The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-07-22
A DRUNKEN BEAR.
Bruin Acquired an Appetite for the
Flowing Bowl
4 Grizzly That Got a Taste of Tippae and
Liked It-Deliriuna Tremens Put
an End to His Dissipated
Career.

Way back in the SOS was Temporal
rily handling the lines for the Sacra-
u,c1ato Overland State Company, and It
was over lots of land, tell you, for my
ronte ran through the toughest section
of the Sierra Nevadas- One night about
sunset was swinging along the rocky
trail at a pretty good pace, as l wanted
to reach Rabbit creek before dark,
where we changed horses and got sup
per, says the Kansas City Star.
had three passengers all men, and
for freight carried a barrel of gin
strapped on behind the stage. There
was gin for "Red Nike" who ran free
and easy at the mining camp at Rabbit
Crock. Suddenly my attention was
called by one of the passengers to
novel race which was going on down
the side of the mountain between
miner and grizzly bear, with the man
about one hundred feet ahead running
like deer. But the bear was gaining
rapidlv and It seemed that he had him
sure, when suddenly the miner turned
and darted off in another direction.
The grizzly was slow in stopping, but
when he did get Strengthened the way
he annihilated distance was caution
to cataE1ountS.
Several times the miner played this
trick, and on each occasion gained con-
siderable ground in one direction, but it
could be seen he was rapidly firing, and
unless something happened the bear
was dead sure to get him We were
wondering what we could do to help
the poor fellow when suddenly the
leaders smelled the grizzly. They
snorted and pranced and started off on
dead run. I put on the brake, and it
was all I could do to stop them and
wouldn't have succeeded only the trail
was up grade.
Wen. when the horses made their
| lump the barrel of gin broke loose
| from its fastenings and went tearing
| down the mountain side toward the
man and bear, who were coming along
on dead run. The man saw the bar
rel coming and avoided it but not so the
| grizzly. He stood up on his hind legs
and, reaching out his fore paws, grabbed
it. The way that barrel rolled him
| down the mountain would make a
coyote laugh.
The impromptu journey was brought
to a sudden ending by an immense
bowlder, against which the bear and
barrel rolled. The shock separated
them, and, strange to say, the barrel
stood right side up with the head
broken in and only small portion of
the contents was spilled. To say the
bear was surprised would be putting it
light.
He thought he had his quarry and
when be discovered 1t was only bar
rel his face took on an expression of in
tense disgust. However, as is natural
for a bear, he began to lick his shaggy
coat, which had been sprinkled with
some of the gin. The taste was APP
parently agreeable, as he kept on alb
sorbing the liquor with his rough
tongue until the flavor disappeared.
| Then he went over and smelled of the
barrel The inspection was undoubted-
ly highly satisfactory, as he inserted his
snout and took sup, then he took a
good long draught, and in less than half
an hour that bear was as drunk as a
lord.
We watched the proceedings with in
terest, and after we were satisfied the
bear had a jag on, we went down, tied
him up with ropes, dragged him up the
hill and threw him inside the stage
We drove on to Rabbit Creek and sold
the drunken grizzly to Red Mike for
500, and he chained him up in the cor
ner of his saloon and kept him as a curl
osity to draw trade.
Well, he did draw trade. Mike
gave him a quart of whisky day, and
after awhile he became so docile that
his chain was removed. After that for
may years he would sleep around the
barroom and when one OF the boys
would come and ask the house to drink
the grizzly would walk up to the bar
stand on his hind legs, and wait to be
served with tincupful of whisky. he
was a source of great income, but, i'm.
fortunately, being attacked with de
lirium tremens one day, he killed the
( bartender and miner with one blow
of his powerful paw, and it required
twenty Winchesters and about one hun
dred pounds of lead to cure him of hi.
uncomfortable passion for intoxicants