The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-04
LIKE A CATAPULT.
How Person Eoneyfoot Fooled q Per
severtn2 Grizzly.

How Person Eoneyfoot Fooled q Per
ssverin9 Grizzly.
81 never put myssf up as much Of bear
killer" said Mr. Gleason, rather better
known as ''old George Of Germans Sta
ton, Los Angeles county. to San Francisco
Examiner man. ''As a matter Of fact,
during the twenty-five years I've been fool
ing around the mountains it has been my
practice 20 let EN- alone il they let me alone,
and II they don't let me alone to climb a
tree and let EN- get tired.
Bat there was one time that broke nv
rule. / have roasted with the hy-catchers
more than ons night rather than get into a
mus with bear. and never thought IL
was my business 10 Interfere when some
body else Yves doing the roosting, except
this once. IL was about twelve years ago,
and Parson HoneYfoot was preaching
around these parts, first in one camp and
then in another, usually winding up here at
Germans on Sundays, when all the boys
would come In from the camps and mines
after their mail l was coming down
from the Frazier mountain one Sun
day morning, and saw right
ahead Of me ON the trail
great big grizzly. He was across the can
yon from me. and as he seemed to be going
right ahead about his own business, 4 Just
sat down and waited half an hour 70 give
him chance to get out of my way. Just
about the time / was ready TO move on
there was smashing in the brush where [
had last seen the big bear and the blue
burro the parson always used to ride came
teariog and braying down the trail. knew
him by his having only one ear He lost
the other fooling around a buzz up on the
Sawmlll mountain | waited to see what
he was running from, but nothing came
and pretty soon logged on. | was kind of
anxious about the Darson and kept my eye
out for him. After a little ! hoard his
voice shouting down in a gulch off the trail,
and right away | found where the BEARS
track turned off.
''If 1t had been anybody but the parson
I'd have gone right on, but it seemed kind
Of low down TO shake preacher that way,
so | took off through the brush in the direc-
ton of the noise. 10 was Just about as
nasty place 20 tackle e bear as you would
want. Nothing but thick manzanita and
chaparral that made travelling mighty slow
and hardly tree in range that man could
climb. All the smaller trees had been
burned off in some of the mountain fires
years before, and now there we're only some
little thin saplings that had come up since
the fire, and big old oaks and bull-pines
that mad come out of the fire only scorched.
Pretty soon / saw the bear. He was
ping to claw at the tree and shake it. From
the upper branches of the tree came the
calls for help, and pretty soon | made out
Parson Honeyfoot clinging to the tree
away up among the leaves, yelling and
praying.
'Well, you ought to have seen that bear
shake around that tree. Every minute |
expected to see the parson let & and come
a-tumbling, but he held on, though his coat
tails tapped and snapped around like the
lash of a coachwhip. l guess the grizzly
kept trying for fifteen minutes, then he
seemed 10 give up that scheme, and lay
down growing to think up a new one. 1t
took him about five minutes to get new
idea, but when he did he went about carry
ing 1t out with rush He just got hold of
that sapling as high as he could hang his
whole weight on it aud bent the tree over a
little, then he began to back away, changing
his grip hand over hand. OF course, every
step he took backward brought the top of
the tree lower. aud I began to try for a
sight behind the grizzly's ear.
"Stil the bear kept backing, and Parson
Honeyfoot was almost to the ground. l
cooked my rifle and took q rest over my
knee. because it wouldn't do to miss in such
place as that.
Just as was about TO fire the old grizzly
turned his head aud saw the parson just be-
hind him. He was 30 close that the bear
simply let go aud made grab.
The tree, released from his weight, flew
up, and the bear simply got leg Of the par
sons trousers, aud the tree went up like a
catapult-that's what they called it, didn't
theys
cit shot the parson out ahead like boy
shoots stone from a springy single. /
saw him sail across the arroyo with his coat
tails spread like birds tail. He landed
fair in the branches of big pine forty feet
from the ground and thirty yards from the
sapling
That saved him. The bear was dis
gusted, but he went to the pine and started
to watch, and / climbed up into the saphng
and from there pumped lead into him so
fest that he soon curled up.
The parsons shins were skinned, but he
wasn't hurt much. He couldn't stand the
country, though, and went away. He gave
me the one-eared burro, aud he's packing
] my grub and blankets yet"