Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-14
old MANS VICTORY WITH A CANE
How a Boy Triumphed With a
Small Toy Cannon.
TRAP LAID FOR. A HUNTER
From the New York Sun.


weigh GOO pounds; thes strength is pro-
verbal; they have formidable weapons in
teeth and claws. and they are credited with
being among the most willy of animals. Yet
despite these natural advantages and de-
hunter to close quarters the bear almost
never gets the upper hand in the contest
Across the border the bear makes better
account of himself Bazile Maurice tells Of
Laprisse down at Salut, who, when in
search of his COW, jumped over a fallen
tree and almost landed on the back of a
bear. The beast rose on his hind legs as
quick as a flash, and a hand-to-hand en-
counter ensued, which, though it resulted
in the death of the bear, left Laprisse a
dilapidated and useless specimen of hui
mainly with fleshleSS arms and u face
that was not good to look at Almost any
French Canadian backwoodsman can tell
similar incidents from his own experience,
Indicating that they are common enough.
In Maine, however though bears are just
as often found hidden behind logs, the
outcome is different, and instead of the
doctors and undertakers protitin, the in
dividual who stepped on the bear is gem
orally richer by the extent of town bounty
and correspondingly grateful for the luck
which threw the bear in his way.
Not Regarded as Heroes.
Bear slayers are not looked up to especial
ly as heroes in Maine, and the hard headed
natives stand in neither fear nor respect of
the bear. Tradition tells of a Bangor man
who found a bear eating out of his garbage
barrel and straightway caught the beast by
the hind legs pushed him into the swill and
held him there till he drowned. Another
story has to do with doughty patriarch
famed for his crusty temper, who, hobblng
along one day, steadying himself with IA
stout hickory cane tipped with a heavy
ferrule of iron, met bear in his path.
Get out of my way you pesky thing
said the patriarch, and he brought down
the cane on the bears snout with such eff
feet that the animal fell over on his side
and was easily dispatched.
Benny Dart, a nineyear-old boy living in
Holeb, killed a bear with toy cannon
made from the sawed-off breech of an old
musket mounted on block of wood and
loaded with a marble. Amos Quicker of
Mattawamkeag got a bear with d pickerel
spear one night as he was starting off on a
fire-fishing excursion. This particular bear
was in the howell of an old camp at the
time Amos came along, and in trying to
escape became wedSed in one of the small
windows made by saving through a single
log. Before he could extricate himself the
bear was dispatched by arbloW in the eye,
of the tines of the spear penetrating
his brain. The bear was ,shedder, and his
fur had no value, but Amos collected the
bounty and was satisfied that he had Sc
cured a bear instead of the anticipated
mess of fish. DE- =!
The Maine trapper takes it for granted
that the unexpected will happen. and is not
unduly ratified when surprised. Warren
Wing of Flagstaff one day, while tending
muskrat traps, stumbled on old bear
trap back in the woods, where he had left
it the year before, and happening to have
a dead rat with him. he hung 1t up in a
tree overhead and set the trap and pushed
it in between the roots of the tree 1t was
the freak of an idle moment, and the hunt
IT.
into the exposed trap. Nevertheless, when
he went back to the spot a week later pro-
vided with some bait and determined to set
the trap in scientific way, the unexpect-
great hurry through the thick brush and
was only a short distance from the
place where he had left the trap
when, without the slightest warning. a
bear jumped up within four feet of his
elbow and uttered a howl Warren carried
an old muzzie-loading rifle, and, before he
knew what he was doing, the gun sprang
to his shoulder and went off, and there was
dead bear lying at his feet 1t was a large
and powerful bear. and Warren's hat ''riz
up a little when he had time fully to COM
prehend what had happened. The bear had
got into his trap. and in trying to escape
had unwittingly Travelled directly toward
the approaching hunter.
Hand-tO-Hand Struggles.
On another occasion Mr.. Wing barely es-
that had all but succeeded in freeing him
self from one of his traps. Warren's favor
lite aim at trapped bears is a side shot at
a point on the head, midway between the
eye and ear. A trapped bear naturally
faces the hunter, but 1t is possible to dis
concert him by steady gaze in the eye,
and after q time the bear turns his head,
and offers the desired mark. This par
ucular bear was very restless, and finding
the usual plan was not success In his
case, Warren started to walk around the
bear, hoping in this way to get the shot
ne wanted. He made several complete cir
cleS, and the bear turned, too, and never
for an instant looked in any other direc-
ton than straight at the hunter. The bear
was acting in an ugly way, growing and
swapping his teeth all the while, and
though he had turned Warren could not
see that the trap had moved at all. He
decided that something was wrong, and.
acting on the impulse of the moment,
raised his Winchester and fired at the
bears head as fast as he could pump the
lever. After six or eight shots the bear
lay still, and Wing approached and exam
ined the animal The foot was almost
severed, and all that held the bear In the
trap was ligament no thicker than a
pipe-stem. One or two turns more would
have broken this, and then the hunter
would have had a lively time of 1t, for he
would have had at best only one uncertain
shot before the bear could have reached
him.
STANLEY Harris found bear In q trap
when he was fishing In Soper brook. and
though unarmed he determined to kill the
bear. He cut heavy rock-maple club, and
edged up alongside the bear. When near
enough he threw down chip in front of
the animal to divert his attention at the
same moment bringing down his club with
all his might in thehgeneral direction Of
the bears head. Unfortunately the chip
fell little too closesto the bear, and he
lodged 1t, with the result that Harris blow
missed its mark. The swing of the club
carried the man over against the bear, who
lost his balance. and the next moment man
and beast were rolling pell-mell down the
bank into the brook. They broke up In a
deep hole where the bear had all he could
do to keep his head above water. ham,
pered as he was by the weight Of the steel
trap on his forefoot, Harris scrambled
ashore, and seeing the bears predicament,
picked up the first stick that came to hand,
which happened to be his fishing pole, and
with 1t had little difficulty in holding the
bears head under water and drowning
him. ia
Nearly Caught the Hunter.
Frank Mckenny Of Patten once had a
trap set at an old lumber camp near the
head Of Scraggly lake. The bear house
was built right at the end of the camp, and
sixty or eighty feet from the water. He
crossed the lake in his canoe one day to
visit the trap. trolling for pickerel on the