The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-06
The Sheriff and the Bear.
From the st. Paul Dispatch of June o.,

Last evening bailiff Mullen, ofsthe Mu.
nlclpal Court, proceeded to the Sixth
Ward to manifest writ off attachment
for the goods and properties of the
Yankee Robinson show. Mullen had a
corps OF able assistants and after the
levy he kept vigilant watch during the
Silly night. Everything went smoothly
until he went to feed the animals this
morning. Jimmy is too faithful an officer
to allow any property to depreciate on
his hands, and of course it would not do
to allow the animals to die of starvation.
The most that Jimmy knows about the
habits OF bears has been derived from
reading restaurant advertisements Of bear
steaks. He therefore concluded that a
piece of bare beef steak ought to be pala-
table to his honor, Mr.. Bruin. Armed
with the beef and good intentions,
the faithful officer proceeded bare handed
to bruln s quarters. The beast is not ma.
licious, but decidedly playful and ready
for ''lun NIT ter poys' on any occasion.
Mullen extended the meat and paused for
a reply. He did not wait long. The
bear stood up on his hind legs
and used both paws. One gobbled
the meat and the other took the officer
by the coat collar. In vain he struggled
to escape. Bruin was evidently determ.
ined to s'kiss him for his mother -
Jimmy began to think of Daniel in the
lions den, Jonah in the whales belly,
and several other things he had learned
when he was a good little boy, and before
he became wicked bailif' in the Munich
pal Court. He forgot all about that beau
tiful song
'Press me closer, closer mother,
clasp your arms around me tight"
but he just incontinently yelled 'slet ME
co. He wanted to release his attach
ment for that bear. The more bruin
squeezed the more Jimmy was ready 20
declare that he had no attachment for
anything in the whole show. In his
frantic efforts to escape he even called
for ''water.' He didn't mean to drink
it, but he wanted fire engine or some.
thing to pump a slice Of the river upon
that particular bear. In less time than
| it takes to relate this, Jimmy's shouts
brought four or five of his assistants. AS
none of them were animal tanners they
did not know exactly what to do.
One Of them seized the bear by his stub
tail. Another conceived brilliant idea
and started to run to the nearest black.
smith shop, half a mile distant, for red
hot poker to put out the brute's eyes so
that they could get rope around his
neck and choke. him. Another one
started for the meat market
to get him something more palatable than
Mullens for breakfast, while third; ran
frantically about calling for the ''lion
tanner to come to the rescue Mullen,
under the pressure Of circumstances, was
white and black and blue and speckled
by t:rns. He wanted to 60 home. He
thought about those touching lines: +"
We shall meet and We shall miss him,
There will be one vacant chair,
when all of sudden the bear tired OF
his fun. He had not been educated in
Brooklyn, and didn't want to hug all the
time, so he released his grip,
and with torn coat and
bruised ribs Mullen gave one bound
which placed him twenty feet from the
bear, and as the assistant came in with
the red hot poker perfectly cooled in
transit) Jimmy waved fragment of his
shirt and shouted ''saved,' Saved" in a
voice which woke up all of the Sixth
Ward, including the Aldermen.