Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-08-15
FIGHT WIN BEsR.
The Animal Finally KILLED with n Mnu,
aud u Pointed Knot.
4. L.

Chicago Inter. Ocean
SCRANTON, Pa, July Wednesday. two
men, named Hsrtwtll and Es,erbrook, had a
terrible tussle with a huge black bear near a
swamp on the Pucono mountains In the |
neghborhood OF the swamp blackberiics are
abundant now and OF fine quality, and Hare
well and Esterbrook drove there from their
homes, several miles distant, Tor the putpo'e
OF gathering some Of the wild iruI. They
h,ched their horses in piece of woods ms
near to the swamp as they could drive, and
with two pals apiece they set out in search
Of the blackberry patch They had to
pick their way over fallen trees and
through dense tbickets of laurel for a distance
OF half mile before they reached the rank
growth Of black berry bushes. 1t was tire
some journey, and, as the place is no, easy TO |
reach, they found that no one had been there |
before them, and that the berries were pler- |
,iful and enormously large. Alter having |
selected tall tree as the place where they
should meet when they had finished picking,
each man started for a different part part OF
the blackberry field. Esterb book went toward
the edge OF the swamp, about forty five rods
from the tall tree. and set one OF his Iais on
a rotten log. Ia half an hour he had filed
the other pail with what the country people
| call "back long berries" and was about 10
| place it on the log near the other pail when
be heard tramping OF feet in the dlrec-
ton Of the swamp, only few yards be-
| hind him. He paid no attention to the
noise at first, supposirg that Hsrwel had
worked his way through the bushes to that
| point But when he to up the empty pail
| aud turned away from the log sight met his
gsZe that made him tremble and turn pale,
for coming directly toward him was n large
| black bear who had wandered out Of the
swamp. E,,erbro,k had no time to run, b.
cause the ferocious animal was within few
| ire, OF him. Before he had hardly time to
think what TO do the bear, grunting angrily,
was almost upon him. He threw down his
pail and started to place a safe distance be-
tween himself and the blocd-thirsty animal,
when the bear began to STRIKE him with its
paws. Es,erbrook saw that he could not es-
cape through the thick bushe, and under
brush, aud he yelled at the top Of bis voice:
Hartwell! Come over here quick I'm
being killed by bearp
Hartwell made no reply, and then Ester
brook, 6ghling the bear as well as he could,
yelled again: "Hatwslll Come here
quick, for Gods sake, or the bear will eat me
aive!'
| His repeated cries for help finally reached
| :,
that it took him tour or FIVE minutes to reach
Esterbrook. Meanwhile the bear was fast
depriving f tel brook OF the scauty clio hirg
IN which he was clad, while he fought
desperately and prevented the bear from
getting his paws around him. Riyuets oi
| sweat tiCkled down Esterbrook's face and
neck, and his back, from which the bear had
torn the only garment that covered It, WAS
scaI red and bleeding. The bear-fghter was
| partially exhausted when he heard ilartwell
| yell as he hastened through the tangled
brushes; Keep up good courage, Ester
brook, and hgh; him off if you can. III be
with you shortly"
| Neither of the men had any weapon, for
they little expected to meet bear in the
berry patch. In his haste TO reach Ester
brook tsrtwel had cluched a piece Of
broken tree limb on the way, and as he came
on the scene OF the terrific combat he brought
| it down on III top OF tie bears head with all
! his might. The force Of the blow broke the
| LIMB into several pieces aud turned the bears
attention away rom Eft rbrook. The mad
dened animal then made for Hartwell. This
| gave E.terbrook a chance 10 catch bis breath
| and to look for some kind of weapon. Hs
was unable TO fnd anything with which 70
| deal the bear a deadly blow but he seized a
/ soon as he could.
Hartwell had livelier tussle with t- bear
than be expected, and when Esterbrod came
to bis relief his c ,thes we're torran the
upper part OF his body covered wis wounds.
Then they both clubbed the beam the head
with the only weapons that see'ed TO be near
at hand, but toe slight pup,'nnent which
they inflicted on him appesfd only to have
the effect of maddenipg hpAnd making him
| more feroci rus.
Let's dump him owe, ,ahat log and break
his neck. il we can,r sSutsd Hartwell. Then
they grabbed him/y the hind legs and
tumbled him oveEfe log, but the exercise
didn't seem to hyF Fhim in the least, Tor he
resumed the at/k at once, with m re de-
termination ~ ever. The men saw tha,
the bear wouEaooner or later tire them out.
and possiblyhll them both, unless they killed
him. Hayfell then ran to a rotten hemlock
log and REQ knot. The timber bad de-
cayed yfutd it, but the knot itself was as
sound nut and almost as hard AS fl Mt.
Toetint toward the heart OF the tree was
sht, while the other end was large enough
( Ue held easily in the hand and used as a
/gger. Hartwell rushed back to the bear
tad stabbed him back OF the shoulder with
rfhe Knot II made the animal finch and
groau with pain, but it did not penetrate the
SKID. This was repeated four or i've times,
and the men were slowly getting the best of
the bear, when Hsrtw II told Esterbrook to
get the heaviest dead tree limb he could find.
t''erorook found piece eight feet long and
hive inches in diameter IN w, strike The
end of this knot a, hard as you can with
the club as soon as tell ycu," yelled Hart.
well.
The bear was then down on his right side,