Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-27
W'as hin9tou Standard
A BEAR STORY.

Possibly suggested the listener,
"it l. on the same principle that the
doctor does not take hi- own incidence"
No, not exactly laughed the drum
mcr, ior my jcwelry, unlike the doc
tors medicine, Is Is carat fine always"
And there are no tricks in YOUR
trade grinned the listener, who at
that very moment was wearing a IL
cent pearl scarf pin that looked as il it
had cost $1J. However, why don't
You wear jewelry? Can't you afford it,
or are Your tastes too delicate and re-
tincd?"
Thereby hangs a tale" said the
drummer. al used to wear lot of it
and OF the most expensive kind,
but had to give it all up once upon a
time and that taught me lesson. At
the same time you may think when
you have heard my story that l ought
to 60 around all the time loaded for
emergencies"
" 1t takes you powerful long time
to get to the story" ventured the
listener, who had an invitation to go to
a Thanksgiving dinner along in the Ia
ter part of November.
"Does it?" snorted the drummer.
"Well it's good enough to keep and
put in your Christmas stocking, but /
won't do that. Here she goes. About
seven years ago ] was on my way back
from the Pacific slope and stopped
for a weeks rest and recreation at a
semi-wild hotel in the Rocky Mount
aims. AS usual in those days, l was
loaded to the guards with jewelry and
couldn't give it up even in the woods.
But was only there for short stay
and had with me my ordinary civilized
city attire. l remember wore ST.
600 diamond stud in my shirt front; a
800 chain to $500 watch; a 500
diamond collar button, heavy link cuff
flies with big diamond in each one
an uncut diamond worth 81 600 for
watch charm, and so ON until I was
glittering array of gems and things
worth small fortune. Besides, was
my own travelling advertisement and
stock of goods in one, for whatever l
had that struck anybody's fancy and
he wanted to buy I would sell on the
spot. That was really the only pos
sible excuse for decking myself out in
such fashion. Well, game was
plenty in the mountains just around
the hotel and newspaper man from
Chicago who was there for month
was putting most of his time in with
his gun. He was fixed for it, though,
and wasn't, so let him 60 his way
and took his word for the sport he was
having. One afternoon I was sitting
on the piazza of the tavern arrayed in
all my jewelry, for the safest place for
it was on my person under my i'm
mediate eye, when the Chicago man
came dashing through the grounds
with his gun, calling me to grab up
shotgun there was in the hall and
come on, for there was bear up in the
mountain back of the house. | ought
to have had more sense, suppose, but
/ am fond of gun, and before !
thought of how little l was fixed for it,
I caught up the gun, and noticed there
was powder horn and pouch hanging
to it, ! made a grab and away went.
The landlord told me that it was loaded
with buckshOt, and to skip, which l
did, The newspaper man took up one
side and the other, and in about half
an hour had got clear out of sight
and hearing of everything, and the
next thing 1 knew ran slap into a
big bear that wasn't looking for me
or anybody, else, and evidently had
not been disturbed before. I was so
close on him before 1 saw him that
escape was impossible, and besides 1
was up there to let him do the escap-
ing if he could. On the instant he
was up on his hind legs and coming at
me and on the instant I banged away.
Of course, hit him, but it was most
scattering kind of hit and merely
threw him off his pins for moment
to make him hundred times worse
when he got at himself again.
"Some way or other must have
upset the pouch with the powder horn,
for when lodged behind tree and
prepared to load again, there wasn't a
buckshot or anything else in it. That
left me in a pretty pickle, and hadn't
any time to formulate methods of
defense until the bear was coming for
AiO dSdih. IL was ttA Olu uluLLlC
loader, and in my wild anxiety to get
something into it besides powder and
paper wad, was about to shove the
ramrod in and give him that, when it
occurred to me that ramrod might
come in handy if ever 1 wanted to
load again. In the meantime I had
climbed up the rocks, which were big
and plenty here among the trees, and
was managing to keep myself fairly
safe. AS ! slipped into the last niche
of the rocks before l had to take
chances and run across the open to a
clump of trees, my heavy watch chain
caught on something and almost tore
itself out of my buttonhole. 1t gave
me a thought, though, and in a second
/ had it loose and was ramming it
down the gun barrel. A hundred
dollars n load was rather eynpnsiye