Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1897-10-08

! NlO"N hthiNi "htlthBoh hp 80 hH
head with a warning growl, and they
fled TO a safer distance. This occurred
not once or twice but a dozen times.
The very fact that | am here today gen.
tlemen, is due TO a gang OF coyotes that
would have torn me into a good many
fragrants if they could have had their
way.
But the brief respite came to an
end. The bear tired of being defrauded
of his meal, decided to drag it to some
more secluded place, and there feast at
his leisure. He made one last charge
upon the coyotes and then rushing back
seized my shoulder again and started
off in a trot. A few moments of agony
were followed by another fainting spell
and once more, happily, | was uncon-
scious. When | recovered the same
bowling, raging ~pandemonium was
going on around me. Added numbers
had made the coyotes more courageous
and they were pressing close upon the
grizzly. He had not yet begun TO de-
your me. He would stand oyer me
and grOwl for a moment and then nuke
o~nslaughts upon the enemy, scattering
them like chat. AS | turned to watch
him in one Of these violent attacks |
was startled to find that | was lying
just before the door of one of my
brother Ned's bear pens in the lower
mountains. 1t was a little house built
and rooted with logs securely clamped
together. The door was raised and
fastened TO the lever hat connected
with the trigger inside. | had helped
build a dozen Just like the one near at
hand. At first my one thought was of
the grim joke it would be upon Ned's
bear trap to have his brother devoured
right in front Of it,. Then something
else occurred to me. The bear came
back and stood over me; his mouth was
open to shut down on my neck and fin
ish this story for me. | could feel his
hot breath on my face, when the coy
etes made a rush and one of them actu-
ally seized my foot. The grizzly
rushed after them %furiously. Now was
my opportunity; with superhuman ex-
ertion born of a highly desperate con-
dition of affairs, | rose upon my unin-
jured knee and half scrambled, halt
rolled into the pen. Before | was well
in could hear the huge brute coming
on a run. l crawled another foot fur
ther-too late-no, | reached the trig-
ger with the tips of my fingers, and
down shot the ponderous door scraping
the grizzly's nose as it fell. ] was shut
up IN the bear pen.
What 2 moment that was in my
life; if | were to live a thousand years
| should never forget il. How the
brutes did rage outside. a hundred
times hey walked around the pen, the
bear officiating as chief mourner, and
the coyotes skulking after him and
bowling dismally. As for me, | lay
on the ground inside and
and cried and cried and
laughed. for my nerves were gone
all to pieces, and had a spell of
what would have been Mysteries had |
been a woman. Sometimes / varied
the performance by faintng comforta-
bly, away with such a blessed sense of
security, and when ! walked again |
and laughed some more. / sta.d
there and kept house in hat bear pen
| don't know how many hoar-, and all
the time my broken leg ached horribly.
after a while a fu.jIlade OF shots
aroused me, and / saw the grizzly rise
upon his launches. Then some more
shots sounded and me fell with faint
struggling motions of his arms. The
rushed ut him first, but a few
more shots scattered them.
The next / knew there stood ml
brother Edward looking down upon
me in the bear trap. I was suffering
too much to observe much the expires
sion on his face but he was astonished
expression to see me alive be-
fore him. lie was accompanied 10y my
Two MINER acquaintance of the night
before. III be hanged if 1t wasn't the
call with a grizzly | ever heard
of, was the only exclamation the min
'rs could make.
You see, it happened this way. My
frightened horse tore like mad through
he timber and passed the miners in