The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1893-11-07

REFRE sHrNe THEMSELVES
at the roadside, within stones throw
of the Mountain house, their horse be-
gan to show signs of fear, and tried to
turn around in the road. Mrs. Smith,
being an excellent horsewoman, put
the horse under the whip, and, with
snort, he sprang forward, and then
stopped short within few feet of the
trough and began to rear. His snort
was answered by another, but of diff
ferent kind.
That's bcar!'' exclaimed Mrs.
Smith.
Mittie Smith peered forward and be-
gan to scream. Two big bears were re
freshing themselves with a bath in the
watering trough. When the girl
screamed the bears jumped out of the
trough and made down the road direct
ly toward the house, but turned off into
the woods just before reaching it. Mrs
Smith drove on and after handing over
her horse to the hostler rushed into the
house. A cotillon was on, but the
music and dancing stopped short as
she hurried in among the festive
throng and cried:
There's two big bears right yondnr
across the roadt''
The women screamed and rushed up
stairs and shut themselves in any room
they could find. The men gathered up
all the guns the neighborhood could
provide, and the social party was
turned into bear hunt by night. The
impromptu hunters crashed and houn-
dered and stumbled about in the woods
for two or three hours, but the bears
lay low. The men then returned, and
festivities were resumed. The bears
lay lower next day, however, for
Hunter Joe Cortright killed them both,
less than two miles from Mount Pocono.
Romaine Whitaker of Bushllill. Pa.
was out pheasant shooting a few days
ago and while walking in an old road
he saw a big bear shutting along to
ward him. AS Whitaker had TO shot
heavier than bird shot he did not care
to take the risk of trying to shoot
bear with it, and he waved his arm and
shouted, supposing the bear would .bc
frightened away. But, instead OF being
scared, bruin seemed to like Nhitta
lker's frantic movements and noise. and
trotted closer. Then Whitaker con-
cluded to pepper the bear with bird
shot, anyhow, thinking that the smart
ing OF the pellets might be sufficient to
turn him around or into the woods
The hunter blazed away, and the
result seemed to tickle the bear
amazingly, for he stopped, rose on his
hind feet, caresSed his nose and face
with his paws, and then lay down in
the road and rolled over and over like
cat on a bunch of catnip. That made
Whitaker mad. and giving the bear
the contents of his second barrel, he
turned and hurried away into the
woods himself. He saw no more of the
bear, but it is reported that hunter
named Van Auken killed bear since
then in that locality, from which half
handful of bird-shot was taken when it
was dressed. and Whitaker believes
that this bear and the one that was 50
pleased with him and his gun were the
same.
!! George Young, Of the High Knop
region, tells az extraordinary story of
an impudent bear that came under his
personal observation. Young lives in
an isolated place near the Monroe
county line. Two weeks ago he bought
barrel to pack some of his winters
pork in. lie left the barrel in the door
yard when he went to bed that night
When he got up in the morning it
was gone. AS pork barrels are hard to
| get in that out-ofthe-way locality he
| spared no pains to find some clew that
| would put him on the track of the
! missing barrel. but in vain. There was
no one in the neighborhood whom he
could suspect of stealing it, and its
| disappearance was mystery that dis
| turbed him greatly.
The day before Thanksgiving Young
| was out pheasant hunting. Near the
| headwater of Bright Brook. Pa, two
miles from his farm, he was passing
along a small scrub oak ridge and some
ridge attracted his attention He went
down toinspect it, and what was his sur
| prise on approaching it to discover that
it was his missing pork barrel. The
| bottom of the barrel was towards him.
He went up to the barrel and put his
foot on it. Instantly there was great
scrambling inside, and out popped
bear. The bear gave one look at Young
and shuff1ed rapidly away and disap-
| peared in the brush. There was no
way to explain the presence of the bar
i rel in that spot except by the theory
that the bear had stolen it in the
night and rolled it all the way from