Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-07

This was coming 10 pretty close quarters.
The bear uttered hoarse roar of rage, anu,
reaching up close to my resting place with
the other paw she seized the bowie knife be-
tween her teeth and snapped it in two. This
movement was done SO quickly that had no
time TO recover the bowie knife l was now
practically within the bears reach, and the
chances were all against my being able TO
stand her off with the club where was
Quicker than it ia ses to tell about it swung
myself up into the next roosting place above
In the mean time the cub had ventured
down to this point, and bad to vacate to
make room for me. He didn't seem IN any
particular hurry about it; in fact, the little
whelp seemed half inclined to take hand IN
the fight now; he seemed to realize that they
had me cornered up, and he only moved
away few feet. / had barely got settled in
this new position when the bears paw and
the club were at it again. l managed to fetch
her another vicious rap over the head; but
the blow only made her roar and duck, and
scatter blood and foam all over me and the
tree At this stage of the fight she looked a
fiend incaynate. After fencing awhile for an
opening, made out to hit her another SOCK
dolager across the snout. l hit her so hard
this time that splinters few off the club, but
it only made her savager and more dangerous
than ever tried hard to jab her in the eye,
but you might as well try to poke a fencing
master in the eye with stick as a bear, even
if it only has one paw at liberty. At last she
grabbed the stuck, and quicker than chain
lightning she wrenched it out of my grasp.
There was only one thing to be done now,
and that was to get from between her and
the cub just as lively as possible At the
,;Cly or Ii, ~
ried along the nearest branch on all fours,
until the bough bent and swayed with the
tension. The old bear was blind with fury,
and started out after me, but as the branch
began TO snap and splinter she funked and
drew herself back to the fork. A moment
later she was joined by the cub, who threw
its paws about her neck, and began licking
her bleeding mouth. The old bears fury
seemed to cool off wonderfully at finding her
cub unniured, and after soldering over it
while they both started down the tree. The
chief concern OF the old bear now was to get
away with the cub. As soon as they reached
the ground they looked UP at me, apprehen-
sive like, as though fancying | might be
going to follow them up, and then struck OF
through the timber.
You can bet your sweet life, however, l
had no notion of following up that old she
bear and her cub at that time. After wait
Ing in the tree while TO give them plenty Of
time to clear out, | slid down, and in about
fifteen minutes Str;Ick camp. That was the
last time | ever sauIltered over to water the
mules without my Winchester; yes, and re-
volver too, for a man is liable to drop his
rife if he has to Skinny up tree on the
double quick, in which case revolver is
mighty comforting thing to have on hand
This wasn't the only lesson | ever had that
taught me to be wary about ulonkeying with
cubs Even after it was thought the mother
had been killed our camp was thrown into a
fire conlmotion one night over woolly little
cuss about three months old. The previous
day we had been out and lit upon a pair Of
cinI,amons and this young cub At our fire
one of the big fellows Bit the dust and the
other one made good its escape through the
undcrbrush. The cub stayed with the dead
bear, and seeing that it was squaw, we
naturally concluded that it was its mother
and that the runaway was its sire. We car
ried the cub into camp and for the night
chained him to the wagon wheel About
midnight we were awakened by a conmotion
outside the tent, and looking out we saw
what we made out in the darkness to be a big
cinnamon trying to lug off the cub. AS soon
as she found she was discovered she became
fai15y crazed, and started to run amuck
through the camp. She tore the tent down
about our ears, tore one side out of the
wag on, stampeded the mules, which We al
ways kept near by at night, and ended by
tearing the poor cub nearly in two trying to
jerk it loose. Fortunately she didn't get her
paws On any of us. She didn't seem to have
any idea of fnjuring anybody or ,ything
particularly, but, as | say, just ran amuck
fer general smashup. After doing all this
damage, she g. away without carrying an
ounce of lead with her, too. In fact, there
wasn't a man in camp that obtained more
than confused glimpse of her. AS Sage
brush remarked afterward, it might have
been old Mich himself, for all we knew, cut
ting up didos disguised as bear, and not
cinnamon at all. reckon, though, it must
have been bear.-New York Sun.