Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-08-07
BEAR OF STRAWBERRY FLAVOR.
Jack Fitzpatrick is Now Treating
Bear With vanilla, Also.

AS soon as a Maine man mas OuS
that he can produce something which
city people want and are wi ling to pay
for, he becomes so devoted to his spe-
cialty that he over does the business.
For two years casual mention has been
made of Jack Gilpatrick's efforts to
add checkerberry and strawberry flaw
oring to bear meat by feeding the live
bears on an exclusive diet OF berries.
In 1879 he sold checkerberry bear for
SOS, which elated him SO that he re-
solved to form a checkerberry bear
trust to control the worlds markets.
Last year checkerberry favoring not
being in demand, he modified his plan,
selling one pure strawberry bear for
$40 and another that was about half
and-half for $25. This year he has
made a speciality of plain strawberry
bears, and is now raising them under
contract for delivery in Boston on or
before July 4.
AS few strawberries get ripe in
Maine before June 20, Fitzpatrick has
fretted of late because the season was
cold and backward, giving him only a
short time to put on the finishing
touches. One day when he was stand
ing outside his log cabin feeding mis-
bears on strawberry jam and wonder
ing if he could afford such luxuries,
George Coleman, who drives a soft
drinks cart from Bangor to supply the
country soda fountains, hauled UP in
his yard and asked for dinner. Gill
patrick doesn't run a hotel, but when
he looked at the long, fiat cart and saw
the iridescent array of tin-capped bot
ties he resolved to lay himself out and
provide a dinner that would compel
Coleman to call again. He was nearly
an hour in cooking and dishing up the
and while Coleman was praising
the food, Fitzpatrick slipped out
the back way and calling his pet
bears to the rear end of uhe
cart gave them all the strawberry
flavoring they could drink. On his
way back the next day Coleman
stopped again for dinner and COM
planned about the boys of Amherst and
Aurora, who lie said, had been stealing
his soft drinks.
eff they'd taken ginger ale or birch
BEER" said he, wouldn't have felt
SO bad but they had to go and guzzle
down my best strawberry extract,
which is worth 80 cents a bottle"
While Coleman was still complaining
of his losses the bears came from the
woods lolling out their tongues and
- 1~;~,o. f,.o,o+io offo7to to ont at the
cart. AS soon as the two men went In
to the camp the bears helped them
selves to whatever they liked on the
cart, uncapping the bottles with their
teeth and drinking a dozen bottles of
strawberry and vanilla 1avoring.
They opened several bottles of beer
and ginger ale, but did not seem to rel
ish it,
The cart made one or two trips two
days later, when the bears levied on it
for toll both ways. Coleman con-
tinued to complain about the bad boys,
threatening to bring detective from
Bangor. Fitzpatrick was SO sorry over
Coleman's losses that he furnished two
dinners without extra charge, where
upon Coleman, not to be outdone in
generosity, presented to the hunter six
bottles of favoring extracts, all of
which went to the bears as soon as the
cart was out of sight.
Fitzpatrick has quit walking on the
side of the hill to see how the green
strawberries are getting along. What
ever time he has to spare from his
bears is devoted to writing postal
cards to his patrons. One card which
he has lately mailed reads as follows:
Dear Sir: One bar is ripe enuf to
pick and smells jest like a strawberry
shortcake, being seasoned clear thro.
P. S.-Do you want ennything OF a
vernilla bar? hev one that has got
more vernilla inter him than soda
fountain. You can hev him this week
for 45 dolls. The price is going up rite
erlong. Ans.
JACK.