The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-04-21
a CIVILIZED BEAR
Park Policeman WAKES Philosophical
over the Animals
Demise.

81 can't help thinking about that
| Gypsy" said the Lincoln park police
man, rehectively, as he watched the
two big polar bears taking a bath in
their city pool.
'You see," he continued, Gypsy
was different from any kind of bears
we ever had here before, and on that
account, l suppose, / watched her
more than l did the rest of the fam
lily, and between you and me 1 don't
think it was right to kill her. 1t is
true Gypsy would climb out of the pit
and run away-ran away three times,
in fact, and gave a lot of trouble to
fetch her back, to say nothing about
soaring everybody off the streets in
Lake View, and rafting the city cop
pers' besides.
Gypsy, you must understand,
wasn't an ordinary brute. Now, these
bears in the pit were brought up in
a cage and don't know anything about
the outside world, SO they stay there
contented enough. But Gypsy was, ]
might say, a civilized bear, and had a
wide experience of men and things.
/ Gypsy, you know, was a trained ami
NAL. The commissioners bought her
from n of them Romany chaps that
camped on the prairie out south some
where last summer. Why he ever sold
her is a mystery to me. But just think
what a terrible change it made for
Gypsy!
''You probably know that the per
forming bears seen once in awhile on
village strests or at country fairs
come from Europe. They are what is
called the cinnamon species. When
captured young they are quite tract
able, and being intelligent can be
taught a number of amusing and lu-
dierous tricks. Such a one was poor
Gypsy, whose pelt is to be stuffed with
straw and placed on exhibition I've
there in the Latin memorial. Think
of the life that bear led in its happier
years, roaming over the country witt
the master who reared it from a cub
and who was its friend through all tn,
ups and downs Of the free, wild lif,
Of the wandering gypsiesl Led by
rope in its masters hand, it wen
from village to village, going through
its clumsy antics in front of eacl
roadside inn-pole vaulting, turning
awkward s~omersaults, standing on it,
head, smoking a pipe, drinking out o
a bottle and pretending to be drunk
and doing a hundred other odd tricks
'Then, after passing around the hat
these two comrades would sup to
gether at the inn. Two loaves o
black bread and a pound of chess
for bruin, half as much for the mar
and two quarts of beer for each of them
"These were the bright spots il
Gypsy's life, but not less civilian,
were the long tramps over hot, dust,
roads, with miles and miles between
hungry stomachs and the chance TO
food; weary journeys through storm
of sleet and saow, and the night CON
ing on with no shelter in sight say
a friendly straw stack or open sheC
for no peasant farmer would let
big brown bear into his cottage. Ofte
these two slept together, Gypsy
shaggy coat making a warm, soft pi
low for the masters head.
do you wonder. now, that after
dozen years of such a life-after tra1
cling all over Europe and half {
America as the constant companio
Of a human being-that this Gyps!
torn away from her only friend an
thrown into a prison along with a Ii
of ignorant black bears, should war
to get away, and did get away, an
went in search of her old master?
"For myself, L don't wonder at
at all. What surprises me, though,
the-er-that is, the lack Of tact (
those who were sent to catch her. III
idea Of going after a civilized amin.
like that with bludgeons and pitel
forks Is enough to make a man los
faith in his kind. Why, they coul
have led that bear back to the par
with a piece Of eotYon Irvine.
"They said Gypsy vas crazy, an
So they killed her. Well maybe 81
was crazy; she'd been throug
enough; but I often wonder what b,
old master. if be is stin alive, thinl
about Il all.f-Chicago Tribune.