The Helena independent., 1892-06-25
FREEING 4 MONSTER BEAR.
A Story of Adventure IN Oregon
About Forty Years Or
More Ago
Boars Of tho Small Black Sort
We're Abundant la All
Sections.
!. One Instance Whore ihsS Rsar Trssd the
Boy sliding Down en :
Hsy Rope.


Boy sliding Down on
Hsy Rope.
lWritten Tor THE HlLlNA INDErENDEsr.l
m WAY BACK TN THE "FIFTIEs"
~ bears wsrs % Numerous on the
~ banks Of tho Willamette river. in
Oregon. Il ars hogs in the hickory
woods Of Kentucky in nut time. And that
u saying that bsars wsrs mighty plenty in
Oregon about forty years ago.
YOu sse after the missionaries established
their great cattle ranches in Oregon and
gathered the Indians from the wilderness
md rot them TO work and fed them On beef
y and bread, the bears had II Ill their own
way, and literally ovsrran ths land. And
this gave great chance for sport TO the
sons Of missionaries and ths sons Of new
settlers where rolls the Oregon"
And II VA not perilous sport sithsr. for
the grizzly was rarely encountered. His
home was further to the south. Neither
was the large and clumsy cinnamon bear
abundant on the banks Of the besutiful
Willamette In those dsar old days,
whom you might ride from sum TO sun. belly
deep il wild flowers, and never see house.
But The small black bear. q indicated be-
fors. was on deck in great force at I'll times
and In nearly al places.
Il was the custom ID those days for boys
to take this bear In the lasso; usually on
horseback.
We would ride along CLOSE to the dense
wood thst grew By the river bank, and get
ting between him and his bass Of retreat
would. a. soon ~ We sighted bear feeding
out in the opsn plain. swing onr lAssos and
charge him with whoop sni yell. His habit
Of rearing MP and standing erect and
doubling his fists . II to tight, u John L.
Sullivan. made him an easy prey TO tho
lasso. And then the fun Of taking him
home through tho long, strong grass!
AZ = rule hs did not shew fight whom once
in the tolls Of the lnsso: but in : few hours,
making tbs best Of the situation like
little philosopher. hs would lead alone like
dog.
Thsre were Of course exceptions TO this
exemplary conduct. -
On ono OCCASION particularly, Ed Parish,
the son OF . celebrated missionary, came
near losing his life BY counting too con-
fidently on the dooility Of a bear which he
had taken into { lasso and was leading
home.
N His bear suddenly stopped, stood MP and
began to haul in the lasso hand over hand
Just like sailor. And as the other end of
ish pommel Of the saddle, why Of course the
distance bstween the bear and the horse
soon grew periloasly short, and Ed Parish
slid from his horses back and took to the
brush. leaving horse and bear to fight II
out as best thsy couId.
When hs came back with some boys to
help him tho horse was dsad and tho bear
was gone. having cut the rops with his
teeth.
After having lost his horse in this way
poor little Ed Parish had TO do his hunting
on foot, and AZ my people wers immigrants
and l, were On foot also. This kept as
three together great deal, and many Pc
culiar adventure We had those dear old
days, "when al the world was younR."
Young and dashinR Ed Parish was nearly
always the hero Of onr achievements. for no
was = bold, entsrprising fellow, who feared
nothing At all. In fact. he finally lost his
life from his very great love of adventure. |
But this 10 too sad to tell now: and We must
be content with the story about how hs
freed bear for the present.
We thres boys had gone boar hunting up |
. wooded sanyon close TO his fathers ranch |
late ono warm summer afternoon. Ed had |
a gun; but o. said before, my people were |
very poor, SO neither brother nor had any |
other arms OF implements than the insepar-
able lasso.
Ed, who was always the captain in such
cases, chose the center of the dense, deep
canyon for himself and putting my brother
on the hill to his right and myself on the
n1ll ,T to b. ! It, lsfs,, ordered simultaneous
After = time We heard him shoot. Then
we heard him shout. Then there was !
Thsn suddenly high and wild his voic.
rang out above the tree tops down in the
deep canyon.
Con: dov.! n, Come Con, auiok! deia, IT, r.. t1s.d
quick! Oh, ncsss! Come quick! And
and-and sstsh himr' !.
My brother came tearing down the steep
hill ON his side OF the canyon a. de-
scended from my side. We got down about
dense foliage. together with the compact
underbrush, concealed everything. We
could see neither bear nor boy.
This Oregon is . horrid country: warm
and wet; nearly always moist and humid,
and so tho trees are covered with moss.
Long. gray. sweeping moss swings from the
sunlight 10 shut out from one years. end to
the othsr. And il rains here tho biggest
half of the year, and then these dsnssly
wooded canyons are as dark as oaverns I
know Of nothing so grsndly gloomy a. these
laid my ear TO the ground after I got a
glimpse Of my brother ON the other side Of
tho canyon, bat coald hear nothing ut all
but the beating Of my heart.
Suddenly there was a wild yell away mp
in the dense bouRhs Of big, mossy maple
tree that leaned over toward my side Of the
canyon. looked and looked with eager
ness, but could soc nothing whatever.
Then again came the yell from tho dense
top Of the big leaning maple. Thsn there
was moment of silence; and then the cry:
"Oh. Moses! Why don't you come, say,
and help mo catch imp" BY this time i
could see tho leaves rustlinR. And l could
see the boy rustlinQ, too.
And just behind him.was bear. He had
treed the bear sure enough!
My eyes gradually grew accustomed to
the gloom and density, and now saw the
rem mouth of the bear amid the green foliage
high overhead. The boar had nlresdv
pulled of one Of Eds boots and was making
. bootiack OF his big red mouth for the
other.
'Why don't you come on, I say. and help
mo catch himp
He kicked himself little further along
up the leaning trunk and In doing 10 kicked
his boot In the bears mouth.
's0h Noaeai Moaasl vhv dnusk v,r oov,no . |