Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-09-17
STOLEN BIZ A BEAR.
strange Affection Manifested bs ths
Animal Towards Child Carried
ON BY Him.


The following is an incident which
recently occurred in Michigan, where a
bear abducted a little girl about three
years old, and not with any desire to
harm the child, but through q strange
kind Of affection, says the New Orleans
Times-Democrat. Mr.. Henry Flynn,
the father Of the child, lives In a
sparsely settled part of the country,
about 40 miles west of Ludington,
Mich. and from him this account has
been derived. 1t appears that he start
ed one morning to take a horse to pas
ture, about two miles distant from the
house, and as his little girl seemed
anxious to go he put her upon the
horses back and let her ride q short
distance, perhaps 40 rods from the
house, where he put her down and told
her to run home. He noticed that she
confined standing when he left her,
and or looking back a little further saw
her playing In the sand. He soon passed
out OF sight, and was gone about an
hour, expecting, of course, that the
child would return to the house after
playing a few moments. On returning
home he made inquiries about her OF
her mother, who said she had not seen
her, and supposed he had taken her
along with him. On going to the spot
where he left her he saw huge bear
tracks In the sand, and at once came to
the conclusion that the child had been
carried off by a bear.
The family Immediately made search
through the forest, which was almost a
-jungle, rendering their search very
slow. All day the anxious parents
searched for ONE trace of their child;
nor did they stop when darkness came
on, but remained In the woods calling
the lost one by her name. Morning
came and their search was fruitless.
Some gentlemen looking at land came
to the house and being informed Of the
circumstances Immediately set out to
help find her. The gentlemen wandered
about, and as they were passing a
swamp spot where the underground was
thick, they either called the child or
else they were talking loud, when one
of them heard a voice. He then called
her by name and told her to come out
of the bushes. She replied that the
bear would not let her. The men then
crepk through the brush and when near
the spot where she and the bear were,
they heard a splash in the water, which
the child said was the bear. On going
to her they found her standing upon a
log extended half way across the river.
The bear had undertaken to cross
the river on the log. and being closely
pursued left the child and swan away.
She had received some scratches about
her face, arms and legs, and her clothes
were almost torn from her body; but
the bear had not bitten her or hurt her,
only the marks of his teeth being found
on her back, where in taking hold of
her clothes to carry her, he had taken
her flesh also.
The little one says the bear would
put her down occasionally to rest and
would put his nose up to her face, when
she would slap him; and then the bear
would hang his head by her side and
purr and rub against her like a cat. The
men asked If she was cold In the night,
and she told them the old bear lay
down beside her, and put his arms"
around her and kept her warm, though
she did not like his long hair. She was
taken home unhurt to her parents.