Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-12-29
BULLS AND BEARS.

An A Account of the sport in tho Early
Days OF CR,ifOFnla-Ehe Lament of
of the FaDdanRO ana the CnbsIle.
lOs.
Cor. Courier-JOurnalI
SAN Francisco. The star of
empire has played sad havoc with
the good old-fashioncd sports of
'49, that were wont in their day to
gladden. the hearts of primitive peo-
pie Of this great State; when bulls
and bears-not the bearded mus
tached throng, who congregate on
California street, clawing the air
and paving the ground-but verit-
able bulls with horns, and real
bears, descendants of thorough
bred, fighting stock, were fitted in
deadly conflict. All the old manly
sports Of pioneer days are obsolete,
and in their places we have polo,
baseball and walking matches.
The plumed brass-mounted cabal-
lero of former days is no more.
The richly caparisoned fiery little
mustang who could stop from run
at one jump, turn on his heel and
start in the opposite direction, has
lost his identity. In his stead we
have TIE greasy Americanized va
quero, or galvanized American, as
the case may be, in whom, mounted
on a lean, bony halfbreed, it would
be difficult to recognize the ideal
Spanish caballero of ancient knight
hood.
But the momory Of these ancient
sports fingers still in the hearts of
the pioneer. These were the days
when men lived in an atmosphere
of perpetual excitement. Up to
their eyes in pay-dirt all week, and
oat of the sluice box and away from
the "long ton" to witness a contest
to the death between bear and bull
on Sunday. There was a fascination
about one Of these bloody battles,
however shocking to the senses of
the refined humanitarian, which no
other sport could afford. One of
the last places to give up the sport
was the prosperous mining region
known as Bear Valley or Holcourt
Valley, situated in the Sierras about
sixty miles east Of San Bernardino.
The valley had one rich placer
ground, and the discovery attracted
u grand rush of miners, who
reached the place by following
la trail up the Santa Anna river,
t'+ence across a high mountain, As
in olI' mining camps, there were all
sorts of people, high class, low class
and middle ca,Ss; as Lorenzo Dow
would have expressed it, rag, tag,
and bobtail. The mountains were
full of cinnamon and grizzly becsrs'
and during the dry season quite a
number of cattle were driven to
Bear Valley, adjoining HolcOurt,
to pasture. AS late as 1862 this
sport was kept up in this out-of-
the-way mountain camp, where the
officers of the law were not numer-
Gus, and the society for prevention,
etc, had not yet lodged an organi-
zation to harass the innocent pleas
ures of the miners. 1t was here
that Bully Morris and his gang of
horse thieves and cut-throats had
their rendezvous under prepare.
ton to go South to fight the
battles OF the Coniederacy. 1t
was II rough set, take the
the community as whole, and
would have been a fruitful field for
missionary labos. After tie first
excitement over the discovery OF
new diggings, the denizens began
to yearn for amusement Of some
kind. TO be sure the Spanish fan
dango house was a feature almost
from the beginning; here the low
ers Of riot could witness dancing
and duels at the same time. But
even this grew wearisome. The
monotonous story, "man shot" or
"man stabbed" or "man butcher
ed" grew tiresome, and the brawny
miners yeaned for something to
laugh at 1t was then that the
bull.pit was built, and everybody
turned out with AK and spade TO
prepare the huge staucheons and