The Topeka state journal., 1899-09-11
YUKON BEARS MEET.
IFrom the New York SUM-


''Talkin' of bear
The KIondike king paused meditatively
their Chairs up closer.
''Talkin' of bear. he went on: ''now up
kinds. On the Little Pelly, for instance,
they come down that thick to feed on the
get Indian or white to go higher than a
days travel to the place. And up in the
of a bear called the .side-hin grizzly
That's because he's Travelled on the side
hills ever since the flood, and the two legs
on the dOWn-hill side is twice as long as
the two on the uphill. And he can out
run jack rabbit when he gets steam up.
Dangerous? Catch you? Bless you, no.
All man has to do is circle down the
throws mister bears long legs up the hill
mighty peculiar creature, but that WASH
what 1 started in to tell about
They've got another kind of bear up on
the Yukon and his legs is all right, too.
He's called the bald-face grizzly, and he's
man that thinks of goin' huntin' him. In
dams got too much hoss-sense. But there
IS one thing about the bald-face that a
and You value your skin, Why. get out Of
his path If you don't there's bound to
be trouble If the bald-face met Belize
bub, he'd not give him an inch. o, he's a
selfish beggar, take my word for it. But I
had to learn all this. Didn't know any
thing about bear when l went into the
country, excepting When I was a young
steF, I'd seen heap Of cinnamons OF that
Wei, after weu got settled down on
in for a likely piece Of birch to make an
broke. But it was pretty hard to find the
right kind and l kept agaoin' and agaoin'
hurry to make my choice, you see for
was headin' down to The Forks ali the
time, where l was goin' to borrow u log
put a couple of sour-dough biscuits and
some sow-belly in my pocket in case
that little lunch came in right handy be-
fore was done with it.
'Bime-by p! hit upon the nkeliest little
clump of jack pine. Just as I raised my
down down the hill. There was 50 big bear @ c6m g9s
in up swingin' along on all fours right in
I knew about such kind.
Jest watch me scare him I says to
myself, and stayed out of sight in the
We'll I waited till he was about a hun
dred feet off, then 1 runs out into the
Ooh! oohr hoIIered at him, expectin'
him to make OF like chain lightning.
Make off? He jest throwed up his head
for one good look and came a comm.
But he jest came a comm
." -Consarn you! I says to myself, gettin
$50, I grabs my hat and wavin' and
hollerin starts down the hill to meet him.
Windfall and lay about Breast ''6i high h.
stops jest behind it, old bald-face comm
took me. I yelled like a Comanche as he
raised to come over the log, and fired my
hat full in his face. Then l lit out
say! rounded the end of that log
and put down the hill at a two-minute
clip, old bald-face reachin' for me at every
jump. At the bottom a broad, open
fiat. quarter of a mile to timber ana full
of niger heads. l knew if ! Slipped I was
a conner, but hit only the high places
till you couldn't a-seen by trail for smoke.
Midway across he reached for me, lest
strilin, the heel of my moccasiu with bis
claw; Tell you I was doin' some ill cues
sin jest about them. I knew he had the
wind of me. and that I could never make
the brush, so I pulled my little lunch out
of my pocket and dropped it on the fiy
Never looked back till I struck the
timber and then he was mOuthing it in a
way which wasn't nice to see. considerin;
how close he'd been to me. I never slack
for all there was in me. But lest as
came round bend. hell-bent for election
what d see In the middle of the trail
before me and comm my way, but anoth-
''Whoof! he says when he spotted me,
and he came a runnin'.
In fash 1 was about and hittin' the
back trail twice as fast as I'd come. Clean
forgot all about the other bald-face the
way this one was puffin after me- First
kind of easy, wonderin most likely what'd
become of me and if ! tasted as good as
ed real pleased. And then he came a jun
"sWhoof! says the one behind me.
"Bang goes. straight off the tral side
the brush like Wild bull. M By that hEr4Gge timge
was clean crazed. Thought the whole
country was full of bald-faces Next thing
I ,k1now-whop! I comes up against some-
thing in a tangle of wild black berry
bushes. Then that something hits me
s wipe ana closes in on me. Another bald
face! And then I knew I was gone for
sure. But I made up my mind to die
game, and of all the rampin' and roarin'
and rippin' and tearin' you ever see, that
was the worst.
:. % my Cod o my wifep it says. And
I looked and it was a man I was ham
mertn into kingdom come.
1T .JTh,o!ugiht ,2!i you was a bear says I.
HE kind of caught his breath and look
ed at me. then he says. same here
Seemed as though he'd been chased by
a bald-face and hid in the blackberries
So that's how We mfstook each other. But
by that time the racket the trail was
something horrible. and we didn't wait to
explain matters. That afternoon we got
Joe Gee and some rifles and came back
loaded for bear. Mebbe you won't believe
me, but when we got to the spot there
was the two bald-faces lyin' dead. You
see, when jumped out sideways they
came together and as each refused to give
trail to the other, that was the result.
'.Talkin about bear
The, Klondike King paused eloquently,
then headed the delegation in the direc-
ton of the bar.