Morning journal and courier., 1889-01-15
A BEARS CURIOSITY. A GOOd-Natured Brufn Who Poked His Nose Into Everybody's Busi-


 ness.
 Correspondence New York World
 JAYvILLE, N. Y., January 11.-"Talk about curious animals" said Andrew Mo- Kenpa, an old woodsman, to World cores critter I ever knew for prying into the af- fairs of folks around here was a big black bear that turned up for the first time early last fall. That bear had more curiosity than any old woman that ever set foot in the neighborhood, and he caused more talk. As I said before, the animal turned up early last fall down at Dave Sims farm, about six miles from here. Dave was out milking his COWS one evening, and was just coming out of the barn door with pail of milk in his hand, when what should he see but the big gest black bear he ever laid eyes on nosing around in the barnyard.
 "The sight of the animal scared Dave pret- ty bad, but he didn't drop the pail. He took one look at the bear and then began to yell at the women folk to bring him his gun, and he says at the first whoop the bear reared up on his launches and looked right at him for as much as five minutes with the funniest expression he ever saw. He didn't look 8 bit ugly, but kinder curious like, as if he wanted to find out what all the TOW was about. As the bear was between the barn and the house the women folks did not bring Dave his gun. When they found out what WAS up they just got into the house as quick as they could and fastened the doors. After the bear had gazed at Dave in his inquiring way for about ten minutes he dropped down on all paws again and shambled off into the | woods.
 ssThe next time this bear showed himself was about two weeks later, when he appeared \ fn Sullivan | out to Harrisville with 8 team and lumber ! wagon. say it was the same bear, for only | one bear in the whole North woods could be ! so impudent and curious. We ran across ! the brute about five miles from the place, | and what do you think he did when he saw usa Of course you would say that he got out of the road as quick as he could and made off into the brush-but he did nothing | of the sort. He just sat up in the middle o1 | the road and looked at us in quizzical way, | just as though he was surprised to see us and | was wondering what we were doing there at \ that time of day. Well, neither of us had | any firearms on that trip, and neither of us 1 cared to tackle the animal with jack-knife; | so we were obliged to stand and wait his \ pleasure. Our horses snorted and pranced ! with fright, and finally got turned around | and headed the other way. All of this seemed to amuse the bear greatly, for he sat l still and kept looking at us. We'll, when we found our team headed the other way we concluded that we would see what effect stones would have on that bear, because we | were sure he would not want to chase oul l wagon back to Jayville. I held the horses | while Sullivan hove the rocks at him. The first two or three stones did not come very
 near the mark. The bear put out his pawl
 as they went by, as though trying to catct
 them. It was an interesting game of bai I until Sullivan got in hit on the bear'
 stomach; then the brute was ready to quit just as any other ball-player would hav
 been under the circumstances. He dropped
 out of the game and got out of the road
 without trying to lick the pitcher or umpire ! We turned our team around and went on
 leaving him to nurse his sore ribs as best h.
 could.
 'sThe next place that bear turned up t.
 scare a man was at Harry Mullins camp, ol
 Round Pond, along in October. Old Harr
 has been in the woods nearly all his life an
 has killed great many bears, but this on got the best ot him. His camp is about tel
 rods from the waters edge, in a aice grov l of spruce and hemlock trees, and on the oc
 casion of the curious bears visit it was opel
 for the reception of a hunting party that wa I expected the same day. Harry had gone ou
 on the pond to catch a mess of fish for sup
 der, leaving everything but his fishing tackl
 in camp. He had neither gun, pistol no
 hunting knife with him. When he cam
 back and found the bear taking an inventor of his hunting outfit he felt that it woul | not be best to interfere. According to tb
 old mans story the bear walked around tn
 shanty two or three times and examined it
 construction with 8 critical eye. Then ! went inside and looked over the cookin : utensils, tasted of the uncooked provende
 and tipped over the barF table. When liar ry made his presence known Bruin looked a him as though he expected an explanation c ! the surroundings. He didn't act bit ugly I but had the air of a custom house inspecto : going through mans trunk. As his evat } l uatiun of the premises could not be forced |, l Harry watched him until curiosity had bee gratiied on both sides and the bear had ts ken himself off into the woods again. 'fWell, old Harry come out of the wood the week after he had this visit and told U , about it. After that we heard nothing mor
 from the curious bear until the week afte i election, when the sheep pen on Joe ReJ nold's farm, down on the Oswegatchie, wa 1 visited one night and five of his best shee , killed. There was a little snow on th | ground then and the animal could be tracked SO hunt was organized to secure his scalI ! I was in the party and before starting too
 look at the sheep pen. Now there was very curious thing about the killing of thos sheep. It would naturally be supposed thf : part of at least one of them would hay
 gone to satisfy the slayer's appetite. Br not so. The bear had not eaten mouthfl
 oi AuIton. uaue up my Mluu bna1 u curious bear had done the job, for no othe
 bear would have killed five sheep just fe fun without eating part of one. told Il
 boys that we were going after the very be.
 we had all been talking about for thr'
 months, and that we would be sure to g 3 him. because he wouldn't try to get away.
 knew that if any of the party came aero
 that bear he would be SO curious to kno what they wanted that he would stop ar
 look at them until they had filled his carca + full of lead The thing came out about as
 expected. We followed the animals trat l l for about three miles through the wood
 and finally brought up on the bank of Je D ny Creek without finding him. It was pla
 enough that the bear had got into the strear