Tombstone daily prospector., 1891-02-21
PULLING A GRIZZLY.
Parson Honeyfoot's Adventure in
 the Mountains
His shins Were skinned. But Bruin Didn't Succeed in Making Meal of the Pious Man-Oueer Antics of
 Tall sapling.

al never put myself up as much of a bcar-killer," said Mir. Gleason, rather | better known as "Old George" of Cor | mans Station, Los Angeles County, to | San Francisco Examiner man. "As a matter of fact, during the twenty-five l years that I've been fooling around the | mountains it has been my practice to 1 let 'em alone if they let me alone, and | if they don't let me alone to climb a tree and let 'em get tired.
 But there was one time that broke my rule. l have roasted with the fly | catchers more than one night rather than get into muss with bear, and l never thought it was my business to in- terfere when some body else was doing the roosting, except this once. It was about twelve years ago, and Parson Honeyfoot was preaching around these parts, first in one camp and then in another, usual | " winding up here at Gorm ans on Sun days, when all the boys would come in l from the camps and mines after their | mail. l was coming down from the | Frazier mountain one Sunday morning, and saw right ahead of me on the trail a great big grizzly. He was across the canyon from ue, and as he seemed to be | going right ahead about his own busi- ness, just sat down and waited half an | hour to give him chance to get out of ! my way. Just about the time l was ready | 10 move on there was a smashing in the | brush where l had last seen the big | bear, and the blue burro the parson l always used to ride came tearing and | praying down the trail. I knew him | by his having only one ear. He lost the | other fooling around buzz up on the 1 Sawmill mountain. l waited to see | what he was running from, but nothing came, and pretty soon l logged on.
 was kind of anxious about the parson
 and kept my eye out for him. After ! little l heard his voice shouting down in
 a gulch of the trail, and right away l
 found where the bears track turned of.
 If it had been anybody but the par son I'd have gone right on, but it seemed kind of low down to shake a preacher
 that way. SO I took of through the brush 1 in the direction of the noise. It was 1 just about as nasty a place to tackle | bear as you would want. Nothing but | thick manzanita and chaparr.l that
 made travelling mighty slow and hardly 1 a tree in range that a man could climb. 1 All the smaller trees had been burned
 of in some of the mountain fires years
 before, and now there were only some
 little thin saplings that had come up
 since the fire. and big old oaks and bull
 pines that had come out of the fire only
 scOrChed.
 Pretty soon I saw the bear. He was
 chasing around sapling, occasionally
 stopping to claw al the tree and shake
 it. From the upper branches of the tree
 came the calls for help, and pretty soon
 l made out Parson Honeyfoot clingin9
 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 I expected to see the parson let
 go and come a-tumblin', but he held on,
 though his coat-tails Tapped and ] snapped around like the lash of a coach
 whip. I guess the grizzly kept trying
 for fifteen minutes, then he seemed to i. give up the scheme and lay down growl-
 ing to think up a new one. It took him 1 about five minutes to get new idea,
 but when he did he went about carry ing it out with rush. He just got hold of that sapliug as high as he could
 hang his whole weight on it and 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, and began to try for sight be-
 hind the grizzly's ear.
 still the bear kept backing, and Parson Honcyfoot was almost to the p ground. 1 cooked my rife and took a , rest over my knee, because it wouldn't | do to miss in such place as that. D Just as I was about to fire the old grizzly turned his head and saw the par 7 son just behind him. He was so close
 that the bear simply let go and made a , grab.
 'sThe tree, released from his weight, f flew up, and the bear simply got a leg of . the parsons trousers, and the tree went {! | up like a catapult-that's what they . called 1t, didn't they?
 - Ut shot the parson out ahead like Q r | boy shoots stone from a springy shingle. ' l saw him sail across the arroyo with , his coat tails spread like birds tail,
 He landed fair in the branches of a big pine, forty feet from the ground, and l. thirty yards from the sapling.
 That saved him. The bear was dis ( gus;ed, but he went to the pine and r. started to watch and l climbed up into ' the sapling and from there pumped lead
 into him so fast that he soon curlcd up. r The parsons shins were skinned, ' but he wasn't hurt much He couldn''
 stand the country, though, and went
 away. He gave me the one-eared burrc = and he's packing my grub and blanket: