St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-12
The DEMON CRIzzLY'S DEATH.
Bears Paw Brun That Ate TwentyEght Pounds of Dried
Apples and Then Went Stark
Crazy.
Mad Dance With Seattle Up TreeThe Fight With Fire.
Old Ephs Tremendous Battle for
Life.

| worked spasmOdically, and his teeth
clacked like a shuttle; blood and foam
! flew out of his mouth, his paws sound
| ed like tattoo on his distended stom-
| ach, while he kept up horrible whin-
ing roar that seemed to come from
| away down.
"The change has come," said Seattle,
in low voice; you're piping on
demon bear"
There was something in Seattle Toms
| voice as he spoke that caused me to
| look sharply at him. | had never heard
him speak in that tone before. He was
actually trembling-he, an old-tlme
mountaineer, who had fought Injuns
with Kit Carson, and had killed prob
ably fifty grizzlies in his time. 1t
wasn't fear. l knew Seattle too well
for that, and besides we were up big
tree.
1t turned out to be superstition: and
then and there. the men who but half
an hour before had spoken so conf
IDENTIFY of finding the lost mine in the
morning announced his intention of
skipping out to the Bears Paw mount
aims at daylight for good. He would
never tell me just what the trouble was,
except that all manner of bad luck al
ways happened after seeing demon
grizzly.
Meanwhile matters were approach
ing tragic point below. The old bear,
now crazy as mad dog, struck bee
line for the timber at hustling pace,
and dashed full tilt against a big tree.
Striking out again, he suddenly stopped
and ran round and round in circle,
swapping viciously right and lett. The
other bears stood out in the timber look
ing on, like a lot of InjunS watching the
antics of a medicine man. 1t was
wierd, uncaliny sight. the demon grizzly,
with glowing eyes and dlstended
stomach, thrashing and circling around
bv the glow OF the fire, and dozen
others collected in the shadow of the
timber looking On. The whole bust
ness-fire. shack and evervthing-al-
most seemed to be an affair of the bears,
with Seattle and me as outside Specta-
tors merely.
Well, the demon bear kept caving
shortly he Topped into the fire. This
seemed like spark to powder train.
The devils couldn't have rushed about
livelier than he did, and he seemed
bent on destroying everything within
reach. himself included. in the quickest
possible time. Taking to the tree, and
good big tree at that, was mighty
pert move on our part. After falling
into the fire, the demon grizzly would
have torn us into shreds in twinkling
had we been within reach. / never
saw such circus, and l have seen
crazy buffalo running amuck through
an Injun camp, knocking tepeeS and
Squaws right and left. Old Eph seemed
to lift himself clear off the ground, and
to go whirling and threshing through
the air. H. bit chunks out of trees,
tore great streaks in 'em with his claws.
turned somerSaults forward, back ward,
sideways; and. SO it seemed to us, forty
looked like ranting, roaring Whirligig
of fury, gone stark raying mad; this, in
fact, is exactly what he was.
He rolled and Topped out into the
timber, causing a lively Settlement
among the other bears, who still kept
up the livelieSt interest in him at
distance. After spell he circled round
into the light again, and with horrible
roar of rage that echoed and passed on
down the gulch for miles, made a furious
attack on the fire.
At it he flew, tooth and nail, Selling
the flaming sticks with his teeth, Shak-
ing 'em, tlinging 'em right and left and
thrashing the body of the fire with his
paws. 1t was an awful sight. In no
time at all every hair was burned Off his
body, and the slckening odor filled the
gulch.
Lets shoot the poor devil, Seattle"
says l, land put him out of his mis-
cry"
''Shoot demon!" cried Seattle, his
voice full of superstitiOus awe; ''for
heavens sake, man, don't you know
you'd he raving maniac yourself by
this time tomorrow if you killed a
demon bear?"
had no faith in these old mountain
eer superstitons at the time. and would
have risked it anyhow: but Seattle
| took on so had to cave in and watch
Old Eph fight it out to his own destruc-
! ton with the fire. 1t didn't take long;
even demon grizzly bear has it's limits
of vitalitality. and this one had eXpend
ed more energy in the past hour than
a steam saw mill. Twenty minutes
after he started in to demolish the fire
he was dead and a-feeding the flames of
our campfire with his own fat. When
we came to look for the other grizzlies
we found they had silently stolen away.
Seattle couldn't be induced to leave the
tree until daylight, and then it was
| only to skip out for Camp Cook as lively
as we knew how. He's mighty chary
| about speaking of the experiences of
our second and last night i'll the Lost
Mine gulch, and L doubt if t e richest
| mine in Montana would tempt him into
the same locality again.