The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-11-06
TWO QUEER CHARACTERS.
The Man Who Can't BE KILLED, and the
Man Who Hunts Bear.

The Man Who Can't BE Killed, and the
Man Who Hunts Bear.
Correspondence of the Chicago Trfbunel
NEEDLE MINING DISTRICT, San Juan,
Colo, September=If a person fond of
pleasant vagabondage wishes to see a
great deal of very peculiar kind of
world in a short time, he should set his
face toward where the sun plays hide
and-seek among the San Juan Mount
aims. Not only is man around in all
sorts of shapes, with a bedrock of silver
and gold for all sorts of enterprises, but
the bfutes over which he is popularity
supposed to have dominion are gathered
into the argentiferous defiles as a last
ditch, resolved to dispute possession.
Nature, in many of the silyer-lined
canyons, disappointed in placing jagged
mountain and fretting torrent as threat
ening door and threshold before her
choice places, adopts the popular old
barbarous style of putting lions and
bears along the vestbule. And it is
''much richness - in a mining-camp to
hear the old graybeards, with an eye
non est or a mouth twitched sideways
from a disagreement with powder-keg,
tell of nip-and-tuck contests that were
g jest the naTrOwest escapes y that let a
fellow get out with barely enough anat-
omy left to swear by. There is one
| character here,
BIG DAVE,
now under treatment for the last of
dozen misfortunes. Miners affirm that
Nature has tired herself out trying to
kill him, and is occupied now in invent
/ ing a compound more deadly than Sci
ence dreams of. There is a fear, how
ever, that, if it tears Dave to pieces, it
will destroy the world also. This mans
/ struggles with Fate commenced two
! years ago, in a burning cabin near Sill
verton. He attempted to save key of
powder that was on fire, by carrying it
outside in his arms. The result was an
/ explosion which blew him through the
roof, and scattered the logs far and
wide, and was even powerful enough to
| knock down the hosting mule. Dave
escaped with singed eyebrows, and a
slap of one of the flying slaves that he
says reminded him of schOOlma' am
days. Early last winter he was in the
cabin on the Highland Mary mountain
side, when the snOw-slide came down
which killed his three companions. 1t
knocked Dave into the mouth of the
tunnel, where he was safe. a month
later, the inhabitants of Silverton were
startled by the roar of a loud slide on
Sultan Mountain. Looking out, they
saw Big Dave sliding ahead of the snow
on a pair of the snOw-shOes they make
here-a board about as long as
a canoe, slightly turned up at the
front. He beat the avalanche for a
hundred yards, until one of his shoes
struck a projecting stump and caused
David to turn somersets into an adjacent
ravine, where he was again saved.
Three months later, he fell down a 40
foot shaft; and the Superintendent af-
firms that he struck on a three-fOot
drill, and buried it so far in the rock
that they had to blast it out. This lat
ter part is, however, denied by few.
The last affair, and for which he is now
temporarily in bed at the hotel in Sill
verton, seems to have been last de
spairing effort of Nature to kill him
After firing a fuse in the Aspen Mine
he discovered that he had forgotten the
cap to his powder-can, and went back
after it. He found it, and was fired out
of the shaft with about three tons OF
blast-rOck. 1t has taken SilvertOn's two
doctors three days to extract the quartz
from Dawes frame, and he is now pro-
nounced good for little diversion with
nitrO-glycerine or lightning, or any 9th
er force which may wish to waste its
surplus energy.
grims,' - had an encounter in one of oul
canyons yesterday with three grizzlies
and last evening drew me to a miners
fireplace that l might learn all the
thrilling particulars of how BIS right
arm was g bitten clear to the bone
sir just at the critical point of tbs
narrative, where the bear as big as
an OK, sir was preparing to swallow
the pilgrim, and winking to his awe
stricken companions to stand in line fO1
their turn,
BIG ALECK
came in. B. A. is one of San Juan'S
characters, and would go hang himself
if any new conner got the drop on the
matter of hair-breadth affairs. 50 Stop
right there!'' quoth Aleck the Big
81 that amt nothin' to my fight with Old
ClubfOot. This ERE latter Individual
caved up in Arasta Gulch; and by some
misfortune probably by bein' turned
suddenly round. when he was very
young, by a mountain zephyr-a couple
of his feet were twisted wrong end to,
with the heels in front This caused q
lot of trouble, and great mortality
among the miners, as YOU never could
tell by his track which way the bear was
gOin' He was always hungry, and
always tearin' fellers up; and, when q
couple of the boys would strike on to
ClubfOOt's trail, they'd just draw lots
for directions. Then one would take up
the track and the other down, agreein'
beforehand that the one who was wrong
should be remembered to his wife and
friends by the survivor. As the bear
was travelin' round pretty frequent, and
the man who took the right end of the
track one day, might miss his guess the
next, it was concluded that l, haVin' the
most experience with bar, should APP
point myself a vigilance committee to
sit on the case. So | bought two gal
Ions of 40-rod whisky and three gallons
that would hold it when mixed. Bears
are powerful fond of sweets, and knew,
If | got Old Club drunk, l could fix him. -
At this point Aleck the Big was inter-
cepted by thin, cadaverous figure, in
tattered clothing, who had entered from
the chill outside air, and was bending
over the small sheet-irOn stove to absorb
heat. His form curled over the radia-
tor in half-circle, like dropping sun
flower, and he murmured: :" / heerd
about you, Aleck, in them days; and
mighty small chance was there for a
bar to get drunk with you standin' near
the trough of rum an merlasses. You'd
take three drinks to his'u one.''
b. A. locked at the attenuated figure
that was bending closer over the stove.
and-merely remarking in an advisory
tone, - You'd better turn t'Other side to
the fire, stranger, or you'll warp all out of
shape, and I'd likewise observe that
you'd rather tell a lie on credit than tell