The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-05-17
MUSIC HATH CHARMS.

|. Iwonder II any of those down cast
h bear hunting chaps that write letters
II from the backwoods of Maine and Penn
y sylvania ever tumbled TO the fact that
briin 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 he
once saw in the streets of New York q
dancing to the music of q hurdy gurdy,
md another one, small black bear, he
oaid, he saw in theatre beating gong.
kOld Pete's pretty white, and so l reckon
1 he must have seen all this; but I'm a
y talking Of real varmint, not bears that
have been born and brought up in a
circus.
don't know whether / mentioned il
in any Of my other letters, but Sage
brush Bill is one of the slckcst musicians
In Montana. He can get more music
out Of a little one horse mouth organ
that he bought year ago up III Boze-
man than most people could out of q
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>frr1,@
but now and then we allowed him 10
keep it up as long as he waited only
requiring him to take his ycomp stool
come distance away fronl>fbe tent and
play more gently after we turned in.
by and by we came/to notice that
whenever Sagebrush /kept his music
gong pretty late thS mules that were
picketcd close by aKvays betrayed sign,
- nnessansSs snorey after he had Q,li
I, aiey went 80 far as to snort and ttsyy TO
break loose, and once or twice, when we
turned out to see what was up, we
caught sight of some object moving
ahont in the shadow of the pines that
frinsed 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
10y the seven grizzlies, however, we were
a!-ilreI careful about chasing bears
through the timber by moonlight. At
first we never thought Of Gssociating the
appearance Of this bear with Sagebrushs
music, any more than thinking perhaps
it might have been attracted by the
noise. But one evening the Englishnan,
who hailed from India, was telling about
the way the Hndoos cause the sarpints to
come a-winding and hirsing out Of their
holes, swaying their heads for joy at hear
ing the music of flute. In talking this
over. it then dawned upon us that Sage
brush's music might have had something
10 do with attracting the bear to the
edge of the park.
We poked 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. It
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- 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 followed their trail down through
the timber and on out into the prairie.
While crossing sort of level inlet of
prairie between two spurs we saw a 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 mere washout, barely
sufficient to hide n person crawling on all
fours.
We were half mile or more from the
bears when we first saw them. They
We're 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 washout, we held brief con-
sultation 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.
$50 1t does" agreed; "but it would
be a 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 q couple
VI powders in the bottom. 1t seemed al
most as II the hollow had been scooped
vut and tho two powders placed therein
~ our special benefit. BY sitting on the
Jwioers we could just peep over little
nge OF greasewood that ran around the
uge and watch the bears at play.
bears are as playful as so many kittens
nong themselves, and 1t is one of the
rettiest sights imaginable to see four or
ve OF them playing tag. In this party
mere We're five bears, three old timers
no two cubs. The way they lodged
round one another, rolled over, stood up,
bshayed, twir4ed around, whinnied,
laughed and caved around generally was
hepp the prettiest thing Ihad~eon for
r. TINE in broed deylieht' W.. -