The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-10-17
THE "DEVIL BEAR"

Wnere MS ldJHeF was JuSe SS1tlbS o"N
OF bed.
"Jehosaphat! That's too badr' ex-
claimed the farmer. why, l thought |
YOU and the other boys were going to
watch the pen all night.
well, SO we did, and we had Turk
with us, too; but none of us ever saw
anything or heard a sound. guess
we must all have gone to sleep toward
morning, for when daylight came we
saw that the little Berkshire you set
such store by had been carried off and
the door of the pen was wide open"
why in thunder, then, didn't you
loose the hound on the track and fol-
low it right up?'
That's the first thing we did, re-
Joined Jack "Old Turk took the
scent first-rate and stuck to it till it
ended at the river; then we lad to
turn back"
But, Lord mercy, boy! what be-
came of the pig? That shoat weighed
full hundred pounds; surely the bear
couldn't have lugged it across the rlv-
er, nor up or down stream, either.
'He Just did, then; for there wasn't
of blood"
mo, the old thief's too cunning for
that Iguess he always kills his game
by blow of it's paw on the head, for
we've never found blood on his trail.
Well have to get up another big hunt
and destroy the beast somehow, or
he'll half ruin us all. Are you sure,
though, that it's the same old bear?"
mo mistake about that" said Jack.
I'VE found the tracks of his feet in the
mud bv the river, and one of them had
only four toes It's the Devil Bear,
sure enough"
Farmer Allen Monroe lived in a
sparsely settled neighborhood near
Marquette river, in northern Michl-
gan. For three years in succession he
and Others in the vicinity had lost
numbers of pigs, and even young
calves, through the depredations OF
an enormous black bear, who 1t was
supposed had his home somewhere
among the rocks on Stony ridge.
wild tract of country lying across the
river a few miles from Monroe's log
house.
ways out of gun-shot, and all observers
described him as being at least twice
the size of any other black bear-''as
big as a three-year-old steer" one mar
declared; but all attempts to trap
shoot, or run him down by dogs hac
proved utterly futile. His trail in
yariably led to the river, and there
every trace of it was always lost
Traps and spring guns had been set IL
all possible ways, but quite in vain
The former were always sprung ane
the bats eaten, while the cords at
tached to the triggers of the latter hat
never once been run against by The
cunning beast.
There were lots of other bears in The
neighborhood, ordinary animals o
from one hundred to three hundred
and fifty pounds, which the local hun
tiers had no great difficulty in killing
but the tracks of such were never con
founded with those of the Dew
Bear" las the old robber had come t.
be called, not only because of the tire
mendous size of the latter's footprints
but also because, some time in his IL
49,
hind feet had somehow lost toe.
Time and again, through spring
summer and autumn, experienced hur
tiers had watched pig and calf pen'
and pastures, and cornhelds, too, whe
the ears were tit to roast, in the mop
of getting sure shot at the maraude
but it was labor lost. Although o
moonlit nights the crafty beasts hug
form was sometimes seen looming u
like a black hillock between tt
watchers and the sky, he never can
within rifle range. nor was he ever,
far as known, touched by any OF tt
bullets which the bafhed hunters wei
occasionally provoked into firing
him.
The strangest thing of all in regal
70 the Devil Bear was that, althoug
every one believed his den to be in tt
recesses of Stony ridge, no one hs
ever been able to find his tracks b
tween there and the river, nor h;
anv one ever seen him emerge fro
the water after once entering it.
Vexed beyond measure by the loss
his imported Berkshire pig, Farm
Monroe QS1 W hHiHC < ~
hunt for the demoniacal beast. So
sent Jack, a tall young fellow of min
teen, around to warn the scatter
neighbors. in consequence of wifi
fourteen men, all that lived within
circle of three miles, assembled at t.
Monroe homestead early next NOR
ing, making, with father and son,
rifle-armed party of sixteen.
AS, under existing circumstances,
.ood dog was valuable property, {
Turk was safely chained up at hon
lest he might chance to come with
reach of that terrible paw which h
ended the career of SO many of
kind. 1t was then agreed that ca
hunter should select his own rol
through the woods and dry swan
and pay no attention to ordina
game, but if the great bear was fou
whether killed on the spot or no
the hunter should announce the fl
by three rife shots, fired at half-m
ute intervals.
The wanderings of the fifteen m
being entirely barren of result, nj
have no place in my story; it must