The times., 1888-04-06
MUSIC HATH CHARMS.

wonder il any Of those down east
bear hunting chaps that write letters
from the backwoods OF Maine and Penn
sylvania ever tumbled to the fact that
br,lin Is one of the most musical varmints
in all creation. / remember hearing
Parson Pete, who used to be down east
sky pilot years ago, tell about bear ne
once saw in the streets Of New York a
dancing to the music OF hurdy gurdy,
and another one, a small black bear, he
said, he saw in theatre beating gong.
Old pete's pretty white, and so reckon
ne must have seen all this; but I'm q
talking Of real varmint, not bears that
have beer born and Brought up in q
circus.
don't know whether l mentioned il
in any Of my other letters, but Sage
brush Bill is one of the slickest musicians
in Montana. He can get more music
out of little one horse mouth organ
that he bought year ago up in Boze.
man than most people could out of a
grand piano. Every evening after sup
per Sagebrush used to amuse himself by
playing on this mouth organ, sometimes
keeping it up till near midnight. We
used to get kinder weary of it at times,
but now and then we allowed him to
keep it up as long as he wanted, only
requiring him to take his camp stool
some distance away from the tent and
play 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 far as to Enort 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
be bear. After the night we got treed
by the seven grizzlies, however, we were
ALFRED careful about chasing bears
through the timber by moonlight. At
first we never thought Of associating the
appearance Of this bear with Sagebrush's
music. any more than thinking perhaps
1t 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 out Of their
holes, swaying their heads for joy at hear
ing the music Of O flute. 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 good joke. 1t
happened, however, day or two later,
that we struck first rate opportunity to
put it to the test, and so found out that
music hath charms even to a bear
charms that, IL properly used, may easily
lure him to destruction.
One night the mules broke loose and
cleared out. In the morning Sagebrush
and I followed their trail down through
the timber and on out into the prairie.
While crossing a sort Of level inlet OF
prairie between two spurs we saw fam
lily Of five cinnamon bears playing to-
gether right out on the open. There was
no cover but few knee high clumps of
grease wood and one sinuous little dry
watercourse, a mere washout, barely
sufficient to hide person crawling on all
fours.
We were half mile or more from the
bears when we first saw them. They
were having quiet game of tag, now
you've got me and now you amt, all TO
themselves, and had no idea of anybody
being within 100 miles. Dropping down
into the wShout, we held brief con-
Bultation as to what we had better do.
Plainly there was only the one thing,
which was to crawl along the watercourse
until it should bring us near enough to
use our Winchesters with good effect.
"Looks like pity to spoil their play
though, don't it2' suggested Sagebrush.
80 it does" agreed; "but it would
be still greater pity to let them get
away" and so we started on up the
washout. The bears were so absorbed in
their play that we had no difficulty in
creeping up unperceived to within 200
yards. At this point was slight pocket,
or depression in the ditch, with a couple
of powders in the bottom. 1tseemed al
most as IL the hollow had been scooped
out and the two bowlders placed therein
for our special benefit. BY sitting on the
bowlders we could just peep over a little
fringe Of greasewood that ran around the
edge and watch the hears at play.
Bears are as playful as so many kittens
among themselves, and it is one of the
prettiest sights imaginable to sec 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 one another, rolled over, stood up,
sashayed, twirled around, whinnied,
laughed and caved around generally was
heap the prettiest thing / had seen for
some time in broad daylight. We sat
thoro and enioved the circus "A while.