The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-08-09
THE BIG BEAR OF ARKANSAS.

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the New York ''IuJ, Field-and Farm"
1t is one of the best of the sort we have
seen for many day.
"Stranger," said he, "in bar hunts am
numerous, and which particular one, as
you say, shall tell, puzzles me. There
was the old she devil shot at the hurri-
cane last fall-then there was the old hog
thief I popped over at the Bloody Cross, S.
ing, and then. Yes, I have it, | will
give you an idea of hunt in which the
greatest bear was killed that ever lived,
none accepted about an old fellow that L
hunted, more or less, for two or three
years, and if that amt particular bar
hunt, 1 amt got one to tell. But in the
first place, stranger, Let me say that am
pleased with you, because you amt
ashamed to gain information by asking,
and listening, and that's what L say to
Countess pups every day when I'm home
and 1 have got great hopes OF them ar
pups, because they are continually noslag
about, and though they stick in sometimes
in the wrong place, they gain experience
anyhow, and may learn something useful
to boot. Well, as I was saying about this
big bar, you see when 1 and some more
first settled in our region, we were driven
to hunting naturally; we soon liked it,
and after that we found it an easy matter
to make the thing our business. One old
chap who had pioneered 'afore us, gave
us to understand that we had settled in
the right place. He dwelt upon its merits
until it was affecting, and showed US, to
prove his assertions, more marks on the
sassafras trees than I ever saw on tav-
ern door lection time who keeps that
ar reckoningr said I. 'The bar said he.
what for p said 1. Cant tell said he,
but so it is, the bar bite the bark and
wood too, at the highest point from the
ground they can reach, and you can tell
by the Marks said he, the length of the
bar to inch Enough said I, 1--we
learned something here already, and I'll
put it in practice Well, stranger, just
one month from that time killed bar,
and told its exact length before / meas
ured it, by those very marks-and when
did that Iswelled up considerable-Tve
been prouder ever since. So 1 went on,
larning something every day, until I was
reckoned buster, and allowed to be de-
cidedly the best bar hunter in my dis
trict; and that is reputation as much
harder to earn than to be reckoned first
man in Congress, as an iron ramrod is
harder than toad-stool. Did the var
mints grow over cunning, by being fooled
with by greenhorn hunters, and by this
means get troublesome, they send for me
as matter of course, and thus | do my
own hunting, and most of my neighbors
I walk into the varmints though, and it
has become about as much the same to
me as drinking. 1t is told in two SEN
tences-a bar is started, and he is killed.
The thing is somewhat monotonous now
Il know just how much they will run,
where they will tire, how much they will
growl, and what a laundering time I will
have in getting them home. I could give
you this history of the chase with all the
particulars at the commencement, [ know
the signs so we'll Stranger, Tn certain.
Once I met with match, though, and I
will tell you about it, for common hunt
would not be worth relating.
"On fine fall day, long time ago, 1
was trailing about for bar, and what
should see but fresh marks on the sas-
safras trees, about eight inches above any
in the forests that l knew Of Says 1,
them marks is hoax, or it indicates the
d-t bar that was ever grown. In fact,
stranger I couldn't believe it was real,
and I went on. Again / saw the marks,
and the same height, and kneao the thing
lived. That conviction came home to my
soul like an earthquake. Says |, here is
something a-purpose for me-that bar is
mine, or give up the hunting business.
The very nextmorning what should l see
but number of buzzards lowering over
nv corn field The rascal has been there,
1 said, for that sign is certain, and sure
enough, on examining found the bones
of what had been as beautiful q hog the
day before as was ever raised by Buck
eve. Then l tracked the critter out OF
the field to the woods, and all the marks
he left behind showed me that he was the