The Drunken Sea Lion of Olympia
An intoxicated 800-pound sea lion is captured after a bender on crude oil.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
After having been engaged in a wild debauch on crude petroleum and having crept beneath a dock to meditate upon its excesses, an 800-pound sea lion is in captivity today on the waterfront. The big sea monster, which was lassoed yesterday while in a shocking state of intoxication, has been hoisted to a warehouse where it is now on exhibition. Yesterday a scow loaded with crude oil discharged its cargo at the docks. In the discharging process a large amount of the oil escaped and covered the surface of the water. The sea lion, catching the scent of the oil, mistook it for some rare delicacy. After swimming about near the surface it was able to accumulate enough crude oil to last a life time. After the first exhilaration had worn off the sea lion became deathly sick and crawled beneath the dock to regret its jag. Several boatmen then planned and effected the capture. So brisk was the demand to see the intemperate lion that its captors charged an admission fee and reaped a harvest of dimes.
“After the first exhilaration had worn off the sea lion became deathly sick and crawled beneath the dock to regret its jag.”
Environmental disasters on the waterfront were once treated as grotesque entertainment spectacles. Today, the cleanup of crude oil would spark an immediate federal response rather than a circus sideshow.
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