The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-03-17

Government Reservation They Had
10 Put the Big orizziy to Flight By
Turning the Hose ON Him.
In his Biography of Grizzly In Tbs
Century Mr.. Seton Thompson describes
the singular experience Of a Yellow
stone park hotel keeper.
"Many years ago a wise government
set aside the head waters of the Yellow
stone to be a sanctuary OF wild life for
ever. In the limit of this great wonder
land the ideal of the royal singer was to
be realized, and none were to harm or
make afraid. No violence was to be Of
fered to any bird or beast, no AK was to
be carried into its primitive forests, and
the streams were to flow on forever I'M
polluted by mill or mine. All things
were to bear witness that such as this
was the west before the white man
came.
1.-THE wild animals quickly found ont
all this. They soon learned the bound
aries of this unfeneed park, and, as ev'
cry one knows, they show a different ma
ture within its sacred limits. They no
longer shun the face of man, they nei-
ther fear nor attack him. and they are
even more tolerant Of one another in this
land of refuge.
Peace and plenty are the sum of
earthly good; so. finding II there, the wild
creatures crowd into the park from the
surrounding country and are found there
In numbers that are not elsewhere to be
seen
"The bears are especially numerous
about the Fountain hotel. In the woods,
a quarter of a mile off, all the kitchen
I.,rnnaH nd aanh n
greater number of bears gather there
during the months that the hotel is run
ming for the sake of the abundant feed on
the garbage heap. 1t is a common thing
now to see a dozen bears feeding there at
once. They are all kinds-black, brown,
cinnamon, grizzly, silverton, ronchbacks,
big and small, families and rangers, from
all parts of the vast surrounding country.
All seem to realize that In the park no
violence Is allowed, and the most fero-
cious Of them have here put on a new
behavior. Although scores Of bears roam
about this choicest resort and quarrel
among themselves perhaps over the best
feeding and drinking places, there has
never yet been a man hurt by any one OF
them.
"One day the owner OF the Palette
ranch came through the park. During
his stay at the Fountain hotel he
went to the garbage dump to see the
bears. There were several black bears
feeding, but they made way for a huge
grizzly that came about shutdown.
"'That,' said the man who was acting
as guide, is the biggest grizzly in the
park. but he is a peaceable sort, or Lud
knows whatd happen
"'Thatr said the ranchman in aston
ishment, as the grizzly came hulking
nearer and doomed up like load Of hay
In the pine woods. That! II that is not
Meteetsee Wahb 1 never saw bear in
my life. Why. that Is the worst grizzly
that ever rolled log in the Big Horn
BASIN
alt amt possible said the other, fol
he's here every summer. July and Au.
gust, an l reckon he don't live so far
away
"'Well, that settles it, said the ranch
man; July and August Is just the time
we miss him on the range, and you can
see for yourself that he is a little lame
behind and has lost a claw of his left
front foot. | know now where Wahb
puts In his summers, but l did not sup
pose that the old reprobate would know
enough to behave himself away from
home
',rhe old grizzly became very well
known during the successive hotel sea
sons. Once only did he behave i'll, and
that was the first season he appeared, be-
fore he fully knew the ways of the park.
He wandered over to the hotel one
day and in at the front door. In the hall
he reared up his eight feet Of stature as
the guests fled in terror; then he went
into the clerks office. The man said;
All right Ii you need this office more
than do, you can have it, And, leaping
over tine counter, he locked himself in
the telegraph office, TO wire the superin-
tendent Of the park: old grizzly in the
office now. Seems to want to run hotel
May we shoot|
"The reply came: No shooting allowed
in park Use the hose Which they did
and, wholly taken by surprise, the bear
leaped over the counter, too, and ambled
out the back way with heavy thud-
thudding of his feet and rafting of his
claws on the floor. He passed through
the kitchen as he went and, picking up q
quarter OF beef, took it along.
"rhis was the only time he was kncwn
| to do i'll, though on one occasion he was
led into breach OF the peace by another
bear. This was large she black bear
and q noted mischief maker. She had a
| wretched, sickly cub that she was very
proud of-so proud that she went out OF
her way to seek trouble in his behalf.
And he, like all spoiled children, was the
| cause of much bad feeling. She was SC
big and fierce that she could bully all the
other black bears, but when she tried Ia
drive off old Wahb she received a PAT
from his paw that sent her tumbling like
| football. He followed her up and
would have killed her, for she had broken
the peace of the park. but she escaped by
climbing tree, from the top OF which her
| miserable little cub was apprehensiyely
squealing at the pitch of his voice. So
the affair was ended. In future the black
bear kept out OF Wahb's way, and he
won the reputation Of being n peaceable,
well behaved bear. Most persons believ-
cd that he came from some remote noun