The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1914-07-10
WHALE OIL GUS Tells
STORY OFllFE EVENTS


tty euss, says Whale OIL GUS"
seware the most gigantic whale when
= like a fail he heats HE tail,
Bat a., open boat on a swelling sea
With the crew .afioat, no land TO see
Ard a paln In your stumniek that
snaws and enaws -
Like the tooth OF a shark or an ooto-
pus' claws, :, .s.-.-.
No water TO drink, not even beer,
Or. perhaps to make my meaning
clear,
! ortsr 80. .... .--.,
Say no beer to drink, not even water,
And think you'll all with me agree
That a hi Of a place 10 the bowling
sea $780,. .-..
With no port In sight, not even In
bottles, ...
A hunger that saaws and a thirst
that ,throttles.
I've sseen the time, says ."Whale OIL
Gus" o.. :. ~r
When think I'D eat an octopus.
Il
Whale OH GUS" whose marine ex-
periences would All two shelves OF
q large bookcase, is at the Workman
carnival. You can meet him any
afternoon or evening In the curiosity
department, where he has charge.
This Is where you see the lady who
handles the snakes, the young man
who eats a banana under water and
the untamahle lioness who is said
to have devoured three men.
Captain August Z. FoIger is the
mans real name and he has seen
more exciting ordinary experiences
than almost any one thousand ordi.
nary people put together. He is sixty
i've. years OF age, yet not q single
gray hair is to be found In the album
dant foliage OF black, which covers
his Uranium. He was born In Nam
tucket and spent eighteen years on
whaling voyages. His father was be.
fore him a .whaler for twenty-five
years and his grandfather for forty.
four years, so the instinct came ma.
turally to Whale on, Gus" Incident
ally, Captain -Folgefs uncle was the
late Charles T.. Folger. secretary. Of
the treasury under President Arthur,
The stories of adventure related
by Captain Folger. included many
.shipwrecks, the most entertaining
narrative of the lot being about
the killing and eating of a fellow
workman after eight days of starva.
tion in an open boat.
MY first voyage was out of New
Bedford, Mass" said Captain FolRer
today. ''on the bark, Mount Wallas-
ton. We, were out four years and
during the voyage / saw six men
killed by whales and two die a ma.
tural death. One, night I fell 800
feet from masthead into the water
and fioated and swan about for four.
teen hours before l was sighted and
picked up. After that l was uncon-
scious for four days. Altogether I
nave been thrown In the air sixty
four times by whales and have seen
forty-two men killed around me. The
Whaie does his dirty work with his
TAN entirely, not with his mouth.
nave never had scratch myself
IN any OF these encounters.
seven ,dinerent times l have been
wrecked the worst experience being
In the Arctic ocean in 1871, when
thirty-seven whale ships were crush
ed In the Ice. spent five days on
an iceberg then, with nothing To eat
or drink, and was finally rescued
and taken to San francisco and came
home overland. ~.
Frishtful Experience.
The most frightful experience
ever had was on my third voyage.
wnen We were fast to. a ,l2Q=barrel
whale for six days and finally broke
away, drifting about for two days
more. all that time without food or
drink. We finally drew lots to see
who should die and the lot fell to
Henry Poilet, son of the captain
He was killed with .row.lock, and
the captain himself ate a portion of
his own son. o..
I How does It taste? I don't know.
After you've been that long without
food you can't taste anything. Two
hours after the last morsel of that