The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-06
WAY TO TRAP A BEAR.
Honey Was the Bait and n Bull Was
To Do the Rest.
From the Philadelphia Times.

| Between the close of the BURBERRY har-
vest and the time when the wild blackber-
ries hang ripe among the fre-scarred
elearings of Chicks Crossing, Me-, says
the New York Sun. there are few weeks
of leisure, which the farmers devote to
bee hunting. 1t is q season when the
bees, having filed their cells with white
clover honey from the second crop, take
several days off and go to distant fields
| to look up pasturage for Sthe next year.
| AS soon as the farmers know of this they
are sure the comb is heavier and sweeter
than 1t will be again, and proceed to rifle
all the nests they can find. BY a comci-
| dence the bears, too, find themselves with
out an occupation at this time. so they fire.
! quently come in contact with the farmers
strolling through the woods upon the
same errand as themselves, and several
/ shrewd old bears annually lay down their
lives in an indiscreet effort to get at the
| honey stubs ahead of their human COM
petitIors
Two bears have died in Hancock county
| this year because they loved honey not
wisely but too well; and Bill Remick and
| Con Archer, two hooppole hunters of note,
believed they had made plans to kill the
third one, though subsequent events did
| not confirm their too sanguine opinion.
| The hunters were out for bees in full
force through the foggy weather that pre-
vailed early in August. They used all the
| approved methods of lining the bees to
their nests, and hunted faithfully but
did not get more than fifty pounds of mar
ketable honey in four days. They were
weary and hungry and aching from many
bee stings when on Thursday night Bill
| drew a geometrical figure in the mud and
proved that the last ten bees he had lined
had all gone to the same tree, a crooked
pine stub on the side of the Whales Back,
which was two miles away. Con, who did
not understand Euclid very well, was for
waiting until morning and making the at
tack by daylight, but Bill reasoned him
out of this notion. They found the tree
soon after shutdown. 1t was nearly as
big and fully as ugly to look at as Bunker
Hill monument, and up some twenty feet
from the ground was a knothole sur
| rounded by fringe of bees that had come
outside to enjoy the evening.
After the men had kindled a rousing
| fire of pine knots and resinous woods the
tree was felled, and while the exasperatcd
bees were dashing into the blaze and dy-
| ing by thousands the hunters took out as
| much honey as they could carry and went
home, leaving the fallen trunk, which still
held a hundred weight or more of good
| honey, to lie out in the woods, with no
| protection but the wolves and foxes. The
| men made costly mistake. They knew
! 1t as soon as they returned next morning
| and examined the tree. A bear had en-
tered the cavity, and In addition to eat
| ing a good lot of honey, had broken up
and mixed the remaining combs with bits
| of rotten wood. SO the whole lot would
have to be strained before it was sold.
While Bill was saying libelous things
about the bear Con hunted about the place
for tracks. There were plenty of queer
| looking prints in the moss and fresh
| ri Of W a
had been made with dog or the sharp
| end Of a large cane. Alongside of these
| were indentations Of some kind of foot
that seemed to be shod with q cigar
box; and right among them all were a
| few common bear tracks. AS a compo-
! site animal of this character had never
come under their observation before the
hunters sent off for Jack Fitzpatrick, who
knows all about woodland monstrosities
of every kind. When Jack arrived, TWEEN
ty-four hours later, he said the tracks
belonged to Ida, the manned and three
legged tame bear that had run away from
Babcock of Bradley more than a year ago.
With Jacks aid they laid a deep plot to
| catch Ida. OF course, traps deadfalls.
| spring guns and such devices as are used
to destroy common bears were useless in
this case. To get Ida they must discard
the natural and try something that APP
| pealed to the spiritual side of her being.
Archer had just what they wanted. He
had a frolicsome Jersey bull, which, af-
ter a gay season in the highway, during
which time he had tipped over and spoiled
two bicycles as good as new, and forced
the school ma am to abandon travelling,
was now q dishonored prisoner inside of
a barbed wire fence in a back field. If
| Ida could be tempted or coaxed to enter
the yard they were sure the bull would at
| tend to whatever might follow. A sec
ton of the bee log, still containing a good
lot of honey, was hauled to the uphill
| side of the yard. Then, while Archer be-
| guiled the bull with a red undershirt
| tied to the end of short pole, Bill and
| Jack made the trap. Lifting the spincd
! wires up they thrust one end of the log
| into the yard and left it poised so thar
a few pounds weight upon the lower end
would cause 1t to tilt over and fall in
with the bun. Great daubs of comb honey
! were then scattered over the hills in lines
which centered in the bull yard. after
| which the three hunters went away to
| catch more bees.
Though two days and three beautiful
nights passed, the bull still paved In his
yard for new enemies to conquer, and Ida
| still held aloof among the hills Jack was
sure she was near by, because he had no
ticed that the outer ends of the radiating
| lines of honey had been taken up, and the
circle was closing in rapidly. To his mind
| the bear was as good as caught already.
| once inside the yard she could not get out
through the wires of the ten-stranded
| fence, even IL she had no foe to conquer;
and when he heard Archer tell what the
bull had done he laughed in anticipation.
The weekly paper containing an account
of Bryan's reception in New York, came
| by mail and was read and discussed before
the men thought Of going to the yard
again. Even then they would not have
visited the place II they had not been
afraid that the warm weather would spoil
the bears meat and make it unfit to eat.
All three were going down to skin Ida, as
they expressed it, early one morning, and
were more than half way to the back field
when a boy came hurrying up and told
Archer that his bull was dead in the yard.
Dead bull, is it, chr laughed Archer, as
sured that the boy had seen the remains
Of Ida. Sure there wasn't two on EN-
one live and tother dead-ain't you, SON.
N.Y."
The boy was not only certain about 1t,
but he offered to bet cents and fish
hook that he was right, which made such
an Impression upon the hunters that they
quickened their walk to trot. Three
| = laars aa1 hat fI.sh rxfta