Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-10
A BOGUS BEAR STORY.
Result of Iitie Difference Of Opinion
Between Two Farmers.

Result of a Jitile Difference Of Opinion
Between Two Farmers.
"Well, yes, matters are pretty rough out
our way yet" admitted the old farmer
from Montana. still we've made tOler-
ably rapid advancement, too, all things
considered. A large part Of the state
which, being outside Of the mining dis
trict, has long been considered worthless
is now devoted to farming and grazing.
With the advent of school houses and
churches and such things the whole terri
tory will assume "A new aspect But just
now every man looks out for number one
See that slash across my cheek here2 That
was one of the terms of settlement of dis
pute about a number Of hogs owned by a
neighbor Of mine couple of years ago
What did itl A chunk Of lead
ct was this way: / planted about half
my farm TO corn that year. Corn was lit
tie more than an experimental crop out
there, and ! took great deal of pains to
give mine a fair show. Zeke Brown, whose
farm was next TO mine, was also expert
menting little, although in another line
He was trying to make hog raising pay
He contended that old Montana was good
for something besides mining and grazing,
and added that if ] raised corn he would
raise hogs 10 eat it.
"And he did. Matters moved along
smoothly enough until Browns shoats
were about two-thirds grown. Then every
blamed hog developed an appetite several
sizes too large for him, and Brown expert
enced difficulty in finding an adequate food
supply. Finally, in desperation, he turned
the whole drove loose to root, hog, or die
and the porkers promptly invaded my corn
fields 1t took three Of Us nearly half
day to get those hogs back home again.
Zeke of course was surprised that his live
stock bad broken out, and was profuse in
his apologies for the trouble they had
caused. But the next week the perform
ance was permitted without the variation
of a single feature. / grew suspicious that
Neighbor Brown had devised a scheme by
which he hoped 20 give his hogs at least
one square meal a week. This in itself
was quite commendable, but when my
| corn was invaded for the third time | sur
/ missed who was expected 10 stand the ex-
pense Of the weekly banquets.
Il didn't like TO quarrel with Zeke, but /
/ felt that / couldn't afford to have my agri-
] cultural experiments interiered with even
| TO boom his So determined to study the
| hog question a little on my own account
| After a good deal of hard work my men
and | succeeded i'm cOrnering one Of the
shoats and carried him kicking and squeal-
/ ing TO the house. The spring before one
of the boys had shot cub bear and the
| half tanned hide was nailed against shed
/ We tore the bearskin down and tied it
| upon the hog, fastening it securely When
| the job was ended that porker made a
| pretty fair imitation Of a bear, and when
/ we turned the animal loose he made bee
! line for the corn fields to again join his com
| panions. Well, you know the bear is the
/ mortal enemy Of the hog tribe and there is
| nothing bruin likes better than a fat, juicy
pig.
! Perhaps you can imagine just what
/ sort Of reception that bogus bear received
] The whole drove seemed to scent danger in
the air before he got near them, and sour
/ ried out of the corn fields squealing in ter
/ ror. The cause Of all the disturbance ap-
parently was more excited than any Of the
| remainder Of the drove-as indeed he had
/ good cause to be-and as he was a good
] runner the flight soon became "A veritable
rout 1t was the qucorest sight / ever be
/ held and expect never TO see its equal
! Imagine drove Of hogs in a stampede,
| snorting, plunging, squealing and acting
| as if all the devils in that Biblical story ac-
/ tually possessed theml And in the midst
! Of it all lean, bedraggled, lopsided bear,
/ which half the time was ahead Of the hogsl
/ "That porcine regiment swept through
/ Browns farm like a cyclone and went tear
ing out Of sight in the distance It took
weeks TO get the drove together again, and
/ when this had been accomplished several
were neither present nor accounted for A
couple Of months later the government en-
| ptoyees in the Yellowstone park reported
! the discovery Of several wild hogs in the
geyser region.
Somehow or other Brown charged his
| losses 10 my account. He sent word by one
Of the boys that if he saw any more bears
around his place he proposed to shoot 'em
/ at sight. I understood what that meant,
and in the interest Of my health also loaded
for bear We met one night just at sunset
| on the old Yellowstone trail | saw him
first and sung out, Good evening, Zeke.'
"'Good evening, Bill
"As he spoke his arm flew up, there was
fash, crashing report and the blood
was tricklug from a smarting furrow
across my cheek You can see the result OF
that argument yet.
Brown Oh, / don't know anything
about him now. His oldest boy is running
the farm, though, and he manages hogs a
/ great dead better than his father before
! him did. Chicago Mail