Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-02-23
A MUSICAL BEAR.
Tho Novel Experience Of q Cali
forula Girl
Ter Pis"o Playing Attracts the Attss-
ito ~ Eruin. aud lie Falls In Love
with .he Young Lady and
the Instrument.

Mary Carter was practicing her music
and WAS oil alone In the house But for
she did SO As soon as she struck the
tirs, note of her exercises everybody
went outdoors and staid there regard.
les, of the style with which she went
over the scales Mary. according to tho
Elmira IN W Telegram, WIS a San
Francisco girl who had gone To spend
the summer with her sister, who mar.
rled IL rancher that lived away up In
the mountains near the hcadWater. Of
American river Her brothe--in-law,
MIR Matthews. was well-to-do and fixed
the little house to which he took his
BRIDE In fine style Things were SO elo-
giant IT was hard TO imagine that the
place was nearly t1fty miles from civili-
zation When he WAS buying furniture
grand piano. which in due time arrived
at the ranch. and 1t was on this that
Mary was practicing She did not like
the idea of being alone at first. but as
she found it impossible to persuade her
sister To stay with her she had tn mako
the best Of bad job She went over
I the scales carefully every few minutes,
taking a look out into the garden to
See that her relatives did not get too far
away After finishing one piece she
crested a moment. thinking Of what she
would play next Suddenly she heard
q shutting sound. and. turning around,
she saw large. brown bear standing In
the doorway leading TO the back part OF
the house She was paralyzed with
chair nor scream
She saw the bear come nearer, and she
trembled like q leaf Oh, how she
wished she could faint. But she was o
strong girl and couldn't. and the bear
kept coming closer. and soon had his
paws around her She gave herself up for
lost as she felt the grip. which she
knew was deadly, tighten around her
and the wurIn breath of the creature on
her face Looking through the window
she could see her relatives lounging
around peacefully ~ the shade of the
pines and tried to cal them, but her
tongue would not move and she closed
her eyes. expecting to open them In
that happy land of which she had been
taught from childhood But what WA
this? The bear was not hurting her.
He held her gently but firmly in his
paws. and was actually licking her
fa<e. like a pet dog She opened her
ewes. and the world was the same as
usual She could not tell whether she
was frightened or not. but somehow
she did not try to scream She just
Kept quiet. hoping something would
happen To end the agony, which she
did not understand The bear did not
bold her more than a second. although
II seemed ages to the girl He did not
went to hold her. for he threw her on
the door She was still frightened and
expected the beast to jump on her
and devour her at his leisure. But in.
stead he turned around, commenced TO
claw the piano and was evidently de-
lighted with his performance. for he
kept time with his feet and looked
around approvingly The people out
side heard the clatter but did not pay
any attention to 1t. as they afterward
said il was not unusual. Mary hiss
never forgiven them for this. The bear
began to play furiously. and Mary. SEQ
ing a way to escape. took advantage of
II and ran away screaming from the
room Her relations ~ frst refused to
believe her story. but hearing the clat-
ter ran to the window and looked in.
Bruin was still at it. and by this time
had become so enthuscd that he was
performing a sort of can-can to his own
accompaniment. lie was in the height
of his glory and had found out where
the bass keys were, and with these he
was particularly delighted The deep,
continuous rumble seemed to afford him
the greatest pleasure. and be would
execute bar that sounded like the ca
denza Of A Storm at Sea"
He howled and jumped and whiaed.
and ut last concluded his concert BY
getting on the piano on oil fours and
executing jig AT this time Mr.. Mat
thews Thought he had better take .
hand. and he ran into the room
with an Ak, as that was the
only weapon available. The bear
did not seem surprised, but got
out Of the way. and had there been
room would have left the house. lie
was struck several times with the ak,
but did not show eight. and the man
thought he must have found a tsme
bear. although he could not imagine
where it came from lie then changed
his tactics and tried to capture It. Is It
did not appear dangerous lie got hold
of it and tried TO tie 1t in the piano
cover Sut at this the brute's wild ma
ture showed itself. and it got ready to
make an attack Before the man could
realize what was coming he heard q
deep. angry growL and the next mo-
ment was clutched argrily by the mon
ster The beast could have killed him
but il did not want to 1t just gave
him a good squeeze and threw him vio-
lently against the wall After looking
at him a moment the bear went out the
door ard walked leisurciy into the yard.
Mrs Matthews and Mary rushed in
and soon had Mr. Matthews back to
consciousness lie got up and looked
out of the window Snd saw tAe bear
walking quietly over the hill in the di-
rectlon Of the mountain