The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-28
HANDLED WITH CARE.
The Monster Captive Grizzly Bear in the
 Golden Gate Park.

Golden Gate Park.
 From the San Francisco Examiner.l
 Monarch, the great grizzly who had become a permanent feature of Golden Gate park, displayed his power and cleverness yesterday morning. About g o'clock he stepped from his iron cage in
 to the roomy bear park that had just been got ready for him across from the buffalo park and near the deer paddock. A week ago Monarch went into his cage as usual in the concrete pit in the '49 Mining camp and the door was dropped The big iron cage that weighs 2,7OO pounds itself and the 1900 pounds of bear were hoisted with derricks into a stout truck, and with the aid of more
 derricks cage and bear were soon depos-
 ited inside the new bear park. Mon-
 arch stayed in his barred prison while the big iron braces of the iron fence
 were being planted in concrete and
 bolted above, and displayed his usual contempt and defiance for the other animals. .--rts -...
 His new home seemed an ideal one for both bear and public. A broad con- crete coping encircled in oblong shape a space of natural park ground nearly g. hundred feet long and forty feet wide. Inch bars of iron four inches apart, strongly held and braced, made fence reaching twelve feet above the coping, and at the top the iron pickets were sharpened and curved inward 50 that climbing would not be easy. The fence
 enclosed a plot of ground that was level on one side and sloping on the other. There was a concrete bathtub, eight feet long by five feet wide, and filled
 with sparkling water. Two clumps of
 scraggy live oaks threw a picturesque shade over one-third of the place, and
 in 1t Monarch could peacefully lie on a
 carpet of dead leaves and smell again l the earthly mould. There were three or four cedars and frs besides patch | of soft grass for his feet. All these at- | fractions would enable Monarch to revel in pastoral peace, and Superintendent McLaren's experiment of substituting an open park for concrete pit would enable the public to see him better and amid more natural surroundings. Superintendent McLaren, Captain Thomson of the park police, and Lewis J. Ohnimus, the animal expert, were on
 hand yesterday morning with lot of workmen and a, few early park visi- l tors. All were curious to See how the
 grizzly would act when turned loose l in little bit of forest and left free to ! be himself. The bolts that held down l the door were loosened, and then every
 body respectfully withdrew to the out
 side. A pulley. rigged up above the cage door and worked from, the outside, raised the door. When the rusty bars slightly started Monarch knew what it \ meant and gave the operation i6 tn- divided attention. He tried to get his claws under and help raise 1t.
 l Boon 1t went up and Monarch strode | out. He stepped on soft earth for the first time in five years He walked a l few feet and stopped under the oaks I to look slowly around. It was a still, glorious autumn morning, and through the foliage the, sunshine fiecked his shaggy new winter coat of brownish black. The diggings pleased him. best. IAfter spading up q third of his pen he began digging 2 trench two feet
 wide along the concrete coping. The danger of his digging close to the cop l ing had been foreseen. and to prevent escape in that way several laborers with teams had hauled great rocks
 from a quarry, These loose rocks were from two to three feet long and weighed Efrom 200 pounds upward, He displayed
 all the savagerless Of . grizzly in the mountains several times by making
 wicked dashes at people who were near
 the fence.
 .aThere Is one thing that don't agree with Bret Harte in," Mr. Ohnimus re- marked, "ard that Is l1fs calling a grizz. lys coward People who know grizz. Lies have more respect for them and l don't wink at sonie Stories about them. |, .Uh, well, a gunshot would scare him l All animals are afraid q . gun," said a wise bystander.