River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-11-12
FOOLED BY A TAME BEAR.
Tho Huge Joke Put Up on an English
SnOrtSmau.


Sportsman.
ave done some bar hunting IN my
time, | reckon" said Grizzly Bill. pull
ing his shaggy red beard meditatively,
says San Francisco correspondent,
land I've laid out about as many of 'em
rs most, but the bar hunt that we had
right here, less'n five years ago. 'ud lay
over any show as | ever seen in the
theayter at Frisco, and this was how it
was:
Wed got young Britisher just cum
to the valley that time who war death
on shootin', and carried huff guns aud
pistols with him to kill every critter as
cum out o the ark
HE had good stuff in him some
where's, / reckon, for he Civ a heap of
dollars 10 them sick folks down Fever
Hollow way, and he could rough il
without gruntin' and growlin' at suthin'
every minute, Ike some on 'em.
but he did put on airs, that's a
fact. To hear him talk you'd hev
thought the tallest shooting in the
Rockies warn't in it along o. hiS'n.
and at last the boys got mad at his
CROWN, and me and two or three more
lowed we'd show him some sport. and
see what he was made Of
''One night Breakneck Ben cum in
and said he'd sighted a bar trail on the
hill above our gulch, so we sent of
Scalpin' Sam full split to tell the Brit
isher.
Wal, l reckon the tenderfoot had grit
him, though he was SIGH an etarnal
fool Sam lowed the bar was bigger
butler but the Britisher warm
sl1eered bit. He iist whipped mp his
rifle and came runnin' up the gulch for
all he war worth, and him and me and
Ben and Sam we all sot off together to
find the bar.
"As we went along l says TO Ben,
thoughtful like:
Ben, warn't it right here as we
found that half-eaten Teller whose name
nobody ever lznowed?'
You bet, said Ben. He'd slipped
down atwixt two rocks and stuck fast
so as he couldn't get ont agin, and the
wolves they cum around and gobbled
up all the top half of him, chunk by
chunk, and when we found him there
warn't nothin' left but his legs, cause
they couldn't get at them.
And up yander, 10y that white
stone. chips in Sam. was whar the
Dutchman fit the grizzly. He'd let drop
his gun down the canYJ IN and had only
his bowie to fight with; so the bar got
holt on him and Civ him hug that
bruck his back just as he run the bowie
blumb into the bars heart 1t was an
even game atwixt 'em, reckon, and
the honors war easy
And so we went. one wOrs'n tother;
but, say what we liked, we didn't sl1eeI
the tenderfoot worth a cent-he'd got
grit in him, make no mistake.
"Wal, pretty soon we got into jist as
mean place as you could think of 70
meet bar ina long, straight canyon.
as deep as a mine, with rocks on each
side that casamount couldn't climb
and whatever you met, no room to
dodge or run, you'd got TO stand square
ly up and fight it out
Il was jist sayin' TO Ben, 'Pard, il
the bar catches US here it'll be mighty
rough on some of us when there cum a
snort and growl overhead. and big
bar cum tearin' down the gully full
gallop right at us
I've boys let strip, but we must ha'
been kind o nervous, for we all missed,
an fore the Britisher could fire |
gripped his arm and said: Hold in till
l give the word, for if you miss he II lay
out the hull lot of u.s.
THE tenderfOot clinched his teeth
and stood ready, and down cum the
bar! But just as he got within ten
yards held out my hand and hollered.
Up" and up got the bar on his hind
legs and began to dance a horn-pipe.
You see, 1t war a tame bar. as we'd
got from French Pete, of DogtOwn, to
git the laugh of that Britisher, and
Pete himself cum along with it and let
it loose down the gully jist at the right
minute.
"Wal, if ever l seen a fellow look
sick it was that Britisher jist then.
Fact he felt so bad that we were kind
o. sorry for him alter all, but fore he
quit he killed three genuine bar him
self and could laugh at that trick same
as we did. Atlanta Constitution.