Arizona silver belt., 1895-03-23
MAN AND BEAR.
An Exciting Episode in Which Bruin Was Greatly Surprised.
Human Ingenuity Was Superior to Brute Instinct and the Man Escaped Being Devoured by she
 Bear.

Ofall branches of ofrailway engineering into closer contact with a hard-worlSing lot of men than the maintenance of way work. Sometimes thbre are comical features even in this department, and one of these was recently told to Il. writer for the St. Louis Globe-Demo- crat by wcll-known engineer, who hides his real namc under the pseudonym of Jerry Sullivan. It is n tale of one Inn, a track walker, who came in late one night and reported to the other oc- cupants of the bunkhouse that he had been delayed by an extraordinary en- counter with bear. "Near the ind of the section" said Tim, "close to the old tie camp, l was comih' along about half past three o'clock, and just nfthrr crossin' that little bridge I hccrd nize of sumthin' rustlin' in the bushes down at the bottom of the dump, and thinltin' it was a rabbit fired rock down into in, and in second there was q terri ble slashin' around in thim bushes, and l see a big cinnamon bear come out sncezin' and rubbin' his nose, and thin, before l rightly come to me sinses, the bear seen me and up the dump he come. We'll, started down the track as tight as l could go, but l hadn't went two telegraph poles until 1 look back and see the bear still comin and gainin' on me livery jump. So dropped me adzc and rinch and stretched meself for all was worth. But it was no use, the bear was still gainin', and l was wonderful what on airth l was goin' to do, whin I see the iron pipe under the track near the cut and l made for that and wint in just clear, whin the bear damned his head in at the ind But he was too big to go in, and he couldn't reach me, and so he paved around and snorted and bit the ind of the pipe, and tried first one side and thin the other But l was safe and lied there and panted and blessed the man that invinted iron pipe.
 Well, 1 thought the bear would 20 away after awhile, but he didn't; he stayed right there wid his head in first wan ind of the pipe and thin the other, and when be came round to the upper ind I wished had held on to the rinch so l could hit him belt over the nose. After bcin in there over two hours l begin gittin' cold, and see somcthin had to be done, and thought I'd try smolSin' him out. So managed
 to light mo pipe; and thin l smoked fo2 all knew how, but the bear still kept his head in the hole and crawled up closer and blew the smOke right in his lace He snortcd a little, but wouldn't bacl, out, and seemed to be gcttin' madder all the time. Thin. whin ] was nearly frozc to death, l happened to think of the stick of giant powder ih me pocket, and, thinks I: Now III settle your hash. So ptts a fuse in the stick of giant, and erawis up and threw it right under the bears head, and thin touched off the fuse and backed down to the other ind of the pipe. ! guess tliat bear thought I was going to run away, for he run across the track to the other ind; thin, lyhiu l crawlcd back Go get me feet out of his reach he crossed back again and stuck his head and neck into the pipe just as the giant wint off Widout thinBin' l had made big cannon out of the water pipe and whin it wiut of l was fired out and landed in the middle of the river and was nearly drowned before l knew just where l was at But I finally struck tbe other bank and got out and wint up to the station and Jagged the passenger and rode home. After climbin up the bank l looked back Cud saw smoke comin' out of the lower ind of the pipe and the bear still looilin' at the upper ind and tryin' to sec phwat in blazcs had happened"