The Butte inter mountain., 1901-09-21
CHAT WITH TRAVELLERS

Talk about odd calls" remarked a
physician at little experience meeting
OF some members of his profession at the
Thornton this morning. ''well, 1 had
peculiar one few days ago for certain.
i was sitting in my office about 2
O'Clock in the afternoon when the tele-
phone rang and voice informed me that
I was wanted in a certain tough section
OF town. l asked what was the matter
out there and the reply was the one word
booze My office hours last until in
the afternoon and, thinking plain
drunk was hardly an emergency call,
remained in my rooms until the regular
hours were over. Then I packed few
restoratives into my medicine case and
sailed forth to bring my prospective
patient back to where he could sit up
anu notice things.
What do you think I found up at the
gulch? A drunk man? Hardly. The
man was dead and 1 learned from his
infuriated relatives that he had been
dead some time when 1 was first called.
l also found rough house, for those
about the corpse threatened to do me
bodily harm because I did not respond
more promptly to the booze call.
made as good getaway as possible
and as soon as I got back to my office
l made an annexation on a page in one
of my books which treats of alcohol
ism. 1t was the tough sections defini-
tion of 'booze.''
Did ever go bear hunting? re-
peated an old-timer at the Finlen today
as he made a center shot at a cuspidor
that would make a hacker of the anti
expectoration ordinance livid with
rage. NO" continued the speaker as
he turned to the questioner beside him,
Il always thought good men were too
scarce for me to hunt bear. However.
through no fault of mine, had an ex-
perience with a bear once that shall
not soon forget.
"It was some years ago and I was at
the time a member of cowboys camp
here in Montana. One afternoon went
out to secure some game for the outfit,
but was not knowingly steering near
any bear. I was sneaking along
through a thicket in an endeavor to
get shot at some deer, when not more
than 100 yards away I spied a bear.
had feeling right away that the bear
had seen me also. and the time it took
me to shin up tree could not well be
figured without the use of split sec-
end watch. I had a rifle with me but
iE my haste to increase my altitude
that weapon was left behind on the
ground. I found myself perched on a
limb with nothing but my x-shooter,
which was in my belt. BY this time the
bear was paying me marked attention,
having taken up a position directly un-
der me.
Il waited for a few minutes study
ing the situation, and decided to take
a shot at the brute, though had little
faith that I would be able to kill him
with the revolver. I leaned down as far
as possible. aimed as carefully as I
could and blazed away. Just as I fired
the limb broke and down went. To
this day it seems to me that I struck
the ground while making a fast run.
AT any rate I never looked around to
see how the bear was getting on. l
darted away like a deer and continued
to cut a hole in the atmosphere until
I was almost completely out of breath.
I supposed the bear was following me.
hut when my strength had about failed
me I turned about. determined to sell
my life as dearly as possible. To my
great surprise and relief there was no
bear in sight. walked slowly back to
the camp and reported my experience
Some of the other boys accompanied me
back to the tree had climbed. We
wanted to recover my rife and thought
the crowd of us might stand a show
AGAINST the bear. But when we got to
the tree there was no bear-only the re-
mains Of what had been the animal that
caused me to be agile. The one shot
from my -shoter had put bruin out
Of business, and I found that had
broken the unpaced record as a foot
racer all for nothing"