Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-22
HE WHIPPED A GRIZZLY.
General Crook Returns From Hunt
ing Trip IN the West.

HthtENt NtOOk hCththS Eroth "
Ing Trip an the West.
Major General Crook returned yester-
day morning from months roughing
it in the bad lands, saws the Chicago
Tribune. The general had been bear
hunting, and when the crowd at the
Grand Pacific, where he lives, saw that
he had n long, ragged scratch on the
side OF his nose, it was whispered that
the wound had been sustained in hand
10 hand fight with a grizzly. Sam Par
ker told Colonel Baocock about noon
that General Crook was frightfully
mdDgled, and had sent for pair of
crutches. Dnring tho afternoon Clerk
Wiley gave out what purported to he
the only authentic story, which was to
this effect. After travelling for three
days and three nights on the trail Of n
bear weighing 900 pounds, the general
had come up with the forocious beast.
He fired two bullets into the bear, and
then, throwing away his Winchester,
closed with bowie knife. To his sur
prise the bear got up on its hind legs
and struck out from the shoulder,
punching the general in the nose and
knocking him down. ''If that's your
game I'll play" the general was nj
legged to have said, accompanying the
remark by hurling his bowie ten feet
Point, he greatly overmatched his an
tagonist, gave him the Knockout blow
In ten minutes ana forty seconds, slit
the bears throat, and dragged tho
bleeding carcass into camp. The story
stood till o'clock, when General
Crook came down smiling from dinner
and said he had hurt his nose getting
into cab atthe Northwestern depot.
II was bear-hunting, though" the
general said: For n month our party
and / were in camp, and we saw only
Northwestern to Caspcr-which is as
far as the railroad runs-and then
struck 10y stage into the heart of the bad
lands. If you haven't been in that coun
try you have no conception what it looks
like-mud hills, allIali and Ignite on
the levels, coyotes and rattlesnakes,
altogether Godforsaken. But such
camel The English hunters who kill
for the sake of killing have almost
stripped the country of elk as
they stripped the plains of buff
falo. We saw only one elk while
we were there, but there were deer and
only enough of them to satisfy our APP
petites. We were after bigger game,
and grizzly bear is big enough for any
one. We nailed four during our stay,
and they were big fellows. OF course,
all these stories about ,000-pound bears
are nonsense. A grizzly which weighs
$50 or 800 pounds is as big as you get
'em or want 'em. Sizes larger than
that l leave for other people to kill. [
don't want to have any hand-to- hand
fights with them. no matter how small
they are. Why, sir, | laugh when read
about wrestling matches with bears. An
ordinary urizzly banr unu1l g,noc1,
every bone in yonr body with one blow
OF his paw. He could make his teeth
meet through the thickest part of your
body. The nearest | ever got to one
was about ten feet. I had chased him
and he was tired of running away. He
stopped, sat up on his launches and
yawned savagely at me. 1 fired load
of shot down his throat and he never
knew what hit him. The narrowest es-
cape any Of us had was from q rattle
snake which dropped his ugly head
from an overhanglng rock down within
six inches of one of the party's face.
The young fellow got away in Il
hurry"
General Crooks says the Indians have
settled down for good, aud there is little
fear of them.
''How about Sitting Bull ?" he was
asked.
Sitting Bull!" the general replied
contemptously. "He doesn't amount
to anything. He never did. He has
a reputation like some of the generals
in the war-made on paper. He never
stood high among the Indians. Spotted
Tail was q thousand times as able.
It's pity his sons don't take after
him. They're a wishy-washy lot
Sitting Bull ran away from Little Big
Horn, but the newspapers took him up
and made big fellow of him. Why,
he has had half dozen offers of mar
riage from the states, and one woman
went up in the northwest to propose to
him. OF course. this reputation helped
him among the Indians. Any man can
make an Indian do mischief, and few
persons can make him do good. While
the Indians were all signing the treaty
he broke into the circle and demanded
the privilege Of speaking.
You should have come here at the
right time, told him. You missed
your chance and can't talk now.' He
was fairly wilted, but pretty soon he
went outside and began yelling. That
started n stampede. and the circle broke
up, but when the Indians saw who was
making the noise they returned and
went on signing, and Sitting Bull
moved into the country with his band.
He is no good at all. His influence is
gone, and the Indians Will never be
aroused to bloodshed again unless the
agents try to starve them to death, as
they have done before"
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