The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20
a PRIOR CLAIM ON A BEAR.

One that Has a Canvas Sleeve, Some Arm, u
Ramrod, and Is Short an Ear.
New York sun.
Il read in the Sun the other morning that some
Jerseymen and parties from other places were
scattered through the woods of Porter township,
Pike county, Pennsylvania, on the lookout for a
big bear that has been giving the hunters the
slip Tor a week or so up there. Now, l don't
know whether they will succeed in killing that
bear or not, but if they do, and it has in its pos
session the sleeve of a canvas hunting-coat and
quite a respectable slice out Of the arm that was
in the sleeve when the bear took possession of it,
want to give notice that l will lay claim to o
share of such bear. If it has the articles, it viii
also be short one ear, and will have through its
back, a foot or so in front of its tail, one hickory
ramrod, or portion thereof"
Warren Wainwright, secretary of the new
Morris Powder Company, with his left forearm
bandaged, aad several prominent scratches on his
face, spoke as above to a Sun reporter.
Il am no hunter" he continued, but 1 went
up to Pike county with a party of friends, last
Monday, just for the novelty of the thing. They
were after deer. We went to StrOudsburg, aud
then drove thirty miles up in the mountains,
and put up in an old log cabin in the woods.
They told me we were in Porter township, where
they cast fourteen votes when they get the vo-
tiers all out. 1t was night when we got there,
and after my friends cooked supper we went to
bed. The bed was a bundle of straw TO lie on,
with a blanket to cover yourself up with. My
friends told me if l heard any noise outside dur
ing the night to not mind it, as il wouldn't like
ly be anything but a trying to get in
after something to eat. This made me sleep
splendidly, Of course, and l heard catamounts
all night.
Next day the party went out to get a deer. I
went out, too. l had a double barreled muzzle-
loading gun. They stood me up against a tree
about three miles from the cabin, and told me
that was a runway, and that pretty soon they
would very likely drive q deer off the ridge, and
1t might come my way, and if it did l must give
1t both barrels behind the left shoulder. | stood
there an hour or so, and no deer came along. L
got cold and built a fire, stood my gun up against
a tree, and laid down on the moss to take a
smoke. While l laid there l heard the dogs
barking, and, looking up, saw a calf coming
along toward me as tight as it could run. l won
dered where the duce a calf could come from
around there, and watched it as it went by me
not more than twenty feet away. Isuppose that
calf had maybe got a mile or so away before it
began to open on to me that it was a deer, and
then | felt a little streaked, and made up my
mind to make a break for the cabin, and tell the
other boys when they got in that l was taken
sick and couldn't stand it on the runway any
longer.
THE idea that I couldn't walk straight to the
cabin never entered my head, and if it had 1
would have laughed at it. The cabins right
over there, | said to myself, and off l started
for it. walked a good ways, and finally came
plumb up against a pile of ROCKS more than a
hundred feet high, and extending along the face
of the country as far as | could see. j backed
out of that and turned off to the right. l failed
TO run across any IatlIlIar l&UQmArkS, ara th6
first thing | knew went kersouse into a swamp
hole up to my waist. 1t took me about half an
hour to pull myself out of the muck, and then
| turned off to the left, and found the going so
easy that L felt l couldn't b. more than a few
steps away from the cabin. Well, my friend,
when night began to fall | was walking yet. l
don't know how much of Porter township L
covered that day, but if l didn't take it all in it
must be bigger than some States. l sat down
on a rock and expressed my opinion Of
deer hunting in plain, unvarnlshed English.
l was wet and cold, and had used up all my
matches in lighting my pipe. l had resigned
myself to my fate, whether it might be death by
exposure, bears or catamounts, when l heard
some one shout my name off to my right. an
swered, and started on a run in the direction of
the sound. l hadn't gone twenty feet when 1
came plump out on to the sDot where the cabin
was. The boys had just got in and missed me.
They had a deer, and so | didn't say anything
about the one l didn't get
The next morning I was so stiff I could
scarcely move, and l made up nay mind to lay
low in the cabin all day, The others went out
to get another deer. Along in the afternoon I
felt better, and concluded that 1 would go out
and pass the time by shooting at a mark. I
went off into the woods a hundred yards or SO,
and, putting a piece OF paper on a tree, walked q
short distance and blazed away at it. The re-
port was followed by what thought were twenty
different peals of thunder, and then l heard
some one shout:
''Say, there! What the devil you doing!"
Il looked in the direction Of the voice and saw
a big double -fsted backwoodsma an. He came
tearing toward me, shaking his fist and swearing
at the top of his voice. He came up TO where [
stood, and, holding his fist under my nose,
yelled:
"'D'ye know what I've a notion to dol I've a
notion to smash the life out a you! Who ye
shootln' atR"
1T seems that the agitated gentleman had
been hunting pheasants, He had marked down
a flock of EN-, and was creeping along for a shot,
when my gun went off: l missed my mark, but
my bullet whizzed within two inches of his ear,
and away went the pheasants. He wouldn't ac-
cept any apology, and | made up my mind that
I was in for a regular backwoods dressing out.
We edged along toward the cabin. The stranger
saw the deer lying by the door:
"'There, says he, that buckll jist make up
fur the game you skeert away from me. I
either take that buck, that gun O yourn, or else
you gimme ten dollars
''Of course it wouldn't do for me to let the
buck go, and the gun was out of the question, so
l handed over a ten-dollar note to the injured
gentleman, and he walked away, first telling me,
with impressive explosives, to be more keerful
next time when l was bangin' around where 9th
er folks was shootin.'
"This episode added to the. pleasure of my
deer hunt. 1 was extremely happy. l went in
the cabin and lay down, l fell asleep, and was
awakened by a noise. Rising up on my elbow,
/ looked toward the door and was Just in time to
see a huge brute that 1 knew was a bear coolly
walking away with the carcass Of our deer. l
don't know what ever impellcd me, but l felt
that this was a desperate case and required des-
perate treatment. l seized my gun and a
big butcher knife that belonged to the
camp kit and started in pursuit of the bear.
1t could not make much Roadway with its
burden, and l soon came within "a few feet of it.
l pulled up to fire, and then saw that l had left
my ramrod in the buckshot barrel. the only
barrel that was loaded. l didn't stop to take it
out, but whanged away with it in. The charge,
or at least the ramrod part of it. struck the bear
on the back, and passed through the thick hide
and stuck there. The recoil from the gun
almost knocked me over, The bear dropped
the deer, and, with a howl the like of which [
back at me, 1 thought my time had now surely
come. l could not move. [ raised the big butcher
knife mechanically. and held IN yleftarm in front
of my breast The bear seized my left arm in his
iaus oO6 At Tho M TINA I s1aehad ot him