, 1888-03-08
MUSIC HATH CHARMS.

/ wonder if any Of those down east
bear hunting chaps that write letters
from the backwoods OF Maine and Penn
syivania ever tumbled to the fact that
brIin is one of the most musical varmints
in all creation. l remember hearing
Parson Pete, who used to be n down east
SKY pilot years ago, tell about a bear ne
once saw in the streets of New York n
dancing to the music of a hurdy gurdy,
and another one, a small black bear, he
sail, he saw in n theatre b~eatinga gong.
OH hetc's pretty white, and so l reckon
Ia must have sccn all this; but I'm a
taking of real varmint, not bears that
have beer born and brought up in q
Circus.
don't know whether | mentioned it
ia any If my other letters, but Sage
brush Bill is one Of the slickcst musicians
in Montana. He can get more music
out nf n little one horse mouth organ
that lie bought n year z up in Boze-
man thar most people could out of n
grand piano. Every evening after sup
yer Sagebrush used to amuse himself by
PLAYING on this mouth organ. sometimes
keeping it up till near midnight. We
used 10 get kinder weary of it Mt times,
but now md then we allowed him to
keep it up rs long as he wanted, only
requiring him to take his camp stool
Eoune distance AWAY from the tent and
riiy more gently after we turned in.
by and by we came to notice that.
whenever Sagebrush kept his music
going pretty late the mules that were
picketed close by always betrayed signs
Of uneasiness shortly after he had quit
playing and gone TO bed. Sometimes
they went so lar rs To snort and try to
break loose, and once or twice, when we
turned out to see what was up, we
caught sight of some object moving
about in the shadow of the pines that
fringed the little mountain park in which
we had pitched our camp.
This object we naturally supposed to
he Il bear. After the night we got freed
by the seven grizzlies, however, we were
ALFRED careful about chasing bears
through the timber by moonlight. At
first we never thought of assDciating the
appearance of this bear with Sagebrush's
music, any more than thinking perhaps
it might have been attracted by the
noise. But one evening the Englishman,
who hailed from India, was telling about
the way the HindOos cause the sarpints to
come a%-winding and kissing u of their
holes, swaying their heads for JOY at hear
ing the music of a fate. In talking this
over. it then dawned upon us that Sage
brush's music might have had something
to do with attracting the bear to the
edge of the park.
We poked a good deal of fun at Sage
brush about his power of fascinating
bears with the mouth organ, and none of
us, at the time, regarded the matter as
anything more than n good joke. l.
happened, however, n day OF two later,
that we struck afirst rate opportunity TO
put it to the test, and so found out that
music hath charms even to n bear;
charms that, if properly used, may easily
lure him to destruction.
One night the mules broke loose and
cleared out. In the morning Sagebrush
and l followed their trail down through
the timber and on out into the prairie.
While crossing a sort of n level inlet of
prairie between two spurs we saw n fam
lily of five cinnamon bears playing to-
gether right out on the open. There was
no cover but a few knee high clumps of
grease wood and one sinuous little dry
-watercourse, n mere washout, barely
sufficient to hide n person crawling on all
fours.
We We're half n mile or more from the
bears when we first saw them. They
were having n quiet game of tag, now
you've got me and nov you amt, all to
themselves, and had no idea of anybody
being within 100 miles. Dropping down
into the washout, we held a brief con-
EItltnftnn pa IN What Ntrn inl I,fN,r Il,
Plainly there was only the one thing,
which vas tocrawl along tho w~atercoursc
until it should bring us near enough to
use our WinChcsters with good effect.
Looks like n pity to spoil their play,
though, don't itf' suggested Sagebrush.
80 it does, " l agreed; "but it would
be a still greater pity to let them get
away" and so we started on up the
washout. The bears We're SO absorbed in
their play that we had no difficulty in
creeping up unperceived TO within 200
yards. At this point was a slight pocket,
or depression in the ditch, with n couple
of bowldcrs in the bottom. 1t seemed al
most rs if The hollow had been scooped
out and the two bCwlders placed therein
for u special benefit. By sitting on the
powders we could just peep oven a little
fringe of g~rcasewool that ran around the
edge and watch the fears at play.
Bears are as playful as SO many kittens
among themselves, and it is one Of the
prettiest sights imaginable to see four or
five Of them playing tag. In this party
there were five bears, three old timers
and two cubs. The way they lodged
around II another, :olled over, stood up,
sashayed, twirled around, whinnied,
laughed and caved around generally was
a heap the prettiest thing l had seen for
sonic time in broai daylight. We sat
there and enjoyed the circus a while,
when an idea struck me all Of n sudden.