The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-03-21
MAN AND BEAR.
An Mzeiting Episode IL Which
Bruin Was Greatly Surprised.
Human Ingenuity Was Superior to Brute
Instinct and tho Man Escaped
Dcins Dcvoured by tho
Bear.

ofall branches of railway engineering
there is none which brings the officer
into closer contactwith Woodworking
lot Of men than the maintenance of wny
work. Sometimes there are comical
features even in this department, and
one OF these was recently told to n
writer Tor the st. Louis Globe Demo-
GRAFT by well-lSnown engineer, who
hides his real name under the pseudonym
OF Jerry Sullivan. 1t is talo of one
lin, a track walker, who came In late
ono night and reported to the other oc-
cupants Of the clubhouse that he had
been delayed by IN extraordinary en-
counter with bear. Near the ind of
the section" said Tim, "close to the old
tie camp, WINS oomin' along about half
past three o'clock, and just afther
crossin' that little bridge heerd nize
Cd sumthin' rustlin' in the bushes down
at the bottom Of the dump, and thinkin'
1t was rabbit fired n rock down into
i'm, and in a second there was terri
bic slashin' around in thin bushes. and
sec Il big cinnamon bear come out
sneezin' and rubin his nose, and thin,
before rightly come to me sinscs, the
bear seen Inc and up the dump he come.
Well, started down the track as tight
as L could go, but l hadn't went two
telegraph poles until look back and
sec the bear still comm and gainin' on
me livery jump. So dropped me adze
and r!nch and stretched mcsclf for all I
was worth. But it was no use, the bear
was still gainin', and l was wondcrin'
what on airth was goin' to do, whin
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 ut the ind. But he was too biz
to go in, and lie couldn't reach me, and
SO he paved around and snortcd and
bit the ind of the pipe, and tried first
one side and thin the other. But was
safe, and lied there and painted and
blessed the man that invinted iron pipe.
well, thought the bear would 90
away after awhile, but he didn't; he
stayed right there, wild his head in first
wan ind of the pipe and thin the other,
and when he came round to the upper
Ind l wished / had held on to the
rinch SO could hit him belt over the
nose After bein' in there over two
hours begin gittin' cold, and 1 sec
somethin' had to be done, and thought
I'd try sInolsin' him out. So managed
to light me pipe, and thin 1 smoked for
oil L knew how, but the bear still kept
his head in the hole, and / crawled up
closer and blow the smoke right in his
face. He snortcd little, but wouldn't
back out, and seemed to be gettin'
madden all the time. Thin, whin was
nearly frozc TO death, happened to
think of the stick OF giant powder in
me pocket, and, thinks I: Now I'll
settle your hash So puts fuse in
the stick of giant, and crawls 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 that bear thought 1 was
going to run away, for he run across
the track to the other ind; thin, whin
crawled back to get me feet out of
his reach he crossed back again and
stuck his head and neck into the pipe
inst as the giant whit off. Widout
thinllin', had made n big cannon out
of the water pipe, and whin it whit off
was fired out and landed in the middle
OF the river and WINS nearly drowned
before knew just where was at.
But finally struck the other bank and
got out and whit up to the station and
tagged the passenger and rode home
After climbin' up the bank 1 looked
back and saw smoke comm out of tho
lower ind of the pipe and the bear still
lookin' ut the uppcrrind and tryin' to
see phwat i'll blazes had happened"