The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-10-03
WHALES NOT IN DEMAND
FEW LEVlATHANs LEFT AND THEY
ARE NOT MUCH HUNTED.

For the whale these are. in the Ian
guage OF Jack Miller's farewell, Hap
Ply days and many of EN- exclaims
the Boston Evening Transcript. After
o strenuous life of four centuries this
IL the colee-and-cigars, the easy-chair-
andslippers period Of his existence.
Since the time when Columbus crossed
the Atlantic he has been hunted and
harried from Arctic pillar TO tropic
post, but the economic cycle has passed
and for the present the whale is en-
1oying a period Of comparative secur-
ity, when he may roam the waters in
peace, multiply and people once more
the depleted seas. Let none begrudge
him his repose. The whale deserves
well Of the world. What he has in his
| humble way contributed TO the intel
lectual development of the human race
only the imaginative can compute, only
the ungrateful deny. For four cen
turtles he fed the scholars lamp and
the victor's torch. For so much of
! literature and of science as we owe to
midnight OIL the thoughtful and the
generous will give the whale due cred
it. But the service he has long per-
formed is now done better by another
agency, and he enjoys a comparative
ly unmolested rest.
One day last March a tale came up
from the tropics as weird as the rank
est yarn that ever came out of
fo'c's'le but verified as accurately as
a government report. The New Bed
ford whaling bark Kathleen was float
ing calmly in a placid sea, when she
caught the attention of a giant fin
back. He swan up in his majestic
way, and when within a few yards of
the ship he dived just below the sur
face and moved slowly beneath the
keel Then he rose quickly and saw
agely, in the manner of a bucking
bronco, until the ship was sheer above
the water 1t toppled over on it's side,
the whale moved on a few feet and
then, with an angry flip of his tail,
knocked the bark to smithereens.
Now, that may be considered the des-
perate parting shot of maddened,
long-hunted fugitive, the climax of an
ancient feud. Only in order to look on
it in this way, we shall have to give
the whale credit for carrying about in
that huge head Of his kind of Mach
iavellian subtlety and a mind for deep
planned revenge. And as every old
whaler knows, the only thing in a
whales head is some three or four
tons of liquid spermaceti, worth in
the New Bedford market about $50 a
barrel. 1t is a pity this prosaic fact
is so, for it forbids us to indulge in
the poetic fancy of imagining the
whale as entertaining feeling OF
gratitude to the Standard Oil COM
pany and erecting monuments in the
deep to the glory Of John D. Rookie
Teller, Who is chiefly responsible for
his emancipation, The petroleum age
for the world spells golden age fol
the whale
Down on the ancient business streets
Of Boston, Purchase, High and India
and along the old wharves, you will
find a score perhaps of weather-beat
en- gilt signs which proclaim that
those within sell, among other things
Sperm and whale-oil, sperm candles
and whalebone." But those signs tel
not the truth. They are signs of moth.
ing at all but the conservatism of the
Boston business man, who changes his
wares to meet new demands, bu
changes not his sign above him. The
prowling newspaper man who asks
the junior partner for information
about the whale-oil trade is met BY
an amazed stare and a half-indignan
Great Scott, man, wake up; this il
1902. We don't deal in whale-Oil. W.
sell mineral oils" And when you cal
his attention to the sign which h.
has seen with unseeing eyes these
twenty years he explains that that il
Of the past, and refers you to "Smitl
& Co., around on India square-the.
handle the whale-oil, / think" An,
then Smith, the commission dealer
says: 1--WE don't carry any whale-oil
OH yes, there is an old fellow out il
central New York that orders a barre
once every six months or so. We or
der it for him from New Bedford, Blu
J we don't know what he does with ii
Some old Rip Van Wrinkle, I guess
/ that sticks to the old ways"
/ After diligent search you find tn
one or two houses that do make
business of whale products, and yor
! learn that there is now just. one stapl
/ use for sperm oil-miners lamps
Q Then, too, a few railroad companie
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