The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-02-18

1T is placed In a steam box for about
a week. Subjected to this treatment,
1T cuts like cheese, and may be sliced
into strips of any size and length that
the manufacturer may desire. Each
strip seems to be composed of three
s~trata-the two outside layers being Il
sort of enamel, used for dress stays,
and the inside layer, rather coarser and
hnown as the grain for corsets.
No story of the whalebone industry
would be complete without mention of
he man who has acquired control of
his commodity-Edgar r. Lewis.
When a young man. MIR. Lewis entered
he business Of his father. William
Lewis, one of the old time whaling
merchants of New Bedford. Al that
time the firm handled only the bone
taken by its own vessels. Young Lewis
saw early the possibilities in having q
monopoly of the trade, and from that
m on worked toward that n His
first step was to learn the business
from top to bottom. DOMINIC overalls
with the workmen in his fathers en-
ploy, learning to scrape and tie bones
and improving on the methods then in
use. Having mastered these details,
he began getting control OF the catch
of other vessels. Today the bono taken
by the Pacific Steam Whaling COM
pany. the Chilean whalers and those
which &C to the Okhotsk and China seas
come under his hand. While through
European agents he acquires the eaten
of the Dundee whalers of Scotland,
those hardy seamen of whom Kipling
sings in The Last Chantey."
up spake the soul of u gray Gotham
'Speckshionel-
lde that led the 1linching in the fleets OF
fair Dundee):
oh, the ice-blink white and clear
And the bowhead preaching near.
VIII ye, wheln: them all for wantonness
that wallow in the sea-"
So complete is Mr.. Lewis monopoly
that today he controls all the whale
bone in the world in first hands.
Practically speaking all of the last
catch of w~halebone came from the Arc
tic, and it is on the luck OF the Arctic
Mhalemen that the price of the COM
modify depends. While the whaling in
dustry has fallen into decay as COM
pared with the time when over zoo YES
sells We're engaged in it, it remains the
most romantic and the most perilous
calling which me now pursue. And of
the two kinds of whaling-sperm and
bone-the latter is the more perilous,
because, added to the risk which al
ways attends struggles With the levia-
than, IS the even greater danger from
Ice in the frozen ocean of the North.
The history of Arctic whaling is I'LL
of disasters which have cost the lives
OF many men and destroyed hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of ships
Yet, in spite of the danger, men are
easily found to engage in the business
the best and most fearless n~avigators
on the seven seas.
The value of the bowhead. from
which most of the bone is secured,
was discovered by Captain Geo. A.
Covell. of New Bedford, while fishing
III the Oshotsk sea. He struck one of
the species and succeeded with little
difficulty in killing it.. Before cutting
in he estimated that the whale would
yield about 10 barrels. but instead il
made over $50 barrels with bone in
proportion. From that time on the
pursuit of the bowhead became an i'm
portant part of the whaling industry.
In lSsS a Sag harbor whaler. the Su-
perior, was the first to pass through
Boring straits into the Arctic. This
was the beginning of Arctic whaling,
which has been prosecuted ever since
with varying success. AT first sailing
vessels We're used, as in sperm whaling
today, but the scarcity Of whales and
the danger of the long cruises to the
eastward, whittier most of the bow
heads had been driven by the relent-
less hunters, made the work too peril
Gus for sailing vessels and the modern
steam whalers We're substituted.
Hardly a year passes without some
disaster in the Arctic. but the most
memorable occurred in 1871. when 81
New Bedford vessels. crushed to pieces
or frozen solidly in the ice, We're aban-
doned. Twelve hunare seamen were
shipwrecked: but all We're ultimately
rescued. while the property loss III
ships, bone and oil WAS 81. DOC, 600. In lS7t
IL vessels were lost in the ice. and in
1889 five more were abandoned. The
record Of men and ships lost is ap-
palling, but the lure OF the profits
which attend a successful voyage
draws men into the business. One or
binary sized bowhead will yield $40, 600
and captains have come down from the
Arctic in the spring with cargoes val
ued a. high as $225. 900.
That a business so dangerous should
have produced heroes whose names
would be famous the world over had
they been Arctic explorers is but nat.
ural. Perhaps the most conspicuous
example is George Fred Tilton. captain
Of steam whaler Belvedere. 1t was II
1898 that Tilton performed a feat which
the more famous explorers would no
have dreamed of attempting under sir
liar circumstances. The whaling fee
OF eight vessels became caught in the