The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-12-11
aBILLYo AND oBRUINn

Goat.
New York Sun; ut has always been
my lot" said the man with the sandy
whiskers, addressing the other mem-
bers Of the club, TO witness fights and
struggles of every sort, kind and de-
scription. Ny presence Semes to inspire
In ali creatures OF the lower kingdom
the desire to engage one another In
mortal combat. If stop to look at a
cage Of monkeys they show signs OF en-
nifty toward one another and soon a
glorious free.for-all fight occurs.
"You know 1 used to travel around
quite some before 1 took to hitting the
bowl, and when was in the Rockies
saw some pretty fierce scraps The
worst ever saw was between a goat
and a bear. You think the goat didn't
have q show, eh9 Well. there Is a diff
ference in goats. The animal OF which
am speaking was devil. He belonged
to fellow whose name was Mike, and
Mike was the only one who could come
within four yards OF him. never saw
any living creature so full Of aggress-
iveness and fight. He looked for trouble
with his feet His horns were his
strongest weapons, and any low-down
tactics that he didn't have at hoofs
ends aren't worth learning. He had q
record Of smashing every fence within
radius Of ten miles, and every child
in the place had at some time been mo-
mentarlly deprived OF his wind at the
horns of the beast.
zone day the brute disappeared. He
could not be found anywhere In the vii
lage. The Joy OF the children was
great but Mike set grear store by Billy
in spite of his pugnaclous nature. He
came to the conclusion that he had
taken to she woods and suggested that
should accompany him on a search
ing expedition. There was nothing to
do in the village but to play pool on a
table that was about as level as
ducks back, so / allowed that would
like to go along. we set out the next
morning at about O'Clock. and when
we had gone about I'VE miles Into the
woods we saw Billy chewing up some
bushes.
mike went after him with a rope
and the firm intention of tying him to
a tree and throwing few things into
him that would make him repent Of his
waywardness. Mike was advancing
cautiously, when he suddenly gave
yell and skinned up tree like an ape.
looked up and saw a large grizzly
bear coming straight for US. l made
a dash for the tree next Mixes, and
then we found time to cuss at each
other for not having brought a gun
with US.
"The bear saw the goat and made
straight for him. But Bill scented
danger. His nose quivered and his
beard grew stifr, and we knew that
there was going to be trouble. Bruin
adopted his usual tactics and advanced
ON his hind legs. But Bill was not the
goat to be scared by thing like that.
and he gathered himself together and
charged. There was a mlx-up Of goat
and bear, and Bill emerged from the
bunch with a triumphant CLEAN in his
eyes. But he had several things to
learn yet. AS soon as the bear re-
gained his wind he was up and will
ing. and he charged like steam engine.
Billy lodged, but when he got away
there was a goodly part of his flank
In the bears claws. Both animals were
now thoroughly enraged and each was
careful. They clrcled around until Mr..
Bruln could think of nothing better to
do than to repeat his hind leg act. But
this again proved to be his downfall,
Billy advanced with dancing APP
proach. and delivered a fierce butt and
belly blow. The bear went down and
this time Billy Improved his time.
while Bruin was recovering his wind
the second time Billy jumped about n
yard In the air and landed squarely on
the bear's side with his legs rigid II
he had been little heavier he would
have finished his opponent right there.
But he wasn't, and his triumph was
short-lived. The bear arose and once
more returned to the charge. This time
he wus out for blood. he went for BIZ
ly and Billy went for him,
I'm spit OF great generalship Billy
found himself within the bears hug.
We thought it was all OF with him. and
80 It would have been II fate hadn't
taken hand. 1t 30 happened that the
bear had Billy wrong end to-that Is,
he was graspIng Billys hind quarters
with his fore paws. And then Billy
did deed that will always make him
famous in goat history. He nearly
Kicked that bears head of. The dom
key family is supposed to be pretty
efficient in this particular line. But all
records ever made by 1ackasses or any
thing else that pretends to be able TO
wrigglo It's feet were thrown in the
shade. Words arc not adequate to
describe the way that goat kicked.
Bnlys hind legs worked up and down
so fast that you couldn't see them.
Pretty soon the bear let go and
neither he nor Billy moved. We came
down and Investigated. That bear
didn't have feature left. What had
been his face looked like Il piece of corn
beef We found that all his Ribs were
broken on one side and seven on the