St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-28
BEAR ON THE COWCATCHER.
1t Rides Ten Miles Clinging to Il
Locomotive Pilot.

H1ticS CIinSinE TO Il
Locomotive Pilot.
OlcGt Run (Pa.) Letter in the New York sun
wednesday afternoon. as the Warren
accommodation train OH the Eldred d.
Southeast Branch railroad was passing
through Wilder's cut. a deep and mar
row passage through the ROCKS ten miles
east Of the station, Engineer Dan Ell
wood was surprised to see a bear come
into the cut at the west end only TWEEN
ty yards away. The bear appeared sud
Denly around thee edge of the rocks, and
stopped on the track, facing the engine.
III Spemcd paralyZed at the sight of the
locomotive rushing toward ii, and stood
HiOtiOilesS until the engine was almost
upon it, when it arose on its hind feet.
The train was running about fifteen
miles an hour through the cut, and in
Stantly on seeing the bear on the track
the engineer shut down steam. The
distance between the train and the bear
was too short for the speed of the train
TO be reduced much, and the pilot
plowed under the bear, the sharp point
passing between the animals wide
spread legs. This quickly threw the
hlnd part of the bear ahead. and the ami
NAL fell with its forepaws and upper
part of its body forward on the cow
catcher.
Engineer Elwood put on steam again,
ana his fireman climbed out of the cab
window and ran along the guard rail to
the front of the engine and peeked
around to see what had become of the
bear. Bruin was lying on it's stomach
against the cOwcatcher, its head nearly
touching the headlight. Both hind feet
were safely planted between the lower
bars OF the pilot, one on each side of the
mp, M its forelegs were tightly hug
ging the bars at the top. The collision
mad evidently not done any injury to the
bear. 1t was plain that it did not in
tend to take any chances by voluntarily
getting off the cowcatcher while the
train was in motion. and it was guard
ing itself well against being thrown off;
so the conductor concluded that he
would run Bruin into Olcut and trust
to luck for the subsequent proceedings.
Station Agent Dick Jacobs stood i'm
the depot door at this place when the
train came rolling in, anu the sight of a
bear %clinging 10 the cowcatcher had
such an effect On him that he stood as
though rooted to the spot, gazing with
open mouth and eyes at the eXiraordi-
naiy spectacle. As soon as the train
stopped the bear saw til, t it's opportup-
1ty to escape safely from its perilous 20
sltion had come, and it dropped off the
.~cowcatcher ana made a break for lib
erty! This brought it toward the spot
where the station agent was standing
mute and motionless with ~amazement.
As the bear left the engine Dan Elwood
began to shout for somebody to get a
gun. The advance of the bear aroused
Jacobs to the situation, and he rushed
into the depot, slammed the door shut.
dashed out of the rear door, and tore I'D
Dorr street, shouting: Bear! bear!
bear!" at the top of his lungs.
In the meantime the bear. with Dan
Elwood and his fireman at it's heels, ran
across the street, jumped on one end of
the long piazza of Longs hotel, ran the
entire length of the piazza, turned into
Cady street, and hurried away in the di-
rectlon of Cady creek, which runs along
the eastern edge of the village. A crowd
quickly gathered and followed the bear,
yelling and peltlng the poor animal with
stones. The bear had gone but a short
distance down Cady street when John
Camer0n'S big shepherd dog bounced
put OF the yard and boldly pitched into
Bruln. There was a loud ana lively fight
for a minute, which resulted in the
death of The dog. The bear then hur-
r!ed on toward the creek, buta the cor
ner OF Cady and Water streets Lawyer
Giles Beers met him with a double-bar-
relied rifle. The bear turned on being
confronted by Beers and the gun,
and ran down the narrow alley
leading to Gully's livery stable. |
The alley ends at the stable, and the
bear found its flight suddenly cut off. |
Beers followed the bear down the alley,
and the yelling crowd followed Beers. |
BrulD. finding that he was brought to
bay. backed himself against tile barn,
raised on his launches and awaited his |
foes. Beers sent two bullets into the
animals breast. The bear dropped to