St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-03-09
NOT AFRAID or MEN.

NOT AFRAID or MEN.
Some Stories Of Fights with Grizzly Bean
They Ara "Dead Came"
1--WE hunted n good DEAL" said
young Englishman, '.and while ! never
had shot at one of those fellows, have
come to the conclusion that every wild
animal will get out of . mans way
he can. A man is safe with the worst
of them unless they're attacked OF
pushed by hunger. Then some Of them
will spring on him from behind I've
had men who hunt tigers and lions tell
me about it, and they have come to
about the same conclusion"
THAT may go with tigers and lions.
but not with grizzly bears" This re-
mark was made by q white-bearded
old fellow who had not spoken
before. II know of q case where
that proposition was tested. A fellow
1 knew met bear down in the
Santa Cruz mountains q good many
years ago. He was ON the trail going
one way and the bear came along the.
other. He had . good rifle, but the
animal was SO big that he did not feel
like taking the chance of woundina
him. He had heard this yarn about
the power of human eye. and he banked
on the proposition that animals were
naturally afraid of men. So he just
braced himself in the trail, stood still,
and looked at the bear. As soon rs the
animal saw him he came for him. The
collision knocked my friend endwise.
The bear just made one grab and got
him about the hip somewhere. He lift
ed him up and shook him like terrier
would a rat. Then the bear threw him
away and went on. That one bite
crushed my friends hip to = pulp. The
only thing / wonder at is that the
grizzly didn't stop and eat him mp
simply question of his not being hum
cry"
This brought out another story Of
an adventure that occurred down ON
Fraser mountain. Monarch's own
range. An old fellow wounded bear
and before he could get in another shot
this was before the time Of magazine
rifles-was knocked down the hill by =
blow from the beasts paw that broke
his leg. He fell over quite bluff and
that gave him few seconds to think.
He pinned his faith to the First reader
story that wild animal will not mo-
lest man if he lies perfectly still and
pretends to be dead. The hunter lay
where he stopped rolling, and when
the bear came down and stood over him
he did not move.
1t really seemed to puzzle the ami
NAL, which stood across him
watching with open mouth for
the least manifestation of life.
1t was q pretty nervous situation The
hunter felt the butt of his six-shooter
against his fingers and thought he
would get hold of that, in order TO
have one desperate chance in case his
ruse did not work. He go. hold of the
pistol with the least possible motion,
but the beast saw it and in an instant
bad crushed the arm in his jaw. The
pain made the man faint; he never
could tell how long he was insensible,
but when he recovered consciousness
the bear was gone. Old Gerheart,
with his crippled leg and only ono
arm, is . weH-known character about
Germans Station and Lancaster, and
every bear-hunter who goes into the
mountains from those points is given
the benfit of his discouraging story.
His enormous vitality and insensibil-
| lty to shock are the basis of thousand
tales that have been recited about old
Monarch. The killing of the Pine
maantain terror in the southern part
of the state is one of them This bear
was for years the despair Of the sheep
men and cattlemen of that vicinity.
He was shot several times, but always
got away with his game. One day
they loaded up an old Belgium musket
with ten drains of powder. For pro-
shell and filed it solid with lead. They
rammed this frightful slug down ON
top of the powder, and set the gun ON
the hillside. with chunk of liver
smeared with honey hanging over the
muzzle and attached 70 the trigger
with a cord.
The terror found the bait, and the
next day the cowboys found the gum
with the muzzle blown of. Plenty Of
blood and the signs of fearful strug-
gle showed that the discharge had
hurt something. They followed tho
blood-stained bear track for half
mile before they found their enemy.
The slug had torn away half Of the
bears jaw. had passed entirely through
his body, man9ling lights, liver, and
the rest of it, and had come out on his
back few inches from the tail. And
yet the animal had had strength to
travel half . mile after being shot
This incident discouraged bear hunters
Tor q long time. There are plenty of
grizzlies in the Pine Mountain country
for any ambitious hunters, and the
people in that section will receive
kindly any man who thinks he can de-
crease the numbcr.-San Francisco Ex-
aminer.