The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-03
TIE DEADEST WHALE EVER.
,n>G MACH DEMORALIZED BY
VISITOR FROM THE SEA.
mi, Folks From Long Island City Able
to stand Atmosphere Win Equanlmity
BOARD OF Health Appealed To Drug
store Wan Does a Rushing business.

BOARD OF Health Appealed TO--Drug
store Wan Does Rushing business
,oyo BEACH. l.. l., July 2.-There is'
,hale on the beach just of the Long Beach
uo,el It is a dead whale. 1t is the deadest
rb.le that there ever was in the world.
. hind man could tell that without asking
single question. The deafness of the
rbala was a feature Of the beach to-day.
o,e might think that the mere fact of the
arrival If any sort of whale of a summer
re.o-t would be the most important thing
that could happen in season; In this case,
,beimnorrance Of the arrival Of the leviathan
il nothing in comparison with the super
obpndant evidence of the fact that it is
yerv very dead
Long Beach Hotel fronts an eighth of a
mile stretch Of low. sedge grown sandhills
uhch slore down in wide stretch of gray
~ ,he tumhlng surf. Far off on the heav-
inc green rollers steamships trail their
smoke IN across the blue sky. The winds
come sweeping in from over the salt spray
NJ the white caps. Altogether there could
hardly he a more advantageous seat for
the tired city worker on a gray Sunday.
Few indeed however, were the guests
NJ the hotel who could he found on that
broad south porch yesterday afternoon.
These few seemed to have very bad colds
or equally bad cigars. The other side of
the hotel looks landward, across rather
undressing salt meadows, to the fishing
shacks and unlovely whitewashed hotels
which line the bay back of the peninsula
on which the hotel is built. There is no
in.piration in this view and little that is
refreshing about the hot vapors that float
W to the north porch from the kitchen.
But the north porch was crowded with peo-
Me Yesterday.
II wa, the only spot outdoors to which
the evidence Of the entirely deceased state
Of the whale did not permeate with it's full
strength II was there, but 1t was in
direct and modified. They were a silent
crowd, they read newspapers and maya
zines. they did fancy work; they sat with
their heads in their hands and brooded
There was something in the atmosphere
which made one hate his fellow man and
desire to exchange no views with him.
There was nothing to talk about except
the whale and nobody felt that the sub
iact was altogether decent Besides. it
seemed to he speaking for itself with great
disinctness.
Some of the porch sitters derived gloomy
satisfaction from Watching the road over
from East Rockaway, over which moved a
siraggling procession of country carryalls
and smart automobiles. Coming toward
the beach, these vehicles moved with an
even, becoming Sunday pace until they
reached a point in the road about nor nor
east of the hotel. Che wind, it should be
mentioned. was sou '-westD Then, as
though they had been struck physical
blow by some giant hand, they stopped
short for a moment.
Horses reared and paved the air. Auto
mobiles skidded no auto can run without
It's smell and for superfne, resuhlimated
smells the whale put out OF business the
worst gasoline motor ever built. Women
passengers ducked their heads into their
hands, and then when the first shock was
over drivers laid the lash to their beasts,
chaufeurs let out their machines to the last
notch and sped through the affected zone
with the desperation Of a Madison Square
half way through one Of Elijah Dowie's
sermons Few turned back, although a
whale is a rare sight even if it is dead
whale,
Along late in the day the news came
along that there was shark. or sturgeon,
or swordhsh or something of the sort about
mile farther up the beach. The an
interest.
is ia ALI" asked dozen voices, thorugh
dozen muff1ed noses.
oh, no." said the informant, they say
It's dead"
Silence reigned again on the north porch.
NOBODY was interested in the shark any
more 1t was n superiority. somehow
under the circumstances.
There was lots of mate rial for the study
Of air currents and other things of purely
scientific interest in the occasion. There
was spit in the air currents right at the
railroad station which caused it to be an
oasis Of odorlessness. Word reached the
Tat whale had come in shore at Long
Beach. BY this morning nobody within
twenty miles will need to be told-he'll
know it, Large numbers of people went
out to feast their ewes on the sight; II wasn't
the whales fault if they did not wish, be-
ito?n they went back. that they had left
tAtir noses at home.
They got of at the station and wdn-
dered ont toward the beach. The vagrant
WIND currents frequently contrived it so
that they got clear to the beach and we'll
into the crowd which vas gathered on the
sands down bv the tde-line without know
Ing that the whale was not of somewhere
beyond the bar, foundering in an effort
70 get bacl; 70 sea. The sightseer shaded
hl' eTos and looking far out toward the
horizon for the rising fountains like those
We used to see in the geography illustra-
uon'l which would reproduce in his breast
The emotions Of the New Bedford lookout
time
Thar she blows"
And then, and then. the wind would waver
mite east or west, the crowd would break
ana scatter like flushed covey of part
roges and the circumambiant would become
one vast overpowerinp essence of depa rted
whale
Amos invariably the seeker after knowl-
rrn,se would join the panic stricken rush
W men h" was ont of the direct path of the
Nourge. and not until then, would he stop
ana look back This is what he saw;
Al, A shapeless thing rolling in the curl of
.ne surf, shaking like a mold of jelly as
eanh wave struck it. 1t was about forty
lee. lee, long 4 forked tail ten fee, broad,
sashaG heavily to one side and the other
Guy Of the smother of foam. As it half
turned over the gray back disappeared,
ana dirty yellow belly, lined with dark
sulH" was turned toward the shore. Here
ana there along the side We're great holes
ri 'ha skin as big as the head of a barrel.
me whole thing hiilowed and shook from
esmno 10 end for all the world like half
anHd water bottle in a shallow basin of
.uuS' Now and then an onrushing wave |
,NEo ed he head of the thing; it had de-
;clIora'cd until the curved outline of the !
avs held out the skin.
mere we're some spectators who stood
VI an honr or more gathering JOY out of
ne, 'hIrGH. 1t was generally understood