The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-24
WHALING TOWN
IS new BEDFORD
Old Timers Story of the
Trade That Conferred
There.

BOSTON, Mass, Jan. %. A man
has to spend some time in New Bed
ford nowadays before he can perceive
for himself that it was and is still a
whaling town.
Trolley cars, a great deal more hand
some and convenient and much faster
than those of vain New York, whisk
the visitor through a pretty city Of
shops and big buildings. The people
one sees everywhere are trim, lively
business folk. When an occasional
whaler comes in a good proportion Of
the population wanders down to the
ancient wharves and gazes at the ship
with as much curiosity and ignorance
as the visitor from far away.
But underneath the surface whale"
still permeates the real New Bedford.
The visitor who becomes acquainted
with the prosperous citizen soon learns
to express no surprise when a digniied.
elegant man of affairs breaks in the
middle of a discussion of the latest
novel or the newest phase of finance
in Wall street to remark, apropos OF
something, that it reminds him of the
time when he got the iron into a bull
sperm off the cape.
Drop into a modern, bustIing eStab-
lishment and the chances are that the
keen business man who owns it cal.
tell you all about whales-right, sperm,
bowhead, inback and sulphur bottom
from personal knowledge.
Walk into the biggest clothing es-
adjustment of the town and in the
rear Office you will see a row of green
wooden boxes, each box bearing on it
the name of a whaling ship-several
Of them vessels that were famous a
quarter of a century ago and all cruis-
ers somewhere in far seas today hunt
ing the old sea kings.
The writer visiting New Bedford re-
Gently called on one Of the towns most
prominent business men on a Sunday
night. He found him reading a history
of whaling. For three hours the man
Of affairs lay in his chair and talked
of great whales and great ships-ships
that long ago sank in unknown seas
or were flung on strange shores or
smashed and splintered in the Arctic
or Antarctic ice.
While he was talking a rosy-cheeked
middle-aged man, dressed in the height
Of style, dropped in. He was a bank
president. After a few moments of
conversation he laughed:
Reminds me of my last voyage I
was a boat steerer and we got fast to a
small sperm. Well, sir, I laugh when
ever I think of it. When we went into
his furry he spewed so much blood
and water over US that we couldn't see
and we recovered only just in time to
ia the boa from sinking under us,
she was so full"
The preservation of New Bedford's
old whalers is evidence that whaling
is to be recommended as a road TO
health and longevity. One meets per-
SON who look as if they were in the
prime of life, who will talk feeIing1y
and from direct personal experience Of
the Alabama and Shenandoah, whose
daring commander bounced like hawks
on New Bedford Whalers in the Pa
cifc and Atlantic during the Civil war.
One fine and clipper young person,
who owns a ship-breaking establish
ment near the wharf, shakes his head
sadly at the mountains of iron, junk
and ship hardware in front of his place
and hanks back regretfully to the glori-
Gus time Of 1850.
"Ah," says he, you should have seen
my place then. Used to have junk
piled up from Union street clear away
down to the waters edge. Sometimes
we would be breaking up three or four
ships at a tine. But those days have
gone by"
Wouldn't you like to go a-whaling
one more?"
Dunno = dunno. Think, though,
sometimes, that l just will take oEe
more cruise and get the smell of sperm
into my old nose"
He confesses to seventy birthdays.
Like the old, are h new. One
doesn't see the crews of whalers roll,
ing" through the streets, with the eX-
ception of an occasional Portuguese
IL uhn cvUinO pc hid 1.-the foil hn6U
along like an old-time sailor with
sheath knife dangling at his hip.
The majority of the whalers, once off
the ship, hasten to put on the best of
clothes, and the day after arrival one
may rub shoulders with natty young
men in creased trousers n patent
leather shoes and stylish hats, and
never dream that a month or two be-
fore they went smoking through the