, 1884-01-19
MEN AND BRUTES.
Killing an OK With the Fist
Wrestling With Bears
Whipping a Bulldog.

New York Sun.
Even among sporting men there is a dis
| position, In this country at least, to look
askance at men who pit themselves against
beasts in combat. One Of the fairest things
of the kind was the fight, a few years ago,
at Oroville, Butte county, Cal, between Jack
Powers and a grizzly bear. Jack was a
famous character @on the slope" in those days,
| mainly owing TO his intense dislike for all
persons who zane from jackson county,
Missouri. The memory Of some injury done
him in remote times by somebody in that
part of Missouri forever ranked in his
bosom, and whenever he heard of any man
from jackson county within 100
miles of him he would seek out
that man and whip him within an inch Of his
life. Many triumphs gave him such conf
dence in himself that, in a moment of en-
thusiastic recognition of his own merit, in.
spired largely by "tarantula juice" he pro-
claimed his ability to whip a grizzly bear.
Some person, doubles in secret sympathy
with the outcasts OF Jackson county, Mo, Of
ferod TO bet him $3.50 that he couldn't, and
the match was promptly arranged. A big
grizzly, wild, savage and hungry, WINS turned
loose in m enclosure, and Jack, armed only
with a large and reliable bowie knife, sprang
in to the encounter, The proceedings were
very animated, though not protracted. Jack
bANNNfltA III DlAbkllk bAt hiAAo INV kho hAA-
mails heart, winning the fight, but he was 30
badly clawed and chewed that it was at first
thought his injuries would prove fatal, and,
although he eventually recovered, n long
time elapsed before he renewed his opera
lions on jackson county emigrants.
Bears are very ugly animals in a fight, as
many a hunter and trainer OF animals has
proved to his cost. They are very powerful
brutes, agile as cats almost for all their clumsy
looks, are natural sparrers of no mean ability
and good wrestlers as well. ave very power
full jaws and sharp claws, and are PREACHER
Gus and cunning. Old Grizzly" Adams, of
California, who had probably trapped,
fought, and killed more bears than anybody
else-not oven excepting Pike county's ''Old
Settler"-used TO say that there was more de-
pendence to be put on IA panther, or even a
woman, than a tame bear. The bear has a
way of slouching along by his keeper, SEEM
ingly Indifferent to his presence and never
looking up to catch his eye, and suddenly
wheeling on him and seizing him by the leg.
That was the way that one of them came near
to killing Harry Jennings a few years ago,
when he had his place in White street. The
brute had him down, and would have finished
him, no doubt, but for the courageous attack
on it in his behalf by his famous fighting dog
Waterford Jack.
The wrestlers Christol and Bauer have both
wrestled with bears in public, in this city, but
the precautions were always taken OF having
the bear securely muzzled and his claws
trimmed. But tho public always looked on
the contests as the mere hippodroming Of a
man with his trained beast, and never took
kindly to the sport
1t has recently been rumored hat John L.
Sullivan might, could, should or would
"knock ont" n bull by blows OF his fist. II IL
by no means impossible that he could. A
London butcher, Bill Neat, 1t is said, knocked
down an OK with blow of his fist, on various
occasions, and it is asserted that u BIZ
butcher and great fighter N New York years
agone, named HarrinE III done the same
thing. As such thinss are conducted. 1t is a
mere question between the hardness of the
animals skull and the force of the blow
dealt. The bull or OK Is hoodwinked, and
the blow is treacherously dealt, when he is
expecting no danger, just as a butcher would
fell him with an AK.
Only n few months ago a dnrky in Phila
delphia had a brutal fight with n bulldog.
He whipped the beast, but was very severely
torn. A short, surprise party sort OF fight
between a man and a big mastif came of in
the old Sixth Street market of Cincinnati, In
1856. A butcher named Alexander had
a mastiff that ho was rather proud OF as
dangerous dog. Another butcher, named
Bowling, offered to bet $50 that he could
whip the dog. The bet was promptly taken
and after business hours the central aisle
of the market was cleared for the space OF
some thirty feet, the butchers and other
market men ~crowding around to witness the
fight. Tn brute dashed at the mans throat
Bowling, a very powerful man, had braced
himself firmly, and as the dog sprang at hi,
throat, seized him firmly by both sides of the
neck, used the animals impetus TO aid in
swinging him in a circle overhead, and then
brought his body down on the stone hooi
with a slam that jounced the breath out OF
him. The dog lay gasping for n minute Oh
two, and then crawled back under his INNS
i Na-ra .tun