The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-25

been troubling people hereabOuts for
months? Well. that particular animal
is cut out for a bank burglar and a
good one at that. It's my belief that
mistake was made when he was born
a bear.
This fall, after I had lost three val
ued pigs and some honey, 1 started out
to make a business of hunting that
bear. I caught his trail one morning
and started in all the innocence of my
hea-t, thinking 1 would come back at
night with the skin of the knowingest
old bear that ever lifted a pig.
" My dog followed the trail all right
until we came to one of those little oil
runs. and there we lost it. The dog
nosed about for long time, but it was
no good. l was clean puzzled. The
ground was hard, there wasn't hole,
or scarcely a bush near, and how an old
bear dog like mine could lose a plain
trail was more than / could understand.
At last we gave up and came home, a
saddened- and wiser dog and man.
That evening while I was pOndering
over the problem, all Of a sudden an
idea came to me.
9 1t amt he dogs fault, says to my
self. That dogs been trained to chase
bears. not oil barrels. That old bear
just trailed along the oil run and after
a few yards that he would smell like
a refinery, not like a sly, marauding old
pig-stealing bear he really was. He
may be a mighty cunning bear, but af-
ter he has experimental a couple of
times with your Uncle JabeZs intellect
he'll repent of stealing them pigs.
SO the next day I started out with
two of my WeH-trained dogs, instead OF
one. The first dog let take up the trail
to the oil run. Then started dog No.
on the trail after it left the run. Al
ter the dog got onto the fact that IT
was a willy old bear, and not an oil
barrel that he was expected to run
down, he went along at fast clip. In
my ignorance 1 was actually sorry for
the hear.
Petroleum bears may fool the ordi-
nary run of hunters, l says TO myself.
but this benighted bear will soon realize
Uncle Jabez is on his track. An easy
death is the best that poor old bear
can hope for.
But I didn't need to waste sym
patty on that bear. 1 needed it all for
myself. That bear understood wildcat
nature as well as he did the use Of oil
runs. The minute Mr.. Bear realized
those dogs had caught his trail again
he made tracks right for hole where
a mother wildcat and a couple of her
kittens lived. The bear ran right up TO
the mouth of the hole and then sWerYed
to one side This routed out the mother
wildcat and when my dogs. reached the
hole she was right on hand and looking
for trouble in big punches.
a ildcat with a litter of young ones
amt the sweetest tempered pet IN the
world. My dogs were after bear, but
Mrs. wildcat thought it was her pre-
cious kittens the dOge were looking for
and the second the dogs got near, out
she rushed. A mother wildcat Is the
fighting limit for anything near her
weight I didn't want to see my two
valued dogs all torn up and, not daring
to shoot at the mixed bundle, 1 sailed
in with a club That's why am wear
ing the top of my head decorated with
bandages and carry my right arm IN
a sling. The dogs and 1 killed the Wild
cat, but when we got through 1t was
hospital and tender nursing, not a Dig
black bear that we were looking for IN
a longing manner.
When I got home I kept thinking TO
myself about the way that old bear had
PLAYED il on me. It's by using his brains
when I've been bungling ahead with
dog and gun that enabled him to peat
me. If I bring my own top piece into
action 1 ought to get ahead Of bear,
even if he is the slyest old codger
that ever meandered around the hills OF
Pike county.
SO / kept thinking over the weak
neeses Of bears and men and all Of
sudden it occurred to me how fond
bear is of honey, just like some men
with liquor, and that gave me an idea.
Supposing l could get that bear good
and drunk, I thought to myself, there
wouldn't be any difficulty in catching
him and avenging my numero IN
@u-ies-
SO 1 took big lump Of honey and
soaked il in applejack. When 1 got the
lob finished there was enough liquor IN
that lump of honey TO get a family of
bears drunk And the delicious taste
of il was such that 1 certainly hated TO
feed it TO the bear. But the memory OF
nv wrongs, and the way that big bear
had fooled me and my faithful dogs sort
Of reconciled me to the waste. L knew
the old bear had had his eye on my
hives, so that night left the door open
in the shed where l kept them. 1 put
my applejack honey on the floor near
the hives and went to bed happy and
contented man, thinking that all
would have to do in the morning would
be to go out and corral one large intox-
icated bear. That bear won't NEEDLE
with the hives containing my bees He's
too knowing an animal to do that. He'll
be attracted by the delicious smell Of
the honey on the floor, which combines
the advantages Of honey, a jag and no
stings. But he'll get temperance les