Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

Whence came they? how planted upon this once scraggy scoria of a country?

 

[Old Thunder]

Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion, and your question will be answered.

 

[Old Thunder]

Yes; all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

 

[Old Thunder]

One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea.

 

[Old Thunder]

Can Herr Alexander* perform a feat like that?

*Popular magician of the time.

 

[Old Thunder]

In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece.

 

[Old Thunder]

You must go to New Bedford to see a brilliant wedding; for, they say, they have reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.

 

[Old Thunder]

In summer time, the town is sweet to see; full of fine maples -- long avenues of green and gold.

 

[Old Thunder]

And in April, high in air, the beautiful and bountiful horse-chestnuts, candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by their tapering upright cones of congregated blossoms.

 

[Old Thunder]

So omnipotent is art; which in many a district of New Bedford has superinduced bright terraces of flowers upon the barren refuse rocks thrown aside at creation's final day.