The Meeker herald., 1896-08-29
MAN AND BEAR.
An Exciting Episode In Which
Hruin Was Greatly Surprised.
Hanaa Inscnaity Was sapsssse - Bs.ss
1Assanct and the Maa Essspsd
being Devoursd by the

Onll branches of railway engineering
there is mono w,iah brings the officer
into closer coltaes with n Woodworking
lot Of mon ts,aa t..e maintenance of way
work. Soi-c.il-lcs there are comical
features even IN this department, and
one of these was recently told to a
writer for tho 81. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat by n wslllScoYTn epgincer, who
hidcshi1 real na;uctt ttndcr the pseudonym
of jerry Suiivcn. 1t is tale of one
Tim, track walker. who came in late
one night and reported TO the other oc-
cupents of the barllhousc that he had
been delayed by an extraordinary en-
counter with bear. Near the ind of
the section" said Tin. "close to the old
tic camp, was comm along about half
past three o'closl,, and just afther
crossin' that little bridge heerd nize
of sumthin' rus.li,,' in the bushes down
ut the bottom Of the dump, and thinkin'
it was rabbit fred u rock down into
i'm, and in sceoad there was a terri
bic slashin' around in thin bushes, and
see big cinnamon bear come out
sneezin' and rubin his nose, and thin,
before rightly come to re sinses, the
bear seen me nad up the dump he come.
Well, started down the track as tight
as could 60 but l hadn't went two
telegraph poles until 1 look back and
see the bear s:in comm and gainin' on
me livery jump. So dropped me adze
and rinch and stretched meseh for all l
was worth. But it was TO use, the bear
was still Cainin', and 1 was wonderin'
whnt on nirth was goin' to do, whin
see the iron pipe under the track near
the cut, and made for that and wint
in just clear, wllin the bear jammed 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 tie other. But was
safe, and lied there and painted and
blessed the man that inyinted iron pipe
"Well, l thought the bear would go
away after awhile, but he didn't; he
stayed right there, w;d bis head in first
wan ind of the pipe and thin the other,
and when he came round to the upper
ind 1 wished 1 had held on to the
rinch so could hit him belt over the
nose. After bcin' in there over two
hours begin gittin' cold, and / see
somethin' had to be done, and thought
I'd try sinoisin' him out. So managed
to light me pipe. and thin l smoked for
all knew how. but the bear still kept
his head in the hole, and crawled up
closer and blew the smoke right in his
face. He snortcd little, but wouldn't
back out, and seemed to be gettin'
madder all the time. Thin, whin was
nearly froze TO death, happened to
think of the stick OF giant powder in
me pocket, and, thinks 1: Now I'll
settle your hash So l 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 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
just as the giant wint of. Widout
thinkin', had made big cannon out
Of the water pipe, and whin it wint off
was fred out and landed in the middle
OF the river and wGs nearly drowned
before knew just where was at.
But finally struck the other bank and
got out and wint up to the station and
tagged the passenger and rode home.
After climbin' up the bank looked
back and saw smoke comm out Of the
lower ind of the pipe and the bear still
lookin' at the upper ind and tryin' to
see phwat in blazes had happened"