have
been for more than a hundred sea-
sons. And if ye must bring your
powers to test now, remember, too,
that l am no weakling, no dotard
weary of rule, but mightiest among
all our people, conquerer in more than
q thousand battles, wise with the ac-
cumulated knowledge of a hundred
generations of monarchy. Certainly
the day of my displacement must
come; who should know that better
than I? But methinks it has not yet
dawned, and l would not have We
lightly pit your immature strength
against mine, courting inevitable de-
structlon. Ponder well my words, for
l have spoken"
A solemn hush ensued, just empha-
sized by the slumbrous sound of the
sparkling wavelets tapping those
mighty forms as they lay all notion
less and apparently inert Yet it had
been easy to see that along each bas-
tion-like flank the rolling tendons.
each one cable in itself, were tense
and ready for instantaneous action
that the great muscle mounds We're
hardened around the gigantic masses
of bone, and that the flukes, each some
hundred feet in area, did not yield to
the heaving bosom of the swell, but
showed an almost imperceptible vi
bration as of fucus frond in a tide
rip. After perfect silence of some
Is minutes an answer came-from the
youngest Of the group, who lay re-
mote from the chief:
1--WE have heard, o king, the words
OF wisdom and our hearts rejoice.
Truly we have been of the fortunate
in this goodly realm, and ingrates in
deed should we be had our training
under so terrible a champion been
wasted upon us. But therefore it IS
that we would forestall the shame
that should oyertake us did we wait
until thy force had waned and that
| all-conquering might had dWindled