Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-11

~ ~
| can perceive for himself that 1t
t@94&$I was and is still a whaling town.
Trolley cars, a great deal more
handsome 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 every
where are trim, lively business folk. When
an occasional whaler comes in a good pro-
portion OF the population wanders down to
1.-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 WISH
tor who becomes acquainted with the pros
porous citizens soon learns to express no
surprise when a dignifed, elegant man Of
affairs breaks in the middle of a discussion
Of the latest novel or the newest phase of
finances 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 bustling establish
ment, and the chances are that the keen
business man who owns it can tell you all
about whales-right, sperm, bowhead, fin
back and sulphur bottom-from personal
knowledge.
Walk into the biggest clothing establish
ment 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 ia
nous a quarter of a century ago, and all
cruising somewhere in far seas today hunt
ing the old sea king.
The writer, visiting New Bedford re-
Gently, called on one of the towns most
prominent business men on a Sunday night.
Ja found hin, rnoIinr n h;rt,,, 80 -. Il-
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-checked.
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. was
boat steerer and we got fast to a small
sperm. Well, sir, I laugh whenever I think of
1t. When he went into his furry he spewed
~ much blood and water over us that we
couldn't see, and we recovered only Just in
time to save the boat from sinking under
us, she was so full"
The preservation of New Bedford's old
NHdlPTS is evidence tnat whaling is to be
recommended as a road to health and
longevity. One meets persons who look as
If they were in the prime Of life, who will
talk feelingly and from direct personal ex-
perience of Alabama and Shenandoah, whose
daring commanders bounced like hawks on
New Bedford whalers in the Pacific and
Atlantic during the civil war.
One fine and clipper young person. who
owns a ship-breaking establishment near
the wharf, shakes his head sadly at the
mountains of iron junk and ship hardware
in front of his place and hanks back re-
g~retfully to the glorious time of 1850.
An says he, "you should have seen my
place then. Used to have junk piled I'D
from Union street clear away down to the
waters edge. Sometimes we would be
breaking up three or four ships at a time.
But those days have gone by"
wouldn't you like to go a-whaling once
more?"