Sharp County record., 1903-04-10

"Kearncy had a schooner, the Lad,
Miue, that used to be a pilot boat, an'
would sail in any Kind of weather tha'
nyin fish would live in. We crIiS et
around in the northwest trades 70!
awhile loOkin' for 81 crm calf, for kear
ney said that to get the best results
from education you must catch 'en
young.
"I won't bore you tellin' about that
cruise, though il would make might :
good story itself, but at last we caught
our calf arl h'isted him into a tnrh
on deck. kearney named him .1tIH
Willie, after a kid Of his own. Then
we put for the reef, which had a smooth
lagoon inside Of it, and was altogether
as well cut out for a whale academ as
any place YOU could find i'll the geog-
raphy.
"Kelrney's idee was to use his
whales mostly for rams, though some
times for torpedo boats. SO he had a
harness fitted over Little Willie's head,
with steel spur in front, and he
trained him to 60 full tilt at an old
hulk that was moored for target.
GLOW did he make him do it? Why,
every time little Willie would hit the
hulk fair and square, Kearney would
give him lump Of sugar. You don't
mean to say you didn't know that
whales liked sugar. Next time you
meet one, you just offer him lump
and see what he does.
"Well, as things went on the expert
ment seemed to be a success. Little
Willie absorbed education as if his
father had been college president
He would lie pointing at the target
with his tiukes a-quiverin' like cats
tail when she's watching for a mouse.
and then when Keurney would give IL
signal by proddin' him with harpoon
he would shoot forward like a bullet
and hit that hulk swipe that would
rattle it like dynamite blast. Then
he would swim back, happy and proud,
for his sugar. with smile on his face
1hat would take in four-horSe truck.
Sometimes kearney would rig him
mp with a spar torpedo, and he was
trained to strp at them times and back
away AS soon as the spar touch ed the
target.
We'll. was worried all the time, for
] didn't know where oil this was goin'
to end. Little Willie kept CROWN big
ger and bigger, and we had to keep
fttin' him with new ram bows in place
of those he'd outgrown and gettin'
more hulks to take the places of those
he was smashing into kindlin'. 1t
looked to me as if there was trouble
ahead, and sure enough there was.
"One day kearney was in a bad hu-
NOR and aEsent1minded When he
started ont for target practice he
iabbed Little Willie with the harpoon
before he got him headed in the right
direction. Off he shot, as he'd been
taught.
"Kearney tried to call him back. but
You know yourself It wasn't reason
able to exnect he'd hear it. In anothet
minute Little Willie had smashed clean
through the side of the Lady Mine,
and then he came back, innocent and
self-satisfed, for his sugar.
"Well, you never saw man so crazy
with rage as what Kearney was. Al
Though the thing was entirely his own
fault. he laid it all to that poor in
offensive beast. and when Little VII
lie swum up, expectin' TO be praised
and rewarded, as he had perfect
right to. Kearney yelled: Get away,
you lnbber!' and give him . kick.
"WeIl. you know little Willie neve~
had such an Insult before. and II
Knocked him all in a heap. He looked
Mt us reproachful for a minute. and
then he turned around on his tail, dig
nifed and deliberate. and put to sea.
We never seen him again.
"Now you see what happened to the
Kathleen, don't you? The whale was
4 layin' head on the shin when thev
trun the harpoon into him. He took
that for the signal, and without stow
pin to think he carried out his train
in.
"And I'm bettin' that il those men
hadn't been too flustered to look,
they'd have seen that there whale
had on ram bow."--N. Y. Sun.